A Comparison of Business Systems Between Japan and China Essay

A Comparison of Business Systems Between Japan and China - Essay Example Being a collectivist culture means that managers and employees in Japan tend to work cooperatively, with very minimal power distance tolerated. A recent empirical study of the Japanese business environment indicated that participative leadership is the most accepted form of management whereby decision-making generally occurs from the bottom-up rather than utilising strict hierarchies of executive control.4 It is through consultation between different ranking employees and managers that a negotiation-based management style thrives and prospers. It is a more balanced system within the business dynamic whereby the attitudes and opinions of workers are highly respected and considered when making important corporate decisions. China, on the other hand, maintains very high levels of power distance between different ranking members of the organisation. Geert Hofstede recognises that Chinese culture scores very highly on power distance scales, meaning that there is a culturally-driven tolera nce for power disparities that makes most business systems vertical rather than horizontal when it comes to decision-making. This is a stark contrast between the Japanese business environment. Unequal power means that employees in the organisational hierarchy are not consulted for their opinions and problem-solving ability, whereby employees are routinely sanctioned and the general belief is that employees should not maintain aspirations for improving their rank and status within the organisational dynamic.5 These disparate relationships between managers and employees are highly polarized, meaning significant division, and there are generally no defences... This paper illustrated that there are many differences and similarities between Chinese and Japanese business systems and internal corporate ideologies. It cannot be said, concretely, that one business system is superior to another, only that both countries operate and manage their business structures with varying philosophies and approaches to securing the future and performance of their respective organisations. Much contemporary literature on how to successfully manage businesses, today, shows that adaptability and flexibility are necessary to find competitive success. Under this premise, it would seem that China maintains the most probability for ensuring long-term business performance than that of Japan. Even though Japan has many strengths, such as high determination in a corporate context, Chinese business systems will be most likely to endure long-term if these systems continue to utilise their current, existing business ideology. This report makes a conclusion that Japanese workers tend to view the future as being opportunistic whereby high performance and profitability results from a business perspective can be attained through dedication and hard work. Chinese employees and managers, in opposite accord, seek to find personal fulfilment whenever possible as a primary lifestyle and cultural goal in the pursuit of finding social acceptance with like-status peers. Therefore, there is evidence that some dimensions of long-term-focused thinking will be abandoned in Chinese culture based on hedonistic consumerism that is becoming commonplace in the nation.

Overview of Marketing and Information Systems II Research Paper

Overview of Marketing and Information Systems II - Research Paper Example hnique and the procedure that are used for gathering, designing, analyzing and presenting the information that can be used in making the decision of marketing (Wrenn & Et. Al., 2006). Consumers are not only the purchaser of economic goods but they are the main fulcrum of business who adopts potential of free services, philosophies or ideas. Consumer behavior is basically a decision making process that the individuals engage themselves in when making a decision with regards to acquiring, evaluating, using or disposal of the goods after usage (Tyagi, 2004). The tutorial begins with the definition of marketing as well as the short history of marketing. The business buying behavior has been taught in the next section which tries to focus about the business market primarily and it comprises of the organizations that are basically into manufacturing, distribution of the product and services. It is because of the huge market which has been successful in drawing attention of thousands of companies. The tutorial proposes that the understanding of the business market is quite easier in comparison to the understanding of the consumer market. In case of consumer market, there is need to build a recognizable brand which is not very important in case of business market. But there are many cases which prove that business buying is more important than consumer buying. Therefore in this section called business buying behavior, the tutorial tries to focus more on the characteristics of business buying behavior. The tutorial also teaches what exactly s upply chain is. It teaches that supply chain is mostly involved in activities relating to creation of the product and delivery to the final consumers. The tutorial also emphasizes upon the ways to deal with the customers effectively and to understand the buying behavior of the customers and the methods employed by the companies to understand the decision process of the consumer. It also discusses the various factor that affect the

Condensed Study Guide Essay Example for Free

Condensed Study Guide Essay Active: does not require energy, area of lower concentration to higher concentration 34) Two identical osmometers are prepared. One is placed into distilled water, while the other is placed into a solution of 10% sugar. Assuming that the membrane is only permeable to water, what conclusions could be made if: a) the osmometer placed in distilled water rapidly fills up with water – hypertonic b) the osmometer placed in 10% SUGAR slowly loses water – hypotonic 35) using the terms hypotonic, isotonic, or hypertonic, explain how you could revive a wilted flower. Place a wilted flower in a glass of pure water. The flower cells would be hypertonic in relation to pure water, so water could move by osmosis into the wilted flower to â€Å"pump it up†. Water always moves to the area that is hypertonic. 36) In what kind of solution must blood be, if red blood cells are to remain healthy? Isotonic – because too much or too little solute would cause cells to burst or swell. 37) Describe two ways in which phagocytosis differs from pinocytosis. Phagocytosis:brings large particles into cell inside a vesicle . occurs in certain cells (eg. White blood cells) Pinocytosis: brings water and small particles into cell inside a vesicle. Occurs in all cell types.

Relationship Between Firm Resources And Performance Commerce Essay

Relationship Between Firm Resources And Performance Commerce Essay Many researchers have point out that the relationship between firms resources and performance are always the crucial area of interest in strategic management (Barney, 1991; Peteraf, 1993; Wernerfelt, 1984). Resource-based view (RBV) highlights the internal environment of the firm in crafting strategy to accomplish a sustainable competitive advantage in it. Consequently, RBV can be consider as the best strategy route in the development of a firms strategy. However, the relationship among strategic resource and firm performance may be quite complex and need to be examine, there is also many different factors that can influence the relationship. In fact, there is no one best strategy that will suits all situation for a firm. Moreover, RBV also been compared to others strategy development methods like Porters industry analysis. Based on this assignment, we will be focus on the contention that RBV analysis has a strong relationship with firms performance especially in achieving a sustaina ble competitive advantage for certain industry only. Resource in RBV can be defined in an extremely board way. For instance, Wernerfelt (1984) comprises all strengths and weaknesses of a firm. Concepts like dynamic capabilities (Barney et al, 2001), entrepreneurship (Alvarez and Busenitz, 2001) and management (Barney, 1994; Mahoney, 1995) are usually regarded as strategic resources. Similarly, RBV also has been defined as stocks of available factors that are owned and controlled by the firm, these factors can be classified into physical, reputational, organizational, financial, human intellectual and technological, which are transformed into final products or services efficiently and effectively (Amit and Schoemaker, 1993; Capron and Hulland, 1999). As we know, resources are exploited by people, not by themselves. Human beings have differ considerably concerning to the sorts of skills they have, also their degree of skilfulness and their intelligence to view opportunities (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). According to Brown et al. (2001), in order to develop entrepreneurial performance within the firm, managers must inspire the coordination of key resources, allow flexibility, encourage members to search for opportunity and rewarding them for pursuing new opportunities in order for it to prosperous. Besides, RBV assists management to create a culture where there is valid and value for new knowledge by encouraging the perplex process of recombining existing knowledge with new knowledge (Prahalad, 1998; Shih-Wei, 2005; Montalvo, 2006). RBV can be treat as the best strategy route in the development of a firm strategy, because RBV analyze and explain resources of the firms to grasp how organizations accomplish sustainable competitive advantage. In addition, RBV centralize on the concept of hardly to imitate attributes as sources of higher performance and competitive advantage for the organization (Barney, 1986; Hamel and Prahalad, 1996). In the same manner, resources are hardly to be transferred and acquired, that need a lengthen learning curve or a major modify in the organization climate and culture, hence more difficult to duplicate by rivals because of a range of isolating mechanisms and very likely to be unique to the organization (Rumelt, 1984; Mahoney and Pandian, 1992; Peteraf, 1993; Hoopes et al., 2003). Based on Conner (1991), performance variation between organizations depends on its possession of unique inputs and capabilities. For example, Honda following RBV strategy, built its company strategy around t he firms strength, capability and expertise in building petrol based engines, at last the company utilize it unique resource and capabilities to build a world class petrol based engines and became the largest engine manufacturer in the world. Firm must possess valuable resources in order to build resource-based advantages. For the purpose to outperform with competitors, many RBV researchers assert that organizations must exploit the resources that they possess. An organizations succeed or fail in the marketplace is depend on the particular perspective on an inside-out view of firm from RBV (Dicksen, 1996). According to Barney (1986) valuable resource must enable a firm to function and behave in ways that lead to high sales, low costs, high margins, or in others ways add financial value to the firm. A firms ability to innovate successful is also a factor of unique capability which is sustainable and appropriable. For example, an innovative products such as Apples iTunes and iPod. The companys first class innovation in product design and practicality is proving not an easily act for rivals to copy. Apple avoid to sit back complacently, although the company maintain at the front position of the digital media with its iPod an d iTunes online stores. In 2007, Apple introduce of its iPhone and entered into the mobile phone market, this continuous innovation and product creation keeps rivals such as Sony, Samsung guessing about what products Apple will bring out in the future and provides a factor of outperform as rivals struggle to substitute their achievement. In other words, strategic resources are also concerns on non-monetary factors such as knowledge based, human resource management activities on their customer service department to result in a competitive advantage. . To obtain a competitive advantages over the others is easy, however to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage is rather hard. Way to maintain sustainable competitive advantages for sustained superior performance, firms must be unique and core competencies and resources that are valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable and non-substitutable (Barney, 1991) as well as visualize of value-creating ways to exploit them. Intangible resources such as intellectual, technological resources are more appropriate than tangible resources which are human, financial resources to generate competitive advantage (Hitt, Bierman, Shimizu and Kochhar, 2001). Particularly, intangible resources like knowledge allow firms to add up value to incoming sources of production (Hitt et al., 2001). It indicates firms achieve competitive advantage (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Collis and Montgomery,1995; Post,1997; Markides,1997; Bogner,Thomas and McGee,1999). Such resource is built over time and difficult to be imita ted and is valuable. For instance, Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda all compete in the same environment, yet Tesco is a superior performer. It is not the environment that distinguishes between them but their internal strategic capabilities. It is difficult for one organization to obtain or copy the capabilities of another. Like Sainsburys cannot readily obtain the whole Tescos retail sites its management or its experience. As a result, Tesco is achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. On the other hand, firm must develop one or two value creating activities to some extent that creates more general value than rivals do to attain competitive advantage. Porter (1985) point out two generic strategy, the first is lower cost strategy, to reduce activity cost by lowering the cost of the inputs than rivals, while retaining average quality and prices. Secondly is differentiation, to induce customers willingness to pay an above-average price, including value of the ancillary service or the im age of the product. Managers who carrying a general knowledge of their rivals activity sets can apply this information to analyze their position relative to its rivals (Ghemawat, 2006; Porter, 1985, 1991). Besides, Porter (1985) also identified the value chain framework to help managers in understanding, enhancing and executing a lower costs or differentiation strategy. The value chain can be defined as a general activity model that is used to decompose the firm into the single activities it manages to form value for the consumer. In conclusion, both activity-based and RBVs complement each other and share an objective of discovering and exploiting factors that lead to higher competitive performance Even though the RBVs principle for a firm is to achieve and sustain a competitive advantage by exploiting valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable resources is instinctive and theoretically satisfying, it is essential to recognize that value, rare, inimitability and non-substitutable are not completely invariables. In fact, facing of radical, volatile changes in the environment, value, rare, inimitability and non-substitutability are very considerably over time. In other words, RBV state have their fall like in the valuable attribute, the need for planning and investment to develop such resources are external factors, which means the RBV may overstate the profitability of firms by exploiting these resources, because the cost of acquisition and accumulation had been avoided. As a result, it is difficult for the RBV to tell why firms invest in such a valuable resource instead of in other type of resources. Moreover, if the organizations want to increase their profit from the re sources they possess, they have to think over the demand side attributes that effect on the final price of the product. Furthermore, in the concept of rareness resource, it does not essentially attain the competitive advantage of the firm, in spite of the resource produce a great rent due to its relative shortage. Rents can be defined as the prices of services yielded by resources (Lewin and Phelan, 2002). Regardless of the rents are rare or not, in this stage rent is nothing more than the rental price of the service of the resource. There are no any profit has been earn to the firm, after paying remuneration to all the factors of production (Demsetz, 1973; Barney, 1986a; Rumelt, 1987). However, the firm may grasps some part of the rent from the possessor of resources, if the firm is gaining any profit left from the resource. Member or staff who have capabilities such as knowledge based will have benefits of bargaining power, hence being able to appropriate extra rent. Barney (1991) point out that the strategic resource possess rareness, inimitable and non-substitutable criteria may be independent of the firm, but when the belief of the heterogeneous distribution of resources is taken into account it is not easily to visualize that the resource given by the value is similar for all firms. For instance, intangible resources such as innovative capability or diverse production capabilities have been recognized as essential strategic resources and are extremely dependent of other resources in order to act properly. On the other hand, some resources might prevent firms from operating higher performance. For example, a Formula One engineer might be a key resource for a sports car manufacturer due to his ability to built high-performance engines, while car companies with key resources in the aspects of an image for safety or high environmental standards might not be suitable to gain advantage from possessing such capabilities. These examples result the complication o f resource interactions (Smith et al., 1996) and also the value of resource is different among companies. Conclusion According to Barney (1991), Mahoney and Pandian (1992), Porter (1991), they agree that both internal and external factors must be taken into account when analyzing firm performance. For example, if a firm is able to acquire a key resource, it often require a diversification in the product market (Anderse ´n, 2007a). The result of such a diversification is to a great extent dependent on the organizations prior market experience or market that relevant to existing product lines (Pehrsson, 2004). In consequence, if a firm is not able to use its product effectively in the appropriate product market, the product will not benefit from these resources even though the company possess with superior production skills and great valuation. Therefore, firms can actually fail to attain higher performance while posses several strategic resources, if the marketing capability are poor. In conclusion, both internal and external environment are complement to each other in achieving a sustainable comp etitive advantage for a firm. (1863 words) Bibliography List Andersen, J. (2011) Strategic resources and firm performance Management Decision Journal. 49, 87-98. Johnson, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R. (ed.) (2008) Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases. 8th ed. London: Prentice Hall. Newbert, S. L.,Gopalakrishnan, S., Kirchhoff, B. A. (2008) Looking beyond resources: Exploring the importance of entrepreneurship to firm-level competitive advantage in technologically intensive industries Technovation Journal. 28, 6-19. Oup.com (2011) The Internal Environment: A resource-Based View of Strategy http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199288304/henry_ch05.pdf [accessed 24 April 2011]. tamanpowell.com (2007) Resource Based View Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Strategic Management. http://tamanpowell.com/Writing/assets/Resource%20Based%20View.pdf [accessed 24 April 2011]. skynet.ie (2001) The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation http://www.skynet.ie/~karen/Articles/Grant1_NB.pdf [accessed 24 April 2011]. Halawi, L. A., Aronson, J. E. and McCarthy, R. V. (2005) Resource-Based View of Knowledge Management for Competitive Advantage The Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management. 3 (2)75-86. www.ejkm.com/issue/download.html?idArticle=55 [accessed 24 April 2011]. Madhani. P (2009) Resource based view (RBV) of Competitive Advantages: Importance, Issues and Implications Indian Management Research Journal. 1 (2)2-12. http://ssrn.com/abstract=1504379 [accessed 26 April 2011]. Tokuda Akio (2005) The Critical Assessment of the Resource-Based View of Strategic Management: The Source of Heterogeneity of the Firm Ritsumeikan International Affairs. 3, 125-150 http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/re/k-rsc/ras/04_publications/ria_en/03_8.pdf [accessed 27 April 2011]. Pertusa-Ortega, E. M., Molina-Azorin, J. F. and Claver-Cortes, E. (2010) Competitive Strategy, structure and firm performance: A comparison of the resource-based view and the contingency approach Management Decision Journal. 48, 1282-1303. Sheehan, N. T. and Foss, N. J. (2007) Section 4. Hierarchical Strategies and The Resource-Based View: Enhancing the prescriptiveness of the resource-based view through Porterian activity analysis Management Decision Journal. 45, 450-461. quickmba.com (2010) Competitive Advantage Strategic Management. http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/competitive-advantage/ [accessed 30 April 2011].

Silence in a Classroom :: Learning Teach Teachers Papers

Silence in a Classroom How can silence be put to use in a feminist classroom? What are the positive ways to cultivate silence, ways which empower, rather than shut down? Audre Lorde has been widely quoted on the negative impacts of silence on women. She uses the term "silence" as an active verb; those with power have historically silenced others.But I am interested in the other implications for silence, namely, using silence as a tool:for discovery, creation, and real critical thinking.Our culture is afraid of silence.We bombard ourselves with cell phones, television and radio. Often the assumption is that if someone is not talking, it must be a "bad" thing.As teachers, we replicate this model in our classrooms.We feel that students must really be getting something out of our classes when they talk about what they are learning.But does talking always insure that a student has really processed the material and made it her own? Or is talking in class often another form of performing for the teacher? Particularly in a writing class, where students are practicing putting words down on the page, cultivating a silent space seems imperative.My belief is that the more students are encouraged to write rather than talk in the composition classroom, the more they will trust their stance as authors of their own pieces.Silence can be an opening into the untapped places where deep, explorative writing is created.Peter Elbow writes about "felt sense," the way we can feel whether or not our intentions are being expressed in our writing by "listening" to our bodies: The foundation of verbal meaning often lies in the silence of what is felt nonverbally and bodily.When writing goes well, it is often because we periodically pause and say, 'Is this what I mean to be saying?'It's amazing that we can answer that question:that we can tell whether a given set of words corresponds to an intention.The source of the answer is the feelings and the body-consulted in silence.When writing goes badly, it is often because we don't make these pauses for quiet consultations with felt sense. (Everyone Can Write 176) Many of our students are just learning to "trust" themselves as writers.Most haven't had the opportunity in high school to explore what writing can do for their thinking; they have been taught that "writing" is a product produced for a teacher.Student-centered pedagogy seeks to de-center teacher authority, and has moved away from traditional methods such as the lecture format to more group discussion.

Al Capone Biography :: Biography

â€Å"By Instinct Capone Was A Heartless Mindless Killer†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Considered the most notorious gangster in history, Alphonse Capone, otherwise known as Scarface Al, was born in New York, 1899, in a small apartment in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Having many run-ins with the police growing up, he was always around the local street gang led my Johnny Torrio. After beating one of his sixth grade teachers, he quit school, and quickly learned the way of the streets, joining the Torrio gang, call the James Street Gang. James Street also included Lucky Luciano, one of Capone’s best friends, who would later also become a notorious gangster (Internet 1, 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As he grew older, Capone was hired by the gang leader, Torrio, to be a bouncer at a bar in Brooklyn, taking his first step up the â€Å"gang ladder†. One night, Capone’s cheek was slashed during a fight at the bar over a girl. It was from then on he was known as Scarface. Later in his life, when asked by reporters where he got this scare, he often lied of serving in the â€Å"Lost Battalion† in WWI, even though he never served in the military (Internet 1, 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Soon Enough, Capone was in trouble in again. He had killed a man in an argument and was on the run. After calling his old friend Torrio, he was invited to come to Chicago   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Barfoot 2 and make a fresh start. At the time, Torrio was working for his uncle, the current leader of the Chicago underground, Big Jim Colosimo. With the prohibition came possibilities for large alcohol based profits. Torrio knew that Big Jim could make extremely large amounts of money, but Colosimo could not be persuaded to try his hand. So, in 1920, Torrio had Capone plan and carry out the murder of Big Jim, making Torrio the new boss of Chicago, with Capone as his right hand man, and manager of bootlegging alcohol (Internet 3, 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As they started their completer takeover of Chicago, few mobs would put up any resistance. One that did was the Irish North Side gang. Capone soon called in Frankie Yale, one of his old gang mates from Brooklyn, and the same man that had done the Colosimo assassination, to murder Dion O’Banion, the head of the North side gang. His death did little to persuade the gang to back down, and they continued to fight on and off for a few years.

Courbet Stonebreakers

Courbet’s Stonebreakers Courbet’s stonebreakers is a painting drawn by Gustave Courbet and have been seen by two different art historians who write about their opinions about Courbet’s meaning behind his painting. Courbet’s painting can either be interpreted as a painting that shows in detail hardship and emotion of manual labor, or a painting that just a â€Å"metaphor as an act of painting†, but the understanding of it as hardship and emotion of manual labor is more sufficient because by the looks of the two men it reminds me of times where back in the day everything was done manually. Linda Nochlin is one of the art historians who argues about how some people don’t really understand the meaning of Courbet’s painting. She tries to explain how in his painting he shows us how manual labor really is. He expressed how real it use to be and how difficult it was for those at the time of 1849. She believes that many people just see his painting as two workers just breaking stones with lack of aerial perspective. Michael Fried another art historian argues that no one will ever know what Courbet was really trying to say. Fried believes that it â€Å"remains an open question†, that the poses, their clothes, how far they stand from each other can mean different things. He chooses to believe that Courbet just painted that because he like the scene of two men working in a environment with a lot of dirt. He thinks that Courbet’s painting can be interpreted as a an act of painting or an image of labor. Each author use the painting as evidence, but Fried seems to use some sort of story that was written about how Courbet was influenced to paint â€Å"The Stonebreakers†. Nochlin’s just gives us her opinion. Which even though their wasn’t a story she had a good point. Even though Fried had facts and showed us that the painting can be seen as in either way I still have to agree with Nochlin’s opinion. I’m sure there are many ways to see the painting but I believe the painting comes more to life when you think of it as Courbet showing us how low class society in the mid 1800’s manual labor use to be. It reminds me how difficult things use to be back then and how now we have it way easier. Nochlin’s just seemed to grab my attention and convinced me more than Frieds point of view. Michelle Cavazos April 19, 2010