Enterprise Architecture at American Express Essay

Critical facts American Express, located in New York City, was founded in 1850 (Corporate Profile, 2015). It is one of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Corporate Profile, 2015). American provides services such as credit cards, charge cards, and traveler’s checks (Corporate Profile, 2015). American Express cards account for 24% of credit card transactions in the U.S. (Corporate Profile, 2015). According to the company’s 10k, the company generates $33 billion in revenue and over $5 billion in income. The company’s total assets are over $150 billion. American Express has one of the largest IT infrastructures and is able to handle an extremely high number of transactions each second (Demirkan, 2006). In 2011, the company won the first annual InfoWorld/Forrester Enterprise Architecture Award for its EA initiatives (Knorr, 2011). American Express chose to use an Enterprise Architecture (EA) as their IT framework that aligned their business and organizational needs to their information technology. Enterprise architects were the employees responsible for using this framework to continuously make their processes more efficient and utilizing their IT/IS to the fullest extent (Pearlson and Sanders, 2013). Analysis I will be analyzing the success of American Express’s Enterprise Architecture, how Zachman Framework is used to structure the EA, and how this improved their existing service-oriented architecture (SOA). Changes in the way that mobile payments were being used by their clients, the company had to be flexible and adapt to the transformation. New delivery channels required American Express to adjust their prior time-to-market guidelines for payment services (Pearlson and Sanders, 2013). The company turned to its Enterprise Architecture (EA) to guide them through the current market conditions. The opportunity that American Express saw was to use EA to meet the demands for a hastily changing environment. EA is a complex framework of rigid standards for developing an IT architecture and infrastructure that provides a design of how the IS of a company relates to the businesses and processes  (Pearlson and Sanders, 2013). The architecture analyzes a great deal of the company, identifies core processes and how they work together, and then organizes how business units will interact and how IT will provide support (Pearlson and Sanders, 2013. The EA includes the Core business processes, shared data, linking/automating technologies, and customer groups (Pearlson and Sanders, 2013), with key components like the ability to do business effectively while utilizing new payment methods and mobile devices (Knor, 2011). Though an EA can help organize a company in a meaningful way, there are also potential drawbacks, which are discussed below. Zachman Framework is a tool that can be used to obtain the knowledge about itself with Enterprise architecture. It is a logical structure that classifies and organizes the descriptive representations of an enterprise (Pereira, Marques and Sousa, 2004). The framework integrates and aligns the IT infrastructure and business goals (Nogueira etc. al, 2011). Whereas an EA is used to document and develop the organizational data for American Express, the company uses the Zachman framework methodology to implement the EA. Zachman proposed the framework for IT architecture so that all of the IS architectures are depicted from top to bottom. It uses a matrix to provide a standard to ensure information environments are properly integrated (Nogueira etc. al, 2011). The 5 roles included in the framework are Planner, Owner, Designer, Builder, and Subcontractor. The EA provided several good things to the company. The EA system streamlined American Express’s processes, even as they were constantly re-analyzing how their business was being performed with the added intricacies of new delivery channels (Pearlson and Sanders, 2013). The employment of their enterprise architecture was key to adapting to this new business environment the company now found itself in. The enterprise architects worked closely with other departments and were able to both standardize applications throughout the organization and help create the strategies for each division. The Zachman framework positively assisted in the implementation by answering the questions: What (data), How (function),  Where (network), Who (people), When (time) and Why (motivation). It helped point out the information needed for the EA and their relationships (Nogueira etc. al, 2011). The strategies they helped create involved initiatives for each business, along with their IT support, that aligned well with the overall business plan of the organization. These initiatives, referred to as â€Å"road maps,† standardized their tools, architectures, governance, capabilities, and many other processes (Pearlson and Sanders, 2013). Three types of roadmaps in particular were used by American Express: Technology, reference architecture, and utility/capability. The three roads maps all used a consistent lifecycle management standard and a standardized architecture governance process. Another helpful aspect of the system included the flexibility that EA provided, which worked well with their existing architecture service-oriented architecture (SOA). SOA is an architecture type where larger software programs are broken down into services connected to each other via orchestration (Pearlson and Sanders, 2013). The services work together to form a business process, creating an agile, reusable system for creating applications. The existing software components can be modified to quickly build applications in a rapidly changing environment like the one American Express was experiencing. The enterprise architects assisted in the company’s SOA with an emphasis on reusable utilities and components (Demirkan, 2006). This system is ideal for a rapidly changing environment such as the one American Express was experiencing. Though SOA is a widely-used technology that can increase the IS’s agility, flexibility and interoperability between applications, there are also drawbacks, including the economic and personnel resources (Choi, Nazareth and Jain, 2010). SOA can reduce IT costs and increase the company’s return on IT investment, however the short-term requirements to implement SOA could outweigh long-term benefits (Choi, Nazareth and Jain, 2010). There are also some drawbacks to implementing an Enterprise Architecture,  including the cost of implementation, the risk of stakeholders’ unwillingness to accept it, and the new EA not corresponding to the business goals. When implementing SOA or EA, the entire IS organization is affected, along with the business alignment (Choi, Nazareth and Jain, 2010). Using a Zachman framework to implement the EA defined the involvement of stakeholders, as well aligning the EA goals with the business goals, which alleviated much of the risk of implementing the EA. The Zachman framework helped to avoid the risk that the architecture was not a fit for the employees and customers. In conclusion, the implementation of an EA is a complex endeavor, but was a necessary one for American Express to have the necessary tools to organize and document the whole enterprise, allowing them to quickly and efficiently change with the ever-changing business environment and customer needs. The Zachman Framework assisted in the implementation of the EA, and the company’s SOA gave it the desired agility needed to meet the customers’ needs. Recommendations My recommendation is that American Express’s continue to use the agility of their SOA to keep up with the changing environment. Their current EA was a great architecture that fit in perfectly with their business strategy. Moving forward, American Express will continue to use their highly efficient EA to meet the industry demands that they and their customers will face. The EA has worked well for them thus far, and should carry on as the ideal architecture of the firm in the near future. American Express will continue to face challenges beyond the near-term future and need re-analyze the situation prior to considering another overhaul of their current infrastructure. Many companies fail when attempting to implement an enterprise architecture. An EA will often fail if it is regarded as a separate initiative (Lohe, 2014), but American Express used it as a driver of their business and embedded it into their corporate strategy. Per the drawbacks noted above, this is a large and potentially costly undertaking. The agility of their current SOA and EA should allow the  company to adapt future challenges and they should not rush into an architecture overhaul. Furthermore, I would recommend using this system to its fullest potential by embracing the changing environment as much as possible. They can gain an edge on their competitors by focusing on mobile payments, new payment methods, and the newest innovations and technologies their clients are exposed to. The technological environment is constantly changing with new payment methods like Google Wallet and Apple Pay. Due to their EA, American Express is in prime position to accept these new methods as they develop. References Choi, J., Nazareth, D. L., & Jain, H. K. (2010). Implementing Service-Oriented Architecture in Organizations. Journal Of Management Information Systems, 26(4), 253-286. Corporate Profile. (2015, January 1). Retrieved February 22, 2015, from http://ir.americanexpress.com/CorporateProfile.aspx?iid=102700 Demirkan, H., & Goul, M. (2006). AMCIS 2006 PANEL SUMMARY: TOWARDS THE SERVICE ORIENTED ENTERPRISE VISION: BRIDGING INDUSTRY AND ACADEMICS.Communications Of The Association For Information Systems, 18546-556. Knor, E. (2011, September 19). The 2011 Enterprise Architecture Awards. Retrieved February 22, 2015, from http://www.infoworld.com/article/2619868/enterprise-architecture/enterprise-architecture-the-2011-enterprise-architecture-awards.html Là ¶he, J., & Legner, C. (2014). Overcoming implementation challenges in enterprise architecture management: a design theory for architecture-driven IT Management (ADRIMA). Information Systems & E-Business Management, 12(1), 101-137. doi:10.1007/s10257-012-0211-y Nogueira, J. M., Romero, D., Espadas, J., & Molina, A. (2013). Leveraging the Zachman framework implementation using action – research methodology – a case study: aligning the enterprise architecture and the business goals. Enterprise Information Systems, 7(1), 100-132. doi:10.1080/17517575.2012.678387 Pearlson, K. (2001). Organizational Strategy and Information Systems. In Managing and using information systems: A strategic approach. New York: J. Wiley & Sons. Pereira, C. M., & Sousa, P. (2004). A method to define an enterprise architecture using the zachman frameworkdoi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/967900.968175

Mitb

Malaysian Treasury Bills (MTB) MTB are short-term securities issued by the Government of Malaysia to raise short-term funds for Government's working capital. Bills are sold at discount through competitive auction, facilitated by Bank Negara Malaysia, with original maturities of 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year. The redemption will be made at par. MTB are issued on weekly basis and the auction will be held one day before the issue date. The successful bidders will be determined according to the most competitive yield offered.Normal auction day is Thursday and the result of successful bidders will be announced one day after. MTB are tradable on yield basis (discounted rate) based on bands of remaining tenure (e. g. , Band 4= 68 to 91 days to maturity). The standard trading amount is RM5 million, and it is actively traded in the secondary market. Malaysian Islamic Treasury Bills (MITB) MITB are short-term securities issued by the Government of Malaysia based on Islamic principles. MITB are usually issued on a weekly basis with original maturities of 1-year.Normal auction day is Thursday and the results of successful bidders will be announced one day after, on Friday. Both conventional and Islamic institutions can buy and trade on MITB. The MITB are structured based on Bai' Al-Inah principle, part of sell and buy back concept. Bank Negara Malaysia on behalf of the Government will sell the identified Government's assets on competitive tender basis, to form the underlying transaction of the deal. Allotment is based on highest price tendered (or lowest yield).Price is determined after profit element is imputed (discounting factor). The successful bidders will then pay cash to the Government. The bidders will subsequently sell back the assets to the Government at par based on credit term. The Government will issue MITB to bidders to represent the debt created. MITB are tradable on yield basis (discounted rate) based on bands of remaining tenure (e. g. , Band 4= 68 to 91 da ys to maturity). The standard trading amount is RM5 million, and it is actively traded based on Bai ad-Dayn (debt trading) principle in the secondary market.

Learning from Mass Media Campaigns for Hiv/Aids Prevention

Learning from Mass Media Campaigns for HIV/AIDS Prevention Reviews of mass media campaigns have a special interest for me. They demonstrate what can be done, and as importantly, what cannot be done, by relying on a 1P approach. I have talked about the 5% Solution before, and noted another review of mass media campaigns for changing health behaviors. This post focuses on the findings from a review of recent campaigns to prevent HIV/AIDS. What is interesting in this report are the comparisons it draws to reviews of earlier campaigns in this area as well as the current state of the art and science.The authors used seven principles to guide their analysis: (1) conducting formative research on and about the target audience; (2) using theory as a conceptual foundation; (3) segmenting one’s audience into meaningful subgroups; (4) using a message design approach that is targeted to the audience segment(s); (5) utilizing effective channels widely viewed by and persuasive with the targe t audience; (6) conducting process evaluation and ensuring high message exposure; and (7) using a sensitive outcome evaluation design that reduces threats to internal validity and allows causal inferences about campaign impact to be made.The question they explore is: to what extent have recent HIV/AIDS campaigns in the literature adhered to these principles? Noar et al (2009) began with a search of peer-reviewed articles appearing from late 1998 through October 2007. Mass media had to be a central or prominent part of a campaign that focused on increasing safer sexual behaviors, reducing risky sexual behaviors, or encouraging HIV testing.At least one outcome measure had to be reported; 38 articles were identified that met these criteria, representing 34 different campaigns. The results on the variables of interest were: Formative research – 16 of the 34 studies (47%) reported any type of research with the audience or pretesting of messages. the most commonly reported activity was research about campaign messages, including pretesting messages or examining message preferences of members of the target audience.Only two studies used formative research to develop or test their outcome measures (a neglected part of the research process in too many studies). Using theory – 44% reported using theory, most often the Health Belief Model, Reasoned Action and Planned Behavior, Social Cognitive Theory, the Transtheoretical Model and Stages of Change and the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills Model. Audience segmentation – 94% (all but 2) described an approach to audience segmentation.Message design – very few campaigns used theory to guide development of persuasive messages. The authors note that while behavioral theories can suggest the type of content to include, HOW that content is formed into messages is often approached without explicit reference to relevant theoretical models such as message framing, emotional appeals, sensation-see king, elaboration likelihood model and the use of narratives.Channels – 21% used a single media channel with television, radio and print media being the channel of choice. The remaining campaigns used other channels (billboards, brochures, Internet, newsletters) and a variety of promotional materials such as baseball cards, postcards, condom packs; a variety of interpersonal strategies including peer education and skill-building workshops and hotlines; and some also included community partners, coalitions and community mobilization in their activities.Process Monitoring – 82% of the campaigns reported audience exposure to messages, with a mean exposure of 77% of the targeted audience (a range of 35% – 100%). There was little reporting of frequency of exposure to campaign messages, and when those data were reported, it was difficult to make comparisons across studies. Outcomes – Pre-Post test designs using independent sampling were employed by a plurality of the campaigns (13 of the 34, or 38%). Eleven studies used only a post-test measure.The authors note that this means that 70% of the campaigns used weak outcome evaluation designs. In 24 of the campaigns (71%) behavioral outcomes were reported, most often either condom use or HIV/STD testing. Among the studies that used stronger designs (the other 30%), only 2 of the 10 found no statistically significant effects. Six studies reported significant changes in outcomes including talked with others about safer sex, continued abstinence, initiated condom use, increased condom use, reduced number of sexual partners, or were tested for HIV.The other two reported changes in behavioral intentions (for example, to use condoms and shifts in stages of change). The authors conclude that, when compared to another review of this literature in 2000, HIV/AIDS mass communication campaigns are increasingly: (1) targeting defined audiences developed through audience segmentation procedures; (2) design ing campaign themes around behavior change (rather than solely knowledge or attitude change – though given their selection criteria, this is hardly surprising); (3) using ehavioral theories to inform campaign design; (4) achieving higher message exposure to campaign messages; (5) using stronger quasi-experimental designs with control groups for outcome evaluation (although still far too few studies use these stronger designs); and (6) including measures of behavior change (or behavioral intentions) in outcome assessments. This review highlights how mass communication efforts for HIV/AIDS prevention have shifted from general awareness and knowledge outcomes to ones more tightly focused on achieving behavioral changes among defined segments of the population.While formative research has become commonplace, there are relatively few studies that use research designs that allow for drawing strong conclusions from their findings. This latter point does not mean that research design s must be randomized controlled studies, but as the authors note, even the addition of control groups or using time-series with control communities help address the question of whether there are alternative explanations for the observed effects (for example, that the respondents are not simply placating researchers with favorable or socially desirable responses to their questions).Social marketing is more than mass communication campaigns, but we often use mass media in conjunction with products and services, providing incentives and reducing costs of engaging in new behaviors, and increasing access and opportunities to perform these behaviors. Learning what works with mass media is important, but as other reviews have pointed out, it is not enough to achieve public health outcomes.Some marketers will note that health communication planners have adopted our practices of segmentation, targeting behavior change and using formative research. However, the importance of using theories th at fit the problem of designing persuasive messages is one important takeaway. The other takeaway is the challenge of designing better studies to assess outcomes.Thinking about using comparison populations, or simply delaying intervention among some priority groups while continuing to assess important outcomes, can help us demonstrate that we have more than a very elaborate, and perhaps even effective, placebo. Reference: Noar, S. M. , Palmgreen, P. , Chabot, M. , Dobransky, N. & Zimmerman, R. S. (2009). A 10-year systematic review of HIV/AIDS mass communication campaigns: Have we made progress. Journal of Health Communication, 14: 15-42. 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Luxury as a Requirement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Luxury as a Requirement - Essay Example The joy and luxury only come about after a long battle for dynasty with the help of God to establish the dynasty. Only time can fade away the memory of the establishment of the dynasty, leading the new generation to forget about the struggle and spirit of togetherness leading to the destruction of the kingdom. Further still, once power is vested in a given royal family, it is passed over to the next generation granting them the luxury of leadership. At a given point after the establishment of the dynasty, the memory of the establishment will fade away. The fading of memory will give way for the people having a new look at their leader and his family. Resultantly, all members of the royal family are considered as leaders. The leadership is shared in the family with less support of the group feeling required, but rather obedience of the people to the government. The help of outsiders in establishing the government may be necessary to retain power. Luxury in the royal family can still be maintained by having influence over other nations in the neighborhood. In some cases, the group feeling of the leader is so strong that it attracts other nations to believe and trust in the leadership of the given leader. As such, when the leader desires to leave the kingdom, other nations embrace them and a re willing to submit to their power thus the leader retains their leadership position in a foreign land. Furthermore, religion has a major role to play in the success of leadership based on group feeling. The royal leaders derive their power from being superior as the people lift them up in the spirit of togetherness. However, it is not easy to divert the people’s mind from the pleasures and treasures of the world to oneness in the interest of the whole group. It is only God who is able to bring the people together in sound mind to disregard worldly pleasure and pursue the interest of the community,

Transnational Crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

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Spirituality in Nursing Care - Essay Example Consequently, the subject of spirituality is at the heart of both medical practitioners and their patients. This is because all people are spiritual and that spiritual care largely contributes to the process of healing. Moreover, rehabilitation patients usually need a lot of spiritual care than patients in other healthcare areas because of their condition. Even though the duties in nursing practice always involve the provision of ethical and competent nursing services to patients, their profession widely involves provision of direct services that involve interactions between the person, health and environment. However, training in this area of spiritual care is seldom provided since most of the training is focused on emotional, social, cultural, physical and psychological aspects of the client. The nurse, therefore lacks the ability to provide spiritual care. Many nurses feel uncomfortable in accessing a client’s spiritual realm because of the abstract nature of the elements o f spirituality. Others find it difficult to develop appropriate methods to access this spiritual area. Moreover, the strict standards of practice make it difficult for nurses to indulge in spiritual care since these standards are self-regulating. Spirituality usually provides patients with a scope to view the world that they live in and, therefore involves an individual’s greatest threats and ambition.... Some of the spiritual values that can be applied by the nurses to bring about spiritual nourishment to their patients include: Compassion Compassion refers to the ability to control our impulsive and compulsive reactivity. For the nurses to take their patients through the road of spiritual nourishment, they have to have control over negative emotions that might arise because of interacting with their patients. These emotions can be manifested in form of frustrations, anger or impatience with patients. The nurses through dialogue should continuously encourage their patients to take a courageous look at their heir shortcomings in order to establish a balance between detachment and compassion. This balance represents success in spiritual progress as the patient grows in their ability to control rash reactivity and the reward being a relieving sense of detachment. Purity In such a situation, the patient views the nurse as an example of a healer. The nurse should ensure that the treatment given to their patients should be of high quality, since they represent the perfect example of such a quality. This is necessary to keep the patient growing because the treatment will be a perfect reflection of the provider who in this sense is purported to be pure. The patient should be put in the right frame of thinking to give room for positive thoughts that are vital for purification of their mind. This will be achieved since the patients will strive to emulate the perfect character of their attendants. Forgiveness Through the process of effective counselling, the nurse should bring out the concept of imperfection to the patient. The patient should realise that all the things that we encounter in this world are seldom perfect. The main objective should be to put the patients

Microeonomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Microeonomics - Essay Example ompany is working as a private firm and enters into research process in the commercial, corporate and business areas for various manufacturing organizations as their marketing partners and business promoters, and gives them suggestions after conducting a comprehensive research procedure according to the demand curve on the one hand, and the directions and requirements of the client companies on the other. The company has hired the services of three hundred and fifty personnel working at various positions and departments of the company. The companys board of directors consists of seven members working under the dynamic leadership of the chief executive of the company. The main departments include qualitative research, quantitative research, finance and accounts department, data encoding and analysis section, translation and customer care section, human resource management, technical and engineering section and marketing department; all of which are supervised by one director each. The company maintains organizations of national and international reputation as its wide range of clientele, which include Shell Petroleum, Petrochemicals and others. All these companies have sound faith in our company and the alternative fuel generation which have helped in the enhancement of their business and sales volume. Cellulosic feedstocks have many advantages over using corn to produce ethanol. Because cellulosic crops are not used for food, there is inherently less price volatility. And because a wide variety of crops can be used, they can be grown in a wide variety of geographic locations--even on marginal lands--and can, therefore, be more abundant. Plus, with certain crops, more ethanol can be produced per acre than can be made with corn. (Hodge, 2007) Since alternative energy resources generation is in its budding, but is becoming very popular in this country, there are working only few companies in such category. Hence, there is a state of monopolistic competition regarding

Mental Skills Training Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mental Skills Training Program - Essay Example Based on a recent performance profile, it is found that I lack two mental skills. Imagery and confidence are mental skills currently lacked. The two lacked mental skills are important for everyday life. Imagery helps the mind focus on seeing things that have happened in the past, things that are happening now and events that may happen in the future. Portraying these images in a positive or negative way is a mental imagery skill. Confidence as a mental skill controls how actions are made, decisions in life and the way someone feels. Each one of these mental skills contributes to decisions that are made in everyday life. These mental skills also affect an athlete’s performance. What does imagery as a mental skill do? Imagery as a mental skill is basically the ability to go over an event and imagine what the outcome will be. This goes hand in hand with confidence. Having strong confidence will help the imagery skill imagine a more positive outcome. A positive outcome and better confidence will lead to higher performance. Setting up a plan to improve these skills will help improve confidence and the mental ability to imagine better outcomes. Improving each one of these skills can help an individual go further in live and outperform others. In an article from the Journal of Education for Business, a study has shown that the use of negotiation classes can help build an individual’s confidence which will help the individual become more successful. Becoming better at negotiating will improve performance by a huge amount. Improved performance will lead to better confidence. I plan on using negotiation as a way to improve my confidence mental skill. Duration and repetition will aid in creating a mental skills training program that works on my weaker areas. To obtain better negotiating skills and better confidence I plan on using negotiating and becoming more comfortable negotiating with others. I will practice becoming comfortable negotiating for a month. Twice a week for the first month I will try to negotiate events that I would otherwise ignore. These events will be smaller things like household activities and small individual confrontations. After the first month, I can then begin using real world scenarios for negotiating. These negotiating skills may need to be modified to a class like session. If practicing negotiating on my own terms proves to be unsuccessful, the training can be modified to include negotiating classes. Another great way that was found to assist in improving mental skills was discovered by a research study conducted by International Education Studies. The research study was performed on college level soccer players. The soccer players were given different techniques to try and improve different mental skills like imagery, attention and motivation. The study showed that relaxation was the best improver. Relaxation was able to help the players relax by reducing muscle tension and improving focus. Becoming more relaxed before and after games, improved performance. Since relaxation has shown to have great imagery affects, relaxation will be part of the program used to improve weaker mental skills. In order to use relaxation to improve imagery,

Business Decision Making Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Decision Making - Assignment Example The market research will contact different members of public – as opposed to consulting target audience. The disadvantage of the model is that it is time consuming (Dillon, Madden and Firtle, 1994). First part: Market Research questionnaire First name†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Middle name†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..Last name†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Age.........Sex†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Occupation†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.Contact details†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..Permanent address†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Email address†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦... Evaluation of individuals in need of gym services 1. Height†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..Weight†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2. Please describe your lifestyle Sedentary: working from a stationary point all day†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Moderate. I participate in exercise occasionally†¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Active. I exercise regularly†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3. How can you describe your eating patterns or habits? Erratic: I eat whatever I come across†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Fairly regular: I skip a number of meals†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Regular: I ensure to get all meals and in a timely manner†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4. Do you eat between main meals? 5. Are your meals low calorie†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..moderate calorie†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..or high calorie†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 6. ... Have you used gym and fitness facilities before? 9. Have you taken any gym training sessions? 10. What fitness facilities do you use? 11. What fitness facilities do you own? 12. Where do you access fitness facilities? 13. How long have you participated in fitness services? 14. Use the key below for the questions 15. (Rank yourself as excellent, good, average, poor, very poor) Please rate your physical exercise and fitness participation?................... Please rate your capacity in using Gym facilities?................................... Do you think that gym services are important for every person?................................. (Give reasons) Do you have access to a gym center?.............................. How often do you use the services offered at the gym center?.................................... Which of the two fitness training do you prefer? Gym services†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Aerobics†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Part three (For those that have used gym services in the past) 16. Did you find joining a gym helpful? 17. Are you satisfied with the gym and fitness facilities received? Where would you expect that the services were different? 18. Have you received any gym and fitness services while at Brent Cross? 19. What was the price for the services? Was the price worth the services given? 20. What was your overall satisfaction and what comments can you draw from that? 21. How did you rate the services received, and what reference points do you use for that? 22. How would you expect the gym services to be offered at Brent Cross? Part four: Description of the general Brent Cross population 1. How would you define the fitness levels of the residents of this area? Generally slim and unhealthy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. (Explain) Generally fit and

Hospitality Facilities Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Hospitality Facilities Management - Essay Example As mentioned above, construction methods and materials greatly affect the environment, however, as a result of ongoing research in building technology and resulting breakthroughs have enabled Hotel industry to bring environment friendly buildings. Resort amenities too, are becoming more ‘environment friendly.’ For example, Golf resorts are using non chemical pesticides for its golf courses. A number of them are using golf carts powered by alternative energy sources. Awareness as to how to protect the natural environment is on the rise and more and more hotels are becoming environment friendly or ‘Green.’ An increasing number of hotels are taking measures like creating services or products that help guests with the problems emanating from the environment for example treated rooms for chemically sensitive or allergy prone people. Also, selecting suppliers with good reputation and established standards for helping environmental preservation. Hotel and Resort brands the world over are developing service concepts that can be called ‘green.’ Asian hotels are taking a lead in developing green services and products and branding them as environment friendly. In the Caribbean, the lodging sector is leading the world in number of certified environment friendly hotels. New models of niche luxury ecotourism resorts are being developed emanating from the Maho Bay camp in St.John in the Caribbean, which is supposedly world’s first ‘eco tourist resort.’

Trade unions should...have rights which empower them and their Essay

Trade unions should...have rights which empower them and their members. These rights should be clear and unequivocal, and they s - Essay Example Historically, there have been minimal official restrictions on freedom of association in the United Kingdom, even though there have been several, created by a variety of issues (Keith 2008). Mostly, and definitely in the recent decade, the primary concern is related to limitations on trade unions with regard to which several statutory limitations and other restrictions have been implemented (Wrigley 2002). These actions have raised several communications and grievances to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the administrative units of which have had opportunity to discover that the legal code under consideration fails international labour standards (Servais 2008). This subject matter is specifically related to the perspective of the International Covenant’s Article 22 taking into consideration the fact that the essence of these mechanisms is identified by paragraph 3, as this essay will discuss, the exact implication of this prerequisite is quite indefinite. As stated by Keith Ewing and Carolyn Jones (2006): â€Å"Trade unions should... have rights which empower them and their members. These rights should be clear and unequivocal, and they should properly equip trade unions... to act within the boundaries of international labour standards to protect the interests of their members. This means a right to organise, a right to bargain and a right to strike in a new legal settlement for British trade unions...(p. 35)† In view of this statement, this essay will critically analyse the industrial relations law in the United Kingdom. It will provide a brief historical discussion of the law relating to freedom of association and the right to strike and will identify which aspects of UK industrial relations law fail to meet international standards. The Right to Freedom of Association As stated in Article 22(1) (Jayawickrama 2003): Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions f or the protection of his interests (p. 735). What is quite ambiguous is the degree to which Article 22 safeguards the movement of individuals who are in association with others. A major problem, stressed by the constitutional courts on the one hand and European Court of Human Rights’ covenant on the other, is whether securities resembling those in Article 22(1) are valid only to safeguard the right to freedom of association, or whether they act further by safeguarding the freedom to act in association with others to advocate the fundamental objectives of the association under consideration (Blanpain 2010). The mechanism in constitutional and international law, by and large, has been to espouse the earlier, much restricted, and much less radical context of interpretation (Keith 2008). As stated by Lecher and Platzer (1997), it is the perspective of the Human Rights Committee as well. Taking into consideration the quite narrow statute it is challenging to determine with any lev el of accuracy whether and to what degree UK law and practice meet Article 22(1). Nevertheless, there are three primary concerns which emerge for analysis: (1) the right to join an association; (2) right of the association to manage its internal activities; and (3) the right of the asso

In Memoriam (Tennyson) Essay Example for Free

In Memoriam (Tennyson) Essay The poem is not, nonetheless, merely a way to express personal grief. Even though the â€Å"I† of In Memoriam is at times totally linked with the poet. Tennyson, the poet himself alleged that it is recurrently proposed to symbolize how the human race expresses and communicates through him. The individual sorrow and uncertainty became a microcosm for the distress being beared by the men and women of the 19th century who had been moving away from faith in traditional religion, as the evolvements in science were getting on to the ending that as such there was no divine hand which existed to guide. The speaker actually gets troubled through the loss he has beared but he gradually consents to the notion that, regardless of the external signs of confusion, and disorder the world actually becoming a better place to live in; his friend Hallam enters in to be seen as a messenger of a superior reace which will show way to humankind to lead them to God. Tennyson shifts alternately from insensitive misery to self-awareness and gets too see that writing poetry is an antidote for pain. Poems 9 through 17 make up a cluster amalgamated by the poet’s thought on the arrival of Hallam’s body through the ship from Italy. A calmer anguish now encompasses his heart. This anguish due to grief gradually make the mind even firmer, but the more deeper the sorrows are than words keep closed within in his heart. He commences on not to display his emotions openly but as he should (Richard, 2004). As a consequence, In Memoriam portrays the chief Victorian clash of science and faith to be the true work of its era; Tennyson’s effort to settle any sort of doubts that are based on religion which take birth from his not public sorrow and the outcomes of pre-Darwinian theories which are associated to succession were cut down by thinkers of his time as a reasonable landmark. The cyclic modification in the turn from personal anguish and desolation to the bigger vision of the public and apprehension for wider, social problems that can be seen in this poem reveal Tennyson’s mounting reception of and settlement with the issues of his age. As the elegy gets to its ending, the poet becomes more strongly influenced. His love, even though was seen on their preceding earthly association, is â€Å"vaster passion† which is now that Hallam’s incidence is spiritual and subtle through God and nature. The elegy ends up with the self-assured statement of the poet which shows that the living are real and will supplementarily move humanity’s measures and of the faith in its real sense that will not be highlighted only after death. Form The poem is not, nonetheless, merely a way to express personal grief. Even though the â€Å"I† of In Memoriam is at times totally linked with the poet. Tennyson, the poet himself alleged that it is recurrently proposed to symbolize how the human race expresses and communicates through him. The individual sorrow and uncertainty became a microcosm for the distress being beared by the men and women of the 19th century who had been moving away from faith in traditional religion, as the evolvements in science were getting on to the ending that as such there was no divine hand which existed to guide. The speaker actually gets troubled through the loss he has beared but he gradually consents to the notion that, regardless of the external signs of confusion, and disorder the world actually becoming a better place to live in; his friend Hallam enters in to be seen as a messenger of a superior reace which will show way to humankind to lead them to God. As a consequence, In Memoriam portrays the chief Victorian clash of science and faith to be the true work of its era; Tennyson’s effort to settle any sort of doubts that are based on religion which take birth from his not public sorrow and the outcomes of pre-Darwinian theories which are associated to succession were cut down by thinkers of his time as a reasonable landmark. The cyclic modification in the turn from personal anguish and desolation to the bigger vision of the public and apprehension for wider, social problems that can be seen in this poem reveal Tennyson’s mounting reception of and settlement with the issues of his age (Matthew, 2002). Style Tennyson shifts alternately from insensitive misery to self-awareness and gets too see that writing poetry is an antidote for pain. Poems 9 through 17 make up a cluster amalgamated by the poet’s thought on the arrival of Hallam’s body through the ship from Italy. A calmer anguish now encompasses his heart. This anguish due to grief gradually make the mind even firmer, but the more deeper the sorrows are than words keep closed within in his heart. He commences on not to display his emotions openly but as he should. As the elegy gets to its ending, the poet becomes more strongly influenced. His love, even though was seen on their preceding earthly association, is â€Å"vaster passion† which is now that Hallam’s incidence is spiritual and subtle through God and nature. The elegy ends up with the self-assured statement of the poet which shows that the living are real and will supplementarily move humanity’s measures and of the faith in its real sense that will not be highlighted only after death. Because I Could Not Stop for Death Form The tone, or the emotional position of the speaker in this particular poem, is highly significant and the deception in â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death.† Although the theme is related to death, it is not a serious sad thing to talk over. In disagreement, Death is shown to be equal to a wooer in which emerges as fundamentally a fable, with abstractions constantly incarnate. overwhelmed by Death’s consideration and patience, the speaker responds by adding to her aside her work and free time (Vendler, 2004). One sees many of Dickinson’s typical devices at work: the tightly patterned form, based on an undefined subject, the riddle-like puzzle of defining that subject, the shifting of mood from apparent observation to horror, the grotesque images couched in emotionally distant language. All this delineates that experience, that confrontation with God, with nature, with the self, with one’s own mind which is the center of Dickinson’s best poetry. Whether her work looks inward or outward, the subject matter is a confrontation leading to awareness, and part of the terror is that for Dickinson there is never any mediating middle ground; she confronts herself in relation to an abyss beyond. There is no society, no community to make that experience palatable in any but the most grotesque sense of the word, the awful tasting of uncontrollable fear. The second third of the poem changes the proportions. Although the experience is not actually any of the four things she has mentioned above, it is like them all; but now death, the first, is given seven lines, night three, frost only two, and fire is squeezed out altogether. It is like death because she has, after all, seen figures arranged like her own; now her life is â€Å"shaven,/ And fitted to a frame.† It is like night when everything that â€Å"ticked† — again mechanical imagery for a natural phenomenon — has stopped, and like frosts, which in early autumn morns â€Å"Repeal the Beating Ground.† Her vocabulary startles once more: The ground beats with life, but the frost can void it; â€Å"repeal† suggests the law, but nature’s laws are here completely nullified. Finally, in the last stanza, the metaphor shifts completely, and the experience is compared to something new: drowning at sea. It is â€Å"stopless† but â€Å"cool†; the agony that so often marks Dickinson’s poetry may be appropriate to the persona, but nothing around her, neither people nor nature, seems to note it. Most important, there is neither chance nor means of rescue; there is no report of land. Any of these conditions would justify despair, but for the poet, this climatic experience is so chaotic that even despair is not justified, for there is no word of land to despair of reaching. Style Death is a mostly a concern of Dickinson’s poetry. Usually in order to make means of exploration, she will surely check that its objectification all the way through a persona who has already died. The truth is that life is short and death is long. Perhaps in this sobering truth one may find that Dickinson’s poem is as much about life about how one ought to redeem it from the banal as it is about death(Laurence, 2004). One sees many of Dickinson’s typical devices at work: the tightly patterned form, based on an undefined subject, the riddle-like puzzle of defining that subject, the shifting of mood from apparent observation to horror, the grotesque images couched in emotionally distant language. All this delineates that experience, that confrontation with God, with nature, with the self, with one’s own mind which is the center of Dickinson’s best poetry. Whether her work looks inward or outward, the subject matter is a confrontation leading to awareness, and part of the terror is that for Dickinson there is never any mediating middle ground; she confronts herself in relation to an abyss beyond. There is no society, no community to make that experience palatable in any but the most grotesque sense of the word, the awful tasting of uncontrollable fear. The second third of the poem changes the proportions. Although the experience is not actually any of the four things she has mentioned above, it is like them all; but now death, the first, is given seven lines, night three, frost only two, and fire is squeezed out altogether. It is like death because she has, after all, seen figures arranged like her own; now her life is â€Å"shaven,/ And fitted to a frame.† It is like night when everything that â€Å"ticked† — again mechanical imagery for a natural phenomenon — has stopped, and like frosts, which in early autumn morns â€Å"Repeal the Beating Ground.† Her vocabulary startles once more: The ground beats with life, but the frost can void it; â€Å"repeal† suggests the law, but nature’s laws are here completely nullified. Finally, in the last stanza, the metaphor shifts completely, and the experience is compared to something new: drowning at sea. It is â€Å"stopless† but â€Å"cool†; the agony that so often marks Dickinson’s poetry may be appropriate to the persona, but nothing around her, neither people nor nature, seems to note it. Most important, there is neither chance nor means of rescue; there is no report of land. Any of these conditions would justify despair, but for the poet, this climatic experience is so chaotic that even despair is not justified, for there is no word of land to despair of reaching. Content Death appears personified in this poem as a courtly beau who gently insists that the speaker put aside both â€Å"labor† and â€Å"leisure.† He arrives in his carriage, having stopped for her because she could not have stopped for him, and he even submits to a chaperone, â€Å"Immortality,† for the length of their outing together. It was not Death, for I stood up† Riddling becomes less straightforward, but no less central, in such a representative Dickinson poem as â€Å"It was not Death, for I stood up† (#510), in which many of her themes and techniques appear. The first third of the poem, two stanzas of the six, suggest what the â€Å"it† is not: death, night, frost, or fire. Each is presented in a couplet, but even in those pairs of lines, Dickinson manages to disconcert her reader. It is not death, for the persona is standing upright, the difference between life and death reduced to one of posture. Nor is it night, for the bells are chimin g noon — but Dickinson’s image for that fact is also unnatural. The bells are mouths, their clappers tongues, which are â€Å"Put out†; personification here does not have the effect of making the bells more human, but of making them grotesque, breaking down as it does the barriers between such normally discrete worlds as the mechanical and the human, a distinction that Dickinson often dissolves. Moreover, the notion of the bells sticking out their tongues suggests their contemptuous attitude toward man. In stanza two, it is not frost because hot winds are crawling on the persona’s flesh. The hackneyed phrase is reversed, so it is not coolness, but heat that makes flesh crawl, and not the flesh itself that crawls, but the winds upon it; nor is it fire, for the persona’s marble feet â€Å"Could keep a Chancel, cool.† Again, the persona is dehumanized, now grotesquely marble. While accomplishing this, Dickinson has also begun her inclusion of sense data, pervasive in the first part of the poem, so that the confrontation is not only intellectual and emotional but physical as well (Hood, 2000). The second third of the poem changes the proportions. Although the experience is not actually any of the four things she has mentioned above, it is like them all; but now death, the first, is given seven lines, night three, frost only two, and fire is squeezed out altogether. It is like death because she has, after all, seen figures arranged like her own; now her life is â€Å"shaven,/ And fitted to a frame.† It is like night when everything that â€Å"ticked† — again mechanical imagery for a natural phenomenon — has stopped, and like frosts, which in early autumn morns â€Å"Repeal the Beating Ground.† Her vocabulary startles once more: The ground beats with life, but the frost can void it; â€Å"repeal† suggests the law, but nature’s laws are here completely nullified. Finally, in the last stanza, the metaphor shifts completely, and the experience is compared to something new: drowning at sea. It is â€Å"stopless† but â€Å"cool†; the agony that so often marks Dickinson’s poetry may be appropriate to the persona, but nothing around her, neither people nor nature, seems to note it. Most important, there is neither chance nor means of rescue; there is no report of land. Any of these conditions would justify despair, but for the poet, this climatic experience is so chaotic that even despair is not justified, for there is no word of land to despair of reaching. Thus, one sees many of Dickinson’s typical devices at work: the tightly patterned form, based on an undefined subject, the riddle-like puzzle of defining that subject, the shifting of mood from apparent observation to horror, the grotesque images couched in emotionally distant language. All this delineates that experience, that confrontation with God, with nature, with the self, with one’s own mind which is the center of Dickinson’s best poetry. Whether her work looks inward or outward, the subject matter is a confrontation leading to awareness, and part of the terror is that for Dickinson there is never any mediating middle ground; she confronts herself in relation to an abyss beyond. There is no society, no community to make that experience palatable in any but the most grotesque sense of the word, the awful tasting of uncontrollable fear (Barton ,2008) Conclusion In this paper we have analysed two brilliant works of poetry, one In Memoriam by Tennyson as compared to Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Dickinson. We have analysed both the works in terms of their content, form and style and evaluate how they have been done by their respective writers. References Barton, A. (2008). Tennyson’s Name: Identity and Responsibility in the Poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate,. Hood, J. (2000). Divining Desire: Tennyson and the Poetics of Transcendence. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, Laurence. M. (2004). W. Alfred Tennyson: The Critical Legacy. Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House, Matthew, C.( 2002). The Consolation of Otherness: The Male Love Elegy in Milton, Gray, and Tennyson. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland,. Richard,B. (2004). Experience and Faith: The Late-Romantic Imagination of Emily Dickinson. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, Lundin, Roger. Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 2004. Vendler, H. (2004). Hennessey. Poets Thinking: Pope, Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Bribery In International Marketing Marketing Essay

Bribery In International Marketing Marketing Essay Bribery and corruption is a way of life in many countries and these practices affect the way international business is regularly conducted. However, in most of these countries, it is illegal to offer or receive bribes or engage in corrupt practices. Yet these corrupt practices are a part of the culture or normal way of doing businesses. Unless companies conform to such practices, in many cases, international business cannot be transacted. This essay will try to provide discussion about bribery and corruption in international trade, with examples from very different point of view in according to the principal ethical system, despite whatever religious, realistic and nature. Analyses of the case of Siemens bribery scandal related to ethical issues will be investigated. Bribery is an important issue of concern for many companies. Confrontation of bribery vary across many countries, but everyone has a different concept about it, such as in Hong Kong and Greece, here, managers are less critical of bribery in certain situations than that of the Americas. Paying bribery carries with it a great risk to damaging the companys standing with the country which the briberies are paid, and at home too. Moreover, there is also the risk that the commercial culture of the company will become more open-minded of several of other practices at the legal issues. There is also evidence to suggest that those countries with the reputation for bribery and corruption damage themselves, as it reflects in their economic growth, has a low rates for high level of corruption, like that of Nigeria. It is true to say that bribery in international markets can lead to astonishment, bewilderment and misunderstanding for expatriates, at both organisational and personal levels. This essay examines bribery from two viewpoints and tries to develop procedures to bridge them. The first viewpoint is relativist, accepting that different cultures have different ethical values and not imposing an expatriates values onto another culture. The second viewpoint is universalist, averring that ethics apply anywhere in the world, and is based on psychological and economic grounds. To resolve these two approaches, it is suggested that trying to understand the cultural forces that determine home and overseas attitudes to the many forms of bribery, this is a first step to adjustment. The next step is the development of a global or regional code of conduct that allows flexibility within a gray zone. The result could be an evolving code that adapts to the many dimensions of bribery for each countrys situation, in a manner that is a negotiation between the cultural, psychological and economic values of an expatriates organisation and of local officials. Introduction International marketing is complex as foreign environments are different from home environments, as they differ on physical, cultural, legalpolitical, economic, competitive and distributive dimensions (Ball and McCulloch 1996). Due to these environments, marketers can adapt parts of the marketing mix for each overseas country or region (Hoang 1997), for example, a company might alter its packaging, distribution channels and advertisements in each of its international markets. These marketing mix issues are not the only ones facing international marketers. Cultural management issues are important too, and bribery is the most important of these, at least for Australian and US marketing managers (Armstrong et al. 1990). For example, should a firm pay a customs official to process a shipment through normal channels? Should a firm pay education expenses in its home country for the child of a prince in an overseas country that the firm wants to enter? Should payments to distributors be paid into two separate accounts when one is apparently illegal? Should funds in the public relations budget be paid to someone who appears to do nothing for public relations other than being related to someone in power? Issues like these are important to someone from a culture where these activities are unusual. 1937 Nevertheless, little research has been done on the ethics of international marketing (Armstrong and Sweeney 1994), and interest in ethical issues in general has been mainly empirical (Donaldson 1989). Moreover, levels of corruption vary widely around the world, as seen in a survey of 52 countries by Transparency International (1997). Furthermore, the issue of bribery in particular is often considered within only one of the six different environments above, and bribery is sometimes discussed in the legal environment chapter of a textbook for example, Keegan and Green 1997), where the effect of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) on that countrys ability to compete with Europe in international markets is covered (Graham 1984). Alternatively, bribery is sometimes in the public relations part of a textbook (Phillips Doole and Lowe 1994), where it is discussed along with concern about corporate citizenship and employee safety. In addition to this, bribery can be treated as a separate, ethical issue, usually based on cultural issues (Donaldson 1996). However, the aim of this essay is to consider bribery from across several environments such as legal, cultural, economic and competitive, in order to develop a managerial approach to the issue. Contribution is an integrated and up-to-date review of these several viewpoints in a form that international marketing managers might find useful. As well as, the review is from a non-US view, while several other papers have a US view that is different from other developed countries (Donaldson 1996; Mayo 1992; Across the Board 1993). It is concluded that managers can develop a code of conduct for the several dimensions of bribery that bridges the relativist and universalist views. This essay has four main sections. Firstly, bribery in developing countries is looked at from a Western view point that aims toshow the roots of bribery may be common to both. This leads into a cultural, relativist view of bribery, which suggests that bribery is appropriate if it is normal in the culture of an overseas country. However, counter arguments to this relativist view are then presented, including psychological and economic arguments. Finally, facing these two contrasting positions, the essay considers how management could handle bribery. In this essay, bribery is defined broadly: bribery is offering, or promising to pay, anything of value to influence an act or decision by officials in a foreign government, including politicians, a political party or a bureaucrat to assist in obtaining, retaining, or directing business to any person (based on the FCPAs definition). This definition does not cover issues such as human rights or child labor use, sexual harassment or industrial espionage. Our definition of dealing with officials about business matters is the one of major concern to marketing managers in particular. 1938 Four Roots of Bribery From a Western point of view, bribery sometimes appears to be caused merely by the greed of locals, especially poor locals. however bribery has four, more complex roots which appear to exist in both Western and developing countries. Firstly, a bribe can be simply linked to a tip to insure promptness at a restaurant, just as a restaurant kitchen can sometimes have inefficient processes that require human involvement to overcome, so can the bureaucracy of a developing country. Bribes may be seen to be a way of purchasing government services when a government cannot afford to provide salaries that are adequate for the service to be provided free to every person (Tullock 1996). Thus, bribery may be a form of privatisation that makes the wealthy who can afford it, pay for a service. Indeed, the relatively high-principled FCPA that tries to limit the involvement of US firms in bribery, actually permits payments to officials to do their normal duties while disallowing payments to high-level officials for special favors. A prime example is a US business person can bribe a customs officer to expedite an inspection but not to skip it altogether. However, the next three roots of bribery may not be allowed by the FCPA. Secondly, a bribe can be considered to be a normal promotion activity. Such as that of BMW cars are provided free to family members of politicians in Western countries for the spillover effect on the prestige of the car. If the wife of the Premier of Victoria, Australia has free use of a BMW, why cannot officials in overseas countries who are close to real power also be given gifts to help promotion. Similarly, many Western companies provide corporate hospitality at sporting venues such as at the Ascot, Henley and Wimbledon in the name of promotion (Ramsay 1990). Therefore, how is this kind of promotion different from some bribery in developing countries? This leads to the third root of bribery, which is related to the general idea of gifts to show respect and gratitude to a person in a relationship, at certain times. Gift giving is common at Christmas time in Western countries, and gift giving at birthday and holidays may serve the same purpose in overseas countries (Onkvist and Shaw 1997). As interactions between buyers and sellers proceed, a social relationship is developed that can be enriched by gift giving. Social relationships are often characterised by the exchange of gifts and hospitality as trust develops between the parties. In seeking to build relationships of trust, the exchange of gifts may be seen as an entirely appropriate act of social bonding. (Wood 1995, p. 11). This reciprocal gift and favor giving is more important in some Asian countries than in the West, simply because of their cultural values (Hofstede 1991, p. 169). Finally, in food and other markets in developing markets, the occasional expatriate customers are usually asked to pay more than locals because the stallholder knows that his or her usual price is usually a far smaller proportion of the discretionary spending of an expatriate than that of a local. A dual price system 1939 reflects the dual economies that exist in many developing countries and do not exist to the same extent in western countries. That is, a poorly paid overseas official with an extended family living in his small house may consider it reasonable to ask a wealthy foreign business person staying at a five star hotel to pay more than the usual low prices for labor and other services in his or her country. Thus a bribe may be seen to improve equity just as a progressive taxation system aims to do in developed countries. The inequity without bribes in a developing country may be even greater than in a market or a taxation system of a developed country, because the official will have high local power from their immediate and extended family, friends and political party despite having low monetary wealth. In contrast to this , the foreign business person has lower power despite having higher monetary wealth. That is, bribery may not violate the Christian but sometimes be considered to be a universal doctrine of love you neighbor like yourself, but actually affirm it (contra Coady in Way 1996, p. 19). Overall in brief then, bribery is seen to exist and has roots that exist in both a Western and an overseas countries. Cultural View of Bribery Implicit in the discussion above is a relativist, cultural understanding of bribery that what is right or wrong, good or bad, depends on ones culture. However, this argument implies that there are no golden rules underlying most human behavior (Way 1996, p. 19), that is, ones own culture is the major influence on views about bribery. This concept of culture therefore deserves to be explored further. Culture has five dimensions: the relationship between the individual and the collective group, power differentials within society, masculinity and femininity, dealing with uncertainty and Confucian dynamism (Hofstede 1991). Several of these dimensions strongly influence views about bribery. The first dimension of individualism/collectivism would appear to be the most related to bribery (Tanzi 1995; in Onkvist and Shaw 1997, p. 175). Developing countries are more collective than developed countries, that is, officials place greater emphasis on their responsibilities to their own extended families and friends, than do Western business people. However individualism/collectivism is not the only cultural dimension affecting bribery. Developing countries are often high on the second culture dimension of power distance, that is, individual officials with which marketing managers deal have major obligations to their supervisors. Thus, the officials will support a bribery culture if it is related to power as some of the four roots of culture above were shown to be, and especially so if their own superiors accept and foster bribery. In addition to this, some Asian countries are more concerned with 1940 virtuous behavior than the abstract truth (which is related to the dimension of Confucian dynamism). An officials actual behavior toward his or her immediate and extended family, and toward friends and superiors is more important than abstract universal values applying to all humans, to which some Westerners cling (Hofstede 1991). Onkvist and Shaw (1997, p. 175) appropriately sum up this relativist, cultural view of bribery: the concept of arms-length relationships would seem strange and alien. It would even seem immoral. The idea that, economically speaking, one should treat relatives and friends in the same way as strangers would appear bizarre. In brief, a cultural view of bribery initially suggests that expatriate marketing managers should simply fit in with local bribery practices wherever he or she goes. However, the cultural relativism approach to bribery developed above cannot be the basis for a marketing managers approach to bribery, because awareness of cultural differences is only the starting point for international cooperation. That is, a marketing manager cannot completely adapt to a different culture and deal in bribes with no regard for his or her own cultural values, for an appreciation of anothers culture does not mean forgoing ones own culture. Successful intercultural encounters presuppose that the partners believe in their own values. If not, they have become alienated persons, lacking a sense of identity (Hofstede 1991, p. 237). To handle the issue of bribery comprehensively for a real world individuals involved in business, managers need to consider issues other than cultural differences per se, and we turn to these relatively universalist issues next. Economic and Managerial Issues of Bribery Economic advantages of bribery for the receiving official and for the company that receives preferential treatment ahead of its competitors, are obvious. However, there are economic disadvantages for both the taking and the giving country. First, bribery can send incorrect signals about demand price and supply cost in a market economy. More directly, bribery adds to the cost of contracts and goods roughly by five percent in Asia (Kraar 1995), this could perhaps be even more in some instances. Secondly, it distorts the decision-making processes too. When contractors are selected on the basis of what the decision-maker will receive personally rather than the contractors ability to do the best, lowest cost job, then the whole economy suffers misallocation of resources. This form of bribery was perhaps a major influence in the recent meltdown of some Asian currencies. Thirdly, bribery can lead to industrial standards being dropped with social and economic repercussions upon the firm. For example, workers may work in substandard conditions that may impair productivity, people may die in buildings that collapse due to building standards inappropriate, and the environment and firms future may be hurt by over-zealous timber-felling. 1941 Moreover, there are other disadvantages of bribery that are particularly important for the giving country. Firstly, home and foreign customers help pay for uneconomic spending in bribes, often for the enrichment of a few overseas individuals who become more wealthy than ordinary citizens of the giving country. In 1995, bribery cost businesses almost $45 billion worldwide (Kaltnhauser 1996). Secondly, bribery could be used against the giving organisation, in the case of managers returning to the home country and rejoining the salesforce at home could accept bribes for practices that the giving organisation does not want done at home. That is, a relativist position that allows a match between expatriate individuals and the corrupt organisations overseas, may also foster at home the separation of personal and organisational moral standards, with consequences at home that the organisation does not want. In brief then, bribery has economic and social disadvantages that a purely cultural understanding leading to a relativist attitude to it, may hide. How Can Managers Handle Bribery in a Competitive Market? Given the two contrasting views about bribery above, what can managers in a non-US company do to bridge the gap between a relativist and a universalist approach to ethics. The practices and what managers in a US firm do is clear, they obey the FCPA or get around it by channeling funds through an agent who then handles the bribery behind a screen. Some managers might try to offset a competitors bribe with a better, total product You might offer a lower price, a better product, better distribution or better advertising to offset the benefit of the bribe to the decision influencer (Keegan 1989, p. 201). This US position is an idealist position that many non-US managers may not adopt, for it assumes that the better, total product will win the contract, when in fact, bribery occurs to oftentimes successfully ensure that it does not. Moreover, competing firms from European countries and Australia are allowed to treat bribes as a tax-deductible business expense, reducing the after-tax effect of the bribe. In April 1996, the OECD passed a resolution saying bribes should not be taxdeductible and in 1993, Transparency International, a not-for-profit organisation with chapters in 40 countries, tried to increase awareness of briberys existence, but anti-foreign bribery legislation outside the United States does not yet exist. Moreover, one is never sure of the level of bribes that competitors are offering for a project, and so deciding on how much to improve the total product to fight bribery is difficult. In addition, bribery is sometimes paid for day-to-day operations as well as a project, and so discussion of a better, total product may be of limited usefulness. For instance, if bribes are not paid by an individual firm, it may experience bureaucratic delays on wharves and in warehouses and its goods may 1942 be stolen, while its bribe-paying competitors do not experience these costly problems. In brief, curbing bribery from an idealistic position may be quixotic until the United Nations or a similar organisation arranges for a multinational, legal approach to it. Given the present, imperfect world within which companies operate, some more options to handle bribery are available. One option is to choose to internationalise into the less-corrupt countries. Clear examples of corrupt countries are China, Indonesia and India, which are rated among the most corrupt countries to do business in the world after Russia; indeed, corruption in Indonesiaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦is almost a way of life. Only Singapore is more squeaky-clean than most Western countries (Hard graft in Asia 1995, p. 61). Organisation code of ethics. There is another option to approaching the ethical gaps in international marketing. Firstly, within the home firm, managers could develop an organisation code of ethics for any non-home country within which it operates, or maybe for a particular region of many countries. For all these countries, this code would outline the degree of standardisation and adaptation in each of eight or so dimensions of bribery, such as expediting bureaucratic processes, promotion, corporate hospitality, gifts, dual prices, wage rates, occupational health and safety standards, and lobbying to influence government policies. The code would take into consideration the cultural, legal-political, economic, competitive and distributive environments of each foreign market and the home organisation. For instance, it might specify when bribes appear on an invoice and when they may not (adapted Cadbury 1987). Moreover, acknowledging the greatest differences between an expatriates and his or her home organizations ethical systems, and the local environments ethical standards, this code might specify when some purchases or tenders are outsourced away from the organisation to a local agent. familiarisation tour of the home organisation would help home country managers appreciate overseas operations, and helping with scholarships to home country universities would foster long-term links when the students return. Of course, managers need to know relevant national and international laws or hire reputable lawyers who know local laws and customs. Although local legal and judicial systems can be underdeveloped, flawed and flouted (for example, with bribes), a firm may have in its global code that local laws will always be observed, even if the risks involved in flouting them, even though competitors may be prepared to take the risks. Finally, to help implementation of the code, the organisation could institute and code of ethics sensitisation training before managers enter an overseas country and when they return, based on cross-cultural sensitisation sessions like those discussed in Hofstede (1991, p. 232). Ethics audits could also be carried out, emphasising improvement and learning about the processes used, such as TQM continual improvement programs do. Furthermore, these audits would foster an evolving awareness of ethical considerations for each of the eight dimensions in a particular organisation, and in a particular country. Conclusion Evidence suggests that bribery is a fact of life in international marketing that can lead to astonishment, bewilderment and misunderstanding for expatriates at both organisational and personal levels. Two viewpoints about bribery were examined. The first viewpoint was relativist, accepting that bribery has the same roots in Western and other countries and so different ethical systems may be simply the result of different cultural values. In contrast, the second, universalist viewpoint is that a set of ethical values applies anywhere in the world, based on psychological and economic grounds. To bridge these two views, it is strongly suggested to try to understand the cultural forces that determine home and overseas attitudes to the many forms of bribery, which will indeed be a first step to adjustment. The next step is to develop a global or regional code of conduct that allows flexibility within a gray zone for some situations in particular countries, based on win-win adjustments. The result could be an evolving code of conduct that adapts to the many dimensions of bribery for each countrys situation, in a manner that is a negotiation between the cultural, psychological and economic values of an expatriates organisation and of local officials. 1945

Concepts and Theories of Supply, Demand and Price

Concepts and Theories of Supply, Demand and Price Economics Coursework Paper Introduction This essay looks at the fundamental elements of economics. Economics covers the area of human activity that deals with how people provide for their material wellbeing. It looks at the complex sets of transactions that take place around the world every day. These transactions decide on the global allocation of raw materials and capital. It also looks at the decisions individuals make when they decide how to prioritise their needs and wants and how to spend their money. It can vary in scale from how one person or family will organise its activities to how nations and societies should or can be organised. Economics therefore deals with an enormous subject matter; it offers a way of understanding practically all human activity at any level of detail. The way in which it can do all this, and still remain united as a single science, is to adopt various principles which will apply to a school child buying his lunch, multinational companies merging on the stock market, or nations competing f or trade. In this paper I will look at some of these principles and how they relate to various examples.[1] Supply, Demand and Price You would be correct to assume that economics is interested in the price of things. While this is the main issue for most economic actors such as individual consumers, companies or countries, for economists, this is neither where the story begins nor ends. It is in fact just one of many details that will fit in to an overall economic picture. It is a well known fact that house prices usually rise. It is just as well known that computer prices keep falling. Economics explains these price movements by looking at and understanding their respective markets. The methods used to analyse a market are; understanding the motivations of the various participants in the market; the factors that control how much the consumers in the market wish to buy; the factors that control how much sellers wish to sell; how the price is set; and the institutional structures that also influence the price. When looking at markets in this way, the various actors in the market, or agents, are assumed to be rational, that is that they want to maximise their gains or get the best deal possible. This is known as ‘maximizing utility’ in economics. When speaking of demand, we are not concerned with how much of a product is actually bought, but of how much the consumers in the market would like to buy. The amount demanded is expressed as a flow, which means we look at how much of a product is demanded over a particular period, and at a particular price. For example, if milk costs  £1 per litre, there is a demand for 1 litre of milk per day, or 365 litres of milk per year. In basic demand theory, there are a number of factors that can go into increasing or decreasing the amount demanded. For example, if you advertise the health benefits of milk, the consumer may decide to drink more. Also if there was a shortage of orange juice, consumers might drink more milk to make up for the difficulty of getting orange juice. Making milk cheaper will also increase the demand for it. Therefore, demand is something that can altered and, to an extent, controlled by the seller. One of the key functions of economics is to narrow down and explain the various factors that will effect demand, supply and price. Economists wish to be able to measure exactly how these three variables will interact. If they can do this effectively, they will be able to manipulate the three so as to arrive at a level of supply, and a price, that will maximise the profit, or utility, for the producer. And the reason they can do this is because of the one certainty of economics, which is that the consumer will also be seeking to maximise his utility under the options available to him. Demand and Price While it may be impossible to know exactly when and how much a given consumer will feel like drinking with his breakfast each morning, there are things we can no. One of them is that, in general, the lower the price of a product, the more of that product will be demanded, assuming all other things remain equal. This principle is so dependable it is known as the law of demand. This is because all wants can be satisfied by a number of products. For example, if you are hungry at school, you will have a want, namely lunch. This want can be satisfied by a sandwich, an apple, a bag of crisps, a chocolate bar, etc. Even if you look at the sandwich, you can have ham, cheese, salad etc. The chocolate bar can be a Snickers, Mars, Twix etc. If you suddenly double the price of cheese sandwiches while everything else remains the same, the demand for cheese sandwiches will go down. Some people will still buy the same amount of cheese sandwiches, others will buy less cheese sandwiches and opt for o ther types of sandwiches or maybe and apple or chocolate bar, and some will completely stop buying cheese sandwiches. No one will buy more cheese sandwiches than they did before. Therefore, as price increases, demand will continue to decrease.[2] Economists can demonstrate this using a demand schedule. This shows the demand for a product at various prices. Example of a demand schedule The demand schedule will then be used to plot a graph, or demand curve. The price will appear on the Y-axis and the quantity demanded on the X-axis. This curve will show the complete relationship between demand and price. Example of a demand curve This above schedule and demand curve show how demand for milk will vary according to price. As the price increases from  £0.50 per litre to  £3.00 per litre, the consumer decreases the amount they drink each day from 1.4 litres to just 0.2 litres. This example shows a relatively simple relationship between price and demand. In real life, there are many more factors at work that will dictate the demand for a product. While price is certainly one very important variable, the demand will also depend on the price of other alternative products. So if the price of orange juice for example were suddenly to increase, you would probably notice an increase in demand for milk, even though the price of milk did not change. That is because orange juice is an alternative product to milk. Also, if consumers were to get richer, they would be willing to buy more milk, or pay more for the amount they wanted, and again this would have a significant effect on the demand curve. Similarly, if consumer’s tastes were to change this would effect the demand curve. So if the milk producer was to start advertising the health benefits of milk this might increase demand even though there was no change in price. In practice there are actually an infi nite number of variables that will effect the demand for a product, but this does not mean that the basic law will not always hold. No matter how attitudes to a product, for example milk, change over time, it will always be the case, according to the law of demand, that an increase in price will lead to a decrease in demand and vice versa. Supply Simply finding the demand curve for a product is however not enough. You might expect that it would make good business, as well as common sense, to decide your supply based on current market demand. If consumers want 1 litre of milk per day, and they are willing to pay  £1 per litre, and say there are 1,000 consumers in the market, then why not simply produce 1,000 litres of milk per day. Well first of all, we can see that this tells us nothing about the profits of the producer. If you found out milk costs  £1.50 a litre to produce, would you still recommend that the producer try to sell 1,000 litres at  £1 per litre? Obviously not, therefore our picture is incomplete as it takes no account yet of the suppliers side of the bargain. The economic hypothesis that explains supplier behaviour is that if all other things remain equal, the quantity that they are willing to produce is positively related to the product’s own price, or the higher the price, the more they are willing to produce. This is basically because increasing production costs money, and the more you increase production, the more it costs, so firms will only increase production for as long as the price they can get for the product justifies the increased cost of production. Just like when measuring demand, a supply schedule is used to compare different price levels with different levels of production. Example supply schedule The supply curve shows the different amounts the producer would be willing to supply at different prices. As can be seen, the supply increases as price increases. Example of a supply curve Using these two graphs, economists can find the most efficient price for milk in this market. For example, if milk was priced at  £0.50 per litre, consumers would be willing to drink 1.4 litres per day, but the producer would only be willing to supply 0.41 litres per day. Clearly there is waste at this price. Likewise, if the price was set at  £3.00 per litre, the producer would be happy to supply 4.66 litres to each consumer, however they would only be willing to buy 0.2 litres per day. So a balance must be found somewhere in between. To find this point, economists will plot both the supply and demand curves on the same graph and find the point at which they intersect. This is the most profitable and efficient level at which to set production and price. The graph below shows that in this market, the supply and demand curves intersect at the price of  £1 per litre of milk. This is therefore the level at which the price would settle under normal market conditions. Price Elasticity The value of being able to analyse markets in this way, and understand how the price will settle is not solely theoretical. Businesses want to use this information to maximise profits. Therefore, theories on how to manipulate the above graphs are extremely important. One aspect if this is known as price elasticity. This is the theory that will explain how changes in price affect the quantity demanded. In the above example, the consumers would be willing to drink 1.4 litres of milk per day if it cost  £0.50. Imagine if you could get the same consumers to continue demanding this quantity of milk at a cost of  £3.00 per litre. This would mean a huge difference in profits for the producer. While it may not be possible to affect this change, having a greater understanding of the demand curve will allow detection of greater profit potential. Likewise, if you identify the causes for supply variation with changes in price, you may be able to improve the efficiency of your own business an d move the point of intersection of supply and demand curves to a more profitable position. The change in demand with price is known as price elasticity of demand. The change in supply with price is known as price elasticity of supply. Elasticity cannot simply be judged by looking at the curves on graphs. This is because the shape of the curve depends as much on the scale of the graph as on the responsiveness of the demand or supply to changes in price. Therefore, elasticity is measured by a mathematical ratio. This is the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price that caused it. If you get a value for price elasticity of demand of zero this means that the quantity demanded does not change at all as the price changes. Such products are known as perfectly inelastic. There are very few products that would give this result. Even products such as bail to get out of jail pending trial will depend on the consumers ability to pay, and taxes, which supposedly offer no choice to the consumer, are also somewhat elastic as tax evasion has been shown to increase as tax rates rise. If the value is a fraction, between zero and 1, the quantity demanded will change but at a lower rate than the price changes. This is known as inelasticity. So if you were to increase the cost of the good by 50%, demand would decrease, but by less than 50%. This is generally observed in products that are deemed vital or necessary to people, but which are supplied without much competition. It is most typical in monopolies. So for example, if there is only one electricity or phone company, an inc rease in prices will lead to less usage, but people cannot wholly stop using such goods and so the usage will only decrease by a small amount. Likewise, goods such as housing, basic foods, or fuel, even though there may be a variety of providers, will generally be of low elasticity because people are forced to buy a certain amount of these products no matter what the price may be. In these situations, it is common to find government regulation to guarantee fairness of the market. If the elasticity is 1, then the demand and supply change at the same rate as price. This is known as unit elasticity. An elastic good will be one where the value will be greater than one. This means that the quantity demanded will change by more than the price changes. So for example, if there were two identical farms selling identical apples, both located next to each other, and both sell apples for 10p each, you might expect that 50% of customers will go to each farm. However, if one of the farmers was t o increase his price to say 12p per apple, the vast majority of customers will now go to the other farmer. He will lose more than 20% of his customers for a 20% rise in price. This is most likely in markets of high competition. If the value for elasticity is infinity, then the product is perfectly elastic. There is only one acceptable price. Purchasers will buy everything you have at one price, but if you increase it by even the tiniest fraction, they will buy none at all. This exists in theory, and in some highly automated and computerised financial markets. Computers will dictate prices according to precise calculations and then will not deviate from this. Market structures The above explanation for elasticity shows the nature, and ultimate difference in the characters of different markets. One way you can classify various markets is by the price elasticity they will give. It may seem surprising that the huge differences between the New York stock exchange and school children spending their pocket money in a sweet shop, or between modern capitalism, Soviet style communism, and primitive barter based trading systems comes down to the issue of price elasticity, but this is one way of classifying markets and judging the degree to which they are similar or dissimilar. A person shopping for bread in the old Soviet Union, and a person waiting to be granted bail by a judge may appear to be in very different circumstances, but according to this market view, their position economically is very similar, they will accept what they are told, with little regard to price. However, future’s traders in global financial centres, spending billions or ever trillion s of dollars every day, are revealed to have a lot in common with children in a sweet shop, weighing the various combinations of price and utility that different choices will provide them. They will ruthlessly abandon a product that doesn’t pull its weight on their cost/ utility calculation. Conclusion Using these few principles that lie at the foundation of economics, and a few simple examples, we can see how economic principles can explain a huge variety of social situations and human interactions. This is why economics claims to be able to offer an understanding of all human activity and why some criticise its growing influence as painting a false or inappropriate picture of humanity. While economic principles can be applied to children making friends, people acting with kindness or religions offering comfort and guidance, the question is not whether economics can provide answers, but whether the answers it provides are appropriate. Bibliography Lipsey Chrystal, Economics, 10th ed. 2004, Oxford University Press Grant, Stanlake’s Introductory Economics, 7th ed. 2003, Longman Footnotes [1] Lipsey Crystal, p. 40 [2] Grant, p. 77

Hustler v. Falwell :: essays research papers

Hustler v. Falwell   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hustler Magazine versus Jerry Falwell was a case that involved many key elements. First of all it was a case that examined if a public figure such as Jerry Falwell could collect for emotional damages sustained to him by a parody that was published in an issue of Hustler Magazine. Secondly, did Hustler invade Falwell’s privacy by publishing the contents of the parody? The most important aspect of the case, that was under review, was if Hustler was in accordance with their First Amendment Rights, of freedom of speech, by publishing the parody.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The parody in question was published in an issue of Hustler in a faux advertisement for Campari Liqueur. In the advertisement entitled, â€Å"Jerry Falwell tells about his first time,† Falwell is portrayed as giving an interview. In the fake interview Falwell talks about his first sexual experience, which was with his mother, and describes how he was drunk and the experience took place in an outhouse. The interview also tells how Falwell doesn’t go out in front of the pulpit unless he’s â€Å"sloshed.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The district Court found Hustler Magazine liable for Falwell’s emotional distress and granted him 100,000 dollars in damages. However, the court did rule in favor of Hustler in that they did not invade Falwell's privacy since he was a public figure. They also ruled against Falwell’s libel claim, stating that Hustler did not publish anything that a reasonable person would misinterpret as the facts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The big argument in the case, when it was introduced to the Supreme Court, was if the District Court had deprived Hustler Magazine of their First Amendment rights. Since Hustler was a magazine of nationwide circulation and since Falwell is a national figure Hustler argued that the parody was in no way wrong since any reasonable person would identify it as humor rather than facts. The Court agreed and it found that Falwell should not be rewarded any damages.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Chief Justice Rehnquist presided over the case. In his statement of opinion Rehnquist acknowledged that the article wasn’t of the best taste. He also acknowledged that there isn‘t really a good way to distinguish between cases of this nature. His argument of this was since all jurors have different views and opinions that verdicts in cases such as this would be of opinion rather than clearly defined by the law. He acknowledged that not all speech is protected equally by the First Amendment but this case didn‘t possess such speech.