Four Models Of Public Relations Media Essay

Four Models Of Public Relations Media Essay The four models of public relations and communication are practiced by J. Grunig and Hunt in year 1984. At that time, many scholars of public relations are doing the research of how these four models are practiced by public relations practitioners and why they practiced. The four models are press agentry model, public information model, two-way asymmetrical model and two-way symmetrical model. They described how public relations practitioners to be effectively and ethically practiced by offers a normative theory in two-way symmetrical model. Mixed-motive public relations were practice with combine the two-way symmetrical model and two-way asymmetrical model. In 1975, the first study on the behaviour of public relations was done by J. Grunig, he categorised it and published the result in 1976. The study is telling about how the communication functions is perform in the different way by the public relations practitioners and why their behaviour is not alike. In order to categorise the different behaviour of public relations, an excellent public relations model was introduced in which how they are practice. Although there is no any representation can be perfectly described the reality of the world, but it is still a need to come out a model for people to understand and work on it. Model is defined as a set of values and a schema of behaviour practiced by public relations practitioners and public relations department in organising their programmes and campaigns. The different kind of public relations have been describing by the historians and some other textbooks authors with some coarse terms. For instance, according to historian Eric Goldman (1948), press agentry model in the early era was named as the public be fooled and public information theory was named as public be informed. The one-way and two-way communication also named like the same manner in the textbooks by Cutlip and Centers in the first edition in 1952. J. Grunig stated one-way and two-way models of communication in his first study of the behaviour of public relations with included the direction and purpose of communication. Synchronic and diachronic communication are the concepts took by J. Grunig from Thayers (1968) which is the behaviour used by particular organisation to practiced it all the time in order to isolated from any interference. While the diachronic communication is used to maintain mutual affairs of organisation to not only benefit the organisation itself but also their public. A study of Grunig (1976) claimed that synchronic and diachronic communication were too simplified and as plain as daylight to described the behaviour of public relations after he measured the practice of sixteen public relations activities in around two hundred of organisations in the area of Baltimore-Washington such as press releases writing, counselling the leaders, planning a program, evaluation on a program etc. After that, he comes out the asymmetrical model and symmetrical model to replace synchronic and diachronic models with understand the purpose of public relations to balance up the communication and effect between the organisation and its public. The four models of public relations and communication are leading and bringing the researchers to understand their behaviour in practicing like advertising or campaign. The models are using until today is because they are effective to convey the particular message from the sender to the receiver which is the organisation to their public. They are using these models in order to achieve their objectives of placing their message in media. Press agentry model is intended to get favourable attention in media. Public information model is use to inform the public like a fact, it is frequently used by the non-profit organisations, education institutions, government agencies and some other corporations. Two-way asymmetrical model is a persuasion and manipulation which aimed to influence the public to act in the way organisations desire. Two-way symmetrical model is attempted to achieve a win-win situation which build mutual understanding between the organisation and its public (Kellimatthews, 2009). Press Agentry Model Introduction Press agentry model was the earliest PR model. It comes out in the late 19th century (Grunig Hunt, 1984). The heyday of this model from 1850 to 1900 and P.T. Barnum was the representative of the historical figure (Chao, 2012). Press agentry model is one-way communication as the flow of information that is from the sender to the receiver which known as source-to-receiver communication. People who send out the message are not much take no account of second partys response, comment, point of view and so on. Press agentry attempts to alter the act of publics whereas do not have the intention to change the behavior of the organization. Public relations whose are under press agentry struggle for publicity in the media in almost any way possible. Practitioners of press agentry have included so-called fathers of modern PR, Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays. In the early 20th Century, both were Broadway press agents, when Broadway was the capital of the entertainment world, before moving on. Bernays move into constructed news that accounts for audience perceptions and biases is a sophisticated form of press agentry. His 1915 80-page press packet for the Diaghilev Ballet Russe American tour was an early example, and his work in 1932 publicizing autos for General Motors with testimonials from business and academic leaders was more elaborate. Press agents had done a research by monitoring the media in which they sought to post favorable articles related to their clients. Besides that, the American impresario P. T. Barnum is the prototype practitioner of this model at the same time he also promoted circuses and other entertainment venues such as the singer Jenny Lind. In Press Agentry publicity model, public relations expects increases the reputation of the organization to their target audience, stakeholders, employees, partners, all other affiliated with it through managements. In additions, this model hiring public relations expects who established a positive reputation of their brand and states in the minds of the audiences through arguments and reasons. Their potential customers had influence by simply imposing creative stories of their brand, idea, thoughts and USPs of the products. Although J. Grunig and Hunt claims that the public-relations-like activities completely history, they argues that the press agents used the first name in the mid-19th century and it specialists to the practice of public relations. Andrew Jackson, Daniel Boone, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Calamity Jane whos practiced the press agentry model of public relations as such heroes. Furthermore, P.T. Barnum, the most prominent practitioner and skillfully presented his circus performers by using the axiom which is There is a sucker born every minute. Moreover, Curiosity and skepticism played as important role in the process of successful for the press agentry model. Butterick (2009) recommended that when we read the tabloid newspaper, we can just take a look to the inner editorial pages, the new movie or CD is launched to see the press agentry model. Therefore, Press agents like Max Clifford who responsible as masters of the industry and carefully managing the media coverage of their customers. He also claims that even the so-called exclusive pictures of semi-naked celebrities on a beach in a Sunday newspaper can sometimes be the result of a collusion between the stars publicist and photographer. Nowadays, press agentry model is still using in our society. It can easily clarify that the ethics which involved to this model are highly questionable at the same time the admission from Grunig Hunt announced that the model there are an characteristics of propaganda attached to distil the negative connotations (Butterick, 2009). However, it is eventually shows that the curiosity and skepticism of it which make sure the press agentry model is still working and prominent in modern day. Although it is a modern day, PR practitioner should be more familiar with the truth, the foundations of this model still exist whether it be to publicize a sporting event, a theatre production, or the scariest film of the decade, as in the recent movie release Paranormal Activity (2009). We, the public, will either want to believe what we see, or find out for ourselves if our scepticism can be improved correct that why this model is still working for practitioners seeking to gain the illusive media spo tlight in 21st Century. Press agentry is closely associated with publicity in the entertainment world. Press agentry is the practice of attracting the attention of the press through technique that manufactures news. Methods associated with press agentry include staged events, publicity stunts, faux rallies or gatherings, spinning, and hype. A common practice is the late 1800s and early 1900s, press agentry is not part of mainstream public relations. Rather, it is a practice primarily associated with major entertainment-related events, such as Hollywood premieres and boxing matches. The goal of press agentry is to attract attention rather than gain understanding. Even today, however, the term press agent is sometimes used interchangeably with publicist in traditional Broadway Theater and motion picture industries. Todays entertainment industries are populated with publicists rather than press agents. Publicists are individuals skilled in media relations who attempt to get the name of their clients or events in the media by carefully constructing messages that inform, educate, and persuade. Some are astute in branding and positioning strategies to aid the careers and success of their clients. In contrast, press agents want attention either good or bad in most any form. Press agentry had been called persuasion for short-term advantage through the use of truth bending and even distortion, but it can also be simply the staging of provocative acts to get publicity and draw attention to an individual, event, or cause. Therefore, it is understandable that one of the earliest proponents of press agentry was Phineas Taylor (P.T) Barnum, the famed American showman and promoter who put gun Gen. Tom Thumb on exhibit and launched a mobile circus featuring Jumbo the elephant and freak shows. Barnum was a master of press agentry. For instance, he wrote letters both praising and criticizing his circus show to newspaper under an assumed name. In the early part of his career, Edward L. Bernays was also a master of press agentry. He persuaded 10 debutantes to hold up Lucky Strike cigarettes manufactured by his client, the American Tobacco Company, as torches of freedom while participating in New Yorks Easter parade. In 1929, Bernays staged a global news event by organizing the Lights Golden Jubilee, a worldwide celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of the electric light bulb for his client, General Electric. Bernays managed to secure several prominent individuals for that event, including carmaker Henry Ford, electricity scientist Thomas Edison, and President Herbert Hoover. Henry Rogers, one of the founders of Rogers and Cowan, the largest and most successful West Coast entertainment publicity firm, became famous when he promoted an unknown contract player for Columbia Pictures named Rita Hayworth. A fictitious group of Look magazine from the Fashion Couturiers Association of America asserts that Hayworth was the best-dressed off-screen actress after Henry contact with them. Look magazine took the bait and put Hayworth on the cover and published 10 pages of her photographs. Characteristic Press agentry is ink. A sales-driven approach does whatever it takes to get exposure for clients in the media without resorting to paid advertising. Press agentry is not above truth-bending or lying to reach its pragmatic objective. It will make up facts if it needs to do so. It is persuasion for short-term advantage. Press agentry will not dissolve because it is a long term job of PR. Press agentry has convert its operation with the value of ethnics for more than 10 years ago. It made a balance within getting exposure and maintaining the reality for fact. However, getting exposure will be serving as first if there are any failures. Press agentry relies on spin. It is interpreting facts to fit ones view and to get media coverage. Christopher Buckleys hilarious novel, Thank You for Smoking lampoons this type of practitioner brilliantly, and post-presidential debate commentary from Democrats and Republicans is a quadrennial example of spinning. Press agentry includes any technique that manufactures news which are publicity stunts, faux surveys, fake committees, constructed events and other tactics practitioners continue to use. Propaganda classified as one of the characteristic of press agentry model (Grunig Hunt, 1984). The term of propaganda in press agentry model, refer to PR practitioner exaggerate and more hype than facts in order to get publicity for their client. They will not care the public feedback and just want the public behave as they want. According to the academics such as Butterick (2009), Theaker (2004), and Johnston Zawawi (2004), when create news to influence the audience, the precision and reliability are be compromised through the way of stunts or specific publicity seeking. PR practitioners use various types of PR tool to make sure that audience take a specific course of action and behave what they wish. This type of practitioners will go into press agents (Butterick, 2009). Public Information Model Public information model is one of the four models of public relation. It is the second earliest model. It is a one-way communication model. This model is revolved from half-truths to more ethical practices. This model aims to inform the public. It involves the sender who sends message or information and receiver who receives the message of the information. The model involves little of research, on contrary, the readability and readership is quite high. The model mainly practices by the government, non-profit association and business. According to Grunig Hunt (1984, pp. 22), the purpose is the dissemination of information necessarily with persuasive intent. The public relations person objectively reports information about the organisation to the public. Unlike the press agentry model, public information model focus more on the distribution of information than creating news. It intended to give clear and factual information to the audience. One of the examples of the public information in Malaysia is the declarations of Deputy Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and the state executive councillors on the assets they owned. The news was published in the early year of 2012. They had reviewed about their investments, fixed deposit, loans, shares, houses, cars, property like shop lots and others (The Star Online, 2012). This action had showed that Lim Guan Eng and the state executive councillors had practised the public information model. They tell the truthful information to the public through media. They let the people to get informed about their personal assets. They try to be transparent which shows their fair and honesty in ruling the state. Ivy Lees, one of the earliest public relations practitioners, was the first to use the public information model. He was advising a railway company to be honest to the public and media regarding the accidents on the railways. The reputation of the company had risen. Further, it had increased the public information models value especially for the crisis management (Americanessays, 2011). Some statements argue that the transmission of honest and truthful in managing the crisis is vital though it is not only the way in the method in crisis management. Telling the truth to the public may bring deficit to the company. However, the appropriate management of crisis and adequate apologise would give a better reputation than closing the truth (Americalessays, 2011). As for the crisis in the Malaysia context was the crisis faced by the MAS Sdn. Bhd. This is the news reported in The Sydney Morning Herald, an Australia online newspaper titled, Malaysia Airlines in crisis after loss. This is issue started in 2005. MAS was facing the financial crisis and this issue reviewed to the public about the reason. This online press reported the amount of the loss like the loss of 2.52 billion ringgit and the problems faced for the flights like the competition with other airlines like AirAsia. The company told the truth story of the crisis to the public which this action may bring damage to the company and the reputation of the company may fall. This shows that the company serves the public by telling the truth. It put the public before its company. This goes same for the press that published the news. The press practises the public information model in this particular case. The press serves not only for the business company, it also reserve the right of the p ublic to know the facts and truth (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2012). As the example above, these days, the other companies like the media company also practice the public information model, even though the model is applied the government, non-profit association and business in the past. There is a statistic showed that this model has the highest percentage of 50% of the organisation practicing this model nowadays (Theaker, 2004, 2nd ed.). The tools such as the press release, brochure, flyers, the web content, and others are used to distribute the information to the public (Thoughsleeding, 2008). The information that will be included in the distribution materials are the details of the company, products, testimonial, success stories and others. Promotion and publicity of the companies are aimed to be spread among the target audience. Though the main objective of the public information model is to disseminate the information to the public, this model does not pursue to persuade the public nor change their attitudes. It should be benefiting the public the most. However, some of the companies have the other motives. They wish to publicise their company, products and services, build brand awareness and brand image, position the brand, and others (Management study guide, 2012). This model is still practicing and it is highly practised by the public in nowadays. This had indirectly showed that the model has certain effectiveness in communication. The following will be discussing the model with the government agencies about how they utilise this model in producing the respective news to the public. The present Prime Minister, YAB Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had announced the 1Malaysia concept. The government had put much effort in publicising the concept especially to educate and to inform the public about the concept. The effort can be seen in the Malaysia mainstream media, such as radio, newspaper and television. Newspaper is the tool that used the most often to transmit the vital and detail information about 1Malaysia concept. In the one of the mainstream newspaper, The Star, 1Malaysia is strongly publicised. The Star is used to inform the public about the announcement of the plans and programmes under 1Malaysia. The most popular 1Malaysia plan is the 1Malaysia Grocery Shops. The Star published about the details about the shop like the location, grocery items sold, the pricing list, business hours and other information. This is to educate rather to inform the public about the groceries in 1Malaysia. (The Star Online, 2012) The mainstream media are indirectly linked with the Malaysia government. The content is sometimes bias and being controlled. The publishing of 1Malaysia concept seems as one of the controlled content of news. This can be argued be as the agenda setting. The media emphasise and report a lot of news about 1Malaysia. It seems like the media shape and directs the public to think about the grocery shop (Mohd. Adnan Hashim, 2011). In addition, the news published is rather good news. This had made the public to believe that the 1Malaysia grocery shops are well running and this will gain confidence and support. There are other government plans are also like the New Economic Model, Vision 2020, Green Technology and other government plans. They are mostly used as public information model and agenda setting. Asymmetrical Model Asymmetrical model include one-way asymmetrical and two-way asymmetrical. One-way symmetrical model doesnt use any research to find out what the public perceive a particular organisation. However, the organisation doesnt change anyway but intend to persuade and manipulate the public to behave and to support in the way the organisation wish to. Two-way asymmetrical model also known as scientific persuasion as the model is use social science methods to produce more and more persuasive communication. This model usually focuses on the achievement of changing the audiences behaviour and attitude in short period of time. Communication under this model is two-way which is from the organisation to its publics, there is also gain the feedback from the public. The main purpose to gain the publics feedback is solely to help the organisation place their message in a more acceptable way by the public (Grunig Hunt, 1984). For instance, many of the cosmetics companies are less or even not to use t he animal to test their products as they found out that the consumers are tend to pay more concern towards the animal and environment. They try to approach to the consumers with the aim to place them approach to companies point of view (Shirley Harrison, n.d.). According to the historical studies of Olasky (1987, 1989) shows that the success of propagandists at World War II, Bernays believed that humans are can be manipulated. He mentioned mention that humans can be manipulated for the bad purpose as well as good purpose. However, Grunig (1989) stated that publics often take advantage form the strange things such as dangerous products, gender discrimination, pollution etc. For the past examples, Bernay comes out a thought to boost the sales of Lucky Strikes cigarettes towards women, he persuade ten ladies who are first time to participate an social event to smoke on the public place while walking in the parade of New Yorks Easter. Besides, in year 1929, Bernays also hired by General Electric to persuade many of the worlds electricity supply to switch off the power and light to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Thomas Edison for his invention of light bulb to commemorate the greatness of Edison. In 1924, Bernays started the first educati on course of Public Relations at New York University. He was the pioneer of public relations academic. Some people are not believed in public relations practitioner as persuasion is being doubt by them and undesirable for nowadays propaganda. There are positive and negative persuasive communication in the marketplace and society. Such as public healthy campaigns like TAK NAK that persuade the public to reducing smoking or even not to smoke to keep the body healthy. The Public Service Announcement (PSA) of encouraging safer driving likes not to break through the traffic light and not driving after drinking alcohol. Furthermore, the political campaign for the elections is using the two-way asymmetrical model which the candidate is seek to influences the voters to stand by their point of view. The candidate will try to persuade the voters to vote for them with slogan like vote Barisan National to preserve the country peaceful. This is to create fear among the people deep-seated worries, they play with special appeals to place the propaganda onto the public. Most of the advertising would like to use this model because at the end of the time, the benefits are not enjoyed by the consumer but the advertiser which is the organisation. The propaganda can use to describe this model. Propaganda intends to alter the public perception on certain thing. It is use as a communication to achieve the organisations desire and expectation. The priority of place the propaganda is to change the way public behaves currently to act in the way an organisation aimed to. According to Lasswells propaganda theory, the existing environment can influence the people to be vulnerable to simple form of propaganda. One of the examples of propaganda is glittering generalities, which is using the positive words to represent a particular product or person. Such as the newspaper of Guang Ming Daily, they use the slogan of your everyday best friend to make people accept and support their newspaper just like a best friend that you needed every day. Another example is McDonald is Americas favourite, this is a kind of bandwagon that carrying a meaning of every American are like to eat McDonald, thus you should be one of them. More and more advertis ing use propaganda to place their product or service in order to manipulate their consumer to agree with the organisations point of view and tend to support their product or service. For example, the advertisement of Calvin Kleins perfume, the scene shows a character that use the perfume will look cool and able to attract the opposite sex to approach them. In other words, whoever wants to look attractive must use the Calvin Kleins perfume. Nowadays, more and more of the advertisers like to invite the celebrities to be the endorser of a particular product or service. This is because the celebrities have the ability to influence their fans approach to particular product and boost the sales indirectly. For example, Pepsi, a soft drink company who invest a large amount on the famous celebrities at home and abroad such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and western countries to endorse their product. This is to create a celebrity charm in order to boost their sales. This technique is known as testimonial that able to influence and manipulate the audience to act according to the advertising which is the indeed objective behind the advertisement. The advertisers are aimed at the idolater mentality of the audiences, and then provide the information of how to approach their idol with Pepsi soft drink. In addition, the Disneylands slogan, the happiest place on earth makes the audiences feel that there is the place to go to feel good and havin g a better life with no worries. Apparently, the organisation is intended to create an impact among the audiences to step toward to Disneyland to join the joy. Symmetrical Model According to James E Grunig, he said that Public relations are the spread of management of an organization and publics and the purpose is to establish a target public relationship of mutual trust. Mr. James E Grunig is a noted of public relations theories and adding a new theories which is four models of public relations in 1984. One of the models of public relations is two-way symmetrical model which is the best and ideal model than other three models, said by James E Grunig. Two-way symmetrical model is emphasizes on dialogue, complete and accurate two-way communication. The main purpose is to promote mutual understanding between organizations and publics therefore the results of communication is benefits to both sides. Furthermore, it emphasis on public relations works to be built on the basic of the investigation and communication to resolve conflicts with strategies public through the dissemination of public relations mode. Besides that, two-way symmetrical models express the meaning of emphasized moral, stressed the need to balance between the interests of social organizations and publics. For example, some public relations department is using a two-way symmetrical model rather than two-way asymmetrical model to carry out the public relations activities. James E Grung, whose always get attention to others person dialogue, attitudes and behaviour and believes that two-way symmetrical model is unique than two-way asymmetrical model. It is because two-way asymmetrical model just to change others without changing ourselves. For example, public relations mostly used two-way asymmetrical model to reach their target audience. Moreover, he claims that good public relations not only successes to persuaded one side which is client or publics, he or she must persuaded both sides to change. Although some used of two-way asymmetrical model can evenly achieve in two-way symmetrical model. A success two-way symmetrical model is to let others recognize that there had self interest included in the information and to persuade them as well as uses each other common interest to persuade them. Two-way symmetrical model is refers to the interaction of two factors that affect each other in order to achieve the balanced state in society. There are several characteristics positioning relationship between the government, mass media and publics. Thus, this is also a kind of communication between the states on behalf both. Firstly, it is two-way in performance of the government and media to maintain mutual cooperation and mutual restraint. It means that government should actively using the mass media public resources, truthful, fair, proactive in mass media to provide government information to understand the ideal of the spread of mass media and value orientation therefore maintain relationship between government and publics. Besides that, mass media as social and public resources and helps publics to convey their perceptions and comments for government. Two-way symmetrical model used for media to enhance the relationship between government and publics at the same time achieve th e harmony of social relations. Second, two-way symmetrical is the best way to lead the government and media to share a common goal which is to protect publics interest. For example, government promoted 1Malaysia concepts through media such as television and radio. This shows that government used two-way symmetrical model to maintain good relationship with media and publics. James E Grunig argued that two-way symmetrical model can included the central route to persuasion. The central route to persuasion is persuaded by the arguments or content of the message. For example, after hearing a solution of the problems, people may decide to forgive and forgot the problems because they will convinced to it. Furthermore, Public relations also used the two-way symmetrical model to resolve conflict. For example, public relations provided the ways that will benefits to two sides therefore the conflict will be fulfilment. In addition, public relations increases the effectiveness of organizations by maintain the independence to organization and publics. For example, organizations manage the independence by building long term effect and stable the relationship between organization and publics. Two-way symmetrical model also used by public relations to shared mission of their organization. For example, there are many public relations programs such as fund raising or health campaigns are motivated more for the need to support from public than conflict. Moreover, two-way symmetrical model mostly used in maintain the relationship between organization and publics and negotiate with publics. It will make the organization more responsible to their clients and publics. For example, organizations need to fulfil publics needs and wants at the same promoted organization reputation. Therefore, two-way symmetrical model can even defined the ethics of public relations is rather than an outcome. Two types of research have been shows that two-way symmetrical model makes organizations more effectives. It shows that two-way symmetrical model is the most ethical approach to public relations and the ethics of public relations and the effectiveness of the models will helps to achieving the public relations objectives. For example, public relations announced to publics the information and tog

Components of Supply Chain Management

Components of Supply Chain Management A supply chain may be defined as the number of business practices that move goods from that of raw materials through supply, production and the final distribution of the goods to the customer. Most manufacturing organizations have a supply chain of some description. It is considered that all effective management practices must take into consideration the efficiencies of the component within the chain in order to avoid loss of quality and important customers within the business. THE PROCESS Within any supply chain there are five key elements: 1) Production 2) Supply 3) Inventory 4) Location and 5) Transportation and Information. Each of these is examined in turn. Production In order to facilitate strategic decision making relative to production it is important to understand both what the client wants and equally what the market demands. This leads to the development of supply chain agility and indicates how many products will need to be completed; the sequence to be completed, the individual components required and which plants are capable of producing them. Each of these decisions needs to focus on items such as inventory management, quality, capacity and the volume of goods to be produced in order to meet the customer need. In addition what techniques of quality control need to be introduced in order to meet the required standards of production? Supply This relates to the facility being able to produce efficient and economical goods whilst maintaining high levels of quality. This can be very hard for companies to achieve, particularly when the product incorporates external sub components made outside of the firm. Hence there is a need to QA external products as meeting a required standard of quality. This not only applies to imported finished goods but also the quality of raw materials being used. When selecting a supplier it is a careful balance of cost, quality, reliability and flexibility. A good supplier relationship helps to build a strategic business relationship. Inventory Other important decisions relate to stock or inventory and as such it is a very fine balance between holding too much inventory and not enough. This becomes an important aspect of supply chain management and it is important to retain optimum levels of stock at different locations without holding too much inventory which creates under-utilized capital. There is also the risk of obsolescence for those goods that exceed their storage dates. Control policies need to examine the procedure for retention of inventory and this involves close customer relationship management. Location Strategic decisions are focused upon such items as the location of production plants, distribution and stock facilities and the location of these facilities to the market. Once customers are established it is important that they are services by having production facilities within close proximity to them. This was an important part of the success of the Industrial Revolution in Britain the mines producing raw materials i.e. Coal, Coke etc. were close to the factories that needed to burn them for power and fuel, together with the steel plants that needed the coal for the furnaces. Transportation Information Transportation decisions are an important part of satisfying customer demand. (Rockford Consulting, 2012). Creating innovation requires good organization of information. Computers and software provide important valuable assists in the achievement of these objectives but it still remains important to conduct regular business process analysis and eliminate any redundancies or duplication of effort. THE THREE COMPONENTS OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT There are three essential important components of Supply Chain Management: Business Processes Management Components Network Structure Each of these can be examined in turn: Business Processes It is the business processes that define both the activities and flow of information within the organization. For example: order processing, customer services, distribution etc. It is important to gain a firm understanding of the business processes by conducting business process analysis. This enables the processes to be optimized by streamlining, elimination of redundant processes and building enhanced processes. Network structure This identifies those partners who collaborate in the supply chain. They are the important key business players. Relationships can be placed into categories for example: Strategic Partners, Manufacturing, Operational and Reserve list. Management Components The management component contains the company philosophy for doing business and the methods that it will deploy in order to carry this out. This should be a clear Executive framework that supports a reliable decision making process. It is important that the managers embrace the culture of the Company and this is clearly demonstrated to both the customers and those who work within the organization. (Jesperson, B.D. 2005) INTERPRETING LOGISTICS IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN Logistics may be defined as the function that manages the movement of the materials in the supply chain. This is the movement of materials from the initial supply to that of the final delivery to the customer. The concept of logistics embraces a number of distinct activities like procurement, warehousing, inventory management, order processing, recycling and distribution etc. (Sadler, I. 2007) Benefits of logistics Management- Managers will be better informed and make smarter decisions if they understand the business processes within their organization. This is critical in the achievement of business goals. Efficient logistics management is also an important vehicle in the development of the business marketing strategy. The roots of logistics management can be traced back to WW2 and the military application of mobilizing resources and materials. These early concepts were further evolved in the 1960s with physical distribution management. In the 1990s the advances in communication with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) enabled electronic transfer of information between organizations. We now have Global Positioning (GP) technology that enables precise tracking of goods on a truly globalized basis. The use of logistics software has the benefit of placing controls within the system and ensures that proper routing choices are made. This includes the selection of the correct carriers and optimal shipping routes. These time savings provide a considerable return on investment. EXPLORATION OF NEW CONCEPTS The external supply chain advances beyond the basic concepts of supply chain management. It brings into play all of the additional business links and the complex levels of interactivity. The integration of all of these steps is extremely complex. One such business that has stepped up to the challenge is that of Ford Motor Company in the USA. They have vertically integrated every aspect of the business from mining to manufacturing. The main driver of these new concepts has clearly been centred on customer satisfaction. One of the goals of integrated supply chain management is to remove barriers in order to allow the free flow of materials. One such barrier is that of shared resources in the supply chain. One new approach is removing this barrier and thereby changing the focus to that of buyer focus. Two existing approaches on the removal of barriers are that of lean thinking and agile manufacturing. Shared resources create a problem by adding to the complexity of planning and control, as such creating a barrier. Buyer focus looks towards splitting the buyer process into more manageable components in order to meet improved performance criteria. In this concept resources are singled out in order to serve one buyer. Hence one buyer serves the whole range of supply products. Supply chain management is a relatively new concept. The origins can be traced back as recent as 26 years to a Booze Allen Consultant named Keith Oliver. It was Oliver who defined the term and provided the early foundation concepts to what we now know today as integrated supply chain management. It was the Japanese who really adopted this approach in manufacturing and adapted the techniques of just-in-time and Ken Ban; these techniques becoming universally accepted and adopted throughout the west. The large software vendors like Oracle and SAP were looking towards computer software solutions for the automation of these complex processes. Despite making advances in this area it is still difficult to point towards a single standard or procedure for adoption in Supply Chain Management. (Thorsten Blecker, 2006) Software Applications JDA is an example of a software Company that claims to have in excess of 6000 world-wide customers and their software covers the entire spectrum of supply chain management. Another leading player in this field is that of the software firm Logility. Other leading software suppliers like ORACLE and SAP have integrated these applications into the more wider ranging Enterprise Planning software solutions. MITIGATING RISKS IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN Financial Control The key towards the management of financial risks in Transportation costs is by having an effective budgetary control system. Planned levels of expenditure (budgets) are made for all levels of operating costs and these are measured against Actual results in the monthly accounts. These will produce variances, either positive (underspend) or negative (overspend). Those negative variances that fall outside of a prescribed tolerance level e.g. +/- 10% of the budget figure, should be made the point of financial investigation and appropriate remedial action taken. This could be the result of increased supplier costs, unplanned overspend, an increase in the quality of materials and hence costs. There may be numerous reasons but the objective should be to get the expenditure back within the budget tolerance limit. ( Sodhi, M.S. 2012) Financial control should also be linked to Project Management. In particular examination of contingency plans for alternate suppliers within the supply chain. Lack of appropriate alternative suppliers can expose the firm to unplanned financial risks and cost escalation. The concept of Analytical Risk Mitigation is an approach that explores the relationship between cost and change and this is linked to economic considerations like supply and demand, marginal cost statements, break even analysis. This approach allows firms to deploy risk mitigation strategies that diversify or spread the nature of the risk thereby minimizing the amount of cost disruption to the business. Economic Measures This ties in with logistics and ensuring that measures are taken to mitigate expenditure within the transportation of goods within the supply chain. Logistics may be defined as the function that manages the movement of the materials in the supply chain. This is the movement of materials from the initial supply to that of the final delivery to the customer. The concept of logistics embraces a number of distinct activities like procurement, warehousing, inventory management, order processing, recycling and distribution etc. Benefits of logistics management means that managers will be better informed and make smarter decisions if they understand the business processes within their organization. This is critical in the achievement of business goals. Efficient logistics management is also an important vehicle in the development of the business marketing strategy. The use of logistics software has the benefit of placing controls within the system and ensures that proper routing choices are made. This includes the selection of the correct carriers and optimal shipping routes. These time savings provide a considerable return on investment and reduces the level of risk involved. One of the goals of the integrated supply chain is to remove barriers in order to allow the free flow of materials. One such barrier is that of shared resources in the supply chain. One new approach is removing this barrier and thereby changing the focus to that of buyer focus. Two existing approaches on the removal of barriers are that of lean thinking and agile manufacturing. Shared resources create a problem by adding to the complexity of planning and control, as such creating a barrier. Buyer focus looks towards splitting the buyer process into more manageable components in order to meet improved performance criteria. In this concept resources are singled out in order to serve one buyer. Hence one buyer serves the whole range of supply products. Risks and responses should be reported to the project sponsor and other management stakeholders on project status and progress reports. Risk management items should be also part of regularly scheduled project Steering Committee meetings. When risk events occur, the impact and actual damage to the project are assessed. Appropriate corrective response plans, workarounds and action items are executed. When a risk event does occur, it becomes an issue that has an impact on the project deliverables and as such it is important that these are resolved at the earliest opportunity The probability and impact matrix is a vehicle whereby the Project Manager and his team determine elements of risks involved in the project and the activities or phases where these may impact the project. CONCLUSIONS The larger more complex business operations are moving towards the installation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that embrace supply chain management. These integrated systems use a single relational database management (rdbms) system. If these are installed properly they can offer significant competitive advantages to the firm. There are however some drawbacks in that they are extremely expensive to set up and install. In addition they propose both complex and expensive maintenance procedures. Some products like that of SAP have had a limited expert resource base to draw from. This has resulted in large in-house training programs and as such added a further layer of expense to the cost of software acquisition. Those firms that have trodden down this path agree that this is an investment over time. The rewards show at a later date once you gain formal control over inventories and the movement of goods in the organization. (Madu, C.N. 2005)

Narrative Criticism of McPhee :: Monopoly New Jersey Essays

Narrative Criticism of McPhee "Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars." We’ve all heard these phrasesfromthe board game Monopoly. Monopoly, however, isn’t merely a game.It wasbased on an actual city. "The Search for Marvin Gardens" tells of Monopoly’s relation to Atlantic City, NJ. In this narrative criticism I will examine several main characteristics of the piece. In doing so, I will try to answer the question, "How has Atlantic City changed due to a greedy, capitalistic attitude?" I believe that this question makes a good connection to thepiece’s description of the changes in the features of the city. "The Search forMarvin Gardens" is a section of the book Pieces of the Frame byJohn McPhee. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux published the piece in 1975. Thecomposition itself is fifteen pages long. It tells of Monopoly’s connectionsto a realworld location, Atlantic City, NJ. In order to write a narrative criticism of McPhee’s "The Search for Marvin Gardens",I firstread and gave a comprehensive examination of the narrative. To dothis,I looked at several characteristics of the piece. I decided that thesetting,the characters, and the theme were the most important characteristicstothis piece. Other characteristics such as the narrator, events, temporalrelations, casual relations, and audience are not quite as important inmycriticism of this piece. To look at the important characteristics, youmustask yourself questions about the piece. How does the setting changethroughoutthe piece? How does the setting relate to the plot and characters?How isthe setting created? Who are the main characters? What are the physicalandmental traits of the characters? What is the major theme of the narrative?There are several other questions you may ask, but they do not prove asrelevantto this piece. The aforementioned questions are significant becausethey helpanswer t he research question. A participant in a game of Monopoly narrates the piece. He not only pictures the game board. He sees the corresponding locations in Atlantic City. The plot line ofthe story follows the narrator in search of Marvin Gardens. Along the wayhe sees the difference between the way things were, and the way they usedto be. In "The Search for Marvin Gardens", there are basically four physical settings: the Monopoly tournament, Marvin Gardens, Atlantic City of the past, and Atlantic Cityin the 1970s. McPhee alternates between the settings with great regularity,and the tempo of the story is constantly changing.

What drove Eliza to change? What does it mean to be high class? Essay

In George Bernard Shaw’s didactic, Victorian play Pygmalion, Linguistics Professor Henry Higgins’s perceptive ears are offended by the sound of Eliza’s lowly, Cockney accent, so he wishes to change it into a flawless, pleasant voice that would blend in among high society. Higgins is a sarcastic and rude character who treats Eliza badly throughout most of the play, sometimes not even acknowledging her presence. This brings up the question of why she tolerates his rudeness. What drove Eliza to change? Change is desired when we face conflicts that must be resolved. Another question this play presents is: What does it mean to be high class? Is it as Henry Higgins says it is, that it is just the proper way of speaking? Can the â€Å"right† sociolinguistics or money or heritage give someone high status? We can wish to change when wanting to improve ourselves, to satisfy others who we hold in esteem, to meet demands placed upon us, but most importantly, a successful change must come from self-motivated reasons. A change forced upon a person is like no change at all. After the pressure, the expectations, the possible threat of that comes with authority, have all been removed, a change can only last if the subject being changed had wanted to be changed in the first place. Initially, she wanted to improve her speaking voice so that she could find a better job, and with a better job, better prospects in every part of her life. She realizes that she can do this with Higgins’s help—she recognizes his expertise in this subject, but he is unwilling to help her until she pays him a high sum that she cannot afford. Higgins’s peer Colonel Pickering’s attention is brought to Eliza’s plight and he feels for her, so he strikes up a wager with Higgins and ... ...see any kind of challenge in Freddy, so he was not of so much interest to her. George Bernard Shaw’s message, though, is that affection for another person should not be disguised as distaste, for eventually, the person we love will move on to somebody else who treats him or her as he or she deserves to be treated. In a way, Eliza’s plan to marry Freddy is a type of poetic justice against Higgins, who, even though exhibits the proper grammar and speech of gentility, is not truly a gentleman. His behavior and attitude are just inexcusable for a heroine like Eliza. From this irony and dark humor in Pygmalion, we learn that we should be genuine and reveal our true feelings for a love interest eventually, even if it is slowly to keep ourselves from being hurt—we do not want to meet Higgins’s lonely fate. He could have had Eliza, but his caustic behavior kept them apart.

Proctor in The Crucible :: Arthur Miller

The Crucible In the The Crucible by Arthur Miller, justice is raped by the immorality of those who kill for pleasure. Salem 1690’s, an epidemic of accusations is going around the village. Women, Men and Children are accusing others of witchcraft. More than a dozen of girls fell ill, everything attributed to the devil. Men and Women are being killed by immoral accusations, some of them because of land disputes, but others because of forbidden passions. A forbidden passion between Proctor and Abigail leads into the tragedy of the play. Proctor is a man with a lot of moral problems, who always concerns only for the care of his family and social welfare. When avoiding his involvement in the trails of witchcraft, he is accused of witchery and sentenced to death. Arthur Miller shows us Proctor as a common farmer, who is honest, and respectable, who only cares for his family. Proctor lives in the town with his wife and their children. Nevertheless, as the play goes, Miller lets us know that Proctor has a significant secret, an extramarital relation with Abigail Williams, relation that was over for Proctor, but not for Abigail. In the following passage Abigail tells Proctor, why she loves him: â€Å"I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was thought by all these christians women and their covenanted men! and now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet.†(page 177) Abigail does not want to believe that everything is over between her and Proctor. For Proctor everything is something of the past, while there is something in him that makes him feel love for Abigail. On the other hand, for Abigail, Proctor is everything and will make everything possible to get his love. Love that will soon come a passion that will set the tragedy in the play. In addition, this affair causes Elizabeth to not believe Proctor, which causes lack of communication between the matrimony. Proctor, who for seven months was trying to get Elizabeth trust again is tired of her suspicions, and tells that, â€Å"Spare me! you forget nothing and forgive nothing. Learn charity, woman.

Internet Library Research Essay

The library is one of the best places wherein students can gather information for their assignments and researches. Libraries contain thousands of books that vary in subjects such as mathematics, sciences, arts, languages, and literature. In addition, it also provides students with other types of resources including periodicals, maps, CD-ROMs, and even the Internet. To say, therefore, that libraries are important in a student’s life is an understatement. As such, schools should make sure that students have constant access to the libraries even while at home. The North Central University is one of the many schools in the country that offers online access to its library. Students are able to search for resources that they need to complete their works even while not at the campus. They can talk to a librarian if they wish to. They can refer to guides if they encounter difficulty in using the online library or if they are confused in the writing process and cannot finish their research. The best feature of the university’s website is the abundance of resources it can provide for its students because of the numerous databases that it can access. The login page of the university is simple in that it does not require the students to search the page just to be able to log in properly. The login page also has options for first time users who have no account yet, for students who have forgotten their passphrase, and for those who need to reset their passphrases. An option to remember the user is also available on the page. The login button will take the student to the main page of the university’s website, which is the Learner Portal. Here, the student will be able to view his or her messages, announcements, and important events through the calendar. The portal has links to several other features, which include the library, writing center, and university documents. Clicking on the link for the library will direct the student to the main page of the North Central University online library. There are several options available for students in this area. One can ask a librarian about the availability of certain books. Students can search multiple databases for scholarly references. There are also guides in which students can refer themselves to if they have a hard time writing their researches. To perform a search that will yield scholarly references, students must click the NCU databases link and select their choice of database from here. The databases include EBSCOhost, LexisNexis Academic, ProQuest, and Sage. The database chosen for this activity was ProQuest, and the topic that searched was â€Å"ethical leadership in the 21st century. † Before performing the search however, there was an instruction to select the option â€Å"Database selected† so that the students will have the opportunity to select only the databases that are relevant to the search. The pre-determined databases include Career and Technical Education, Dissertations and Theses, ProQuest Computing, ProQuest Education Journals, and Research Library. The results of the search yielded seven documents from which only three were relevant. Among these three, only two was able to give full access to the document. The subjects that these documents fell under include counseling, organization behavior, anthropology, business ethics, psychiatry, and information science. Of these, only two were relevant to the topic being searched. The chosen citation reviewed was the one with the latest date of publication entitled â€Å"The Ethical Grounding to 21st Century Public Leadership. † There was a little difficulty experienced while searching for the author link because the document was full-text PDF format, which does not contain any links to the author. This was resolved by clicking the option to view the abstract of the document where the author’s name was hyperlinked to his other works. This particular document had two authors. Clicking the link for the first author (Niel R. Vance) gave five documents and only one was related to the original document because it discussed applied ethics. The second author (Brett V. Trani) did not have any other work aside from this document. Because there were only three relevant documents related to the search terms, another search was performed. This time, the word â€Å"21st† was replaced with â€Å"twenty first. † This yielded five results, two of which were relevant. The ProQuest database is user oriented in that it provides a Help link for people to find ways to enhance their search process. At the beginning of the search, the Help option allows students to learn how to improve their search. Students will learn how to limit their searches or exclude other options to refine their search. This would lead to better results and would take the students less effort when searching for their resources. Another Help link is also available after a search is completed. This will teach students how to read and mark a document, cite the document properly, and filter or sort the results. The database can also suggest topics and publications that are related to the student’s keywords. Overall, ProQuest excels in trying to provide scholarly and useful resources for the students of North Central University. The results were very relevant and close to the terms that were used to search the database. There were many helpful hints throughout the website for students to use so that they can experience the best while searching. These tips were also significant because the students are able to apply them in their papers, which would mean that they would commit fewer errors in their works. There was also an option for students to email a specific article if they want to share what they have found in their search. The references that the document used can also be viewed by the student to see if there are relevant information that can be used for his or her work. The experience provided new insights in performing searches. Although it was relatively easy, students need to know some tricks to yield better results like changing some keywords or using the suggested topics that the database provides. There is no doubt that technology has a big impact on everyone’s lives nowadays. Educational institutions have to keep up with the changing of times to meet the needs of their students even if it means having to set up websites and online libraries, and acquiring huge databases for their students. Online libraries are important because this would provide students reliable sources for their papers. This is in contrast to Internet articles that are freely available on the World Wide Web but are sometimes misleading and are questionable in terms of the content and the authority of the person who wrote it. While not all that can be found on the Internet is unreliable, it is better for students to not take the risk, especially if it is their grades that are on the line. Only trusted information should be used when doing academic research papers unless otherwise indicated by professors and instructors. It is essential to mention that students need to learn how to distinguish reliable sources from those that cannot be trusted. They should learn how to distinguish if a website has the requirements for it to be considered reliable. References Bahaudin G Mujtaba, Carol Griffin, Cuneyt Oskal. (2004). Emerging Ethical Issues in Technology and Countermeasures for Management and Leadership Consideration in the Twenty First Century’s Competitive Environment of Global Interdependence. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 9(3), 34-55. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1178660741). Kanungo, Rabindra N. (1998). Leadership in organizations: looking ahead to the 21st century. Canadian Psychology, 39(1/2), 71. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ProQuest Psychology Journals database. (Document ID: 390882341). M. Fleckenstein, Mary Maury, S. M. Patrick Primeaux, Patricia Werhane. (2006). Ethical Leadership in 21st Century Corporate America. Journal of Business Ethics, 66(2-3), 145-146. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1113480671). Neil R Vance, Brett V Trani. (2008). THE ETHICAL GROUNDING TO 21st CENTURY PUBLIC LEADERSHIP. International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior, 11(3), 372-380. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1536919851). Rost, Joseph C. (1995). Leadership: A discussion about ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 5(1), 129. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 4596738). Vivienne Collinson. (2008). Leading by learning: new directions in the twenty-first century. Journal of Educational Administration, 46(4), 443-460. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1506286921).

Relationship-based governance system Essay

1. What is the relationship between corporate governance and social responsibility? 2. What is your opinion of GAP International is having a code of conduct for its suppliers? What would Milton Friedman say? Contrast his view with Archie Carroll’s view. 3. Does a company have to act selflessly to be considered socially responsible? For example, when building a new plant, a corporation voluntarily invested in additional equipment that enabled it to reduce its pollution emissions beyond any current laws. Knowing that it would be very expensive for its competitors to do the same, the firm lobbied the government to make pollution regulations more restrictive on the entire industry. Is this company socially responsible? Were its managers acting ethically? 4. Are the people living in a relationship-based governance system likely to be unethical in business dealings? 5. Given that people rarely use a company’s code of ethics to guide their decision making, what good are the codes?