Employment Essay Example for Free

Employment Essay The Organization that we selected as our topic of discussion in our Project Paper is the Wal-Mart Corporation. Sam Walton is the founder of Wal-Mart. He opened his first store called Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas in July of 1962. Their corporate office is currently located in Bentonville, Arkansas. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. incorporated its stores on October 31, 1969. In 1972, they started selling stock on the New York Stock exchange. Although, though the company has had controversial operational business practices they have grown to be the largest Retail Corporations in the world. In 1997, Wal-Mart was able to become the largest private employer in the United States. In that same year, their annual sales totaled over $105 billion. In 2010, Wal-Mart has over 2. 1 million employees worldwide. There 2010 fiscal year sales exceeded $400 billion dollars (Wal-Mart About Us, 2010). I have been a loyal customer of Wal-Mart for years. Therefore, I was shocked when I found out about some of Wal-Marts questionable unofficial policies through talks with friends and family members who worked for them in the past and some who currently employed by them. My mother in law worked for them from 2006 thru 2008. She was required to work 8-hour shifts without a lunch break on a regular basis. One of my cousins was required to clock out because he was about to be in overtime and continue to work to keep labor cost down. I decided to Google Wal-Mart, to see if other people experienced the same injustice. I was stunned to see some of the practices of this company I loyally supported. According to an article released by the Associated Press on 12/24/08 called Wal-Mart to Pay Workers Up to $640 Million it will pay as much as $640 million to settle 63 lawsuits over wage-and-hour violations, ending years of dispute. Wal-Mart faced 76 similar class action lawsuits in courts across the country as of March 31, 2008. These violations range from having employees clock out and continue to work without pay, denying them with lunch breaks that they are entitled to by law, non-payment for overtime worked. They have also had issues with discrimination against women, resulting, from denying them promotions and paying them less then their male counterpart even though they held the same position, and in some cases, women had seniority over the men (Associated 2008). It is widely known that Wal-Mart pays its associates below the average retail wages. In 2008, the average full time Associate (34 hours per week) earns $10. 84 hourly for an annual income of $19,165. That is $2,000 below the Federal Poverty Line for a family of four. In 2007, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott earned $29. 7 million in total compensation, or 1,551 times the annual income of the average full time Wal-Mart Associate. Consequently, large portions of their employees qualify to receive Government Assistance to support their families. They are well aware that they pay their fulltime employees below the poverty level. In fact, Wal-Mart actually encourages their employees to take advantage of the Government Assistant Programs (Wake Up Wal-Mart, 2008). Wal-Mart does not offer its associates affordable healthcare insurance benefits. According to Wal-Mart employees, when they complained about high the cost of the insurance and lack of coverage it offers their managers would simply suggest that they try to qualify for Medicaid or Medicare. According to Wal-Mart Facts. om, If an average full-time Wal-Mart employee chooses the least expensive family coverage plan, they would have to spend over 20% of their income before the health insurance provided any reimbursement. An average full time Wal-Mart Associate faces a serious family health issue. They have to pay the entire out-of-pocket maximum for the least expensive health plan, which adds up to pay 53% of their income (Wake Up Wal-Mart, 2008). I am just a customer of Wal-Mart. I am an accountant, so I budget my money pretty well and I love a good bargain. However, when I look at this organization and their business practices all I see is greed. Therefore, as a customer I have to question my whether or not to continue to support this business if they persist on behaving in such an manner that is clearly unfair to its employees. This is not a struggling organization. It brings in sales exceeding $100 billion annually. Wal-Mart has the resources to make their employees NEEDS a priority. I would like to believe that they are sincerely willing to make the necessary changes. Wal-Mart’s management behaves immorally towards its employees. They do not value their employees’ needs, rights, or the labor laws that the US put into lace to protect them. Wal-Mart’s low price on everyday household products is what sets them apart from other discount retailers. Their employees help make it possible for them to dominate their competitors in the discount retail market and maintain their competitive advantage. It is essential for employees to feel that the company that employs them provides an ethical organizational culture in order for them to feel a sense of job security and to be motivated to be productive for the company. What is Organizational Culture? What type of OC does Wal-Mart reflect?  What effect does their OC have on employee job satisfaction, morale, and performance? What can management do to improve their employee relations? According to our text Organizational Behavior, 11th Edition, a company’s organizational culture is a shared set of beliefs and values within an organization. The culture is the behaviors that employees feel they are required to fit in order to meet the expectations of their organization (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, Uhl-Bien, 2010, p. 12). On of the OCI’s that the Human Synergistic Study addresses the Aggressive/Defensive Culture. The cultural norms are built upon a value structure whereby management puts its own interests before those of its key constituents—its customers, employees, suppliers, and even stockholders. Members place priority on doing what is best for themselves over the long-term best interests of their organization. Previous organizational successes (due to prior leadership, technological patents, or good business strategies) fuel the arrogance and short-term orientation of management and allow Aggressive/Defensive organizations to continue to appear effective—at least for a while. However, as shown by John Kotter and James Heskett’s study of 207 organizations (and consistent with research based on the OCI), this type of value structure prevents organizations from effectively adapting to changes in their environments and ultimately has a negative impact on their financial performance (Human Synergistic 2006). Your business strategies shift; your organization’s values should not. Organizational values guide employee actions and influence business practices. They help provide meaning for employees searching for an emotional connection to work each day. Also known as ground rules or operating principles, at their best values are actionable guidelines, not to be confused with abstract beliefs that are merely â€Å"held† or posted on a plaque (Organizational Values, 2008). † In an Aggressive/Defensive Culture, management tends to have very little value for people. There focus is on setting goals and meeting them by any means necessary. They are very competitive and want to devour the competition. Some of the characteristics of this type of culture are oppositional, competitive, motivated by power, and perfection. Managers may oppose things indirectly, stubborn, always has to be right, avoids admitting mistakes, resists suggestions made by others, and have a strong need to win or dominate. Their members do not feel any sense of job security. Employees typically believe that they have to go with the follow in an effort to avoid the label â€Å"troublemaker† in order to keep their job. They fears managements’ retaliation and often feel as though they are in a hostile work environment (Human Synergistic 2006). Staff turnover is near 20-year highs for many companies. Two research firms, Walker Information and Hudson Institute, recently joined forces to conduct a nationwide employee loyalty study. Their results confirmed that staff loyalty is in short supply. Only 24 percent of employees consider themselves truly loyal, committed to their organization and its goals, and planning to stay at least two years. Thirty-three percent of employees were high risk, not committed and not planning to stay. Thirty-nine percent were classified as trapped. They plan to stay, but are not committed to their employer. Among those who felt they worked for an ethical organization, 55 percent were truly loyal. For those who did not feel they worked for an ethical organization, the loyalty figure was 9 percent (Lowenstein 2006). Creating a culture within the organization that nurtures loyalty, commitment, advocacy and productivity from the moment the new hire walks through the door and throughout the lifecycle of the employee will go a long way to sustaining customer loyalty behavior. The good news is that employees, particularly those in customer service, seek trust and trustworthiness; and they desire to be active contributors to that effort (Lowenstein 2006). The benefits for business of adopting ethical human resource management practices and viewing employees as human capital to be developed and to provide a unique advantage in the marketplace can be utilized as part of a corporate social responsibility strategy. Effective corporate social responsibility requires that along with minimizing harm to the environment, a company needs to be aware of the social impacts of its operations and ensure that they are not harming human stakeholders (Tracey Lloyd 2009). The importance of health insurance as an employee benefit is also illustrated by the fact that more than one quarter of Americans report that they or an immediate family member have encountered job lock, passed up a job opportunity, stayed at a job they would otherwise have quit, or had not retired solely because they needed to keep the health insurance coverage they were receiving. According to another survey, employees are moderately satisfied with their benefits, with 39% of full-time workers reporting this, which is a rise from 32% in 2003 (Reddick 2009). Employers who hope to retain solid, hard-working employees should be prepared to offer basic employee benefits. In addition to salary, good benefits provide important resources that not only help build a positive working relationship between employer and employee but also promote good work habits and financial practices (Thompson 2010). Wal-Mart problem is their leadership style. It reflects many of the characteristics of an Aggressive/Defensive Culture. Its issues stem from them putting their interest before the needs of their members. It does not value its employees as of Human Capital. Employees are just another resource used to achieve the organizational objectives. Wal-Mart leaders invest a lot into making decisions and strategies that will get the best prices for their customers and keep their competitive advantages. Nevertheless, they are not investing enough time and effort in training managers on how to treat their human capital. As a result, managers are presented with problems that they have no been trained for and they avoid the issue or make bad decisions. I find it hard to believe an organization as large and successful as Wal-Mart can make these types of mistakes and they go unrecognized or resolved for so long. Several people had to have been complaining about the errors before having to go before a judge. Considering the validation of the errors during the trial investigation, it is safe to say that if Wal-Mart had done its due diligence prior to trial they would have resolved this pay issue. There is no reason a company of Wal-Mart’s size and resources could not have identified and addressed the discrepancy prior to it escalating to a court issue. Which raises the question of, was this done intentionally or their employees concerns or grievances are not a priority to them. This type of mmoral behavior ultimately leads to employees distrusting the company, resulting in a low morale, lack of motivation, and high turnover. Every company has a distinct set of characteristics that drives the decisions, practices, policies, procedures, and organizational goals, which in turn affects the organizations’ atmosphere. The biggest influences are going to come from the visions and standards that the Senior Leaders of the company. Wal-Mart’s employees do not feel any emotional connection or sense of value from their organization, which leads to a lack of job satisfaction, loyalty, and commitment. Of course, this is going to show up in how employees treat customers. All Wal-Mart has to offer is low prices, there is very little customer service. For example, I pulled up to customerservicescoreboard. com and some one posted this comment. â€Å"Wal-Mart has the worst customer service, worse yet, they ignore any inquiry and advertise that they value it I really have to commit to not shopping there any more lines are long, cashiers are slow and dont even help put bags in carts. Their greeters wont get carts and roll their eyes, the bathrooms are a mess, the shelves are empty, I hope they get what they deserve ower customer count and lower profits today I tried once more and wasnt disappointed, no carts, very long lines and best yet customer service said there was no manager on duty and there were not customer complaint forms go figure. mad at Wal-Mart 4/1/10 2:21PM â€Å". In order to change this Wal-Mart has to consider ways to attract and retain productive employees (Customer 2009). Another issue is the lack on emphasis on teamwork. Employees concerns and suggestions have no validity. They are not included in any part of the goal setting or decision making process on the individual store retail level. The â€Å"my way or no way† management attitude does not work. There has to be some compromise. SOLUTIONS Wal-Mart has to change their leadership style. The CEO and other major Leaderships need to take a more active role in establishing acceptable managerial behavioral procedures and rules to direct the organization. Instead of reacting to all of the bad press concerning their employee relations they need to take a more active approach to dealing with all of the stigmas attached to the company. For example, they can start by sending out a corporate communication-notifying managers and employees that the company is about to undergo so major changes to and are about to invest in an organization overhaul that will put just as much value in taking care of the associates that make their sales possible and they put into their valued customers. Wal-Mart can continue to ride the cloud of success with no regards to the long-term ramifications of lack of change, but these are the cost of avoidance. Change will be forced upon them one of two ways. The lawsuits will continue to come and the courts will make to settlements high enough that Wal-Mart will feel the financial sting of their unethical behavior. Secondly, they will start to see a significant decrease in their sales because of the poor customer services rendered by their distrusting, low morale, and unmotivated associates. Considering how large Wal-Mart’s organization is this change would be a major project they could consider doing it in-house, but I suggest they hire an outside consulting firm that to oversee the project in order to get some fresh ideas and strategies. Of course, they would be collaborating with Wal-Marts project team in order to what the deliverables are to complete the project. Wal-Mart Leaders need to ensure total participation by giving the project team the financial and staff resources needed to complete the project. The first step would be to perform a training needs analysis and determine where the practice and policy breakdowns are occurring. Then address the issue, by establishing a new uniform policy, updating the employee handbook, training managers and employees on the new policies, and finally enforcing it. This project will take about a year to prepared, reviewed, and implemented. Prioritization will be according to the most critical needs, such as proper employee pay protocol, anti- discrimination policy training, and team building programs. For example, have a workplace diversity class set up to teach managers how to cultivate diversity and to prevent discrimination. Require that managers have a complete training class annually. Address and investigate all allegations of discrimination immediately. Written documentation is required for discrimination allegation, investigation, and resolution steps that taken. The only way to ensure that employees feel a since of organizational justice is to uphold the companies policies on the matter. Consequently, immediate punishment is required if an employee found guilty of the allegation. Send out corporate communication, notifying employees of the companies’ commitment to improve employee relations. Send the communication via email and display it in high traffic areas. Express managements desire to include employees in some of the decisions that directly affect them by establishing an Employee Involvement Team to be apart of the project. That will help Management and employees address employee concerns and grievances, such as a fair and competitive wages and health insurance package. Allowing employees to be apart of the decision making process will help management get feedback on the best ways to go about achieving up coming goals, while building team commitment, loyalty, and moral. There will be annual policies will be reviews and revision if necessary. Managers and employees will complete skill assessment tests annually. There will be skill-training classes set up to teach managers how to promote effective communication and leadership abilities. Issue training results to department heads and certificates of completion to participants. Finally, collect feedback from the managers and employees to evaluate, results and feelings on the process improvements. Leave a comment section to get their feelings on the companies’ efforts to improve employee relations. Identify remaining problems and work with the In-house Project Team and the Employee Involvement Team to improve them.

Sociology Asian Family Essay Example for Free

Sociology Asian Family Essay Myths about the Family Ever since the 1950s to this day, common discourse regarding the family, especially in the United States, has been based on Talcott Parsons’ (Parsons Bales, 1955) functionalism views. According to Parsons, the contemporary family form is the nuclear family composed of a breadwinner husband and a homemaker wife with their children. This particular family form emerged as a result of modernization and industrialization and displaced the extended family. This contemporary nuclear family is unctional in that the breadwinner provides for the instrumental needs of the family unit (food and shelter as well as other material needs) whereas the housewife provides for the expressive needs of the family unit (affective and emotional needs as well as socialization). As long as individuals perform their instrumental or expressive roles, the family is a functional unit that contributes to the stability of society as a whole. This gendered division of labor is therefore viewed as essential for the harmonious and orderly functioning of society. This view of the family is also called the male breadwinner model. This theoretical view became the dominant way of examining the family and family life and any deviation from the male breadwinner model is usually labeled a dysfunctional deviation. This is especially the case in the United States where Talcott Parsons’ brand of functionalism dominated social research until the 1960s. Social policies regarding the family are still designed with an eye to what is now considered the â€Å"traditional family,† such as policies encouraging single mothers to marry in order to get out of poverty through the re-creation of an intact nuclear family. Moreover, this model was not only generalized in the United States, it became the prism through which families around the world were seen as well. This view was especially promoted by William Goode (1963). In line with modernization theory, Goode postulated that as countries develop, extended families would be discarded to be replaced by the functional nuclear family, essential to modern society. The major problem with these functionalist views is that they are ideologies rather than derived from observable realities. The so-called traditional family, defined as the male breadwinner model, was an exceptional occurrence in the Western world after the Second World War, and it lasted only a few decades. In this sense, it is a socially invented tradition. Moreover, one of the main functions of ideologies is to maintain the status quo, thereby preserving privileges and maintaining oppressive social mechanisms. In this case, of course, the functional ideal is based on relegating women to the domestic sphere while proclaiming at the same time that expressive roles come more naturally to women and instrument roles more naturally to men. We have already examined how gender roles are socially constructed in our chapter on gender stratification. Also, the male breadwinner model of the family was only available to certain social classes (upper middle and above) as well as to the dominant racial group (whites). Finally, this ideological view of the family ignores cultural variations in family structures as well as the impact of changing socio-economic structures. This is what we turn to now. Family Systems Further evidence of the misleading and ideological nature of the functionalist the breadwinner model of the family is revealed by the variations in family structures across the globe. Using worldwide data, sociologist Goran Therborn (2004) identifies seven family systems, each with their specific regional social and cultural characteristics. According to Therborn, these different family systems do not have dynamics of their own but change based on external factors, such as modernization and globalization. Their inherent characteristics then make them more receptive or resistant to social change. * Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa (map source) comprises all the countries south of the Sahara desert and that are not considered part of North Africa. As previously mentioned, European colonization had a strong impact of African family structures. Nevertheless, the African family was always strongly based on kinship ties. Depending on the regions, the family structure may patrilineal or matrilineal but in any cases, male relatives exercise authority. According to Therborn (2004), a specific African norm is that of substitutability: in the context of mass polygyny, if a wife does not bear heirs or simply becomes undesirable to the lineage, she can be easily replaced or substituted by the husband taking another wife. Similarly, if a husband dies, he can be replaced by his brother. Another norm that involves fluidity in kinship structure is the mass practice of fostering, lending and borrowing children among kin when necessity demands it. This practice also underlines the idea that individuals belong to a wide kinship network and not a narrow-based family structure. * East Asia The East Asian family system (map source) includes Mongolia, China and Japan. The Chinese society is still dominated by Confucian beliefs. Such beliefs involve a concern for social order and stability through the subordination of individual wishes to collective and familial interests. Central to the Confucian view is the notion of filial piety, that is, the respect for elders as pillars of childrearing. In other words, the typical Chinese family is a strongly patriarchal and hierarchical arrangement based on the three rules of obedience: a daughter obeys her father, a married woman her husband, and a widow her son (Chen and He, 2005). As part of the collective outlook based on Confucianism, there are still a considerable number of households comprising three generations based on patrilineality (parents of the husband, husband and wife, and usually, one child). There is a strong emphasis on family interdependence which maintains the divorce rate at a low level. These traditional patterns are mixed, and sometimes conflict, with the Communist regime’s law mandating equality between men and women as well as with the rapid urbanization and modernization of the Chinese society and the import of western influence on intimate relationships. South Asia The South Asian family pattern (map source) – geographically including countries such as India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Burma – involves high fertility as well as extended family networks as well as strong religious influence (Laungani, 2005). Although not all family members live under the same roof, the Indian family system is extended in the sense that most social relationships and decisions take place within the network of relatives in the context of mostly Hindu religious norms. For instance, in India, the sacred nature of marriage creates a low divorce rate based on the economic and financial dependence of women as well as the strong social stigma associated with divorce, especially for women. The Indian family system is therefore strongly patriarchal supported by strong social norms that may cover up dreadful domestic situations. The Indian family is strictly hierarchical along age and gender lines. The caste system is still pervasive so that endogamy is still the norm, especially in rural areas (over 70% of Indians still live in villages). In order to preserve such endogamy, arranged marriages are still practiced whereby marriages are negotiated between the parents of the potential husband and wife. As with other family systems, the impact of globalization and the massive urbanization has strongly impacted the traditional South Asian system. * West Asia / North Africa The West Asia – North Africa system (map source) covers countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt in Africa, as well as the Middle East in Asia. This is the area commonly called the Muslim world because this is where Islam seems to exercise the most influence. In this system as well, collective family interests take precedence over personal preferences. Moreover, the concept of family honor is particularly strong. The behavior of each individual in a family reflects on the family honor and its standing in the community. It is in this family system that we find the practice of honor killing: the murder of female family members who are seen as having shamed the family and tarnished its honor, by being raped for instance or by not conforming to the dictates of family, tradition or religion. The fact that the victims of honor killings are women is another indicator of the extreme patriarchal nature of this family system which is centered on the strict control over the sexuality of women. This control can take the form of body cover, such as veiling, or of seclusion, whereby women are not allowed to interact with other men except under very restrictive conditions. This system also emphasizes high fertility with a strong preference for boys, especially in rural areas. The value of a woman is often based on her virginity prior to marriage and her fertility once married. Southeast Asia The Southeast Asian system (map source) – which includes countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Malaysia – enjoys religious diversity that comprises Muslim and Confucian populations whose marital and sexual norms have been relaxed under Buddhist influence and Malay customs (Therborn, 2004). For instance, in parts of Indonesia, Muslims do not follow the usual patriarchal family patterns. On the contrary, they observe matrilinearity. However, the great ethnic diversity of the Indonesian population generates some degree of extended family-enforced endogamy. Decisions on who can marry whom are made collectively (Sarwono, 2005). Similarly, Indonesia has a strong family planning program that emphasizes smaller families and the health of women through education and improvements in quality of life thanks to reproductive health clinics. In this sense, the status of Indonesian women is very advanced compared to other non-western family systems even though Indonesia is a largely Muslim country. * Creole America The Creole American system originated in the European colonization of the Americas and the Caribbean (which includes countries such as Antigua, Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobaggo) and the development of the plantation economy largely based on slavery. This estate system of stratification involved a white European dominant culture with a patriarchal family system alongside black African, mulatto, and mestizo family patterns. The Creole family pattern is present throughout the Americas, including African American ghettos in the United States. According to Jaipaul Roopnarine et al. (2005), the Creole system in the  Caribbean is characterized by a large number of nonmarital unions where fathers and husbands are largely absent and women assume the most responsibility in childrearing. Such marital patterns come from the colonial economic system whereby African Caribbean men were forced to leave their families to work in mines or plantations. A value system developed whereby African masculinity was based on successive but temporary sexual relationships and motherhood became the utmost form of femininity. When men and women live together, it is usually in cohabiting or common law relationships that reproduce the traditional patriarchal division of labor. This family system is also characterized by child-shifting, that is, the passing of children to other relatives or acquaintances if the parents find themselves unable to take care of them. As a result, multiple women are involved in childhood socialization. * European And New World Settlements The Western European system and its New World Settlements (such as the United States and Canada, as well as some parts of Central and South America) has always been the least patriarchal of all family systems. Apart from the European monarchies and nobility where marriage was strictly family-controlled with limited individual choice, this system has been based on marriage by consent, supported by the Catholic Church (family pressure was not absent, to be sure, but it was not enshrined into the law). Neolocal pattern has prevented the practice of child marriage: newlyweds were expected to create their own household, something that required financial means. As a result, people tended to marry later and to decide on their own fertility within monogamous arrangements. The Western system is also the one characterized by dramatic changes over the past centuries, changes that are still going on today and define the contemporary supposed marriage and family â€Å"crisis. † Before industrialization, as in other parts of the world, marriage and family formation patterns were patriarchal and fulfilled economic (production) and political (alliance making) functions. With industrialization, families were stripped of these functions taken over by the market and the state. What were left to the families were emotional and social functions. This became known as the love-based male breadwinner model that persisted until the late 1960s. Since then, cultural and economic factors, such as increased women’s independence and entry into the workforce have shattered that model to replace it with a more egalitarian one, with a progressive acceptance of different family forms.

Purchasing Power Parity Theory And Discuss Its Applicability Economics Essay

Purchasing Power Parity Theory And Discuss Its Applicability Economics Essay Purchasing Power Parity theory (PPP) is a basis for economic comparison. However, can this really be true for any product at any time? Is purchasing power parity (PPP) only valid in the long run, or is it also applicable in the short run, and what about the nature of the products, i.e. tradable and non-tradable goods? Which limitations are there to PPP? Purchasing power parity tries to explain why the real exchange rate between currencies is what it is. It is based on the law of one price which states that in different markets, identical goods should have the same price. For goods which are easily traded, such as steel and iron, prices should be identical within relevant range. The reason for this is that if  £100 could get you 10kg of iron in the domestic UK market, or 5kg in the foreign German market, one would expect people to buy iron in the UK and sell it in Germany for a profit, taken into consideration that shipping costs are negligible, and that the iron is of equivalent quality. Demand for UK iron would rise and demand for German iron would fall. In the long run this would result in prices for domestic UK iron to rise and for foreign German iron to fall. The equilibrium here would be that  £100 could buy you 7.5kg of UK iron, or 7.5kg German iron. As the currency used in the UK and Germany is different we need to know how many British pound we need in order to buy one Euro. If you need  £15 to get a haircut in the UK and you need à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬10,50 to buy the same quantity (one haircut) in Germany, then the real exchange rate would be  £1.43 per à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ found by the formula: which equals . This strength/purchasing power of one currency over another should be equal in the long run. Hence the name purchasing power parity. Rogoff argues that the difference between the actual currency exchange rate and the PPP exchange rate is.. PPP is only a theory as it cannot be proven to be correct, but until it is not disproved it is seen as a valid assumption. It is considered to be valid in the long run and not the short run, as people take time to realise and exploit profitable differences in markets which eventually leads to a long run market equilibrium. Michaely (1982) argues that the PPP, which originally came from Gustav Cassel, is indeed a monetary approach analysis; namely that it assigns the determination of the foreign-exchange rate to the money market alone, without allowing an explanatory role to the goods market and to goods prices. As the real exchange rates are affected by tradable goods as well as by services, different interest rates, speculators and investment, it is not the best method to compare the purchasing power of different currencies. Comparing GDP (gross domestic product) can be done if PPP is used to compare currencies on the bases on a basket of goods. We can differentiate goods and services in a basket of goods into two categories: tradable goods and non tradable/domestic goods. This is decided upon how easily transported/traded a good is as well as government policies such as bans, tariffs and quotas imposed on them. Tradable goods, (commodities) which are of equal quality no matter where they are produced, will be traded at a value close to the market exchange rate. Generally, any good that is easily transported belongs into this category. Highly tradable goods are raw materials such as gold, petrol, gas, oil and diamonds which have a high value. Non tradable goods that are produced and used by domestic consumers such as hairdressers, taxi costs, house rent, and books are hard to get exported, and as foreign people are unlikely to find a hairdresser whose price can compensate the costs of travelling, or move houses just because it is cheaper than the current one, the non tradable goods will be closer to the PPP exchange rate rat her than the actual market exchange rate. Whether a good is tradable or non-tradable does not only depend on how easily it can be transported. Books may be cheap in Germany and are easily transported, yet there is little demand in the UK for German books, as they are written in a different language. The same can be said about packaged food and laptops for certain countries that have different letters in their alphabet. Their PPP may be further away from the real exchange rate, as they would behave like non tradable goods. There are exceptions to this rule, such as expensive surgeries or medical care which is often much cheaper in east Europe than in west Europe. But are these of equal quality? The difference in price is due to different qualifications, less equipment and less experience. Eventually, in the long run, we would expect prices of east European doctors to rise, but there will still be a large enough price difference which is due to travel and quality difference. As PPP is based on a basket of goods and services, this already excludes ones that are not recorded. Many of these goods are not tradable, and hence are affected by the income level of these countries. However, there are goods in foreign countries that are purposely priced under international market price, in order to get a market share. For example, the German car manufacture Volkswagen produces cars in Germany and sells them in Poland for less than in Germany. Volkswagen does this because people in Poland earn less than in Germany, and they want to get a large market share. Some of these cars get re-imported into Germany to be sold under the domestic price. As Volkswagen cannot increase its price in Poland without losing customers and market share, car dealers in Germany will need to lower their prices in order to eventually get to equilibrium. Besides the obvious limitation to PPP that products are not always homogeneous, there is also the problem with apparent quality difference. A Product manufactured in England might be seen as of superior quality to the exact same product manufactured in China. Both products, even though they are equal, would have different equilibrium prices. PPP does not work in the short run, as people take time to take notice of opportunities to exploit differences in prices. It is only valid for highly tradable and valuable goods such as diamonds and gold, as these prices. Antweiler says that short run exchange rate movements are influenced by the news, such as announcements about interest rate changes, changes in the perception of the growth path of economic(2009). Pappell (1997) discusses that the difference between PPP and the real exchange rate can also depend on which countrys currency we base it on. This can happen because of regime changes or because governments are artificially interfering with the exchange rate in order to increase growth. Generally, the lower the income level of an economy is, the further away the PPP is from the real exchange rate, and the more an economy develops, the closer the PPP will be (RIETI 2003). An example of this would be China and its domestic currency Yuan whose exchange rate does not reflect the actual purchasing power of other currencies. This way they increase exports and have huge economic growth. With a common currency for multiple countries such as the Euro, it is easier to compare prices, as no calculations have to be made. The purchasing power of the euro is different across different Euro-countries (destatis, 2009). In theory, purchasing power parity theory is valid, yet its application has many limitations. It is an accurate explanation of why exchange rates change, but only for a certain basket of goods. Raw materials such as metals, diamonds and wood are easily traded and an international market equilibrium can be found fast. These goods are traded close to the real exchange rate. Non tradable goods such as packaged food are hard to trade and will be closer to the PPP exchange rate. Whether goods are of equal quality makes is a strong limitation to whether the chosen goods can really be compared. PPP is only a valid theory in the long run, as people take time to have to recognise and exploit the price differences. With a common currency across multiple countries such as the Euro, this reduces this greatly. Lastly government intervention with regulations, import taxes and tariffs affect the PPP as it makes buying foreign products more expensive.

La Representación Social del SIDA Essay -- Spanish Essays

La subjetividad es un efecto de los lenguajes socialmente construà ­dos, es una produccià ³n de la cultura. El lenguaje crea y reproduce diferentes formas subjetivas de representacià ³n social. A partir de Freud y Lacan, el lenguaje es pensado como un tejido sà ³lido, donde se constituye un juego de representaciones: el juego en que el lenguaje tiene la tarea de representar el sujeto y el objeto, lo fà ­sico y lo psà ­quico, la fantasà ­a y la realidad, la imaginacià ³n y la percepcià ³n. El sujeto es forjado en y por el lenguaje, porque à ©ste determina su construccià ³n subjetiva. Ser humano es pertenecer a una determinada organizacià ³n normativa que nombra los valores con los cuales pautamos nuestras acciones en el mundo de los hombres. En este breve ensayo, analizarà © los và ­nculos que fueron establecidos entre sexualidad y muerte en la representacià ³n social del SIDA. Pretendo argumentar que el concepto "grupo de riesgo"creà ³ una identidad "epidemiolà ³gica", y à ©sta, a su vez, fue uno de los factores que transformaron el SIDA en epidemia. Comienzo citando el libro II de los "Ensayos" del filà ³sofo renacentista Michel de Montaigne: "Hay en Todo el nombre y la cosa. El nombre es la palabra que marca y significa la cosa: no es parte de ella, a ella no se incorpora; es un accesorio que se agrega, por fuera" (1987:9). SIDA es un nombre, y como tal, designa un conjunto de elementos que se estructuran a niveles distintos. En la literatura mà ©dica, SIDA nombra una constelacià ³n patolà ³gica que gira en la à ³rbita de accià ³n de un virus nombrado por las siglas HIV. El discurso mà ©dico se sustenta en la là ³gica de la causalidad, y es eso lo que le confiere el grado de cientificidad. A travà ©s de un "mapeamiento" de sà ­ntomas se busca el factor etiolà ³gico. En ... ...xuales. El SIDA se tornà ³ la expresià ³n de un visual virtual que contagia el juego-mà ¡quina entre saber-poder-placer. La sexualidad fue desplazada hacia la esfera de lo virtual, volvià ©ndonos asà ©pticos, inmunizà ¡ndonos a los và ­nculos afectivos... El discurso tecnolà ³gico del sexo virtual demuestra esos efectos de virtualidad representados por el SIDA. Bibliografia Montaigne, Michel Ensaios, Coleà §Ãƒ £o Os Pensadores, traduà §Ãƒ £o Sà ©rgio Milliet, 4 ª edià §Ãƒ £o, Sà £o Paulo: Nova Cultural, 1987. Camargo Jr., Kenneth Rochel de, As cià ªncias da AIDS & a AIDS das cià ªncias: discurso mà ©dico e a construà §Ãƒ £o da AIDS, Rio de Janeiro: Relumà © Dumarà ¡: ABIA:IMS, UERJ, 1994. Foucault, Michel, Histà ³ria da Sexualidade I: A Vontade de Saber, Rio de Janeiro: Graal, 5 edià §Ãƒ £o, 1984. Baudrillard, Jean, A transparà ªncia do mal: ensaio sobre os fenà ´menos extremos, Campinas (S.P.): Papirus, 1990.

Irregular Religions Essay -- Social Issues, Poverty

Perhaps the strongest basis for one critic’s belief that Major Barbara had â€Å"an utter want of the religious sense† comes from the morality and adopted religion of Andrew Undershaft. An armorer, Undershaft founded his creed on the belief that â€Å"honor, justice, truth, [and] mercy† are â€Å"graces and luxuries of a rich, strong, and safe life† (93). To Undershaft, social problems such as sloth and drunkenness can be traced back to poverty, for a man’s â€Å"first duty, to which every other consideration should sacrificed, is not to be poor† (15). Shaw makes this point clearly in the play’s preface, and argues his own cynical views through the mouth of Undershaft. Shaw explains through Undershaft that poverty is â€Å"the worst of all crimes† (142). The impoverished â€Å"poison [the country] morally and physically† – â€Å"they force [those not poor] to do away with [their] own liberties and to organize unnatural cruelties for fear that [the poor] should rise against [the wealthy] and drag [the wealthy] down into their abyss† (142). Life has proven to Undershaft that money is a God on Earth; money allowed him to raise his family comfortably despite the less-than-reputable source from which he obtained it (namely, war). Because his faith of money and gunpowder is unconventional in its generally strict focus on the economic aspects of life, the faith leaves little room for the traditional spiritualism and morality of religion. Undershaft admits that he would not have the income of a poor man for all his conscience (88). In Undershaft’s religion, typical morality – that is, earning money in a respectable way, believing death and destruction are abominations, and seeing God as that which rules the world – has no place. Undershaft takes advantage of â€Å"the ... ...ara has learned from the Army, a starving man will say anything to get the bread, furthering Crosstianity rather than absolving his soul (142). While Shaw respects the Salvation Army’s intentions in trying to rid the country of poverty, he believes only a revolution can destroy it completely and that the Army’s attempt to save people individually is ultimately futile. The Army is not saving their souls; rather, it forces them to sin by lying to gain food. Barbara comes to this understanding at the end of the play, and by it she is converted again to the saving of souls, this time â€Å"through the raising of hell to heaven and of man to God† – essentially, by bringing goodness and spirituality into her father’s factory of death (152). Through her strength and spirituality Barbara finds hope and reaffirms the true, if unconventional, Christianity she practices.

The Social Benefits of Mass Communication Essays -- Mass Media Mass Co

The Social Benefits of Mass Communication Mass communications, like anything for humans, has its advantages and disadvantages, but mass media has far more advantages to offer the world. From taking you to a far off land to teaching you about the intricacies of the life inside a colony of ants, to surfing the Internet for a new chat group to join, we learn and experience things and events that no humans ever before in history have experienced through this miracle we call mass media. This paper will explore the multifaceted and unique areas of the public’s perception of mass media, the educational value of the media, and the Internet as a new mass medium. The public has always had an interesting relationship with mass media because it is the public that is breaths life into this organism called the mass media machine. From the earliest time periods in human history mass media was communicated through â€Å"word of mouth,† and it was that very relationship that spawned small town gossip in the middle ages , where information like what the local lord was doing and if he was hanging anyone that week for insubordination. Word of mouth continued until the invention of the printing press in 1436 when the news of the town could be told and recorded forever. A present-day survey taken about what the public’s view on the media is from the article, â€Å"Who Do You Trust and Why?,† by Joe Saltzman says that â€Å"... the public’s use and view of its media, shows that word of mouth is less trusted than CNN, public television news, local television news, and prime-time TV news magazines. News anchors Americanâ€⠄¢s see on television are considered more reliable as sources of accurate information than personal acquaintances† (par 3). This ... ...ve all made impacts on who we are as humans and what we will become in the future as we progress through the ages. Hopefully mass media will last several more hundred years being that mass media is only fairly recent when human history is considered. Works Cited Gabler, Neal. â€Å"The Net-Setters.† The Los Angeles Times 27 June 1999: 3 pgs. 22 March 2000 Online Proquest. Hogan, Majorie, â€Å"Media Education.† Pediatrics Aug. 1999 22 March 2000 Online Proquest. Huston, Aletha C. â€Å"Television and the Informational and Educational Needs of Children.† Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science May 1998: 9-23. 22 March 2000 Online Proquest. Saltzman, Joe. â€Å"Why Do You Trust and Why.† USA Today Jan. 2000: p. 59 22 March 2000 Online Infotrac. â€Å"Survey Asks Young Adults About Media Use.† The Quill Jan. 2000: p. 7 22 March 2000 Online Infotrac.

Comparison Essay between the Narrative of Mary Rowlandson

A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Rowlandson, 1682/1996) The setting was New England. The English had established settlements in the Eastern board of the present-day United States to expand England’s trade routes in the Americas. The expansion was accompanied by mass conversion of Indians, whom the Europeans regarded as savage or uncivilized heathens. The missionary work though of Puritan pastors in New England was generally unsuccessful. The Indians associated the spread of new diseases   and dissension with Christianity. The Puritan pastors were not prevented from preaching Christianity to the Indians because of military support from the colonial government. In 1675, Wampanoag Chief Metacomet became overcritical of the English over the issues of encroching tribal lands and of course, the preaching of Christianity. He launched a series of raids in New England and captured many prisoners. One of them was Mary White Rowlandson, a wife of a Congregationist minister, and mother of three children. Mary Rowlandson became a prisoner of the Indians for several months. She and her children, while at captivity, were forced to work as members of the tribe. They were ransomed and freed before the end of the war. During her captivity, she wrote a narrative depicted her life as a prisoner of war and member of a tribe. Rowlandson’s narrative depicted first amd foremost the beliefs of the Puritan missionaries. Most of the Puritans in New England lived areligious and humble life. Because of their desire to convert the Indians, they were drawn to the wilderness and the â€Å"wild natives† who inhabit it. This mixture of piety and adventure affected Puritan literature. The Puritans were portrayed as the pious servants of God, the Indians the prospect hostile Gentiles. In many passages of Rowlandson’s narrative, the Indians were depicted as cannibalistic and enchanted. Thus, the narrative of Rowlandson served as a moral guidance to the English Puriatn reader, a form of unwavering salute to God. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (Douglas, _/1999) The life of an American slave during the colonial and pre-Civil War America was miserable and degrading. The distance between the white man and the African was so intense that even african language was discriminated. In addition, the increasing complexity of American economic life demanded cheap labor. Here, the Negroes served the purpose. There was no magnanimity on the part of the English and later American settlers to the Negroes. They were seldom treated as human beings. In this narrative, Frederick Douglas showed the sufferings of the Negroes on rational and economic terms. Douglas treated discrimination as a form of social ill experienced by the Negroes. He argued that the properties of the whites were built on slave labor, a form of economic backlashing. In his commentary on slave songs, he maintained distance between himself and slavery. In reality, he did not understand the meaning of the songs although he was a slave. Thus, he interpreted all slave songs as laments. Here, Douglas made an error when he said that all slave songs were born out of hatred and ill comfort. In essence, many of the slave songs were songs of joy, work, and adventure. The physical and social depravity of the Negroes forced them to enjoy work as it may deem fit. The adventures of their ancestors in Africa were told with gestures of joy and respect; a form of cultural appraisal. Thus, when Douglas assumed himself as the mediator between the white and the Negroes, he himself embraced both cultures as if no essential defects were visible. Here, unlike Rowlandson, Douglas played as an objective narrator. References Douglas, Frederick. 1999. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave. Oxford; Oxford University Press. Rowlandson, Mary White. 1682/1996. A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs.