Female or Male Teachers – Argumentative Essay

Argumentative essay on male and female teachers In deciding if female teachers are better than male teachers, number of discussions and arguments for and against the topic should be examined. As the advancement in learning and education increases more qualified and experienced teachers are needed. These qualified and experienced teachers can be males or females but the question that whether female or male teachers are better still remains unanswered.The argument shows the point why there are more female teachers, advantages of male and female teachers and whether female teachers are better than male teachers. As a group more females are drawn towards careers like teaching. Taking example of a pre-school or elementary school a 2006 study shows that preschool and elementary school children are taught by 75 percent more female than male teachers.Historically, there have always been more women than men going into the education field. In 2006, the National Education Association released m en accounted for less than 25 percent of all teachers in United States public schools. The National Education Association survey showed that more men than women stated that salary is a significant factor in them pursuing other, often more profitable careers than teaching. Still there are many advantages of a male teacher.Teacher Cadet EssaySome studies show that boys learn more from male teachers, boys were less likely to be seen as disruptive in a class with a male teacher and male teachers are more likely to include games and competition in their teaching methods. The advantages of a female teacher include many aspects as well. Girls learn best from female teachers, women often teach in ways that may fit girls better such as sitting at desks and using worksheets for learning. More female teachers than male expect a quiet and orderly classroom, which girls appreciate.In the middle and high school years, students will probably have a few male teachers. Both males and females bring d ifferent approaches and techniques to learning styles. Experiencing both male and female teachers may be best for students so that they can experience the advantages that both genders bring to the classroom. But still many students may have contradictions to how male teachers teach and that many students may not be able to express their views to male teachers so most students end up being educated by primarily female teachers. -Arhama Kamran Female or Male Teachers – Argumentative Essay Argumentative essay on male and female teachers In deciding if female teachers are better than male teachers, number of discussions and arguments for and against the topic should be examined. As the advancement in learning and education increases more qualified and experienced teachers are needed. These qualified and experienced teachers can be males or females but the question that whether female or male teachers are better still remains unanswered.The argument shows the point why there are more female teachers, advantages of male and female teachers and whether female teachers are better than male teachers. As a group more females are drawn towards careers like teaching. Taking example of a pre-school or elementary school a 2006 study shows that preschool and elementary school children are taught by 75 percent more female than male teachers.Historically, there have always been more women than men going into the education field. In 2006, the National Education Association released m en accounted for less than 25 percent of all teachers in United States public schools. The National Education Association survey showed that more men than women stated that salary is a significant factor in them pursuing other, often more profitable careers than teaching. Still there are many advantages of a male teacher.Teacher Cadet EssaySome studies show that boys learn more from male teachers, boys were less likely to be seen as disruptive in a class with a male teacher and male teachers are more likely to include games and competition in their teaching methods. The advantages of a female teacher include many aspects as well. Girls learn best from female teachers, women often teach in ways that may fit girls better such as sitting at desks and using worksheets for learning. More female teachers than male expect a quiet and orderly classroom, which girls appreciate.In the middle and high school years, students will probably have a few male teachers. Both males and females bring d ifferent approaches and techniques to learning styles. Experiencing both male and female teachers may be best for students so that they can experience the advantages that both genders bring to the classroom. But still many students may have contradictions to how male teachers teach and that many students may not be able to express their views to male teachers so most students end up being educated by primarily female teachers. -Arhama Kamran

Pacific Grove

Question 1: Based on the company’s forecasted financial statements, can the company quickly comply with the banks requirements? It depends on what you consider quickly. If the deadline is to only to have a plan ready by June 30th, 2012 then it looks like they can come pretty close without implementing any major changes. Just by following their expected future growth plans they will almost reach the requirements of the bank within 4 years. Using the information provided from their forecasted financials, by 2015 Pacific Grove will reach a 55% ratio of interest/bearing debt to total assets and their equity multiplier will be 2. 7. (See Exhibit 1) Depending on how stringent the bank is this may not be quick enough of a timeline or progressive enough of a plan. If they want these figures lowered to the required levels by 2012 then Pacific Grove must do something more aggressive reduce interest bearing debt levels. The company should explore ways to reduce its need for working capit al financing. They should see if there are ways of improving their supply chain efficiency and forecasting so that they can reduce their inventory levels.They should look to negotiate with suppliers to reduce the rate they are paying for inventory. Pacific Grove should also see if they can extend the length of their accounts payable. Even if they have to pay a slight price premium, if the rate(APR) is less than what the banks are charging them in interest, it could help to both save money and reduce their capital needs. They should also see if they can adjust the credit policy terms with their customers to shorten the number of days before payment.By reducing receivables and increasing payables they should be able to reduce their financing needs from the bank in notes payable and thus lower their interest-bearing debt. It is unlikely that even with changes in working capital structure they will be able to reduce their debt within a year. Raising funds by selling common stock to pay- off some of their interest bearing debt may be necessary in order to quickly comply with the banks requirements. My suggestion however would be to acquire the other company which has better debt structure.When the two companies are financial are combined Pacific Groves ratios will be under those required by the bank. Exhibit 1: 2. Should the new television program be produced and sponsored by Pacific Grove Spice? If yes how the necessary investment should be financed? I would say no. At first glance the new investment looks good. The upside of the investment is that it would increase the company’s sales, profits, and cash flow above their currently expected levels. Despite this upside it also significantly increases the yearly net working capital investment.The additional funds needed to pay for additional working capital means that the project has negative cash flow for both year 0 and year 1. Pacific Grove would really need to borrow or raise a total $2,573,118 to initially start and fund the venture before positive project cash flows start. If we are only looking at the financial implications of investing in the company using the expected IRR and NPV we may be fooled into thinking this new television program would be a great investment. Even if our WACC were 20%, we can expect the NPV of the project to be $1,716,414.When we look at discounted payback, however, we see that at a WACC of 20% the project payback period would be a little over 4 years and even the simple payback period is 3 years (see exhibit 2). This demonstrates that there is significant risk that the project investments may not be paid off, especially if actual performance is worse than expected. The most important issue currently facing the company is to reduce its interesting bearing debt so that it can continue to receive financing from the bank to support operations and growth.Investing in a project with a payback period of 3 years or longer would not be a wise decision as it would initially raise the level of interest bearing debt unless funded through the selling of equity. Although there may be some synergies between the television network and Pacific Grove which could help to promote their brand, it may also take away needed focus from their core business and lead to a poorer performance and erosion of its competitive position in the market.Pacific Grove’s lack of experience and knowledge about producing a television show add to the level of risk of the project. If they were confident that the investment will work the only viable option to raise capital while not increasing debt would be to sell shares in the company. This may not please current shareholders as they would face dilution in both the value of their shares and their percentage of ownership in the company. Exhibit 2: 3. Should the company issue new common stock to the external investment group?No, I don’t think they should issue the stock. If they decide to issue shares they will lose some percentage of their company control. In fact, Peterson and the Founders will go from controlling a total of 32% of the company to only 23. 8% meaning that the investment group would actually have more control of the company than the founders at 25. 6%. (See exhibit3) Although the share price will only drop slightly to $31. 30, the dilution of shares and drop in stock price may displease current shareholders.The market may respond by the further selling off of existing shares dropping the stock price more and further hurting the company’s financial status. Another problem with issuing the common stock is that although it will provide access to capital which they can use to pay off interest bearing debt If the bank requires the company to lowers its debt levels within the next year and no other banks are willing to lend, then issuing the common stock may be seem like the only viable option to quickly meet the bank’s lending requirements.I would argue, however, that acquiring High Country Seasoning company would be a better choice as it will also resolve the debt issues while also providing other synergies and not lowering the stock price of the company. Exhibit 3: 4. Should Pacific Group Spice acquire High Country Seasonings? Yes. Acquiring High Country Seasoning would help to do several things. First because of the company’s better financial debt structure will improve Pacific Spice Groups overall debt structure upon merging.The deal would not require the issuance of debt and would not lower the company’s current stock price. The two companies also operate in the same business line. This should help them to become a stronger player in the market by capturing more market share in the industry. There should be some cost savings because of economies of scales and the ability to leverage both companies’ assets. The only question remaining is whether the purchase price is greater than the estimated value of the company. E xhibit 4: Exhibit 5:

Capital Budgeting Of New Heritage Doll Company †Free Samples

The report is about New Heritage Doll Company which started its operations in the year 1985. The company has three segments i.e. retailing, production and licensing. Among the three the production segment is the most asset rich of all. The sale composition of the company comprised of 75% sales to the retailing segment of the company and the rest 25% came from manufacturing private label goods. Currently the Vice President of the company Emily Harris has been faced with the challenge of evaluating two proposals i.e. Match my Doll Clothing Line Expansion and Design your Own Doll[1]. In order to ascertain which proposal has to be selected Emily has to present her choice coupled with detailed analysis of the reasons for not choosing the other one. This would require assessment of both financial and non-financial aspects of the project’s future performance and profitability. Every project proposal shows some kind of symptoms of failure or problems. These symptoms prove to be the nerves of the future performance appraisal of the project. Careful study of these symptoms can help Emily decide the project that has to put forward for acceptance. The symptoms showed by the two proposals ae as follows: The brand manager Marcy McAdams is hurrying into the implementation and execution of the project. The project also requires huge amount of marketing and R&D outlay which suggests that the project has inherent risk of unacceptance in case it is executed without proper research and development and intensive marketing.  Ã‚  Ã‚   In this proposal the symptoms showed include complete change in the technological outlay of the organisation, webhosting capacity and immense modification will be needed in respect of third party service agreements entered into by the company. The root cause behind the symptoms help in realisation of the challenges in the implementation of the proposed project from the point of view of the profitability and various other factors.   The root causes of the problems of the proposals are as follows: In this case the implementation has to happen very quickly because of the changing trends in the tastes and preferences of the children. The immense marketing has to be undertaken in order to stay ahead of the competitors as this is easier proposal from the point of execution as it doesn’t require heavy capital expenditure in terms of new machinery or technology etc[2]. The company is not fully unaware about the execution of the proposal as it has already been executed in a smaller previously by the company. The reason for the complete change in the technological outlay is because the changes made by the customer as per his desires to the doll are dependent upon how well the software is designed. The webhosting capacity has to be increased as it must be accessible to every customer whenever they want. A large number of customers may log in at the same time which might cause technical problems in the future. This is one of the major and basic requirements of the proposal. This can prove to be a major deterrent in terms of the flexibility of the organisation in response to the changes taking place in the technological field. From the quantitative analysis conducted it is seen that the net present value of the Match my doll proposal is way higher than that of the Design my doll. This objectively suggests the choice to be made in terms of the profitability of the business. The management should proceed with the first proposal[3]. While conducting the quantitative analysis due consideration has been given on the various factors like the working capital requirement of the proposal, the capital expenditure of the project and the projected operating profits from the project in the future. The calculation of NPV, IRR, Payback period and profitability are provided in the Appendix. The decision for the best investment project have been made after factoring in all the relevant calculations. Based on the calculations it can be said that the Match My Doll proposal is the best available option for the company. In order to conduct the qualitative analysis the requirements of both the proposals must be understood objectively. The first proposal requires huge marketing for its success. But, it must be kept in mind that one of the variant of the design my doll is already time tested in the past when it consisted of the some accessories for the warm weather. This shows that the project despite not much requirement for changing the operational structure of the organisation can prove to be successful. On the other hand design my doll requires complete change of the operational structure of the organisation especially in the field of technology used by it[4]. The fixed cost per unit of the products thus produced by the entity will rise along with the complexity of the manufacturing process. The proposal not only requires the company to change its way of operation but also requires it to take the risk of losing its loyal old customers and in addition to that it will be compelled to charge higher pr ice from its customers. It is recommended that the first proposal is accepted due to profitability as well as organisational reasons. The second proposal cannot be selected because its net present value of inflows is significantly lower than the first proposal and also it demands immense amount of organisational change both in the field of capital expenditure and the technological requirement. Almazan, Andres, Zhaohui Chen, and Sheridan Titman. "Firm Investment and Stakeholder Choices: A Top?Down Theory of Capital Budgeting."  The Journal of Finance  (2017). Burns, Richard, and Joe Walker. "Capital budgeting surveys: the future is now." (2015). Chittenden, Francis, and Mohsen Derregia. "Uncertainty, irreversibility and the use of ‘rules of thumb’in capital budgeting."  The British   Accounting Review  47, no. 3 (2015): 225-236. Johnson, Nicole Bastian, and Thomas Pfeiffer. "Capital budgeting and divisional performance measurement."  Foundations and Trends ® in   Accounting 10, no. 1 (2016): 1-100.

Child Abuse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Child Abuse - Essay Example ‘Child neglect’ or ‘child abuse’ is an ambiguous and all-encompassing term used to describe actions perpetrated by parents on children which are universally deemed harmful by society and as defined by law. Many degrees of child neglect exist within two main categories, emotional/psychological and physical. Historically speaking, child neglect is a relatively new concept and its meaning is in a constant state of evolution. Until the early nineteenth century, child neglect was more or less a way of life, especially for poor children. The terminology may be a new concept but the practice is long-lived. Throughout the history of mankind, children have been abandoned, killed, mutilated, kidnapped, raped, jailed and otherwise exploited in various ways. For example, children during colonial times in America were regularly beaten with whips because this practice was thought an important aspect of instilling discipline. Until the early nineteenth century, very young children regularly were forced to work more than 12 hours a day, six or seven days per week in mills, factories and mines (Daro, 1988). At the time, neither whipping nor forced labor was considered child abuse or neglect and children had no recourse but to endure what today would be considered horrific living conditions. Largely because of the labor movement in the mid-1900s, many states enacted laws that defined child neglect, required health car e workers to report suspected neglect cases and outline punishment for offenders (McCurdy & Daro, 1994). Congress gave a formal definition to neglect and stipulated actions states must take so that children would be protected from abuses when it ratified the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act in 1974. Many influences determine whether a child may be considered ‘at risk’ for neglect. The personality and past experiences of the parent, the family’s economic

THE EFFECTS OF OBESITY ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE Research Paper

THE EFFECTS OF OBESITY ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE - Research Paper Example TomyprofessorshereatStrayerUniversity,Iwouldliketoespeciallythankyou. OurCampusDean,Dr.TeresaGreenwoodhasbeennotonlyagreatprofessorbutagoodrolemodelineducation.Ithankyouforyouradvice,suggestions,conversationsand leadershiphereatStrayerUniversity.Yourteachingandleadershipstyleshavebeenmotivatingtopursuearoleineducatingouryouthoftoday.ToDr.Bretanthanksfor yoursupportandfriendship.Ireallyhaveenjoyedyourteachingsandfellowship.Yourapproachtoeducationhasbeenimpressiveandfulfillingduringmytimeinallofyour classeshereatStrayerUniversity.ToJ?r.Jordan,BassandGoldstein,thanksforallof yourteachingsandleadershipthathavebeensatisfyingandrewardingintheEducation ManagementprogramhereatStrayerUniversitysince2010.Finally,thankstoallfaculty andstaffmembersyouallhavebeeninstrumentalinthisendeavor. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...1 Context of the Problem†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..4 Statement of problem †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.5 Significance of the study†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦6 Research questions...†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...6 M ethodology †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦.....7 Organization of the study †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦8 Reference†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...10 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Related to the wellbeing of children, childhood obesity is one of main issues these days in almost every part of the world. This medical condition adversely affects the mental and physical health of children, as well as their level of self-confidence.On academic lev el, it puts an unpleasant impact on the mind and confidence of obesity children because of which they usually do not show good academic performances (Sabia, 2007, p. 871). In developed countries, childhood obesity has become a serious health concern (Dehghan, Akhtar-Danesh,& Merchant, 2005). Obese children usually do not perform well in their studies because they feel inferiority complex when their peers make fun of them. Their level of confidence and self-esteem go down as the result which makes them unable to talk to their teachers and peers in a confident way. It is obvious that at school level, children are not as mentally mature as they get when they grow up. So they do not have any idea whether they are doing a good act by laughing at a comparatively fat fellow or not. They laugh at him/her, make fun, and call him/her by improper names because of which the confidence level of the targeted fellow goes down and he/she becomes unable to cope with the situation. This results in ma king the child self-conscious and less focused towards studies. Moreover, obese children feel low due to such situations because of which

The common drivers contributing to employee satisfaction at a later Dissertation

The common drivers contributing to employee satisfaction at a later stage in Hong Kong - Dissertation Example Primary data has been collected by the researcher through questionnaire from employees that are at their later part of their career. This data has been analysed by the researcher using regression analysis and correlation techniques. The findings of the research study have revealed that recognition is the most important factor that can be helpful in increasing the employee satisfaction level. Compensation has been found as the second most important factor. Other factors such as job longevity and identity also have a positive impact on employee satisfaction though these are not as important as the other two. Table of Contents Abstract 1 1. INTRODUCTION 4 1.1. Background Information: 4 1.2. Research Problem: 4 1.3. Purpose of the Study: 4 1.4. Significance of the Study: 4 1.5. Research Questions: 5 1.6. Scope of the Study: 5 1.7. Dissertation Outline: 5 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 7 2.1. Introduction: 7 2.2. What is Employee Satisfaction? 7 2.3. Factors that Lead to Employee Satisfaction: 8 2. 4. Work Satisfaction and Gender 11 2.5. Work Satisfaction and Age 12 2.6. Job Satisfaction Theories 14 2.6.1. Content theories 15 2.6.2. Process Theories 22 2.7. Relationship between Employee Satisfaction and Performance: 26 2.9. Summary: 28 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: 29 3.1. Introduction: 29 3.2. Research Objective: 29 3.3. Purpose of Research: 30 3.4. Research Approach 31 3.5. Research Strategy 31 3.6. Research Method 32 3.7. Conceptual Framework 33 3.8. Variables under Investigation: 33 3.8.1. Dependent Variable: 34 3.8.2. Independent Variables 34 3.9. Collection of Data 34 3.9.1. Sources of Data 35 3.9.2. Population Selection: 36 3.9.3. Sample Method Selection   36 3.9.4. Sample Method   36 3.10. Hypothesis 36 3.11. Ethical Issues 37 3.12. Data Analysis: 38 3.14. Limitations 39 3.15. Summary 39 4. DATA DESCRIPTION 41 4.1. Analysis of ‘Questionnaire for Employees’ 41 4.2. Analysis of Questionnaire for Managers 50 5. DATA ANALYSIS 60 5.1. Introduction: 60 5.2. Analy sing the Data Using Regression Analysis 60 Analysing each of the independent variable one by one 60 Analysing all the independent variables at the same time 67 5.3. Summary 75 6. DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS 76 6.1. Introduction 76 6.2. Discussion 76 6.3. Conclusion 76 6.4. Recommendations 78 6.5. Contributions 78 6.6. Limitations 78 6.7. Further study 79 List of References 80 APPENDIX A 89 APPENDIX B 94 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background Information: An individual or a person passes from different phases or stages during his or her whole career. It is important to acknowledge here that the level of employee satisfaction and motivation is different at different phases of careers. There can be different factors responsible for the difference in the level of the employee satisfaction and motivation at different phases of careers. It is important for the HR mangers and organisations to identify the factors which contribute to the employee satisfaction at different phases of careers (Ulrich and Brockbank, 2005). This research study will explore and investigate the factors responsible for the employee satisfaction at later stage of their career in Hong Kong. 1.2. Research Problem: The research problem which will be investigated in this research study is related to the factors and elements which are responsible for motivating and satisfying the employees at the later stage of their careers. It is im

Exam Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Exam - Assignment Example Dependency theory sees the world in the perspective of making poor nations or countries poorer, and enriching those that are already rich and wealthy. In other words, the inequality of countries across the world results in dominance by wealthy nations over poor nations. For example, developing countries like those in Latin America depend on the developed ones for aid among other things. With this, the developed economies deplete African resources in the name of the aids provided. The integration of weak economies is unfair relative to weak and string economies or countries in the world system. Trade agreement between the United States and Latin America would be seen as a means for United States to exploit Latin America. In the modernization theory, trade agreement between the United States and Latin America would be seen in a whole new perspective. The agreement would be treated as a bid to enhance economic relations between United States and Latin America. The move would be welcome in business and commerce terms relative to international interdependency that is based on the fact that no single nation is self-sufficient. On the other hand, the third way would see this agreement as a trail towards optimizing the welfare of both nations, in the consideration of their differences. Emerging economies like China are threatening the position of other strong nations in the world. Realism and liberalism would treat China’s rise in a global context. That is to say that China’s mode of interaction with the rest of the world would be evaluated in a global context. Given that China is more oriented towards a socialist political system, its position in realism would be characterized by the concept relations that only benefits China, a scenario that is likely to influence close associates of China like Brazil. On the other hand, liberalism would view China as a rather static nation in reforms, due to its high urge

Health Care Crisis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Health Care Crisis - Research Paper Example Each country has some rules and regulations that govern the health care system and they have to be adhered to. The universal health care has three tasks in each member of the society. It covers the following in every individual. The first one is the person who is to be covered with the system. Secondly, the services that the system has to offer to that person. Lastly, the total cost when carrying the person. In most developed countries, the universal health coverage is of much helpful to the residents. This has been made true, by the primary funds the government of these countries gets through the local residents. The government imposes tax to the residents and this becomes revenue to the country and which ensures that the country’s health care system achieves its goals. Also, some countries get funds the merchants and private sectors. The Soviet Union was the first one to establish the health care system in early 1937 and it was well redistributed towards its rural areas. Despite that America is among the wealthiest countries in the planet, it does not have universal health coverage unlike other developed countries. This is true because of some reasons or rather facts that have hindered America from diversifying its economy from universal health coverage which is a bit cheaper. Historically, the United States has never had a labor party which becomes successful. The low income earners in the United States were able to buy in most parts of the country. Land mobility was also encouraged and the middle class were also able to own the properties. This led to totally acquiring free land or quasi free land in most parts of the America. Consequently, a large number of the middle working class owned land in the United States, unlike in most parts of the planet where the land was owned by rich people. This resulted in failure of the labor party since there was no need of one voice to push for equity among the America’s

Marketing Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Marketing - Term Paper Example This is supposed to give women that watch their weight an opportunity not to eat more than they need to stay fit and easily control their weight. In addition, while previously sold 100-calorie packages will continue being present in the market, the newer option is 130- and 150-calorie portions. The decision to increase the number of calories in a portion is, according to the author, based on a number of studies that reported that a 100-calorie pack was usually not enough for one snack. At the same time, it is worth noting that the brand has 85 percent brand recognition. Since it is a great competitive advantage of the brand, the owner company is using it again to raise sales of newly developed products. Furthermore, good brand awareness will be of a great help to SnackWell in the process of product repositioning. The decision to go with the relatively old but well-established brand will help to company to reach its target audience faster. Though pretty much of resources will be spent on product repositioning, the business will save on building brand recognition, since it already exists. In general, it can be said that these actions are based on the concepts of market segmentation, targeting and positioning, all of which are some of the most important elements of effective marketing. Market segmentation, in this case, serves as a basis for targeting a specific group of existing and potential customers.

Unresolved Issues in The Odyssey Essay Example for Free

Unresolved Issues in The Odyssey Essay Homer would never have willingly chosen to end the Odyssey at book 23, line 343. The Odyssey cannot be concluded here because Odysseus has not finished everything he set out to do and the reader is left hanging. At this point in the book Odysseus is still facing the threat of repercussion for his actions. Until Odysseuss rule is secure, the ending is unsatisfying. It is also not possible for the Odyssey to have an entirely happy ending if Odysseus isnt brought together with his father, Laertes, who has mourned him throughout his long absence. One of Odysseuss main incentives for returning home is that he wishes to be reunited with his father, Laertes. Odysseus learns to appreciate the value of home and family even more during his long journey. When speaking of his desire to go back to Ithaca while he is still in Phaiakia, Odysseus asks, Where shall a man find sweetness to surpass his own home and his parents? (book 9 line 34-36). If the book ends before Odysseus has reveals himself to his father, then Odysseuss goal of seeing his family again has not been completely fulfilled. His father is consumed with grief about his missing son. Laertes is not taking care of himself at all; he is sick and emaciated from sleeping on the ground in the mud and not eating. In the hierarchical mindset I dont think you could leave the king (Laertes is still king until he dies) or a father in that condition and not face wrath from the gods. The Greeks had tremendous amounts of respect for elder family members and it doesnt make sense that Odysseus, who is supposed to be extremely generous, would let his father suffer after he returned home- its too cruel. In terms of number of pages the journey home is not really that big or significant, while ousting the suitors and restoring right at home is huge. The focus of the book is on what Odysseus did once he got home to accomplish that goal- rather then how he got to Ithaca itself. Odysseus comes home, and murders the suitors, but that only resolves some of his problems. He still has the families of the suitors to contend with, for there is a very good chance that the Akhaians will not accept Odysseus as king again after he has murdered a good number of the high-ranking men in town. Before the book ends, it is essential that Odysseus make peace with the families of the suitors and reunite with his father, Laertes. If the Odyssey were to end while Odysseuss power was still in question the main goal would not be accomplished, and the book would be incomplete.

Areva Est Un Groupe French Essay

Areva Est Un Groupe French Essay Areva est un groupe franà §ais qui figure parmi les leaders mondiaux de là ©nergie nuclà ©aire. Il rà ©sulte de la fusion, en septembre 2001, de CEA Industrie, Framatome et Cogema. Cotà © sur le marchà © de lEuronext Paris, Areva est composà © de quatre principaux domaines dactività ©s qui sont: le pà ´le amont (extraction et enrichissement duranium), le pà ´le aval (recyclage des combustibles nuclà ©aires), le pà ´le rà ©acteur et services (construction de rà ©acteur nuclà ©aire et services au combustible) et jusquà   rà ©cemment, le pà ´le TD (transmission et distribution dà ©lectricità ©) sur lequel porte notre à ©tude. En analysant les relations entre la stratà ©gie globale du groupe et la dà ©cision de cà ©der le pà ´le TD, puis en à ©tudiant le contexte (performance de lentreprise†¦) nous aurons alors une meilleure comprà ©hension de la dà ©cision prise. Areva dispose de compà ©tences et dun savoir faire de trà ¨s haut niveau dans son secteur, rà ©sultat de plus de 60 ans dhistoire de là ©lectronuclà ©aire franà §ais. Le groupe a pour ambition dà ªtre à   la fois le fournisseur mondial dinfrastructures nuclà ©aires mais à ©galement du combustible nà ©cessaire à   lexploitation de ces infrastructures, ainsi que des services attachà ©s à   ce combustible. Anne Lauvergeon, Prà ©sidente du groupe, compare dailleurs volontiers parfois sa stratà ©gie avec celle de Nespresso, sous-entendant que les bà ©nà ©fices viennent en grande partie de lactività © combustible. La structure intà ©grà ©e des actività ©s dAreva, de la mine au retraitement en passant par la construction de rà ©acteurs est un avantage indà ©niable par rapport à   ses concurrents. Implantà © dans plus de cent pays, les actività ©s à   linternational dAreva ont une place importante dans la stratà ©gie de croissance du groupe, en sappuyant principalement sur la renaissance du nuclà ©aire qui a lieu actuellement, et, jusquà   la cession, sur les actività ©s de TD. Lanalyse du capital dAreva permet de mieux mesurer les enjeux: LEtat franà §ais dà ©tient environ 86% des fonds propres. Cette structure de capital peut apparaà ®tre comme contraignante pour le dà ©veloppement du groupe, lEtat nà ©tant pas autorisà ©, par exemple, et ce en raison de la là ©gislation europà ©enne, à   financer les investissements et laccroissement en capital. La sortie inattendue de Siemens du capital, les retards sur le chantier de construction du rà ©acteur Finlandais, la nà ©cessità © de dà ©velopper le groupe et de conquà ©rir de nouveaux marchà ©s, amà ¨nent, daprà ¨s les experts, à   des besoins estimà ©s à   environ 12 milliards dEuros dici 2015. Ces besoins sont une des raisons qui ont incità © là ©tat à   cà ©der le pà ´le TD à   Alstom pour 4 milliards dEuros et à   rà ©flà ©chir à   une ouverture et augmentation du capital. Certains analystes ont affichà © un doute quant à   la pertinence de cette cession, lactività © TD reprà ©sentant environ 45% du rà ©sultat dAreva et sappuyant sur un rà ©seau international dense. La Prà ©sidente, elle-mà ªme, ne souhaitait pas cette session. LEtat, quant à   lui, actionnaire principal, a avancà © la nà ©cessità © de fonds propres et de recentrage des actività ©s autour du nuclà ©aire. La dà ©cision prise par le gouvernement de vendre la branche TD nous semble donc pertinente eu à ©gard au contexte: la France est experte en nuclà ©aire et souhaite conserver cet avantage en permettant à   Areva de conquà ©rir de nouveaux marchà ©s, à   lexport notamment. Le besoin de capitaux est nà ©cessaire, TD nest pas dans le cÅ“ur de mà ©tier dAreva, et cette dà ©cision vient en cohà ©rence avec dautres dà ©cisions: augmentation du capital prà ©vue, ouverture à   de nouveaux investisseurs, objectif de hausse des dividendes†¦ Introduction Lentreprise que nous avons choisi dà ©tudier est AREVA.Areva est un des leaders mondiaux sur le marchà © de la production à ©nergà ©tique nuclà ©aire. Plus particulià ¨rement nous avons choisi de nous intà ©resser à   la dà ©cision stratà ©gique de cession dune de ses filiales, Areva TD (Transmission et Distribution). Cette cession, dà ©cidà ©e courant 2009, a à ©tà © effective dà ©but 2010. Alstom et Schneider, seront les nouveaux proprià ©taires de cette filiale, pour un montant estimà © à   4 milliards deuros. La vente de cette branche dactività © dAreva a fait couler beaucoup dencre, en effet de nombreux observateurs ont soulignà © lincongruità © pour lentreprise de se sà ©parer de sa  «vache à   lait » de TD, qui reprà ©sentait plus de 30% des ventes rà ©alisà ©es par AREVA en 2008[1] et les difficultà ©s que pourrait rencontrer le Groupe dans le futur. Cette vente, largement impulsà ©e par lactionnaire majoritaire dAreva, lEtat Franà §ais, nà ©tait pas souhaità ©e par le directoire dAreva, et par sa prà ©sidente, Anne Lauvergeon. Son caractà ¨re  «prà ©cipità ©Ã‚ » sexplique en grande partie par la sortie brutale de Siemens du capital dAreva NP, la filiale dAreva spà ©cialisà ©e dans la construction de rà ©acteurs et lapprovisionnement en combustible, contraignant Areva au rachat de ces parts. Nà ©anmoins il convient de sinterroger sur le bien fondà © de cette dà ©cision, et notamment de sa cohà ©rence avec lensemble de la stratà ©gie dAreva. Pour cela nous dà ©terminerons dans un premier temps les caractà ©ristiques de lentreprise Areva, puis nous tenterons de dà ©finir les enjeux du secteur sur lequel se trouve lentreprise, avant de nous interroger sur la cohà ©rence de cette dà ©cision. I Areva, un leader sur le secteur de lenergie A/ Prà ©sentation gà ©nerale du groupe et de sa stratà ©gie Prà ©sentation generale Le groupe Areva se dà ©finie comme  «lun des leaders mondiaux des solutions pour la production dà ©nergie sans CO ²Ã‚ » (daprà ¨s le document de rà ©fà ©rence 2009 de lentreprise) et il exerce ses actività ©s sur un secteur en plein essor: le marchà © porteur de là ©nergie. Il a su dà ©velopper des compà ©tences et un savoir faire particulier ce qui fait de lui  «un acteur de rà ©fà ©rence, au cÅ“ur des enjeux à ©nergà ©tiques. » Ses actività ©s concernent là ©nergie nuclà ©aire (construction de rà ©acteurs, exploitation nuclà ©aire, transport des matià ¨res radioactives) ainsi que les à ©nergies renouvelables (à ©oliennes) et le transport de là ©lectricità ©. Ce large portefeuille dactività © est le principal atout du groupe puisquen à ©tant prà ©sent sur toute la chaine du cycle nuclà ©aire il peut proposer à   ses clients des offres uniques à   chaque à ©tape de la chaine de valeur et des services associà ©s pour amà ©liorer lefficacità © à ©nergà ©tique des rà ©seaux et respecter lenvironnement. Sa prà ©sidente est Anne Lauvergeon depuis la crà ©ation de la socià ©tà © en 2001. Areva emploie 47817 personnes dans les actività ©s nuclà ©aires et renouvelables, le groupe est fortement implantà © à   linternational. En 2009, son chiffre daffaires consolidà © sest à ©levà © à   8 529 millions deuros et son rà ©sultat net à   552 millions deuros. La stratà ©gie globale du groupe Pour illustrer la stratà ©gie gà ©nà ©rale du groupe nous pouvons reprendre le propos de sa prà ©sidente dans une interview du 10 juillet 2008 pour le magazine Challenges:  «Luranium est un des à ©là ©ments moteurs de notre succà ¨s. Notre modà ¨le, cest Nespresso: nous vendons les cafetià ¨res, et le cafà © qui va avec. Et le cafà ©, cest trà ¨s rentable. Ainsi en Chine, nous avons vendu deux à ®lots nuclà ©aires, plus 35% de la production dUranium, dont nous sommes proprià ©taires. Cela illustre notre modà ¨le intà ©grà ©Ã‚ ». Grà ¢ce à   ce modà ¨le dintà ©gration verticale, le groupe peut anticiper les besoins du marchà ©, satisfaire au mieux la demande et ainsi avoir une longueur davance sur ses concurrents. Sa stratà ©gie est de proposer des offres multiproduits/multiservices innovantes et adaptà ©es aux nouvelles attentes des clients. Il a de plus une parfaite maitrise technologique (reconnue sur lensemble de la filià ¨re) qui sappuie sur 50 ans de recherche, des dà ©penses en RD importantes, des procà ©dà ©s proprià ©taires et des rà ©acteurs de nouvelles gà ©nà ©ration; si bien que pour lannà ©e 2009 son carnet de commande sà ©value à   prà ¨s de 43302 millions deuros. Sur le marchà © du nuclà ©aire, Areva est lun des seuls acteurs complà ¨tement intà ©grà © sur toutes les actività ©s du cycle du combustible et de la construction de centrales nuclà ©aires; il a donc a à ©tablie sa stratà ©gie sur une vision du nuclà ©aire civil à   lhorizon 2030. Dà ¨s 2006, le groupe a engagà © un programme dinvestissements importants pour lui permettre de saisir les opportunità ©s de marchà © lià ©es à   la renaissance du nuclà ©aire dans les diffà ©rents pays et ainsi conforter son statut dacteur de rà ©fà ©rence dans ce domaine. La maitrise de la chaine des approvisionnements en composants critiques par exemple est lun des facteurs clà ©s de succà ¨s pour le groupe. Avec la croissance du nuclà ©aire, Areva a aussi pour objectif de sà ©curiser le cycle du combustible pour ses clients actuels et futurs, ainsi que de trouver des solutions durables pour la gestion du combustible usà ©. AREVA dispose dans ce domaine dune avance majeure, puisque le groupe a dà ©veloppà © une technologie qui permet de recycler 96 % des matià ¨res contenues dans les combustibles usà ©s et de les valoriser sous forme de combustible. Ensuite, fort des synergies entre le nuclà ©aire et les à ©nergies renouvelables, le groupe souhaite dà ©velopper une large gamme de solutions dans les à ©nergies renouvelables puisquil en a lexpertise technique et que ce secteur est en plein essor. Pour mettre en Å“uvre sa stratà ©gie, Areva sappuie sur plusieurs facteurs incontournables:  § Le capital humain: en 2009, le groupe a recrutà © 12675 personnes.  § La RD: 6% du CA en moyenne depuis 2005  § Les investissements industriels: Sur la pà ©riode 2010 -2012, AREVA prà ©voit une dà ©pense de 6,5 milliards deuros dinvestissements (hors acquisitions).  § Les partenariats stratà ©giques: ils apportent leur savoir faire et leur technicità © et leur connaissance des marchà ©s locaux B/ Les Domaines dactività ©s stratà ©giques Areva, possà ¨de plusieurs domaines dactività ©s stratà ©giques, tous relià ©s au secteur de là ©nergie. Ces actività ©s se dà ©composent en 4 pà ´les eux-mà ªmes dà ©coupà ©s en business unit.  § Le pà ´le Amont: extraction et enrichissement duranium  § Le pà ´le Aval: recyclage des combustibles nuclà ©aires  § Le pà ´le rà ©acteurs et services: construction de rà ©acteurs nuclà ©aires  § Le pà ´le transmission et distribution dà ©lectricità ©: fabrication et installation dà ©quipements. Le pà ´le Amont: produire du combustible Cette actività © regroupe lensemble des mà ©tiers situà ©s en amont de la chaine de la production dà ©lectricità © dorigine nuclà ©aire. Il a rà ©alisà © un CA de prà ¨s de 3,47milliards deuros en 2009 (prà ¨s des deux tiers en Europe) et permet au groupe de croitre davantage. On peut distinguer plusieurs sous actività ©sou business unit: Mines: la recherche, lextraction et la concentration duranium (mines exploità ©es au Canada, au Niger et au Kazakhstan)à   25% du CA en 2009 du pà ´le Amont Chimie: La conversion en hexafluorure duranium (chimie)à   7% du CA Enrichissement: les services denrichissement duraniumà   34% du CA Combustible: les actività ©s de conception et de production du combustible nuclà ©aireà   34% Reprà ©sentant 41% du CA total dAreva en 2009, le modà ¨le à ©conomique de ce pà ´le est basà © sur de lourds investissements à   long terme et repose sur « la capacità © à   offrir tous les produits et services nà ©cessaires à   lalimentation des centrales nuclà ©aires. » Areva est lun des leaders mondiaux de lamont du cycle nuclà ©aire. Le pà ´le rà ©acteurs et services Ce pà ´le consiste à   concevoir et à   fabriquer des rà ©acteurs nuclà ©aires de 2à ¨me gà ©nà ©ration (rà ©acteurs à   eau sous pression et rà ©acteurs à   eau bouillante) et des rà ©acteurs REP de 3à ¨me gà ©nà ©ration. Areva produit aussi des rà ©acteurs à   propulsion navale et des rà ©acteurs de recherche. A cela sajoute les actività ©s de services de maintenance et des actività ©s dà ©dià ©es aux à ©nergies renouvelables (ex: fabrication dà ©oliennes). Il rà ©alise en 2009 un CA de 3418 millions deuros soit environ 40% du CA dAreva. On distingue 7 business unit: Les rà ©acteurs (41% du CA du pà ´le) Les services nuclà ©aires (24%) Areva TA (12%) Equipements (9%) Mesures nuclà ©aires (5%) Conseils et systà ¨me dinformation (4%) Energies renouvelables (5%) Les rà ©acteurs dAREVA sont implantà ©s dans les principales rà ©gions du monde : Europe occidentale, Amà ©riques, Chine, Corà ©e du Sud et Afrique du Sud. Ses principaux concurrents sont des groupes comme Westinghouse/Toshiba ou General Electric/ Hitachi. Lallemand Siemens dà ©tient 34% du capital de la filiale Areva NP qui se charge de la fabrication des rà ©acteurs civils. Or celui-ci a annoncà © quil souhaitait revendre progressivement ses parts pour sallier avec le russe Atomenergoprom ce qui pourrait mettre Areva en difficultà © puisque ce DAS lui rapporte 40% du CA en 2009 Areva a voulu à ©largir son offre avec le business unit  «Ãƒ ©nergies renouvelables » et se dà ©veloppe dans là ©olien, les bioà ©nergies (centrales à   biomasses et à   biogaz clà © en main) En 2010 le groupe acquiert la socià ©tà © Ausra spà ©cialisà ©e dans les technologies du solaire thermique de concentration et cela lui permet de devenir un acteur majeur dans le domaine des à ©nergies renouvelables, et proposer à   ses clients des centrales solaires compà ©titives et efficaces. Le pà ´le Aval: gestion des combustibles Il rà ©alise en 2009 un CA de 1,637 milliard deuros contre 1,692 en 2008. Il reprà ©sente 19% du CA du groupe et concerne toutes les actività ©s lià ©es au traitement et au recyclage des combustibles usà ©s: cest-à  -dire la rà ©cupà ©ration et valorisation des dà ©chets duranium et de plutonium en mà ©langes doxyde, la fabrication de rà ©servoirs de stockage des dà ©chets, lassainissement des sites†¦ Il y a 5 business unit: Traitement et recyclage: cette BU rà ©cupà ¨re les matià ¨res valorisables (uranium et plutonium) des combustibles usà ©s afin de les recycler sous une autre forme de combustible à   61% du CA de lactività © Valorisation: Cest lorganisation de lassainissement des à ©quipements et installations, dà ©mantà ¨lement des sites à   14 % Logistique: transport et emballage des dà ©chets nuclà ©airesà   15% Assainissement: maintenance dinstallations, dà ©contamination et dà ©mantà ¨lement des sites à  7% Ingà ©nierie: assister les opà ©rateurs nuclà ©aires dans là ©volution de leurs installations à  2% Le groupe grà ¢ce à   ce DAS possà ¨de un avantage compà ©titif particulià ¨rement important (contexte de rà ©duction de lempreinte nuclà ©aire et de lacceptation du nuclà ©aire par le grand public) en lui permettant dà ªtre leader mondial sur cette partie du cycle nuclà ©aire. En effet, lintà ©rà ªt de cette actività © rà ©side dans le fait que le recyclage du combustible usà © contribue à   à ©conomiser les ressources naturelles en uranium. De plus, il facilite la gestion des dà ©chets radioactifs en rà ©duisant significativement leur volume et leur radio-toxicità ©. Plusieurs pays, qui souhaitent lancer un programme à ©lectronuclà ©aire ambitieux, se tournent vers la technologie du recyclage, Areva apparait donc comme lacteur incontournable. Dans ce domaine, les procà ©dà ©s technologiques mis en Å“uvre par Areva ont atteint leur maturità © industrielle et permettent doffrir aux clients des conditions commerciales compà ©titives. Le pà ´le TD Il propose des systà ¨mes permettant le transport dà ©lectricità © (moyenne et haute tension) du lieu de production vers le client final. En outre Areva installe des systà ¨mes complets et fournie des services adaptà ©s à   chaque segment de marchà © (transmission, distribution et industrie à ©lectro-intensive). Les solutions proposà ©es par le pà ´le permettent de faire fonctionner les rà ©seaux à ©lectriques de manià ¨re fiable, stable tout en respectant lenvironnement. On peut dà ©composer ce pà ´le en 4 business unit: Produit: la conception et fabrication de produits de moyenne et haute tension pour acheminer là ©lectricità © de la centrale jusquaux utilisateursà  55% du CA Systà ¨mes: linstallation de systà ¨mes à ©lectroniques et informatiques lià ©s à   la gestion des rà ©seauxà  30 % Automation: la fabrication et linstallation de sources de pilotage en temps rà ©el des rà ©seaux à ©lectroniquesà  9% Services: assistance aux clients, maintenance et de rà ©parationà  6 % du CA Ce domaine dactività © stratà ©gique dAreva contribue à   faire de la socià ©tà © un leader sur le marchà ©. Depuis 2004, là ©quipe dirigeante dAREVA TD a mis en Å“uvre des plans damà ©lioration sur 3 ans, qui ont contribuà © au repositionnement de lentreprise. En effet, la marge dexploitation dAREVA TD est passà ©e de 3,2 % en 2004 à   7,4 % en 2009 Ce pà ´le a rà ©alisà © un CA en 2009 de 5,474 milliards deuros, mais bien quà ©tant lactività ©  «vache à   lait » du groupe, il est actuellement en cours de cession. Cest le pà ´le le plus internationalisà © du groupe avec plus de 60% du CA du pà ´le rà ©alisà © hors de lEurope. C/ Linternationalisation Dà ¨s la crà ©ation dAREVA, lobjectif du groupe à ©tait de devenir un leader mondial dans ses mà ©tiers et dassurer une prà ©sence internationale sur tous les mà ©tiers du nuclà ©aire. Le groupe a donc dà ©veloppà © une stratà ©gie dinternationalisation afin de bà ©nà ©ficier dune base de clients à ©largie et simplanter au niveau mondial. Aujourdhui AREVA est un groupe mondial avec une prà ©sence commerciale dans plus de 100 pays et qui ne cesse de se dà ©velopper. Le groupe AREVA dans le monde Source: www.areva.com En Europe, AREVA est vite devenu un leader dans ses mà ©tiers. Cette fusion a permis au groupe de faire directement face à   la concurrence mondiale, notamment celle dAsie et dAmà ©rique du Nord. Le groupe AREVA a donc dabord utilisà © une stratà ©gie de croissance de fusion avant de pouvoir lancer son internationalisation. Aujourdhui les perspectives de croissance en Europe sont assez positives. Le marchà © du nuclà ©aire continue de se dà ©velopper en Europe de lOuest et des projets sont en cours de prà ©paration en Europe de lEst. Le marchà © des à ©nergies renouvelables est aussi en pleine croissance grà ¢ce à   la volontà © de lUnion Europà ©enne de dà ©velopper ce type dà ©nergie. La zone Europe reprà ©sente 57% du chiffre daffaires du groupe en 2008. En Amà ©rique du Nord, limplantation a commencà © avec lacquisition de la socià ©tà © amà ©ricaine Canberra et puis Duke Engineering en 2002, qui renforce la position dAREVA en tant que pilier dans le secteur de là ©nergie. La stratà ©gie à ©tait donc de simplanter rapidement afin de pà ©nà ©trer le marchà © efficacement. Cependant, cette stratà ©gie peut à ªtre critiquà ©e car une implantation aussi rapide nà ©cessite des frais dintà ©gration en termes de construction de culture dentreprise et de business model cohà ©rent dans tout le groupe. Aujourdhui le chiffre daffaires dans la zone Amà ©rique est en là ©gà ¨re baisse mais les perspectives de croissance sont positives, notamment sur le marchà © des à ©nergies renouvelables avec les marchà ©s de la bioà ©nergie en forte expansion au Brà ©sil. La zone Amà ©rique correspond à   14, 7 % du chiffre daffaires total en 2008. Dans la zone Asie et Pacifique, le groupe AREVA possà ¨de 11 sites industriels, une usine quil dà ©tient à   100%. De plus, le groupe a mis en place des partenariats avec des entreprises locales, appelà ©es  «co-entreprises ». Cette stratà ©gie est assez cohà ©rente à ©tant donnà ©, quAREVA cherchait à   pà ©nà ©trer le marchà © Asiatique assez rapidement et les partenariats avec des entreprises locales vont permettre au groupe de mieux cerner les enjeux et les habitudes culturelles de travailler dans cette zone et dans ce secteur. Le marchà © Asiatique a une taille trà ¨s importante, lInde et la Chine sont des pays avec de forte consommation en à ©nergie. La Corà ©e du Sud et le Japon dà ©veloppent la construction de centrale nuclà ©aire. Par ailleurs, le marchà © des à ©nergies renouvelables est aussi en dà ©veloppement dans cette zone, avec la volontà © des gouvernements de favoriser la bioà ©nergie, le solaire et la fibre hydrogà ¨ne. La zone Asie et P acifique reprà ©sente 19,5% du chiffres daffaires total en 2008. Le groupe AREVA est aussi prà ©sent dans la zone Afrique et Moyen-Orient et intervient majoritairement dans les actività ©s des Business Groups Mines, Amont et Rà ©acteurs Services. AREVA exploite luranium au Niger, oà ¹ le groupe bà ©nà ©ficie de tarifs prà ©fà ©rentiels. Par ailleurs, cest au Qatar, que la filià ¨re TD signe son plus grand contrat. Le groupe AREVA veille donc à   saccaparer les opportunità ©s intà ©ressantes dans la zone Afrique et Moyen-Orient. Les perspectives de croissance ne sont intà ©ressantes à   lheure actuelle que pour le marchà © de là ©nergie nuclà ©aire avec lintà ©rà ªt des pays du Golfe et ceux dAfrique du Nord pour lutilisation de cette à ©nergie. Source: www.areva.com Le groupe AREVA a su donc se dà ©velopper à   linternationale assez rapidement en cernant les marchà ©s avec les perspectives les plus intà ©ressantes. Cependant, on peut noter que cette implantation sest faite dans une durà ©e de temps trà ¨s rapide dans certaines rà ©gions grà ¢ce à   lacquisition de socià ©tà ©s locales. Cette stratà ©gie permet au groupe AREVA de pà ©nà ©trer le marchà © efficacement et dà ©crocher des contrats intà ©ressants. Nà ©anmoins, il est important de souligner que chaque zone gà ©ographique doit à ªtre rassemblà ©e sous là ©gide dune culture et dun business model commun. Les concurrents dAREVA, ont pour la plupart une histoire beaucoup moins rà ©cente et se sont dà ©veloppà ©s à   linternationale avec une stratà ©gie diffà ©rente. Le groupe amà ©ricain Westinghouse sest implantà © par le biais de fusion et dacquisition notamment en Europe. D/ les actionnaires Structure de lactionnariat AREVA a à ©tà © crà ©Ãƒ © le 3 septembre 2001, à   partir de lex-structure CEA-Industrie dont le capital à ©tait dà ©tenu à   95 % par le CEA (Commissariat à   là ©nergie atomique). Aujourdhui, la participation du secteur public(CEA, Etat et ERAP) dans le capital du groupe sà ©là ¨ve à  87 %. Les4 % de capitaux flottantsont dà ©tenus par lesporteurs de certificats dinvestissement. Depuis, de nombreux actionnaires (Total, EDF) ont apportà © diverses participations minoritaires dà ©tenues principalement dans COGEMA (devenue, depuis, AREVA NC) et Framatome SA (devenue AREVA NP) en à ©change de titres du nouveau groupe AREVA. La participation de lactionnaire historique (le CEA) est passà ©e de 95,1% à   78,96% à   lissue de ces opà ©rations. Alcatel, qui dà ©tenait 2,23% du capital du nouveau groupe AREVA, a vendu sa participation le 21 dà ©cembre 2001 à   la Caisse des Dà ©pà ´ts et Consignations (CDC). Cette dernià ¨re qui possà ©dait 1,36% du capital sest ainsi renforcà ©e à   un niveau de 3,59%.[2] Evolution de lactionnariat Source: http://www.areva.com/FR/finance-402/index.html Actionnaire 2009 De 2001 à   2008 2000 Capital Vote Capital Vote Capital Vote CEA 78,96% 82,99%* 78,96% 82,99% 95,14% 100,00% Etat 5,19 % 5,19 % 5,19 % 5,19 % CDC 3,59 % 3,59 % 3,59 % 3,59 % ERAP 3,21 % 3,21 % 3,21 % 3,21 % EDF 2,42 % 2,42 % 2,42 % 2,42 % Framà ©pargne** 0,62 % 0,62 % 0,62 % 0,62 % CALYON** 0,96 % 0,96 % 0,96 % 0,96 % Total 1,02 % 1,02 % 1,02 % 1,02 % Porteurs de CI 4,03 % 4,03 % 4,86 % 0,00 % AREVAauto-Contà ´le 0,2 % Lactionnariat dAREVA est partagà ©: lEtat franà §ais est proprià ©taire direct et indirect: 5.19% de dà ©tention propre et 78.96% et 3.59% à   travers respectivement le Commissariat à   lEnergie Atomique ainsi que la Caisse des Dà ©pà ´ts et Consignation. Dautre part, des actionnaires minoritaires sont proprià ©taires du reste du capital de lentreprise (ce sont en majorità © de grands groupes franà §ais qui dà ©tiennent ces participations tels quEramet ou Safran.) Evolution du cours de laction Lintroduction en bourse de lentreprise Areva date de septembre 2001. La valeur du titre na cessà © de croitre sur la pà ©riode 2001-2007; le titre à ©tant passà © de 163.8 euros à   731.38 en moyenne. Ensuite, en une annà ©e, il a perdu plus du double de sa valeur pour atteindre un cours moyen en 2008 de 335 euros. Ceci sexplique par plusieurs facteurs, notamment une baisse de là ©nergie nuclà ©aire qui est intervenue en 2008 mais à ©galement la mauvaise à ©valuation de certains chantierscomme celui du rà ©acteur finlandais dOlkiluoto oà ¹ le coà »t de construction du rà ©acteur a à ©tà © dà ©passà © de plus de deux et milliards deuros. Consà ©quences de la structure actionnariale sur la stratà ©gie du groupe Les dà ©cisions stratà ©giques du groupe AREVA ne peuvent à ªtre prises sans laval du gouvernement franà §ais, ce qui a pour effet de minimiser le rà ´le des dirigeants de lentreprise. Ce postulat est trà ¨s important et contraint fortement le groupe dans ses politiques de financement. En revanche, Cette proprià ©tà © de lEtat parait là ©gitime : eu à ©gard de limportance des coà »ts fixes pour une telle socià ©tà ©, aucun dà ©veloppement naurait à ©tà © possible sans la prà ©sence dun investisseur aussi important que lEtat. De surcroà ®t, cest lEtat qui permet, à   travers les visites prà ©sidentielles, à   lentreprise de nà ©gocier de gros contrats dans les pays à ©trangers. Toutefois, il convient de relativiser limportance de lEtat puisque celui-ci a prà ©vu de rà ©duire ses parts lors dune augmentation de capital qui devrait intervenir cet à ©tà © (annà ©e 2010) et dont il na pas prà ©vu de participer (seule une participation symbolique est prà ©vue). E/ la performance de lentreprise vis -à  -vis de ses concurrents Performance à ©conomique au sein de la filià ¨re  § Chiffre daffaire LEurope est le principal marchà © client dAREVA, totalisant 63,6% du CA en 2009 dont 38,2% est rà ©alisà © en France. Cette tendance est particulià ¨rement marquà ©e pour les pà ´les AMONT et REACTEURS ET SERVICES dont environ 75% de lactività © provient de France et des autres pays europà ©ens. AREVA connait donc une forte dà ©pendance auprà ¨s du marchà © europà ©en. Par ailleurs, les ventes rà ©alisà ©es en Asie-Pacifique et aux Amà ©riques reprà ©sentent un tiers du chiffre daffaire, tandis que le groupe a pà ¢tit dun change euro/dollar dà ©favorable. A là ©chelle internationale, AREVA connaà ®t une forte concurrence au sein des actività ©s AMONT, devancà ©e par CAMECO et RIO TINTO dans lextraction, puis par URENCO et USEC dans lenrichissement. Son principal concurrent, prà ©sent sur lensemble des actività ©s AMONT et REACTEURS et SERVICES est le russe Atomenergoprom. AREVA conserve sa position de leader international au sein pà ´le AVAL. Son chiffre daffaire a cependant reculà © de 17% en 2008 et de 3,3% en 2009. En effet, cette actività © rà ©pond essentiellement au besoin dEDF dont AREVA est dà ©pendante. De ce point de vue, AREVA a su capter un contrat important signà © avec EDF en 2008 pour le recyclage de combustibles usà ©s de 2008 à   2040. Part du chiffre daffaire des principaux acteurs de la filià ¨re nuclà ©aire en 2008 (source à ©tude Xerfi 9CHE27) :  § Acquisitions Le groupe a soutenu la croissance du pà ´le TD en 2009 grà ¢ce à   plusieurs acquisitions qui lui ont permis dà ªtre compà ©titif sur le vieux continent. Il a gà ©nà ©rà © en 2008 38% du CA et 10% des commandes conduisant ainsi à   une croissance de 17% par rapport à   lannà ©e prà ©cà ©dente. Les chiffres de 2009 ne sont pas dà ©taillà ©s dans le document de rà ©fà ©rence de 2009 publià © par Areva, lactività © à ©tant en cours de cession. Il a par ailleurs investi dans les à ©nergies renouvelables grà ¢ce à   lacquisition de là ©quipementier brà ©silien Koblitz, gà ©ant de la construction clà © en main de centrales à ©lectriques biomasses ou hydroà ©lectriques. AREVA devient pour le moment un des constructeurs de centrales dont loffre est la plus diversifià ©e.  § Rà ©sultat opà ©rationnel Malgrà © la hausse du chiffre daffaire, le rà ©sultat opà ©rationnel a lui chutà © presque de moitià © (-44,3% en 2008). Cela sexplique notamment par les difficultà ©s rencontrà ©es dans la construction de lEPR OL3 en Finlande pour lequel 749 millions deuros de provisions ont du à ªtre passà ©es.  § Ratios dutilisation des actifs Daprà ¨s les donnà ©es de In financials au 31/12/2009, AREVA prà ©sente un  «cash ratio » (total du cash disponible sur les dettes courantes) de 9,35%, soit 12 points infà ©rieurs à   la moyenne de ses concurrents. Le groupe dispose de peu de liquidità ©s, ce qui peut le mettre en difficultà ©s à ©tant donnà © lintensità © capitalistique de lindustrie nuclà ©aire. Ainsi, si AREVA veut conserver son avance sur ses concurrents elle sera amenà ©e à   rà ©cupà ©rer du cash afin dinvestir massivement. La performance à ©conomique du groupe est tout de mà ªme satisfaisante avec une rentabilità © des capitaux propres de 1,95 soit plus dun point supà ©rieure à   la moyenne de ses concurrents.  § Participations Le groupe semble opà ©rer une stratà ©gie de recentrage pour ne garder que les participations majoritaires autour de lactività © de production dà ©nergie nuclà ©aire. En effet, il a annoncà © sa volontà © de cà ©der ses participations dans lopà ©rateur minier et de mà ©tallurgie Eramet et dans le fabriquant de semi-conducteur STMicroelectronics. Position dAREVA vis-à  -vis de ses concurrents  § Partenariats Le secteur du nuclà ©aire à ©tant trà ¨s concentrà © et fortement capitalistique, les spà ©cialistes mondiaux des centrales clà ©s en main ont à ©tà © amenà © à   signer des alliances stratà ©giques à   plusieurs niveaux: Stratà ©gique: en sassociant avec des socià ©tà ©s dextraction duranium afin dassurer lapprovisionnement en matià ¨res premià ¨res. Exemple: Areva et Kazaromprom Technologique: dà ©veloppement de coopà ©ration intra branche pour construire des rà ©acteurs communs, atteindre rapidement une taille critique et bà ©nà ©ficier de synergies dans le domaine des achats, des savoir-faire technologiques. Exemples: Hitachi et GE (2007), Areva et MHI (2008), Siemens et Atomenergoprom (2010) Economique: en sassociant avec des distributeurs dà ©lectricità ©s locaux afin dapporter au client une solution complà ¨te de la construction à   lexploitation. Exemple: Areva et E.On au Royaume-Uni, Areva, GDF Suez et Total  · Compà ©titività © sur le vieux continent Siemens qui dà ©tient 34% du capital dAREVA NP a annoncà © fin janvier 2009 quil cà ¨derait totalement ses parts dici à   2012 pour mettre fin à   ce partenariat financier. Siemens explique son dà ©sengagement par linsuffisante coopà ©ration managà ©riale. Ce partenariat permettait

The Censorship Debate Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Essays

The Censorship Debate      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Do words such as nigger, bitch, or ass offend you?   The answer may seem clear cut, but our nation has been struggling with the issue of censorship almost since its conception.   To many, the aforementioned words are a part of their everyday vocabulary; to others, they are vulgar and unacceptable.   The issue of censorship is much more than just words.   There have been huge controversies over the negative ideas and graphic nature of literature, music, and television.   What is too violent, too negative, too obscene, or too graphic?   And who decides what these standards are?   These are questions that are still debated by many.        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Literature has the greatest history of censorship debates.   For years, there have been arguments over what is acceptable for which age group in which environment.   A prime example of this is Robert Cormier's young adult novel, I Am The Cheese.   Over the past few years in Florida, there has been great debate over whether or not his book is acceptable for use in a junior high or high school classroom.   The novel, which portrays a preteen boy who has been part of the witness protection program, and sees his parents killed when the program fails, has been labeled inappropriate for use in a classroom.   Many teachers argue that the book has substantial educational value, citing the many awards that it has won, but the faction for censorship won this battle, and the book is no longer taught.   Many other literary works, some which are considered classics, have also been deemed inappropriate.   Some titles include: Hamlet, The Red... ...eedom of speech.   Our country was founded on one of these ideas, but our morals and values may be dependent on the other.   As a nation, we must decide which is more important.   I do not feel that there can be any halfway in this decision.   We cannot ban some things and leave others, it has to be all or nothing.   If we are going to censor, we must accept the fact that everything will be affected.   Then we must deal with the issue of who decides the standards, a problem which may be as monumental as deciding whether or not to censor in the first place.   If we decide against censorship, then we must be prepared to deal with whatever is created, no matter how graphic, obscene, or violent any individual may feel that it is.   It is likely that we will never reach an accord, and will be debating this until the end of time.

Pluralism :: Federalist Papers pluralistic theory

American Pluralism In Federalist No. 10, James Madison stresses that â€Å"measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.† Madison philosophized that a large republic, composed of numerous factions capable of competing with each other and the majority must exist in order to avoid tyranny of majority rule.# When Federalist No. 10 was published, the concept of pluralism was not widely used. However, the political theory that is the foundation for United States government was the influential force behind pluralism and its doctrines. Pluralism comes from the political system that focuses on shared power among interest groups and competing factions.# A pluralistic society contains groups that have varying interests and backgrounds, including those of ethnic, religious, and political nature.# Differences like these are to be encouraged, with overall political and economic power being maintained. When a number of people, all sharing a common interest are threatened, a group is involuntarily formed in order to defend against competing interests. These pluralistic interest groups are free to operate and lobby in the political arena, fighting against the majority and other competing factions for voice in Congress. With the influence of multiple factions operating throughout the political system, a balance of power is created (Kernell 2000, 429). This is much like the international theory of sovereign states balancing each other’s power to create a political system that focuses on stability, yet is always in a constant flux of power. With this in mind, special interest groups are constantly contending for power by raising money, campaigning, and lobbying in Congress. When a special interest group is threatened by a competing policy, the group will organize efforts to balance, or transcend the power of the competing group. The pluralistic scholar David Truman notes that â€Å"the proliferation of political interest groups [is] a natural and largely benign consequence of economic development† (Kernell 2000, 429). That is, as American economic development increases, in the form of industry, trade, and technology, factions are produced in order to protect special interests. Factions have a large platform on which to find support from various political parties, committees, subcommittees, and the courts, as well as federal, state, and local governments (Kernell 2000, 429).

The City of Londons Financial Services and Markets :: Essays Papers

The City of London's Financial Services and Markets 1. The City of London’s financial Services and Markets: The City of London is one of the world’s three leading financial centres, along with Tokyo and New York, and is by far the largest in Europe. While New York and Tokyo rely on very large domestic economies to fuel their business, London’s success can be attributed to its international business. Major financial institutions and markets in the City include the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange, Lloyd’s insurance market, and the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange. 1.1 Facts and figures of Britain’s financial services industry: ï‚ · There are more overseas banks in London than in any other city in the world: 555 branches, subsidiaries and representative offices at the end of February 1999. ï‚ · Financial services account for almost 7 per cent of Britain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). ï‚ · Net overseas earnings of Britain’s financial sector reached a record  £25,200 million in 1997. ï‚ · The London Stock Exchange is the largest market in the world for trading foreign equities, accounting for 63 per cent of global turnover. ï‚ · London is one of the world’s three major international bond centres. Some 70 per cent of international bond trading in the Euromarket take place there. ï‚ · It has by far the biggest foreign exchange market in the world, handling about 32 per cent of worldwide dealing, and with an average daily turnover, which is more than that of New York, and Tokyo combined. ï‚ · It is one of the world’s largest international insurance markets, with a leading share of aviation and marine insurance. ï‚ · It is the largest fund management centre. ï‚ · It is the world’s most important centre for advice on privatisation. Supervision and regulation 2. Financial markets: 2.1 The Stock Exchange: This is one of the world’s oldest marketplaces for the buying and selling of shares, but its advanced trading systems mean it is also one of the most modern. It is the world’s leading marketplace for international shares – more international companies choose to list in London than on any other exchange. It therefore plays a vital role in maintaining London’s position as a major financial centre. The main market is where most British and international shares are listed, while the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), established in 1995, is for younger and fast-growing businesses.

California Shoshone

California Shoshone are a Native American tribe that lived in central California, along the eastern border, at the base of the Sierra Nevadas. Their location dictated their lifestyle. Their houses were made in a cone shape using slabs of bark or brush. They also had sweathouses that they used to keep their skin clean. The main foods of the California Shoshone were pine nuts. They occasionally hunted buffalo, but relied more on salmon fishing, deer, and small game. as well as roots gathered by the women . Shoshone hunters used bows and arrows. Fishermen used spears, nets, and basket traps. In war, Shoshone men fired their bows or fought with war clubs and buffalo-hide shields. Shoshone women were in charge of the home. Besides cooking and cleaning, a Shoshone woman built her family's tepee and dragged the heavy posts with her whenever they moved. Shoshone men were hunters and warriors, responsible for feeding and defending their families. Only men became Shoshone chiefs, but both men and women took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine. People of the California Shoshone wore rabbit or deer skins when they were available. Shoshone women wore long deerskin dresses with wide sleeves. Shoshone men wore breechcloths and leggings as well as buckskin shirts when the weather was cool. Men and women wore moccasins on their feet. Some other intrest of the Shoshone Indians were bead work, making baskets, and painting. The Shoshone tribe was ruled by a chief. Traditionally, Shoshone people only cut their hair when they were in mourning. Some Shoshones wore facial tatooes and painted their faces for special occasions.. I have learned that California Shoshone had houses, clothes, and food that were available where they lived. They were very fun to learn about.

English Consonants

RESEARCH PAPERS | 23 How Many Consonant Sounds Are There in English? How Many Consonant Sounds Are There in English? by David Deterding, National Institute of Education, Singapore †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Most analyses agree that there are 24 consonant sounds in English. However, it is valuable to consider in some detail a few issues that affect the status of these consonants. First, we can think about why the affricates /t? / and /d / are treated as single consonants rather than sequences of two consonants. Second, one might discuss why it is that /w/ and /j/ are classified as consonants rather than vowels. Third, there is the possibility of a voiceless counterpart of /w/ that, for some speakers, differentiates which from witch. And finally, there is the question of whether the velar nasal /? / is actually an allophone of /n/. After considering these issues, most people will still conclude that there are 24 consonants in English. However, the discussion can help us gain a deeper understanding of English phonology. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. s Introduction How many consonant sounds do you think there are in English? Of course, most of us know that there are 20 consonant letters in our alphabet (or 21 if you include ‘y’), but here we are talking about sounds, not letters. And there is a mismatch between sounds and letters: sometimes two letters combine to represent one sound, so that ‘s’ + ‘h’ combine to represent the sound /? / and ‘t’ + ‘h’ combine for /? /, and sometimes one letter is pronounced as a sequence of two sounds, as ‘x’ is usually /ks/. So the number of consonant letters in our alphabet is irrelevant when considering the number of consonant sounds (phonemes) in English. The basic answer to the original question is that there are 24 consonant sounds in English: q 6 plosives : /p b t d k / q 9 fricatives : /f v ? ? s z ? / q 2 affricates : /t? d / q 3 nasals : /m n ? / q 1 lateral-approximant : /l/ q 3 approximants : /w j r/ However, things are never quite as simple as that in the study of languages, and there are a number of issues that we might consider in more depth: q Why are /t? / and /d / regarded as single phonemes and not as sequences of two phonemes? q Why are /w/ an d /j/ regarded as consonants and not vowels? q Do those people who distinguish which from witch have one extra phoneme, / /, a voiceless equivalent of /w/? q Should /? / really be regarded as a separate phoneme? Or can it be analysed as an allophone of /n/? s The status of /t? / and /d / The two affricates are each written as a sequence of two symbols, so why do we regard them as single consonants? Why do we not, for example, analyse cheese /t? i z/ as having two consonants at the start, /t/ followed by /? /? The answer is that /t? / behaves phonologically as a single sound, even if phonetically it is rather similar to a plosive followed by a fricative. In analysing its behaviour, we need to think about the patterns of distribution of /t/ and /? (Laver, 1994:365), so we should consider what sequences of sounds can occur together, particularly at the start of a syllable. English allows quite complex syllable onsets, such as /str/ in string and /spl/ in splash, but it does not generally permit a plosive followed by a fricative, so */pf k/, */ts? / and */k p/ are not possible words of English. (In the few cases where the spelling does suggest a plosive followed by a fricative at the start of th e word, such as psychology, the plosive is actually silent. ) But note that chip /t / and check /t? ek/ are perfectly good words of English. So if we treated /t? / as a sequence of two phonemes, we would have to make a special exception to the rule that an English word cannot begin with a plosive followed by a fricative. Note that /t? / can also occur at the end of a word, as with catch /k t? / and rich /r? t? /, and there are no other instances where /? / can occur after a plosive at the end of a word, as */k k? / and */r? p? / are not possible words in English. The situation with /d / provides even stronger evidence. The consonant / / is rather rare in English, and apart from in some recent loan words such as genre / ? nr? /, beige /be? /, and rouge /ru / (all of which still sound rather foreign), / / can only occur in the middle of a word, mostly between two vowels, as in pleasure Copyright  © 2005 Singapore Tertiary English Teachers Society1, 2005 STETS Language & Communication Review, Vol. 4, No. (STETS) w 24 | David Deterding s The status of /w/ and /j/ If you say /w/ and drag it out, it sounds rather like /u /, and similarly /j/ sounds rather like /i / (Roach, 2000:64). If they sound like vowels, why do we classify /w/ and /j/ as consonants? Sometimes it is valuable to make a distinction between a contoid and a consonant: contoids are articulated with an obstruction in the vocal tract, but consonants are sounds which can occur at the edge of a syllable (Laver, 1994:147-8). In other words, contoid is a phonetic term which describes the articulation of a sound, while consonant is a phonological term which describes its behaviour within a syllable. From the phonetic perspective of articulation, we find that plosives, fricatives, nasals, and the lateral approximant /l/ are all contoids, because they all involve a constriction in the vocal tract, but /j/ and /w/ (and maybe /r/ as well) are not contoids. But now we should consider phonological behaviour and thereby determine which sounds should be classified as consonants. Let us think about what can occur before /et/ to create a monosyllabic English word. We have words such as bet /bet/, pet /pet/, set /set/, net /net/, and debt /det/, but not */? t/ or */ et/, so we regard /b p s n d/ as consonants because they occur at the edge of a syllable, but /? / are vowels. However, note that we can also have wet /wet/ and yet /jet/. This confirms that /w/ and /j/ are consonants. In one other aspect of behaviour, we can consider the distribution of the indefinite articles a and an: a occurs before consonants, while an occurs before vowels, and this depends on the pronunciation and not the spelling, so it is an hour not *a hour because /a / begins with a vowel (the ‘h’ is silent). But note that we have a waste and a year, not *an waste and *an year, and notice that once more this is based on pronunciation and not on spelling, as it is a university (which begins with /j/) and not *an university. So again we see that /w/ and /j/ behave as consonants, not as vowels (Roach, 2000:64). s The status of /? / In standard phonemic analysis, we assume that if the occurrence of a sound can be predicted from the surrounding sounds, it is regarded as an allophone and not as a phoneme. So, for example, we treat [ ], the dark /l/ sound that occurs at the end of a word such as fill, as an allophone of /l/ because we can specify that it only occurs in the coda of a syllable (or as a syllabic consonant in words such as bottle), unlike its clear counterpart which occurs before a vowel. So what about /? /? Note that /? / can also only appear in the coda of a syllable, and furthermore we can predict that /? / rather than /n/ will always occur before another velar sound, such as in bank /b ? k/ and anger / ? ?/. So should /? / be regarded as an allophone of /n/ (and then be written as [? rather than /? /)? The crucial test for a phoneme is the existence of a minimal pair: if there are two words which only differ with respect to one sound distinction, then we know that we have two separate phonemes. For example, we know that /f/ and /v/ are different phonemes of English because of the existence of the minimal pair fan /f n/ and van /v n/ where the only difference is in the initial consonant, and similarly the difference in the final sound of back /b k/ and bag /b / establishes /k/ and / / as separate phonemes of English. On this basis, we can be confident that /n/ and /? / are different phonemes, because we have many minimal pairs such as sin /s? n/ and sing /s /, and also ran /r n/ and rang /r ? /. This would seem to be the end of the story, but of course it is not. s The possibility of / / Do you make a distinction between which and witch? For most speakers, these two words are homophones as they are both pronounced as /w? t? /, though many Americans do make a distinction (Wells, 1982:126), and most Copyright  © 2005 Singapore Tertiary English Teachers Society (STETS) w w w /ple ? / and measure /me ? /. But notice that jet /d et/ and barge /b? d / are perfectly good words in English. So if we were to regard /d / as a sequence of two separate sounds, we would have to say that / / can only occur near the start or at the end of a word if it is preceded by /d/, which would be rather strange. So the claim that /t? / and /d / are single sounds in English is well-founded, because they behave phonologica lly like single sounds in the structure of English words. However, one might note that Ladefoged (2001:27) does treat both these English affricates as sequences of two sounds, partly because his emphasis is rather more on phonetics than on the phonological structure of English. Scottish speakers also do (Wells, 1982:408). Indeed, it was once normal for all speakers of English to make this distinction, but by the end of the eighteenth century even educated southern speakers no longer maintained it (Mugglestone, 2003:132). For speakers who retain this distinction, it might be necessary to include an extra phoneme, with / / representing the voiceless counterpart of /w/, so that which is / ? ? / while witch is /w? t? / However, even here the analysis is not so simple. Historically, this sound was a consonant cluster /hw/, parallel to other clusters beginning with /h/, such as /hr/, /hn/ and /hl/ (Cruttenden, 2001:215). These others have now disappeared, so apart from the possibility of /hw/, the only remaining consonant cluster involving /h/ is /hj/ in words such as huge /hju d / and human /hju m? n/. And even the status of this is doubtful, as one might alternatively regard /ju / as a diphthong (Deterding, 2004). So, from a historical perspective, / / might be treated as /hw/. But from a synchronic perspective, we should note that the contrast between / / and /w/ is parallel to the contrast between many pairs of consonants in English, such as /t/ and /d/, /s/ and /? /, and /f/ and /v/. The fact that the voiceless/voiced contrast is wellestablished in English lends support to the treatment of / / as a phoneme in its own right. We might therefore conclude that some speakers do have this extra phoneme. w v w v How Many Consonant Sounds Are There in English? | 25 so it’s fun being with them [F9-f:40] In fact, extra velar plosives also occasionally get inserted at the end of words such as selling, studying and young in relatively informal Singapore data (Lim & Deterding, 2005), as shown in the following examples also from the NIECSSE corpus: selling um decorative stuff [iF9-c:83] that I was studying †¦ this [iF9-c:238] when we were young †¦ we used to erm [iF10-e:180] If a velar plosive gets inserted occasionally after /? /, maybe we should analyse it as present in the underlying representation of the word, and then instead of saying that it sometimes gets inserted, we should state that it sometimes fails to get deleted. And if this is the case, s Conclusion It is still basically true that there are 24 consonants in English, though it may under some circumstances be possible to regard /t? / and /d / as sequences of two sounds, some speakers may have an extra phoneme / /, and the status of /? / is questionable. Even though we can conclude that there are 24 consonants in English, consideration of some of the issues regarding the phonological analysis of English can give us a deeper understanding of he structure of the sound system of the language. STETS Language & Communication Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005 w v v An alternative possibility is to say that words like sing have a silent / / at the end, and this silent / / gets deleted when it occurs at the end of a word (Roach, 2000:68). In fact, for some speakers of English, this deletion rule does not apply and sing is pronounced as [s ] (Roach, 2000:67), so clearly for speakers such as this, we should analyse [? ] as an allophone of /n/. Furthermore, in careful pronunciation, some speakers insert a velar plosive at the end of words such as being, and this can occur in Singapore English (Setter & Deterding, 2003) as is evident from the following utterance from the NIECSSE corpus (Deterding & Low, 2001): then the distribution of [? ] is entirely predictable, so it is an allophone and not a phoneme. Finally we might note that words such as long /l /, strong /str / and young /j ? / have no final / /, but there is a / / when a comparative suffix is added: longer /l ?/, stronger /str ?/, younger /j ? ?/. So this seems to lend further support to the possible existence in the base form of these words of a final / / which gets deleted in some circumstances. (But note that there is no / / with the –ing suffix or the agentive –er suffix: singing /s / and singer /s /; not */s / and */s ?/. ) In conclusion, we can say that, on the basis of minimal pairs, /? / is generally regarded as a phoneme of English, but that there are some counter-arguments which raise a few questions about its status. 26 | David Deterding REFERENCES Deterding, D. (2004). How many vowel sounds are there in English? STETS Language & Communication Review, 19(10): 19-21. Deterding, D. & Low, E. L. (2001). The NIE corpus of spoken Singapore English (NIECSSE). SAAL Quarterly, 56: 2–5. Ladefoged, P. (2001). A course in phonetics (4th edition). Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers. Laver, J. (1994). Principles of phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lim, S. H. & Deterding, D. (2005). Added final plosives in Singapore English. In D. Deterding, A. Brown and E. L. Low (Eds. ), English in Singapore: Phonetic research on a corpus, pp. 37-42. Singapore: McGraw Hill. Mugglestone, L. 2003). ‘Talking proper’: The rise of accent as a social symbol (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Roach, P. (2000). English phonetics and phonology: A practical course (3rd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Setter, J. & Deterding, D. (2003, August). Extra final consonants in the English of Hong Kong and Singapore. Paper presented at the International Conference of Ph onetic Sciences, Barcelona. Wells, J. (1982). Accents of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Copyright  © 2005 Singapore Tertiary English Teachers Society (STETS)

Drama Story Death Of A Salesman Essay

Death of a Salesman is a play written by Arthur Miller. Basically, Miller was not a very prolific writer and Death of a Salesman had been his most famous work. At a certain point, this particular play could be regarded as a tragedy although not in the normal sense. What I mean when I said ‘tragedy though not in the normal sense† is that usually we associate tragedy from a person with a very high status who in the end had been faced with many problems which led to his failure. However, such had not been the case with this particular play since from the beginning Willy Loman really never had anything good. The brilliance within this play lies with the fact that Miller had been able to portray a certain sense on his audience that tragedy is not for the rich or for the better-off person’s alone. Rather, tragedy is a part of our everyday life and thus it could happen to anyone of us. He had been able to portray that particular part by making the play revolve most on Willy Loman. As a matter of fact, Loman is almost the same as that of being a ‘low man’. The play made use of interplay of two time frames basically that of the past and the present. The protagonist in this story is Willy Loman whose occupation is that of a businessman. Willy had been one of the victims of the so-called American dream and he love competitions. All throughout the play phrases such as ‘well-liked’, ‘I’m going to lose weight’ and the like could be found, and they are repeated numerous time. One may wonder what those repetitions mean. Basically, the significance behind those repetitions lies on the fact that Willy believe that it is the outer appearance which would bring you success and not one’s intelligence per se. For Willy academic performance is of no significance, rather it is being admired and well-liked that really matters. This can be seen from the scenes wherein he often reiterated that Charley and Bernard are both ‘liked’ but not ‘well-liked’. All throughout the play Willy dreamed of being a very popular salesman so that when he dies people all throughout the world would come to pay their respect to him. The reason why he had not been a successful man may lie on the fact that what he tried to sell had not been his goods, rather it was his character. Dave Salesman had been Willy’s role model and he greatly idolizes the man to the point that he wanted his death to be the same as that of Singleman. Miller showed his genius by naming his characters â€Å"Singleman† and â€Å"Loman† since there is a great allegory between the two. Miller named the pleasant salesman as Singleman mainly because he wanted his audience to think of Dave as a single man who had never been committed to anyone and who had never shared his life with his family. In contrast, Loman is almost the same as that of â€Å"low man† which could possibly mean a man with a very low sense of morality and the like. Thus, since Singleman is Loman’s hero it greatly shows the contrast between the two and it also showed Willy’s weird opinion of what success is like. The death of a salesman talks not only of the literal death of Willy who as the story goes committed suicide since it is the only alternative he sees in order to secure his dreams (which re left for his sons to continue), rather the story also talked about the death of Willy’s dream. As mentioned earlier, Willy believes that success lies within being well-liked and being popular. Willy said Charley is not very much well-liked and yet as was seen on the play Charley is very much successful as compared to Willy. One of the main themes of the story is â€Å"the American dream†. Based on Willy’s understanding, what constitutes an â€Å"American Dream† is being well-liked and being attractive which in turn would result in success. However, his bizarre opinion of what success is like led to his own downfall. This blind belief led tom psychological decline which in turn made him daydream a lot. All throughout the scene there’s a constant drift from past to present which often time confuses the audience on which timeframe the casts of the story is in at the moment. However, the use of the two timeframes gave Miller an opportunity to compare and to contrast Willy’s dream and reality. The shift of one timeframe to another also allowed Miller to forbid his audience to have a permanent opinion of his characters since it allowed him to show the characters in the story in pathetic and wicked light alike. However, as Willy experienced a psychological decline the boundary between the past and the present are no longer define and thus both existed in a parallel ground. When Biff informed Willy of his interview with Bill Oliver Willy advised him to demand for a high amount of salary from Oliver claiming that if his son starts big then he would also end big. He also made it a point to impress Oliver with Biff’s personality. This particular scene showed how very unrealistic Willy is. It also contradicted the belief that everyone should start small and work little by little up the corporate ladder since Willy believes that they could all start big since they are a Loman. Thus, this particular advice of Willy to his son proved to be very contradictory. Also, Willy himself did not follow his own advice with his interview with Howard. Whereas he advised his son to ask Oliver for a large amount, he himself did not do that with his interview. Rather, he begged Howard to station him in New York since he can no longer deal with too much traveling. He even said that he is willing to accept a moderate salary. This also showed a great contradiction with Willy’s advice and his own deed. In analyzing stage directions made for Happy â€Å"Sexuality is like a visible color for him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  we could see that Americans wrote plays which show step by step how a character is supposed to act. It also spells their characters age, characteristic and the like. They are very strict in this manner in that they spell everything out down to the smallest detail. In the play, one could see that Willy is a victim of his society, particularly that of capitalism. This can clearly be shown from his interview with Howard, the son of his boss. Since he could no longer produce money, Howard fired him out of his job. All throughout the story we can see Willy’s strong hold on his American dream which served him nothing but misery in the end, and now that he is old and no longer productive he had been thrown out of his job. Another significant part on the movie is the fact that the play is set in post World War II New York City, yet Willy’s flashbacks date back to 1928. The reason behind this is that it was in year 1928 that Willy had been able to sell big time and it was also the year that he bought his Chevrolet. Thus, seeing from this point of view one could clearly justify why most of Willy’s flashbacks happened in that particular year. It was in year 1928 that Willy had been most productive and it may lead him to believe that it is the start of his great career. Biff Loman had been a kleptomaniac on the story. This particular attitude may be attributed to the fact that his father did not tell him that stealing is bad. In one particular act on the play Biff told his father that he stole a football yet Willy did not reprimand his son. Rather he said that as long as Biff is well-liked he would be very successful one day. His father’s belief flowed into him believing that people would easily forgive him for stealing things as long as he is popular. One of the reasons why Biff had been constantly stealing things is the fact that he wanted to please his family. Most of all Biff wanted to impress his father by showing him that he could get anything he wants at whatever cost. What Charley meant when he said in Willy’s requiem that Willy is a â€Å"happy man with a batch of cement† (Miller, Williams, & Paul, 1984) is the fact that Willy had not been doing the things he really want or the things that he is most good at. Willy is not really cut out to be a businessman to begin with rather he could have been better off had he been a gym owner or a sport’s coach. Willy had also been a man who enjoys doing things with his hands (he loves planting) and thus it makes the audiences wonder on whether Willy had been better off had he chosen a more appropriate career for himself. It also pointed out how Willy had never been true to himself. He did not succeed in any way because he is in constant competition and he had always been after commercial success although he is not really good with that particular thing. Commercial success overshadowed personal success and happiness which in turn led to a greater tragedy. Everything about Willy had been wrong from the start. He had the wrong beliefs as well as the wrong dream. He loves gardening and he is good with working with his hands thus if he had chosen another path (probably that of farming) then he may have had a better chance with success. The Parent/Child relationship had been present all throughout the play. Miller clearly showed how a parent’s belief and way of rearing up their children could affect their child all throughout their life. This can be seen clearly with the way Willy passed on his dreams and beliefs to his two sons. Willy’s wrong beliefs had been the primary source why his sons also failed in their lives. In one of the scenes in the play wherein Biff and Willy had been arguing Willy accused his son of ruining his life just to spite him however Biff rebutted him by saying that Willy filled him with hot air which led to his inability of getting any permanent job because he cannot bear taking orders from other people. I think Biff’s claim is more accurate as compared to his father. Of course, it is true that Biff’s disappointment with his father made him lose interest in pursuing his studies however, the main reason why Biff could not really find a good work for himself is because his father made him believe in wrong beliefs particularly that he is far superior to other people. To conclude, the play had been rather interesting because of its clear way of portraying the effects of capitalism. It also showed how wrong beliefs particularly that of beliefs regarding American Dream could lead to the distraction of people. The play also portrayed how the parent/child relationship could affect an individual thus all in all the play is exceptional save for the fact that there are times that the play is rather vague because of the constant interplay between past and present. Reference: Miller, A. , Williams, L. M. , & Paul, K. (1984). Death of a Salesman: Barron’s Educational Series.