The Death Penalty And Punishment - 928 Words

Punishment by death dates back in multiple cultures and societies for as long as records have been kept. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), 4th century’s Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets through 18th century Babylon, where around 25 crimes preempted punishment by death, included some documented forms of the death penalty. Common methods in these times included crucifixion, beatings, and burning while alive. European influence brought capital punishment to the Americas where the first execution, occurring in the early 1600s, brought death to Captain George Kendall for holding secretive loyalties to Spain according to DPIC. In the late 1700s Cesare Beccaria composed â€Å"On Crimes and Punishment† which strengthened the abolitionist movement (DPIC). Since this time, a movement toward tighter death penalty laws took form. Thomas Jefferson proposed a bill that ultimately fell to defeat in Virginia that would have increased the strictness on whom receiv es the death penalty and what act constitutes the penalty. In present the day United States, 16 states have outlawed capitol punishment and the other states have undergone a process by which the method attempts to be more humane. As society has become more civilized, a realization of the inhumanities has prevailed. Problems with current methods have become apparent and secondary methods do not offer a solution. Capital Punishment should be banned from practice and ruled unconstitutional because the processShow MoreRelatedThe Death Penalty Is The Punishment Of Punishment2059 Words   |  9 PagesThe Death Penalty is the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. Death Penalty goes as far back as the Ancient Laws of China as established as punishment for crimes. In the 18th Century BC, the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes, although murder was not one of them. Lex Talionis is the principle or law of retaliation that a punishment inflicted corresponds in degree kind to the offense of the wrongdoerRead MoreThe Punishment Of The Death Penalty1620 Words   |  7 Pages The 2005 decision made in Roper v. Simmons’ declared that the crimes committed by people under the age of 18 would not be punishable by death. Because of this the United States Supreme Court challenged the constitutionality of the death penalty for juveniles. Whether the decision was appropriate or not is still under intense debate to this day. â€Å"A primary purpose of the juvenile justice system is to hold juvenile offenders accountable for delinquent acts while providing treatment, rehabilitativeRead MoreThe Punishment Of The Death Penalty1634 Words   |  7 Pageskill then you are killed. I am for Capital Punishment. I started class with this view and although I have been tested through some of the topics, I stand by my decision. It seemed easy to think that way. Through the course, I have learned how to better articulate and understand my views. I still have the same gut reaction that those who kill get killed, but I now understand why I feel this way. I agree in most part with the practices of the death penalty, although I do feel that some reform wouldRead MoreThe Punishment Of The Death Penalty Essay3196 Words   |  13 PagesThe ultimate punishment of the death penalty has long been advocated in the light of its ability to deter future capital crimes and its ability to bring closure and retribution to those who were directly affected by it. Many advocates for the death penalty have always used deterrence and retribution as their salient topics but deterrence and retribution are starting to lose their efficacy. The population of death row has dropped every year for 13 consecutive years, from 2000-2013, and only 16%Read MoreThe Punishment Of The Death Penalty867 Words   |  4 Pages Despite the widespread abandonment of death sentencing by many developed natio ns, the United States continues to execute citizens every year. The standard methods used to execute Americans have evolved over time. Each state has adopted their own preferences for sentencing those convicted of the most heinous crimes. Death by lethal injection is now most commonly practiced and hangings, firing squads, and the electric chair, have been progressively phased out. American society continues to dignifyRead MoreThe Death Penalty As A Form Of Punishment1491 Words   |  6 Pages The Death Penalty Elizabeth del Rio San Jose State University Abstract This paper will propose all the arguments for and against the use of the death penalty as a form of punishment. The death penalty, also known as Capital Punishment, is a punishment for criminals who haveRead MoreThe Death Penalty Of Capital Punishment1480 Words   |  6 Pagesjustice system, such as the death penalty. Capital punishment has been used many times in history all around the world, and it was quite popular. Many people argue that capital punishment is useful in deterring crime and that it is only fair that criminals receive death as punishment for a heinous crime. On the contrary, others see the death penalty as a violation of the 8th amendment. It restricts excessive fines, and it also does not allow cruel and unusual punishment to be inflicted upon criminalsRead MoreCapital Punishment : The Death Penalty1212 Words   |  5 PagesMoney, Complications, Delays, and Innocents: Controversy Against the Death Penalty The government has sanctioned the practice of the death penalty to those who are believed to be deserving of such serious retribution. Capital punishment manages to maintain a large amount of public support; however, it has recently received the label of a dying practice. The decline of executions can be traced back to the high price, complicated procedures, and ongoing trials placed on these cases because of theRead MoreCapital Punishment And The Death Penalty1106 Words   |  5 Pages Jesse Jackson once said, â€Å"Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer.† Capital punishment has been around for several hundred years, the first documented execution in America taking place in 1608, but more recently this form of punishment has been raising questions on its morality. While the form of execution has changed over the years, from firing squad to lethal injection, all forms succeed in their purpose: to kill. Support for capital punishment is still very strong in Americ a, the reasonsRead MoreThe Death Penalty Is The Ultimate Punishment882 Words   |  4 PagesLlamas Curtis Becker Comp 1 03 October 2017 The death penalty The death penalty is the ultimate punishment. There is no harsher punishment than death itself. This nation, the United States of America, is currently one of fifty-eight nations that practice the death penalty, if one commits first-degree murder as of 2012. People that believe in the death penalty also believe that it will deter murders. In this paper I will argue that the death penalty does not deter criminals and that this nation should

Surveillance And The Surveillance Of Surveillance

In today’s online world, it is almost impossible to remain anonymous. With every website and service requiring a log in which stores personal information, and surveillance users are unaware is even there. Although this sounds like an invasion of personal privacy and loss of personal liberty, it has turned into the â€Å"norm† and most of the time goes on without even being questioned. In some cases, consensual surveillance has been turned into forms of entertainment. The average person online is very aware of the surveillance taking place, but it is likely they are unaware of the severity of the surveillance and the justification behind it. It is known that the main use of surveillance is to keep citizens safe and free from terrorist attacks†¦show more content†¦This gives organizations information that the user may not aware is being recorded and shared. Without knowing it, we are leaving â€Å" electronic fingerprints† with every mouse click, every pho ne call, is recorded and used for analysis purposes, which tend to be justified through the idea that it is used to help protect civilians from terrorist or other threats. Though surveillance is used to protect society, it can go as far as to even control and monitor society. In countries like China, the government uses surveillance to censor what is available to the public, and therefore allows the leaders of the country to maintain a tighter grip on society. The west is considered to be a â€Å" free market†, though the reality of this is a common misconception. Though technically anyone can work there way to the top and become part of the â€Å"1%†, it is very difficult for the other 99% of us to achieve that (Martin Hirst, 2014). Though there is no censorship in Canada, there is a great deal of surveillance. The reasoning and justification behind this is to be able to monitor who is a threat and who is not. Through the monitoring, people are divided and categorize d. It is then from this process that the state beings to practice â€Å"narrowcasting†. This installs a certain way of thinking for the public, thus making it easier for them to accept the idea of surveillance. It is in times where people feel that they are threatened that it isShow MoreRelatedSurveillance : Surveillance And Surveillance Essay1481 Words   |  6 Pageschanges in people’s daily lives. Since survey and surveillance data is crucial for governments to maintain social order and for corporations to keep normal production and operation, it is inevitable that in the future surveillance will be used in every corner of the world. Indeed, surveillance products are under the pressure of invasion of privacy because they indiscriminately gather information from every human around the world. However, all this surveillance enhances our society because it is the mostRead MoreSurveillance And Surveillance921 Words   |  4 PagesSurveillance has implemented the purpos e of observing and monitoring individual’s actions and communications. Purposely, it is used for monitoring our behaviors, activities, and protection. Looking at the contemporary lifestyle we live by in society, surveillance technologies can range from computer monitoring to satellite imagery. Surveillance technologies are at near-constant presence regardless of circumstances in which, Edward Snowdown stated, â€Å"Even if you’re not doing anything wrong, you areRead MoreSurveillance : The Act Of Surveillance1526 Words   |  7 Pages The act of Surveillance refers to continuous monitoring of activities of a particular area or a person. Mass Surveillance refers to monitoring activities of a sample population or target group. The video monitoring at malls or stores and the installed CCTV at traffic signals is also an act of mass surveillance. However, such surveillance has become important part of business operation or road safety management due to video recorded proof in case of any crime. We stand at an age where nothingRead MoreCounter Surveillance And Anti Surveillance1740 Words   |  7 PagesFinal Exam: Executive Protection Question 1: Counter-surveillance Anti-surveillance and their application to Executive Protection Counter- Surveillance would be something along the lines of trying counter measure any possibilities that could pose a high risk or impending attack; this would be either at an event or function the principal might be attending. In this case you would have other members of the team blend in with the crowd of people at said event or function so they can be the eyesRead MoreThe Impact Of Technological Surveillance On Human Surveillance1549 Words   |  7 Pagesadvances in surveillance will be analyzed. Whitebread, and Slobogin (2014) give a good working definition of what technological surveillance is and what is covers. â€Å"Technological surveillance,†¦ is meant to encompass a wide variety of techniques that enhance the ability to ease drop or spy on the activities of others† (Whitebread and Slobogin, 2004, p. 134,)There are many forms of technological surveillance, example will be show through case law. As new forms of technological surveillance arise, moreRead MoreSu rveillance Camera1467 Words   |  6 PagesSurveillance cameras in banks, offices, shops and streets have been very successful in reducing crime in the workplace and in public, but they are also a tool for their users to spy on peoples private business. Surveillance is a close observation of a person or a group, especially one under suspicion for the purpose of influencing, directing, managing, or protecting. It creates both positive and negative effects. It is very useful for governments and law enforcements to maintain social controlRead MoreNsa Surveillance1025 Words   |  5 PagesSharath Thomas Professor Hugetz ENGL 1301.08 05 April 2016 NSA Surveillance - Constitutional or Unconstitutional The US Constitution came to life 230 years ago, but recent actions of the National Security Agency is interpreted to be defying the Bill of Rights by the government and depriving the citizens their constitutional right to privacy. However, when posed with the question:Read MoreSurveillance in America1325 Words   |  6 Pagestelescreen or when Uncle Sam is on every poster board around the city. No one complains whenever there is a change in rations knowing someone or something somewhere is always listening and watching Orwell captured all the aspects of total surveillance. He utilized the children of Oceania and trains them to become part of the Thought Police. The spies in training are part of a group known as the Junior Spies; therefore if they hear or see anything suspicious they are to report it to the ThoughtRead MoreSurveillance Techniques1375 Words   |  6 PagesCentervale, the following proposal will prove strategic as it will bring to light material regarding what is revered today as the most successful surveillance techniques available. The surveillance techniques of which will be proposed in this memo can be used for vehicle tracking, cell phone tracking, email, background checks, and computer surveillance techniques. While immigration issues tend to plague a myriad of towns, cities, and states, the issue is not one that is conceived as irrepressible;Read MoreGovernment Surveillance5539 Words   |  23 PagesGovernment Surveillance Imagine a world where your every move was being monitored. A dark world where it is no secret who you are, where you have been and who you associate with; now include who you love, who you pray to and what you just ate for dinner. The word privacy doesn’t exist in such world and it is such world that we are heading to.â€Å"Big Brother is watching you!† This quote by George Orwell couldn’t have been truer. Every aspect of our lives is being sorted through as Big Data this very

The Role of Perception in Crisis Planning free essay sample

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. John M. Penrose The Role of Perception in Crisis Planning ABSTRACT: This article reveals that a company’s perceptions of crises have a profound effect on primary crisis management activities. Although brie? y reviewing the technical aspects of crisis management, the research examines the effects that threat and opportunity constructs have on crisis planning. The article concludes with some recommendations concerning the communication of a crisis’s dual nature before, during, and after a crisis situation. John M. Penrose is professor of business communication and chair of the Information and Decision Systems Department in the College of Business Administration at San Diego State University. Much of the traditional crisis management literature stresses the fundamental importance of implementing an enterprise-wide crisis plan. In most cases, successful crisis resolutions stem from an organization’s instilled crisis plan, whereas most instances of mishandled crisis situations result from a company’s lack of such a plan. 1 Researchers tend to agree that organizations that practice proactive crisis management will lessen the damage of a crisis. Conversely, when organizations only respond to crises, the resulting damage seems to overshadow potential opportunities. 2 Why is it then, that about 40% of Fortune 1000 industrial companies still do not have an operational crisis plan? Indeed, many of these companies believe that their company’s prestige and goodwill will carry them through any unforeseen misfortune. This may be true for huge companies, such as Exxon, that also have the ? nancial resources to weather even the most disastrous crisis. But, smaller, lesser-known companies must heed the fact that 80% of companies without a comprehensive crisis plan vanish within 2 years of suffering a major disaster. 4 Thus, it seems that a crisis plan is indeed an invaluable precaution that any company must take. Summer 2000 155 Public Relations Review THE ROLE OF PERCEPTION The perception of crises may ultimately affect crisis outcomes. Furthermore, the perception of a crisis as an opportunity or a threat may also have signi? cant implications. Crises are not inherently good or bad; they are merely perceived by most as bad. Many examples reveal the severe penalties attached to the unpreparedness of an organization, such as the Union Carbide disaster or the Exxon Valdez oil spill. 5 Crises can destroy a company’s reputation in a concentrated time frame. When reviewing the results of the Union Carbide disaster or the Exxon Valdez oil spill, one may view crises exclusively as threats. But would the perceptions of the organizations have been different if senior management had perceived these threats differently, prepared accordingly, and executed differently? Opportunities exist within any crisis situation. New leaders may emerge from a crisis, and in most cases, a crisis leads to accelerated change in business processes that may prove advantageous in the long run. 6 Often companies that do survive disasters are more prepared for the next one. This thought does depend, however, on the extent of learning that the company in question absorbs from the event. Finally, companies that do handle a crisis effectively are generally perceived in a more positive way. 7 Many companies simply fail to identify these potential positive outcomes. The perception of a crisis as an opportunity should lead to an increased ability to consider various alternatives and thus a greater extent of proactive planning. Managers generally view opportunistic situations to be more controllable, thus including more members into the resolution process and thereby increasing the ? w of alternatives. 8 On the other hand, the perceiving of a crisis as a threat will cause managers to limit the amount of information they consider. Thus, perception has the potential to in? uence the extent to which an organization is willing to engage in crisis management activities. NEED FOR STUDY Much of the crisis management research today focuses on the technical aspects of dealing with crises. The majority of this literature explains the importance of implementing a crisis plan and the strategies involved in that planning. 9 Other research deals with the formation of crisis management teams and their relevance. 0 Finally, many case studies detail preventive measures taken and lessons learned. 11 Such valuable case studies are too few to provide researchers with an all-encompassing model of crisis management. The purpose of this article is to insert a new perspective into the crisis management literature. Rather than focusing on how perceptions affect the outcome of a crisis situation, what is needed is a measure of whether the perception of a crisis as an opportunity or as a threat affects an organization’s willingn ess to engage in crisis management activities that then affect the outcome of a crisis. 56 Vol. 26, No. 2 The Role of Perception in Crisis Planning AN OVERVIEW OF THE CRISIS COMPONENTS A crisis occurs when an event increases in intensity, falls under close scrutiny of the news media or government, interferes with normal business operations, devalues a positive public image, and has an adverse effect on a business’s bottom line. 12 According to Shrivastava et al. , crises are caused by an interacting set of human, organizational, and technological failures that combine with regulatory, infrastructure, and preparedness shortcomings in the organizations’ environments. 3 Pearson and Clair build on the crisis de? nition by noting that organizational crises are highly ambiguous events that necessitate a decision or judgment that will result in change for better or for worse. 14 This implies that crises have dual meanings as well as dual outcomes. Reviews of crises and crisis plans typically include four common elements: the plan, the management team, communication, and post-crisis evaluation. These four components together form the basis of crisis managemen t activities and should ? gure into any comprehensive crisis plan. Therefore, it is imperative to discuss each of these basic elements before introducing the possible effects of perception on crisis management. The Crisis Management Plan The ambiguous nature of crises makes planning for a crisis dif? cult. Further, the in? nite number of possible crisis scenarios has prevented the adoption or implementation of a universally accepted planning strategy. 15 Indeed, there are times when a plan may not be as relevant to a crisis as planners might have envisioned. The penalties, however, for complete unpreparedness can be catastrophic to any company, regardless of size or prestige. A certain amount of proactive planning is necessary to counter a potentially disastrous crisis situation. Proactive planning may include mechanisms for determining possible crises, identi? cation of affected audiences, procedures to follow during a crisis, appointment and training of a crisis management team, development of a communication plan, and policies for evaluating and revising the plan. 16 Such a comprehensive plan should include input from all levels and all functional areas of the organization. The Crisis Management Team Pearson and Clair argued that there are key aspects of planned responses that will in? ence the degree of crisis management success. Most important of these planned responses is a team response, as opposed to an individual response. 17 Researchers agree that organizations with a team-oriented approach to crisis preparation will be better able to successfully manage a crisis than will those organizations that entrust a single individual such as a chief exec utive of? cer (CEO). Mitroff concluded that most crisis management teams are composed of six to 10 senior executives that may include the CEO, chief ? nancial Summer 2000 157 Public Relations Review of? cer, top public relations or communications executive, legal counsel, and health/safety advisor. 18 All members should be empowered and respected by peers so that the recognition and preassignment of responsibilities at policy, strategy, and execution levels will not be constrained by political or hierarchical relationships within the company. Finally, the team must be trained by way of drills and simulations to teach the team how to identify potential crises and brainstorm possible solutions. Crisis Communication Alliance and coordination with stakeholders as well as the dissemination of information are two more aspects of Pearson and Clair’s planned crisis responses. 19 Effective communication during a crisis should be a company’s top priority. Thus, a communication strategy should strive to achieve the fastest delivery of the most accurate information available. This can be achieved by establishing a communication protocol, selecting and training a company spokesperson, identifying key audiences and key messages, and eciding on the most appropriate method of communication before a crisis occurs. 20 Crisis preparations should also include identifying speci? c information that must be kept con? dential, as well as the speci? cation of media access to management, employees, facilities, and the actual crisis site. 21 Evaluation and Revision of Management Plans The end of every crisis is the beginning of the preparation step for the next one. Debrie? ng the cri sis team and evaluating the crisis plan immediately after a crisis can be the most important part of crisis management. When evaluating the handling of a crisis, a company should accomplish three goals. First, the organization should evaluate team performance to recognize and correct any errors. Second, the crisis team and other related personnel should be given the opportunity to express feelings to be able deal with the stress brought on by the crisis situation. Finally, the plan itself should be evaluated and revised, if necessary. 22 Throughout this process, suf? cient resources should be made available to keep a history of the crisis along with any revisions made. THE VOID IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AND MODELS In the last 15 years or so, crisis management has emerged as a substantive focus area and a number of strategic approaches and models have appeared. By looking at the major ones, we’ll see a void in the research and thus the need for the present study. These strategies and models are summarized below starting with the oldest. 158 Vol. 26, No. 2 The Role of Perception in Crisis Planning Littlejohn’s Six-Step Crisis Model Models can help simplify complex processes and thereby provide a better understanding of the problem domain. Littlejohn’s six-step crisis model is a framework that provides a guideline of basic crisis management development. According to Littlejohn, the ? rst step for any organization is to design the crisis management organizational structure. 23 This process would then be followed by the selection of a crisis team. Once the team has been chosen, team development should occur by means of training and simulations. The next step is to design and conduct a crisis situation audit. After conducting a thorough review of potential scenarios, a contingency plan should then be drafted. The ? al step of Littlejohn’s model is to actually manage the crisis. 24 Fink’s Comprehensive Audit Fink suggested a comprehensive situation audit. Such a preparedness audit would propel an organization to determine what events could cause a crisis in each functional area. 25 Once scenarios are developed, action plans should be prepared. The plan should include the crisis situation description an d a statement of desired outcomes or a range of acceptable outcomes. Consequently, crisis team members should ask â€Å"what if† or â€Å"if then† questions to develop strategic or tactical options. Mitroff’s Portfolio Planning Approach Although no company can prepare for every fathomable crisis scenario, a company may be able to group crises according to their underlying structural similarities. Once clusters of crises are recognized, the organization should then prepare for the worst scenario in each cluster by considering the best preventive actions. Thus, preparation for one crisis scenario, in turn, provides exposure to several other similar or related scenarios. 26 Crisis/Strategic Management Integration Crisis management is just now being recognized as strategically signi? cant to organizations. Mitroff et al. rgued that crisis management perspectives should, therefore, be integrated into the strategic management process. 27 Whereas strategic management focuses on the offensive aspects of competing in the marketplace, crisis management deals more with the defensive capabilities of the company. Whereas strategic management promotes the welfare of an organization, crisis management works to protect it. Thus, according to Preble and Mitroff et al. , both perspectives require the attention and involvement of top management and should, therefore, be integrated into the strategic management perspective. Burnett’s Crisis Classi? ation Matrix Crisis situations can be classi? ed into a 16-cell matrix based on threat-level, response-options, time pressure, and degree of control. 29 The Summer 2000 159 Public Relations Review matrix can be viewed as a sort of crisis continuum. Thus, for example, a major crisis would be a situation where the time pressure is intense, the degree of control is low, the threat-level is high, and response-options are limited in number. Such a crisis would be classi? ed as a Level 4 situation, whereas a Level 3 crisis would exhibit three of the characteristics inhibiting strategic management, and so on. There are several bene? ts of the classi? cation matrix. For one, the preparation and analysis of the matrix by the crisis management team is an invaluable exercise in problem awareness. The matrix also improves decision making by revealing and prioritizing a list of all potential crisis situations that a company may need to confront at one time or another, allowing for the proper allocation of resources for each potential crisis. 30 INTANGIBLE FACTORS OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT Recent literature shows a trend from technical details of crisis management to the more intangible aspects. The current research consistently includes communication/corporate culture, public relations autonomy, and top management attitudes as signi? cant factors in predicting the outcome of a crisis situation. This article will later extend these intangibles to include the perception of crises as opportunities/threats and their impact on crisis planning. As can be seen by the previously summarized strategies and models, such an examination has been absent from the literature. Crisis researchers have changed their perspective because of the analysis of several historical case studies. It was once believed that having a solid crisis plan in place was the single, most important variable as to whether the organization would be successful in dealing with a crisis situation. A simple example will bring to light researchers’ reasoning behind devaluing this once-accepted theory. Before the onset of the now infamous disasters, Union Carbide and NASA had extensive crisis management plans in place. In hindsight, however, the organizations’ mishandling of Bhopal and the Challenger situations have been primary examples of crisis management failure. Conversely, some companies that lacked a plan during a crisis are now deemed crisis management success stories (e. g. , McDonald’s and Johnson Johnson). 31 These inconsistencies have led researchers to believe that there must be other factors to consider in determining the successful outcome of a crisis situation. In addition to the creation of crisis plans, crisis teams, and communication guidelines, other factors substantially affect the outcome of a crisis. Throughout the prevailing contemporary literature, attitudes place corporate culture as the main factor in affecting crisis outcomes. In the case of the Challenger explosion, NASA’s closed communication culture contributed to the failure of properly executing its comprehensive crisis plan. 32 A crisis management plan is, therefore, of limited use if it does not coincide with an organization’s philosophies, values, attitudes, assumptions, and norms. Thus, a policy of open communication within 160 Vol. 26, No. 2 The Role of Perception in Crisis Planning a company may be a more reliable predictor of crisis management success than the mere formulation of a crisis plan. 3 A high degree of autonomy is another important factor in predicting crisis outcomes. Corporate culture usually dictates the amount of autonomy given to crisis team members. A greater amount of autonomy allows teams to act quickly once a crisis occurs because messages are ? ltered through fewer levels of the organizational hierarchy. The quicker an organization can initiate with the media, the more likely a successful outcome will occur be cause the team has more of a chance to control the message, thereby lessening the chance of misinformation. Thus, a major communication strategy is to limit the number of ? lters a message must pass through in the organizational hierarchy. Including more employees in the decision activities during a crisis also enables the organization to draw from more available responses from varying points of view. 35 During a crisis, a company tends to use fewer sources of information and thus limits its management abilities. 36 A conscious effort must be made to include more autonomous sources in the crisis action plan. The base of the crisis management pyramid is senior management’s willingness to initiate proactive planning. 7 Senior executives’ attitudes and beliefs impress greatly on the corporate culture. 38 The corporate culture in turn affects autonomy, which then affects crisis management activities. If top management ignores or denies its vulnerability, it will naturally allocate fewer resources to crisis management. Finally, Pearson and Clair asserted that executive perceptions are the fundamental and initiating variable in determining potential outcomes from a crisis. 39 Having discovered the key role that senior executives’ perceptions play, our research takes these heories a step further. As asked earlier, does perception of a crisis as an opportunity or a threat affect an organization’s willingness to engage in crisis management activities? THE STUDY This section details the study’s design, the demographics of the respondents, and the results. Research Design Primary research was conducted to discover the opinions of respondents concerning crises as threats or opportunities. An analysis of crisis management literature as well as a series of personal interviews with crisis management practitioners resulted in an initial questionnaire. Two pilot tests of the questionnaire led to 34 randomly ordered statements in the agree-disagree rating system (Likert scale). Appendix A lists the 34 statements. The statements covered ? ve stages of crisis management constructs and activities: mitigation, planning, response, recovery, and renewal. Mitigation contained all internal and external activities that had preplanning implications. PlanSummer 2000 161 Public Relations Review ning encompassed internal procedures dealing with contingency planning, communication guidelines, and crisis plan content and scope. Response included activities that deal with timely assessment of a crisis as it occurs. Recovery was composed of post-crisis activities dealing with evaluation and documentation. Renewal was the post-crisis period when an organization experiences a change of perspective about crises and crisis management. Distribution and Demographic Results Because a mail questionnaire is able to reach a wider geographical base than would be possible with personal interviews, mail was chosen as the research medium. The surveys were sent to Fortune 500 industrial companies because these companies are large enough to support comprehensive crisis management plans and have common functional areas. Of the 500 questionnaires mailed, 115 completed questionnaires were returned (23%). Included in the survey were demographic questions related to the existence of a crisis plan (see Appendix A). Seventy-eight percent of the respondents reported having a crisis management plan in place, and of these respondents, 63% had crisis plans in place for 5 years or less. These ? ndings suggest that crisis management planning has only recently become an organizational concern. Comparing this data to that of similar surveys conducted in the mid-1980s, it is worth noting that the number of companies with a crisis plan is increasing. For example, a Fortune 500 survey by Fink in 1986 showed that only 50% of the companies that responded had a crisis plan in place. 40 Measures Three statistical procedures were applied to 34 Likert-style statements: factor analysis, factor scores, and correlations. The factor analysis procedure reduces the data and provides the basis for generating factor scores for each respondent. The factor scores are used to transform each factor into a factor variable that is then correlated with three criterion variables: the existence of a crisis plan, top management typically perceiving a crisis as a threat to the organization, and a crisis perceived as an opportunity for an organization to assess itself. A factor analysis was applied to the data to determine underlying relationships among 34 survey responses. A varimax rotation scheme was used to maximally differentiate among the factors. An examination of the rotated factor matrix shows more clearly which variables go together and thus facilitates interpretation and labeling of factors. From this analysis, ? ve factors account for 56% of the cumulated variance and include 26 of the 34 variables. The next step was to label each of the factors by using my judgment and interpretation to identify underlying constructs. The ? ve factors, labeled subjectively, appear in Table 1. To draw relationships between each respondent and a criterion variable, 162 Vol. 6, No. 2 The Role of Perception in Crisis Planning TABLE 1 Five Interpreted Factors Factor Variables Planning Number of statements 11 Description Determines the extent of agreement with statements about planning activities and the existence of a crisis management plan. Measures the extent of agreement regarding being proactive and assessing vulnerability to a crisis as well as evaluating t he effectiveness of the crisis plan. Measures the extent of agreement with statements about the willingness to integrate crisis management activities into the organization. Evaluates a respondent’s opinion regarding the involvement of crisis management in strategic planning. Measures the extent of agreement with statements regarding the importance of communicating with the media and external publics. Pre/Post crisis 6 Commitment 5 Strategic orientation 2 External communication 2 factor scores or variables were then determined. Each respondent was evaluated to high or low scores for each factor. Thus, a respondent with a high Factor 1 score (Planning), had a high propensity to engage in crisis planning activities. A respondent with a low Factor 2 score (Pre-/Post-Crisis activities), however, exhibited a low inclination toward engaging in pre- and post-crisis actions. The correlation procedure reveals the existence of a relationship between variables by indicating that two or more variables vary together either positively or negatively. To provide the best measure of the effects of perception of a crisis on an organization’s willingness to engage in crisis management activities, three relative criterion variables were established to correlate with each factor variable mentioned above. The three criterion variables included the existence of a crisis management plan, top management typically perceiving a crisis as a threat to the organization, and a crisis being an opportunity for an organization to assess itself (see Table 2). The resulting correlation coef? cients measure the degree to which the factor variables and criterion variables vary together and the direction of this relationship, either positive or negative. ANALYSIS After intercorrelating the factor variables with the criterion variables, insightful conclusions regarding the link between perceptions and crisis Summer 2000 163 Public Relations Review TABLE 2 Criterion Variables Variable 1 Variable 2 Variable 3 The existence of a crisis management plan Top management perceives a crisis as a threat Top management perceives a crisis as an opportunity management activities can be drawn (see Table 3). Indeed, there are obvious links that this study veri? es. For example, the fact that the planning factor correlates positively with a company possessing a crisis plan is not surprising. However, there were some unexpected results that show perceptions to be a signi? ant factor to consider when implementing crisis management activities. Planning Factor Variable 1 dealt with the planning aspects of crisis management, including the formation of a comprehensive crisis plan. Not surprisingly, a high degree of correlation (r 0. 4369) existed between planning and the existence of a crisis management plan (Criterion Variable 1). This makes sense because respondents with a high propensity for planning are more likely to have a crisis management plan in place. There was also a sizable correlation (r 0. 438) between planning and the perception of a crisis as a threat to the organization. Because respondents perceived crises as threats to the organization, they engaged in crisis planning activities in an attempt to lessen the damage caused by a crisis. Consequently, the perception of a crisis as a threat increased an organization’s planning activities. Finally, there was a low correlation (r 0. 0241) between the planning factor variable and the perception of a crisis as an opportunity to the organization. No worthwhile conclusions were drawn from this last correlation. Both sets of actions have serious implications for a business’s ability to manage a crisis, as well as to effectively recover from such an event. A high variable score in this category was translated into a high intention to engage in pre- and post-crisis activities. The ? ndings reveal no signi? cant relationship between these activities and the existence of a crisis plan. However, both the opportunity and threat variables achieved signi? cant correlation with this factor. A correlation of r 0. 2974 existed between pre- and post-crisis activities and the perception of a crisis as a threat. An even stronger relationship (r 0. 3622) existed between respondents with high Factor Variable 2 scores and the likelihood of perceiving a crisis as an opportunity. Thus, the ? ndings here support the perception of a crisis as both a threat and an opportunity. Commitment Commitment items gauge a respondent’s degree of agreement with statements that assess management issues, such as training and responsibility for crisis management, and whether crisis management requires a long-term commitment. Those who strongly agree that crisis management requires a longterm commitment were more likely to have a crisis plan in place. The correlation between commitment and the existence of a plan (r 0. 2013) is not surprising. Clearly, an organization dedicated to crisis management would implement a crisis plan. Perception does not appear to affect an organization’s commitment to crisis management, as revealed by low correlation scores (Threat: r 0. 0683, Opportunity: r 0. 0161). This may be attributed to a perception becoming a central issue as a crisis develops, and the decision to make an organization-wide commitment to crisis management typically precedes a period of a crisis or occurs after an organization experiences a crisis. Strategic Orientation Two of the statements in the survey loaded on Factor 4. These statements concerned respondents’ degree of agreement with the necessity to include crisis reserve funds in the budget and the importance of incorporating crisis planning into overall strategic planning. An organization’s strategic orientation, or the degree to which it is willing to incorporate crisis management into long-range planning, may have implications for that company’s ultimate success or failure in managing a crisis. With that said, however, no signi? ant correlations between strategic orientation and the three criterion variables (Plan: r 0. 0409, Threat: r 0. 0278, Opportunity: r 0. 0278) were found. Thus, no conclusions can be drawn about respondents with a high strategic orientation. It may be assumed by the lack of relationships that an organization’s willingness to engage in strategic planning and crisis budgeting is not affected by perception. External Communication Respondents with a high factor score on the external communication factor variable strongly agreed that developing a solid working relaSummer 2000 165 Public Relations Review ionship with the media before a crisis and sharing information with external publics are critical crisis management activities. There was no signi? cant correlation between external communication and the existence of a plan; however, the correlations between external communication and the other two variables (Threat: r 0. 3274, Opportunity: r 0. 3230) suggest the importance of incorporating both opinions in creating a complex communication strategy. Moreover, the perception of a crisis as both a threat and an opportunity will increase a business’s propensity to communicate with external audiences. CONCLUSIONS A company’s perception of a crisis as a threat or an opportunity does appear to in? uence a company’s willingness to engage in primary crisis management activities. Results of this study reveal that organizations are especially affected by perception in the areas of planning, pre- and post-crisis activities, and external communication. Perceptions, however, did not seem to in? uence a company’s level of commitment and strategic orientation. One of the primary inputs of comprehensive crisis management is the planning factor. Planning is at the root of all crisis management activities. Some logical deductions can be made concerning the correlation results of the planning factor. The results showed a high correlation between the existence of a crisis plan and planning. Furthermore, the perception of a crisis as a threat increased an organization’s willingness to engage in planning activities. An organization that is able to identify a set of possible crises is more likely to initiate planning activities in preparation for the worst. The magnitude of such preparations seems to be a direct link between an organization’s vulnerability to certain crisis situations and its level of perception toward each potential contingency. The more threatening a potential crisis is to a company’s core competencies, the more it should partake in primary crisis planning activities. Thus, when evaluating, in early planning stages, the multiple components of a crisis, a company should assess the threatening aspects of a situation before considering crisis opportunity components. It is important to recognize and plan for contingencies that may directly threaten the company as a whole before anything else. Nevertheless, such a perspective should not be without the acknowledgment of possible opportunity outcomes. Such a dual perspective will diminish the inclination to panic, while focusing on threats that are most menacing to the company. In the past, pre- and post-crisis actions have not been consolidated as one, integrated unit. However, the results of this study suggest that these activities do cluster together and should be considered in aggregate rather than as separate sets of activities. Proactive crisis management naturally affects the recovery measures a company must use and is a vital strategy in mitigating the negative effects of crises. Proactive planning is also critical in capitalizing on opportunities provided by a crisis before one occurs. However, the relationship between pre- and post-crisis activities places equal importance on recovery as on proactive action. An organi166 Vol. 26, No. 2 The Role of Perception in Crisis Planning zation that does not evaluate its crisis management strategy after a crisis will be little better prepared to manage the next crisis. Thus, it is not surprising that preand post-crisis activities correlate signi? cantly with both perception criteria. Again, the company that recognizes the dual nature of a crisis will have a greater propensity for proactive planning and recovery, which leads to more effective crisis management. The results of this study reveal that there is a link between external communication and the perception of a crisis as a threat and an opportunity. Although realizing the threat of a crisis, an organization will carefully select the message content and address each speci? c public affected. An organization will also bene? t if it perceives the positive outcomes of a crisis, which stem from effective crisis communication. Good external communication in a crisis can result in favorable public perception, leading to an improved corporate image. But this, of course, depends on the nature of the crisis. In some cases, effective external communication will merely maintain a company’s image. In any case, a company will not bene? t by perceiving a crisis entirely as a threat to the exclusion of even considering potential opportunities. Organizations that feel threatened tend to limit the amount of information they process and communicate. 41 This typically leads to negative public perception and the belief that the company is untrustworthy. Recognizing that crises can provide opportunities is crucial to balancing an organization’s external communication practices. Furthermore, by communicating a balanced perception of a crisis, the organization is more likely to sway public opinion and dispel false rumors about the severity and ultimate consequences of the crisis. RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICATIONS This study reveals the key role that perceptions play in determining the magnitude of primary crisis management activities. First, an organization must perceive contingencies that threaten the company most. Once those threats have been identi? d, the organization should take steps to de? ne these situations according to possible positive and negative outcomes. Managers must realize the profound effect that framed perceptions have on a crisis situation. As a situation is viewed in more negative terms, a natural tendency is to panic and reduce the number of information channels the company will consider. Perception can be used to rede? ne the crisis in more positive terms. Communicating the effects of a crisis in a more positive manner works to align internal thinking about the event and encourage employees to support the company’s evaluation of the situation. As noted by Ashmos’ research, company-wide participation is deterred when issues are labeled negatively as a crisis situation. 42 On the contrary, a situation framed as opportunistic will enhance internal participation, thus increasing the number of options the company is able to consider. Additionally, maintaining a balanced perspective will suggest that the crisis is more controllable than was ? rst thought. When only considering threat compoSummer 2000 167 Public Relations Review nents, the crisis manager may perceive a distorted view of the situation as the level of stress restricts the amount of information he or she processes. By considering opportunity components as well as threat components, stress is effectively reduced, thus increasing the crisis manager’s likelihood of considering and evaluating more information. This will allow the crisis manager to achieve a more accurate view of the situation. Managing crises is an exercise in managing meaning. The crisis practitioner must realize the importance of a balanced perception throughout the crisis lifecycle. Such a balanced perception, if communicated effectively to employees, will lessen fear and lead to a quicker and more effective response. The balancing of perception, however, requires a strong, conscious effort on the part of the organization. It is more natural for a company to recognize and emphasize a threat as opposed to an opportunity during a crisis. Perceiving the crisis in only a negative way, however, may serve to exacerbate a situation that was not disastrous to begin with. Conversely, an organization that communicates only the opportunities gained from the crisis may be perceived as side stepping the consequences of the event. Thus, striking that delicate balance is crucial in dealing effectively with a crisis. Both the threat and opportunity components of a crisis are major, highpriority issues that are dif? cult to resolve and involve the integration of many areas and individuals with diverse skills and knowledge. In this way, the multiple dimensions of a crisis are treated from multiple disciplinary and functional perspectives. However, to optimize crisis management effectiveness, a cross-functional approach must be combined with a multiple perception of the crisis itself. Such a dual perception seems equally as important as the implementation of a crisis plan or the development of a crisis management team. Corporate crisis plan Divisional crisis plan Crisis response training Top management commitment to crisis management Funds budgeted for a crisis Existence of crisis control center Formation of crisis portfolio Mechanisms in place to detect early warning signals Crisis management included in corporate strategic planning Annual disaster drills Continuous monitoring and revision of crisis plan Long-term commitment to crisis management Build relationship with media prior to crisis Evaluate organization’s vulnerability to crisis Internal/external situation audit Identify external resources in event of a crisis Proactive approach to crisis management Document organization’s response to crisis Contingency plans in place to ensure daily operations Evaluate effectiveness of crisis plan Debrief crisis team after crisis Document crisis as initially reported.

Human Resource Management Issues

Questions: The purpose of this assignment is for you to develop and demonstrate an understanding of relevant theory and best practice related to HRM and workplace relations practices, and to critically review a fundamental HRM practice in light of such theory and practice. Accordingly, the assignment draws on your understanding of relevant HRM practices covered in Section Two of the course, as well as your understanding of HRM, workplace relations and organisational behaviour theories and concepts. Task 1. Conduct an evaluation of a fundamental human resource management (HRM) or workplace relations practice (or set of practices) in an organisation that you are familiar with or have access to. 2. Identify the key aspects of the organisations environment relevant to the practice(s). Drawing on relevant theory, scholarly literature, and professional literature, critically discuss the key issues facing the organisation and why these are important, and make recommendations for the organisation. 3. In your evaluation you should discuss effectiveness and efficiency of the practice(s) and the implications of this practice on other aspects of HRM and workplace relations as applicable. 4. Depending on the organisations strategic goals and/or current challenges, you may choose to focus on a specific practice (e.g. recruitment), or it may be more appropriate to review a set of interrelated practices. You may wish to use a pseudonym to protect the anonymity of the organisation. Answers: Introduction Context, strategy and challenges One of the major objectives of this research paper is to examine the human resource management issues in Wal-Mart, one of the leading retailers in the world. It has been observed that the company faces some issues in employee selection, training and the overall development of the corporation and thus this part is required to look at carefully. It can be seen that employee selection is a significant factor in Wal-Mart at the time they hire their staffs and diversity in this case plays a significant role. This multi-million dollar company has always been committed to maintain strong diversity as a part of their continuing efforts to become the pioneer in the existing industry (Alfes et al., 2013). However, it can be stated that the most recent complaints in this regards can be seen that Wal-Mart has mistreated and underpaid their staffs for quite a long time. Besides this issue, it can be seen that Wal-Mart has been accused for not treating the rights of the employees as well as not be ing as much up to date with technology as they must be. Therefore, it has been seen that training and hiring has become one of the major faults of this leading retail company and the human resource management activities have been accused for this (Bratton Gold, 2012). Practice to be examined In spite of being generally applauded for the organizational culture, Wal-Mart has been severely criticized for some certain aspects of the culture. In spite of a strict policy on the overtime, it is observed that the employees of this organization worked between 5 to 15 hours overtime each week, whether the company had a 40 hours work week. It has been observed in this regards that since overtime in the organization is prohibited, the store managers of many stores often ask the employees to clock out after their shift was over and after that continue working. It has been noticed that many workers had worked for more than 3 hours in a store before clocking in officially in the organization. Another major human resource fault noticed that the store management used to lock the doors of the store at the end of a shift to prevent employees from leaving at the scheduled time. Therefore, it can be stated that this incident often enraged the employees as well as their relatives and the fami lies and at the same time created a poor image of Wal-Mart (Buller McEvoy, 2012). Aims of the report The primary objectives of this report have been mentioned here. Focusing on the working practices, recruitment and selection in Wal-Mart Discussing associated barriers and challenges related to the present working situation Provide analytical research work to design the transformative strategies and solutions to deal with the present working issues in Wal-Mart Approach to be taken in the analysis In order to gain in-depth knowledge of recruitment, selection and healthy working conditions, a literature review has been conducted. Relevant limitations and assumptions During conduction of the research work, time constraints are one of the strong barriers for making a detailed and critical analysis. Moreover, it can be stated that being an outsider, getting access of all data and real incidents in the organization are another obstacles at the time of preparing the research work (Hendry, 2012). Discussion Concise review of the current practices It can be stated that the human resource team of any of the organizations are responsible to look after maintaining the rights of the employees, creating a positive workplace where the employees would enjoy working and look at the point where the employees would not be exploited. It can be stated that the HR departments of the company generally do not talk with the managers and the employees on a regular basis. But, when the emergency situation arises, the need to communicate with both of them for analyzing the actual situation and incorporate some effective policies to deal with the situation carefully. Moreover, it can be stated that many incidents regarding the improper working culture were not entertained by the HR of the company and thus, based on the situation; no such policies were taken into account (Jiang et al., 2012). Apart from that, Jiang et al. (2012) have stated in his research work that the HR managers of the company do not like to confront the employees when they do something wrong and this has been largely noticed in Wal-Mart. Besides, creating proper workplace for the employees and maintaining the rules and the regulations of the workplace falls in the main to-do list of the employees. Therefore, it can be stated that creating such an environment free from the unnecessary hazards is one of the strategic roles of all the human resource managers of the organization. Kehoe and Wright (2013) have stated that the strategic roles of the human resource managers with respect to the employee training and overall development procedure makes the workplace for the future positions within the existing organization. Klassen and Vereecke (2012) have stated that the workers spend a major part of their life, almost eight to ten years at their workplace and thus it is essential for them to get a positive workplace where they would enjoy their work. If the employees do not get a safe and friendly working environment, they might not become committed to their job and thus their contribution to the society would be little. In Wal-Mart, it has been seen that the employees are exploited with overtime, gender discrimination, poor quality of health care services, low wages and unavailability of maternity leaves. These all have affected the entire reputation of the company in the existing retail market and the human resource managers have been accused for these nuisances (Purce, 2014). Relevant organization environment characteristics The human resource management team of the company must focus on maintaining favorable workplace culture that would enable the employees to work properly and provide significant contribution to the overall growth of the company. Renwick, Redman and Maguire (2013) have stated while the employees require belonging, be liked as well as be respected, at the same time they are required to be creatively and efficiently contribute to the overall organizational goals. Moreover, it can be stated that management must tap into worker potentialities and avoiding wasting untapped resources. The employees are required to be allocated based on their area of specification and this would help the company to gain maximum business growth (Scherer, Palazzo, Seidl, 2013). Apart from that, it can be stated that human resource managers must help in discovering the hidden talents of the employees and make sure that all the workers are able to entirely use their range of talents to assist accomplishment the organizational goal. However, it can be stated that the management must encourage teamwork and continually look for the greater areas where the teams can easily exercise more control. The working environment must not be such, where the rights of the employees would be hampered (Storey, 2014). Relevant literature and theory Resource based theory has been one of the leading steps in the human resource management procedure, as this explains a new point of view of the success of the organization. All the organizations are heterogeneous and based on the nature of the work, the resources are required to allocate. Therefore, resource based theory is one of the most discussed theories in this regards and the human resource management ream is required to look at this part to maintain proper sustainability in the workplace (Storey, 2014). Besides this resource based theory, it can be stated that Theory X and Theory Y is another major theory in the human resource management. Employees in this sector dislike working and tend to avoid responsibility and need to be directed. However, it can be stated that X-Type organizations tend to be top heavy, with the managers and the supervisors required at each step to control them. On the other hand, Theory Y states that employees like to take responsibilities and are motivated automatically to fulfill the objectives. Apart from that, they seek and accept responsibilities and thus need not much direction. Therefore, it can be stated that the human resource management team of every organization need to motivate the employees to reach the Theory Y point (Scherer, Palazzo, Seidl, 2013). Conclusions After focusing on the human resource management issues, it has been seen that the employees of Wal-Mart are not satisfied with the working atmosphere of the organization. Therefore, based on the identified human resource issues, some effective recommendations are required to provide in this part, so that management incorporate these policies into practice to enhance the present market situation. Recommendations (SMART) It can be recommended that the human resource functions of Wal-Mart demand improvements in the following areas and they are recruiting and selection, training and development, performance management, focusing on employees rights, compensation and benefits as well as the labor relations. Considering the procedure of recruitment and selection, it can be state that this is highly critical and thus the process needs to revise. A conventional human resource management procedure is required to adopt keeping balance with the increasing competition. The employees are required to recruit based on the human resource requirement in the organization. Moreover, the company is advised to focus on incorporating flexible training programs in order to motivate the employees. Apart from that, the load of overtime is required to revise immediately to maintain fair workplace in the company. The human resource management policies of the company are required to revise immediately, as the policies are not favorable for the employees. The maternity leaves policies and overtime compensation policy are two major parts that are required to revise. Specific Revising the existing human resource policies is specific enough, as this would help the company to revise the existing company situation. Measurable After revising the human resource management policies, the result can be seen through employee feedback. Therefore, this is measurable enough and can be relied on this. Attainable The measurement is attainable enough, because the human resource managers can revise the policies and look at maintaining the interest of the employees. Realistic Wal-Mart is one of the leading international companies that have branches in different parts of the world. Therefore, to hold on the market position, the human resource policies are required to revise immediately. Time Specific After incorporating necessary changes in the existing human resource policy, the result must be assessed within the time period of 2 months. The obtained result would be assessed and thus it can be started that this is enough time-specific. References Alfes, K., Shantz, A. D., Truss, C., Soane, E. C. (2013). The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model.The international journal of human resource management,24(2), 330-351. Bratton, J., Gold, J. (2012).Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan. Buller, P. F., McEvoy, G. M. (2012). Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight.Human resource management review,22(1), 43-56. Ceniceros, R. (2014). Bias suit against Wal-Mart gets class action status. Business Insurance, Vol. 38, Issue 26. Featherstone, L. (2005). Is Wal-Mart Really Going Green? The Website of AlterNet. Hendry, C. (2012).Human resource management. Routledge. Jiang, K., Lepak, D. P., Han, K., Hong, Y., Kim, A., Winkler, A. L. (2012). Clarifying the construct of human resource systems: Relating human resource management to employee performance.Human Resource Management Review,22(2), 73-85. Jiang, K., Lepak, D. P., Hu, J., Baer, J. C. (2012). How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms.Academy of management Journal,55(6), 1264-1294. Kehoe, R. R., Wright, P. M. (2013). The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees attitudes and behaviors.Journal of Management,39(2), 366-391. Klassen, R. D., Vereecke, A. (2012). Social issues in supply chains: Capabilities link responsibility, risk (opportunity), and performance.International Journal of Production Economics,140(1), 103-115. Purce, J. (2014). The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management.New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals),67. Renwick, D. W., Redman, T., Maguire, S. (2013). Green human resource management: a review and research agenda*.International Journal of Management Reviews,15(1), 1-14. Scherer, A. G., Palazzo, G., Seidl, D. (2013). Managing legitimacy in complex and heterogeneous environments: Sustainable development in a globalized world.Journal of Management Studies,50(2), 259-284. Storey, J. (2014).New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Stereotypes Essays (1501 words) - Sports, Individual Sports

Stereotypes In Sports People today stereotype skaters and surfers as lazy, no good potheads. I would have to dissagree with that statement. Police harrass skaters for skating in parking lots and on the streets of their towns. It is like the police think that they are going to do more than skate. It is the same with surfers, people think they do not hold jobs, their lazy, and all that they do is smoke pot. Those things are (for the most part) not true. In my paper I will give three examples of people that do not live this stereotype; however, they have actually become pillars of the community. In addition to their community stature they also have become idols to thousands of children across the world. Surfing is an ancient sport first practiced by Hawaiian kings. Early surfers rode 14 to 18 foot wooden boards that weighed over 150 pounds (Tomalin1). Duke Kahanamoka introduced surfing to the United States in 1912 (Weir3). If you asked someone who is the father of surfing, they would probably say, "Duke who?" But mention Kelly Slater and they will not stop talking. Robert Kelly Slater was born February 11, 1912 in Cocoa Beach Florida (Tomlin1). He went to high school and actually graduated. The reason I say this is because most people like Kelly (surfers knowing they are going to go professional) never graduate high school. Kelly grew up in Florida all his life. He was a local hero in central Florida, because everyone knew he was destined to make it as a professional surfer (Tee Interview). From 1992 thru 1994 Kelly placed first in the Maui Pro, second in the Maui Masters, and third place in the Rip Curl Pro, the Chiemesee Pipe Masters, and the Gotcha Lacanau Pro (Solano1). In 1995 he, from surfing alone, made 57,750 dollars (Solano1). Kelly won four world titles by 1996, one in 1992, 1994, 1995, and again in 1996 (Solano1). In 1996 Kelly was a busy boy, he won his fourth world title as well as 50% of his WCT Tournaments; moreover Kelly collected over 300, 895 dollars in prize money alone. In 1997 he won 446,295 dollars in eleven events(Solano2). Kelly has brought so much popularity to the sport that it may even be a sport at the 2000 Olympic Summer Games. Surfing is not the only thing this master of the "green room" is involved with. He was featured on "Baywatch" from 1992-1993 as Jimmy Slade (Tomlin4). He has also been in numerous surfing videos. Kelly has been in surfer Magazine's : Island Voyage(1995), Pacific Rim (1995), Velocity (1995), Voluptous (1996), and On Edge (1996) (Salano5). Kelly also has his own band called "The Surfers". "The Surfers" consist of Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, and Peter King (Sullivan118). Kelly is also an owner of a longboard/skateboard company "Sector 9" based in Florida. At the "Longboard House" in Indialantic Beach, Florida they sell on average four "Sector 9's" daily (Tee Interview). Which comes out to over 480 dollars a day. The reason Florida has the biggest "Sector 9" sales, is because it is very flat there, and flat ground is the best surface for Longboards (Tee). They are made for crusing up and down the boardwalks and side streets on your way to the beach. Kelly also owns a surfboard shaping company. It specializes in shaping "fish". Fish are no bigger than five and a half feet. Ron Jon's (a well known surf shop) carries Kelly's boards more than any other brand, and Ron Jon's happens to be the world's largest surf shop chains. So you see how popular his boards are. Kelly has to be the most successful surfer-businessmen out there today. In-line skating is big and bigger than it has ever been. Among the 6 to 17 year old crowd, only soccer and basketball are more popular athletic activities (O'Conner 1). "In the skating world I'm extremely famous and it feels cool," says 23 year old Arlo Eisenberg (O'Conner1). Arlo has been called the Michael Jordan of agressive in-line skating. If every sport has to have it's idols, then put Arlo Eisenberg at the top of the in-line skaters list. This Dallas native has been in a countless number of in-line skating videos and featured on in-line skating magazine covers. Arlo started skating at the age of fourteen and never once looked back. Throughout the country at exhibitions, competitions, apperances - wherever he is around a skating crowd- he gets the full star treatment. Name chanting, autograph hounding, worshipful gazes, the whole bit.

buy custom Jazz Concert Report essay

buy custom Jazz Concert Report essay First Report I attended one of the most interesting concerts in my lifetime. This event was held at the Alvas Showroom on Sunday, 23rd November. This place was the most suitable location because of its ability to accommodate many people at once. I was already in the Alvas Showroom by 4:00 pm when the show began. The concert was graced by the Kevin ONeal Group featuring Michole Briana White. Kevin ONeal is my lecturer and other members of his group are Gary Matsumoto and Marvin Smitty Smith. ONeal was in charge of the contra bass, 5 string electric base, composition, vocal, and arrangements. More so, White took care of vocals while Matsumoto was in charge of the Hamburg Steinway piano. Lastly, Smith was on the drums. The order of performance in terms of songs and their composers was as follows. Piece Composer Our Man HigginsLee MorganOn a Clear Day.................................Frank SinatraDat Dere..........................Bobby TimmonsBody Soul...Johnny GreenMy Favorite Things...Richard RodgersLong As Youre Living.Tommy Turrentine/Julian PriesterGood Morning Heartache..Dan Fisher/Ervin Drake/Irene HiggenbothamBlame It On The Alcohol/You Go To My HeadFrank SinatraDayDreaming..Aretha FranklinYouve Got It Made...We Are in the CrowdLove For Sale..Cole Porter Kevin ONeal was the main performer of all these pieces. He is usually an impressive musician. The funny thing is that on that day he had lost his voice. The question that lingered on everyones mind was whether he would impress in this performance? The first piece on stage was Our Man Higgins, and I must admit that ONeal did his best to overcome the voice problem. The combination of contra bass, the 5 string electric bass, and smooth vocals from White brought about a perfect start to the concert. There was erratic shaking of bodies in the hall, as everyone has appreciated the opener. Piano by Matsumoto and drums by Smith added flavor to everything in the course of the performance. I was personally engrossed in the concert and found myself dancing. Other performances were made up of such pieces as On a Clear Day, Dat Dere, Body Soul, My Favorite Things, Long As Youre Living, Good Morning Heartache, Blame It On The Alcohol, DayDreaming, and Youve Got It Made. ONeal did his best to brin g out the best rendition. Everyone in the hall including me cheered at the performance. One unique thing that happened during the concert is that people could not stop cheering and dancing as Smiths drums combined perfectly with Matsumotos piano matched by the perfect vocal from White. The disappearance of the voice did not stop ONeal from delivering his best performance in the spare piece Love For Sale. I enjoyed my entire time at the concert and would be glad to attend more in the futurre. Second Report I had an unforgettable chance to attend a jazz concert at the Catalina Jazz Club. Specifically, I attended it at the Catalina Jazz Club located 6725, West Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, California 90028. It is situated one block to the east of Highland Avenue and the entrance of McCadden. I was there before 7:00 pm when the doors were opened for dinner. I ate Chicken Marsala sold at $26.00 as the main course. My evening before the concert started with this delicious dinner. It is worth noting that Karin Allyson, a popular American jazz vocalist, was the one going to grace this anticipated event. The club was already full by 8:30 pm when the concert officially began. The lineup of the performances was given to everyone, and it emerged that Allyson was going to perform some of her popular hit songs including I Didnt Know About You, Azure-Te, Collage, Daydream, From Paris to Rio, Wild For You, Imagina: Songs of Brasil, Round Midnight, and Yuletide Hideaway (A Christmas Album). When she stepped on the stage together with the band for her first performance, there were welcoming cheers from everyone in the audience. The welcoming note to the song I Didnt Know About You was perfect and amazing. I could not wait for any other moment to dance, so I began immediately. Allysons vocals and style of living presentation was one unique thing that I had never come across before. The band supported her in everything during this presentation, and kept everyone in the dancing mood. Immediately after the first piece, Allyson switched to the next song Azure-Te, and her voice was incredible at th is. Her vocals brought more people to the dancefloor and everyone continued cheering and shouting joyfully at the admirable vocals and the entire rendition. The performance got better every minute as she introduced other popular hits such as Daydream one by one. The song From Paris to Rio was also outstanding in its own measure because it attracted more cheers and dancing among everyone in the club. The pieces Wild For You, Imagine: Songs of Brasil, and Round Midnight brought the concert to the peak, as the most unimaginable thing happened. The audience reached for the stage with the aim of greeting Allyson and appreciating her unique performance. The show stopped for a while to bring order into the club and avoid any injuries. With the festive season upon us, Allyson would finish her nights performance with the song Its Love, Its Christmas. It gave us the feeling of celebration and enhanced the festive mood among everyone. What a show for me! 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The position of Japanese women employees from post-bubble to now Essay

The position of Japanese women employees from post-bubble to now - Essay Example Laws that are against the discrimination of women and sexual harassment at work have been enacted to protect the rights of females in the workplace. According to Broadbent (2003), the number of females who worked in well paying jobs rapidly increased in the period between 1920 and 1980. The number of women at the workplace reached sixty percent for those women in the age bracket of between 25 and 64. In Japan, according to local traditions, men are expected to work in companies while women remain in the homes taking care of the family. The Position of Japanese Women Employees in the Post-Bubble era The bubble era in Japan lasted from 1986 to the February of 1991and it came with influx of exports and availability of capital as suggested by Tsutsui (2009). The post bubble era in Japan began in the 19991 due to the crashing of stock prices. Despite the ongoing significant changes in Japan, the traditional concept of â€Å"right† position for women and men in the society is still experienced in Japan. As a result of the growing modernization in Japan and the society’s change in traditional believes in the country, the number of working women has been rapidly increasing annually. As result the ratio of men to women in the workplace in the Japanese society has also increased. Although the almost half of employed population are women, they are still treated equally with men and thus there is a sense of discrimination against women. For instance, focusing on the end of the bubble era, female graduates had difficult times in securing jobs compared to the male graduates whom they had same qualifications. On the same case, even those who were lucky to secure employment, the offer could not be compared to that of the male graduates. The main issue in women employment in the Japanese society over the last decade is based on how they deal with a system that entrenched and institutionalized in the period of high growth. However the society also has to consider t hat the system is now invalid and needs an overhaul in the post-bubble era. In the post-bubble era, the female labor force decreased to almost 50.2% that is in 1994 from 50.7% in 1991 as suggested by Gunther (2009). Feminization in the employment sector was slightly decreasing. Despite the increasing women employment the era is characterized by women self employment and family employment. Women working on temporary basis in 1995 only received about sixty percent of the salaries received by men. The amount of salary for female workers was also dictated by their age. In the same year, the average number of working years for high compared to that of women. The underlying issues in Japan in the post-bubble era included non-regular system of labor as well as the predominant part-time workers. The major challenge was how to deal with these issues which mostly affected women. In this era, Japan’s emphasis is on the use of part-time female workers as the cost-cutting measure in the c orporate. Instead the country should use women employment as a way of improving the general employment sector or in a more constructive manner. Research has established it that companies were reluctant in appointing female workers to high positions of work. There was also the controversy that female workers were not engaged in promotional training and the male employees do not value women’s labor. In the post-bubble era, legislation like the Childcare leave of 1992 and the Family care leave of 1995 were

Social Networks in Work Places Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social Networks in Work Places - Essay Example On the other hand, there are no given limitations that employees can deal with the websites that are work related without involving themselves with the recreational or personal sites that influence their level of output. The involvement of employees and employers in the online networks facilitates the publicity to malware, lack of privacy and other related factors and hence the concentration of the employees on their daily routines are affected and influenced negatively. This results to decreased production and profit levels.2 Since the discovery and introduction of technological advanced, electronics that are used to ease the communication gap between different individuals from different locations there has been complaints from many employers of the effects of these social networks on the productivity of the employees. There has been debates on the effects of these social networks on the general economical development and growth of different companies. The online social networks hav e been regarded as the most influential since their access is commonly by use of mobile phones or computers. The employees in most companies have access to these electronic gadgets and to the internet in their work places.3 This illustrates that the employees can engage themselves with the social networks online during working hours. This usually causes negative effects on the level of their productivity and the levels of realized profits from the employers. This aspect has caused most of the employers to install other gadgets to regulate and control the use of the internet in their companies. Some of the employees as a barrier or abuse can regard this to privacy and social life involvement. On the other hand, the employers see it as a way of controlling and sealing the degree of idleness and loopholes that influence productivity. The rights of both parties, employees and employers, seem to be violated but there should be an understanding between rights, privileges, work responsibil ities and abuse of work contracts. The realization and introduction of aspects that involves the concepts of the employers’ expectations from the employees with respect to their social life should be addressed in advanced and in most cases included in the employment contracts. Consequently, a closer look on the effects of employees involvement to social networks, mostly online should be critically analyzed since they are at times beneficial to the company or organization if used properly.4 The fact that the employees at times visit the websites that are not work related does not mean that they do this every time they access the internet. The social networks that are usually accessed online can assist in the beneficial part of the organization or company. From a deeper perspective, social networks can be termed as areas where people obtained all sorts of data and information.5 The interconnection of the system allows the users to assist one another, take steps to achieve goals and objectives and transmit the different information from one section to another. Social networks cannot be abolished in the work places due to their importance and improvement degree on the business world. On the other han

What is Android Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

What is Android - Research Paper Example phones and gadgets. In This way many forces have emerged that introduced open source softwares and operating systems that gave a total new shape to the world of communications and hand held devices. One of them in this field was Android .Android is an open source operating system that is widely in use in smart phones and portable computers in form of laptops and tablets. Android came into existence in the early years of first decade of current century when number of proponents sat together and decided on introducing a platform that would compete the existing players . Andy Rubin and Nick Sears are considered as the founders of this innovation. According to them, their aim was to create that would meet the customers’ requirements in a better and more efficient way. Their initial logo at that time can be termed as â€Å"smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner’s location and preferences â€Å".... Different versions are available in the market. Various versions exist in the market and number of updates and new applications have been introduced over the period of time each aiming to bring about more advancements and improvement and user friendly features into the setup. Few of the recent releases include 2.3 Gingerbread, 3.0 Honeycomb, and 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich .3.0 honey Comb was focused on Tablet while the 4.0 version brought more advancements to the smart phone platform. Salient features of the operating system include connectivity of almost all sorts ranging from GSM TO WIMAX; In case of media support it supports large number of video and audio formats ranging from H.264 to MPEG-4,MP3,MIDI.other features include multi touch support, multi-tasking, Global Positioning System . Although the previous year (2010) saw Android as the most dominant force in the market of smart phones and tablets, it cannot be termed as a perfectly smooth sail and Android does face certain problems in form of vulnerabilities, competition, improvements. The updates are termed are tedious and when compared to other platforms they are belived to give the customers a tough time while upgrading to any latest version.To some people Android doesn’t invest into the customer awareness in case of the new releases and hence awareness and customer guidance is found missing in case of new versions being released . The issue of Malware poses a serious threat to the integrity of Android as the best platform for the smart phones and tablets, and recently Google had to withdraw couple of Applications from market due to the reason of malware induced .Google in this regard has setup security teams that look into the matters and make sure

Strategies for Consumer Research

Strategies for Consumer Research Consumer research is a type of applied sociology that attempts to map and understand the way in which consumers behave and make decisions about the products that they purchase. This is absolutely fundamental to those managing marketing processes for an organisation. Understanding how consumers make the decision to purchase a particular item of goods or service is vital to the setting out of marketing plans for products. The research will also discover which marketing approaches are the most successful and, therefore, which ones should be repeated to attract attention[1]. Typically, this type of research is statistical in nature, pulling together all of the decision inputs that consumers will look at, before making decisions[2]. For example, factors such as availability, price, likely value growth and functionality will all play an important role in terms of consumer decision making. Traditional consumer research aims to be entirely objective in nature and is undertaken in an impartia l manner, attempting to form an understanding of the actual state of affairs in the given product market. However, more recently, there has been recognition that many consumers will simply make impulse purchases and that one specific set of inputs will not always produce the same result, as human perceptions and decision making processes vary considerably from individual to individual, depending on a range of factors that cannot be neatly placed into a scientific analysis[3]. Essentially, there are two key approaches to consumer research which are recognised and discussed in the research paper by Isabelle Szmigin and Gordon Foxall. Traditionally, consumer research theorists have argued that consumer research must naturally either centre on the interpretive approach or the positivist approach[4]. Szmigin and Foxall argued that a combination of the two approaches will produce the best approach. Critically, Szmigin and Foxall recognise that the real value in consumer research comes from the quality of the information that the research gives to the managers making the ongoing marketing decisions. This has arguably been a massively overlooked factor in consumer research. The ultimate goal for consumer research should surely be to give a definitive course of action for a marketing department to follow in order to gain the maximum possible consumer penetration. By arguing this point, Szmigin and Foxall successfully demonstrate that the ideal form of consumer res earch must take account of both scientific, objective decision making factors as well as the subjective and emotional decision making factors, if it is to gain a detailed and inclusive understanding of consumer behaviour[5]. There are arguably inherent positives and negatives to both approaches and these are discussed by Szmigin and Foxall, with varying degrees of conviction. Ultimately, however, the authors failed to reach a final conclusion as to which method offered the better approach and instead opted to conclude that a middle ground would be the best approach. In this paper, the question as to whether this conclusion is a true reflection of the position or whether the authors simply failed to find conclusive evidence and were thus forced to reach this conclusion due to the absence of any convincing suggestions to the contrary is evident[6]. Interpretive v Positivism The two different approaches under discussion are interpretative and positivistic, although it could also be seen as a debate between science and art[7]. Similarly, positivistic consumer research is more commonly referred to as quantitative research and interpretative research is referred to as qualitative research. This is a direct reflection of the statistical importance of the positivistic approach. With the positivist approach, a large group of individuals is studied with an attempt to draw one conclusive set of statistics that explain all consumer behaviour. The focus is very much on the four Ps, namely product, price, place or location and promotion. In the positivist approach, the basis for the research is that the four Ps will be the underlying factors that will make up the decision making process for consumers. These are all objective factors and take little or no account of dealing with personal preferences as displayed by individual consumers. During this process, a hypoth esis is drawn up which essentially sets out the claims which the research aims either to prove or disprove. This positivist approach is heavily statistically based and the questioning of consumers will aim towards gaining figure based results that can be displayed in the form of graphs. Similarly, the reliability of the findings is tested by statistical methods including ascertaining the significance level of the data. Whilst this method is seen as being potentially conclusive and providing statistical data that can be used in marketing techniques, it fundamentally misses the fact that humans behave in different ways even when faced with the same raw data. Different consumers will make different decisions and will place different relative values on the input factors detailed above. Interpretative research aims to take this factor into account. Research is focussed on a smaller group of individuals with the aim of mapping out consumer behaviour based on a range of more subjective factors such as those relating to cultural and sociological impacts[8]. With this approach, however, the personality and subjective beliefs of the researcher are much more likely to have an impact on the results of the research. Personalities and subjective thoughts will naturally vary depending on the consumer’s values and, with this in mind, there is a serious question as to what value this type of research can off er to marketing professionals within a company. Without any statistical patterns of behaviour, it can be very difficult for marketing professionals to determine a set of trends that can be accurately relied upon[9]. Interpretative Approach Analysis Based on Szmigin and Foxall’s Research Szmigin and Foxall spent a large amount of their analysis considering whether the interpretative value has any merit and what it can offer in terms of additional value that this method offers the process of consumer research. Szmigin and Foxall recognised that papers relating to interpretative research are often seen as peripheral to positivistic research, offering little in the way of added value. This is, however, rightly discarded by the authors. The paper explains the concepts that have been developed surrounding the use of interpretative research. One of the most formative of these concepts is that indicated by Thompson[10], that interpretative research will come up with multiple possible worldviews rather than one individual ‘way of the world’, which was distinct from the positivistic approach. One of the central points determined by Szmigin and Foxall was that the interpretative approach accurately represented the complexities of human nature and that failure to consider this was a fatal flaw in the traditional positivistic approach[11]. Interestingly, the approach taken by Szmigin and Foxall, on the one hand, recognised the absolutely vital elements that the interpretative approach bring to the phenomenon that is essential for the complete understanding of consumer behaviour, but also gives credence to the way in which this approach is too value laden and thus not entirely reliable as a source of information for marketing professionals. The weakness of allowing subjective and internal states of the consumers to be taken into account is widely accepted by Szmigin and Foxall, yet despite this, there is a refusal to write off this approach, entirely[12]. One possible way of reconciling these opposing thoughts is that of considering the interpretative research methods as a way of ascertaining a range of several possible causes of action based on the range of potential consumer thought patterns from which positivistic research approaches can be used to narrow down the data into a more useful set of conclusions. It is this combination of the two approaches that Szmigin and Foxall focus on in reaching their conclusion. The approach, on the face of it, appears to be entirely logical given the data available. A Further Look at Interpretative Research Before simply accepting the proposition that the interpretative research approach offers additional supporting information to the more traditional approach, a greater analysis of the potential added value that can be obtained through the use of interpretative research is required. Klein Myers[13] argued that interpretative research is simply a way by which knowledge is obtained through consumer research. Rather than seeing interpretative research as a distinct method of conducting consumer research, it may be viewed as a way of filtering the information gathered through a set of cultural and social parameters. Interpretative research does not involve the pre-setting of parameters or any other variables; instead, it lets the social context influence the phenomenon. It seems that the approach of combing the two theories is powerful, but not in the way that Szmigin and Foxall identified. A paper by Bruce Rowlands[14] also explored the issue of the relative use of interpretative and positivistic approaches. However, in this case, it was concluded that the combination of the two approaches would be valuable but not simply because no conclusive conclusion relating to the choice of one over the other could be reached, but rather due to the fact that combining the two approaches can achieve the best of both worlds, in certain circumstances. In this case, it was held that the two approaches worked well together where the non constrained interpretative approach can be used within at least a certain set of boundaries (albeit loosely defined)[15]. Critically, this paper recognised that the problem with interpretative research is that reaching a meaningful conclusion can be virtually impossible, in many situations. This is down to the potential width of results that such an untargeted approach can cause. However, in this paper it was concluded by Bruce Rowlands that this difficulty could largely be overcome by setting at least basic parameters to guide the research in the first instance to ensure a degree of control in the research process[16]. By combining the findings of the Bruce Rowlands paper and that of the paper under current discussion, it is clear to see that there is at least some merit in the argument that the two methods can be successfully combined to offer rounded consumer research[17]. Positivistic Approach Analysis Based on Szmigin and Foxall’s Research It seems, from considering both the research as conducted by Szmigin and Foxall and other related research in the area, that it is generally thought that interpretative research methods have been developed to fill in the gaps of the positivistic approach. In order to explore this theory fully, the perceived weaknesses of the positivistic approach from the perspective of Szmigin and Foxall requires further consideration, as this will give a clear indication of the anticipated role of interpretative research methods. By establishing the weaknesses of the positivistic approach, it will then be possible to ascertain whether the use of interpretative research would indeed fill this gap and should, therefore, be considered as a means of offering a more complete consumer behaviour analysis[18]. Szmigin and Foxall saw that there were several inherent weaknesses in the positivistic approach. Firstly, it was identified that the underlying assumption that there is one reality that does not change; this is clearly unrealistic with consumers in a constant state of flux with ever changing external and internal decision factors. True positivism also works on the assumption that all consumers will make purchasing decision based on entirely reasoned factors with absolutely no input from irrational desires and impulse purchases. This is an over-simplistic view of the way in which consumers actually make decisions. It is well recognised that consumers will often make purchasing decision based on entirely irrational desires and, therefore, certain data patterns will be entirely meaningless, if only rational decision factors are considered. Szmigin and Foxall also recognised that in taking this concept of a single reality as encouraged by the positivistic approach, there is a danger that all other possible realities are excluded, thus potentially missing out other possibly valuable data sets. These main weaknesses in the positivistic approach are argued by Szmigin and Foxall to be the reason that interpretative research methods are necessary in order to fill in these gaps. These weaknesses are so substantial that it is accepted by Szmigin and Foxall that a positivistic approach is so fundamentally flawed that it alone cannot produce any meaningful data for the eventual users, namely the marketing manager in the relevant organisation. A Wider Look at the Positivistic Approach The positivistic or quantitative approach to consumer research is regarded as the traditional approach to consumer research; therefore, there is considerably more research available on the potential weaknesses to this area of research. Martin Callingham[19] stated that the main weakness in the use of qualitative approach is that, although input factors can be analysed against the actual outcome, there is no way, through using this direct data to ascertain whether the input factor was the actual cause of the witnessed outcome[20]. For example, if a company runs an advertising campaign and sees sales increase, the positivistic approach will show the statistical increase in sales, but will not show that it was the advertising campaign that drove this increase. The rise in sales will not necessarily be down to the advertising campaign; it could be down to a range of other cultural or social factors[21]. This failure to link cause and effect is the cited reason for the need to enhance the traditional positivistic approach[22]. Quantitative research is entirely science based with the emphasis on objectivity reliability and generalisations. Whilst this is clearly desirable in the field of research, consumer behaviour simply does not fall neatly within this scientific approach. There is positive value to be had in this approach, particularly when the aim of the research is to link directly some factor with base line results; it is both unbiased and objective with no values being derived from the researcher themselves. Despite this, the positivistic approach is clearly limited. Any variable that is not part of the model is totally disregarded and, as such, it is limited in its findings to the variables that are laid out in the original model[23]. Any fluidity of consumer behaviour will not be captured, which is an essential part of any consumer research project. It is this weakness that the use of interpretative research aims to manage and deal with by adding value to the overall research project[24]. Summary of Findings The need to expand upon the traditional positivistic approach has been clearly recognised by Szmigin and Foxall. The paper recognises that there are inherent weaknesses in both approaches to consumer research which render the use of one research method to the exclusion of the other, ineffective[25]. However the paper has been slightly unsatisfactory in the way in which it reaches this conclusion. The approach taken by Szmigin and Foxall involved the consideration of the weakness of both methods and, having concluded that both methods have fundamental flaws, it was then decided that the only possible solution was to use a combination of the two. This conclusion is agreed with; however, a slightly more positive approach to reaching this conclusion would have been welcome[26]. Other research papers have taken a more pragmatic approach by considering the difficulties and weaknesses with the traditional approach and then looking positively at whether or not the interpretative approach can suitably fill the gaps in a way that would improve the nature of the consumer research[27]. The weaknesses in the traditional approach of failing to consider discarded variables and of failing to link the cause and effect of behaviour have been duly noted by Szmigin and Foxall. Where the analysis falls down is that they do not then go on to consider fully how the interpretative approach could deal with these issues. It would seem, therefore, that by pulling together all of the relevant research in this area using an interpretative approach predominately yet with at least the basic controls such as those suggested by the positivistic approach, the best of both worlds will be achieved and the most comprehensive consumer research can be undertaken[28]. In summary, therefore, Szmigin and Foxall have reached the correct conclusion as to the importance of combining the two approaches, but the way in which this conclusion was reached could have been achieved in a more positive fashion rather than it being a default position which is what appears to have been the case with Szmigin and Foxall. Bibliography Anderson, Paul F., On method in consumer research: a critical relativist perspective, Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (Sept), 1986, 155-173. Belk, Russell W., Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006. Blumer, Herbert,, Symbolic Interactionsim, Englewood Cliffs: NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967. Brown, Stephen, Marketing and literature: the anxiety of academic influence, Journal of Marketing, 63 (Jan), 1999, 1-15. Calder, Bobby J., Tybout, Alice M., Interpretive, qualitative , and traditional scientific empirical consumer behaviour research, in Hirschman, Elizabeth. C. (ed.), Interpretive Consumer Research, Provo, UT: Association of Consumer Research, 1989, 199-208. Callingham, Martin, Market Intelligence: How and why Organizations Use Market Research, Kogan Page Publishers, 2004. Charmaz, Kathy, Between positivism and postmodernism: implications for methods, Studies in Symbolic Interaction, 17, 1995, 43-72. Cova, Bernard, Elliott , Richard, Everything you always wanted to know about interpretive consumer research but were afraid to ask, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 11, 2, 2008. Davies, Andrea, Fitchett, James A.,An Empirical Exposition of Paradigm Incommesurability in Consumer Research: Two Museum Studies Revisited, Proceedings of the EIASM Interpretive Consumer Research Conference, Brussels, May 2000. Firat, A. Fuat, Venkateash, Alladi, Liberatory postmodernism and the re-enachtment of consumption, Journal of Consumer Research, 22 (3), 1995, 239-67. Goulding, Christina, Consumer research, interpretive paradigms and methodological ambiguities, European Journal of Marketing, 33, 9/10, 1999, 859-873. Goulding, Christina, Grounded theory: the missing methodology on the interpretivist agenda, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 1(1), 1998, 50-57. Hackley, Christopher E., Doing Research Projects in Marketing, Management and Consumer Research, Routledge, 2003. Heath, Timothy B., The reconciliation of humanism and positivism in the practice of consumer research: a view from the trenches, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences, 20 (2), 1992, 107-118. Hirschman, Elizabeth. C., Scientific style and the conduct of consumer research, Journal of Consumer Research, 12 (Sept), 1985. 225-239. Hirschman, Elizabeth C., Postmodern Consumer Research. The Study of Consumption as Text, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992. Hoffman, Donna, Holbrook, Morris B., The intellectual structure of consumer research: a bibliographic study of author cocitations in the first 15 years of the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research, 19 (March), 1993,505-517. Hogg, Margaret K., Maclaran, Pauline, Rhetorical issues in writing interpretivist consumer research, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 11, 2, 2008. Hudson, Laurel A., Ozanne, Julie L., Alternative ways of seeking knowledge in consumer research, Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (March), 1988, 508-521. Hunt, Shelby. D., Positivism and paradigm dominance in consumer research: towards critical pluralism and rapprochement, Journal of Consumer Research, 18 (June), 1991, 32-44. Klein, H., Myers, M., A Set of Principals for Conducting and Evaluating Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, 23, 1, 1999, 67-94. Leong, Siew M., Sheth, Jagdish N., Tan, Ching T., An empirical study of the scientific styles of marketing academics, European Journal of Marketing, 28 (8/9), 1994, 12-26. Lutz, Richard J., Positivism, naturalism and pluralism in consumer research: paradigms in paradise, in Advances in Consumer Research,16 ed. Srull, Thomas, Provo:UT: Association of Consumer Research, 1989, 1-7. McQuarrie, Edward F. Glen-Mick, David, On resonance : a critical pluralistic inquiry into advertising rhetoric, Journal of Consumer Research, 19 (Sept), 1992, 180-197. Nancarrow, Clive, Moskvin, Alexander, Shankar, Avi, Bridging the great divide the transfer of techniques (qualitative and quantitative techniques), Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 14 (6), 1996, 27-37. Rowlands, Bruce H., Grounded in Practice: Using Interpretive Research to Build Theory, Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 3, 1, 2005, 81-92. Schiffman, Leon G., Hansen, Havard, Kanuk, Leslie Lazar, Consumer Behaviour: A European Outlook, Pearson Education, 2008. Silverman, David , Qualitative Research, Theory, Methods and Practice, London: Sage, 1997. Solomon, Michael R., Bamossy, Gary, Askergaard, Soren, Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1999. The VOICE Group, Reflections on collaboration in interpretive consumer research, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 11, 2, 2008. Thompson, Craig J., Eureka! and other tests of significance: a new look at evaluating interpretive research, Advances in Consumer Research, 17, eds. Goldberg, Marvin, Gorn, Gerald, Pollay, Richard, 1990, 25-30. Footnotes [1] Nancarrow, Clive, Moskvin, Alexander, Shankar, Avi, Bridging the great divide the transfer of techniques (qualitative and quantitative techniques), Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 14 (6), 1996, 27-37. [2] Hackley, Christopher E., Doing Research Projects in Marketing, Management and Consumer Research, Routledge, 2003 [3] Silverman, David, Qualitative Research, Theory, Methods and Practice, London: Sage, 1997 [4] Schiffman, Leon G., Hansen, Havard, Kanuk, Leslie Lazar, Consumer Behaviour: A European Outlook, Pearson Education, 2008 [5] Hogg, Margaret K., Maclaran, Pauline, Rhetorical issues in writing interpretivist consumer research, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 11, 2, 2008 [6] Hudson, Laurel A., Ozanne, Julie L., Alternative ways of seeking knowledge in consumer research, Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (March), 508-521, 1988 [7] Hirschman, Elizabeth. C., Scientific style and the conduct of consumer research, Journal of Consumer Research, 12 (Sept), 1985, 225-239, 18 [8] Solomon, Michael R., Bamossy, Gary, Askergaard, Soren,, Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1999 [9] Calder, Bobby J., Tybout, Alice M., Interpretive, qualitative, and traditional scientific empirical consumer behaviour research in Hirschman, Elizabeth. C. (ed.), Interpretive Consumer Research, Provo, UT: Association of Consumer Research, 1989, 199-208 [10] Thompson, Craig J., Eureka! and other tests of significance: a new look at evaluating interpretive research, Advances in Consumer Research, 17, eds. Goldberg, Marvin, Gorn, Gerald, Pollay, Richard, 25-30, 1990. [11] The VOICE Group, Reflections on collaboration in interpretive consumer research, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 11, 2, 2008 [12] Davies, Andrea, Fitchett, James A., An Empirical Exposition of Paradigm Incommesurability in Consumer Research: Two Museum Studies Revisited, Proceedings of the EIASM Interpretive Consumer Research Conference, Brussels, May 2000. [13] Klein, H., Myers, M., A Set of Principals for Conducting and Evaluating Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, 23, 1,,1999, 67-94 [14] Rowlands, Bruce H., Grounded in Practice: Using Interpretive Research to Build Theory, Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 3, 1, 2005 (81-92) [15] Brown, Stephen, Marketing and literature: the anxiety of academic influence, Journal of Marketing, 63 (Jan), 1-15, 1999 [16] Hoffman, Donna, Holbrook, Morris B.,The intellectual structure of consumer research: a bibliographic study of author cocitations in the first 15 years of the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research, 19 (March),1993, 505-517. [17] Cova, Bernard, Elliott, Richard, Everything you always wanted to know about interpretive consumer research but were afraid to ask, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 11,2, 2008 [18] Hirschman, Elizabeth C., Postmodern Consumer Research. The Study of Consumption as Text, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992. [19] Callingham, Martin, Market Intelligence: How and why Organizations Use Market Research, Kogan Page Publishers, 2004 [20] Hunt, Shelby. D., Positivism and paradigm dominance in consumer research: towards critical pluralism and rapprochement, Journal of Consumer Research, 18 (June), 1991, 32-44. [21] McQuarrie, Edward F., Glen-Mick, David , 1992, On resonance : a critical pluralistic inquiry into advertising rhetoric, Journal of Consumer Research, 19 (Sept), 1992, 180-197. [22] Anderson, Paul F.,On method in consumer research: a critical relativist perspective, Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (Sept), 1986, 155-173. [23] Heath, Timothy B.,The reconciliation of humanism and positivism in the practice of consumer research: a view from the trenches, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences, 20 (2), 1992, 107-118. [24] Leong, Siew M., Sheth, Jagdish N., Tan, Ching T., An empirical study of the scientific styles of marketing academics, European Journal of Marketing, 28 (8/9), 1994, 12-26. [25] Goulding, Christina, Consumer research, interpretive paradigms and methodological ambiguities, European Journal of Marketing, 33, 9/10, 1999, 859-873. [26] Belk, Russell W., Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006 [27] Charmaz, Kathy, Between positivism and postmodernism: implications for methods, Studies in Symbolic Interaction, 17, 1995, 43-72. [28] Lutz, Richard J., â€Å"Positivism, naturalism and pluralism in consumer research: paradigms in paradise, in Advances in Consumer Research, 16, ed. Srull, Thomas, Provo:UT: Association of Consumer Research, 1-7, 1989