An overview of fashion design history

IntroductionManner is a heating issue in day-to-day life, which is near to about every facet of society. As the enlargement of globalization, manner companies are seeking to more chances in international market by set uping subordinates all over the universe. Harmonizing to Helen ( 1965 ) , manner design is utilizing dedicated art in vesture and accoutrements to set up a alone manner. In today ‘s manner field, Italy is considered in the prima topographic point for its elegant and dedicated manner. However, France and Japan are besides produce first-class interior decorators who have gained international repute in manner design and set up celebrated trade names. The history of manner design could be dated back to 19th century with Charles Frederick Worth to run up label into the garments, and merely vesture created after 1858 could be considered as manner design1. During that historical period, most manner interior decorators are freelance in a family-based vesture store and supply design service to single client, which are rather different from today ‘s forte shops or high-fashion section shops. During the whole twentieth century, manner design had bit by bit been developed consistently and has become an of import industry in society. It is hence utile for analysing the manner history of 20th as a usher for the new century ‘s development. This essay will pick up specific decennary between 1940 and 1950 as the research mark.Background information of twentieth century manner designThe development of manner design in twentieth century has experienced a alone procedure. The first decennary of the century was a period to prosecute ne w component into the design ( Baudot, 1999 ) . The outgrowth of new female coevals and solid tendency in humanistic disciplines had stimulated manner design to unite new elements. The Europe tendency was still focused on elegance and grace, while U.S tendency was developed to natural manner, provided a measure from the dedicated manner of 19th century. Between1910-1919, there was a great alteration in manner design influence by Deco humanistic disciplines. The distinguishable character of Deco humanistic disciplines was the usage of heterosexual and folded line. It brought a boylike manner in the manner design to follow a conciseness manner and add some eastern elements. During following decennary, the manner design added girlish manner to the apparels and go on to maintain the young person elements in the design. Chanel ‘s manner created by combination of coat, skirt and frock privailed and expanded until presents. Another feature is the attending on athletics apparels design . There is besides manner design tendency in China with the amend of traditional cheong-sam. 1930-1939 was an of import decennary for the manner design. In reaction to the economic crisis, the patch-up skirts which represented economy appeared. Then a long skirt lap prevailed until the Second World War. The broken of war stimulated a tendency of nostalgic new Victorian manner. Another of import part of this decennary is the constitution of modern manner design standards, uniting the elements of elegance, beauty and gustatory sensation to stress the corresponding of apparels and fortunes. The following decennary, besides the mark period in the research, is 1940-1949. The epicurean manner during the war clip was restricted by jurisprudence and moral codifications. Practicality had become a standard for manner design. The pursue of map made the adult females apparels be input more male elements by the prevail of ground forces apparels and frocks. The war clip besides provided America w ith the opportunity of developing its ain manner design alternatively of wholly trusting on Europe.Purposes of the researchPresents, manner interior decorators create their original work to show their alone gustatory sensation and manner. However, they besides produce plants to follow the bing manner tendencies. They are hired by mass market makers to make apparels for work forces, adult females and kids. The most successful interior decorator trade names today are those trade names with long history, such as Chanel, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton. It took them old ages to set up and develop their places as manner icons. In respect to the historical context, 1900-1950 is a really of import revolution in manner history, industries started more originative on the design of their apparels. Fashion design corporations have to bring forth their ain trade name with high quality and repute to last and vie in the promising market. To specify and understand what constitutes manner design a nd how manner design has emerged in today ‘s clip as topographic point the manner design in certain imperative clip periods is of import manner to understand manner industry. The purpose of this research is to present manner design in the decennaries of 1940-1950 to research the relationship between manner design and a series of factors, such as humanistic disciplines, wellness & A ; beauty, scientific discipline & A ; engineering, and so on.Fashion Design and Its Related FactorsHumanistic disciplinesBefore twentieth century, manner design is merely a inactive contemplation of humanistic disciplines. When came to twentieth century, particularly the decennary between 1940 and 1950, manner interior decorators were willing to cooperative with humanistic disciplines. They combined their design with major humanistic disciplines genre. Schiaparell ‘s desk apparels and laniate apparels are representation of super-realism ( Buxhaum, 1999 ) . During this period, the popular music tendency was bop and large set. In the dance country, swing, swing and fox-trot was in the warming place. All the tendencies in humanistic disciplines have influenced manner design deeply. All this new thoughts brought manner market into a new coevals. At this clip, endeavor were usually operation by interior decorators them or household concern.Politicss and current eventsThe most influential event during this period is the Second World War. War as an of import factor to alter the history of human being, every bit good as the development of manner design. During the decennary after the Second World War, manner design had a great transmutation. Women ‘s manner of the beginning of the decennary was masculine, and by the terminal of the decade2 it changed to highly feminine. During the war clip, the manner design manner was changed from elegance, dedicated to conciseness, while it was emphasized on feminine once more after the war. Furthermore, the pursue of practical map durin g the war clip enabled the manner interior decorator to add more male elements in planing female apparels, some even used male mode into adult females design ( Marsha, 1993 ) . The strictly limitation on dressing was besides carried out in several states, for illustration, there was a point system in Britain to curtail the dressing manner of adult females, set out a series of regulations to take adult females ‘s dressing manner ( Janet, 1977 ) . This sort of limitation non merely set on female dressing, but besides guided male ‘s manner of dressing. Male ‘s unvarying manner was most affected portion such as public-service corporation suit of Britain and victory suit of America ( Boucher, 1987 ) . The whole decennary was dominated by the wartime practical map and the after-war feminine manner.Health & A ; athleticsAfter 1945 a series of radical alterations took topographic point in athleticss clothe. First, slipover frocks, underwear and gym tops frequently used new scope of man-made fibers which suited in the early yearss of production to knitted cloths. During the 1950ss, some earlier innovations and new usage of man-made fibers peculiarly nylon combined with practical techniques developed in military vesture were introduced into civilian production. For illustration, goons that were concealed in cervix neckbands ; pockets in jacket foreparts which were designed to hive away snack nutrients ; baseball mitts with nothing pockets for ski base on ballss ; elastic inserts in the sides of ski bloomerss and stirrup straps underfoot made for pull on, draw off apparels. These characteristics are expected by us automatically today. In add-on, nylon running trunkss and cotton vests3 were adopted by jocks. Zip up parkas and parkas were taken onto the sports and athleticss field, though pant undersides frequently appeared to be uneven, they helped to maintain off the iciness. Stretch garments became rather popular by the mid 1960ss ; and one attractive advantage was the comfort factor of being able to travel with a garment.Hair & A ; beautyIn this decennary the most popular hair manners is braids curled and rolled longer. The film stars of that clip such as Veronica Lake and Lauren Bacall gave the best presentation of the long curling manners. Though seting your hair up into compact elegant up-dos was the standard manner for nuptialss and proms, this sort of occasions became rarer and rarer. World War II to a great extent influenced the beauty industry in this decennary. The manner, cosmetics used and beauty criterions were affected by the temper of sad and depression. As Ingrid Bergman showed in the 1942 film Casablanca, a typical beauty manner should seek to show serious, glamourous in a really subdued, sophisticated way4. A wholesome expression was much more acceptable than showy. The temper for surplus and flamboyancy was considered as inadequate, both because the effects of the Depression still were act uponing people ‘s life, and because a batch of American immature work forces were directing to European battlegrounds to contend and decease.CelebrityThe manner icon in this period was Rita Hayworth. The Great American Love Goddess was born in Brooklyn, New York. She represented the most stylish manner of 1940s in the films of â€Å" The Strawberry Blonde † ( 1941 ) , and â€Å" Blood and Sand † ( 1941 ) . The musicals â€Å" You`ll Never Get Ric h † ( 1941 ) and â€Å" You Were Never Lovelier † ( 1942 ) , both with Fred Astaire, â€Å" My Gal Sal † ( 1942 ) , with Victor Mature, and â€Å" Cover Girl † ( 1944 ) , with Gene Kelly, made her a musical star and a favorite pinup miss of American military mans during WWII ( Stach, 1987 ) .Science & A ; engineeringThe development of scientific discipline and engineering enable manner design develops from hand-made household workshop to the machinery production. The importance of client design began to be recognised. As the betterment of industry engineering, the off-the-rack apparels were considered to be the major issue during this period. The scientific discipline of human organic structure stimulates the constitution of comprehensive size system for apparels. The engineering besides made the fabrication of apparels divided into three classs: Haute Couture apparels, senior off-the-rack apparels and ordinary off-the-rack apparels. Meanwhile, the enlarge ment of stuffs scope provided sufficient footing for interior decorators to show their alone manner in their chef-d'oeuvres. Although the conflict broke out over the universe, new merchandises came out at the same clip. Nylonss were sold to the populace in 1940 when the conflict of Britain started. In the following twelvemonth, Nipponese attacked Pearl Harbour, and the landrover was invented in the same twelvemonth. In 1942, when the conflict of Midway and the conflict of Stalingrad broke out, T-shirt was introduced to the populace. Furthermore, the promotion of societal scientific discipline besides played great function in the manner design within the period. Peoples established positive attitudes towards beauty every bit good as manner design and were tolerance on prevailed tendencies, which enabled some subculture tendency become popular in the mainstream of the society.Decision1940-1950 was an of import period in manner design due to the influence of World War II. Affected by the war, many manner corporations closed such as Maision Vionnet and Maison Chanel, while others relocated in New York ( Turner, 1958 ) . Paris ‘s prima topographic point was still continued although Germany was taking half of Gallic fabrication and was sing relocate the original Gallic haute couture to Berlin. The religion of manner design was established and developed rapidly ( Peacock, 1998 ) . Its enomous alteration was driven by several factors include humanistic disciplines, political events, hair & A ; beauty, scientific d iscipline & A ; engineering, etc. Conduct research on this specific decennary is non merely dating back to the history, it is besides provides sufficient information for the development of manner design in the new century.Mentions:Books:Baudot, F. ( 1999 ) A Century of Fashion. London: Thames & A ; Hudson Ltd.Boucher, F. ( 1987 ) A History of Costume in West, London: Thames & A ; Hudson Ltd.Buxhaum, G. ( 1999 ) Icons of Fashion, the twentieth century. New york: Verleg.Helen, B. ( 1965 ) . The Theory of Fashion Design, New York: John Wiley and Sons.Janet, A. ( 1977 ) . Patterns of Fashion 2: Englishwomans ‘s Dresss and Their Construction c. 1860-1940, Wace 1966, Macmillan 1972. Revised metric edition, Drama Books.James, L. ( 1979 ) . The Concise History of Costume and Fashion, Abrams.Marsha, H. ( 1993 ) . The Way We Wore: Manners of the 1930s and 40s and Our World Since Then, Fallbrook Pub. Ltd.Peacock, J. ( 1998 ) Fashion Sourcebooks, the 1940s. London: Thames & A ; Hudson Ltd .Stach, L. ( 1987 ) . Hollywood and Seventh Avenue: The Impact of Historical Films on Fashion, in Hollywood and History: Costume Design in Film, Los Angeles CountyTurner, W. ( 1958 ) . The Mode in Fashion, 1942 ; 2nd expanded edition New York: Scribners.Web sites:hypertext transfer protocol: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Frederick_Worthhypertext transfer protocol: //www.artdesignfashion.com/timelines/hypertext transfer protocol: //www.fashion-era.com/sports_fashion_until_1950.htmhypertext transfer protocol: //www.lphouse.com/hairstyles-1940s.htm

Is Gatsby’s Dream Defeated by Nothing More Than Time Itself? Essay

Top of Form F.Scott Fitzgerald have set up in his novel â€Å"The Great Gatsby† the different views of how â€Å"ultimately, Gatsby’s dream is defeated by nothing more nor less than Time itself.†, such as Gatsby’s inability to diffrentiate between reality and illusion and his build-up of unrealistic dreams. However, there are also other ways in which his dream can be defeated, other than time itself. The significance and importance of the presence of time as well as other significant factors are both heightened by Fitzgerald’s skillful use of range of key techniques such as symbolism, metaphors, foreshadowing, characterisation to effectively convey the extension of my agreement towards whether or not Gatsby’s dream is defeated by time. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s inability to distinguish between reality and illusion to speak of the defeat of his dream through Gatsby’s ideal persona and through the act of his house as a metaphor. Gatsby’ s downfall seems to be result of his inablity to see through and beyond illusions- especially when â€Å"he sprang from his platonic conception of himself.† We can see that it’s the attempt itself and the firm belief that he can achieve the impossible that is more than the sum of his reality. Gatsby conforms to the ideal of himself that can transform reality to possibility. Therefore, using this to his advantage Gatsby ha crafted Daisy into the ideal woman that he wishes her to be. Fitzgerald writes: â€Å"There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams–not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion.† As a reader, we can all recognise that Daisy is only a regular, rich western girl. However, because Gatsby has made her more perfect than she actually is in his imagination,this suggests that the â€Å"colossal vitality of his illusions† of Gatsby, the idealized version of himself is what thrown him into the idea that Daisy is perfect. By doing this, I think that Fiztgerald intends to critisize how people in the 1920s blindly giving meaning to the idealism of the American Dream, as much as Gatsby is trying to give as much perfection to his own love, Daisy. Furthermore, another idea of illusion present in Gatsby is his â€Å"failure,  incoherent of a house.† By describing his house as a failure and by using the word â€Å"incoherent†, the mansion is suggestive of the measure of failure of the democratic ideals. For many years, Gatsby presented his house with demoractic ordeals to enhance his aristocratic image and wealth. Therefore by doing this, Gatsby has hidden away traces of himself which further deepens his illusions and driven him to live in it, as much as his house is an unrealistic object he uses to only impress Daisy. Thus, I do agree that Gatsby is driven by his illusions to an extent that when he faces with reality when Daisy leaves him, he realizes that his dream is gone forever. Fitzgerald also uses Gatsby’s desire to rewind time to show how his dream is defeated, through the manner of Gatsby and the symbolism of the clock in Nick’s house. After Gatsby’s tale with Daisy begins with he fa lling in love with her in 1917, he is devastated to see her married with Tom. When Nick says â€Å"you can’t repeat the past† and Gatsby confidently replied with â€Å"of course you can, old sport.† This determination in Gatsby’s saying manage to highlight his desperation and longing to return to the past, where all of his memories and Daisy were stored. At one point his nervousness during his first meeting with Daisy in Nick’s house, he â€Å"knocks a broken clock off the mantel, catching it just before it hits the ground†. The readers can see that this clock goes beyond Gatsby’s nervousness, but is a symbolic nature of his desire for time to stop. In a way, the clock stopped at a specific point in time and is seen to be trapped, just as Gatsby’s life stopped when he was hit with the realization that while he was poor and the fact he could never have Daisy. He’s been so busy chasing a dream rather than enjoying reality, therefore like the clock, he is emotionally stunted in his mindset when he has loved Daisy in the past. Thus, I do agree that even though Gatsby’s dream is defeated by the presence of time, but time doesn’t stop for anyone and this also allow characters like Daisy to have a change of heart-Daisy is no longer a sweet girl Gatsby knew long time ago- but now a selfish woman with a voice â€Å"full of money†. The obsession of wealth that caused Daisy to love Gatsby’s superficial image only proves to us that repeating the past under the influence of the American Dream is impossible. Other than time itself, Fitzgerald also uses comparison to show the hopelessness in Gatsby’s defeated dream even before he was bornt. Nick finishes his story when he â€Å"became aware of the old island here that  flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes- a fresh green breast of the new world.† Fitzgerald have created the imagery of explorers travelling long distances, from East to West, to escape from their corrupted nations. The use of â€Å"Dutch† people here suggests their root coming from the western, and when America was found, they â€Å"flowered† of a new nation of peace and moral status. However, we can see that America itself is now corrupted- highlighting that despite the fact the Dutch wants to create something new and of value, the fact that their root coming from corruption doesn’t go away, and instead brought karma with them here tchuo the new land. Therefore like the Americans, characters in the Great Gatsby travelled west to east in search for wealth while leaving behind the social and moral values, and thus implies how Fitzgerald successfully present to the readers how people like Tom and Daisy- their immorality and purposelessness were created. Like the others, Gatsby choose this way and since he cheated his way to success, his dream failed due to the class distinctions that were present even before his existence. Gatsby’s American Dream is seen to be achieving Daisy, but when Gatsby is no longer the man she used to love, but rather a man of great success and prosperity, this proves to us the heartlessness in characters like Daisy that’ s in contrast to the basic nobility of Gatsby’s character. Thus, I do disagree that even though Gatsby can’t defeat the power of time, his dream is already out of his reach since young. However, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s build-up of sentimental dreams overtime to prove that he’s defeated by time. Gatsby set out to reach for his dream when he met his Dan Cody. During the time he travelled with Cody, he experienced a glamorous life and began to dream of a bright future where Daisy is present in it. At the end of chapter 1 Nick saw Gatsby â€Å"stretched out his arms towards the dark water† tat is a â€Å"single green light at the end of the dock.† For a long time the action of Gatsby â€Å"stretched out† is a representation of the future that he longs for. The â€Å"green light† at the end of Daisy’s dock symbolizes Gatsby’s hopes and dreams of an ideal life though he’s oblivious to the unattainable nature of his wishes. However, Gatsby reaches not only for Daisy herself but for this idea of Daisy and the utopian future he associates with her. Nick muses that â€Å"it had not been merely the stars to which Gatsby had aspired on that June night.† In a sense, the readers can see that Gatsby is reaching for the stars as well. He heavily idealizes all of his dreams and builds  them up on a stellar level-so much to an extent that he loses track of time. I think Fitzgerald intends to do this in order to criticize and reveal the nature of the American society led by capitalist system, of creating false hopes for the nepotism in the roaring 1920s through characters like Gatsby living vicariously through the upper class society. Therefore, I agree to an extent that Gatsby is defeated by time because of his failure to pick up the facts that his dreams only exist as memories. In conclusion, Fitzgeral have displayed throughout the novel many aspects of how Gatsby’s dream is defeated by time and aspects of not only time itself. However, I think I would agree that Gatsby’s dream is largely been affected by the importance and presence of time in the novel- the last line of the book summarizes Gatsby’s struggle as â€Å"boats against the currents, born back ceaselessly into the past.† Though the green light symbolizes everything Gatsby wishes for, it directs him backwards in life instead of forwards. He never manages to understand that time doesn’t stop for anyone and move on. This also criticizes the cruel American society during the 1920s it leads to chaos and betrayals, it leads to destroying others who’s trying to reach their goals. Characters like tom and daisy were created and the American Dream failed everyone who tries satisfying themselves.

Pygmalion effect Essay

Would you go under the knife to enhance your career opportunities? Why or why not?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If financial resources are not an issue, it would be best to consider cosmetic surgery if doing it would make a people feel more confident about themselves. While the idea of obtaining skills and looking good can uplift chances for career advancement, physical appearance has become a primary source of confidence for everyone. Hirsch (1988) indicated that cosmetic surgery, good dental care, hair transplants, and anti-wrinkle drugs have been ways not only to improve social lives, but also to enhance career opportunities. Most people now view that the price of cosmetic surgery has become reasonable to think that the results would increase their self confidence and marketability at work. In a survey conducted by the American Academy of Facial and Plastic Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), they indicated that 43 percent of cosmetic surgeons said most male patients were undergoing procedures for career reasons. Actually men would choose nonsurgical procedures often like fat injections, Botox injections and microdermabrasion than surgical procedures because these permit them to return to work very quickly. In an interview, cosmetic Surgeon William Silver said that 10 percent of his male patients tell him they â€Å"want cosmetic surgery to ensure they aren’t overlooked when it comes time for a promotion† (Palmquist, 2004). Some researchers also revealed that physical improvements definitely produce greater psychological and emotional benefits, which would help a person enhance his or her career path. More research claim that doors are more open to really good-looking people (Crampton and Jitendra, 1995). This is why there is no harm in availing cosmetic surgery to look good and feel confident when it means it will make you a happier and more productive individual that would translate to greater chances to notch better opportunities at work. What negative stereotypes are fueling the use of cosmetic surgery to change ones appearance? It is said that stereotypes can often lead to poor decisions, can create barriers for people like women, older individuals, people of color, and people with disabilities, and can undermine loyalty and job satisfaction (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2004). In case of using cosmetic surgery to change appearance, the negative stereotype working is that the concept of better looking people are better workers than plain looking people. This concept of being biased to appearance can apply to age discrimination too, where younger people tend to ignore or put down ideas provided by older people because they think it’s not applicable anymore or â€Å"old school†.   This is why most aging workers would choose to go under the knife because they do not want to appear older and keep up with the younger competition. To what extent does the Pygmalion effect, Galatea effect, and Golem effect play a role in this case? Explain   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with the statue he made that he prayed to Aphrodite to make this statue a real person. Aphrodite heeded the request of Pygmalion and the statue became real, in the person of Galatea. The essence of this story in our case is that Pygmalion effect or self-fulfilling prophecy maintained that people’s expectations or beliefs determine their behavior and performance, thus serving to make their expectations come true. In short, people strive to validate our perceptions of reality, no matter how faulty they may be. Thus, the self-fulfilling prophecy is a vital perceptual outcome we need to better understand because it can make or break any employee’s self-concept and achievement (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2004).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The self-fulfilling prophecy can explain the results of how bigger expectations can turn out to benefit the regular workers to obtain their maximum potential. Kreitner and Kinicki (2004) presented a model (Figure 1) that attempted to outline how supervisory expectations affect employee performance. It exhibited that â€Å"high supervisory expectancy produces better leadership (linkage 1), which subsequently leads employees to develop higher self-expectations (linkage 2). Higher expectations motivate workers to exert more effort (linkage 3), ultimately increasing performance (linkage 4) and supervisory expectancies (linkage 5)†. Figure 1. Model of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (Source: Kreitner and Kinicki, 2004) On the other hand, the term Golem effect represents the negative side of the performance enhancing process. The Golem effect is what you call to a â€Å"loss in performance resulting from low leader expectations†. For example, when a manager sees a tattoo on particular employee and thinks that this employee is a trouble-maker, he or she will be watchful of this characteristic. The employee will soon observe the suspicions of the manager and will soon screw up to validate the ill expectations of the manager. Thus, the Golem effect is the entire opposite of the Pygmalion effect. Based on this case and what you learned in this chapter, do the skills that come with age and experience count for less than appearance in today’s organization? Discuss your rationale. I think that age and experience counts the most than appearance when it comes to knowing the right skills needed in today’s organizations. Although appearance is important, today’s organizations are already frowning upon discriminating people with regards to how they look and their age. It is important that we recognize the fact that everyone has the potential to increase his or her performance, even without undergoing plastic surgery or looking better. It all boils down to how employees feel about themselves, how they respect each other and how satisfied they are in their jobs.   Works Cited Crampton, Suzanne M., and Jitendra M. Mishra. â€Å"Developing and packaging the total corporate image† SAM Advanced Management Journal 60.3 (Summer 1995): 30-40. Hirsch, Jean Edward. â€Å"Vanity prompts more people to risk plastic surgery despite cost†. New York Times (July 14, 1988). Kreitner, Robert and Kinicki, Angelo. Chapter 7: Social Perception and Attributions, Organizational Behavior, 6th ed. NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004. Palmquist, Susan. â€Å"Handsome ambitions†. Psychology Today 37.4 (July-August 2004): 33.

Program for action research in Mi9 Melbourne Thesis

Program for action research in Mi9 Melbourne - Thesis Example The systems are proposed to be supplemented by a hardcopy and email feedback systems for the services of the Mi9. Results from the workshops and the email and hardcopy feedbacks are proposed to be consolidated by a research supervising group and presented to management for use in change management. Program for Action Research in Mi9 Melbourne Table of Content Abstract 1 I. Introduction 3 II. Review of Literature: Action Research and Soft Systems Methodology 6 III. Action Research Program 9 A. Problem Definition 9 B. Objectives 11 C. Research Design, Framework & Methodology 11 D. Basic Steps of Applications 13 1. Identifying the problem 13 2. Viewing the problem form several perspectives 14 3. Selecting perspectives and identifying root causes 14 4. Modelling the problem or how the problem can be solved 15 5. Identifying the limits of the model and reality 16 6. Identifying the changes that must take place 16 7. Identifying the action the action that must take place 16 E. Data Gatheri ng and Processing 17 F. System Iteration/Validation 18 G. Installing Solutions to Problems Identified, Continuity and Change Management 18 IV. Research Implementation Gantt Chart 19 Program for Action Research in the Commercial Sales and Client Services of Mi9 I. Introduction Change management is â€Å"making changes to a certain method or system in an orderly, systematic fashion to make sense out of the organizational chaos that is permeating the company, its suppliers and vendors and most importantly its customers† (Ledez, 2008, p. 112). Ledez (2008, p. 112) elaborated that change will be internal----which means â€Å"that the change will take place within the confines of the company and not outside the ‘walls’ of the organization.† Yet, Ledez (2008, p. 112) pointed out that even if the change must take place internally, â€Å"the reason for the change may be completely externally oriented.† However, I add that the urgency and necessity of change may arise precisely because the internal characteristics of the organisation may have failed to adjust after several years of changes taking place in the external environment. This work focuses on the process of change in a corporate setting. The corporate setting is Mi9 with its official website at http://mi9.com.au. Through its website, Mi9 declared itself as â€Å"one of Australia’s leading digital media companies, with the potential reach up to 69% of the population each month.† The company’s official website reports that Mi9 is a joint business between Microsoft and Nine Entertainment Company. The company was established in 1997 as an expansion of the â€Å"ninemsn† business which covers a number of products and companies. Mi9 services cover â€Å"publishing, online services, data strategies, consumer insights and advertising technologies† (Mi9, 2021a). Clicking the â€Å"About us† of the ninemsn website at http://ninemsn.com.au/ will l ead the internet user to the Mi9 â€Å"About us† webpage at http://mi9.com.au/aboutus.aspx. On the other hand, based on the Mi9 website, Mi9 covers â€Å"80+ premium content environments like ninemsn, Nine News, Wide World of Sports, The FIX, The Australian Women’s Weekly, Grazia and Woman’s Day† and these are only a few on the list of Mi9 services. Mi9 is â€Å"also home to Australia’

In the presence of horizontal product differentiation, there is a Essay - 1

In the presence of horizontal product differentiation, there is a tension between the desire to weaken price competition and the desire for increased market share - Essay Example A product has many dimensions and attributes such as technical and quality standards, design and service characteristics. An important distinction to be considered in product differentiation is horizontal and vertical differentiation. Vertical product differentiation is â€Å"where a firm’s product differs from its rival’s products in respect to quality† (Jobber, 2004, p. 145), whereas in horizontal product differentiation, the firm tends to differentiate its products in terms of features, while maintaining the same quality. The costs of products that are produced with horizontal differences do not vary to a great extent, as the production processes are similar for these products and hence it is common for these products to have the same price. However, this differs from the customer’s perspectives. The availability of a larger variety of products will increase the chances of the customer finding the product that closely meets his requirements and hence can increase his surplus. Moreover, horizontal product differentiation will enable the firms to sell its products to new customers, by meeting their needs and this will lead to the overall growth of the company (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington, 2006). Horizontal product differentiation has made it possible for a firm to produce different products of roughly the same quality with a difference in the list of features. This will lead to the production of new products with no increase in marginal costs. It is imperative to note that the presence of horizontal product differentiation has led to the conflict between the objective of weakening the price competition and the objective of increasing the market share. This is made clear by applying the spatial concept of Hotelling model to the concept of product differentiation (Hotelling, 1929). The price that a customer is willing to pay for a

The 8th Amendment to the US Constitution Research Paper

The 8th Amendment to the US Constitution - Research Paper Example One of the important amendments of the Constitution is the 8th Amendment and its significance lies in the fact that it has, though the years, promoted humane and civilized forms and methods of punishing criminals. This amendment is adopted from an ancient English law and incorporated into the US Constitution at the time its framers were drafting the basic law of the land. The History of the 8th Amendment The 8th Amendment to the US Constitution states thus: â€Å"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed and no cruel, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.† The 8th Amendment was first suggested by James Madison, the fourth president of the US, for inclusion to the US Constitution while the framers were working on its draft. The Commonwealth of Virginia, from where Madison hailed, had its own version of the passage incorporated in its Declaration of Rights. Its origin, however, was the 1689 English Bill of Rights. The inclusion of this passage in t hat law was to limit English courts from imposing punishments and fines that were excessive, cruel and unusual as was the practice of the English courts in the time of the House of Stewarts under King James VI who would impose such punishments such as quartering, boiling alive, disemboweling, decapitation and crushing criminals with heavy weights (Gill 114). On the other hand, the â€Å"excessive bail† clause was included in the 1689 law to prevent the English judges from circumventing the Habeas Corpus Act of 1969 by setting bail at very high amounts so arrested persons were unable to meet them. Finally, the â€Å"excessive fines† clause was also â€Å"intended to limit only those fines directly imposed by, and payable to, the government† (Excessive Bail 2011). Cases Involving the 8th Amendment Most of the cases decided by the US Supreme Court involving the 8th Amendment are related to the issue of the death penalty and its possible infringement of the â€Å"c ruel and unusual punishment† clause of the 8th Amendment. Some of the well-known cases involving the 8th Amendment are: Weems v US 217 US 349 (1910); Stack v Boyle 342 US 1 (1951); Furman v Georgia 408 US 238 (1972); Gregg v Georgia 428 US 153 (1976); Browning-Ferris Industries v Kelco Disposal, Inc 492 US 257 (1989), and; Austin v US 509 US 602 (1993). In Weems v US, the US Supreme Court held that the â€Å"cruel and unusual punishment† clause of the 8th Amendment can apply not only to court punishments, but also to legislative laws and rendered the punishment of 14 years of imprisonment with hard labor on top of civil and political disabilities as disproportionate to the crime of falsifying public documents. In Furman v Georgia, the Court ruled that the manner of imposing the death penalty in which there is an absence of standard to guide the jury as to when to impose the death penalty is â€Å"cruel and unusual† and therefore unconstitutional. However, in Greg g v Georgia, the Court clarified that the death penalty per se does not infringe the 8th Amendment so long as its imposition is not purely discretionary to the jury and laws exist that define the crimes that should be meted with the death penalty. In Stack v Boyle, the Court held that setting bail at an

Witchcraft Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Witchcraft - Research Paper Example People also get reminded of old hags when witches are being talked about. The image that people have of witchcraft has changes significantly in the recent past, this drastic change has occurred because of numerous movies made on this subject, several books have also been published on witchcraft which has again helped in changing the perception of the people about witchcraft. This paper will shed light upon witchcraft and paganism since 1815; modern day witchcraft will be discussed extensively in the following parts of this paper. â€Å"Before really getting into what Witchcraft is, perhaps we should take a look back at what it was—the history of it. Witches should be aware of their roots; aware of how and why the persecutions came about, for instance, and where and when the re-emergence took place. There is a great deal to be learned from the past. It's true that much of history can seem dry and boring to many of us, but that is far from so with the history of Witchcraft. It is very much alive and filled with excitement.† (Buckland, Raymond. P.1) Witches have often been banished from our society, they have been tortured beyond imagination and this image has to be changed.

Describe the Opium Wars in China that lead to the Treaty of Nanking Essay

Describe the Opium Wars in China that lead to the Treaty of Nanking. What were the most important factors that lead to the takeover by the West - Essay Example om China, but the monopolies existing among traders in China and unfair tariffs made it difficult for the East India Company to continue trading in silver and it finally resorted to trading opium for tea from China. Opium became very popular in China because during that time, there were difficulties in the economy and people in China were looking for a means of escape. The addictive drug opium provided just such an escape. Opium was prohibited but it was cheap and easy to acquire and the number of addicts kept increasing, at a substantial cost to society. People were trading silver and copper for opium, thus creating further losses to the economy. In the year 1838, Lin Tse-Hsu became the appointee of the Tao-Kuang emperor. Opium addicts were threatened, the drug dealing activities of foreigners were hindered by confiscating stores and demanding that they sign bonds guaranteeing their good conduct and other drug dealers were rounded up. However, all of these efforts did not prove to be a significant deterrent to opium trafficking, as a result of which Lin finally resorted to seizing 20,00 chests of British opium and burning it. This action was the direct cause of the Opium War, since Britain immediately declared war on China in retaliation for this gesture. The Opium War lasted for three years from 1839 to 1842. England was at a distinct advantage due to its superior naval and armed forces and it was able to defeat easily China in 1842. The Treaty of Nanking was formulated after this victory of the British and forced China to agree to several concessions. Firstly, Hong Kong was to be handed over to the British. Secondly, the ports of Foochow, Canton, Amoy, Ningopo and Shanghai were to be opened to foreign businessmen and missionaries. Thirdly, China had to pay 21 million silver dollars to the British. Fourthly, trade tariffs were to be moderated and transit inland fees were to be reduced. Fifthly, foreign officers were to be granted equal status as the Chinese

Media kit for small business. Galaxica Media Essay

Media kit for small business. Galaxica Media - Essay Example The role of media in the sustainability of business assumes importance as media largely act as a tool for communication and have a significant role in positioning the firm in the business market. This is completely in tune with the Morgan’s metaphors which states that the business leadership should have abilities to analyze activities and devise alternative strategies. The study would contain the media kit for the firm with regards to its maintenance of sustainability while including elements like company policies as well as financial and human resource strategies of the organization. Company Fact Sheet Company Name Galaxica Media Location & when it was founded Galaxica media was established in November 2010 in London, UK. The company is presently headquartered in London UK. Mission Statement The mission statement of Galaxica media is stated below: The company aspires to be a customized service provider that provides multimedia solutions to businesses. The company aims to provide clear and simple multimedia programs designed to meet the individual needs of retail as well as corporate clients. The company would also provide multimedia solutions at an attractive price and provide continuous customer support to ensure complete satisfaction of the customer. Products Offered Galaxica media is mainly engaged in the entertainment business industry with its main product portfolio being in the area of animations and multimedia. The company’s product offering includes customized support for web design and multimedia effects for the entertainment industry. The company also provides web design support to different organizations. The company also provides 3D visual interfaces to customers engaged in the business of providing fun and entertainment. The web design team helps different organizations to design their websites according to their individual needs. This includes use of high end graphics that are designed keeping in mind the individual needs of the customers. Customers Targeted Galaxica media targets corporate clients which includes participants of the media industry. The company’s customized products are largely being used by media houses for their entertainment programs. The main clientele of the company forms the media a nd advertisement industry players who normally outsource some of their content creation and design to other players that have expertise in the area of graphics and multimedia. The clients of the firm also include business houses that generally outsource their web design aspect to include better graphics and looks. The company also targets different public sector organizations for design and development of their websites. Corporate Social and Ethical Responsibilities of the Company Corporate social responsibilities at Galaxica media would include strategies that tend to

Identify the artifacts produced on the images during CT scans.describe Essay

Identify the artifacts produced on the images during CT scans.describe the method used to reduce or remove these artifacts - Essay Example ion, movement of patients during the scanning process or presence of metals on the body, problems with the scanner or during the reconstruction process (Barrett & Keat, 2004). The various types of artifacts and the methods used for reducing their occurrence are discussed below. The most common physics-based artifact is beam hardening which is caused due to differential absorption of low and high energy photons of an x-ray beam as it passes through an object. Such beam hardening phenomena can give rise to cupping and streaking or dark band artifacts. Cupping artifacts arise when the x-rays passing through the middle portion of an object become hardened which causes a reduction in its attenuation rate resulting in an intense beam reaching the detector. Streaking is another common phenomenon where streaks or dark bands appear between two dense objects again due to the hardening effect. This is usually visualized in scans taken in bony regions (Barrett & Keat, 2004). The methods used to reduce artifacts due to beam hardening include filtration of low energy particles, calibration correction, and use of appropriate software algorithms to correct the hardening (Barrett & Keat, 2004; Huang, n.d; Petit et al, 2010). Presence of a heterogeneous tissue mix can result in a CT number that is an attenuation average of all tissue types which can in turn result in a partial volume artifact as bands or streaks. Presence of off-axis objects in the path of the x-ray beam can result in the appearance of shading artifacts in the scan image. Such artifacts can be avoided using thinner sections and image noise can be limited by combining thinner sections to form a thicker section (Barrett & Keat, 2004; Huang, n.d). This effect occurs in parts of the body where attenuation of the x-ray beam is greatest such as the shoulders and the hip. This results in low number of photons reaching the detector which causes noisy projections that are in turn magnified during the reconstruction

Coursework assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Coursework - Assignment Example It is estimated that the expenditure of US% 2 billion will boost the secondary school enrolment rate (expressed as a percentage of the secondary school age population) by about 6%, from the current figure of 55% to an estimated 61%. However, since the previous meeting of the committee, the country has experienced a financial crash. Senior representatives from the banks have been lobbying furiously for financial support to enable the banks to continue lending, in an attempt to avert a full-scale economic recession. They have argued that by providing emergency financial support now, the government can prevent the banks from shrinking their balance sheets, and maintaining a strong and vibrant banking sector is essential if the country is to achieve the targeted growth in its per capita GDP over the medium term. It has been estimated that US$ 2 billion allocated to the banking sector now will prevent a drop in the ratio of Private Credit by Deposit Money Banks and Other Financial Institutions to GDP, from the current figure of 0.52 to an estimated 0.38. You have been asked by the Minister of Finance to investigate the empirical evidence as to whether the sum of US$ 2 billion would be spent more effectively on boosting secondary school education, or on bailing out the banking sector. You can recall an empirical model that addresses exactly this type of question, which was presented in a series of tutorials/workshops in which you participated during your time as a masters student at Bangor University in the UK. You are concerned, however, that the data that were used in this exercise are now several years out of date, and you have decided that it would be a good idea to update the data and re-estimate the model. In order to complete this task, you have been assigned the following electronic resources: 1. An Excel file struct2.xls, which has been downloaded from Ross Levine's website, in which can be found data on the financial development indicator to be used in the empirical model, the ratio of Private Credit by Deposit Money Banks and Other Financial Institutions to GDP (see column M) 2. An Excel file tab396.xls, containing United Nations data on rates of secondary school enrolment per head of the secondary school-age population in selected years: 1980, 1990 and 1997 (see column BI for the 1990 data). 3. A link to the Centre for International Comparisons at the University of Pennsylvania website, from which you can download data on all of the other variables that are used in the model. http://pwt.econ.upenn.edu/php_site/pwt63/pwt63_form.php You intend to use these data sources to compile data for the following 50 countries: Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe Australia, Bangladesh, China*, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Phillipines, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Syria, Thailand When downloading Chinese data from the University of Pennsylvania website, select 'China version 2'. The specification of the empirical model is as follows: dlypci = 1 + 2lypc90i + 3lsecedi + 4govgdpi + 5openi + 6infli + 7crediti + ui where

Informative Paper Essay Example for Free

Informative Paper Essay Introduction I. Attention-Grabbing introduction: Staple center, Los Angeles, California. Friday November, 4th 2013 1:24PM The Championship match. After a weekend full of ups and downs, twist and turns it all comes to this. 1 week earlier, the previous Friday thousands have flown down to the heart of it all. Crowded around the event hall doors, people everywhere, spectators itching to get the best seats. Players going over in game builds, timings, and strategies just one more time until the doors finally open. 8 teams of 5 players to a team were seated into the week long tournament and now only two remain. Royal Club and SK Telecom are season veterans of League of Legends and now they sit on opposite ends on top of the world championship main stage. Ready to compete head to head for the grand prize of 1 million dollars in front of 1000s right there in Los Angeles and millions watching from all around the world. II. Topic: These millions from around the world have emitted their love for gaming into a hugely popular phenomena known as Electronic sports or better known as of E-Sports. Viewership has seen explosive growth in 2013 and is still growing with no sign of deterrence. Now with the integration of technology into our culture a new type of athlete has risen. One that doesn’t achieve victory heavily based on the bronze that is armed but with the critical thinking and reflex of the mind. An outsider might find this such a concept laughable but these pro gamers are far from any negative stereotypes you may have. III. Ethos Audience Adaptation: My name is Jonathon Allen and I have been a fan and member of the E-Sports community for nearly a decade. I have had opportunities to play professionally at the MLG North American Regionals in Columbus and New York  in 2012 which I have placed 2nd and 3rd in out of 30 teams. Over the years I have also conducting extensive research on E-Sports ranging from players and teams to the technology side of running and mending events in the industry. E-Sports can be a lot to digest for someone looking in for the first time so I’ll explain exactly what and how big E-Sports really is including the potential E-Sports has to expand and grow. Before we go any further I’d like to present this video to visually show you exactly what E-Sports is and most importantly what it feels like. Visual Aid! Body I.This is E-Sports, competition at its finest. Players competing for cash prizes ranging from thousands to millions. Top players make 6 figure incomes and are even sponsored by big corporations such as Monster, Intel, Redbull, Asus, and Kingston. Pro gamers are locked into head to head combat in games like League of Legends. A DOTA-MMO style game that’s played as a team of 5 people VS 5 people. The object of the game is strategizing on how to win by taking the enemies base while leveling up and generating gold. Most games usually last around 40 minutes. II.You may ask; why would someone watch someone else play a video game? That’s simple; the excitement from watching others play video games stands as the same excitement we get from watching other athletes perform at sports such as football. T.J. Heffer from PC gamer Magazine states â€Å"What makes any competition interesting is watching very skilled individuals struggle for victory in a setting where the outcome is uncertain and the moment to moment back and forth keeps you on your toes.† Heffer continuous â€Å"Rather or not you want to call them sports they showcase people with amazing critical thinking, planning, and decision making skills and frankly inhuman reflexes as well. The level of professional level in a game lie League of Legends is mind boggling.† Professional gamers put their heart and soul into the game. They have drive, passion, hard work and dedication just like any professional athlete you can think of. III.As I’m assuming E-Sports may be alien to many of you but in nations like South Korea games such as StarCraft have already become something of a national sport. Paul Tassi of Forbs Magazine said â€Å"Overseas, top players are treated like professional Athletes.† Though South Korea has become atoned to the notion of playing games professionally North America believe it or not is where the biggest interest for pro gaming lies. In North American E-Sports, leagues and organizations have risen and grown in the past 3 years. In of these leagues the biggest E-Sports organization is Major League Gaming or MLG. Founded in 2002 Major League Gaming features numerous tournaments in a year where various gamers fly out to major cities across the US like Columbus to compete. In MLG’s Annual Viewership Report for the 2013 season they reported 15 million unique viewers tuned into watch online during the 2013 season. As those 15 million viewers tuned in last year it’s clear that E-Sports has already landed a very stable footing into the hearts of Americans across the United States. But perhaps even more thrilling and exciting is the growth that E-Sports has already shown. Between 2010 – 2013 MLG has seen a 733% growth in viewership from 1.8 million to 15 Million. Comparing that to the NFLS record growth of 18% in the past 3 years that’s 715% more than the NFL. Let’s not down play the viewership of the NFL which has recorded a record of 28.1 Million viewers for their 2013 – 2014 season. But you start to understand thus to how much potential E-Sports has when MLG a company that’s only been around for 11 years has acquired a viewership of 15 million. Just a little above half of the NFLS record viewer count 28.1 an organization that has been around for nearly a 100 years. Conclusion With these statistics of expansion and with how overseas treats E-Sports like a national sport and with pro gamers possessing the same set of virtues that any professional athlete has along the millions around the globe that  already are a part of the community only drives E-Sports. It’s not really a question of is it, it’s really a question of when! When asked about where he sees E-Sports going and what to expect of the industry. MLG Co-Founder Sundance DiGiovanni in a position that puts him at the hell of the entire E-Sports industry told Forbs Magazine in 2012 â€Å"that in 5 years he expects E-Sports to be a globally recognized phenomena. A truly established global sport.†

Research Philosophy Is A Belief Management Essay

Research Philosophy Is A Belief Management Essay The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the research philosophy, approach, strategy that is relevant to this business research. In addition, data collection method that is conducted to address the research problems as provided in chapter 2 is also included. The research methodology will be based on the research onion as introduced by Saunders et al. (2009) Figure 3.1. Selecting the appropriate methodology is essential for the effectiveness of any research (Buckley, 2006). The right choice of the approach will help to make a more informed decision about the research design and strategy that will be consistent with the research topic (Easterby-Smith et al., 1993). In this section, a questionnaire is to be designed to support data collection and further analysis on the research hypotheses. Besides, ethical issues of this research are also included in the end of this chapter. 3.2 Research philosophy Research philosophy is a belief about the way in which data about a phenomenon should be collected and analyzed (Levin, 1988). It is significant with particular reference to research methodology because: (i) it can help the researcher to refine and specify the research methods to be used in a study, that is, to clarify the overall research strategy to be used, (ii) knowledge of research philosophy will enable and assist the researcher to evaluate different methodologies and methods and avoid inappropriate use and unnecessary work by identifying the limitations of particular approaches at an early stage and (iii) it may help the researcher to be creative and innovative in either selection or adaptation of methods (Easterby-Smith et al., 1993). Figure 3.1 Research onion Source: Saunders et al. (2009) According to Saunders et al. (2009), there are four research philosophies in management research including positivism, realism, interpretivism and pragmatism. The choice of research philosophy will therefore influence the development of the research. And although each research philosophy has its strengths and weaknesses (Neville, 2005), the author chooses philosophy of positivism for this study because of the following reasons. The philosophy of positivism research is considered a source of knowledge closely associated with the physical and natural sciences (Alavi and Carlson, 1992). The special features of positivism are seen to be a philosophical ideology and movement, and it has a certain influence in human perception (Birger, 2005). By positing a reality in separation of subject and object, the positivist paradigm provides an objective reality against which researchers can compare their claims and ascertain truth (Popper, 1972). Positivism is largely concerned with the testing, confirmation and falsification, and predictive ability of generalizable theories about an objective, readily apprehended reality (Chua, 1986; Orlikowski and Baroudi, 1991). The objective of positivism is to provide a valid logical foundation for empirical research, and simultaneously restrict the scope of human rationality in scientific study to discovery the efficient means with its aim to achieve the end goal Friedman (1953). 3.3 Research approach In their 2009 work, Saunders et al. referred to the two broad methods of reasoning as the deductive and inductive approaches. Deductive reasoning works from the more general to the more specific, meaning that it starts with a theory, and then hypotheses are developed and a research strategy is designed to test the hypotheses. Meanwhile, inductive reasoning moves from specific observations to broader generalizations and theories, meaning that theories are developed as a result of data collection (Saunders et al., 2009). In this study, the author chooses deduction research approach due to the following reasons: It involves the development of a theory that is subjected to a rigorous test (Saunders et al., 2009). It is the dominant research approach in the natural sciences, where laws present the basis of explanation, allow the anticipation of phenomena, predict their occurrence and therefore permit them to be controlled (Collis and Hussey, 2003). Deductive reasoning is more narrow in nature and is concerned with testing or confirming hypotheses (Babbie, 2001) and therefore, more suitable with the context of this study. 3.4 Research strategy Saunders et al. (2009) stated that research strategy is important as it will help to answer particular research questions and meet research objectives, and that the choice of research strategy will be guided by the research questions and objectives, the extent of existing knowledge, the limit of time and other resources available. The strategies as indicated in the research onion (Saunders et al., 2009) are: experiment, survey, case study, action research, grounded theory, ethnography and archival research. In this study, the author thinks that case study strategy is most suitable and consistent with the research objectives, for the following reasons: It is a strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence (Robson, 2002). It provides a better understanding and content theorization of the processes and context in which the practices of management control take place (Morris and Wood, 1991; Adams et al., 2006; Berry et al., 2009 cited in Simoes and Rodrigues, 2008). It can be a very worthwhile way of exploring and challenging existing theories and provide a source of new research questions (Saunders et al., 2009). It has considerable ability to generate answers to the questions Why, What and How (Saunders et al., 2009) that are raised in this study. According to Yin (1994), the case study methodology is the most suitable approach to answer the questions Why? and How? In this case, the questions we want to answer are: Why has the BSC been introduced as a performance measurement tool? and How is the BSC model evaluated via employees feedback? How is the relationship between those measures? The advantage of this approach lies in the possibility of achieving triangulation (Denzin, 1978) which is given by the possibility of using many data sources. 3.5 Research Method As indicated in the research onion by Saunders et al. (2009), mono method, multi-method or mixed methods can be used as the system of collecting data for research projects. In multi-method, quantitative and qualitative researches are used widely in business and management research to differentiate both data collection techniques and data analysis procedures (Saunders et al., 2009). Qualitative research method focuses on discovering and understanding the experiences, perspectives, and thoughts of participants-that is, qualitative research explores meaning, purpose, or reality (Hiatt, 1986). It is usually described as allowing a detailed exploration of a topic of interest in which information is collected by a researcher through case studies, ethnographic work, interviews, and so on (Harwell, 2011). Meanwhile, quantitative research method attempts to maximize objectivity, replicability, and generalizibility of findings, and is typically interested in prediction. Its key features are th e use of instruments such as tests or surveys to collect data, and reliance on probability theory to test statistical hypotheses that correspond to research questions of interest (Harwell, 2011). In supporting this studys objectives, the author chooses to use both qualitative and quantitative researches. It is hoped that the combination of these two methods will strongly support the development of this study in terms of data collection and analysis. Specifically, qualitative approach will be applied in this study via closed questions in questionnaires to obtain information with its aim to explain how the factors impacting BSC in current context of HSBC. Besides, data of research allows researchers to access and recognize population attitudes, perceptions, and ideas about particular social questions with a small sample, as well as practical knowledge (Swidorski, 1980). Accordingly, questionnaire surveys play an important role in helping researchers understand the principles of questionnaire design to explain results in an optimal and meaningful way (Slattery et al., 2011). 3.6 Methods of collecting data 3.6.1 Data source Data are facts, figures and other relevant materials, past and present, serving as bases for study and analysis (Dekeba, 2012). Therefore, data collection is an important aspect of any type of research study. Data gathered by different methods may provide different windows onto social world (Gilbert, 2008). On the other hand, inaccurate data collection can impact the results of a study and ultimately lead to invalid results (Afroze, 2010). Basically, data collection includes primary data and secondary data. Primary data is the data which is collected for the first time (Hair et al., 2011). Researchers discussed that the major advantage of primary data is that the information is specific, relevant, up-to-date and that they answer specific research questions that secondary data cannot. However, cost and time consuming are its main disadvantages (Onkvisit Shaw, 2008). Secondary data is the data which is not originally collected but rather obtained from published or unpublished sources (Jha Shah, 2009). Its advantage is that it can be quickly and cheaply obtained, however the most important limitation is that it may not be accurate and updated, therefore not meeting specific research needs (Saunders et al., 2009). In particular, both primary data and secondary data are used in the research with the purpose of providing an objective and multifaceted view on the topic. Secondary data retrieved from e-books, e-journals from the Universitys e-library, websites and HSBCs available internal sources and the banks internal and restricted reports on strategy, structure and procedures as inputs for chapter 1 and 2 and for designing questionnaires. Primary data is to be collected from a survey using questionnaires amongst HSBCs staff within the scope of this research. 3.6.2 Data collection method As mentioned by Saunders et al. (2009), three ways of primary data collection include Observation, Interview and Questionnaires. Observation involves the systematic observation, recording, description, analysis and interpretation of peoples behavior (Hodges Videto, 2011). The main advantage is that it allow researcher to witness behaviors, skills, record and reflect those in their research. However, it is possible that the researcher makes incorrect observations and interpretations (Kerlinger, 1988). Interview is defined by Kahn and Cannel (1965) as a purposeful discussion between two or more people. Interviews help researchers gather valid and reliable data that are relevant to their research questions and objectives but it is a costly method in term of time and money. The interviewer is also needed to be equipped with skills so that they do not interfere or mislead the interviewees with their questions (Saunders et al., 2009). Questionnaire is one of the most widely used data collection techniques widely in business and management research for descriptive or explanatory (Saunders et al., 2009). The term questionnaire is defined as a formalized set of questions with the purpose of obtaining information from respondents (Malhotra et al., 1996). According to Ackroyd and Hughes (1981), questionnaire has some limitations such as: (i) respondents can misinterpret the questions and therefore give incorrect answers, (ii) limited information can be retrieved due to formatted questions, (iii) low chance for the collector to come back and ask for clarification from respondents and (iv) respondents may not be willing to answer if they are not required. However, according to Afroze (2010), there are various factors influencing the choice of a data collection method, including research questions, resources available, scope of work, timeline, and so on. Further to this study, the author decides to choose collecting data using questionnaires rather than observation and interview approaches when considering all these factors and referring to the following advantages (Ackroyd and Hughes, 1981). Large number of responses can be collected from a large number of people in a short period of time and in a relatively cost effective way The results of the questionnaires can be quickly and easily quantified by the researcher or through the use of a software package It can be analyzed more scientifically and objectively than other forms of research When data has been quantified, it can be used to compare and contrast other research and may be used to measure change Positivists believe that quantitative data can be used to create new theories and/or test existing hypotheses Figure 3.2: Types of questionnaire Source: Saunders et al. (2009) As indicated by Saunders et al. (2009), there are two kinds of questionnaires including self-administered and interviewer-administered questionnaires. In this research, self-administered, delivery and collection questionnaire is used, due to the following rationales. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ It is more cost effective to administer than face-to-face interviews, convenient to respondents as they can complete it at a time and place that is convenient for them, reducing the possibility of interviewer bias, and is perceived to be less intrusive than telephone or face-to-face surveys and hence, respondents will more readily respond truthfully to sensitive questions (Eiselen et al., 2005). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ The responses are gathered in a standardized way, so questionnaires are more objective than interviews, and information can be collected from a large portion of a group (Milne, 1999). It facilitates generalization but on the downside, could lead to false conclusions (Deem et al, 2010). According to OLeary (2004), a well-designed questionnaire should meet the research objectives. It should give accurate and relevant information to the research questions and be clearly organized and presented in a way that ensures respondents fully understand the questions and provide accurate, unbiased and complete information. Accordingly, the author was trying hard on building a questionnaire that works in practice and meets the research objectives as elaborated in Chapter 1. In this research, the questionnaire is divided into six sections of 28 questions as described in Figure 3.3 below. They are designed to collect information regarding employees comments and feedback during the implementation process of BSC in HSBC. Figure 3.3: Allocation of questions and research content Section Description Question Section 1 Balanced Scorecard weighting Q1-4 Section 2 Setting objectives Q5-14 Section 3 Financial Q15-18 Section 4 Customer Q19-21 Section 5 Internal processing Q22-24 Section 6 Learning and growth Q25-28 It is a combination of a 5-point Likert rating scale (Likert, 1932) (1=strongly disagree; 2=disagree; 3=neutral; 4=agree; 5=strongly agree) and open-ended statements Please explainà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ to collect both quantitative and qualitative information. In other words, questionnaires include both quantitative and qualitative questions with which participants can choose one of the five ratings and explain their choice. This ensures respondents have the option to add their own views and feelings (Fisher, 2007) and, on the other hand, providing more information and facts to the author in doing research. It may take 10-15 minutes to complete a self-administered questionnaire. In general, the research is more about what employee experience is with the BSC than about getting a correct answer (Waal et al., 2009). In addition, it is necessary to have a questionnaire cover letter written in order to shortly explain to the respondents of the questionnaire what the survey is all about and what is the purpose of asking the questions (Kiernan, 2005). Considering the nature of this research, it is also essential to let people know that their participation is voluntary and that their data are anonymous and confidential. In this survey, 28 questions are designed in an attempt to get answers to 7 hypotheses as mentioned in Chapter 2, following are the general descriptions: Q1 is to classify sales and non-sales position of participants at HSBC. Q2 is to classify the seniority of the participants at HSBC. Q3 4 are to explore the proportion of the four perspectives of HSBC BSC. Q5 is about the effectiveness of BSC at HSBC. Q6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 19 are to explore positive effects of BSC at HSBC, in which Q6 is about strategy translation, Q8 about strategy link, Q9 about employee understanding, Q10 about tracking record, Q11 about clear communication, Q13 about feedback encouragement, Q14 about employee satisfaction, Q15 about long and short term link, Q16 19 about a clear focus on achieving targets. Q7, 8, 9 11 are more focused on employee understanding Q17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 are about potential relationships between four perspectives, in which Q17 18 are about relationships between financial and customer value and learning and growth, Q20 21 about relationship between learning and growth and customer, Q22 23 about relationship between customer and internal processing and Q24 about relationship between learning and internal processing. Q25, 26, 27 28 are more focused on learning and growth to figure out if it is the weakest point in HSBC BSC. All these questions are written in details in the Appendix 1 under a full questionnaire. 3.6.3 Sampling method Sample is a part of a population whose properties are studied to gain information about the whole (Webster, 1985). It is a process of selecting respondents form larger part for the purpose of a study. Sampling owns a lot of advantages. It saves time, costs and efforts, making data collection become more manageable as fewer people are involved, and the results will be available more quickly. And to ensure a sample is representative, it is suggested to obtain as high a response rate as possible. According to Saunders et al. (2009), sampling techniques help to reduce the amount of data needed to collect by considering only data from a sub-group rather than all possible cases or elements. Two types of sampling techniques are probability sampling and non-probability sampling. In probability sampling, sample units are selected randomly, whereas in non-probability sampling, they are selected based on the researchers judgment, convenience, or other non-random process (Blattberg et al., 2008). The choice of which technique is used in this research is made in favor of non-probability sampling. Due to the scope of work and the limitation of time, the survey is conducted amongst Premier Center staff only. Only 40 people are included in the survey, they are at different positions (teller, counter officer, service assistant, service manager, relationship officer, sales manager) and different levels of seniority (senior, junior, new joiner). And in this case, it is not necessary to launch a pilot test as recommended by Peterson (2000). There are two primary reasons. First, they are every day dealing with issues related to BSC systems, from setting objectives at the beginning to rating performance every mid-year or year-end. Their daily work and performance is directly subject to all measures of the BSC. Hence, a lot of opinions and feedback can be collected as a source of data collection. Second, they are all working in Premier Center that is the same workplace with the author, then the nature of working environment and the point of view can be quite identical and easier to approach. Moreover, response rate can be high and they are more willing to support the author in doing questionnaires with frank answers. It is believed by many observers that higher response rate will assure more accurate survey results (Rea and Parker 1997). 3.7 Framework of data analysis Figure 3.4 below provide a summary and connection between research objectives as mentioned in chapter 1 and related literature in chapter 2 and equivalent hypotheses as provided in regards to questions designed in chapter 3 to collect data and information for further analysis. Figure 3.4: Summary of chapter 1, 2 and 3 and relevance Objective O Literature Hypothesis H Question Q O1: To understand BSC as a performance measurement tool Performance Measurement and BSC H1: BSC and its perspectives act as an effective performance measurement tool Q5 O2: To identify positive and negative effects of BSC in HSBC Vietnam Positive and negative effects of BSC (9P3N: 9 positive 3 negative points) H2: There are relatively positive impacts of BSC in HSBC H4: There are relatively negative impacts of BSC in HSBC Q6-8-9-10-11-13-14-16-19 Q12 O3: To measure if HSBC BSC model is different compared to an ideal model What is an ideal model? (Norton, 2000) H6: The execution of BSC in a specific organization in practice is different with an ideal BSC Q3-4 O4: To evaluate the relationship between employee understanding of the organizations objectives with a well-performing organization What is a well performing organization? (Steward, 1999) H3: There is a positive relationship between a well performing organization and its employees understanding of its objectives Q7-8-9-11 O5: To analyze the causal relationships between 4 perspectives of BSC Relationship between four perspectives H7: There is a causal relationship between 4 perspectives of BSC in HSBC Q17-18-20-21-22-23-24 O6: To identify the weakest one of the four perspectives. H5: Of the four perspectives of HSBCs BSC, learning and growth is the weakest point. Q25-26-27-28 Due to the nature of this study and the limited timeframe, the author only uses simple formulas in excel 2007 to consolidate figures and analyze data. Analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative information collected from the survey as well as from the authors individual understanding of the subject. 3.8 Ethical issues Since people are the subject of research, it is very difficult to avoid falling into ethical issues (Monette et al., 2005). Therefore, approval has to be obtained from management to conduct this survey at Premier Centers, and a brief explanation of the purpose of the questionnaire is necessarily included in cover letter in order to have an appropriate approach and outlook from participants. In addition, the research topic is about Balanced Scorecard, which is in fact a relatively sensitive issue in terms of human resource management. It covers all employees and managers at all levels as well as issues concerning employees benefits, corporate governance, empowerment, motivation and retention policy and so on. As such, particular attention must be paid to the approach of gathering information from subjects in banking area which are considered to be sensitive, especially in HSBC where privacy and confidentiality is part of its code of conduct and execution. Being aware that disclosure of the banks information to third parties can put the bank at risk and result in operational and reputation loss, there are several points that need high commitment as follow. First, participation in this survey is entirely voluntary and the rights of respondents as human beings should be respected at all times (Cohen, Manion Morrison 2004). Second, for privacy concerns, no actual names of participants are to be revealed. Information provided by them remains confidential and will be reported in summary format only. Third, the content and results of this study are required to be kept private and confidential between the author and the professor only. As some restricted and highly restricted information has been used in this study, particularly highly sensitive and confidential performance data has been obtained, public access and reference are not allowed for any purposes. 3.9 Chapter summary This chapter on methodology enables the author to gain a rich understanding of the context of the research and the processes being enacted, therefore answering the why, what and how questions (Saunders et al., 2006). This section also provides a connection between itself with the research objectives in chapter 1, literature and hypotheses in chapter 2 by presenting research method and data collection via a list of questions to be worked on. Further in the next chapter, results and analysis on collected data will be discussed in details.

The Issue Of Cultural Relativism Human Rights Essay

The Issue Of Cultural Relativism Human Rights Essay When it comes to human rights, the issue of cultural relativism is widely discussed. Majority of the human rights literature encompasses the western and non-western argument on what best illustrates what human rights should be. As a result of these debates, comes the discussion of cultural relativism. Cultural relativism, at first glance, seems like quite a reasonable argument towards safeguarding different cultural groups. However when we begin to analyse the cultural relativism theory, we come to find that it is not quite as reasonable or even as practical as it seems to be. Cultural relativism seems to not only ignore human rights violations, but actually seems to approve them. Furthermore, it hardly disapproves any cultural or religious practices. Cultural relativism ignores the necessity to oppose violations and other human rights, and also ignores the freedom of choice to do so. This paper seeks to prove that there is no conceivable claim in supporting cultural relativism, and will discuss and analyse the issue of conflict between human rights and cultural relativism. This will provide some insight on how some scholars, anthropologist, philosophers, and political scientists have debated over this issue and how some of them have questioned the validity of cultural relativism in relation to human rights. I will discuss both cultural relativism and universal human rights and analyse the conflicts that have risen between them and their ensuing practices, as well as give examples to show the absurdity of the cultural relativist claim. I will conclude by p roviding evidence that shows that cultural relativists are indeed human rights violators, as well as show that their notion on cultural relativism proves to be highly contradictory and unreliable, now and in the future. The Human Rights Debate: Cultural Relativism versus Universalism 2.1 What is Cultural Relativism? The idea of Cultural relativism was developed by Franz Boas (1858-1942) in 1911. Robert Redfield described cultural relativism as values expressed in any culture are to be both understood and valued only according to the way people who carry that culture see things. Melville Herskovits gives an even more elaborate definition of cultural relativism as a philosophy which, in recognizing the values set up by every society to guide its own life, lays stress on the dignity inherent in every body of custom, and on the need of tolerance of conventions though they may differ from ones own. He continues by going on to say that each culture is said to constitute a total social world that reproduces itself through enculturation, the process by which values, emotional dispositions, and embodied behaviours are transmitted from one generation to the next. From the descriptions above, we can therefore say that cultural relativism is the principle by which a human beings beliefs should be perceived in accordance with his or her own culture. This concept of cultural relativism came about during discussions about the origin of human rights. There are quite a few ideas and claims that have led to the concept of cultural relativism, one of them being Kants argument that human beings are incapable of gaining unmediated knowledge of the world, and that the human mind interferes with all our experiences of the world, thus structuring our perceptions universally. However Herder disagreed with Kants argument saying that human experiences were mediated by cultural structures as well. As a result of this debate between Kant and Herder, came the belief of ethnocentrism. The Universal Human Rights Doctrine The Universal Declaration of Human Rights set the pattern for the contemporary conception of human rights.It was established as a result of the World War II atrocities as a means of protecting citizens and residents of various states. The conflict between the universal human rights doctrine and cultural relativism came about during the establishment of the Universal human rights doctrine in 1948. The conflict arose due to the theory that there was some kind of dominance over some cultures, and that the universal human rights doctrine come from European or Western philosophy. This doctrine was the Universalist approach to human rights that placed value on individuals. On the contrary, some theorists believe that the enactment of these human rights is not the only way that human rights exist. There is the theory that people are born with natural, God-given rights and that God is the absolute law-maker who bestowed upon us some basic human rights. For this reason itself, cultural relativism critics therefore argue that there should be no exception to the universal claim to human rights as some of these rights are already natural and God-given. 2.3 Cultural Relativism versus Universalism Now that we have defined cultural relativism and the universal declaration of human rights, one question comes to mind based on the two theories. Can universal human rights exist in a multicultural world? In other words, can the concept of cultural relativism really coexist with the notion of universal human rights? Naturally, cultural relativists argue that there are indeed moral justifications underlying the claim that various practices and beliefs differ from society to society and should be accepted as being relative to other cultural beliefs. For example, women in some cultures that undergo female genital mutilation are regarded as clean and pure. One culture may believe that there is indeed some moral justification towards this practice, as women who dont go through the cut are considered unclean and are seen as outcasts in their societies. On the other hand, a different cultural group may practice eating of dead bodies as a ritual. Cultural relativists would therefore claim that one cannot justly say which culture is right or wrong as this proves to be relative within different cultures. It is therefore possible to say that, from the cultural relativist point of view, there is no particular truth in what is right or wrong but rather the truth depends on what a particular culture believes is right or wrong. This observation in turn then brings me to my next point. If the views of the truth on what is right or wrong is relative, then the issue of morality definitely plays a huge role in this debate. Our moral beliefs indicate the kind of environment or culture we grew up in. Therefore, if we were born in Somalia, we would believe that it is morally right to go through female circumcision as a rite of passage. However, if we grew up in the western world, then we would not believe in female circumcision. We can therefore see the relativists argument of cultural relativism in this case, because if cultural relativism exists, then naturally, morality will also be relative. Additionally, to support his stance, the relativist will also argue that tolerance comes into play when it comes to cultural relativism. Contemporary society is often referred to as a multicultural world, with people from various cultures increasingly becoming accustomed to interacting with people from other cultures. As a result of this, the ability to learn to respect and tolerate different cultural practices and beliefs has developed. In todays society, people have shown an increased reluctance to criticise other cultures for various reasons. One of these reasons could be the fear of history repeating itself. An example of this is the European invasion of different parts of the world, including Africa, Asia and America, in the name of spreading Christianity and education. The aftermath of this resulted in slavery, apartheid and many other violations. The reluctance to criticise other cultures in this case arises from the fear of making the same violations as in the past. Another reason why there is the reluctance to criticise other cultures is that people feel the need to be tolerant of other cultures. Truth be tol d, tolerance is indeed essential for the sake of living in this multicultural world of ours peacefully. However, one should not feel obligated to tolerate particular cultural beliefs, especially if it involves some form of human rights violation. However, relativists can argue that tolerating these different cultural practises has led to the acceptance of some of these various practices especially in the western world, for example, the Muslim veil. The contradiction here comes about when these same Muslim women are undergoing various human rights violations as a result of their cultural beliefs, for example, female genital mutilation. In this particular case, is it possible for relativists to defend human rights as well as justify cultural relativism? This surely indicates some contradiction in the cultural relativism theory, for one cannot support cultural relativism and defend human rights at the same time. It is true that people from different cultures have different ideas of what is right and what is wrong. Warburton describes moral relativism as values held by a particular society at a particular time.However, moral relativism, just like cultural relativism can also be perceived in different ways by different cultures. In other words, relativists see that moral values are valid only within some cultural boundaries. Some examples illustrated by anthropologists as morally acceptable in some cultures and condemned by others are polygamy, genocide and sexism. Consequently, the moral difference in these cultures brings about the issue of ethics. Ethical relativism also promotes the belief that morality is, and cannot be universal. Moral relativism is therefore justified by relativist through various examples. For instance, practices regarding clothing and decency. This can be justified by one culture in that it is their moral obligation and duty to have women dress in a decent manner so a s not to compromise their ethics. Some cultures would therefore agree with these practises under the moral principle that it is the duty of society to protect the women of their society. With that beings said, I do not believe that there is any logical connection between cultural relativism and tolerance as is illustrated in the relativism point of view. Furthermore, I disagree with moral relativism because despite some moral beliefs being culturally relative, there are other beliefs that are not relative. Practices such sexism and dressing depend on the local customs and traditions. However, violations such as torture, slavery and genocides, should definitely have universal moral standards. Therefore not all practices should be deemed as being relative just because some practises are deemed as being so. The Asian Values Argument Today, there has been a tremendous improvement over the years towards the universal system of human rights. There is now the increased need for accountability and responsibility for individuals and society. However, this is not the case in Asian societies. The Asian society claims to come from a culture with an exceptional set of values. This was done while they criticised western ideas and culture. According to Asian values, human rights are culturally specific, communities take precedence over individuals, social and economic rights take precedence over political and civil rights, and rights are a matter of national sovereignty.This concept has therefore been celebrated by relativists, and used as an example to support the relativist theory of cultural relativism. The issue of Asian values was brought about during discussions by East and South Eastern government leaders. The Journal of Democracy explains that the basis of Asian values is said to contribute to high growth rates to certain cultural traits. These characteristics include hard work, frugality, discipline and team work. Western democracy hinders rapid development.With that being said, it was easier for relativists to justify their rejection towards universalism because there was an increase in economic growth in the Asian region that accompanied this debate. In the 1970s, some countries in the Sub Saharan region had tried to oppose these liberal views of the Western world. This proved to be unsuccessful as they did not harbour the same economic results as their Asian counterparts. In addition to this, as a result of the tremendous economic growth in the Asian region, the Asian values debate received the attention and even admiration of the international community. Asian authoritaria ns argue from a position of economic and social success. This has therefore presented a challenge towards the universal theory of human rights because developmentalists have used the concept of Asian values to justify cultural relativism, and have even presented evidence that has shown tremendous success in some Asian states. In spite of this, the Asian values argument has still proven to promote various human rights violations. An example of these human rights violations is the situation of the Harijans, or the people outside the Indian caste system, who had the lowest social status? The Harijans, are also referred to as the untouchables of the Caste System. In more economically advanced Asian states, the use of soft authoritarianism is said to be sufficient. Additionally another way in which cultural relativism in conjunction with the Asian values argument poses a threat toward universalism is the issue of technology. As we embrace the growth of information technology, we see that this improves globalisation as communication and other forms of interaction are enhanced. However, in states such as Malaysia and Singapore, there has been an establishment of authoritarian interferences by the government, where services such as the internet are being monitored or even blocked. This poses a potential risk and hindrance towards globalisation. In spite of the Asian values seemingly strong argument, the Asian regions success seems to have been short-lived as the decline in economic growth has somewhat changed the way in which the international community views their Asian values argument. With that said, if we really take all this into consideration, it is possible to see that it is ridiculous to create standards of morality based on these societies as every society perceives morality according to their own interests and interpretations. It is also quite impossible to permit these major differences in the interpretation of human rights standards, if they are to protect individuals. The Asian Values argument is therefore highly irrelevant, as we can see, because the Asian society places its citizens lives at risk as it violates various human rights in the name of Asian values and attempting to justify their actions as being culturally relative. Criticism of Cultural Relativism We live in a world where cultural relativism is constantly questioned and debated. As earlier stated, relativism came about as a result of arguments on ethical issues. In support of cultural relativism, Benedictexplains that cultures are coexisting and equally valid patterns of life, which mankind has created for itself from the raw materials of existence.According to Benedict, all cultures are equally valid as they embrace different views on morality and ethics. However, Kluckhohndisagreed with Benedicts doctrine on cultural relativism saying that this excluded any kind of moral criticism, his argument being that if one accepted Benedicts theory, then they could not, complain about any kind of evil against humanity including slavery, communism, terrorism and many other forms of evil.The perception of cultural relativism is that peoples rights depend on their nationality, culture, and religion. Therefore according to relativist, the rights of people in Nigeria are different from thos e in China or anywhere in the world. Namazie gives the following examples to demonstrate the absurdity of these cultural relativist claims; [1] An 18-year-old woman was burnt to death by her father after having refused to marry the man he had chosen, in Germany. The courts gave her father a reduced sentence, saying he was practicing his culture and religion. [2] In Iran, women and girls are forcibly veiled under the threat of imprisonment and lashes, and cultural relativists say that it is their religion and must be respected. [3] In Holland, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that Irans prisons are satisfactory for third world standards, allowing the forcible return of asylum seekers. With each of these examples, among all other forms of evil against humanity, we can clearly see that cultural relativism promotes these crimes. Namazie goes on to argue that the basis of the cultural relativist debate opposes the imposition of western views onto non-westerners. How, then, is it that when it comes to using the telephone, or the car, the mullah does not say it is western and incompatible with Muslim society?It is therefore safe to say that these countries are using the claim to cultural relativism as an excuse to get away with various human rights violations. Relativists using the imposition of western culture as an excuse does not hold water as these same countries still use western ideas in different aspects of their lives. Furthermore, these countries are, in fact, quite westernised societies. The fact that these are former colonies of the British and French empires, who now speak western languages, is proof of their westernisation. In addition to this, Namazie goes on to say that in respect to cultural relativists, there should be a clear distinction between human beings and human beliefs and cultures. She adds that human beings are the element of importance in the universalism-relativism argument and not their beliefs. She adds that human beings are sacred and worthy of the highest respect and it is human beings that are meant to be equal and not their beliefs.The reason as to why cultural relativism is deemed as racist and discriminatory is because, while the universal human rights doctrine aims to protect human beings as being the most sacred creature, relativists are seen as merely choosing to forgo the human being and are only worried about protecting their culture, which in most cases harms the human beings in their societies. Cultural relativism also promotes minoritism, as different cultures embrace the classification of people in their societies. For example, the Caste system of Hinduism which rejects equal treatment of different caste members in Hindu society. As stated earlier, these individuals are denied various rights such as education, healthcare and jobs. Cultural relativism, in turn, denies the victims of these situations any access to universal standards. Furthermore, since cultural relativism supports groups of cultures, it logical to say that individual rights in these cultures are disregarded. This means that individuals have no say in anything as society speaks for them and decides what is right or wrong for the individual. Moreover, Universalists believe that cultural relativism has caused more harm than good towards cultures. An example of this is the war in between Israel and Palestine. The Israeli culture claims that they are fighting to get their holy land, Jerusalem, back. However, th is war has killed thousands of Muslims in the name of doing what is culturally right in accordance with the relativist theory. In the past, anthropologists were not afraid to show their discontentment about various unjust practises such as Apartheid against South Africans and the acts of genocide performed by the Nazi. Today, however, they have not spoken against similar practises that endanger human life such as female circumcision and even genocide in Rwanda and Sudan. How, then is it possible for one to rely on a theory that contradicts itself in this manner? If we therefore reflect on these relativist theories, cultural relativism just seems very unrealistic and impractical. Conclusion All in all, although we learn about the virtue of tolerance from the cultural relativism theory, it is safe to say that the reason why we believe it is so important to be tolerant of other cultures is because we are also want to experience our own freedom, thus we do not want other cultures to criticize our own. Nobody wants to have their freedom restricted, and therefore if we want to enjoy the freedom to enjoy our beliefs we would not dare to limit the freedom of the beliefs of cultures we do not agree with. Furthermore, we can clearly see how overall, the cultural relativism theory seems to make sense. However, under careful scrutiny, it does not make for sound argument. It is obvious to see, just as Rachels argues, that the mere fact that there is no real truth when it comes to morality due to the difference in cultural beliefs, proves to show that the cultural relativism argument attempts to extract the definition of morality from the simple basis that people do not agree with it in the first place. While different countries have the right to demand their rights in various ways, there are fundamental doctrines that should be made universal. Dress, Language, food and other minor beliefs and traditions can vary, and cultures should be allowed the freedom to practice them. However practices such as slavery, sexism, female genital mutilation, and infanticide, among other human rights violations must be held up to universal standards. Cultural relativism is therefore not an answer to human rights concerns, nor will it be in the future.