Culture and Moral Values: Are they changing? Essay

As we enter into a new world of technology our culture and moral values are simultaneously fading away with every new invention. We seem to be forgetting the important things in life. Reading the works of William Wordsworth and other poetic authors, some people may start to see how men and women cherished life and nature at one point in time. Today, we look at nature as if it is meant to be slaves for our needs in order to provide us with food, water, and air. Nature provides for us and we treat this beautiful gift as a slave that works to satisfy our needs, not taking care of our gift, forgetting to cherish every thing that nature has given to the human race. People forget that nature was given to us as a masterpiece of strength and power through God. Man’s ability to strive for more in life seems to destroy his vision of what he must base his values of life on as a Christian human being. The subject of â€Å"industrial organization† applies the economist’s mode ls of price theory to the industries in the world around us (Caves 15). Industrialization is a great discovery that helped revolutionize the life of people at a very rapid pace. It seems that ever since man became intelligent enough to create easy ways of life, his cultural values of family, work, and life have become a task for machines. Instead of overtaking our ideas and inventions, controlling them, and molding them into our own way of life, we allow industrialization of new technology to pave the way of life we live. In this essay we will be discussing the process of industrialization, explaining the effects it has had on culture and moral values in the time of our ancestors, as apart from the culture and moral values of today’s society. In the new world today industrialization is a big part of technology. It seems that the more the industry field starts to grow, the more we seem to forget the real values of life. We have now entered a new phase, in which adults all over the world have to recognize that all children’s experience is different from their own (Mead 23). Television, computers, cars, and other manmade inventions are beginning t o bring our normal hard working way of life to extinction. Instead of trying to keep the ideal of working hard for something that a person may want in life, we depend on new technology to create an easier life for our own selfish purposes. Today many people take nature and life for granted. Industrialization, having one of the biggest portions of why this problem  exists, will start to control the relationship of man and the outdoors. Industrialization is the main work force of our life. It is about to destroy every thing that God gave to us as a spiritual gift. God did provide us with the knowledge to create the industry work field. But he did not intend for us to misuse our power of intelligence. God gave us the gift of bringing new life into the world as human beings. This is something that we should cherish and respect as children of Jesus the Messiah. Today scientists are trying to produce life through cloning. We should be ashamed to even try to create life or clone life; it is meant for a living thing to be born then die. Industrialization is not wrong as of today, but sooner are later we will take it too far and end up regretting even trying to abuse our power. Growing up as a young man in an African American family, stories were told in order to explain the c oncept of hard work and the willingness to work hard in order to get what one needed, not wanted. We, as young adults, should be thankful for the new network of industry and never take any part of this wonderful life for granted. In the days of our ancestors they cherished every little thing that they had to work for in life. Moral values meant something special in those times, and every one loved to enjoy the beautiful outdoors. Industrialization back then meant a shovel, horse, and manpower in order to eat on an everyday basis. Children played with ropes tied to a cane, read books, and studied the outdoors. They never once had the evil, selfish moral values that we have today. Selfishness may have exited back in those days, but no one really had too much to be selfish about in those times. Culture had a totally different meaning for our ancestors; they understood the meaning of true moral values. â€Å"Every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, and its own meanings. Every human society expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and learning (Ferguson 69).† Art, music, life, and religion were a big part of everyday life. Many great poets and authors came from this ancestral period. Music was not just something to listen to but also something to study and appreciate. If only we could recapture those everlasting moments that our ancestors enjoyed through out their lives we would never overstep our boundaries towards a more technological world. In today’s society Industrialization has become a major part of everyday life. Computers, transportation, entertainment, and technology have become like a disease  that is spreading throughout our young youth, destroying all the moral values that had been set in the time of our ancestors (Ferguson 45). How can we raise our kids not to be selfish and arrogant in the world today when there is a specific way of life? There is a certain way to dress, talk, walk, eat, and even sleep. People fail to realize that at one point in the past there was a time when people were not able to choose when to sleep or how to dress. Industrialization has just about created a new way of life where humans just lie around the house and get fat all day. It is real funny how we are the most intelligent race on the face of the earth, but we can’t seem to control our own despicable ways. Everyone at some point in his or her life wishes there was an easier way to perform a task or a short cut th rough a difficult task. Children that are following the path that we are creating for them will lose the little feeling that a person gets from gaining something from nothing. If we just hand things to children every time they ask for them how can we capture the moral values from our ancestors. In order for us to reveal true culture of nature, we must travel far from technology and Industrialization. We must learn to cherish every thing that has been accomplished for use as Americans and children of God. Culture and moral values to some may be very important issues but to others may just be nonexistent being that fade away slowly every second. If we conceive ourselves in technology we will lose our true heritage, forgetting what God has intended for us through our knowledge. Our intelligent minds are meant for us to have a better view of our culture and moral values. This basically means that our ability to strengthen our way of living through technology should have no effect on changing the way our values and culture progress to with everyday life. We should not take every thing that has been blessed upon us for granted. When will we ever go back to the old way of life and try to counteract it with today’s Technology? Think about how wonderful a world we would have if everyone worked to the maximum potential. If we really tried as hard as our ancestors did we may have a cure for all diseases, we may stop world hunger, or even succeed in world peace. Until we realize that our life is based on more than just materialistic items, the new world of industrialization will take over our minds and destroy our bodies. Works Cited Page Caves, Richard. American Industry: Structure, Conduct, Performance. Prentice Hall, Inc. New Jersey: 1987. Ferguson, John. Moral Values in the Ancient World. Methuen & Co, London: 1921. Mead, Margaret. Culture and Commitment. Columbia University Press. New York: 1978.

Postmodernism &Marketing

Due to its profound effect on individualistic side of consumer and consumption, it is inevitable hat marketing is also affected deeply by postmodernism. Hence, those who would like to make a long run and satisfying profit have to develop at least a basic understanding of the terms â€Å"postmodern† and â€Å"postmodern marketing†. It would be more convenient to give some basic knowledge about postmodernism before explaining its huge effect on the discipline of marketing.According to Encyclopedia Britannica postmodernism is defined as a â€Å"late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining lattice and economic power†. Postmodernism can be viewed as a criticism to 20th century modernism. It is a resistance to modernist ideas such as freedom, progress and liberty. It is much more about destruction of old theories, cr iticizing the modern and its values rather than proposing a solution to give order or something new.As First, Sherry and Venerates argue postmodernist looks for a universally accepted or agreed upon principle; that of tolerance and acceptance of difference. To sum up, while modernism has designed the grand projects to prevent failure, postmodernism as recognized such projects as failures themselves. After a brief explanation about postmodernism, it would be reasonable to give a marketing oriented definition of postmodernism before starting to discuss its huge influence on the discipline of marketing.According to Gerri & Van Iraqi (1998) postmodernism can be defined as † a cultural episode, characterized by a pluralism of styles (of consumption) and ideologies, a need for hyperthermia and self-expression through consumption†. After contemplating on this brief definition, it would not be hard to conclude that postmodernism has had a profound effect on the consumption tatte rs of individuals. Therefore, companies have been forced to take individualistic differences into account and develop strategies based on their own target customer group.However, the influence of postmodernism on marketing and businesses is not limited to the change in consumer preferences or the change in consumption patterns. The structure of an organization, and the organization's relationship with its employees are also affected by the birth and extensive usage of the term postmodernism. To begin with the effect of the term â€Å"postmodernism† on the customer side, it can be argued that it has brought a new phenomenon of postmodern marketing. In the modern marketing, a company generally makes some standardization in terms of what a customer needs, wants or desires by evaluating the society as a whole.In the evaluation process, a majority of them focus on the shared characteristics or personalities of customers and begin to make production and even customization according to a common, shared perspective. Naturally, they have a tendency to ignore customers who have a very different worldview, personality, preference or choice. Thus, those who make production do not have to worry about the diversity of customers in terms of attitudes, perception, personality etc. Since they produce goods and services in massive amounts and then advertise these goods and services to masses.Then, they expect their products to be consumed without any challenge by different consumer demands. This situation is partly a result of homogeneity and masculinity concepts of modernism. However, with postmodernism all these approaches have been affected. Unless having an understanding about the diversity of consumer behavior, a firm might not be able to hose its target customer group correctly, which is a situation that makes its production meaningless, since in the end the product or service might end up with appealing to no one.Also, in today's world companies have to give much importance to different groups such as gays, lesbians, gypsies etc. Since they have become to constitute a portion of the society that is not negligible. In fact those who took a quicker action than others to offer production or services appealing totally to such groups have made enormous profit. Moreover, the masculine culture has been placed by a more feminine culture in many areas of business due to the change in consumption patterns. For example, during ass Marlboro was using fancy letters. Then, it turned out that Marlboro was started being cited as women's cigarette.With this unintended impression, Marlboro immediately changed its letter type and started to use its famous masculine cowboy commercials. If this situation occurred in postmodernist era, most probably a majority of people would criticize Marlboro and stop buying, since Marlboro implicitly suggests that it does not give much value to its women customers. When considering all these, it can be clearly defended that du e to the profound influence of postmodernism on marketing, a vast amount of companies have shifted from forbids, mass consumption based approaches to post-forbids, individualistic based approaches.To continue with the structure of organizations, it might be asserted that before the birth of the term â€Å"postmodernist' most of the companies had adopted the principles of forbids. Believing the quality of stability, homogeneity and control and they followed the rules of a masculine culture. Their organization structures were strictly hierarchical. Hence, there was a significant rower distance among different levels of management. However, after postmodernism came to scene, the effectiveness of the bureaucratic organization culture during turbulent, unpredictable or complex times has been questioned.Many new beneficial concepts such as employee empowerment, flat organization structure have been created and emphasized. Afterwards, organizational design becomes more flat, since it is w idely believed that one of the most significant factors carrying a company to success is the active participation of employees. As the organization becomes more flat, the communication link among different levels of management gets stronger which contributes to the creation of new innovative ideas. Moreover, companies' culture has been changed dramatically with postmodernism.During the ass, ass company environment was homogeneous, outer directed, and factory based, since at those times a majority of firms believed the strength of stability. On the other hand with the postmodernism, company environment has been shifted to heterogeneous, self centered and participatory business culture. The motivation behind this situation is that companies have become to experience that creation of unique ideas in terms of production of goods or services is very much elated with the diversity of employees. Within an organization where everybody has a different personality, preference, perception etc. T would be more likely to make production that fits customers well. Therefore, in today's world those who can manage disorder and variety more effectively have a better chance to serve well and make sufficient profit. To conclude, with the rise of postmodernist ideas, as Stephen (1992) put forward that firms have been forced to prefer disorder to order, surface to depth, past to present, present to future, heterogeneity to homogeneity, plurality to nonsense, differences to similarities, complexity to simplification, rhetoric to logic and individuality to universality.All in all, the term â€Å"postmodern† has profoundly affected the discipline of marketing as it has a deep influence on almost all social and intellectual endeavors such as sociology, philosophy, politics, history, economics etc. With the rise of postmodern marketing, companies have started to give careful consideration not only to the customer differences but also to their own organizational and cultural struc ture. While constructing a more friendly and participatory organizational environment, impasses have started to offer a variety of solutions and answers to the demand of different customer groups.

High Court Ruling Only Tweaks Sarbanes-Oxley Act

ARTICLE SYNOPSISThe â€Å"High Court Ruling Only Tweaks Sarbanes-Oxley Act† article is about the Supreme Court ruling in Free Enterprise Fund vs. PCAOB indicating that Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) will remain â€Å"fully operative as a law† with the exception to remove members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Prior to the SOX Act, the removal of member was said to violate the appointments clause of the Constitution. In addition to discussing the ruling, the following will explain how the Sarbanes-Oxley act affects ethical decisions in today’s business and the criminal penalties that it provides. ETHICAL DECISIONThe process of making decisions consists of ethical attribute that include integrity, transparency, and accountability. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has the effect of ensuring investor confidence through the existence of regulatory provisions effective in enhancing ethical standards. In the case of Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB shows the extent to which the issue of separation of powers is upheld. The main argument in the case was the excess power granted to the board as it was appointed by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) other than the president. This means that the board had regulatory non-restricted power by the executive. According to the ruling, PCAOB has the power to continue overseeing public company audits with the intention of protecting investors interest (Jaeger, 2010).This is a major development as it relates to ensuring that proper measures supports the scope of executives ensuring that proper decisions are effective in  protecting the interests of investors. The court’s ruling indicated that PCAOB board members will be removed from office by SEC at will other than for good cause (Jaeger, 2010). However, other programs of PCAOB remain unaffected by the decision of the court.It is important to note that the enactment of the SOX Act is a major development that has ensured integrity in decision-making p rocess essential in protecting the integrity of investors. As a result of maintaining proper books of accounts and ensuring proper internal controls are in place, the SOX Act ensures ethical decisions are made enhancing the integrity and transparency. Ultimately, the impact of the SOX Act is to protect the interest of investors through prevention of accounting frauds.CRIMINAL PENALTIESThe SOX Act provides for various criminal penalties under certain sections. Section 802 of the SOX Act provides criminal penalties for influencing the United States agency investigation, which is also known as proper administration. The criminal penalty punishes any person who knowingly falsifies information or document with the intention of obstructing a particular investigation. An individual can be put in jail if found guilty of this criminal offense for a period not exceeding 20 years. Another criminal penalty under the SOX Act is retaliation against whistleblowers (Jaeger, 2010).This relates to an y person who takes harmful action against another person with the intention to retaliate. A fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years can be placed if a person is found guilty for this criminal offense. Section 906 of the SOX Act provides for criminal penalties for CEO or CFO financial statement certification. According to this section, any corporate officer who fails to certify financial reports is liable for a jail term not exceeding 20 years.Reference Jaeger, J. (2010). High Court Ruling Only Tweaks Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Accessed

Managing The Supply Chain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing The Supply Chain - Essay Example The project would also look at the production process employed by Colgate-Palmolive and the management and distribution channels. The importance of the end-user would also be examined in the paper. Colgate Procurement System (2013) identifies that the company uses a uniform and fair system of taking tenders and supplier application from producers. The company decides what to buy on the basis of quality and price offered by a supplier. The suppliers reliability, integrity, innovation and commitment to continuous improvement is a basis for decision making (Colgate Procurement System, 2013). Ethical standards are used to carry out the examination and evaluation of different suppliers. This include a number of standards and expectations that must be met by each and every supplier in the list of possible contenders. Once this is done, there are some guidelines that are used to by the Global Procurement Group to authorize a supplier. The Global Procurement Group of Colgate-Palmolive is made up of purchasing and logistic professionals from the regional units of the company. They use teamwork to guide their efforts. The group takes up tenders and quotes from suppliers around the world who fit some basic requirements. The quotes are presented to the Group and they examine and critique it. The company uses various criteria including positive discrimination techniques like identifying minority-owned suppliers and women-owned businesses. The group uses ethical business practices and high integrity levels to set goals and attain them. When suppliers are chosen, the company settles down to manage them through various technological and ICT databases and platforms that produce real-time information for decision making and guidance. Every suppliers contract is stipulated and given out to the customer when they join the supply team. The suppliers are monitored by the Internal Supply Managing the Supply Chain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words Managing the Supply Chain - Essay Example There should be a complete realignment of the procurement system that will be followed for all raw materials, parts, and components. The activities that follow the procurement process apply to the purchase of goods and services in the industrial markets. These activities often cut across both functional boundaries on an intra-firm basis and organizational boundaries on an inter-firm basis. It needs the inputs from all the parties involved in the transactions. Hence streamlining the procurement system would maximize value for both buying and selling. The realignment of procurement system maximizes productivity by ensuring the production lines work in tandem with each other. There should be a complete integration of the inventory management and the procurement system to ensure an effective supply chain management. There ate four important purposes that are expected to achieve by the integration of the inventory management and the procurement process; they are: With the use of any readily available computer software the integration of the inventory management and procurement could be easily achieved. ... Integration of Inventory Management and Procurement System There should be a complete integration of the inventory management and the procurement system to ensure an effective supply chain management. There ate four important purposes that are expected to achieve by the integration of the inventory management and the procurement process; they are: (1) Cost savings in inventory (2) Control over the inventory (3) Reduction and control of production cycle time and (4) Improved customer satisfaction (Oracle) All the above purposes are considered the essence of an effective supply chain management and hence it is important the inventory management and procurement system of the company is integrated. With the use of any readily available computer software the integration of the inventory management and procurement could be easily achieved. With this integration the company would be able to procure materials according to production demands and the delivery time can be calculated every hour for an efficient movement and usage of stock. The company can monitor inventory information at every stage of the production cycle, including the required amount for a particular order, quantity ordered, actual shipping amounts, and delivery dates. There will be a possibility of reducing the value of inventory held at the warehouse. Production Planning System Introduction of an integrative Manufacturing Planning and Control System would ensure that the desired products are manufactured at the right time, in the right quantities, meeting the customer specifications and at minimum cost. The major elements in an integrated system include: Demand Management Aggregate Production Planning Master Production Scheduling Rough-cut Capacity

Marketing Fundamentals Fall 2012 Midterm Exam Essay - 1

Marketing Fundamentals Fall 2012 Midterm Exam - Essay Example Studies show that it has 50% less fats than Zinger burger of KFC and Subway. It was introduced with different styles to the customer like Mega-MAC, Big-Big-MAC and Maharaja-MAC (India) etc. McDonalds is a dominant company that consumers have trusted in and have the power to change as tastes changes.   Mc Donald’s Offers Valued pricing as its products are much cheaper price as compared to its competitor’s i.e. KFC, Burger King, Subway etc. McDonald’s is viewed generally as a fast food restaurant with low price that they offer. They have â€Å"value meals† for being inexpensive in price provided the amount of the servings and drinks. McDonalds communicates a psychosomatic value to consumers. Competition is tough that’s they have done a great job differentiating from other challenging brands letting them position McDonalds as a Pioneer in fast food Industry. It uses bundling strategy as well by serving combo packs to raise market share in arrangement with competitive pricing. Publicity, branding, promotion, packaging and Advertising are key significant regarding to the marketing tools which are used to create products and services more attractive which causes to increase sales and profits. The Happy Meals are also a fine product strategy that targets kids by providing French fries and chicken nuggets with small toys. They have also â€Å"Play zone† where kids are welcome to place and hang out with other kids with under the supervision of their parents. Toyota Co. Ltd. was established in 1937. In the 1960s and 70s the company stretched speedily, exporting large records of cars to markets. It has assembly plants and distributors in many countries, now it owns subsidiaries that manufacture cars and parts, steel, trucks, synthetic resins, and equipments for numerous industries. Honda and Toyota are prime competitors in the automobile

Interior Design Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interior Design Program - Essay Example That is what people want; to adjust with environment. Adjustment takes place in two basic steps: one is judgment where one tries to inspect the level of satisfaction by comparison and another is selection which comes into mind if first one directs to do so. Fashionable clothes, jewelries, rich food etc are common example of this. But what about shelter All these luxurious wants go to slum if you don't have place to take deep breath. After daily hard work when we return home, we look for peace, relaxation and happiness. It's a place which refreshes our mind and gives us energy to face daily problems. So home also needs designing and proper arrangements with all facilities within that in order to bring ease and comfort in our life. This work can be beautifully done with help of interior designer. Nowadays Interior designer has more responsibilities, as everybody has different needs and level of satisfaction; and he needs to satisfy customers' thinking after maintaining his own constrai nts (budget, profit, house area etc...). Design is a term related to creativity. Interior design is a process to improve human interaction with the living environment. An interior designer is a qualified person who works on interior spaces to improve its quality and with a vision to enhance the lifestyle of human being, making it healthier and safer (Znoy, Jason A, 2004). It's not about profession and revenues; but the art reflects to his personal life too as society is not a group of families rather individuals! One dominating factor comes and that is financial effort. One designer will do the work for mankind but a large class of people is not in a position to adopt it. Here comes the challenge. What's that contribution where all are not getting the chance to feel pleasure So, design must be flexible and easily acceptable. Nowadays People misunderstand with the meaning of renovation. Many historical structures are being demolished and replaced by modern efficient high-rise buildings. Renovation is part of designing, but doesn't mean removing ancient things. Destruction is not the ultimate way to resolve problem. A doctor never hurts patient but fights against his diseases. Removing these structures, means rubbing out all the histories associated with them. So solution to this conflict between new needs and old culture is restoring and recycling, which bring to sustainability. Renovation needs new resources to replace old ones, but available resource cannot meet wants. In order to get a green country we have to give our hands together forgetting about me but not us. We should remember that child is a father of man. Future is unpredictable, but not impossible to visualize. Doing is believing and we have to believe in what we are doing. As Designing combines all different perspectives to bring out an innovation, teaching interior design and spreading knowledge is very important. Today's challenges are inspiration for designer to come up with solutions that can help the world. Conclusion It's the time now to think higher and dream bigger. We are those drops of rain which can flood the whole world. Interior design gives us the awareness of what is happening in the real life. The only thing that is

An Exploration of womens role in the construction industry Essay

An Exploration of womens role in the construction industry - Essay Example typically one of the most male dominated areas of the labour market, with women working in the industry making up only 10 percent of the UK construction workforce; in the general population, this workforce amounts to about 45 percent. The importance of the female worker will be noted, as ideas aimed at bringing women into construction work are examined. There is more awareness in the general population that women are an asset to professions such as architecture, and the construction organisation needs to address how to recruit women into the industry, and retain them within the workforce for as long as possible. An examination of how women are recruited and retained throughout the labour market, and comparison with the construction industry, may provide some answers. The construction industry is one of the most important industry sectors in terms of economic growth and employment. This sector is also crucial in producing goods and investment opportunities, with around 58 percent of the EU’s production depending directly or indirectly, upon the construction industry. However, the sector’s performance in the spheres of research and innovation is poor, with less than one percent of its turnover being returned for use in research and development funding. Some research considering the position of women within science and engineering has been done, but very little is known about the role of women within construction research, and the factors which hinder the equal participation of men and women within the industry. There appears to be a lack of awareness, or acknowledgement within the profession of issues that specifically relate to women within the workforce, and towards female architects in particular. Women’s accomplishments in the architectural field are not well-known, and are also not well publicized through university programmes, awards, or other promotional materials and events. Women entering the architectural practice after completing their degree