Monday, September 30, 2019

Behavior of People in Power

People who have the highest positions in corporate America are considered as individuals that hold the seat of power. They are refereed to as such because of the amount of resources that they possess as well as their capability to control it. In relation to this, they also have the authority to command other people as they act as superiors to many employees that obtain their source of living from working in their companies. Being the case, there behaviors are often the topic of public scrutiny.People in power behave differently in corporate America. There are cases wherein some of these people tend to abuse the power that they have. The main issue about the behavior of those powerful people in corporate America is in the way they deal with their workers. Corporate managers have been tougher towards there employees in the recent decades. Such kind of action could be attributed to the fact that foreign competition has dramatically increased, which makes business operations even harder to deal with.As such, millions of American workers, regardless of the type of job that they have may it be white-collar or blue-collar and despite of their sex and age are experiencing wage stagnation as well as worsening case of health and pension benefits. Furthermore, workers are pressured by the management to work harder and faster (Greenhouse, 2008). This kind of condition is observable in large and leading American corporations. A good example of this is Wal-Mart. For some time now, Wal-Mart has been facing numerous allegations and lawsuits with regards to their illegal treatment of their employees.The topic of establishing a labor union for Wal-Mart employees has also been the topic of numerous debates. An example of such maltreatment is when some of its workers complain about the indignity and danger of being locked inside their stores at night. There is one incident wherein a supervisor and his worker that is suffering from food poising were locked inside the store, which m ade it impossible for him to take his worker to the hospital (Greenhouse, 2008). Being layed off is one of the hardest thing that an employee can go through especially if he or she is the breadwinner of the family.However, some corporate managers tend to this insensitively like what RadioShack did to 400 of its workers in its headquarters as Forth Worth, Texas. The management fired its workers through e-mail by stating: â€Å"The workforce reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated† (Greenhouse, 2008). Based upon the poll conducted by Business Week (2000), almost three-quarters of the American public believes that business, which includes huge corporations is already gaining a whole deal of power in the various aspects of people’s lives.Some Americans also look at corporations as the villain in terms of the demands of various managements towards their workers that made them overworked and stressed out. I n line with this, many Americans also feel that they are not getting and enjoying the fair share of riches that these corporations are earning. This is due to the fact that average wages and benefits have only exceeded inflation by a meager amount of 7. 6%, while productivity has increase by 17. 9%. Moreover, many citizens that belong to the middle-class are pointing out the widening gap between the rich and the poor (Business Week, 2000).The discussions above show that the tremendous amounts of power that corporate America has as well as its great influence over the lives of other people. However, this power has also affected the behavior of some of those who possess authority in these corporations. They have utilized it for their own advantage at the expense of other people’s welfare. Those people who deserve utmost importance like the corporations’ employees are instead place in a very disadvantageous position. References Business Week. (2000). Too Much Corporate Po wer?Retrieved September 23, 2008, from http://www. businessweek. com/2000/00_37/b3698001. htm. Greenhouse, S. (2008). Has Corporate America Turned Callous Toward its Workers? Retrieved September 23, 2008, from http://tpmcafe. talkingpointsmemo. com/2008/06/30/ has_corporate_america_turned_c/. http://tpmcafe. talkingpointsmemo. com/2008/06/30/has_corporate_america_turned_c/ http://knowledge. wpcarey. asu. edu/article. cfm? articleid=1008 http://www. businessweek. com/2000/00_37/b3698001. htm http://jimgentil. blogspot. com/2007

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Report on Pizza Hut

Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut A PRESENTATION REPORT ON PIZZA HUT PESHAWAR ACCEP TED TO SIR IMRAN WAZIR ACC EPTE D BY : ADNAN KHAN MUJAHID HUSSAIN NAVEED SAEED SHAHZAD TAHIR ZARTASHIA ARSHAD BBA (HONS) – C 1st Semester Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 1 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut TABLE OF CONTENTS S. No. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Topic Letter of acceptance Executive summary History of Pizza Introduction & History Of Pizza Hut Pizza Hut Mission Statement Comparative Strategy PEST SWOT Segmentation Positioning Targeting Pizza Hut Strategies Functional Level Strategy TQM (Total Quality Management) Business Level Strategy Pricing Strategy Market Share Four P's of Marketing ? Product ? Price ? Place ? Promotion Conclusion References Page Number 3 4 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 11 11 11 12 12 12 13 14 14 14 15 16 17 18 Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 2 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE To: Mr. Imran Wazir, Lecturer IM| Sciences, Peshawar. Subject: PREPARATION OF REPORT We are Hereby Presenting the presentation on Company Pizza Hut and assure you submission of our report in compliance with the instruction envisaged. Name of topic is repeated for ready reference please. â€Å"Marketing Plans & Business report on Pizza Hut† Yours sincerely, Adnan Khan Mujahid Hussain Naveed Saeed Shahzad Tahir Zartashia Arshad Date: March 03, 2009 Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 3 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut EXECUTIVE SUMMARY During the past four decades Pizza Hut has built a reputation for excellence that has earned the respect of consumers and industry experts alike. Building a leading pizza company has required relentless innovation, commitment to quality and dedication to customer service and value. The qualities of entrepreneurship, growth and leadership have characterized Pizza Hut’s business through more than four decades of success. Through the strength of its heritage, its culture and its people and franchisees, Pizza Hut looks forward to more success in future. There are different objectives of every organization. In order to achieve these objectives different targets are set. Targets pass down the hierarchy depending on the nature of the business. Therefore, in order to achieve the objectives, management decides on different strategies. These strategies are divided into many sub-parts and are useful for the running of the business. The employees and the management know what they have to achieve through the targets which have been set to them and the strategies they have adopted help them know the way they will achieve the objectives. Similarly, Pizza Hut has different targets set to them and they have adopted different strategies to successfully achieve the targets set. These targets are set by the RSC i. e. the restaurant support centre in Karachi. These targets are passed on to the RGM (restaurant general manager) and he passes them to the workforce. These targets fall within the organizational structure in which there are many people who have different targets to achieve. In order to successfully achieve the targets they need to co-operate and work in a friendly environment. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 4 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut HISTORY OF PIZZA About Pizza, Some will tell you Italy. That's wrong. What you know as pizza came into vogue around the time of Napoleon and the French revolution. Italians, known to be lovers of fine food and wines perfected and imported this terrific dish to America. From here it quickly endeared itself to mass production and re-export to the rest of the world. Bon appetite! INTRODUCTION & HISTORY OF PIZZA HUT In 1958, Frank and Dan Carney had an idea for a great local pizza restaurant in Wichita Kansas. The small 25 seat restaurant only had room for 9 letters on the sign†¦ the building looked like a hut†¦ so ‘Pizza Hut' was born! Fifteen years later, we opened the first UK restaurant and since then we've become the biggest Pizza Company on the planet, Let see listen Pizza Hut Story from them! †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ 1958 Frank and Dan Carney open the first Pizza Hut in Wichita, Kansas. 1972 1000 restaurants are open throughout the USA. 1973 Pizza Hut went international with restaurants in Japan, Canada & England. The first UK Pizza Hut opened in Islington, London. 977 PepsiCo bought Pizza Hut. 1980 Pan Pizza was introduced. 1982 The UK joint venture started between PepsiCo and Whitbread. 1984 Over 50 restaurants so far in the UK. 1986 By now, there were 100 restaurants in the UK and 5000 worldwide. 1987 An average of one restaurant opened each week in the UK. 1988 The UK's First Delivery Unit was opened in Kingsbury, London. 1992 There were 9,000 restaurants in 84 countries. 1993 There were 300 restaurants and delivery stores in the UK. 1994 10,000 Pizza Huts were open for business. 1997 PepsiCo decided to focus on their drinks business. As a result, Tricon Global Restaurants was born, creating the largest restaurant brand in the World. Tricon became the partner company with Whitbread. 1999 Pizza Hut had over 400 restaurants, employing 14000 people. 2002 Tricon Global became YUM! Brands Inc. 2006 Whitbread sold their share of the joint venture to Yum! Brands Inc. Pizza Hut UK Ltd was now 100% owned by Yum! 2008 We bought Godfather's Pizza in Ireland with 28 stores. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 5 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut Pizza Hut's Mission Statement We take pride in making a perfect pizza and providing courteous and helpful service on time all the time. Every customer says, â€Å"I'll be back! † We are the employer of choice offering team members opportunities For Growth, Advancement, And Rewarding Careers in a Fun, Safe Working Environment. †¢ P. E. A. R. L. S ? PASSION for excellence in Doing everything ? EXECUTE with positive energy and urgency. ? ACCOUNTABLE for growth in customer satisfaction and profitability. ? RECOGNIZE the achievement of others and have fun doing it. ? LISTEN and more importantly, respond to the voice of the customer. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 6 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut COMPARATIVE STRATEGY: This forced competitors to look for new methods of increasing their customer bases. Many pizza chains decided to diversify and offer new nonpizza items such as Buffalo wings, and Italian cheese bread. The current trend in pizza chains today is the same. They all try to come up with some newer, bigger, better, pizza for a low price. Offering special promotions and new pizza variations are popular today as well. For example, chicken is now a common topping found on pizzas. In the past, Pizza Hut has always had the first mover advantage. Their marketing strategy in the past has always been to be first. One of their main strategies that they still follow today is the diversification of the products they offer. Pizza Hut is always adding something new to their menu, trying to reach new markets. For example, in 1992 the famous buffet was launched in Pizza Hut restaurants worldwide. They were trying to offer many different food items for customers who didn't necessarily want pizza. Another strategy they used in the past and are still using is the diversification of their pizzas. Pizza Hut is always trying to come up with some innovative way to make a pizza into something slightly different different enough that customers will think it’s a whole new product. For example, let's look at some of the pizzas Pizza Hut has marketed in the past. In 1983, Pizza Hut introduced their Pan Pizza, which had a guarantee of being ready to eat in 5 minutes when dining at Pizza Hut restaurants. In 1993, they introduced the â€Å"Bigfoot,† which was two square feet of pizza cut into 21 slices. In 1995, they introduced â€Å"Stuffed Crust Pizza,† where the crust would be filled with cheese. In 1997, they marketed â€Å"The Edge,† which had cheese and toppings all the way to the edge of the pizza. Currently, they are marketing â€Å"The Big New Yorker,† trying to bring the famous New York style pizza to the whole country. Lastly, Pizza Hut has always valued customer service and satisfaction. In 1995, Pizza Hut began two customer satisfaction programs: a UAN (in USA 1-800) number customer hotline and a customer call-back program. These were implemented to make sure their customers were happy, and always wanted to return. In our plan, we will first give a situation analysis of current and relevant environmental conditions that affect our plan. Next, we will give a brief analysis of the current fast food industry, and any trends or changes that might occur in the future. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 7 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 8 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut ENVIRONMENTAL AND INTERNAL ANALYSIS OF PIZZA HUT In our visit to Pizza Hut we conducted research on PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) Analysis. In the internal analysis of Pizza Hut we have considered SWOT of the Company. PEST (Political, Economic, Social & Technological) i. POLITICAL ISSUES: Political issues include regulatory frame work operating in judicial system which may affect the business in different ways. There are not many political factors in Peshawar affecting Pizza Hut as is lack of competition. Factors such as laws on business employment, pollution and taxation apply on the organization which it has to follow regarding the rules. ii. ECNOMIC FACTORS: If the county’s economy is better so the GDP of the country will be good, this is a green signal for the business as the per capita income of the people will be increased and they will spend more money. In our survey we came to know that most of the people in the beginning of the months spend more and they visit pizza hut very often. When the inflation rate increases the cost of raw material also increases and this leads towards high prices of the products and vice versa. iii. SOCIAL FACTORS: Pizza hut is a multinational and it is basically originated from America so the organization is overwhelmed by western culture. There are social forms of society which consist of Upper class, middle class, middle upper class, lower class and lower class. Every country has cultural norms, values, beliefs and religion which can affect the organization. iv. TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS: Now a day’s technology is improving so as baking and heating ovens will be of new and efficient technology and will provide efficient service. Due to new technology there are new ways of marketing like internet; telemarketing and the organization can advertise their products with much more faster pace. Computer based customer data that is MIS (managing information system) helps in collecting customer data, daily transactions, future forecasting and decision making. New vehicles will make their service more efficient. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 9 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut SWOT ANALYSIS: Every organization has its strengths, weakness, opportunity and threats. So, the SWOT analysis for pizza hut is as under: Strengths: Pizza Hut is the market leader in providing different products of pizzas as there are no competitors in this sector. There good image makes the organization more strong. Pizza Hut is providing good taste, quality products with qualified staff, good atmosphere and hygienic environment. They are specialized in pizzas. Motivation level of staff is very high which make the organization more prosperous. They are ISO (International Standard Organization) certified. They have enough resources for operating different activities of the organization. They are providing free home delivery service. They have created monopoly in this sector. Another big Strength and even a Competitive Advantageis the fact that they have a full service restaurant as well as delivery services. Most of Pizza Hut's competitors do not have restaurants. Because of the restaurant, Pizza Hut can market too many different segments that other pizza chains cannot. For example, Pizza Hut can market to families much easier than Domino's or Little Caesar's. Weaknesses: However, the fact that Pizza Hut does have a restaurant to run is also a weakness. Pizza Hut has higher overhead costs, due to the restaurant that other competitors don't have to deal with. Another result of higher overhead costs is higher prices Pizza Hut must charge. Obviously, Pizza Hut is not the low cost producer. They rely on their quality pizza and good service to account for their higher prices. They are providing less range of products comparatively with high prices. They are more focused on Western taste instead of Eastern. Opportunities: New markets can be explored and new opportunities they can gain. Pizza Hut can come up with the new products considering the Eastern taste of the people as like McDonalds. Diversification of new products can increase their arket share. They can reduce their prices because of more resources. Threats: Pizza Hut's number one threats are from their competitors. Currently, Their closest competitor is Domino's Pizza who is working to open their Branch at Karachi. Domino's main competitive advantage over Pizza Hut is their Lower price. ii. Little Caesar's who is establishing their self in India and might move to i. Institute of Mana gement Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 10 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut Pakistan is another one of Pizza Hut's competitors, right behind Domino's in market share. Little Caesar's is famous for offering large quantities of pizza for less money. iii. New entrance like Dominos pizza in Pakistan market can affect their market share. iv. Other local restaurants can affect their market share by providing pizzas with lower price. v. Social factors can affect their image as a Western organization. SEGMENTATION: Main segments which Pizza hut has captured are the combination of higher incomes and dual career families , due to higher income consumer have more disposable income , allowing them to eat out more often . Pizza Hut holds the most market share in the Pizza industry, the perceived quality and service of the company will help to ensure a better the average chance at a successful introduction of a new product. The introduction of a product that keeps with today trends is also important to reduce the risk of failure. Pizza Hut maximum market segment is younger generations. These generation ranges from 12 to 30, the overall spending of these generations is mostly on non essential items, the higher amount of spending has been done on eating out. POSITIONING Pizza Hut was among the first multinational brands to enter the food retail sector in Pakistan. When the first Pizza Hut restaurant opened in Karachi the quick service industry was at a nascent stage and the pizza category was dominated by a sole regional player who had a marginal presence. Pizza Hut went on to play a significant role in pioneering and developing this category in Pakistan. Worldwide and in Pakistan, Pizza Hut has come to become synonymous with the ‘best pizzas under one roof'. This is because at Pizza Hut the belief is that every pizza has its own magic, thus making it a destination product – which everyone seeks. It is this belief that has ignited the passion to create, innovate and serve the finest product the industry has to offer, while setting standards for others to strive to replicate. Pizza Hut is committed to providing uncompromising product quality, offering customers the highest value for money and giving service that is warm, friendly and personal. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 11 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut A critical factor in Pizza Hut's success has been its unique dining experience. Crew members at Pizza Hut strive each day to provide ‘CUSTOMER MANIA' – the kind of service that ensures that every visit of the customer is a memorable one. Pizza Hut's constant endeavor to provide extra value – whether it is pizzas which are available to suit every price range, new promotions or the introduction of innovative product ranges – that puts a ‘Yum' on every customer's face – has allowed it to increase its presence in Pakistan to the current 38 restaurants across 9 cities. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 12 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut Market Targeting: Pizza hut targeted market defines them as a family product. This is because they don’t really directly market their customers. They are target everyone whereas their competitors target a certain gender or age. But pizza hut targets a wide range of customers. This is because they want to make the most money and who blames them. They have many competitors and they are bound to try everything to cope up tops. Their competitors are everywhere. There are just a few that are main competitors and pizza hut will always try to be the best and get the most money by making their products better quality but also cheaper. They try to offer something different with their product as well. They offer a range of stuffed crusts to try and attract customers. They also do vegetarian options with meet free pizzas and a salad and pasta bar. Not a lot of restaurants offer a salad and a pasta bar. This is another competitive idea to attract or customers. STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY PIZZA HUT: A business's strategy is the pattern of decisions and actions that are taken by the business to achieve its goals. A business has a variety of goals and objectives. All businesses need to organize their business activities in order to achieve their business objectives. Running a business involves planning the current as well as future activities. Hence, in order to achieve the business objectives, all business organizations adopt different strategies. Similarly, Pizza Hut has adopted many strategies which help achieve the targets set by the main office to the local store opened at Peshawar. Changes are the external as well as internal environment has led Pizza Hut rethink their past strategies and has therefore designed new strategies after noticing the changes in the environment. These environmental changes are seen through the PEST and SWOT analysis. After considering all the factors Pizza Hut has decided upon the strategies and their current strategies are divided into five main categories and further have sub-parts. These strategies are: – Functional Strategies: These are strategies designed to improve the efficiency of a business's operations. They often focus on an area, such as marketing, human resource etc. All business organizations adopt strategies at functional level as once the functional objectives are achieved, corporate objectives become easy. In order to make the functional strategy efficient, Pizza Hut has made all the functional departments co-operate with each other. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 13 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut Total Quality Management (TQM): This is the most important for a food chain like Pizza Hut. All the employees’ backof-the-house i. e. the kitchen assistants are trained accordingly. They are given extra classes in order to meet the quality standards set by Pizza Hut around the world. This strategy is important in order to satisfy the CHAMPS. This strategy is strictly implemented in Pizza Hut in order to fulfill the quality standards. Different quality management staff is also there at Pizza Hut. The shift managers have the task to observe whether the quality standards are met or not, whereas there are a total quality management department at the main office in Karachi. This department has the task to implement quality standards and know whether they are achieved or not. Business Level Strategy: Business level strategies are plans made to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals in a market. Hence, all the businesses need to adopt business level strategies in order to compete in a competitive environment. If we take a look at the Pakistani market, there are no large competitors of Pizza Hut but unlimited small competitors exist in the market. The threat of competitors is very low as there is no international food chain offering pizza in Pakistan at present. Therefore, present strategies adopted by Pizza Hut are keeping in consideration the present competition. Whereas, in future this competition will increase and Pizza Hut will have to change all its business level strategies in order to compete with its rivals. In very near future Dominos is opening its first branch in Karachi. This would be a threat for Pizza Hut and hence, the strategies would be changed. Pricing Strategy: The level of competition a business faces determines its pricing strategy. Sometimes a business has the scope to set its price and sometimes a business cannot. When a business has the scope to set its price there is a number of pricing strategies or policies it might choose. As there are no such competitors of Pizza Hut which could compete with the quality of pizza produced at Pizza Hut, therefore, the pricing strategy adopted by Pizza Hut is ‘market skimming'. Pizza Hut has adopted this pricing strategy as they want to hold maximum share of the market by maximum profit. This is a golden era for Pizza Hut, as there are no competitors and hence, Pizza Hut is free to charge any price they want. They are charging higher prices due to the uniqueness of the product. They satisfy the target market as the food quality is worth the price paid. The pricing strategy is not just to get the worth Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 14 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut of quality but also to gain maximum profits before any competitor enters because then Pizza Hut will have to change its pricing strategy. Although the prices would be lowered with the new entrants in the market but not to a greater extent as the quality food products are not home-produced. They are imported from different countries keeping in view the best quality. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 15 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut Market Share: As there are Dozens of Pizza Suppliers Globally Providing Services in different part of the World, but Pizza Hut is the One who got the Bigger Market Share Globally. This is the Survey taken by www. survey. com that Pizza Hut is having 48% of Overall Pizza Market in the World. After that Dominos is leading with a percentage of 20% while the rest 32% is divided in the Remaining Pizza Providers Globally. MARKET SHARE OTHERS 32% PIZZA HUT PIZZA HUT 48% DOMINO'S OTHERS DOMINO'S 20% Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 16 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut FOUR P’S OF MARKETING PRODUCT: Product refers to the actual program you are planning. The goal of pizza hut is to develop the best product with the resources available. Pizza Hut sells pizzas in four different sizes: personal (an individual serving), small, medium and large, though most stores have done away from with the small size. A variety of toppings are available, plus â€Å"specialty† styles, including Meat Lovers, Pepperoni Lovers, Cheese Lovers, Veggie Lovers, Double Cheeseburger, Supreme, Super Supreme and the newly introduced Pizza Mia. The pan pizza has a thicker crust than most other commercially available pizzas . o their products have help them to retain their customers and to increase them . they provide their customers with complete nutrition plan and healthy food is guaranteed. The nutrition plan also clearly tells diabetes patients can use what range of food at pizza hut. Over weight patients are also satisfied and the pizza with less cholesterol can be ordered. This encourages t he customers to visit pizza hut rather than going elsewhere. As pizza hut has to boost its sales in the existing markets, so they the new food products are introduced in all branches line-by–line because all branches are operated in co-operation with one another. Different products for different regions are also developed as there are choice differences. Pizza hut offers a long list of products and never afraid to offer new products like in Peshawar according to market they introduce the very first â€Å"Chapli Kabab Pizza† which was very healthy product by Pizza hut in this region. There are a lot many products according to different geographical places. Like in India they have got there vegetable pizzas, which has a large market there BUT not the Cow Meat Pizza. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 17 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut PRICE: . As there are no such competitors of Pizza Hut which could compete with the quality of pizza produced at Pizza Hut, therefore, the pricing strategy adopted by Pizza Hut is ‘market skimming'. Pizza Hut has adopted this pricing strategy as they want to hold maximum share of the market by maximum profit. This is a golden era for Pizza Hut, as there are no competitors and hence, Pizza Hut is free to charge any price they want. They are charging higher prices due to the uniqueness of the product. They satisfy the target market as the food quality is worth the price paid. The pricing strategy is not just to get the worth of quality but also to gain maximum profits before any competitor enters because then Pizza Hut will have to change its pricing strategy. Although the prices would be lowered with the new entrants in the market but not to a greater extent as the quality food products are not home-produced. They are imported from different countries keeping in view the best quality. First, this pricing strategy will help segment the market. Different groups of customers are willing to pay different prices for the same product. The high/low pricing strategy will also create excitement. The pricing strategy adopted by Pizza Hut is ‘market skimming'. Pizza Hut has adopted this pricing strategy as they want to hold maximum share of the market by maximum profit. This product will emphasize product and service quality PLACE/DISTRIBUTION: It refers to the best place to offer program. That is the place where it is located and through what channels are we distributing programs and the competitive advantage lies in distribution. The pizza hut Peshawar is situated out of the market area near Army Stadium and Shami road. This site has been chosen keeping in view the following factors. It is in an out of centre location on retail or Leisure Park with good parking accessibility. Secondly the catchment area is of a specified minimum size and within a given drive time to the site. Distribution The type of distribution channel used by Pizza Hut is the direct channel. The direct channel is successful when there is an extremely large market that is geographically dispersed. The direct channel is also useful when there are a large number of buyers, but a small amount purchased by each. Pizza Hut uses three different methods of selling its products directly to the market. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 18 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut i. The first method of distribution used by Pizza Hut is Home. Office delivery. Customers can call Pizza Hut ahead of time, place an order, and the order is delivered to the customer's home. can go to the nearest Pizza Hut, place an order and either leave with the order or eat at the restaurant. One of Pizza Hut's largest competitive advantages is its restaurant style facility. Pizza Hut offers a clean place to sit down and enjoy the variety of pizzas, salads, and sandwiches in a fun, family atmosphere. ii. Another method of distribution is for customers to dine-in. Customers iii. The third method of distribution is to order Online. Selective County Customers can now go on the Internet and place an order for Pizza. This method is useful because it allows customers to view the entire menu, download any special coupons, and order without having to disclose any credit card numbers. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 19 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut PROMOTION: The objectives of promotion are to introduce a new product, stimulate demand, change the short-term behavior of the customers, and encourage repeat or greater usage by current customers. Pizza hut uses many promotional strategies. The main promotion is a coupon to purchase. This promotion is also distributed mainly by mail, but also by fliers on college campuses around the country in order to reach the target market. They are using billboards on main stream places to get there customer. They are also distributing door to door brochures to capture more and more customers. Pizza huts also using marketing techniques. These are the strategies Pizza hut is using for its marketing. Pizza huts try's to attract the younger generation as their main market segment. Apart from this Pizza Hut is using intense marketing strategies they are also giving ads in magazines. Advertising camping will creates awareness of the products in our target markets. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 20 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut CONCLUSION Pizza Hut has many targets which it has achieve in a given period of time. The time-period is mostly a year. Therefore, in order to fulfill the targets different strategies are adopted by Pizza Hut. It can be concluded that these strategies have been successful and there is flexibility in the strategies, as they can be changed with the changes in the market conditions as well as the targets. Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 21 Report and Marketing Strategies of Pizza Hut REFERENCES Mr. Amir Zeb, Shift Manager, Pizza Hut, Peshawar Mr. Hamad Zeb, Shift Manger, Pizza Hut, Peshawar Lower staff of Pizza Hut, Peshawar Google Search Engine www. definitions. com www. answers. com www. about. com www. wikipedia. org www. pizzahut. com Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar Pakistan Page 22

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Decision Making and Enron’s Control Essay

Introduction – Students, analysts and critics of modern business practice will always consider the colossal Enron collapse as an important text book case about how a lot of different things inside the company can trigger a nearly overnight downfall of a once prestigious company. If there was any Cinderella story in the world of blue chip trading and high portfolio business, Enron was the ultimate opposite, if not the witch herself who was killed by her own lethal potion. The Enron collapse resulted in the formulating of many different opinions pointing to the many different possible reasons why Enron – with all the promise and potential that it has a few years before it went south – made the nosedive that made it one of the worst disasters in the history of trade, commerce and business. There is no doubt that most of the opinions that surfaced explaining the reason why such an eventuality befell Enron placed the blame on the wrong things that the top management echelon did for the company; they are after all the one which is responsible for the present and the future of Enron. Critics looking at the Enron debacle scrutinized what happened leading to the collapse using many different perspectives and considering many different factors, both in the professional capability of the company’s leaders as well as the impact of the surrounding factors beyond Enron’s control. One of the most important facets in the debate regarding the fall of Enron is decision making. Evidently, a lot of wrong decisions were made, with one every wrong decision acting as a building block that eventually became an insurmountable wall of consequences all borne out of wrong or faulty decision making processes that yielded results that did the company more harm than good. Indeed, the decision making linchpins significant to the establishment of the case that the Enron collapse was due in some extent to the decision making aspect of the leadership strata of the company can be identified easily as it is scattered throughout the timeline of Enron’s very near and not so distant past leading to the eventual fall of the company that hid behind the faà §ade of the building the ugliness created by the qualities of its leaders that caused the chaos that burned down Enron down to meager, worthless ashes. This paper will pick the significant moments wherein the decision making capabilities and abilities of its top management leaders were at play and use these moments to establish the ethical and other considerations coming to play during the analysis of the decision making efforts of the leaders and why the outcome of such exercises led to the fall of Enron and not towards the company’s betterment, which is the main task of the company’s top executives. The paper will utilize these occasions to stress its argument regarding the role of effective, ethical and sound decision making of top executives leading to either the success or bankruptcy of companies, in this case that of Enron, and discuss key aspects of this line of thought. The paper will not criminalize the actions of the executives of Enron; rather, it will infuse inputs from other professionals regarding important aspects in the discussion of corporate decision making (ethics, result-orientation, etc). Background – Various angles have already been explored by many different individuals every time the topic of analysis is Enron and its collapse. Because of this, the paper is moving to focus on an aspect that is focused more on Kenneth Lay and the rest of his top executive clique’s personal characteristic that could have played an important role in the outcome of Enron’s operation. Decision making is both a personal characteristic as it is a professional credential, even an asset. Some people are being paid handsome amounts of money for their ability to transform decision making moments into an opportunity that provides a positive result and expected outcome for the company. Ehringer (1995) puts it simply: ‘The ability to make good decisions is the defining quality of our lives’ (Ehringer, 1995, p. 1). When Lay, Skilling, Fastow and other Enron bosses were placed in their respective positions, they were expected to exercise a high level of intuitiven ess, business acumen and professional foresight so that every decision making opportunity is met with the company’s best interest long term and short term in mind. They were where they were because those who placed them there believed that they can make decisions to which the company can benefit from. When Enron collapse, many people and organizations criticized the questioned the decision making capabilities of the top executives – was the collapse an effect of the result of the decision that they made? Was the decision made putting the benefit of the company and the employees first, or are the decisions shaped so that it benefited them first? How bad was the breach in the ethical considerations that a professional should take every time he or she makes a decision that puts the future of the company on the line? These are just some of the questions that may also be present in the minds of those who followed the Enron case. Sure there were varying degrees of deception and fraudulent acts from the part of many select individuals who sinned against Enron and its employees, but these cases would have been minimized or even averted altogether if the important decision making privileges was limited to a select few, or if the future-altering decision making capability is disseminated largely among a huge group of people that can provide a check and balance system for Enron. Roberts (2004) explained that ‘ if it is possible for others to make the decisions for a unit, then new options arise to design the decision-making process as well as the incentive schemes to get better performance on both dimensions. For example, the design might specify that a decision about a project arising in one unit that affects another would be implemented if and only if both units agree to it,† (Roberts, 2004, p.151). Enron is an energy trading firm which was performing well in the early part of its existence. By the s tart of the 21st century, the problems that the bosses were trying to hide from the public and from the employees started to stank. Soon, events unfolded like dominoes falling one after the other as a consequence of information spilling out into the public’s attention. Before 2004, the public already had a clear idea about how Enron bosses were supposedly the one responsible for the defrauding of the employees and their company shares and other benefits, as well as the one responsible for the bankruptcy of Enron. One by one, key company officials stepped out of the light and implicated a new name, which will in turn implicate a much bigger name, until the dragnet sent out to see who was accountable for the fraudulent acts in Enron caught its top bosses, including Lay, Skilling and Fastow. Many individuals faced criminal charges, and many more simply went home not just jobless but are robbed of lifetime investments which Enron bosses manipulated and soon lost because of the wrong decisions they made on how to run the company and make it prosper and grow. Examples of how Enron management made wrong decisions during decision making moments abound in the history of the company. Take for example what happened in 1987 – instead of declaring the $190 million loss the company experienced, they concealed it instead, leading to criminal charges. This habit of Enron for opting to conceal losses instead of declaring it became a dangerous vice; when Fastow was aboard Enron, the same outlook affected the decision making of Enron, leading to increase in pile of cases wherein Enron through its top management consciously made actions that defraud the employees and the public. There was also the case of poor public relations by Enron which fanned the flames of panic that removed any possible opportunity for Enron to remedy the financial situation without creating hysteria that saw many stockholders selling their stocks due to the continued falling of the stock value of Enron. Statement of Problem – The most important decision that Enron’s executives faced was not the decision on whether or not to publicly announce about the bankruptcy; in fact, there was no decision making factor during that instance since the predicament of the company has already been decided regardless of what the top executives might have opted for: they were flat out broke and the public needs to know about this, that was the situation. The true decision making moment for Enron’s bosses was the time when they were deciding what the best option to take is with regards to the financial aspect of the company, including taxes, earnings and financial loses. It was a matter of facing a decision making task that provided the Enron bosses with two options – to do the right thing, or to opt for something that is morally and ethically inappropriate. The decision reached in this particular decision making instance was laced with the hope that the option they took would be free from serious repercussions and give them enough time to fix it all up again. Unfortunately for Enron, things did not work out as planned, and the criminal liability of the Enron bosses stemmed from the fact that they decided to do something which they consciously knew was detrimental to the welfare of the Enron company and its employees. During that particular instance, Lay could have opted to do the right thing and faced the consequences – by coming clean, he may have a more sympathetic public to support him in whatever efforts he may wish to undertake to revive Enron, and not be faced with the collapsing stock value since those who can sell theirs sell it in a frantic phase to rid themselves of the stock of the company which is nearing imminent bankruptcy. This showed how the people do not give second chances to those who squander their decision making privileges by making decisions bereft of the consideration of the good of the greater many. Decision making – John Hintze (2006), in his discussion about making smart decisions during decision making, used the case of the Enron collapse to open his discussion and establish the fact that problems are something that is foreseen, something that happened nonetheless owing to bad decision making. Hintze wrote, ‘should we have seen 9/11 coming? What about the Enron collapse? The Signs were there; people pointed them out, but the appropriate steps were not taken by those in a position to do something. Why is this? Politics? Greed? Those certainly contributed, but there was something else at work here, too: A failure of common sense in decision making’ (Hintze, 2006, p. 123). Enron: Bad decision making – Nothing can prove more about how bad the decision making went inside Enron camp more convincingly than the fact the company transformed from prosperous to poor overnight. This was the general characteristic of Enron through the traits shown by its leaders that reflect the Enron personality. There were earlier discussions in the paper about snippets on instances pointing to Enron’s penchant for making bad decision or for going to the resolving of a problem utilizing an option that is more questionable. Fox (2004) explained that ‘Enron believed that its expansion into international projects were positive initiatives simply because they put the company in more potential markets. In truth, Enron made bad business decisions that weren’t supported by the deal’s economics. The bad business decisions piled up, stretching from India to Brazil, pressuring the company to do something about its finances’ (Fox, 2004,p. 307). At least at this point, Fox is not pointing at the unethical aspect of the Enron decision making machinery, just the fact that they made decisions that were bad for the future of the company, but not to the extent of deliberately sabotaging the company or putting the company in danger with all known risk for personal gain. For Fox, it was a bad call plain and simple. But the matter of the fact is that not everyone sees it the way Fox does, and there are those who believe that there were ethical breaches in the decision making in Enron among its top bosses. The (absence of) Leaders in decision-making – Decision making in retrospective is one of the common line of thinking used when investigating events that led to growth or debacle. It is because decision making played an important part in shaping the future of the company; it is here where the foundation, or lack of it, was created via the decisions the bosses made or failed to make. To trace the problems or mark significant actions resulting from decision making which eventually resulted to either the success or failure of the company, it is not only the decision making events that are looked back to; the persons that made them were also put under the microscope, and among the qualities scrutinized is their decision making ability and their other characteristics that affect their decision making attitude and behavior. Professionals debate about the idea of a good decision, a bad decision, good intentions and bad intentions and how the good and bad effect that comes into play afterwards account for the overall accountability of a person wielding the power to make decisions that will have a tremendous impact on the future of the company, something which happened in Enron via Lay, Skilling, Fastow and the rest of the top figures of the company. Acuff (2004) explains that ‘if they make a decision that might not have been the decision I would have made, and the y come and talk to me about it, we look at it and discuss it. There are a lot of different ways to skin the horse. I don’t go saying my idea is the only one that will get you where you want to go. I hold people accountable for good decision-making. If a bad outcome results from a bad decision – that’s a problem. But if a bad outcome results from a reasonable decision, then that’s business, and it could happen to anyone† (Acuff, 2004, p. 187). This was the predicament of those who are trying to evaluate the decision making actions of Enron top executives – did they make decisions, even bad decisions – with the sake of the company in mind, and gambled with their careers because they know that if their plans and actions go well, it is extremely beneficial for the company, in a very Machiavellian approach towards getting things done regardless of the means by which they did it, or were they just plain guilty of fraudulent actions? People who are burdened by the decision that impacts a lot of people is not always amenable to taking the high and moral grounds, that is why the adage about the end justifying the means, about getting things done at what ever cost, about delivering against the odds became popular because of people like the Enron bosses who (probably) acted upon their decision making duties by risking what can be a popularly bad decision. Indeed, it may be easy or even convenient for most people adversely affected by the Enron collapse to attribute the colossal corporate debacle to the top management figures of the company by criticizing their decisions as well as their faculty for sound decision making. While it is true that Enron’s top executives are responsible for the collapse of the company, it is not that easy to measure the level of ethical decision making attributes of Enron’s top brass. Goethals et al (2004) pointed out that â€Å"the complexity associated with ethical decision making and behavior, especially as it applies to leadership and the workplace, makes the construct extremely difficult to research†, adding that â€Å"Measuring an individual’s level of ethical decision making is challenging, particularly because the measurement instruments that are available have problems with priming and social-desirability effects; that is, questionnaires or other similar modes of data collection cue respondents to give answers that they believe are socially acceptable rather than answers that truly reflect their own actions or opinions (Goethals et. al., 2004, p. 461).† Proof of which is the fact that all of these executives in question are career corporate leaders even before they joined Enron; their credentials played an important role regarding their selection for a corporate position as high as theirs. Because of this, as well as the factors that affect the credibility of the ability for identification of the real public pulse regarding the persons involved in the issue, ethical decision making levels of the persons involved is hard to ascertain, making claims for questionable ethical decision making consideration of the people lose important ground and stand on insufficient set of stable legs for proof and justification. Still, there are those who believe that the level of ethics that influences the decision making capabilities of the Enron bosses are without a doubt questionable, and this includes Mimi Swartz and Sherron Watkins who was quoted in the book edited by Kathy Fitzpatrick and Carolyn B. Bronstein. In the article, it mentions about how Swartz and Watkins â€Å"blame Ken Lay, former CEO of Enron, and other company executives for privileging greed and arrogance over ethical business decisions† (Fitzpatrick and Bronstein, 2006, p. 179), the gist of the published work co-authored by the two individuals. Nalebuff and Ayres (2006) wrote that ‘the problem often arises because people ignore the costs and benefits that their decisions have on other people. We call this approach â€Å"Why don’t you feel my pain?† The more technical term for these effects is externalities. Decision makers who ignore externalities are bound to make bad decisions† (Nalebuff and Ayres, 2006, p. 67). This explanation greatly tarnishes the ethical value of the decision making ethics of Enron bosses because it shows that they are prone or inclined to make decisions even if the result of such decisions lead to negative effects that other people will experience. Niskanen (2005) believes that Lay, one of the top bosses of Enron, â€Å"should be judged on the basis of his personal actions, directions to subordinates, or the actions of subordinates that he implicitly condoned by knowing about it without attempting to correct – not on the basis of what he should have known† (Niskanen, 2005, p. 6). Lay’s condoning of actions is a result of a personal and professional decision that he made – or failed to make – and because of that, Niskanen believes that Lay is answerable for any criminal charges that would result from that particular action (or inaction). Watkins was thinking of the company and its employees and their future and hers as well, when she made the decision to let her superiors, particularly Lay, know about the possible accounting problems and the making public of the current and real financial and trade status of the company. This clearly illustrates the difference in ethics when it comes to decisio n making. Decision making, ethics and public perception – Decision making in business is not merely a power or a privilege that one can use at will without thinking of the consequences that might happen should the decision resulted into something that is considered as adversely negative and detrimental to the welfare of the employees, their jobs and the company they work for. Those who are provided with such amenity to go along with their job description should consider that it is also their responsibility to make sure that their employees and subordinates do not think that they are squandering away their decision making privilege and everything that goes along with it. This was the prevailing attitude or outlook of the Enron employees especially nearing the imminent collapse of the company. The absence of ethical consideration resulted to the losing of the credibility of the bosses of Enron because they were not careful with how they undertake their decision making tasks. While bankruptcy is something that is very difficult to accept and impacts greatly in the lives of the employees especially the rank and file blue collar workers, there is a sense of adding insult to injury during occasions wherein the employees are starting to realize that all of the unfortunate things that happen in the company and in their careers are all a result of the faulty, incompetent and unethical decision making of the top management echelon and not because the company was helpless in the onslaught of a devastating economic problem, like how companies closed down during the Great Depression despite the efforts of American businessmen to keep the different industries alive and breathing. During the collapse of Enron, the US is experiencing a very stable economy far from that which characterized US economy during the Great Depression, and is shielded securely from the impact of whatever it was that was happening in the global economic and business landscape, and so during the Enron collapse, the collective finger was pointing an accusing index digit to Enron bosses and majority of the cause of their indignation originates from the sloppy decision making capabilities of Enron bosses who lost their credibility the moment they lost Enron. Brazelton and Ammons (2002) wrote in the book they co-wrote: â€Å"The Ethics Resource Center conducted a survey in 2000 in which it learned that 43 percent of respondents believed that their supervisors are generally poor examples of honest managers, and the same number were pressured to compromise their own integrity or that of their organization during decision making. The survey also identified a strong connection between employees’ perceptions of their supervisors and their own ethical behavior (Brazelton and Ammons, 2002, p. 388).† Enron decision making: the two-pronged factors – It can be pointed out that one of the problems that happened to Enron is the ineffective of decision making among top executives – first, their top executives failed to make correct decisions when they are required to do so, and second, Enron was not fully complimented with a set of professionals which could have contributed to the decision making process, and in the process provided the possibility of infusing new or different ideas that could have altered the outcome of the decision making process. Fitzpatrick and Bronstein (2006) did not look exclusively on Enron’s bosses and the decisions they made in the management of Enron and the company’s money and asset, rather, the two editors focused on the absence of a key top managem ent personnel and took the presence of such a void as a sign that Enron is not even prioritizing the welfare of the company and its employees. The book Ethics in Public Relations: Responsible Advocacy, which includes the Enron case as one of the important case studies to point out the importance of the role of public relations, explains that â€Å"perhaps the governance of these companies was such that they did not care about their publics, and did not want the advice of senior-level public relations officer playing an active or dominant role in organizational decision making† (Fitzpatrick and Bronstein, 2006, pg 179). Conclusion – Niskanen (2005) summed up the Enron case on its characteristic of thriving in bad decisions made by its corporate leaders by saying in the book that ‘the most important lesson from the Enron collapse, however, is that Enron failed because of a combination of bad business decisions, not because its accounts were misleading’ adding that ‘the major business decisions that most contributed to its collapse were a series of bad investments, most of which were in the tra ditional asset-rich industries; the failure to reconcile two quite different business models; and the decision to focus management objectives on reported revenues and earning rather than on the present value of future cash flows’ (Niskanen, 2005, p. 6). Are they poor in decision making, or was the decision making adversely affected by other concerns and priorities outside of Enron that the results of the decision made for Enron looks like those who made the call did not even think about how this course of action will affect Enron? There are no sufficient proofs to point that the case was the latter; for a company that became seventh all in all in the Fortune 500 at least once, it is unthinkable how there will be conscious efforts to sink the company by making wrong decisions, deliberately or not. The point of the paper is not the assertion of the guild of Skilling, Lay or even Fastow, it’s the establishing of the point that decision making, when not handled properly, can turn even the most profitable company into a nose-diving wreck in a short period of time, that decision making plays an important role in how a person defines his or her life and how he or she leads a company and that because of these factors, no one should have an excuse why decision making was taken lightly and without much thought or care. All the people can see is a group of people who made wrong decisions several times, the resulting web and how they got trapped in that web, that is assuming that there was no malice or hidden agenda that the bosses perpetrated in lieu of Enron’s collapse. In the end, only Lay (now deceased) and the elite circle of the Enron executive clique will be the ones who would really know about the truth regarding ethics and the decision making in Enron leading to th e collapse of the company. Many would ask, and some would presume, the reasons as well as the level of guilt of these leaders when it comes to breaching the ethical requirements needed when undertaking decision making for a company. Regardless, the decisions they made created far reaching ripples and altered the lives of many individuals who invested not just their time, strength and life’s savings into the company but as well as their but as well as their faith and trust, which are not in shattered pieces because of the bad decisions that Enron executives made. Crawford (2006) further elaborated on the pointed by explaining that ‘bad decisions by a major company, however, cause major disruptions for all of the company’s stakeholders’. He pointed at the case of Enron as one of his examples, saying that ‘the Enron disaster, as one example, certainly had devastating impacts on the lives of most of Enron employees (including the middle managers and professionals who invested in the company-sponsored Enron 401[K] plans) and also caused suffering for many individual investors who purchased Enron stock on the open market. Thousands of other Enron stakeholders, including Enron’s suppliers and customers, also suffered,’ (Crawford, 2006, p. 26). Indeed, Enron’s decision making had a hand in how the company turned out to be. References: Acuff, Jerry and Wood, Wally (March 2004). Relationship Edge in Business: Connecting with Customers and Colleagues when It Counts. Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated. Brazelton, Julia K. and Ammons, Janice L. (September 2002). Enron and beyond: Technical Analysis of Accounting, Corporate Governance and Securities Issues. CCH, Incorporated. Crawford, Curtis J. J. (November 2006). Compliance and Conviction: The Evolution of Enlightened Corporate Governance. XCEO, Incorporated. Ehringer, Ann G. (June 1995). Make up Your Mind: Entrepreneurs Talk about Decision Making by Ann G. Graham. Silver Lake Publishing. Fitzpatrick, Kathy, Bronstein, Carolyn B. (May 2006). Ethics in Public Relations: Responsible Advocacy. SAGE Publications. Fox, Loren. (2004). Enron: The Rise and Fall. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.wiley.com. Fusaro, Peter C., Miller, Ross M. and James, Tom (2002). What Went Wrong at Enron: Everyone’s Guide to the Largest Bankruptcy in U.S History. John Wiley and Sons. Goethals, George R., Burns, James MacGregor and Sorenson, Georgia (March 2004). Encyclopedia of Leadership. SAGE Publications. Hintze, John. (May 2006). Making Smart Decisions. Harvard Business School Press. Nalebuff, Ian Ayres (November 2006). Why Not?: How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small. Harvard Business School Press. Niskanen, William A. (June 2005). After Enron: Lessons for Public Policy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Roberts, John. (May 2004). The Modern Firm: Organizational Design for Performance and Growth. Oxford University Press, USA.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Roman catholic funeral and burial practices Research Paper

Roman catholic funeral and burial practices - Research Paper Example They are also known as ecclesiastical funerals in the Church. When a member of the family or a loved friend passes away, the others are left grieving and wondering why it had to happen to him. However the truth lies that every person is going to see his end one day or another and thus, instead of feeling tremendous sorrow for the deceased one, people try and hope for the best and thank Jesus for all that he has done and everything he had provided the person with during his lifetime. The Roman Catholic Funeral rites thus help to offer a very profound journey for the dead that helps his family and friends to pass through the beautiful emotions of grief and loss as well as joy that the person is going to a happier place where he is believed to have an everlasting life in heaven or paradise. There are a number of varied beliefs on what happens after death, for all different religions. In the Roman Catholic Church, people are taught that after death, a body begins to decompose into the Ea rth. During this process, the soul however leaves the body and undergoes an immediate evaluation. This is according to the Hebrews 9:27 "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (KJV). They believe that there are very few people who end up going to heaven after their death. They are those people that spend their lives worshipping God and let God show them the way in every aspect of their lives. They are thus glorified and are rewarded by eternal bliss in heaven. Some saints, the Virgin Mary and Apostles qualify for walking on this path after their death. On the other hand, those who commit sins during their lifetime or reject the existence and worship of God are transported to Hell after their death. It is here that they are tortured for the rest of whatever they have left, their souls are not give mercy and they are stuck forever in this position that they are believed to have created for themselves, by inflicting upon them, deeds during the course of their lifetime. Yet another state that many dead people enter into right after their death is the state of purgatory. This takes place when a person loves God ‘imperfectly’ during his lifetime but dies in a state of grace. Purgatory is said to be the state where such people have to suffer for a long time in order o cleanse themselves of whatever imperfections have been accumulated within their souls because of their deeds in their lives. They might have committed certain mortal sins, but after some ablution these are cleansed off and forgiven in the Sacrament of Peace. However, such people are still believed to have some punishments which need to be discharged. (CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA) The Roman Catholics believe that Purgatory is much like Hell because when people are tortured here in order to cleanse themselves, they are tortured endlessly with fire. This happens till they are perfectly pure again to be able to qualify to enter the gates of Heaven. It is also belie ved that if the friends and family of the deceased pray to God for his soul, then his stay in purgatory is shortened, otherwise he has to endure fighting with fire till he is absolved. The difference from Hell is that one in Purgatory eventually gets to enter Heaven unlike those who already are in Hell. Moving on to the actual funeral rites in the Roman Catholic Church, these have three parts.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Louisiana Purchase Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Louisiana Purchase - Research Paper Example In addition, the US government had to cancel a $ 3,650, 000 owed by France. Louisiana had become a major issue in the European history following the defeat of the Britain by France. This essay will therefore analyze the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States and its implication on the European political history. The city of Orleans was strategically located on river Mississippi and, hence it provided a good control point for activities that took place in the waterways. It acquisition was therefore significant to the US economy during that time. The main reason why the United States needed to acquire the territory is that, it was the easiest channel to the Gulf of Mexico. River Mississippi was vital to the United States economy since it served as an entry point for goods leaving United States and goods coming into the country (Ziegler 1988, 85). During that time, the country heavily depended on water transport, as it did not have access to other transport system. The US depende d on the Mississippi waterway to transport most agricultural products such as tobacco and cotton from the upper states. The rights to be able to navigate through rivers Mississippi and Ohio were therefore significant the United States (United States. Dept. of State, 1905, 122-125). The United States also needed to control the region in order to reduce the financial cost that it was incurring due to the French and Spanish control over the area. Initially US merchants had to pay hefty sums of money as tax in order to use the Mississippi and Ohio waterways. The US government therefore needed to gain control over the city in order to boost its trade balance by reducing the operation cost incurred by merchants from the country. Other than trade, the US population was expanding rapidly due to the large number of immigrants who were settling into the country from Europe. The US therefore, needed to expand its territory in order to achieve its expansion ambitions. The high population growth also had a direct influence on the United States’ economy. The US government therefore needed to be aggressive in the acquisition of land for its citizens. The acquisition of Orleans proved to the world that the United States had become fully independent from European powers. The Spanish and French forces that controlled the region posed a major threat for the expansion of the United States; the US needed to acquire the territory in order to end their control over the region. The acquisition marked the end of the western frontier enabling the country’s expansion to the west coast. France entered into war with other European powers from 1792 to 1795 under the leadership of Napoleon. The French forces were fighting in both the European and American frontiers. During the war, France incurred heavy costs that may have pushed Napoleon to sell off Louisiana to the Americans. The French army also suffered heavy casualties and this forced Napoleon to sell the territory to the Americans. The sale of Louisiana came at a time when the French army was preparing for war against the British in the northern frontier. To maintain the war Napoleon needed finances to pay the army and to provide essential supplies to the French soldiers. The French army also lacked appropriate military hardware that the government needed to acquire in order to maintain the war. During the war, Napoleon needed to control his army and the newly

Freud and Psychoanalysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Freud and Psychoanalysis - Research Paper Example ace-time matrix of the Freudian dream clearly reflects that mind is the part of human being in which body is the spatial restriction and limitation of human mind. Obviously mind can go beyond this limitation through his capability of imagination. In the book, â€Å"Studies on Hysteria† Freud and Breuer (1893) recognize the physicality and bodily experience as a contribution to the development of personality. But this approach of Freud and Breuer (1893) to body and mind, though it resembles to that of Damasio’s (1992), differs from the neurobiological approach on the ground that though both mind and personality are shaped by bodily feeling, Freud and Breuer’s (1895; 1895) concept of mind does not acknowledge the role of the organic function of human brain to the development of mind. According to them the physical feelings like trauma are stored in human mind first in the form of memory of a foreign entity and then in the form of an agent that determines his future functions of body and mind. Freud’s theory of personality primarily evolves from his approach to the concept of mind. As a theorist, Freud (1916) crucially depends on the structural existence of human mind that is more or less detached from physiological existence of human being. Irrespective of the relationship of mind with human body, the physical existence, Freud’s â€Å"mind† closely follows a structural pattern that effectively explains the different questions -regarding the relationship of mind with various behavioral pattern of a person- of the psychoanalysts of his age. In comparison with the German Philosopher Mauss’s collective notion of â€Å"person† which changes from time to time and society to society, Freud’s concept of ‘person’ appears to be an intact one that is supposed to function universally (Ziegler, 2002, p. 81). But Freud’s theory of personality that exclusively revolves around a person’s body apparently fails to explai n the relationship between body and mind that

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Stateless nations Palestine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Stateless nations Palestine - Essay Example This population of people has no citizenship and its benefits and thus lacks full access to services offered by the reference government to the legitimate citizens. This is despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which asserts that every person has a right to nationality (Balaton 1). The stateless people do not have the benefit of civil and political, economic, cultural, and social rights, economic and cultural rights that citizens in a state enjoy. Indeed, this population does not even have an avenue to claim for these rights and hence do not participate in any national matters. As such, the stateless population is prone to poor employment, poverty, travel barriers, inequality, discrimination, sexual and physical violence, no legal protection, property ownership restrictions, political barriers, exclusion, and humanitarian crisis (Balaton 2-3). Moreover, they cannot access health, education, and other social services. As such, statelessness is arguably one of the dangerou s and undesirable conditions that affect the world population. Nevertheless, the UNHCR is undertaking re4levant measures to reduce statelessness in the globe (â€Å"UN News Centre† 1). In this context, this paper will detail Palestine as a stateless nation. ... Notably, for a long time, Palestinians and the Jewish people of Israel have been living in the same area where Israel now controls most of that territory and Palestinians are still struggling to reclaim that area for purposes of their own independent state. As a result, there has been a struggle for the stateliness of Palestine with Israel seeking to maintain the status quo. We can trace this dispute from the historical days of the Bible, which involved Abraham’s son Isaac representing the Jews and Ishmael representing the Arabs. Since then, Israel and Palestine has been on war with Israel winning all wars thus rendering Palestine to be stateless. Actually, in 1967, Israel captured Israel captured major territories with huge Palestine population, which included Gaza from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan. Nevertheless, this victory did not derive peace and security to Israel as Palestine kept up the fight for West Bank, which is their probable independent state. As such, the struggle for land, security, and Palestine independence persists to this day and Palestine remains a stateless nation. Most assuredly, Israel seeks to reduce the Palestinian Arabs population while increasing the number of Jewish immigrants. Nevertheless, most Israelis are slowly accepting that Palestinians deserve to have an independent state with Palestinians con?ning their concentration to the West Bank. The stateless Palestine fall into three categories which include holders of nationalities of convenience, holders of the ‘Refugee Travel Document’, and holders of the Palestinian passport issued by the Palestinian Authority (Shiblak 8). Historically, the geographical location of Palestine was a region in

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Designing an Daptive Mobile Learning Using Multiple Intelligence (MI) Dissertation

Designing an Daptive Mobile Learning Using Multiple Intelligence (MI) Theory - Dissertation Example Ubiquitous learning is highly contextual and involves multiple technologies like mobile, wireless, sensing, etc. Context-aware ubiquitous learning platform (CULP) is one such platform that is found to enhance the efficiency of learning (Gu et al., n.d.; Hwang et al., 2011; Hwang et al., 2010). Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory is â€Å"a classical model by which to understand and teach many aspects of human intelligence, learning style, personality and behaviour - in education and industry† (Chapman, 2009). Earlier tools were limited in providing real-time support through mutual collaboration; however, most recent tools for adaptive learning through multiple intelligences have state-of-the-art technologies enabling a real-world adaptive learning environment for CULP. Multiple Intelligences, Artificial Intelligence, Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks are also used in developing ubiquitous learning tools (Cabada et al., 2008). The models for such tools will be studied in this paper to help design a new model that can address the short-comings in the present models. The proposed model for ubiquitous learning will be a comprehensive and highly adaptive model based on the use of multiple intelligences. ... FRAME) (Figure 1) addressed the issue of information overload, navigation of content and collaboration for gaining the relevant knowledge by focusing on the integration of mobile technology, human learning capacity and social interactions. Figure 1: FRAME model for mobile learning. Source: (Koole, 2011). Context-sensitive learning schedule framework, mCALS, uses context-aware location and time information to schedule learning. Verification for the strict adherence of schedule for learning is also incorporated in this framework (Yau et al., 2010). Sung’s (2009) Ubiquitous Learning Environment (ULE) model uses MI theory and effectively combines the advantages that an adaptive learning environment and ubiquitous computing have to offer along with the flexibility of mobile devices. This combination enables learning collaborators, content and services to be available in a context-aware framework. While the models discussed have been able to allow interaction based on context-awaren ess, Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), similar to Artificial Intelligence (AI), has a low-end model called TenseITS which offers the flexibility of learning English tenses and does not take into consideration the individual needs of the learner in terms of location. C-POLMILE is another standard model of ITS that offers synchronised learning capability over PC and a mobile environment, and is used for C programming. MoreMATHS is another extension of ITS, used for mobile revision for Maths as it offers a Math learning environment that is mainly on the PC with revision enabled on a mobile device. Similarly, SQL ITS is another customized ITS for MS SQL database administration that can be synchronised with the mobile device (Bull et al., 2004). Cui and Bull (2005) note that TenseITS adapts to the

Monday, September 23, 2019

The Dulhasti Power Plant Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

The Dulhasti Power Plant - Case Study Example In addition, the selected region was very poor in terms of infrastructure development. More precisely, the region did not have an adequately developed logistic network including roads and rail lines. As a result, almost all construction supplies such as raw materials and labor had to be brought to air transportation. Another issue is that the construction site was far away from larger cities and urban areas. Therefore, the construction firms had to spend more on food and accommodation for its workers. In addition, the non-proximity to larger cities significantly increased the transportation costs of the French consortium. Since the company had to wait for a relatively long period to obtain the supply of raw materials, this situation led to delay in the completion of the project. Evidently, time delay involved in the project completion would end up in cost escalations. Probably, the adverse climatic conditions in this mountainous terrain might have also contributed to the project cost escalation. Management professionals point out that even highly experienced construction firms cannot accurately perform cost estimation when working under harsh geographical condition due to unforeseen contingencies. There are some regions that are extremely prone to natural contingencies like earthquakes, floods, drone, and wildfire. While working in such bad geographical regions, construction firms are most likely to experience cost overruns. Such threats not only impede the project development but also cause damages to construction firm’s resources including tools, pieces of equipment, and labors. Sometimes, issues like a landslide or icy roads may disrupt transportation, and hence the construction firms may be compelled to stop their work temporarily. Undoubtedly, such incidents would cause construction firms to incur unanticipated fund needs. In order to manage contingency costs, construction firms are forced to increase the level of contingency funding.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Types of Discrimination Essay Example for Free

Types of Discrimination Essay Racial Discrimination: According to the Australian Human Right and Equal Opportunity Commission, racial discrimination is the treatment of someone less fairly because of his or her race, color, descent, national origin or ethnic origin than someone of a different race would be treated in a similar situation. Racial Discrimination is not only reflected in personal attitudes and behaviors, it can be expressed in values, presumptions, structures and processes of social, economic, cultural and political institutions. Such institutional racial discrimination is less direct and harder to identify than personal beliefs and behaviors. Structures and processes may appear as non-discriminatory but in fact operate to advantage some groups over others. The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) makes racial discrimination unlawful in Australia. The legislation covers all of Australia and can be used to ensure everyone is treated equally, regardless of his or her race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin. The Racial Discrimination Act covers discrimination in areas such as employment, renting or buying property, the provision of goods and services, accessing public places and in advertising. Aged Discrimination:Age discrimination occurs when an opportunity is denied to a person solely because of their age and where age is irrelevant to the persons ability to take advantage of that opportunity. Direct age discrimination happens when a person is treated less favorably because of their age than a person of another age group would be treated in the same or similar circumstances. Discrimination also happens when there is a requirement, condition or practice that is the same for everyone but has an unfair effect on a person of a particular age. This is known as indirect discrimination. The Age Discrimination Act 2004 prohibits less favorable treatment not only because of age, but also because of characteristics generally pertaining to age and characteristics generally imputed to people of that age. Sex Discrimination (Gender: Women):Sex discrimination against women occurs when a woman is treated less fairly than another person because of her sex or marital status or because she is pregnant. This is direct discrimination. Indirect discrimination can also occur when a requirement that is the same for everyone has an unfair effect on women because of their sex, marital status, pregnancy or potential pregnancy. The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 makes sex discrimination against the law. The Act gives effect to Australias obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and parts of International labor Organization Convention 156. Its major objectives are to:†¢Promote equality between men and women;†¢Eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status or pregnancy and, with respect to dismissals, family responsibilities; and†¢Eliminate sexual harassment at work, in educational institutions, in the provision of goods and service, in the provision of accommodation and the administration of federal programs. Cultural Discrimination (Aboriginals):Cultural discrimination (Aboriginals) is being treated less fairly than someone else because youre Aboriginal. This treatment may be illegal. Unlawful discrimination on the basis of ones Aboriginality can happen at:-Work-School or college-A public venue-In a shop-Looking for a house to rent or buy-Applying for credit, insurance or a loan-Dealing with trades people, businesses or state or local government. The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) makes racial discrimination unlawful in Australia this includes discrimination against aboriginals. Disability Discrimination:Disability discrimination happens when people with a disability are treated less fairly than people without a disability. Disability discrimination also occurs when people are treated less fairly because they are relatives, friends, carers, co-workers or associates of a person with a disability the Federal Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (D.D.A.) provides protection for everyone in Australia against discrimination based on disability. It encourages everyone to be involved in implementing the Act and to share in the overall benefits to the community  and the economy that flow from participation by the widest range of people. Bibliography: †¢http://www.humanrights.gov.au/racial_discrimination/index.html†¢http://www.hreoc.gov.au/age/index.html†¢http://www.humanrights.gov.au/sex_discrimination/index.htm†¢http://www.adcq.qld.gov.au/Brochures07/race_ATSI.html†¢http://www.humanrights.gov.au/disability_rights/dda_guide/about/about.html†¢http://humanrights.gov.au/education/voices/pdf/a5_case_study2.pdf†¢http://www.racismnoway.com.au/library/understanding/index-What.html#Heading34†¢http://humanrights.gov.au/education/voices/pdf/a5_case_study2.pdf

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Teachers Diary Experience In Task Based Education English Language Essay

Teachers Diary Experience In Task Based Education English Language Essay Many areas of education are undergoing changes in the way teaching and learning is perceived. Teacher-centered lecturing and structural-syllabus instruction are giving way to a more student-centered, hands-on, practical, and flexible approaches (Shank and Cleary, 1994). The field of English language teaching is no exception in this paradigm shift. One of the areas, which came under this paradigm shift, is the traditional Present-Practice-Produce method of teaching English. It has been replaced by Communicative Language Teaching. An offshoot of Communicative Language Teaching is Task-Based Teaching. The teacher has been identified to be a learning facilitator. He does this largely through the medium of communication, verbal and non-verbal. The quality and effectiveness of such communication have a lot to do with the amount and quality of learning that takes place. This paper talks about a teachers experience in a mixed/heterogeneous classroom situation. Introduction The classroom, a small social structure, but sometimes large, is a working group of students coming from different socioeconomic background, tribes and cultural affinities, mixing with some friends, some strangers and the indifferent. These differences become complex in pluralistic societies including India. Their common task is learning a given content. It is the teacher who is the enabling agent for these socialization and learning. The teacher is the expert (at most in his field), the leader, the more mature mind and wiser. This is the idea of traditional pedagogy. During instruction in the classroom, it is the intent of the teacher to impact information and knowledge to the students and on many occasions such information and knowledge are designed to change the behavior of the learners. However, before a teacher can change the behavior of his students, he must not only possess adequate knowledge of the subject matter, he must be able to communicate his massage effectively. The teacher must have the ability to persuade his students to accept his ideas and arguments and not to leave them wondering at the end of the lesson whether to accept or reject them. The teacher should be able to use the classroom as a social system that breads atmosphere for meaningful social interactions and conducive learning environment. This brings us to the question, What is Communication? There dare many definitions of communication, as there are experts in the field. Oxford English Dictionary defines communication as the imparting, conveying or exchange of ideas, knowledge etc. (whether by speech, writing or signs). It has also been defined as the process of attempting to share with another person or other persons, ones knowledge, interests, attitudes, opinions and ideas (Ralph, Hance, and Wiksell 1975:4). Farrant (1980) also defined communication as the process of passing an understandable message from one person to another (P. 186). Every language teacher today realizes the importance and the relevance of the student-centered, hands-on, practical and flexible approach (Shank and Cleary, 1994), and the worldwide demand for Communicative Language Teaching, which helps to understand the language in context and to use it effectively in situations outside the classroom. As a result, changes have been taking place in many areas of education. The field of second/foreign language teaching is no exception in this paradigm shift. But for ELT, it has become a challenge to accommodate the changes due to various reasons. The most important factor is that one cannot ignore the practical aspect of every existing education system. This paper deals with students from mixed backgrounds who come under one roof to learn English. This paper deals with teaching methodology undertaken in CELT, O.U, Hyderabad, India, to see how a short term program can benefit students improve their communication skills. As they are mixed background students it became necessary to see how the merits of different language learning frameworks like Communicative Language Learning and Task-Based Learning can be put together to achieve the best result. As Joanne Pettis, quoting Henry Widdowson comments, If you say you are eclectic but cannot state the principles of your eclecticism, you are not eclectic, merely confused. (Pettis, 2003). Roger Dunne from Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico rightly states, In any event, most language teachers are probably influenced more by course books than by manuals and training courses and most popular course books are decidedly eclectic in their approach. It is probably these pragmatic market forces that will determine the future direction of language teaching in many parts of the world rather than a fight to death between academic fundamentalists (Dunne, 2003). This paper was set within the dual framework of Communicative Language Teaching and Task-Based Learning. Theories of language use in context play important roles in Communicative Language Teaching and theories of language learning play important roles in Task-Based Learning. Hence, the merits of both were used. Howatt (1984) distinguishes between the weak and the strong versions of Communicative Language Teaching. The weak version stresses the importance of providing learners with opportunities to use English for communicative purposes and therefore attempts to integrate communicative activities into the programme of language teaching. This is the version followed in most learning contexts, especially in Asian countries. As different from this, the stronger version of communicative language teaching claims that language can be acquired only through communication. This would mean that teaching involves not just activating an existing knowledge of the language, but stimulating the development of the language system itself (Howatt, p. 279). However, whether it is the weak or the strong version, the proponents of Communicative Language Teaching have always viewed learning a second/foreign language as acquiring the linguistic means to perform different functions. Some principles of Communicative Language Teaching include: 1. Language should be a means to an end and the focus should be on meaning, not on the form. 2. The learner has to formulate and produce ideas, information, opinions and so on. 3. Teacher intervention to correct mistakes should be minimal as this distracts from communication. (Richards and Rodgers, 1994) As David Nunan (1989) says, Task based teaching and learning is teaching and learning a language by using language to accomplish open ended tasks. Learners are given a problem or objective to accomplish but are left with some freedom in approaching this problem or objective. A task is defined by David Nunan as, an activity (or technique) where students are urged to accomplish something or solve some problem using their language. Preferably, this activity is open-ended; there is no set way to accomplish their goal (1989). According to Jane Willis, a task is a goal-oriented activity with a clear purpose. Doing a communication task involves achieving an outcome, creating a final product that can be appreciated by others. Tasks can be used as the central component of a three-part framework: pre-task, task cycle, and language focus. These components have been carefully designed to create four optimum conditions for language acquisition, and thus provide rich learning opportunities to suit different types of learners (Willis, 1996). Learners get exposure at the pre-task stage, and an opportunity to recall things they know. The task cycle gives them speaking and writing exposure with opportunities for students to learn from each other. The task cycle also gives students opportunities to use whatever language they have, both in private (where mistakes, hesitations, and approximate renderings do not matter so long as the meaning is clear) and in public (where there is a built-in desire to strive for accuracy of form and meaning, so as not to lose face). Motivation (short term) is provided mainly by the need to achieve the objectives of the task and to report back on it. Success in doing this can increase longer term motivation. Motivation to listen to fluent speakers doing the task is strong too, because in attempting the task, learners will notice gaps in their own language, and will listen carefully to hear how fluent speakers express themselves. A focus on form is beneficial in two phases in the framework. The planning stage between the private task and the public report promotes close attention to language form. As learners strive for accuracy, they try to organize their reports clearly and check words and patterns they are not sure of. In the final component, language analysis activities also provide a focus on form through consciousness-raising processes. Learners notice and reflect on language features, recycle the task language, go back over the text or recording and investigate new items, and practice pronouncing useful phrases. Components of a Task Tasks contain some form of input that may be verbal (a dialogue/role play/reading) or, nonverbal (pictures/a gesture) followed by an activity, which is in some way derived from the input. This activity sets out what learners need to do in relation to the input. Tasks have also goals and roles for both teachers and learners. Components of a Task (Nunan: 1989) From the above diagram, a task can be viewed as a piece of meaning focused work, involving learners in comprehending, producing and/or interacting in the target language. Before taking up the task of converting the textual content into various tasks, the following points were noted and kept in mind by the investigators: -The objective of the task must be stated very clearly -The task must be appropriate for the level of the learners -The task must equip the learners with the ability to apply classroom learning in new situations. -Tasks must be interesting and motivating to the students -The form the input takes, must be clear to the teacher -The roles of teachers and students must be specified clearly -Through the task, learners must be encouraged to negotiate meaning -The language that will be generated by the task must be predicted -There should be variety and flexibility in the tasks Few strategies for classroom practice to improve verbal, non-verbal and interpersonal communication Materials needed: Paper and pencil for each participant. I am going to describe a drawing I have made of a bug. Without seeing the drawing, you are to draw the bug that I describe. You may not ask questions or talk to each other. Describe the bug. The bug is round. The bug has eight legs, grouped in pairs with four legs on the left and four legs on the right. In the pairs, one leg is longer than the other. The bug has two eyes on top of the body. The bug has two squiggly antenna. The bug has two pea-pod shaped wings. The bug has a spot next to each wing. The bug has a triangular stinger on the bottom of the body The bug has two feelers on each foot one longer than the other, both coming from the same side of the leg. The bug has a round mouth, placed between the two eyes. The bug laid five square eggs to the left of the stinger. After everyone is finished. Hold up your bug so others in your group can see. Note some of the similarities and differences. Show the drawing to the entire group. Discussion questions: -Why dont all the bugs look like mine? (Interpretation: everyone has a different interpretation, based on his or her experiences.) -What did you think of first when you were told to draw a bug? What did you see in your mind? -What could we have done differently so that your drawings and mine would have looked more alike? -What would have been the advantages of allowing questions to be asked? -How many of you wanted questions to be asked? Adapted from A Kaleidoscope of Leadership, Minnesota Extension Service Words Alone Purpose: To demonstrate how important words are when the person talking and the listener cannot see each other. Materials Needed: Small pieces of paper with one of the following words on each: Procedure: Ask one person from the group to take a paper with one of the words on it and give a verbal description of what is on the paper (no hands allowed). Tell them to concentrate on the careful choice of words, avoiding non-verbal signals. Use descriptive words relating to all five senses (smell, touch, etc). Example: ice cream cold, smooth, soft, fluffy- looking, sweet, flavors. Process Questions: 1. How efficient were words alone in expressing ideas? 2. How did you feel doing this activity? (talker and listener) 3. What does this remind us to do in our own communication? Reference: Internet Conclusion Students showed interest in learning English. The reasons they gave were, classes are full of activities and play. Noted that students started talking in English openly without any apprehensions. They were highly motivated by the tasks and were encouraged to participate in doing the tasks. Though it is time consuming it is quite a rewarding experience as they gain useful insights by working through activities. They improve in their language as well as personality traits like team building, interpersonal relations, adaptability etc. Even with the existing constraints, classroom teaching can be given a communicative orientation, giving enough opportunities to students to use the language creatively. Teaching can be made learner-centered; with more emphasis on the learning process any given text may be re-created into various tasks and activities. Task-based teaching enhances the language proficiency of learners.