Malaysia Airlines Corporate Policy and Strategy Essay

This assignment requires a writer to write a report of any organisation which is involved in transportation and communication industry. The aim and purpose of this report is to examine the strategic management process to one of the industries. The strategic management process will be more emphasise in this report where its importance in the organisation play an important factor in order for the organisation to grow and expand. Malaysia Airlines (MAS) have been chosen as an organisation for this report. Malaysia Airlines is a commercial air travel organisation where they provide transportation service throughout the world, specifically 850 destinations in 150 countries. The organisation company profile will explain more about the history of the organisation itself which are the founder of the organisation, the year it start its services, location, service range, revenue and turnover report. After that, a strategic analysis of the Malaysia Airlines will be explained more which includes general environment, internal environment and competitive environment. In general environment, the weakness of the organisation needs to analyse before the problems and weaknesses itself will take toll towards the organisation. The tool which is going to be used to overcome the weaknesses are pest analysis and swot analysis which consecutively serve its purposes to analyse internal and external factors. In internal environment, a situation that can impact Malaysia Airlines business will be evaluated. It is divided into two categories, value chain analysis and resource based view. Value chain analysis will be used to add value to the organisation itself while resource based view will be use to explain how the resources of the organisation can be use to become an advantage, competitively. After done doing that, strategic formulation is needed for Malaysia Airlines. A proper plan and strategy are needed to achieve the organisation main objectives. Business level strategy and corporate level strategy will be use to explain the competitive advantage and how corporate parent helps its subsidiary company to grow and expand. International strategy is also in included in the strategic formulation in order for Malaysia Airlines to develop its level of competencies and future potential in international arena. Implementation of that international strategy will take to action after evaluation and analysis. In the implementation strategy, a leader with a broad scope of  vision and mission is needed in order for the action plan to become reality. With a great leadership skill, the employees will be inspired to work more efficient to achieve the objective that had been set. All the explanation above are supported with proper references using journals, books, internet, articles and updated data from Malaysia Airlines from its company report. Lastly, a concl usion will be made to conclude all of the information from the report. 1.0 Introduction Malaysian Airline System Berhad is the primary airline of Malaysia. Malaysia Airlines (MAS) operates flights from Kuala Lumpur International Airport mainly and with a secondary hub at Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. From the report, the strategic management of Malaysia Airlines is analysed. The report is produced for Mr Mathew Teale. Most of the resources in this report are based on report and journal. Besides, articles and newspapers are also being used as the secondary resources. Gather from latest data, Malaysia Airlines has revenue worth as much as RM13 billion. In stategy management, there are Strategy Analysis, Strategy Formulation and Strategy Implementation which are the process to overcome that external factor which consist of objective to fulfil(Hambrick, 2007). Under the effect of globalization, the world has changed in every sector and those changes had influenced most of the corporation activities with obstacles to execute their strategy. A company’s finances will be affected if their management fails to formulate and implement the most efficient and suitable strategy. Strategy analysis, strategy formulation and strategy implementation are the fundamentals to solve negative factors regardless what is the problems. Company Profile Malaysia Airlines was founded in 1937 through an idea by the Alfred Holt’s Ocean Steamship Company in liverpool work together with the Imperial Airways in from Britain and Straits Steamship Company in Singapore. This had build the outcome of Malayan Airways Limited(MAL) on the same year. As usual, this airline faced different types of industrial challenges throughout these seven decades. Therefore, the company had improved and repackaged their image and services. Malaysia Airlines started their flight services originated in Subang Airport and later relocate to Kuala Lumpur  International Airport (KLIA). Malaysia Airlines serve different class of customers in society pyramid. Therfore, Malaysia Airlines provide different class of seatings which are first class, business class, and economic class. According to Malaysia Airlines Annual Report on 2012, incredible loss of RM481,457,000 was hit after the loss on 2011 which was two billion. This shows the incapabilities of management in Malaysia Airlines to manage the company. Therefore, the management needs to be rearranged and restructured. Besides, Malaysia Airlines are facing more competitors in the industry such as Airasia. To overcome this challenge, Malaysia Airlines tried to upkeep with their competitors by providing high quality of services in order to win customer’s faith and loyalty so that they could have stable coming back customers. Their strategy was a success and this can be seen when several awards are awarded by Skytrax UK and World Travel Awards. The awards are the Asia’s Leading Airline(2011), Asia’s Leading Business Class Airline (2010) and Five Star Airline (2012). Malaysia Airlines built up their image as the top airline in Malaysia by winning those award. 2.0 Strategic Analysis The process of helping a company to have further understanding regarding their external environment is what we call strategy analysis. Strategy analysis can maximize an organization’s potential, capability and interation between environment. Profit can be achieved if Malaysia Airlines execute the three strategic processes which are analysis, formulation and implementation. By doing the analysis of external evnironment and evaluating the internal environment, we are able to use the chances and discover the industrial potential in the future. 2.1 General Environment In order to help Malaysian Airlines in fitting itself to conquer the weaknesses, several analysis such as PEST, scenerio planning and SWOT are carried out. Besieds, general environment acts as a tool to identify the weakness in Malaysia Airlines which may lead to external environment that changes rapidly (Henry, 2008:41). 2.1.1 Scenario Planning Scenario planning is defined as procedure of visualizing what upcoming situation or events are probable, what their effects would be like,  and how to respond to, or benefit from,them(Business Dictionary, n.d.). Scenario planning not only can help to identify future oppoturnity, but also helps an organization to make critical decision. This can help an organization to utilize opportunity and stay away from the threat. The scenario planning is mention by Henry (2008) as a method to find changes and uncertainty in their industry and promote systematic thinking and even decision making under spontaneus situation. However, Malaysia Airlines did not do proper scenario planning which make them faced great loss as stated in their annual report 2012. As a way to stop this situation continue to grow, Malaysia Airline should really consider and think deeply of their scenario planning. Besides, the ultimate growth of Airline industry shows influence to Malaysia Airline scenario planning. Ther efore, Malaysia Airline should make use of PEST and SWOT analysis to identify deeply their market environment. 2.1.2 PEST analysis PEST analysis most commonly is used to measure a market. By doing the PEST analysis, Malaysia Airlines will link the entire four factors that may affect their business in general and competitive environment. As a Malaysian national flag airlines, it is compulsory and a must for them to follow and obey the political decision and governmental policies. Being an airline company in Malaysia, always need to cope with the taxes which have been a big obstacles especially during economy crisis. According to Malaysia Airlines annual report 2011, Malaysia Airlines had experienced a huge loss as RM400 millions even before taxation is done. This shows how pathetic and badly the situation of the company was. Furthermore, our current Prime Minister Datuk Seri NajibTun Razak announced that the minimum wage of private sectors in Penisular has been set for RM900 and RM800 for those in Sarawak. This increases the burden of Malaysia Airlines which has approximately 18,000 workers. As a way to overcome the new policy and adapted to it, Malaysia Airliens hence introduced a new rewarding plan to their workers. t. In coping with the new policy, Malaysia Airlines has announced on their strategy to offer permanent staff a maximum two years of unpaid leave only and excluding their subdiaries which are Maswings and FIrefly. Airlines biggest expenses will be the crews’ wages and fuel expenses. As global fuel price is increasing, it influenced Malaysia Airlines operating cost for sure which will directly result the loss in their profit. Besides, unstable fuel price that influenced economy will affect their shares price in stock exchange too. (sharif, Ranjbar and Arumugam , 2011). Furthermore, Malaysia Airlines had increased their flight ticket fares as a way to cover up the administration and operating cost. As the increment of ticket fares occurred, local citizens with lower or medium income holders to lessen their frequency to travel on flight. Besides, one of the undeniable factors is inflation which causes the value of money to be lowered extra money from the wages unable to do much extra occasion planning. Prior to the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, Malaysia Airlines suffered in the massive losses of RM260million. As a way to overcome the crisis, the airlines cut a lot of routes which are unprofitable such as Brussels, Darwin, Honolulu, Madrid, Munich and Vancouver. Besides, approximately a decade later in 2011, frightening loss of RM2.52billion was â€Å"achieved† by Malaysia Airlines and breaks its historical record. This incident had push the management to terminate the flight to Surabaya, Karachi, Dubai, Johannesburg in January of the same year. The action was unable to calm the managements who later ceased the routes to Cape Town, Buenos Aires and Rome in February 2011. For social factor, we know that there are different types of people with different preference in this country, so with different culture and thinking in society, not everyone would like to use flight as their transportation option. This is due to the fear factor that stuck in their heart to feel insecure with the flight transportation. Therefore, safety is always one of the main feature to be concerned and make sure the society feel safe with their services. Safety instructions are being briefed before the flight depart every time and this can prevent chaos to occur if there is any accident occurs. Besides, insurance is also one of the option for customer to purchase in their flight ticket. This can relieve the insecurity of passengers when they choose to use Malaysia Airlines. In terms of technology, Internet has lead our world to globalization and  information explosion era. Malaysia Airlines sees this as an opportunity to promote their company services to the youth conveniently. The customers can purchase the flight tickets easily from their website rather than drive to their branches and queue up which will be even more expensive and time consuming. Hence, Malaysia Airlines is able to deduct and decrease overhead cost and their budget in extra offices and infrastructure. However, not everyone are well-skilled in using the internet and some of the rural areas in our country still lack of such services which seems common in most of the city. Besides, credit or debit card is a necessity in order to purchase from online ticketing system which also will be a obstacle for some of the senior citizens. Lastly, we shall concern about the stability of Malaysia Airlines proxy server which is overloaded sometimes. 2.1.3 SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is a method where a structured planning can be done by evaluating the 4 factors which are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Humprey, 2005). Malaysia Airlines can use SWOT at their own benefits to understand more about the external environment. Malaysia Airlines is a well known brand name which has become strength of this company to exploit. With its 70 years of experiences in the airline industry, this brand name has won the heart of the customers where’s loyalty is important to them. In addition, Malaysia Airlines are highly recognized by the international organisation. Plus, Malaysia Airlines are also has been supported by the Malaysian government for years. With this, they can depend on the government if they are having a financial problem or other difficulties which can benefit them. Malaysian Airlines won a lot of prestigious awards in the past 10 years and their broad network of destinations also has become their strength that led the potential and loyal customers to choose them. Thereby, with this entire strength combine, chances of Malaysia Airline to win and take control of the industry are higher. Malaysia Airlines and other companies are not excluded from the organisational weaknesses. The increasing fuel price had cause Malaysia Airlines huge loss as much as RM1.36 million.Other than that, their operating cost such as landing fees ishigherthatin which are affecting their financial. This entirely affected their profit and thus giving them problem  to be dealt with. Price war with Air Asiaalso has affected their target in controlling the local market.Since Malaysian income per capita is lower than other countries, therefore Malaysia Airlines are now focusing more with the middle and upper class customers. Malaysia Airlines has analyse its opportunities in the market. Aircraft passengers have been growing as much as 13.5% every year. By this, Malaysia Airlines are going to take this opportunity to expand their services in other countries such as China and Japan where the people over there always travel abroad. The increasing numbers of cargo industry also have become a profitable sector for Malaysia Airlines. In 2010, the increasing numbers of air cargo service has risen to 26.5%. As a result of that, Malaysia Airlines can manage to get a lot of profit in this growing industry by exploiting the opportunities and turn it into a profit. In threats, fuel price have been a problem for Malaysian Airlines for years. Inevitably, Malaysia Airlines operating cost may also increase if the fuel prices increase. Not only that, international airlines such as Cathay Pacific Airways, Singapore International Airways and Garuda Indonesia Airways are competing with Malaysia Airlines internationally and Air Asia domestically. The threat of new entrant also be a factor for Malaysia Airlines to deal with if financial institution policy changes. Lower interest rate and credit loan willallownew airliners to enter the industry. The more new airliners enter the industry; the likelihood of Malaysia Airlines to struggle in the business will be higher. In order to cope with that, Malaysia Airlines need to be more prepared. 2.2 Competitive Environment According to Mack (2010), competitive environment is defined or explained as a dynamic system for the business to compete positively in. At such, analysis technique of Porter Five Forces Framework is executed to understand the environment. 2.2.1 Porter’s Five Forces Framework Porter five forces is a framework which analyzes the industry and business strategy development to determine the competitive strength (Porter, 1979). By using this analyzing technique, Malaysia Airlines can identify the threat of new entrants. Since the needs to start an airlines company are hard,  consequently, the threat of new entrants has reduced. Furthermore, brand name is important to the customers these days. Adding to that, to go into this business not also need high capital but also need an establish brand name. Thus, rather than start an establish brand name, the new threat entrants will focus more on the loyal customer. The only new threat entrants Malaysia Airlines need to focus more are the international airlines. There are two companies that are competing against each other in the aircraft manufacturing industry which are Boeing and Airbus. Since Malaysia Airlines are choosing Boeing as their main aircraft, therefore, Boeing has no option to increase their aircraft pr ices. If Boeing increases their aircraft price, most probably Malaysia Airlines will change their aircraft to Airbus. Consequently, Malaysia Airlines can use its bargaining power of consumer to bargain the aircraft price. This undoubtedly will be an advantage to Malaysia Airlines to save their buying cost that led Boeing with no other choice to sell its aircraft to Malaysia Airlines since they’re having a tough time in competing in the aircraft manufacturing industry. The bargaining power of suppliers is depending on the numbers of alternatives the consumer has. For Malaysia Airlines, it is difficult to change to another aircraft manufacturer such as Airbus since their maintenance staff areexperienced with Boeing’s aircraft. By changing the aircraft manufacturer, Malaysia Airlines need to spend a lot of money to train their maintenance staff which and switching cost is high.Therefore, the power of suppliers cannot be a negative factor since Malaysia Airlines only rely on one aircraft manufacturer. Plus, the power of suppliers is insignificant where Malaysia Airlines has their own aircraft maintenance subsidiary company. For fuel, the bargaining power of suppliers is not really high since in Malaysia there is only little petrol organization and the price is set by the government. 2.2.2 Strategic Groups Strategic groups are used to classify or identity the companies that are having the similar business model or mixture of strategies applied. (Porter, 1980). As a well known 5 stars airlines company, Malaysia Airlines always offer various place of destinations throughout the world where Airasia only provide certain well-known and popular destination. However, Airasia as the  low cost carrier, has advantages in competition as they can always attract customers in Asia that always go for cheaper option. 2.3 Internal Environment An internal environmental analysis is an extensive review of all aspects of a company’s operations, internal guidance and mission. (wiseGEEK, n.d.). Value-chain analysis and resource-based view can be used as analysis tools. 2.3.1 Value-chain Analysis Malaysia Airlines primary income is based from logistics services and secondary activities are aircraft maintenance and technology development. By coordinate these value chain analysis activities, Malaysia Airlines can have a lower cost structure and increase the value of outcome product. By increasing the value of outcome product, Malaysia Airlines can compete better in the industry by understanding the connection between each of the value-chain activity. Additionally, a proper coordination with their union, customers and suppliers can reduce cost and adds up the bonding between customers and company itself. As its outcome, improvement of the performance in Malaysia Airlines primary and secondary activities can be achieved and higher profit can be gained in the process. . 2.3.2 Resource-based View Airline industry was slammed pretty hard globally in previous years. Terrorists attack on 11st September 2001 still horrified the hearts of passengers globally. The strong competitive environments by low cost carriers such as Airasia in Malaysia is also causing the national flag carrier to restructure their operations. Their resources such as airplanes and crews quality need to be concerned and look into deeply. As the oldest flight carrier company in Malaysia, they shall use this advantage to continue to stay at the frontline in airline industry by using its available sufficient resources efficiently with the help of government and come up with efficient strategies as a way to compete and stabilize its own potision in airline industry. . 3.0 STRATEGY FORMULATION Formulation of strategies is necessary in order for Malaysia Airlines to  achieve its mission and objectives. An excellent structure and organize strategies will beneficiary to Malaysia Airlines in competing in the airline industry. 3.1 Business Level Strategy Business level strategy is very important where it will be use as a method to develop the strategy at a maximum level. In addition, it is crucial for Malaysia Airlines to implement and adapt to this strategy because it’s a way for them to make use all of their resources and competency in the airlines industry to accomplish its corporate level strategy. 3.1.1 Industry Life Cycle In any industries, introduction, growth, maturity and decline development stages have to go through including industry products. Malaysia Airlines has gone through the introduction phase where they had been through a lot of difficulties and up and down since 1937. But unfortunately, Malaysia Airlines financial report has shown that the company is suffering from internal and external environment where they are facing profit losses. Malaysia Airlines is now in the growth stage where they are trying to impose a new efficient strategy to cover up their losses from 2008 to 2012. Malaysia Airlines profit are at the highest in 2008 as much as RM15,570,141 and decreasing slowly in the past 5 years and the lowest is in the year 2009 that decline as much as RM11,605,111. Factors that cause this financial downturn are the increasing price of the fuel, competitiveness of other airlines, poor marketing strategy and high operating cost. In coping with this matter, Malaysia Airlines is now broadening their flight destination and suspend some flight from a destination that give less profit, improve quality of service in order to create customer demand and thus progressing in the growth stage. 3.1.2 Differentiation Malaysia Airlines impose differentiation strategy by creating various types of seat class such as Economic Class, Business Class and First Class. This is to ensure that all the variety of services that being offer are affordable for the different type of customers. It is also to increase the  advantages in competing by delivering the value added product to differentiate Malaysia Airlines services from other airline competitors. Adding to that, by letting the customers choose what type of services they want, the loyalty of the customer would be increased. This shows that Malaysia Airlines are coping with price sensitivity, switching cost, higher entry barriers and threat of substitutes, in the five forces. As a result, Malaysia Airlines has successfully competed in the airline price wars that let the company to gain back profit in 2011. 3.2 Corporate Level Strategy Corporate strategy signifies actions for Malaysia Airlines to take in gaining its competitive advantage. Specifically, to help Malaysia Airlines in an advantage where they can control the market and maximise profit for a long period of time. Thus, this strategy helps Malaysia Airlines to improve its strategy and at the same time giving them a great position in controlling the market. 3.2.1 Growth Strategies Any company can practice four strategies specifically for the growing process. By now, Malaysia Airlines are targeting to penetrate the international control the local market. Malaysia Airlines are trying to use its existing services and products to increase their sales. Malaysia Airlines achieve it by strengthening the bond with their customer to keep using its airlines and at the same time bringing new customer. For that reason, Malaysia Airlines are now starting to increase their promotion using social and mass media. Other than that, Malaysia Airlines are also improving their website to become more convenient and easy with less procedure for all the customers that wish to book a ticket. In surviving in the mature market, Malaysia Airlines should prepare more for its opportunity to expand its growth. Malaysia Airlines as a pioneer and leading the local airlines industry should increase more their competitiveness in competing in the international market. Taking ASEAN countries as a first step, Malaysia Airlines should understand more each of the country geographically, culture and religions. By developing this understanding, customers will tend to choose Malaysia Airlines that in the end would increase their sales, profit  and penetrate the international market. 3.2.2 Corporate Parenting Malaysia Airlines as parent company of MAS Cargo, MASwings, MAS Aerotechnologies and etc. Malaysia Airlines as the corporate parent can achieve a lot of profit if they integrate all of its subsidiaries company as an individual business unit. Malaysia Airlines can save cost in managing all of its subsidiaries company. Not just that, a proper integration between the subsidiaries company can help Malaysia Airlines to derive its economic scale that will further move them in accomplishing their goals. Concurrently, Malaysia Airlines can help its subsidiaries company and put them into an advantage where they can make use ofMalaysia Airlines expertise and resources. As a result of that, Malaysia Airline’s subsidiaries company will be enhance in controlling their budget, making decision and planning process. Nevertheless, if any economic catastrophes occur, therefore, it will become disadvantage for Malaysia Airlines if its subsidiaries company is in the economic crisis. 3.2.3 Strategic Evaluation In following the variety formulation strategic plan, strategic evaluation is the most important part before implementing all of the strategies that been plan. The strategies will be evaluate and assess to find out its efficiency. In addition, the consistency of the strategies must be in a long term where the use of the strategies itself can benefit Malaysia Airlines in the coming years rather than being a yearly plan. It’s obvious that not all of the strategies will become a success, but at least an initiative to evaluate the plan been done in order to minimize the risk. Thus, Malaysia Airlines need to select a proper and the best strategies that can help them in realizing their goal and objectives. 3.3 International Strategy and Globalization Globalization is a worldwide issue where customer’s needs and wants are being standardized. It can cause positive and negative effect on any organization depending on how they cope and make use of the globalization itself as an advantage to them. For instance, the globalization on fuel price, landing fees and aircraft spare part prices are now standardized accordingly. But  luckily Malaysia Airlines have their own resources for these three needs where they have their own aircraft maintenance subsidiary company and support from Malaysia government.In marketing their product, Malaysia Airlines can use its global brand name to maximize marketing efficiency. For this reason, Malaysia Airlines should use this opportunity to expand their wing in the international market. Nonetheless, Malaysia Airlines also need to be aware and choose the right strategy if they want to penetrate the market. 4.0 STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION Well plan strategies are not going to work well with an organization if it’s implemented inadequately. In getting success in implementing the strategies, Malaysia Airlines need to increase their efficiency in communication, managing their resources and improve their employee’s morale. Leadership also playsits role in making Malaysia Airlines to gain success in implementing the strategies. Therefore, all the staff in Malaysia Airlines should work together in realizing the strategies to become reality. 4.1 Strategic Leadership The leader is the only one that can determine the future of any company. Without them, the chances of any company to collapse and bankrupt will be high. That is because the needs of a leader in a company affect the path of the company whether it can generate income and be victorious or it can only make profit losses and bankruptcy in the end. Not a lot of people can be a great leader but everyone can have the traits of a leader which are visionary, inspire and drive their followers to achieve success. It can be said that Malaysia Airlines leadership has weaknesses in scenario planning that causes market share and revenue losses. For this reason, leadership of Malaysia Airlines should apply the vision trait in order to cope with changes and for the sake of the company continuity. When leaders are able to master the vision trait, it will be easier for them to collaborate, motivate, trust, and interdependence amongst their staff. Plus, the coordination and path of Malaysia Airlines will be in the same direction of achieving common objectives that may lead Malaysia Airlines to a bigger  industry. Malaysia Airlines is now operating in a competitive environment. So, the vision of leadership can’t be sluggish. Leader task is not just dealing with external factors but also playing an important role on observing employee’s attitude. Therefore, a leader should know and oblige to inspire and motivate employees if they’re lacking with something that will affect the vision of the company. Giving the employees rewards are the best thing to do in making the company vision to become a reality. Leader needs to be proactive in handling situation. The needs of keeping the vision on the right track and the same time monitoring its progress is necessary so that Malaysia Airlines will be more prepare in enduring and responding towards the changes that happen. Moreover, democratic leader is important where the leaders itself can put themselves with the employees and communicate with the employees. Encouragement and understanding can be developing with the employees if any conflict happen and then settle together as a team. By doing this, the work rate and performance of Malaysia Airlines will improve and in the end will increase the profit and maximizes the resources that they have. 4.2 Change Management Competitiveness in airlines industry has become fiercer than before. Due to that, Malaysia Airlines should be ready to embrace and adapt to changes in order to compete in the market. In achieving this, Malaysia Airlines should improve their state division management. This is because every state division especially in Sarawak is having trouble with the competitiveness from low cost airlines such as Air Asia and the new low cost airline, Malindo Air. Therefore, Malaysia Airlines should take a strategic change to their state division in coping with the external environment. Poor leadership has been one of many factors that cost their profit losses and customer loyalty. By implying a proper marketing strategy, Malaysia Airlines will be able to challenge the local airline industry. Adding to that, improvement in every managing structure in each state division is a  must since the capabilities and set of skills of each employee can be outdated under some circumstances. Thus, changes and improvements are needed in order to comply with customer’s needs and achieving goals. 4.3 Role of Systems Excellent plan strategies won’t work unless leaders and human resources play their role in implementing the strategies. 4.3.1 Organizational Structure Organizational structure is a fundamental that can affect the strategy implementation. Effective use of labor by giving specific task can contribute an advantage in competing in the industry. In general, the four organizational structures are functional, divisional, entrepreneurial and matrix. Malaysia Airlines are now using divisional structure to conduct their corporate parenting by dividing resources in each division. It is essential for them in order to gain profit. Using this structure, Malaysia Airlines are decentralizing the power of making decision to each division and that give a clearer goal to the employees to achieve. Nevertheless, the plentiful number of divisions will cost a lot and sharing of knowledge will be lesser. To respond to that, Malaysia Airlines should manage all the division under one command center by using network structure and all the information gathered need to be transmitted to headquarter. 4.3.2 Organizational Process Malaysia Airlines organizational processes are of consist of entrepreneurial and competence-building. In entrepreneurial process, employees will bemotivated by delegating some tasks to them that of course will increase their discipline and efficiency compared to strict control. In building competency, employee differences of capabilities will be given a specific task to them in order to gain trust amongst the Malaysia Airlines and the employees itself. By implementing this, a more proactive and efficient workforce can be produced in the process of achieving the goals. 4.3.3 Strategic Control Systems In improving the employee’s performance and at the same time retaining their performance, control and reward systems are a must. Well rewarded employees undoubtedly will perform very well. By implementing this, Malaysia Airlines can manage to deliver consistent services to their customers. Plus, motivated work force surely will lead Malaysia Airlines to gain profit. As a result of that, employees that perform with excellence and if the satisfaction towards their job are high, the probability of staying longer with Malaysia Airlines are also high. Thus, this will surely eliminate the cost of looking for new employees. Malaysia Airlines as corporate parent also need to use control and reward system in order to increase the motivation of the employees to achieve goals that being set. By means of giving them reward based on their performance, the employee’s tendency of performing at their best most likely will be high. By doing this, a more standardize employee performance can be achieved. In addition, controlling the employees is not necessarily being strict with them but being understanding is the greatest option to choose where employees automatically will increase their work rate that will lead Malaysia Airlines to compete vigorously in the industry. 4.3.4 Corporate Governance Corporate governance is where business is managed for the shareholder according to the right and wishes of the stakeholder. It is also where an organization is responsible for the stakeholder’s interest in the organization itself. Corporate governance ensures that the stakeholderreceives something in the forms of money or others.Malaysia Airlines should take the approach in implementing what they want to do to the stakeholder so that the stakeholder will feel secure. Openness with stakeholder is a must where company’s finance and planmust be share to win their trust. Any decisionsare made by Malaysia Airlines can affect stakeholder trust. Hence, leadership and management of the organization are responsible in balancing the needs of stakeholders. Finally, a more synchronize and efficient corporate governance is necessary in planning strategies which can fit the organizational structure that in the end  getting control of the market. Conclusion Strategic management is very important for every organisation. Small organisation to giant organisation requires strategic management to expand and improve their managing ability. Adding to that, it can also help them to compete in the industry where all the strategies can be used to cope with the industry competitiveness itself. Strategic analysis, scenario planning, PEST and SWOT analysis, Porter five forces, strategic formulation, strategic implementation; and other strategies are important to imply within the organization. Not just for the sake of getting profit, but also for long term future. All of the strategies mentioned above can help Malaysia Airlines to increase their profits and cover their losses. Not just that, the strategies also can help dealing with the external factors such as competitors, policies, and most importantly the internal environment itself. Efficiency, cost saving and opportunity exploitation can be achieved if the strategies are carried out with proper planning. In conclusion, strategic management are not just a strategy but it can make as a stepping stone to achieve success where it can be used to analyze strengths and weaknesses that surely will put Malaysia Airlines at great advantages. References Ansoff, I. (1965), corporate Strategy, McGraw-Hill, New York. Annual Report 2011. (Archive) Malaysia Airlines.p. 2. â€Å"Registered Office 3rd Floor, Administration Building 1 MAS Complex A Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah AIrport 47200 Subang Selangor DarulEhsan Malaysia† Barney, J.B., (1986a), Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck and Business Strategy. Management Science; 32, (10), pp. 1231–1241. Barney, J.B., (1986b), Organizational Culture: Can It be a Source of Sustained Competitive Advantage? Academy of Management Review; 11, (3), pp. 656–665. Barney, J.B., (2001), Is the Resource-Based Theory a Useful Perspective for Strategic Management Research? Yes. Academy of Management Review; 26, (1), pp. 41–56. Bryjolfsson, E., Renshaw, A.A., Alstyne, M.V., (1997), The Matrix of Change, Sloan Management Review Cadbury, A., (1992), Report of the committee on the

Arguments Against Mandatory Voting Essay

Popular participation is often cited as one of the fundamental principles of democracy. The right to vote being a freedom that has, and continues to be, sought after by people all over the world. Despite the value of many political systems’ movement toward universal suffrage, the few countries that have confused the right to vote, with a requirement to, have arguably deteriorated the significance of this achievement. Australia is part of a considerable minority that implement obligatory voting laws, and of an even smaller subset that enforce them. Although the proponents of mandatory voting will be considered, the incompatibility of compulsory voting with implied freedoms, with broad theories of democracy and the overall inefficacy of producing a more engaged public, serve as perspectives that substantiate the notion that voting should no longer be compulsory in Australia. The Australian Constitution raises a number of questions about the constitutional validity of mandatory voting. Given this evaluation of an issue so pertinent to political rights, the implications of these challenges coming from a source as authoritative as this cannot be understated. The existence of a legal responsibility to vote can be perceived as incongruous with the implied freedom of political communication that was proved in Australian Capital TV v Commonwealth 1992 and recognised ever since. This inconsistency extends to the right to vote being proved as an implicit right in s7 and s24 of the Constitution, which, as reported by Dr. Anthony Gray, is an entitlement to vote that includes the freedom not to. Whilst advocates for the current system of compulsion may contend that voting is a civic duty, such reasoning can be seen as unconvincing as it fails to acknowledge that abstention is a perfectly valid form of political expression. Through an analysis of mandatory voting from a wider democratic perspective, the idea that compulsion is an infringement of free will becomes increasingly apparent. In addition to the obvious paradox that a democratic country forces its constituents to vote, a truly free nation should allow for the demonstration of dissatisfaction and make provisions for a refusal  to identify political beliefs. Although commentators in favour of compulsion may assert that the ability to provide an informal or ‘donkey’ vote facilitates this, the inefficiencies these contribute to as well as its inherent irrationality, given they are discounted, are persuasive arguments against such an opinion. Moreover, although there is a certain degree of legitimacy in the claim that obligatory voting serves to augment the democratic ideals of equality and participation, compelling a person to vote is ultimately, according to academic Katherine Swenson, antithetical to the concept of individual freedom. A common belief maintained by supporters of compulsory voting is that it creates a more politically active electorate. Whilst in theory this is conceivable, its practical limitations make the alleviation of indifference a distant reality. In support of this, a 2007 experiment conducted by Peter Loewen et al. in a Quebec election found that required voting had â€Å"little or no effect† on the knowledge and engagement of its participants. In the Australian context, despite the assumption that the problem of participation is solved by mandatory laws, in the last election around one-fifth of eligible Australians failed to cast a usable vote. It is argued that candidates and parties rely on these laws to get voters to the ballot. If this is the case, perhaps the solution is to abandon compulsory voting and thus force parties to organically incite a politically active populace through enticing and innovative policies. The dichotomy of democracy is that it demands both individual freedoms and equality. A great difficulty of modern politics has been the ability to strike a balance between these paradigms, and to determine at what point one must be truncated to enhance the other. Through an analysis of compulsory voting through a constitutional, democratic and practical context, it has become clear that such a regime has no place in a society that strives to exist as an epitome of democracy. The time has now come for Australia to abandon its paternalistic voting laws and entrust its political future with the voluntary voice of the Australian public, and not in a piece of legislation that commands it to speak. REFERENCE LIST/ BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Chong, D, Davidson, S & Fry, T 2005, ‘It’s an Evil Thing to Oblige People to Vote’, Policy (St Leonard’s NSW), vol. 21 no. 4, pp. 10-16. 2.Gray, A 2012, ‘The Constitutionality of Australia’s Compulsory Voting System’, Australian Journal of Politics & History, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 591-608. 3.Hoffman, R & Lazaridis, D 2013, ‘The Limits of Compulsion: Demographic Influences on Voter Turnout in Australian State Elections’, Australian Journal of Political Science, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 28-43. 4.Krishna, V & Morgan, J 2012, ‘Voluntary voting: Costs and benefits’, Journal of Economic Theory, vol. 147, no. 6, pp. 2083-2123. 5.Lever, A 2010, ‘Compulsory Voting: A Critical Perspective’, British Journal of Political Science, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 897-915. 6.Loewen, PJ, Milner, H & Hicks, BM 2008, ‘Does Compulsory Voting Lead to More Informed and Engaged Citizens? An Experimental Test’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 655-672. 7.Singh, S 2011, ‘How Compelling is Compulsory Voting? A Multilevel Analysis of Turnout’, Political Behaviour, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 95-111. 8.Swenson, KM 2007, ‘Sticks, carrots, donkey votes, and true choice: a rationale for abolishing compulsory voting in Australia’, Minnesota Journal of International Law, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 525-552. Gordon, SB & Gary MS 1997, ‘Cross-National Variation in the Political Sophistication of Individuals: Capability or Choice?’, Journal of Politics, vol. 59, no. ?, pp. 126-147. Hooghe, M & Koen,P 1998, ‘Compulsory Voting in Belgium: an Application of the Lijphart Thesis’, Electoral Studies vol. 17?, no. ?, pp.419-424.

Animal Farm-Power Corrpts Essay

Animal Farm is an allegorical novel about the Russian Revolution and the resulting political system of the Soviet Union. Through this story which appears to be a simple fable on the surface, we see George Orwell’s beliefs about the nature of power and its seemingly inevitable corruption of noble ideas. Educated authority figures in the book bend the principles of communism to suit their own selfish needs and desires, all the while taking advantage of the uneducated masses, and easily manipulated them through propaganda and persuasion. Through this allegory of communism turned to totalitarianism, Orwell explores the dangers of a political system where leaders have no sense of social responsibility toward their subjects. The first instance of corruption among the ruling class appears shortly after the revolution. The pigs, the new rulers of Animal Farm after the ousting of the tyrant farmer Jones, milk the cows to relieve them from of their discomfort. The animals, remembering how Jones would mix some of the milk into their mash, look forward to at least similar treatment from the pigs. However, the milk soon disappears and it is discovered later that the pigs have mixed it into their own mash without sharing it with the other animals, just as the windfall apples have been consumed exclusively by the pigs. Squealer, the political propagandist for the pigs, justifies this to the other animals by saying that the pigs need the extra brain energy, and then bolsters his argument with some fear mongering: â€Å" Do you know what would happen if w pigs failed in our duty? Jones would be back!† (32). The fact that this incident occurs so quickly after the revolution and at a time when all of the pigs are still present on the farm shows Orwell’s belief that the corruption is not only inevitable in a society where the ruling sector of the population is so much better educated than the rest, but that all of these members of the ruling class were potentially corruptible. As the story moves on Orwell shows us how power is corrupting more. Another of the major instance that occurs after the milk and apples is the ruling class moving in the farmhouse. As the commandment says no animal shall sleep in a bed. Some of the other animals were confused but as usual squealer came with his propaganda.

Report on the Religious Life of Planet Earth Essay - 1

Report on the Religious Life of Planet Earth - Essay Example Furthermore, examples in relation to a descriptive analysis of behavioral actions in tandem with the religious characteristics will be incorporated. Belief and Reverence in the Supernatural Beings The basic and fundamental aspect of religion foremost entails a belief and reverence in the Supernatural beings (Bowker, 1997). These include belief in gods, spirits, and God in humans express acknowledgment and reverence to the existence of supernatural beings within an ultimate reality world. Examples depicting belief in supernatural beings is evident among religious groups such as the Hindus that acknowledge the existence of 330 million gods under a single the sole Ultimate Reality of the Brahman, which supersedes all forms and names (Bowker, 1997). Among the Christians, there is the monotheist belief in one supreme and Supernatural God. However, it should be noted that the practice of theism should not be mistaken for religion as is normally the case. Evidently, theism can exist beyond the confines of religion and similarly some religions can be classified as atheistic. The existence of supernatural deity is non-existent with non-religious mandarins. Ritual Actions directed at Sacred Objects, Places and Times Religious persons normally exhibit ritualistic practices that involve reverence to the sacred entities (Haught, 1990). Evidently, such ritualistic practices contribute towards the uniting of members of the religious cohort with their descendants and also ancestors. The ritual acts a pertinent role in the social relations of religious groups. It is pertinent for the ritual acts to happen in sacred places, sacred times and accompanied by sacred objects. Examples of such ritualistic acts are evident through the celebrations or reenactment of sacred stories that are symbolized through ritual rites that occur annually. For example, the celebration of Christmas Day among Christians is sacred ritual undertaken every year while Idd ul Fitr is a ritual synonymous amon g the Muslims. Distinction between the Sacred and the Profane Places, Objects, Time It is a common aspect among religion to offer a distinction between the sacred and the ordinary or profane objects, places or time (Bowker, 1997). Evidently, this distinction enables believers to exercise devotion on the hidden supernatural and transcendental values of the world. A perfect example depicting this aspect is the distinction placed upon Mecca as the holiest place for the Muslims compared to other places of the world. This evident through the ritual prayers, five times a day, conducted by Muslims while facing the direction of the holy land of Mecca. Furthermore, this is evident through the annual pilgrimage known as Hajj conducted by Muslims annually to the holy place to offer devotion. Evidently, this takes place within the Muslim calendar in the month known as Dhu’l-Hijja. On the other hand, the Christians exhibit reverence and recognition of sacred days such as Easter and Christ mas within the Christian calendar. Evidently, the sacred places, objects and times provide recognition that there is more meaning to life than what is visually perceived in the physical world. The Recognition of Ethical Principles or Moral Code The practice of ethical principles or moral

Role of Reforms in American Society since 1877 to Present Assignment

Role of Reforms in American Society since 1877 to Present - Assignment Example According to the research findings, it can, therefore, be said that populism is perhaps the most serious reform movement which greatly threatened the two-party system in American history. Populism was established on the basis of the panic movement of 1873.in this regard, many farmers especially those in the Mid-West and South greatly felt the impact of the Panic. They felt sidelined from the recovery benefits, as the only ones who benefited were the financial and industrial class of the East. Basing on free coinage of silver and the government ownership of railways, the Populist Party was established. They nominated J.B. Weaver for the presidency, who became a major threat to the Democrats. This prompted the Democratic Party, under William Jennings Bryan to adopt some of the populist reforms agenda with the quest to garb the Populist vote in 1896.this witnessed the demise of popularism in the Southern states. Progressivism is the period between the 1890’s to 1920’s mark ed with social activists plus political reforms. The movement was majorly aimed at purifying the government by eliminating corruption. Many progressivism proponents advocated for major reforms in the local government, medicine, education, industries, churches, insurance, finance and several other areas. The movement initially began its operations at local levels and later penetrated the national arena. Its main supporters came from the middle-class people mainly business people, lawyers, physicians, teachers, ministers among others. The significant reforms championed by this movement include the direct election of senators, the Prohibition, the Women’s suffrage, the Sixteenth Amendments and the Nineteenth Amendments among others. The New Deal, on the other hand, is a progression of economic programs between 1933 and 1936, which were implemented in the United States.

Pesticide Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Pesticide - Research Paper Example â€Å"Pesticides kill millions of fish each and the damage to other aquatic life is enormous† (Carlile, 2006). Usage of pesticides also harms the ozone layers and is one of the chief causes of global warming as well. Pesticides contain certain types of chemicals, which has the tendency to break over a period of time and this damage the layer causing a long-term effect. Pesticides also have indirect effects. Use of pesticide in one area kills the insects but it also harms plants and animals in that area. â€Å"Pesticides also adversely affect humans† (Carlile, 2006). When the contaminated water is drained into rivers, livings things, if not killed, also confront impact of contamination. When a human consume these contaminated living creatures, the harmful pesticides reach the inner system of human which cause a major health risk issue. According to pesticide selectivity, health and the environment, various studies have been undertaken to show the impact of pesticides on the ecosystem as a whole. Increasing attention has been paid to analyze the effect of pesticides on the environment and the indirect impact in â€Å"food webs and chains† (Carlile,

Turkish Maritime Cabotage Rights Research Proposal

Turkish Maritime Cabotage Rights - Research Proposal Example The Republic of Turkey is strategically placed in an area between the Asian, African and European continents and the three sides of the country are encompassed by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Black Sea to the north and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Turkish Straits is the only water route between Black Sea and Mediterranean and have unique physical, hydrological and navigational conditions (Unescap, Turkey Report 2000/2009). It has been recently contended that the volume of traffic flow in the Straits have exceeded limits of safe navigation as there has been an increase in the number of vessels and quantities of dangerous cargo. Any accident could cause irreversible damage to the environment. In order to maintain safety of navigation, life and property in the region, the Turkish Government has adopted a set of regulations for maritime traffic in 1994. Turkey's approach to maritime transport is consistent with international regulations and principles of fostering free mari time competition, safety and environmental concerns. Turkey's maritime transport facilities are rather extensive. ... Turkey has merchant fleet with capacity more than 9.5 million DWT and about 899 ships and is in the 20th rank in the world fleet. Total capacity consists of 5 per cent public and 95 per cent private sectors. The majority of ships comprising total merchant shipping fleet are bulk carries (48 per cent), dry cargo ships (19 per cent), oil tankers (10 per cent). The other types of ships constitute 23 per cent of the fleet. (Information available from Unescap Report on Turkey, 2000/2009) Cabotage Laws and Rights: The maritime sector in Turkey is also subject to certain legal arrangements and Law 815 on Cabotage Auxiliary services rendered in Turkish ports and waters are subject to the Law on Cabotage. In accordance with the Cabotage Act, all commercial shipping and related activities between the ports and all trading in the coastal lines is reserved for Turkish-flag vessels and supply of services are given to Turkish companies only although all auxiliary services at the ports are available to all nationalities. Transportation that violates Cabotage rights is not accepted and negotiations on Cabotage transportation services in turkey have been very rigid. Turkish Code of Commerce is related to maritime transport and is harmonized in accordance with the arrangements of EU. The application and implementation of Cabotage rights is a very important milestone in Turkish Maritime Industry and this thesis will delve deeper into the maritime industry, the regulations in Turkish shipping industry and the role of Cabotage rights in helping Turkey to integrate its shipping industry with EU and international shipping standards. Turkish fleet

Business Analysis of Coca Cola International company Research Paper

Business Analysis of Coca Cola International company - Research Paper Example By 1896, Coca-Cola successfully spread across the American border to Canada, Hawaii and Mexico. It is a multi-billion dollar company which is operating in more than 200 countries and offering more than 3,500 beverages. It is recognized as the world`s best known brand and has the world`s largest distribution network. Its products are the most widely known and most commonly used in the entire world. It has such a widespread network that the consumers enjoy Coca-Cola’s products at a rate of more than 300 million servings per day. It has subsidiaries and franchises in every country where it is operating. Coca-Cola is also the leading cola drink in the beverage industry throughout the world (Coca-Cola Company, n.d.). The mission of Coca-Cola is to create value for all the shareholders, customers and stakeholder by creating superior value and making profitable relations with the customers as well. Their mission is to â€Å"To refresh the world...to inspire moments of optimism and h appiness... and to create value and make a difference.† They try to refresh the world by using the advantage that they have as being the world’s largest beverage company. Coca-Cola develops high quality beverages, which itself creates value for the company and helps strengthen its image, contributing to its overall success. Their vision is to work on every aspect of their company in order to achieve sustainable growth. The primary stakeholders of Coca-Cola include employees, customers, partners, society, shareholders and the company itself. They believe that in order to be successful, they must look ahead and plan for the future, using the resources in the most efficient way. Its product, satisfied customers, excellent leadership and, most importantly, a strong brand name further contribute to the overall success of this company (â€Å"Mission, Vision & Values†, n.d.) Porter`s five forces are a set of forces formulated by Michael E. Porter who proposed that strat egies of any company are formulated based on the threat of potential entrants and substitute products, the bargaining power of both buyers and sellers prevailing in the market, as well as the level of rivalry among competitors (Daft & Lane, 2009, p. 196). The amount of capital required by any soft drink company is really high, which acts as a barrier to entry for new entrants. Also, Coca-Cola has such a strong brand name with a huge amount spent on selling and promotion. In order to maintain its market share, Coca-Cola will have to spend a huge amount on advertising to ensure that its message is being carried forward to its customers all over the world. This is also one of the ways through which this company can compete with its rival companies, especially Pepsi. Coca-Cola and Pepsi dominate the soft drink industry and therefore, Coco-Cola will have to come up with new ideas in order to compete effectively and maintain its position in the market. The pricing done by this company wil l also depend on the type of market, whether it is customer oriented or seller oriented. SWOT Analysis: Strengths: The biggest strength that Coca-Cola has is its Coke itself. It has been able to maintain its original taste for years and this is the reason why its customers are always loyal. It has the strongest brand across the globe with a brand equity of over $50 billion. The quality and taste are the major strengths of Coca-Cola and one of the reasons for its overall success. In order to main

The Effects of Earthquakes on People and Property Essay

The Effects of Earthquakes on People and Property - Essay Example They believed that the earth floats on the sea and whenever it is agitated, earthquakes are produced. And, the best story that portrays the damages caused by earthquakes is that of the people from Peru. They believe that earthquakes occur whenever their god visits the earth to count the number of people in it. As he does so, the people leave their houses in order to help him finish his work faster and keep themselves safe at the same time. Even now, in the present, people have created some myths that describe the damages caused by earthquakes. One of them is that of the Swallowing Earth which theorized that a chasm can form along the fault and anything and anyone in that vicinity can be swallowed by the earth. No one, however, has been reported to have died from such a fate. Contrary to the myths that were presented in this introduction, this paper will focus on the documented damages caused by earthquakes. The two major effects caused by earthquakes are shaking and ground rupture. This can lead to damages to buildings and other rigid structures. The intensity of the damage is defined by the magnitude of the earthquake, the distance of the area from the epicenter or the origin of an earthquake, and the geological and geomorphological conditions of the location which can significantly increase or decrease the propagation of the waves generated by an earthquake. When there is an earthquake, the area where the epicenter is located is usually the most damaged. This can be clearly described by a graph made by a Japanese engineer, Shigeru Tani, that showed the relationship of the damage percentage of the fill dams in Japan to the distance of the epicenter. According to the graph, the farther the fill dams are from the epicenter, the lesser the damage is. There are some exceptions to this rule, however. There are times when the biggest damage can occur away from the epicenter. A very good example would be the Denali Fault Earthquake in Alaska which happened in November 3, 2002. In this case, the area 330 kilometers away from the epicenter received the greatest damage. Since the location was sparsely populated, there were no deaths and there was little damage on the structures. A facility which is 40 miles from the eastern part of the fault rupture was damaged such that it was no longer usable. This was the runway of the Northway Airport which was damaged by lateral spreading and sand boils. Fortunately, none of the oil pipes in the ruptured areas were destroyed during the earthquake. The worst thing about earthquakes is that they do not choose the structures that they bring down. Many buildings, dams and roads have been damage by earthquakes. Even historical sites are not saved from this disaster. In Israel, an earthquake which has an intensity of 5.3, shook the Temple Mount, opening up a large hole. In addition to the damages caused by shaking and ground rupture, earthquakes can also cause landslides and avalanches. A very good example of this is the January 13 earthquake in El Salvador which had an intensity of

Who is winning the war on drugs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Who is winning the war on drugs - Essay Example United States has spent a lot of money on this war on drugs. It has cost the government billions of dollars yet this problem has not been solved. There are various ways in which problem of war on drugs affects many people in the world. The problem affects the people who use the drugs and also those whom their family members are addicted to the drugs. There are many ways that have been put in place to ensure that problem is solved. These methods will help in reducing the effects of drugs in the societies. War on drugs has been endorsed to ensure that drug abuse is eliminated but this war itself is becoming a problem in the society. The war is against the illegal drug trade that takes place in many countries. United States and other countries are supporting this campaign. This war on drugs has been there for the last 40 years but drug abuse has continued to kill many people. However, it is time to apply other techniques that can help to reduce drug abuse in the society (Roleff, 2004). Effects of drugs are experienced by many people, be it the users or those who do not use them. This is a problem that has been there in our societies for very long time. It has made it hard to win the war on drugs. This war on drugs has been made difficult due to the intensive use of the drugs in larger populations in the world. War on drugs has been experienced in many ways. The first people who experienced this war on drugs are those who are abusing drugs. These people experience the war in very hard ways. Most families have lost their treasured ones to prisons when they are got either selling or using the drugs. Many people have been jailed for many years since this war on drugs started. Most of the people who their family members have been imprisoned are against this war on drugs. Those who are got selling or doing drugs also have experienced the war on drugs in very harsh way (Inciardi, 2008). Some have been sentenced to lifetime imprisonment while

The Triangle Factory Fire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Triangle Factory Fire - Essay Example This paper explores the Triangle Factory Fire in the context of progressive era in three key dimensions: workplace safety before and after the fire, response to socioeconomic problems caused by rapid industrialization and the role of stakeholders in law implementation. During 1990s, corporations had no clear workplace safety laws that could direct their operations. After finishing a day’s work on the March 25, 1911, the workers at the company were caught unaware by fire that was fast engulfing the factory, which was occupying three floors at the pinnacle a 10-story building.1 The owners of the factory together with the office staff occupying the tenth floor, but for one, managed to escape to the adjacent building via the roof.2 Unfortunately, approximately 148 employees who were occupying the ninth and eighth floors were trapped in the burning building. Trapped in the sweatshop, the women tried in vain to force locked doors open while others threw themselves from windows. During the fire, onlookers and firefighters were taken aback to discover that there was no entrance to the building.3 The hoses length could only reach the sixth floor of the building. Other impromptu approaches to rescue the trapped workers yielded no fruit.4 Following th e tragedy, the owners of the company, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, were arraigned only to be acquitted after two hours. This verdict caused indignation among union organizers like the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (I.L.G.W.U.) representing the plight of female workers across the country. The union pushed for change and demanded the enactment of better safety laws. In order to respond effectively to emerging social and economic challenges resulting rapid industrialization, the progressive regime focused of reforms and law implementation to curb the problems and ensure better lives for Americans. The progressive era (1890-1920) was characterized with numerous swift responses to

Education and Fast Growing Society Essay Example for Free

Education and Fast Growing Society Essay The co-educational system has always been an issue of great controversy. Its supporters claim that separating boys from girls is completely unrealistic since schools are supposed to depict society and prepare children to become its active members. On the other hand, those not in favor of it claim argue that single-sex schools are more effective since they are adapted to each sex’s needs and features. There is little doubt that single-sex schools may be more targeted to each sex’s traits. For example, boys’ schools are stricter in order to achieve discipline while girls’ schools focus on teaching them major principals that will help them lead a successful life not only as professionals but also as family leaders later in life. In addition, boys and girls tend to distract each other during the lesson and therefore make it difficult to concentrate. I am of the opinion that co-education has more to offer to the modern society. First of all, single-sex schools are utterly out-of-date and belong to the past when boys and girls socializing was considered immoral. Nowadays, that both sexes are equal, the mentality of creating and maintaining separate educational facilities is unacceptable. Moreover, having girls and boys in the same environment promotes their competitiveness in a creative way which leads to a high quality learning process. In a final analysis, co-education has proved to be more suitable in answering the increasing demands of our fast growing society. Considering how hard women have fought over the years to gain their rights, wouldn’t it be unfair to have separate schools?

Psychological Perspectives in the Workplace

Psychological Perspectives in the Workplace It has been said the goal of psychology is to predict and influence behavior. Though very broad, this definition seems to somehow hold despite the far reaches of psychological inquiries which ranges from the diagnosing and treating various pathologies in people to training animals to perform complex tasks to improving relationships between people to seeking to facilitate the answers to life’s questions. It is in regards to these last two that the realm of organizational psychology is concerned about as its aims are to advance both people and profits through the application of psychological principles. Organizations as People The methods of applying the principles of psychology to organizations are, in large measure, the same as applications involving individuals. The reasoning for this is two-fold: firstly, an organization is comprised of and achieves results through people; secondly, in many respects, an organization is a person. By that, it is not meant to say that there is a heart or brain but that the body politique is recognized by law as a separate bodily, aka â€Å"corporate†, entity that is culpable for its actions and to some extent, possesses the cumulative psyche and will of the people that employed by its objectives. This being the case, many of the same rules as apply to individuals should be considered for en masse application to the firm as one is merely contending with a group of individuals. Though the case may be well made for the appropriateness of a psychological perspective in the workplace, as a field of study, psychology is not without its competing factions, each of which asserts either â€Å"truth† or some portion of it. Three such perspectives that figuratively represent the three corners of an equilateral triangle are cognitive, behavioral and humanist (Purcell 1967, p. 231). Each of these, in its pure form, offers a distinct approach, sometimes to the extent to which other approaches are ignored. Despite this, each makes a significant contribution to issues and actors in the workplace. It is with this idea in mind that each will be sequentially examined for the specific contributions and applications while seeking for reconciliation in reality. The Cognitive Approach The cognitive approach is currently a clinically dominant perspective for good reason. It is logical and rational and has many applications. This perspective is grounded on the idea that man is a very clever creature and will seek to make sense of the world around them. As the world presents an vast, literally incalculable amount of information, people are at least somewhat constrained by the concept of bounded rationality which simply acknowledges this state of affairs and the fact that we fail to process (or process correctly) all of this information. As a result, people employ active and passive strategies to reduce the amount of information that they feel needs to be processed by adopting such courses of action as forming pre-conceived notions, assigning stereotypes or labels to people or actions, and adopting patterns of reasoning that are based only on some self-selected information. These simplified constructs or beliefs are then employed as actions to achieve some relief from this processing burden (Hodgkinson 2003, p. 3). This approach is perhaps especially relevant as today’s workplace is widely characterized by information processing and analysis. The information that is captured in the workplace easily exceeds the capacity of the brain so additional tools are utilized such as computers and information management systems. Even so, given the nature of the work and its scale and scope, people often experience anxiety and difficulty at work due to the failure of the person to adapt or implement cognitive information-reducing strategies successfully. Consider the example of the following workplace scenario: Your supervisor assigns a project in which you must demonstrate your ability to manage others efforts against a timeline. One employee is carrying their load. You brief your supervisor on this and, as a result, the employee works late and completes the assignment (Daniels, Harris Briner, 2004, p. 344). In this situation, you likely weighed the potential signal of an inability to manage others by consulting your supervisor against the possibility of failure and the fact that failure would give assurance that you did not have this ability. This example is one in which there is partial information in a situation in which full information would be highly advantageous. It is the cognitive interpretations which lead one conclude the potential of unpleasant personal outcomes that trigger an â€Å"unpleasant affect of work† often manifested as some degree of anxiety (Daniels, Harris, Briner 2004, p. 345). The Behavioral Perspective Prior to elaboration of the behaviorist perspective, it merits noting that psychology, as an endeavor, while interesting, compelling and even useful at times, has perennially been dogged by the issue that it is not a verifiable, quantifiable subject of inquiry (Kimble 2000, p. 208). This is likely due to an overexposure to Freud’s answer to all issues, sexual conflict, as well as simply to the fact psychology is not something that always lends itself to a classical scientific laboratory. This bias against psychology has been overcome by two key factors: statistical rigor and behaviorism. In short, behaviorism posits that all behavior is the consequence of an observable stimulus for which an organism is predisposed to or conditioned to respond. These stimuli can be used to shape and mold behavior and belong to one of four categories below: Reward the application of a positive stimulus to increase response rates Punishment – the application of a negative stimulus to decrease response rates Time Out – the removal of a positive stimulus to decrease response rates Other Reinforcer – the removal of a negative stimulus to increase response rates (Bolles 1979, pp. 121-122). In this paradigm, behaviorism assert that people are rational animals that, for the most part, seek pleasure and avoid pain though, in doing so, frequently consider time horizons in the case that short term pleasures are forsaken. Additionally, beyond the simplified â€Å"stimulus-response† (S-R) paradigm, there exists a scheme of behaviorism labeled â€Å"response-response† (R-R) learning in which the anticipated response is predicted from an early response to a different stimulus (Kimble 2000, p. 208). To illustrate an example of behaviorism in the workplace, consider the following example: You have been with a new department or company for a few months with your previous two positions with a supervisor whose chosen method of performance coaching to belittle someone in department-wide meetings by yelling and other demeaning actions. A department meeting is coming up and you are behind on a project. As the staff meeting approaches you begin to dread it and get a headache and have feelings of worthlessness and incompetence despite being knowing that you can meet or exceeds the projects specifications (Daniels, Harris Briner 2004, p. 344). In this example, it would seem as though you have been conditioned to feel this way. In much that same way that Pavlov’s dogs came to salivate at just the dinner bell as a consequence of learning by the pairing of stimulus and response, your feelings, symptoms and eventual behavior is a result of the anticipation of a punishment-type reinforcer (Bolles 1979, pp. 24-26). The Humanist Paradigm In the way that humanism accepts individual differences, it resembles cognitive theory; in the way that if focuses almost solely on subjective experiences, it is the arch-enemy of behaviorism (Kimble 2000, p. 9). Within the realm of what might be labeled a â€Å"humanist† approach are those perspectives advocated by Freud, Erikson, Adler, Maslow, Frankl and others. Each of these theorists focuses on either the resolution of conflict or the achievement of meaning. Going so far as be labeled â€Å"industrial theology† with regards to the application of this perspective to the work environment, they seek to understand how a person perceives themselves within the situations that work presents. These conflicts often center on values or self-actualization and meaning. As there are several distinct approaches within the broader notion of a humanistic approach, reviewing at least a few major angles is likely to be useful. One such theorist, Erikson, a student of Freud, postulated that individuals develop and progress through various lifestages, each one ideally characterized by the successful resolution of inner conflict of that age. Examples would be the middle-age conflict of â€Å"growth vs. stagnation† and a key childhood stage of â€Å"trust vs. mistrust† (Kets de Vries 1995, p. 9; Gleitman 1986, p. 562). In the same way that a parent is an authority figure, so to is the â€Å"corporation† or its representative and it is reasonable to assume that some of these conflict issues will be need to be reworked as they resurface in the work family. Adler is another theorist in the humanist vein whose work emphasizes the social context of the human condition. In a manner analogous to Erikson’s lifestages, Adler proposed eight levels of social interest ranging from the â€Å"mother-child† relationship to â€Å"God† with the levels of one’s â€Å"community† and â€Å"society† in the middle (Hale 1999, pp. 68-76). By using this methodology, Adler seeks to emphasize that one cannot emphasize the self at the expense of the world and vice-versa, that acceptance and success in life is a achieved by a balance of ego and society and a reconciliation of one’s strength’s and one’s weaknesses (Page 2003, pp. 88, 92). As an example of this, consider the study, though somewhat dated, that a majority of people find their work meaningless (Purcell 1967, p. 232). If it is indeed the cases that what they do is meaningless then, perhaps one can find redeeming value in why they do it: to provide for their family, to â€Å"get ahead† or some other deferment of pleasure or perhaps the acceptance of an imposed position in life. As a segue way from the meaningless of work is the perspective of the humanism are the ideas of theorists such as Maslow and Frankl which both seek to address the issue of values and meaningfulness in work and life. Maslow’s ubiquitous hierarchy of needs positions self-actualization as the highest type of need to be satisfied, being given attention only after lower needs such as food and security are considered (Coles 2001; Hansen 2000, p. 22). In similar vein, Frankl, a concentration camp survivor, indicates that people seek meaning through hardship and that purpose validates the self and your activities (Frankl 1946). Also related to this is Herzberg’s theory of motivation in which he postulate many choices are comprised of two-factors. One category of factor is labeled as â€Å"satisfiers† and are factors that drive positive feelings and beliefs while the other category is labeled â€Å"hygiene† factors in that they are necessary but not sufficient (Pur cell 1967, p. 238). As an example, consider that salary is a satisfier yet â€Å"travel less than 25%† may be a hygiene factor for a certain individual. By this, it is meant that virtually any reasonable sum of money would not be enough to motivate this individual if they must travel approximately 50% of the time. Similarly, by not traveling at all, this person could be not â€Å"dissatisfied† but their low wage prevents real satisfaction also. All together, these provide a rich view of the aims of the humanist perspective and are very salient to understanding behavior and motive in the workplace as in life. Corporate Therapy and Organizational Interventions One of the initial metaphors utilized earlier is that in some ways, an organization is a person. Complimentary if not a substitute line of reasoning is that organizations are of people. If at first psychology was not relevant, it is now. In consideration of the application of each of these approaches, there are number of areas such as selection and hiring practices and performance consulting in which each approach is distinct and unique yet still appropriate. Selection Processes Cognitive – Cognitive ability and intelligence is among the most reliable and validated predictors of job performance (Hodgkinson 2003, p. 10; Dreher Dougherty 2002, pp. 109-110). Behavioral – One method that takes advantage of the R-R learning method the use of behavioral interview techniques that focus on achievement or the ability to do the current job based on the belief of a correlation of past demonstrated ability to the task at hand. This type of interview can be an oral interview, work samples or practices in order to stimulate a response (Dreher Dougherty 2002, pp. 105-107). Humanistic – The use of personality profiles to help assess the fit of the person to the team or company is a frequently utilized humanistic technique (Wasylyshyn 2001, pp. 12, 14-15). Performance Management Cognitive – The distribution, through training, of successful heuristics for handling certain complex tasks can be a means by which new employees are oriented to â€Å"best† methods (Hodgkinson 2003, p. 11). In addition, the use of the Expectancy Theory approach understanding and influencing motivation can be very applicable to creating systems that incentivize performance while Equity theory concerns the rationalization of worker inputs and corresponding outputs. (Dreher Dougherty 2002, pp. 34-35, 42). Behavioral – Behavioral theory, if anything, is straightforward with regards to motivation stating only that one need find the correct reinforcement schedule to achieve the desired results. Humanistic – Programs such as job coaching and consulting as well as job enrichment can both motivate and address performance concerns (Page 2003; Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, Wright 2000, p. 367). Three into One: Towards an Integrated Approach In consideration of each of these approaches, one approach may clearly be the best paradigm to utilize in any specific situation. Despite this, the diversity of experiences to be found in the workplace in conjunction with the diversity of the individuals calls for an approach with a â€Å"back-up† plan if not an outright approach in which all three schools are actively utilized. As an example of a complex workplace situation in which many elements are present in such quantities so as to be readily observable, consider the following adapted and condensed version of real-life organizational drama at B.F. Goodrich (Vandivier 1972): When presented with the opportunity to get the bid on a project to build a aircraft brake assemblies as part of a government contract for a company for which Goodrich has utterly failed with a decade earlier, Goodrich bid to win, hoping to restore trust and capture the profits ‘on the back end’ through subsequent orders and miscellaneous complimentary parts. After winning the bid, the job was assigned to Warren, an experienced brake assembly engineer and graduate of a top engineering program who was notably difficult to approach with anything remotely resembling criticism. Under Warren was Lawson, a young engineer with much less of a pedigree and only one year of work experience. Despite this, he quickly saw the design for this particular project possessed critical flaws that would not only fail to function but in doing so could potentially or perhaps even likely be considered a threat to those in the plane and on the ground. Knowing a flaw to be present and seeking to save the company time and money later though unwilling to approach Warren without more data, Lawson began testing the components at the earliest possible opportunity. These tests confirmed his suspicions and, though Warren began to become aware of the issues, he insisted that the problem lay in the material selection rather that the design. Finding Warrne unwilling to consider the root cause, Lawson took his case to Sink, â€Å"a short, chubby, bald man†, who had worked his was up to a position supervising all engineers from a â€Å"lowly† draftsman position. As such, he was not an engineer yet supervised engineers and despite not being formally so trained, as Lawson presented his case, the truth was likely quite obvious. Also obvious was that if Lawson was correct, then by default, Warren was wrong. If this were the case, then this meant that Sink made an error in trusting Warren and allowing this to occur. Sink’s response was to â€Å"keep testing†¦ it’ll work just fine†. With less than seventy days to flight testing, the mandatory certification of the assembly began to loom. Vandivier, a instrumentation engineer, analyst and technical writer, was called to perform final qualification testing and then to issue the recommendation for certification. Upon noting many â€Å"irregularities† Vanivier consulted Gretzinger, the lab supervisor, who indicated that he had been directed to miscalibrate testing instruments by Lawson who reported that Sink had directed him to do so. Vandivier soon spoke with Lawson who informed him that he would â€Å"soon figure it out† that it went even higher than Sink who had been directed by his supervisor, Van Horn, Manager of Design Engineering. Van Horn had indicated, â€Å"regardless†¦ it will be qualified†. Eventually, it was â€Å"qualified† and failed miserably in flight tests. This began the chain of events that could be termed the â€Å"beginning of the end† in which the final outcome was a major loss of corporate reputation, the redesign of the assembly, a formal inquiry, court proceedings and other predictable consequences. As one considers this tale, though we may not all design aircraft brake assemblies, be engineers or employees of a huge corporation or have millions of dollars or lives riding on our decisions, most of the elements are likely quite familiar. This familiarity comes from the fact that, even though we may not even be employed, the chords that were struck in this tale echo in our lives. Issues such as trust vs. mistrust, conditioned responses and fear of reprisals (aka punishment) and the questioning of what is the meaning of life and what ethics and values are represented in your head, heart and behaviors. The issues that play in our private lives go with us to work†¦ the problem is us, work and home are merely the contexts in which the drama unfolds. In tale of B.F. Goodrich, the issues and conflicts named by each of the three distinct approaches are evident. Cognitive – Sink had the opportunity to stop the issue cold by simply going to Warren and directing him to redesign to the part. A frequent initial intervention in cognitive therapy is to being to question one’s assumptions (Henry 2002, p. 39). Key to this are Sink’s assumptions in which he felt that his discovery and action would reflect poorly on him. Objectively, this is faulty reasoning yet such as strategy was adopted by Sink in an effort to reduce the cognitive demands placed on him. Behavioral – Consider the actions of Gretzinger to miscalibrate the testing instruments in which he is faced with the lesser of two punishments: one certain and immediate, the other deferred and potentially avoidable. Perhaps he had witnessed such a â€Å"test† on others and learned by association. In doing so, Gretzinger’s survival instincts were likely triggered and he simply behaved accordingly. Humanistic – This case is ripe with issues of subjective values and ethics interpretations. In addition, from a psychodynamic perspective, it is certainly implied that Sink perhaps had a bit of an inferiority complex which was reinforced by the overall situation and he had adopted the anecdotal strategy of â€Å"one must go along to get along†. While it seems clear, consider the insight achieved by integrated model that adds richness and understanding as to the how and why events occurred as they did. For example, in the Gretzinger’s instinctual survival behavior, it is quite likely that he also had psychodynamic issues such as inferiority complex in which he felt irrational guilt were he to disobey his corporate â€Å"parent’s† (Gleitman 1986, p. 420-421). Also, consider Sink’s cognitive assumptions and that his behavior could also be understood in the context of behaviorism’s â€Å"learned helplessness† or social learning theory’s deferment of responsibility, aptly illustrated by Milgram’s classis experiments in which â€Å"ordinary† people carried out what they thought were hurtful experiments on another human under the direction of external authority figure (Gleitman 1986, pp. 114-115, 398-401). By the simultaneous consideration of each theoretical perspective, events can be understood with greater clarity but, most importantly, future behavior can be shaped for the benefit of all involved. In this way, processes and policies can be enacted that reduce the psychological conflict in the choices that people feel compelled to make. For example, as the case clearly involved ethical issues, one system that is common is today’s post-Enron society is the establishment of reprisal-free ethics violations hotlines (Behr 2002). Additionally, from a behaviorist perspective, increasing the severity of punishment for ethical violations likely forces the cognitive questioning of one’s â€Å"payoff matrix†. The implementation of modern business process methods ranging from zero-based budgeting to activity-based costing and six-sigma methodology creates a forum in which assumptions are questioned and possible outcomes quantified. Such efforts get at the some of the fruit s of cognitive theory intervention strategies as more information is actively considered, roles and processes are clarified and desired outcomes explicitly stated. Thus, the workplace occurs as a factory, an office, a car, a crowded city of a wide open field. People occur in all varieties, each shaped by both unique and common elements. With the merger of these diversities, psychological perspectives cannot be applied in isolation. Rather, each must be considered and weighed in light of the situational and temporal context of the moment. Thus, in reality, it is not truly unified theory that is desired but an integrated or multidimensional perspective. Without this, the situation is akin the slightly exaggerated anecdote of the person who went to a psychiatrist only to find out that he has mental issues, a visit to a chiropractor to be informed that therapy was recommended and finally a visit to the dentist only to find that he has dental issues as well. The point is that one often is compelled to find what one is looking for and that unless a multidimensional approach is utilized, the potential outcomes are at least partially mitigated by the f ailure to consider life in situ. Works Consulted Behr, P. and A. Witt. (2002, July 28). [Enron]. Accessed online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/business/specials/energy/enron/. Bolles, R. (1979). Learning Theory, 2nd edition. Harcout Brace Jovanovich College Publishers: Fort Worth, TX. Coles, S. ( 2001, October). â€Å"Satisfying Basic Needs†. Employee Benefits, 4p. Daniels, K., C. Harris, and R. Briner. (2004). â€Å"Linking Work Conditions to Unpleasant Affect: Cognition, Categorization, and Goals†. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (77), pp. 343-363. Dreher, G. and T. Dougherty. (2002). Human Resource Strategy: A Behavioral Reference for the General Manager. McGraw-Hill Irwin: New York, New York. Frankl, V. (1946). Mans Search for Meaning. Washington Square Press: New York, New York. Gleitman, H.(1986). Psychology, 2nd Edition. W.W. Norton Company: New York, New York.Hale, C. (1999, Fall). â€Å"Eight Levels of Social Interest: Adult Development From an Adlerian Paradigm†. AdultSpan Journal (1), 2, pp. 66-78. Hansen, J. (2000, Winter). â€Å"Psychoanalysis and Humanism: A Review and Critical Examination of Integrationist Effort With Some Proposed Resolutions†. Journal of Consulting Development(78), pp. 21-28. Henry, J. (2002). â€Å"Cognitive Science and Individual Development† in in Pearn, M., ed. (2002). Individual Differences and Development in Organizations. John Wiley Sons: West Sussex, UK. Hodgkinson, G. (2003). â€Å"The Interface of Cognitive and Industrial, Work and Organizational Psychology†. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (76), pp. 1-25. Kets de Vries, M. (1995). Organizational Paradoxes: Clinical Approaches to Management, 2nd edition. Routledge: London, UK. Kimble, G. (2000, November December). â€Å"Behaviorism and Unity in Psychology†. Current Directions in Psychological Science (9), 6, pp. 208-212. Noe, R., J. Hollenbeck, B. Gerhart, and P. Wright. (2000). Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage, 3rd edition. McGraw-Hill Irwin: Boston, Massachusetts. Page, L. (2003, Spring). â€Å"Adler and the Profession of Coaching†. The Journal of Individual Psychology (59), 1, pp. 86-93. Purcell, T. (1967). â€Å"Work Psychology and Business Values: A Triad Theory of Work Motivation†. Personnel Psychology (20), 3, , pp. 231-257. Vandivier, K. (1972). â€Å"Why Should My Conscience Bother Me?† in Moss Kanter, R. B. Stein, eds. (1978). Life in Organizations: Workplaces as People Experience Them. Basic Publishers: New York, NY. Wasylyshyn, K. (2001). â€Å"On the Full Actualization of Psychology in Business†. Consulting Psychology: Practice and Research (53), 1, pp. 10-21.

Internal And External Influences Of Dell Computers Commerce Essay

Internal And External Influences Of Dell Computers Commerce Essay The organization being chosen to carry out such change management process analysis is the computer industry and the organization company in focus is amicably regarding DELL Computers. Thus, change processes in business organizations involves the reality behind every process and is considered as a daily cycle in dealing to various issues and concerns of the organization as it depends on the managements actions and its respected change of nature in dealing with effective change management as directed at overcoming anger and resentment evolving into a program that supports acceptance and internalization. As a consultant commenting on the organizational change process choosing DELL organization as the focal point for discussion and analysis for this presentation, my role to the organization is to have a clear emphasis dealing to the external and internal change drivers and other essential points needed for the realization of purpose for this report presentation for the senior management of the DELL in providing factual information that will be able to give a better substantive spontaneity of understanding of such organizational state needed for selection and the application of the appropriate management models as well as concepts per se.   1.0 Introduction In this assignment, I will be using Dell Corporation to complete task 1 and 2. Task 1 is about determining and analyzing Dells internal and external influences. The external factors are the elements come from outside the organization that beyond the control of organization and internal factors are the influences within the organization. In task 2, political change, effectiveness and improvements of the Dell will be discussed. 1.1 Background Information of Dell Michael Dell, the founder of Dell in 1984. Michael Dell started selling personal computers out of his dorm room at the University of Texas in Austin. Dell has a simple concept that is by selling computer systems directly to their target customers by cutting out retailers and suppliers. Dell listens and understands customers needs and delivers the most effective computing solutions to meet those needs. Dell is the number 1 PC provider in the United States and number 2 worldwide. Dell was also listed in Forbes magazine as the 25th largest company on the Fortune 500 list. Dell headquarter is located at Texas, United States. In 2009, Dell has employed more than 76,500 people worldwide. Dell sells its products directly to customers such as government agencies, public institutes, healthcare and educational institutions, small to large businesses through sales representatives, telephone-based sales, and online through the company web site. 2.0 Internal Factors Internal factors or influences include statement of mission, vision and goals, product and services, leadership and SWOT analysis. 2.1 Statement of Mission, Vision and Goals Dells success is based on a simple premise that is to listen to customers, delivers technology and services they value. Dells mission is to be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve, by means of meeting customer expectations of highest quality, leading technology, company accountability and support as well as flexible customization capability, and financial stability. The company vision was to produce computers that could easily be fitted with individual components to build a computer system to accommodate individual requirements. Dells primary goal is to customize, design and built products to satisfy they customers requirements so that customers can get exactly what they desire.   Dell has achieved their main goal by doing business directly with customers one at a time. They believed that they could better than anyone in the world. This is their primary goal because they want to be the best at what they do and make a profit.   Dell feels that their great customer service will keeps customer loyal. Dells another goal is to become the greenest technology company in the world. Dell has launched a long-term, global effort to become the greenest technology company in the planet. It has set an ambitious Zero Carbon Initiative whereby it aims to maximize the energy efficiency of Dell products, and over time offset their carbon impact. Furthermore, Dell is going to extend its Plant a Tree for Me programme into Europe and Dell will also continue offering its consumers worldwide free recycling for used Dell equipment and other branded equipment when new Dell hardware is purchased. 2.2 Products and Services Dell is globally recognized for award winning products and outstanding services. Dells dedication to customer satisfaction means that consumer can count on them for a responsive, reliable, quality service. Dell pay attention and listen to their customers needs and wants. Thereby, Dell delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Dell offers a wide range of product such as desktop computers, notebook computers, network servers, workstations, handheld computers, monitors, printers, high-end storage products, and a variety of computer peripherals and software. Dells systems are built to order and so that customers have the freedom to choose what requirements they require. Other than that, the company is now offering wide range of electronics and PC accessories networking accessories, digital cameras and camcorders, gaming consoles and software, LCD televisions, projectors and surround sound speakers. Moreover, Dell has designed smart, simple services to fit the curr ent customers lifestyle and it has brought customers a lot of convenience. Dell also provides 24/7 customers service and support tool that secure customers personal data and keep their system running in good condition. Dell technology experts can remotely access a customers computer to solve issues instantly. 2.3 Leadership 2.4 SWOT analysis Strengths One of the best renowned computer brands Dell is the largest PC maker in the world and also well-known for online selling of computers. Dell offers a wide range of PC, Laptops, Monitors and LCDs, hardware and software. The companys web site received at least 25 million visits at more than 50 country-specific sites. Direct to customer business model Dell sells directly to their customers by cutting out the retailers and suppliers. Dells efficient procurement, manufacturing and distribution process allowing it to offer customers powerful systems at competitive prices. Dell provides top-notch customer service before and after the sale and also 24 hours customer service and support. Customization Every Dell system is built to order. Dell built computer based on customer provided specifications. So customers get exactly what they desire. Weaknesses No Proprietary Technology Dell does not have proprietary technology, the current technology used by Dell are shared by the other major competitors. Product Failure There is the occasional product recall that can cause Dell some embarrassment. In 2004, 4.4 million laptop adapters are recalled back because of a fear that they might overheat. Opportunities Diversification Dell is introducing many new products to its range through diversification. This initially has meant good such as printers, desktop and laptops, but now also includes LCD televisions and other non-computing goods. Strong market potential Dell has the opportunity for expansion in all parts of the world, especially in markets outside of the U.S.; in all customer segments; and in all product categories. The number of PC users is expected to hit or exceed 1 billion by 2010. Threats Competitor Dell attracts customers through cost saving. Since competitors are offering computers at low costs, this could threaten Dells price-conscious growing customer base. With almost similar prices, price difference is no longer an issue for customers. Technology Advancement Rapid change in technology obsoletes the product in small span of time. Dell has to keep up with technological advancements to be able to compete. Currency fluctuation Changes in world currencies can affect production costs. As the costs of supplies increase, the price of the computers will also increase. 3.0 External Factors The external environments consist of Porters 5 and PESTLE analysis. PEST is very effective for the understanding of business situation and global issues and Porters 5 analyses the companys external environment in an existing market or a new one. 3.1 PEST analysis of Dell Corporation 3.1.1 Political Political factors include government regulations and legal issues determining the conditions under which companies have to operate. Dell Corporation encounters problems in certain countries where political stability is not guaranteed, no matter whether companies operate production facilities or if they do business with that country through exports or imports. Many countries still have restrictive policies such as the trade quotas and certain government regulations that implies on MNC (Multinational corporations) which are maintained to protect domestic manufacturers and production. These policies are more likely to obstruct foreign companies from investing or entering into these markets. The only possibility to do business in those countries is to establish partnerships with local companies such as joint ventures or strategic alliances, where they are additionally forced to accept minority shares and to provide resources concerning money, local culture and technological knowledge. Ho wever, the computer industry sees great potential in those countries with looser and less restricted government regulations for countries like China which has opened for many industries since its accession to the WTO in 2001. This causes the globalisation trade barriers to be less restricted and the opportunities for new market to emerge thus allowing free trade to expand. 3.1.2 Economic Economic conditions influences both demand/supply, capital and cost and is greatly influences by political and government policies. The computer industry expects a growth of approximately ten percent over the next years. This growth is influenced by the economic situation in a specific country, having an impact on the purchasing power of potential customers. Hence, changing inflation rates and currency fluctuation also determine the profitability of a company. I the cost of capital is low it will be an interesting market for firms to invest and expand in the market thoroughly. Certain countries in Asia represent a great opportunity for firms to invest and expand in. For example, in Malaysia GDP for 2007 was estimated at 357.9 billion with a growth rate of 6.3%, while in 2008 it comes with a growth rate of 5.0%. Apparently in 2009 the growth rate has increased from 2008 of 5.0% to 2009 of 5.2%. 3.1.3 Social The social cultural factor represents the demand and taste. Promotional and pricing strategies will have to change according to the market saturation to adapt to the consumer demand. The national demand for computers is dependent on the educational level prevailing in a specific country. The higher the educational standard, the higher is the demand. Furthermore, computers get more and more involved in daily life. Today, children are more exposed to computers compared to the 1990s. Firms should be aware of demographics changes as the structure of the population by ages, affluence, regions, the employment rates can strongly influences the demand and supply for a particular products and services. Therefore, threats to existing products might be increasing and this indirectly causes the opportunities for differentiation and market segmentation to increase. 3.1.4 Technological The technology today has indeed become an asset rather than a liability to human beings today. Firms must evolve accordingly in order to stay competitive among existing rivals in the market. Plus technology external can also be captures and used, and this again can be influenced by government support and encouragement. New technology can be useful in both manufacturing and services for a better and more efficient and effective output. For example, in Malaysia Dell corporation is famous for producing affordable and good quality laptops such as the Dell Inspiron and Dell Studio laptops to suit all range of income earners and taste. 3.2 Porters five Forces Five forces analysis help the marketer to compare and contrast a competitive environment. It has similarities with other tools for environmental audit, such as PEST analysis, but tends to focus on the single, stand alone, business or SBU (Strategic Business Unit) rather than a single product or range of products. For example, Dell would analyze the market for Business Computers (one of Dells SBU units) 3.2.1 Threat of New Entrants (moderate) Barriers to entry, however can restrict the firms from entering the market, more number of entry barriers will make it difficult for the new entrants to exploit the opportunity of new market. Existing firms which produces at economies of scale makes it difficult for new firms to enter the market. Certain distribution channels are control by either the government or existing firms and makes it difficult for new entrants. Furthermore, not all programs can work all computers therefore switching costs is quite high. This causes customers to stay with the same product because it can be expensive to buy new software for a new system. 3.2.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers (high) The bargaining power of buyer increases when there is a huge amount of players in the market. Rival firms offer discounts, warranty and services to switch the consumer from one brand to another in the same industry. Consumers are highly price-sensitive and might switch to other PC company if Dell increases their price. Thus, Dell can lower this threat by differentiating their products. Customers select mainly based on price although Dell differentiate their products because customers might not see much differences between products. Firms should maintain good relationships with customers by practicing CRM processes in the company. For example, P G has an online portal to ask the customer about their views, opinions and new ideas about the products of their desire. 3.2.3 Rivalry among existing firms (Strong) It refers to the war between the firms competing in the same industry for gaining customer share in order to increase their revenues and profits. Dell is offering affordability computers and excellent customer service which could stay competitive in the industry. 3.2.4 Threat of Substitutes (moderate) Other gadgets such as mobile phones can be a threat to computers due to enhancement of phone features that have similarities with PDAs. A firm faces intense competition from substitute product producing firms, when the customer cost of switching is lower, substitute products are better in quality and functionality. The competitive strength can be determined by market share, sales pattern, producers adding capacity for more production, and rise in profits. 3.2.5 Bargaining power of supplier (moderate) Bargaining power of suppliers affect the intensity of competition especially if there are huge numbers of suppliers in the market plus less availability of raw material and the cost of switching between suppliers or raw material is high in the market. The influences of certain huge suppliers such as Microsoft enforce computer manufacturers to load Windows in their computers and place their logo on laptops, desktops and server machines. Task 2 4.0 Influence on policies and decision making The influence on policies and decision making is partly based on the revolution of globalization and world economy is usually recognized as being driven by the combination of political, economies, socio cultural, technological and biological factors. A firm would be able to analyze the situation through PEST analysis, SWOT and Porters 5 forces. During the worlds worst hit global economy crisis 3 years back, the whole world suffered in a lot of aspects. The United States economy tumbles like never before and because America is the worlds biggest exporter and importer in terms of trade, it gradually affects other countries. 4.1 Global economy crisis in the world During the global economy crisis in 2008, the United States experienced a serious financial crisis which turned into a major economic recession. Both events also spilled over to the rest of the world resulting in a global economic crisis. (Financial Crisis and Global Recession, 2008) Inflation rises and consumers are more sensitive about their spending, hence this causes the government will have to come out with stimulus plans to restructure the economy and to decrease unemployment rate which is rising rapidly. Dell corporation second quarter profits falls 17% from a profit of $746 million, or 33 cents per share, the company reported a year ago and announces the firms restructuring plan of 10% cuts in global jobs that equate to job losses of around 9,000. Dell also closes its plant in Austin, Texas as part of its restructuring plan to save $3billion over the next 3 years. Shares of Dell rose 31 cents to close at $19.92. They dropped and then regained 25 cents in after-hours trading. 4.2 Global Corporate Responsibility of Dell Corporation Dell Corporation, a truly globalized information technology infrastructure and those who build, run and use it are creating a new era, the Connected Era. Dell wants to develop a generation of young people across the globe that is prepared to connect to the whole new world. (Dell Global Giving, 2010) Dell has always been practicing this principle and culture since the firms incorporation. For example, Dell has launched a new signature program called Dell Youth Connect to prepare while help unleashing the talent of young people through technology and designed to provide support for education and digital inclusion initiatives that the company considers essential to ensuring the next generations success in the Connected Era. India, Mexico and Brazil are the recipients where Askhara Foundation is founded in Bangalore and American Indian Foundation in Hyderabad. 4.3 The increasing effects of global warming Global warming has risen to become an issue and has turned into a catalyst. It is believed to be cause by human activity such as fossil fuel burning, deforestation, greenhouse emissions and pollution. The effect is devastating and is causing the earths global temperature to increase and this leads to the rise of sea levels and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation. Apparently, Dell Corporation is committed to becoming the greenest technology company on the planet. The company has built environmental considerations into every stage of the product life cycle ranging from development and design, to manufacturing and operations, to customer use and end of life product disposition for more than a decade. Dell Corporation, not known as a cleantech company, but long known for being a supply chain expert and direct marketing leader in PCs and electronic devices, is turning its attention to global warming and at least working to provide consumers some greener product options and more consumer information. For example, Dell created the Plant A Tree program to make it easy for customers to offset the greenhouse gas emissions from the computer equipment and to help build a healthier planet  while practicing the slogan one tree and forest at a time. Customers can easily participate by purchasing new Dell products and simply add the Plant a Tree option to the shopping cart while shopping online. Non customers can easily donate by logging in to the carbonfund.org/Dell website to contribute to the program. 4.4 The Emergence of Asia on the economy factors There are currently 28 emerging markets in the world and by far China and India are the two largest markets in the world currently. Since Chinas emergence in WTO in 2001, China has been growing rapidly in terms of growth and industrialization along with India. These two countries are the worlds fastest growing country in terms of GDP growth and trade. Dell Corporation waste no further time by announcing its partnership with Chinas largest consumer electronics retailers Gome. The company also plans to pursue partnership like this in other Asian countries. Dell opens its 1st outlet in Malaysia called Dell Direct Store at Mid Valle Mega Mall, one of the busiest shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur (KL) in 2007. Dell has since begun operating a plant producing for Latin Americas and the US markets in Malaysia in 1995. This shows that Dell already saw the opportunities to expand in the Asia markets long before it started to blossom. (Blogjer, 2009) The income statement shown above is the reported earnings of Dell Corporation. Dells revenue has been increasing steadily from 2006 until it decreases starting from 2009, which is where the period of time the global recessions affect the world. Due to the Global recession, Dell has to restructure the company and this leads to closure of plants and sacking of employees. Even though the US market is a slump, apparently, Asia continues to be one of the few bright spots for the computer industry. For example, the company is cutting workers and idling some facilities in Texas because of slow computer demand in the United States , despite that international sales still remain strong. The Round Rock, Texas-based company reported a 5 per cent dip in its global profit and an 11 per cent increase in global revenue during the fourth quarter, but reported a strong double-digit growth in markets such as India and China. The companys revenue rose 52 per cent year on year in India during the fourth quarter (ending January 29) , and 81 per cent in China in 2010. This shows the sign of economy recovery, but still international sales are by far larger than sales in the US years ago. 5.1 Awards for environmental core Dell Corporation values honesty, integrity and the highest level of ethical conduct. Hence, starting in 2000, Dell began the Soul of Dell initiative to redefine our values and elucidate what Dell aspires to be as a company. (Ethics and Compliance, 2010) 5.1.1 Business Ethics Magazines Top 10 Best Corporate Citizens Dell ranked No. 9 in Business Ethics list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens among major U.S. companies. The annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens list evaluates the top 1,000 largest publicly-traded companies in the U.S. and is based on a statistical analysis of performance in the following eight stakeholder categories: shareholders, community, governance, diversity, employees, environment, human rights and product. Dell scored highest this year in the categories of employee relations, community engagement and environmental responsibility. Dell has been ranked for six of the lists seven years of publication. In recent years, Dell has won acclaim for the companys commitment to corporate citizenship, notably as the 2005 winner of the Business Ethics Environmental Progress Award. (Ethics and Compliance, 2010) 5.1.2 The Tim McClure Award (Outstanding Environmental and Community Leadership) The National Recycling Coalition awarded Balcones Recycling partnership with Dell Computer Corp. The award salutes organizations that show initiative and commitment to recycling, the environment and the community. Since Dells partnership with Balcones Recycling began in 1997, the computer giant has achieved a remarkable 80 percent recycling rate and has diverted more than 40,000 tons (1,700 tons per month) of material from local landfills and saved more than $16 million ($1.3 million per month) every year. Dells R3 reduce, reuse, recycle implementation in recycling and waste reduction that includes focusing on recycling within Dells offices and manufacturing facilities in the United States, and in schools near the companys headquarters in central Texas. Balconess recycling partnership with Dell represents one of the largest and most successful waste minimization, diversion and recycling efforts in the United States. Balcones anything that tears office recycling program at Dell is the largest in US, this allows Dell employees to mix all types of recyclable papers such as cardboard, office paper, plastics, foams in the container making it the most user friendly recycling system in the country. Innovative reuse programs developed by Balcones Recycling have had the single greatest economic and environmental impact on the results of R3. In Dells manufacturing facilities, innovative reuse programs put into action by Balcones save packaging materials and parts, and then returns them to suppliers. (CHARLOTTE, 2009) Refer to appendix 1 6.0 Area for improvements Although Dell is an extremely successful company, there are areas of improvements and enhancements that should be considered. The computer industry focuses mainly on technology, therefore for Dell to stay competitive among firms in the industry, Dell should innovate and constantly adapt to the new technology for technology will have a significant impact on Dells success and future. Dell Corporation is famous for its affordable and good quality computers. Dell can invest more in the research and development to develop new products and services, even though Dell is a leader in e commerce computer hardware market and sets the highest sales in online sales in US, still the company can initiate a program called Customer Survey to gain more market share. For example, like what the company did in Twitter and Facebook , Dell Corporation managed to get a $3 million revenue through Twitter and the company placed 200 employees on the social networking site to interact with customers about techn ical support and customer demands. The company can also implement a program to reduce errors in their direct Internet ordering system and create a Clearance area on its website for systems produced in error because most of Dells sales come from online sales. Therefore, customer should not have bad experience when purchasing online on Dells official website because leaving a good impression and experience in the customer is always good for business no matter if the customers are just consulting or purchasing. Dells customer support service can also be enhanced, apparently the company spends $150 million to improve on customer service but recorded a 5 % drop in the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Dells global brand identity is also undeniably strong but in new and blooming market such as India, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and so on, Dell can increase their company recognition through a national advertising campaign. Mutual agreement within a company and government to achieve a cer tain goals and objectives can be obtained and are very beneficial towards both sides. 7.0 Conclusion Dell is a very successful company in the world due to the companys high level in understanding of customer needs and satisfaction. The company listens to what customer wants and needs and then implements it into the companys system, products and services. Dell implements the direct business model since it was 1st founded by the current chairman Michael Dell, even till today, Dells environmental programs for product asset recovery and product design for environment have spanned more than a decade. The company designs and customizes products and services to the requirements of the organizations and individuals, and sells an extensive selection of peripheral hardware and computing software. One of Dells missions is to engage stakeholders to improve products and processes for the beneficial of everybody in the process. Dell is expanding from selling desktop computer market to enterprise computing, a move that involves building high-powered server computers. The companys expertise in sell ing over the Internet and efficient supplier network are critical if Dell is to drive better value for its customers, plus the internet has become a booming business in all kinds of industry and are increasing the demand for network computers for many years to come. If Dell wants to optimize their return on investment, they must continue to form strong customer relationship as well as vendor relationships and participation.