God’s Divine Justice in Dante’s ‘Inferno” Essay

â€Å"Midway through the journey of our life, I found/myself in a dark wood, for I had strayed/from the straight pathway to this tangled ground.† These famous lines from Dante’s Inferno signify the themes of religion and personal salvation in the poem. Often when one embarks on a journey of self-discovery, they travel to places which astound one by their strangeness. Expecting to see what is straightforward and acceptable, one is suddenly presented with exceptions. Just as such self-examiners might encounter their inner demons, so does Dante, both as a character and a writer, as he sets out to walk through his Inferno. The image of being lost in â€Å"dark woods† sets up a clear dichotomy between the supposed unenlightened ignorance that one endures due to a lack of faith in God and the clear radiance provided by God’s love. Dante uses contrasting symbols to indicate the character’s challenge. The â€Å"dark woods† embodies Dante’s fear, yet the â€Å"right road† symbolizes his confidence in God, ultimately revealing that Dante’s journey is to find the presence of God in a sinful world. However, the journey upon which Dante is embarking is not solely his, but rather that of every human being. Consistent with the views of his time, Dante believes that this journey is one that every individual must undertake, so as to understand their sins and find peace with God. This is an element with which modern readers can identify, as present society is conscious of an individual’s right to find peace within themselves and the universe. While there are many different religions and divine beings which are worshipped today, the medieval view of personal salvation and spiritual peace is still applicable to any of these variations. Dante’s journey throughout the Inferno also gives readers a glimpse into his own perception of what constitutes sin. It may be harder, however, for modern readers to agree with the punishment for certain sins, in light of liberal advances in society’s views and the constantly changing nature of moral and societal norms. The torments that sinners are subjected to in Dante’s Inferno may seem extreme to modern readers, however, throughout the poem it becomes clear that there is balance in God’s justice and each sinner suffers to a degree befitting the gravity of their sins. Dante’s journey to save his soul reveals a correspondence between a soul’s sin on Earth and the punishment received in Hell. A few examples are the Sullen, who choke on mud; the  Wrathful, who attack one another; and the Gluttonous, who are forced to eat excrement. This brings into light one of Dante’s main themes, the perfection of God’s justice, which is relevant throughout time. â€Å"THROUGH ME THE WAY TO SOULS IN ABOMINATION./JUSTICE MOVED MY GREAT MAKER IN MY DESIGN.† The inscription over the gates of Hell in Canto III explicitly states that God created Hell and its punishments through the motivation of justice. Hell exists to punish sin and the specific punishments awarded ar e suitable, as they testify to the divine perfection, which all sin violates. To modern readers, however, the torments that Dante and Virgil behold, on their journey through the circles of Hell, may seem harsh. For example, homosexuals must endure an eternity of walking on hot sand and those who charge interest on loans must sit beneath a rainy storm of fire. These, like many of the sins that Dante punishes in the Inferno, are socially acceptable and common in the present world. While many cultures do not accept homosexual relations, intolerance for this style of life has decreased dramatically in the past generation and by many, is no longer viewed as a sin against nature. Likewise, charging interest on loans is common in the commercialized business economies of the modern world. A modern reader would not deem the punishments received by these sinners as appropriate. However, it is important to realize that Dante is writing during a period of great religious influence and obedience to theological ideals. In addition, when the poem is viewed in its entirety, it becomes clear that the guiding principle behind these punishments is one of justice and balance. The poem progresses from minor sins to major ones, as the duo proceeds deeper into the fires of Hell and closer to Lucifer himself. While some readers may object to the placements of some sins, the damned souls that reside in the deepest part of Hell, the 9th Circle, are neither a medieval nor modern view, but in fact, timeless. Dante reserves the harshest punishments for those who have committed sins against those whom the sinner has special ties to, like family or friends. Despite the act, modern readers can agree that a traitor of this nature must be deservedly punished. Early on in Inferno, Dante presents tension between the objective impersonality of God’s justice and the human sympathy that the character of Dante feels for the souls that he sees around him. However, Dante is demonstrating that sinners receive punishment in divine proportion to their sin and to pity their suffering is  to demonstrate a lack of understanding. The reader must be wary of succumbing to the sympathy that Dante first shows towards some of the damned souls, as messengers from heaven show their lack of concern for the damned and eventually, Dante also becomes less inclined to pity the sinners, trusting the infinite wisdom of divine justice. It is assumed in Christian theology that God is divine and just and therefore, it is futile to question His judgments. Subsequently, it should be realized that Dante’s sympathy towards some of the characters in Hell is incorrect. Everything about God is just; it is only in the mortal world of sin and death that one finds injustice, which is the mark of Cain on humanity. Yet Dante’s treatment of some characters asks the reader to put aside their sins and admire their human traits. However, if the reader begins to feel sympathy for Francesca, it must be noted that she is a woman with the habit of blaming others for her own difficulties; Pier delle Vigne has totally abandoned his loyalty for God in favour of his powerful emperor; Ulysses is a character of great ego; and even Ugolino’s paternal feelings have a central concern for his own well-being. These characteristics may, however, elude the reader and thus, two figures from heaven descend into hell to remind Dante of his mission, indicating how the reader should perceive these sinners. Virgil tells Dante of Beatrice’s visit to Limbo, where she admits no compassion for the tribulations of the damned, she only wishes to return to Paradise as soon as possible. When an angel arrives to open the gates of Dis, which had been slammed in the face of Virgil, he makes it clear that he has no interest in the damned nor in Dante’s situation, he only wants to complete his task quickly and leave Hell. Despite these reminders, both the character of Dante and the reader fall victim to their human sympathy for many of the sinners in the earlier cantos. Throughout Canto III, Dante displays a great deal of sympathy for the souls he encounters; his depiction of Hell as a walled city conforms to medieval Catholic theology and exemplifies the religious awareness of the period. Upon passing through the gates of Hell, Dante hears innumerable cries of torment and suffering. Virgil explains that these cries emanate from the souls of those who lived their lives without making conscious moral choices  and thus, did not commit their lives to good or evil. Subsequently, the indifference of these souls have caused both Heaven and Hell to deny them entry. These souls now reside in the Ante-Inferno, within Hell yet not truly part of it, where they must chase constantly after a blank banner. The empty banner symbolizes their meaningless existence on earth. Flies and wasps continually bite them, and writhing worms consume the blood and tears that flow from them. The souls of the uncommitted are joined in this torment by the neutral angels — those who sided with neither God nor Satan in the war in Heaven. â€Å"That death had undone so many, I had not dreamed.† Like Dante, modern readers will also find it hard to accept the fate of these indecisive souls. It seems unfair that by not succumbing to either good or evil, they must still endure punishment in the afterlife. In this canto, Dante also describes Hell as being formed out of justice and also as a city: â€Å"THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE CITY OF DESOLATION.† Historically, large cities had begun to play an increasingly important role in the social and economic life of Europe during Dante’s time. Particularly in Italy, where city-states such as Dante’s native Florence had become important bases of social organization. Dante portrays Hell as a city in large part because, to a thinker in the early fourteenth century, any substantial human population would have suggested a city. In religious terms, there are only two great â€Å"cities†: Heaven or Hell. While Heaven is a city of God, Hell is a city of Man; as the damned souls have succumbed to temptation and sin, preoccupied only with self-preservation and gain. This may be a more medieval idea, as cities were viewed as a source of evil and were enjoying a relatively new period of prosperity. However, crime in modern times is more prevalent in cities and thus, more citizens prefer to live in the suburbs. Even the structure of Hell represents a city. The outer limits are like the countryside, containing the indecisive souls. As Dante and Virgil progress through the outer circles, which can be seen as the suburbs, they encounter lesser sins. However, as they continue further into the depths of Hell and towards the city’s heart, the sins increase in gravity. Dante’s opinion of the sinners also begins to progress and become less sympathetic at this point. In Cantos XII and XIII, Dante continues to exhibit sympathy for some sinners, however appears to be becoming more cynical as he encounters many damned souls from Florence; the punishments in these cantos also reflect a rationale for appropriate degrees of anguish. In these cantos, Dante encounters souls who were violent towards others and themselves. The first group must stand in a pool of boiling blood. Going along with the theme of appropriate punishment as part of God’s justice, each of these souls is subjected to a different level of agony. The souls who only killed one person stand only with their legs in the boiling blood. However, the souls of tyrants, like Alexander, have even their heads submerged. Why must these souls stand in boiling blood and not water? It is because it was blood which they lusted after during life, causing them to be violent. In this portion of his journey, Dante does not display sympathy for the torment of these souls. â€Å"O senseless rage and blind cupidity/that in the short life stimulate us so/and in eternal one drench us wretchedly.† As opposed to the earlier cantos, Dante recognizes that the greed and anger of these souls during life are responsible for their punishment in Hell. In the next canto, Dante encounters those souls who were violent towards themselves by committing suicide. Their fate in afterlife is to suffer as trees; having discarded their bodies while on earth, these souls have been rendered unable to assume human form for the rest of eternity. To some modern readers, the punishment of souls who commit suicide may seem unnecessary, as these people must have already endured great suffering during life to commit such a sin. The punishment of violence, however, seems appropriate. Towards the end of Canto XIII, Dante learns from one tree-soul that his home city, Florence, constantly succumbs to conflict due to its abandonment of Mars as it patron saint, in favour of John the Baptist. â€Å"†¦The city that chose the Baptist to replace/ its ancient patron, who for all time to come/will therefore use his art to afflict our race.† Mars was the god of war and thus, Florence is persistently filled with feuding factions. Dante, however, tends to blame the state of Florence’s politics on certain influential leaders of his time. In Canto XXVII, Dante shows his intolerance for the political corruption in Florence, along with a more cynical and modern view, believing that moral dilemmas should be addressed using logic and not by blindly following a  religious figure, as Pope Boniface VII led da Montefeltro to Hell. The political and spiritual leaders in Florence are subjected to harsh punishments and viewed with great contempt by the character of Dante, due to the personal history of the author. Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, Italy, to a family of moderate wealth that had a history of involvement in the complex Florentine political scene. Dante’s personal life and subsequent writing of The Divine Comedy were greatly influenced by the politics of the late 13th Century. The struggle for power in Florence between the church and state for authority was a conflict that existed throughout Europe. In Florence, these two loyalties were represented by the Guelph party, which supported the papacy , and the Ghibelline party, which supported imperial power. The last truly powerful Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, died in 1250, and by Dante’s time, the Guelphs were in power in Florence. However, the party had divided into two factions: the Whites (Dante’s party), who supported the independence of Florence from strict papal control, and the Blacks, who were willing to work with the pope in order to restore their power. Under the direction of Pope Boniface VIII, the Blacks gained control of Florence in 1301 and Dante, as a visible and influential leader of the Whites, was exiled within a year. In Canto XXVII, Dante encounters the damned soul of Guido da Montefeltro, who had been a member of the Ghibelline party but had undergone a spiritual conversion and entered a Franciscan monastery. However, he was subsequently persuaded to re-enter politics on the opposite side by Pope Boniface VIII. Boniface eventually asked da Montefeltro’s advice on how to capture a Ghibelline fortress and promised him absolution in advance, d espite the accuracy of any advice. However, upon his death, da Montefeltro was pulled into Hell by a devil who exclaimed: â€Å"†¦Because of the fraudulent counsel he presented./I’ve been at his hair since the instant of the wrong,/for no one can be absolved who has not repented†¦Ã¢â‚¬  It is impossible for a man to receive absolution before sinning, as absolution cannot precede repentance and repentance cannot precede the sin. At this point, Dante does not question the spiritual authority of the Christian Church. He does, however, show his contempt for Pope Boniface. Dante’s message from this encounter is that when Christians find themselves faced with moral dilemmas, they must use their reason rather than blindly follow the directions of a church  figure. Dante does not believe that the Church’s authority should overrule logic, especially given the Church’s frequent descents to corruption. This is an element of the Inferno which modern readers can greatly relate to. Presentl y, science and other logical studies dictate man’s knowledge of his world. It is also used more frequently in making decisions tha basic reliance on one’s religion, as was the case in medieval times. While the modern reader can relate to Dante’s insistence that logic dominate religion in certain matters, there are still many elements of Dante’s Hell which may trouble a modern audience. As aforementioned, many of the punishments may seem harsh and even unwarranted, given present social and moral norms. Another element of disagreement may be found with Dante’s depiction of Limbo. In Canto IV, Virgil and Dante descend into the First Circle of Hell, known as Limbo, which is inhabited by those souls who led virtuous lives but were not baptized or lived before the advent of Christianity. In a world where there are many different religions and belief systems that, for the most part, co-exist relatively harmoniously, the idea of punishing pagans seems unjust. If these souls were unaware of Christianity or chose not to follow this faith during life, then why should they be subjected to the same judgment as Christians? This is an example of the dominant Christian theme in the Inferno and one of the many reasons why modern readers may find it difficult to identify with Dante’s Hell. Consequently, the greatest challenge that Dante’s Inferno presents to modern readers is its lack of tolerance. This is due to the great influence that the Christian religion enjoyed during this period and the rigid outline of sins that existed in the Bible. The character of Dante is prepared to offer sympathy towards some souls, but is encouraged by heavenly messengers to show no compassion or tolerance for the sins of the damned. French philosopher, Voltaire, later would identify this flaw in the Christian faith: â€Å"Of all religions, Christianity is without a doubt the one that should inspire tolerance most, although, up to now, the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.†

Organizational Behavior-No Fair Pay In This Place Essay

The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivational effects of pay level on worker performance. It is discusses some of the elements that contributed to the employees in Western Satellite office to express feelings of inequality. Some of these elements include academic qualifications, educational background, just to mention but a few. The paper also tackles some of the reasons why the New York worker is considered a ‘comparison other’ as opposed to the worker in Seattle. Moreover, the paper explores how the issue of inequality in the case- no fair pay in this place was either resolved or not. For instance, we find in this case that this issue was not resolved. Last but not least, the paper also examines some of the other factors that may have contributed to the dissatisfaction that was experience by the two workers. Some of these factors include; lack of communication, culture, lack of adaptability, lack of empathy, just to mention but a few. Introduction  The purpose of this paper is to examine the case study that revolves around no fair pay in the workplace and the fact that employees working from different cities receive different numerations irrespective of how much responsibility one has within the organization, their academic qualifications and the years of experience within the industry in which they are operating. (Armstrong, 2006, p. 62) Question One What are some of the elements which contributed to the employees feelings of inequality? These include educational background, years of experience, responsibilities that one has and last but not least academic qualifications. The employees were stressed with the kind of work they had to perform such as having heavy load of unhappy clients and their urgent demands, complaining customers, just to mention but a few. (Meredith, 2004, p. 2) Susan was hired based on her degree in Business Administration. She was responsible in planning, problem solving and supervising a number of employees and this included Dan Donaldson, a public relations spokesperson of the company. However, despite all these responsibilities, she received a remuneration of $30,000 per annum. This was very disappointing since she had 20 years of customer relations and supervisory know-how, not to mention the current degree that she had received in business. (Meredith, 2004, p. 3) On the contrary, Helen who was based at the headquarters in New York received $40,000 in only ten months as opposed to 12. This made Susan furious since she had no customer contact, no university education, no one to supervise and no seniority. In a nutshell, Helen had an annual salary of $48,000. (Meredith, 2004, p. 3) Pay determination may possibly have one or more objectives, which may frequently be in conflict with each other. The primary is equity, and this may take numerous forms. They comprise income distribution through reduction of inequalities, defending real earnings (purchasing power), and the notion of equal pay for work of equivalent value. Moreover, pay differentials based on differences in skills are all associated to the idea of fairness. (Deckop, 2006, p. 65) Performance pay systems in organizations are based on assessment of the personality worker, often by their line administrator who may or may not be experienced in process. Performance pay is extensively renowned as contributing to pay inequalities, predominantly in this case (New York and Seattle). (Culbert, 1996, p. 68) Question Two Why the New York worker was considered a ‘comparison other’ but not the worker in Seattle? The New York worker was considered a ‘comparison other’ because the front lines of the job were in Seattle where the client based was centered and the services were rendered. Moreover, employees at Seattle received heavy load of unhappy clients and their urgent demands while she contentedly remained in her comfort zone that was stress free. Research has recommended that some individuals are more flourishing in their careers than others even when they have had equivalent learning and experimental opportunities. One clarification for these disparities may possibly relate to differences between intellectual intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ). IQ measures academic competencies or one’s aptitude to use acquaintance in making decisions and adapting to innovative situations. This can best be illustrated with Helen who works in at the headquarters in New York. However, as much as she is based in New York, all the tasks are carried out in Seattle, and this means that she is not using the little experience and experimental opportunities that she acquired to perform her duties. (Lamal, 1991, p. 72) On the other hand, EQ is a measure of expressive and societal competencies or one’s aptitude to recognize expressive expressions in someone and others. Even though both can be enhanced through training and altered over time, EQ is separate from IQ in that it is one’s aptitude to standardize emotions in reaction to ecological stimulus. EQ has been popularized as an educated skill that is a superior interpreter of life success than intellectual achievement or technological aptitude. This can best be illustrated with Susan and Dan Donaldson who had superior performance, academic achievements, work experience and interpersonal skills. They had to deal with resolving customers issues on a daily basis while Helen and her fellow workers who were based in New York sat and waited for the final produce that came from Seattle. (Harris, 2001, p. 78) The workplace surroundings idea also sees entity firm level performance such as efficiency, productivity, efficiency and competitiveness; as a result of not only the sufficiency supply of human resources with suitable skills, but also a workplace surroundings that incessantly optimizes the use of these skills throughout the way work is intended and prearranged, the suitability, access and association of supports and tools to do the work, the association of decision making, rewards and appreciation for performance. The New York worker is considered a ‘comparison worker’ as opposed to the worker in Seattle since she lacks interpersonal skills, academic achievements, superior performance, just to mention but a few. Despite all these, she is considered the best just because she is based at the head office located in New York. (Bate, 1994, p. 81) On the other hand, the Seattle worker who has all the necessary qualities such as work experience, interpersonal skills and academic qualifications; is looked down upon just because she is operating in Seattle. (Meredith, 2004, p. 2) Question Three  How was the inequality resolved? The inequality was not resolved at all. As a matter of fact, once Mr. James commented that nobody said that it was fair and rather, that was how the staff in New York are remunerated, that was the end of the discussion. Mr. James did not validate his statement, neither did he explain why that was the case. Instead, he was interested in how Susan found out about Helen’s salary. (Meredith, 2004, p. 3) Participation in the labor force is usually regarded as an important measurement of equality. Having a job is significant to individuals. Jobs are a numerically important starting point for livelihoods. They are also significant proportions of social respect, acknowledgment, individuality and self esteem. Even though the sources and solutions for increasing inequality are multifaceted and open to dispute, the corporeal and psychosomatic penalties are real and straightforward. (Mathis, 2006, p. 99) It is understandable that we require more than legislation, bylaw and exacting programs to generate a diverse workforce usual in association. We also need customs of understanding the challenges. This mean examination of ‘what goes wrong’. Both the need for continuous coercive dealings and the phenomena of the turning door or equity tell us regarding the pervasive and systemic character of the status quo in workforce composition and in the organization and conduct of business and government. (Max, 204, p. 104) When individuals talk concerning inequality, they tend to center completely on the proceeds part of the equation. According to the case- no fair pay in this place, there is the gap between the employees in New York and Seattle and this is based on remuneration amongst the employees. (Armstrong, 2006, p. 8) The verification of increasing disparity in the United States and around the globe is both obvious and disturbing. As power, capital, and probability are increasingly concerted in the hands of the extremely few, this age of â€Å"haves† and â€Å"have not† is connected with a wide range of unenthusiastic outcomes for faraway too countless. A good illustration is seen in the case-no fair pay in this place, where Western Satellite Office workers are experiencing inequality problems based on remuneration since they are not based in New York where the head office is situated. They are the ones who experience customer service problems since each and every customer wants to be served and at the end of the day, they feel so stressed and worn out, yet when it comes to remuneration they receive less than what the worker in New York receive. This is not fair since the worker in New York doesn’t experience the pressure that the Seattle worker receives. (Lamal, 1991, p. 106 Question Four What are the other factors which may have contributed to the dissatisfaction experienced by these two workers? Culture A managerial culture affects how the company performs. Culture is the behavior of a group of individuals. This consists of; the beliefs, civilization, acquaintance and practices. Individuals depend on it for security, evenness and the ability to act in response in a given circumstance. (Harris, 2001, p. 92) According to this case, the reason why Helen and Susan received different remuneration was because Helen was situated at the head office in New York. This was the culture of that organization that was based on the location of the city. Therefore, Susan having been situated at Seattle was bound on her $30,000 per annum, and this was regardless of her qualifications. (Meredith, 2004, p. 3) Lack of Communication Generally, lack of communication on the part of the boss contributes to the displeasure among the workers in the association. Communication problems are a purpose of message and organizational procedure, and managerial factors. Effectual communication of performance requirements to all workers will reduce the number of complaints and grievances. Nonattendance of this communication domino effect in workers not performing. For instance in our case, when Susan was about to present her case, Mr. James had already predicted and he simply brushed the matter off by making a comment concerning the issue. He didn’t give room for discussion concerning that matter; neither did he give an explanation nor a satisfactory solution. This resulted to laxity among the workers in the western satellite office. (Bate, 1994, p. 98) By not communicating well enough, Mr.  James avoided to get into dialogue concerning important issues such as, the reason why employees in New York receiving a higher pay as opposed to employees in Seattle. This made him appear unavailable and uncaring to Susan and the employees of Western Satellite Office; this resulted in hurting teamwork spirit and cooperation within the organization. (Deckop, 2006, p. 110) Lack of Self awareness and accurate self-assessment Without self awareness and self-assessment, Mr. James was too quick to brush off the matter that Susan had presented to him. He was unable to accept useful feedback, and he didn’t have a realistic awareness of his strengths or limitations. As a result, it created problems in their work relationships and in their personal relationships. (Culbert, 1996, p. 115) Lack of Empathy When leaders fail to demonstrate sufficient empathy in times of hesitation or crisis, they will probable be seen as unresponsive, hardhearted and in-authentic- all of which will make workers be less supportive and less communicative. The boss may be left feeling misunderstood, and will have complexity â€Å"reading† their workers. This is exactly what Mr. James did and as a result, Susan’s ability to work drastically diminished and she became less concerned with her duties and responsibilities in the workplace. (Mathis, 2006, p. 120) Lack of Adaptability Without elasticity and adaptableness, Mr. James responded negatively to the core issue that was troubling his employee Susan. This revealed emotional strain to Susan since she had to shift priorities; expressed frustration with change; had difficulties adapting Mr.  James responses and tactics to fit the emerging circumstance; and ultimately she was hesitant in taking on new challenges. (Max, 2004, p. 126) Lack of self-management Without good self management, Mr. James reacted precipitately when he predicted that there was bound to be conflict at work. This made him respond to problems in a non-constructive manner that resulted to unwanted consequences such as laxity amongst the employees (Susan). (Harris, 2001, p. 118) Conclusion  In a civilized workplace, individuals who work well ought to be rewarded through decent pay, endorsement and new opportunities, the possibility to build up new skills, admiration from coworker and management, and the individual gratification and satisfaction that comes from doing a job well. Culture determines the type of management, communication, and cluster dynamics within the association. The employees usually recognize this as the excellence of work life which directs their measure of motivation. The concluding outcome is generally performance, human being satisfaction, individual growth and expansion. All these rudiments unite to build the model or structure that the association operates from. However, all these elements are not revealed in our case since Mr. James chose not to allow room for discussion. He lacked communication skills and empathy and as a result, there was poor turnover in Susan’s output. Generally, in an organization, employers should be open with their employees and allow a forum for discussion and participation. For instance in this case, Mr.  James would have allowed Susan to present her queries and later on try to explain to her why the workers in New York had to receive a better pay than workers in Seattle. Moreover, there should be restructuring of some of the rules in Western Satellite Office and promote job enrichment. This will facilitate enlargement of the individuals within the association, better worker performance for the association, there will be maximum use of human resources for the general public at large (both in New York and Seattle), enlargement of the individual, and self-actualization of the individual.

Marketing Environment

| 2012/13| | Id: 1180654 Allan raisin | [Firms can do more than simply anticipating and responding to both macro and micro environment:-]| Market research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information | â€Å"Marketing environment includes all the forces that directly or indirectly influence marketing operations by affecting an organization acquisition of inputs/creation of outputs such as human, financial and natural resources and raw material, information, goods, services or ideas.Sometimes a distinction is more between macro and micro factors of environment† The Structure of the Marketing Environment The consumer occupies the core/central position of all business activities and hence occupies the Centre of the marketing environment. The organization with its resources and having a policy and structure surrounds the consumer with its particular market offering as do its competitors, suppliers and other intermediaries. This microenvironment of marketing is again affected by the macro environment, which consists of the government, technical, political, social, economic factors.This is graphically represented by below 1. The major external and uncontrollable factors that influence an organization's decision making, and affect its performance and strategies. These factors include the economic factors; demographics; legal, political, and social conditions; technological changes; and natural forces. 2. Specific examples of macro environment influences include competitors, changes in interest rates, changes in cultural tastes, disastrous weather, or government regulations. PESTLE – Macro Environmental Analysis PESTLEThe PESTLE Analysis is a framework used to scan the organization’s external macro environment. The  letters stand for Political, Economic  Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental. Some approaches will add in extra factors, such as International, or remove some to reduce it to PEST. However, these are all merely variations on a theme. The important principle is identifying the key  factors from the wider, uncontrollable external environment that might affect the organization. The PESTLE Factors We start with the Political forces.First of all, political factors refer to the stability of the political  environment and the attitudes of political parties or movements. This may manifest in government  influence on tax policies, or government involvement in trading agreements. Political factors are  inevitably entwined with Legal factors such as national employment laws, international trade  regulations and restrictions, monopolies and mergers’ rules, and consumer protection. The difference  between Political and Legal factors is that Political refers to attitudes and approaches, whereas Legal  factors are those which have become law and regulations.Legal needs to be complied with whereas  Political may represent influences, restrictions or opportunities, but they are not mandatory. Economic factors represent the wider economy so may include economic growth rates, levels of  employment and unemployment, costs of raw materials such as energy, petrol and steel, interest rates  and monetary policies, exchange rates and inflation rates. These may also vary from one country to  another. Socio-cultural factors represent the culture of the society that an organization operates within.They  may include demographics, age distribution, population growth rates, level of education, distribution of  wealth and social classes, living conditions and lifestyle. Technological factors refer to the rate of new inventions and development, changes in information and  mobile technology, changes in internet and e-commerce or even mobile commerce, and government  spending on research. There is often a tendency to focus Technological developments on digital and internet-related areas, but it should also include ma terials development and new methods of  manufacture, distribution and logistics.Environmental impacts can include issues such as limited natural resources, waste disposal and recycling  procedures. Additional Considerations A newer force which is gaining in importance is ethics. These can be defined by the set of moral  principles and values that govern the actions and decisions of an individual or group. Ethics and morals  serve as guidelines on how to act rightly and justly when individuals are faced with moral dilemmas. This force could include corporate social responsibility, fair trade, affiliation between corporations and  charities.A particular problem may exist with how ethical factors relates to legal forces as they may be  at different stages in development. Something may be ethical but not protected by law, whereas other activities may not be ethical, but are legal. A PESTLE analysis should feed into a SWOT analysis as it helps to determine the threats and   opportunities represented by macro-environment forces that the organization usually cannot control. On an international basis, it is best to perform the analysis on a country-by-country basis because  factors can differ greatly between countries (or even regions).Marketing Environment – Micro Marketing Environment – Micro The micro marketing environment consists of certain forces that are part of an organizations marketing process, but remain external to the organization. This micro marketing environment that surrounds organizations can be complex by nature; however the company has an element of control over how it operates within this environment. Marketing helps you to manage and make sense of this complexity. The illustration above summarizes the order of the immediate external marketing environment that businesses operate in.Current and Potential Customers Your customers are vital to the growth and sustainability of your company. In order to grow you must locate customers, understand their needs and then satisfy those needs both efficiently and profitably. Competitors Your competitors however have the same remit as you when it comes to sourcing and satisfying the needs of the customer. They will make it difficult to liaise with customer groups, as by definition they are largely pursuing the same sets of customers as you.As a marketer, you must therefore not only monitor what competitors are doing in the external marketing environment today, but to also anticipate their likely response to your campaigns and to predict what they will do tomorrow. Intermediaries (Distributors/Wholesalers/Retailers) Your business may require a network of wholesalers, distributors and/or retailer. These ‘intermediaries’ provide an invaluable service in getting your products to the customer. You must therefore think carefully about how best to distribute your goods and build relationships.This area can be fierce in competition as not everyone can get access to the channels of distribution that they want. Suppliers One other important area to consider in the external marketing environment is your suppliers. A key supplier can be an important part of your business and may even attribute to your competitive advantage. Losing important suppliers can interrupt production flow or your competitive edge and prevent you from getting your product to your customers. Choice of suppliers, negotiation of terms and relationship building all become important tasks of the marketer.The wider marketing environment, discussed in a separate knowledge sheet, covers all other influences that might provide opportunities or threats to the organization. These include technological development, legal constraints, the economic environment and sociocultural changes. This brief overview of the world in which companies operate in demonstrates that there are many relationships that matter. These need to be managed if the company is to conduct its business suc cessfully. The main responsibility for managing these relationships lies within the marketing department.Using a SWOT SWOT is an important tool in auditing the external and internal environment of the organization. A SWOT Analysis should be more than a basic listing of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Most organizations have the same, common-sense type of threats, such as competitors, technological changes, regulation and deregulation, or weaknesses such as high price, but these are all very general, hard to control elements meaning the utility can be quite limited. As Cranfield’s Professor Malcolm McDonald puts it, real SWOTs should be more concise and specific.STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND THREATS Strengths, in the SWOT analysis, are a company's capabilities and resources that allow it to engage in activities to generate economic value and perhaps competitive advantage. A company's strengths may be in its ability to create unique products, to pr ovide high-level customer service, or to have a presence in multiple retail markets. Strengths may also be things such as the company's culture, its staffing and training, or the quality of its managers. Whatever capability a company has can be regarded as strength.A company's weaknesses are a lack of resources or capabilities that can prevent it from generating economic value or gaining a competitive advantage if used to enact the company's strategy. There are many examples of organizational weaknesses. For example, a firm may have a large, bureaucratic structure that limits its ability to compete with smaller, more dynamic companies. Another weakness may occur if a company has higher labor costs than a competitor who can have similar productivity from a lower labor cost.The characteristics of an organization that can be strength, as listed above, can also be a weakness if the company does not do them well. Opportunities provide the organization with a chance to improve its perform ance and its competitive advantage. Some opportunities may be anticipated, others arise unexpectedly. Opportunities may arise when there are niches for new products or services, or when these products and services can be offered at different times and in different locations. For instance, the increased use of the Internet has provided numerous opportunities for companies to expand their product sales.Threats can be an individual, group, or organization outside the company that aims to reduce the level of the company's performance. Every company faces threats in its environment. Often the more successful companies have stronger threats, because there is a desire on the part of other companies to take some of that success for their own. Threats may come from new products or services from other companies that aim to take away a company's competitive advantage. Threats may also come from government regulation or even consumer groups.A strong company strategy that shows how to gain compe titive advantage should address all four elements of the SWOT analysis. It should help the organization determine how to use its strengths to take advantage of opportunities and neutralize threats. Finally, a strong strategy should help an organization avoid or fix its weaknesses. If a company can develop a strategy that makes use of the information from SWOT analysis, it is more likely to have high levels of performance. Nearly every company can benefit from SWOT analysis.Larger organizations may have strategic-planning procedures in place that incorporate SWOT analysis, but smaller firms, particularly entrepreneurial firms may have to start the analysis from scratch. Additionally, depending on the size or the degree of diversification of the company, it may be necessary to conduct more than one SWOT analysis. If the company has a wide variety of products and services, particularly if it operates in different markets, one SWOT analysis will not capture all of the relevant strengths , weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist across the span of the company's operations.LIMITATIONS OF SWOT ANALYSIS One major problem with the SWOT analysis is that while it emphasizes the importance of the four elements associated with the organizational and environmental analysis, it does not address how the company can identify the elements for their own company. Many organizational executives may not be able to determine what these elements are, and the SWOT framework provides no guidance. For example, what if a strength identified by the company is not truly strength?While a company might believe its customer service is strong, they may be unaware of problems with employees or the capabilities of other companies to provide a higher level of customer service. Weaknesses are often easier to determine, but typically after it is too late to create a new strategy to offset them. A company may also have difficulty identifying opportunities. Depending on the organization, wha t may seem like an opportunity to some may appear to be a threat to others. Opportunities may be easy to overlook or may be identified long after they can be exploited.Similarly, a company may have difficulty anticipating possible threats in order to effectively avoid them. While the SWOT framework does not provide managers with the guidance to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it does tell managers what questions to ask during the strategy development process, even if it does not provide the answers. Managers know to ask and to determine a strategy that will take advantage of a company's strengths, minimize its weaknesses, exploit opportunities, or neutralize threats.Some experts argue that making strategic choices for the firm is less important than asking the right questions in choosing the strategy. A company may mistakenly solve a problem by providing the correct answer to the wrong question. USING SWOT ANALYSIS TO DEVELOP ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY SWOT analysis is just the first step in developing and implementing an effective organizational strategy. After a thorough SWOT analysis, the next step is to rank the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and to document the criteria for ranking.The company must then determine its strategic fit given its internal capabilities and external environment in a two-by-two grid (see Figure 1). This fit, as determined in the grid, will indicate what strategic changes need to be made. The quadrants in this grid are as follows: * Quadrant 1 —internal strengths matched with external opportunities; * Quadrant 2 —internal weaknesses relative to external opportunities; * Quadrant 3 —internal strengths matched with external threats; and * Quadrant 4 —internal weaknesses relative to external threats.Quadrant 1 lists the strategies associated with a match between the company's strengths and its perceived external opportunities. It represents the best fit between th e company's resources and the options available in the external market. A strategy from this quadrant would be to protect the company's strengths by shoring up resources and extending competitive advantage. If a strategy in this quadrant can additionally bolster weaknesses in other areas, such as in Quadrant 2, this would be advantageous. Quadrant 2 lists the strategies associated with a match between the company's weaknesses with external opportunities.Strategies in this quadrant would address the choice of either improving upon weaknesses to turn them into strengths, or allowing competitors to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace. Quadrant 3 matches the company's strengths and external threats. Strategies in this quadrant may aim to transform external threats into opportunities by changing the company's competitive position through use of its resources or strengths. Another strategic option in this quadrant is for the company to maintain a defensive strategy to focus on more promising opportunities in other quadrants.Quadrant 4 matches a company's weaknesses and the threats in the environment. These are the worst possible scenarios for an organization. However, because of the competitive nature of the marketplace, any company is likely to have information in this quadrant. Strategies in this quadrant may involve using resources in other quadrants to exploit opportunities to the point that other threats are minimized. Additionally, some issues may be moved out of this quadrant by otherwise neutralizing the threat or by bolstering a perceived weakness.Once a strategy is decided on in each quadrant for the issues facing the company, these strategies require frequent monitoring and periodic updates. An organization is best served by proactively determining strategies to address issues before they become crises. An example of how a firm can develop strategies using these quadrants is as follows. Generic Corporation produces high-quality; high-priced specialty kitchen items in a catalog and in stores and is known for their excellent customer service. This strength has been able to offset its major weaknesses, which are having few stores and no current capabilities for Internet sales.Its major opportunities come from the explosion of Internet shopping, and its threats are other more high-profile competitors, operating primarily on the Internet, and the concerns of identity theft in Internet sales that many customers ha ve. Matching Generic's strengths to its opportunities (Quadrant 1), the firm may choose to enhance its Internet site to allow online purchases, still providing its excellent 24-hour telephone customer service. Ideally, this strategy will offset the weakness of not having an Internet presence, which addresses the concerns of Quadrant 2.Additionally, by bolstering the strength of excellent customer service by applying it to the online shopping site, the company may be able to alleviate customer concerns about identi ty theft (Quadrant 3). A strategy for Quadrant 4, which matches the company's weaknesses and threats, is that Generic may consider selling its online business to a competitor. Certainly, the Quadrant 4 strategy is the least preferred, but a proactive strategy that plans for managing such a situation is favored over a crisis situation in which the company is forced to sell with no planning.A SWOT analysis is a first, but critical, step in developing an organizational strategy. By examining the company's internal capabilities—its strengths and weaknesses and its external environment—opportunities and threats, it helps to create strategies that can proactively contend with organizational challenges. The changing and uncertain marketing environment deeply affects the organization, instead of changing slowly and predictably, the environment can produce major surprises and shocks, how many managers at â€Å"Heinz† foresaw that the baby-boom numbers would fall so rapid ly?How many were able to predict that the Internet will enable not only real-time personal communication but that will also provide a way for business process improvement and new industries would be formed. How many were able to predict that mobile phone SMS and MMS services would add significant value for the customers, some said ‘who would want to type text on the phone or even snap pictures , telephone are only for talking’To conclude I would say that Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information – these information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the methods for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, an alyzes, and communicates the findings and their implications. † Marketing Environment | 2012/13| | Id: 1180654 Allan raisin | [Firms can do more than simply anticipating and responding to both macro and micro environment:-]| Market research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information | â€Å"Marketing environment includes all the forces that directly or indirectly influence marketing operations by affecting an organization acquisition of inputs/creation of outputs such as human, financial and natural resources and raw material, information, goods, services or ideas.Sometimes a distinction is more between macro and micro factors of environment† The Structure of the Marketing Environment The consumer occupies the core/central position of all business activities and hence occupies the Centre of the marketing environment. The organization with its resources and having a policy and structure surrounds the consumer with its particular market offering as do its competitors, suppliers and other intermediaries. This microenvironment of marketing is again affected by the macro environment, which consists of the government, technical, political, social, economic factors.This is graphically represented by below 1. The major external and uncontrollable factors that influence an organization's decision making, and affect its performance and strategies. These factors include the economic factors; demographics; legal, political, and social conditions; technological changes; and natural forces. 2. Specific examples of macro environment influences include competitors, changes in interest rates, changes in cultural tastes, disastrous weather, or government regulations. PESTLE – Macro Environmental Analysis PESTLEThe PESTLE Analysis is a framework used to scan the organization’s external macro environment. The  letters stand for Political, Economic  Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental. Some approaches will add in extra factors, such as International, or remove some to reduce it to PEST. However, these are all merely variations on a theme. The important principle is identifying the key  factors from the wider, uncontrollable external environment that might affect the organization. The PESTLE Factors We start with the Political forces.First of all, political factors refer to the stability of the political  environment and the attitudes of political parties or movements. This may manifest in government  influence on tax policies, or government involvement in trading agreements. Political factors are  inevitably entwined with Legal factors such as national employment laws, international trade  regulations and restrictions, monopolies and mergers’ rules, and consumer protection. The difference  between Political and Legal factors is that Political refers to attitudes and approaches, whereas Legal  factors are those which have become law and regulations.Legal needs to be complied with whereas  Political may represent influences, restrictions or opportunities, but they are not mandatory. Economic factors represent the wider economy so may include economic growth rates, levels of  employment and unemployment, costs of raw materials such as energy, petrol and steel, interest rates  and monetary policies, exchange rates and inflation rates. These may also vary from one country to  another. Socio-cultural factors represent the culture of the society that an organization operates within.They  may include demographics, age distribution, population growth rates, level of education, distribution of  wealth and social classes, living conditions and lifestyle. Technological factors refer to the rate of new inventions and development, changes in information and  mobile technology, changes in internet and e-commerce or even mobile commerce, and government  spending on research. There is often a tendency to focus Technological developments on digital and internet-related areas, but it should also include ma terials development and new methods of  manufacture, distribution and logistics.Environmental impacts can include issues such as limited natural resources, waste disposal and recycling  procedures. Additional Considerations A newer force which is gaining in importance is ethics. These can be defined by the set of moral  principles and values that govern the actions and decisions of an individual or group. Ethics and morals  serve as guidelines on how to act rightly and justly when individuals are faced with moral dilemmas. This force could include corporate social responsibility, fair trade, affiliation between corporations and  charities.A particular problem may exist with how ethical factors relates to legal forces as they may be  at different stages in development. Something may be ethical but not protected by law, whereas other activities may not be ethical, but are legal. A PESTLE analysis should feed into a SWOT analysis as it helps to determine the threats and   opportunities represented by macro-environment forces that the organization usually cannot control. On an international basis, it is best to perform the analysis on a country-by-country basis because  factors can differ greatly between countries (or even regions).Marketing Environment – Micro Marketing Environment – Micro The micro marketing environment consists of certain forces that are part of an organizations marketing process, but remain external to the organization. This micro marketing environment that surrounds organizations can be complex by nature; however the company has an element of control over how it operates within this environment. Marketing helps you to manage and make sense of this complexity. The illustration above summarizes the order of the immediate external marketing environment that businesses operate in.Current and Potential Customers Your customers are vital to the growth and sustainability of your company. In order to grow you must locate customers, understand their needs and then satisfy those needs both efficiently and profitably. Competitors Your competitors however have the same remit as you when it comes to sourcing and satisfying the needs of the customer. They will make it difficult to liaise with customer groups, as by definition they are largely pursuing the same sets of customers as you.As a marketer, you must therefore not only monitor what competitors are doing in the external marketing environment today, but to also anticipate their likely response to your campaigns and to predict what they will do tomorrow. Intermediaries (Distributors/Wholesalers/Retailers) Your business may require a network of wholesalers, distributors and/or retailer. These ‘intermediaries’ provide an invaluable service in getting your products to the customer. You must therefore think carefully about how best to distribute your goods and build relationships.This area can be fierce in competition as not everyone can get access to the channels of distribution that they want. Suppliers One other important area to consider in the external marketing environment is your suppliers. A key supplier can be an important part of your business and may even attribute to your competitive advantage. Losing important suppliers can interrupt production flow or your competitive edge and prevent you from getting your product to your customers. Choice of suppliers, negotiation of terms and relationship building all become important tasks of the marketer.The wider marketing environment, discussed in a separate knowledge sheet, covers all other influences that might provide opportunities or threats to the organization. These include technological development, legal constraints, the economic environment and sociocultural changes. This brief overview of the world in which companies operate in demonstrates that there are many relationships that matter. These need to be managed if the company is to conduct its business suc cessfully. The main responsibility for managing these relationships lies within the marketing department.Using a SWOT SWOT is an important tool in auditing the external and internal environment of the organization. A SWOT Analysis should be more than a basic listing of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Most organizations have the same, common-sense type of threats, such as competitors, technological changes, regulation and deregulation, or weaknesses such as high price, but these are all very general, hard to control elements meaning the utility can be quite limited. As Cranfield’s Professor Malcolm McDonald puts it, real SWOTs should be more concise and specific.STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND THREATS Strengths, in the SWOT analysis, are a company's capabilities and resources that allow it to engage in activities to generate economic value and perhaps competitive advantage. A company's strengths may be in its ability to create unique products, to pr ovide high-level customer service, or to have a presence in multiple retail markets. Strengths may also be things such as the company's culture, its staffing and training, or the quality of its managers. Whatever capability a company has can be regarded as strength.A company's weaknesses are a lack of resources or capabilities that can prevent it from generating economic value or gaining a competitive advantage if used to enact the company's strategy. There are many examples of organizational weaknesses. For example, a firm may have a large, bureaucratic structure that limits its ability to compete with smaller, more dynamic companies. Another weakness may occur if a company has higher labor costs than a competitor who can have similar productivity from a lower labor cost.The characteristics of an organization that can be strength, as listed above, can also be a weakness if the company does not do them well. Opportunities provide the organization with a chance to improve its perform ance and its competitive advantage. Some opportunities may be anticipated, others arise unexpectedly. Opportunities may arise when there are niches for new products or services, or when these products and services can be offered at different times and in different locations. For instance, the increased use of the Internet has provided numerous opportunities for companies to expand their product sales.Threats can be an individual, group, or organization outside the company that aims to reduce the level of the company's performance. Every company faces threats in its environment. Often the more successful companies have stronger threats, because there is a desire on the part of other companies to take some of that success for their own. Threats may come from new products or services from other companies that aim to take away a company's competitive advantage. Threats may also come from government regulation or even consumer groups.A strong company strategy that shows how to gain compe titive advantage should address all four elements of the SWOT analysis. It should help the organization determine how to use its strengths to take advantage of opportunities and neutralize threats. Finally, a strong strategy should help an organization avoid or fix its weaknesses. If a company can develop a strategy that makes use of the information from SWOT analysis, it is more likely to have high levels of performance. Nearly every company can benefit from SWOT analysis.Larger organizations may have strategic-planning procedures in place that incorporate SWOT analysis, but smaller firms, particularly entrepreneurial firms may have to start the analysis from scratch. Additionally, depending on the size or the degree of diversification of the company, it may be necessary to conduct more than one SWOT analysis. If the company has a wide variety of products and services, particularly if it operates in different markets, one SWOT analysis will not capture all of the relevant strengths , weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist across the span of the company's operations.LIMITATIONS OF SWOT ANALYSIS One major problem with the SWOT analysis is that while it emphasizes the importance of the four elements associated with the organizational and environmental analysis, it does not address how the company can identify the elements for their own company. Many organizational executives may not be able to determine what these elements are, and the SWOT framework provides no guidance. For example, what if a strength identified by the company is not truly strength?While a company might believe its customer service is strong, they may be unaware of problems with employees or the capabilities of other companies to provide a higher level of customer service. Weaknesses are often easier to determine, but typically after it is too late to create a new strategy to offset them. A company may also have difficulty identifying opportunities. Depending on the organization, wha t may seem like an opportunity to some may appear to be a threat to others. Opportunities may be easy to overlook or may be identified long after they can be exploited.Similarly, a company may have difficulty anticipating possible threats in order to effectively avoid them. While the SWOT framework does not provide managers with the guidance to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it does tell managers what questions to ask during the strategy development process, even if it does not provide the answers. Managers know to ask and to determine a strategy that will take advantage of a company's strengths, minimize its weaknesses, exploit opportunities, or neutralize threats.Some experts argue that making strategic choices for the firm is less important than asking the right questions in choosing the strategy. A company may mistakenly solve a problem by providing the correct answer to the wrong question. USING SWOT ANALYSIS TO DEVELOP ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY SWOT analysis is just the first step in developing and implementing an effective organizational strategy. After a thorough SWOT analysis, the next step is to rank the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and to document the criteria for ranking.The company must then determine its strategic fit given its internal capabilities and external environment in a two-by-two grid (see Figure 1). This fit, as determined in the grid, will indicate what strategic changes need to be made. The quadrants in this grid are as follows: * Quadrant 1 —internal strengths matched with external opportunities; * Quadrant 2 —internal weaknesses relative to external opportunities; * Quadrant 3 —internal strengths matched with external threats; and * Quadrant 4 —internal weaknesses relative to external threats.Quadrant 1 lists the strategies associated with a match between the company's strengths and its perceived external opportunities. It represents the best fit between th e company's resources and the options available in the external market. A strategy from this quadrant would be to protect the company's strengths by shoring up resources and extending competitive advantage. If a strategy in this quadrant can additionally bolster weaknesses in other areas, such as in Quadrant 2, this would be advantageous. Quadrant 2 lists the strategies associated with a match between the company's weaknesses with external opportunities.Strategies in this quadrant would address the choice of either improving upon weaknesses to turn them into strengths, or allowing competitors to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace. Quadrant 3 matches the company's strengths and external threats. Strategies in this quadrant may aim to transform external threats into opportunities by changing the company's competitive position through use of its resources or strengths. Another strategic option in this quadrant is for the company to maintain a defensive strategy to focus on more promising opportunities in other quadrants.Quadrant 4 matches a company's weaknesses and the threats in the environment. These are the worst possible scenarios for an organization. However, because of the competitive nature of the marketplace, any company is likely to have information in this quadrant. Strategies in this quadrant may involve using resources in other quadrants to exploit opportunities to the point that other threats are minimized. Additionally, some issues may be moved out of this quadrant by otherwise neutralizing the threat or by bolstering a perceived weakness.Once a strategy is decided on in each quadrant for the issues facing the company, these strategies require frequent monitoring and periodic updates. An organization is best served by proactively determining strategies to address issues before they become crises. An example of how a firm can develop strategies using these quadrants is as follows. Generic Corporation produces high-quality; high-priced specialty kitchen items in a catalog and in stores and is known for their excellent customer service. This strength has been able to offset its major weaknesses, which are having few stores and no current capabilities for Internet sales.Its major opportunities come from the explosion of Internet shopping, and its threats are other more high-profile competitors, operating primarily on the Internet, and the concerns of identity theft in Internet sales that many customers ha ve. Matching Generic's strengths to its opportunities (Quadrant 1), the firm may choose to enhance its Internet site to allow online purchases, still providing its excellent 24-hour telephone customer service. Ideally, this strategy will offset the weakness of not having an Internet presence, which addresses the concerns of Quadrant 2.Additionally, by bolstering the strength of excellent customer service by applying it to the online shopping site, the company may be able to alleviate customer concerns about identi ty theft (Quadrant 3). A strategy for Quadrant 4, which matches the company's weaknesses and threats, is that Generic may consider selling its online business to a competitor. Certainly, the Quadrant 4 strategy is the least preferred, but a proactive strategy that plans for managing such a situation is favored over a crisis situation in which the company is forced to sell with no planning.A SWOT analysis is a first, but critical, step in developing an organizational strategy. By examining the company's internal capabilities—its strengths and weaknesses and its external environment—opportunities and threats, it helps to create strategies that can proactively contend with organizational challenges. The changing and uncertain marketing environment deeply affects the organization, instead of changing slowly and predictably, the environment can produce major surprises and shocks, how many managers at â€Å"Heinz† foresaw that the baby-boom numbers would fall so rapid ly?How many were able to predict that the Internet will enable not only real-time personal communication but that will also provide a way for business process improvement and new industries would be formed. How many were able to predict that mobile phone SMS and MMS services would add significant value for the customers, some said ‘who would want to type text on the phone or even snap pictures , telephone are only for talking’To conclude I would say that Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information – these information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the methods for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, an alyzes, and communicates the findings and their implications. †

Assignment Ash plc produces components which it sells to the aircraft Essay

Assignment Ash plc produces components which it sells to the aircraft industry. Mr. Ash, the managing d - Essay Example 83). For you to be able to compete in the marketplace, management must change to the cost and profit management and the reporting approaches. Activity Based Costing is known as a management accounting approach that is able to allocate overhead (direct and indirect costs ) to cost objects (services and products) so that it can help management comprehend and understand critical business information. ABC is able to allocate direct and indirect costs to services and products based on the level of activities that have been used to create and deliver those products and services. Various activities such as design , purchasing, production, sales, customer service and marketing are utilized by different services and products (cost objects) with regard to their complexity and business requirements. If compared to traditional accounting, Activity Based costing is a decision making tool that provides more accurate results of cost and profit information thus allowing management to understand the cost and profit drivers so that you can improve your business. What the method is intended to do, a comparison with the traditional method The objective of the ABC costing system is to offer a better understanding of the overhead/ indirect cost and profitability. ... For instance,the cost of each department and activity is analyzed on the basis of the company’s business model . This ranges from, number of hours hat the employees work, the number of machines and the number of shifts. Both product and services companies are able to use the ABC costing system to assign the cost of activities to the products and the services that they offer to measure profitability. Activity Based Costing (ABC) emerge as a better way of handling cost and profit in the 1980s as a result of the lack of relevance in the traditional costing accounting methods. This method of accounting was established in the early 1990s. In those days, the industries were labor intensive and there was no automation. This meant that the overhead cost of the companies was quite low and product variety was small as compared to what they obtain these days after he started using ABC. DRURY (2007) claims that after most of the companies implemented Activity Based Costing they came to re alize that a lot of information was being overlooked and that is why their production was quite low (pg. 57). In traditional accounting, it is assumed that the cost objects are supposed to consume resources but, in ABC costing, the cost objects are supposed to consume the activities. However, traditional cost accounting more often than not utilizes volume related allocation whereas ABC used the drivers at various levels of production. The traditional accounting method was more of structure oriented but ABC is more of a process oriented. In the diagram below, it is evident that ABC brings comprehensive information from the activities up to the assessment cost and manage capacity at different levels but the traditional costing

The Arts as a Learning Lens Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Arts as a Learning Lens - Assignment Example The element will assist the students in their role-play skills. It may be used to enhance health and physical education in the students. Drama may entail the writing role, interpretation, and process drama. The level of demand for the art will affect the students’ health and physical fitness due to the relationship. Role writing and interpretation of scripts will allow the students to enhance their thinking skills. The drama sessions will also provide physical education where the students will be required to move around while utilizing their talents. The participation of students in a group and individual activities will be an expectation from the students in Grades 4. Additionally, there will also be sustaining belief and maintaining focus among the students that will help in boosting their social lives in the end. The students involvement in drama will improve their movement skills; hence, resulting in positive impacts. Involvement in physical activities will lead to the elimination of some of the common causes of children illnesses. The drama forms can be applied differently to enhance competence and understanding. Improvising more movement connections will help the students manipulate the story elements. Professional theater productions can be due to a change in the students attitude and experiments with various techniques. Grade 4 students are in the process of understanding music elements due to the developing urge to read music notation. Musical approaches may be through moving, singing, creating, and playing instruments with other. The element can also be used as a foundation to understand various cultures due to different socio-cultural beliefs. The students’ exposure to related fields such as dancing will assist in keeping the healthy. Critical thinking skills will also be used as approaches to help them in their social and physical skills. A critical analysis of the art elements

Science, Health, and Wellness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Science, Health, and Wellness - Essay Example From the arguments set forth by Lisa Katic, it is evident that the GMA does not claim any responsibility for the prevailing obesity epidemic. To the contrary, she asserts that the GMA is going out of its way to promote healthy lifestyles among its consumers. The GMA believes that restricting access to unhealthy foods not only interferes with consumer’s choice but is also difficult to implement. For example, no food item is unhealthy per se; the quantity consumed, the frequency with which it is consumed and the pre-existing health condition of the consumer are all factors that determine if a particular food item is healthy or not. Hence, the GMA believes that blankly labeling foods as unhealthy does not make sense. A better approach to tackling obesity and overweight, the GMA believes, is through educating the consumer about what comprises a balanced and optimal diet, and letting the consumer make the choice themselves. This way the burden of responsibility will be on the consumer as it rightly should be. After reading through the GMA’s argument in its entirety, one can easily see that their actions in terms of manufacture and marketing of food products are ethically sound. It would be hasty to judge them as responsible for the widespread obesity problem that exists. But to the GMA’s credit, and as a mark of their concern for their consumers’ health, its allied institution the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition (ACFN) has come up with several innovative programs. These include Vermont Fit and Healthy Kids Initiative, The Carol M. White Physical Education for Progress, The 5-a-Day Better Health Program, Kidnetic.com, America on the Move, etc. When seen in the contex t of this plethora of initiatives Lisa Katic’s testimony to the Vermont House Committee is definitely a step forward in tackling

Research and present how Aflac practices social responsibility and Paper

And present how Aflac practices social responsibility and ethics. Your should uncover how it successfully uses - Research Paper Example The key CSR practises that have enabled Aflac to often rank high among most of the sustainability index such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) amongst others include the multi-purpose recycling program for plastics, office papers among other wastes such aluminium metals (Aflac, 2012a; Forster, Loughran & Mcdonald 2009, p.129). Aflac has come to understand the crucial role played by CSR and ethical practises and conformity programs in promoting the brand of a company and this explains why it been in the Ethisphere list of socially responsible companies continually. This recognition is further attributed to the company dedication to engaging in activities that mutually benefit the communities in which the company operates and enhances is success while maintaining high ethical standards. Aflac focuses on three key areas; compassion, multiplicity and the ability to uphold its purpose, it is dedicated to looking after its own congregation and is mainly concerned with its miscel laneous work force. Consequently, individuals in the societies in which the company operates in have come to have expectations that, it assumes more responsibilities to the public, and this is based on the assumption that the company makes so much money at the expense of the public. It is believed by the management of Aflac that these expectations will continue to increase in the future as the company goes on expanding its activities all over the globe. In addition, the company has come up with environmentally friendly plans to ensure that its negative impact on the environment remains minimal. Thus, its participation in corporate social responsibility can be said to have increased the role of this company in the society by making sure that it participates in making the environment a better place in which to live. Because of this, the company has come to adopt the theory of corporate social responsibility, which is an approach it utilizes when dealing with the impact its business ac tivities have on the societies and the environment, in which it is involved. Corporate Social Responsibility Implementing Corporate Social Responsibility Corporate social responsibilities refer to the actions undertaken by a corporation in order to cater for the welfare of all its stakeholders i.e. its clients, employees and especially to the communities they operate in promoting social welfare. Recently, there has been questioning of the current statements about the advantages of corporate social responsibility and the declarations that companies make on behalf of their corporate social responsibility programs. In particular, it has been suggested that the use of corporate social responsibility for the sake of public relations raises ethical predicaments over the motivation of companies. There have also been warnings concerning the justifications that either companies employ may be dishonest or imprecise with regard to the practical substantiation obtained from small-scale qualitat ive researches undertaken in the 1980s, a period when the exercise of corporate social responsibility was growing rapidly (Brown 2011, p.78). There has been the suggestion that companies only

Business Ethics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Business Ethics - Research Paper Example But the problem apparently is far from resolved taking into consideration the actual degradation of the environment and changing weather patterns. This paper is a personal view on the above mentioned balance, ‘the spectrum of ethical responsibly towards the environment’. The stand taken is that environmental ethics is a necessity both on paper and in practice for business organizations. But the responsibility should not be solely on the major contributor namely the big polluters. An ideal or at the least a sustainable climate is vital to the survival of all living organisms including humans (Pittock, 1). The matter is of utmost concern is the reality of climate change. It is a well established fact that pollution of air, land and water have contributed to this alarming situation. As mentioned in the introduction, economic (immediate) needs often take precedence of long-term requirements regarding the survival of the human race in particular and the environment in general. It is to be seen as to who contributes negatively and positively towards global warming and its long-term effects and causes. According to Ray Anderson, one of the most respected industrialists committed towards environmental ethics, it is business and industry that are the main culprits in this whole chain of events. Being so, this group can in turn become the major contributors in correcting this alarming situation. He goes on to add that there should be an individual or organization that leads the way and took up the responsibility (successfully) of showcasing his own carpet company Interface as a global example of how business can on their own be path breakers in this regard. What is most admirable is the fact that Interface is a company that uses fossil fuels as a raw material for its products. No one in their right mind would publicly state that they have no responsibility towards the environment. But it is

Impacts of MIS on Aramex Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Impacts of MIS on Aramex - Assignment Example As the paper discusses  while MIS reduces the occurrence of human error, it does not eliminate error. Managers will have to train and educate the employees on the various impacts MIS has on the entire organization’s operations, especially if they are to achieve competitive advantage. For Aramex, the way MIS is implemented will determine whether IT will drive business or whether MIS will become a function to be absorbed by business lines as managers become more versed with the systems. Because MIS will determine the future strategic direction for Aramex it is important to determine the impact of MIS on Aramex’s decision-making, organizational structure, data security, as well as the impact that future trends are likely to have on Aramex’s strategy.  This study outlines that  Aramex has an abundance of data at their disposal that they can draw on when making decisions. Aramex can use many tools in the analysis of data to improve on their decision-making.  A ramex are able to bring a vast collection of analytical tools to focus efforts and extract data value in adding value to the organization. Aramex uses MIS in decision making as MIS provides a process through which Aramex can transform data, which is dispersed or disorganized into high quality information with added value that allows Aramex to make decisions that are more effective.  MIS also has the ability to increase the employee’s insights on the information.... h which Aramex can transform data, which is dispersed or disorganized into high quality information with added value that allows Aramex to make decisions that are more effective (Edwards et al, 2000, p. 37). MIS also provides for a process that coherently combines skills to analyze and interpret information from numerous organizational sources, as well as the ability to aid non-specialists in deciphering complex technical information. Finally, MIS also has the ability to increase the employee’s insights on the information (Edwards et al, 2000: p38). MIS aids in the process of value extraction from data, such as the development of a hypothesis, data gathering, data analysis, data interpretation, communication of insights, and making decisions that are informed to take action (Fazlollahi & Vahidov, 2001, p. 236). MIS has the ability to move an organization to effective handling of information from simply working with data, turning it into knowledge with added value for competiti ve advantage. At Aramex, their MIS framework compares to the Plan Do Check Act cycle (personal communication, August 1, 2013), which is an almost modern quality control. This was designed by Dr. Edwards Deming, which he also referred to as the Shewhart cycle. In six sigma programs, Dr. Deming further refined this cycle in to; define, measure, analyze, control, and improve cycle (Fazlollahi & Vahidov, 2001, p. 236). Using information to enhance decision-making has to do with data conversion into information, while the information is further converted into knowledge that can help the organization in making decisions (Wiederhold, 2000: p89). According to Mr. Kamal, Aramex uses the PPVC system for data conversion (personal communication, August 1, 2013). PPVC as a prescriptive normative model

Reconstruction of African Americans Dbq Essay Example for Free

Reconstruction of African Americans Dbq Essay New Societies, new people, and new communities usually originate as a result of migration. People decide to move from one place to another for better opportunities, better lives, and new challenges. This remains true for the African American race as well. It has been believed that the original migration took place in 1619 when African Americans arrived to Jamestown, Virginia. However, the first African Americans migrated to the United States almost a century earlier in the 1500’s coming from Mexico and the Caribbean to the Spanish territories of Florida, Texas, and other parts of the South. African-American Migration Experience Though many migrated to the U. S. voluntarily, most African Americans were victims of massive enslavement. War, slave raiding, kidnapping and political religious struggle accounted for the vast majority of Africans deported to the Americas. African Americans were forced into slavery. Many children were kidnapped and sold as slaves. There were those of which who rebelled by refusing to be enslaved that would be expelled from their homes and families then either murdered or forced to be slaves. Slavery developed because the Northern Africans had a monopoly over spices, gold, and other commodities that the Europeans wanted. Europe would send ships back and forth to Africa to trade goods and in the process they were able to grow comfortable with navigating the seas. As a result, Europe was able to develop very good shipbuilding skills that in turn led to the sending of large vessels. That moved the Portuguese to add an additional commodity to their cargo: African men, women, and children. The Portuguese then used African Americans as slaves to work their sugar plantations. Over time English and Dutch ships preyed on the Portugal vessels for slaves, while raiding and looting the African mainland. Slaves were brought to the United States of America during the triangular trade. Ships were built to handle a maximum of 350 people, but Europeans would transport over 800 men, women, and children under some of the harshest conditions. Slaves would be branded, stripped naked during the entire trip, lying down in the midst of filth, all while enduring unbearable heat. All slaves went through frightening, incredibly brutal and dehumanizing experiences. Women and children were raped for the pleasures of the crew. The sick were tossed overboard unto the sea. People who tried to starve themselves to death were forced to eat by the torturing of scolding hot coal pressed onto their bodies. African-American Migration Experience Those who survived the Middle Passage arrived to America only to encounter more grief. They were sent to plantations and farms for agricultural duties. They were used for mining, and placed in towns as servants. In South Carolina and Georgia they grew rice, cotton, and indigo. In Louisiana they slaved over sugarcane plantations. They labored over tobacco farms in Virginia and Maryland. This went on until 1808 when the United States abolished its slave trade from Africa. However, slave trade went on unabated until 1860. In 1898 the boll weevil ate its way through Texas and proceeded to eat its way East across the South. The cotton was destroyed and slaves were thrown off of the land. After WWI there was an economic boom that resulted in the need for agricultural work, but unfortunately most states in the South passed the Jim Crow laws that discriminated against African Americans and led to segregation. African Americans couldn’t attend the same schools as white Americans. They couldn’t use facilities such as restaurants, theaters, hotels, cinemas, and public baths. Public transportation was also segregated and in some states marriage between white and black people. African Americans were at the mercy of landlords, abusive employers, and almost anyone set on depriving them of their rights. This went on until president Franklin D. Roosevelt was forced to issue an executive order mandating the end to racial discrimination. The Fair Employment Practices Committee was created to enforce this mandate, which acted as the launching pad that would bare dividends in the future. Riots erupted in 1943, leading to beatings, deaths, and arrest. African American then resulted to boycotts and sit-ins during the Civil Rights movement. As a result, the Supreme Court reversed the separate but equal doctrine in 1954, ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. There was also the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act that signaled an attack on Jim Crow. The African-American Migration Experience This report reveals the enormous amount of pain, grief, and violence suffered by my ancestors during slavery. I am so appreciative to all those people who marched, boycotted, and endured the pain and suffering so that my children and I could have the freedom to eat in any restaurant, sleep at any hotel, drink water out of any fountain, and go to school to get a good education. I may not be able to relate culturally to the ethnic group that I have written about because I am way too young, but that doesn’t change the fact that I recognize what they fought and stood for and I plan to make sure that my children are taught the history of how African Americans migrated to the United States, and what they went through to get here. References In Motion. The African-American Migration Experience. Retrieved April 9, 2007, from http://www. inmotionaame. org/home. cfm.

Preventing Conflicts And Disputes As A Project Manager

Preventing Conflicts And Disputes As A Project Manager Project management is an important aspect of an organization and a main factor for successful completion of a project. In todays changing times tools such as project management, if used properly can provide a useful way for organizations to manage that change effectively. Managing construction projects is a complex undertaking. The quality of a project is the result of many factors the quality of Project Manger is one such factor. Project manager make things happen on a project. A project needs a good planning, organization management which would bring out the maximum benefits for the organization and this can be only achieved by a good leader-Project manager. Another area which needs a lot of attention in an organization is conflicts disputes. Conflict is an inevitable aspect of an organization. It can be destructive as well as functional and it depends on the project manager to resolve the conflict in a manner so that it does not lead to the loss for an organization. There have been many past studies on project success factors affecting project success. These include Project managers competence, control systems responsibilities, selection of teams, politics, contracting solving of conflicts, proper allocation of resources etc. Effective project management begins with selecting and prioritizing projects that support the firms strategy and mission. Project managers have to plan and budget projects as well as orchestrate the contributions of others. Social-skills, decision making skills, problem handling skills, opportunities recognizing skills, and management of conflicts are certain personal attributes of a project manager affecting p roject success. The main aim of study is to find different attributes of a project manager which would help in overcoming all the challenges faced while working on a project as this marks the success of any organization. Project manager plays a very important role in a successful working of any organization and the aim of this study is to deeply study all those attributes which a project manager must have to become a good leader who can manage his team well extract maximum benefits out of them within the limits of time, money resources. Projects are inherently uncertain face unexpected events, from small changes to unforeseen changes like conflicts within organization, with the client, resource unavailability, etc. Project Manager forms a link between the top management the other employees so it is the responsibility of the project manager to maintain a good balance between both. The conflict can arise in top management as well as other employees. The aim of the study is to see how project manag ers respond to such events. As this forms a major reason for the success of any organization, the aim is to give an in depth study of these characteristics of a good project manager which is profitable for all the organizations draw a critical relationship between the Project Managers managerial attributes, the use of key project management principles, practices project performance. The study would also recommend some methodological processes, conceptual frameworks, experiments, experiences some conclusions drawn from various studies done in various companies compare contrast them with previous studies to attain a broad analysis for successful working of a project manager his role in successful completion of a project within the given constraints. Initially the study would examine what a project is, what project management is and what is the role of a project manager. Then the study would examine the causes, types effects of conflict followed by the ways they can be resolved the role of Project manager in conflict resolution. SEARCH STRATEGY The search strategy starts with an aim objective in mind. The aim the objective of present study are as follows: AIM: To study the roles responsibilities of an effective Project Manager analyze what attributes of a Project Manager are required to resolve different conflicts in an organization. OBJECTIVES: To define Project Project Management. To define the roles responsibilities of an effective quality Project Manager. To define conflict, examine its causes, types, core processes effects in an organization. To examine what attributes of a Project Manager are required to manage Conflict effectively. The key words used in the study include: Project, Project Management, Project Manager quality, Project manager roles, Unexpected events, Conflict, Conflict Management, work performance of Project Manager, Managerial attributes, Project Performance, Power, Politics, organizational politics, leadership, communication, motivation, managing project teams, project stakeholders, project life cycle. These words are relevant for the search because they cover the required objectives of the study. They help in finding the appropriate journal papers, links or other information regarding the different aspects of a project, project management, Project manager, conflict conflict management by a project manager. These words help in finding information that can describe the overall aim objectives of the study. The other sources of information include: Search engine used: Science direct, Scopus, Google Scholar, Engineering Village. Other sources: Project Management: the managerial process 4e by Gray Larson. Business Psychology Organizational Behavior by Eugene McKenna. Commercial Management of Projects defining the discipline by Dawid Lowe with Roine Leiringer. Industrial Organizational Psychology by John B. Miner. www.ogc.gov.uk www.apm.org.uk REVIEWS OF FOUR JOURNAL PAPERS: Project Quality project managers: This journal paper Project Quality Project managers- http://tinyurl.com/24d9ue8 emphasizes on the fact that a successful project requires sound project management practices and for any project management system to be effective, a project must be managed by a project manager who exhibits high quality managerial attributes. The research discussed in the paper is sponsored by the Construction Industry Institute. The main purpose of the paper is to confirm the critical relationship between the use of key project management principles, practices project performance. The paper emphasizes on the effective project management practices their use by project managers at all levels during a project life cycle. The paper argues that the relationship between a Project Managers managerial attributes project success is indirect. The project performance is affected by the effective application of project management principles by a project manager. Further the paper also argues that the high quality managerial attributes are an equally important contributor to project success and commensurate with high quality technical skills. The paper presents the key principles recommended practices such as strategic project organizing, design effectiveness, project control management of quality articulated by the Construction Industry Institute (CII) the Business Roundtables Construction Industry Cost Effectiveness (CICE) project. They are believed to have the strongest effect on project performance. The paper clearly defines the objectives scope of the research. The data does not only give theoretical results but also provides empirical support by acquiring data through detailed questionnaire developed to survey 400 construction companies where the respondents provide individual views based on their experiences on projects in the heavy engineering, building industrial construction sectors. This paper also provides strategies to improve project manager effectiveness. This helps in deeper understanding of the managers ability to consistently produce project success. However this paper considers only the aspect of project Manager as the factor for project success. Project success could be assessed not only on project management techniques but also on other external factors. The Project Manager must also allow the client to take equal responsibility of the project. It is important to determine the expectations importance of each customer in the project by the project manager as t his also marks one of the factors for successful running of project. [1,2] Along with leadership skills there is also a need of emotional competencies and as the project managers progress they need to enhance their leadership competencies particularly developing the emotional dimensions. [3] This paper also does not examine the working environment affecting the performance of project managers. This is important not only for determining the success of a project, but also in continual of the good performance of project managers. [4] The research done by CII CICE indicates that the critical factor to project success is the quality of a Project Manager. Managing construction projects is a complex undertaking requires many factors. The quality of Project Manger is one such factor. Project Manager needs to stress different attributes at different times over the life of a project to make the project successful. Many Project Managers are perceived to lack the requisite managerial skills so new strategies such as increased pre appointment training, mentor system, careful selection of potential project managers etc are suggested to improve the quality of an effective Project Manager. 2) Conflict its management: This journal article http://tinyurl.com/37skcfr presents a detailed analysis of conflict its management by disputants themselves or by third parties such as Project Managers, mediators etc. The paper first examines the causes, core processes effects of conflict subsequently probes into conflict escalation de-escalation, context conflict management. In the end the paper also concludes some suggestions for future research provides recommendations for practicing managers. The article highlights the issues by reviewing certain scholarly reviews of the conflict literature which have already been published. The major purpose of the article is to draw attention towards the inevitable unanticipated nature of conflict and how these can be managed by disputants or by third parties such as Project Managers who play an important role in conflict management. The article defines conflict as a process where one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party. It then goes onto explain the causes of conflict like individual characteristics, inter-personal factors, communication, behavior, etc. It explains the effects of conflicts on individuals organization subsequently determines the concept of conflict escalation de-escalation. It then unfolds the conflict context which has been approached from 4 different perspectives: (i) A description of the conflict setting, (ii) A reference to the independent variables, (iii) The environment in which the conflict is embedded (iv) The structural level or paradigm of the conflict. The article then explores the role of disputants in managing conflict such as Perspective (establish co-operative goals, note the alternatives etc), descriptive ( agree to symbols of defeat, compromise, convert the opponent etc) the role of third parties such as Project manager tactics (adopting appropriate leadership styles, group-discussions, encouraging negotiations etc), mediation, arbitration, conciliation recapitulation. The article helps in deeper understanding of all the phases of conflict, its inevitable nature, its effects causes. It not only explains the conflict phases , its management but also gives research managerial suggestions for future references. The suggestions provided though are beneficial for the practicing managers but should have been more detailed provide with examples to help in clear understanding of the point. It is important to identify five modes of conflict resolution such as confronting, compromising, smoothing, forcing avoiding. [5] This article does not mention any cognitive analysis. Cognitive analysis approach( identifying conflict domain, generation of conflict cases, exercise of judgment, analysis of result cognitive feedback) identifies cognitive difference between the parties as the main source of conflict which needs to be taken care by a Project manager.[6] An awareness of the potential approaches to conflict resolution and the understanding of their consequ ences can provide project managers with a invaluable set of tools to create an optimal work environment. The article concludes that a conflict is self-generating inevitable in an organization. The conflict process is dynamic, self-perpetuating constantly changing: like effects become causes; original causes may disappear; new causes arise; the number of parties change etc. This makes conflict management a difficult target. Project Manager plays an important role in recognizing conflicts managing them as and when required. Conflict is prevalent cannot be recognized at all times so its management requires a lot of efforts. The challenge for organizational leaders and project managers is to try to maintain the right balance and intensity of conflict in project management. By utilizing project management principles, understanding the dynamics of conflict, and learning approaches to conflict resolution, managers will be able to establish an environment in which creativity and innovation is encouraged and project goals are accomplished. [7] 3) The Titanic sunk, so what? Project manager response to unexpected events. The journal article http://tinyurl.com/364k9rb studies the responses of Project manager to unexpected events during a project life cycle. This paper stresses on the point that unanticipated events are inevitable in a project the project success depends on the responses of the project manager to such events. This paper explores the gap between the practice success by defining three elements namely: Event, Response the perceived success. The article compares contrasts the successful unsuccessful responses to draw attention on successful practices. As responding to unexpected events is a fundamental function in project management, an analysis of 44 unexpected events faced by 22 experienced Project Managers in defense defense related organizations was conducted in the given study. The participants were asked to think of significant unforeseeable events during the project which took them by surprise or were unknown or unpredicted their responses were recorded to such events. The research was designed using a grid to unfold the differences between successful unsuccessful responses to unexpected events from the perspective of a project manager. The results found that some participants had difficulty in identifying unknown-unknowns ( circumstances, events outcomes that were not identified in the first place) from known-unknowns ( circumstances, events or outcomes that have been identified as possibly existing, but do not know whether they will take place or not). The ability to identify possible risks reflects the experience of the participants. The main purpose of the paper is to draw the importance of unexpected events during a project which many times are just neglected by Managers to study their responses in such events. These unexpected events threaten the viability of a project. The study carried on groups organizations looked at the behavior of individuals during crisis like situation. An Adapted Repertory Grid (RepGrid) method was used to explore the unexpected events their responses. The data was collected in three steps namely: discussion on each event to derive an overview of what happened in each event, response monitoring finally evaluation of the internal validity of data. The study revealed that successful responses were organic based on three pillars: A responsive functioning structure at organizational level, good interpersonal relationships at group level competent people at the individual level. The study gives an idea of responses to unexpected events their evaluation as success or failure. Certain studies suggest that conflict develops not only in environmental circumstances but in the styles used by individuals when confronted with a conflict. The manner in which a person responds to organizational decision and uncertainty will influence the responses of others and the individuals work experience. [8] But this has again beeen contradicted by concluding that a Project managers previous experience has a minimal impact on the projects performance whereas the size of the previous managed project does affect the managers performance.[9]. However some researchers found no relationship between project success project size. [10] The results conclude that the successful responses to unexpected events lie within the three pillars: Responses functioning structure, Good interpersonal relations Competent people. Simple, responsible functioning structures are highlighted by the study participants as fundamental pillars of success. The analysis suggests that there is a need to refrain from merely adopting a process based approach to predict all possible events. It should be understood that the combination of structure, people, relationship are more likely to enable a successful response to an unanticipated event. The result emphasizes to focus on behavioral aspects of project management further draws attention on successful unsuccessful responses of project managers to such events. 4) Understanding the role of politics in successful project management: This journal paper http://tinyurl.com/2va3ass links the ability of project manager other key players in an organization to understand the importance of organizational politics which is one of the major factors of conflict as a sign towards successful project management. Politics is most often regarded as damaging but common experiences acknowledge that politics often one of the prime moving forces within any organization for better or worse. The main purpose of this paper is to draw attention towards the role of politics in successful project management identifying ways in which Project managers can use politics in a positive effective manner. It focuses on the point that Project Management politics are inextricably linked. Successful managers are those who understand that their job consists of more than simply being technically managerially competent. Power politics is rarely addressed in project management but it needs to be understood that their presence is ubiquitous their impact is significant. The paper points to three modes of power: Authority, Status influence illustrates that these are the key problems faced by Project Manager in attempting to develop their projects in organizations. The paper explains the implications of project politics stresses that a Project Manager needs to acknowledge politics as a fact of organizational project life. It focuses on the fact that it is important to learn to cultiv ate appropriate political tactics as they decide whether it is healthy or unhealthy give characteristics of political behavior like underlying attitudes, techniques etc. Politics if not handled on time may lead to conflicts within the organization so a Project manager needs to acknowledge politics and manage it accordingly. The article suggests some measures to be adopted by Project manager such as the need to employ certain tactics such as conduct performance appraisals on their project team subordinates as it helps in sending a clear message throughout the members that the projects are valuable project contributions among team members will be remembered rewarded. The Project Manager needs to learn the art of influencing by developing a reputation as an expert, and also suggests a Project Manager to develop good negotiating skills recognize that conflict is a natural side effect of project management. These tactics as suggested can help Project managers in dealing with politics hence would prevent conflict within the team. This article gives a good understanding of politics which generally is neglected by Project managers. Organizational politics is one of the important factors responsible for conflicts in an organization but this factor many times is neglected. Conflict if avoided can lead to difficult situations. . Managers at all levels of an organization should be attentive to enhancing employee perceptions of organizational justice in order to encourage the use of more cooperative styles for organizational conflict management.[10] There needs to be more emphasis on project team relationship as it can be one of the causes of politics and hence can lead to conflicts. Unwillingness to cooperate is one of the major reasons for failed teams leading to conflicts Hence, successful project completion depends to a large extent on members being able to work together effectively.[4] This article helps to draw attention towards the importance of politics provides effective project implementation techniques w hich may help in avoiding conflicts arising from politics. But it does not provide any empirical data proving the theories mentioned. The paper concludes that politics and project management are interlinked a project cannot be run without understanding politics. Politics is not necessarily evil but depends on how it is used that decides its effect. Managers do not understand the importance of politics many times but they need to understand that politics is ubiquitous; that is it operates across organizations functional boundaries.. Successful Project Managers are aware that politics, if used judiciously can have an extraordinary positive impact on the implementation of their projects.. SUMMARY: The journals provide a clear understanding of project, project management, roles responsibilities of a project manager, conflicts unexpected events in an organization the ways in which a Project manager could successfully manage them. All the journals focus on one point which is that a successful Project Manager requires a sound project management practices for any project management system to be effective, a project must be managed by a Project Manager who exhibits high quality managerial attributes knows to handle unanticipated situations in a project life-cycle. The research sponsored by the CII( Construction Industry Institute) in the first paper-Project Quality Project Manager highlights the importance of a quality Project Manager as one of the basic factors required for the success of a project. The paper specifies some suggestions to improve the Project manager effectiveness such as increased pre-appointment training, Establishing a mentor system, careful selection of potential Project Manager etc. The second journal article-Conflict its Management presents a broad analysis of conflict its management. This article stresses on the fact that conflict is inevitable in an organization can be handled by disputants themselves or by third parties such as Project Manager. Again this article stresses on the importance of the managerial qualities required in a Project Manager to handle conflict effectively. It provides suggestions for Project Managers to overcome conflict. These include: Project Manager should not always avoid conflict, should identify the issues carve them down to manageable set etc. Both the journal papers suggests that an effort needs to be made to identify develop key management skills that may be unique to the project management environment. The third journal -Project Managers response to unexpected events opines that projects can face unexpected events studies how Project Managers respond to such events. The article examines some events but found that human behavior issues predominantly led to failure while all other types of events could be managed either successfully or unsuccessfully. It identifies three pillars on which success response was dependent: Response functioning structure(high degree of freedom, rapid decision making implementation etc); good interpersonal relationship( Engagement with stakeholders, communication relationship between people involved) competent people( competence of leader team, behavior including self awareness ability to deal with stressful situations). The fourth journal paper- Understanding the role of politics in project management identifies organizational politics as one of the causes of conflict reveals that successful project management is linked to the ability of a Project Manager to understand its importance to make it work for project success. It states that project politics are interlinked it is up to what Project managers do depends on their ability to effectively manage not only the technical aspect of their job but also the behavioral side as well. It also focuses on the behavioral issues which need to be effectively handled by a Project Manger by understanding the dynamics of conflict process by learning to cultivate appropriate political tactics. It can be summarized that a project is an endeavor undertaken to meet specified goals objectives is usually constrained by time, scope budget. The discipline of planning, organizing managing resources to bring about the successful completion of such goals objectives during a project is known as Project management. A project manager is vital indispensable in any project. It is the Project manager who is accountable for accomplishing the objectives goals during a project life-cycle. The key project manger responsibilities include clear attainable project objectives, building the requisite environment, managing all the constraints of project, managing all unexpected events during a project such as conflicts etc. The quality of Project Manager is critical to achieving project success. Project Managers should emphasize different attributes at different stages of a project to be more effective. A project manager needs to understand that projects are inherently uncertain should be ready to manage them by understanding their importance make them work for project success. Proper skills in dealing with conflict can assist project managers and other organization members to handle and effectively resolve conflicts which can lead to a more productive organization as a whole. Using Project management principles and applying them gives the project manager the ability to establish success measures, incorporate quality principles, resolve conflicts and unexpected events, address future risk before becoming a problem, work within the scope of the project etc. The Project manager must have a combination of above average leadership human relations skills and administrative experience. Project performance is affected by the effective application of project management principles by a project manager. An effective Project manager should be capable of making decisions, communicate actions eliciting the commitment of team members. An effective Project Manager needs to diagnose conflict manage it by various methodologies such as improving communication, encourage joint responsibilities, create new alternatives, instill a co-operative, problem solving attitude between the conflicting groups. Successful project manager understand that project management skills if used judiciously can have an extra-ordinary impact on the successful implementation of their projects. Great successful organizations have always believed in idea generators executors for overall excellence. Project Manager is expected to have both qualities and the ability to handle all events during the course of a project. Effective instrumental leadership abilities initiatives have always lend a Midas touch to the organization. Since the aim of the study to be done is to analyze Project Managers roles and responsibilities and define attributes required in a Project Manager to prevent conflict during a project life cycle, these journals help in supporting the fact that Project Managers are one of the important factors required for project success. These journals define the various conflicts, its causes and explore the characteristics required in a Project manager to overcome unexpected events during a project. This would help in the further study of the current research and help in achieving the objectives of the research.