Strategic Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Vital Management - Assignment Example The organization has vital choices like creating key coalitions with neighborhood retailers, offering cost initiative and serious estimating. Chapter by chapter list Strategic administration of TESCO grocery store 14 1 Strategic administration of TESCO general store 1 Executive rundown 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Business condition 5 PEST structure 5 Political components 5 Economical variables 6 Social elements 6 Technological elements 7 Porter’s five powers 7 Threat of new contestant 7 Bargaining intensity of providers 8 Bargaining intensity of shoppers 8 Threat of substitutes 9 Bargaining intensity of contenders 9 Internal investigation 9 Swot examination 11 Challenges confronting the association 12 Strategic alternatives 12 References 14 Introduction Food retail part in the United Kingdom utilizes more than 3 million individuals. This makes it the biggest business in the economy. Be that as it may, a developing number of markets are going under exceptional weight i n light of amateurish treatment dispensed on partners in the gracefully chain. Tesco and different general stores are focused on vital improvement organizes that lead to expanded efficiency. This report gives a key administration examination of Tesco grocery store. ... Joined Kingdom is Tesco’s biggest market. In this market Tesco works under Metro, Express, Extra and Superstore pennants. The retailer has enhanced to non-food lines for example apparel. Tesco conveys near 40,000 food items. The organizations mark items work at three levels. The greater part of the stores contain corner stores. Along these lines, it has developed to happen to the main petroleum retailers in Britain. Tesco individual fund is a retailing administration offered by the general store is an offered to grow its piece of the pie. Business condition The business condition on a retailer assumes a focal job in its benefit. Organizations are feeling the squeeze to recognize their duty to the general public. The presentation of assessments that focus on the expanded promoting of greasy food will undoubtedly influence the exhibition of the grocery store (Stone 2009). The connection among shoppers and supplies has likewise been influenced as a result of the ‘fat taxâ⠂¬â„¢. The nearness of ground-breaking contenders has prompted exceptional value wars. In certain occasions, the outside market condition is unfriendly and governments attempt to shield the nearby businesses from remote rivalry. Government approaches that advance imposing business model controls have been accused for restricted access to certain business sectors and fragments. Such approaches have the ability to lessen the purchasing intensity of buyers. Separation is progressively turning out to be troublesome due to unfortunate rivalry and government obstruction. Tesco has built up an approach in which it decreases the costs for fuel dependent on the measure of deals at its staple goods. The retailer remunerates by bringing costs up in different stores. Bug structure Political factors Besides the United Kingdom, Tesco works in six nations in Europe. The authoritative and

MBA 510 Problem Set I Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

MBA 510 Problem Set I - Essay Example b. Process the mean deviation. 3.24 square root ((N-Mean)^2+(N1-Mean)^2.../n)= Square root (42/4)= 3.74 c. Process the standard deviation. 3.74 square root ((N-Mean)^2+(N1-Mean)^2.../n-1)= Square root (42/3)= 3.74 b. Lind Chapter 5: Exercises 8, 66 8. An example of 2,000 authorized drivers uncovered the accompanying number of speeding infringement. Number of Violations Number of Drivers 0 1,910 1 46 2 18 3 12 4 9 at least 5 Absolute 2,000 a. What is the analysis The examination is the social event of the informational index b. Show one potential eventA driver has under two speeding infringement c. What is the likelihood that a specific driver had precisely two speeding infringement 18/2000 = .009 d. What idea of likelihood does this outline Relative recurrence 66. A study of college understudies in the School of Business at Northern University uncovered the accompanying with respect to sexual orientation and majors of the understudies: Major Sexual orientation Accounting Management Finance Total Male 100 150 50 300 Female 100 50 200 All out 200 100 500 a. What is the likelihood of choosing a female understudy 200/500 = .4 b. What is the likelihood of choosing fund or bookkeeping major 300/500 = .6 c. What is the likelihood of choosing a female or a bookkeeping significant Which rule of expansion did you apply 250/500 = .5 The expansion rule of autonomous occasions d. Are sex and significant free Why No, the information is reliant upon sexual orientation e. What is the likelihood of choosing a bookkeeping major, given that the individual chose is male 100/300 = .33 f. Assume two understudies are chosen arbitrarily to go to a lunch with the leader of the college. What is the likelihood that both of those chose are bookkeeping majors Acct major = .4 Both acct major = .4*.4 =... 68. The American Automobile Association checks the cost of gas before many occasion ends of the week. Recorded beneath are oneself assistance costs for an example of 15 retail outlets during the May 2003 Memorial Day weekend in the Detroit, Michigan, zone. 70. An ongoing article recommended that in the event that you gain , 25, 000 every year today and the expansion rate proceeds at 3 percent for every year, you'll have to make 33,598 out of 10 years to have a similar purchasing power. You would need to make 44,771 if the swelling rate bounced to 6 percent. Affirm that these announcements are exact by finding the geometric mean pace of increment. 38. The bookkeeping division at Weston Materials, Inc., a national producer of unattached carports, reports that it takes two development laborers a mean of 32 hours and a standard deviation of 2 hours to raise the Red Barn model. Expect the gathering times follow the typical conveyance. 44. The quantity of travelers on the Carnival Sensation during one-week travels in the Caribbean follows the typical conveyance. The mean number of travelers per journey is 1,820 and the standard deviation is 120. 60. In building up guarantees on HDTV sets, the maker needs to set the cutoff points with the goal that couple of will require fix at producer cost. Then again, the guarantee time frame must be sufficiently long to make the buy appealing to the purchaser.

Summer at last

Summer at last Last year, I spent the entire summer working at ETS in Princeton, New Jersey, which is very close to home. Planning for summer 2011, I knew I wanted two things 1) travel farther 2) focus on architecture. The answer was MISTI. MISTI (The MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives) matches MIT students with all-expenses paid internship and research opportunities at various top universities, institutions, and companies around the world. Currently, there are 11 branches of MISTI (China, Japan, France, Brazil, Italy, Germany, India, Israel, Mexico, Spain, Africa). This summer, I have friends going to India, Japan, China, France, and Spain. As for me, I’ll be going to Beijing, China. I’ve been looking at MISTI since CPW/orientation days, and it’s always been between China and France (although its actually possible to do MISTI multiple times!). You see, there is usually a language requirement to the MISTI programs and the two languages I’m really interested in are Chinese and French. Since I ultimately decided to concentrate in Chinese , MISTI-China was the logical follow-up. From mid-June to mid-August, I will be working with a professor in the architecture department at Tsinghua University (colloquially called China’s MIT), helping with public facility projects like schools which is a hugeeeee contrast from normal coursework at MIT. In a few days, I’ll be turning 20 years old. In my last days as an official “teenager”, I’m preparing all I can to travel alone internationally for the first time. Of course I’m excited about experiencing a different stream of architecture than what I’ve been exposed to at MITthe foodthe attractionsthe shoppingand everything distinctively-Chinese China will have to offer. But as I anticipate the trip, I find myself looking forward most to reaffirming the reality of certain memories. So far, I’ve lived half of my life in China and the most recent half in America. But for some reason (probably by the essence of how memory functions), my memories of “China” are blurred. I recall images and dialogues sometimesonly to find that my immediate attempt to grasp harder leads to doubts of whether the memory had been real or just some vivid dream sequence from the past. So I’m interested in finding authenticity â€" the feeling of being in a completely different worldthat’s also completely tangible where my memories may have actually happened. Hoping for favorable Internet conditions in China so I can blog there. :) Edit: I just read Jess Kim(10)’s entry about MISTI Japan, and I really appreciate her point about valuing the ethnic diversity in America. That’s something I think about all the time and recognize as uniquely-American. I haven’t really tried to articulate this thought in anticipation of my trip to China other than blurting out randomly “There will be Chinese people… in China… speaking Chinese…all the time…” My friends look at me with the no duh face…but what I really mean to say is Jess’s point about how homogeneity vs. diversity is such a strong force. I’ve grown to like being just another ethnic flavor in America. Homogeneity is so unfamiliar to me now I can’t imagine living in a country composed of predominantly one kind of people, one shared heritage. But that is what I’m expecting to see in China and I can’t wait to see how reality measures up.

Travel Vocabulary Quiz for ESL Students

The Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe - 2007 Words

The Tell Tale Heart Research Paper In â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe delights readers to a very thought out and psychological based short story of a very in depth murder from the murderer’s perspective. In â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart: Overview† it is proven that: â€Å"One of the most powerful contributions that Edgar Allan Poe made to the short story genre was his insistence that every element of the work contribute to the story’s overall effect. Poe frequently gave this aesthetic demand realistic motivation by making his central character or narrator so physically obsessed with a mysterious phenomenon that everything in the story irresistibly revolves around it, held in place by the psychological equivalent of centrifugal force.† (May) And Mr. Charles E. May could not be any more correct about the phenomenal Edgar Allan Poe. The idea that Poe creates his characters with psychological struggles is proved through his use of dopplegangers between two main characters, the use of motifs related between the eye and the ‘I’ as well as the heart beat and the ticking of the clock, and lastly through the presence of insanity with sexual connotations. It is no secret at all that Edgar Allan Poe was an exquisite man and like most extraordinary people they have an outlet to express themselves. For Poe this outlet was writing, with his writings Poe was able to express his own psychological struggles through his characters and twisted plots. One literary technique Poe used that mostShow MoreRelatedThe Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe1161 Words   |  5 PagesOut of a vast quantity of these English historians, one stood out to me, his name is Edgar Allan Poe. Poe’s writing had its own unique gothic and horror style. The story, The Tell-Tale Heart is one of his very popular pieces of literature, it not only tells a story, but uses Poe’s unique style of writing to silently incorporate different genres, themes, and symbolism to create a sub-story within the text itself. Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. At the young age of just 2 yearsRead MoreThe Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe1569 Words   |  7 PagesIn the short story â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart,† author Edgar Allan Poe employs several literary devices such as symbolism, allegory, and imagery. These devices enable us to see and better comprehend the story’s events through the eyes of the narrator. The narrator explains that he is extremely nervous but clarifies that he is not insane; he even goes so far as to share an event from his past to prove that he is not crazy. He believes that he loves the old man and has nothing against him except his horribleRead MoreThe Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe Essay1477 Words   |  6 Pagesyourself and others that you weren’t in the wrong for doing something bad? Well, the narrator in the story The Tell-Tale Heart does. Edgar Allan Poe is known to write stories that are of Dark Romanticism. Dark romanticism is a literary genre that showcases gothic stories that portray torture, insanity, murder, and revenge. The story â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† is no different. Edgar Allan Poe does a great job with making the readers wonder throughout this short story. This allegory makes reader’s questionsRead MoreThe Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe986 Words   |  4 Pagesbade the gentlemen welcome. The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream.† The Tell Tale Heart is one of Edger Allan Poe’s most famous and creepiest stories. The premise of this gothic short story is that a man’s own insanity gives him away as a murderer. By usi ng the narrators own thoughts as the story Poe displays the mental instability and the unique way of creating a gothic fiction. While other stories written by Poe reflect this same gothic structure and questionable sanity, this story has aRead MoreThe Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe1502 Words   |  7 PagesThe author Edgar Allan Poe created a beautiful writing piece called â€Å"Tell Tale Heart†, which included literal elements such as mood, tone, and point of view. The story included a tremulous mood for the reader to be able to feel the excitement of the story. According to the text â€Å"Tell Tale Heart†, it states â€Å"And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror.† This illustrates that the details of the storyRead MoreThe Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe1030 Words   |  5 PagesA Guilty- Mad Heart â€Å"Burduck then goes on to ponder how Poe used cultural anxieties and psychological panic to advantage.† (Grim Phantasms, G.A. Cevasco). In The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, a nameless man narrates the story of how he murdered an elderly man because of his eyes. In his short story The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe shows the themes of guilt and the descent into madness through the narrator, in this gothic horror story. Edgar Allan Poe wrote many gothic tales throughout his lifeRead MoreThe Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe1133 Words   |  5 Pages Written in 1843, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe incorporates nearly all of the gothic elements. While this piece of art may not contain all of the gothic elements, it is the epitome of a gothic short story. In The Tell-Tale Heart, the setting seems to be inside an old house, which strengthens the atmosphere of mystery and suspense. The madness and overall insanity of the narrator illustrates the sense of high, overwrought emotion. The presence of creaking hinges and the darkness representRead MoreThe Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe1644 Words   |  7 Pages Edgar Allan Poe was a prominent American writer whose writing reflected his tragic life. He began to sell short stories for profit after being forced to leave United States Military Academy for lack of financial support. Over the next decade, Poe published some of his best-known works, including The Fall of the House of Usher (1839), The Raven (1845), and The Cask of Amontillado (1846). It is in these stories that Po e established his unique dark writing style that often have the recurring themeRead MoreThe Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe879 Words   |  4 PagesIn between guilt, paranoia and obsession The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe uses several literary elements to support the themes of the story. The story is based on a gruesome murder of an old man. The author uses madness, obsession and guilt as themes to prove how the narrator is truly twisted and insane. Madness is the first theme of the story; in the beginning the narrator tries to convince the audience he is not mad (insane). â€Å"TRUE!... nervous very, very nervous I had been and am; but whyRead MoreA Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe1156 Words   |  5 Pagescontain some level of madness. For example in the short stories â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† by Edgar Allan Poe, both of the main character in these stories believe that they are perfectly wise, but their out of control behaviors proves that they’re mentally ill or to be more specific insane. In the short story â€Å"A tell-tale heart† the unknown narrator is telling us a story about his neighbor who is an old man but his of a vulture: blue pale eye is what

The divisions within Northern Ireland society have as much to do with class as religion or nationality Free Essays

The history of Northern Ireland, a state created in 1921, has not been a peaceful one, and the study of the country has been as turbulent – it could be said that there is a ‘meta-conflict’; a conflict about the conflict. The causes of these troubles are varied, and it is far too simplistic to reduce it to just a religious one – although the Protestant faith is now synonymous with unionism, and Catholicism with nationalism, there are in fact many reasons for the divisions within the society. The conflict has become one of national identity, class and political and economic equality, as well as, some have argued, culture. We will write a custom essay sample on The divisions within Northern Ireland society have as much to do with class as religion or nationality or any similar topic only for you Order Now These are all endogenous, i. e. internal, explanations for the fractious nature of Northern Irish life in recent decades, but others have placed the blame on external – exogenous – sources, claiming the behaviour of Great Britain or Ireland (or both) are responsible for the current situation. The roots of these divisions are buried under centuries of conflict, betrayal and mistrust, and, whilst religion played an important part, it was part of a wider economic and political battle. It is important to take these into account, but one of the problems facing Northern Ireland is the sheer amount of unresolved history that underlies every movement and decision. This essay will therefore take the recent ‘Troubles’ as its main focus; that is, the causes and effects of the collapse of the Stormont assembly on 24th March 1972 and the imposition of Direct Rule by Westminster, ending in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement. Whilst this tentative agreement has by no means brought a complete halt to the violence and divisions in Northern Ireland, there was considerable hope, that has not yet proved to have been completely unfounded, that it would signify the beginning of the end. Northern Ireland had the second highest church attendance in Western Europe after the Republic of Ireland, with 95% of Catholics and 45% of Protestants attending church on a weekly basis in 1969 and there can be no denying the fact that the divisions within Northern Irish society have been given religious labels – on a superficial level at least it is a battle between Catholics and Protestants. If this is so, then it is not unreasonable question to ask just which of the two is principally at fault. Patrick Buckland is just one who feels that it is the Protestant community who see the conflict in religious terms, claiming â€Å"For Catholics the problem was largely political; for Protestants largely religious†. They feared the resources and the power of the Roman Catholic church, with 69% of Belfast Protestants in 1994 believing the Church had a ‘significant, ‘powerful’ or ‘too powerful’ influence in the government of the Republic of Ireland. This fear of the Catholic hegemony, that would swamp and overrun their own way of life and form of worship, helps explain their hostility towards the minority in the North. As an ethnic group, they are defined by their religion, which inevitably shapes their communities, their politics and their outlook. It could even be claimed that they fall back on their faith because they have no national identity of their own. Four features of unionist politics during the period 1972-1998 were clearly influenced by religion. The refusal to reach any significant accommodation with the Catholic minority, the steadfast rejection of any contemplation of an united Ireland, the desire to maintain the Union to preserve the Protestant way of life and the support for the evangelical Democratic Unionist Party were all bound up with Protestantism – the last point echoed in Steve Bruce’s claim that â€Å"the Northern Ireland conflict is a religious conflict [because]†¦ that is the only conclusion that makes sense of Ian Paisley’s career†. Finally, the anthropologist Don Akenson claims that the conflict stemmed from the Ulster Protestants’ belief that they are God’s ‘chosen people’, and this explains their sense of superiority, their ability to discriminate against their Catholic population without qualms and their determination to retain the autonomy of the Six Counties, their ‘promised land’. However, it is also possible, as many Unionists have done, to blame the divisions on the Catholic religion. Many extreme loyalists claimed that nationalism is nothing by the tool of the Vatican in an attempt to ‘turn back the tide’ of Protestantism. Whilst this view is perhaps a little extreme, they pointed to the ‘religious genocide’ that took place in the South between 1941 and 1971, when the Protestant proportion of the population fell from 10% to 4. 1%, the legal enforcement of Catholic morality that caused the Protestant emigration to the North and the Papal law ensuring that the offspring of ‘mixed’ relationships were raised as Catholics. Unionists also argued that it was the Catholic hierarchy that consolidated the divide by teaching a Catholic, southern Irish national identity within their schools, that it was their refusal to accept the legitimacy of the Union and its security forces that led to the downfall of the first Stormont Assembly. They were also incensed by the Church’s refusal to excommunicate members of the IRA, as they did during the Civil War between 1922-3, and their willingness to bury IRA dead and hunger strikers in consecrated ground. This, coupled with the discovery of IRA weapons on church land, led to the belief, in Unionist circles at least, that the Church played an active role in the conflict. It was this strident and violent Catholic nationalism that linked Protestantism to unionism – after all, there were a small number of Catholic unionists, which is not to be expected if Protestantism and unionism had been one and the same from the very beginning. Despite all this, it must be remembered that the conflict was not a theological one, and that religion alone cannot explain the divisions within society. Although Northern Ireland still does have one of the highest church attendance figures outside the Republic, in line with the increasingly secularisation of the rest of the UK and Europe, numbers fell (just 29% of Protestants and 67% of Catholics went to church weekly in 1998) as the conflict developed, intensified and continued. The period 1972 and 1998, saw Northern Ireland become an increasingly secularised state – between 1981 and 1987 the divorce rate increased at the same rate as Great Britain’s and the number of births outside marriage doubled – yet the divisions continue. If the conflict was the result of purely religious reasons, it would be expected that there would have been a correlation between areas most afflicted by the Troubles and the degree of religious intensity of the inhabitants, but this simply was not the case – the most devout communities were to be found in the countryside, but the vast majority of the violence was carried out in the cities, which recorded much lower church attendance figures – in 1992 it was estimated in one Belfast Catholic parish just 38% of the population attended mass on a weekly basis. The same should have been true for the paramilitaries, that those most committed to the cause would also have been the most devout, but there is considerable evidence that many only turned to religion after incarceration; most famously, many of the hunger strikers led by Bobby Sands in 1981 had converted to Catholicism once in jail. There has also been a careful avoidance by the main political parties in the province to avoid religious labels – the DUP was formerly the Protestant Unionist Party, but swiftly changed its name to the Democratic Unionist Party in 1971 – preferring terms such as ‘social democratic’, ‘unionist’, ‘nationalist’ and so on, and they pursue political and economic – not religious – policies. It should also be pointed out that even if they did have religious labels, it would not have necessarily meant that the conflict was a religious one – numerous European political parties, the German CDU being just one example, proudly possess a religious name. Between 1969 and 1994, only one Protestant cleric was killed, and he, the Reverend Robert Bradford, was a hardline, outspoken UUP MP, and both sides, to a greater extent, respected the sanctity of churches and churchmen. An important point in this issues is that there is, in fact, nothing intrinsically religious about Catholics taking up arms in the late 1960s/early 1970s against a perceived aggressor or oppressor. This was not a ‘holy war’, not a crusade, but a fight against the inequalities and discrimination they faced. Nor was the Protestant discrimination of Catholics inherently religious – Catholics were treated unjustly because they were seen as disloyal to the state, not because of their rosaries and belief in transubstantiation. The question of whether the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ were prompted by the religious tensions is best summed up by John McGarry and Brendan O’Leary when they said â€Å"There is no need to invent ingenious religious agendas to account for militant republican paramilitarism† and the same is true for the loyalists. There are a number of other, more fundamental and realistic issues that explain the divisions within the province. There were clear class divisions within Northern Irish society throughout the twentieth century that could be said to have had an effect on the development of the Troubles. Stated crudely, there a disproportionate of the middle classes were Protestant, whilst Catholics were much more likely to make up the working classes. In 1971, 69% of Catholics were manual workers, in comparison to 59% of Protestant, and throughout the period the number of unskilled Catholic workers rose, whilst Protestant figures fell. Thus the Northern Irish conflict could be seen in terms of a Marxist struggle – one where the mainly Protestant elites were attempting to maintain the status quo against the demands of the Catholic working class. However, this would be to oversimplify the problem, and overlooks the not insubstantial Catholic middle class and ignores the significant influence the Protestant working class were able to exert on the Unionist leadership. If it had been an issue of class, then it would not be unreasonable to expect that political parties would have organised along class lines, but this was not necessarily the case. Whilst the UUP was heavily dependent on the support of the Protestant working class, this was not at the expense of middle class votes. The differences between the DUP and the UUP were not class-based, but simply political, although it could be said the SDLP attracted more middle-class nationalist support than Sinn Fiin before 1998. It might also have been expected that the small Catholic middle class would have been more unionist in character, if it had merely been a class struggle. Therefore to perceive the divisions in society as being along class lines is misleading, but there is a case for looking at the economic inequalities between the two communities, and the effect that they had on the formation and character of the conflict. In 1989, the Northern Ireland Office Minister Richard Needham said â€Å"If work can be found for 10,000 unemployed boys in West Belfast †¦ that in itself will do more to impact on the political and security areas than anything else. In all societies, political stability is linked to economic prosperity, and the fact that, for most of the period 1972 to 1998 the Northern Irish economy consistently underperformed economically in comparison to the mainland. At times in the 1970s, unemployment reached levels as high as 12%, whilst Great Britain had enjoyed full employment. Key staple industries, such as textiles, ship- and airplane building suffered from fierce overseas competition and by the 1970s were in near-terminal decline. Political extremism, and, by extension, paramilitarism was always more prevalent amongst the disadvantaged on both sides of the religious divide rather than the more affluent; a considerable proportion of the violence emanates from deprived Catholic and Protestant ghettos. Therefore there is some truth in Needham’s statement – if Northern Ireland’s economy had been stronger, then perhaps the more violent nature of the conflict could have been contained. A very important economic issue was that of discrimination. In 1971, 17. 3% of Catholic men were unemployed, in contrast to just 6. 6% of Protestants. Twenty years later, the figures were 21. 3% and 9. 6% respectively. For those Catholics in work, they could expect to be paid considerably less than their Protestant counterparts. Direct and indirect discrimination against Catholics were inherent in the economic inequalities they faced. Thus the roots of the conflict can be seen in Catholic demands for an improvement in their economic situation, but attempts, especially under the leadership of Terence O’Neill, to address these discrepancies had an important consequence: the Protestants became increasingly more determined to protect their economic privileges. They began to complain of what Birrell called ‘reverse relative deprivation’, that is, during the 1970s Protestants began to feel relatively deprived as the gap between them and Catholics began to close, which led to an increased resistance to anti-discrimination policies, which in turn fuelled Catholic discontent. By the 1990s, the violence of loyalist paramilitaries were being attributed to the perception that Catholics were now doing better than Protestants, thanks to ‘reverse discrimination’ in their favour – this point of view was especially prevalent in the Shankhill area of Belfast, as uncovered by the 1993 Opsahl Commission. Another economic motive that could help explain the divisions within Northern Ireland was the clear financial disadvantages of abandoning the Union. In the words of McGarry and O’Leary, â€Å"Protestants are said to be more loyal to the half-crown than to the Crown†. One of the reasons Unionists were so opposed the idea of a united Ireland was because it would lead not only to the end of their economic advantages, but to a general decline in the average standard of living, seeing as the Republic simply could not guarantee degree of expenditure on the province as Britain – by the early 1990s, the subsidy given to Northern Ireland from London actually exceeded the Republic’s income tax revenue. This does not explain the continued nationalist support for and end to the union, even when aware of the inevitable economic disadvantages, but it is an important factor in understanding Protestant intransigence. However, economic factors alone simply cannot explain the divisions that led to the outbreak of the ‘Troubles’, or their continuation for so long. As Trotsky pointed out, if mere deprivation was the cause of revolutions, the masses would always be in a state of rebellion. If economic reasons were the cause of violence between the two communities, it would be expected that periods of depression would be accompanied by an intensification of conflict, which simply was not the case: after the 1958 slump there was no outbreak of violence, and the ‘Troubles’ actually started during a period of relative growth, falling unemployment and increasing prosperity, which would point to a political, rather than economic, trigger. Whilst political extremism is more likely to be found in underprivileged areas, repression (especially in the case of nationalist groups) was still as major reason for joining paramilitary forces, rather than objective deprivation. As already mentioned, there was no economic incentive for the Six Counties to unite with the South, especially before the Republic’s emergence as a ‘Celtic Tiger’, but the British subvention of the province also does not fully explain Protestant unionism, for it increased considerably during the years of Direct Rule, and in 1972 it was nowhere near the i3. billion it was in 1998. Unionism was driven by the belief in the right to self-determination and the resolve to preserve the Protestant way of life, not an economic self-interest, and equally, â€Å"Nationalism has a social psychological basis rather than a purely or largely materialist foundation† (McGarry and O’Leary). For shared material experiences to shape a community in any significant way, they must firstly, according to McGarry and O’Leary, have a deep sense of national identity formed through shared historical or geographical experiences and facilitated by common culture, language or religion. Whilst economics clearly played a crucial role in consolidating existing divides, it does not explain the existence of the divisions in the first place. The violent divisions in Northern Ireland society can all be traced to the problem of national identity. Culturally, there was no real divide between the two communities, except over fairly superficial matters such as sport and newspapers. Religious, economic, class and cultural issues, whilst important in understanding the complexity of the Ulster question, are not, in themselves, enough to explain the underlying causes. In terms of religion, whereas the Catholics were a single denomination, the various Protestant denominations were united only by the fact that their non-Catholicism, which was not strong enough to produce a strong enough degree of cohesiveness. Religious labels, however, were used as a demarcation between the two communities. Unionists were not united by their religion, their class or their economic self-interest, but by their identification with the rest of the United Kingdom, by the fact that they considered themselves to be British – even when the government did not necessarily agree. Equally, nationalists were united in the belief that they are Irish, and spiritually and ethnically a part of the southern Republic. People were members of a ‘religious community’, considered to be a ‘cradle’ Catholic or Protestant regardless of their actual religious or non-religious conviction; their religious label was an ethnic label. Whilst churches maintained and reinforced the social boundaries, through religiously driven activities, and the high rates of endogamy (in 1968, 96% of the population had parents of the same religion, whilst between 1943 and 1982 just 6% of all marriages were mixed), the persistence of segregated schooling (just 2% of primary and secondary school pupils in 1994 attended an integrated school) and residential separation, the divisions were originally caused by something else: â€Å"religion reinforced nationalism, not the other way round†. Thus political and economic discrimination of the Catholics by the Protestant majority can be explained in terms of Protestant fears that their national identity would be lost in a united Ireland. Their determination to remain a part of the United Kingdom, and their extreme reluctance to grant significant civil rights to the Catholic minority was as a result of their fear of losing their way of life, as well as just an unwillingness to relinquish their privileged status. As McGarry and O’Leary succinctly put it: â€Å"National and ethnic attachments tend to be much more binding and explosive in historically established and stable communities than alternative solidarities, like gender or class† and this is especially true of Northern Ireland. There are many aspects of the divisions in Northern Ireland society that this essay has not addressed. More could be said about cultural differences, and the long-term political discrimination, such as gerry-mandering, faced by Catholics that led to the Troubles between 1972 and 1998. External factors, such as British and Irish policy, and other long-term historical factors, such as the nature of British colonialism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as the impact of plantation on the political dynamic of the province. It is impossible to blame the Troubles on class conflicts, for Protestants and Catholics simply do not divide neatly into a unionist middle class and nationalist working class. Economic factors did have a significant impact on the development of grievances and intransigence, but also only provide an incomplete picture. Superficially, the conflict can be seen in religious terms – after all it is often described as Catholics against Protestant, as well as nationalist versus unionist. However, in recent decades, as Northern Ireland follows the general European trend for secularisation, and church attendance figures continue to fall, the religious labels are a sign of ethnicity, rather than belief. The entrenched nature of the divisions between the two communities, in the face of improving economic and political conditions and increasing secularisation during the period 1972 and 1998 means that there must have been a further, deeper cause for the conflict, and the question of nationality – British or Irish – is more convincing than the other, admittedly important, possibilities. How to cite The divisions within Northern Ireland society have as much to do with class as religion or nationality, Papers

Thomas Friedman on Globalisation and Structure †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Thomas Friedman on Globalisation Structure and Strategy. Answer: Thomas Friedman on Globalisation 3 Eras of Globalisation World is flat In this video, Thomas Friedman is giving an insight of three great era of globalization. He explains these periods through providing some of the changes that have occurred from 1492 until now. One of the key ideas from this video is the transformations which have occurred and the factors which triggered globalization from initial era up to date. In terms of country globalization, Friedman argues countries were the agents of globalization and bases his argument on countries colonizing other nations (Juergensmeyer, 2014). Friedman urges that the second era of globalization lasted between the year 1820s to 2000 and was defined and spearheaded by companies globalizing. In this era, companies started expanding to other countries in the search for markets and labor. He also says this era moved globalization from size medium to size small. From this argument, it shows that Friedman felt that globalization was going small in terms of size. The era of globalization between 2000 until now is n ot defined or spearheaded by countries or companies globalizing (Asefa, 2010). He says that the current era is characterized by what he terms as new, unique, and terrifying aspects. One of the important ideas Friedman derives from the third era of globalizing the reason which triggers individual globalization. According to his sentiment, what is unique, exiting and terrifying in this era is the degree in which it empowers and requires individuals to globalize themselves and think themselves as potential connectors, collaborators and competitors with other individuals anywhere in the world (Thomas, 2013). The primary point of Friedman in this video was trying to explain globalization in terms of size and the purpose of globalization in each era. There are numerous companies which can benefit from Friedmans ideas (Bss, 2010). One of these companies is Hunter mason in Sidney. This is because this firm is one of the fastest growing in Australia and using Friedmans views can assist it to expand to not only in Australia but also in the global market. The company can use Friedman concept to globalize bit by bit. For example, it can start by testing the global market through beginning with small investment and end up establishing huge investment if it finds the market fit. Friedman argued that globalization has had different transformations and therefore this company can look at the changes in the present era and work based on it. The idea of a company globalizing to search for markets and labor may be beneficial for this company. The company can use Friedmans concept through its Human resource department to look for the countries with cheap and reliable labor. This Company can also use this department to look for the countries whe re it can cope with the labor regulations (Spooner, 2015). The marketing department can play a significant role in analyzing the global market and finding which country best fits the operations of this company. This can be through analyzing consumer buying behavior, analyzing competition and so forth. Themanagement should always factor in all individual views concerning expansion of this company to other countries because Friedman argues that the current era of globalization is individual and is characterized by energy, curiosity and passionate of the power of individual and Structure and Strategy BCG's Yves Morieux provides an insight of organization and competitive advantage. The primary idea in this case was trying to explain why organization should be taken as the central component of attaining a competitive advantage. He argued this by saying that organization is the central determination of competitive advantage because its strategy determines the behavior of the people. According the Morieux, the major organizational advantage of the organizations in the next decade will be the ability to organize and leverage the intelligence of its people (Russo, 2010). According to his view, competitive advantage in companies is made of the organization, behaviors and team habits. This means companies which do not consider these factors are likely to face challenges in trying to challenge their rivals in terms of competition. Moreiex also argues that lack of perceiving signals concerning threats and opportunities may lead to wrong decisions. This indicates that organizations which wa nt to succeed in competition must analyze the opportunities and weaknesses in both their companies and in the market (Thomas, 2012). Another key idea from the video is that the main aspect of organizational strategy is the ability to translate the strategy into structure, processes and systems of the organizations. Another important point which Morieux tries to deliver is how bureaucracy emerges. According to him bureaucracy in organizations emerges from very valuable and respectful principles like efficiency and equity. The last key point which he derives is that the nature of company organization determines the ability of a company to come up with sound strategy. One of the companies which can benefit from these ideas is landlease group. This is because this company operates in the building and manufacturing sector which has been classified as one of the most competitive sector in Australia. This company is also a multinational corporation, meaning it competes with different companies in different countries and therefore it should use the right strategies to attain a competitive advantage (Kaushik, 2016). One of the ways which this company can use these ideas are ensuring it is well organized. Themanagement should ensure there are clear mediums of communication, team work, and all levels ofmanagement works together to ensure proper competitive strategies are established in the organization (Kumar, 2012). Themanagement should also ensure that there is equity and efficiency in the organization in order to attain bureaucracy. The company can also employ these ideas by ensuring the marketing department analyses both the company and the market to find out the possible weaknesses and opportunities. This will assist in coming up with the right strategy on how to compete. For example, making use of the strengths and weaknesses identified can assist the management to plan on how to differentiate its products, segment the market, price its products, target customers and so forth. Morieux pointed out that the main aspect of organizational strategy is the ability to translate the strategy into structure, processes and systems of the organizations. The company can attain this through ensuring all staff members are trained on how to convert the competing strategies which the company has established into structure, processes and systems. Bibliography Asefa, S., 2010. Globalization and International Development: Critical Issues of the 21st Century. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Bss, M., 2010. The Nation-State in Transformation: Economic Globalisation, Institutional Mediation and Political Values. Aarhus University Press: Aarhus, Denmark. Juergensmeyer, M., 2014. Thinking Globally: A Global Studies Reader. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Kaushik, M., 2016. Factors That Contribute towards Competitive Advantage: A Conceptual Analysis. IUP Journal of Business Strategy, 13(1), p. 2016. Kumar, s. P., 2012. Management of Business Processes Can Help an Organization Achieve Competitive Advantage. International Management Review, 8(2), pp. 56-89. Russo, M., 2010. Companies on a Mission: Entrepreneurial Strategies for Growing Sustainably, Responsibly, and Profitably. Stanford Business Books: Stanford, CA. Spooner, B., 2015. Globalization: The Crucial Phase. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology: Philadelphia. Thomas, K. J., 2013. Globalization and Developing Countries: A Global Participation Model. Economics, Management and Financial Markets, 3(4), pp. 88-99. Thomas, M., 2012. Competitive Strategies for the 21st Century: Theory, History, and Practice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.