MyAlert Essay

Come 1999, the international mobile data services market was ever so expanding and changing rapidly. Jorge Mata was able to hop on the bandwagon early enough to profit from this business venture as this industry was just at the beginning of a new era that would revolutionize how consumers and businesses communicated with each other. More simply stated, MyAlert was a great business idea, developing a more personalized mobile industry. Mata could not actually believe that such a business model had never been thought of in the past, but did not have to think twice before investing in the MyAlert project, becoming the first company to appear and succeed in the mobile services market in Spain. Flash forwarding to a year after its creation, figures are only representative of the huge success MyAlert was facing in terms of the service and content the company offered its customers. Figures were in the black, and more than 200.000 users were registered to the ‘Alert portal’ witho ut even any substantial advertising expense. Another indicator of a good business idea is whether the creator of the company is able to find any potential investors ready to sponsor his project. In this case, Mata is the first to find enough capital (half a million euros) to launch his project. His ex-CEO at BroadVision also wanted to invest in the project, showing us just how serious and well thought of this business plan actually was. Although the initial funds were clearly insufficient to bring MyAlert at the top of the ladder both domestically and internationally, Mata’s strategy is clear-cut in the sense that the first priority was developing a project with â€Å"a top-tier management and technical team and a sound technological platform to make alerts work at the targeted scale† (p. 2). The company could effectively y use its technological platform to provide a personalized service, that at the time, was crucially needed by customers and companies who wished to stay at the top of the information chain. This was the booming time in terms of new technologies and how they could be adapted to the internet and the mobile phone. MyAlert’s business idea was once again great because it could actually provide this ever so needed information to its end users. By valuing the customer and focusing on what the market needed and will need in the future, MyAlert is a perfect example of how they were able to carry out the latter and grasp a changing environment before it was too late. The main competitive advantages that MyAlert benefit from are seen through their timing and their strong technological platform. In effect, the company benefits from a first mover advantage into the mobile data service industry. With this advantage under their belt, it is essential in for MyAlert to develop an on-going demand for their service. The customer base is large and potentially profitable and the company understood this. As I stated previously, instead of focusing itself on the product/service they deliver to the customer, MyAlert’s strategy is to focus on what the customer really wants from the company. The emotional factors that the customers face are very important because they act as an experience on each individual when they decide to sign up for daily alerts on football, or stock quotes for example. My Alert knows that by focusing on the customer base, by offering them a service that is affordable and useful, positive recommendations will then follow placing them at an advantage vis-à  -vis their competitors. While focusing on the demand aspects are vital, it is also crucial for the company to concentrate on the supply scale for the competitive advantage to be sustainable. Basic services such as alerts on business headlines are interesting but MyAlert’s main wish is to expand their supply with a â€Å"†¦ number of services thanks to agreements with other content and service providers† (p. 2). By growing a significant supply scale, a broader demand from not only individual end-users will arise, but also from sources like corporations and large advertising companies. With all the information above, a value chain of MyAlert’s business model is shown through this diagram: A perfect example of this model at work is when MyAlert enters the European major markets. While replicating the entry strategy that had already worked in Spain, the company broadens its supply scale by offering free advertising services to international companies and then pursuing on to develop tight relationships with these companies so that they can offer them business services. This is a clear example of how the company intentionally expands its supply scale to attain an even larger demand (customer) base. After the dotcom bubble crisis, companies focused on new technologies such as MyAlert, take the hardest hit. Their competitive advantage based on a strong  technology is now under threat and the company has to reevaluate its strategy. I believe the merge with Buongiorno is not only positive for both companies, but a must if MyAlert wishes to stay competitive in the long run. Mauro del Rio basically says it all in his statement as he declares that the â€Å"†¦ two absolute imperatives for ambitious European high tech companies [are]: critical mass and positive P&L† (p.4). MyAlert could no longer expand through organic growth and so this merger is a fantastic idea in terms of bringing new qualified staff, technology assets and know-how. On the flip side, the position the two companies now hold as a whole, allows them to penetrate new markets and develop synergies. The two companies complemented each other very well in terms of My Alert bringing a strong technological platform to the table and powerful ASP services versus Buongiorno being more present in terms of marketing and advertising services. The strengths of one, replaced the weaknesses of the other. A good example of how the two companies complemented themselves really well is by analyzing the services they sold through various business models. In terms of business services, Buongiorno would lead the way offering companies other marketing services such as brand building and customer loyalty. The product range allowed a higher diversification and greatly benefited the company. The above would not have been possible to realize if MyAlert wouldn’t have merged with Buongiorno because of a poorer marketing penetration. When it came to consumer services however, MyAlert would lead the way by actively investing and developing new apps carefully adapted to their customer base thanks to t heir strong technology. Consumer services were the new hit at the beginning of the years 2000’s and Buongiorno! MyAlert was able to establish itself as a clear industry leader. At first, intensively focusing on consumer services was not a clear target for the newly merged companies. The SMS market was in full evolution but many competitors were focusing on the benefits of developing WAP. The portal worked similarly to the WWW navigation, except it was adapted to cell phones. The main point here is that MyAlert had the necessary technology to develop this project and become a global leader but the management team made a wise decision when they decided to focus more on what the consumer actually wanted. WAP-enabled phones had huge potential, increasing to 23% in  2000, but the alarming factor was that only 3% of those users were actually using the new mobile portal. In effect, the company realized that they were found in a value added service market and that their business would mainly depend on what share they could capture from mobile operators when end-users download a song or a logo via SMS, and which marketing budget their customers could channel throu gh them. More simply stated, the company shifted its competitive advantage from a strong technological base to a market driven, consumer targeted base. This business model change allowed the company to develop its own kind of virtual network, linking them to diverse mobile operators’ message centers. As Nomura correctly states, the company could now benefit from its new position and operate its new value chain by having higher punctuality and lower messaging costs. This diversified network the company had built with all the operators, and the flexible strategy they had put into place to be able to adapt to a changing environment, gave them a â€Å"competitive advantage and barrier to entry for any competitors trying† (p.15) to penetrate the market. The evolvement of the business model was a crucial point for the company as they correctly analyzed the market and customer appreciation instead of focusing on a strong service (WAP) that they could’ve developed. If they had chosen this route, maybe things would’ve not been as smooth and successful for them. In this case though, the company was showing positive results and was in a continued search for new businesses and markets to enter while diversifying both in terms of their products and services. This model can only be sustainable, because as Darwin says it best â€Å"if a being wants to survive in a shifting environment, it must evolve at least as fast as the medium itself.† BuonGiorno!MyAlert is perfectly equipped to do so.

Marital Paradigm Essay

I grew up in a joint family in India, which had 3 married couple and their kids. Marital relationships that I saw in my family were not great but not bad either. All the men used to work in the family business and the women used to take care of the children and the house. Many times my parents used to fight and my dad used to scream at my mom, but my mom never had the guts to say anything to him. I always saw that my mom was scared of him and I used to question myself why doesn’t she reply back. And being a girl myself I used to think that probably girls cant say anything when theirs husband are screaming at them. I used to talk to my mom and tell her why cant she reply back, but I never really got an answer. I always saw my mom as the weaker one in the relationship. On the other hand we had a family friend and both husband wife used to work as college professors. In their house the husband never screamed at the wife, I am sure they had conflicts but you could totally see the respect that he gave to his wife. When I grew a little bit older my mom started telling me how she felt. That was when she told me that she was a housewife and my dad was the one who earned in the family and thus he could talk like that to my mom. My dad always dominated her as he is the man of the family and is the one responsible for all the decisions of the family. And this was not only my parents I 4saw this trend throughout my family with the other two couples as well. Certain assumptions that I saw in the relationships were that even if it was my dad’s fault, my mom always had to be the first one to apologize. Also since my mom is eight years younger than my dad I saw that my dad didn’t really understand her and took her for granted at times. Bring the older one he tried to impose certain things on her. I also saw that if I tried to calm down my dad he didn’t like it as I was a child and I should not be involved in their matters. This training has had a lot of impact on my relationships. As I always saw my mom being dominated by my dad, I didn’t want that to happen with me. When I grew up I had certain things very clear in my mind. I wanted to be educated enough so that I can earn myself and have a good job, so I never dependent on my husband for anything. For that reason I came to USA and decided to study here. In my past relationships, I made it very clear to my artners that my career is more important than anything in my life and I wouldn’t leave it for anyone. I was also very clear about anyone screaming at me. Since I saw my mom always being screamed at and I always hated it. Also I have certain things straight for my future. I want my husband to understand that I will not stop working and be a housewife, so that later I have to dependent on him. I want him to respect my decisions and me. Many times I have seen that the women of the house are not asked to contribute in family matters, and I think that is not right at all. So I want to have a relationship where we both contribute in the family matters and come to a conclusion together. I am not yet married but I think the things I have in mind for my marital relationship are very clear. According to the book women still do two-third of the household work. I think if women can earn like men do, then men should work the same like women. I think my idea of marriage is based on a simple rule, which is to give the amount of resect you get. And I think it is pretty healthy because if two people cannot respect each other for what they are then they cannot be together for long. Moreover I have been taught marriage is not only about two people, but it is about two families that get together. And I expect my husband to respect and get along with my family as being the only child I think my parents are my responsibility and will always be. Thus whoever marries me has to understand the importance of my parents in my life, and on the other hand I want to be comfortable with his family too. I also feel that at times girls tend to be too clingy with their partners, and I think that is one reason why guys get irritated. Therefore I would like to give space to my husband when he needs and expect the same from him. Some people might think that this is being stupid but I know I wouldn’t like if my husband gets over protective about me, and the same way I don’t want to be over protective about him. I know it’s not easy to be with a person like me who is over ambitious. And at times it can be a problem for guys to see the girl so much into her work, and for me my career has always been more important than anything. I think this can be a problem when I get married, because at times it has been a problem for my boyfriends to understand my passion about my work. This is something I want to work on as most of the times guys don’t understand this. Also I like the idea of peer marriage as in a marriage where both people respect each other equally and understand each other’s likes and dislikes it becomes easier to be together. According to the book faithfulness is the number one reason for marital success. And I totally agree with this, even if the physical relationship between two people is not that good, if they both are faithful to each other nothing can separate them. My parents have not only taught me to be faithful but I also have seen this in their relationship. Even though my father was dominating my mother, they are still together. This is because no one of them was unfaithful to the other. Also I think from a few years the fights between my parents reduced I think this happened because they saw that I am a grown up now and all this might affect my thoughts about marriage. Children are a big reason why two people stay together even if they don’t want to. But I think that’s not right. I don’t want my husband to be with me just because of our children, because that’s doing a favor to our relationship. I would like us to be together because we make each other happy not because of a third reason. I am brought up in a culture where non-marital sex is not accepted. And these values are embedded inside me. I know now a days girls have sex when they are 14 years of age, but I am 21 years old and I am still a virgin. Being in USA and telling your boyfriend that you wont have sex with him because of your culture is not easy. Many times people judge my beliefs but that has not affected me at all. I want my husband to respect my beliefs and understand where I am coming from. Because for me a relationship is not only about getting physical, there is a lot more to it, and what I have heard and seen around me is that guys only want to get physical. I know according to the book sex is the second reason why marriages work. But for me it is not. I am not against sex at all, but I don’t want my marriage to be dependent on it. Book talks about homogamous marriage, which is a type of marriage in which spouses share their race, ethnicity, age, or social class. Basically a marriage where the two people have something in common. Obviously my parents want me to get married to a guy from the same caste and I agree with them. Because I think if the guy is familiar with my religion, my caste, and my society there is better change of understanding between both of us. In a nutshell I want a marriage where we both can share our happiness, and problems with each other without any problem. A relationship where I get the same respect that I give to the other person.

Lab5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lab5 - Essay Example The coal is received in chunk form and is then crushed into powder and blown into a burner where it combusts and produces heat of about 1000 degrees. The heat made is used to heat water into steam. The steam is then used to revolve the blades of a turbine. The turning motion then generates electricity by releasing electrons into a circuit (exp.lcc.edu). The smoke seen is coming from the plant is actually the gases of combustion e.g. carbon dioxide. According to (Edward & Grossman, 18) the two major concerns of burning coal includes pollution caused by emissions of contaminants like sulfur dioxide nitrogen oxides and mercury. To control this kind of gas pollution, the plant uses electrostatic precipitators that have electrically charged plates and wires. These are used to attract airborne contaminates as the hot air passes through it thus controlling pollution of the atmosphere (exp.lcc.edu). The cost of electricity usually depends on the number of people living in a house. My bill shows that we pay $1.50 per day for electricity. This cost can be reduced by turning off the lights when, not in use, also using energy saving light bulbs and electronics that are in good working condition in the house. The Lansing Board is a plant that supplies drinking water, fire protection and electricity to the citizens of Lansing. The board is a municipally owned utility, and it is different since it is a public utility and the customers own the system. The citizens of Lansing own the plant since they are the plant’s customers. The plant does not make any profit a quality that also makes it different from other power producing plants (lbwl.com). To conserve water, I would fix leaking faucets and use a cup when brushing teeth. A lot of water usually goes to waste when brushing since we leave the water running the whole time. Using a cup saves water that could otherwise be

Essay 4 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

4 - Essay Example The reading reminded Muslims that their religion was revealed by God through the prophet Muhammad. The five pillars of Islam, which are ritual duties that that must be observed by all Muslims, were also mentioned and these pillars are: confessing their faith, observing the five daily prayers, paying alms to the needy, fasting during the month of Ramadan and pilgrimage or hajj to Mecca ((Ellwood & McGraw 374). The authors also explained the importance of the hajj to Muslims and the significance of the mosque as the main place of worship to the Muslims. Several religious rites that are also practiced by Muslims were also mentioned in the book. The spread of Islam from the Middle East to North Africa were also discussed in the reading (Ellwood & McGraw). The two largest branches of Islam, Sunni Islam and the Shi’a Islam were also mentioned in the reading. The Shiites believed that the descendants of Ali, (Muhammad’s son-in-law) were divinely ordained by God and they are called Imams. On the other hand, the Sunnis believed that it was Muhammad’s intention for the Muslims to choose a successor amongst themselves by agreement and they are called caliphs. The difference between the Sunni and Shi’a Islam were made clear in the reading. Islamic mysticism was also explained in the reading and the tensions that it had with mainstream Islam. Islamic mysticism was explained as a factor that has deepened the life of Muslims. The role of Islam in politics was also explained in the reading in the history of Islam and their role in modern politics, especially in the region of the Middle East. The concept of jihad, a ‘holy war’ was also explained in the reading as Muslims actually see it as a means of converting Non-Muslims and drawing their hearts to God. The reading actually relate to my experience in the sense that, it expands my knowledge on the little understanding I have about Islam. The day to day practices of Muslims that were highlighted in the reading

Second Language Acquistion process Research Paper

Second Language Acquistion process - Research Paper Example This paper on â€Å"Second Language Acquisition Process† seeks to analyze, investigate and understand the criticalities involved in the SL acquisition process through an input output process involving a range of intervening steps, and with crucial empirical studies that seek to validate the steps involved in the process of acquisition of a foreign / second language. This section comprises of an elaborate discussion of five critical steps along with empirical studies that authenticate the claims made. These steps include: Beginning of input: Frequency, attention, affect and other factors; Negotiation and Modification; Comprehended input-universal, prior knowledge,(L1/L2); Intake-hypothesis testing; and Individual differences: Personality, situational and modality variables. Languages cannot be learned in a vacuum and hence, it requires essential input for development of adequate language skills. Although the adequate type and quantity of input required for development and achievement of second language acquisition knowledge and skills is a highly debated issue among researchers (Gass, 1997, Pp. 86). The key factors discussed here include input frequency which symbolizes the cross linguistic influence, and comprises of primary variables in a study conducted by Lowie (2000) on the acquisition of derivational morphology in the bilingual mental lexicon. In this study, the L2 factor was productivity, which is essentially associated with frequency. This study revealed that conversion uniformity plays a prominent role in written production at all levels of acquisition. This further suggests that the learners in this experiment depended heavily on their morphological experience in L1 and those, particularly at the lower levels of acquisition, lacked proper dev elopment to of L1 skills. Another experiment conducted in order to ascertain the degree of order of acquisition associated with input, wherein the comparative effect of the L1 related variable

Research suggests comorbidity between dyslexia and dyscalulia. Discuss Essay

Research suggests comorbidity between dyslexia and dyscalulia. Discuss in light or recent research and examine the implications - Essay Example Beyond arithmetic difficulties, the abstract nature of mathematics means that dyscalculia sufferers can also have difficulty in spatial reasoning, and with comprehension of time. As mathematical reasoning is used in so many situations, it is important for educators to understand that management of dyscalculia is important for the individual in later life. As with many of the other SpLDs, the difficulties that children have when facing dycalculia in an educational environment is that they will often not understand why they are struggling. Peers may also acknowledge their difficulties, which can lead to feelings of failure, anxiety and stress. For this reason, it is important for educators to understand the needs of those with dyscalculia, which can often be overshadowed by dyslexia. The purpose of this paper is to examine the current research and government recommendations on dyscalculia to ascertain the implications that this SpLD has on classroom practice. It will also cover the evi dence for comorbidity between dyslexia and dyscalculia, and how classroom practice should be altered to deal with individuals who have specific learning needs. What is dyscalculia? Dyscalculia is an important SpLD because it affects mathematical and spatial reasoning for the affected individual. This is despite the fact that an individual has had mathematical education, and may be developing normally in other areas. The UK parliament report on dyslexia and dyscalculia suggests that mathematical problems are more likely to affect people in adulthood because the effects of dyscalculia are more long-lasting and mathematical reasoning skills are more valued by employers Reed & Warner-Rogers, 2009. Dyscalculia does affect those with other learning difficulties and is prevalent in those with a low (intelligence quotient) IQ, but dyscalculia can affect a wide range of individuals across the spectrum Reed & Warner-Rogers, 2009. Like dyslexia and the other SpLDs, there is evidence that dysca lculia is highly heriditary and has a strong genetic component. Twin studies suggest that, where one twin has dyscalculia, there is a 70% likelihood that the other will also have the SpLD (). Although twins are likely to share a similar environment and educational history, many twin studies do take this into account, and there is evidence that only 55% of non-identical twins will share dyscalculia. Despite the fact that dyscalculia is thought to affect up to 7% of UK residents (), it is only recently that it has been properly acknowledged and thoroughly researched. Many of the options available for those with dyslexia (for example) are not available for those with dyscalculia. The British Dyslexia Association does provide information about dyscalculia but it does not currently have its own charitable support organization (). Government interventions for educators who are dealing with dyscalculia are fairly new, and based on recent research. However, dyscalculia is recognized as a sp ecial educational need and therefore there are guidelines provided for those in primary school, secondary school as well as guidelines and advice for adults Reed & Warner-Rogers, 2009. These will be covered in more detail throughout this essay, but it is important to acknowledge the influx of interest in dyscalculia, which suggests that it is an important and prevalent problem for many in the UK. Causes of Dyscalculia As previously mentioned, much

Financial Analysis and Forecasting Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Financial Analysis and Forecasting - Coursework Example analysis shows that there exist a perfect relationship between sales and assets. The value of R-square is 1 this shows a perfect relationship that will produce a best-line-of fit that passes through the origin. The proportionality assumption that the value of assets increases proportionally with sales is therefore, holds, and is true. B) Repeat the part a regression analysis assuming the given data. Under these conditions, does it appear that the proportionality assumption holds true? Explain. From the results obtained below, the R squared value is 0.906304 this shows a good relationship because the R square value tends to 1, which is usually a perfect relation. SUMMARY OUTPUT Regression Statistics Multiple R 0.952 R Square 0.906304 Adjusted R Square 0.875073 Standard Error 4.495916 Observations 5 ANOVA Â   df SS MS F Significance F Regression 1 586.5602 586.5602 29.01858 0.012533 Residual 3 60.63978 20.21326 Total 4 647.2 Â   Â   Â   Â   Coefficients Standard Error t Stat P-val ue Lower 95% Upper 95% Lower 95.0% Upper 95.0% Intercept -50.9698 16.52736 -3.08396 0.053968 -103.567 1.627654 -103.567 1.62765 X Variable 1 3.246979 0.602756 5.38689 0.012533 1.328741 5.165216 1.328741 5.16522 From the above evaluation, it is clear that the best-line-of fit does not pass through the origin making the assumption not to hold true for sales and assets analyzed. This is because there is no close association between the dependent and independent variables in the study. C) Which of the preceding situations is likely to hold for most firms? What implications does your answer have for use of the percentage-of-sales-method? From the above situations, both cases have close range on R-square but the first is preferred most. The first situation is likely to hold for most firms because each firm will try as much as possible to ensure there is a good correlation between sales and assets. Any imbalance on these two variables may lead to collapse of the business because there migh t be too much expense in relation to company assets. Such a situation may result because of poor management and control of measures and standards. R is a measure of goodness of fit. Quantities neighboring 1 show a very suitable good fit. When the firm’s R is squared, it illustrates the percentage of changeability of y accounted for by x.In some other terms, most firms tend to ensure that their R-Square value stays or should not go below 0.95, as this will account for 95% of the changeability in y with respect to x. In business, usually an R-square values more than 0.9 are preferred, but it is essential to mark that even when a firm has an R-square value of 0.35, this implies that x is still demonstrating a considerable percentage of the y trait. Nevertheless, those below 0.5 are taken as somewhat inadequate for bivariate evaluation, since the related error is so wide. Multivariate analysis for firms is however, different. In addition, when applying mathematical associations t o forecast y given x, then the pact is to present an error = 2 ? SSE, but this resolution is not often the case. Implications on use of the percentage-of-sales-method Percentage-of-sales-method is an approach of forecasting cash needs by stating revenues and costs as percentage of sales, and from these percentages to develop a pro forma income statement. While predicating financial information

A research on how importance of good HRM for asia's leading cost Essay

A research on how importance of good HRM for asia's leading cost airline in Malaysia - Essay Example ....................... 2.1 Introduction.................................................................................................... 2.2 Cultural diversity............................................................................................. 2.3 Performance management and evaluation..................................................... 2.4 Participative leadership................................................................................... 2.5 Line management training............................................................................... 2.6 Conclusion....................................................................................................... The importance of good HRM for Asia’s leading low cost airline 1.1 Introduction Air Asia, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is considered a pioneer of low cost airline travel and is considered the world’s best low cost airway provider. The company operates in an oligopolistic market str ucture, one where there is only a small handful of air travel carriers. In this type of market, competitive rivalry dictates the majority of strategic business decision-making in which the organisation must be adaptable and flexible to changing market conditions and competitive behaviours. In 2011, Air Asia sustained revenues of US $1.62 billion (Air Asia 2012). The company operates as Air Asia and also under different subsidiary brands, including Air Asia X, Air Asia India, Air Asia Japan, Philippines Air Asia, Thai Air Asia, and Indonesia Air Asia. This makes the company a legitimately multi-national organisation, one which must work with distinct regional social cultures in a very diverse employment model. Cultural differences make training and development critical in order for Air Asia to maintain its positive brand reputation and ensure that the organisational structure operates much like a cohesive, family-oriented unit. The company’s mission is â€Å"to be the best co mpany to work for whereby employees are treated as part of a big family† (Air Asia 2013, p.2). In order to accomplish this mission, having good human resources practices, especially in areas of training and development, is absolutely essential. Gaining competitive advantage involves ensuring expatriates adjust to new cultures within subsidiaries, promoting career succession and emphasizing team ideology in all inter-dependent business units. 1.2 Research title, questions and objectives Research Title The importance of good HRM for Asia’s leading low cost airline Research Question How can the training and development programs impact on the performance of AirAsia Airlines known as a budget airline? Research Objectives 1. Provide an analysis of training and development programs. 2. Evaluate the effectiveness of training programs for employees 3. Discover how Air Asia utilises performance management in a budget carrier business model. 1.3 Research rationale Training program s are very important for companies today as it helps to bring the company a positive brand reputation by ensuring that employees understand all operational and service delivery roles. Training and development brings more benefits to the company in terms of talent management and also provides advantages against competition through building of competencies and service skills. To understand an oligopoly, one must understand how a business utilises its employees as valuable resources to achieve mission and vision, whilst also satisfying important revenue-building customer

Tom's Shoes Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tom's Shoes - Research Paper Example The same type of shoes was also being wore by the farmers in Argentina and were considered as the part of centuries old history of the shoes. These shoes are made in canvas or through cotton fibers with rubber soles. These shoes are traditionally made in different styles and are considered as common shoes in Argentina. (Cook) It is also important to note that the idea of actually giving one pair of shoes to the children for every pair of shoes sold was also taken from the Argentina. While Blake Mycoskie was on vacation in Argentina and was conceiving the idea of developing such shoes, he noticed that many children were not having shoes or other footwear therefore this idea of buy one and give one was conceived there. The overall business model of the firm is based upon the concept of one for one wherein for every needy child a pair of shoes is given against the sale of each new pair of shoes. The countries where most of the free shoes are sent include countries like Argentine, Ethiop ia, Haiti, Rwanda and South Africa. The overall focus is on corporate social responsibility wherein non-profit business is being integrated with for-profit organization. ... Most of the marketing of the firm is done through the word of mouth and is shared by the existing customers with the potential customers. What is critical to note that the firm wants to make benefactors out of the consumers by following a strategy of one for one? By focusing on this, firm has actually been able to focus on its consumers while at the same time focusing on other stakeholders also including non-consumers who get the shoes without actually paying for them. This model has been dubbed as an effort towards eradicating poverty and helping needy children. (Miller) Over the period of time, Toms Shoes has been able to offer 10 million pair of shoes to 10 million children in over 60 countries. Such large number of free pairs given suggests that the firm is effectively focused upon helping children specially to improve their eyesight and having access to quality shoes. (TOMS) Toms has been partnering with some of the world’s leading organizations to help improve different aspects of life. Besides focusing on eradicating poverty and helping poor children, Toms has also been involved in using its profits for the purpose of medical equipment as well as the improvement of the education in some of the countries in Africa. Apart from this, it has also been partner with Charity: Water which is engaged in the project of offering safe drinking water especially to the people in African countries. What is critical to note however, is the philosophy that rather than doing charity, it is more important to actually do business and help the people? This model therefore is oriented towards using for profit organizational structure to help achieve the required degree of social change

GraduateWriters.net Mission to Help Students Achieve Academic Excellence Essay Example for Free

GraduateWriters.net Mission to Help Students Achieve Academic Excellence Essay PHOENIX, AZ, JUNE 24, 2014 /PRESSRELEASEPING/ ACADEMIC WRITING IS AN IMPORTANT ACTIVITY done by every student, at all level of education in order to satisfy course work requirement. Students are required to undertake a variety of academic writing task that could range from short essays, assignments, SAT, IELTS or lengthy term papers, dissertations and thesis. This type of writing could be done either under time demanding pressure or syllabus requirement. As a result students are expected to output a number of papers at the end of each day, week, semester or term. But such time demanding output doesn’t always guarantee quality of resultant paper, says Peter Wartson consultant at GraduateWriters. net. In fact a research by National Academic Council for Academic Excellence found that many students resort to borrowing or stealing the work of others in order to beat deadlines and as result the rate of plagiarism has become so common place, that if every student who plagiarized was to be flunked, the rate of dropout will be worse than that massive open online learning courses (MOOC). â€Å"With this in mind many students sort the services of freelance  academic writers, who are seen as the first level examiners. They guide students on how to structure their research papers, perform proof reading and help students to avoiding mistakes related to grammar, spelling, phrasing and plagiarism. states Peter, â€Å"Freelance academic writers, should not be confused with people who helps students achieve shortcut by doing their assignments, no they are honest writers who guide students the way a teacher will do†. While this may help students reduce stress related to academic demand, some concerns has  been raised concerning the qualification of writers who handle students’ academic work. Mary White an academic consultant at GraduateWriters. net, stated that â€Å"Students should look at the pool of writers a freelance company has, example GraduateWriter. net, is comprised of only graduate writers who have various qualification in their field of interest that range from MSc, MBA, MRes, EM, LLM, MEng, MA, Phd, and DS. At that company, writers undergo series of test approved by our senior writers to ascertain academic prowess and professional skills in writing and research. The advantage of this pool of workforce is that clients are always guaranteed the best quality writing and editing service, which cannot be found elsewhere on the Internet. Writers are specialist, with background in Education, Medicine, Nursing, Finance, Communication, Media, Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering, IT, Law etc. Other qualities that prospective student should look at before selecting an academic writing company include privacy and security, originality, timeliness, quality, revision policy, orders tracking, support and response to queries. A lot of emphasis should be placed on privacy as it is not only a right but a demand that every users online should be guaranteed of. If an online company published a student paper online, without their formal approval, it could lead to plagiarism and dismissal from school. Therefore students should look for companies that adhere with privacy policies and not let third party have access to their client papers. articulates Peter. ABOUT GRADUATEWRITERS. NET Graduate Writers is an academic editing and writing company that help student in carrying out  research work, gives advice on writing, referencing and proof reading. The company is composed of Graduate writers with specialties in field which can be advantageous to students. PO Box 89670 Phoenix, AZ Peter Wartson Graduate Writers LLC +1-480-409-1822 [emailprotected] net http://graduatewriters. net Source URL: http://pressreleaseping. com/graduatewritersnet-mission-help-students-achieve-academic- excellence.

The Meaning Of Life Quotes

The Meaning Of Life Quotes As you all know we all are here in this planet for a while only and our life or being born as a human is a gift irrespective of which race,creed and place you belong to.I believe that being born as a human one has to go through a mother of all possibilities of creation criterion,so I strongly believe that there is one unimaginable intelligent mind behind this creation.We are here to understand his purpose and his views.So lets make this world better like a heaven or at least we can put our best effort to do so in our small span of life,so as our future generation can see what we have once conceived and believed in. The Meaning Of Life If you try to find the meaning of life into the process of evolution, you will see that everything is in fact the fruit of evolution-not necessarily Darwinian evolution process. Evolution can be in our thinking, in our social life, in our economical life, in religious life and many more. Though we do not have any hard evidence that if the physical evolution is going on slowly or it has just stopped forever, but one thing is sure that mentally we are evolving everyday when we experience new ideas in our daily life. Perhaps evolution is the only process that we depend on for our survival; we simply cannot survive without going through some kind of evolution. We all love history. if you look back to our ancestors history you will easily notice that they used to be afraid of natural phenomena and calamities. The used to consider Mother Nature as our creator, and thought that god lives somewhere up on the sky. Many of us, still, when think about god, look at the sky, thinking that god is somewhere up in space. Perhaps, the majority of the people think God knows everything, believe that surely He can answer what is in his mind and what he only knows the true meaning of life. Actually, we need to find and make our own meaning of life, exactly the way we find peace living in a safe place, with trusted people. Life means go on, it never stops unless your life end. We humans are just walking the walk of life, where someone try to explore their life in their own way, while the others follow the path of great leaders or religious path to find meaning in life. Whatever is the meaning of life is, one thing is sure that we have human values and we al l like to live peaceful life, regardless of our genetically identity. Meaning of Life Quotes * Life is such a kind of game where there is no wining or no losing, every one just play his part and the most important is how well a person can adapt his role in this game. * We cannot blame the ONE for our fate , because in some way we are responsible for our own fate or maybe we just failed to adapt the way we have been gifted with life. * Life cannot be better than the way it is , can you imagine a better way than this * If I had given the power then I would try to see if the ONE is planning for any other from of life which is better than this .how better it can be. * Try to be a true friend of your fiancee or wife If you get married to your loved one and desire a long term faithful relationship, then imagine your wife as your best friend and give enough space to her to develop trust and faith in you. Whenever you bring up the so spouses commitment things to your relationships it becomes fragile. Try to think how come people remain friends till the end of their life and why there is breakup even within a few weeks of marriage. * Never think of marriage if your mind is unsure of a long term relationship with the one you are in love with. Try to find out if you are infatuated with some one or in real love with someone and the best way to find it by living together with her. When we grow up we find less time for parents and even someone do not want to meet time. But when you come to the end time of your life, you will ultimately feel the need and place of a child in your life. So, please keep a few minutes at least in a week for your parents and let them feel that you are their greatest pride and strength. * Death is the mother of all pleasure, if there were no option of death life would be meaningless to us-CYRUS * Mind is the workshop where you create thoughts which drive you to imagine or conceive a plan , and in real life we are just the reflection of our imaginations which we never can exceed, we are always remain equal to or less than our imagination.-CYRUS * If you have a fragile relationship with your wife and really wanna fix it or wanna sustain you marriage, then just live a month both of you separate and keep cherishing the wonderful memories you both shared together and the moments when both used to admire each other. I am sure after a month you dont have to worry about break-up.In fact it works all type of relationships. * Have you ever thought how many times a day you really compliment to your wife, fiancee or family members or even to your colleagues? If you really wanna invest for your future then start complementing to your fellows, no matter it is for how small things. In time of need it will pay you back and strengthen you courage to confront any difficulties of life. The Meaning of Life: Growth and Learning Still, I am looking for a true convincing meaning of life, perhaps our effort of finding the real meaning is the key of our living, which truly has no limit, no ending, no horizon. Sometimes, I find trying to find the purpose of life is as just as meaningless of beating the bush-so, better keep learning and enjoy the the full with lots of confidence, honor and honesty as long as possible. In the journey of life we never forget the true virtue we inherit from our ancestors-those teachings are invaluable and help us always to take our step beyond our present status as human. We, all know death is running behind us and gradually we all are falling behind the trap of time.Lets live a peaceful life from every aspect of our point of view. Thank you all:)

The Last Season of the Last Year :: Personal Narratives Sports Track Football Essays

The Last Season of the Last Year My final year was one of the best experiences of my life, full of surprises one of which was me going out for a totally different sport that totally changed my view against obstacles that I face. It was right after the football season when I made a decision to go out for track with a friend of mine who encouraged me and without him I would have had a very different outcome. This is quite similar to the pact because of the same encouragement and competition that Sampson, Rameck and George received from each other. The football season was great despite our record. Tom, a friend of mine from high school, together we had a great time maybe because we were seniors. In the past seasons, we didn’t have as much fun, going to practice was like going for a punishment especially during conditioning where we had to run for hours and do all sots of drills. With a little fun we turned this the other way round and had the best senior football season. During practice me and Tom, who were both wide receivers just kept on telling jokes which the coaches didn’t like so much but they let it go because we also competed against each other in the process, like whenever we run plays, we would see who could do it faster and more agile, we also had to catch the ball. Some times we pulled off one handed catches just to gain more points. That is a monument in my life I would like to relieve. I had so much fun but have you ever realized that a lot of fun just doesn’t last, before we know it, it was t he and of the football season and that was if for me and Tom since we were seniors. I moved into class rater swiftly, I was late as usual but didn’t get in trouble. I liked my teacher very much, he was also the track couch. The teacher every one in school liked and am glad I had him not only as a teacher but as a very good friend. I found him still sited on his desk besides his computer, still telling jokes that he always told at the beginning of class. â€Å"Kenneth my man† he said so loudly that he actually scared me a little. â€Å"Your fast man, why don’t you join my track team† he added.

Remember Me, by Charles Joyner Essays -- history, unskilled and skilled

Remember me is a description of unskilled and skilled work on plantations, how rice was grown and harvested, and the customs of the slaves on the Georgia Coast. Joyner depicts the life of slavery from the Masters, slave, and outside parities to a view seldom seen in the education system today. In His book, Remember Me, Charles Joyner relates the slave owner and slave to each other because each needed one another for survival on a daily basis. Joyner explains how some masters particularly cared for their slaves with one example being from Reverend Colcok Jones, â€Å"Tell all the howdye for me, (19)† and other forms of greetings when away from the plantation. However, Joyner also goes into great detail of how some masters mistreated their slaves along with their mistresses. Joyner explains that the Butler’s mistress beat the slaves routinely, and as Fanny Kemble â€Å"On the first morning of her arrival amongst us, by beating severely, with a raw cow-hide, the b lack girl who nursed the infant, because the child cried. (20)† Many historians believe the reason lying behind this was because the plantation owners were having explicit affairs with other slaves, and the wives of Plantation owners were not oblivious to this fact. On one hand, most mistresses felt that the slaves were inferior to the white race, so therefore, beat the slaves without a cause. It was common practice, during the slave period in Georgia, that slave owners beat their slaves. On the Contrary, one might also see that some plantation owners, very few, actually cared for their slaves with great compassion and loved their slaves as their own family. As the punitive treatment of slavery carried on, the life of the slave on the Georgia Coast was demanding and extremely... ...mselves. Slaves told stories of how their masters cared for them and made sure they were taking care of, had all the food they needed, and also how some of them had time where they could escape and get away from the reality that they were held against their will. However, slaves also left behind horrific stories of beatings, lynching’s, and of rape their owners did to them. What Remember Me attempts to bring out is the good and the bad of slavery, the cruel harshness one had to endure, and the love and compassion few owners gave to their slaves. In doing this Charles Joyner received a lot of criticism against his statements, but what he is credited with is bringing out a new light in slavery alongside the Georgia Coast few had ever seen. Works Cited Joyner, C. (2011). Remember me: Slave life in costal Georgia. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press. Remember Me, by Charles Joyner Essays -- history, unskilled and skilled Remember me is a description of unskilled and skilled work on plantations, how rice was grown and harvested, and the customs of the slaves on the Georgia Coast. Joyner depicts the life of slavery from the Masters, slave, and outside parities to a view seldom seen in the education system today. In His book, Remember Me, Charles Joyner relates the slave owner and slave to each other because each needed one another for survival on a daily basis. Joyner explains how some masters particularly cared for their slaves with one example being from Reverend Colcok Jones, â€Å"Tell all the howdye for me, (19)† and other forms of greetings when away from the plantation. However, Joyner also goes into great detail of how some masters mistreated their slaves along with their mistresses. Joyner explains that the Butler’s mistress beat the slaves routinely, and as Fanny Kemble â€Å"On the first morning of her arrival amongst us, by beating severely, with a raw cow-hide, the b lack girl who nursed the infant, because the child cried. (20)† Many historians believe the reason lying behind this was because the plantation owners were having explicit affairs with other slaves, and the wives of Plantation owners were not oblivious to this fact. On one hand, most mistresses felt that the slaves were inferior to the white race, so therefore, beat the slaves without a cause. It was common practice, during the slave period in Georgia, that slave owners beat their slaves. On the Contrary, one might also see that some plantation owners, very few, actually cared for their slaves with great compassion and loved their slaves as their own family. As the punitive treatment of slavery carried on, the life of the slave on the Georgia Coast was demanding and extremely... ...mselves. Slaves told stories of how their masters cared for them and made sure they were taking care of, had all the food they needed, and also how some of them had time where they could escape and get away from the reality that they were held against their will. However, slaves also left behind horrific stories of beatings, lynching’s, and of rape their owners did to them. What Remember Me attempts to bring out is the good and the bad of slavery, the cruel harshness one had to endure, and the love and compassion few owners gave to their slaves. In doing this Charles Joyner received a lot of criticism against his statements, but what he is credited with is bringing out a new light in slavery alongside the Georgia Coast few had ever seen. Works Cited Joyner, C. (2011). Remember me: Slave life in costal Georgia. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press.

Edgar Allan Poe Essay -- English Literature

Edgar Allan Poe Essay How does E.A. Poe explore the themes of horror and obsession in his short stories? In Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories the black cat and The Tell Tale Heart, both terrify the reader by making them believe they are the person going through these terrifying tales, as they believe they can hear the heart pound under the floor boards as in The Tell Tale Heart. Or they feel very cocky as showing the police round the basement 2 – 3 times until it all goes wrong, they feel it was them who committed these awful crimes. In the Black cat short story, it is the madness of the characters that creates the perfect scary story, the man trying to kill the cat and eventually killing his wife. Poe creates an atmosphere of horror by making the reader feel they are the main character, that they have just driven an axe in to there wives head. He wants the reader to feel scared and unsure, to be scared next time they hear a soft beating sound that is unexplainable, to remember the story and haunt you for as long as you live. The techniques he uses to do this are simple, but very, very affective, he repeats words and describes the most minute thing, for example, â€Å"It was open – wide, wide open – and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness – all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot.† That shows how he describes almost everything giving you a great idea of what was happening and how he repeated words to give a incredible sense of fear. Another method used by Edgar Allan Poe to illustrate the obsessions of his characters is that they all were slightly ... ...es the perfect horror story of his time. As the when the story’s are read in the present they do not scare us as we have seen horror films with people having objects rammed through there heads and horrible things that would scare the hair of a little child’s back. But even how descriptive the story is it wouldn’t scare you because of our modern day society. The techniques used by Edgar Allan Poe created tension and fear, wanting to know what happened next. And that is what happened. Edgar Allan Poe is successful through being able to reflect his life into his work, create new techniques for generations onwards to use, he gave some of the best examples of narrative stories and created some of the most describing pieces of work ever. In most peoples eyes he succeeded in being one of the top horror writers of all time, if not the most remembered and the best.

A Trip to an Unfamiliar Place

Adwoa A Adu 10/1/12 English 101 Final Draft A Trip to an unfamiliar place It all started when I was called to see the principal of my school (high school), we were actually five girls involved and we were travelling to England because we had an exchange program with a school in Kent, England called the Weald of Kent Grammar School for girls. I was so excited because it was my first time travelling outside Africa and it did have a good impact on me. In all, we were about thirty students chosen and these students should be good academically and also have good morals.Before we left for England there were a lot of preparations we did while we were inn school, we learnt some new dances, poems in French and other dialects in my country Ghana, this part of learning dances was funny because it was so hard for since I am not a good dancer but I made it through at the end. We also learnt other cultures because we were going to have some presentations in the school and we didn’t forget d iseases that are killing Africans like Malaria, AIDS, Tuberculosis and so on, we did researches on these when we went back home on vacation. We came back to school from our vacation with our luggage ready to leave for England.From school to the airport was very boring, it was about an hour and thirty minutes’ drive, we left school around 6pm and arrived at the airport 8:30pm our plane was taking off at 12 midnight so we hanged around the airport for a couple of hours. My dad was there with so was other parents with their daughters. I had mixed feelings at the time my dad was there till he left because I was sad and the fact that I was leaving him and happy because I was travelling to a place I had never been before. We checked in at 10pm and the plane took off at 12 midnight.It was boring in the plane so I slept from Ghana to Morocco where we made a transit and we took another plane from Morocco to London Airport where the Weald of Kent girls picked us from they took us to th eir school and we met the families we were going to live with I met my own family too and we went to their house. My first day with them was a feeling I can’t really express with words but I will say I was very shy because I hadn’t come into contact with British or the Whites before but after my third day I got along well with them and felt very happy living with my new family, they were very wonderful people.Except for weekends, every morning I went to school with Laura and Laura was the student I had come to live with her family. My first day at Weald of Kent Grammar School was exciting because first of all, I was marveled at the site of the school beautiful building it was and the grass are kept short and clean. Classes with them was great, we had a Social Studies and Japanese classes and I loved it I learnt some new words in Japanese language. We had classes the first week from Monday to Friday and on the weekend I spent at home with my family.The next week we went with the principal of the school to tour the city of London we went to the Buckingham Palace where the Queen of England lived, there were a lot of people around because a parade was being held in front of the palace. From there we went on to see the London Eye it’s a huge Ferris situated on the River Thames in England, we also cruised on the River Thames it was fun and a good experience. We also took some pictures in front of the Westminster Abbey this is a collegiate church of St Peter, a very large one situated in the city of Westminster my friends and family loved the pictures when I showed it to them back in Ghana.There were a lot of great thing we saw like the clock Tower in Westminster, the Tower of London, very beautiful malls where we shopped in fact I really enjoyed myself with my colleagues. In the second week, Thursday precisely, we went back to school and I attended a French class which we watched a movie we were to analyze, I loved it so much and the reason that made me enjoy their classes is their way of teaching and learning, it’s marvelous, very easy to follow the teacher, very easy to understand and it’s ok to ask questions.They have a lot of facilities that makes learning easier compared to my school in Africa where we don’t get such opportunities but if we adapted such strategies will make going to school fun and easy. On Friday night, a farewell ceremony was held at the school premises because we were leaving the next day on that night we did some African dances, recited African poems, some cultural presentations and they also gave us some performances since it was an exchange program.When I got home that Friday night, I packed all my stuff ready for tomorrow I was very sad but I spent some time with the family we talked about Ghana compared to England and the wished to visit one day. The next morning we all met at the school and a bus took us to the airport, indeed this trip was a very memorable one which is al ways in my memories especially because of the way the teachers at the school taught and how they taught us to learn changed my perception about learning and that was a very good impact it had on me and I wish to go on a trip to England the second time.

Implications and Benefits Essay

One of the biggest challenges facing small and medium-sized organizations today is the coordination of work among the workers and managers. Many companies have been successful in gathering or statistically evaluating data, but find it hard to convert the findings into positive results. Studies have shown that with globalization, many companies have had problems in motivating or working with ethnic and other culturally different employees. Many organizations have valued diversity to enhance organizational effectiveness and growth, while others still languish from hostile and unhealthy practices. As a general rule, organizations must address the importance of employee participation programs and group based pay incentives. These measures have met with success, and so too have profit and gain sharing programs. High-performance and High-involvement are two business terms related to employees and production. In order to attain perfection, employee performance is mandatory, and the company’s management needed to develop a strong belief and determination among the leadership and worker-class, to accelerate progressive changes and create a difference. Only those with exceptional influence can change the way an organization runs. Management must consider the criticality of a visible and active role taken by them to integrate policies of diversity and inclusion into every aspect of an organization’s operation and culture. Culture affects every employee of the organization, whether it is a man or woman. It’s imperative that any policy decision reach all concerned in the organization; every individual of the organization must feel a part of the scheme of things, for the welfare of the organization. A healthy work environment goes a long way in instigating quality work. At the workplace, it is imperative for the management to introduce an increased and effective mode of cooperation between the workers and managers. One way of looking at it is by creating better leadership styles and flexible work/career patterns. There are many number of business tactics, that can be employed to bring about operational changes to manage talent most effectively. Some tactics, most noticeable among them are: †¢ Identifying role models and establishing mentoring programs †¢ Eliminating all bias-based company policies and procedures †¢ Providing equal opportunities, training and development for all †¢ Conducting workshops for employees to impress upon them the importance of diversity and inclusiveness to increase performance and production Though the above initiatives may sound simple, there is more to it, than meets the eye. The exercise needs the wholehearted support and sustained effort by all employees to make it a success (David Pappie, p. 103, 2006). 1. 1 Thesis Question There have been many studies undertaken to understand the importance of cultural diversity and its acceptance in the process of organizational growth and productivity. In most cases, studies carried out have been successful in identifying the areas which have led to organizational breakdowns and slow progress. Many of these theories have been put to test with varying results. What is it that determines cultural unity, and how can this attribute to an organization’s progress? This paper tries within the limits of its structure to elicit the importance of cultural unity, by taking into consideration, the most important factor; the workforce, to gauge and underline how organizations counter cultural and other variants to become successful. 2. 0 Executive Summary Performance is the cornerstone to success and productivity. Performance comes about through the wholehearted and sincere effort of employees of an organization. This is possible only if the employees are kept happy and cared for. Strategies that favor employee retention, elicit competitive bonus schemes, and creates healthy work environment are pre-requisites for employee performance, culminating in higher production. A company’s best asset is its people, so there is a good reason why the company needs to do what is right for them. A point of contention to performance and productivity is the way one works; the ability to work remotely, where enterprise convergence gains momentum. This can come about only if the people concerned in the program are well trained to perform under least supervision and motivated. For business bosses and their employees, a converged environment makes work location and distance irrelevant. The impetus to work for the benefit of the organization must come from within the individuals concerned. Just as a students finds his/her studies important and strive for excellence, employees must find the inclination to work from within their heart. This can come about with the sustained effort of the management to bring changes that enliven the workplace (Tanuja Randery, p. 107, 2006). Globalization has opened up new vistas for entrepreneurs and other organizations to forge partnerships in third countries and enjoy governmental subsidies and tax benefits, apart from cheap labor and raw materials. When people with cultural difference enter employment in many western countries, the U. S included, they find the work ethics and style different from their own. This could have serious repercussion on co-workers and the organization as a whole. Production could get affected, quality gradually begins to deteriorate, and the organization machinery could go haywire. People from ethnic background find it hard to communicate or follow their organizational strategies or goals and are forced to defend for themselves. Just as in a foreign collaboration or merger where the foreign participant has to adjust to their surroundings and local policies and rules, workers who travel abroad and take up employment in organizations there, have to make the adjustments to fit into their roles to be of asset to that organization. Since the organization stands to gain through good HR policies, it is imperative that the organization welcomes these workers with a helping hand and guard against discrimination or inequality. 3. 0 Literature Review In order to understand the importance of cultural unity among a workforce, one could perhaps study how organizations counter cultural and other variants to become successful. During a merger, or an association, many organizations worked diligently to assimilate the various synergistic features; right from assets and equipment to technology and strategies, discounting the complexity of variant cultures. They barge into an alliance and without a thought; obliterate the long-standing traditions, practices and policies of the merged company, to meld it into a faceless subsidiary. Even in case of an equal alliance, the combined entity loses the erstwhile individualistic charm and appeal as they overlook the people factor. Corroborating this theory is a recent ‘Making Mergers Work’ study by the Society for Human Resource Management, wherein HR professionals listed incompatible cultures as the biggest obstacle to success in mergers and acquisitions. They emphasized that these companies failed to recognize the importance of cultural issues. This caused the merger to lose ground due to the negligence of culture conflict. So, what makes a partnership tick successfully? It’s the people and its culture. The recipe for getting a successful merger off the ground is shifting the spotlight from deal-making to merging-of-cultures. In fact, culture has been attributed to being one of the most important factors in building relationships. How do cultural variations integrate? Every organization has its own unique way of doing things, be it management, employment, or compensation to investment. When two firms seek to merge, customary differences are more than likely to crop up. Structured-entrepreneurial, proactive-reactive, centralised-decentralised, formal-informal or extravagant-economical, each firm has its own firm belief in what is right and what’s wrong. This is where cultural differences emerge. Management has always devised a set of ethics on which the company and its employees perform; this is organizational culture (The Hindu, 2007). Culture change management is a tough volley and can be successful only when employees ascribe to it. However, predisposed workers lose motivation and experience job insecurity. So, leaders should use persuasion, not coercion, to mobilize the apprehensive culturally different workforce. Culture within an organization is equally important in the context of organizational success. Culture is built over years of practice and cannot be changed overnight. The culture that one wraps around people can not alter them as individuals, but will definitely influence their behavior. HRM needs to address the concerns of these workers. HRM policies should support employee grievance and at the same time be pro-employer. Using various HR techniques, HRM should be able to bring these workers to understand the importance of any new development that the organization initiates, and that with the growth of the organization, they grow too. Cultural changes are imperative in this world of globalization. Global competition means performing to global standards. This can be achieved only if the workers; the backbone of an industry, makes a strong effort to absorb these changes. This can be done by proper management of human resource management. HR must play the pivotal role of educator where cultural differences occur among the workforce (Neville Lake, 2002). 3. 1 Advantages and Disadvantages of Cultural Diversity While there are many advantages in embracing the ethical minority in an organization, there are some disadvantages as well. Many organizations embrace a continued commitment to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families, as well as the local community and society at large, says Holme and Watts (2000, p. 4) . Many organizations have targeted their HR policies to involve all employees equally, irrespective of their culture or gender. This helps those inclined to be different to be a part of the organizational strategy and brought into the mainstream to perform as one. With proper training and development, these individuals can become equally effective in their duties and contribute to the growth of their organization. These culturally different workers may need more time to understand their work and find it hard to communicate with their colleagues or superiors to work in unison. This can upset the tempo of production. However, with some support and motivation, these people should be able to learn their responsibilities in no time. What is important is the support and encouragement to perform. It has been found that while white Americans have little or no issues at a relatively middle-age, ethnic people have a large family to support and look after. This means that while the demands of the white Americans are far less, ethnic people find that they have more responsibilities and demands to be met. This is carried to their workplace, where they find that they have to balance their time at work and also at home, creating pressure to perform. Many organizations have responded to these issues or trends with sympathy and found their performance giving competitive advantages over other organizations. Leading academicians, researchers, and businessmen, according to Cox and Blake (1991), found that a well managed, diverse workforce held potential competitive advantages for their organizations .

World Peace

21st the world is encouraged to recognize that day as a day of peace. I think it is quite easy for people to look at places around the world where there is clearly hostility going on, whether it be the Middle East, Africa, or inner cities in the United States, and think why can’t there simply be peace. To me peace is not about looking at places of hostility around the world and saying there must be peace there. Real peace around the world begins within you. Check inside and honestly answer the questions â€Å"Am I at peace within myself? â€Å"How do I express and encourage peace in my interactions with others? † Many people if they are honest are not at peace within themselves. They have allowed what is going on their physical world to disturb their peace. With their peace disturbed, they have either consciously or unconsciously disturbed the peace of those around them. I believe we must master peace within ourselves before we can hope to have authentic peace with anyone else. That is not to say that the two cannot be pursued simultaneously. There are wonderful organizations such as The Center For Non-Violent Communication, that can assist you in both recognizing the needs both within yourself and others so that you can have peaceful win/win conversations even in difficult circumstances. You can also make a conscious choice to release the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are responsible for disturbing your peace, and reprogram your subconscious mind to create peace in your life. In honor of International Peace Day 2009, I have created ten affirmations for personal peace within you, and ten affirmations for peace around the world. In a country, Peace is a term that most commonly refers to an absence of aggression, violence or hostility. Peace isn’t the absence of violence but rather the presence of justice. In a society, peace happens when different desires are in one agreement. Peace is based on many things, culture, education, family values, experience, & history (to name a few) but the basis is the same—-to co-exist without war, killing, & overpowering a fellow being. According to me, Peace is the feeling that all's right with the world. When everyone around me in my family, my friend circle and my neighbourhood is happy, eager to love, accept and relate†¦ I feel at peace. Also, to me it means following what my heart says and sharing mutual trust and respect for people around me. However, in today’s world, peace and harmony face various threats. Terrorism, regional imbalance, economic disparity, and social inequality are some of the factors which threaten peace today. We all are so engrossed in our busy lifestyles and yet want our lives to be peaceful. We expect that peace to be omnipresent but what we need to realize is the fact that if we want peace- we have to live peacefully, love everyone, forgive, forget, etc. . It’s not enough to stand around asking if world peace will ever happen because that won’t do anything. Actions speak louder than any words. If everyone starts living the peaceful, loving way, things will change. But someone has to start and lead by example. Mahatma Gandhi once said â€Å"You must be the change you wish to see in the world. We can’t rely on anyone else to do this. We have to do these ourselves. Acceptance, compassion, and tolerance are the foundation of peace. Mahatma Gandhi showed that peace ends suffering and oppression, not by warring against an enemy but by bearing witness to wrongs and allowing sympathy and common humanity to do their patient work. Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa lived different aspects of peace, which was proven to be a viable way to achieve great things. A Human Approach to World Peace When we rise in the morning and listen to the radio or read the newspaper, we are confronted with the same sad news: violence, crime, wars, and disasters. I cannot recall a single day without a report of something terrible happening somewhere. Even in these modern times it is clear that one's precious life is not safe. No former generation has had to experience so much bad news as we face today; this constant awareness of fear and tension should make any sensitive and compassionate person question seriously the progress of our modern world. World peace is an ideal of freedom, peace, and happiness among and within all nations and/or peoples. World peace is a Utopian idea of planetary non-violence by which nations willingly cooperate, either voluntarily or by virtue of a system of governance that prevents warfare. Although the term is sometimes used to refer to a cessation of all hostility among all individuals, world peace more commonly refers to a permanent end to global and regional wars with future conflicts resolved through nonviolent means.

In creation of annales school Essay

underwent a crisis. During the Third Republic, historians had established a strong presence within French universities by teaching political history of the French nation. After World War I, however, historians faced a challenge to their powerful position. In the late twenties and early thirties the government reduced the number of teaching posts made available to historians in secondary and higher education. Moreover, some French intellectuals questioned the value of professional history, accusing historians of contributing to the rise of jingoistic nationalism. In the context of these challenges to the status of history, some historians elected to alter the way they wrote political history. In the interests of â€Å"intellectual disarmament,† the Comite francais des sciences historiques and the Comite francais de la cooperation intellectuelle participated in an international effort to rewrite history textbooks. In 1929 the historians Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre launched a new journal Annales d’histoire economique et sociale. They did so in hope of transforming the historical discipline by providing a venue for the publication of research focused on social and economic history. Throughout much of the journal’s history, editors of Annales encouraged a style of history that rose above the accumulation of fact, that mobilized historians to tackle shared problems, and that sought to build alliances among different fields in the social sciences. Historians in Europe and the United States have seen the creation of Annales as a crucial turning point in the history of the historical profession and the French social sciences. After World War II the journal, then renamed Annales: economies, societes, civilisations, served as a rallying point for young French historians interested in exploring new approaches to writing history. Taking up the intellectual program first defined by Bloch and Febvre, Annales’s post-WWII editors advocated a style of history that borrowed problems and methods from demography, economics, and geography. This paper show how Bloch and Febvre drew on the concern about intellectual over-specialization and the trend to collectivize research in order to shape research on economic history and rural society. Although Bloch proposed numerous collaborative projects, the mainstay of the journal’s success was its attention to rural history. The political import of research on rural societies and the cultural politics of intellectual cooperation thus proved to be valuable resources in the development of Annales’s intellectual program. HISTORIOGRAPHY Over the past two decades historians have been taking stock of the journal’s legacy to history and social science. A major theme in evaluations of Annales is the journal’s interdisciplinary ambition. Some historians of history depict the alliances negotiated between history and the social sciences as problematic. For example, Georg Iggers and Lawrence Stone contend that in emulating the social sciences the New History lost sight of the ways in which human beings make history. Purporting to examine society at its most profound levels, Annales historians tended to make history not a study of change but a science of static societies. Some historians are rethinking the merits of social science history. In a collection of essays on historiography Immanuel Wallerstein, once a proponent of Annales history, proclaims that the time has come to move beyond Annales and the emphasis on interdisciplinarity. Proponents of the New Cultural History have turned away from the blending of geography, economics, demography, sociology, and history that had been the hallmark of Annales history from the fifties to the early seventies. Some of them, including the Annales historian Herman Lebovics, draw on literary theory to criticize the assumptions and categories used by many social and economic historians in their analyses. The reevaluation of history’s alliances with the social sciences is fueled partly by a reaction to the scientization of the discipline and partly by philosophers of historical writing, who have drawn attention to the rhetorical and literary aspects of history. Taking a different approach to analyzing the relationship between history and social science, Terry Clark and Francois Dosse look at the function of competition in intellectual life. Clark depicts the leadership of historians over the establishment of the Sixth Section as the result of a struggle between historians and sociologists for control of institutional resources. More polemical than Clark, Dosse overtly attacks Annales historians’ tendency to raid other social sciences in their relentless pursuit of new topics and methods. Dosse suggests that interdisciplinarity was merely a form of intellectual acquisitiveness that led historians to absorb (or attempt to absorb) other intellectual fields. The result is a patchwork history that had lost coherence as a discipline. Two sources help greatly in examination of Marc Bloch’s life and work, his influence and role in establishing the Annales School. The Susan Friedman book Marc Bloch, Sociology, and Geography: Encountering Changing Disciplines, provides excellent coverage of Bloch’s life and career: some fundamental and significant standpoints and events are described and discussed thoroughly therein. In addition, Carole Fink’s book Marc Bloch: A Life in History provides intellectual and political bibliography of Annales co-founder. THE ANNALES PROGRAM From the journal’s inception through the end of the thirties, Bloch and Febvre worked to create a collective spirit among Annales’s readers and contributors. In the letter that accompanied the first issue of the journal, they proclaimed that the young periodical was born of â€Å"in effort to rapprochement of contributors,† whose ambition was to work collaboratively â€Å"constant community. † By the end of the thirties Bloch and Febvre referred to a common identity that was shared by those who rallied to the journal. In 1939, when they terminated their relationship with Armand Colin and began to publish the journal independently, they again appealed to the collective spirit of their subscribers. The reference to the solidarity of the journal’s â€Å"disciples† was the most explicit evocation of solidarity to appear during the thirties. In addition to making an explicit appeal to teamwork and collaboration, Bloch and Febvre marketed Annales to both academic and non-academic readers. In the planning phase of the journal in 1928, they informed their publisher that they anticipated selling subscriptions to university libraries in France and abroad as well as to municipal libraries. In addition professional historians in higher education, they decided to make an appeal to history teachers in French high schools as well as local savants, whose good will and research efforts had been wasted, they felt, in the activities of provincial learned societies. In their efforts to market the journal, they distributed two prospects — one for professional historians and another for the local savant. As Febvre wrote, he and Bloch intended to add, as an expression of good will, personal notes to the copies of the prospectus destined for provincial researchers. Professional sociologists and experts on society and economics comprised the last major group of potential readers and contributors that Bloch and Febvre had in mind in 1928. With the publication of Annales starting in 1929, Bloch tried to use the journal to advance his career. Early in the early thirties, he actively campaigned for a position in Paris, and he had his eye Camille Jullian’s Chair at the College de France. In 1930, Bloch penned a flattering retrospective article on Jullian’s career, and late in 1932, he praised Jullian’s preface to Guy de Tournadre’s L’histoire du comte de Forealquier, while subjecting Tournadre to excoriating criticism. Bloch also attacked the medievalist Louis Halphen in a review of Halphen’s contribution to Cambridge University Press’s multi-volume series on medieval history. During the twenties Halphen and Bloch had entertained a rivalry. Both occupied the field of medieval history and therefore vied with each other for a position in Paris. In the midst of that rivalry each historian struggled to establish his intellectual niche and institutional foothold by defining himself in opposition to the other. Although Bloch’s efforts to join the College de France failed, he won a position at the Sorbonne in 1935. Bloch, who was Halphen’s junior by six years, received a Parisian appointment only one year after Halphen assumed his Chair at the Sorbonne in 1934. Between 1932 and 1934, Bloch and Febvre actively solicited contributions from non-academic researchers by introducing another style of inquiry — the â€Å"enquete contemporaine. † The contemporary studies were not designed to be collectively executed research projects, and Bloch and Febvre offered no specific research guidance. Instead, the journal published on-going or recent work on the economy of contemporary Europe, and most contributors wrote articles on such topics as banking and finance. By designing projects that called on the contribution of such an ilk, they hoped to rally different groups — amateur, professional, and expert — around the journal. By choosing such a variety of scholars to participate in the journal, Bloch and Febvre thus defined the intellectual mission of the journal broadly. Moreover, they deliberately left such terms as â€Å"social† and â€Å"economic† loosely defined. Bloch’s correspondence with the historian of Japan Kanichi Asakawa revealed a conscious decision to leave open the journal’s definition of social history. Bloch and Febvre adopted a similarly broad view of the journal’s intellectual mission when they opened Annales up to contributions from other social scientists. With the exception of favoring empirical research over theoretical studies, they defined no intellectual orthodoxy for the journal. In Annales, cross-disciplinarity was often little more than an ensemble of articles by different social scientists on related topics. In 1935 and 1936, for example, Bloch and Febvre published a series of essays on tools and technology, which included an article by Andre Haudricourt, an agronomist who later specialized in ethno-botany and the ethno-history of technology. In his correspondence with the historian Charles Parain, Haudricourt wrote that he was astounded by the intellectual differences between historians and ethnographers despite their common interest in tools and technology. True to Haudricourt’s observation, his article on the harness and Bloch’s article on the same subject had no meaningful similarities or differences — they simply bypassed each other. Haudricourt’s essay in Annales followed the harness’s geographical diffusion. When they defined Annales’a intellectual mission, Febvre and Bloch shared a desire to avoid intellectual orthodoxy . Their goals were twofold. They wanted to encourage historians to think about specific research problems, and they also wanted to lay the groundwork for doing empirical research on economic and social history by gathering information about archives. One of the strategies they used to accomplish those goals was the organization of collective projects. Responding to the inter-war emphasis on international cooperation, Bloch and Febvre saw collective research as a way to inspire their readers to organize their work around common problems. In the first issue of Annales Bloch and Febvre announced several structured inquiries into the history rural society, of prices, and of nobility. But in spite of their agreement on the basic research program for the journal and in spite of their confidence in the utility of collective research, they eventually developed very different conceptions of what intellectual teamwork might bring to history and social science. Febvre’s conception of teamwork and its usefulness for historians and social scientists centered on the collection of information. In contrast with Febvre’s fascination with the division of labor and the creation of a research network, Bloch showed less interest in culling data from a pool of untrained research workers. Early in his career, he had expressed an interest in using research questionnaires, although he had not thought of them as useful for establishing large-scale projects in data collection. Bloch’s earliest writings on methodology drew parallels between the use of questionnaires and the scientist’s practice of reporting on research objectives and procedures. Bloch saw questionnaires as instrumental for structuring communication among fields in the social and human sciences. For example, he advocated emulating the multi-disciplinary approach of the Oslo Institute for the Comparative Study of Culture. BLOCH’S WORK AND ROLE In the journal’s first year Bloch implemented a collective project on rural history. The project on â€Å"Les plans parcellaires† was journal’s longest and most successful team project. In his introduction, Bloch called on historians and geographers to create an inventory of archival sources on rural history. According to him, valuable data on the rural economy had been preserved in rarely consulted property registers and land plats held in local archives and libraries. The â€Å"plans parcellaires† and the property registers created by European states provided visual and textual sources on the evolution of the French countryside. Scattered in archives throughout France and Europe, they provided snapshots of rural societies at different points in history. In France, they offered a way to study rural history from seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Bloch argued that the study of the â€Å"traits matiriels† of the rural countryside would help researchers understand the basic structure of rural society as a precursor to further research. Using cadastral maps, geographers and historians could study changes in land usage, systems of crop rotation, the persistence of common land or its enclosure, settlement patterns, the distribution and size of villages, and the evolution of seigniorial authority. Because of the cadasters’ potential value to geographers and historians, Bloch used Annales to create a basic inventory of their availability. He did not, however, use his team projects to generate raw data on rural history. Bloch asked readers to submit articles on the availability of four types of sources in their local archives or libraries: land maps (terriers) created prior to the Revolution, property records generated during the Revolution, the Napoleonic cadaster, and any revisions made to it during the nineteenth century. Through Annales, Bloch built a team comprised of local savants, students, and specialists on rural society and economy from France and abroad. In 1931 the friendly society of provincial archivists adopted a proposal to establish an inventory of the Napoleonic cadaster as well as any maps that provided information on the type of crops grown in the different regions of France. The Director of French Archives endorsed the proposal in a circular distributed to archivists throughout France. As the project unfolded, Bloch not only recommended that historians analyze visual historical sources on the French countryside (i. e. , cadastral atlases and terriers), but he also advocated studying the contemporary landscape. In instructions and articles for the study of the â€Å"plans parcellaires,† he recommended using aerial photography and archaeology in order to identify the trace of past in the present configuration of the countryside. Bloch’s work on rural history has helped to define the nation myth of French diversity and rootedness in a rural past. One of the themes that emerges from Bloch’s book on French rural history, Les caracteres originaux de 1’histoire rurale francaise, was indeed the diversity of France and the deep continuities between past and present that defined French rural history. Surveying the French countryside from the hamlets of Brittany to the villages of Provence, Bloch identified dramatic contrasts in the physical, economic, and social configuration of French rural life. Examining the rural economy, he identified a variety of agrarian regimes. Open fields, enclosures, agricultural tools as well as biennial and triennial systems of crop rotation all combined and overlapped in divergent ways throughout France. In place of any form of national ethnic unity or homogeneity, he identified three distinct types of agrarian civilization. As Meillet and Demangeon had done in the late twenties, Bloch also indulged a patriotic claim that French scholars might lead their European colleagues in orchestrating research on rural civilization. Unlike Febvre, whose work with the Commission des recherches collectives eventually led him to undertake a national inventory of France’s rural civilization, Bloch remained committed to implementing projects at the international level, planning collective studies that built on his work in rural history. In a 1933 proposal published in the Bulletin of the International Committee of the Historical Sciences, he outlined a project on the transformation of seigniorial institutions throughout Europe. Bloch proposed to create a common questionnaire in order to establish a basic starting point. With France clearly in mind, he focused on studying the erosion of large seigniorial demesnes and the rise of the small landholder, who paid a form of rent usually in crops but sometimes in obligatory labor. As he had stated in Les caracteres originaux, the emergence of the small landholder was one of the defining characteristics of French rural history. Although France was his starting point for defining research projects on rural history, he intended his project to generate comparative and cross-disciplinary research on European agrarian history. Yet in his work on rural history Bloch transformed France into a microcosm of Europe. He used France to illuminate research problems that he considered pertinent to Europe as a whole, and he claimed that rural France was in fact an ideal laboratory for the study of European agricultural civilization as a whole. The diversity of France and the multiple agrarian civilizations that Bloch found there made it a universal theater of research. In 1934 Bloch repeated his call for collective research on rural civilization to an audience of French scholars. In a proposal to the College de France, written for his campaign for a chair in the comparative history of European civilization, he outlined plans for an international investigation of European rural history. He proposed to pursue research on agrarian regimes as well as on evolving notions of personal liberty and servitude. Bloch again called for the use of a unified research questionnaire in order to solicit contributions from those outside of the University’s upper echelons. The standardized questionnaires allowed for more effective coordination in the scale and scope of research, and the coordination of comparative research would establish France’s intellectual leadership in an area and research method that had thus far been neglected beyond France’s borders. Bloch argued that his project would guide experts, scholars, local savants, and students in a vast collaborative project that would cross national frontiers as well as the intellectual and social boundaries created by university hierarchies. Between 1928 and 1930, Bloch had elaborated his approach to comparative history. From the outset Bloch eschewed the modern nation-state as his research terrain. To accept modern boundaries and national divisions within the formulation of a research project was to impose anachronistic categories on historically situated societies, groups, institutions, and economies. For Bloch effective comparison required researchers to recognize the fluidity of geographical frontiers. Bloch’s approach to comparative history drew heavily on Antoine Meillet’s work in comparative and historical linguistics, which had sought to redefine the study of European civilization through international study of dialects and language families. As much as Bloch admired the tools that Meillet had brought to the history of civilizations, he also saw historical linguistics as only one tool among others. Bloch contended that the cultural frontiers identified by historical and geographic linguistics did not necessarily correspond to the frontiers that could be identified by historians or human geographers. Bloch trusted the detection of multiplicity and the complex connections among linguistic, institutional, social, economic facts that made explaining change such a difficult undertaking. Above all he feared intellectual laziness, which tempted scholars to rely on categories or abstract concepts that too easily substituted for criticism, reflection, and intellectual flexibility. In interwar Europe, ethnicity was one of the abstractions that informed research on rural civilization, and many of Bloch’s commentaries on rural civilization contained sharp criticism of it. In a 1928 article on comparative history, he had criticized the effort by Friedrich Meitzen, the German specialist of agrarian civilization, to establish an ethnic map of Europe. In a 1934 review of German research on toponymy and ancient history, Bloch criticized scholars who attempted to write the history of race and ethnicity. In 1932 Bloch returned to the rural habitat in a review of the latest round of work that had emerged from the 1931 International Conference of Geographers. In a tangent on Slavic scholarship on the rural history of Eastern Europe, Bloch objected to the intrusion of nationalism into scholarship on European settlement patterns. The bulk of his article, though, dealt with the conceptual problems of writing on the rural habitat. Bloch developed Lefevre’s earlier recommendation that such terms as habitat, village, and hamlet be more clearly defined. Between its first meeting in 1925 and its final report in 1931, the International Committee on the Rural Habitat had elected to use a numerical formula to define the terms village and hamlet: X number of houses within a given area equaled a village, whereas fewer than X made up a hamlet. Emphasizing the importance of examining social groups in addition to habitat and landscape, Bloch sought to make the analysis of rural life intellectually subtle and less vulnerable to serving nationalist agenda. To the arbitrary numerical definition of the village that was offered by geographers, Bloch added a social definition the rural village. Arguing that geographers had overlooked the social nature of the village community, he contended that family or kinship groups often define villages and hamlets. He held that historians and social scientists in fact understood very little about the history of the family. During the late thirties he began to sharpen his criticisms of what he saw as the increasingly romantic nationalist strain in research on rural civilization. At the 1937 Congres international de folklore, Bloch overtly attacked Demangeon’s work on the rural habitat. According to Bloch, Demangeon had simplified the complexity of rural society by glorifying peasant civilization. In a paper for the 1939 International Conference of Sociologists, he proposed another research project in which he gave the guidelines for a study of village communities. Bloch’s 1939 proposal was not the first time that he had dealt with the social structures of rural civilization. Even in Lea caracteres originaux, he had taken care to differentiate among the social groups working the land, discussing the emergence of the small landholder and agricultural day laborers. Bloch’s plans for a study of the village community built on his interest in extending the analysis of rural civilization to include the structures of social life in addition to his earlier projects on cadastral records and the physical features of the rural habitat. 9S Bloch’s recommendations came with what he saw as the urgent need to arrest the intrusion of nationalism into the social sciences, and he attacked any effort to use research on rural life and the peasantry to indulge romantic and ethnic definitions of the nation. That concern about the nationalist overtones of research on rural society emerged in his articles on rural history. In an article for the catalog of the 1939 exhibition on the French agronomist Olivier de Serres, Bloch redoubled his attacks on the mythologization of peasant France. In his paper he scrutinized the writings of nineteenth century French historians, pointing out their simplification of French history in using such abstractions as the Gallic or Frankish races. Bloch had clearly wearied of the ways in which discussions of European settlement patterns and rural civilization served as a blank screen for the projection of politically motivated descriptions of national unity, colonization, conquest, or invented antagonisms among races or ethnic groups. CONCLUSION Historians of Annales have often focused on the resistance among most historians to Bloch and Febvre’s efforts to reform the historical profession. Their studies have neglected the strategies that Bloch and Febvre used to recruit participants for journal and for their efforts to negotiate alliances with other fields in the social sciences. More often than not, Febvre’s and Bloch’s attempt to bring the fields of sociology, geography, linguistics, folklore, and history together around such topics as work, prices, or rural history revealed significant differences of method. Thus, the journal’s cross-disciplinary alliances yielded limited success in structuring genuinely cross-disciplinary collaboration. In order to direct historians away from the writing of political history, Bloch and Febvre adopted collective research as a strategy for rallying historians to the journal and to define research problems. For Febvre collaborative research furnished researchers who generate raw data which can then be used by expert researchers. Through his involvement with the Commission des recherches collectives, he negotiated an alliance with folklorists to organize amateur researchers for the purposes of gathering data on traditional ways of life, village communities, and peasant customs. In Bloch’s work team research functioned as a form of pedagogy through which he instructed his colleagues in the provinces and the students on techniques and sources that were critical to writing the history of rural civilization. Through Annales Bloch worked to alter the intellectual terrain of history. However, the historian remained the guardian of the nation’s symbols and heritage, just as it had been earlier in the Third Republic. Rather than focus on political history, Bloch defined France through the diversity of its rural civilization. At the end of the thirties, Bloch became increasingly cognizant of the political implications of research on rural France. In his reviews and through their leadership of research projects both Bloch helped to position the discipline of history as the critic of fields that contributed to the study of rural France. During the forties the study of rural France became increasingly politicized by the Vichy government. Works Cited Besnard, Philippe, ed. The Sociological Domain: The Durkheiminas and the Founding of French Sociology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Burke, Peter. The French Historical Revolution: The Annales School, 1929-1989. Cambridge: Polity, 1990. Clark, Terry Nichols. Prophets and Patrons: The French University and the Emergence of the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973. Dosse, Francois. The New History in France: The Triumph of Annales. Translated by Peter V. Conroy. Chicago: University Illinois Press, 1994. Fink, Carole. Marc Bloch: A Life in History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Friedman, Susan W. Marc Bloch, Sociology, and Geography: Encountering Changing Disciplines. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Iggers, Georg. New Directions in European Historiography. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1975. Hunt, Lynn. â€Å"French History in the Last Twenty Years: The Rise and Fall of the Annales Paradigm,† Journal of Contemporary History 21 (1986): 209-24. Kain, Roger J. P. and Elizabeth Baigent. The Cadastral Map in the Service of the State: A History of Property Mapping. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992. Keylor, William. Academy and Community: The Foundation of the French Historical Profession. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975. Lebovics, Herman. True France: The Wars over Cultural Identity, 1900-1945. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992. Stoianovich, Traian. French Historical Method: The Annales Paradigm. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976. Stone, Lawrence. The Past and the Present Revisited, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987. Weber, Eugen. The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994. Wallerstein, Immanuel. Unthinking Social Science: The Limits of Nineteenth-Century Paradigms. New York: Polity Press, 1991. Wallerstein, Immanuel. â€Å"Annales as Resistance,† Review 1 (1978): 5-7.