Inventory management free essay sample

L. L. Bean uses several different calculations in order to determine the number of units of a particular item it should stock, whether it is a new item or a never out item. It first freezes a forecast for its demand for the upcoming season. This figure is a result of a consensus between the product people, buyers and inventory managers. Once the predicted demand is frozen, L. L. Bean uses its historical demand and forecast data to analyze the forecasting errors. The forecast errors are calculated for each individual item and a frequency distribution of these is made, which is further used as a probability distribution for future errors. Thus, if 50% of the errors were within 0. 7 and 1. 6, the forecast for this year would be adjusted accordingly. Next, each item commitment quantity was tabulated using its individual contribution margin and salvage value if any. For e. g. if an item had a margin of $15 if sold, and $5 loss if not sold, the commitment value would be 0. We will write a custom essay sample on Inventory management or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 75. Hence the optimal stock to keep would be 0. 75 fractile of the probability distribution of demand. If for instance, the corresponding error for 0. 75 is 1. 3, the optimal stock to keep for that item would be 1. 3 * frozen forecast. Hence, this value is the stock for that item. Q. 2 We explain different scenarios to determine relevant costs and revenues. The first scenario is where the stock kept of a particular item is sold. In this case, all the costs related to buying and selling that product would be included. The selling price of the product, the cost of buying from the vendor, the carrying cost of that particular stock item, and the cost of marketing that item in the catalogue are the relevant costs to be included. In the second scenario, excessive stock is kept and at the end of the season, it is still not sold. In this case, the relevant costs are the cost of buying the stock from vendor, its storage and marketing cost in the catalogue, and the salvage cost ( if any) of that particular item. In case there is no salvage cost for an item, its redundancy cost becomes relevant. The final case is where the stock for a particular item is not kept, but demand for that item is there, resulting in a stock out. Since L. L. Bean is a direct ordering company, the cost of a stock out is very high for it in terms of lost goodwill. Hence, the cost of goodwill lost becomes relevant in this scenario as well. Q. 3 Scott Sklar should have data on actual and forecasted demand of the item that were previously introduced as  µnew item ¶. It will give him an idea about various costs that go on in launching a  µnew ¶ item. He should have information on selling price which will be determined after consulting with the marketing, sales and production department of L. L Beans. It will be useful for both the company and Scott. Information on cost of sales, commissions provided (if any) for sales, stock outs and backorders cost are relevant in his decision making. He can get sales information on a new catalogue item by comparing it with that of Bean ¶s competitors ¶ similar item and by consulting with the marketing department. It will help him understand the current market trends for that particular item. After analyzing the market, he can observe what level of buffer stock he should have to avoid stock outs. For this, he will have to compare stock out costs and over-stocking costs for that item. To acquire this information, he needs to sit down with his buyers, sales and inventory personnel. Moreover, he should also know what promotion cost each  µnew ¶ item will incur in getting printed in one catalogue. How much space will it require to be noticed as a new item in a particular category? In other words, he should gather information on the promotion costs of the new item. He should also find the service level based off a profit margin calculation. These bases will help him forecast demand for the new item. He should also observe what happens to the demand of existing products whenever new products are introduced in the market. If the new product is pulling customers away from the existing products then this factor should be incorporated in the demand forecast of the new catalogue item. Q4. One thing that Fasold need to realize is that we lose more when we have stock outs then when we liquidate our inventory. He can take a simple example that for example selling one item gives you 15rs worth of profit, and the liquidation cost for that item is 5rs. So if you have inventory then you can earn 15rs as compared to the cost of stock out which is pretty less. So a proper cost benefit analysis could be done for Fasold. But here a proper cost benefit analysis should be made to give a true picture that also has the cost on inventory storing and not just the loss because of liquidation. Also he should be explained that forecasts are never accurate. Also this over stocking is more for the ? new items? , so L. L Bean should introduce them in the catalogues to get a fait bit of idea before actually introducing them. We can also tell him that because of the large lead time of eight to twelve week we have to keep access inventories as well because if we receive an unexpected order the time to fulfill that order would be very long. But we also need to realize that improvement is needed and Faslod concerns are genuine in the sense that he should know that why is he keeping so much inventory. Also he should be told that we are improving the whole forecasting process to better predict demand so we have less buffer stock, but still as the cost of out-stocking is more the over stocking, we would be applying a more prudent approach. Q5. There could be numerous improvements that L. L Bean can incorporate in its process. As we read in earlier cases as well that the fashion industry is a fast changing industry and product demands change very rapidly. So only using the past data to predict future is not enough. They should be continuously be updating their forecasts based on latest data as well. Secondly in is mentioned in the case that ? customer behavior is very hard to predict? , so what it can do is that it may involve experts in the whole process, with experts and the data combined they would be better able to forecast. So a Delphi method is more appropriate here. Another important thing to note is that the new catalogue is introduced in August, which gives the customers little time to place a second order. L. L bean should try to introduce catalogues earlier so that the demand could be more easily assessed and a second commitment could be made. Also with the catalogues we can send questionaries ¶ that could be optional and in this way we can gain better insights inside the consumer behavior and thus predict demand in a better way. This should especially be done for ? never outs? and sent to regular customers and once we know how customers rank the new products in comparison to the new products we can adjust our plans. But a long term plan should be to reduce dependence on foreign vendors and have more local vendors who can supply quickly. Also we can convince suppliers to keep stocks of raw materials that are same for all like zips, buttons shoe laces etc. In this way the response will be faster and L. L bean can plan a second order too based on the new forecast. So the whole supply chain process needs to be improved along with forecasting accuracy improvements.

10 jobs with the highest divorce rates

10 jobs with the highest divorce rates We work because we have to, and also to make life better- jobs afford us the income we need to survive, in addition to hopefully offering some level of personal fulfillment. Unfortunately, work can also have negative consequences that spill over into our personal lives. One of the worst side effects of a job is when it interferes with marriages, and certain jobs are more likely to lead to divorce than others. The following 10 jobs have the highest divorce rates, and you may be surprised by some of the results. 1. Dancer/ChoreographerBelieve it or not, dancers and dance choreographers are the professionals most at risk for divorce. The intimacy of dancing often leads to extramarital affairs between co-workers.2. BartenderLess of a shock is that fact that a large number of married bartenders split up with their spouses. Just think about it: a workplace in which people gather to hook up + heavy doses of free-flowing alcohol = a recipe for disaster for some people.3. Massage TherapistWha t’s more intimate than swaying together on the dance floor or sharing a shot at the bar? Well, touching another person’s unclothed body comes to mind. That’s the job description of massage therapists, so it is unsurprising that their marriages tend to break up.4. Gaming Cage WorkerBeing a gaming cage worker involves conducting financial transactions at casinos. Casinos attract clientele who enjoy the edgy entertainments of gambling and drinking, and such people may be more likely to engage in the equally risky pursuit of infidelity. Gaming cage workers have the extra enticement of dealing directly with money, which is a major turn on for a lot of people.5. Extruding Machine OperatorsAn extruding machine operator works on an assembly line. One theory is that this repetitious, alienating, and highly unstable work causes a psychological disconnect in workers that can lead to divorce. It is also low-paying work performed by people with relatively little education, w hich can also be factors in unstable marriages.6. Gaming Service WorkerNow we return to the casino for another job that often spells trouble for marriages. Gaming service workers tend to get divorced for the same reasons as gaming cage workers. They are possibly slightly less at risk since gaming service workers are not actually involved in the exchange of money, though there is more direct contact with other people.7. Factory WorkerLike extruding machine operators, factory workers perform repetitive, low-paying work that does not require a higher education degree. Such people are likelier to get divorces than highly educated, financially stable individuals who get to perform more intellectually stimulating and personally fulfilling work.8. Switchboard OperatorSwitchboard operator may seem like a decidedly old-fashioned job, but these folks who direct our phone calls are still around in great enough number to register in divorce-rate censuses. The stress of switchboard work is a maj or factor in the high divorce rate of people who perform this rapidly disappearing job.9. Nurse/Health AideWorking as a nurse or health aide comes with the dual issues of being highly stressful and extremely intimate. The long hours involved in such work can put a major strain on a marriage, and the close contact between worker and patient can lead to infidelity.10. Entertainer/Performer/Pro AthleteYou may have expected entertainers and pro athletes to take the top spot on this list since no one receives more attention for getting divorced than entertainers and athletes. Of course, no one receives more attention for doing absolutely anything than entertainers and pro athletes. Nevertheless, these are jobs that involve spending weeks or months away from home and being on the receiving end of adulation from fans who often have more in mind than snagging an autograph.

25 Growth Hacks Your Content Marketing Desperately Needs

25 Growth Hacks Your Content Marketing Desperately Needs Growth hacking is a marketing technique that uses creativity, analytical thinking, and social metrics to sell products and gain exposure, according to Wikipedia. When your product is your content, applying growth hacks to it makes perfect sense. If theres anything you want for your content, its exposure. 25 #GrowthHacks That Will Amplify Your Content Marketing Why Do I Need Growth Hacks For My Content Marketing? One of the things that we have been talking about quite a bit on this blog is a concept that we've come up with called content hacking. It's about learning to get more from your content than just another blog post with the occasional tweet. It's about using your content to drive maximum traffic and lots of attention. It's about getting results, in other words. After all, why else would you be creating content? With that in mind, here are 25 killer ways that you can hack your content marketing, in no particular order. 1. Write Awesome Headlines Headlines matter.  A  lot. You already know this, yet you still write mushy headlines that don't always drive results. Why do you do this? If you needed further proof at just how important a headline is, consider Inbound.org, a site that is about "voting" up content based on the headline. Maybe that isn't how it is supposed to work ideally, but a simple scroll through the homepage and it's easy to see that headlines  are a factor.   Recently, I took some advice from Upworthy.com and started writing a minimum of 25 headlines for every blog post  (we'll talk more about this in a bit) that I write. It hasn't always been easy, but it has paid off well. My headlines are better than before, though I am sure that I still have a long way to go. Write headlines that get people to want your full content even if all they have to go on is that headline. Write Better Headlines With A  Free Headline Analyzer The headline analyzer  will help you: Use headline types that get the most traction for social shares, traffic, and search engine ranking. Make sure you have the right word balance to write readable headlines that command attention. See the best  word and character length for search engines like Google and email subject lines, while also seeing  how your readers will scan your headlines. Try The Free Headline Analyzer Now 2. Make Content More Sharable How easy is it for your readers to share your content? It's not that readers are lazy, but they aren't going to work too hard to share a post; you need to make it easy for them. I'm sure you have a few share buttons, but are you placing sharing options within your post itself? Simple WordPress plugins like and Markerly allow you to make the content in your post shareable with a simple click. These are important triggers that you can use to get your readers sharing content for you. Create beautiful boxes in your blog posts. #ClickToTweet 3. Test Share Button Positions Where are the share buttons on your page? Are they above or below the fold? Believe it or not, but it can make a difference.  AddThis (one of the leading social sharing tools) suggests that social share buttons placed "above the fold" performed the best for most sites. Keep your button near the top of the page: Avoid making your readers scroll to find your sharing button. It is okay to have the button at the top and bottom of the page, but  users will find it easier at the top. Of course, this may not be the case for each site, so it is important to try out a few different arrangements. In some situations, you can even keep them fixed to the side of your blog post. 4. SEO Keywords For Targeting It feels like SEO is becoming a bit less important in the new order of content marketing, but I am not convinced that it shouldn't matter at all. One of the big benefits of choosing keywords is that it keeps you in touch with your audience. You will know what they are searching for, and what is on their mind. I recommend learning how to use Google Adwords to find keywords that work for your audience. Generate a list, and write a post to go with each group of keywords. There are several plugins out there that will keep you honest. WordPress SEO Plugin:  Yoast's plugin is certainly the most popular SEO plugin out there, and it's pretty powerful for being free. It will analyze the content in your post to make sure that it is staying true to your keywords. It is a must-have for every blogger. Scribe:  While it requires a monthly fee, Scribe makes it even easier to analyze your content and make sure that you are staying true to your keywords. I have found it to be the best plugin available for content analysis, and well worth the price of admission. 5. Let Your Content Lead To A Call To Action Every time someone reads your content, you should be leading them to an inevitable call to action. On the blog, we provide a sticky header  that offers our readers all of the helpful guides we've ever written in exchange for a simple email address. This simple header  leads to hundreds of new "leads" each month. It's simple, helpful, and worth including on every post. Neil Patel does a great job of asking for action from his readers at the bottom of every post. There is nothing wrong with asking as long as you are providing value to your readers. 6. Add A Pop-Up. Yes, A Pop-Up. Ok, now let's take it one step further. Maybe you need to make your call to action a little more actionable like this pop-up ad from GrooveHQ. Groove's super-compelling pop-up. Who wouldn't want to grow their business? I know that pop-ups aren't always well-loved, but they do work. It's hard to argue with results. Give the OptinMonster plugin a try, and grab the 'exit intent' add-on while you do. This plugin will only "pop-up" on readers that are already leaving your site. What do you have to lose? You also need to pay close attention to the text on your pop-up. For example, take a look at Groove's language above.  Who doesn't want to grow their business? This is a compelling call to action. Make your call to action something that no one can refuse. 7. Gamify Your Blog Gamification is subject unto itself, but it takes advantage of a key component of growth hacking–the desire to make what we do and what we think, as readers, public.  There is a unique human desire for connectivity and personal sharing that makes sites like Facebook and Twitter work. Why not use this for your own site? Poststat.us, a site that uses Love It Pro to gamify its reading process. One of the ways that we can do this is with a WordPress plugin call Love It Pro. This simple plugin allows visitors to 'vote' on your posts with a simple button. You can track your most loved posts in a sidebar widget, or use them as a way to prioritize them on your homepage. This simple gamification will make your content all the more sticky. 8. Use Your Network For More Than Self-Promotion So often, we think about our blog and social networks as outbound channels–channels for sharing our content with others, but not necessarily connecting with them.  Chris Lema is a blogger who knows better. Lema blogs regularly about the products he loves and people that he respects. He is a well-know force in the WordPress community simply because of his willingness to reach out and give generously.  Jump on Chris's email list, and you will know what I mean. It may not sound like a content marketing growth hack at first, but using your blog to make friends with key players in your industry is a great idea, a great way to make friends, and a method of building referrals and shares. 9. Guest Blogging Yeah yeah yeah, Matt Cutts said that guest blogging is dead. He didn't mean it. At least not really. Guest blogging as a link-building tool is dead, but as a way to build trust and awareness for your personal brand, it is very much alive. Guest blogging is still a powerful method  for promotion and professional networking if you're doing it right. Referral links from guest posts provide consistent traffic and recognition. At , we've had an aggressive guest blogging campaign since launch, and there isn't a day that it doesn't pay off. As you can see, many of our top referrals come from guests posts day in and day out. This doesn't even take into account the 'street credit' that we build by writing on these blogs. Guest blogging is still a classic way to hack your content marketing. 10. Think Beyond The Borders As a blogger, it can be pretty easy to think only in terms of our own blog, but if we were honest with ourselves, we'd see that there is a whole big world out there. Modern content marketers need to think beyond the borders of their blog and take their content elsewhere. Here are a few ideas: Videos on YouTube Podcasts and audio content Udemy course, or Skillshare Slideshow Quora, or other answer sites Forum contributions The thing that we have to keep in mind is that our content is still connected to us and to our own authority, no matter where it's hosted. Building traffic isn't always about the traffic. Sometimes it's about the authority and relationships that we build. That's what makes it a perfect growth  hack. 11. Write Longer Copy Blogger Neil Patel recently published a great post regarding  search rankings and post length  on his blog. In his research, he discovered an "average content length for a web page that ranks in the top 10 results for any keyword on Google has at least 2,000 words." I did my own research and found very similar results. So, what does that mean for you? Well, clearly you need to write more! Source  Quick Sprout No matter how we spin the results, longer copy is rewarded by Google. As pointed out in my own research, content length isn't the only key to success–quality still matters–but you  have to know that the length of your post matters a lot. 12. Write More Headlines, At Least 25 It may sounds like old news, but your headline is one of the most important aspects of your post. If you mess it up, you lose your chance at ever achieving a real content hack. Upworthy.com knows a thing or two about headlines. In their slide deck The Sweet Science Of Virality,  they emphasize the importance of the headline again and again. More importantly, they emphasize the value in writing a minimum of 25 headlines for each post. The full Upworthy presentation is excellent, and definitely worth a look, a bookmark, and possibly even a print out. It's that good. We also break down the results a bit further here, and provide some details on WHY writing more headlines works so well. 13. Shoot For Virality Speaking of Upworthy.com, there is a lot more that we can learn from them. Their entire model is built on the simple idea that they can manufacture virality with the right formula. You may think that it can't be done, but they've come as close to it as anyone, and they've even given us a few of their keys for success. It seems that the key is to be a true connoisseur of human nature. You need to understand how people think. As a blogger, trying to understand what motivates people to share content is an important step in the process.  Upworthy has invested the time in understanding this, and it has allowed them to virtually manufacture viral growth. As content hackers, we should certainly try to do the same. 14. Link To Your Posts From Your Posts We all know that links are a good thing when it comes to the search rankings and the web, and we all want others to link to our content. But what about linking to our own content for a change?  Google rewards this behavior as well, and it is an important step in the blogging process. The trick is to choose key phrases in your new blog post that can be cross-linked to other posts on your blog. For example, if you have written a blog post for the keyword 'write better headlines,' it would make sense to link to that post using a variety of phrases such as 'here's how we write great headlines,' or 'writing better headlines is easy.' As Google indexes your page, it will take into account both the link, and the text that you are using to connect the two posts. The result is better ranking for you. 15. Infographics One of the lessons that many content marketers have been learning lately is that the more time you spend on your content, the more likely you will have a pay-off. The more time you spend on your #content, the more likely you will have a pay-off. #bloggingHard work and effort matter, and this applies to your content. This is something that Moz engineer  Ã‚  Dr. Peter J. Meyers calls big content. Infographics, particularly well-researched ones, can certainly fall into this category. Our recent infographic on content hacking resulted in 10x more shares than our more conventional posts, and it is still bringing in new traffic each day. If the key is better content,  infographics are a fun way to go about it and a relatively easy way to growth hack your content marketing. 16. Offer A Free Course Creating content that you can reuse in multiple different ways is a huge content hack. A great example of this is a blog series that you turn into an ebook or an email autoresponder course. Serious content hackers learn to stretch their content as far as it will go. Udemy.com is a great place to offer your free or paid online course. Online learning is a currently undergoing huge growth, and it's a great place to showcase your reusable content. Sites like Udemy, Google Helpouts,  or Skillshare allow you to create step-by-step courses for your audience. You can choose to give them away for free, or to sell them for a profit. Either way, it's a great way to get more life out of the content that you created, and find new fans who discover you through your course. 17. Tell A Great Story In 2013, Groove did a really brave thing. They shut down their content marketing blog, a blog that was already bringing them 10,000 unique visitors each month. It was both a bold move and, as it turns out, a great idea. Groove decided to shift their story from "generic evergreen content" to the story of their own success. Now Groove is sharing intimate details about their journey to making 500k in revenue each month. It's a bold move, and requires an unprecedented level of transparency. Fortunately though, it has paid off in spades. In the first 5 weeks of the new blog, Groove gained 5,000 new email subscribers! It's hard to argue with results like that. This comes back to some of the things I mentioned about virality: We love connecting to others on an emotional/personal level. Stories and transparency help bridge that gap. A great way to hack your content marketing is to use this natural instinct of people wanting to know and connect in this way to your advantage. 18.  A/B Test Your 'About Us' Page Your 'About Us' page is one of the most visited areas of your website. Unfortunately, it’s often one of the most ignored, especially when it comes to a good call to action. Use some of the advice from this article to create a second version of your About Page and test out your changes with Optimizely, a service that helps you with A/B testing. For some inspiration, take a look at how Copyblogger places an effective call to action right in the middle of their About Us page. You're telling people who you are. Why wouldn't you give them the opportunity to connect now that they've gotten to know you? 19. Get Good At Email Marketing It's 2015, but email is not extinct. Freelance writer Barry Feldman wrote an email marketing mega-post on the entire subject that covers it from top to bottom, but the easy summation of it is this: Email marketing is a tactic that you must get right. Over and over again, it's been proven that email marketing will consistently result in more conversions and more paying customers than social media. It is just that good. At , email marketing is a major part of what we do. We offer several opportunities for readers to join our Content Marketing Update each week. It's an email newsletter that is filled with the most recent content marketing articles from around the web. It is a simple product, but it still brings in hundreds of new signups each week. The bottom line is that email works, and if you aren't using it to the fullest potential, you need to be. It's the classic way to growth hack your content marketing. Recommended Reading:  21+ Easy Ways To Build An Email List That Will Skyrocket By 552% In 1 Year 20.  Share Visuals Buffer looked into their tweets a while back and found they got 150% more clickthroughs when they shared images with their tweets instead of just text alone. But what if you could get even more engagement with your social messages than Buffer? Can you master the #hashtag better than @jimmyfallon? https://t.co/A4SrKpeQPi pic.twitter.com/uJBAhtQFt9 (@) October 27, 2015 When we started researching the best ways to get the most clickthroughs from social media, we started sharing a few GIFs in our tweets. Those  tweets got 22.3% more engagement than our tweets with graphics alone- and 166.6% more clickthroughs. Motion in social media feeds can stop scrollers dead in their tracks. If you're using plain text social messages, think of hacking your networks with images, GIFs, and videos. 21.  Grow Your Google+ Audience Search is now social, and one of the best ways to get noticed on search is to get noticed on Google+, Google's own social network. Many brands have a presence on Google+, but place little priority on the network because they've focused on Facebook or Twitter. Now is the time to change that. The more people that have you in your Google+ circles, the more likely you are to show up in social search, the default setting for Google searches. Weight is put on those in your circles when it comes to the search results on this setting. You want to show up in other's searches? Get in their circles. These days, SEO is all about social connections and great content, so getting as embedded as you can in the Google+ network only makes sense. This is a simple content marketing hack–get more followers on Google+. Get found in Google search. 22.  Promote Your Content On Social Media More Than Once In case you haven't heard, it's ok to promote your content on social media more than once. Networks like Twitter actually require it for true success. One of the easiest ways to grow the number of readers for each post you write is to simply share it more often. If each share results in a few new clicks, the math should take care of itself pretty quickly. At , we not only make this process easy by connecting social media scheduling right to your blogging workflow, we also provide a detailed guide on how to promote your content on social media (more than once). 23.  Autoresponder The Universe Email-based autoresponder courses are an epic content marketing growth hack that you should be using to grow your blog. They're not the same as your regular email newsletter. Instead, they are simple courses that drip content to your readers as soon as they sign up for your email marketing mailing list. They are a great way to drive deeper engagement with your readers, and keep them connected to your brand. Our "6 Free Marketing Tips" autoresponder course is consistently one of our best methods for driving new email addresses to our list. It is a major source of new leads for our product, and (shhh...don't tell) was put together using content that we originally created ages ago. That's right, autoresponder courses are a great way to recycle older content for a new audience. 24.  Make Your Blog Faster Faster? Yes, faster. Back in 2010, Google engineer Matt Cutts announced that Google is now factoring site speed into search rankings. So, it only makes sense that you would make your blog as fast as possible. Credit: Search Engine Journal One of the things that happens with blogs, especially WordPress-driven ones, is that we fill it up with a bunch of crummy plugins and themes that degrade our site's performance slowly over time. It's important that you spend some time reclaiming that speed and improving how you rate on Google. While it can be a bit technical, WPMU DEV has a great guide for speeding up your WordPress blog. Follow it, speed things up, live long and prosper. 25. Promote Your Content Mercilessly One of the biggest mistakes that content marketers make is that they focus more on the content than its promotion. While it is true that great content can "rise to the top," the biggest winners are still the ones that promote themselves the best. The best content marketers aren't the best at making content – they are the best at selling it.There are a ton of ways to growth hack your content marketing, but none of them compare to promoting your content mercilessly, and fighting for each new visit. Don't make the big mistake of assuming that if you write it, they will come. You have to go out and tell people about what you've written. What Content Marketing Growth Hacks Will You Rock? Content hacking is, at its core, all about making your content easy to find, consume, and share. Anything that helps break down barriers to these three foundational concepts is a content hack worth trying. What content hack has worked the best for you?

Law Cases Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Law Cases - Essay Example Additionally, it questions if limiting specific conduct, can be due to an opinion that is unpopular. South Carolina Supreme Court decision was that the state had no power to arrest and charge the demonstrators totally based on the opinions they were expressing. The court indicated that the defendants were convicted of an offense that was general in nature and not of exact definition. The Supreme Court thus reversed the decision of the State Trial Court. Due to lack of hostility on the side of demonstrators as well as spectators in addition to lack of clear evidence that the traffic flow was disturbed by the demonstrators made the Supreme Court to reverse the decision. According to the Supreme Court, the state suppressed the demonstrator’s freedom of speech. The case involved Florida A&M students who demonstrated in a non-public drive near a jailhouse premises. Despite being warned by the sheriff, they continued with the demonstrations leading to the arrest of 107 students. After being convicted by Florida Circuit Court as well as the District Court of Appeals, the petitioners indicated that they were denied fourteenth amendments rights. The major issue in this case is to determine whether or not the students had the right to engage in a demonstration on non-public premises. Another issue was to determine whether the jailhouse is included in the category of public office. According to the Supreme Court, the drives as well as the jailhouse premises are not in the category of public property. Since the petitioners had no intention of seeking service from the jail the abatement argument was dismissed. During the hearing, violation of constitutional rights was not perceived to have an impact on the case. During this case, the reasoning was that the state has the right to enforce its rules to protect the ground that is private. There lacked recorded evidence

Transformation at the IRS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Transformation at the IRS - Essay Example he group of people to which the task for implementing change has been assigned, e) measures for empowering people supporting the plan of change have to be introduced, f) the success of any part of the plan of change has to be advertised, so that people participating in the plan are empowered, g) alterations and updates of the plan of change are made, if necessary, so that the effectiveness of the particular plan is increased, h) the benefits of the plan of change for the organization should be clearly explained to all members of the organization (Badenhorst-Weiss, Nieuwenhuizen, Rossouw, Brevis, and Cant 2009, p.461). Ziegler (2007) notes that the 8-steps model helps ‘to understand the role of emotions in implementing change’ (Ziegler 2007, p.45). From a similar point of view, Mathew (2011) explains that the particular model reflects the level of communication between the leader and the employees, those who will be asked to support a plan introducing change. At IRS, the implementation of change has been unavoidable; in fact, as noted in the case study, the Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 has been the legislative text enforcing change in IRS. The above text highlighted the key aspects of change in regard to the specific organization. Reference should be also made to the following fact: in IRS efforts for change have started quite early; the last major effort of this type, before the RRA of 1998, has been that of President Truman in 1952 (case study). The implementation of change in IRS has many similarities to the 8 – steps model of Kotter, as presented above. This means that the chances for success of the particular plan are significantly increased. Still, not all steps of the above model have been used in the specific project. Using the 8-steps model, the framework of change in IRS can be described as follows: a) the public in USA had been already notified on the need for change in the organization’s services since 1990 (case study, p.6); although

The impact of culture on economic behaviour

The impact of culture on economic behaviour Most modern neoclassical economists have ignored the important role played by culture in explaining fluctuations in economic behaviour, hence, they were more concerned about economic variable such prices, output, interest rate etc. However, culture (values, norms, believes and religions) have a profound influence on economic behaviour (Hogeland 2003:2). In contrast those interested in the matter, consider that culture explain differences in economic outcomes however, they face challenges of finding a credible technique to show that the influence of culture can be separated from institutions and economic variables (Tabellini 2007). In the recent two decades economists became seriously concerned about the effects of culture on economic behaviour and found that culture (religious beliefs, values and preferences) has a significant positive relationship to economic growth. However, the economists find it difficult to explain because they are mainly concerned about economic measurements and because of the broad complexity of culture that makes it difficult to measure and test. Therefore, to overcome the situation variables that include normative values (beliefs, religious, ethnicity, etc) were included in the model as proxy variables. The results suggest that causality between culture and economics is likely to go two way directions, that is, culture may influence economic behaviour and economic behaviour may also affect the culture (Qin, Shuhao, Heerink, Futian 2008). In common sense or stylized facts also suggest that culture indeed influence economics behaviour. Thus, government policy toward economic growth may be successful or a failure in different geographical areas dues due individual behaviours influenced by cultural backgrounds. Therefore, if we can not test the role of culture in economics we cannot assure its implications on economic behaviour (Greif 1994). However, in recent years better techniques have been put in place to identify systematic differences in individual values, beliefs and preferences. These new techniques are now able to measure and test the influence of culture on economics behaviour. This paper examines the effects of culture on economic behaviour by using proxy variables of culture such as trust, respect, self determination and religious beliefs. The paper will try to answer the question does culture influence economic behaviour? To answering this question the paper will provide some theoretical back ground including: definitions of terms in section two, section three discuss empirical evidence, relationship between culture and institutions etc. Definition of terms The definition of culture is very broad and complex. However, according to Tabellini (2007) culture is defined as individual values and convictions about the scope of application of norms of good conduct, is an important channel through which distant political history influences the functioning of current institutions. Similarly, Qin, Shuhao, Heerink, and Futian (2008) define culture as customary beliefs and values that ethnic, religious, and social groups transmit fairly unchanged from generation to generation. In other words, culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviour, and artefacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning. However, culture that is inherited by an individual from previous generations rather than voluntarily accumulated, such as religion and ethnic background, can largely be treated as exogenous for that individuals life. A Religion is defined by Nath (2007) as a set of common beliefs and practices generally held by a group of people, often codified as prayer, ritual, and religious law. Religion also encompasses ancestral worshiping or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and mystic experience. However in this paper culture will be referred as the customary beliefs and values that ethnic, religious, and social groups transmit fairly unchanged from generation to generation. Historical Perspectives on Economics and Culture The debate on culture as influencing economic behaviour started with the classical economist such as Adam Smith and John Mill who used culture to explaining economic phenomena. The former in the Theory of Moral Sentiment advocated that culture is an important factor in explaining the Wealth of Nations and the later regarded cultural behaviour as more important than the pursuit of personal interest. In contrast Karl Marx advocated that the technology changes determine the kind of structure dominant in the culture. That is the hand mill produces feudal society and steam mill produces capitalism (Marx 1859). Moreover, Weber (1905) regarded religions as a key factor for economic development. He defended that protestant religious taught that the creation of wealth should be regarded as a duty. Weber also recognized that culture plays an important role in influencing in pursuing wealth through production and establishment of markets. Other researchers non economists such as Hirschman (1967) also found a link between culture and economics, and culture causes differences in economic output within and across countries. Banfield (1958) suggests that culture is reason for underdevelopment in Southern Italy, that is, the pursuit of narrow self interest by the population contributes to underdevelopment of the region. Consequently the Italian government imposed identical forms of governance within the country, however, the areas with poor government intervention continued to perform poorly. In the late 1990s and early 2000s neoclassical economist went beyond the formal institutions into informal ones and started considering explicitly culture as a key factor to explaining economic phenomena. Therefore, Fukuyama (1996), Landes (1998) and Guiso, Sapienza Zingales (2006) emphasized the link between culture and economic outcomes. In their studied they found that cultural factors such as honesty, trust, tenacity and tolerance drive to success of countries economies. Empirical evidence Studies conducted by Guiso, Sapienza Zingales (2005) found that beliefs and religious are highly correlated to trust, thus, when it is associated with savings, taxation or trade it turnout to impact positively the economic outputs. Similarly, Tabellini (2007) studied the effects of culture on economic development in Europe and found that religious values and beliefs have a significant impact on economic success. Weber advocated that culture have a significant influence on economic performance. He further argued that protestant religious contributes greatly to the capitalist accumulation. Likewise, Landes (1998) and Putnam (2000) found that culture (beliefs and values) explain the differences in economic performance across countries. However the later put more emphases in the role played by social capital (trust) in stimulating trade and government efficiency. Carroll, Rhee, and Rhee (1994), studied the effects of emigrant culture on savings in Canada and fund that culture affects savings behaviour. Barro Mc Cleary (2003), Tabelline (2009) studied the effects of culture on economic growth. The former stressed more on the degree of religiosity by capturing the church attendance and religious beliefs in hell and heaven, they found that the magnitude of church attendance and the degree of religious beliefs explain significantly the differences in growth performance across countries. Thus, the religious belief matter to explaining growth. The later, emphasised on the degree of trust across European countries and found that regional variation on trust explain differences in growth rate. Algan Cahuc (2007) demonstrated that cultural behaviour toward families has an impact on employment patterns of different regions in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. They also show that civic culture and ethnicity has an influence on the structure of the labour market institutions including employment benefits and protection. Relationship between culture and economics behaviour In general most of the studies done on culture and economics found a relationship between culture and economics, however, they confronts with the problem of causality since it is likely to go in both directions. According to Becker (1996:16) Individuals have less control over their culture than over other social capital. They cannot alter their ethnicity, race or family history, and only with difficulty can they change their country or religion. Because of the difficulty of changing culture and its low depreciation rate, culture is largely a given to individuals throughout their lifetimes. likewise, religious practices respond slowly to economic conditions (Botticini Eckstein 2005). Culture affects economic behaviour in different ways, however, this paper will focus on production, institutions. Culture and Production Norms and values of groups or individuals varies significantly not only within or across cultures but also within regions, industries or sectors, that is, countries can be more open to trade or be more flexible in decision making than others, and can also allow external influence. Firms may have more or less hierarchical structure than others, for example the British economy had a decline in the growth rate in 20th century due to the fact that the middle an upper class values did not consider practical education and technological innovation (Fernà ¡ndez 2006). In Latin America, the population was characterised as having the culture of poverty, thus, the poverty was not a result of structural economic problems but caused by social beliefs that dominated the groups, they would prefer not to engage into economic activities (Barro Mc Cleary (2003). Similar cases occur in some areas Mozambique where although the population grow and hundreds of cows and goats they would prefer not to eat or even sell due to cultural beliefs. Other studies focussed on studying how culture of elite are as compared to poor and found that some elites would prefer leisure to investment thus, impacting economic outcomes. Culture and Institutions Studied found that social capital or culture affect the way institutions in different countries are set and managed that is institutions are dependent on the problem faced by each societal groups including cultural beliefs and preferences, individualists or collectivists (Greif 1994) . For example in post war Japan and Korea engaged into industrial policy to encourage economic growth whereas adopted economic planning bureaucracy, however this kind of institutions are not inclusive to the entire populations and is vulnerable to promote rent seeking. Similarly, institutions set in Latin America and Africa were also not effective compared to the North America counterparts. However, empirical results suggest that causality effect is likely to go in both directions. That is culture affects institutions and institutions also affects the evolution of the culture (Fernà ¡ndez, 2006). Conceptual Link of Culture to Growth Performance Hypothesis 0: Culture impacts on economic behaviour of societies with high degrees of trust, respect, and self-determination. Hypothesis 1: Culture has no impact on economic behaviour of societies with low degrees of trust, respect, and self-determination. The above definite of culture (section 3) helps in understanding how would culture affect economic outcomes. According to Porter (2000:14) economic culture are the beliefs, attitudes, and values that bear on economic activities of individuals, organizations, and other institutions. Therefore, the variables that compose the culture (trust, respect, self determination and religion) can constrain the economic behaviour and function as rules governing the interaction between individuals, employment, market operations. Trust Trust influences economic performance in different ways. According to Boettke (2009: 437), Knack Zak, (2001), trust affects economic outcomes through decrease in transaction cost, thus when an individual is trustworthy he reduces the monitoring cost and secures property rights. Moreover, high degrees of trust are consistent with high economic performance and development. In contrast lower degrees of trust would result in lesser trading networks and small market operations caused by the increased monitoring and transaction costs. For example trust is mostly relevant when the transaction involves unknown counterparts (Fukuyama 1996, Francois Zabojnik 2005). Using data on relative trust within the European countries Guiso, Sapienza Zingales (2006) studied the effects of trust for bilateral trust among the European counties and found that, countries that trust each other tend to trade more goods and financial assets as well as engage more in direct investment compared to other countries, thus, impacting in the economic performance of the countries. In summary, under circumstances of good environment (trustworthiness) individual would dedicate their time in economic activities whereas under poor environment (untrustworthiness) individual engage into unproductive activities due to lack of incentives. Self determination and Respect Self determination is a measure of control over individual determination of their actions. If individual can control their choices, that is, predict success or failure as a result of own actions, then, they will be more innovative, and would invest and work more hard and carefully for greater returns. Therefore, high degrees of innovation combined with high levels of productivity would lead to high growth performance as well as economic growth (Tabellini 2009, Coyne Williamson 2009) Respect, is also an important factor since it measures the morality within individuals and societies. High degrees of respects imply high levels of tolerance and lower level of respect would result in poor interaction within individuals and societies. Therefore, high degrees of tolerances connote acceptable attitudes towards trade partners, thus, boosting and increasing the market and increasing economic performance. In contrast lower tolerance would reduce economic interactions and trade can be hindered (Platteau 2000). Moreover, Coyne Williamson (2009:13) state that in societies with lower levels of social capital, and hence lower levels of respect, the extent of the market will be limited to close kin and friendship networks. Clearly, higher degrees of respect should increases economic outcomes. Religion The impact of religious on economic can me measured by the rate of church attendance and the religious belief about afterlife in hell or heaven. Individual who attend churches at regular bases tend to build better economic attitudes (respect and self determination and trustworthiness), thus impacting positively on economic outcomes. Similarly, those groups who believe in heaven and hell also tend to participate effectively in church services so as to build confidence on heaven, thus influencing positively economics outcomes through trust, respect and self determination (Barro and Mitchell 2004). Weber in his study on the rise of the capitalism found that the industrial capitalism developed rapidly in the protestant Europe and North America. He also fund that Hinduism and Buddhism were promoting asceticism, thus, hindering technical innovation and impeding adaptation of foreign innovation, therefore not promoting economic growth and development of these groups. Similarly, Williamson (2009) asserts, that the failure of India to achieve a successful development rate was due to laws of Hinduism that do not allow individual motivation and commitment to perform secular roles. However, there were some Hindu who did not abide with the rules of the Hinduism and show an inclination to economic activities. These minorities are the ones who boosted the modern Muslim in Indonesia. Moreover, religion also affects economic behaviour through, honest, work ethics and openness to people. For most religious hard work is a norm and should be done diligently. Additionally, work helps people to stay away from immorality, unproductive activities so that they maximize their time in economic activities. Being unproductive is connoted to evils. That is religion increases economic growth through promotion of positive attitudes towards, trust honest and self determination, and reduction of corruption and criminality (Guiso et al. 2003). Religions may also impact negatively on economic behaviour through restriction on credit markets, profit, resources accumulation, as well as interest. Some religious may allocated massive time and resources on church activities including the construction of cathedrals, thus, deviating resources from economic activities (McCleary 2008). Similarly Beed and Beed (1999) argue that some fundamental Christian and Islamic terrorists promote violent and intolerant behaviour and civil unrest among Christians and non Christians, which impact negatively on the values and norms of secular economics. Conclusion This paper attempts to answer the question does culture influence economic behaviour? The paper found that yes Culture affects significantly the economic behaviour. Cultural behaviour also shapes the structure of institutions in a country. Culture affects positively economic performance through trust, respect, self determination religious and institutions. However, it faces problems of causality, thus it is likely to go in both directions from culture to economics and from economics to culture. Trust affects economic behaviour through decrease in transaction cost, thus when an individual is trustworthy he reduces the monitoring cost and secures property rights. Moreover, high degrees of trust are consistent with high economic performance and development. In contrast lower degrees of trust would result in lesser trading networks and small market operations caused by the increased monitoring and transaction costs. Self determination promotes innovation, investment and hard work and diligence for greater returns. Therefore, high degrees of innovation combined with high levels of productivity would lead to high growth performance as well as economic growth. Moreover, high degrees of respects imply high levels of tolerance and lower level of respect would result in poor interaction within individuals and societies. Therefore, high degrees of tolerances connote acceptable attitudes towards trade partners, thus, boosting and increasing the market and economic performance. Religious beliefs also have a causal relationship with economic behaviour. It promotes economic growth through teaching of positive attitudes towards productive activities including hard work, trust, respect and self determination and absenteeism from unproductive activities. For example Barro and McCleary found that religious beliefs are important factors to explaining economic behaviour and to a certain extent why some nations develop than others. For example Protestantism in Europe and North American has boosted economic growth in these regions through promotion of capitalism. In contrast other studied found a negative effect of religion on economic. Thus, Beed and Beed found that Hinduism and Islam hindered growth and development of South Asia through promotion of violent behaviour.

How Thomas Hobbes and John Locke influenced Enlightenment Thinkers Essay

The Age of Enlightenment saw many great changes in Western Europe. The Age of Enlightenment or simple â€Å"the Enlightenment† was an intellectual movement during the 18th century. Its purpose was to reform society and to advance knowledge using reason and the scientific knowledge. It supported scientific thought and opposed superstition with its favorite target being the Catholic Church. The phrase was frequently used by writers of the period itself, implying that they were emerging from centuries of darkness and ignorance into an enlightenment period fueled by reason and science. The ones who sparked the enlightenment can be traced to the 17th century. They include the two political philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Thomas Hobbes was born on April 5, 1588 and he was best known for his work on political philosophy. His book Leviathan established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy. In Leviathan, Hobbes set out his doctrine of the foundations of states and legitimate governments. Much of the book demonstrates the necessity of a strong central authority to avoid chaos and disorder. Hobbes hypothesizes what life would be like with no government, a state which he calls the state of nature. In that state, each person would have a right to everything in the world. However, he argues that it would lead to a â€Å"war against all† because he believed that all people were evil and selfish. In order to avoid this state, people establish a civil society and conceive a social contract. According to Hobbes, society is a population under a supreme authority. Thomas Hobbes is a supporter of absolutism but he also developed some of the fundamentals of liberal thoughts such as the rights of an individual and equality for all. He was also one of the founders of modern political science as well. His understanding on humans as being matter and following the same concepts and laws as other matter remains extremely influential. John Locke was born on August 29, 1632 and he was one of the most influential English philosophers during the enlightenment period. Locke’s theory of mind is referred to as the origin of conceptions of â€Å"self† and â€Å"identities†. He theorized that the mind is a blank slate and that we were born with only instinctive ideas and that knowledge is only derived from experience. The founding fathers of the United States used many of his political ideas as the bases for the declaration of independence. Locke believed in a democratic rule and that everyone is entitled to their own rights and liberty. He thought that nobody should have absolute power so he came up with the idea of â€Å"separation of powers† meaning that the church and judicial system operate independent of the ruling class so theoretically no one can commit a crime and get away with it. Even though Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were both influential social contract theorists and great political philosophers, their ideas completely contradict each other. While Locke believed that humans were born with a clean slate and only gain knowledge through experience and experiment, Hobbes theorized that all humans were born with an evil and selfish nature which cannot be contained without a supreme authority to rule. In terms of political power, Locke believed in democratic rule while Hobbes believed in an absolute power to rule over the evil and selfish humans for if there is no absolute power, our savage instincts will take over and we will do whatever it takes to satisfy our greedy nature. As for rights, Locke believed all men are equal rights but Hobbes concluded that we should give up our rights to the government in exchange for protection. The Enlightenment was a great step in humanity to make strides in science and let reason explain our lives. Enlightenment ideas and works have been especially influential in politics. Many of the world’s democracies are built on the ideas of Locke and other political philosophers in the enlightenment period. Democratic nations, such as the United States are founded upon enlightenment ideas such as individual rights and liberty, the rights of citizens, and people’s rights to participate in the government. However, different political philosophers have different ideas about what’s best for their government. For instance, Thomas Hobbes believed in absolute monarchs, an idea which is still used today in places like Canada, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdoms. The Enlightenment completely revolutionized the way people have thought about religion, politics, and science. It was one of the greatest events in history because it gave people the idea to challenge what they’ve always been taught to be right. It gave people a mind of their own and not fall to one supreme ruler. The legacy of the enlightenment shall never be forgotten.