10 Facts About the Independence of Texas From Mexico

Does Discrimination Against Body Modifications Still Exist

Does Discrimination Against Body Modifications Still Exist? Does anti-discrimination laws pertain to those with body modifications? If an employer does not have the right to deny employment to someone due to their race, religion, and gender, then why should it be OK to turn someone away just because of a small tattoo. The knowledge and potential of the employee do not cease to exist due to their self-expression through their body art. A lot of potentially good employees have been turned away because of body modifications: big or small. Unemployment rates are greatly affected by body modifications. On the other hand, businesses and their work flow are also affected by it. Business work flow and unemployment factor in customer satisfaction. Workplaces should not be able to discriminate against potential employees with body modifications because it doesn’t affect their work performance, it goes against anti-discrimination laws, and it can lead into bigger problems related to disc rimination. Chances are people in highly educated professions have tattoos but are covered by everyday clothes. It’s a great possibility that many of us have interacted with these people and we had no idea that they had body art, yet still thought of them as ‘professional’. Professionalism is defined as the competence or skill expected of a professional. What does body art have to do with a person’s ‘profession’? Sles Scovell claims, â€Å"No empirical research or literature review is given to justify theShow MoreRelatedTattoos And Piercings : Work Environments1417 Words   |  6 Pagesindividuality and to portray your self-image to the public. Some people are hesitant when deciding where to get their tattoo or piercing because of the impact it will have on their appearance and in the workplace. Discrimination against tattoos and piercings in the workplace does exist, especially in white-collar employment, and it can prevent someone from pot ential employment or even a promotion because tattoos and piercings are considered unprofessional (Foltz, 589). Tattoos and piercings shouldRead MoreEssay on FGM: Female Genital Mutilation Must be Outlawed Worldwide1456 Words   |  6 Pagesrupture of the vaginal walls, chronic uterine and vaginal infections, bladder incontinence, dysmenorrheal and obstruction of the flow of menstrual blood† (Skaine 23). In places where FGM is illegal, such as Segal, the procedures have not ceased to exist. Therefore, women and girls are often undergoing Female Circumcisions from unlicensed doctors and sometimes with unsterile equipment. Even if nothing goes wrong physically, there is a risk of psychological and social trauma. According to a WHO studyRead MoreThe Classification Of Native Americans1457 Words   |  6 Pagesclassification of African-Americans as relied upon the â€Å"one-drop† rule, the classification of Native Americans over the past hundred years has relied upon vary ing, complicated, and ultimately arbitrary blood rules. However, the reliance upon blood laws does not illustrate the effects of self-identification or identification by others. Across the United States, there are various persons who would self-identify as Native American but are not viewed as validly Native American due to identification by othersRead MoreTattoos And Its Effect On Society Essay2019 Words   |  9 Pagesform of body modification, but in spite of that there is still a certain rejection towards those who carry them in a visible area of the body, for some it disfigures what has been created in the image and likeness of God while for others associates this with convicts or gang members mainly because they were one of the first groups to use tattoos to differentiate themselves from the rest of society. But also it is true that there is a very limited understanding about this corporal modification that couldRead MorePublic Restrooms Should Be Public Facilities2153 Words   |  9 Pagesalso takes away your right to sue the state for discrimination. The problem with this law is that it discriminates against transgender people. The fear is that cisgender males will dress up as women to gain access to women and children. Transgender people are being depicted as pedophiles, rapists, and perverts. Transgender people are being treated as criminals. If the bathrooms were single stall and gender neutral, then public bathroom discrimination would not be an issue. Before this law, which publicRead MoreImplications of and Attitudes toward Gene Therapy914 Words   |  4 Pagesconsidered: Somatic gene therapy and germline gene therapy. In somatic gene therapy, the therapeutic genes are transmitted into the somatic cells (non-sex cells) of the body. Therapeutic genes compensate for abnormal genes to produce beneficial protein. Gene therapy will be restricted to the individual patient. Any genetic modifications and its effects will not be passed on to the offspring. In germline gene therapy, it is the germ cell (egg/sperm cell) that is modified by administration of the functionalRead MoreThe Black Imagination By Bell Hooks1096 Words   |  5 Pages Whiteness is an integrative ideology that has transpired in North America throughout the late 20th century to contemporary society. It is a social construction that sustains itself as a dogma to social class and vindicates discrimination against non-whites. The power of whiteness is illustrated in social, cultural and political practices. These measures are recognized as the intent standard in which other cultures are persuaded to live by. Bell hooks discusses the evolution of whitenessRead MoreThe Myth Of Mental Illness By Thomas Szasz Summary1472 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"counterfeit and metaphorical illnesses† (page 34). And also stated that even when a mental illness has some physical attributions it still does not make it a real illness. In his view, the term â€Å"mental il lness† is non-existent and as such, there are no true illnesses of the mind. He stated in his book â€Å"Strictly speaking, disease or illness can only affect the body† (page 275). And as no such bodily harm occurs, it cannot be labelled an illness. Therefore, the concept of mental illness is non-existentRead MoreGender, Gender And Race, By Christine Overall And Cressida Heyes1702 Words   |  7 Pagesshould be acceptable while Heyes does not agree with Overall. They both agree with that race and sex-gender are socially constructed. Thus, Overall has no problem with the concept of identity changes—for both sex-gender and race—however, Heyes argues that they are not constructed in the same way. Christine Overall is advocating the claim that transracial surgery is not problematic if transsexual surgery is acceptable. She brings possible arguments and discusses them against â€Å"rejecters of transracial surgery†Read MoreSupreme Court of the United States and Reasonable Accommodation3100 Words   |  13 Pageslook like Africans. Films about the civil war generally look for actors who look like Lincoln, etc... (*tangent* historically in the music and theater industry there used to be white face and black face, of the two only white face really still exists in the form of mimes) All in all this is a bit of fact mixed with opinion, and I m not in any way a Business Law expert. Hopefully all people are experts in one sense or the other on Ethics though 35-2Chinawa, a major processor of cheese

Critical Review Hospitality management

Question: Describe about Roger Shu and Suosheng Wang study on CVBs? Answer: This paper will look at the two journals namely, Roger Shu and Suosheng Wang study on CVBs in China taking Hangzou as the destination, published in the year 2012 and Young Sun Shin paper on visitors motivations and destination image taking Korea as a destination, published in the year 2009. Both well versed research with strong discussions that leads to a probable conclusion, yet both have failed to express the final solution in terms of the study. This will be further iterated through a critical review of both these journals. The selection of these journals is done based on the fact that both of them give views and opinions for conventional tourism development in the same region. Whilst YoungSun Shins study is a little extensive in terms of the regional aspect, the other journal gives more insight onto a more segmented approach. For the critical view, conceptual approach, methodology and also the practical implementations shall be discussed in the later sections. YoungSun Shins report lists the methodology of self completion questionnaires and he argues that it is the best method for inferring the desired results. Shin S Young(2009. P-8) states that questionnaires are tried and tested method of getting the most reliable resposes, he infers this from the journal by Hurst, 1994 which argues towards its application and reliability. Youngs direct inference can be stated as a work of putting the conditional acceptance of his concept based on other writers of the same field. According to Shin this method will provide the necessary details for proper result in convention destinations in tourism. Wang R and Wang Ss study however infers that CVBs have been the driving force behind the attractive component of tourism and has been utilized quite efficiently by the Western countries which improved the destination image in terms of business. Wang R and Wang S (2012,p-53) states that the Western countries attraction as a destination for events and business summits are as a result of the key role given to the optimization of CVBs and its optimum role. They argue that without CVBs in place hardly any destination may fulfil the promise of being the first choice for many entrepreneurs. YoungSuns paper mentions that the questionnaire was restricted to five days and was done during a convention. This methodology has been utilized as per the survey instrument used by Crompton and May (1997) featuring motivating and demographic information. This may be argued as a tested and tried instrument in most cases. Again Wang and Shu suggest in their findings that CVBs can be given the full creditability for extending the tourism marketability and for banding a desirable destination. YoungSun Shins findings are aptly put in terms of his conceptualization for the purpose of building a more conventional tourist destination and his findings resonate with the region of his study as a whole. His study seems applicable to the whole region of the South-East Asia and Pan Asia as a whole. Wang and Shu also provide the necessary views and findings that can be deemed fit as per their study for bringing in more of a branding and in the increment in the business aspect of the conventional tourism, however in a segmented way. YoungSun Shin states that differentiated marketing strategies must be implanted, with segmented approach being the definitive approach. He identified that motivation is the problem in literature that will have a lasting effect on the conventional tourism technique. The lack of motivation may lead to the lapse of destinations being branded as an apt place for event management. Segmentation(2009:31) is based on the model of McClearly, 1995 that derives its inference from multi-group data analysis. Wang and Shu on their part have identified lack of Public Private Partnership in the field of tourism in China that renders the business more political rather than money. The problem identified is the strong arm of CNTA(2012:56) which does not allow a more dynamic approach towards the conventional tourism techniques and healthy event management. Although they cite Vallee,2008 for their purpose of bringing a more clearer picture of the dependency of the tourism industry butt from the work of V allee a conducive decision or solution cannot be reached. As the authors are taking only a segregated view it is not justified. Similarly YoungSunShin cited McClearly,1995 and Formica and Uysal, 1998 for his problem his final findings may not be conducive to other regions of the world because all these studies have been done on a more closed and segmented way. To reach to these conclusive results YoungSun Shin does an extensive study on motivation for which he collects data through the five day convention from different individuals present. The data is analysed as on clusters with motivation kept as the key. These datas were collected as in questionnaires of which 85% usable data was collected. Using the collected data the theory was thus formulated towards the primary conclusion. This is an achievement as the number of respondents were above the average number that may have been required. The response rate of above 70% is commendable with it being segregated in terms of age, sex and motivators. However many issues must be addressed for this methodology. First self administered questionnaires focuses only on the motivational feature of the conventional tourism and event management and leaving other aspects, during the study it may be noted that Shins focus on the key factor becomes a formality rather than a stringent approach. Wang and Shu in their findings state that they have realised four sections of an organization operating around China which has utilized CVBs functionality to its best possible way and henceforth have added to their business successes. However they have reached this conclusion based on a comparative study and not through any data evaluation. This renders a doubt in the authenticity of the result as in many cases than naught comparative study may very well be inconclusive. The segregated methodology of YoungSun Shin and the segmented and comparative methodology of Wang and Shumake it very hard for anyone to have a conclusive affirmative on their findings, although the initial concept is of tremendous value as both of them can be cited for further study based on these two methods. Lastly it may be safe to state that for a region of South East Asia these methodology and findings may very well prove to be the initial thrust needed on the conventional tourism and event management theories and practices. References 1. Shin, Y.S. (2009). Examining the link between Visitors motivations and Convention Destination Image. An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism, Volume 4(2). 29-452. Wang, S. and Shu, R.(2012). Call for fully functional and distinct CVBs in China: a case of Hangzou.Journal of the college of Tourism and Hotel Management, Special Issue, pp-52-64.3. Bailey, A.W., and Fernando, I.K. (2012). Routine and project-based leisure, happiness, and meaning in life. Journal of Leisure Research, Vol.44, pp-139-154.4. Bailey, A. W., and Russell, K. C. (2010). Predictors of interpersonal growth in volunteer tourism: A latent curve approach. Leisure Sciences, Vol.32, pp-352-368.5. Beedie, P. (2008). Adventure tourism as a new frontier in leisure. World Leisure Journal, Vol.50 (3), pp- 173-183.6. Brown, C.A., and Smith, F.R. (2010). Wine tourism: A serious leisure approach. Journal of Service Science (JSS), Vol.3 (1), pp-29-34.7. Foley, C., and Hayllar, B. (2007). A tale of two caravan pa rks friendship, community and the freedom thing. Tourism Today, Vol. 7, pp-7-28.8. Getz, D., and Patterson, I. (2013). Social worlds as a framework for event and travel careers. Tourism Analysis, Vol. 18(5), pp- 485-501.

No name woman Essay Example

No name woman Paper A persons identity cannot be given to them, instead a person must achieve a sense of her character through personal experience and self search. In No Name Woman, Maxine Hong Kingston recalls the events of her aunts life in the elusive world of her Chinese roots. The story of her aunt is told by her mother and Kingston recreates the events into an exploratory story to help herself figure out what part of her existence is Chinese and help her better understand the Chinese culture. By retelling her aunts story, Kingston seeks to incorporate both her Chinese and American identities and mold them into her own individual identity. Kingston, a first generation American, finds that as a result of her cultural heritage and current surroundings, it is extremely difficult in resolving her identity. She is a product of a very strong Chinese culture growing up in American and so her identity becomes multifaceted. In attempting to resolve who she is and her cultural roots, she discovers that her identity is characterized in relation to her Chinese identity, her American environment, and the combinations therein. In the opening scene of the story, the audience is immediately presented with a tragic story within a story. The events viewed in retrospect through the eyes of the narrators traditional conservative mother seem skewed and moralistic, delivered in an instructive voice. The mothers speech is purely didactic. She is telling this story to Kingston to teach a lesson; never do what your aunt has done and do not bring shame upon the family name. Instead of clearly accepting this tale, Kingston has a hard time believing and consenting to her mothers message. Although Kingston is to never speak of the aunt and pretend that the aunt never existed, she disobeys her mother and comes up with a speculative version of events in retelling her aunts story. Kingstons story seeks meaning in the Chinese culture system in order to strengthen her individual identity. It also shows that certain aspects of the people and traditions of a cultural background can be disturbing at times. To be a woman, to have a daughter in starvation time was enough Women in the old China did not choose (Kingston 6. We will write a custom essay sample on No name woman specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on No name woman specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on No name woman specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The Chinese community that held the most meaning for Kingstons cultural identity had been lost somewhere in the past. The only knowledge Kingston has of anything Chinese had come from her mother, but that was not enough for her. She has only vague memories and imaginations of such a community that serve as a backdrop for the goal she seeks in strengthening her identity in relation to her ancestral and cultural makeup. For Kingston, she had become separated from part of her heritage. She struggled in attempting to understand the meaning of this heritage in a world that is different from the older generations. She illustrates this confusion and difficulty in attempting to understand her cultural roots when she says, Chinese Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese? What is Chinese and what is the movies? (Kingston 5). Kingston wants to tap into this old world her parents and ancestors belong to in order to better understand how she became who she is, but this world is so vague to her. As a result, she seeks a medium through which she can more closely relate to her cultural roots and therefore strengthen her own identity. Kingston accomplished this through knowledge of her female relatives lives in China so that she may better understand their role in the community and how they were affected by this role, more precisely, she examined the life of her aunt the outcast of her family. Kingston uses differences and similarities in the three separate narratives to explore the mores of traditional Chinese culture, the differences between Chinese culture and American culture, and ultimately to condemn the traditional roles of women in a Chinese society. Clearly, the disparate narratives of her mother, aunt, and narrator all reveal a different viewpoint on Chinese culture. The mother is clearly supportive of the aunts finale fate and symbolizes the traditional view of women in society. The story her mother tells is extremely clear-cut and black and white.

Trials of in the South During the Civil War essays

Trials of in the South During the Civil War essays These are a few documents that describe a small portion of history that we as a people use to look into the past to get a glimpse of what experiences people of that time period had to experience and some of the trials and tribulation that people had to endure. Black Codes enacted in the South These codes were laws that white southerners put into place to try to maintain their way of life as it was before the civil war. These laws were a vital part of history describing the restrictions that were put on the blacks. The Black codes talked about in Reading the American Past, were codes that were enacted in the state of Mississippi, there were codes, laws, enacted in nearly every southern state. The Mississippi Black codes their were made up of Acts and Sections: Act to Confer Civil Rights on Freedman, and for other Purposes-11 Sections Act to Regulate the Relation of Master and Apprentice, as Relates to Freedman, Free Negroes, and Mulattoes-10 Sections Act to Amend the Vagrant Laws of the State-8 Sections. There were 28 sections of the Black codes to restrict the freedom and opportunities of the southern blacks. The Black codes are documents that give clear and concise understanding of history to the time period of the Reconstruction. This concise understanding gives all that study and read these codes a clear picture of how American society was for the whites and the blacks. The whole thought process to enact such codes were biased to the white southerners, with these codes the southern plantation owners still had a hold on the now free blacks. Elias Hill: Testimony before Congressional Committee Investigating the Ku Klux Klan, 1871, Elias Hill was a black minister in York County, South Carolina, who testified before a congressional committee in 1871 about the Ku Klux Klan's aims and methods of operation. Elias was deemed as a credible witness due to his outstanding stature within...

Capybara Facts (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)

Capybara Facts (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) The capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is the largest rodent in the world. Its common name comes from the Tupi phrase kaapià »ara, which means grass eater. The scientific name means water hog. Capybaras are related to guinea pigs, rock cavies, coypu, and chinchillas. Fast Facts: Capybara Scientific Name: Hydrochoerus hydrochaerisCommon Names: Capybara, chigà ¼ire, chigà ¼iro, carpincho, water hogBasic Animal Group: MammalSize: 3.5-4.4 feetWeight: 77-146 poundsLifespan: 4 yearsDiet: HerbivoreHabitat: Wetlands of South AmericaPopulation: AbundantConservation Status: Least Concern Description The capybara has a barrel-shaped body and blunt muzzle, somewhat resembling a pig. The brittle fur is reddish-brownish in color and paler on the belly. The animals ears, eyes, and nose are high on its face so it can remain above water when the rodent is submerged. The capybara has a vestigial tail and partially webbed feet. On average, adult capybaras are 3.5 to 4.4 feet in length, stand about two feet tall, and weigh between 77 and 146 pounds. Females are slightly larger than males, with the largest recorded female weighing just over 200 pounds. Both males and females have anal scent glands and a special snout scent gland, called a morillo. The morillo is a distinctive feature of a capybaras face. Richard Evans / EyeEm, Getty Images Habitat and Distribution All South American countries except Chile are home to capybaras. The animals live in wetlands and near bodies of water. Escaped captive capybaras are found in Florida, but its unknown whether they have established a breeding population. Diet Capybaras are herbivores that graze upon grasses, fruit, tree bark, and aquatic plants. They eat their own feces and regurgitated food to help digest cellulose and retain gut flora. Their teeth grow continuously to compensate for the wear from grinding food. Behavior Although capybaras are excellent swimmers, they are able to run as fast as a horse on land. During the day, the rodents wallow in mud to stay cool. They graze before dawn, late in the afternoon, and into the evening. They often sleep in water with only their noses exposed to air. Capybaras use their scent glands and urine to mark territory. Females scent-mark areas more often during the mating season. Males mark females as well as objects. Reproduction and Offspring Capybaras live in herds of up to twenty individuals. Within the group, there is one dominant males, additional submissive males, females, and young. The dominant male has breeding rights to all of the females, but he cant oversee them all the time, so many of the submissive males also mate. Mating occurs once a year during the rainy season, which may be in April or May (Venezuela) or October or November (Brazil). A females scent changes when she is in estrus, plus she whistles through her nose to advertise fertility. Males pursue females and mate with them in the water. After 130 to 150 days of gestation, the female gives birth on land to a litter of one to eight young. The average litter size is four offspring. Baby capybaras are mobile, and they typically resemble their parents. The female and her young return to the water within a few hours of birth. The young may nurse from any female in the group. They start to eat grass after a week and are weaned around 16 weeks. Capybaras become sexually mature between one and two years of age. Young males often leave the herd when mature. Captive capybaras may live 8 to 10 years. Wild animals only live four years on average because they are popular prey for anacondas, jaguars, eagles, caimans, pumas, ocelots, and humans. Capybara young are miniature versions of their parents. Kevin Schafer, Getty Images Conservation Status Capybara conservation status is classified as least concern by the IUCN. The species is widely distributed and reproduces quickly. In some areas, hunting has diminished capybara numbers, but for the most part the population is stable and abundant. Capybaras and Humans Capybaras are hunted primarily for their meat and skin, although there is also a market for their fat, which is believed to have medicinal value. Ranchers sometimes kill the rodents because they compete with livestock for grazing. Capys are also farmed and kept in zoos. In some places, it is legal to keep a capybara as a pet. The animals are gentle and tolerate hand-feeding and petting. Sources Macdonald, D. W.; Krantz, K.; Aplin, R. T. Behavioral anatomical and chemical aspects of scent marking among Capybaras (Hydrochaeris hypdrochaeris) (Rodentia: Caviomorpha). Journal of Zoology. 202 (3): 341–360, 1984. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1984.tb05087.xMurphey, R.; Mariano, J.; Mouraduarte, F. Behavioral observations in a capybara colony (Hydrochaeris hypdrochaeris). Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 14: 89, 1985. doi:10.1016/0168-1591(85)90040-1Reid, F. Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2016: e.T10300A22190005. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T10300A22190005.enWoods, C.A. and C.W. Kilpatrick. Infraorder Hystricognathi. In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 1556, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0.

Negative Ramifications on Children Exposed to ITC Programs Research Paper

Negative Ramifications on Children Exposed to ITC Programs - Research Paper Example A new facet of the Internet is socialization for the new generation (Pogue, 2008). Social networking websites have become a recent fad and children especially are extremely fascinated by it. It’s a great way to keep in touch with all your friends (old and new), and other networking purposes, however, there are many ways in which they can have a negative effect on the social well being and safety of a person. In the old days, socializing meant face to face contact or phone calls with your friends. This restricted one to a set of close friends. Later, the SMS-ing phenomenon came. Ease of text messaging allowed one to keep in touch with more people. Social networking on the Internet beat them all. All your old friends from school, college, camp, and various acquaintances are present in one place and you can keep in touch with all of them. The thought does seem amazing; what’s better than to have an online community of people you wanted to be in touch with but never got the time or resources to? The Internet made it much simpler. Many people argue that replacing a real-life community with an online community is making our social skills and relationships suffer. This is an entirely different debate altogether. However, the ease of finding and making friends is posing another threat to people especially children. On these websites and chatting software, exchange of information has become very easy. Your Facebook page may include all sorts of information ranging from your date of birth to email address, phone number etc. While security settings help you hide this information from strangers or people you don’t know, many children make accounts without being knowledgeable enough about the security settings and concerns.

Discussion Question wk5 dq2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Discussion Question wk5 dq2 - Assignment Example (Larson, 2010) Interactive marketing on the other hand targets on even a more micro level and focuses on individual customers. Its requires active participation of the customer aswell to engage in the marketing process. Hence is more effective means of communicating and providing information regarding the product. The marketing technique will vary depending upon the type of product. In my opinion I shall use interactive marketing as I would like to build my product as a brand through inclusion of suggestion given by the customers regarding my product. Whereas if direct marketing is chosen , due to the clutter consumers have stopped paying attention to direct marketing approaches due to too much clutter now. The main disadvantage of direct marketing is that people are reluctant that their information may be provided to other advertisers and they’ll get bombarded with promotions and advertisements. Also when your information is in a database there is no way through which you can opt out the list so that you don’t get any further promotional offers or advertisements. Also due to the clutter now , direct marketing is losing its effect as consumer are reluctant to pay attention to similar offers and ads by many new similar

Blinds to Go Company Essay Example for Free

Blinds to Go Company Essay Executive Summary: The case, based on the company Blinds to Go, emphasizes the importance of staffing in stores as they expand to meet their growth objectives. Being a manufacturer and retailer, with a unique sales model 100% commission based and focus on customer service gave the company an advantage over its competitors. According to the senior management Quality of staff was paramount and hence their original compensation system motivated best performance and fostered a high energy, sales hungry culture at BTG. To attract more recruits for its expansion phase, the management changed the compensation system from full commission to salary on the recommendation of a newly hired vice president. Sales declined and the overall staff turnover increased. Seeing this the company brought back the old culture and experienced a sales turnaround. This shift also caused another huge turnover in stores. A large percentage of voluntary turnover occurred in the first four months. The higher turnover after eight months was partly due to termination because of sales performance. The biggest challenge the company now faced was understaffing. The need for additional staff was further aggravated due to its continued push for growth and the tight US and Canadian labour markets. Another concern to be addressed was that the company had planned for 80 per cent of its expansion in US where the employees preferred the fixed pay than the company’s commission based pay structure. During this period BTG had tried several recruiting methods with varying degrees of success. With an IPO in the pipeline and plans to add on average 50 stores per year for the next five years, it was critical for the company to come up with a staffing strategy with focus on Quality of the staff and low employee turnover. The Company: Blinds To Go (BTG) was a retail fabricator of window dressings. It was started by David Shiller in 1954 in the Cote-des-Neiges district in Montreal, Canada. From the mid 1970s, BTG focussed on the sale of blinds. It was able to create a production system that reduced the delivery time frame of custom blinds from six to eight weeks to 48 hours. The reduced delivery time led to overwhelming customer response and the business flourished. The firm, realising their unique advantage of being a manufacturer and retailer simultaneously, began expansion by opening stores throughout Canada and US. By June 2000, BTG operated 120 corporate owned stores in North America. BTG expected to add 50 stores per year for the next 5 years, 80 percent of which targeted to US expansion stores. BTG’s business philosophy was that quality of staff was cardinal than the store location, customer demographics or advertising. The firm established this by experimenting with a store that was locationally disadvantaged and had declining sales. BTG was able to triple the sales of the said store in one month by deploying their ‘A’ management team and trained staff there. The four staff roles in BTG stores were 1. Sales associate 2. Selling Supervisor 3. Assistant Store manager 4. Store Manager. Sales associates were the junior most employees and their job was to follow a set plan to help walk in customers to make a purchase. Consistent sales performers among them were promoted to selling supervisors, who were assistant store managers in training, or assistant store managers. Assistant store Blinds to Go: Staffing a Retail Expansion Case Analysis SECTION E: Group #5 managers were in charge of the stores in the absence of store managers. The store manager was responsible for overall store operations. The BTG selling process involved a high level of customer interaction, which set a very high level of service expectation. Their emphasis on customer satisfaction and sale closure led to higher volume of orders relative to their retail competition Original Compensation of Retail Staff: The compensation structure at Blinds To Go incentives performance based on number of sales deal closed. The commission based structure fosters the high energy, sales hungry culture at BTG. This structure was believed to be a motivating factor to boost performance. High performers at BTG actually made more money than comparable retail outlet salesman. For Sales Associate the salary structure was a mix of fixed pay and variable pay with $3 $5 comprising of fixed and 3% of sales as variable component. For Managers/Assistants the salary structure was $10,000 $15,000/yr as fixed pay with 1.5% to 3% of overall sales as variable pay. Changes in Compensation Structure – 1996: As per the recommendations from a newly hired Vice President of store operations the compensation structure for the store staff was changed from being fully commission based to salaried. Under the new structure, the sales associated were paid Cdn $8 per hour as a fixed component. For the store managers a higher base salary component as compared to the commissions was set. The main focus of the move was to make the compensation more attractive to the prospective hires. Another change being brought was to limit the involvement of store managers in the sale process. All these changes had an adverse effect on the sales figures which showed a decrease of 10 to 30% from 1996 to 1997. The staff turnover increased to 40% from the earlier 15%. Even thought the new pay structure helped in recruiting more hires, it led to the hiring of lower calibre people. The existing good performers did not appreciate the changes, thus affecting their morale and hence their commitment to sales. To counter this adverse effect, the management introduced a variation of the commission based compensation plan in May 1998. The effect of the change could be seen in the 10 to 30% increase in store sales from the previous year. Still the BTG stores experienced a high employee turnover that year. It was probably because of the employees accustomed to fixed pay were leaving the organisation, being dissatisfied from the commission based structure. Analysis of the employee turnover reflected that the highest no of employees left the firm in the first 4 months from their hiring. Most of the new expansion plans were in US. But the people of US were uncomfortable with the 100% commission based pay structure. Thus there was a requirement in the change to the structure to adapt to the US market. Blinds to Go: Staffing a Retail Expansion Case Analysis SECTION E: Group #5 Channels of Recruitment To be able to attract and recruit people who had certain sales driven qualities, several channels of recruitment were harnessed to fill in the job positions. Since BTG was already understaffed and with massive growth plans (50 stores per year ) lined up, we need to analyse the various pros and cons of the channels of recruitment. Employee Referral: Current staffs refer friends and family to BTG which helped company attract candidates already briefed on the company’s ideology. This channel was very effective which is evident by its highest ratio of leads to hire. The success of the ER scheme was partially due to the fact that referrals generally continued employment excited by the opportunity that the friend or family member who is a BTG employee recounted. Though maximum hiring was effected through this channel yet this alone did not currently satisfy BTG’s hiring needs. Internet Sourcing: This is one of the non-store recruitment channels which BTG used in two ways. First, BTG solicited resumes at its blindstogo.com site. Second, DSM’s and recruiters actively searched online jobs sites like Monster.com to contact potential candidates. Currently 12 out of 143 recruits were through this channel. DSM Compensation Readjustment: DSM’s were mainly responsible for store source of recruitment mainly walk-ins and employee referrals. They had to hire 10 new sales associate every month. Their importance in recruitment process is highlighted by the fact that their salary was based on number of new staff selected rather than on sales targets. Currently 16 out of 143 sales associate were recruited through this channel in past two months. BTG Retail Recruiters: They were professional recruiters who were paid @20000/year with a bonus of $150 -$500 for each successful hire. They generate leads through cold calls, networking referrals, colleges, job fairs, Internet and employment centres. Though they had performed sub- optimally in terms of number of number of new recruits, their training had increased to enable to get in at least 4 new recruits per week. Newspaper Advertising: Newspaper channel generated the maximum number of leads but the senior management believed that this medium did not generate the quality of candidates that BTG needed. This channel attracted more of the people who did not meet the desired skills standard and core values expected by BTG in potential candidates. To be able to meet our desired staff requirements, we believe this channel needs to be harnessed to its full potential and complemented by necessary training to new recruits to enable them to meet company’s performance standards. Store Generated Leads: BTG believed in direct store walk-in mode of recruitment as well. It had put â€Å"help wanted† signs on its windows to attract potential candidates to meet its recruitment needs. But this policy was successful only in densely populated areas with high footfall. HR Strategy: Udofia, Vice Chairman BTG, is looking for a strategy that solves all the major issues currently faced by the company, which would include unstaffed stores, staffing for future expansion and high employee turnover. Following are the steps that could be taken by him to achieve its growth objectives: ï‚ · A Robust Training Module: As mentioned, the quality of staff is extremely important in the retailing business. The crunch in the labor market doesn’t give the company a flexibility to choose Blinds to Go: Staffing a Retail Expansion employees on a strict criterion. A training module would help BTG to relax the criterion and increase the number of selected employees by recruiting people who are trainable. In order to keep a check on the quality of the employees, the company can recruit the employees at a trainee level with a fixed pay. The training would be mostly on the Job led by experienced Store Managers. A review system would help these selected candidates to get promoted as Sales Associate. The initial pay as a trainee would be low. But the incentive to get promoted as Sales Associate would drive them to work and learn quickly. Currently we can see that there are large numbers of people who are attracted by the Newspaper Channel and Internet. But the problem is with this medium is that it didn’t generate quality employee. By a robust training module the company would be able to hire trainable people and give them opportunities on the basis of their performance. The Promotion Structure: A scheduled review and internal promotion structure could be followed which attracts the current employees and increases the retention rate. The review can be conducted on at 2 levels, Sales Performance and Soft skills. A feedback mechanism would help the employees to work on the areas they lag. The review can be scheduled every 8 months and every employee can be given an opportunity to get promoted. The internal promotion structure could be leveraged as a tool to advertise. This would attract people who currently don’t want to join at Sales Associate Level. The promotion structure would also help in filling up the vacancies of Supervisors and Managers. Pay Structure: The pay structure for Sales Associate could be revised in a manner as explained below: According to the current pay structure, a Sales Associate is paid $6-$8 per hour or 6% of sales, whichever higher. Clearly it can be seen that the Marginal and the Poor performers are the once who are enjoying the fixed compensation system. In order to motivate them, fixed + variable compensation could be followed for these below par performers. This structure would demotivate the top performers as there will be a reduction in their salaries. So it would not be the best idea to implement this structure for top performers. A benchmark of $10000/sale/week could be set. This would not only motivate them to perform but the company also would overcome the problem of social loafing. The structure is explained below: Marginal-Poor Performers ($10000-/sales/ week) $3 per hour + 3 % of sales Leadership Program: The highly experiences set of Store Managers could be given an option to join the leadership program. Under this program the Senior Employees would take up the responsibility of the training module and help the company attain the level of quality it requires in its workforce. Their compensation could be based on the rate of conversion of trainees to Sales Associate instead of Sales. Increased Stock Options to senior and experienced Store Managers would give them a feel of ownership in the firm which is what an employee needs after serving an organisation for years.

My Experiences as a Learner :: Personal Narrative Learning Education Papers

My Experiences as a Learner I was in first grade and her name was Sister Carol Anne. She even spelled Anne the same way I spelled my middle name Anne which made her better. She was amazing she had this way of always making everyone in the class feel equal. We never knew who received the high grades and who received the low grades. We all were working "as hard as we could" she would say and that was all that mattered. Sister Carol also had ways of showing us how to help each other out. If a few students didn't get it then the students who did understand would teach the other students. Looking back I'm skeptical because that might unintentionally separate the students into "smart" and "stupid" groups. However, I remember that at some point or another everyone in that class needed help and everyone was able to teach. She exemplified for us that teaching is more helping and guiding instead of ruling and ordering. I think after that class was when I decided I wanted to be a teacher. It wavered on and off throughout my education but it started there in the first grade. The next significant grades I remember were third grade and fourth grade for the teaching style and the classroom atmosphere respectively. In third grade my teacher was Sister Edwardine (in case there is still any confusion I went to Catholic school my entire life.) I remember her specifically because she taught with stuffed animals. We were taught to respect nature and every organism around us, because we are all equal, by using these animals. Everyday, if we behaved, a few students in the class were given an animal to care for and we had to treat it as if it were a real creature. We didn't get to choose our animal however, and I see now how profound her rationale was. She said we didn't get to choose our animals because in life we don't get to choose who is around us in our community and who isn't. She was teaching us that we aren't always going to have the ability to chose who and what surrounds us but we must respect them all for their differences. I remember specifically the day she bought us two new animals. They were a male and female skunk. And when the students gathered to name them a few students starting mocking and calling them insulting names.

Importance of Wearing Your Seatbelt

The reason why wearing a seatbelt is important is because seatbelts are designed to protect, it is the law and statistics prove that wearing a seatbelt is safer than not wearing one at all, and wearing a seatbelt will save a person money on medical bills and related costs due to an accident. Seatbelts are designed to protect drivers and all passengers. A three-point harnessed seatbelt will protect vital internal organs and bones. While properly wearing a seatbelt a person is protecting their ribs, spine, neck and skull.Along with those bones, a person is protecting organs such as their heart and brain. A seatbelt will also protect a person from whiplash. Injuries due to a person not wearing a seatbelt include abdominal injuries (if worn too high), skin abrasions and injuries to the carotid artery, throat and cervical spine. Injuries to the chest, shoulders and ribs are at high risk if not properly wearing a seatbelt. Seatbelts are important when it comes to the law. Although laws on seatbelts vary from state to state, the state of Washington stated that all occupants of a driving vehicle must be properly restrained.The driver is also responsible for making sure any passenger under the age of 16 are properly restrained in all seating positions. Failing to do so will lead to a $124. 00 safety violation fine, no matter what age or where the person is located in the vehicle. Half of the United States charge a $25. 00 violation fee as of May 2010. Statistics prove that wearing a seatbelt is safer than not wearing one at all. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, occupants of a vehicle have a 50% increase of fatal injuries if no seatbelt is worn.Due to car accidents, on average there are 40,000 deaths each year. Of the deaths in children due to not wearing a seatbelt 80% of them could have been avoided by properly restraining the child with a seatbelt. Out of the thousands of people killed each year because of car accidents, 63% of them wer e not wearing a seatbelt. This with no doubt proves that failure to wear a seatbelt leads to more deaths than any other single safety violation. In 2006, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration eported that 15,383 people were saved from fatal injuries becuase of wearing a seatbelt. They also reported in 2008 that 13,250 people with ages ranging from 5 and older were saved by properly wearing a seatbelt. In ages 4 and younger, there were 244 saved lives. They believe that with compliance to seatbelt laws 4,152 lives could have been saved in the same year. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention stated that not only does wearing a seatbelt protect yourself, but also passengers and children.By wearing a seatbelt passengers and children are encouraged to wear seatbelts and are more likely to wear a seatbelt. Medical bills due to an accident from not wearing a seatbelt are increased by 50%. Wearing a seatbelt could have saved more than $585 billion in medical care and rel ated costs since 1975, which was stated by the Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That is why it is important to wear a seatbelt while operating a vehicle. Spc. Cooper, Cody B

Computer Shopper Essay

Technology has evolved and changed throughout history and the world. In the 80’s and even early 90’s, type writers and the mail man were highly relied on when it came to communication. Today when it comes to communication now we have e-mail and text messaging. Presently different professions use computer but with different configurations. So what I did was take three known professions business, student and professional gamer. To describe what functions are needed for their profession. The Student Being a fulltime student takes a lot and requires one to be on point at every task at hand. Having all materials such as paper, books, pens and pencils. Even through textbooks breaks the bank in your pockets. The need for a notebook also known as a laptop is a major requirement. Having a notebook definitely helps a lot in everyday class curriculums. One problem is that once you have your notebook you need software such Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office is a wonderful tool when it comes to creating and reviewing documents. How can you determine what type of notebook to get though? On table 1 below, I have looked into Best Buy, one of America’s top known electronic retail companies, to see what is it that they have to offer to students. I came across Hewart Packard Pavilion A-8 series. This notebook comes with a 500 gigabyte hard drive and 4 gigabytes of memory. The processor is an Intel Celeron 2.1GHz. It is not one of Intels high end processors but for a student, it is definitely at the top of its class. The price provided by Best Buy is $429.99. The Business Man Reports, meetings, reviews, and analysis are the assignments general business men have to complete daily, weekly and/or monthly. But what type of desktop does a business man usually have in his or her office? Some random hand me down desktop provided by the IT Department? I believe so. What if you were your own boss and needed some sort of desktop that can get you  through everyday business. What type would you go for? Generally you want a desktop with a moderate processor, high on memory and a large hard drive to keep all documentation. Below on table 1, I suggested the Dell XPS desktop. Dell is popular nationwide when it comes to businesses and even schools. The Dell XPS provides 1TB of hard drive, 12GB of memory, and on top of that a 3.4 Intel 4th Generation Core. This desktop is an awesome display of business power and priced at $699.99.

BLerah Essay Example

BLerah Essay Example BLerah Paper BLerah Paper As you read Wunderlis Peasant Fires, please keep the following in mind. They will form the basis for our discussion of the book, and your writing assignment will cover the same material. Who was Hans Behem? What is his story, and why is it important? Hans Behem lived in an enchanted world. Explain this statement. What were the characteristics of this world? How did medieval peasants understand time? The supernatural? Why might they have thought this way? What was Carnival? What happened? Why was it necessary? Why was it dangerous? Why was the Carnival of 1476 particularly roblematic? Consider Carnival from the point of view of both the elites and peasants. What was it like to be a peasant in fifteenth-century Germany? Explain the peasant worldview as described by Wunderli. What was the relationship between individuals and communities? How did wealth and resources factor into this relationship? Explain the relationship between institutional and popular religion in fifteenth century society. What prompted the great pilgrimage to Niklashausen? Who went? What did they hope to gain? How did the authorities both secular and eligious react to Hans Behem, his message and those who followed him? Why did they react this way? What are the connections between this material and the plague sources we Just read? How does the story of Hans Behem illustrate the long-term ramifications of the Black Death? As you read Wunderlis Peasant Fires, please keep the following in mind. They will form the basis for our discussion of the book, and your writing assignment will cover the same material. ramifications of the Black Death? As you read Wunderlis Peasant Fires, please keep ramifications of the Black Death?

The Dollar Sign ($) and Underscore (_) in JavaScript

The Dollar Sign ($) and Underscore (_) in JavaScript The  dollar sign ($)  and the  underscore  (_) characters are JavaScript identifiers, which just means that they identify an object in the same way a name would.  The  objects they identify include things such as variables, functions, properties, events, and objects. For this reason, these characters are not treated  the same way as other special symbols. Instead, JavaScript treats  $  and  _  as if they were  letters of the alphabet. A JavaScript identifier  - again, just a name for any object  - must start with a lower or upper case letter, underscore (_), or dollar sign ($); subsequent characters can also include digits (0-9).  Anywhere that an alphabetic character is allowed in JavaScript, 54 possible letters are available: any lowercase letter (a through z), any uppercase letter (A through Z), $ and _. The Dollar ($) Identifier The dollar sign is commonly used as a shortcut to the function document.getElementById(). Because this function is fairly verbose and used frequently in JavaScript, the $ has long been used as its alias, and  many of the libraries available for use with JavaScript create a  $()  function that references an element from the DOM if you pass it the id of that element. There is nothing about $ that requires it to be used this way, however. But it has been the convention, although there is nothing in the language to enforce it. The dollar sign $ was chosen for the function name by the first of these libraries because it is a short one-character word, and $  was least likely to be used by itself as a function name and therefore the least likely to clash with other code in the page. Now multiple libraries are providing their own version of the $() function, so many now provide the option to turn off that definition in order to avoid clashes.   Of course,  you dont need to use a library to be able to use $(). All you need to substitute $() for document.getElementById() is to add a definition of the $() function to your code as follows: function $(x) {return document.getElementById(x);} The Underscore _ Identifier   A convention has also developed regarding the use of _, which is frequently used to preface the name of an objects property or method that is private. This is a quick and easy way to immediately identify a private class member, and it is so widely used, that almost every programmer will recognize it. This is particularly useful in JavaScript since defining fields as private or public is done without the use of the  private and public keywords (at least this is true in the versions of JavaScript used in web browsers - JavaScript 2.0 does allow these keywords). Note that again, as with $, the use of _ is merely a convention and is not enforced by JavaScript itself. As far as JavaScript is concerned, $ and _ are just ordinary letters of the alphabet. Of course, this special treatment of $ and _  applies only within JavaScript itself. When you test for alphabetic characters in the data, they are treated as special characters no different from any of the other special characters.

Design statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Design statement - Essay Example Financially sponsored by the universities, the website of AustraLearn is designed to promote and offer valid information about a total of 31different universities located throughout the Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific free services to interested foreign students. It also offers the prospective students not only long-term courses but also some short-term programs like a semester or a year abroad program, opportunity to participate in a high quality internship in Australia or New Zealand, the January term, or the summer abroad program. In line with this matter, the website provides the viewers the benefits of studying at each of the listed universities. It also accepts enrolment inquiries related to degree offered in each listed universities, the step-by-step application processes, financial aid, student visa, airline tickets, accommodation, etc. promoting only the different universities throughout Australia. Considering that the proposed program segregates all the Australian universities according to the geographical boundaries such as the Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania; there is a higher chance that the viewers would decide to enrol in one of the Australian universities instead of the universities located in other countries. Furthermore, the simplicity of my design might be conducted the students to choose or not Australia as preferred study destination. The goal of this project is to provide the students the opportunity to choose a university based on the standard of teaching, tuition, lodging, the distance away from home, and the courses offered in accordance to their desired future career. From the educational perspective, the program will create a democratic learning environment by giving the students the freedom and opportunity to express their own

MBA Business and Economic Evironment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

MBA Business and Economic Evironment - Essay Example As the interest rates change, so do the spending and saving patterns of the people. When interest rates increase the cost of borrowing money increases and hence people borrow lesser where as when there is a decrease in interest rates people are more inclined to borrowing money because the cost of borrowing is lower. This affects the aggregate demand and aggregate supply of a country because money is the basis of all transactions that take place in an economy and if the cost of borrowing money decreases the money demand in the economy would tend to increase and people will be more inclined to spend that money and hence the aggregate demand would increase and this would lead to more people being employed if the economy is not already operating at optimum level of productivity. On the other if interest rates tend to increase then the cost of borrowing increases and people are not willing to borrow, hence the aggregate demand for the economy would decrease and the would have adverse effe cts on the labor as well. An increase in the interest rates in Australia would definitely have the same effects as well and a decrease in aggregate demand is expected. Industrial point of View: If the interest rates are increasing the cost of borrowing for industries would go sky high because industrialists require huge sums of loans because of the industry and the operations that they need to carry out. A very important decision for the firms is based on the interest rates and their trends, the question is: to expand or not to expand The answer lies with the interest rates, if they are very high then the company might postpone their expansionary plans but if they are lower and within a safe limit then the company can go and expand. This applies to whole industries, if industries expand there would be much more labor required and there would be an increase in employment leading to an increase in aggregate demand. Hence if any government is looking to give a boost to its industrial set up it should take special care when dealing with interest rates because it might charter the course of a whole industry and any industry is important to the economy because it has a lot of oth er units such as labor and exports dependent upon such industries, though some governments have come up with industrial interest rates but still they serve the same function. Exchange Rates: The exchange rates of a country play an integral part in determining where the country is heading in the near future and also has far reaching consequences in policy making. Interest rates play a very important role in determining what a country's exchange rates would be, in fact they are also a tool to tamper with the exchange rates. If the interest rates are increasing in an economy, ceteris paribus, then there would be an inflow of foreign currency into that country because people would want to save their money in that country's banks because that would give them a higher return on their investments, when this takes place the demand for a country's currency on the foreign exchange market increases. On the other hand if the interest rat

Research Methods in Clinical Sciences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Research Methods in Clinical Sciences - Essay Example Depending on the requirements of the research, methodology can be given either qualitative or quantitative approach. Qualitative approach looks at why a certain trend is taking place (Minichiello, Aroni, Timewell, and Alexander, 1995). It explains reasons as to why a certain behavioural pattern is taking a certain shape, and the forces behind that particular trend. Quantitative research on the other hand looks at the magnitude of a specific phenomenon. It is a deductive process that estimates the quantities of the items involved in the study. It measures the extent to which the involved items in the research affect or are affected by other variables in the study. Most scientific research demands for both types of research methodologies as there may be the need to measure the extent to which the variables involved affect each other and the level of relevance for each (Mould, 1998). An investigation into decision making in health professional’s treating traumatically injured Jeh ovah’s Witnesses will demand for a qualitative approach to the investigation. This research involves explanation as to why a healthcare professional needs to take care of the patients’ interests in regard to their cultural and other beliefs. This may not be explained quantitatively as the data will be given a detailed explanation other than providing statistical overview. When a health professional is dealing with a patient, there are decisions that must be made, some of which may be against the beliefs of the patient. The main objective of this professional will be to ensure that the life of the patient is saved at all cost (Grbich, 1999). To have a full insight into the stages that are involved in this process of making decision during treatment, a qualitative method will be the most appropriate approach. French, Reynolds and Swain, (2001) assert that qualitative research into a topic provides a detailed knowledge into the subject matter, especially when it involves question of why a certain activity or action has taken place in a certain manner. 2.0 Annotated Bibliography Menezes MA., 2010. Life on the front line: exploring personal and professional Impacts on healthcare professionals working with fetal anomaly. Ph D Thesis, The University of Melbourne. Web. 9th January, 2012. In this article, the author explains that currently, health professionals are able to conduct both antenatal screening for pregnant women. This process may reveal certain anomalies in the foetus. In case such a professional detects such a case in a patient, then the professional must strive to rescue such a patient because such anomalies may be fatal if not treated in time. The concerned health professional must therefore make a quick decision on how to approach the issue in order to save the patients life. The main objective of the health expert is to save the life of the patient at all cost, irrespective of beliefs of either the health expert or the patient. Journal of Emergency Primary Healthcare: An International e-Journal of Prehospital Care Research, Education, Clinical Practice, Policy and Service Delivery. Web. 9th January, 2012. This article talks about the management of mass casualty events through adoption of grander scale. Most health experts are faced with very many cases of emergency that require urgent attention.

Background and justification of affecting customers loyalty

Background and justification of affecting customers loyalty In todays competitive markets services and service companies within the same industry are becoming increasingly similar. Differentiation through the delivery channel (i.e. delivery of services against payment) is difficult. A growing number of service companies have embarked on a journey of positioning through the communication channel (i.e. advertising and personal selling) (Andreassen, T.   1995), with the objective of building strong corporate images in order to create relative attractiveness. This development is in line with Lovelock (1984) who claims that  «(images).. . are likely to play only a secondary role in customer choice decisions unless competing services are perceived as virtually identical on performance, price, and availability ». Recent years have shown a growing interest in customer loyalty. The globalisation of competition, saturation of markets, and development of information technology have changed customer behavior and perception and created a situation where success is no longer achieved through product price and qualities. Instead, companies build their success on a long-term customer relationship. According to former studies, it can cost as much as 6 times more to win a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. (Rosenberg L. et al. 1984: 45) Depending on the particular industry, it is possible to increase profit by up to 60% after reducing potential migration by 5%. (Reichheld F. 1993) It follows then, that the increase and holding of loyal customers has become a key factor for long-term success of the companies. The main emphasis in marketing has changed from winning new customers to the keeping of existing ones. Traditionally there are two approaches to treat customer loyalty. Some researchers have investigated the nature of different levels of loyalty, others have explored the influence of individual factors on loyalty. In this article both treatments are combined. The starting point of the paper is to test whether the list of most important factors affecting customer loyalty is dependant on the levels of loyalty of costumers. The potential for establishing loyalty depends on the object (i.e. product or vendor), on the subject (customer) or on the environment (market, other suppliers etc.). This work might be rather helpful for both students, interested in developing this field of research and people, who are working in the sphere of marketing, because it may provide with interesting information worth dwelling upon. This topic interests me personally, because to my mind, customers are the turning point of the market. They decide whether to buy a product or to use a service or not, changing the whole picture of market. That is why, I suppose it is rather necessary for industries to pay much attention to the topic of customers loyalty and satisfaction in order to be a success. Chapter 2. Statement of Objectives and Hypothesis to be Examined. This paper aims to test if the importance of each factor affecting loyalty varies in different loyalty segments described in Figure 1, presenting segmentation of customers loyalty. One possibility to investigate it is to compare the customers of different loyalty levels and examine what kind of factors influence the probability of the customers to remain on that level or to move to another loyalty level. Customer loyalty expresses an intended behavior related to the service or the company. This includes the likelihood of future renewal of service contracts, how likely it is that the customer changes his preferences, how likely the customer is to provide positive word-of-mouth opinion. If real alternatives exist or switching barriers are low management discovers the organizations inability to satisfy its customers through two feedback mechanisms: exit and voice (Hirschman A. 1970). Exit implies that the customers stop buying the companys services while voice is customer complaints expressing the consumers dissatisfaction directly to the company. Customers exit or change of patronage will have an impact on the long-term revenue of the company. Customers may be loyal due to high switching barriers or lack of real alternatives. Customers may also be loyal because they are satisfied and thus want to continue the relationship. History has proven that most barriers to exit are limited with regard to durability; companies tend to consider customer satisfaction the only viable strategy in order to keep existing customers. Several authors have found a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and loyalty (Bearden and Teel   1980;Bolton and Drew 1991; Fornell 1992; Anderson and Sullivan 1993). Based on the future discussion, the following two hypotheses are proposed: Hypothesis 1: Factors such as satisfaction, trustworthiness, importance of relationship and image have a positive influence on loyalty. Objective 1: To indicate any relationship between loyalty and such pshycological factors as satisfaction, importance of relationship and others. Hypothesis 2: The relevance of factors affecting loyalty depends on the levels of loyalty of customers. Objective 2: Define and dwell upon the levels of loyalty of customers, examin them. The limitations of my hypothesis questions were shortage of time, because I had to provide results in a relatively short period of time, and money, because true and reliable information was hard and costly to get. Chapter 3. Details of Information/ Data Collection Methods. Research on customer loyalty has a long history and has been studied using a large variety of methods. Although the study of relationship between satisfaction and loyalty of customers is a newer field of research, various methods have been applied to study this   phenomenon as well. Some studies have also been purely conceptual (Stewart 1998; Hocutt 1998). Although qualitative methods seem to dominate in studies of relationship, quantitative methods have also been used. The data used for the analysis is a secondary source. A secondary source usually contains commentary on or discussion about a primary source. The most important feature of secondary sources is that they offer an interpretation of information gathered from primary sources.   I did not use the primary source as it is an original material. It is from the time period involved, was not filtered through interpretation and need much time and knowledge to process it. Demographically, the study had some limitations. Firstly, only urban customers were targeted in the study. This group was chosen due to the fact that urban customers have more available alternativetives and are therefore potentially more active in their telecommunication choices. Methodologically a certain limitation of the study was that some of the interviews were conducted on the telephone. Despite the fact that the interviews were considered to provide a deep and accurate enough picture of the relationships and the factors affecting customer loyalty, it is obvious that interviews face-to-face have the potential to reach greater depth. The data used in our analysis originates from PacoNet Customer Satisfaction Survey carried out in November 2003 by professional market research company. PacoNet is the one of the leading telecommunication provider in Ukraine and was providing telephone and internet services for private customers at that time. There were three kinds of competitors for PacoNet: firms providing telephone services on PacoNet network; cable-TV companies providing internet services on their own networks, and mobile telephone companies. The satisfaction survey contained information about 1000 private customers. Data was collected by phone interviews. During the survey the customers were asked how important various factors were for them. The importance was measured on a 5-point scale, where â€Å"1† is â€Å"not important at all† and â€Å"5† is â€Å"very important†. Every factor listed above was divided into 3 to 7 subcategories (e.g. accounting had subcategories like the accuracy and understandability of bills, dept management, availability of different payment methods). Satisfaction with the factors reveals from the satisfaction with those subcategories. Additionally customers answered about their general satisfaction with the firm PacoNet. The satisfaction was also measured on a 5-point scale, where â€Å"1† is â€Å"not satisfied at all† and â€Å"5† is â€Å"very satisfied†. Customer loyalty was measured by following questions: What operators are the customers using right now? What operators will the customers use in 2 years? Does the customer recommend or is the customer ready to recommend PacoNet to others? Chapter 4. Details of Data Analysis Methods In the current analysis only the raw data of mentioned survey was used. Software packages MS Excel 2000 and Stata 9.2 have been used by PacoNet for data processing, because Microsoft Excel is a deep program rich in features and functionality. One of the most powerful features of Excel is the ability to write programs that run behind the worksheets to turn Excel into a calculation-oriented development tool for creating special purpose spreadsheets which can function as applications in their own right. Chapter 5. Literature Review There are multiple approaches to customer loyalty. Theories of behavioral loyalty were dominating until 1970 considering loyalty as the function of the share of total purchases (Cunningham R. 1956; Farley J. 1964), function of buying frequency or buying pattern (Tucker 1964; Sheth 1968) or function of buying probability (Harary F. et al. 1962; McConnell D. 1968; Wernerfelt B. 1991). These approaches looked at brand loyalty in terms of outcomes   rather than reasons, until Day G. (1969) introduced the two-dimensional concept of brand loyalty, which stated that loyalty should be evaluated with both behavioral and attitudinal criteria. Contemporary researches consider and accent the psychological (mostly attitudinal and emotional) factor of loyalty (Jacoby J. et al. 1973; Oliver R. 1999; Chaudury A. 1995). These different approaches allow distinguishing customers as whether behaviorally or emotionally loyal. Behaviorally loyal customers act loyal but have no emotional bond with the brand or the supplier when emotionally loyal customers do. Jones T. and Sasser W. call these two kind of loyalty accordingly false or true long-term loyalty (Jones T. et al. 1995). Hofmeyr J. and Rice B. (2000) divide customers to loyal (behavioral) or committed (emotional). Emotional loyalty is much stronger and longer lasting than behavioral loyalty. Its a lasting desire to maintain a valued relationship. The relationship is so important for the customer that he or she makes maximum efforts to keep it (Reichheld F. 2003; Moorman C. et al. 1992). Highly bonded customers will buy repeatedly from a provider to which they are bonded, recommend that provider to others, and strongly defend these choices to others insisting that they have chosen the â€Å"best† product or service. (Butz H. et al. 1996) Behaviorally loyal customers could be divided to sub-segments by the reason of acting: forced to be loyal, loyal due to passivity or functionally loyal. Customers are forced to be loyal when they have to be clients even if they do not want to. Customers may be forced to consume certain products or products/services offered by certain vendor e.g. when the company acts as a monopoly or the poor financial status of the customer is limiting his selection of goods. Gronholdt L. has found that companies with low price strategy had a much higher loyalty than expected from their customer satisfaction. On the other hand, companies that had used a lot of energy on branding indeed had a high customer satisfaction but they did not have a correspondingly high loyalty (Gronholdt L. et al. 2000). Forced loyalty could be established through creating exit barriers as well. Loyal behaviour may also result from passivity customer does not move to another vendor due to comfort or relatively low importance of operation if the choice has low importance, there is no point to spend time and effort on searching for alternatives. Thus, based on his faith in the suitability of the current product, the customer continues to use it without checking alternatives. Hofmeyr J. and Rice B. (2000) say that one of the reasons that customers dont switch brands when they are dissatisfied is that they feel that the alternatives are just as bad as the brand they are using or even worse. Passivity may be caused also by lack of information about attractive characteristics of the brands (Wernerfelt B. 1991). Functionally loyal customers are loyal because they have an objective reason to be. Wernerfelt B. (1991) points out â€Å"cost-based brand loyalty† where brand utilities have a positive influence on brand choice. Functional loyalty can be created by functional values using price, quality, distribution, usage convenience of a product or through different loyalty programs (points, coupons, games, draws etc.) giving a concrete reason to prefer certain supplier. Unfortunately competitors can most easily copy functional values. Thus, creating functional value offers a fleeting competitive advantage: functional loyalty cant be very long lasting (Barnes J. 2003). Jones T. and Sasser W. (1995) propose three measures of loyalty that could be used in segmentation by loyalty: Customers primary behavior regency, frequency and amount of purchase; Customers secondary behavior customer referrals, approval and spreading the word; Customers intent to repurchase is the customer ready to repurchase in the future. Based on the theoretical literature presented above, the customers of a certain telecommunication provider could be segmented by their loyalty as follows: Committed or emotionally loyal customers active customers who use only the certain providers services and declare that they will use only this provider in the future and recommend this provider to others; Behaviorally loyal customers active customers who use only the certain providers services and declare that they will use only this provider in the future but do not agree to recommend this provider to others (inert or functionally loyal); Contradictory or dubious customers active customers who use only the certain providers services but dont know which provider they will use in the future; Disloyal reducers- customers who have reduced or will reduce the percentage of the providers services in their usage; Leavers customers who declare, that they will certainly leave this provider. The impact of satisfaction on loyalty has been the most popular subject of studies. Several studies have revealed that there exists a direct connection between satisfaction and loyalty: satisfied customers become loyal and dissatisfied customers move to another vendor (Heskett J. et al. 1993). The primary objective of creating ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) in 1984 was to explain the development of customer loyalty. In ACSI model customer satisfaction has three antecedents: perceived quality, perceived value and customer expectations (Anderson E. et al. 2000). In the ECSI (European Customer Satisfaction Index) model perceived quality is divided into two elements: â€Å"hard ware†, which consists of the quality of the product or service attributes, and â€Å"human ware†, which represents the associated customer interactive elements in service, i.e. the personal behaviour and atmosphere of the service environment (Gronholdt L. et al. 2000). In both model increased satisfaction should increase customer loyalty. When the satisfaction is low customers have the option to exit (e.g. going to a competitor) or express their complaints. Researches have shown that 60-80% of customers who turned to a competitor said they were satisfied or very satisfied on t he survey just prior to their defection (Reichheld F. et al. 2000). So its clear that there must be also other factors beside satisfaction that have a certain impact on customer loyalty. Image of brand or supplier is one of the most complex factors. It affects loyalty at least in two ways. Firstly, customer may use his preferences to present his own image. That may occur both in conscious and subconscious level. According to the Belks theory of extended self, people define themselves by the possessions they have, manage or create (Belk R. 1988). Aaker J. has shown how consumers prefer brands with personality traits that are corresponding with the personality traits that constitute their selfschemas (Aaker J. 1999). Kim C., Han D. and Park S. have researched the link between brand personality and loyalty. They did get positive support to hypothesis that the attractiveness of the brand personality indirectly affects brand loyalty (Kim C. et al. 2001). Tidwell P. and Horgan D. (1993) have showed that people use products to enhance self-image. Secondly, according to social identity theory, people tend to classify themselves into different social categories. That leads to evaluation of objectives and values in various groups and organisations in comparison with the customers own values and objectives. They prefer partners who share similar objectives and values (Ashforth B. et al. 2001). Fournier S. (1998) states that consumer-brand relationships are more a matter of perceived goal compatibility. Brands cohere into systems that consumers create not only to aid living but also to give meanings to their lives. Oliver R. (1999) argues that for fully bonded loyalty the consumable must be part of the consumers self-identity and his or her social-identity. Trustworthiness of the partner is a factor that has certain impact on the establishment of loyalty nobody expects a long-term relation with a partner that cannot be trusted. Trustworthiness is one criterion for measuring the value of the partner (Doney P. et al. 1997). Spekman R. (1988) calls trust a cornerstone of the strategic partnership. Morgan R. and Hunt S. (1994) posit that trust is a major determinant of relationship commitment: brand trust leads to brand loyalty because trust creates exchange relationships that are highly valued. Chauduri A. and Holbrook M. (2001) have showed that brand trust is directly related to both purchase and attitudinal loyalty. Many authors have accented that trust is important in conditions of uncertainty (Moorman C. et al. 1992; Doney P. et al. 1997; Morgan R. et al. 1994). Uncertainty may be caused by dependence or large choice: people tend then to prefer popular or familiar brands or partners. Many definitions describe loyalty as a desire to retain a valuable or important relationship (Morgan R. et al 1994; Moorman C. et al. 1992). That way the establishment of loyalty is predetermined by the importance of relevant relationship or selection. Weiss A. (2001) points out three aspects that may increase the importance of the relationship: strategic importance of a product; high risks involved in the transaction or costs incurred by cancellation of contracts. Hofmeyr J. and Rice B. point out that the more important the relationship is to a person, the more willing that person is to tolerate dissatisfaction in favour of trying to fix it. By contrast, when a relationship doesnt matter, then even the perfectly satisfied consumer can switch on to another product (Hofmeyr J. et al. 2000). A relationship can also be made important by personal approach. Various authors have compared loyalty with marriage (Lewitt T. . 1983; Dwyer F. et al. 1987; Gummeson E. 1998; Hofmeyr J. et al. 2000). Marriage is one of the most personal and important relationships. That means that intimacy is one determinant for importance of relationship. Lewitt T. (1983) has considered a role of salesman in making relationship more personal. Summarising the discussion above following figure   is presenting the major groups of factors affecting customer loyalty. The present study focused purely on customer perception of the relationship and the factors that have affected it and their loyalty or disloyalty. A useful extension of the study would be to couple such a study of how the service provider perceives the relationship and factors affecting customer loyalty or disloyalty. This would add factors such as customer profitability to the study, making it possible to focus on factors affecting customers that are most attractive to the company. In such a study, the customers and providers views on the relationship would be combined. As a result, one would identify potential gaps in the companys knowledge of the customer and also be able to eliminate potential misconceptions. Chapter 6. Chapter Outline. Presented work is built up of 8 chapters, dwelling upon the customers loyalty. Each chapter gives clear information on subtopics, which are logically combined to provide the reader with sufficient facts to understand the flow of the research. The first chapter is dealing with the background and justification for selection of the topic. Since customer loyalty is something more of what an enterprise must get from the customer, it is a very productive research product for the companies. As opposed to what the name suggests, is not just something that the customer has to build towards the enterprise. It is not just the customer who is being loyal to the company in the progress but also the company that has to maintain its loyalty to the customer The second chapter presents the hypothesis questions, which are being examined through the whole work. I come out with two hypothesis, which are as follows: Hypothesis 1: Factors such as satisfaction, trustworthiness, importance of relationship and image have a positive influence on loyalty; and Hypothesis 2: The relevance of factors affecting loyalty depends on the levels of loyalty of customers. The third and forth chapters puts light on the research methodology I have used to process the data and come to conclusions. I took into consideration secondary data, which originates from PacoNet Customer Satisfaction Survey carried out in November 2003 by professional market research company. Two software packages MS Excel 2000 and Stata 9.2 have been used for data processing and presenting the results of the research. In this chapter I also dwell upon the limitations of the research, which consists of time limitation, budget limitation, as well as demographical and methodological. The fifth chapter gives perception of the theory used for the thesis. It informs us, that theories of behavioral loyalty were dominating until 1970 considering loyalty as the function of the share of total purchases (Cunningham R. 1956; Farley J. 1964), function of buying frequency or buying pattern (Tucker W. 1964) or function of buying probability (Harary F. et al. 1962;). Contemporary researches consider and accent the psychological (mostly attitudinal and emotional) factor of loyalty (Jacoby J. et al. 1973; Oliver R. 1999; Chaudury A. 1995). These and other researches were used as a base for my own research proposal. And the last, sixth chapter provides with a brief outline of the research proposal stages. Having developed the hypothesis questions, and done a literature review we come to the conclusion that the findings of the present study reveal that it is not accurate to treat all customers equally in terms of methods of increasing their loyalty. The research supports the research proposition that the list of most important factors affecting loyalty is dependant on the level of loyalty of consumers. The overall satisfaction and importance of products build the foundation of any kind of loyalty. It shows also that reliability of products or trustworthiness of the supplier is most critical for behavioral loyalists and the image creation is the main tool for getting loyal customers. Therefore many factors were derived indirectly and with certain limitations, and they may lack some qualities considered in the theoretical part. There are multiple ways for further development of the model, but first there is need to elaborate reliable questionnaires for collecting the source data. There are several factors for building a customers loyalty which I could recommend. It is very important to communicate. Whether it is an email newsletter, monthly flier, a reminder card for a tune up, or a holiday greeting card, it is nice to reach out to a steady customers.   Another pleasant way is to provide customer service, to go the extra distance and meet customer needs, because customers remember being treated well. It is also very important to provide with employee loyalty. Loyalty works from the top down. If a boss is loyal to his employees, they will feel positively about their jobs and pass that loyalty along to the customers. Employee training should also be used, training them in the manner that to interact with customers. It is also of great advice to give customers a reason to return to the industrys business. For example, because children outgrow shoes quickly, the owner of a childrens shoe store might offer a card that makes the tenth pair of shoes half price. Likewise, a dentist may give a free cleaning to anyone who has seen him regularly for five years. It is also important to have products awareness, knowing what a steady customer purchase and keep these items in stock. It is possible to add other products and/or services that accompany or compliment the products that regular customers buy regularly. The reliability of the vendor is highly appreciated. If they say a purchase will arrive on Wednesday, they should deliver it on Wednesday. If something goes wrong, they should let customers know immediately and compensate them for their inconvenience. Vendors should be flexible, trying to solve customers problems or complaints to the best of their ability.

Business Assignment :: essays research papers

Business Name Business Address Line 1 Business Address Line 2 Dear Business Name: Over the past 50 years, your company has been a loyal supporter of the Morris County Senior Center. The contributions that we have received from your company have helped this center grow in many ways. Because of your support, we have been able to help Morris County’s Senior Citizens feel like they were young again. Recently, our non-profit organization has run into some financial concerns. The vans that we use to transport our guests are old and run down. Because of this, certain measures have occurred to the disappointment of our guests. Here at the Center, we serve the needs of Morris County’s 1,000 Senior Citizens. It is the only place where they can meet their peers, use a special library, avoid extreme weather and get a well-balanced meal. Most individuals come here by way of our bus system. These buses are used for various day trips to museums, plays, and similar functions. Occasionally they are used to transport the temporarily disabled to the doctors or pharmacists. As I’m sure you have heard, recent state and federal cutbacks have dug into our organizations budget. Also, two of our largest supporters have taken their companies else where which has also taken a cut out of our budget. Here at the center we have under taken this special fundraiser to raise the costs of purchasing three new buses. We figure total costs to be $84,000. This figure includes estimates on ho much the center could gain from selling the old vans. According to our estimates, the purchase of these new vans will be a much better investment than continually fix our existing vans which right now is costing us $300 a week.

Mobile phones Essay

Consumers have when choosing between different mobile phone brands. The study was built upon six key attributes (telephone features, connection fee, access cost, mobile-to-mobile phone rates, call rates and free calls) related to mobile phone purchasing respondents had to importance rate. The research showed that consumers with prior experience about a product can predict their choices relatively well, although respondents tended to overestimate the importance of features, call rates and free calls and underestimate the importance of a monthly access fee, mobile-to-mobile phones rates and the connection fee. 1.Demographic factors have an influence on the evaluations of different attributes related to mobile phone choice. Specifically, gender and social class will impact on the evaluations of the attributes as men belonging to higher social class seem to be more technology savvy. 2.Consumers value personal time planning properties in the choice of new mobile phones. Consumers value in smart phones features that enhance their personal time planning (e.g., Jones, 2002). These high-rated features include calendar and e-mail services .However, while synchronization of calendar and e-mail services to PCs has become easy and fast, the importance of time planning in mobile phones becomes more and more important. 3.New technical properties increase consumer willingness to acquire new phone models. Another important aspect that has risen from different studies is that consumers purchase new phones due to the fact that their existing one’s capacity is not appropriate referring to the idea that new technology features such as built-in cameras, better memory, radio, more developed messaging services, and color displays are influencing consumer decisions to acquire new models. Thus it can be expected that new features will influence the intention to acquire new mobile phones. 4.When choosing between different mobile phone models, consumers value larger screen size but the whole phone should be small enough and light to carry in pocket. 5.When choosing between different mobile phone models, consumers value familiar brands. Price of the phone has been identified as a critical factor in the choice of the mobile phone model, especially among younger people. besides new technological advances price is the most influential factor affecting the choice of a new mobile phone model. In addition, it seems that size and brand play to some extent an important role in decision making. Liu (2002) for instance surveyed Asian mobile phone users and found that size of the phone had no impact on mobile phone choice, but this finding might be due to the fact that all competing brands have quite similar sized phones that are small enough. Liu continues that the trend will actually be not towards smaller phones but towards phones with better capability and larger screens. While companies are advertising new models and services that do not yet exist, it according to the paper signals to the market that the company is at the cutting edge of technology and shows what will be available in the very near future. The sales of new phones will then be driven by replacement rather than adoption.

The essay is about the game of baseball

The essay is about the game of baseball. It covers basic rules and terms applied in baseball. Each paragraph of the paper describes a particular issue of a game such a field structure, the process of the game itself, the role of each team-player, and the general goal of the game.The essay is structured in such a way that gives a comprehensive and consequent picture of what is baseball about.This work is a definition essay on a team game baseball. Americans had played bat-and-ball games for decades when, in 1845, Alexander Cartwright of New York devised the rules that created modern baseball. Cartwright’s game quickly became popular with young clerks and urban craftsmen. By 1860, baseball had spread throughout the Northeast, and by 1870 to the rest of the nation. Now, baseball is a game made up of two teams of nine players each on a baseball field.There are four bases – points which must be touched by a runner in order to score a run. Numbered counter-clockwise, first, s econd and third bases are cushions, sometimes informally referred to as bags, shaped as 15  in (38  cm) squares which are raised a short distance above the ground; together with home plate, the fourth â€Å"base†, they form a square with sides of 90  ft (27.4  m) called the diamond. Home base (plate) is a pentagonal rubber slab known as simply home. The playing field is divided into three main sections:(a)  Ã‚  Ã‚   The infield, containing the four bases, is for general defensive purposes bounded by the foul lines and within the grass line.(b)  Ã‚   The outfield is the grassed area beyond the infield grass line between the foul lines, and bounded by a wall or fence.(c)  Ã‚  Ã‚   Foul territory is the entire area outside the foul lines.The game is played in nine innings in which each team gets one turn to bat and try to score runs while the other pitches and defends in the field. An inning is broken up into two halves in which the away team bats in the top (first ) half, and the home team bats in the bottom (second) half.In baseball, the defense always has the ball — a fact that differentiates it from most other team sports. The teams switch every time the defending team gets three players of the batting team out.The winner is the team with the most runs after nine innings. If the home team is ahead after the top of the ninth, play does not continue into the bottom half. In the case of a tie, additional innings are played until one team comes out ahead at the end of an inning. If the home team takes the lead anytime during the bottom of the ninth or of any inning thereafter, play stops and the home team is declared the winner.The basic contest is always between the pitcher for the fielding team, and a batter. The pitcher throws — pitches —the ball towards home plate, where the catcher for the fielding team waits (in a crouched stance) to receive it. Behind the catcher stands the home plate umpire.The batter stands in one of the batter’s boxes and tries to hit the ball with a bat. The pitcher must keep one foot in contact with the top or front of the pitcher’s rubber — a 24†³ x 6†³ (~ 61 cm x 15 cm) plate located atop the pitcher’s mound — during the entire pitch, so he can only take one step backward and one forward in delivering the ball.The catcher’s job is to receive any pitches that the batter does not hit and to ‘call’ the game by a series of hand movements that signal to the pitcher what pitch to throw and where. If the pitcher disagrees with the call, he will ‘shake off’ the catcher by shaking his head; he accepts the sign by nodding. Each team has a different set of signals, though the number 1 is almost universal as a fast ball.The catcher’s role becomes more crucial depending on how the game is going, and how the pitcher responds to a given situation. Each pitch begins a new play, which might consist of n othing more than the pitch itself.Each half-inning, the goal of the defending team is to get three members of the other team out. A player who is out must leave the field and wait for his next turn at bat. There are many ways to get batters and baserunners out; some of the most common are catching a batted ball in the air, tag outs, force outs, and strikeouts.After the fielding team has put out three players from the opposing team, that half of the inning is over and the team in the field and the team at bat switch places; there is no upper limit to the number that may bat in rotation before three outs are recorded. Going through the entire order in an inning is referred to as â€Å"batting around†. It is indicative of a high scoring inning. A complete inning consists of each opposing side having a turn (three outs) on offense.The goal of the team at bat is to score more runs than the opposition; a player may do so only by batting, then becoming a base runner, touching all th e bases in order (via one or more plays), and finally touching home plate. To that end, the goal of each batter is to enable baserunners to score or to become a baserunner himself.The batter attempts to hit the ball into fair territory — between the baselines — in such a way that the defending players cannot get them or the baserunners out. In general, the pitcher attempts to prevent this by pitching the ball in such a way that the batter cannot hit it cleanly or, ideally, at all.A baserunner who successfully touches home plate after touching all previous bases in order scores a run. In an enclosed field, a fair ball hit over the fence on the fly is normally an automatic home run, which entitles the batter and all runners to touch all the bases and score. A home run hit with all bases occupied (‘bases loaded’) is called a grand slam.Referencesâ€Å"Baseball† Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball Accessed 25 April 2007.â€Å"Baseball rulles† Available from www.ncaa.org/library/rules/2003/baseball_rules.pdf Accessed 25 April 2007.