Summaries of the articles Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summaries of the articles - Article Example The course that I am doing is purely about marketing. It involves who businesses should correctly market themselves in order to achieve the competitive advantage. The factors that affect the business environment are the same things that appear in my course. Therefore, this article is relevant in helping me confirm the things that I have learnt about the business environment. Understanding these factors from a different source is significant to allowing me to better understand the course or simply how marketing works. I learnt the variables, which form the environment of marketing strategy planning. I now comprehend why company goals are significant in directing marketing strategy planning. I also now see how the resources of a business influence the search for opportunities. I also know how the diverse forms of competitive situations influence strategy planning. Finally, I understand how the technological and economic environment can influence strategy

Corrections Facilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Corrections Facilities - Essay Example There is an argument on whether harsh sentences deter offenders from their criminal actions or turn them into more violent and hardened criminals. Incapacitation is another major objective of the correctional system all over the world. The corrections system, by locking up offenders, effectively keeps them off the streets. There is a general agreement that keeping offenders in prisons prevents them from preying on the society. Another goal of the correctional system is making sure that offenders pay a debt to their victims and the society as a whole. This is referred to as restitution. Offenders do this through performing public services such as picking up trash and also contribute financially directly to their victims. This form of punishment has in recent times been emphasized though it can prove difficult to carry out. Deterrence is another important objective of the corrections system. Many people believe that the threat of prison and other punitive measures deter would be offenders from carrying out criminal activities. However, hardened criminals do not seem to fear this threat but go ahead and involve themselves in crim inal activities. ... Rehabilitation seeks to help criminal offenders become upright citizens who can contribute to society in a positive way. Rehabilitating offenders will also ensure that they don't go back to their past criminal way after completing their sentence. Among the goals of the correctional system, rehabilitation is by far the most difficult task. This is so because of various reasons such as: The state of the prisons. Since a prison is designed almost exclusively for criminals, some convicted felons tend to become hardened rather instead of becoming good citizens. This is in contrast to the rehabilitative objective of the correctional system. Some people are considered to be inherently criminal. They have no interest whatsoever in reverting their old ways. (Rothman 29) Is the current system meeting the basic expectations The recent years has seen a sharp increase in the number of offenders being dealt with in the United States correctional system. According to the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2007, there were over seven million either on probation, on parole or in jail or prison. This is at least 3.2% of the entire adult population. By mid 2008, 1,610,584 Americans were serving their time in jail or prison. (Bureau of Justice) This basically means one thing; the correctional system is not working effectively as it ought to be. Before we hurry to put the blame on the United States Justice System, it is important to note that that general trend is experienced in almost the whole of the rest of the world. There are heated debates nowadays on how to reform the correctional system and the justice system as a whole. The debates take wide ranging

Capital Punishment Essay Example for Free

Capital Punishment Essay As a society we have an established set of rules and norms that are enforced by our justice system which we as a people have deemed as the highest power to determine when these rules and norms are broken and what appropriate punishment should be given. We live in a world filled with diversity. Not only diversity in cultures but diversity with people in terms of character and morals. Society is filled with both good upstanding people but also those people who find it less than necessary to follow any norms or rules society has created but instead find a life in crime. Crimes can range from something minimal such as theft to the most serious which is murder. This introduces us to capital punishment or more commonly termed, the death penalty. Though openly controversial, capital punishment has its share of opponents and supporters. Many philosophers have discussed issues in relation to violence, laws and punishment. Malcolm X is one such philosopher. His beliefs in violence in terms of self defense can relate to the issue of capital punishment. Malcolm X believed that one should defend themselves by all means necessary when it means self defense. He believed in non violence unless one’s life was at risk and needed defending. In such cases self defense should be practiced. In his famous speech â€Å"The Ballot or the Bullet† delivered on April 13, 1964 he introduces his principle of self defense and his intentions to work â€Å"non violently as long as the enemy is nonviolent† but also be â€Å"violent when the enemy gets violent†. These are examples of his principles. There are other philosophers that approach the issue of capital punishment in more depth. Hugo Adam Bedau and Ernest van den Haag are two such philosophers who present their arguments to capital punishment. Bedau and Haag offer compelling arguments that as a reader one may find it difficult to choose a side. The fact of the matter is that capital punishment is the most extreme form of punishment and because of its severity and irreversibility; its usage must be very stringent. Both Bedau and Haag discuss capital punishment and take relatively different sides about similar issues. Both construct their arguments discussing issues such as capital punishment and its unjust application, its deterrence ability and the possible execution of innocent people. Haag takes on the position of pro capital punishment and argues his position in his article â€Å"In Defense of the Death Penalty†. Bedau on the other side takes on the position of pro abolition and discusses his arguments in his article â€Å"Capital Punishment†. We’ll begin with Haag and his arguments. Haag argues that the execution of innocent people believed to be guilty is a miscarriage of the justice system and should be stopped but it does not warrant the abolishing of capital punishment. Killing innocent people is not enough to abolish capital punishment and thus risking the innocent lives that may be saved by these â€Å"murderers†. These advantages in turn outweigh the disadvantages of killing innocent â€Å"criminals† and the punishment of capital punishment is just. In executing a murderer it is concluded by Isaac Ehrlich’s 1933-1969 study that one execution may result in 7 or 8 fewer murders because the execution acts as deterrence for future murders (pg. 351). Haag presents us with two choices in regards to deterrence. The first choice he presents is that to trade the life of a convicted murderer and save the 7 or 8 innocent victims whose murder is probable unless the murderer is executed. The second choice is to allow the murderer to live and possibly lose the 7 or 8 innocent people who the murderer can possibly kill. Most of us would choose the first choice and Haag agrees. He argues that it would be irresponsible not to execute the murderer simply because there is no guarantee that their execution would help save the lives of potential innocent victims. It seems immoral to allow murderers to live on even if there is even the slightest possibility that innocent lives are at risk. Haag supports this argument by stating that â€Å"more severe penalties are more deterrent than less severe penalties† (pg. 352). People are less likely to commit severe crimes if the punishment is just as severe. With that said it only seems logical to say that the most severe crime warrants the most severe punishment. Thus, murderers should be punished with the death penalty. Haag also uses the situation with current prisoners to elaborate his point of how capital punishment is a deterrent. Prisoners serving life sentences and who are not sentenced to execution relatively follow prison rules and norms because the possibility of a more severe punishment or sentence does exist. Haag states that without the death penalty, prisoners would find no reason to avoid committing more crimes towards fellow prisoners or guards because the abolishment of the death penalty presents them with a sort of immunity. They can freely commit more crimes knowing they will not get additional punishment. Not only within the prison context but criminals on the outside world and who anticipate that their crime will result in a life sentence may be compelled to murder as many people as necessary to facilitate their escape. No death penalty threat would stop them from committing more crimes. This is where death penalty plays the deterrent role. Whether capital punishment is at fault for sometimes executing innocent people or positively deterring other criminals from committing murder, the death penalty and its application is the third issue we will discuss. According to Haag the death penalty is separate from its moral characteristic. If the death penalty is perfectly distributed but morally unjust, it would be unjust in each case. In the same manner if the death penalty was morally just but applied discriminatorily it would remain just in each case. Guilty people do not all of a sudden become innocent because they escaped it or innocent people don’t deserve punishment because others suffer it. Justice and equality are not hand in hand and though equality should be important and practiced it should not affect the hand of justice. Bedau stands on the other side of the capital punishment issue. His arguments try to prove why the position of abolition is better. In respects to the same issues that Haag presents I will discuss Bedau’s arguments Both Haag and Bedau discuss how it is possible that with capital punishment innocent people deemed guilty are executed. However, Bedau presents this argument in a cost benefit analysis. Haag states that the execution of innocent people is a miscarriage of justice and that its advantages of possibly saving future innocent victims because of the execution of the murderer outweigh the drawbacks of executing an innocent person. Therefore Haag uses the lives of future innocent victims as the advantage of capital punishment whereas Bedau though agreeing with Haag about the possibility of executing innocent people, identifies the risks as â€Å"social costs† (pg. 367). Bedau proceeds to discuss the economic costs that the death penalty incurs. Cost of housing the prisoner while on death row, cost of the capital trial and of the appeals. Bedau discusses the risk of executing innocent people just as Haag but Bedau finds different aspects of it to elaborate and approaches the matter in terms of costs to society. Haag makes two points in regards to deterrence for which Bedau has an argument he presents. According to Haag, capital punishment deters other criminals from committing murder and per the Ehrlich study 1 execution saves 7 or 8 innocent lives and not executing the murderer is a form of irresponsibility when the only reason is that there is no guarantee that their execution will lengthen or save future innocent victims who would be murdered had the murderer be spared. Bedau argues that capital punishment cannot deter murder but instead it can possibly only prevent it. Bedau draws a distinction between the death penalty as a crime preventive and death penalty as a crime deterrent. Haag does not make a distinction and instead only discusses the death penalty as a crime deterrent. It is only reasonable that the distinction be made. Executing a murderer can be seen as a crime preventive if the execution prevents the murderer from killing again. It can also be seen as a crime deterrent if the execution serves as an example and results in frightening off others from committing murder. Now according to Haag capital punishment serves as a deterrent for murderers but on the contrary Bedau argues that capital punishment can never deter the murderer from further crimes but rather it can at most prevent them from committing them. It is impossible to determine what deterrence the death penalty proves for the person has already been executed. There is no way of measuring the number of crimes the murderer did not commit because of the death penalty threat. Bedau presents us with an alternative. He argues that because it is impossible to know what or how many crimes a murderer will be deterred from committing with a death penalty threat, it is just as likely the same crimes be deterred by a lesser punishment such as long-term imprisonment. This fails to show that the death penalty is a better deterrent than the less severe penalty of long-term imprisonment for the crime of murder. Bedau then reinforces this by concluding that if death penalty and long-term imprisonment have an equal effectiveness or ineffectiveness as deterrents to murder, then arguing for capital punishment as deterring murder is flawed and weakened. In congruence to his stand on abolition Bedau then argues that there is no reason for choosing the death penalty when a lesser punishment can be just as effective. After discussing capital punishment as a deterrent and the risks of executing innocent people that it creates, Bedau presents a different approach and perspective to Haag in terms of the death penalty and its application. Haag states that unequal justice is still justice and that equality before the law should be enforced but never at the expense of justice. Bedau offers a different perspective. According to Bedau, the death penalty is a â€Å"poor man’s justice† (pg. 375). Both opponents and supporters of the death penalty agree that capital punishment should be practiced fairly, equally and evenly and that it is a fundamental dictate of justice. The only dispute lies with the actual use of capital punishment. Bedau further elaborates how capital punishment is unfairly distributed. People are sentenced to death not because of their release risks or poor parole but because they have poor defense at trial; they have inexperienced or overworked counsels or they are just without the funds for an appeal trial. This reinforces the street saying â€Å"those without the capital get the punishment† (pg. 375) as Bedau quotes. People are not convicted based on their nature or violent behavior but rather on how much money they both have and are willing to spend on their trial. Bedau and Haag present different arguments to similar issues and though Bedau can agree with Haag on an issue or two, he finds a different approach to it and elaborates it differently. Haag and Bedau present very compelling arguments and it is not difficult to understand each of their points. However, personally I would have to say that I take a much harsher and tougher stand in capital punishment. One that is not discussed by either philosopher. Of course in a perfect world murder would not exist and capital punishment would not be needed, but in this world murder and those who commit murder are very much real. Capital punishment should mean a life for a life; Lex talionis as Bedau briefly mentions. In the most literal terms if a person has the heart and willingness to murder another human being then they should be willing to lose their life the same exact way. I do believe in capital punishment being a deterrent to murder but the fact that not every murder results in the death penalty as punishment I believe is a reason why some criminals are sometimes reckless with their decisions. However, if there was some way of knowing how a trial was to end and know that the punishment would be the death penalty, it would have to make the criminal think twice. Some argue that the death penalty is just an easy way out for the murderer. This is why I further will elaborate my point. The death penalty should be specific to the murder. If a murderer tortures his victim then they too should be tortured. If the murderer shoots his victim they too should be shot to death and if the murderer burns his victim they too should be burned. Now I would like to clarify that this should be applied to murders that are premeditated or intended and not accidental deaths. This should apply to those criminals that had an obvious intention to cause harm to their victims and resulting in death. I can understand the moral and ethical questions this would bring up and the issue of stooping to the level of murderers but those are just issues and opinions, the fact of the matter is you take a life you give your life. This approach will of course never happen so I will offer a different one. Considering that it is argued that capital punishment is unfairly applied and that an accused murderer’s innocence or guilt is determined based on how much funds they have to afford good counsel and appeals then as a way to eliminate this risk every single person who si accused of murder should have the best counsel available to them regardless of whether they can afford it or not. This will allow every single person to get a fair trial and the possibility of executing someone who is actually innocent will no longer exist. A person will no longer be executed with the possible doubt that they may be innocent but just could not afford to be defended fairly. If someone murderers another human being then they should be punished just as severely, but also until their guilt is proven they should be defended like anyone else, regardless of how much money they have. Innocence and guilt should never have a price tag. Capital punishment is our society’s way of keeping moral boundaries and norms in place. We as a people can have different opinions about the severity of the death penalty but that is all they are, opinions. Whether we agree with the death penalty or oppose it we must learn to recognize other points of views and educate ourselves. Murder is the most severe of crimes and the death penalty is the most severe of punishments. Therefore, each one of us has a choice to decide whether they go hand in hand.

Corporate Social Responsibility at British Airways

Corporate Social Responsibility at British Airways Introduction This report concerns with an investigation of business ethics in British Airways (BA) and in particular an event that happened in August 2005 with its catering contractor Gate Gourmet. The main objectives of this report are:- To examine BAs approach towards Corporate Social Responsibility. To elucidate whether Gate Gourmets employees are part of BAs stakeholder or not. To explain the negative outcome To explore ethical issues involved in the practice of outsourcing. The objective of the report will be achieved by using theories and concepts of business ethics. This report will make possible a number of informative conclusions on how BA handles Corporate Social Responsibility and the particular problem with Gate Gourmet. Page: 3 BAs approach towards corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR): CSR is a type of corporate self regulation integrated into a business model. Superlatively, CSR policy would function as integrated, self-governing device whereby business would observe and make sure that its adherence to law, ethical standards, and international norms. Business would accept responsibility for the influence of their activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public. In order to weigh up the approach of Corporate Social Responsibility a well known framework has been used which was devised by Elkington (1999) called the triple-bottom line. According to triple bottom line a corporate doesnt have only one purpose that is to add economic value to their corporation but also to add environmental and social values too. Triple bottom line gives a clearer picture of what the components of sustainability actually represents in terms of a goal for business ethics by examining them separately. Social Environment Economic viable Sustainable bearable Equitable John Elkington (1998) Page: 4 Economic perspective: The economic perspective recognizes that continued growth in population, industrial activity, resource use and population could mean that standard of living would in the long run decline. A narrow belief of economic sustainability focuses on the economic performances of the corporation itself: the responsibility of management is to develop, produce and market those products that assure long term economic performance for the corporation. This includes a focus on strategies that set in motion long term rise in share price, revenue and share market rather than short term explosions of profits at the expense of long term possibility. A broader concept of sustainability would take account of the companys attitude towards bribes and building cartels. They could be regarded as economically unsustainable: they are not willing to fund the political institutional system (schools, hospitals, police and justice system) then they eat away at the key institutional basis of co rporate success. From 2000 the airline industries worldwide had been suffering from less number of passenger wanting to fly which was due to 9/11 incident, Sars epidemic and rise in the fuel costs following the war in Iraq. BAs approach towards Corporate Social Responsibility on economic is that to maintain its economic system BA has been outsourcing its services and reducing cost of personnel through redundancies and various other resources. Social perspective: This is a recent improvement in the Corporate Social Responsibility. It has come to pass from apprehension about the effect of business activities on native communities in less developed countries and regions. The addition of social contemplation has marked a move in the way ideas about sustainability were put forward. The major issue in the social perspective of sustainability is that of social justice. In spite of the remarkable advances in standards of living that many of us have enjoyed, there are growing lack of correspondence of income and wealth within many countries. In a more just an evenhanded world, living standards will lead to more economic affluence. BAs approach towards Corporate Social Responsibility on social is that it has decided to enable up to 500 applicants a year to realize their dreams through the London 2012 Great Britons Programme. Page: 5 It is aiming to raise  £1.5 million for Change for Good to help vulnerable children around the world by 2009/10. BA has plans to increase the number of collogue who donate to payroll giving by 50 percent by 2012. It will continue to work with Comic Relief and Children in Need. BA has aims to increase the number of young people participating in educational activities to 8000 per year. Environmental perspective: The notion of sustainability came into sight mainly from environmental trepidation. The fundamental principles of sustainability in the environmental perspective alarm the effective management of physical resources so that they are preserved for the future. All bio systems are regarded as having limited resources and finite capacity and hence sustainable human activity must maneuver at a level that does not threaten the health of those systems. Even at the most crucial point these distress a need to dispatch a number of significant problems like greenhouse gases from industrial plants and consumer products. BAs approach towards Corporate Social Responsibility on environmental is that it is planning to reduce Co2 emission by 50 percent by 2050.it is aiming to reduce noise per flight by 15 percent. BA has plans to recycle its waste up to 50 percent by 2010 and aims to send zero waste to landfill by 2010 across Heathrow and Gatwick. Reference: Elkington, J. (1997) http://www.britishairways.com/travel/csr-corporate-responsibility/public/en_gb It is can be concluded that BA uses or has an approach to Corporate Social Responsibilities put forward by Elkingtons Triple Bottom Line. Those can be divided into Economic, Social and Environmental. Weather Gate Gourmets employees are part of BAs stakeholder It has been made a case that contractors are not legitimate stakeholders for a client. On the other hand in order to find out whether this is the case; the concept of salience of stakeholders will be used. There are three factors that consider the salience of stakeholder and they are Power, Legitimacy and Urgency. Page: 6 Power: it is the apparent capacity of a stakeholder to influence organizational action. Legitimacy: whether the organization perceives the stakeholders actions as desirable, proper, or appropriate. Urgency: The extent to which stakeholder demand are professed to call for immediate attention. Reference: Mitchell, R.K, Agle, B.R., and Wood, D.J. (1997) Gate Gourmet had been losing  £1.5 million a day due to the new contract put forward by BA which had very tough terms. Because of this Gate Gourmet decided to employ new staff on lower wages. So, on 10 August 2005 when 120 new employees were brought in the company the existing workers decided to go on strike while the trade union representatives went to talk to the management. But after three minutes the management of the Gate Gourmet sacked 700 staff without negotiating with the employees. The very following day BAs baggage handling staff at Heathrow airport went on one day strike grounding 700 flights and more than 100,000 passengers in BAs global network. It was nothing to do with BA but the reason of the strike was because BAs suppliers of in-flight meal Gate Gourmet had sacked 600 of its employee who had relatives in the BAs baggage handling staff. BA termed this walkout technically illegal and refused to pay the strikers wages and workers went back to their duty only after on ly a one day strike. On the other hand this incident brought bad reputation to BAs global operation and also lost cost of more than  £60 million. After a lengthy and controversial talks and negotiations BA decided to revise its supply contract with Gate Gourmet on better terms. Gate Gourmet had been losing  £1.5 million a day due to the tough terms put forward by BA but they could do nothing to make BA revise its terms. It shows that Gate Gourmet have no ability to influence the action of BA.(Power) BA didnt take any interest to the Gate Gourmets case and refused to pay its workers on strike and thought stakeholders actions as undesirable, improper and inappropriate. (legitimacy) Page: 7 BA didnt try to solve its stakeholders (Gate Gourmet) immediately but took lengthy and controversial talks to revise its terms. BA didnt show any urgency to solve its stakeholders problem. (urgency) Reference: WWW.guardian .co.uk Therefore I conclude that BA is not a legitimate stakeholder according to the concept of Salience of stakeholder. The negative outcome Mendelow created a stakeholder analysis chart for mapping stakeholders power over the corporate and the interest the corporate has over his stakeholder. STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS Low Interest High Minimum effort keep informed A B Keep satisfied key players C D Low Power interest matrix POWER High Mendelow (1991) Chart of Stakeholder Analysis Page: 8 Segment A represents that the stakeholder has low power which means that the stakeholder has less ability to influence organizational goal and the corporate has less interest in the stakeholder. That is why the corporate puts minimum effort to satisfy the stakeholder. Segment B represents that the stakeholder has low power and cannot influence the corporate goal but the corporate has high interest on the stakeholder because the stakeholder in segment B can be important allies in influencing the attitude of more powerful stakeholder through lobbying. Thus the corporate keep informed about its shareholder. Segment C represents that the stakeholder has high power and can influence the corporate goal but the corporate has less interest in the stakeholder. As the stakeholder is powerful the corporate tries to keep the shareholders satisfied. Segment D represent that the stakeholder has high power and can easily influence the goal of the corporate and the chart also shows that the corporate also has high interest on its stakeholder. The stakeholder has high power and the corporate also has high interest in them so they are a key player to the corporate. Reference: Mendelow, A. (1991) in Johnson, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R. (2005) Gate Gourmet had been losing  £1.5 million a day due to the new contract put forward by BA which had very tough terms. As Gate Gourmet couldnt make BA revise its term we can say that Gate Gourmet has low power. Because of this Gate Gourmet decided to employ new staff on lower wages and the existing employee of Gate Gourmet went on strike opposing the decision made by the management. The management sacked 700 staff without negotiating but BA remained quiet during this course of event. It shows that BA has low interest in Gate Gourmet and thus had put no effort in getting involved in the Gate Gourmet situation. Page: 9 When 600 employees were sacked by Gate Gourmet the relatives of the sacked employee who were in the BAs baggage handling in the Heathrow went on strike on support of their colleague. Due to this strike 700 flights and more than 100,000 passengers were grounded. This compelled BA to revise its supply contract with Gate Gourmet on better terms. Hence, in this way Gate Gourmet became a key player from minimum effort. Referencecorporatw: www.guardian.co.uk Ethical issues involved in the practice of outsourcing. Problems with Outsourcing: According to Sheffi (2005) companies should never rely on only one contractor and in case of BA, it should have used more than one caterer or the relationship should have been closer so that it could have known more about what the contractor is doing. Some organization, like banks have been disapproved of for poor customer support from outsourced Indian call centers. Also Nike and Gap have been bothered over the sweat shops allegedly operated by some of their suppliers. Outsourcing an activity does not mean it is no longer an organizations problem. And according to Emmelhainz and Adams (1999), there is a shift towards global supply and competition and individual firms appear to be faced with the outlook of an extended chain of responsibility. Once it was perfectly satisfactory to argue that the ethics of an organizations suppliers, or a firm influence on its competitors, was simply not any of its business, this no longer seems to be the case. Hence, corpora tions have to take their ethical responsibilities much more largely; as a result, the supply chain has to be used as a means of expression for ethics management and regulation. Page: 10 Carolls Model (1991) Economic responsibilities: Companies have shareholders who require a reasonable return on their investments, they have employees who want safe and fairly paid jobs, they have customers who insist good quality products at a fair price, etc. This is by definition the motivation why businesses are set up in society and so the first task of business is to be properly functioning economic unit and to stay in business. This first layer of Carrolss model is the basis for all the successive responsibilities, which rest on this solid basis. According to Carroll (1991), the satisfaction of economic responsibilities is thus required of all corporations. From 2000 the airline industries worldwide had been suffering from less number of passenger wanting to fly which was due to 9/11 incident, Sars epidemic and rise in the fuel costs following the war in Iraq. So, BA outsourced its service (in flight meal served by Gate Gourmet) to reduce its cost and to increase its profitability. The ethical issue of outsourcing regarding economical responsibilities is that it helps to give shareholders a reasonable return, its employees a safe and fairly paid job and satisfy the customers needs. Legal responsibilities: Laws are the codification of societys moral views. For example Microsoft has had to face an antitrust case for abusing its monopolistic position. Page: 11 To outsource cheap labour if a company brings illegal immigrants than it is illegal. Every firm has to follow societys moral view. Ethical Responsibility: These responsibilities compel corporations to do what is right, just and fair even when they are not compelled to do so by the legal framework. For example it was legal to dispose of an oil rig in the sea but was it ethical? Gate Gourmet had been losing  £1.5 million a day due to the new contract put forward by BA which had very tough terms. Because of this Gate Gourmet decided to outsource new staff on lower wages. So, on 10 August 2005 120 new employees were brought in the company which made the existing employees insecure. So they went on a strike but they sacked 700 staff without negotiating with them. Outsourcing must not be use only to fulfill the economic responsibilities of a firm but also try to think ethically by not being unfair and unjust to its employees as the Gate Gourmet. Philanthropic Responsibility: The word Philanthropic is derived from the Greek word which means love of the fellow human. According to this proposal in a business context, the mock-up incorporates activities that are within the corporations judgment to improve the quality of life of employees, local communities and ultimately society in general. This feature of CSR addresses a great range of topic, including things such as charitable donations, the building of recreation facilities for employees and their families, support for local schools or subsidizing of art and sports events. According to Carrolls (1991), philanthropic responsibilities are consequently purely preferred of corporations without being estimated or required, making them less important than the other three categories. References: Emmelhainz, M.A and Adams R.J(1999) A. Crane and D.Matten (2007) www.guardian.co.uk Page: 12 By outsourcing its services BA has increased its profitability but it is also involved with many non profitable organizations which helps the society. In this way outsourcing can fulfill firms Philanthropic Responsibility. So I conclude that ethical issues involved in the modern practice of outsourcing are economic responsibilities, legal responsibilities, ethical responsibilities and philanthropic responsibilities.

Communication Processes Essay -- Successful Communication Effective Co

Communication Processes Communication occupies up to 75% of every working day and can occur in verbal and non-verbal means. In order for an organization to be successful, it must demonstrate successful communication among staff members. Communication is considered to be successful when the desired objective is attained. All communication has a purpose, whether to inform, to convince or to serve some other purpose; communication is what ties all departments within an organization together. Without communication an organization is sure to fail. Within the University of Texas- University Health Services, one can observe several means of successful communication. It is this form of communication that ensures quality patient care, happy students and happy staff members. Unfortunately, if one looked close enough he could also see unsuccessful communication taking place. This is where improvement is needed to ensure patients are taken care of properly, staff members remain happy and nothing is missed during p atient care. One reason UHS has successful communication is because the managers take the time to ensure their staff members clearly understand the messages they are trying to send. Whether they send the message verbally or electronically, the managers do not assume their staff members understand the message. Instead, they follow-up with the staff to see if any clarification of the message is needed. If clarification is needed, then further communication takes pl...

What is the Significance of This Article to Executive/Strategic Think :: essays research papers

Article summary: Audi had faced lots of problems in the U.S. market, and the problem is because Audi has a weak and unclear image in the market and that is why they only sold 83,000 cars in 2001. Their aim is to get 200,000 cars a year, with this image it will take them a long time to get to there goal. So, their plan is to make a huge advertising campaign to make their image look better in the market. They will start advertising in networks like CNN, and NBC; also they will advertise through magazines and newspapers like The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New Yorker. Their main target is to avoid the crises they went through when they had a defect in their design which caused an uncontrolled acceleration in their vehicles, and that made sales to go way down. And their main customer target is the people who are intrested in buying luxury cars such as BMW. The new step that Audi is presiding to benefit from is their new TV advertisement, which is going to be a two minutes long. They want their Ad to include about Audi history and how they are the first people to have all-aluminum vehicles, which they are light and more strong and they say it is safer from steel. Moreover, they will include information about the car variable transmission, which give the car better fuel efficiency and more power than other automatic cars. CNN had agreed to run the ads and that is a huge step for Audi. CNN decision will effect the other ad?s and it will limit them with the time they have to put there ad?s on the channel, this ad campaign is the first of its kind and CNN will be the first channel to do such thing. My Interpretation on the article: I think what Audi is doing the best thing, because their image was ruined when they had a defect in their cars, so they have to rebuild their trust with the people.

Metapath Case Essay

Metapath was a hi-tech company providing software products for wireless carriers. It had a revenue of 22 million and was emerging as the premier company in its market space. The ultimate goal of the founder, Hansen, was to see the Metapath go IPO in two years. However, this company confronted two main obstacles for that goal: concentrated customers and fluctuant quarterly revenues. To expand his business and also solve these problems, Hansen need to again raise more money. Like most of the software companies, Metapath demands continuously money supply during the premature period of its life. The main financial strategy of Metaph was to raise several rounds of money by turning to venture capital investors: get money from them in exchange for Metapath’s preferred stock and a promise to redeem or convert to commom stock in event of IPO. It had raised $ 9 million in four rounds of financing before 1997, in which STI and Bessemer participated in the first two rounds. Unlike the fol lowing standard convertible preferred stock instruments, these first two rounds had a structure called â€Å"straight redeemable, cheap common†, which required a principal payment in the future, making the two classes of preferred stock more like debts. Therefore, by paying yearly (or quarterly) dividends and guarantying the safety of principle value to venture investors, Metapath raised its first four rounds of capital. Selling the company to CellTech could bring Metapath many advantages. First, CellTech offered an attractive price $115 million, relatively large for a premature company with revenue of 25.6 million and negative income -$1.9 million. Second, it was already an public company, which prevented the dilution of possible further financings. Third, by merging with CellTech, Metapath could achieve synergy from expertise of CellTech’s engineers, and the fully-formed marketing and domestic sales organization. However, since the merging was plan to be in stock exchange and CellTech had gone public only few months, information could be limited to value its stock price fairly. Also in the big environment of late 1990s, too much investments in high-tech companies made this industry overheated, and CellTech could be overvalued by analysts. For the VC option RSC offered, one big advantage was that the immediate cash flow of $11.75 million, which would be very helpful for Metapath’s operation. Another advantage was that it bought time for Metapath to initiate an independent IPO in the future, which had potential to worth more than CallTech offered. But it brought  concerns to Metapath as well. RSC brought up the strike term called â€Å"participating convertible preferred stock†, at which holder could not only convert from the preferred stock, but also in the event of sale, receive face value and participate in further consideration of common stock. This term could make a sale of Metapath extremely dilutive to the founders.