Far from the madding crowd Essay

1. Chronicle the relationship between Bathsheba Everdene and one of the three men (Oak, Boldwood or Troy) in her life. Who was the most to blame for the difficulties encountered in the course of their relationship? (One or both? ) I will begin by giving an account on the relationship between Bathsheba Everdene and Gabriel Oak. After completing this I will come to a conclusion on who was most to blame for the difficulties encountered in the course of their relationship. When Farmer Oak and Bathsheba first encounter in the book, Oak sees a carriage with Bathsheba sitting on top, the carriage is full with furniture. This lady interests Oak and as the carriage is about to leave he â€Å"followed the vehicle to the turnpike gate some way beyond the bottom of the hill, where the object of his contemplation now halted for the payment of the toll. † It is noticeable that Oak is interested in this woman but the scene unfolds as Bathsheba refuses to pay the turnpike keeper the two pence he would like. â€Å"Let the young woman pass,† is what Gabriel said as he draws near and hands the keeper the money. This meeting introduces the two characters to the reader for the first time, but they do not know that they will both play an important part in each other’s lives. Not long after the meeting, Gabriel sees Bathsheba from a â€Å"birds eye view†, this is when he realises that he feels something towards Bathsheba. â€Å"Having for some time known the want of a satisfactory form to fill an increasing void within him, his position moreover affording the widest scope for his fancy, he painted her a beauty. † This is the moment when Oak sees Bathsheba riding a horse on her back in a way she would not have if she knew she were being watched. Bathsheba does not know that Oak is watching. This is when Oak knows that he is in love with her. As she rides back he approaches her and brings up the fact he saw her earlier, this makes her blush as she apprehended that he had seen her. Oak has became so in love with her that he would wait for her to come past the hedge every day, he â€Å"had reached a peak of existence he never could have anticipated a short time before. † Oak chooses to marry Bathsheba but he is mislead by Bathsheba’s aunt told him that she has many sweethearts already. Bathsheba finds him to tell him that the statement was not true. This leads him to think that she wants to marry him and tells her that his is doing well in life and that Bathsheba may have her own piano. â€Å"Would hate to be thought men’s property in that way,† is Bathsheba’s reply, meaning she likes the idea of marriage but does not like the outcome of all the responsibility afterwards. Also Bathsheba is not totally stunned by Gabriel’s property and is not impressed by the idea of having a â€Å"little piano. † Later on in the book, after Oak hears that Boldwood has proposed to Bathsheba she asks Oak to deny all rumours about her getting married but Oak refuses. He goes on to say he will give her his point of view about her actions. Oak re-approaches her and she decides to take serious measures. â€Å"I cannot allow any man to – to criticize my private conduct! † â€Å"Nor will I for a minute. So you’ll please leave the farm at the end of the week! † As soon as Bathsheba dismisses Oak she once again needs him as the sheep are in trouble and will die unless Oak can help them. Bathsheba knows the sheep are at stake so even though she was reluctant to call back Oak at first she does so. At first he does not want to come back as Bathsheba was impolite in the way she asked for him to stay, but in the end he does. Gabriel then realises that Bathsheba may need him more than he thought, as she does not no how to run a farm properly, this gives Gabriel the thought that he may be able to have a relationship with her. Gabriel’s chances of a relationship with Bathsheba are ruined when Troy arrives in the book. Oak warns Bathsheba that she should not get involved with him, but she is already in love and does not take any concern to what is being said. Bathsheba later goes off to Bath with Troy where Oak believes she is going to turn down Troy but instead they come back as a married couple. Oak still loves Bathsheba though and shows her his devotion to her one night when a storm is brewing; he helps save the hayricks while Troy and the rest of the village are drunk. After accounting the relationship between Bathsheba and Oak, I will now who was the most to blame for the difficulties encountered in the course of the relationship. I cannot see how Gabriel Oak was the most to blame for the difficulties encountered in the course of all the mens relationships with Bathsheba. I believe that it is a combination of both Boldwood’s and Troy’s. This is because if Boldwood was not so desperate for love he would have realised that the valentines card Bathsheba sent him was simply as a prank, â€Å"What fun it would be to send it to that silly old Boldwood. † Instead Boldwood takes this seriously as he searches for love, he continuously approaches Bathsheba saying that he is in love with her, and that they should get married, â€Å"My life does not belong to me any more, Miss Everdene, but to you. I’ve come to propose marriage to you. † I believe that if Boldwood had accepted the fact that the card was actually only sent as a prank, then he would never have asked Bathsheba to marry him. Therefore some of the difficulties encountered would never have happened. I also believe Troy has a part to blame in the difficulties encountered, as his flirtatious ways and seduction techniques begins to make Bathsheba fall in love with him. Troy only likes Bathsheba as she happens to be a very pretty lady, he would never have treated a women he did not find attractive in this manner. This is shown in the way he speaks to her upon their first encounter â€Å"Thank you for letting me see such a beautiful face! † Before Bathsheba and Troy get married he tells Bathsheba how he has seen a women far more beautiful than her, this is only an attempt to make sure he marries her. Again if Troys trickery and flirtatious ways were not to have happened some of the difficulties would never have happened. I cannot see how Gabriel was to blame for any of the difficulties, as when Bathsheba was with either Boldwood or Troy he simple let whatever to carry on, he did not get in the way. This is because he thought that aslong as Bathsheba was happy with the man she was with, then that would make him happy, even though he would not be able to be with her. So to conclude I believe that both Troy and Boldwood are to blame for the difficulties encountered in the course of Bathsheba’s relationship with all three of the men.

Hyundai Case Study Essay

Part I Overview 1. Time Context Mr. Muhammad Soeparno was appointed by thegovernment of Indonesia to succeed Mr. Lumenta as President Director of GarudaIndonesia Airways on January 6, 1988. He had to announce his decision in frontof his head quarter’s employees during the monthly flag raising ceremony heldon the 17th of each month. Thus, the problem has to be solved on the 17thJanuary, 11 days after his inauguration. 2. Viewpoint From the first place, the problem was aroused fromthe new President Director of the company. And the person who has the abilityand authority to solve the problem was Mr. Muhammad Soeparno. 3. Major Policy Statement Garuda Indonesia Airways was an airline company. Itwas the first airline company in Indonesia and was reported as the biggest inthe Southern Hemisphere. And since it was owned by the government of Indonesia,its basic goal is to support the success of the development of airtransportation and tourism of the country. 4. Background of the Case Garuda Indonesia Airways was able to operate infull swing March 1, 1950 since the historical time an aircraft bearing theIndonesian flag crossed the skies carrying the name of Indonesian Airway. Itsflight network continued to expand encompassing all of Indonesia, Singapore,Bangkok, manila and was able to establish routes reaching Europe and Tokyo. Garuda continued to grow and gradually beganreplacing their propellered aircraft with full jets. In 1960’s, Garuda had beenthe only airline operating the domestic routes. However, such monopoly positionhad failed to help the company to grow because the Indonesian economy had beendeteriorating during that decade. In 1966, the New Order Government took over Garuda(Soekarno) as it was going through difficult times and was unable to contributetowards national development. The result was a sustained period of high growthin the economy. The oil boom in the early 1970’s generated a highereconomic growth for Indonesia and for this in turn sustained passengers growthfor Garuda. In 1979, the improvement works are done on runways in majorairports (Supono). And by this time, Garuda experienced another breakdownbecause of its poor services and coincidence of almost simultaneous delivery ofairbuses and a decline to the number of passengers. And these problems wereresolved partly on 1984 (Lumenta). 5. Environment Analysis A. SWOT Analysis Strengths  · Garuda Indonesiamonopolizes the use of jets  · It wasproclaimed as the biggest airline in the Southern Hemisphere  · It has twosubsidiary companies, one providing airline catering in the three majorairports in Indonesia and the other running a chain of resort hotels.  · Garuda wasconsidered that has much below rates that offered by Asia’s more popularairlines like Singapore, Thai International, Japan or Cathay Pacific. Weaknesses  · Systems in allaspects: sales, preparation, flight, supervisory  · The risk ofhaving the magnitude of the debt servicing  · Inefficiency ofits international operations  · The company’sorganization is still unsteady that makes the organizational behaviorincompetent in supporting the company Opportunities  · Political willof the government in tourism  · The still-abundant-availableseat capacity  · The economicgrowth of Indonesia Threats  · The moreincreasing competition  · The uncertaineconomic situation  · The bureaucracywhich still caused problems in managing company professionalism B. CompetitorAnalysis The directcompetitors of Garuda are Singapore, Thai International, Japan and CathayPacific Airlines. These airlines are more popular than Garuda and offer alittle higher cost than Garuda. They render services better. 6. Present Company Departmental Plans A. Product Planningand Development- expansion of flight network and improvement works on airportsand runways B. Market Planning-it serves for all passengers C. FinancialPlanning- no definite financial planning presented D. ProductionPlanning- it acquires new equipments and aircrafts by buying E. ManpowerPlanning- good performance of the staff F. Organizationalplanning- good implementation of strategies Part II Problem Resolution 1. Background of the Problem It was in 1981 that Garuda proclaimed as thebiggest airline in the Southern Hemisphere and has reported a net loss of U.S.$ 46 million for the year ended December 1983 leaving Mr. R.A.J. Lumenta, thenew President of Garuda, debts amounting to U.S. $ 1.3 billion at 12% interestper annum. Mr. Lumenta adopted a strategic thinking in making plans to turn thecompany’s situation around including Garuda’s lack of competitiveness inservice, visibility and distribution. And so, he almost did, and then he was replacedby Mr. Mohammad Soeparno. 2. Statement of the Problem How would Mr. Mohammad Soeparno maintain Mr.Lumenta’s eager in resolving the company’s problem which would enhance thecompany’s ability to deal with the challenges it may face during his term andbeyond? 3. Statement of Objectives The company, after addressing the root problemshould achieve and expect the following objectives: a. To improveGaruda Indonesia’s internal control especially in policy of setting a newmanagement team of the company. b. To develop thecompany’s plans in addressing the maintenance stability of the company. c. To be moreresponsive to the market demands and to be adept to adapting those changes. d. To keep ahead ofthe competition intoday’s age of modern air travel. 4. Areas of Consideration The areas of consideration in solving the probleminclude the history of the company’s management and their standing under eachmanagement, the outside environment of the company and their competitors. 5. Alternative Courses of Action A. Mr. Mohammad Soeparnoshould continue the policies what Mr. R.A.J. Lumenta has contributed as aresponse to the increasing uncertainties of the company. B. Mr. MohammadSoeparno should formulate a new set of policies for the company to attest hisworth as the new president of the company. C. Mr. MohammadSoeparno should decline from the position. 6. Analysis of the Alternatives A. Continuation ofthe Policies Advantages  · There is a less possibilityof risk because the policies are proven to be effective.  · Mr. Soeparnowould be tested to flexibility since the policies were not his own.  · The policieswere already given the company a good response on the uncertainties in and outof the company. Disadvantages  · The existingpolicies might not be successful to be carried out by Mr. Soeparno.  · There might be agap between his understanding about the policies and the understanding of theperson who originally formulated them. B. Formulation ofNew Policies Advantages  · Mr. Soeparnowould prove that he was worth of the position he was given.  · Formulation ofnew set of policies means that there is a chance of gaining more respect fromthe company organization. Disadvantages  · The new set ofpolicies might not be effective as the old policies the company currently has.  · The company wasnot ready to for new set of policies. C. Declining fromthe Position Advantages  · Mr. Soeparnowould feel less responsibility in the company’s fate.  · Mr. Soeparnowould feel not pressured. Disadvantages  · Mr. Soeparnoshows that he is not competitive and not worthy of the position.  · Mr. Soeparnowould feel disappointment from the organization. 7. Decision Statement After analyzing the alternative courses of actionpresented above, it showed that the best was the first alternative. It isbecause aside from it generates more advantages than the others, it also showsthat the company has already been attached to it and the result was not onlygood but better. The existing policies managed the company to stand again fromits depression. The other two alternatives were also be solutions but they areonly getting the company into risk again. Part III Implementation Program 1. Action Plans A. Long-term ActionPlans a. Garuda’simprovement in implementing its strategy regarding its structure, system, style (leadership), staff andskill. b. Garudahas to keep up with the changes in the internel and external environment. B. Short-termAction Plans a. Sustenance of the policies to maintain theproductivity of the company. b. Improvement ofsome of the policies for more enhancement of the company’s productivity as awhole. 2. Proposed CompanyOperational Plans A. Product Planningand Development- periodically infrastructure improvements for better services B. Market Planning-it serves for all passengers and reach for them perfectly with high hospitality C. FinancialPlanning- sells theunproductive assets D. ProductionPlanning- it acquires new equipments and aircrafts by buying E. ManpowerPlanning- good training system will be conducted regularly for better outcomesfrom customers and organization F. Organizationalplanning- better implementation of the policies and strategies of the company 3. Other Problems and Proposed Solutions Other Problems Proposed Solutions Employee/Staff-Customer Relationship Garuda should have a good training system and have some strength in increasing customer satisfaction. Domestic Airline Competition Indonesia people still look at â€Å"price† as a determinant variable. So the lower price strategy that has been implemented by its competitor, the new comer firm could disturb Garuda market. Garuda could loose its loyal customer. So strategy that must be done by Garuda is by improving its quality service. Securiry Issue Garuda have to respond to the terrorist attacks by improving procedures and aircraft security to help restore travelers’ confidence. Even, it means price, but it is very useful for Garuda’s future. Safety and security is the most important thing that are needed by the passenger. Part1 Overview 1. Time Context The problem has to besolved in the year 1989. 2. Viewpoint Mr. Chung Ju Yung theowner of the Hyundai group has the ability and authority to solve the companyproblem. 3. Major PolicyStatement The Hyundai group featuredas one of the principal engines of the Korean economic miracle in the past twodecades. The Hyundai group makes a wide range of products- ships, bridges,cars, cement, steel and etc. They do not only prosper there in Korea but alsoin Middle East. They even gained praises from New York Times correspondent. 4. Background ofthe Case Company Hyundai Company wasfounded by Chung Ju Yung in 1967 and immediately partnered with the ford motorcompany to produce the Cortina compact car in 1968. Hyundai focused onmanufacturing quality economy cars and began exporting excel to the Unitedstates in 1986. Today Hyundai consistently ranks among the top quality importcars in the U.S. Hyundai group manufacture products such as ships,bridges, buildings, cars, cement, steel, chemicals, oil drilling platforms,microchips, sneakers, pipes, furniture and locomotives. In early 1980’s hedecided to make Hyundai a factor in the electronics industry, focusing at firston production of semiconductors. Later Hyundai become the largest automobilemanufacturer in Korea. For Hyundai to grow as an extension of its founder’spersonality it is not surprising that the management style in the organizationhad always been authoritarian. Industry Hyundai group covered all kinds of industry. Itis involved in ship building, construction of bridges, cars, otherinfrastructure, steel, cements, oil drilling platforms and even manufacturingof microchips and became the largest enterprise in South Korea. Management Theprojects and activities of Hyundai is headed by its owner Mr. Chung Ju Yung andmanaged by his surviving son Mr. Chung Mong Ku. It is also said that part ofthe private enterprises in Korea are open to the government, thus the presidentis also responsible for the management of Korea. 5. Environmental Analysis a. SWOT analysis Strengths 1. Strong Domestic Market 2. Good Quality of products 3. Cheap labor cost Weaknesses 1. Poor management style 2. Making poor investment decision Opportunities Middle East warm welcome to Hyundai gives them a good start in international business. The Government sees Hyundai with a good impression. Threats 1. The competitors of Hyundai have grown rapidly forthe past year. b. Competitor analysis The competitors ofHyundai Group are Samsung electronics and Lucky Gold star which had made asuccessful transition to large scale chip production. Hyundai Electronicsperformance had been a disappointment, losing $11.9 million. Rivals have largeelectronics subsidiaries. Another competitor of Hyundai is the Daewoo. Daewoois the supplier of the successful leading edge computer. 6. Present CompanyDepartmental Plans a. ProductPlanning and Development The Hyundai groupplanning to put their products to the construction of buildings. To Korea or toother countries. b. MarketPlanning The plan is designatedto domestic and foreign country. c. FinancialPlanning The financial is comefrom in the land of Chung Ju Yung. And from the help of the other business manwho helped him. d. ProductionPlanning Hyundai company doesnot only focus on production of cars but also other projects such as governmentconstruction of bridges, cars, ship building, other infrastructure, steel,cement, oil drilling platforms and even manufacturing of microchips. e. ManpowerPlanning Hyundai company hasseparate workers for car manufacturing for road construction. f. Organizational Planning Hyundai company isowned by Mr. Chung Ju Yung and managed by his surviving son Mr. Chung Mong Ku. Part2 ProblemResolution 1. Background of the problem The problem of HyundaiGroup was deemed to start in 1987 when it has experienced a loss of 11.9million dollars. They have invested in Silicon Valley project which was seen tobe a loss even at its proposition. Hyundai tried to jump to the productionsophisticated one-megabit dynamic random access memory chips instead ofpursuing the market for 256K. They are said to be not fully committed to hightechnology. They only see semiconductors just as an accessory but not assomething to be done because competitors are doing it. 2. Statement of the Problem Whatchanges in management style should the top management adopt to satisfy theneeds of the workers on strike and so as to break the series of uprising?3. Statement of Objectives Hyundai Group of companies would like to: Ø Ceasethe uprising of the employees of Hyundai Group. Ø Toregain the trust of the public to the firm especially to its chairman Mr.Chung. Ø Toget back the shattered hope of peace and unity among all nations that wascaused by Hyundai’s unpeaceful solution to the conflict. 4. Areas of Consideration  · In Korea, the private sector played animportant role in Korea’s economic development. They are interdependent with anumber of other forces such as government, economic and non economic factors. -Fulleighty percent of Korea’s economy is open and heavily dependent on theinternational economy. 5. Alternative Courses of Action Ø TheHyundai top management should amend their present â€Å"authoritarian† style of leadershipto another style which is more employee-friendly. Ø Hyundaishould just give the employees the increase in wage that they are demanding. Ø Fullydetach Hyundai from the government influences. 6. Analysis of Alternatives 1. The Hyundai topmanagement should amend their present â€Å"authoritarian† style of leadership toanother style which is more employee-friendly. Advantages:  · This would improve the relationship ofthe employee and the management subsequently. The daunting ways of the chairmanto the people will be eliminated.  · The trust and the confidence of theemployee of Hyundai would be recaptured by the management. Disadvantages:  · This would require great adjustment tothe part of employees also because almost all of the companies in Korea followauthoritarian type of management. 2. Hyundai should justgive the employees the increase in wage that they are demanding. Advantages:  · This alternative would terminate theuprising of the employees abruptly.  · This would create a better image for thecompany immediately. Disadvantages:  · The company is not sure if they cansuffice the financial needs if they would provide the increase in wages.  · This act will only tolerate theemployees. They will think that with a strike, they can easily get what theywant from the management. 3. Fully detach Hyundaifrom the government influences. Advantages:  · Hyundai will be free in deciding fortheir own.  · No one will hinder decision of themanagement Disadvantages:  · Hyundai will lose financial support  · Hyundai will lose much of its projects Decision statement Thebest alternative is alternative # 1.The Hyundai top management should amendtheir present â€Å"authoritarian† style of leadership to another style which ismore employee-friendly. In this way, the company would not require to spendmuch money but it would change its imageto the employees. Most of the time, the management forgot the needs andcapacity of the people. Now if they will try another style of leadership whichunderstands their employees. The employees would feel that they are loved andrespected by their management so theywill love and appreciate the work that they are doing. Part3 IMPLEMENTATIONPROGRAM 1. Action Plan †¢ Long-term Action Plans Tochange the management style of Hyundai so as to change its image to the publicand its employees. This way Hyundai will be able to regain its reputation tothe market. †¢ Short-Term Action Plans To stopthe uprising temporarily by the help of the government. The deployment of powerby the government will create an effect that would stop the uprising. 2.Proposed Company Operation Plans Product Planning and Development- Studies show that it’s muchbetter if Hyundai would focus on a certain venture and develop it. Market Planning They established good name in theMiddle East so it is better if they expand to another foreign country andestablish a new market there. Financial Planning Since they experience loss frompast, it is advisable for Hyundai to loan in banks. Production Planning Proper training should be givento the people in production department to come up with good quality products.  · Manpower Planning The management should know how toreinforce their employees. One of which is giving incentives and benefits.  · Organizational Planning Previousmanagement would still be the future component of organization. Other Problems and Proposed Solution Other Problem Solution  · The diversified needs and wants of employees Conduct survey or questionnaires regarding the employees wants and complaints about the management.

Shane as a Hero

â€Å"He was the man who rode into our little valley out of the heart of the great glowing West and when his work was done rode back whence he had come and he was Shane. † He was a murderer, that’s what he thought. Thus, he left. But the community found another definition for his mysterious departure. He was now known and remembered as a hero of the West. In the novel written by Jack Schaefer, there are several actions and attitudes that develop the prime example to the important characters in the book, and depict them as either a hero or a villain.Through his accomplishments and failures, Shane, the character of whom the book speaks, is represented as a hero. Shane embodies the essence of a hero on the first day he arrives to that small valley, with his luxurious worn-out coat, matching pants, and a black hat; clothes that no homesteader that resided there and Bob, the main character and also the narrator, have seen before. Shane demonstrates humility, a trait that man y heroes, either they’re super or not, possess; Shane is also down-to-earth and humble, and is aware of the fact that one does not have the right to take another man's life, and when one does so, that marks him for life.Above all the qualities that Shane has, the one that seems the most hero-attributed is his selfless acts of protecting someone else; in this case the homesteaders and their homes. Shane expresses the qualities of a hero, both physically and mentally, that is, he is both strong and loyal. Shane has many traits that illustrate that of a hero; such as how he portrays himself, his ability to be humble, and his need to protect others. Heroes aren’t considered as such just because of their strength, but also because of their aptitudes and intellectual capacities.Shane is admired for his good judgment when solving problems. He doesn’t give up when he attacks Chris and Morgan as well as the stump in the farm which are obstacles in his apparently smooth t rail. Shane audaciously defeats Wilson to defend Joe and the other homesteaders, thus demonstrating he is a hero by fighting with the gunman to support Joe for his right to his land. Shane only challenges the rival because he unconsciously protects others from danger.The whole idea of Shane facing Wilson was to prevent Starrett’s family from handing their farm over to Fletcher, as well as ending that nightmare within the other homesteaders’ homes. He alone decided to face and vanquish ‘evil’, as he shoots down both Wilson and Fletcher. After this occurrence, however, he feels the need of disappearing into thin air, as if he’s implying that his work is done. After the incident in the bar, â€Å"The folks in town and the kids at school like to talk about him. † Shane had become a legend amongst the residents of the Valley.

Analysis on efficiency of Chinese commercial banks Research Proposal

Analysis on efficiency of Chinese commercial banks - Research Proposal Example A series of banking reforms have been implemented in China since 1979. These reforms aim to create a safe and sound system of banking within the country (Dong, 2009). The structural and institutional arrangements characterizing the banking sector in China as well as the banking reforms implemented in China in the past 20 years will provide the background and foundation of the study(Dong, 2009). The researcher felt that for efficiency to be discussed in-depth, it may be necessary for historical antecedents and facilitators of the same to be analyzed in order to provide the reader with a wealth of information. In the last 40 years, financial sectors across the globe have witnessed substantial developments(Dong, 2009). The change in the operating environment of banks has had significant implications for the business activities of banks as well as their economic role. Globalization, deregulation, technological progress and financial innovation to mention but a few have all gradually reduced the cost of processing and transmitting information which have been major forces impacting the performance of the international banking sector. Since the embarking of the open door policy in 1979, the Chinese banking sector has witnessed gradual yet notable reforms(Dong, 2009). A key objective of the said reforms implemented by the government was to build a competitive, effective and stable banking system to improve reliability and efficiency. The reforms aimed at moving the country from a planned economy supplemented with market elements to a socialist market economy. The Chinese government deregulated and liberalized operations in the Chinese banking sector as part of national reforms in the economy. The program applied includes among others the establishment of a double-tier system, separation of the lending policy form commercial

Discussion of the tax gap and what IRS is doing to close it Term Paper

Discussion of the tax gap and what IRS is doing to close it - Term Paper Example The latest figures of tax gap estimate signify the initial complete renewal of the report during five years, and it demonstrates the country’s observance level is basically unaffected from the previous evaluation including tax year 2001. The tax gap marker is a useful guide to the level of tax observance as well as to the continuing sources of lesser observance; however, it is not a satisfactory guide to â€Å"year-to-year alterations within IRS plans or to year-to-year returns on IRS service and enforcement schemes† (Ward et al, 2013). The voluntary observance level (percentage of overall tax revenues paid promptly) for the tax year 2006 was around 83.2 percent. The voluntary observance level for 2006 was statistically unaffected from the most recent earlier estimate of 83.7 percent tax year 2001. On a comparative basis, the tax gap is mainly in proportion to the increase in overall tax liabilities. Besides, a little increase in the tax gap estimate is accredited to improved statistics as well as better evaluation techniques. For instance, IRS formulated the â€Å"econometric model† (Kahn & Polsky, 2013) for estimating the tax gap attributable to small businesses which was then used for newer functional information. In addition, large business tax gap for the year 2006 was based on enhanced statistical techniques and modernized information. Moreover, the data linked with individual income tax payers carries on to progress supported by better evaluation methods as well as newer statistics. The tax gap includes three main factors: â€Å"non-filing, underreporting and underpayment† (Kahn & Polsky, 2013). As in the year 2001, the underreporting of earnings was the major cause of the tax gap during 2006. Under-reporting in more or less all taxpayer categories summed up to around 380 billion USD of the gross tax gap during 2006, increased from 290 billion USD during 2001. Tax non-filing summed up for around 30 billion USD during 2006, increased from 29

Social Science Research Issue of Identity Essay

Social Science Research Issue of Identity - Essay Example The process of coming out with an apt definition of social identity is much tougher than the one involved in specifying the aforesaid identities, based on biology and physiology. The reason for this is, it is a highly intricate mental process of an individual that makes them develop a specific social identity – it is a process starting from as early as the childhood. Here, many external social factors and influences also do come into play. To elaborate more, the identity that a person develops as belonging to a particular culture or religion and gender is attributable to exposure to the concerned influences, almost right from the time of birth. On the other hand, identities like those that speak of political affiliations, feeling of being a part of some organization, etc, are developed in the later stages of life. Generally, the identity obtained during the younger days, primarily due to family influence, is retained by an individual throughout their lifetime. Here, it needs t o be added that, various experiences an individual faces in life, both pleasant and also otherwise, could make them adopt new identities.Now, the focus would shift to the vital aspect of the manner in which social science researchers are necessitated to design the questions pertaining to their study, based on the identity of the group or people to be interviewed. Though the topic of research could be the same, yet, it is of paramount relevance that the questions and also the pattern in which they are asked need to be modified.

Communication in the Corporate World Research Paper

Communication in the Corporate World - Research Paper Example The survey found that 96% of the executives reported that today's employees must have good communication skills to get ahead (Ann Fisher, Fortune Magazine, December7, 1998. pp. 244) New studies show there is a high correlation between communication skills and income. Even among college graduates, those with higher scores in literacy (use of printed and written information) earn 47 percent more than lower scoring graduates earn (Paul T. Decker et al., Education and the Economy: An Indicators Report (Washington, DC Government Printing Office. 1997, pp. 131) "The ability to write and communicate your thoughts clearly in a presentation is the most essential skill you need to achieve any success in business. If you have a great mind and great thoughts, but you are not able to express them, it's very hard to be successful." The Wall Street Journal comments additional support to the importance of communication, "To stand out from the competition, you must demonstrate the unwritten requirements that are now most in demand: leadership and communication skills." (D. Perry. "Do You Have the Skills Most in Demand Today" Career Journal from 'The Wall Street Journal', 2002) Peter Drucker, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and one of the most respected management consultants, educators, speakers, and writers of our time, made those observations about communication: "Colleges teach the one thing that is perhaps most valuable for the future employee to know. But very few students bother to learn it. This one basic skill is the ability to organize and express ideas in writing and speaking. As soon as you move one step from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to reach others through the spoken or the written word. And the further away your job is from manual work, the larger the organization of which you are an employee, the more important it will be that you know how to convey your thoughts in writing or speaking. In the very large organization..the ability to express one's own is perhaps the most important of all the skills a person can possess" Peter Drucker They are just a few quotes and researches. The list is long. From this point onwards, it should be clear that good communication skill is one of the most important reasons for achieving success in your professional life. Whatever position you have in business, your performances will be judged largely by your ability to communicate. If you perform (and communicate) well, you are likely to be rewarded with advancement. And the higher you advance, the more you will need your communication ability. Communication enables human beings to work together. In a business, it is the vehicle through which management performs its basic functions. Managers direct through communication, coordinate through communication, and staff, plan, and control through communica

How Secure is Your Data, Information and Information Systems Assignment

How Secure is Your Data, Information and Information Systems Technology - Assignment Example As the discussion this will ensure that in cases where virus wipe out important information, there can still be a source of reference. In the author's own organization, he believes upgrading our antivirus system as exists in your organization will do us a lot of good. The issue of insider threat is something that we both touched on as part of the trends in security issues. The reporter however did not mention the case of employee negligence. He believes that from the elaboration that you give about employee negligence and how it applies to your organization, having much emphasis on employee training will be a solution to the problem that you currently face. This is because through training, most of the cases of negligence can be dealt with as employees will gain the needed experience to handle all forms of security system cases. In the reporter's own organization, he is going to take a lot of inspiration from your organization on the use of specific employee based rules to ensure tha t all forms of insider breaches are dealt away with.

Rising Greenhouse Gas Emissions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Rising Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Essay Example According to World Health Organization (2013), environmental risks also lead to climatic change, destruction of ozone layer, change in water system, destruction of natural resources and alternation of food producing system. This directly affect human being in form of drought and malnutrition due to climatic changes and water borne diseases due to flooding and lack of water. Sustainability is a major strategy to increase competitive advantage of business organization. Most companies are for sustainable business (D’Amato, Henderson and Florence 2009, P.1). This can be attained when an organization is concerned with the well being of all its stakeholders such as employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers and community. Governments are supporting organizations and other stakeholders in their effort to reduce and manage greenhouse gases emissions. GHG emission is a complex global risk that have both direct and indirect affects different stakeholders such as international organiz ations, businesses, education institutions, governments, non-governmental organizations and general public (World business solutions for sustainable development,   n.d.).Increase in GHG emission has been accompanied by decrease in absorption of the gases by sinks due to decreasing forest covers especially in developed countries (Creyts at el, 2007, P. xiii). There is need to mitigate GHG emission to reduce damages (Chichilnisky and Heal, 1993 P. 65). GHG emission reduction to sustainable can be achieved. through commitment of different goverments as indicated by Meinshausen at el (2009, P. 1158), where about 100 countries has committed to reduce emissions by the year 2050. GHG emission can through capital investment, changes in development patterns, investment in energy saving technology and innovation in new technology. These could reduce Greenhouse gases emission as well as management cost. USA is a major contributor of GHG emission with is annual emission expected to rise from 7.2 gigatons by 2005 to 9.2 gigatons by 2030 due to economic expansion, infrastructure development, use of non renewable energy (Creyts at el, 2007, P. xiii). GHG emissions of China are expected to rise until 2030 compared to USA due its economic growth but government regulation has mitigated these emissions (Leggett, 2011). These arguments have also been supported by International Transport Forum (2010), which indicates that developed countries like Germany, France and Japan has achieved GHG emission reduction despite their economic growth from 2008. UK has recorded decrease in Co2 emission since 1990 to 2012

Criminal Evidence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 5

Criminal Evidence - Essay Example When prosecuting a case at trial, you must be ready to defend it as admissible since according to the law the rule of co-conspirator exists, so long as there is independent evidence showing that the conspiracy exist and the two conspirators was present. In child sexual abuse case, some hearsay exceptions are relevant during the trial; courts normally but into consideration excited utterances said by an individual immediately after the bad experience as reliable hearsay. Individual statements or actions made to medical practitioners for reasons of treatment are allowed as reliable hearsay. It is believed that children seeking for treatment see the doctors hence they tell them the truth about their problem (Utah bar journal, 2002). Child sexual abuse cases sometimes take years to go for trial and by then the child might have forgotten or she might no longer remember clearly the details of what happened since she might have made tremendous progress in recovering from the trauma and may be she no longer wants to be reminded. Sometimes even parents may not want the children to be reminded about the bad situation they encountered

Gender-role in Advertisement Essay Example for Free

Gender-role in Advertisement Essay This paper explores gender-role in modern advertisement. Sample modern-day advertisements will be analyzed in relation to gender-roles. Gender-role refers to a person’s way of actions and thinking that is identified as either related to male or female characteristics (Haig, 2004). It is a set of expectations on how females or males should think, behave, and feel. It is in the adolescence stage that male and females start to define their roles while their gender is intensified by conformity to transitional gender-roles in during puberty (Hill Lynch, 1983), which indirectly signals that they begin to act in ways that resemble the stereotypic female or male of their culture (Huston Alvarez, 1990). In addition to the demands of work and changing trends in the society and the increased number of employed mothers in the mid twentieth century, adolescents exposure to the media is considered to have a possible impact on their attitudes and perceptions about gender relationships, identity formation, and gender-roles (ODonnell ODonnell, 1978; Durkin, 1986; Lovdal, 1989; Richards Duckett, 1994; Dietz, 1998; Hovland et al. , 2005). The effects of advertisements to the perpetuation of gender-role stereotypes have received considerable importance in research and it has been debated whether it stereotyped advertisements have long term or short term impact on people’ own gender-role and whether advertisements with stereotypic portrayals gain more profit or does not have significant influence in people’s buying behavior at all. Effects of media in gender-role There are many factors that that affect gender-role development and the media is considered to be one (Golombok Fivush, 1994; Durkin, 1995). Dietz (1998) asserted that the media, in addition to environmental or social factors, affects people’s perception of gender-roles. The impact of advertising on audiences is often explained by social learning theory or by theories that are based on it. The argument is that, as people are repeatedly exposed to advertising images, they tend to internalize the advertisers views of themselves and others. The more ubiquitous the images are in advertisements, and the more frequently they see the advertisements, the deeper the audience identifies with the images. In addition to social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), framing research or frame analysis, introduced Goffman (1974), was used to obtain empirical evidence regarding the effects of media portrayals in people’s thoughts and consciousness. Framing assumes that the media frame reality is used to explain how people perceive and think about gender-roles because of the things they see and experience. Framing is used as a remedy sort in selecting a particular aspect of a perceived reality in order to emphasize, convey, or interpret something. However, framing may directly or indirectly influence people’s judgments on recognizing ideas presented in advertisements (Entman, 1993). Another issue on the effects of media is identified by Mead (1962) in his theory, arguing that individuals’ characterizations in the media affect children’s attitudes, relationships with other people, and behavior expectations. When traditional feminine or masculine roles become distinctive and children starts to identify with a particular gender-role, they are likely to expect specific characteristics and behaviors from females and males. Gender-role stereotyping negatively affects young individuals’ attitudes towards males and females since traditional portrayals of women are usually portrayed as dependent, obtaining approval from family and males, weak, victims, supportive of mens roles, sex objects, and adornment rather than individuals (Hall, Iijima Crum 1994; Artz, Munger, Purdy, 1999). As a result, these negative or substandard characteristics of women adversely affect children’s perception that women may ever find it difficult to attain gender equality and function as effective as men do in the society. This female portrayal restricts young females to think of achieving beyond their potential because many attributes, activities and traits are being designated as inappropriate for their gender (Dietz, 1998). Traditional stereotyped gender-role portrayals in advertisements Most advertisements portrayed both males and females stereotypically. Since 1950s, significant changes in gender-roles have occurred as the division of labor has become less distinctive and the entry of increased number of women into the workforce where professional positions, which were used to be exclusively for men, have opened opportunity for them to progress. Images of men and women in advertising in the early times have been heavily stereotyped. Men were depicted as independent, active, assertive, work-oriented while women were portrayed as dependent, passive, and domestic. Advertisements in the 1970s to 1980s continued to portray gender-stereotyping due to the difficulty of presenting people without specific gender-roles, especially when advertising specific products of particular gender. The strategies of advertisers in attracting people’s intentions and behaviors were more likely to favor gender-stereotyped representation since the public was more familiar and comfortable with gender-stereotyped advertisements (Morrison Shaffer, 2003). Gender portrayals in the context of advertisements were found to be predominantly stereotypic with dominant males and nurturing females in the mass media, music, film, as well as the print media. Although changes in the society and culture have been apparent, advertisements still rely upon women’s roles as subordinate. Women’s subordination was a useful tool in selling a wide variety of products such as alcohol, medicine, cigarettes, perfume, and vehicles. Constant exposure to derogatory portrayals of females in advertisements may result to socially induced depression and lowered levels of aspirations in achieving ones goals. Women portrayal as subordinates has been consistently practiced and presented in advertising until today although some changes and reversions have been observed (Mclaughlin Goulet, 1999). Advertisements usually portray men as being strong who are expected to have jobs that require much physical strength. They are portrayed as being the authority, dominant, having higher intelligence, becoming public figures, belonging to upper-middle class, being able to take medicine, law or business courses, aggressive, and sometimes gentlemen or bad guys. At home, men are portrayed to use car wax, auto parts, carpentry tools, motor oil, and lawn mowers. Women are rarely depicted as professionals in advertisements (Dietz, 1998). When women in advertisements are presented as professionals or experts in the products they advertise, they are often backed up by male figure or an authoritative male voice-over to strengthen the efficiency of convincing the audience since males were viewed as the authority (Lovdal, 1989). In traditional male magazines (e. g. , Esquire and Field Stream), gender-role stereotyped advertisements that portrayed men with masculine or manly activities have not decreased as much as the traditional female and general interest magazines. Although there have been some trends toward less stereotypic portrayals of masculine images in some print media advertisements, the traditional stereotype of the male gender still provides cultural representation (Furnham Thomson, 1999) Women are stereotypicly depicted in relation to beauty, physical attraction, family, domestic responsibilities, parenting, occupations such as teacher, waitress, masseur, bride, actress, secretary, vendor, household cleaners, maid, model, guest relations officer, and the like, as well as negative representation like evil, witch, possessions of men, passive, deferent, object for men’s pleasure. At home, women are portrayed to take care of every member, do all the chores, and maintaining relationships. They are often portrayed as supportive wives, mothers, sex objects, dependents, lack exploration, skills, knowledge, credibility, self-expression, and sense of mastery. Advertisers market products in magazines, like in television, using young, professional women as a product of beauty techniques and methods in order to attract and keep handsome, lucrative, and sophisticated men. Comic strips and children’s books also continued to adopt and support traditional portrayals of women in the society. For instance, illustrations show traditional female activities or a situation in which there is a dutiful wife in the bathroom or kitchen wearing an apron to model cleaning products, kitchen wares and appliances or food (Dietz, 1998; Peirce, 2001).

His work with the senate committee on Indian Affairs Essay Example for Free

His work with the senate committee on Indian Affairs Essay Senator Campbell can be considered as a politician who made the most out of his political assets and political positions so that he can make a difference and contribute especially to his own culture, tradition and heritage. Proof of how he pursued areas focused on his own culture is his efforts and success in becoming the first individual with Indian ancestry and heritage to act as chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee . Senator Campbell was an important politician particularly in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. This particular committee was something that he served in as chairman for several different years. His first years serving as chairman for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee started on 1997 and ended in 2001. Before Campbell took this position, it was held by John McCain. When he left after his 2001 tenure was over, he was succeeded by Daniel Inouye, whom he replaced as chairman for the same committee after Inouyes term was over in 2003. From 2003 to 2005, Senator Campbell resumed his chairmanship of the committee, and when his tenure was over, it was McCain who replaced him. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and Museum Another important contribution that Senator Campbell provided is through his role in the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and Museum. Campbell, who is a former policeman, has always publicly expressed how he is after the safety as well as welfare of the police officers. This is just one of the proofs of Campbells efforts to be able to contribute something to the United States police force. The National Law Enforcement Museum was created in 2000 during President Clintons term so that the public can be informed about the different aspects of police work and police life through the displays and features of the museum. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, on the other hand, is important as well because it honors those who are dead but served gallantly as a police officer, giving individuals a chance to get to know more the police officers serving for the US government and those who already served and died in the name of loyal service to the country and to the people . Both of these aspects are strongly supported by Senator Campbell. Because of his work and contributions to making this happen, it was eventually realized. Campbell served as a sheriffs deputy in Sacramento County. This part of his life attached him intensely to the police officers and to the life of a police officer. He empathized because he experienced things first hand. This empowered Campbell to personally lend a strong helping hand to legislations that can help the police officers and contribute to the development of police officers welfare. Actually, Campbells authorship of the National Law Enforcement Museum Act, which is also known as the Public Law number 106-492, was just one of the legislations that are focused on police officers since there are also the 2003 Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act and the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Act . Laying all of the things he accomplished for everyone to see, the challenge, according to Campbell, was to follow his footsteps and continue the development of the efforts geared towards police officer safety and welfare .

Importance of foreign language

Importance of foreign language 1. Introduction It is known to all that language and culture are inseparable. Language itself makes no sense and has no meaning outside the cultural setting in which it is spoken. They are intricately interwoven with each other. Some people believe that the knowledge of other cultures is as important as proficiency in using their language. In the EFL (English as a foreign language) teaching, great attention should be paid to teaching culture of the target language as well as to teaching linguistic knowledge. Culture introduction should be integrated with language teaching in many aspects and at multiple levels so that learners intercultural communicative skills can be enhanced. Byram (1989) states: as learners learn about language, they learn about culture and as they learn to use a new language, they learn to communicate with other individuals from a new culture. The problem is that the mastery of vocabulary and structures does not necessarily ensure a persons communicative competence. What the students really need is to be taught directly what people say in particular situations in the English culture. The knowledge of culture has a great impact on learners language use and sometimes directly influences the outcome of communication with native speakers. Most language teachers would agree that in order to apply language skills fruitfully and effectively, the knowledge of cultural environment is essential. So it is not difficult to understand why the culture component is so crucial in foreign language teaching. First, successful intercultural communication entails a great deal that is more than language skills, understanding a second language does not ensure understanding the speakers intentions. That is to say, the ability to communicate successfully with native speakers depends not only on language skills but also on comprehension of cultural habits and expectations. Second, another principal reason for the inclusion of culture in the second language curriculum is cross-cultural understanding. International understanding is seen as one of the basic goals of language education. It is equally important to understand the differences among the various subcultures within which people of different races, religions, and political beliefs live together peacefully. Peace and progress in a world of diverse elements no doubt depend upon understanding, tolerance, exchange and cooperation. Foreign language study is one of the core educational components for achieving this widely recognized aim. Whether or not the foreign language learning and teaching are successful counts on how much cultural and linguistic information the students can get. The third reason deals with the students themselves. On one hand, curious students may be extremely interested in the people who speak English, they want to know about these people-what they are like, how they live and ho w they are different from themselves. On the other hand, students knowledge of the basic aspects of target culture tends to be inexplicit and incomprehensive if they have not been provided with systematic knowledge in schools. And language teachers have to admit that many students are not gaining a basic familiarity with the English culture, because even though language and culture go hand in hand in a classroom, some teachers choose to neglect culture and students scarcely pay due attention to it since they do not have to take a test of culture. Overall, foreign language teaching should help students lay a solid foundation of language, grasp good learning techniques, cultivate their cultural awareness so as to meet the needs of social development and economic construction. English as the foremost medium of international communication at present, is called upon to mediate a whole range of cultural, cross-cultural concepts thus make English language teaching a potentially more and more significant role than ever before and English culture teaching is coming or will come to the foreground. 2. Definition of Culture Then what is culture? Duranti defined as something learned, transmitted, passed down from one generation to the next, through human actions, often in the form of face-to-face interaction and, of course, through linguistic communication. According to Sapirs view, culture may be defined as what a society does and thinks. On a general level, anthropologists define culture as the whole way of life of a people or group. In this context, culture includes all the social practices that bond a group of people together and distinguish them from others. It is that fact of human life learned by, people as a result of belonging to some particular group; it is that part of learned behavior shared with others. Not only does this concept include a groups way of thinking, feeling, and acting, but internalized patterns for doing certain things in certain ways. not just the doing of them. Goodenough (1981) summarizes the contents of culture briefly quoted below: The ways in which people have organized their experience of the real world so as to give it structure as a phenomenal world of forms, their percepts and concepts. The ways in which people have organized their experience of their phenomenal world so as to give it structure as a system of cause and effect relationships, that is, the propositions and beliefs by which they explain events and accomplish their purposes. The ways in which people have organized their experience of their past efforts to accomplish recurring purposes into operational procedures for accomplishing these purposes in the future, that is, a set of grammatical principles of action and a series of recipes for accomplishing particular ends. 3. Language and Culture A language is a system of verbal and in many cases, written symbols, with standardized meanings. Language is the outward manifestation of the spirit of people: their language is their spirit, and their spirit is their language; it is difficult to imagine any two things more identical. It enables people to store meanings and experiences and to pass this heritage on to new generations. Through words, we are able to learn about and from the experiences of others. In addition, language enables us to transcend the here and now, preserving the past and imaging the future; to communicate with others and formulate complex plans; to integrate different kinds of experiences; and to develop abstract ideas. However, it is impossible to overestimate the importance of language in the development, elaboration, and transmission of culture. 4. The Relationship between Culture and Language It is generally accepted that language and culture are related to each other. Language is not only for communication between people who have their own cultural norms, but as a mirror to reflect the world and peoples view of the world. Because of the need of international communication for economic technological development among various countries, English is more and more used in different countries and cultures for exchanging information. Culture and language are related to each other, which is strongly advocated by Byram, who has contended that cultural learning and language learning cannot take place independent of each other (Byram, 1994). Culture is a complex concept that includes language. Many theorists have expressed this point of view from various perspectives. For example, Kramsch has made the point that the purpose for learning a foreign language is a way of making cultural statement as well as learning a new way of making communication (Kramsch, 1993) while other theorists have attached great importance to culture for language understanding. For instance, Byram has argued that only when the cultural context is understood can the language rooted in the context be thoroughly comprehensible (Byram 1994).This point has found an echo with Brown: Misunderstandings are likely to occur between members of different cultures; differences are real and we must learn to deal with them in any situation in which two cultures come into contact. Language is an important part of culture as well. Byram has elaborated this idea in one of his books: Cultural studies in foreign language education as language preeminently embodies the values and meanings of a culture, refers to cultural artifacts and signal peoples cultural identity. (Byram, 1989) Other theorists have defined culture in such a way that language is put at the center of an account of a particular culture. Brown has provided another such definition in which he describes language as the most visible and available expression of a particular culture. (Brown, 1987) In sum, culture is related to language and vice versa. Culture would be difficult to be transmitted from place to place and from generation to generation if there were no languages, the principal carrier of values and meanings of a culture. Language would be impossible to be understood without constant reference to the cultural context, which has produced it. It may, therefore, be argued that culture and language cannot be treated exclusive of each other in language teaching program. In other words, it is necessary and more proper to teach both language and culture in an integrated way. It is worthy of noting here that one of the practices of integrating the two is to use the target language as the medium of instruction in culture teaching. Goodenough states the relationship between language and culture in his book Culture and Linguistic. He argued language in a society is one aspect of the societys culture. The relationship between them is the part and the whole. As a component part of culture, the particularities of language show that it is a main tool of learning culture during the process of learning and using (Goodenough, 1981). 5. The Relationship between Language Learning and Culture Just as there is not a single thing in the world without a dual nature, so is language teaching. Language teaching and culture teaching have a dual nature. In order to conduct language teaching well, one must take up the teaching of culture and the teaching of language at the same time. When we learn a foreign language, we do more than learn a linguistic system. We acquire some degree of familiarity with the foreign cultural system. It is now broadly accepted in most parts of the world that learning a foreign language is not simply mastering the grammar, the vocabulary, etc, but more appropriately focuses on learning a means of communication. Communication in real situations is never out of context, and because culture is part of most contexts, communication is rarely culture-free. The same word, if used in different culture, would get different psychological response. When reading the sentence Its morally hard to turn her away as it is a lost dog, most students put a lost dog into literal meaning which totally shows our feeling of disgust and dislike for the dog. But it is not the case in western countries. In the western culture, dogs are regarded as faithful friends and companions. So the actual meaning of the lost dog here means something precious, valuable and favorite is lost. If you know the actual implication of it, your sympathy can be aroused. Its obvious that neglecting the cultural difference results in the misunderstanding. Therefore, it is necessary to learn how to understand and create language that is in accordance with the sociocultural parameters of the specific situation, because failure to do so may cause users to miss key points that are being communicated in either the written or the oral language and have their messages misunderstood. 6. Language Teaching and Intercultural Communication Samovar, Porter Jain(1981) observe: Culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what and how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted Culture is the foundation of communication. The term intercultural is generally used to describe comparative data and studies of a large number of cultures, or studies that try to identify dimensions that are not culture specific. Intercultural is also used to describe interactional data from members of different cultural backgrounds (normally more than two). Then whats the meaning of intercultural communication? Maureen Guirdham points out that intercultural communication is communication across cultures, it describes cultural dimensions applicable for all cultures. She believes that Intercultural Communication skills may well hold the key to solving many of the current global conflicts. In a speech at the Luton Intercultural Forum, she outlined her views as to how people trained in Intercultural Communication could help to resolve current conflicts such as the Balkan conflict, the Middle East crisis and many more. In her speech, she outlined that most modem conflictssuch as IsraelPalestine conflict, the conflict between Pakistan and India and othersare essentially intercultural conflicts and that conflict resolution mainly is a communication activity. Lets come to some key points of intercultural communication: When communications cause conflict, be aware that problems might have more to do with style or process than with content or motives. Learn to understand different communication stylesyou could even benefit through expanding your repertoire. Communicating across cultures requires extra effort. Good communication requires commitment and concentration. Although culture affects differences in communication patterns, there are many exceptions within each group depending on class, age, education, experience, and personality. Remember that communication is a process and the process varies among cultures. Look at what might be getting in the way of understanding. Constantly ask, Whats going on here? and check your assumptions. Avoid jokes, words or expressions that are hot button, such as those that are based on ethnicity, race or gender. Use language that fosters trust and alliance. Respect differences; dont judge people because of the way they speak. 7. Intercultural Communication A simple way to define the term intercultural communication is to use the definition of communication that was provided in the previous section and insert the phrase from different cultures. This addition would yield the following definition: Intercultural communication is a symbolic process in which people from different cultures create shared meanings. This definition, although accurate, is difficult to apply. To foreground the importance of interpersonal communication in intercultural exchanges, we prefer the following definition: Intercultural communication is concerned with unmediated communication between people from different cultural backgrounds. Differences in interpersonal perception and attitudes to social involvement are also important factors in intercultural communication. Intercultural communication: Face-to-face communication between people from different cultural backgrounds. As inhabitants of the 21st century, we no longer have a choice about whether to live and communicate in a world of many cultures. The forces that bring other cultures into our life are dynamic, potent, and ever present. What does this great cultural mixing mean to EFL teaching? What competence should foreign language learners have to meet the need of communicating appropriately and effectively in such a world? The answer is that EFL teaching should cultivate learners intercultural communicative competence. 8. Intercultural Communicative Competence Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is defined in a great number of studies as the competence to obtain effective outcomes in intercultural communication situations. In the past few decades, ICC has become an important research area in intercultural communication studies, and produced a considerable amount of literature. ICC is related to such competence as distinguishing the cultural factors, because these things will surely have their reflections in a practical communicative situation and thereby exert much influence upon the understandings. With the gradual awareness of the importance of the communicative competence, we are sure that in EFL, more and more teachers will place their emphasis upon the improvement of ICC, and develop their students intercultural communicative competence as well as the linguistic competence at the same time, In the paragraphs above, we have introduced the definition of Intercultural Communicative Competence. Quite often, we know that studies on ICC are driven by practical needs such as sending personnel abroad to perform political and commercial tasks. Thus ICC is defined by the outcomes, or the effectiveness of achieving these goals, the main purpose of ICC studies, therefore, is to identify components of effectiveness on the one hand, and its predictors on the other, Two major effectiveness components are task performance and appropriateness of behavior in the target culture. The predictors of effectiveness identified include ambiguity tolerance, cognitive complexity, good conversation skills, intercultural training, etc. In sum, the current ICC studies are characterized by the centrality of effectiveness goal-attainment, and individual control. Underlying this package of practice is the assumption that communication is under the control of the individual; if he or she has the necessary personal dispositions and skills, then the pre-determined goals of communication will be achieved. The above view holds the idea that ICC is within the individual. Competence will develop or occur in relational contexts, yet without the internal potential of the individual, there is no relationship. But this view has perhaps to some extent overlooked the internal qualities of the communicators. Maybe task-performance takes the essential position in most models. Other factors such as appropriateness or individual cultural adjustment all pave the way for task performance. As a matter of fact, the primacy of task performance is evident in the very definition of ICC. Intercultural communicative competence deals with questions related to an issue often characterized by the terms culture-specific, context-specific, and culture-general, which are the various approaches to the study of intercultural communicative competence. The culture-specific, method assumes that the most effective way to improve intercultural communication is to study that culture. For example, if you were going to Japan, you might benefit from advice about gift giving, the use of first names, greeting behavior, indirect speech, politeness, the use of business cards, the importance of group harmony, social stability, and the like. In a practical intercultural communication, the only way of culture-specific is not enough, people should know what to do and how to do in a real situation, then context-specific is also needed. In recent years scholars have begun to talk about not only the specific cultures, but also the context or setting of the intercultural encounters. Studies have been made to explore the business, educational, and health care settings as a way of assessing the impact of the environment on communication in a broad way. The third approach is culture-general. What has been suggested here is that regardless of the culture you are encountering, it is important to have knowledge of the persons culture and try to adapt whenever possible. What we have discussed can be found in most intercultural experiences. This is what we mean by culture-general. That is to say, look at universal skills that can be used in all cultures. How to improve intercultural communicative competence? According to Samovar Porter (1988), that is to know yourself. Although the idea of knowing yourself is common. while knowing yourself is crucial to improve intercultural communication. We know we can write the words know yourself with ease, but it will take a great deal of effort to translate this assignment into practice. The application of knowing yourself covers three directions: first, know your culture_ because everyone is the product of their culture, people are cultural beings and must be ever vigilant to the impact of ones own cultural. Second, know your perceptions. Knowing your likes and dislikes, the degrees of personal ethnocentrism enables you to detect the ways in which these attitudes influence communication. And third, know how you act on those perceptions. The third step in knowing yourself is to know your communication style, which is somewhat more difficult, because it involves discovering the kind of image yo u portray to the rest of the world. If you are to improve your communication, you must, therefore, have some idea of how you present yourself, since it will take a hard time understanding why people respond as they do, and peoples most take-for-granted behaviors are often hidden behind their consciousness. (Samovar Porter, 1988) 8. Cultural Knowledge and Cultural Competence Knowing the contents of cultivating ICC, we need to discuss the concept of cultural knowledge. It includes two parts: cultural competence (belonging to the category of proficiency objectives) and conceptual knowledge (belonging to the category of cognitive objectives) about the target culture. The conceptual knowledge about the target culture refers to the systematic conceptual knowledge about the target culture and society and it should include the target societys geography, history, institutions, religions, economy, education and arts and so on. This conceptual knowledge about the target culture is often referred to as the general knowledge of the target culture. Cultural competence refers to implicit mastery of the norms of a society, the unspoken rules of conduct, values, and orientation that make up the cultural fabric of a society. It also includes the ability to recognize culturally significant facts, and knowledge of the parameters within which behavior is acceptable or unacceptable. Cultural competence does not necessarily mean conformity to these norms and rules. Cultural competence is the same as communicative competence in many aspects. Communicative competence (the term discussed before) also implies knowledge of many aspects of society and culture: forms of address, choices of register and style, differences between social and regional dialects, and the social values attached to these differences. These items refer to characteristic features of the culture. In language teaching, for instance, communicative competence includes certain aspects of sociocultural information. To a certain extent, however, cultural competence is different from communicative competence in that it refers mainly to social and cultural behavior and facts, and less to their linguistic manifestations. To be successful in the intercultural communication, both linguistic competence and cultural competence are needed. The appearance of disharmony, misunderstandings and even conflicts in communication is largely due to a lack of cultural competence. In the century of the global intercultural communication, the goal of foreign language teaching has to be changed. A shift should be made to the cultivation of intercultural communication competence. 9. Arousing Students Cultural Awareness Cultural awareness is the term used to describe sensitivity to the impact of culturally induced behavior on language use and communication. It refers to an understanding of ones own and others cultures that affect how people think and behave. It deals with geographical knowledge, the knowledge about the contributions of the target culture to world civilization, the knowledge about differences in the ways of life as well as an understanding of values and attitudes in the second language community. Cultural awareness includes understanding commonalities of human behavior and differences in cultural patterns. It must be viewed both as enabling language proficiency and as being the outcome of reflection on language proficiency. Intercultural communicative awareness means the sensibility to the impact of culturally induced behavior in communications across cultures. It involves the ability to identify cultural diversity and develop empathy (to see things from the point of view of others). On a less transparent level, intercultural awareness might be as simple as becoming aware of cultural differences as they apply to the use of yes or no. For instance,, knowing that in the American culture, people tend to be more direct and avoid roundabout answers, we would not make a reply like Please dont bother, to the hosts question Do you like some more potato soup? instead, we would respond by saying Yes, please. if we really want some, or No, thank. you. if we think we have had enough of it. A persons socio-cultural knowledge restricts how he exploits his linguistic potential. It is generally believed that if a person lacks socio-cultural knowledge relevant to the target language, a person can hardly use a language accurately and appropriately and be an effective intercultural communicator. Cultural awareness teaching should be involved with viewpoints, and with allowing students to gain a perspective through comparison which is neither entirely one nor the other. In the process of comparison from two viewpoints there lies the possibility of attaining leverage on both cultures, and thereby acquiring an intercultural communicative competence. With the coming of more chance for Chinese to interact with English native-speakers, a fund of knowledge about target culture can to a large extent, guarantee an effective intercultural communication. Therefore, arousing cultural awareness becomes an indispensable part in foreign language teaching and learning. In teaching cultural awareness, Ned Seelye provides a framework for facilitating the development of cross-cultural communication skills. The following goals are a modification of his seven goals of cultural instruction. 1) To help students to develop an understanding of the fact that all people exhibit culturally-conditioned behaviors. 2) To help students to develop an understanding of social variables such as age, sex, social class, and place of residence, the ways in which people speak and behavior. 3) To help students to become more aware of conventional behavior in common situations in the target language. 4) To help students to increase their awareness of the cultural connotations of words and phrases in the target language. 5) To help students to develop the ability to evaluate and refine generalizations about the target culture, in terms of supporting evidence. 6) To help students to develop the necessary skills to locate and organize information about the target culture. 7) To stimulate students intellectual curiosity about the target culture, and to encourage empathy towards its people. In integrating English culture awareness into teaching, there are two problems we need to consider, the first problem to be tackled is how to provide the cultural information needed. The point regarding this problem is that second-language teachers may attempt to teach culture when they are not equipped to do so through no fault of their own. The other point is that even if they know how to teach (through various techniques of presenting culture), without a definite knowledge of what to teach (the culture content), they can hardly incorporate various activities geared toward the culture objectives into their classes. For one thing, teachers need assistance in overcoming their lack of knowledge about the second culture; for another, in the preparation and selection of teaching materials, the culture content selected may sometimes be concentrated on the unusual, the bizarre and the exotic characteristics of the culture. In order to avoid confusion and misunderstanding, the teacher is a dvised to describe all aspects of the situation instead of treating the cultural phenomenon in isolation, and present culture content at a level or in a manner to which the students can attach some relationship between the information and their own background experiences. Even if teachers know what to teach and how to teach, there is still a problem concerning finding time in the class period to include culture. The class time is limited, so how much time should be spent teaching culture? Dwelling too much on culture is not only a waste of time but also of no help to the students. The second problem is that though most foreign language teachers do not deny the importance of teaching culture, few teachers actively test whether students are attaining their cultural goals. Teachers may incidentally attend to culture by inserting ideas during the class period and subsequently fail to check students comprehension of the context. Often students do not realize that the teacher is attempting to teach aspects of the second language culture. One of the reasons for this lack of awareness is that culture usually is not considered a fundamental component of the class content. If culture is to be an important goal in the second language class, it must be taught and tested systematically. Currently, the most practical approach to testing culture is to test the facts. Objective tests and essay tests may be used to test knowledge of facts and insight into cultural behavior. The problems mentioned above mean a lot to second language teachers and learners. Undertaking the teaching of culture is far from being simple. In accomplishing this task, the teacher has to be a generous knowledge imparter, an efficient time finder, an amiable activity designer, a protean actor and an assiduous learner as well. As for students, in the long run, they will benefit a lot from the culture learning experience that helps them become successful cross-cultural communicators. Undoubtedly, being a successful cross-cultural communicator is an exciting, enjoyable and enriching experience that will open the doors to both personal development and satisfaction. Therefore, the integration of English culture awareness into teaching in China means a demanding and challenging task both for English teachers and learners. 10. Developing Intercultural Understanding Cultural understanding is the main part of cultural studies. It demands a detailed analysis of cultures. The teaching of culture should lead students to experience directly through contact with native speakers and through developing some sorts of personal relationship with the target language community. In other words, culture understanding involves, besides the cognitive, a social and affective component. The main content of cultural understanding covers: 1) Understanding of daily life, including unfamiliar conventions, such as writing a check or reading a timetable. 2) Knowledge of cultural connotations of words and phrases. The students should indicate awareness that culturally conditioned images are associated with even the most common target words and phrase

The Aurora Borealis Essay -- physics space

The Aurora Borealis is made when storms on the the sun form solar winds, or large streams of charged particles streaming toward the earth.These streams could have upward of ten million megawatts of electrical power. That is enough power to light up Los Angeles. It generally takes about three days for these streams of particles to reach the earth's upper atmosphere, or ionosphere. When these charged particles hit the earth's atmosphere, they excite the atoms contained in the atmosphere. These excited atoms have a higher energy state that usual and so want to get back to a more normal energy state. The excited atoms give off excess energy in the form of heat, or the case of the Aurora Borealis, light. The trillions of excited atoms give off enough light so that we can see the light from where we live on the ground, 43-200 miles above us. The Aurora Borealis is most often seen in a striking green color, but it also occasionally shows off its many colors ranging from red to pink, blue to purple, dark to light. The reason that the aurora is seen in so many colors is that our atmosphere is made up of many different compounds like Oxygen and Nitrogen. When the charged particles that come from the sun hit the atoms and molecules of the Earth's atmosphere, they excite those atoms, giving off light. Different atoms give off different colors of the spectrum when they are excited. A familiar example is the Neon lights that we see on many business signs in our modern world. The Neon lights contain the gas Neon. These lights have electricity run through them to excite the Neon gas. When the Neon is excited, it gives off a brilliant red-orange color. The Neon lights are the same idea as the aurora, only on a lot smaller scale. Different ga... ... as a story from Scotland, tell of battles in the sky with showers of red blood. A story from the Northern Hebrides attributes the aurora to supernatural beings called Blue Men. During an active display of the aurora the Blue Men are called the Merry Dancers also known as na fir chlis (Gaelic for quick, nimble men). When the aurora moves rapidly, there is believed to be a battle going on between clans. The red light was attributed the the blood spilled during these battles. In Norse mythology, there is reference to Bifrost, or a bridge to the sky built by the Gods. This bridges was said to be on fire to keep the Giants out. In Medieval art, the aurora was dipicted as candles in the sky. In Greenland, it was said that the aurora represented the dead playing with the head of a walrus. No matter what the tale, they are all interesting and are worthy of reading.

Changes Since The Sixties Essays -- essays research papers

There were no time guzzling metal detectors at the airports... or the schools. There were no grouchy warning labels on the records and no ratings necessary on the movies. And TV shows were acceptable to the whole family. Those were the sixties or at least part of it. Some of the 52 million sixties’ boomers called it the decade of peace, harmony and love mainly for the movement for peace and the â€Å"flower power† attitude. Others, a little more pessimistic, called it the decade of dissatisfaction because of the protests against the war and the race riots in many cities. For the teenagers it was the decade of sweet sounding, good-time rock ‘n’ roll†¦from the Beatles to the Kinks and many more in between. Still for others it was filled with totally far out acid trips and creative boom. All in all it was a progressive decade from the race to the moon to the introduction of the first McDonalds Big Mac to the assassination of JFK. Although life has change d since the sixties, music, fads, and pop culture of that time has begun to resurface in our youths lives. During the sixties, film was changed forever. Throughout this era effective and continual advancements took place so the film industry is not that different from today. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t ANY changes. â€Å"Cinema in the sixties reflected the decade of fun, fashion and tremendous social change†(Tim Dirks 2). However today’s themes can range anywhere from drugs to green ogres. Amid the sixties the film industry was at...

Analysis of Robert Frosts Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Essay e

Analysis of Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a very well know poem by Robert Frost. The poem appears to be very simple, but it has a hidden meaning to it. The simple words and rhyme scheme of the poem gives it an easy flow, which adds to the calmness of the poem. The rhyme scheme (aaba, bbcb, ccdc, dddd) and the rhythm (iambic tetrameter) give the poem a solid structure. The poem is about the speaker’s experience of stopping by the dark woods in the winter evening with his horse and admiring the beauty of the fresh fallen snow in the forest. Then, the speaker projects himself into the mind of his horse, speculating about his horse’s practical concerns and the horse communicates by shaking his harness bells, and his head impatiently wanting to continue the homeward journey forward. The speaker also tells that he would like to stay but he has to continue home to take care of all the responsibilities before he can die peaceful. In the first stanza, I think that the speaker is familiar with the land; he knows the individual who â€Å"owns† the woods; but that owner doesn’t live on this land instead he lives in the village. The speaker implies that he is trespassing someone’s property but he doesn’t need to worry because that person is in the village and not there anywhere around. So, it’s not an ethical problem for him. He is not ashamed of trespassing somebody’s property. Instead, taking advantage of the moment, h...

Forecasting Hotel Arrivals and Occupancy

Abstract Forecasting hotel arrivals and occupancy is an important component in hotel revenue management systems. In this paper we propose time series approach for the arrivals and occupancy forecasting problem. In this approach we simulate the hotel reservations process forward in time. A key step for the faithful emulation of the reservations process is the accurate estimation of its parameters. We propose an approach for the estimation of these parameters from the historical data. We considered as a case study the problem of forecasting room demand for the Ganjali Plaza Hotel, Baku, Azerbaijan.The proposed model gives satisfactory result. 1. Introduction Forecasting in the hotel industry is very useful for estimating or calculating a variety of factors that can assist management in strategic decision making. Given the perishable nature of tourism services, there exists an important need to obtain accurate forecasts of future business activity (Archer, 1987; Athiyaman & Robertso n, 1992). Certainly, forecasting plays a crucial role in tourism planning both in the short and the long run. However, from a merely practical point of view, tourism industry is much more interested in getting good predictions in the short-term.Needs in the hospitality, transport and accommodation sectors have become more short-term in focus, and they can change rapidly with changing market demand. Therefore, increasing the accuracy of short-term forecasts is an essential requirement to improve the managerial, operational, and tactical decision-making process especially in the private sector. Because of the large number of existing hotels, any possible improvement in the methodology will amount to potentially very large overall savings. In recent years there has been rapid growth in the inflow of tourists to Azerbaijan.Declaring 2011 the Year of Tourism in the country has opened up new opportunities for further development in this field. In a modernizing Azerbaijan construction of h otel complexes, a high level of service has become widespread. The number of hotels in Azerbaijan is growing every year as the number of foreign tourists visiting the country. In 2002, the country had 70 hotels and hotel complexes, and visiting tourists were just over 800 thousand, now number over 500 hotels, and tourists – more than half a million. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism 40 new hotels is currently under construction in Azerbaijan.Today, the hotel fund of the republic consists of 31 thousand places against 9000 in 2002. As a result of the state program of tourism development up to 2016 capacity of hotels and recreation areas should be increased to 150 thousand. At the present time in Baku, mainly the business -and congress tourism is developed, which participants are only five-star hotels. Therefore in Baku there is a lack of hotels class â€Å"three or four† stars with reasonable prices and good service. Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Aze rbaijan is preparing a special offer for construction in the city hotels of different categories.There are currently functioning in Azerbaijan 499 hotels and hotel-type facilities. 312 of them operate on the basis of licenses issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and 187 – is illegal. Overall, about 80 hotels and facilities for recreation in the country have received the category of â€Å"star†. Today in Azerbaijan exist 17 five-star hotels, 13 of them – in Baku. 34 four-star hotels, 21 of which are located in Baku, the rest – in the regions. Of the 27 three-star hotel 18 is also located in Baku. In addition the republic has 6 two-star hotels.From five-star hotels the most popular are The Boutique Palace Hotel, Hilton Baku, Excelsior Hotel Baku, Grand Hotel Europe Baku, Palace Hotel Baku and others, among four-star hotels – The Ganjali Plaza Hotel, Riviera Hotel Baku, Austin Hotel Baku, Ramada Baku, Hyatt Regency Baku, etc. , three-star ho tels – Sea Port Hotel, Sun Rise Hotel Baku, Metropol the Hotel, Azcot Hotel, two-star hotels – Baku Palace Guesthouse, Baleva, Royal Guest House Baku, and finally one star hotel – Nur-2 hotel. So as we conduct research based on data about The Ganjali Plaza Hotel, should review it further.In 2008 industrial – commercial company â€Å"Ganjali † completed and put into operation the hotel â€Å"Ganjali Plaza. † The hotel is centrally located opposite the boulevard, within walking distance of the city's attractions and shops. The area of 4000 sqm hotel. An eight-story building with elevators there is. The hotel Ganjali Plaza handed comfortable accommodation to services of lodgers. This 4-star hotel is located in Baku city centre, a 10-minute walk from the Old Town district and the Heydar Aliyev Palace. The Ganjali Plaza Baku offers free Wi-Fi and elegant interiors.The classic-style rooms at the Ganjali Plaza Hotel feature stylish wooden furniture and floors. All rooms are air-conditioned and include satellite TV and a private bathroom with bath. Breakfast is provided each morning at the Ganjali Plaza. Guests are also welcome to relax in the bar with its rich wooden and glass furnishings, or in the fitness room. Reception at the Ganjali Plaza is open 24/7, and includes a tour desk and ticket service. Shuttle services and car rental are also available. We considered as a case study the problem of forecasting room demand for Ganjali Hotel, Baku, Azerbaijan. . Methodology In this topic the data set is discussed and the time series models used in this study are briefly explained. The data set Figure 1: The time series plot of the monthly guest arrivals data from January 2011 to December 2011. The time series plot from January 2011 to December 2011 consisting of a total of 12 monthly observations is shown in Figure 1. From the plot, it is clear that tourist arrivals has generally increased and decreased time by time and obviously it is not a stationary time series. There also appears to have some sort of seasonal pattern in it.There are also some unexpected dips and some events may have contributed to a drop in guest arrivals at these points of time. 3. 1. Time series In statistics, signal processing, econometrics and mathematical finance, a  time series  is a sequence of  data points, measured at successive times. Time series  analysis comprises methods for analyzing time series data in order to extract meaningful statistics and other characteristics of the data. Time series forecasting  is the use of a  model  to predict future values based on previously observed values.Time series are very frequently plotted via  line charts. In  evenly spaced  time series, the time intervals between data points are all equal, while in  unevenly spaced  time series the intervals differ. Time series data have a natural temporal ordering. This makes time series analysis distinct from other common da ta analysis problems, in which there is no natural ordering of the observations. A time series model will generally reflect the fact that observations close together in time will be more closely related than observations further apart.In addition, time series models will often make use of the natural one-way ordering of time so that values for a given period will be expressed as deriving in some way from past values, rather than from future values. Time-Series Behaviors * Trend * Seasonality * Cycles * Irregular variations * Random variation * Trend Trend A long-term upward or downward movement in data. * Population shifts * Changing income Seasonality Short-term, fairly regular variations related to the calendar or time of day. Restaurants, service call centers, and theaters all experience seasonal demand CycleWavelike variations lasting more than one year. These are often related to a variety of economic, political, or even agricultural conditions Random Variation Residual variati on that remains after all other behaviors have been accounted for Irregular variation Due to unusual circumstances that do not reflect typical behavior * Labor strike * Weather event 3. 2. Time-Series Forecasting – Averaging These Techniques work best when a series tends to vary about an average. Averaging techniques smooth variations in the data They can handle step changes or gradual changes in the level of a series Techniques: Moving average * Weighted moving average * Exponential smoothing Later I will give a brief overview of techniques used in this study in the rich and rapidly growing field of time series modeling and analysis. 3. 3. Moving Average or Smoothing Techniques Inherent in the collection of data taken over time is some form of random variation. There exist methods for reducing of canceling the effect due to random variation. An often-used technique in industry is â€Å"smoothing†. This technique, when properly applied, reveals more clearly the underly ing trend, seasonal and cyclic components.There are two distinct groups of smoothing methods †¢Averaging Methods †¢Exponential Smoothing Methods Exponential Smoothing is a very popular scheme to produce a smoothed Time Series. Whereas in Single Moving Averages the past observations are weighted equally, Exponential Smoothing assigns exponentially decreasing weights as the observation get older. In other words, recent observations are given relatively more weight in forecasting than the older observations. In the case of moving averages, the weights assigned to the observations are the same and are equal to 1/N.In exponential smoothing, however, there are one or more smoothing parameters to be determined (or estimated) and these choices determine the weights assigned to the observations. 3. The Ganjali Plaza Hotel Case Study We applied the proposed forecasting model to the problem of forecasting the arrivals and the occupancy of the Ganjali Plaza Hotel, Baku, Azerbaijan, as a detailed case study. In collaboration with the hotel, we apply our proposed forecasting model to the hotel’s data. The Hotel Data We have applied the proposed forecasting model on this data of the Ganjali Plaza Hotel. 2011 months| Occupancy(Person)| jan| 137| feb| 108| ar| 186| apr| 117| may| 104| jun| 143| jul| 149| aug| 157| sep| 166| oct| 142| nov| 129| dec| 130| Table1. The Ganjali Plaza Hotel monthly guest arrivals data from January 2011 to December 2011. We have obtained a full set of data covering the period from jan-2011 until dec-2011. The set of the data include only the reservations. We forecast a month ahead using the last twelve months of the data. In next section we present the results of our study. 4. 4. Results Figure2. shows the moving average model for the case of one month forecasting. Figure2. The Ganjali Plaza Hotel occupancy forecast for January 2012 using Moving Average method. 011 year| occupancy(person)| Moving Average| Standard deviation| jan| 137 | #N/A| #N/A| feb| 108| #N/A| #N/A| mar| 186| 143. 6666667| #N/A| apr| 117| 137| #N/A| may| 104| 135. 6666667| 32. 63377028| jun| 143| 121. 3333333| 24. 98147462| jul| 149| 132| 24. 22961151| aug| 157| 149. 6666667| 16. 45420131| sep| 166| 157. 3333333| 11. 8023852| oct| 142| 155| 9. 964752696| nov| 129| 145. 6666667| 13. 189502| dec| 130| 133. 6666667| 12. 3857744| jan| | 129. 5| 9. 852617625| Table2. The Ganjali Plaza Hotel occupancy forecast for January 2012 using Moving Average method. Spreadsheet Showing Results Using n = 3.Figure3. represents the exponential smoothing model for the case of one month forecasting. Figure3. The Ganjali Plaza Hotel occupancy forecast for January 2012 using Exponential Smoothing method. 2011 year| occupancy(person)| Exponential Smoothing| jan| 137| #N/A| #N/A| feb| 108| 137| #N/A| mar| 186| 125. 4| #N/A| apr| 117| 149. 64| #N/A| may| 104| 136. 584| 43. 12280758| jun| 143| 123. 5504| 43. 96758903| jul| 149| 131. 33024| 28. 89852128| aug| 157| 138. 3 98144| 24. 16763962| sep| 166| 145. 8388864| 18. 58795672| oct| 142| 153. 9033318| 18. 83896641| nov| 129| 149. 1419991| 17. 6449977| dec| 130| 141. 0851995| 17. 83124541| jan| | 136. 6511197| 14. 94736414| | | | | damping factor=0. 6| Table3. The Ganjali Plaza Hotel occupancy forecast for January 2012 using Exponential Smoothing method. Spreadsheet Showing Results Using w = 0. 4(damping factor=1-w=0. 6). 4. Conclusion In this paper we have proposed model for hotel arrivals and occupancy forecasting using time series method. We considered as a case study the Ganjali Plaza Hotel of Baku, Azerbaijan. The proposed forecasting model achieves good forecasting accuracy and beats other competing forecasting models.In other words, it estimates the whole picture of what will happen in the future for all processes, and in a probabilistic way. Table 1. and Figure1. show the different seasonal periods for the Ganjali Plaza Hotel, as determined by the managers. We used these data to determine th e forecast for January 2012 occupancy rate. For this purpose we implemented two techniques of time series methodology such as exponential smoothing and moving average method. References 1. Brockwell, P. J. and Davis, R. A. (2002), Introduction To Time Series And Forecasting, 2nd Edition, Springer-Verlag, New York. 2.Andrawis, R. , Atiya, A. F. , 2009. A new Bayesian formulation for Holt’s exponential smoothing. Journal of Forecasting 28, 218–234. 3. Andrew, W. , Cranage, D. , Lee, C. , 1990. Forecasting hotel occupancy rates with time series models: an empirical analysis. Hospitality Research Jour- nal 14, 173–181. 4. Chow, W. S. , Shyu, J. -C. , Wang, K. -C. , 1998. Developing a forecast sys- tem for hotel occupancy rate using integrated ARIMA models. Journal of International Hospitality, Leisure Tourism Management 1, 55–80. 5. Franses, P. H. , 1998. Time Series Models for Business and Economic Fore- casting.Cambridge University Press. 6. Gardner, E. S. , 2006. Exponential smoothing: The state of the art Part II. International Journal of Forecasting 22, 637–666. 7. Hyndman, R. J. , Koehler, A. B. , Ord, J. K. , 2008. Forecasting with Exponen- tial Smoothing: The State Space Approach. Springer Series in Statistics. 8. Kimes, S. E. , 1999. Group forecasting accuracy for hotels. Journal of the Operational Research Society 50, 1104–1110. 9. Weatherford, L. R. , Kimes, S. E. , January 2003. A comparison of forecasting methods for hotel revenue management. International Journal of Forecast- ing 99 (19), 401–415.