Literary Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 8

Literary Analysis - Essay Example Spayde (1998) further adds that formal training is a vital necessity, however power and class simultaneously plays significant role in the sector of education. For instance, the graduates from world class universities like Stanford and Harvard would be offered the designations at workplace to prepare the work schedules for those who have acquired their degree from a not so famous, regional college. The eminent journalist and novelist, Earl Shorris (Spayde, 1998, p.67) realized the flaws of the modern educational system and took initiative for starting up an Ivy League adult education course which was meant for the â€Å"Asians, whites, blacks and Hispanics† (p.67). On the first day of his lecture, Shorris (Spayde, 1998, p.67) addressed his students and let them know that â€Å"humanities† is not just a subject to be studied by the Rich strata of the society. The term â€Å"Humanities† embraces the entire world and its people. The concept of humanities teaches the students how to live, how to think and how to enjoy life. The subject enriches the readers by providing them a new perspective towards life. Spayde (1998) further recognizes several misconceptions about the term â€Å"education†. He states that â€Å"training† at a local computer school is an option considered suitable for the poor Americans. However technical training inevitably tur ns out to be obsolete after a few years. Spayde (1998) argues that â€Å"education† is nothing but a dialogue which carries different meanings for different societies. The present concept of education is merely making the students suitable for fighting the â€Å"global competitiveness† but Spayde (1998) states that despite of possessing specialized skills, these contemporary graduates lack â€Å"intellectual breadth† (p.68) which can only be learnt by the practice of humanities. The professor of environmental studies of Oberlin College defines the recent trend of

Focus on the Learner Essay Example for Free

Focus on the Learner Essay Student Background Veronica is a 31 year old elementary level student. She is originally from Ecuador and is currently residing in Birmingham and has been for the past 3 months. She is University level educated, as a graduate in Dentistry, and a native speaker of Spanish and is also fluent in Italian. Veronica has worked as a dentist in her families practice; she has learned English at a basic level and is able to converse in English at an elementary level. Her motivation for studying English is to increase her level of English language so that she may work as a dentist in England. She has been encouraged by her sister to move to the United Kingdom as the rate of pay in her home country she could not earn enough money. She is very motivated to learn English as she will be able to provide a better life for herself financially and will also be able to better communicate and therefore socialise with her friends from different cultures. Linguistic and Skills: Strengths and Weaknesses 1. Listening It is difficult to grade listening skills without actually setting a listening task. For the purpose of this report I will analyse the understanding of questions set in the interview as well as class observation of the learner. Veronica seems to understand what is said and did not stall in answering the questions. She is able to understand most task set in class with the teacher’s explanation, without requiring further help. However when she doesn’t understand an exercise, she will not respond to the task set and will check with classmates in order to complete the task. 2. Speaking Strengths Veronica is able to present her message in a relatively clear manner. She is a fast speaker, often the case with Spanish native speakers. She uses simple short sentences mainly in the present tense. (Lines 10/14). Weaknesses Veronica has difficulty with pronunciation, often not using stresses. She pronounces the word noisy as nosy as seen in line 13-14. However when I repeated the word in the correct manner, she quickly adopted the correct pronunciation. She uses the past simple to explain future plans as seen in line 20 and line 25.This is a grammar error also noted in her writing and reading task. Veronica uses ‘is’ instead of it ‘it is’ and makes the error of using in instead of at (as seen in line 20) to state future plan of studying at University, she also made the error of putting the before the lexical verb university Grammar Tense Veronica struggles with the future tenses. She uses ‘is’ to explain future plans as seen in line 20. Vocabulary Veronica displays a relatively good level of vocabulary, illustrated by words such a professional, principle and University (lines8/20/21). However at times she struggles to find the words she wants to explain which results in her mumbling ’inaudible’. Pronunciation Veronica struggles with pronunciation. This may be seen in words such as noisy, seen in line 13-14, and principle, line 8/20 Reading Strengths Veronica was able to complete the reading task without any prompt, in other words independently. She was able to read for the specific information, and seemed to be familiar with have and haven’t. She showed particular strength in writing full sentences with correct capital letters as well as an ability to recognise the correct punctuation and contractions making only a few errors. Weaknesses Veronica has made a few errors in the reading exercise. This may be seen through her answering, ‘it is’ instead of ‘it has’, when asked whether an individual has internet on their mobile phone. This perhaps illustrate that she may struggle with grammar. Veronica has also made a few mistakes in writing the correct punctuation, often rewriting the wrong sentence instead of correcting it as well as failing to put a full stop at the end of the sentence, as well as not using enough commas. This illustrates that Veronica who is although familiar with capital letters, punctuation, and contractions needs more support in this area. Writing Strengths Veronica is able to present her message relatively well; she is able to spell most word correctly. She illustrates a variety of words, therefore can be seen to have a good vocabulary for a learner at elementary level. She presents her ideas in logical manner, she states for example that her life in England is interesting and is able explain in more detail why she has written this. Her handwriting is very legible. She is able to use correct punctuation such as full stops and comma’s as well as contractions. Weaknesses Veronica has made a few spelling mistakes, often when words are difficult to spell such as profession which even native speaker struggle with. However even more importantly Veronica has struggled to use the capital letters in the correct manner, for example she writes Favourite instead of favourite and uses full stops to frequently instead of commas. She also struggles with the difference between is, has are and often makes errors in word order. Some of these mistakes such as wrong use of capital letter could also seen in reading task. Rationale for choice of Language area I have chosen to focus on grammar, most specifically on future tenses and future plans. In order to help improve Veronica’s improve her language skills in the area of tenses, as this is an area which is problematic for Veronica. Rationale for chosen skills area I have chosen to focus on speaking as this is an area which Veronica displays difficulty in as illustrated through the recording and may be seen in the transcript.

Essay --

Who Am I? A look inside Holden, Seymour, and Salinger from three acclaimed works. After World War II J.D. Salinger joined the ranks of the exceptionally adept authors that came about after the heinous second world war. Salinger, fueled by his experiences from the war, addressed many concerns and issues, most of which are timeless. Due to many of his astounding pieces, and his fresh outlook on society, is considered a phenomenal, classic, American author. One that is responsible for many renowned, coming of age novels, as well as a number of agonizing critiques of the society that has been cultured. The Catcher in the Rye and, â€Å"A Perfect Day for Bananafish† are two of his most acclaimed works, both wrestling with the concept concerning the conservation of innocence, a main talking point of Salinger. This is visible through many similarities between the two works. In The Catcher in the Rye, â€Å"A Perfect Day for Bananafish,† and, J.D. Salinger: A Life the characters share common internal conflicts regarding the people that they have become, thi s central conflict aids in conveying Salingers overwhelming claim that when faced with great ordeals, any figurative wounds attained, affect a person in every aspect of life. In The Catcher in The Rye Holden wrestles with the concept of the person that he has turned into. The colossal amount of struggles he has faced, and the lacerations he has gained have remained by his side, altering his everyday, mundane actions. Holden remarks on the painful transition between childhood and adulthood when he is in the Natural History Museum, he says that the, â€Å"best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was.... Nobody's be different. The only thing that would be ... ...today. Salinger gained many mental and physical wounds during his time in the army, both affected his views on innocence and affected him as a person. Both The Catcher in the Rye, â€Å"A Perfect Day for Bananafish†, and J.D. Salinger: A Life have similar views on innocence, however, the way in which the protagonists experienced their realization on the topic was utterly different. In The Catcher in the Rye and, â€Å"A Perfect Day for BananaFish† as well as J.D. Salinger: A Life, Holden, seymour, and Salinger both find themselves with similar internal conflicts regarding the people they have become, in relation to their innocence. The self exploration the three underwent was due to the accumulation of anguish and grief. both The Catcher in the Rye and, â€Å"A Perfect Day for Bananafish† share similar insights, because of Salingers similar themes and his experience in the war.

Baruch Spinozas Anti Anthroponcentric View Essay -- Philosophy Spinoz

When Baruch Spinoza composed his philosophical masterpiece, the Ethics, he knew that his ideas (particularly those of God) would be considered heretical in the extreme, leading to any number of unpleasant consequences. This was the reason that the Ethics were published in 1677, posthumously (p.97)1. His apprehensions are well justified in the light of what he writes in the Appendix (p.145-149) to Part1: Concerning God (p.129-145) regarding the prejudices present in the minds of human beings. For, it is here that Spinoza directly challenges the prevalent religious orthodoxy and seeks to remove the very dogma that was the basis of their power. Spinoza asserts in the Appendix (p.145) that there exist certain prejudices in the minds of people that prevent them from understanding (and accepting as true) the conclusions that he reaches after a thoroughly logical and indeed, geometrical process of reasoning. The root of all these prejudices, he further clarifies, is the almost universal belief that all Natural things exist and act with some definite goal being pursued. Further, he presents for scrutiny the very strong anthropomorphism inherent in most human minds that makes these people believe in the universe having been created for their sake. Lastly comes the religious part of this picture, wherein mankind exists so that it may worship God, thereby closing the circle of creation. Spinoza (naturally, considering his philosophy) rejects this picture and thereby attempts in the Appendix to argue on the following crucial points: 1) The reason 1 Roger Ariew & Eric Watkins. Modern Philosophy: An anthology of primary sources. Indianapolis/Cambridge, 1998. Note: All references to Spinoza will be to this text unless otherw... ...e former, Spinoza replies, â€Å"...the perfection of things should be measured solely from their own nature and power† and not with respect to definitions in the imagination. Furthermore, God had no free will in creating the universe, (from Cor. 1 Pr. 32, p.142 as described previously) and (from Pr.16, p.137) â€Å"from the necessity of the divine..(follows)..everything that can come within the scope of infinite intellect†. Therefore, God must, of necessity, be the cause of everything, perfect and imperfect! 6 In conclusion, Spinoza provides an immaculate argument that should readily convince the reader of the truth of his main proposition in the Appendix, i.e. that the major reason for obstacles in the path of understanding is the anthropocentric view of Nature that most people hold on to, irrespective of the enormity of the contradictions inherent in that view. 7

Hamlet Act 3 scene 1 Essay

Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It recounts how Prince Hamlet of Denmark goes about taking revenge for his father by killing his murderer, Claudius. In act 3, scene 1 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fail to report the reason for Hamlets ‘madness’, so Ophelia, Hamlet’s lover, is instructed by Claudius to see if his ‘madness’ is caused by her. I chose to perform this scene because it shows key elements of Hamlets character, his contemplative yet cynical side, shown fully in his famous â€Å"to be, or not to be† soliloquy and Hamlet’s rash and impulsive side, showing his anger at Ophelia as well as his unpredictability. The area that I focused on was from the start of his soliloquy to where he leaves Ophelia before her â€Å"oh what a noble mind† speech. I started the scene in silence, keeping a neutral body posture, and slowly began with â€Å"to be, or not to be†, instead of making it a huge dramatic statement, I chose to make it more hesitant, with a lengthened pause at the comma, this was done to make it look like it was a statement that had just come to Hamlet. Hamlet is a scholar and a philosopher and I was trying to portray this by making it seem as if he had discovered this notion of the ‘point of existence’, a key recurring theme throughout the whole of the play. Hamlet is not talking about a wish to commit suicide, in fact he does not use the words â€Å"I† or â€Å"me† throughout the whole speech, which meant that the speech was more rhetorical than personal. I tried to portray this by conducting the speech as if it were two balanced sides of an argument. In an underlying tone that would be used to say the phrases like on the one hand for the line â€Å"whether tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune† and on the other hand, â€Å"or to take arms against a sea of troubles†. I also had to show how Hamlet related to the speech, showing how he contemplated the idea of ending all his troubles through death, but without actually expressing the actual desire to kill himself, so I put emphasis on lines like â€Å"to die, to sleep† and using lengthened pauses to make is seem like he was in pensive state. This ‘argument’ then brings him to the issue with his issue of â€Å"being†, which was that of not knowing what comes after death, which Hamlet concludes is what all men fear, â€Å"thus conscience does make cowards of us all†. I said this line with a defeatist tone, lowering my voice and adding a sigh to show Hamlets philosophical and cynical attributes made him come to this conclusion. When Ophelia enters, Hamlet is initially glad to see her, although he is still in his pensive mood, this was achieved by him smiling when facing her and returning to a more sombre expression when turned away, emphasised by the three â€Å"well†s which are in response to Ophelia demanding how hamlet is. The first is higher pitched, and said with a smile to show how hamlet is happy to be standing in front of his love, the second is more to himself, said with a more questioning feel to it, and the last is more for the audiences benefit who previously participated to his† to be, or not to be speech†, said in a lowered voice almost through gritted teeth to show how Hamlet is thinking about the conclusion to his soliloquy, and the uncertainty of life after death. Ophelia has been instructed by her father to return several tokens of Hamlets love to him, this hurts Hamlet who thinks it odd and makes him start to question her motives; concluding that Hamlet might think that she might have a sent by someone else, at which point I look around stage looking for this ‘other man’ to show how Hamlet is cynical. At this point Hamlets anger comes out, which is where I raise my voice to a near shout, throwing the tokens, in this case, books, to the floor. Hamlet then tells her how he really feels for her, saying, â€Å"I did love you once† which is where I lock with the actress playing Ophelia to show how Hamlet is in fact saying his true feeling, to which she replies â€Å"indeed my lord, you made me believe so†, this blunt statement just angers Hamlet’s character even more, which makes him want to hurt her feelings, so he retorts with â€Å"I loved you not† which is in fact a lie, was portrayed by Hamlet looking in the opposite direction to Ophelia, so I could give Hamlet a pained expression that expressed his true feelings. Hamlet then has his â€Å"get thee to a nunnery† speech, which is where Hamlet again addresses the wider public with his notions; a key speech which is the dramatic climax of the scene, here I had to show Hamlet releasing all his anger and frustration by essentially saying that Ophelia should lock herself away never to be a temptation for any other man ever again. Being quite a vicious message, I chose to put emphasis, on the key words and phrases such as â€Å"get thee to a nunnery† and â€Å"breeder of sinners†, to show it was like Hamlet was actually trying to hurt her with each metaphorical â€Å"blow†. At the end of his speech Hamlet asks the question â€Å"where is your father†, I interpreted this as Hamlet giving Ophelia one last chance, to show his compassionate and loving side. This was done by getting closer to the actress playing Ophelia and instead of demanding as a loud command which is what would have been expected, I whispered it, to show how Hamlet was testing her, as he knew that there was someone else, observing them. And when Ophelia fails his test, I expressed disappointment instead of anger, again to show how really he would have wished for her to be truthful to him, so that he could continue to love her as he always had. Now Hamlet is resigned to not being able to trust Ophelia, so he returns to his previous way of abusing her. I again used this chance to show Hamlets hasher, angrier side. Emphasising his more powerful images such as â€Å"chaste as ice† where I elongated the sound of the sibilance. Toward the end of the scene is where Hamlet says a line that indicates that he is referring to the other person in the room; â€Å"all but one shall live†. This shows how the aim of revenge is ever present in Hamlets head; I showed this by focussing all my characters attention on a spot that had previously been accidentally pointed out by Ophelia. In conclusion, I portrayed Hamlet as an impulsive and unpredictable character who did not always give the reaction expected by the audience. The scene contained a speech that was perfect to show Hamlets philosophical and cynical side, where key themes are introduced into the play. I also showed Hamlets ability to love through his relationship with Ophelia, where even though he knew she wasn’t acting truthfully, he still gave her a chance to prove herself to him. And finally, I was able to show how Hamlet reacted in anger, which was the state that he is in for the better part of the scene, portrayed through a number of little venomous speeches directed at Ophelia.

BILLY BUDD Essays - Billy Budd, Herman Melville, Billy, Budd

BILLY BUDD Essays - Billy Budd, Herman Melville, Billy, Budd BILLY BUDD Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were perfect. They were innocent and ignorant, yet perfect, so they were allowed to abide in the presence of God. Once they partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, however, they immediately became unclean as well as mortal. In Billy Budd, the author, Herman Melville, presents a question that stems directly from this original sin of our first parents: Is it better to be innocent and ignorant, but good and righteous, or is it better to be experienced and knowledgeable? I believe that through this book, Melville is telling us that we need to strike some kind of balance between these two ideas; we need to have morality and virtue; we need to be in the world, but not of the world. To illustrate his theme, Melville uses a few characters who are all very different, the most important of which is Billy Budd. Billy is the focal point of the book and the single person whom we are meant to learn the most from. On the ship, the Rights-of-Man, Billy is a cynosure among his shipmates; a leader, not by authority, but by example. All the members of the crew look up to him and love him. He is strength and beauty. Tales of his prowess [are] recited. Ashore he [is] the champion, afloat the spokesman; on every suitable occasion always foremost(9). Despite his popularity among the crew and his hardworking attitude, Billy is transferred to another British ship, the Indomitable. And while he is accepted for his looks and happy personality, hardly here [is] he that cynosure he had previously been among those minor ships companies of the merchant marine(14). It is here, on the Indomitable that Billy says good-bye to his rights. It is here, also, that Billy meets John Claggart, the master-at-arms. A man in whom was the mania of an evil nature, not engendered by vicious training or corrupting books or licentious living but born with him and innate, in short a depravity according to nature(38). Here then, is presented a man with a personality and character to contrast and conflict with Billys. Sweet, innocent Billy immediately realizes that this man is someone he does not wish to cross and so after seeing Claggart whip another crew-member for neglecting his responsibilities, Billy resolved that never through remissness would he make himself liable to such a visitation or do or omit aught that might merit even verbal reproof(31). Billy is so good and so innocent that he tries his hardest to stay out of trouble. What then was his surprise and concern when ultimately he found himself getting into petty trouble occasionally about such matters as the stowage of his bagwhich brought down on him a vague threat from one of [the ships corporals](31). These small threats and incidents establish the tension between Claggart and Billy, and set the stage for a later confrontation. They also force Billy to search for help. The person he goes to is yet another type of character presented in this book. Red Whiskers. Red Whiskers was an old veteran, long anglicized in the service, of few words, many wrinkles, and some honorable scars(31). Billy recognizes the old Dansker as a figure of experience, and after showing respect and courtesy which Billy believes due to his elder, finally seeks his advice, but what he is told thoroughly astonishes him. Red Whiskers tells Billy that for some reason, Claggart is after Billy, but Billy cannot believe it because he is so innocent and trusting. Through this situation Billy now finds himself in, Melville has us ask ourselves a question: Would it be right for Billy to heed the advice of experience and wisdom and tell the captain about Claggarts conspiracy? Or should he instead keep his mouth shut and try to work things out himself? Being the good person that he is, Billy tries to forget about it and hopes that it will pass, but it does not. And that is where the fourth of these few characters comes in. Captain Vere, with his love for knowledge and books, and his settled convictions [which stood] as a dike against those invading

What make us humans essays

What make us humans essays In general terms the word human being includes a diversity of behaviors. The way each of us is entitled to run their own life; many things that we need to do in order to survive, describe us being humans. Thinking is one of the most important things humans do to overcome lifes struggles. If we would not have the necessity to think before acting we would not be called Humans at all. The fact of saying that a human is able to think does not mean that a human cannot commit a mistake. Thats the other reason we are called humans. Humans make mistakes and we are not perfect; otherwise we would be gods. Being a human is being ourselves, which means that we are all different in one aspect but as a whole we are all called humanity. There are humans from different parts of the world. We all have different cultures, ways of thinking, dressing, ways of behaving and ways of living our lives. Laughing and loving are signs of being humans. That is what makes us different from animals. Animals act by instincts only; humans act by instincts and thinking. Laughing is a human sign; a way of showing friendliness, likeness and sometimes it is a sign of showing love and appreciation to one another. Sense of humor and common sense are very important in a human. That determines the personality of each of us, which it converts us a special kind of person. A Human is unique; there is no one similar to the other one. We are specials; we all have different taste, likeness and hobbies. Being a human means diversity of characters, personalities, physical characteristics, races, food and cultures. Human rights are what make us human. When we speak of the right to life, or development, or to dissent and diversity. It is our spirit that makes us human. It is our spiritual characteristics that make us human beings. We human being have these characteristics that the animals of the lower orders do not have. We know that there is the conce...

The Invention of the Wheelbarrow

The Invention of the Wheelbarrow Its one of those ideas that seems so self-evident, once you have seen it in action. Rather than carrying heavy loads on your back, or burdening a pack animal with them, you can put them into a tub or basket that has a wheel beneath and long handles for pushing or pulling. Voila!   The wheelbarrow does most of the work for you. But who first came up with this brilliant idea? Where was the wheelbarrow invented? The First Wheelbarrows Were Created in China Not too surprisingly, the first wheelbarrows seem to have been created in China - along with the first gunpowder, paper, seismoscopes, paper currency, magnetic compasses, crossbows, and many other key inventions. The exact date and the actual inventors name both seem to be lost to history, but it seems likely that people in China have been using wheelbarrows for around 2,000 years. Invented in 231 CE According to legend, the prime minister of the Shu Han Dynasty in the Three Kingdoms Period, a man named Zhuge Liang, invented the wheelbarrow in 231 CE as a form of military technology. At the time, Shu Han was embroiled in a war with Cao Wei, another of the three kingdoms for which the era is named.   The Gliding Horse Zhuge Liang needed an efficient way to transport food and munitions to the front lines, so he came up with the idea of making a wooden ox with a single wheel.  Another traditional nickname for this simple handcart is the gliding horse. Using the wooden ox, a single soldier could easily carry enough food to feed four men for the entire month. As a result, the Shu Han tried to keep the technology a secret - they did not want to lose their advantage over the Cao Wei. Archaeological Evidence This legend is very tidy and satisfying, but probably untrue.  Archaeological evidence suggests that Chinese people were using the wheelbarrow more than a century before Zhuge Liangs supposed invention of the device in 231 CE. For example, a wall painting in a tomb near Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, shows a man using a wheelbarrow - and that painting was made in 118 CE. Another tomb, also in Sichuan Province, includes a depiction of a wheelbarrow in its carved wall reliefs; that example dates back to the year 147 CE. Invented in the Second Century in Sichuan Province It seems possible, then, that the wheelbarrow was invented in the second century in Sichuan Province.   As it happens, the Shu Han Dynasty was based in what is now Sichuan and Chongqing Provinces. The Cao Wei kingdom encompassed northern China, Manchuria, and parts of what is now North Korea, and had its capital at Luoyang in present-day Henan Province. Conceivably, the people of Wei were not yet aware of the wheelbarrow and its possible military applications in 231 CE.   Thus, the legend could be half-correct.  Zhuge Liang probably did not actually invent the wheelbarrow.   Some clever farmer likely had the idea first. But the Shu prime minister and general may well have been the first to use the technology in battle - and may have tried to keep it a secret from the Wei, who had not yet discovered the ease and convenience of the wooden ox. Since that time, wheelbarrows have been used for carrying all kinds of burdens, from harvested crops to mine tailings, and pottery to building materials.  Sickly, wounded, or elderly people could be carried to the doctor, before the advent of the ambulance. As the photo above shows, wheelbarrows were still being used to carry casualties of war into the 20th century. Invented Again in Medieval Europe In fact, the wheelbarrow was such a good idea that it was invented again, apparently independently, in medieval Europe. This appears to have happened sometime in the late 12th century. Unlike Chinese wheelbarrows, which usually had the wheel under the middle of the barrow, European wheelbarrows generally had the wheel or wheels at the front.

Hamas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hamas - Essay Example There are many causes of this violence and brutality that is happening from the both sides but three of the most important reasons are discussed below: 3) Occupation of oil resources: the recent surge in the violence in the region is also directed at the notion that US is after the oil resources of the region and by occupying them, West will deprive the region , its rights on its own resources. I believe that the occupation of Palestine is the root cause of the violence in Middle East and in order to bring in peace to that region, West has to come up with a solution of recognizing the due rights of each party to the region and based on that decide to provide the right political as well as diplomatic support. Hamas is an Islamic militant and political group working in the Palestinian region. Founded in 1987 by Sheikh Yaseen Ahmed in Gaza, Hamas soon emerged as one of the most robust terrorist organizations in the region with Israel as its main target. Listed as terrorist organizations by many countries including Canada and US, Hamas is now considered as the leading political party in Palestine also after the failure of PLO and demise of Yasser Arafat. (Hajjar, 1993). It was also believed that the success of Hamas as political as well as terrorist organization largely depended on the failure of PLO and Yasser Arafat and that the Oslo agreement between Arafat and Israel, brokered by US, provided Hamas necessary political support in the region to flourish and strengthen its roots. (Kristianasen, 1999). It is also believed that Hamas, having an Islamic Brotherhood beginning, emerged as a new militant movement in the region colored with the Islamic hue and it was because of this that Hamas wa s able to won the elections. Hamas is an organization which seems to be combining the Islamic fundamentalism with the Palestinian Nationalism. With the basic aim of the destruction of Israel, Hamas is also intending to replace the PA with an

Should women be allowed in combat (yes) arguing for the issue Research Paper

Should women be allowed in combat (yes) arguing for the issue - Research Paper Example First, women who comprise almost 14 percent of the armed forces should be allowed to serve fully in front- line combat units because they have proven themselves to be mentally, morally, and physically able to lead and execute combat-type operations (Healey, 57). As a result, some of these female marines feel qualified for the opportunity of taking on the role. My personal experience has been that women are as good leaders and team builders as men. I have noticed that women have good interpersonal and communication skills. They are good at taking orders; they are careful, keen and observant, and incorporating them in the combat can make it very successful (express.co.uk). Secondly, there is no clear evidence that integrating women soldiers into military operations or previously closed units damages cohesion or has other ill effects. In fact and independent report has suggested that women who serve in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq had a positive impact on the accomplishment of the mission (King, 409). Allowing women in the military makes the army looks normal to the society and increases its operational capability. General Sir Peter Wall put is that "they are fundamental to the operational effectiveness of the UKs Armed Forces, bringing talent and skills across the board† (express.co.uk).   Allowing women in combat creates a mixed gender force thus keeping the military strong. Deploying and recruiting women who are in better shape is much easier than many men who are sent in combat. Over the years I have realized that women are as intelligent as men and a woman, who commits into doing something, always does it perfectly (express.co.uk). Lastly, women should be allowed in combat because it will elevate their status in the military. Combat duty is often necessary for promotion to senior positions, therefore, denying female personnel the experience further entrenches sexism as very few will reach the highest

Approaches to Teaching Grammar Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Approaches to Teaching Grammar - Article Example The apparent limitation of the syllabus was that students were not involved in learning the language due to the monotonous nature of activities. Secondly, adults feel that the language they are learning is not preparing them for the world. The skills of language; reading, writing, speaking and writing were taught in isolation and in a very set manner. Since, we use more than one skill at a time, learners were forced to focus on one skill and the integration of skill development was missing. Speaking was ignored like in any traditional classroom, due to its difficult nature of assessment and requires a competent teacher. All the focus is on writing as it is considered the most important academic skill. The main reason for learning English language is instrumental. Like other countries, this country is also facing recession and employment rates are constantly fluctuating rather deteriorating. Students want to learn the language to seek new opportunities around the world. When this Institution will activate my syllabus, they have to consider that it is learner centered where adults come to discuss debate, interact socially and philosophically and begin to work in teams. The main aim of the course is to make it motivating and interesting for the students. Target Learners First thing to be kept in mind is that the students are a part of society and we have to touch English in the manner it is appropriate. Culture of target language will also be exposed to students to a certain degree. Learning English for my target students is not a total new experience as they have completed their twelve years of education, where weekly 120 minutes were given to language teaching. But the medium of instruction remains Arabic.... First thing to be kept in mind is that the students are a part of society and we have to touch English in the manner it is appropriate. The culture of target language will also be exposed to students to a certain degree. Learning English for my target students is not a totally new experience as they have completed their twelve years of education, where weekly 120 minutes were given to language teaching. But the medium of instruction remains Arabic. Language development is to the extent where the students understand instructions and follow them appropriately, but with some emphasis on repetition of instructions. The students can read and comprehend with the teacher’s help. Teacher is always in control and there aren’t many opportunities for learners to talk about their lives, opinions, and experiences. Teacher takes most of the time explaining to the learners how to go about the written activities. Learners listen to the teacher and do accordingly; obviously repetition o f instructions is in demand. Learners have very less room for creativity and expression. Activities are monotonous and last for the whole period. All the activities revolve around making the learner write in the end. Learners feel bored and there is no excitement as the classes have routine and learners know what is going to happen next. The learners do not find authentic language to use it outside the class but they are able to write an application, letters and etc. What they lack is confidence in talking in English along with the experience.

Power of Facade as an Agent of Camouflage Essay

Power of Facade as an Agent of Camouflage - Essay Example The Theresienstadt concentration Camp The settlement was situated in Czech Prague as a model Jews settlement. It existed between the years of 1941 to 1945. It is main purpose was to be used by elderly, privileged and famous Jews living in Germany, Czech and Austria (Patrick, 2003). But in essence it was used as transition camp to extermination camp of Jews by Nazis. Many of the Jews who occupied the camp were later deported to killing centers for extermination and forced labor camps in German occupied lands in the east. It was also used to hold the Jews for long time before been killed. It was expected that the ill condition of camp could force some of the deportees to die before SS and police could deport the survivors to the killing centers (Patrick, 2003 p.95). The center was a facade to camouflage the harsh treatment of Jews which was particular based on age, disability as a result of past military services. The deported Jews were to be taken to productive labor in the other area s although they were mainly used for forced labor. To achieve the objective of camouflage as humane settlement the Nazis authority build schools that can hold about 15,000 children although less than 1,100 children from 15,000 survived. Truly the center was rich in culture thereby attracting large settlement of Jews (Wright, 2000 p.189). Most of the children learned art, literature and poetry. But later large numbers of deaths were reported from the camp which attracted the attention of international observers. This could be evident from the number of children that survived from the settlement and the Danish Jews saga. This meant there was mass killing in the camp. According to Frank, Klima and Baeck (2011 p.145), the international Red Cross planned to visit the camp in the year 1944 to ascertain the living condition of the camp especially for the Danish Jews. To camouflage the sorry state of the settlement the Nazis authority deported a number of Jews to other camp so as to deconge st up to one person per room. This will make the settlement win the approval of the international Red Cross as humane place for human being and portray the Nazis authority political as better and allay and fear the rumors that the authority is mistreating the Jews through congestation, malnutrition, diseases and forced labor According to (Frank, Klima& Baeck, 2011 p.146). They created nice coffee shop with good attendants. They also created fake food stores to conceal food shortages in the settlement but most of the stores in essence didn’t contain the food for constant supply to deportees (Bolger, 2003 p.201). They created bank to show how economically active the place f\was but in truth no transaction was taking place for the benefit of the Jews. They also build other social amenities like schools and kindergarten for the purpose showing the Red Cross that the camp was taking care for children in the camp. To improve the overall appearance of the settlement they planted flo wer gardens all over the camp and also renovate the camps. During the visit they also produced film showing how life is in the camp. According to Frank, Klima& Baeck (2011 p.103), points out that the Red Cross was able to affirm all was right in the camp. After the International Red Cross left the camp all who took part in the film were later killed

Managing and Motivating Employees in their Twenties Essay

Managing and Motivating Employees in their Twenties - Essay Example In this case, education involves introducing new ideas to them, particularly ideas involving technology. To manage young people effectively, mangers will also need to devolve their decision-making process. Young people will work better if they are consulted during the decision-making. An autocratic management system is likely to attract rebellion and uncooperativeness from young employees. Organizations that have young people in their twenties as the main employees are likely to succeed if they increase employee’s authority in making decision. Unlike past generations, current generation of employees in their twenties prefer short-term goals and objectives (Fertik, 2011). Managers are therefore, encouraged to set projects that can be completed within a short period. This is because the generation is always after instant results due to their short concentration span. Although managers of young people need to do all they can to motivate employee, it is important to maintain standard and orders. This will involves incorporating appropriate and professional disciplinary measure for employee who compromises the organization’s rule. Firing non-performing employees will promote order and discipline among young

Power of Facade as an Agent of Camouflage Essay

Power of Facade as an Agent of Camouflage - Essay Example The Theresienstadt concentration Camp The settlement was situated in Czech Prague as a model Jews settlement. It existed between the years of 1941 to 1945. It is main purpose was to be used by elderly, privileged and famous Jews living in Germany, Czech and Austria (Patrick, 2003). But in essence it was used as transition camp to extermination camp of Jews by Nazis. Many of the Jews who occupied the camp were later deported to killing centers for extermination and forced labor camps in German occupied lands in the east. It was also used to hold the Jews for long time before been killed. It was expected that the ill condition of camp could force some of the deportees to die before SS and police could deport the survivors to the killing centers (Patrick, 2003 p.95). The center was a facade to camouflage the harsh treatment of Jews which was particular based on age, disability as a result of past military services. The deported Jews were to be taken to productive labor in the other area s although they were mainly used for forced labor. To achieve the objective of camouflage as humane settlement the Nazis authority build schools that can hold about 15,000 children although less than 1,100 children from 15,000 survived. Truly the center was rich in culture thereby attracting large settlement of Jews (Wright, 2000 p.189). Most of the children learned art, literature and poetry. But later large numbers of deaths were reported from the camp which attracted the attention of international observers. This could be evident from the number of children that survived from the settlement and the Danish Jews saga. This meant there was mass killing in the camp. According to Frank, Klima and Baeck (2011 p.145), the international Red Cross planned to visit the camp in the year 1944 to ascertain the living condition of the camp especially for the Danish Jews. To camouflage the sorry state of the settlement the Nazis authority deported a number of Jews to other camp so as to deconge st up to one person per room. This will make the settlement win the approval of the international Red Cross as humane place for human being and portray the Nazis authority political as better and allay and fear the rumors that the authority is mistreating the Jews through congestation, malnutrition, diseases and forced labor According to (Frank, Klima& Baeck, 2011 p.146). They created nice coffee shop with good attendants. They also created fake food stores to conceal food shortages in the settlement but most of the stores in essence didn’t contain the food for constant supply to deportees (Bolger, 2003 p.201). They created bank to show how economically active the place f\was but in truth no transaction was taking place for the benefit of the Jews. They also build other social amenities like schools and kindergarten for the purpose showing the Red Cross that the camp was taking care for children in the camp. To improve the overall appearance of the settlement they planted flo wer gardens all over the camp and also renovate the camps. During the visit they also produced film showing how life is in the camp. According to Frank, Klima& Baeck (2011 p.103), points out that the Red Cross was able to affirm all was right in the camp. After the International Red Cross left the camp all who took part in the film were later killed

Ancient History - Rome - Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus Essay

Ancient History - Rome - Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus - Essay Example Tiberius Gracchus saw himself as the champion of the oppressed and was determined to defend their interests. His desire for re-election to the tribunal was driven by his conviction that he should continue as their spokesman and patron and was willing to use violence to defend what he conceived to be his and their rights. Scipio Nasica and his supporters treated Tiberius as a tyrant and ultimately killed him. This is not because they were opposed to the land bill but by the tactics which he employed – â€Å"the deposition of Octavius, the proposal to use Attalus’ legacy and the candidature for re-election†. The difficulty with any question about Gracchus’ intentions is that enough evidence does not exist and we have to interpret these through reference to an overall view of Gracchus’ political aims and personal character. Some historians argue that the main beneficiaries, targeted by Tiberius Gracchus, were the Romans, and this was because he believe d that they would first pass the test and then vote for him – i.e. his motivations were political. Others argue that the reason why Tiberius failed to include Italians in his programs was that he was only interested in helping Roman citizens, who could enrol in the legions. If this were so he would not have distributed land to non-Romans. For many people, Tiberius' actions no doubt suggested the possibility of a political coup, with overtones of the rise of another Tarquinius Superbus, and the only resort, in the Roman system of the time was to resort to violence.

The Mayor of Casterbridge Essay Example for Free

The Mayor of Casterbridge Essay This essay will demonstrate and analyse how Thomas Hardy uses the first two chapters of this book as a prologue to the rest of the novel. To establish this, this essay will include Hardys style and use of language. This sort of style is quite unique, which is probably why he used it. Other important elements are the setting and how they are linked to Hardy himself, the themes and the way he exemplifies characters. The main character, Michael Henchard, is said to be of fine figure and swarthy. He wore a short, brown corduroy jacket, a fustian waistcoat, tanned leggings, white horn buttons and white breeches. Also, he wore a straw hat. At the beginning of the narrative, Michael is holding a tool-bag. This shows that Michael is a man of the trade. This flows with what Hardy says about Henchard being a skilled countryman. Michaels entrance to the story is palpable, but until later on in the novel, we dont actually know his name. Until the 6th page, 3rd paragraph, Michael is referred to as, amongst other things, the man. This gives a bit of suspense as the reader wishes to read further to find out who this person is and what his name. The reader discovers that he is indeed the husband of Susan; the woman he is accompanying. He doesnt play the role of a husband or a father at all (we also find out that he and Susan have a baby called Elizabeth-Jane. He remains using similar behaviour until chapter two. The first time he actually opened his mouth to talk, was, when addressing a worker around Weydon-Priors. The second time, one page later, was when he briefly replied to Susan in pg 4/5, when Susan is telling him to go to the Good Furmity Sold Here tent at the fair, instead of the Good Home-brewed Beer, Ale and Cyder tent. His disinclination to go to the furmity tent is shown when he says, Ive never tasted it. At this point, he finally shows some responsibility as he gave way to he representations ; the her being Susan. His carelessness is again shown on page six, where he gets drunk from the excessive rum in his furmity. He then goes on further, when he states how he got married too young. Michael puts himself and Susan in great shame when he auctions her. At this point, we dont know whether its the drink talking, or if he really feels this way. We are persuaded that Michael really wants to rid of his wife, when, on pages 8/9/10, he pursues his selling, until finally a bidder puts the money on the table and the exchange is made. Hardy shows that Henchard really is a malicious man, without any thought to his responsibility. We know this by the language used; he talks badly of Susan; I married at 18, like the fool that I was; and this is the consequence ot. We finally see the back of Susan, telling us that the exchange was true and complete. Overall, we see that Michael is a man who doesnt see his responsibilities and likes to live a single persons life. He is careless in most of actions and is easily taken under the influence of drink; the reason why he auctioned his wife. In Chapter Two, however, we discover, that Michael didnt have the slightest clue of what he did the previous night. This is shown as he thinks back of what he had done, and showed great regret. We know this as he travels around the fair in search of his wife and later takes a serious oath, for such an alcoholic as Henchard especially. Michael then travels around the Fair in search of Susan. Later, around page 17, we discover Henchard to be making a vow as to not drink spirits for 21 years, as spirit was the reason why he lost his ex-wife; I, Michael Henchard, on this morning of the 16th of September, do take an oath before God here in this solemn place that I will avoid all strong liquors for the space of 21 years. His pledge is significant to the play because it changes his outlook; he becomes a less rowdy person; a Mayor. This also allows him to find Susan, as his perspective is broadened; he can sort out his priorities. Susan is first introduced at the same time as Michael. Shes described as being pretty and having a half-apathetic expression. Michael and Susan have a declining relationship. Susan doesnt converse with Michael and just saunters along with him silently. As with Michael, we dont discover Susans name at first. This is probably because Thomas wants to set the scene first, then the characters, etc. Although we dont know that Susan and Michael are in wedlock, we o know that Susan is the mother of young Elizabeth-Jane. She and Michael dont converse until the dialogue where Susan encourages Michael to go the furmity rent, instead of the alcoholic tent; page 4. This proves that Susan is the most sensible out of the two. Although Susan may have made the most sensible choice, she still didnt escape shame and pain. She discovers Michaels bad side, as he has too much rum in his furmity. We know that this isnt the first time, Henchard has behaved this way previously, as Hardy writes, The young woman his wife, who seemed accustomed to such remarks She isnt mentioned much, until the auction scene, when she tells Michael how his behaviours is inappropriate and irresponsible and is just making a fool of himself. Later on in page eight, Susan gets more serious, realising the great significance of Michaels actions; Come, come, it is getting dark, and this nonsense wont do. If you dont come along, I shall go without you. Come! The repetition shows her concern and desperation to avoid the situation. Susan tries to maintain her dignity and pride by agreeing to all of the selling, probably to rid herself of such humiliation and torture. We know instantly that Susan regrets the whole ordeal as she went out of the tent sobbing bitterly. Although the furmity lady, only has a brief part to play in the story, she is still quite important. She is first mentioned in page five. She is described as haggish and is said to be of fifty years of age. She was wearing a white apron, reaching almost all the way around her waist. Her only actions were to stir the large pot of furmity, which consists of grain, flour, milk, raisins, currants, etc. She seems to be just a furmity lady, but Hardys crone-like description of her fits nicely with her slyness as she laces the furmity with quite a lot of rum. She appears again at the bottom of the page when she served Michael and Susan a bowl of furmity. She has a quite a persuasive character as she convinces Michael to have some rum. This meant more profit for her. Apart from the above, her last appearance was when the auction was maturing; she told Susan that it was the drink talking and that Michael didnt mean what he was saying. The furmity lady represents the working-class of Weydon-Priors. Especially as she is part of the fair, she seems to have a nomadic life; always moving around to different locations. As she is reacquainted with Susan later on, Hardy skilfully relates the furmity lady to the downfall of rural life, The turnip-hoer first had an appearance on page 3. He told Michael about the type of work available in Weydon-Priors. The turnip-hoer had a very brief appearance in the novel indeed. He did have quite a significant part, as the reader discovers that there was a lack of work for the working-class and that Weydon-Priors was a changing area, good for some, bad for most. He represents the economic state of the village and is a typical countryman. The mention of the Fair almost automatically implies that it has some connotation in the anecdote. He had a hoe on one shoulder and a dinner-bag suspended from it as well. Hardy describes the turnip-hoer as being a pessimist. This shows that he just saw things from the bad side and didnt really look for any good in anything. He probably used that word as he replied negatively to anything Henchard asked. Then, he mentions the Fair Day; the only way of getting any money in most cases. We learn quite a lot about Wessex and the way of life there in the first few pages of Chapter One. This is due mainly to the turnip-hoer. From him, we learn that there is a shortage of jobs. Due to the time setting, it is quite obvious to those with knowledge of history, that it is the time of the Industrial Revolution. The chronicle fits in efficiently with the time setting, before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span ; this was during the pinnacle of the Industrial Revolution 1709 to 1853. We then discover that homes are being knocked down to make way for the industrial buildings. Therefore, life must be quite hard for the working-class. This is shown by the turnip-hoer saying how there is a lack of employment; lack of money. We know this because, Weydon-Priors is at the threshold of being an industrial city. The only way of making money outside the industrial side, it seems, is to work in the Fair or sell horses. The Fair is packed with people and full of life. Different activities and different fairs to visit, for example, toy-stands, waxworks, medicine men, and so forth. Hardy uses a varied form of vocabulary in this text, but most of the book uses a sophisticated range of vocabulary. Examples of sophisticated choices include: Hardy uses this wide range of lexis effectively to make an effective description of an object or person. By using efficient language, Hardy creates a good picture in the mind of the reader. He does this by describing something with great detail. For example, when he first introduced Michael, he used great detail in order to produce sufficient imagery. The man was of fine figure, swarthy, and stern in aspect; and he showed in profile a facial angle so slightly inclined as to be almost perpendicular. He goes on to use analogous detail in describing his attire. It is quite obvious that Hardy likes to use detail in his descriptions. This is required to produce a vivid image for the reader. The result of this is a strong and almost exact picture of the object or person in question created in the mind. This can help the reader understand further things mentioned in the story and the relevance and significance of things mentioned. The structure of Hardy sentences varies occasionally, but the overall lengths of the sentences are long. This is typical of the time period; early 1900s This provides a neutral atmosphere, as shorter sentences or pauses give a tenser ambience. A good example of the use of shorter sentences, is during the auctioning of Susan, The sailor hesitated a moment, looked anew at the woman, came in, unfolded five crisp pieces of paper The lengths of the paragraphs also vary, but most of them are long, which is typical of the time period. When a more important scene is written in The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Hardy uses very long paragraphs to create a significant flow in the action. Apart from the narrators language, there is the language used by the characters. The characters language varies from their class, but is quite similar. They use northern dialect and they dont pronounce all of the letters; this emphasises the setting of the novel. This presents the way northerners speak. An example of this vernacular is, and this is the consequence ot. There isnt much dialogue until the auction scene. This creates quite a tense atmosphere with some suspense. A very significant factor of language, is the relationship between Michael and Susan. They dont speak habitually at all. They converse a small amount at the Fair, only to talk about things like lodging. This is imperative as it clearly depicts the relationship between the two Henchards; they dont have a close affiliation and only communicate when necessary. Most of the early chapters are based on the theme of marriage. This is because, Michael and Susan were married and Michael sold Susan because he was saying how fed up he was with marriage. The further actions made by Henchard were reflections to what he had done; he swore to give up spirits for twenty-one years, he went in search for Susan due to marriage and possibly love. At the scene of the auction, the only people who seem to have some reverence for the sacred bond of matrimony, are Susan and the furmity lady. Susan is the only person who tries to put the whole state of affairs to a halt, Mike, Mike, this is getting serious. O! too serious! The repetition shows her concern. The furmity tries to reassure Susan that Michael is just under the influence of drink, Others just encourage Michael, Theres them that would do that, this shows that they find such an offer common. For the rest of the customers in the tent, it appeared to be a sort of entertainment. The economy plays quite an important part in the tale as well. This is because Michael and Susan first went towards Weydon-Priors, because Henchard was in search of employment. Change is evident in the area of Weydon-Priors as the turnip-hoer told Michael of the knocking down of the houses, lack of vocation. The quality and style of life will obviously be changed by this new revolution. By mentioning or hinting the industrial revolution, Hardy sets the time and setting of the anecdote well, making it more realistic. Hardy uses the theme of nature in The Mayor Of Casterbridge, but only occasionally in the first two chapters. An example of Hardy doing this, is on page two, half-apathetic expression of on who deems anything possible at the hands of Time and Chance except, perhaps, fair play. The first phase was that work of Nature As you may notice, Hardy used capital letters for the beginning of the three words Time, Chance and Nature. He might have done this to make the three words stand out and allow the reader to see their significance. Time and Chance seem to control occurrences. Time; things are going to happen, its just a matter of time when. Chance; sometimes. People can be lucky and have chance on their side. Nature; the contrasts between man and nature. Fate seems to play a small, but quite important role in the anecdote. Hardy uses this element skilfully. It assists the auction scene with the entrance of the sailor. It would have been quite hard for the sailor to hear the auctioneers voice from outside; he was destined to meet and purchase Susan and Elizabeth-Jane. Hardy shows how Henchard develops quite quickly in the prologue. He begins as a man who seems to be oblivious of his duties to his wife and infant. The main event which convinces Michael he has to revolutionize his conduct. After getting under the influence of spirits, he humiliates his wife and then puts her on the market. When he becomes abstemious, he realises his faux pas and falls in to a state of remorse. The next day, he starts to search for his spouse. After failing to locate Susan in the Fair, he makes an oath to avoid all strong liquors for the space of twenty-one years This shows that he has realised that the main cause of the whole dilemma was the alcohol. Another example of him following a new route, is the narrators text, seemed relieved at having made a start in a new direction. This is a sort of quest for Michael; to give up alcohol and to find his lost partner. The type of narration used is third person narrative. The reader is only given limited information as to whats happening. The conscious narrator decides what and how information is revealed. An example of this is the concealing of Henchards name. We dont have full knowledge that Susan and Henchard are married; their relationship together. This makes the reader want to continue reading to discover the role and significance of the character. Hardy uses language effectively to get the appropriate mood and atmosphere. He uses sufficient imagery when he wants to give the reader a detailed description of the scene. He uses symbolism to assist this, e. g. at the Fair, Hardy refers to the horses to represent Susan, as the horses are also being sold. He uses varied sentence structure to achieve tension. Although most other writers would use shorter sentences to create anxiety, Thomas uses commas as well. An example of this, is at the end of CH 1. Hardy uses prolonged sentences, but with commas to create a depressing atmosphere. The whole of the story after the auctioning of Susan, is founded on that very act. The main outline of the first two chapters is quite simple. Firstly, the couple enter Weydon-Priors. Then, they visit the Fair and go to a furmity tent. Michael gets drunk and offers to sell his wife, Susan. After much pondering, a sailor approaches Henchard and purchases Susan, who is accompanied by Elizabeth-Jane. Michael, the next morning, realises what he did in his drunken rage. He makes a vow to never touch any spirits for 21 years. Michael finds that he has lost Susan forever, or so he thinks After the selling of Susan, all of Michaels actions were based on that event. Before CH. 3 continues, a lot time passes; Hardy likes to use time in his writing. As you can see in the brief plot of the story above, all of the actions made reverberated the auction. Michael made a vow due to the auction, he went in search of Susan because of the sale, etc. Hardy cleverly makes an impression in the readers mind at the beginning of the story. This makes the reader want to read further to discover the following events. From this essay, I have learnt about Hardys style, his use of things like Nature, Time and so on. I have learnt of Thomas lexis and structure. The overall language he uses is different to other authors in the sense that he uses very sophisticated expression and refers to seemingly irrelevant things to achieve sufficient effects; symbolising. Also, we learn how Hardy develops characters and their identity, e. g. Michael. His description also fluctuates to other publishments, as he refers to things like nature, chance and time; he uses elements that might be relevant to him. Hes a unique author.

Consumer Purchase Intention Analysis

Consumer Purchase Intention Analysis This management report is abased critique of an article which is known as consumer purchase intention for organic personal care product. The shows that the overall summary of this management report which is based on the environmental awareness towards the Impact on US consumers activities actually there is huge no selling of this organic personal care product which is extensively focusing to the marketing strategy but lacking care in customer behaviour. To avoid lacking customer behaviour author has based his research on TPB which also known as theory of plan behaviour. And also the entire report based on research of US consumer buying behaviour, attitude, values, norms and intention of purchasing past experience overall data analysis and so on. Here in this management report I have put few my effort to critique this article. Introduction: Consumer purchase intention for organic personal care products is an article written by Hee Yeon Kim and fae-Eun chung. Both authors are from department of consumer science, from the Ohio State University from Columbus, Ohio, USA. Authors has raised the awareness of environmental protection which is also known as green consumerism. (Moisander, 2007) The article is based on growing huge amount of US consumers activities that has been impacted by the variety of green products which has gained high popularity in a US market (organic trade association, 2006). And problem with highly growing organic personal care industry is that they are focusing on marketing strategy instead of having consumer behaviour and it is says that organic product industry will sink sooner if this industry will not understand focus on consumer behaviour. And this article is mainly based on organic personal care products which are covered outside of the US market. And authors says that the purpose of this article is to research by using theory of planned behaviour in order to investigate the customer behaviour and values, norms and to know the previous experience of consumer purpose while buying organic personal care products. With a response group of 207 online members and with many ignorance was used for study the relationship in the variables. And through this result it was found that awareness of environment were positively manipulate with this industry and it was also founded that the relationship between previous experience of having buying purpose consumer and behavioural control was surrendered pretty good on the TBP model. It says that with this research retailer can have a great marketing strategy by advertising its product is safe and gives beautiful look and can offer consumer the affordable prices in order to develop the buying purpose of customer through organic personal care product. And these researches give US consumer approaches analysis towards the intention of buying purposes of consumer queries through organic personal care product which had manipulate consumers attitude. This article of research has been elaborated to TBP by investigating the relationship between previous experience of having buying purpose consumer and behavioural control. (Kim,H ;chung,f, 2012) Conformance with principal of scientific investigation: Purposiveness: Here Michael K. Green (1998, p.165) states that the purposiveness of company consist in conceiving of a goal and plan of action for realizing it, and then carrying this plan into action. Here in article the researcher has used theory of planned behaviour in order to analysis the consumer buying behaviour through organic personal care product which will also help in achieving the intention of consumer buying behaviour past experience and consumer attitude towards the company and consumer values and norms. In this article the researcher has choose such types objectives in order to achieve their goals therefore it can be said that it is purposiveness. Rigor: Mentzer, John T (2008, p.72-77) states that rigor is the constant examination of whether research can actually support and justify the claims it makes. And it uses appropriate theories and methods which will regret the final part of something that research did not exposed. This means in this article the researcher has used theory of plan behaviour (TPB) analysis to research customer buying behaviour, past experience values and norms and then over all online participation was recruited in which 207 team members were participated which has helped to evaluate for the multiple regression relationship among the variables and then consumers attitude towards buying organic personal care product which has positive influence overall consumer buying shows that the research hence research is rigor. Testability: According to Binder, Robert V (1994, p.15) the testability terrain for object -oriented development is mapped in order to find shorter and cheaper paths to high reliability. He says that includes 6 factors which are representation, implementation, built-in test, the test suite, test support environment and process capability. This mean the researchers has developed hypothesis testing sample in order to perform the examination of relationship between consumer attitude and consumer values towards buying behaviour through organic shampoo and body lotion. Therefore the research can be said testability. Replicability: Clive Seale (2012) states that replicability is the extinct to which a re-study is made by feasible by the provision of sufficient information about research procedure in the first study. He says that if the research meets the quality the closeness will be placed in the fact of determining. This means while testing sample consumer attitude and consumer values towards buying behaviour through organic shampoo and body lotion. The evaluation data shows that most of the time similarities results were found in attitude and intention between organic shampoo and body lotion hence, it can be said that the research is replicable. Precision and confidence: Quiroz, Jorge (2012) states that confidence interval is usually constructed to assess the level of precision in the method validation studies. It shown that the finding this research may not be suitable for other organic product which shows in confidence in statistics and no closeness found during the evaluation this may not be precision and confidence in my opinion. .Objectivity : Business Wire(2006, New York) states that objectivity is used for real time processing of complex information, documents and process management, scientific computing and complex defense and security application. And it also says that objectivity also increase the solution based on Data base such as government, telecommunications, internet infrastructure, manufacturing, bio technology, financial services, scientific and IT market. That means in the hypothesis sample which has stated that consumer values and norms and past experience intention in buying towards the organic product were positively influenced which means although price of product un affordable there lots of appealing towards this organic personal care industry hence the research could said it is objective. Generalizability: Lee, Allen S (2003, p.221) states that it is major concern to those who do and use research. It means that the research shows analysis of two products are not applicable to other product categories of organic personal care product and it is also says that there may be needs of further study with diversity of product types to achieve highest generalizability. Parsimony: Maj, S P; Veal, D. (2010, p.3) state that parsimony is used for defining structural knowledge with in field of research. Hence the research is structural and well presented with simple explanation therefore it is parsimony. Aims and Rationale According to bryman and bell (2007) statement should be open and needs to be resulted which should highlighted to be accomplished and then it should reflect the aspiration and expectation of the research topic which will not need to be numbered. He says that after making aims there should be the objectives that needs to achieved aims and objectives of research should be specific task that will accomplish the goal of the project which should be analytical to accomplish that aims. And it should be feasible and focused which means to be addressed the more urgent project to be resulted. Objectives: Here in this article author has made his objective based on examine the US consumer buying behaviour towards the organic personal care product based on theory of plan behaviour which means to analysis the consumer buying behaviours, attitude, values, and norms from the past experience which are being highlighted by the researcher of this article in order accomplish the research aim. That means objectives of research are clearly mentioned above. Questions: Researchers have made their questions targeting to organic shampoos and body lotions. And then question were related to the consumer values, TPB constructs, and consumer past experience which were measured in seven scale. Whereas demographic and socioeconomics were also related. Such as health consciousness, environmental consciousness, appearances consciousness, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behaviour control, past experience and purchase intention with in online survey only few members could have participated and many of them have regression during question and answer because of price being unaffordable. This means has been clearly stated. Hypothesis: Hypothesis was made on the basis of sample of product such as organic body lotion and shampoo in order to evaluate the regression of differences between consumer attitude and consumer intention in between those two products. Data of hypothesis found to be little complicated and bias of organic product. Rationalise: Emly R. (2013) states that Rationale is done before starting the research project. And the rationale is the reason for researcher conducting their research in the first place. The research is based on the awareness of US consumers through the environmental consciousness and here what the different authors say is US consumers activities had an impact on environmental protection. (Kangun et al, 1991).as the green product has been popular in US market the more consumer focused on greener product. (Nimse et al, 2007). Although the green product has earned so much popularity in US market there is only focused on marketing strategy instead of focusing to consumer behaviour so to understand the consumer behaviour the research done on the basis of consumer attitude, intention, values and norms of buying behaviour towards the organic personal care product. Research clarified that if the organic product will not understand consumer behaviour soon the company will be in lose. So the research is based on how the organic product is going to be sustained with in the US market. ((Kim,H ;chung,f, 2012) Design and methodology: Design: AQR (2013) states that The importance of research project that includes factors such qualitative approaches or the sample that is targeted in order to interview or observed, numbers of interviewed, research location, questioners outline, and task and material to be introduced. That means the research is design on the basis developing some questioner based on sample of organic shampoos and body lotions targeted to consumers that uses the organic personal care product were interviewed within US. Out of 202 were responded where 53.5% of them were females and others remaining were 44.3 age male some of them argued their view regarding on environmental consciousness and other respondent positively. And investigation of questioners includes question such as consumers value, norms, TBP constructs and consumer past experience. Such types question was interviewed through the source online panel. Which means it is clearly research clearly designed. Methodology: Tutor India (2010) states that it is the data collecting system for research which may be collected for either theoretical or practical research. Research methodology important factor could be validity of research data. It also says that research methodology is followed by the research design which maid is experimental or theoretical. This mean the researchers conducted online investigation with 207 group of member in California which means multiple regression were used for analysing the data of relationship among the variables. In this research shows verification in each and every term of analysis of the article therefore there is no question regarding through this article. Therefore it can be said the research is methodologically clear at all. Limitation: USC library (2013) states that the data analyses which are directly being impacted by characteristics of design and methodology is limitation of the study which controls generalizability and utility of finding. It is says that the data will be chosen to design the study and method which are used for creating internal and external validity. This mean the research has evaluate no such applicable analysis comparing to other organic product according to the data and it says that to have greater generalizability organic personal care product should have other varieties of product. Finding: AQR(2013) states that The main conclusion of the research project which suggest the project to be indicates or usually refers to the result somewhat the recommendation drawn from. The result of analysis which indicate over all environmental consciousness and appearance consciousness are being positively influenced attitude through the organic personal care product which means according to the data analysis in the research consumer relationship of attitude and intention found to be similar between two product. Hence finding is clear. Conclusion: Over all it can be concluded the research is based on Impact of US consumer activities towards the environmental awareness. Here author has done research in understanding US consumer buying behaviour towards the organic personal care product. Hence over all consumer buying behaviours towards environmental consciousness, appear consciousness and health consciousness are seems to be positively influenced. Consumption organic product care product can be seen that of consumed more by females then male And data analysis shows that evaluation of regression in relation of attitude and intention seems to be similar between two products. Therefore the author seems to be having a successful research of organic personal care Product Company. And also the author have suggested the retailer can have great marketing strategy by focusing on more of ecology of beauty, product safety and by providing affordable prices attracting to the customer towards the buying behaviour through organic personal ca re product.

Codes of Practice in Health Care Essay -- Medical Industry

Codes of practice help classify the quality of care clients can expect if they receive care services and they can be used as a source for measuring the quality of care provided. All care professions have code of practice, some codes of practice mainly give advice and guidance, whereas others can be used to measure the quality of care. A policy is different to a code of practice, as it is set in a particular care setting in a particular place. A code of practice for nursery nurses will be relevant to all nursery nurses working in any care setting. If a nursery nurse works in a nursery, the policy which tells her how to cope with particular circumstances in that pacific nursery may be different to another nursery. Each care setting has its own policies, according on its specific needs and circumstances. Charters are slightly different, they are like codes of practices but they are created by the government which outlines the standards people can expect from a wide range of services. The charters contain information about the services and gives advice about how we can seek redress if a service does not fulfil all the stipulated standards. Many GPs produce practice charters that offer information about that standard of service delivered by their particular health centres. Information which most probably be covered is time schedule, collection of test results, how to get proscribed medication, facilities available to disabled people and further treatment. Profession care workers are trained to apply the values of care in their work. They are also helped in this, because they are expected to follow a code of practice. The Codes of Practice is issues to all registered nurses, midwives and health visitors. The Council i... ...Long Term Care Charter website) OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU – we want the NHS to be a high-quality health service. These are our aims as set out in the NHS Plan. The NHS will provide a universal service for all based on clinical need, not ability to pay. The NHS will provide a comprehensive range or services. The NHS will shape its service around the needs and preferences of individual patients, their families and their carers. The NHS will respond to different needs of different populations. The NHS will work continuously together with each others to ensure a seamless service for patients. The NHS will help keep people healthy and work to reduce health inequalities. The NHS will respect the confidentiality of individual patients and provide open access to information about services, treatment and performance. (Referred to the NHS website)

Cry The Beloved Country :: Cry the Beloved Country Essays

Cry The Beloved Country      Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of it all. Let him not love the earth to deeply. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give to much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he lives too much. Yes cry, cry, the beloved country      Cry The Beloved Country by Alan Paton was a magnificent work of art and my words alone would do it an injustice. Its pages echo with the dirge of a battered country that has suffered far too much for far to long. The book takes you to South Africa, where the land itself is the essence of a man. It as if the mountains, soaring high above the clouds, are the high moments in life, and the valleys are those low and suffering times. Next, you will take a journey to a place called Johannesburg. While reading the pages, begin to envision Johannesburg being a polluted, very unkind, and rushed city. The setting is more of a emotional setting than a physical setting. As I stated it takes place in South Africa, 1946. This is a time where racial discrimination is at an all time high. The black community of this land is trying to break free from the white people, but having little success. It is this so called racism that is essential to the setting of the story. Without it, the book would no t have as much of an impact as it does. The story begins, as many great stories have begun, with a solitary man taking a long and dangerous journey to a distant land. The man is an Anglican Zulu priest, Rev. Stephen Kumalo, and the journey is to the white-ran Johannesburg in 1946. Like a weary prophet taking a biblical sojourn to Sodom, Kumalo is seeking out lost members of his family who have left the townships for the lights of the big city. He is looking for his sister Gertrude, who has become a prostitute: and mostly, his son Absalom, who has disappeared into the darkness as surely as the original Absalom of the Old Testament was lost to King David. Once he arrives, the nave Kumalo is immediately robbed, and it isnt until he finds the enigmatic but helpful Father Msimangu that he is able to begin his search, a search that will change his life forever.

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Make a Difference on Labor Conditions? a Case Study in Southern China

Does Corporate Social Responsibility make a difference on labor conditions? A Case Study in Southern China Yiu Por Chen Assistant Professor Public Services Graduate Program DePaul University & IZA e-mail: [email  protected] edu Phone: 312/362-8441 Fax: 312/362-5506 1 Abstract The corporate social responsibility code of conduct (CSRC) has been the model of corporate governance (CG) used by multinational corporations (MNCs) for their suppliers.Using the transaction cost perspective, this study argues the CSRC system may reduce some transaction costs for MNCs in planning and implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, the CSRC may suffer from opportunism at the supplier level, which may undermine CSRC outcomes. By utilizing a unidimensional item response model with a randomized survey of factory workers of 12 toy manufacturers in Southern China, this study provides a unified measure to evaluate the effects of CSRCs on labor conditions from workers’ voices.Furth ermore, this study offers fresh empirical evidence to show the ways opportunism may undermine CSRC effects on labor relations. JEL code: M14, M23, J28, J50, J81, J83, J88 Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Multinational Corporations, Outsourcing, Safety, LaborManagement Relations, Working Conditions, Workers’ Rights, Labor Market Policy 2 â€Å"There are lots of firms and lots of changes in labor practices among them, so there is no lack of data.To judge whether formal labor market rules produce worse employment outcomes, as claimed by orthodox analysts, one could contrast employment between firms with more or less rigid internal rules. † ? Richard Freeman (2005: 19-20), suggesting that a microanalysis of workers and firms will be a path forward to understanding the effect of labor institutions. 1. Introduction Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been rapidly institutionalized and now covers the vast majority of industrial sectors around the globe.Donalds on (1996) highlights that 90% of all Fortune 500 companies have established codes of conduct, which are by far the most common mode of CSR used by corporations today. Furthermore, 51% of German firms claim to have codes of conduct, compared to 41% in the UK, and 30% in France (Schneider and Barsoux, 1997). Brytting (1997) also found that 52% of the larger Swedish companies had codes of conduct. In fact, CSR is largely the response of multinational corporations (MNCs) to the accusation of being the major actors in â€Å"new exploitations† of less developed countries (LDCs) (Chan, 2001). For the outsourcing MNCs, one of the important aspects of CSR is to ensure that workplaces and labor conditions in poor nations are not â€Å"too† terrible (even if it is worse than in the workplaces of developed countries). Theoretically speaking, the original approach to CSR suggested in the literature is a stakeholder approach. The stakeholder approach advocates that firms should not only maximize profit but also behave as good citizens of the community and take account of the needs of other stakeholders that may be affected by the firms’ production.This approach to CSR involves all related stakeholders in the development and implementation of the CSR (Freeman, 1984). In reality, the corporate governance 1 CSR in general is closely linked with principles of â€Å"sustainable development†, that is, enterprises should be obliged to make decisions based not only on the financial/economic factors but also on the social and environmental consequences of their activities. In terms of labor condition issues related to the outsourcing process, there are numerous reports and news about the exploitation of labor.The interested reader can visit some labor NGOs’ websites, for example, www. AMRC. org, China Labor Watch, ILO, etc. 3 (CG) approach (or firm-centered approach), which uses corporate social responsibility codes of conduct (CSRC) to regulate th e suppliers’ operations in LDCs, is more prevalent. 2 From an institutional theoretical perspective, this article argues that the high transaction cost incurred prevents the stakeholder approach from bringing all stakeholders together and developing strategies to deal with the externality produced by the outsourcing of production.Instead, the current CSR practice has reduced the original stakeholder approach from the CG approach to CSR, the CSRC. In practice, while the CSRC may get around the transaction cost of getting all stakeholders together and reduce potential conflicts that may arise during the CSRC planning and implementation process, this CSRC may be vulnerable to opportunism (or agency problem) at the supplier levels (Jiang, 2009). As the codes are externally imposed on the suppliers, they can exploit the information asymmetry to disregard some of the codes.Because factory interviews and surveys for suppliers’ management could hardly reveal the true faces of labor conditions, an effective measure to reveal workers’ voices at suppliers’ level is called for. However, systematic survey data are needed to verify the validity of CSRC to labor conditions. In addition, there is no unified method to understand the effect of CSRC on labor conditions. 3 This article provides a theoretical argument and a unified empirical approach to analyze labor conditions under the CSRC and the opportunism effect at the supplier side.Utilizing a unidimensional item response theory (UIRT) model, this study looks at the CSRC effect on 16 labor conditions in three dimensions: labor bargaining and association rights, violation of law, and safety and living environment. These labor conditions data are generated from a randomized survey of 12 toy factories in Southern China, including 10 CSRC suppliers for McDonald’s, Mattel, Disney, and Wal-Mart, and 2 non-CSRC factories as a comparison group. 2In particular, some MNCs and business associations would use Corporate Social Responsibility Codes Certifications (CSRCC) as measures to regulate suppliers’ conduct, such as Nike and the like. 3 For example, the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking at the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U. S. Department of Labor mentioned in the China’s country report that â€Å"Because of China's repressive political system, it was not possible to obtain any information directly from China.There are no Chinese non-governmental organizations (NGOs) active in this area, and foreign NGOs do not have access. Accordingly, it was impossible to corroborate or reject allegations by various labor and human rights organizations that children are working in export industries which produce for the United States market† (Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor Affairs). 4 The UIRT model effectively compares the relative seriousness of a labor problem with the lab or union problem, which is the most serious labor problem found in this study.It shows that, first, the CSRC may have a positive effect on labor conditions. CSRC suppliers have less serious labor condition problems than factories with no CSRC. Second, because different CSRCs may have different coverage and monitoring intensity, different CSRCs may result in different labor condition issues. Non-CSRC factories are found to have six serious labor problems; McDonald’s, Mattel, Disney, and Wal-Mart have four, two, one, and zero serious problems, respectively.Third, suppliers working with more than one CSRC may reduce the possibility of opportunism at the supplier level. While suppliers with 1 CSRC would have 2 problems as serious as the labor union problem, suppliers with 2 CSRCs would have no such problem. However, the CG approach to CSRC may suffer from opportunism. This study documented some typical suppliers’ measures to circumvent CSRC auditing: fire drill, trained qu estion, giving a holiday, cleaning the factory, and safety drill.In addition, the subsequent analysis shows that different suppliers’ measures to circumvent the CSRC may represent a diverse level of opportunism. The subsequent sections are organized as follows: the second section explores the effect of the stakeholder approach and CG approach to CSRC and their effects on labor conditions; the third section describes the survey, basic observation from the data, and the methodology; the fourth section provides the estimation results; the last section discusses the results and draws some conclusions. 2.Stakeholder versus corporate governance approaches to CSR and labor conditions: A transaction cost perspective With the globalization of production in recent years, MNCs from developed countries migrated their manufacturing (high labor cost) operation to LDCs for the sake of cost minimization or to be closer to the consumer market. Due to the regulations of the host government, th eir production is usually outsourced to local suppliers. The intense competition among suppliers may induce lower bidding price for outsourcing deals from MNCs.This low bidding price might, in turn, result in the downward pressure of labor cost, safety equipments (Jiang, 2009; Pun, 2005a ; b). As a result, the globalization of production may even make working conditions weaker than it was before the market opened (Lee, 5 1995; Chan, 2003). Such worker conditions have been reported in mass media, generating concern from consumers, NGOs, policymakers, and academics. For example, in China, labor relations have been changing since the market reform began (Zhu and Warner 2004 a ; b). Workers usually suffered from â€Å"new exploitations† (Chan, 2001). In response to the recent surge of complaints from NGOs, media, and consumer movements, outsourcing MNCs’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been designed to meet the consumer demand for a â€Å"clearer† product with fewer exploitations and/or a better working environment and safety for the LDC worker. 5 In fact, the original stakeholder theory was mapped out by Freeman (1984). The theory attempts to ascertain which groups are stakeholders in a corporation and thus deserve management attention. A company’s stakeholders are therefore all those who are influenced by, or can influence, a company’s decisions and actions.This theory intends to address the â€Å"Principle of Who or What Really Counts. † A firm, as a member of the stakeholder, cannot survive without taking into account the needs of the other stakeholders (Freeman, 1984). Figure 1: Original stakeholder model (Freeman, 1984) 4 Richard B. Freeman (1994) conducted one of the earliest surveys on labor standards under globalization of production. For further CSR code description, please go to http://www. csreurope. org/ 5 Bjorner (2004) shows that consumers would prefer to pay more for a â€Å"clean† product in the market.See also Harrison and Scorse’s (2003) study on how globalization impacts compliance with labor standards. 6 The CSR problem may be viewed from the institutional perspective: when a firm’s operations create externality, the stakeholders, those who have been affected by the externality, could bargain with the firm and achieve welfare improvement as long as the property rights of each party are well defined and the information cost for bargaining is low (Coase, 1960). Under these conditions, an agreement that guarantees the interests of stakeholders could be made.In the case where the externality is produced by MNCs’ outsourcing, the CSR is therefore an institution (or the rule of game) that may help to remedy past and potential conflicts of interest among stakeholders and produce a more sustainable future development. However, the stakeholder approach of CSR may not be sustainable due to the complexity of the agreement, the high cost of property righ ts’ identification, and the high information cost of bargaining. First, there is doubt about the willingness of MNCs to design a valid CSR practice that would help alleviate workers’ conditions at the supplier level (AMRC, 2004:10).Second, it is sometimes difficult to identify all the stakeholders because they are often locally determined. The transaction cost may be significant as stakeholders who can work together are needed to conceptualize and implement CSR. 6 Third, even when one can draw a rough picture about potential stakeholders, the question is how these very different – usually polarized – stakeholder views can successfully collaborate from the drafting the CSR to its implementation and monitoring (Dubinsky, 2002).The stakeholder approach to CSR is thus considered to have a higher transaction cost than the CG approach because it has to define all stakeholders and bring them together to develop the CSR design. In general, the CG approach to CSR is an expression used to describe what some see as a company’s obligation to be sensitive to the needs of all stakeholders in its business operations (Hill and Jones, 1992). 7 This is a top-down approach that aligns with the MNCs’ board (Husted, 2003).However, in the case of outsourcing decision, according to Williamson (2008), the choice of form of governance is subject to transaction costs due to asset specificity, uncertainty, frequency and their transaction costs, among others. These transaction costs would then determine the form of outsourcing (market or vertical integration). 8 The CG approach to CSR thus coincides with the outsourcing form and uses external social auditors instead of relying on stakeholders to monitor the behaviors of suppliers. 6 Murray (2002) suggests that even when companies have elegant statements of principle, the complexity is the accountability.Local-level involvement is needed and involves a complex regime of stakeholders (Murray, 2002: 41). 7 Most of the CSR has similar objectives. See, for example, Leipziger (2001) for SA8000, one of the guides to the new CSR code. 7 Figure 2: Corporate governance approach: the firm is at the center. Source: Fassin (2008) Figure 5. In practice, the CG approach to CSR usually employs the CSRC as a means to control the behavior of suppliers. 9 From the MNCs’ point of view, the CSRC may have less uncertainty and may be a more cost-effective market solution. First, MNCs can use their existing internal system to monitor the suppliers.Second, MNCs can employ â€Å"external specialists† such as auditing firms instead of the stakeholders to â€Å"plan† and â€Å"monitor† the implementation of CSRC at the supplier level. 10 One of the potential pitfalls of the CG approach to CSR is that even when the MNCs aim to implement the CSRC for these suppliers/suppliers, monitoring issues prevail and are subject to opportunism (Brown, 2002). 11 In some cases, the CG app roach to CSRC has been criticized as a â€Å"lame duck† by labor NGOs, even if the MNCs are indeed willing to safeguard better working conditions for 8Williamson (2008) has extended the transaction cost economics approach to outsourcing decision of a firm. The contractual schema suggested that key attributes of transactions such as asset specificity, uncertainty, and frequency and their transaction costs will determine the form of outsourcing (market or vertical integration) (Williamson, 2008: 8). The schema assumed the outsourcing form would be determined and stabilized as long as the property rights are well defined and reliably enforced by courts. 9 See Kotler and Lee (2005) for their suggestions on using CSR from a corporate governance point of view and from a marketing perspective. 0 See, for example, the social auditing of Pricewaterhouse. Also see the establishment of SA 8000 by Social Accountability International (SAI) as a newly formed labor standard that responds to the need of MNC’s code of conduct. Their website: http://www. sa-intl. org/index. cfm? fuseaction=Page. viewPage=473 11 Dara O’Rourke (2001, 2004), an urban planning professor at U C Berkeley, has shown that there has been a problem in implementing the CSR code to the workshop level and the code’s impacts on workshops’ working condition and safety may be not as expected. 8 uppliers’ workers. This is because of the existing monitoring problems at the implementation level . 12 There may be two basic problems at the supplier level. First, the suppliers may not want to comply with the procedure that the MNCs require (AMRC, 2004, 65; Jiang, 2009). There are many measures from suppliers to MNCs’ CSRCs. Second, the â€Å"social auditing† monitoring procedures may be biased and possibly diluted by suppliers’ measures (O’Rourke, 2002). 13 Auditors sometimes leave out some important factors during their investigations (See O†™Rourke, 2000, 2001, 2002). 4 This leads to agency problems associated with CG approach to the CSRC (Goodpaster, 1991; Winn, 2001). In the CG approach, there is high monitoring cost and information asymmetry among stakeholders, especially between local suppliers and the MNCs. 15 In this regard, the CSR movement also encountered challenges about its validity at the theoretical and implementation levels. 16 To validate the theoretical discussion, the testable hypotheses are as follows: H1: If the CSRC is â€Å"good† for workplace conditions, then we should see suppliers with CSRC that have better labor conditions than â€Å"no CSRC† factories.H2: In addition, if a different CSRC content has a different effect, we should expect a systematic difference among CSRC firms. H3: Moreover, if the CSRC suffers from opportunism, different measures to get around the CSRC at the subcontract level may affect CSRC effects. 12 In fact, a number of â€Å"social auditors† have b een created in response to the new â€Å"demand† from MNC. However, the incentive for these auditors to reveal the true situation at the workshop level is in doubt (O'Rourke, 2000). 13 The Designs of Codes vary greatly across companies and industries.For example, the World Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production (WRAP) certification requested that the independent monitors be paid by the company under investigation. That causes serious doubt of the independency of auditor. Also, there is no requirement to interview workers during the factory investigation (Jenkins, 2002: 26). 14 O’Rourke (2002) investigates the social auditing process of Pricewaterhouse Coopers in a garment factory in Shanghai. Pricewaterhouse Coopers used a standard factory monitor process for factory management, but not for workers.He also shows that there may be management bias and flaw reporting on the auditing process. The management bias includes failures to collect information from workers and f ailures to access restraints on freedom of association. 15 Dubinsky (2002) documented the garment worker of suppliers in L. A. for GUESS. While the CSRC in GUESS was intended to enhance workers’ condition, the workers interviewed reveal no material improvement in their working conditions and were threatened and penalized when they speak out. 6 For more information of the consultants for CSR code, please visit: http://www. thecsrgroup. com/ 9 H4: Finally, if CSRC can increase transaction cost of opportunism at the supplier side, more CSRC would reduce the effect of opportunism. To assess the validity of these hypotheses, this study employs data generated from a random survey of workers from 12 suppliers of branded toy MNCs in Shenzhen and evaluates the CSRC effect using a unidimensional item response theory model. The following section describes the survey and the methodology of this study. . Survey and Methodology This section will discuss the survey and the methodology used this study. Section 3. 1 provides details on the survey design and the sample frame. Section 3. 2 compares the CSR code of conduct of branded companies with the mandate of the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) and International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions. Section 3. 3 provides a ranking of CSRC tasks in terms of level of difficulty. Section 3. 4 demonstrates the methodology used in this study. 3. The survey The survey was conducted at the Shenzhen and Dongguan areas in Southern China, both highly concentrated with labor-intensive industries, in particular, toy factories. 17 The survey, which took place from June 2006 to March 2007, focused on the toy industry’s CSRC. To systematically examine the impact of CSRC on labor conditions, this survey first used the industrial phone book and identified a sampling frame before the randomized selection of 12 toy factories in Shenzhen and Dongguan areas at Southern China.The selection of the sample is as follows: Their size should be comparable (usually around 1000 workers in each factory). This study identified 10 code factories within which there were eight suppliers with single CSR (Mattel, McDonald’s, Disney, Wal-Mart) and two suppliers with two CSRCs (Disney & Wal-Mart, Mattel, and Wal-Mart). The survey also included two suppliers with similar technologies that produce only for the domestic market as a comparison group. Twenty 17 Please see Appendix 1 for the background of the setting, toy industry in China, and the reasons for choosing the sites in this study. 0 workers at the entry level were interviewed in each factory, and all the workers were interviewed anonymously. 18 A total of 240 workers were surveyed in this study. 19 3. 2 A Comparison of Corporate Social Responsibility Codes of Conduct Table 1 shows a comparison between the statements of the study firms’ CSRC, the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) and the International Labor Organization’s c onventions according to publicly available information. The first column shows ILO conventions that are very detailed and cover the labor conditions mentioned.However, the ILO conventions operate at the state level. That is, unless a state signed the conventions, ILO convention restrictions would not be imposed at the local level. The ICTI codes at the association level and other firms’ CSRC followed the ILO conventions, but with less detail. 20 Table 1 is divided into the following sections: violation of law, bargaining rights and freedom of association, workshop safety and living environment, and monitoring procedures. In terms of violation of law, all the codes indicated that there should no child labor under 14 years of age and no forced labor.However, with the exception of the ICTI code, no individual CSRC mentions maternity leave. As for the section on labor bargaining rights and freedom of association, Disney shows its respect for rights for association and collective bargaining, while the ICTI and Wal-Mart show respect for rights of association only. With regard to safety and living environment, Mattel’s CSRC shows the most detailed description, followed by the ICTI; Disney and McDonald’s CSRCs show similar content and are less detailed than those of Mattel and ICTI. Wal-Mart’s CSRC shows the least detail in this aspect.For the monitoring mechanism, the ICTI CSRC mentioned auditing at the initial stage and in production, as well as a follow-up auditing during the production cycle. The ICTI also mentioned that the factory audit could review the employment record, books, and interview worker privately and the audit could be unannounced to reduce the opportunism. While no individual CSRC gives such detailed monitoring mechanism description, Disney makes it clear that they can review records and books, and suppliers cannot subcontract their work further. McDonald’s mentions that the supplier’s management 18Understa nding that suppliers may have pressure to workers not to reveal the true factory information to strangers, I have instructed the surveyors to talk to perspective workers and develop trust between each other. Surveyors would explain the survey purpose and ask the agreement of perspective respondents. The survey is conducted outside of the factory areas, usually at local restaurant during workers’ lunch time, to eliminate influence from suppliers. 19 The survey questionnaire can be provided upon request. 20 More detailed descriptions of the CSRC for ICTI can be found in its website: http://www. toyicti. rg/info/codeofbusinesspractices. html. 11 should put an effort to monitor the CSRC standard, and show that the auditor can enter workers’ dormitory and interview the workers. Among other CSRCs, only Wal-Mart shows that it has increased efforts to monitor the suppliers in both announced and unannounced factory audits. Mattel, however, does not show any monitoring informati on to public. In a nutshell, individual firms’ CSRC could be very different and their monitoring efforts may differ from earlier observations. The next section offers basic observations about the ranking of the difficulty CSRC tasks from a survey of 12 factories. 12Table 1: A comparision of Toy Industries' Corporate Social Responsibility Code of Codes with ILO convent International Labor Organization (ILO) convent International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) Violation of Law child labor (;15 yrs) (C59) minimum age of 14 * under age labor (;16 yrs) No Maternity leave (C3) maternity benefits as provided by law Illegal Over Time work (C1) (C6) ( C41) (171) by law Forced Labor (C29, C105) Labor Bargaining Rights and Freedom of Association Bargaining Rights (C98) Bargaining Channel Employee Association (C87) Compliant to Client Labor Union (C87) Labor department Use Collective Bargain (C154) Strike Use Safety nd Living Environment Fire Safety (C155) Workshop Safety (C155) Food p roblem Live environment problem other problem no discrimination (C111) compensation Coercion and Harassment notification to employee monitor and inspection: Unannouned Factory Audit no forced or prison labor is employed Disney 15 yrs (but 14 yrs if law allowed) Mattel specified by country's law McDonald 15 yrs (but 14 yrs if law allowed) yes, only if no schooling 60hr/week, 1 day/week off no forced labor Wal-Mart not allow >14 yrs old 48/week +12 hr OT, 1/week day off except special business circumstances no forced labor overtime must be voluntary and documented, rest days with local law payroll deductions must comply with law and mattel requirment 72hr/6days, 14/24hrs no forced labor freel employee representation by local law upplier need to respect right for association lawful union activities supplier need to respect right for Collective Bargain lawful collective bargain in lawful and peasceful manner, without penalty, interference supplier need to respect right for association e mergency exits, trained emergency evacuation; machinery safeguards >= local laws and employees trained facilities or appropriate provisions for meals and other breaks housing, rooms, sanitary facilities meet basic needs; ventilated, fire safety by local laws toilet facilities meet local hygiene requirements , and are properly maintained standards set by law fire safety adequate lighting and ventilation potable drinkng water, sanitary facilites, health and safety housing envriomental friendly race, color, gender, religion, disability with the local law or local standard, choose the higher one rogram and system for fires, spills and natural disasters, emergency exit unlocked have programs to address health and safety, first aid, medical treatment canteens must be safe, sanitary, meet basic needs dormitories must be safe, sanitary, meet basic needs minimize environmental impact fire exit esential safety equipment, first aid kit, emergency care potable drinkng water, adequate, clean res trooms, appropriately-lit work station race, color, gender, religion, disability with the local law no unhealth and hazardous enviroment nontoxic material, envrionmental friendly race, color, gender, religion, disability with the local law legally mandated rates eed to have local lanuage post the CSR terms to employee 1 to 2 factory manager shall be monitor the compliance of standard yes yes, review employment record and books, yes, but no number specified, 26% of 16000 in 2006 (6% increase) can go to housing accommodations can go to housing accommodations others Audit inculdes: Initial , Follow-up, In-Production. no further subcontractor can be used. can private interviews with employees >16000 audit for 8873 suppliers in 2006 Source: International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions, International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI), The Walt Disney Company Code of Conduct for Manufactures, Mattel, Inc. Global Manufacturing Principles, McDonald's Code of Coduct for Suppliers, Wal-Ma rt Stores, Inc.Standard for Suppliers *but notwithstanding the foregoing, that C138 Minimum Age Convention (1973) and C182 Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention (1999) of the International Labor Organization apply Code posted or available for all employees in local language. need to have local lanuage post the CSR terms to employee 13 3. 3 Ranking the difficulty of CSRC tasks Before going into the methodological analysis, let us examine the level of the labor problem from the survey data. This survey considers each labor problem as a task for the supplier to accomplish. The seriousness of each labor problem can be considered as the level of difficulty to accomplish the task. Table 2 shows the percentage of all respondents saying â€Å"the task is a problem† = â€Å"1† and â€Å"the task is not a problem† = â€Å"0. 21 The larger the mean in the variable, the greater the number of respondents who answered â€Å"1,† and the more problem is perceived in tha t task. The variations in these variable means are large. All the respondents cited â€Å"1† in response to â€Å"Union,† which had a mean of â€Å"1†. This is considered to be the â€Å"most difficult problem. † The two other â€Å"most difficult problems† are â€Å"complaint to client† and â€Å"labor association,† with 99% and 98%, respectively, with â€Å"1† on average. As only few respondents raise â€Å"other problems†, its mean is the lowest at 2% on average, which indicates that suppliers consider this the â€Å"easiest problem†. Table 2: Corporate Social Responsibility Tasks' Diffculty level Item Obs Mean Std. Dev.Min Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Labor Union 240 1. 00 0. 00 1 0. 99 Complaint to Client 240 0. 11 0 Employee Association 240 0. 98 0. 14 0 Bargaining Rights 238 0. 45 0. 50 0 Bargaining Channel 240 0. 73 0. 45 0 Labor department Use 240 0. 48 0. 50 0 Collective Bargain 240 0. 96 0. 1 9 0 Strike Use 240 0. 62 0. 49 0 Violation of Law child labor (>14 yrs) 238 0. 11 0. 31 0 under age labor (>16 yrs) 238 0. 34 0. 47 0 No Maternity leave 238 0. 82 0. 39 0 Illegal Over Time work 238 0. 85 0. 36 0 Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 235 0. 03 0. 18 0 Workshop Safety 235 0. 26 0. 44 0 Food problem 235 0. 83 0. 38 0 Live environment problem 235 0. 29 0. 46 0 0. 02 other problem 235 0. 3 0 Note: the respond â€Å"1† means â€Å"the task is a problem,† while â€Å"0† means â€Å"the task is not a problem† in respondent's factory. â€Å"labor union† has 100% respond â€Å"1† and that mean it is the â€Å"hardest problem† for suppliers. â€Å"other problem† has 2% respond with â€Å"0† and is considered to be the most â€Å"easiest problem† for suppliers. Max 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 Please see Appendix 2 for a detailed breakdown of the labor condition distribution. 14 3. 4 Methodology T able 2 presents the distribution of the CSRC task and the problem perceived. However, both the respondents’ knowledge of the problem and the suppliers’ characteristics may bias the analysis of CSRC effect on labor conditions.The respondents’ knowledge and the suppliers’ effort to implement CSRC are, however, unobservable. To correct these unobservable biases and obtain a consistent estimate of the likelihood of suppliers’ problem, this methodology section proposes to use the unidimensional item response theory (UIRT) (or the Rasch) model. In general, the item response theory (IRT) is a body of theories describing the application of mathematical models to data from questionnaires and tests as a basis for measuring abilities, attitudes, or other variables. 22 The IRT model is based on the idea that the probability of getting an item correct is a function of a latent trait or ability. The UIRT model is a member of IRT family which applies to dichotomo us data. 3 The UIRT model is usually used in test analysis, which can analyze the relative difficulty level of an examination question by removing the individual (the examinee’s) unobservable influence on the answer of the question. It is used for statistical analysis and development of assessments, often for high-stake tests such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). 24 Using the GRE as example, a person with higher intelligence would more likely be able to correctly respond to a question in an intelligence test. This study introduces UIRT model to evaluate the impacts of CSRC on labor conditions. The UIRT model in this study estimates the probability of a worker getting a positive response in a list of the ifferent tasks by taking into account each task’s difficulty level and the different abilities, knowledge, 22 IRT models apply mathematical functions that specify the probability of a discrete outcome, such as a correct response to an item, in terms of person a nd item parameters. Person parameters may, for example, represent the ability of a student or the strength of a person's attitude. Item parameters include difficulty (location), discrimination (slope or correlation), and pseudoguessing (lower asymptote). Items may be questions that have incorrect or correct responses, as well as statements that allow respondents to indicate the level of agreement. 3 In general, the UIRT model estimates these outcomes using two types of predictors – a person’s ability and the test item’s difficulty level. A person’s ability and the test item’s difficulty level are given as â€Å"X† in the right side of the equation. â€Å"Y† is a person’s response to a test item (or a survey item) and is given on the left side of the equation. 24 Among other methods, IRT provides a basis for evaluating how well assessments and individual questions on assessment work. In education, psychometricians apply IRT to a chieve tasks as developing and refining exams, maintaining banks of items for exams, and equating the difficulties of successive versions of exams (for example, to allow comparisons between results over time). 15 nd willingness level of each respondent and individual supplier. The UIRT model is particularly useful in this study because this model can effectively take into account an individual’s knowledge of the problem and each supplier’s willingness to carry out the task. With the estimated outcomes on hand, one can compare the relative difficulty level of any task by using the easiest task (or the hardest task) that suppliers could fulfill. The last section shows that the â€Å"other problem† is the easiest problem among others; this study will therefore use the â€Å"other problem† as the basis for the relative difficulty in ranking problems in the statistical analysis. 25In our context, the UIRT model is defined as follows: Let us consider a sample o f individuals who answer the survey as if taking a test, and assume the probability, Pij , that worker i’s answer â€Å"yes† (or â€Å"1†) responds to task j and depends only on a parameter, ai , representing the respondent’s ability (which can represent the joint outcome of a worker level understanding of the firm and other factors such as suppliers’ characteristics) and another parameter, b j , representing the difficulty level of the task attempted. Assume further that for some monotone transformation, M. M ( P ) = ai ? b j ij (1) for all i and j. The odds of getting a task right decreases with task’s difficulty (and thus the minus sign before b j ). That is, an additive representation is postulated for the suitably transformed probabilities, Pij . When M is the inverse logistic transformation,M ( Pij ) = ln( Pij ) = ai ? b j 1 ? Pij (2) (ln is the natural logarithm), we have UIRT model. 25 We can also use â€Å"union† as a base to obtain a more precise estimation of the probability of getting a task â€Å"right† as the responses are all zeros. As this article focuses on the relative difficulty level of tasks, it is reasonable to use the easiest task as the base. 16 The UIRT model has certain very desirable statistical properties for the estimation of these parameters. With the UIRT model, this grouping method can be approximated to estimate parameters. 26 We can then compare the estimated M ( Pij ) to determine the relative difficulty level of each task. robability of getting a particular task with â€Å"1† can also be calculated The as: exp( M ( Pij )) /(1 + exp( M ( Pij ))) . 27 With these desirable properties of the UIRT model, this study can allow different groupings of CSRC and evaluate their effects on labor conditions by comparing the parameters. 4. Results 4. 1 Basic Result Table 3 shows the benchmark model that pooled all the factories together to investigate the overall picture of lab or conditions using the UIRT model and the â€Å"other problem† as the basis of comparisons. As shown in Table 2, response â€Å"0† means the worker thinks that there is â€Å"no problem† with a particular task, while â€Å"1† means the task â€Å"has problem†.Therefore, using the estimated coefficients, the â€Å"union† coefficients serve as the upper bound and the â€Å"other problem† as the lowest bound; the interpretation of the coefficient is therefore an assessment of the relative significance of the problem against â€Å"union† and â€Å"other problem. † That is, when a task has similar significance as the â€Å"union,† it means that the task is â€Å"very difficult† for suppliers, while a task that is not significantly different from the â€Å"other problem†, it means that the task is also an â€Å"easy problem† for suppliers. Table 3 shows (from left), the fixed effect model, the fixe d effect with probability weighted, and the random effect model, respectively. All the models have passed their test of specification. Comparing 26Specifically, it can be shown (Lord & Novick, 1968, p. 429) that a respondent’s raw score (number of tasks correct) is a minimal sufficient statistic for his/her ability. This leads to a practical implementation of the model in that statistical estimates of abilities and item parameters can be obtained by proceeding as if everyone with the same raw score has exactly the same ability. The parameter estimates are commonly computed using conditional maximum likelihood CMLE and yield consistent estimates of item parameters (Andersen, 1973). 27 Obviously, the Pij is unobservable, as are ability and item parameters. Estimates of the Pij (and, hence, the ai and b j could be obtained if it were possible to give a respondent the same question about a task on repeated occasions, and his/her responses were independent over trials. Clearly, th is is not possible. Alternatively, the probabilities could be estimated if a worker with similar ability could be identified. Assuming a group of people with the same ability, as individuals respond to items independently, the observed proportion of individuals within the group who respond positively to task j is an estimate of the probability that any given person from that group passes the task. 17 the fixed effect model and the model with probability weighted, the ranking of variables’ coefficients is in the same order. There is no qualitative difference between the two models.In fact, the coefficient value and the ranking are identical between the fixed effect model in the first column and the random effect model in the third column, suggesting that heterogeneity is not a problem and the random effect model is not necessary. 28 Therefore, this study will be based on the fixed effect model for extended models in the subsequent sections. â€Å"Union,† â€Å"complain t to client,† and â€Å"employee association† are the top three difficult tasks for suppliers. The estimated probability of union, complaint to client, and employee association in the fixed effect model is 1, 0. 9998, and 0. 9996, respectively, suggesting a 100%, 99. 98%, and 99. 96% chance of getting these tasks with a problem. These estimated probabilities are very consistent with the statistics in Table 2. This reflects that CSRC may not be very helpful for labor union and freedom of association activities.All the tasks in the model are positively and significantly different from the â€Å"other problem,† suggesting that these problems warrant our attention, except the fire safety problem. The reason why the fire safety problem is not frequently cited as a problem may be attributed to the fact that after a fatal factory fire in Shenzhen area in the early 1990s, a workshop-level fire safety law has been introduced. Since then, labor NGOs and the local governmen t have paid attention to fire safety in workplaces. 29 After a brief overview about the problem with the pooled data, the next section tests hypotheses about the effectiveness of the different CSRCs and the problem of opportunism at the supplier level. 28When reading across the columns, one should avoid directly comparing the coefficients among different models as the assumptions are different. However, we can focus on the relative importance of variables in each model. 29 For a detailed discussion about the labor movement and the history about the event, read AMRC (2004: 41-82). 18 Table 3: Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions Fixed Effect Item Coef. Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 22. 71 (1. 82) Complaint to Client 8. 37 (0. 9) Employee Association 7. 85 (0. 76) Bargaining Rights 3. 87 (0. 61) Bargaining Channel 5. 03 (0. 59) Labor department Use 3. 99 (0. 58) Collective Bargain 7. 25 (0. 73) Strike Use 4. 54 (0. ) Violation of Law Child labor (>14 yrs) 1. 96 (0. 6) Under age labor (>16 yrs) 3. 38 (0. 61) Maternity leave 5. 51 (0. 62) Illegal Over Time work 5. 74 (0. 63) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 0. 71 (0. 7) Workshop Safety 3. 01 (0. 61) Food problem 5. 58 (0. 65) Live environment problem 3. 18 (0. 61) constent Number of obs F( 16, 239) Prob > F Pseudo R2 Linktest: _hat 4045. 00 10551. 86 0. 00 0. 49 0. 00 1. 00 P>|z| 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 Fixed Effect with p-weighted Coef. P>|z| 28. 30 (0. 59) 10. 70 (0. 92) 10. 52 (0. 78) 4. 72 (0. 61) 6. 14 (0. 61) 5. 09 (0. 6) 9. 39 (0. 75) 5. 33 (0. 61) 2. 56 (0. 66) 4. 03 (0. 61) 6. 2 (0. 62) 7. 99 (0. 67) 1. 58 (0. 78) 4. 47 (0. 61) 7. 28 (0. 65) 4. 74 (0. 62) 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 Random Effect Coef. 29. 19 (9. 73) 8. 44 (0. 9) 7. 92 (0. 76) 3. 88 (0. 61) 5. 05 (0. 6) 3. 99 (0. 58) 7. 31 (0. 72) 4. 56 (0. 6) 1. 96 (0. 6) 3. 38 (0. 61) 5. 55 (0. 62) 5. 79 (0. 63) 0. 71 (0. 7) 3. 01 (0. 61) 5. 62 (0. 65) 3. 18 (0. 61) 4. 06 (0. 58) 4045. 00 F( 16, 239) Prob > F /lnsig2u P>|z| 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 31 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 04 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 31 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 4045. 00 88251. 79 0. 0 0. 55 1. 00 (0. 13) 0. 00 (0. 01) 0. 00 1. 00 1. 00 (0. 13) _hatsq 0. 00 (0. 01) Other Problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis 60. 68 0. 00 -4. 55 (0. 29) sigma_u 0. 10 (0. 02) Prob >= chibar2 0. 40 Likelihood-ratio test 0. 08 19 4. 2 Which CSR code is better? As shown in Table 1, different branded companies may have differences in the CSRC statement. This section aims to evaluate the effect of an individual brand company’s CSRC on labor conditions and to understand the relationships between company’s CSRC statement and CSRC outcomes. Table 4 shows the UIRT model for labor conditions by different CSRCs.As there are suppliers with more than one CSRC, this study will pool suppliers with same CSRC to estimate the difficulty level of relative tasks. For example, as the survey has one supplier with Disney only but two suppliers with Disney & Wal-Mart, this study combines these three supplier data into the UIRT model. As discussed in the methodology section, the UIRT model can then essentially extract the common information from these Disney suppliers and investigate the aggregated â€Å"Disney CSRC effect. † Table 4 ranks the CSRC according to the number of tasks similar to the difficulty level of â€Å"union,† descending from left (the easiest task) to right (the most difficult task).In Table 4, columns 1 to 5 show suppliers with a larger number of problems and the lowest number of problems similar to the difficulty level of the problem â€Å"union. † They are non-CSRC suppliers (with 6 problems), McDonald’s (5 problems), Mattel (2 problems), Disney (2 problems), and Wal-Mart (with 0 problem). The first obser vation is that the most serious problems are concentrated on â€Å"labor bargaining and association rights†. When focusing on individual CSRC in this section, the â€Å"non-CSRC† suppliers in cited in the first column show that five tasks have the same difficulty level as union. In contrast, there are no such tasks for the Wal-Mart suppliers, suggesting that they may commit less serious labor bargaining and association rights problems.While we focus on the tasks with the lowest bound of difficulty, Disney suppliers may have more (6 tasks) tasks that are insignificantly different from the â€Å"other problem. † This means that Disney’s suppliers may be less likely to have labor bargaining and association problems. Why so? Can the mission statements of CSRC give some useful information? As Table 1 shows, Disney’s mission statement provides a more detailed description than other CSRCs with respect to the labor bargaining and association problems. Howe ver, while there is no explicit statement about labor bargaining and association problems in the McDonald’s CSRC, its suppliers are more likely to commit violations over other CSRCs, as shown in the second column of Table 4. On 20 he whole, it seems that the CSRC could have some positive impacts on labor bargaining and association problems, and the effects would be dependent on the details of the CSRC statements. 30 Let us now discuss the violation of laws. While the non-CSRC suppliers may have serious problems regarding maternity leave, McDonald’s suppliers may have serious problems with illegal overtime work when compared with the labor union problem. This is consistent with McDonald’s CSRC statement – the most concise among other CSRCs – on illegal overtime work. When focusing on the insignificant problem, an interesting pattern emerged: the tasks that are not as serious as â€Å"other problems† are inversely distributed along the columns , except for Wal-Mart suppliers.Disney suppliers continually outperform other CSRCs with no tasks considered significant, while Wal-Mart suppliers show significance in all the tasks. While Table 1 does not show any significant difference between Wal-Mart’s CSRC compared to the other CSRC in this issue, the results may be affected by the fact that these suppliers do not produce goods only for Wal-Mart. The next subsection analyzes the number of CSRCs and its the impact on labor conditions. In terms of safety and living environment issues, all suppliers under this study do not indicate significant problems on fire safety. However, the non-CSRC suppliers are consistently worse than other suppliers in terms of workshop safety and food problem.Indeed, food seems to be a common problem among suppliers, except for Disney suppliers. Consistent with results in labor bargaining and association rights, Disney suppliers outperform other CSRC suppliers because no task is significantly dif ferent from the â€Å"other problem. † In all the three sections, Disney suppliers continually outperform other CSRCs. This result seems to be consistent with Disney’s CSRC statement, shown in Table 1. Some suppliers work for more than one CSRC, which may mean more transaction costs in avoiding the CSRC. It is interesting to explore how the number of CSRCs affect firms. 30 Certainly, we can just observe the CSRC statement, but efforts to enforce the statement terms are unobservable.As discussed in the methodology section, the UIRT model is a tool to remove unobservable influences and obtain consistent estimates of the difficulty level of tasks. 21 Table 4: Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions by different CSR code No CSR code McDonald's Mattel Item Coef. P;|t| Coef. P;|t| Coef. P;|t| Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 42. 38 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 19. 98 0. 00 (4. 33) (4. 15) (3. 01) Complaint to Client 42. 38 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 5. 53 0. 00 (4 . 33) (4. 15) (0. 94) 42. 38 41. 63 19. 98 Employee Association 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 (4. 33) (4. 15) (3. 01) Bargaining Rights 42. 38 0. 00 -0. 03 0. 26 0. 28 0. 77 (4. 33) (0. 03) (0. 3) Bargaining Channel 42. 38 0. 00 21. 30 0. 00 19. 98 0. 00 (4. 33) (2. 27) (3. 01) Labor department Use 0. 00 0. 87 20. 67 0. 00 2. 69 0. 00 (0. 00) (2. 01) (0. 68) Collective Bargain 42. 38 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 4. 80 0. 00 (4. 33) (4. 15) (0. 89) Strike Use 20. 77 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 1. 48 0. 05 (2. 30) (4. 15) (0. 74) Violation of Law Child labor (;14 yrs) Under age labor (;16 yrs) Maternity leave Illegal Over Time work 0. 00 (0. 00) 19. 92 (1. 77) 42. 38 (4. 33) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 -0. 03 (0. 03) -0. 03 (0. 03) 21. 92 (2. 44) 41. 63 (4. 15) 0. 00 (0. 00) 0. 00 (0. 00) 21. 84 (2. 43) 0. 26 0. 26 0. 00 0. 00 0. 28 (0. 93) 0. 51 (0. 9) 3. 83 (0. 77) 5. 23 (0. 99) 0. 30 (0. 93) 2. 29 (0. 78) 4. 01 (0. 88) 0. 77 0. 57 0. 00 0. 00 Disney Coef. 23. 12 (13. 27) 23. 12 (13. 27) 6. 32 (13. 94) 4. 63 (14. 02) 3. 24 (14. 00) 4. 87 (13. 94) 8. 00 (19. 73) 23. 12 (13. 27) 2. 94 (13. 92) 4. 48 (14. 02) 6. 49 (14. 24) 5. 35 (14. 05) 1. 13 (14. 02) 3. 27 (14. 01) 7. 97 (28. 15) P;|t| 0. 09 0. 09 0. 65 0. 74 0. 82 0. 73 0. 69 0. 09 0. 83 0. 75 0. 65 0. 71 21. 01 (1. 94) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety Workshop Safety Food problem 0. 00 (0. 00) 21. 01 (1. 94) 20. 89 (1. 91) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 34 0. 31 0. 00 0. 75 0. 01 0. 00 0. 94 0. 82 22 0. 78 4. 3 Is more CSRC better?This section focuses on the number of CSRCs: if more CSRCs increase transaction costs for suppliers, which in turn results in violations of the CSRC, then there should be less violation with regard to labor conditions as the number of CSRCs increases. Table 5 shows the UIRT model for labor conditions according to the number of CSR code. The nonCSRC supplier column is the same as in Table 4, while the â€Å"1 CSRC† column has a pool of suppliers with a single CSRC and â€Å"2 CSRC† suppliers include Matt el ; Wal-Mart and Disney ; Wal-Mart. The pattern of violations in labor conditions in Table 8 is consistent with the hypothesis that more CSRCs is better to control opportunism at the suppliers’ level; the suppliers of 2 CSRCs constantly outperform the 1 CSRC suppliers and the non-CSRC suppliers on the control of labor conditions.For example, in terms of labor bargaining and association rights, the number of tasks with a similar significant coefficient as union is 5 in â€Å"No CSRC† suppliers, 2 in â€Å"1 CSRC† supplier, and none in â€Å"2 CSRC† suppliers. All the estimation results in â€Å"violation of law† and â€Å"safety and living environment† show that the tasks relative to coefficients are reduced as the number of CSRC increases. These results are consistent with the perspective that an increase in the number of CSRCs may increase the transaction costs of opportunism at the suppliers’ level. However, suppliers may also have measures to reduce governance effects from CSRC. The effects of different measures of opportunism are investigated in the next section. 23 24Table 5: Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions by number of CSR code No CSR code 1 CSR code 2 CSR codes Item Coef. P;|t| Coef. P;|t| Coef. Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 42. 38 0. 00 39. 19 0. 00 19. 40 (4. 33) (0. 31) (3. 12) Complaint to Client 42. 38 0. 00 39. 19 0. 00 6. 11 (4. 33) (0. 31) (0. 89) Employee Association 42. 38 0. 00 39. 19 0. 00 5. 57 (4. 33) (0. 31) (0. 76) Bargaining Rights 42. 38 0. 00 19. 10 0. 00 2. 02 (4. 33) (0. 26) (0. 67) Bargaining Channel 42. 38 0. 00 20. 14 0. 00 3. 92 (4. 33) (0. 20) (0. 64) Labor department Use 0. 00 0. 87 19. 73 0. 00 3. 51 (0. 00) (0. 25) (0. 58) Collective Bargain 42. 38 0. 00 23. 61 0. 00 5. 21 (4. 33) (0. 98) (0. 6) Strike Use 20. 77 0. 00 20. 24 0. 00 3. 51 (2. 30) (0. 26) (0. 64) Violation of Law Child labor (;14 yrs) Under age labor (;16 yrs) Maternity l eave Illegal Over Time work Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety Workshop Safety Food problem Live environment problem 0. 00 (0. 00) 21. 01 (1. 94) 20. 89 (1. 91) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 87 15. 47 (0. 87) 14. 77 (14. 65) 22. 30 (0. 42) 18. 70 (0. 23) 2030. 00 0. 64 0. 00 0. 32 0. 00 0. 00 0. 43 (0. 76) 2. 98 (0. 68) 4. 48 (0. 79) 2. 72 (0. 67) 1335. 00 0. 40 0. 00 (0. 00) 19. 92 (1. 77) 42. 38 (4. 33) 21. 01 (1. 94) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 17. 05 (0. 41) 19. 27 (0. 24) 20. 85 (0. 24) 24. 31 (15. 01) 0. 0 0. 00 0. 00 0. 11 1. 61 (0. 64) 1. 76 (0. 67) 4. 07 (0. 67) 4. 30 (0. 70) P;|t| 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 01 0. 01 0. 00 0. 00 0. 57 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 (0. 00) Number of obs 680. 00 Pseudo R2 0. 84 Other Problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis 4. 4 Suppliers’ Measures to circumvent CSRC auditing 25 When considering other transaction costs of governing with the CSRC, suppliers may apply different strategies to get around the CSRC auditing. Because most CSRC auditing would give advance notice to suppliers, suppliers would have room for measures to circumvent the auditing.This study has documented some of the common supplier measures to circumvent CSRC auditing: fire drill, trained question, giving a holiday, cleaning the factory, and safety drill. Certainly, suppliers may use more than one measure to get around the CSRC auditing; it is likely that suppliers with more labor problems would use more measures to cover up their problems. This section first looks at the number of measures that may be associated with labor problems. We then investigate how the different measures affect labor conditions. Table 6 shows the UIRT model for the number of measures to circumvent CSRC auditing. The first column of Table 6 shows the result of â€Å"no measure. A response of â€Å"no measure† to circumvent CSRC auditing is associated with no significant measures that are different from â€Å"o ther problem,† suggesting that a supplier without any measure for CSRC auditing is performing relatively well in terms of labor conditions. The second column, i. e. , â€Å"one measure† to circumvent CSRC auditing, shows a very different pattern. Although no task is as difficult as the union problem, all tasks show a significant coefficient, except the fire safety problem. The third column, â€Å"two or more measures,† indicates an even stronger coefficient in all the tasks than the column with one measure. Furthermore, the task â€Å"complaint to client† is as strong as â€Å"union† in this column.When comparing the three columns in Table 6, it appears that the more the measures suppliers use, the higher the likelihood they commit more labor problems. This is consistent with the transaction cost hypothesis that opportunism may increase the transaction cost of governing with the CSRC. It is not necessary that all measures have an equal effect on lab or problems. The next section shows the effect of individual measure of CSRC auditing on labor problems. 26 Table 6: Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions by Number of Supplier's Measure No Measure One Measure Two or More Measures Item Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 19. 88 0. 22 20. 47 0. 0 34. 57 0. 00 (15. 58) (3. 66) (4. 30) Complaint to Client 5. 35 0. 79 7. 34 0. 00 34. 57 0. 00 (19. 88) (1. 20) (4. 30) Employee Association 5. 35 0. 79 7. 34 0. 00 20. 80 0. 00 (20. 03) (1. 21) (2. 85) Bargaining Rights 1. 64 0. 92 2. 40 0. 00 17. 16 0. 00 (15. 09) (0. 77) (2. 19) Bargaining Channel 3. 47 0. 82 4. 24 0. 00 17. 84 0. 00 (14. 91) (0. 74) (2. 13) Labor department Use 3. 20 0. 83 3. 85 0. 00 17. 42 0. 00 (14. 89) (0. 71) (2. 17) Collective Bargain 19. 88 0. 22 6. 63 0. 00 19. 85 0. 00 (15. 58) (1. 03) (2. 30) Strike Use 2. 94 0. 85 3. 78 0. 00 18. 47 0. 00 (15. 15) (0. 73) (2. 18) Violation of Law Child labor (>14 yrs) -14. 1 0. 34 1. 26 0. 09 15. 87 0. 00 (14. 61) (0. 74) (2. 18) Under age labor (>16 yrs) 2. 24 0. 88 2. 59 0. 00 16. 91 0. 00 (15. 11) (0. 77) (2. 12) Maternity leave 2. 77 0. 86 4. 60 0. 00 18. 89 0. 00 (15. 14) (0. 76) (2. 20) Illegal Over Time work 5. 23 0. 80 6. 39 0. 00 19. 09 0. 00 (19. 94) (1. 06) (2. 26) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 0. 00 1. 00 0. 73 0. 40 12. 91 0. 32 (22. 56) (0. 86) (12. 82) Workshop Safety 0. 00 1. 00 2. 03 0. 01 16. 24 0. 00 (22. 56) (0. 78) (2. 09) Food problem 4. 13 0. 79 5. 10 0. 00 21. 50 0. 16 (15. 39) (0. 86) (15. 24) Live environment problem 2. 19 0. 89 2. 67 0. 00 16. 88 0. 00 (15. 10) (0. 77) (2. 2) Number of obs 267. 00 1777. 00 1321. 00 Pseudo R2 0. 52 0. 51 0. 52 Other Problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis Supplier's measures to circumvent CSRC auditing include fire drill, trained question, giving a holiday, Cleaning the Factory, and Safety Drill. 27 4. 4 Suppliers’ Measures to circumvent CSRC auditing Table 7 s hows the UIRT model for individual measures to circumvent CSRC auditing. The measures in this study include fire drill, safety drill, giving a holiday, trained question, and cleaning the factory. As the safety drill estimation is not converged, Table 10 shows only the four other supplier measures.Table 7 ranks the measures according to the number of the most serious tasks (compared to union) from the left, namely, fire drill (6 tasks), giving a holiday (4 tasks), trained question (0 task), and cleaning the factory (0 task). Why do fire drill suppliers have the most tasks similar to the union coefficient? As discussed in the last subsection, fire safety is one of the most serious areas that the Chinese local authorities are concerned with, and it is the most frequent task to be checked during a factory visit. If a supplier has not even met the basic standard of the fire safety, it is reasonable to infer that other tasks are likely to be a problem as well. This is similar in the case of holidays for workers – meaning that the supplier tries to prohibit workers from revealing this fact.As giving holidays for a busy factory is costly, suppliers are likely to create more than one problem in the task. â€Å"Trained question† is one of the most common ways that suppliers try to get around CSRC auditing during the worker interview. Suppliers try to train workers with â€Å"model answers† that fit the CSRC auditing interview questions. The â€Å"trained question† effect may be very limited as only trained workers model their answers to the interview question, and this cannot cover other the problems in the factory. It is clear that the â€Å"trained question† may have fewer problems than â€Å"fire drill† and â€Å"giving a holiday. † â€Å"Cleaning the factory† was found the least serious measure.Only suppliers who are confident with their labor conditions would use â€Å"cleaning the factory† to polish th eir workshop. 28 Table 7:Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions by Supplier's Measure Fire Drill Give Holiday Trained question Cleaning Factory Item Coef. P>|t| Coef. P>|t| Coef. P>|t| Coef. P>|t| Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 35. 79 0. 00 21. 80 0. 00 (1. 05) (3. 83) (5. 39) (2. 87) Complaint to Client 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 21. 55 0. 00 8. 79 0. 49 (1. 05) (3. 83) (2. 80) (12. 70) Employee Association 40. 28 0. 00 22. 22 0. 24 21. 55 0. 00 7. 68 0. 00 (1. 05) (18. 58) (2. 98) (1. 00) Bargaining Rights 18. 38 0. 29 0. 00 0. 75 17. 88 0. 00 3. 5 0. 00 (14. 33) (0. 00) (2. 78) (0. 75) Bargaining Channel 18. 38 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 18. 36 0. 00 4. 47 0. 00 (0. 45) (3. 83) (2. 62) (0. 73) Labor department Use 21. 11 0. 00 16. 38 0. 32 18. 07 0. 00 4. 38 0. 00 (0. 61) (16. 06) (2. 69) (0. 71) Collective Bargain 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 20. 60 0. 00 6. 54 0. 00 (1. 05) (3. 83) (2. 81) (0. 85) Strike Use 40. 28 0. 00 17. 62 0. 0 0 19. 30 0. 00 4. 85 0. 00 (1. 05) (1. 31) (2. 88) (0. 74) Violation of Law Child labor (>14 yrs) 0. 00 0. 45 18. 35 0. 00 16. 41 0. 00 2. 01 0. 01 (0. 00) (1. 70) (2. 61) (0. 73) Under age labor (>16 yrs) 18. 38 0. 29 18. 00 0. 00 17. 51 0. 00 3. 33 0. 00 (14. 3) (2. 04) (2. 60) (0. 75) Maternity leave 21. 11 0. 25 22. 22 0. 27 19. 09 0. 00 5. 22 0. 00 (14. 97) (19. 80) (2. 72) (0. 74) Illegal Over Time work 40. 28 0. 00 22. 22 0. 27 19. 85 0. 00 6. 14 0. 00 (1. 05) (19. 80) (2. 72) (0. 85) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 0. 00 0. 39 0. 00 0. 75 14. 16 0. 00 0. 72 0. 40 (0. 00) (0. 00) (2. 54) (0. 85) Workshop Safety 0. 00 0. 38 0. 00 0. 75 16. 77 0. 00 2. 84 0. 00 (0. 00) (0. 00) (2. 70) (0. 75) Food problem 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 20. 59 0. 00 6. 11 0. 00 (1. 05) (3. 83) (2. 87) (0. 89) Live environment problem 18. 38 0. 00 21. 51 0. 00 17. 53 0. 00 2. 88 0. 00 (0. 45) (2. 15) (2. 72) (0. 5) Number of obs 85. 00 408. 00 1440. 00 2452. 00 Pseudo R2 0. 83 0. 88 0. 49 0. 50 Other Problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis except the fire estimation, which indicates standard error in parenthesis. â€Å"Safety Drill† is not converged in estimation. 29 Robustness Check For convenience, the estimation of the UIRT model in Table 7 uses the â€Å"other problem† as a base. However, as the â€Å"other problem† is not exactly along zero in the data, there may be a problem in estimating the â€Å"true probability† of the task. More importantly, there may be problem of the UIRT assumption about the zero covariance among items in the estimation.This robustness check uses the â€Å"union† as a base in Table 8, which reruns the UIRT model in Table 5. If the zero covariance assumption is violated, using the upper bound of the problem, the union, as the base of estimation will give very different results. However, if the zero covariance assumption is not violated, as this estimation uses  "union† as a base, the coefficient will be interpreted exactly opposite to that given in Table 5; those problems with larger and significant coefficients given in Table 5 should now be close to zero and insignificant in Table 8 and vice versa. Most of the coefficients here are negatively signed, suggesting that they are â€Å"weaker† than the union problem.Non-CSRC suppliers are seen to have six problems (complaint to client, employee association, bargaining rights, bargaining channel, collective bargain, and maternity leave), â€Å"1 CSRC† has two problems (complaint to client and emplo