Flipkart Report

INTRODUCTION E-COMMERCE E-commerce is short for electronic commerce. It is the business over internet involving buying and selling of  products/services. E-commerce makes use of payment gateways for online transactions. It requires excellent supply chain management, online transaction processing, logistics strategies and control, inventory management systems and many other automated softwares and database collection systems. WEB-BASED E-COMMERCE ARCHITECTURE E-COMMERCE INFRASTRUCTURE * Information infrastructure * Internet, LAN, WAN, routers, etc. Telecom cable TV, wireless, etc. * Messaging and information distribution infrastructure. * HTML, XML, e-mail, HTTP, etc. * Common business infrastructure * Security, authentication, electronic payment, directories, catalogues, etc. * The Internet * System of interconnected networks that spans the globe * Routers, TCP/IP, firewalls, network infrastructure. network protocols * The world Wide web (www) * Part of the Internet and allows user s to share information with an easy-to-use interface * Web browsers, web servers, HTTP, HTML Web architecture * Client/server model * N-tier architecture; e. g. , web servers, application servers, database servers, scalability THE PROCESS OF E-COMMERCE * Attract customers * Advertising and marketing * Interact with customers * Catalogue, negotiation * Handle and manage orders * Order capture * Payment * Transaction * Fulfilment (physical good, service good, digital good) * React to Customer Enquiries * Customer service * Order tracking E-COMMERCE IN INDIAE-commerce in India is still nascent, but it is important for developing countries like India. The opportunities for E-commerce players are many due to rapid urbanisation and rising literacy rates and rapidly growing internet user population, advances in technology, growing adoption of computers, introduction of 3G and falling net access costs. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) estimated that India's E-commerce mar ket is growing 70% every year and 500% since 2007. Transactions In $ MillionsSegment-wise share in e-commerce market 2012 ABOUT FLIPKART Flipkart is an India based e-commerce company which belongs to the e-tailing (electronic retailing) sector. It is head-quartered at Bangalore and it initiated its operations in 2007. Flipkart was launched by a couple of young, enthusiastic friends, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who grew up together and studied at the prestigious IIT-Delhi, as an online retailing venture with the objective of making books accessible to individuals living in the all the parts of India.Sachin and Binny used to work for Amazon, which has a similar kind of business before quitting and opening up this new venture. Initially they used to sell just books on Flipkart and relied mainly on ‘word of mouth’ for promotions. But in 2010, they started selling CDs, DVDs, Mobile phones and accessories, cameras, computers and in 2011 stationery, home appliances, person al care items and health care products. It has now revenue of Rs. 500 crore within a span of just five years making t one of the largest e-commerce companies in India. The core value of Flipkart is strong focus on customer service. The major goal of the company is to provide its customers with an ultimate online shopping experience and for this they use many innovative policies like a 30-day replacement policy, EMI options, Cash on Delivery, free shipping, discounted rates, pre-paid online wallet and most important timely delivery  of all the products. This requires an extensive supply chain and logistics and distribution network.A network of over 500 distributors have been established by the company and it keeps only those items for which orders are placed frequently by the customers and the items that are rarely ordered are almost always sourced from the suppliers when such an order is received from the customers. The company owns four offices in each metro city with a combined strength of more than five hundred employees. Fifteen courier companies such as Blue Dart, DHL etc. have been engaged to deliver the products and also Indian Post where courier service is not available.Warehouses are there in seven cities including metros. One can track the order right from ordering an item to delivery. One can even pre-order an unreleased book from the website and that too on attractive prices and on top of that there is excellent customer service. Customer satisfaction, amazing customer experience and the discounted rates of items are the key factors that work in the favour of Flipkart. The company has a stock of nearly 12 million books making it the largest book retailer in India and it has eighty per cent share of the online book market in India.Access to internet, increasing number of iPads, smart phones, latest technology that gives 3D images of products, time constraint consumers and increasing real estate costs required for offline stores have lead to a shif t to e-commerce businesses especially to online retail stores. According to a survey done by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, the online retail market in India may grow from Rs 20 billion in 2011 to Rs 70 billion by 2015 as internet access improves. INNOVATIVE SERVICES LAUNCHED BY FLIPKART PREPAID WALLET FEATURE * As a general wallet that is used to store cash in it and allows a person to purchase and enjoy products or services equivalent to the cash amount in it, Flipkart has adopted a prepaid wallet service to its e-commerce website platform that provides customers with an opportunity to store and keep money on the website and consume it to purchase different products, without the need to take out their debit cards or credit cards or net-banking for each and every transaction.   The purpose of a prepaid Wallet is to make online transactions easier and more secure for the customers as they will be spared from the hassle of taking out their credit card or deb it card or net banking details each and every time they want to buy a product. Customers can fill their Online Wallets with up to Rs 10,000 by using any of the general payment methods like credit card, debit card and net-banking and then can consume it over multiple transactions. There is no expiry date for the wallet and the cash stored in it can always be refunded back to the source using which payment was made. Flipkart. com has included wallet service in its e-commerce structure keeping in mind the ease and convenience of their regular customers – those who make transactions multiple times during the month, and particularly when individual transactions are comprised of many small payments. Wallet allows the customers to make the payment just once and still involve in multiple transactions. This also makes sure that customers would not have to go through the bank payment verification processes each time they purchase something using the Flipkart. com.The wallet helps in cu tting down the issues with payment gateway too. * Also by including the innovative prepaid e-wallet, the aim of the Flipkart is to shorten the duration of the order processes that would certainly make the online shopping much simpler, faster and totally trouble free experience for their customers. * CASH ON DELIVERY * Flipkart launched the Cash on Delivery services for the customers who do not prefer to make an online payment. Using this payment mode, customers have to pay only when they receive the ordered item at their doorstep without any making any sort of advanced payment to Flipkart.Payment mode for this is strictly cash and the currency used can only be Indian Rupees. No discount coupons or e-vouchers can be availed while using this mode of payment. * India is a cash- driven economy with plastic cards penetration as low as 3% as of 2012. Also the existing payment gateways and infrastructure are not in such good condition and a noticeable amount of transactions fail. Also peop le in India still perceive high risks in using credit/debit cards online and thus in online transactions. All these reasons led to Flipkart adopting such a mode of payment.But the most important reason was because it was the demand of customers and since Flipkart has the maximum focus on customer satisfaction, they went ahead and adopted Cash-on-delivery mode of payment. * Important factors while adopting Cash-on-delivery model are that they have to deliver good products in good condition because if a product is not in good condition, customer cannot be expected to make the payment. They have to have their own collection and delivery network as they can’t rely on a third person to collect cash for expensive items and give it to them.They need to have strong and consistent operations and they need to make timely delivery because if they fail to do so, a customer is already lost for them for future. They also need to maintain customer relationships and respect customers so as t o maintain long-term profitability from the customers. * Cash-on-delivery model has increased the sales of the company by great margins and Cash-on-delivery has become the most used mode of payment. But there as many downsides of using this model. Rejection rate of the products delivered through this model is as high as almost thirty per cent.Though this is lower than other Cash-on-delivery players, still it is too much. Generally the company has to incur Rs. 35-70 for every transaction involving cash-on-delivery, but the cost could reach as high as Rs. 100 in case there is rejection or if multiple trips are needed to deliver the order. Whereas when the transaction is carried out using credit/debit cards or net-banking, only 1-2 per cent of the transaction total value is taken by the online payment partner as service fee. Therefore until and unless the transaction value is high enough, cash-on-delivery model cuts down the retailer’s margins by high values.Also cash-on-deliver y model tends to block the working capital that could have been better used for expansion and growth. * REPLACEMENT POLICY * Flipkart provides a thirty day replacement policy for every product purchased from its website. Defects in any product can be highlighted by customers at the time of delivery or within thirty days from the date of delivery. No cost is charged for replacing the defected product. * Main objective of this policy is related to the core value of the company – customer satisfaction.This policy makes customers feel much more secure about purchasing items online and helps build the company a strong trust with its customer base. PAYMENT GATEWAY OF FLIPKART Flipkart provides its customers with a hundred per cent safe transaction experience. Credit card payments are processed through the HDFC Bank payment gateway, as well as payment gateways (E Billing Systems/cc Avenue) that interface with various banks. The latest encryption technology is being used by HDFC bank to protect each customer’s credit card information.So as to hide the information while information travels over the internet, it encrypts one’s credit card number. HDFC also asks you to enter the three digit CVV (Credit Verification Value) number which follows credit card number and is given at the back of the card so as to make sure that the person carrying the transaction has the physical plastic card. Flipkart’s main focus is on customer satisfaction and in this case also Flipkart. com offers the security of highest standards so as to ensure that the shopping experience of each customer is private, safe and secure.Flipkart. com does not collect or store customer’s account information at all. Authorization of transaction takes place at multiple points, first by HDFC and subsequently by Visa/MasterCard/AMEX secure directly without any information passing through them. Payment Options * Flipkart accepts all MasterCard, Visa credit cards and AMEX. * Flipk art do not accept any international credit cards on Flipkart. com at this stage. * Apart from Credit and Debit Cards, payments are accepted by Flipkart by Internet Banking, Cash-on-Delivery and Equated Monthly Instalments (EMI).All Credit/Debit card details remain confidential and private. SSL encryption technology is used by Flipkart and their trusted payment gateways so as to protect the customer’s card information. SSL encryption technology Netscape developed a protocol Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for moving the private documents over the Internet. A cryptographic system is being used by SSL that uses two keys to encrypt data ? a public key that is known to everyone and a private or secret key which is known only to the recipient of the message.Many Web sites use the SSL protocol to obtain and protect confidential user’s personal information, such as credit card number. URLs that use SSL connection have to start with https instead of http which is nothing but Secure HTTP. But both SSL and S-HTTP have different uses. Where a secure connection between a client and a server is created by SSL, over which unlimited amount of data can be sent securely, individual messages are transmitted securely using S-HTTP. SSL and S-HTTP are therefore complementary rather than competing technologies. DIFFERENT METHODS ADOPTED BY FLIPKART Auto redirection to banking site: Customers are automatically redirected to the page of respective banks where the information is required to be filled. Thus Flipkart never lands you on CC Avenue page unlike most other ecommerce sites. Hence Flipkart skips an unnecessary page by passing the needed parameters directly to CC Avenue. * Banks Status: Flipkart maintains its own real time status to check whether the net banking service of particular bank is working. So the customers come to know about a problem prior to entering that bank’s website.ONLINE PAYMENT PROCESSING SERVICES CC Avenue 1) Uses secure servers throughout an d adopt stringent security measures to ensure that sensitive information such as customers’ personal details is protected. 2) Customers enter all their personal information and Credit Card details on ICICI’s E-Payments (Payseal) and Citibank’s secure servers and the same is encrypted before it is transmitted over the Internet to the Acquiring Banks. 3) Additionally CC Avenue’s server is behind security firewalls to ensure maximum protection of your customer’s information. EBS (E-BILLING SOLUTIONS)For better encryption of data, it uses seven architecture model which helps in protecting the client information. High-tech Axis, HDFC and Citibank’s secure servers are used to authorize all credit card transactions and the same is encrypted before it is transmitted over the Internet to the Acquiring Banks. To ensure maximum protection of customer’s information, EBS servers are also behind the security firewalls. This guarantees that the buye r’s information is not available to any third party. EBS makes use of the best amongst the industry standards – the VeriSign technology, which ensures the complete security of the data.A/B FRAMEWORK – UNIQUE FRAMEWORK USED BY FLIPKART The framework has two components: Through the first one the performance of the website is measured using various metrics which are pre-defined. The second one uses an A/B framework that allows different versions of the website to be available simultaneously which is used to check the success of the advertising campaigns over the website. Thus the company conducts live and real experiments by diverting a small portion of the traffic and studying the results. Both components work together and simultaneously.The website’s performance on various parameters is measured by the metrics tool which is kind of a dashboard. For example, systems are immediately warned in case the transaction rate goes down below a certain limit. Flipkar t’s engineers can also rapidly implement and check their ideas using the A/B component. When someone proposes a new idea, a lot of precious time is spent debating what-if scenarios. Using this framework an idea can be implemented while mitigating  its risks. For example, the A/B framework redirects ten per cent of the Flipkart’s traffic to the new design/idea whenever an engineer changes the design of any page.Through this they can evaluate and analyze the effect of the changes using the metrics tool for collection. If it does not lead to any productive result, they can immediately change it back, and only less than ten per cent of traffic is impacted. The Benefits Since the tool has been introduced sometime around mid-2010, Flipkart now sells more than twenty types of products, taking the sales up to Rs 75 crore a month. In fact, during the last eight quarters, Flipkart has been able to double its revenue each quarter.

Bernard Lawrence

  Describe the three types of illegal behavior alleged allegations against Mr. Madoff and for each of the behavior explain why it is illegal or unethical in the conduct of business? Ans) Bernard Lawrence Madoff was a stock broker, investment advisor and the non executive chairman of the NASDAQ. Bernard has been found guilty for 11 federal crimes for which he has been sentenced to imprisonment for 150 years and had to pay $170. 179 billion as a penalty. He was convicted for 11 federal crimes which included security fraud, money laundering, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan, wire fraud and mail fraud.In order to further clarify three of the crime would be explained in details which are as follows: Money Laundering: Bernard Lawrence had been convicted for 2 International money laundering crimes. He had been using the money of his investors for his own purposes and was showing false accounts. His company was convicted of tax evasions and taking advantage and showing false ac counting in his books. This is a serious crime in the whole world as this is a way of misinterpreting and misleading the investors and the government officials.This is an unethical business practice because it refers to concealing important details of the business from the various stakeholders and thus taking undue advantage from that. The companies seem to misguide the public and the government and save million dollars by evading taxes and buying assets from the money that they have actually stolen from the investors. Securities fraud: The victim was convicted of securities fraud where he was guilty of doing illegal sale and purchase on the trading floors. He had broken various securities laws and embezzled millions of dollars.This is an illegal practice because the investors by doing so start manipulating the stock exchange and the stock prices. This is considered a crime because by this the stock prices can be over stated or understated which would harm the small investors. Theft from Employee benefit plan: He was alleged of stealing $10 million from the pension fund assets. This is a plain act of stealing where he took the money that was the right of 35 labor unions. Due to this the labor union would not have been able to get the money that was basically their right by law. (Voreacos, 2009)Question 2: Name three types of parties who were impacted by the practices of Mr. Madoff and describe how they were impacted? Ans) The scandal had impacted the lives of various people which included people from all walks of life. From various celebrities to huge investment companies and banks have had an impact on their balance sheets due to the scandal. Some of the parties involved were: Universities: Various universities and schools which include the New York University and Maimonides school had invested their idle funds with the company which they lost due to the scandal.Investment Funds: Various investment funds had their assets managed by the company. The investment companies lost the money that they had invested with the investment fund of Lawrence Bernard. Various investment companies had even bought the shares which brought them loss of billions of dollars. Charity organization: A lot of Non profit organizations and charity organization of celebrities and other people had invested the charity’s money. The charities had to lose billions of dollars due to the fraud as they did not get their invested money back. (Madoff's Victims, 2009)Question 3: Describe three business safeguards that may have prevented the harm caused by Mr. Madoff? Ans) The ponzi scheme was a major negligence from the respective authorities. The SEC authorities did not have complete check over various factors due to which people had to face losses of millions of dollars. Some of the ways the debacle could have been prevented are: Strict policies from Securities Exchange Commission (SEC): This scandal had been in practice for almost over a decade but was not detected by the SEC. Thus the SEC was not too active in its practices.The organization was giving a high return which was an unusual activity. Thus in such an abnormal situation SEC should have been more diligent and transparent in fulfilling its duties. If there had been cross checking of the accounts and financial transactions this loss could have been prevented. Transparent practices by the external auditors: It is something very pungent that such a massive scandal had hit the financial world despite of the strict financial standards and the constant audits by the licensed auditors. The external auditors would have to be more ethical and transparent in their activities.If they would have identified small symptoms of unethical practices to the state earlier, millions of dollar could have been saved. Forensic Accountants reactive attitude: The forensic accountants have been silent over the issue until it was the news all around the world. The forensic accountants are trained to identify an y sorts of fraud symptoms in the economy. There was a reactive approach by these accountants which caused this fraud to go on for too many years. The forensic accountants could have prevented the loss by actively reporting them on time. (Herrerra, n. d. )Question4: Describe three ways the private investors could have prevented themselves from risk? Ans) The investors could have been prevented from the debacle by knowing the investment practices and the basic rules of investment. Generally the investors are not aware of the practices due to which they are not able to identify if the investment is done in the right manner. Second, the loss could have been prevented if the investors have been careful in selecting the investment company. The investors would have been saved if they would have not selected the company for investment.The investors could have managed their funds properly by not investing huge amount in just one avenue. The risk could have been mitigated if they had invested at various avenues due to which they would not have to bear such a huge loss. (Herrerra, n. d. ) Question5: Describe three legal actions that possibly may be brought against Mr. Madoff under criminal or civil law? Ans: Mr. Madoff had been convicted of 11 serious federal crimes to which he was sentenced to imprisonment for 150 years. The three legal actions against him are as follows: Securities fraud: 20 years of imprisonment with 3 years supervised release.Along with this there would also be a fine of $5 million or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. Money Laundering: 10 years of imprisonment with 3 years of supervised release. These would also be a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. Perjury: 5 years of imprisonment with 3 years of supervised release. These would also be a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. (Department of Justice Press Release, 2009) References Department of Justice Press Release. (2009, Ma rch 12). Retrieved June 7, 2010, from Federal Bureau of Investigation New York: http://newyork.fbi. gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/nyfo031209. htm Herrerra, C. (n. d. ). Ponzi Schemes and Forensic Accountants. Retrieved June 7, 2010, from Accounting Sites: http://www. bellaonline. com/articles/art49196. asp Madoff's Victims. (2009, March 6). Retrieved June 7, 2010, from The Wall Street Journal: http://s. wsj. net/public/resources/documents/st_madoff_victims_20081215. html Voreacos, D. (2009, March 11). Madoff Criminal Charges: Summary of the 11 Counts Against Him. Retrieved June 7, 2010, from Bloomberg: http://www. bloomberg. com/apps/news? pid=20601087&sid=a6Osnj. SoYdM&refer=home Bernard Lawrence Bernie Madoff was born on 29th April, 1938 in New York. His parents were Jewish, namely Ralph and Sylvia Madoff. In 1956, he had graduated from the Hofstra University where he had studied political science. He then became a plumber, and later on founded the Madoff charitable Foundation. His career in the investment field began after he married Ruth Alpern, his high school sweet heart, who worked at a stock exchange market in Manhattan. In 1960, he founded the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, (now NASDAQ) and has ever since acted as its chairman until he was arrested.Before the discovery of the fraud, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities seemed like the kind of firm that every stock broker would want to work with. The investors and the employees all believed in Bernie. It was for this reason that he was appointed as the chairman of NASDAQ, and was also appointed to industry channels by the SEC. Madoff is said to have been a philanthropist who worked with many nonprofit institutions. He was a man of great influence, and many people had entrusted him with their wealth.Madoff is known to have committed the biggest fraud through a Ponzi plan which he had carried out for at least 20 years. He confessed his crime to his sons, Andrew and Mark last year. This is an essay covering Madoff’s, big Ponzi plan that led to his incarceration. (Lenzner) The Ponzi plan Even as Madoff was still in studying law at Brooklyn Law School, he was in involved in the securities business. On of his first investments was with a company, called the Electronics Capital, where he had invested $200. According to what the SEC disclosed, his stocks had grown from the original $200 to $16,140.At that time, this was a lot of money, and this must have captured his interest in the securities market. His scheme to get involved in illegal operations to make more money must have been in his mind for some time. This is because in the 1990s, Madoff would boast to some of his investor s that he was using a different strategy from the split-strike conversion method. This must have been what led to the fraud. An investigation revealed that there were clues in his office, but it was very hard to catch him.For example, there was an IBM server, and an AS/400 which dated from as early as the 1980s; reports said that it was so old, that some information was keyed in by hand, but Madoff was reluctant to have it replaced. This machine is said to have been the centre around which the fraud was schemed. Thousands of statements that were printed from it revealed trades that had never been made. (Bandler etal) According to those who played roles in the early electronic trading and the company, Madoff’s company was successful only in the 1970s and the 1980s.They further said that the success could only be attributed to the fact that his security business was the first to have used the electronic software to trade stocks. He was also able to attract many consumers becaus e the software was not only cheap, but also fast. Instead of taking a fee for trading stocks like the NYSE did, Bernie paid some firms like Charles Schwab a few dollars a share for every order they made. Though the software used by Madoff, his company had the expertise to hedge the risk that resulted form the imbalance in the buy and sell orders and hence were able to preserve its profit.This means that even if he paid the client, he still remained with enough money to make a huge profit. During the early 1990s, his firm had succeeded, in that it was responsible for executing at least 9% of all the stocks traded every day at the NYSE. His firm specialized in trading other shares from big companies outside the exchange. In the history of trading stocks, no other company could outdo NASDAQ, which got its advantage from the use of electronic means. He was respected among his peers, except those of the NYSE, who likened his orders to kick backs.They viewed Madoff’s trades as shab by, but they had no way to prove any illegal activities. The payments that he paid for the orders were all legal, and Madoff ensured that they remained so. NASD and SEC insisted that the securities industry’s self regulated body bring together a panel to investigate NASDAQ. Being the chairman NASDAQ, Madoff challenged his investigators by suggesting that they go ahead to include witnesses in the panel. He was able to talk himself out of the problems that could have possibly befallen him. (Bandler etal) He successfully talked the investigators into his line of thinking.In fact, some of the members in the panel said that he was not pushy during the interrogations. Although his main aim was to protect his business, he never suggested that in any direct way. He was just determined to make the panel â€Å"understand† the way his business operated. At the end of it all, Madoff prevailed. He had managed to convince the panel that his practice of offering payments was all the same as that applied by the Wall Street. Things however changed in 1997, when the rules that governed the trading spreads changed. That year, they were slashed from 12. 5? a share to 6.25? , and later on in 2001, dropped to just a penny. NASDAQ’s profits started decreasing. Madoff was able to continue committing his fraudulent acts because he now started marketing his investment business by convincing people through word of mouth. Those who learnt of it spread it to their friends. It became a private club, and Madoff’s plan not wanting to admit new members, attracted even more attention from those who knew of it. His private investors were urged to keep quiet, and not to mention the matter to an outsider; if they did, they risked losing their investments.In spite of his efforts to keep his investments secret, they somehow surfaced, but he was determined to keep covering up any act that would arouse suspicion. Two publications that were directed at arousing suspicion on Madoff’s operations went ignored. Even the employees who worked within the organization ignored them; after all, they had no clue of what was going on. It later turned out that Madoff’s illegal investments were interfering with the legal ones. In fact, during the trial, Madoff admitted hat he transferred millions of dollars from his fraud businesses in London to his legal firm in New York.His fraudulent schemes were so complicated; it is said that it would not be easy to understand his operations in details. He also lied to defend or cover up his acts. For example, in May 2006, he was interviewed by the SEC, and asked whether the equities were traded in Europe, he admitted that they were. The truth was that he always said that he had several trades in Europe, whenever he could not explain the nature of the businesses. There were also no equities being traded in Europe. In many occasions, Madoff’s lies paid him off. Madoff’s accompliceAlthough Madoff was the mastermind schemer, he obviously had an accomplice. Employees confessed that Frank DiPascali, acted as Madoff’s deputy and was responsible for running the business on the 17th floor, the floor where Madoff’s office was. A former trader said that the he was aged 33, but people neither knew what his work really was, nor his title. One employee said that, â€Å"Everyone knew he was a big deal, but he was like a shadow. † (Bandler etal) DiPascali, when arrested, showed his involvement in Madoff’s plan when he started to negotiate a plea deal with federal prosecutors.He offered to uncover the whole scheme and to name names, in exchange for a reduced sentence. However, he had no evidence that there were other family members involved in the Madoff scheme. DiPascali was the facilitator of Madoff’s schemes. He admitted to have manipulated phony returns on behalf of several major investors in Madoff’s business. Some of them include Frank Avellino, is said to have been running the â€Å"feeder fund† and Jeffry Picower, who had to shut down his foundation as it was affected by the losses associated with Madoff.For example, if one of such important clients earned more money on other investments, Madoff would tell DiPascali, who then fabricated a loss with the motive of reducing the tax bill. In my opinion, I would ay that the United States was able to produce such a person as Madoff because besides the fact that he had strong connections, his firm was performing well enough; in fact it offered job opportunities to Americans, while in many ways contributed to the economic development of the United States.Madoff was also able to cover up his shoddy operations effectively, protecting himself from the authorities. An example of such an instance is when he was able to defend himself from the panel in 1991 during the investigations. (Paltrow) He had a clever way to get himself out o trouble. The fact that most people knew him as a philanthropist was enough defense, at least to the mercies. His generous acts like giving donations were just for show, including his donations to the 2008 presidential campaigns, where he funded both candidates.The Madoff case was one of the hardest to be completely uncovered, given that it had been schemed for at least 20 years. It could also be enough reason that Madoff was a clever man since he was able to commit the fraud on his own. If Madoff could have had more funds to pay off his investors in December, then he would have been able to carry on with his Ponzi scheme. His scheme has led to the collapse and closure of several organizations that had invested in his operations. Works cited 1) Bandler J. Varchever N. (April 30, 2009) Ho

Agency and Deterministic Theories

Enthusiasm for the focused results of organizational marvels has become altogether in the course of the most recent quite a long while. Generally, this intrigue has shown itself in 'procedure execution' investigate. Customary system execution researchers have concentrated the procedures through which a firm picks its techniques and in addition the procedures through which those techniques are executed. In this exertion, these researchers have depended vigorously on thoughts and hypotheses taken from organizational financial matters (e.g., exchange cost financial aspects, office theory), organizational theory (e.g., models of formal organizational structures), organizational conduct (e.g., initiative, individual and cooperative choice making). A theory was characterized as including models, definitional frameworks, explanatory composition, and effective builds. The criteria shown to assess a theory as critical were that the theory (1) ought to have demonstrated valuable in comprehension, clarifying, and anticipating the working of organizations or the conduct of individuals in them; (2) ought to have produced huge research; and (3) ought to have clear ramifications for practice and application in some region of administration or organizational working. The researcher is going to explore agency theory as well as the deterministic theory to make our understanding of organizational actions (Agnihotri, 2014). The organization theory writing is loaded with deterministic possibility hypotheses in which the part of the human decision is consigned to a place very optional to the goals of ecological turbulence, innovative procedures, size and proprietorship, data handling necessities or normal determination forms. For instance, proposed connections with respect to "integrity of fit" contemplations amongst organizations and condition suggest that the outline of an organization takes after pretty much consequently from the degrees of variety and many-sided quality displayed by the earth. What such hypotheses do is accept that these "relevant" limitations are official in their belongings and drastically diminish the scope of organizational reaction other options to those that will create the correct "fit" with the autonomous variable being referred to. Camelia (2015) condenses this view succinctly in the opening section of Organizations in real life. He contends that organizations do a portion of the essential things they do on the grounds that they should—or something bad might happen! Later on, he expresses that the "factors controlled by the organization are subordinated to the requirements and possibilities. In differentiating shut framework and open-framework techniques for examining organizations, Hong-wei & John (2013) permit as how the last lets in a bigger number of factors than a man can grasp at one time, bringing about unusualness and vulnerability, and the previous gives the mental solace of expecting determinacy. In spite of the fact that Thom was alluding to the instabilities confronted by a manager, on the off chance that one looks carefully enough, one notification the creator's motivation of lessening his own logical vulnerability by looking for determinacy among the calculated and observational plans acces sible. Determinism is one normal for the organizational writing referred to. Another is reductionism: the reviews tend to concentrate on one free factor (e.g., the level of turbulence) as it makes administrators control one-word variable (e.g., structure). Furthermore, the hypotheses, by and large, are gotten from static, cross-sectional connection considers, which exhibit issues of causal deduction: these sorts of investigations expect that the frameworks being contemplated are in equilibria. In one review that endeavored to rectify for both of these restrictions, Krstov & Vodopivec (2012) looked for hypothetical combination by analyzing how rates of progress of two autonomous factors (size and innovation) influence the rates of progress of two ward factors (many-sided quality and basic separation). In any case, even with a dynamic examination, they found that clarifications for the impacts of the two relevant factors together proved unable to be created. In this manner, they were diminish ed to isolate causal models for every free factor. As contended beneath, maybe the quest for deterministic clarifications drive this reductionism. Agency theory has been utilized by researchers in bookkeeping, financial matters, fund, advertising, political science, organizational conduct, and human science. However, it is as yet encompassed by discussion. Its advocates contend that a transformation is close by and that the establishment of an intense theory of organizations is being established. Its spoilers call it unimportant, dehumanizing, and even "hazardous". In spite of Manral’s (2010) affirmation that agency theory is altogether different from organization theory, agency theory has a few connections to standard organization points of view. At its foundations, agency theory is steady with the work of art works of Manzur & Claudio (2017) on the way of agreeable conduct and on the incitements and commitments of the business relationship. As in this prior work, the heart of agency theory is the objective clash intrinsic when people with varying inclinations take part in a helpful exertion, and the basic similitude is that of the agreement. Agency theory is likewise like political models of organizations. Both agency and political points of view accept the quest for self-enthusiasm at the individual level and objective clash at the organizational level. Likewise, in both points of view, data asymmetry is connected to the energy of lower request members. The distinction is that in political models objective clashes are settled through dealing, transaction, and coalitions—the power component of political science. In agency theory, they are settled through the alignment of motivations—the value instrument of financial aspects (Martyn et al, 2017). Agency theory additionally is like the data handling ways to deal with possibility theory. Both points of view are data hypotheses. They accept that people are bounded sound and that data is disseminated lopsidedly all through the organization. They likewise are effectiveness hypotheses; that is, they utilize effective preparing of data as a basis for picking among different arranging frames. The distinction between the two is their concentration: In possibility, theory scientists are worried about the ideal organizing of detailing connections and basic leadership duties, though in agency theory they are worried about the ideal organizing of control connections coming about because of these detailing and basic leadership designs. For instance, utilizing possibility theory, we would be worried about whether a firm is sorted out in a divisional or network structure (Richard & Gordon, 2016). In the omnipresent mission for the diminishment of vulnerability, maybe people require the variable-lessening capacity that deterministic hypotheses give. From inside the approach, writing comes clarifications of firm conduct in which directors try to diminish the quantity of possibilities and blueprints from which they should react (Selene et al, 2015). What's more, despite the fact that the sane through a school of arrangement plan places the outlining of organizations as the sane procedure of executing a technique, organization structures themselves influence future choices what's more, place limitations on resulting system development. Manral’s (2010) investigation of city government introduces an institutional model in which approach results are affected by which authoritative structure (chairman gathering or board supervisor) is utilized. Subsequently, institutionalized working systems, standardized parts, individual domains, and power connections inter conspire such tha t lone incremental and peripheral choices landed at through arranging and consecutive regard for objectives can prevail with regards to starting changes. Since monstrous reorganization ordinarily is viewed as unrealistic from a cost stance and is extremely opposed on account of its danger to existing force bases and its impact of reestablishing vulnerabilities natural in the changing of formal connections, basic dormancy offers to ascend to the incrementalism. Correspondingly, contending coalition bunches with vulnerability lessening standard working strategies advance consequentialism in objective mindfulness and fill in as smothering snags to breadth in system definition. The "political strengths" impact on the system so relevantly depicted by (Simchi-Levi, Bramel, & Chen, 2014) likewise work vertically inside chains of command to influence policy results by affecting the transmission of data to the policymakers. This "political process" view is deterministic as in strategy results are controlled by powers outside the ability to control or insight of the policymaker; results fitting in with earlier expectations or activity are, best case scenario, unplanned. In a survey of models of "balanced" decision, Mar made the qualification between models of figured discernment, in which individual aims do manage individual (smaller scale) practices, and systemic judiciousness, in which expectations are found or learned as the organizational activity spreads out (Yahyagil, 2015). In either case, results are the result of (some of the time arbitrary) assemble communication, not administration. For instance, one model of ascertained discernment is Alistair & Sà ©bastien’s (2017) "trash can" model of organizational decision, in which choices are created by the obvious propensity of individuals, issues, arrangements, and decisions to be joined by the generally subjective mishaps of their synchronization as opposed to them at first sight pertinence to each other. Presently, one ramification of determinism is that there are sure logical laws (cause-impact connections) that administer occasions. Those laws are discoverable through experimentation, either by researchers or by experts. In this soul, one systemic model, versatile levelheadedness, proposes that if the world and inclinations are steady and the experience sufficiently delayed, the conduct will approach the conduct that would be picked objectively on the premise of great information. At the end of the day, there are a few (deterministic) laws at work which will be found by supervisors as gathered experience licenses them to be uncovered. The above arrangement writing has a tendency to underscore interior structure or political determinants of approach, yet other research keeps up that procedure regularly is most certainly not figured (inside the firm) however is consulted with outer gatherings in the earth. This is particularly valid in government-controlled ventures (e.g., utilities) in which the "zone of key attentiveness" for top-level corporate chiefs is being diminished. Taking after this "outside limitation" perspective of the policymaking procedure, the revelation of new open doors and choices is not really the result of objective ecological examining, as proposed by defenders of key arranging; these options regularly are introduced to the chief by components in the earth itself. For instance, Camelia (2015) proposes that not rarely chiefs' consideration is called to key open doors by sources outside the firm; and this was the reason for Jain (2015) theory that the remote speculation choices made the American multinational firms were the consequence of getting proposition from difficult to overlook sources in their surroundings, (for example, outside governments, customers, and so on.), as opposed to from either casual or formal pursuit. Then again, a "balanced" way to deal with aligning with the earth, for example, collaborating or converging with different organizations, might be blocked, turned around, or generally upset by administrative activity. Taking after this pattern of distinguishing the "powers from without" that compel procedure making, another current line of research in a vital administration is spoken to by the utilization of industry financial aspects in examining the focused conduct of firms inside specific modern conditions. Modern organization financial matters place an industry "structure" (number and size of firms, the level of interest, and so forth), which decides the characteristic benefit of a specific industry. Vital administration researchers have refined this introduction by endeavoring to clarify contrasts in the execution of individual firms inside ventures. This exploration accepts that an arrangement of organization activities (systems) can be coordinated to industry goals to accomplish maximal execution (Rubà ©n et al, 2014). This paper has contended for a move in the path look into in methodology is directed keeping in mind the end goal to envelop the innovative action inferred in its administration. This involves a suspension of conventional direct thinking and the reception of a persuasive perspective. This is not a one of a kind viewpoint. A more legitimate viewpoint lies in the center. Agency theory gives a remarkable, realistic, and exactly testable viewpoint on issues of agreeable exertion. The expectation of this paper is to elucidate a portion of the perplexity encompassing agency theory and to lead organizational researchers to utilize agency theory in their investigation of the expansive scope of central specialist issues confronting firms. Agnihotri, A. (2014). Corporate reputation based theory of choice between organic, hybrid and inorganic growth strategies. Corporate Communications, An International Journal, 19(3), 247-259. Alistair Anderson , Sà ©bastien Ronteau. (2017). Towards an entrepreneurial theory of practice; emerging ideas for emerging economies. Journal of Entreprenuership in Emerging Economies, 110-120. Camelia, D. (2015). Grey systems theory in economics – a historical applications review. Grey Systems: Theory and Application, 5(2), 263-276. Hong-wei Hei, John Balmer. (2013). A grounded theory of the corporate identity and corporate strategy dynamic: A corporate marketing perspective. European Journal of Marketing, 47(3-4), 410-430. Jain, A. K. (2015). Volunteerism and organisational culture: Relationship to organizational commitment and citizenship behaviors in India. Cross Cultural Management, 116-144. Krstov, L., & Vodopivec, R. (2012). Global business in the supply chain and the dynamic effect of organizational rules. Upravlenie razvitieto na organizaciite, 43(4), 96-119. Manral, L. (2010). Towards a theory of endogenous market structure in strategy: Exploring the endogeneity of demand?side determinants of firm investment strategy and market structure. Journal of Strategy and Management, 3(4), 352-373. Manzur Rahman , Claudio Carpano. (2017). National corporate social policy, corporate governance systems, and organizational capabilities. Coporate Governance: The international journal of Business in Society, 13-29. Martyn Gosling, James Richard, Yuri Seo. (2017). Markets and market boundaries: a social practice approach. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 27(2), 408-426. Richard N Landers, Gordon B Schmidt. (2016). Social Media in Employee Selection and Recruitment: Theory, Practice, and Current Challenges (illustrated ed.). Springer. Rubà ©n Sarabia-Pà ©rez , Antonio Jimeno-Morenilla , Rafael Molina-Carmona. (2014). Deterministic mathematical morphology for CAD/CAM. Engeneering Computations, 1221-1241. Selene de Souza Siqueira Soares , Maria Sylvia Macchione Saes , Luiz Fernando de Oriani Paulillo. (2015). Brazilian ethanol market: Organizational change and impacts on the governance structures of distribution firms, 2000-2012. British Food Journal, 2532-2546. Simchi-Levi, D., Bramel, J., & Chen, X. (2014). The logic of logistics : theory, algorithms, and applications for logistics and supply chain management (4 ed.). New York: Springer. Yahyagil, M. Y. (2015). Constructing a typology of culture in organizational behavior. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 506-527.  

Saudi Arabia Political Economy Environment Dissertation

Saudi Arabia Political Economy Environment - Dissertation Example The results of this policy are that about 58% of the university students in Saudi Arabia are women, following globalization, education, and economic benefits, more women in the Kingdom are being employed, estimated at about 5% to 15% of the workforce are women. Several factors contribute to women being in business include: †¢ Women are responsible for controlling most of the country’s wealth, and as a consequence are able to access informal funding which support the growth of business entrepreneurs. It is estimated that women are in possession of over SR45 billion, most of which (approximately 75%) is deposited, idly, in banks. †¢ Ownership of businesses in the Kingdom have about 4% of the businesses belonging to women, the retail sector has about 5,500 commercial registrations being of projects by women, which accounts to an estimated 20% in the retail, contractual, wholesaling, and transferable businesses sectors, and Arab News has recognized the contribution made by women in the economy of the region, by publishing the Kingdom’s top twenty women ventures in the region in March 2007. This was reported as a new perspective that deviates from the norm, where men are considered the entrepreneurs and pillars of Saudi Arabia’s economy. The current rise in women involvement in economy is based on the education and financial strength gained by women. Women have gained power through empowerment via education and business.

Labor Discrimination Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Labor Discrimination - Essay Example The intention of this study is labour discrimination refers to the discriminating behaviour practices within the process of hiring, promoting, assignment and allocation of job responsibilities and compensation to the employees. There are several types of harassment also included in labour discrimination like sexual harassment, cultural harassment and wages discrimination etc. There have been several jurisdiction implemented to prohibit different types of labour discrimination and the victims have been given the right to file lawsuit against the employers in case of encountering discrimination at work place. Labour discrimination could occur intentionally or intentionally due to prejudice or ignorance. The discrimination of labour has been evolved as an important and serious area of concern for the business related people, workers and general people because all over the world it is common to see filing of lawsuits against major companies of the world on the charges of labour discrimin ation.If the lawsuits are filed against well-known companies then the cases often turn sensational and gain the attention of the community to look for the outcome of the case. Several cases of labour discrimination have been ended with multimillion dollar settlement. The class actions taken against the companies are usually supported and favoured by the people because they think that decisions in favour of labour put pressure upon the employers to change their practice and make it justified and fair with the workforce. (Susan et al, p28). The paper discusses two lawsuits filed against popular American companies Abercrombie & Fitch and Wall Mark on the allegation of labour discrimination. These two cases were widely followed by people because they involved popular retail brands of the country. These cases ended up with different conclusion and the accused companies are given different decisions. Abercrombie & Fitch was ordered to pay $50 million compensate the plaintiffs however, the case of Wal-Mart was blocked by the Supreme Court due to lack of sufficient evidences about the existence of discriminating labour practice by the management of Wal-Mart. The decision of Abercrombie & Fitch encouraged the class workers to raise voice for their due rights however, the case of Wal-Mart clarifies that the lawsuit must be filed with complete preparation and practice so that the court become able to make a justified decision. These two important lawsuits of the U.S. business world are discussed below and their comparative analysis has also been conducted to illustrate the practical implications of these decisions to the business world and labour management practice. Abercrombie & Fitch Lawsuit Abercrombie & Fitch is a popular American retailer company that main deals with the casual wean for the consumers age group 18-22. It also operates three other offshoot brands of children wear and other fashion wear. The company has established around 300 locations across US and t he process of international expansion is also on its way. The company employs over 22,000 workers in over 700 stores. Most of the employees are college age adults of different sex, race and ethnic groups (Jane, p2). The case was filed by the employees of the company who charged it for discrimination of the work force at workplace. The case against Abercrombie & Fitch was settled on the 14th of April 2005 when Judge Susan Illston of U.S. District Court for the Northern district of California finally approved the settlement of case Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch. The court required Abercrombie & Fitch to pay $40 million to several plaintiffs that were mostly females and others belonged to minority community (Shiffer et al, p7). After the settlement of the case the company established settlement fund to distribute the amount among the workers. The plaintiffs were sent the award checks in

Contemporary issues in management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Contemporary issues in management - Essay Example In many settings, the growth of the society was only beneficial to those who could understand the position of the society when dealing with issues that matter. The only way of benefiting any society is if a company can understand its wants and offer the right product to deal with the issues in place. The contemporary issues dealt with at all levels of management aim at showing the weaknesses and avenues of gaining strength. This report will explore these issues in Apple Inc and create an analysis of issues taking place after examining a wide berth of literature on the topic. An important thing that managers appreciate is the fact that historical perceptions of theory work towards meeting the growing needs of the management processes across the world. The early management pioneers needed to show the world that respect and dignity were essential only if they implemented what was ideal for the employees provided they allowed people to enjoy the process as a whole. An examination of the classical, behavioural, and quantitative perspectives of managing employees within the workplace shows that things are changing in the workplace and reveal the important contemporary issues in the management perspectives chosen by modern-day multinational companies. The classical view sees performance as a means of achieving better results by using what is proven to work as a way of promoting productivity. The behavioural aspect examines the way employers treat their employees while at work. Many argue that the growth of any company has to deal with the increasing of product ivity to match the intended performance levels. The quantitative approach looks at cumulative impacts of the processes used and their impact on productivity. The focus will be on understanding corporate management issues based on an examination of a single company. The examination of contemporary management issues will be easily done by looking at one of the most renowned

Summarize Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summarize - Essay Example Zaltman’s Theory and the Development of Zaltman Elicitation Technique (ZMET): â€Å"People give us only what we give them the opportunity to provide.† (Zaltman). Because of his marketing experience and interdisciplinary background, Zaltman was able to apply the idea that people respond with what is below the surface of language, thinking in pictures and memories when deciding what it is they want. He used his study in Nepal to support his theory, saying â€Å"Everything we see hides something else we want to see.† (Zaltman). With that in mind, he moved from the University of Pittsburgh in 1991, to Harvard Business School, where funding was provided for him to set up his ZMET site and staff it appropriately. ZMET â€Å"combines neurobiology, psychoanalysis, linguistics and art theory† (Pink, 1998) to bring out what people really feel about a product. Once this is established, then sellers have an additional, creative marketing tool. The example of the Nestl e Crunch Bar is a good illustration. The chocolate showed up as a metaphor for ‘time’, as the images provided related to the simple, easy-going days of childhood. The product brought back happy memories; this was the metaphor the ZMET process turned up. The same test discovered women’s feelings about wearing panty hose, that dogs were a metaphor for safety and security and that executives identified ‘customer-focused’ as â€Å"having integrity, caring about customers in an authentic way, being a company worthy of trust.† (Pink, 1998). Application: Zaltman’s projects are treated as individual tests, which have consistently delivered â€Å"metaphor-based insights† (Zaltman) He believed that the technique is not going to solve every problem for every company but that it does provide a creative addition to other market research processes. He pointed out that in the final analysis, it is up to managers to

Business information for Fly Guys about Excel Spreadsheet and Access Assignment

Business information for Fly Guys about Excel Spreadsheet and Access Database - Assignment Example In contrast, the Excel spreadsheets would keep displaying messages about a locked file and this might intimidate the passengers in addition to contributing to time wastage. Thus, Access database application is a better alternative as pertains to the support of the booking operations. Second, Access database uses structured query languages (SQL) to manipulate records. An even more striking aspect of this future is that the end-user can tailor the queries to suit the business needs. For example, it is possible generating reports based on criteria such as passengers involved in half journeys, passengers involved in full journeys and passengers who are most loyal to Fly Guys. On the other hand, Excel spreadsheets lack such fascinating features. Implicit in this is the point that a business which embraces Excel as an information management tool is likely to be restricted with regards to generating reports that can support business goals. So, MS Access database is better placed to meet the custom report generation needs at Fly Guys. Another reason why Fly Guys would need to focus on MS Access to address the custom report needs is its scalability and flexibility. In brief, Access can scale well and communicate seamlessly with nearly all other 21st century relational databases via open database connectivity (ODBC) connections. The only prerequisite for this capability is for the involved database administrator to have a thorough knowledge of the Fly Guys-owned MS Access database file. As Beskeen (2010) puts it, MS Access is a better option when it comes to information storage. In general, the application’s capabilities come in handy when a need arises to store information for a more elaborated time. This aspect suits the operation at Fly Guys because the records handled will inevitably rise.

Business economic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business economic - Essay Example Thus, a double-dip recession occurs when the GDP rises to positive levels (the recovery period) followed by negative levels (another recession) (Quiggin, 2010). It is often referred to as the â€Å"W-shaped† recession (Quiggin, 2010). One of the most prominent double-dip recessions took place in the 1980’s in the United States (Appendix 1) (Quiggin, 2010). Two recessions occurred in the 1980’s in the United States. Initially, the economy shrunk by 8%, then grew at 8% after which the economy dipped into the second recession due to the Federal Reserve’s policy to raise interest rates to curb inflation (Quiggin, 2010). Following that, the economy re-entered into growth for the rest of the years (Quiggin, 2010). Although, there are no definite characteristics that define a recession, there are a few symptoms that are generally agreed by economists. First is the inverted yield curve model which was determined by Jonathan H. Wright which uses 10 year yield of Tr easury Securities as an input (LaBonte et al., 2010). Second, is the change in unemployment rate over a three month period (LaBonte et al., 2010). Third, lower prices of assets including real estate and financial assets as well as large personal and corporate debts (LaBonte et al., 2010). ii) The contraction in Ireland’s economy was of particular significance at a time when other Euro nations were showing positive growth rates. This fall in Ireland’s GDP is attributed firstly, according to Author of the Bulletin, Dr. Dan McLaughlin, Group Chief Economist, Bank of Ireland, to the drastic fall in capital spending. Although capital spending decreased by 11%, on average, throughout the rest of the developed world; in Ireland it fell by a drastic 30% along with a 34% decline in building and construction activity (McLaughlin, 2010). The share of construction in general, and house-building in particular now accounts for only 2.5% of Ireland’s GDP, compared to 12% in 20 05 (McLaughlin, 2010). Secondly, consumption expenditure also saw a decline throughout the Western regime by 1.1%, due to reduced employment and falling growth in wages (McLaughlin, 2010). In the case of Ireland, employment slashed by 8% along with decline in wages which partially contributes to the fall in real consumer purchase power of Ireland (McLaughlin, 2010). A significant trend emerged at this point; that of higher savings. Although real disposable income dipped in Ireland, it was accompanied by a rise in the marginal propensity to save, leading to a higher savings ratio (McLaughlin, 2010). At the same time, Ireland’s exports fell by much more than that of its Euro competitors, implying that Net Exports also declined. Thus, to sum up; since all the components of GDP including consumption, investment and government expenditure along with net exports fell, GDP was bound to decline. iii) A Keynesian style stimulus package is a policy measure used by policymakers and inst itutions that involves stimulating one or more of the components that make up aggregate demand in an attempt to increase employment, income and output of an economy (Tool & Samuels, 1989). This approach is consistent with the Keynesian theory that negative output gap can lead to a bottleneck in the economy; a situation it finds difficult to escape. The paradox of thrift comes into force whereby loss of valuable consumer and investor confidence combined with high propensity to save exacerbates the recession (Meltzer, 1988). If such is the situation,

Service blueprint for Coyote LocoServices marketing Essay

Service blueprint for Coyote LocoServices marketing - Essay Example The lines of visibility refer to the management decision on what a customer should see and which waiters will be in contact with customers. The decision of the manager is to keep resources such as the chef out of sight so that the customer will believe that the staff are working hard. The internal interaction consists of the interaction between the marketing staff and the restaurant assistants, the relationship between the kitchen staff and the chef, the janitorial crew and the kitchen helpers. The company recently retrained its staff to reduce flight delays and improve interaction with customers. The result was more passengers and the continued profitability of the company The five tangible cues or indicators of quality from the customer's perspective are these: a.) tangibles - which refers to the physical facilities, equipment and the appearance of personnel; b.) reliability -which refers to the ability to perform the promised service accurately; c.) assurance - which refers to the willingness to help the customers to provided excellent service; c.) responsiveness - which refers to the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust in the customer; and d.) empathy- which refers to the caring and individualized attention the restaurant p[provides to its customers. All the steps in the process are necessary to attain a high quality of service.Standardization is possible and advisable throughout the process for as long as quality, reliability an d responsiveness are observed by all the employees.The potential fail points are located in the waiting time and the transaction time. Waiting time is incurred in the preparation of the menu and the drinks which may result in lower customer satisfaction. The possibilities to reduce the perceived time is by providing cable television for the customers to watch, magazines and newspapers in the area, offering of free drinks and engaging banter with the customer.They could be designed out of the process, or what service recovery procedures could be introducedThe potential measures of performance are as follows: excellent technical quality, right image of the restaurant based on the promise of service provided by advertising and market communications and excellent functional quality. The technical quality knowledge giver is expected to know the offering in depth and detail so that information about its utility and application can be provided on demand. He or she must also be technically competent to deliver the service expected, adapting as needed to varied or changing customer need. The first service is provided by the chef and his kitchen staff. The second level of skill pertains to functional quality which is also known as customer relationship. Here it is often as simple as whether the service -giver treats the customer as a unique and important individual to be served. The waiters and service managers carry out the second type of service which consists of welcoming the customer, providing them the menu cards and collecting their bill. Service with a smile is easy to propose, difficult to impose. Smiling is

The place of anonymity in theories of crowd behaviour Essay Example for Free

The place of anonymity in theories of crowd behaviour Essay Explain the place of anonymity in theories of crowd behaviour. Is it always associated with a ‘loss of self’ (Dixon and Mahendran, 2012, p. 13)? This essay will start by explaining the concept of anonymity and how it is used in theories of crowd behaviour namely the contagion, deindividuation theory and social identity theory. Later the essay will focus on critical discussion comparing the above theories in terms of how they perceive anonymity and the loss of self. It will highlight the similarities between Le Bon’s theory and the deidividuation theory but will also point out some of their differences. The essay will also offer the account of the social identity theory which does not see the crowd behaviour as associated with the loss of self and explains it differently in terms of social identity. The essay will also present evidence to support these claims. The crowd behaviour theories are concerned with how individuals experience being a part of a large group and how this in turn influences their feelings and behaviour. Crowd psychologists would argue that the experience of being a part of a large group necessarily means that a sense of anonymity is created. This anonymity then allows individuals in the crowd to feel somehow ‘safe’ in terms of what they are able to do or say without being directly responsible for it. However different theories view the concept of anonymity differently. Le Bon argued that the concept of anonymity in the crowd is not beneficial at all. In fact he viewed the crowds as dangerous because individuals lose their rationality which is substituted by a ‘group mind’ and as such crowds are a threat to social hierarchy (Dixon and Mahendran, 2012, p. 5). According to Le Bon the experience of being in the crowd involves anonymity thus the individuals are not responsible for their actions and feel a part of the collective therefore are more likely to get influenced by ideas that are sweeping through the crowd a concept Le Bon called the contagion. This anonymity then leads the individuals to behave in an aggressive and primitive way. The deindividuation theory outlook on anonymity is a bit different. Whilst deindividuation theory would agree with Le Bon on the fact  that crowd behaviour generates anonymity and leads individuals to believe that they are not personally accountable for their actions in the crowd, the idea of a ‘ group mind’ is dismissed. Instead Festinger, Pepitone and Newcomb argue that the sense of anonymity individuals experience in the crowds is a psychological shift in individual’s self perception which is clearly measurable (Dixon and Mahendran, 2012, p. 6.). From the perspective of the social identity theory crowd behaviour is not necessarily connected with anonymity and the loss of self. According to Tajfel and Turner the loss of self in the crowd behaviour is replaced by the social identity which is constrained by shared social norms amongst the group. Tajfel argues that we posses not just one individual identity but also a social one in terms that we belong to various social groups and share and accept their norms and values. In this light the social identity theory would argue that individuals do not lose their sense of self in the crowd rather they are more constrained by the shared group norms and as such cannot feel anonymous. It could be argued that Le Bon’s concept of contagion and the deindividuation theory have some similarities. They both start with the assumption that the crowd behaviour involves anonymity which is associated with the loss of self to a certain degree. Both of these theories also agree on the fact that the crowd behaviour alters individual’s feelings and behaviour and makes them more impulsive and less accountable for their actions. However both of the theories use different concept to explain this behaviour. Whilst Le Bon explains the crowd behaviour with the concept of the ‘group mind’ which takes over a rational individual’s mind and leads them to be aggressive and primitive (Dixon and Mahendran, 2012, p. 5), Festinger et al. use the concept of deindividuation to explain the psychological shift in individual’s mind whilst being part of the crowd. Another similarity between the concept of contagion and deindividuation is their perception of crowds being somewhat negative in their nature. Le Bon argues that crowds are dangerous in terms of their primitiveness and possible uncontrolled aggression. These features of crowd behaviour according to Le Bon pose a threat to the social hierarchy and as such should  be controlled and prevented (Dixon and Mahendran, 2012, p. 5). Similarly the deindividuation theories would suggest that the effects of crowd behaviour on the individual are negative in a sense that they lead to increased aggression. Zimbardo focused on the links between anonymity and aggression in his experiment with administering the electric shocks and the findings suggested that anonymity had indeed intensified the aggression. Zimbardo explained this phenomenon as a ‘diffusion of responsibility’ and saw it as a by-product of deindividuation. According to Zimbardo being part of crowd (or a social group) makes individuals feel like they are protected by the anonymity surrounding them and therefore they do not feel a moral responsibility for their actions which leads them to being more violent and aggressive. In the light of the evidence presented by Zimbardo it could be argued that anonymity is indeed associated with the loss of self. On the other hand there are differences to be found between these theories and their outlook on the loss of self. Whilst Le Bon and his concept of contagion and to some degree deindividuation theories would argue that crowds are not beneficial, the social identity theory would present evidence to argue otherwise. As Tajfel and Turner argue crowd behaviour is not necessarily associated with the loss of self rather there is a shift from the individual’s sense of self to the collective one. Social identity theorists do not see this feature of crowd behaviour as negative but rather they explain crowd behaviour in terms of its uniformity and spontaneity. According to the social identity theorists the fact that people belong to a certain social group creates constraints and forces the individuals to behave in a way that is acceptable and shared within the members of the group. As such the social groups act in a way which is more uniformed and predictable than the individuals themselves. Furthermore the social identity theorists would point out that thanks to the concept of ‘inductive categorization’ the crowds behaviour can be seen as socially coordinated. This concept can be explained using an example of football fans behaviour during the football match where there is no leader who orders the fans to sing and cheer at the same time. Rather if one of the fans starts singing or chanting the others join in because of the ‘inductive categorization’ within this particular social group. The evidence to challenge the claim that anonymity in crowd behaviour is always associated with a loss of self can be found in a research conducted by Reicher on the St. Pauls riots. Reicher argued that the riots were no random acts of violence as Le Bon or deindividuation theory would suggest, rather the rioters directed their violence towards specific targets and kept them geographically confined to the relevant area. This suggests that the rioter’s behaviour was uniformed and predictable and therefore fits in the explanation of the social identity theory. Further evidence can be found in the research of Reicher and Stott on the London riots in 2011. From the perspective of the deidividuation and Le Bon’s theory the riots were explained as a prime example of a ‘group mind’ taking over any rationality and resulting in violence and aggression. According to these theories the individuals lost their identity in the crowd hence their responsibility and behaved like primitive animals. However different perspective is offered by the social identity theorists. Reicher and Stott argued that the rioters did not lose their identities in the riots but rather they switched to the social identity which resulted in a collective action. The rioters were not random criminals but were members of the social community with a shared ideas and goals. The actions of the rioters were not random but they were directed at the symbols of authority suggesting collective and uniformed action which was designed to fight inequality. The social identity theorists would therefore argue that there is no such concept as a loss of self in the cr owd behaviour rather there is a shift to a social identity which is distinguished by its collectiveness and uniformity. In summary then it could be argued that from the perspective of the deindividuation theory and Le Bon’s theory, anonymity in crowd behaviour is associated with the loss of self. Le Bon and his concept of contagion argue that individuals in crowd lose their ability to think rationally and are consumed by the ‘group mind’. Deindividuation theories argue for the psychological shift in individual’s mind which is caused by crowd’s anonymity and leads to irrationality and aggression. Zimbardo’s experiment on the diffusion of responsibility certainly suggests this. On the other hand the social identity theory and its explanation of the crowd behaviour  argue strongly against the concept of the loss of the self. This perspective suggests that social groups are far more constrained by its shared social norms to be irrational. Social identity theorists view the crowd behaviour as a positive force in the social change.

Expectations within my job role Essay Example for Free

Expectations within my job role Essay As a professional worker within Clare Lodge I have many expectations within my job role. As a secure care home I am governed by several pieces of legislation that outline the rules, boundaries and policies that are provided for us by Peterborough City Council. These include the National Minimum Standards, these are the standards that the home as a whole are expected to be working to. Some of the things outlined in these standards are wishes and feelings of the child, equality and diversity, safeguarding, health and well being, contact, placement preparation and suitability to work with children. It is imperative and expected to work professionally in my job role and the children’s safety and care comes above anything else, even when looking after your colleagues, if someone is not behaving in a professional manner then it is the expectation of the employee to use policies provided to deal with it. The policy to be used would be in respect of â€Å"Whistle blowing†. As I am in a professional role I have my own rights as well. I have the right to be treated fairly and with dignity under the policies provided. I also have the right to protect my own safety be it within a union angle, within a physical intervention process, for my own health and safety with equipment provided and from a safeguarding perspective I have the right to not take on tasks which I feel could put myself at risk from allegation. It is important that I exercise my rights and my professional expectations, always working within the training, policies and legislation provided to me. Having feedback affects my role and practise as a professional worker. Any feedback that I receive should be constructive so that I am able to learn from it and be factual to truly reflect the practise that I show. There are several ways this feedback can be given to me. First of all I receive feedback through supervision with my line manager. This involves a monthly meeting of a minimum of one hour. In this it is my responsibility to bring an agenda and discuss anything I wish to speak about, it is also the responsibility of my supervisor to bring any practise issues and offer of resolution or training to it. Secondly in my role I can receive feedback from my colleagues through meetings, email and 1-2-1 chats. It is important  that this happens to build relationships with your colleagues and produce effective team working. Last of all the most imperative form of constructive feedback is from the young people, they will tell you in the best way they can if you are helping them in the right way through key work sessions, girls meetings and general conversation. It is not good or professional to take this feedback when they are in a heightened state as it will not be a truly reflective account of how they are feeling you are working with them. As a professional we are bound to provide a â€Å"Duty of Care† to myself, my colleagues and the young people I care for. I also have a CALM (Crisis aggression limitation management) instructor certificate which binds me to monitor Duty of care within physical intervention within the unit. What is meant by duty of care is following all rules, boundaries and policies of the unit in the best interest and care of young people and staff. For example, I cannot sit back and watch a young person be assaulted by another and in the same breath cannot watch a staff member get hurt because I don’t want to get involved in a restraint. Not conforming to duty of care is being negligent and this is against the law under Common Law. It states in common law that negligence places people at risk and therefore you are going against risk assessments in place and provided by the unit and its employees to keep everyone safe. It also falls into things such as the Health and Safety Act 2004 where all staff are responsible and have a duty of care to clear up spillages, obstructions and report any damages for them to be dealt with and keep the staff and young people safe.

Features of Representational Meaning

Features of Representational Meaning While some, more or less radical, distinction between language and linguistic behaviour (between language and speech, language and communication, sentence and utterance) is universally assumed, the nature of the relation between them is less often addressed or characterised in a manner satisfactory in itself or consistent with the distinctions we wish to make. The more radical the distinction, the more urgent the question of their relation becomes. The paper sketches some of the problems and outlines a proposal. This takes the form of a Representational Hypothesis about the relation, designed to be consistent with (and render defensible) a very radical distinction between language and such behaviour. The discussion focuses on ambiguity both for itself and for illustrative purposes. It is suggested that ambiguity is not a linguistically semantic phenomenon and indeed not linguistic. 1. Rationale In the process of learning English, I have profoundly realized that English semantics is rather abstract with a large scope including word meaning, sentence meaning, utterrance meaning. Each type of meaning includes many different parts. For examples, sentence meaning has grammaticalitity, acceptability and meaningfullness, the principle of compositionality, variables in the function of sentence meaning, the representational meaning, the interpersonal meaning. It is rather complex and not used regularly in the fact. However, It is an essential part in syllabus for English major students. It provides the major knowledge of English language for the learners and help them deeply understand its characteristics and know the way to use it better and better, so they need to study it well but in fact, it is not easy at all. The learners have difficulties when using it. They spend much time on learning it, but the understanding of its characteristics is limmited. For the reason, a study on re presentational meaning one of basic part of English semantics has been chosen as the title of my assignment paper. 2. Aims of the study on the representational meaning Generally speaking, the representational meaning is abstract part in English semantics. It is not close to the fact. Therefore, the majority of learners have difficulties when using it. They make mistakes when distinguishing between types of the representational meaning. Therefore, this assignment paper focuses on the representational meaning with its scopes and characteristics to help learners well distinguish its types and use it flexibly and exactly in studying. 3. Scope of the study Semantics is large category in English language with its scopes such as word meaning, sentence meaning uterrance meaning. However, due to my limited knowledge, the writer only concentrate on the study on the representational meaning. It is particularized at the 3 main kinds of the representational meaning including processes, participants and circumstances with their definitions and characteristics. 4. The method of the study With the desire of making English representational meaning clear and specific, my methods of the study are data collection from having discussion with supervisors, friends, reading materials ( text books, referenceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) and collecting typical examples. 5. Design of the study This study provides a clear organization consisting of three main parts that help an easy exploration and practical benefits gained for readers as well: Chapter one is the introduction including rationale, scope of the study, aims of the study, the method and design of the study; Chapter two is entiled development and divided into three parts: Part I is the theoretical background, Part II is the representational meaning including definitions and characteristics of its types and Part III is implication including the difficulties of the learners when using it and suggested sollution; Chapter three is conclusion, summarizing what have been discussed in the previous. 1. Theoritical Background 1.1. Semantics 1.1.1. Definition of semantics There are many authors who define semantics. Some of the most typical definitions listed as follows: Semantics is the systematic study of meaning in language. In other word, it is the study of how language organizes and expresses meaning. ( Nguyen Hoa, 2004) Semantics deals with the literal meaning of words and the meaning of the way they are combined, which taken together form the core of meaning or the starting point from which the whole meaning of a particular utterance is constructed. (Lyons (1995: Xii)) 1.1.2. The approaches of semantics There are 3 main approaches of semantics including lexical semantics, formal semantics and cognitive semantics. 1.1.2.1. Lexical semantics Lexical semantics is a field which deals mainly with word meaning and relations between them. It covers various theories of the word structure, the diffferences and similarities in lexical semantic structure between different languages and relationship of word meaning to sentence meaning and syntax. 1.1.2.2. Formal semantics Formal semantics is called formal since it attempt to adapt analytical techniques from formal logic to the study of meaning. It is concerned with relation between expressions especially sentences which express propositions. The basic tenet of formal semantics is that it considers proposition as the meaning of the sentence, which is identified with the set of possible words and it is concerned with its truth condition. The main focus of formal semantics is on truth conditions, entailment, reference, denotation, contracdition model, inference, quantification. 1.1.2.3. Cognitive semantics: Cognitive semantics is seen as mapping from linguistic expression to cognitive structures and laguage is seen as part of the cognitive structure. The main tenets of the cognitive semantics can be summarised as follows: a) Meaning is conceptualisation in the cognitive model. More precisely, it involves the mapping from the expression of the language to some mental entities and does not concern itself with such important concepts of formal semantics as reference and truth. Cognitive models are mainly perceptuallly determined as it happens cognitive structures are connected to our perceptual merchamisms either directly or indirectly. Thus, meaning are more or less perceptually grounded. Semantic elements are based on the spatial or to pological objects. Mental structures applied in cognitive semantics are the meaning of linguistic expression. Cognitive models are primarily image schematic. Semantics is primary to syntax and partly dermintes it . Concepts show prototype effect Cognitive semantics is concerned with important notions as perspective, imagery construal, figure ground organization, abstraction, conceptual metaphor. 1.1.3. Semantics properties Accepting the fact that the meaning of an expression can be viewed as combination of features, we can decompose the meaning of a word into what we call semantic features or properties. Consider the word mandate in the following example : E.g.:I think I have a mandate to make the government work again. Our adequate knowledge of the word mandate tell us that mandate is an authority given to somebody or organization by people who support. We will know that it is not like word responsibility which just means a duty, it is given to sombody or organization not an animal and especially by whose support it. Such features are called semantic features. They can used to define the meanings of a word. And the method involing the use of these properties is called componential method One and the same semantic feature may be part of the meaning of many different words. Female is a semantic property that helps to define: bich hen actress maiden doe more debutante widow ewe vixen girl woman We should also notice that the last word girl, woman are characterized by another property human. The following table shows how the componential method is employed to decompose the meaning of a number of word Property actress baby Girl bachelor mare human + + + + + female + . + + young + + (Fromkin et al, 1984: 167) There are many more properties which define the meaning of the word. Some scholar believe that it is possible to the limited number of these semantic properties that could be employed to defined the meaning of the lexicon of any language. However, there is much disagreement as to what constitues a semantic property. There are difficulties involved. For example, the word baby can not be defined either as male or female since a baby can be either sex. 1.1.4. Scopes of semantics 1.1.4.1. Word meaning 1.1.4.1.1. Form and Expression Word are also considered expression.Words and word form are distinguished from each other in terms of distinction between lexical meaning and grammatical meaning. E.g.:cook cooks, cooking, cooked . Different forms of the word will share the same lexical meaning but different grammatical meaning . E.g.:Lovely, lovelier, loveliest. Different words may share grammatical meaning but different lexical meaning . E.g.: love, hate, eat, drink. 1.1.4.1.2. Lexical and grammatical meaning revisted The lexical meaning of the word really means the individual and reflective meaning of a word. The grammatical meaning can be defined as relationships between words based on contrastive features of arragements in which they occur. 1.1.4.1. 3. Components of word meaning There are 4 major components of word -meaning: a) Denotation which includes: conceptual and referential meanings; Denotation exists by virtue of what it refers to. b) Conotation including stylistic, affective, evaluative and intensifying is the pragmatic communicative value the words acquires by virture of where, when, how and by whom, for what purpose and in what context it is or may be used. c) Structural meaning, which is the meaning a word acquires by virtue of its membership in a system or a set. It includes reflected meaning, collative meaning, associative meaning and themantic meaning. d) Categorial meaning is one part of grammatical meaning which words derive from being a number of one category rather than another ( nouns rather verbs and so on ). Word fall in to such categories as Noun, verbs, Adjectives, Prepositions, conjunction. 1.1.4.1.4. Semantic field ( lexical field ) 1.1.4.1.4.1. Definition of semantic field A lexical / semantic field is the organization of related words and expressions into a system which shows their relationships to one another. The value of a word is determined by defining it in relation to the value of neigbouring or contrasting words. Thus, the vocabulary of a language is viewed as an integrated system of lexems interrelated in sense. A semantic field is a set of interrelated senses based on a conceptual field or spectrum. E.g.:In terms of colour : 4 primary color terms: Blue, green, yellow, red. Environment : overfish, overexploit, pollute, contaminate, ozone depletion, rain forests. Beach : towel, umbrella, lotion, bikini, sand. Carpenter: lumber, nails, drills, saw, chisel. Dentist: filling, cavity, extract,pull. Degree of redness : red, Scarlet, orange, Crimson, rose. ( Arnold (1986) i.v) 1.1.4.1.4.2. Ways of grouping words Thematically Words of the same part of speech that cover the same conceptual field. E.g.: cooking: boil, bake, fry, broil, steam. Ideographically Words of different parts of speech but thematically related. E.g.: Holiday: to book ( a fight ), a package tour, hotel, luxurious, etc . 1.1.4.2. Sentence meaning 1.1.4.2.1 Definition of sentence meaning A sentence is a large unit of grammatical organization within which parts of speech (noun,verb, adjective ) and gramamatical classes ( word, phrase, clause) are said to function. In English, a sentence normally contains one independent clause. The meaning of a sentence is not the sum of the meaning of the word used in the sentence.It is what a sentence means regardless of context and situation in which it may be used . It is more correct to regard it as function of the meaning of the word used in the sentence, modality and structural meaning signaled by the way words are organized into sentence. 1.1.4.2.2. Proposition 1.1.4.2.2.1. Definition of proposition A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which describes some states of affairs. A proposition is defined as the invariant meaning expressed by a sentence, devoid of any modality. E.g.: She is probably right. Proposition: she is right . Modality: Probable impossible In semantics, the letters p, q, r are often used as symbols of propositions. Proposition involves in the meanings of not only declarative, but also interrogative and imperative sentence. E.g.: Is she right ? Be careful. The state of the affairs typically involves person or things referred to the expression in the sentence. In uttering a declarative sentence, a speaker typically asserts a proposition. 1.1.4.2.2.2. Proposition content A proposition usually consists of: (a) something which is named or talked about known as argument or entity, (b) an assertion or prediction made about the argument. E.g.: The man bit the dog. The dog bit the man. Predicate : Bite Two argument : Man, Dog The meaning of a sentence consists of the predicate, argument (s) and role of each argument. Arguments refer to entities white predicates deal with events, properties, attributes and states.Those individuals that are independent and can stand alone are arguments. Things like qualities, relations, actions and processes that are dependent and can not stand alone are termed predicates . E.g.:My computer Break down, fast, new. 1.1.4.2.2.3. Common types of semantic roles Semantic role Examples Agent /does She opened the door Affected Marry kicked the dog Effected She took deep breath Locative We reached London by mid night Instrument /Means The key open the door Recipient She gave me two books Goal He kicked the dog Experiencer I like the play. Carrier She is happy. Identified Bill Gate is the president Identifier Bill Gate is the president 1.1.4.3. Utterance 1.1.4.3.1. Definition of uterrance Utterance meaning is what a speaker means when he makes an utterance in a cercain situation. Utterances consist of performative and constative ones. 1.1.4.3.2. Types of utterances 1.1.4.3.2.1. Performative utterance: A performative utterance is one that actually describes the act that it performs. It performs some acts and simultenously describes that act. E.g.: I promise to pay you tomorrow. A typical performative utterrance usually contains the first person pronoun E.g.: I promise; I congratulateà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. These are all verbs describing speech acts. We classify them and performative verbs. 1.1.4.3.2.2. Constative utterances A constative utterance is one which makes an assertion. It is often the utterance of a declarative sentence, but is not performative. Eg: I am trying to get this box with screwdriver. It is a constative utterance because because it makes an assertion about a particular state of affair but not performative. The utterance does not simultenously describe and perform the same act. 2. The representational Meaning 2.1. The representational meaning The representational meaning is rather abtract in English semantics. Therefore the learners need to pay much attention to its genneral characteristics as follows to approach and study it easily. According to Halliday, the experiential subcomponent of the representational meaning provides an acount of the underlying content of a sentence or an utterance. It handles within its scopes: Processes: actions, events, states, relations. Participating entities ( participants): persons, objects, abstractions. Circumstances: time, places, reasons, conditions, resultsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ which are associated with the process. We all know that the nominal group represents the various types of participants. The verbal groups denote the process. And other types of units like the prepositional phrases of adverbial clauses realize the circumstance component. E.g.: She kicked the dog out of the house. The participants realized by NPs: she and the dog The process realized by the verb: kicked The circumstance realized by the PP : out of the house. The relationships between processes, participants, and their circumstance are expressed through what Halliday terms transitivity network. Transitivity really means going through or extending to another entity. On the dimension of transitivity, clauses may be organized in to two types : The transitive and the ergative sentences to accommodate better the situation regarding the catual occurrence of sentence patterns. In transitive sentence, the most prominent roles are actor, goal, if the process is one of the action E.g.: I bought my wife a cake. Or they are attributor and attributantà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸. If the process is one of ascription ( attribution ) E.g.:Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. In the ergative type, the central roles are the causer of the process and the affected the participant affected by the process. E.g.: Everyone likes the play. It is possible to rephrase it into the play pleases everyone or the play causes him to like itself . Those sentences involving action process as defined above are called extensive, and those concerned with ascription ( attribution ) as termed intensive. Halliday also introduces another basic distinction between effective and descriptive extensive transitive sentences. (a) Effective sentences The action is goal directed or targed at another object called goal. This means that the sentence has to involve at least two participants. E.g.: I bought a car. Some sentences may have three participants. E.g.:I gave her a flower. (b) Descriptive sentences It involves non directed action since the sentence is associated with just one participant. E.g.: The recruits marched. Actor the recruits, Process marched . Halliday speaks of another type called nuclear. (c) Nuclear setences It is the one associated with the either one or two participants. E.g.: Mary open the door. The door opened. The door was opened (by Mary). However there exists a possibility of transforming The recruits marched into the sergeant marched the recruits. To account for this sentence, Halliday uses another role, which is that of initiator, discretely from the actor role. Thus, we have: Initiator the sergeant process marched Actor recruits And the logical subcomponent handles logical relations between various types of elements of sentence and such relation as subordination and apposition. 2.2. Functions of the representational meaning The representational meaning can be defined in terms of experiential and logical functions. 2.2.1. The experiential function is to communicate ideas It is the main fucntion by which a speaker expresses the content elements of his utterance, by refering to people, objects, states of affairs, events, qualities, places, actions and circumstances, all of which are parts of the world we live in. E.g.: Bill Gates gave me books to read after each session. 2.2.2. The logical function relates ideas to each other on an equal or subordinate basis: E.g.: I came, I saw and I conquered. ( equal) The rise in Microsoft stock in 1996 meant that he made on paper about $30 million a day. (subordinate) 2.3. Scopes of representational meaning 2.3.1. The process Process is a powerful concept which represents the possible world as consisting of going on: doing, happening, feeling and being. Halliday (1994: 106-107 ) states that the processes in a language like English are constructed by the transitivity system. He also makes a distinction between what humans experience as going on out there, in the world around us and what we experience as going inside ourself. Thus the main type of the process that expresses out outer experience is called material process as opposed against the mental one that expresses our inner experience. But there is a third important element to be added. We learn to genneralize to relate or connect our experience. This process is termed relational. According to Halliday, the bounderies of the three main types of process are further ones not clearly set apart, but nevertheness recognizable as intermedinate between the different pairs. Thus, between material and mental processes, we find behavioural process: those that represent outer manifestation of our inner working, the acting out of processes of conciousness and physiological states. The borderline of mental and relational processes are verbal processes that represent symbolic relationship constructed in human consciousness and enacted in the form of the language. The last one is the existential processes between the material and relational which are concerned with existtence [Halliday, 1994:107] 2.3.1.1. Types of processes: 2.3.1.1.1. Material processes: processes of doing2.3.1.1.1.1. Definition of material processes: Material processes are those that express our outer experiences. 2.3.1.1.1.2. Characteristics of material processes: The matreial processes usually involve one or two enties : An actor + a goal If there is one enties, it is the actor E.g.: The lion sprang. Jack fell down. If there are two enties, they are the actor and goal. In this case: The actor can do something to the goal. E.g.:She hit the ball. The lion caught the tourist. The actor can create or bring about the goal. E.g.:He has built a fortune along away. Material processes are processes of doing. They express the notion that some entity does something which may be done to some other entity. So we can ask about or probe material processes by using the verb do E.g.: what did the lion do?. What did the lion do to the tourist?. If there is goal of the process, as well as an Actor, the representation may come in either of two forms : either active, the lion caught the tourist, or passive, the tourist was caught by the lion. 1.The the 2.The by the lion lion Caught tourist tourist was caught Actor Process Goal Goal process Actor Figure 1: active and passive clauses. Material process are not necessarily concrete, physical events; they may be abstract doing and happening E.g.:The mayor resigned. ActorProcess The presidentdissolvedthe committee. Actor processgoal 3. Implication: The Difficulties of Learners When Using Representational and Suggested Sollution 3.1.The difficulties of learners when using representational meaning Due to the abstract, complex characteristics of the representational meaning, the learners particularly the students of English department have the difficulties in the processing of studying and using it in some following cases: 3.1.1. Distinguishing between attributive and identifying: Intensive type of relational processes is rather complex. It comes into two distinct modes: attributive and identifying with characteristic of each mode. Therefore, the learners have difficulties distinguishing between them. E.g.:He is a smart boy. In the above sentence, they misunderstand between two characteristics of attributive and identifying. They particulaly consider a smart boy as a characteristic of identifying but in fact, a mart boy is attributive. It has an indefinite article a, a typical feature of attributive. In addition, the line between the attributive and identifying modes is less clear in the circumstantial than in the intensive type of relational clause. It is less obvious whether an expression such as on the mat designates a class (that has members the class of things that are on the mat) or an identity (the thing that is identified by being on the mat.). 3.1.2. Distinguishing between types of relational processes in the following cases The relational processes have complex, large characteristics. The English system of relational processes operates with three main types: intensive, circumstantial, processive. Each of these come in to distinct modes: Attributive: a is atrribute of x Identifying : a is the identity of x In circumtantial processes atrributive , circumstance is expressed in the form of the attribute and the form of process. In circumstantial processes identify, the circumstance takes the form of a relationship between two entities. The relationship is expressed either as a feature of the participants or as a feature of the process. In possessive processes attributive, the possessive relationship may be expressed either as attribute or as process. In possessive processes identifying, possessive relationship is expressed either as a feature of participants or as a feature of process. With these complex, large charateristics, the learners make mistakes when distinguishing between the types of relational processes. E.g.: Peter has a piano. Peter owns the piano. The learners always make mistakes between 2 two verbs has, owns. They consider them as possessive attribute. But only the verb has is one of possessive attributive, the verb own is the case of possessive -identifying. Therefore, they incorrectly identify entities : carrier attributive, identified identifier. 3.1.3 Distinguishing between mental and behavioural processes: Participant of behavioural processes who is behaving, label