Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Compare and Contrast Greek and Roman Gods Research Paper

Compare and Contrast Greek and Roman Gods - Research Paper Example He was depicted as a bearded man to symbolize masculinity, where as his body armor symbolized his willingness to go to war for Olympia. He wore golden armor to symbolize his god stature. He was synonymous with the vulture, a bird that preys on dead or decaying animals. It was a symbol for the end of a war or the warning for a coming war. In the case of Roman Mythology, the title of god of war was given to Mars. He was the son of Romulus, who was the creator of Rome. He was in love with Venus, who was the goddess of love. He was considered to be the second most important individual in Roman Mythology, second only to Jupiter (Cartledge, 2002). He was a prominent military god and was admired and respected by the Roman legions. He was considered to be the protector of Rome, and would go to war to increase the power of the Roman Empire. The story of Mars is likened to that of Ares. His story is considered to have been derived from Ares, due to the similarity in their roles and functions in their respective mythologies. The main variation is that the Roman myths is based on the use of humans becoming gods, while in Greek mythology, it is based on the establishment of gods in their own society and group, which was superior to humans in Greek societies. (Dowden, 1992) In Greek Mythology, the king of the gods was Zeus. He was the ruler of mount Olympus as well as the god of the sky, thunder, weather, order, law and fate. He is depicted as a grown man, well built and wielding a thunderbolt. His image is based on royalty, the falcon and the bull which were used to depict or illustrate his character (Wiseman, 2002). The bull was a symbol of Zeus’ strength whereas the falcon was a symbol of his swift nature in judgment, and ability to deal with matters that may concern Olympus. His character was the true definition of a king, and his rule embodied that of a ruthless ruler, who had no

Monday, October 28, 2019

The last supper by leonardo da vinci Essay Example for Free

The last supper by leonardo da vinci Essay In human history, it is hard to find another so gifted person, as Leonardo da Vinci was. He serves as a symbol of Renaissance person, an ideal of harmoniously developed human. His heritage consists of works of art, sculptures, works on mechanics, physics and natural science. Leonardo da Vinci is, undoubtedly, the most prominent representative of Renaissance art period of Italy. This paper is to examine only one of his outstanding masterpieces – The Last Supper. This work of art is made in a form of a huge fresco, performed by order of Louis Moro for refectory of the church Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan in 1495-1497. It began to acquire its unique reputation immediately after it was finished in 1498 and its prestige has never diminished. Despite the many changes in tastes, artistic styles, and rapid physical deterioration of the painting itself, the paintings status as an extraordinary creation has never been questioned nor doubted. It’s fortune is dramatic. The paints started chalking already during Leonardo’s life. In XVII century a door was made in the wall of refectory, which partially ruined the composition, and in XVIII century the room was turned into grain warehouse. Later the fresco was damaged by poor reconstructions. In 1908 certain jobs on cleaning and consolidation of the painting were made. During WWII the ceiling and southern wall of the refectory were ruined by a bomb. Restoration in 1945 saved the fresco from further destruction, however, now we can see only the general shapes of Leonardo’s masterpiece. Much of the detail can be learned from a copy, made with oil and canvas by unknown artist of the XVI century . A huge fresco, which is about 15 feet high and 29 feet long, covers the entire back wall of the refectory. The perfection of this work lies not only in the artistic merits of the painting, but also in Leonardos expressive mastery. Leonardos Last Supper is an ideal pictorial representation of the most important event in the Christian doctrine of salvation the institution of the Eucharist . Leonardo painted The Last Supper on a dry wall rather than on wet plaster, so it is not a true fresco. Because a fresco cannot be modified as the artist works, Leonardo instead chose to seal the stone wall with a layer of pitch, gesso and mastic, then paint onto the sealing layer with tempera. Because of the method used, the piece has not withstood time very well – within several years of completion it already began showing signs of deterioration . Master’s idea was to create an illusion, that the room, where the Last Supper takes place is a part of the refectory itself, and thus to turn a spectator into a participant of one of the most important events in the history of Christianity. Leonardo depicted the dramatic culmination of the Supper, the very moment that Jesus has said to his disciples: â€Å"Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. Matthew 26† Jesus words inspire a number of feelings in His adepts: anger, fear, despair, some of them stand up from their places and gesticulate. In order not to create an impression of a clutter, Leonardo united the characters into four groups with three persons in each of them, symmetrically placed around the Savior. The first group consists of Bartholomew, James the Lesser and Andrew, all of them appearing surprised. Andrew holds both of his hand up in front of him in a frightened gesture. The second group: Judah Iscariot, Simon Peter and John. Judah is holding a bag of silver in his right hand, while reaching for a piece of bread with his left. Simon Peter is leaning over the shoulder of John, a knife held in his right hand, symbolizing his zealous defence of Jesus. John appears to be swooning. In contrast to traditional depiction of Judah opposite to Christ, Leonardo placed him near God the Son, however, the traitor can be easily recognized with his pulled back figure, convulsive gesture of his hand, fastening a purse and dark profile. Da Vinci presented a realistic explanation of Christs prophetic words that the first man to share bread with him would also be the betrayer: Jesus and Judas are shown reaching for the same piece of bread, although everybodys attention is riveted elsewhere. The third group is made of Thomas, James the Great and Phillip. These three appear in different degrees of shock; Thomas, with his hand raised, and Phillip seem to be requesting some sort of explanation, while James the Great, between them, appears to be recoiling from Jesus in horror. The last group of three is formed by Matthew, Jude Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot and theyappear to be discussing the matter with each other, in a rendition of Luke 22:23: They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. The figure of Christ is not only spacial, but also a spiritual centre of the painting. He is alone in his wise eupathy and acceptance of fate. His figure seems to be the only stable element of the painting, symbolizing the sanctity of faith and imminence of His mission. References 1. Pietro C. Marani. â€Å"Leonardo Da Vinci: The Complete Paintings†, Harry N. Abrams, 2000 2. David A. Brown â€Å"Leonardo da Vinci: Origins of a Genius†. Yale University Press, 1998 3. Roderick C. Morris â€Å"Shock Waves of Leonardos Last Supper†, International Herald Tribune, May 26, 2001.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Schools :: essays research papers

SCHOOLS There are hundreds, if not thousand of schools in this world. In Malaysia, we have seven types of schools. They are Malay schools, Tamil schools, Chinese schools, international schools, private schools, and religious schools. There is only one type of Malay schools and they are the Malay government schools. Malay schools are the most common types of schools in Malaysia. You can find at least one Malay school in a town. Malay schools are divided into two. They are the Malay primary schools and the Malay secondary schools. Malaysians start their primary school education at the age of seven. They will then be in standard 1 and they will stay until they are in standard 6, which is until they are 12 years old. The following year they will go to form 1 in the secondary school and they will continue studying there until they finish form 5 so that they can go to either college or start work immediately or they can continue to form 6 so that they can go to university immediately thereafter. Every student has to sit for the UPSR examination when they are in standard 6, the PMR examination when they are in form 3, the SPM examination when they are in form 5, and the STPM examination when they are in form 6. All the lessons in the primary and secondary schools are, with the exception of the English lesson, are conducted in Malay. There is only one type of Tamil school in Malaysia and they are the government ones. Tamil schools are very much like the Malay schools with the exception that all lessons except English and Malay are in Tamil. Their syllabus is a lot like the syllabus of the Malay schools. The only difference is that they have to enter a Malay school when they go to form one. They normally spend a year in a special class after they finish the UPSR examination so that they can cope with the high standard of Malay in the Malay school they will be going to. Then they will they will continue studying at the school like any other student. Chinese schools are very much like Tamil schools. All their lessons except English and Malay are in Chinese. Their syllabus is a lot like the syllabus of the Malay schools. However, they can choose to continue their education in a Chinese secondary school after they finish their UPSR examination or they can choose to go to a special class after the examination and then continue their education in a Malay secondary school.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Historical/Cultural Analysis

Historical/Cultural Analysis â€Å"Operation of a Medic. † The text, â€Å"Watching a Medic, Sicily, August 9, 1943†, illustrates the occupation of a medic in action during WWII. This text shows a medic helping another soldier in Sicily. In the background of the image there is a poor and deprived family looking upon the medic performing his duty of helping the injured soldier. This image shows what a medic’s lifestyle was like during the war. Medics had to perform their medical duties in places where injuries occurred, making it especially tough in the areas of where war was occurring.The image shows the historical context of the invasion of Sicily that took place during the same time as the picture. The image also shows the cultural context in relation with the lives of the natives living in Sicily. The occupation of medics and their lifestyle, the topic of war and military invasion, and the inhabitants of the homeland of Sicily, can all be accurately embedded w ithin the tangible meaning of what it was like during the time of this visual text. In the image there is a medic performing a procedure on another soldier that is lying injured on the ground.The injured soldier is lying with his uniform open and his eyes closed. His helmet is lying on the ground beside a poor family that watching the operation happening. The family is in the background and is looking upon with a worried and sad look on their faces. These people are watching the scene of a medic in action from their own doorsteps, which brings attention to the fact that these onlookers are natives of the land where the picture occurred. This distinguishes the awareness of the cultural context that is being revealed in the image by the displaying of what the life was like for a family living in Sicily.The occupation of a medic is one that is very tough and challenging. To become a medic one must first have received medical basic training. They must be able to implement the knowledge and tactics learn in that medical training out on the battlefield. A medic must also be able to think and operate in hostile environments. One medic that served in Sicily during the time of the picture was Jerome McMenamy. McMenamy gives his reflections of working as a medic during the war in an interview. He was asked the uestion: what did you use to alleviate your patients’ pain? McMenamy response was, â€Å"One of the things for a medic in combat is morphine in little tubes. You had a quarter-grain of morphine in there, and you just jabbed it into a guy’s arm and squeezed that tube dry. In a few minutes he was feeling better†(Reynolds, Frank A. ). The treatment of pain, wounds, and minor injures are all examples of duties that medics have to perform during the time of the war. In the image it demonstrates the medic completing these duties.A medic’s occupation during the time of World War II was challenging and also life-threating. Personal accounts of the times of being a medic place a first hand understanding of the true lifestyles that medics had during World War II. McMenamy tells of the hardships he had to go through while being a medic in the war, â€Å"My ankle snapped over a rock and got badly sprained. They put me on kitchen police, and the ankle wasn’t getting any better, but I got though the four months of basic training. They just taped it up, and I was marching with a sprained ankle†(Reynolds, Frank A. . This tells of not only the challenging medical practices that medics had to deal with helping injured soldiers, but also the rough encounters that medics had to overcome. In the image the medic is dressed and suited up as a soldier ready for combat. This suggests that all medics must be prepared in the times of attack, and by doing so they must have completed the four months of basic training that McMenamy discussed. Medics have to participate in the same tough and struggling operations that other soldie rs in the war had to try and complete.The accomplishing of these tough tasks and all the requirements of being a medic has given medics the strength and bravery to go into unfamiliar lands such as Sicily in the image, and perform the medical actions that need to be completed. This enduring and lasting obligation is represented in the visual text by the medic helping a fallen soldier in an area that the medic is not familiar with. The medic being in this unaccustomed area of Sicily brings about the cultural context, and how he is able to perform his duties of a medic while having natives of the region stand close by and watch.Medics had many unpleasant and life threatening experiences in World War II. This brings to attention the experiences of medics in trying to complete their duties in a warzone. Medics have to worry about losing their own life everyday in war while trying to save the lives of others. They have to try to help the injured when not knowing what could happen. This co uld be from an opposing soldier coming up and attacking the medic while the medic is performing an operation on an injured soldier. The medic having no knowledge of the people or things around him is a cultural connection, such as that represented in the image.One invasion that occurred was the Allied invasion of Sicily. The image takes place in Sicily, which gives an historical connection to the battle that occurred in the same place as the picture. The historical connection of the image is the battle that was fought in Sicily during the time of WWII, â€Å"Axis forces struck first at Sicily in July in a amphibious landing that was surpassed in size only by the invasion at Normandy, France, year later. After driving German forces off of Sicily, Allied troops, in September, began a long, costly march up the mountainous Italian peninsula† (Moffett, George).The Allied invasion of Sicily was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis. The Allies taking control over Sicily puts a means of emphasis on the historical context in the image due to the fact that the medic in the image is a member of the Allied Forces. The invasion that occurred in Sicily was done by the Allied forces, meaning that the carried out actions by the Allied forces were done on its opponents’ homeland. This shows the cultural connection in the image, due to the fact of the family in the background looking upon the unfamiliar soldier.This medic had to perform his duty being military medical personnel in a place that was uncommon to him. He was doing his work in front of a poor family that were living in the area where the picture was taken. The poor family was looking upon the medic that was preforming his medical practices in their territory of where they live. This shows the cultural connection to the image because of how the medic had to adapt to the area to complete his duty of being a medic in the unfamiliar land of Sicily. This image of a me dic performing a medical practice on an injured soldier shows the job of a medic in action.It does not show the threats that could occur to the medic while he is completing his job. Military medical personnel face the daily threat of gunfire, explosives, chemical weapons, and other battlefield hazards. While medics try to carry out their job of being a medic many get injured due to the fact of all these hazards happening around them. This image shows a glimpse of what a medic’s life was like during the war. The life of a medic during World War II was not that of picture perfect lifestyle, it was more life treating and having to deal with the thought of death occurring any second in the time of war.Which brings notion to the cultural context of the medic in the image, by him not having the knowledge of the environment around him and any possible threats that would come about. Works Cited: Moffett, George. â€Å"Celebrating WWII's other front. (Cover story). † Christian Science Monitor May 1995: 1. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2011. Reynolds, Frank A. â€Å"Field Medic On The Italian Front. † Military History 22. 8 (2005): 54-68. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Printing

In the 1430’s a man named Johann Gutenberg created the predecessor to the modern printing press. The level of importance of the printing press is rivaled by few other inventions, so much so that â€Å"the invention of the printing press† is often used as a reference to the social, political, and scientific change experienced by Europe after the press’s introduction. (Wikipedia). Johannes Gutenberg invented a mechanical way of making books. This was the first example of mass book production. Before the invention of printing, multiple copies of a manuscript had to be made by hand, a laborious task that could take many years. Later books were produced by and for the church using the process of wood engraving. This required the craftsman to cut away the background, leaving the area to be printed raised. This process applied to both text and illustrations was extremely time consuming. When a page was complete, often by joining several blocks together, it would be inked and a sheet of paper was then pressed over it far an imprint. The susceptibility of wood to the elements gave such blocks a limited lifespan. When Johannes Gutenberg began building his press in 1436, he was unlikely to have realized that he was giving birth to an art form which would take center stage in the social and industrial revolutions which followed. The most important aspect of his invention was that it was the first form of printing to use movable type. His initial efforts enabled him in 1440 to mass-produce indulgences – printed slips of paper sold by the Catholic Church to remit temporal punishments in purgatory for sins committed in this life, for those wealthy enough to afford indulgences. Gutenberg’s invention spread rapidly after his death in 1468. It met in general with a ready, and as enthusiastic reception in the centers of culture. The names of more than 1000 printers, mostly of German origin, have come down to us from the fifteenth century. In Italy we find well over 100 German printers, in France 30, in Spain 26. Many of the earliest printers outside of Germany had learned their art in Mainz Gutenberg’s Home and where they were know as â€Å"goldsmiths†. Among those who were undeniably pupils of Gutenberg, and who probably were also assistants in the Guttenberg printing ouse. The new printing presses had spread like brushfire through Europe. By 1499 print-houses had become established in more than 2500 cities in Europe. Fifteen million books had been flung into a world where scholars would travel miles to visit a library stocked with twenty hand-written volumes. Scholars argue about the number. It could’ve been as few as eight million or as many as twenty four million all within 50 years of the printing presses invention. But the output of new books had been staggering by any reasonable estimate. The people had suddenly come into possession of some thirty thousand new book titles. While the Gutenberg press was much more efficient than manual copying, the industrial Revolution and the introduction of the steam powered rotary press allowed thousands of copies of a page in a single day. Mass production of printed works flourished after the transition to rolled paper, as continuous feed allowed the presses to run at a much faster pace. Gutenberg’s invention did not make him rich, but it laid the foundation for the commercial mass production of books. The success of printing meant that books soon became cheaper, and ever wider parts of the population could afford them. More than ever before, it enabled people to follow debates and take part in discussion of matters that concerned them. As a consequence, the printed book also led to more stringent attempts at censorship. This was a sign that it was felt by those in authority to be dangerous and challenging to their position. The spread of literacy and the development of universities meant that by the 15th century, despite an assembly line approach to the production of books, supply was no longer able to meet demand. As a result there was widespread interest in finding an alternative means of producing books. Before books could be mass produced, several developments were necessary. A ready supply of suitable material that could be printed on was required. Manuscript books were written on Vellum and this material was used for some early printed books, but vellum was expensive and not available in sufficient quantity for the mass production of books. The introduction of the technique of making paper and the subsequent development of a European apermaking industry was a necessary condition for the widespread adoption of print technology. Although a number of people had previously attempted to make metal type or had experimented with individual woodcut letters, it was not until a technique was devised for producing metal type in large quantities at a reasonable cost. This involved the design of a type-face and the production of molds used for making the individual pieces of type as well as the development of an alloy that was soft enough to cast yet hard enough to use for printing. It was also necessary to develop suitable inks for printing with the new type. The water-based inks used for hand lettering and for block printing will not stick to metal type; therefore a viscous oil based ink was required. Finally, a press was needed for transferring the image from type to paper. Precedents existed in the presses used for making wine, cheese and paper and one of Johannes Gutenberg’s innovations was to adapt these presses for the printing process. An operator worked a lever to increase and decrease the pressure of the block against the paper. The invention of the printing press, in turn, set off a revolution that is still in progress today. Look around wherever you are, and you’ll likely find plenty of printed material, from business cards to brochures to books. Printing words and images on paper may seem like one of the more environmentally benign things that printing does, but that isn’t necessarily the case. If you examine the life cycle of printed matter – from turning trees into paper through the witch’s brew of chemicals involved — professional printing takes on a decidedly non-green hue. Typically, the process involves a variety of inks, solvents, acids, resins, lacquers, dyes, driers, extenders, modifiers, varnishes, shellacs, and other solutions. Only a few of these ingredients end up directly on the printed page. Many of the ingredients are toxic: Silver, lead, chromium, cadmium, toluene, chloroform, methylene chloride, barium-based pigments, and acrylic copolymers. And that’s mot all. Chlorine bleaching of paper is linked to cancer-causing water pollutants. Waste inks and solvents are usually considered hazardous. Bindings, adhesives, foils, and plastic bags used in printing or packaging printed material can render paper unrecyclable. And you thought it was just ink on paper. Not everyone defines â€Å"green printing† the same way and there is no standard of certification for what makes a printer green. There are several things a printer can do to minimize the detrimental effects to the environment. In general, an environmentally minded printer should use the most eco-friendly papers available, reduce or eliminate toxic chemicals, waste ink, and solvents. The printer should also be willing to use soy or other vegetable inks, educate customers about how to reduce a project’s environmental impact. Green printing is on a roll, moving beyond small, do-good companies and activist groups to larger corporations and government agencies that have mandates to purchase greener goods and services. As demand for green printing has grown, so too has the number of printers offering such services. Many printers now days can recycle up to 98% of there wastes and more and more or doing just that. Life magazine called the printing press the greatest invention in the last 1000 years.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Free Essays on Aristotles Polity

Aristotle, like Plato, was very interested in the different types of government. He devotes Books 4 through 8 of Politics to the different kinds of government, which ones are best, and what the â€Å"ideal city† is. He criticizes many forms of government, such as kingship, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, and democracy. He doesn’t really agree with Plato’s ideas on government, but they both do agree on the fact that they don’t like democracy. This is surprising to me as an American because we hold democracy in such high esteem. As I continued to read, I realize that Aristotle’s definition of democracy is different from what I would consider modern democracy to be. Aristotle uses democracy to mean rule by the people, which are mostly the poor, in their own interest. He faults this because they do not have the skills to rule a country so the country is weak and disorganized because too many people are trying to run it and they are not qualified. It is pretty clear to me that modern American democracy is different from this. I perceive modern democracy to be that the masses have a chance to elect officials to office, who they think are capable, and then those chosen officials fulfill the duties of running the country. The general masses do not have much to do with the day to day running of the country. They pick the person or persons to do it, and then those people take care of things. I had to read the sections about government a couple times until I understood it. What I understand is that Aristotle focuses on three forms of government: oligarchy, democracy, and polity. When I saw the word polity over and over again, I really didn’t understand it. I had never seen that word before, but he used it many times, and it was a focus. I began to realize that polity was to Aristotle a word he used for an additional form of government. Once I understood this, I thought it was really a great idea. It seems that oli... Free Essays on Aristotle's Polity Free Essays on Aristotle's Polity Aristotle, like Plato, was very interested in the different types of government. He devotes Books 4 through 8 of Politics to the different kinds of government, which ones are best, and what the â€Å"ideal city† is. He criticizes many forms of government, such as kingship, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, and democracy. He doesn’t really agree with Plato’s ideas on government, but they both do agree on the fact that they don’t like democracy. This is surprising to me as an American because we hold democracy in such high esteem. As I continued to read, I realize that Aristotle’s definition of democracy is different from what I would consider modern democracy to be. Aristotle uses democracy to mean rule by the people, which are mostly the poor, in their own interest. He faults this because they do not have the skills to rule a country so the country is weak and disorganized because too many people are trying to run it and they are not qualified. It is pretty clear to me that modern American democracy is different from this. I perceive modern democracy to be that the masses have a chance to elect officials to office, who they think are capable, and then those chosen officials fulfill the duties of running the country. The general masses do not have much to do with the day to day running of the country. They pick the person or persons to do it, and then those people take care of things. I had to read the sections about government a couple times until I understood it. What I understand is that Aristotle focuses on three forms of government: oligarchy, democracy, and polity. When I saw the word polity over and over again, I really didn’t understand it. I had never seen that word before, but he used it many times, and it was a focus. I began to realize that polity was to Aristotle a word he used for an additional form of government. Once I understood this, I thought it was really a great idea. It seems that oli...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Conflict ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Essays

Conflict ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Essays Conflict ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Essay Conflict ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Essay How of import is the subject of struggle in the drama Romeo and Juliet?Shakespeare’s drama. Romeo and Juliet. is the most celebrated love narrative in English literature. However love isn’t the lone subject that runs through the drama. Shakespeare makes this typical love narrative more dramatic when he pits the love affair in the context of household feuds. battles and deceases. The issue of struggle is every bit cardinal to this drama as the issues of love/honour/betrayal and decease. It should come as no surprise that Shakespeare would include struggles in this drama as otherwise the drama would merely be a dull statement on teenage love. Adding the struggles highlights the tensenesss that the adolescents feel between their fond regards to their ain households and each other. Besides. adding the struggle is of import for dramatic consequence. We see this clearly in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet but besides see it in many modern signifiers of storytelling. such as movie.The movie Slumdog Millionaire’ is another illustration of two star-crossed lovers fighting to be together against their family’s wants. The struggle in the movie is between brothers. but besides with others outside the characters immediate households. The dramatic consequence of the struggle has the audience on the border of their place. willing the brace to get away their awful lives of maltreatment and unrecorded merrily of all time after. Slumdog is Romeo and Juliet for the twenty-first Century. As in Shakespeare’s drama. in Slumdog the audience are told what will go on in the narrative by manner of a prologue The prologue in Romeo and Juliet tells the audience the narrative and the stoping ( the two lovers will repair their household feuds by taking their ain lives )From forth the fatal pubess of these two enemies. A brace of star-crossed lovers take their life. . The prologue is an unusual storytelling device as it reveals the terminal of the narrative at the beginning. But it besides draws the audience is to cognize why the lovers take their ain lives and the audience remains shocked by that event. despite being warned about it. In Bas Learhmann’s movie the audience is surprised when Juliet wakes from her slumber to happen Romeo lying dead following to her. Her reaction of killing herself is a flooring stoping to the movie ( drama ) despite the audience cognizing what is coming. In Shakespeare’s prologue the Chorus describes tw o baronial families in the metropolis of Verona. The houses hold an ancient grudge against each other that remains a beginning of violent and bloody struggle.The audience are told that the households live in Fair Verona and who the chief characters in the drama are. So within a few proceedingss of the drama get downing the audience ( reader ) is primed with adequate information to bring forth an involvement to read on. The first scene comes instantly after the prologue and Shakespeare commences the scene with two Capulet retainers ( Sampson and Gregory ) who talk about the struggle between the two family’s. It is interesting that even though they are retainers ( Slaves ) they say that the family’s feud is their feud: The wrangle is between our Masterss and us their work forcesIt is of import to retrieve that the drama is written at a clip when retainers were obliged to honor their Masterss. and that included puting down their life for their betters’ . The tone o f the conversation between the two retainers replicates the struggle that we hear about in the prologue. Shakspere has established a yarn for the reader to follow here. The force of the struggle is clear when the two retainers talk of what they will make to the Montague adult females one time they defeat the Montague work forces. Brutalizing the adult females of a defeated enemy is something that has happened throughout history. True ; and hence adult females. being the weaker vass.are of all time thrust to the wall: therefore I will forceMontague’s work forces from the wall. and thrust his amahsto the wallThe public bash started by Tybalt is joined by members of both households. including the Montague and Capulet fathers’ . Sing old enemy ( Montague ) Capulet says to his married woman: My blade. I say! Old Montague is come.And boom his blade in malice of me.The street combat and hatred between the Capulets and Montagues is merely one signifier of struggle in Shakespea re’s drama. Shakespeare’s composing about struggle extends to Juliet’s household excessively. In Act 3 Scene 5 Juliet is told by her female parent that she will get married. Juliet’s sadness at this ordered matrimony ( she is told to describe to the church on Thursday ) leads to a struggle with her male parent who calls her a young luggage and disobedient wench’ . The household struggle repeats one faced by some immature adult females whose hubbies are chosen for them. This cultural duty is besides made clear by Juliet’s female parent when she says to Juliet that by the age of 14 ( Juliet’s age at the clip of the drama ) she was already pregnant with Juliet. The tradition of get marrieding misss off immature. and to wealthy older work forces. has mostly been overcome in some communities. nevertheless. in others it still creates tenseness. Sometimes with tragic results.The subject of struggle is of import in this drama because it refle cts the type of societal conditions that existed at the clip that Shakespeare wrote his drama. It is interesting that although our societal conditions have changed. the implicit in subjects and fortunes here could use to our society today. Young. violent. work forces contending over territory/honour and ( like Tybalt ) being killed in the crossfire. Shakespeare’s determination to speak about the unfairness of Juliet’s father’s insisting that she marry. may be a courageous effort to raise the issue of forced matrimony. But. instead. it could besides be seen as a beginning of merriment and gaiety for the Shakespearian audience. Despite some truly hard linguistic communication. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a drama that transcends clip in footings of its implicit in subjects. This makes the drama as relevant now as it was when it was first played.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Beware the yawn factor - Emphasis

Beware the yawn factor Beware the yawn factor Beware the yawn factor when selling your organisation in writing. Attention spans are short and lots of clichd customer-service terminology wont do you any favours. Take this example from the Olympus website: Under the umbrella of Olympus Europa we in the U.K give the best possible support to our customers by providing: A wide range of value added solutions to meet customer demands Flexible working approach to achieve time sensitive order requirements A Supply Chain working closely with both O.E. and the market place providing the vital link between sales and production, monitoring stock movement and demand v forecast ensuring optimum stock levels are maintained A 24 hour delivery service to all of our customers Customer service makes our company Olympus UK Ltd what it is today a very successful, caring organisation run by special people that make a positive difference. The UK Distribution Centre, based in West London, supports this concept wholeheartedly. Therefore an in-depth understanding of the UK market place has built up enabling us to act and react to our customers [sic] needs. Our role is supportive to OEDC (Olympus European Distribution Centre) enhancing performance to provide the best service whilst maintaining an acceptable level of cost. Communication is of paramount importance in establishing this understanding thereby developing an extremely healthy working relationship, providing a platform for success. Wordy bullets Using bullet points works well. They are easy to read and make text stand out. The problem here is that most are wordy and cumbersome. The first one talks about value added solutions. As opposed to what? A value diminished solution? Value added is meaningless corporate speak. It means nothing to the customer. The second one refers to time sensitive requirements. Surely 99 per cent of orders are time sensitive? How often do customers place an order without caring when they receive it? And the third one explains how the supply chain works. But customers wont care about the logistics of how Olympus maintains its stock levels. They just need to know that stock will be available when they need it. Also, the introductory sentence about the Olympus Europa umbrella is pointless here. As far as customers are concerned, there is only one Olympus. So, we could simplify this paragraph to read: At Olympus in the UK, we support our customers by: offering a wide range of solutions for your needs responding to your orders promptly maintaining optimum stock levels at all times guaranteeing a 24-hour delivery service. Cut the clichs Now look back at that second paragraph. It goes on a bit, doesnt it? Cutting back on the clichd and redundant phrases like support this concept wholeheartedly and is of paramount importance would simplify the message, making it easier to read and understand. There are a couple of other issues to address too. Special people is ambiguous, as is an acceptable cost. And enabling us to act and react to our customers needs is grammatically wrong. (It should be enabling us to act on and react to our customers needs.) This paragraph is basically trying to explain, using far too many words, that Olympus UK offers a speedy and efficient service to its customers at a reasonable price. Instead, it could say: Our customer service is at the heart of our success. Olympus UK is run by people who care and want to make a difference. Based at our UK Distribution Centre in west London, they have an in-depth understanding of the UK market. This enables us to respond to and anticipate our customers needs. We believe that good communication is vital to establishing good relationships with our customers. And our ultimate aim is to offer them a speedy and efficient service at a reasonable cost. Find out more about our courses in better writing

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Decision making tools Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Decision making tools - Essay Example 1b) Continue the analysis by the calculation of appropriate measures of location (mean, mode, median) and measures of dispersion (inter-quartile range, standard deviation) with an interpret of the values obtained 2.1 Design a questionnaire to be administered to students to find out about students’ views on the impact of the ban on smoking, which would help the College in framing future policy on smoking within the College (NOTE You will not need to get the questionnaire answered as part of this assignment). Use arrange of question types including open, closed, scale and multiple choice â€Å"Regulation 2(1) provides that the maximum fine on conviction for an offence relating to the display of no-smoking signs is level 3 on the standard scale (currently  £1000). Regulation 2(4) provides that where the fixed penalty procedure is used for an alleged offence relating to the display of no-smoking signs— Regulation 2(2) provides that the maximum fine on conviction for an offence of smoking in a smoke-free place is level 1 on the standard scale (currently  £200). Regulation 2(5) provides that where the fixed penalty procedure is used for an alleged offence of smoking in a smoke-free place— The only perfect way to find out how the Legislation on Smoking would impact the inmates of campus is to get all the people who stay in campus answer the questionnaire. This is not always possible because first of all it is difficult to get all people answer the questions; secondly not all people would answer the questions sincerely. It is quite possible to have a very large sample upon which no sound decision can be based. This occurs because the respondents in the sample are not really similar to the population about which we want to make generalizations. It is better to chose people representative of all streams of society .For example in this case the sample set should proportionately

Friday, October 18, 2019

Which theory(ies) of persuasion in advertising are the most, or least, Essay

Which theory(ies) of persuasion in advertising are the most, or least, persuasive - Essay Example riety of functions with their advertising campaigns which include informing the public regarding their products and services, persuading the public to purchase their products and services, creating a brand image for their products and services, and reminding the public regarding their products and services (Sutherland & Sylvester, 1993, pp. 20-28). Hence, the main objective of businesses through advertising campaigns is to gain maximum business and earn maximum revenue by selling to more customers or selling more of their product to existing customers. Businesses tend to do this by attempting to persuade customers to perform in the way that the business sees desirable. Accordingly, businesses must take a sequence of steps and use various persuasion theories in order to convince customers to act in the manner the business deems desirable (Odih, 2007, pp. 40-48). Businesses use a variety of theories and appeals in order to engage commercials within their advertising activity. The three main types of advertising appeal that businesses use includes humor appeal in which businesses make funny adverts in order to appeal to consumers and show a light-hearted image of their company and products/services, sex appeal in which businesses use attractive content to appeal to the customer’s sexual preferences, and logic appeal in which business provide appropriate logic for purchasing or using their product/service (Odih, 2007, pp. 51-56). Businesses use a combination of theories in order to engage the customer into their advertising activity. Some theories claim to be more effective than others in attracting customers towards a product/service. The first thing that is essential for an organization to consider is the audience that they are catering to. There may be various types of people with differing personalities within their audience. Hence, it may be rather difficult to appeal to each of the different personalities individually and target the various types of people

Inventory Management and Replenishment of Components Assignment

Inventory Management and Replenishment of Components - Assignment Example The critical replenishment parameters for item H1: Item H1 reflects a non-existing or poor inventory control strategy. The need to adopt floor-ready merchandise would address the uncertainty of replenishment. Such model allows the implementation of a rapid stock-replenishment strategy. Besides, adoption of continuous replenishment or supplier-assisted inventory replenishment would assist in streamlining H1. Adoption of Periodic review and Continuous review (Silver, 1998; Moustakis, 2000). Refers to the frequencies of evaluation that determines when to place an order for the replenishment. To place a replenishment order, a pre-determined level (re-order level or re-order point) is set so guide continuous reviewing process when the stock falls below the inventory level. Continuous review is most appropriate for companies using IT systems in tracking inventories. H1 could also be reviewed periodically. Under this model, inventories are evaluated at a particular frequency. During the rev iew, if the stock levels are below the predetermined level a replenishment order would be placed (Silver, 1998; Moustakis, 2000). However, if it is still within the cycle, the reordering would be ignored. Using the fixed stock quantity (230 units) together with a reorder quantity of 300 units are used alongside the continuous review. It assumes an Instantaneous replenishment of order. Involves placing orders when it falls below the 300 units re-order level (which is predetermined). The process triggers order when the stock falls below a predetermined reorder level.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Convincing that the same sex adoption morally RIGHT Essay

Convincing that the same sex adoption morally RIGHT - Essay Example Having children is a dream come true for most couples, who are we to say that it is wrong for the same sex couples to want the same thing? In some ways, maybe same sex adoption has benefits that will prove it to be a morally right set up for those children looking for loving homes to belong to. After all, it is never morally wrong to want to give a child a place to live where he is loved unconditionally right? Let's admit it, not all heterosexual parents chose to become parents. Some of them became parents by accident. Such situations result in unwanted children whose existence is sometimes only slightly better than living in hell. On the other hand, same sex couples choose to become parents. It is because of this motivation that we can be assured that they will always be morally responsible for their actions when it comes to their children. According to experts like Abby Goldberg (As cited in Pappas, 2012), gay parents are usually more motivated than their heterosexual counterparts because they made the choice to become parents. As such the perception that same sex couples only want to have â€Å"designer babies† is based upon misinformation. The same sex couples have a full understanding of their responsibilities as parents and what to expect when they have children. They have a much deeper understanding and commitment to the life of the child that they will be raising than most heterosexual couples do. These children have the advantage of growing up in a home that has open-mindedness, tolerance and role models for equitable relationships as part of its lifestyle. Therefore the children will grow up having a deeper understanding of social issues and a ready acceptance for anything that others might view as out of the ordinary. Children raised in gay households are no different from their heterosexual counterparts. If anything, they grow up with more empathy towards other people because they do not find themselves constrained by gender stereotypes (Bloo ms, 2011). Instead, they prove to be well adjusted individuals who have a serious insight about life and the responsibilities that it entails. Let us not forget that there are thousands of unwanted children lined up in adoption agencies who are in need of a home. Homosexual parents are more than willing to give children that heterosexual parents pass on a good and loving environment to be raised in. Children all deserve to be raised in loving homes by people who only want what is best for them. But unlike straight couples who tend to pick the best of the litter (if one were to compare babies to dogs), same sex couples do not care about the shortcomings of a child. In a report by the LA5 Champions for Children, they discovered that (2012): â€Å"Research by the Evan P. Donaldson Adoption Institute found that gays and lesbians tend to adopt children who are typically difficult to place: minorities, special needs children, and kids older than 6... . â€Å" All that matters to them, i s that they have the chance to be parents to a child who would not have a chance in life otherwise. Maybe it is because the same sex parents have to overcome adversity and judgment themselves that is why they are able to offer the kind of love and care that these less than ideal babies and children would not get from traditional parent couples. Now that leads the a question that is normally asked of parents. What exactly makes a good parent? Does being a good parent mean that a child has a set of heterosexual pare

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometry - Essay Example A large variety information is obtainable through a nuclear MRS spectrum. Much like the way infrared spectroscopy is used to identify functional groups, the analysis of a 1-dimensional nuclear MRS spectrum provides information on the number and type of chemical entities in a molecule. The impact of MRS on the natural sciences has been substantial. It can, among other things, be used to study complex mixtures of analytes, understand dynamic effects like change in reaction mechanisms, pressure and temperature, and investigate protein and nucleic acid structures and functions. It is a method that can be applied to a wide variety of samples, both in solution and solid state. MRS is a tool used by biochemists for medical research projects, and by doctors to gather useful clinical information which can be helpful in the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. It applications in the field of medicine are, in general, within the scope of detecting neurological disorders. For instance, it is used to identify Neural Progenitor Cells in the live human brain without any risky surgery of any sort (Manganas, et al., 2007). Neurological infections require immediate identification and treatment. Medical physicists and doctors have always found it difficult to accurately and rapidly diagnose such infections in both children and adults. MRS, however, has opened up new avenues and is now used as a safe, non-surgical method for the identification of brain infections like brain abscess and meningitis. Outside neurology, MRS is used to measure phosphate, phosphocreatine, ATP and phosphodiesters in fibromyalgic muscle tissue (Sprott et al., 2000). Furthermore, this technique is currently being investigated to study a number of other diseases in the human body, most notable of which include cancer, epilepsy and Huntington's Chorea. MRS methods can further be divided on the basis of the specific procedures and principles used during detection and investigation. Correlation spectroscopy is one of the several types of 2-dimensional nuclear MRS techniques. Others types of NMR spectroscopy techniques include Exchange spectroscopy, J-spectroscopy, Protein Nuclear MRS, Total Correlation spectroscopy, Solid-state Nuclear MRS, and Nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (Wuthrich, 1990). Solid-state nuclear MRS is often related to structural investigations of membrane proteins, protein fibrils, polymers, and inorganic chemical analysis. Protein nuclear MRS, on the other hand, has major applications in pure structural biology, where it is used to obtain high resolution 3-dimensional protein structure and dynamics, much like what is produced by X-ray crystallography albeit in a less destructive manner using much lesser energy. The entire phenomenon of magnetic resonance is a result of the fact that a spinning charge generates a magnetic field around it having a magnetic moment proportional to the spin. When an external magnetic field is applied to a sample, two possible spin states exist for any atom- +1/2 and -1/2. The magnetic moment of the lower energy spin state (+1/2) is aligned with the external field, and that of the higher energy spin state (-1/2) is opposed to the external field. The difference in energies of the two spin states is dependent on the external magnetic field strength, and is usually kept very small. Though the spin states have

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Convincing that the same sex adoption morally RIGHT Essay

Convincing that the same sex adoption morally RIGHT - Essay Example Having children is a dream come true for most couples, who are we to say that it is wrong for the same sex couples to want the same thing? In some ways, maybe same sex adoption has benefits that will prove it to be a morally right set up for those children looking for loving homes to belong to. After all, it is never morally wrong to want to give a child a place to live where he is loved unconditionally right? Let's admit it, not all heterosexual parents chose to become parents. Some of them became parents by accident. Such situations result in unwanted children whose existence is sometimes only slightly better than living in hell. On the other hand, same sex couples choose to become parents. It is because of this motivation that we can be assured that they will always be morally responsible for their actions when it comes to their children. According to experts like Abby Goldberg (As cited in Pappas, 2012), gay parents are usually more motivated than their heterosexual counterparts because they made the choice to become parents. As such the perception that same sex couples only want to have â€Å"designer babies† is based upon misinformation. The same sex couples have a full understanding of their responsibilities as parents and what to expect when they have children. They have a much deeper understanding and commitment to the life of the child that they will be raising than most heterosexual couples do. These children have the advantage of growing up in a home that has open-mindedness, tolerance and role models for equitable relationships as part of its lifestyle. Therefore the children will grow up having a deeper understanding of social issues and a ready acceptance for anything that others might view as out of the ordinary. Children raised in gay households are no different from their heterosexual counterparts. If anything, they grow up with more empathy towards other people because they do not find themselves constrained by gender stereotypes (Bloo ms, 2011). Instead, they prove to be well adjusted individuals who have a serious insight about life and the responsibilities that it entails. Let us not forget that there are thousands of unwanted children lined up in adoption agencies who are in need of a home. Homosexual parents are more than willing to give children that heterosexual parents pass on a good and loving environment to be raised in. Children all deserve to be raised in loving homes by people who only want what is best for them. But unlike straight couples who tend to pick the best of the litter (if one were to compare babies to dogs), same sex couples do not care about the shortcomings of a child. In a report by the LA5 Champions for Children, they discovered that (2012): â€Å"Research by the Evan P. Donaldson Adoption Institute found that gays and lesbians tend to adopt children who are typically difficult to place: minorities, special needs children, and kids older than 6... . â€Å" All that matters to them, i s that they have the chance to be parents to a child who would not have a chance in life otherwise. Maybe it is because the same sex parents have to overcome adversity and judgment themselves that is why they are able to offer the kind of love and care that these less than ideal babies and children would not get from traditional parent couples. Now that leads the a question that is normally asked of parents. What exactly makes a good parent? Does being a good parent mean that a child has a set of heterosexual pare

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

A research analysis on American Impressionists painter Mary Cassatt's Paper

A analysis on American Impressionists painter Mary Cassatt's life, work, technique and media style - Research Paper Example The purpose of this paper is to explore four pieces of Cassatt’s work in detail to fully understand the techniques and media styles used within these paintings. To explore further meaning from Cassatt’s work, a brief overview of her life and the culture in which she was producing art will be given. This exploration will add contextual depth to the analysis of Cassatt’s work, as an artist cannot be separated from their environment when exploring their work. Life of Mary Cassatt Mary Cassatt was born in what is now Pittsburg in 1844 into a wealthy family (McKown 89). Her father was a stockbroker and her mother also came from a banking family, meaning that the family did not have economic problems and allowed Cassatt to explore artistic options that may not have been open to many at the time. As a result of her mother’s wealth, Cassatt had a strong and well-educated female role model in her life, again allowing her to develop free from many of the constraints on women during the 19th century (Streissguth 5). Although living in the United States officially, Cassatt’s family believed that travel was extremely important and thus Cassatt had exposure to many of the European capital cities (such as Rome, Paris and Berlin) during her early life (Streissguth 8), which may have shaped a lot of her work. It was in Paris that Cassatt became exposed to many of the Old Masters, and became familiar with the works of Degas and Pissarro, both of whom would later play important roles in her artistic development (Streissguth 9). Later in life, Cassatt attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, determined to make art into a career (Frank 86). Although her family was slightly disapproving and most of the women at the time did not pursue careers, Cassatt studied here from 1861 to 1865 (Frank 86). After this period of study, Cassatt moved to Paris (with female chaperones). Although not allowed to study art officially (as a woman), Cassatt di d have access to some of the masters who lived and taught in the city and was allowed to be privately educated in this sense (McKown 91). In 1868 the piece â€Å"A Mandolin Player† was accepted for display by the Paris Salon, an extremely important honor for artists at the time (McKown 5). However, the French art scene was radically changing and much of Cassatt’s work was still painted in a traditional style, leaving this early honor not much replicated (McKown 5). She moved back to America, again not having much success with her artwork until attracting the attention of the Archbishop of Pittsburgh, who commissioned paintings from Italy and thus sending Cassatt back to Europe (Frank 86). It was after this return to Europe that Cassatt really began to enjoy some financial success from her paintings. In the first seven years of this return, Cassatt always had a piece of artwork for display at the Paris Salon, a great mark of success (Frank 86). She also began to travel to Spain, finding that many of the female artists who were on display in the art world were often so only because of their connections and flirtations (Streissguth 32). After her successful seven years, she had entries rejected from the Salon but was invited to learn about Impressionism by Degas, who

Architectural Design Considerations of a Light Warehouse Essay Example for Free

Architectural Design Considerations of a Light Warehouse Essay Warehousing warehousing is the receiving, storage, and delivery of goods. Receiving – receiving is the acceptance of goods with a degree of accountability therefor. Storage – storage is the safekeeping of goods in a warehouse or other depository. Delivery – delivery is the transfer of goods to the transportation carrier or customer. Distribution – distribution is a function of warehousing which includes the preparation and delivery of goods according to plan or special order. Supply chain efficiencies depend upon the efficiency of logistics including transportation and warehousing operations. Warehouse efficiencies depend upon a combination of warehouse design, layout, infrastructure, systems, process and people. Warehouse Design element aims to maximize the utility of space, equipment and efficiency of operations. We will briefly cover the various elements of a warehouse design and understand their importance. In basic functional aspects, a warehouse function consists of Material receipts including unloading, unpacking and inspection, put away and Storage of materials in various categories of storage locations, systems updating, pull materials for dispatch and delivery of materials after processing. Warehouse Location, Layout and Building The location of a warehouse should ideally be situated in a flat ground. The location should be easily approachable and in a area suited for this nature of business. Locations closer to markets or to national highways would be ideal. Public transportation and communication infrastructure should also be available. The layout of the building should be designed to accommodate fleet parking, and enable containers to drive in and drive out easily. Any time two containers should be able to pass through on the path without any interruption. There should be enough free space for vehicles to maneuver. The layout should also provide for other utility, safety and security operations. Building is normally constructed using galvanized metallic sheets mounted on C Section girdles. The flooring should be RCC concrete with weight bearing capacity as per requirement of the load to be calculated in each case. The ground should be flat, even and smooth surface to facilitate MHE movements and dust free. The roof height would be a major consideration to be able to install multi vertical storage racking installation. The walls and roof should be designed with suitable lighting panels and ventilators for air exchange fitted with bird cages. The number of loading and unloading docs and placement of these docs play an important role in the design of operations and efficiency of operation. All weather docks and the facility should enable 24 hours operations. Dock Levels. The docks should be equipped with dock levelers and all these have to be installed during construction phase itself. Ramps have to be provided to facilitate movement of forklift etc. Lighting design will depend upon the layout and the racking design. Internal Layout Internal layout design will be built taking into account the operational process, nature of goods, volumes of transactions both inbound and outbound, storage types, in house operations involving put away and pull sequences and process requirements including packing, kitting etc and the availability of floor space coupled with building layout design of inbound and outbound docks. The design aims to maximize space utilization, minimize MHE movement and Manpower movement. Types of Storage Types of storage are determined by the nature of cargo. Depending upon the cargo whether finished goods, raw material parts etc, the types of storage can vary from bulk stock, block stock, racking, pallet racking, shelf racking, binning, unit pick or loose pick face, carton pick etc. The storage types vary with nature of materials with different types of storage designs for drums, pallets, tires, cartons, tube and rods etc. Racking Designs Material Handling Equipment Racking Design takes into account the storage type, storage unit, volume and weight coupled with the available floor space and roof height to design system which maximizes the storage capacity. Put away and picking process and transactional volumes are also taken into consideration. The inventory profile study would include detailing of number of SKUs in each category of fast moving, slow moving or other criteria as per the nature of business and the storage type would be designed as per the inventory profile and the process. Racking designs are very many and varies with the type of industries and nature of inventory. Normal racking designs include pallet racking on multiple levels. You can have shelving, binning or combination of bulk stock and forward pick face racking designs. Block stack racking and other types of high density racking can be found in FG warehouses. Mezzanine store binning and shelving rack designs are normally designed for spare parts and small parts. Highly automated racking designs can have automatic retrieval systems and conveyors in the warehouse. Material Handling Equipments are specified based on rack design coupled with pallet design, nature of cargo, weight and the warehouse layout etc. Forklifts, reach trucks, hand pallet jacks, trolleys are normal Material handling equipments in normal warehousing operations. Warehouse Layout Design Sizing the Space Requirements Warehouse layout sizing is a critical aspect of planning a new facility or re-designing an existing building. Many times organisations start from a fixed view of what size the facility will be, and most times the square footage is based on affordability. The problem with this, is that the building may end up be to big, and therefore more expensive or to small and put operational constraints into the facility before the design even gets off the ground. Warehouse Layout and Sizing: The correct way to size the facility is from the inside, that way the actual size required will fit the operational requirements, and will ensure that all available space is used and you are not paying for unused space. Estimating Space Requirements: Short and long term, based upon forecasts, historical usage patterns, and projected changes. Developing new layouts to maximize usage of space. Short- and long-range sizing of individual areas: racks, shelving, automated systems, docks, staging, offices, and support. The final sizing needs to come from the operational requirements of the building, this can only come from modelling the design. Key Factors to Consider during Warehouse Sizing Order Picking: Methods for Piece Pick, Case Pick, and Pallet Pick Operations. Deciding on the amount of space you will need is not just about how much product you wish to store. The type of picking you intend carrying out is a fundamental part of the decision process. The methods for order picking vary greatly and the level of difficulty in choosing the best method for your operation will depend on the type of operation you have. The characteristics of the product being handled, total number of transactions, total number of orders, picks per order, quantity per pick, picks per SKU, total number of SKUs, value-added processing such as private labelling, and whether you are handling piece pick, case pick, or full-pallet loads are all factors that will affect the decision on how much space will be required. Therefore when you have:- Full pallet picking you will need more racking space than open floor space. Lots of case picking you will need more ground floor pick faces, than you will need for full pallet picking and you may also need a case to pallet consolidation floor area. Lots of small quantity piece picking you will need packing pallet consolidation areas on the floor. Holding requirements include defining the physical size of the inventory on hand. Unless the on-hand total is fairly stable across the year, it is usually preferable to plan for a high but not peak inventory level. To fully utilize the space, it is important to determine how product needs to be stored (e. g. , floor stacked, pallet rack, shelving, case flow) and how much of each fixture type will be required. Cube data (length ? width ? height) for each product is a very useful kind of information for many aspects of capacity planning. Workflow requirements encompass everything from how product arrives to how it leaves the facility and everything in between. The objectives of this aspect of planning are to minimize product handling, to reduce travel as much as possible, and to minimize the resource requirements (labor, packaging, transportation) to move the product to the customer. Among the factors to consider are the following: (1) Link the way product arrives with where it is to be stored (location capacity). If possible, store all of a product in one location and pick from that location as well. This does not work if stock rotation matters (expiration dates, serial number, or lot control issues). 2) Locate the highest-volume products (greatest number of orders, not physical size) closest to the outbound shipping area to minimize the travel required to pick and ship orders for them. (3) Because vertical travel is always slower, locate as many products as possible on or close to the floor. (4) Allow for staging space to handle product that is in transit, such as items waiting to be put away. Warehousing was supposed to disappear with L ean Manufacturing. This has rarely occurred but the nature of warehousing often does change from storage-dominance to transaction dominance. Warehousing buffers inbound shipments from suppliers and outbound orders to customers. Customers usually order in patterns that are not compatible with the capabilities of the warehouse suppliers. The amount of storage depends on the disparity between incoming and outbound shipment patterns. In addition, the trend to overseas sourcing has increased the need for warehousing and its importance in the supply chain. | Design StrategiesOne key to effective design is the relative dominance of picking or storage activity. These two warehouse functions have opposing requirements. Techniques that maximize space utilization tend to complicate picking and render it inefficient while large storage areas increase distance and also reduce picking efficiency. Ideal picking requires small stocks in dedicated, close locations. This works against storage efficiency. Automation of picking, storage, handling and information can compensate for these opposing requirements to a degree. However, automation is expensive to install and operate. The figure below shows how different transaction volumes, storage requirements and technologies lead to different design concepts.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Drivers and theories of corporate social responsibility

Drivers and theories of corporate social responsibility This part of the study emphasises on the research literature review related to the study. The structure of the literature review is broken down into three sub-sections. The former relates to the various aspects of CSR. The last two sub-sections discuss the different theoretical and empirical studies associated with CSP and CFP. 2.1 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), also known as corporate citizenship, responsible business, or sustainable responsible business is all but a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model where companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society. Arguably, business and society are interwoven: society has certain expectations regarding business and therefore the firm has responsibilities towards society. Hence, being a steward of the needs of society is deemed to be a socially responsible, appropriate, and natural act. The first book acknowledging CSR is the Social Responsibilities of the Businessman (Howard R. Bowen) in the mid 1950s. But, the term CSR came in widespread use in the early 1970s. In fact, it owes its origin due to the globalisation which took place after many multinational corporations were formed, thus, bringing in force the corporate governance mechanisms to ascertain fairness and transparency as well as social responsibility in the corporate world. CSR is defined in various ways in different countries, of about being the capacity building for sustainable livelihoods from Ghana to about giving back to society from Philippines; and of being conventionally presented in a philanthropic model from the United States to being focused on operating the core business in a socially responsible way, complemented by investment in communities for solid business case reasons and voluntary interaction with the stakeholders from the European model. As such, according to Caroll (2003), The social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary (philanthropic) expectations that society has of organisations at a given point in time. Hence, ideally and broadly, the concept of CSR is a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business would monitor and ensure its support to law, ethical standards, and international norms. 2.1.1 CSR and CSP In todays competitive market environment, businesses are confronted with a new set of non economics-related challenges. To survive and prosper, firms must bridge economic and social systems. Maximising shareholder wealth is a necessary but is no longer a sufficient condition for financial prosperity. Despite the concept of CSR addresses such issue, a specific connotation of CSR and a new performance measure called the corporate social performance (abbreviated as CSP) needs to be unified to capture the performance of a business in the social realm, and also to be more precise in thinking about CSR. CSP defined as a business organizations configuration of principles of social responsibility, processes of social responsiveness, and policies, programs, and observable outcomes as they relate to the firms societal relationships (Wood, 1991), clearly shows that social performance is not limited to corporations only, but also applies to any firm and organisation. This comprehensive definition assumes that CSP is broader than CSR, which consists of three norms at different levels of analysis: institutional, organisational, and individual. Additionally, it includes organisational processes of environmental assessment, stakeholder management, and issues management, and also various measures of its external manifestations and societal effects, such as social impacts. Hence the CSP model expresses and articulates three stages, from less to more engage towards stakeholders: social obligation, social responsibility and social responsiveness (S.P. Sethi, 1975). 2.1.2 Views on CSR According to Hancock (2005), CSR can be viewed through 3 ways namely: Sceptic view According to this view, the notion of CSR is opposed to democracy and freedom, frustrating business focus on its purpose of wealth creation. Milton Friedman best defines this approach: Few trends would so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as they possibly can. Utopian view A utopian view of CSR reflects the idea that companies have a prior duty to anyone touched by their activity, their stakeholders rather than their shareholders, and especially the vulnerable that may be exploited by the companys operation. This is based on the work of Evan and Freeman who are for the stakeholder theory where a corporation must recognise and respect the vital interests of each of its surrounding stakeholders. Realist view This view gathers the greatest following of an alliance model advocated by Patricia Werhane. It states that CSR is not simply about whatever funds and expertise companies choose to invest in communities to help resolve social problems. But, it is also about the integrity with which a company governs itself, fulfils its mission, lives by its values, engages with its stakeholders, measures its impacts and reports on its activities. 2.1.3 Key Drivers of CSR CSR is seen by Porter and Van Der Linde (2000, p. 131) as a competitive driver that requires appropriate resources. CSR programmes, however, on their own, have certain main drivers which are as follow: Bottom Line Effect This is the most relevant driver of CSR programmes as it incorporates a socially responsible element into corporate practice. As John Elkington (1997) rightly underlined that many companies exhibit corporate citizenship through charity or philanthropy. Nevertheless, a new perspective evolved over time for some corporate stakeholders. Success of a corporation is now weighted and defined by evaluating businesses using a Triple Bottom Line comprised of its social, environmental and financial performance. Managing Risk An endeavour to adopt CSR programme has been the gain in market share, key personnel and investment which pioneering companies enjoy when they seriously address labour and green issues. In fact, corporations implement such a programme to manage risks and ensure legal compliance as denoted by Levine Michael A. (2008). They try to avoid investigation, litigation, prosecution, regulation or legislation. Influence of the Corporate Disasters There has been an increased perception of greed amidst senior business officials in the corporate world following corporate scandals affecting Enron, WorldCom and the like. CSR is important in counteracting allegations of corporate greed. As a result, as described by Hancock (2005) in his book, corporations are now shifting away from the philanthropic approach towards CSR and are moving towards the greater alignment of CSR with business strategy and corporate governance. Lower Equity Risk Premium Reputation Management Corporations can face economic damage when their corporate reputations and brands are assailed or sales are affected by consumer boycotts. As argued by some rating agencies, a comprehensive CSR programme will lower a companys equity risk premium. A direct correlation between reputation and financial outcome measures share price and credit rating (Hancock, 2005) has been illustrated through a model designed by the global public relations company Bell Pottinger. In fact, companies may face a variety of legal and reputational risks if they do not have adequate social compliance or corporate social responsibility/sustainability programs in place. Customer Loyalty In todays markets, companies have to focus on building and maintaining customer loyalty. As proposed by Zhou Y. (2009), this can be done through a CSR programme which builds loyalty with customers by offering a competitive advantage in a marketplace where consumers find ethically delivered or produced goods and services. Stakeholder Activism Investment Incentives As perceived by Visser, W. (2008), CSR is encouraged through the activism of stakeholder or pressure groups which often address the alleged failure of the market and government policy. The trend of socially responsible investment gives CSR an incentive where funds are screened on ethical, social and environmental criteria. Thus, this proactively encourages businesses to inform shareholders of potential risks and issues and it helps them to better understand their stakeholders, including shareholders. According to Hill Knowltown (2006), surveys have indicated that analysts place as much importance on corporate reputation as they do on financial performance. 2.1.4 Theories for CSR There are several theories that emerged to explain the reasons behind environmental reporting over the time. These are as follow: Operational Efficiency Theory Operational Efficiency occurs when the right combination of people, process, and technology to boost the productivity and value of any business operation, while reducing cost of routine operations to a desired level. In the context of CSR, operational efficiencies can be achieved through managing impending risks and liabilities more effectively and efficiently through CSR tools and perspectives by reducing costs; streaming information to stakeholders concerning the investment community for better transparency and by using corporate responsibility and sustainability approaches within business decision-making to result in new market opportunities, newly developed manufacturing processes that can be expanded to other plants, regions or markets as advocated by S. B. Banerjee (2007). Social Contract Theory The current practice of CSR by corporations was explained by O. O. Amao (2007) under the social contract theory. This theory dates from the classic period of history but took its modern form in the 16th and 18th centuries with best known philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau who talk on social contract. Rousseau, in fact, conceptualised the individual-society relationship as a symbiotic situation whereby the two parties mutually confer some right to the state in order to maintain social order which makes human life and cohabitation better and to gain benefits of community and safety. In parallel to the social contract, the corporate social theory, pertaining to a firms indirect social obligations, is advanced where businesses are bound by the social contract to perform various socially desired actions in return for approval of their objectives and other rewards. Legitimacy Theory Similar to the social contract theory, the legacy theory was adopted by comporations to ensure that operations are within the limits and norms of their respective societies and the outside parties perceive their activities as being legitimate. Society grants legitimacy and power to business. In the long run, those who do not use power in a manner which society considers responsible will tend to lose it. This principle developed by Daviss (1973) is commonly known as the Iron Law of Responsibility. It expresses legitimacy as a societal-level concept and describes the responsibility of business as a social institution that must avoid abusing its power. Thus, this principle expresses a prohibition rather than an affirmative duty, and it applies equally to all companies, regardless of their particular circumstances. According to A.K.H. Khor, the legitimacy theory is fundamentally a system-oriented theory where organisations are viewed as components of the larger social environment within which they exist. Stakeholder Theory A key feature of CSR involves the way that a company engages, involves, and collaborates with its stakeholders including shareholders, employees, debt-holders, suppliers, customers, communities, non-governmental organisations, and governments. M. C. Branco and L. L. Rodrigues (2007) argued that companies need to use stakeholder engagement to internalise societys needs, hopes, circumstances into their corporate views and decision-making. While there are many questions about how far a companys responsibilities extend into communities relative to the roles of governments and individual citizens, there is a strong argument that CSR can effectively improve a companys relations with communities and thereby produce some key features that will improve business prospects for its future. Agency Theory This theory comes to explain the relationship that exists between the owners/shareholders and the management. As such the latter is the agent which appointed by the principal (owner/subsidiary) and problems such as the potential moral hazard and conflict of interest are likely to occur. CSR comes as a middle way so that both parties can maximise their gains. As such, when CFP is strong, managers may reduce social expenditures in order to maximise their own short term private gains whereas when CFP weakens, managers will try to offset their disappointing results by engaging in conspicuous social programs, hence increasing their own wealth and that of shareholders as well, pursuant to the managerial opportunism hypothesis by Preston OBannon (1997). 2.2 Theoretical Review 2.2.1 Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) Most of the businesses operate with a view of yielding profits. The financial performance of a company is reflected through its policies and operations in monetary terms. These results are reflected through its return on investment, return on assets, value added, return on sale and growth in sales. Managers work in the best interest of shareholders to maximise profits. Financial performance is the most common, however, it cannot be considered as the only indicator used to measure a firms wealth. A broader definition of financial performance is accompanied by additional indicators such as short-term profits, long-term profits, market value, and other forms of competitive advantage, as noted by Jensen (2001). 2.2.2 Corporate Social Performance and CFP Many previous studies have indicated an unclear relationship between CSR and financial performance. Thus, literature has pointed out towards an innovation in bringing the concept of CSP to better explore its impact upon corporate financial performance (CFP). In todays world, for a firm to achieve a good and high level of CFP, it has to go beyond the limits of its own corporate strategies and adopt views of other stakeholders who may be directly or indirectly related to the company. Since over the three decades, the study of the correlation between CSP and CFP has gained much salience. Many studies conducted in this effect have yielded positive correlation, while others produced contradictory results with negative or non-significant different causal directions being found. In effect, there are several competing theoretical models which are proposed to explain three varying findings on the CSP-CFP link. Owing to these differing relationships, I.Y. Maroam (2006) proposes a unified theory of the CSP-CFP link that explain the different relationships that may be observed between CSR and CFP, thus basing itself on the parallels between the business and CSR domains. The concept of CSR instils in corporations the moral responsibility towards society that go beyond the goal of simply making profits for their owners and shareholders (Berman et al., 1999). As Freeman (1984) rightly pointed out that corporations should be socially responsible for both moral and practical (instrumental) reasons, by reflecting a socially responsible posture, a corporation can enhance its own performance. Thus, CSR activities can, inter-alia, be rewarded with more satisfied customers, better employee, improved reputation, and improved access to financial markets, all pertaining to improving financial performance and sustaining the business. However, social accomplishments may equally involve certain financial costs which can effectively reduce profits and comparative performance. Hence, Vance (1975) came up with the trade-off hypothesis to show negative linkage between CSP and CFP whereby corporations displaying strong social credentials experience declining stock price s relative to the market average. 2.2.3 CSP as a Business Strategy So far, it is clear that CSP can be used as a business strategy which can contribute to the competitive advantage of firms. A study by N. A. Dentchey (2004) on the effects of CSP on the competitiveness of organisations reveals that CSP should not be thought as an innocent adventure for executives. It is rather a strategy for achieving corporate strategies, which if not warily implemented, may harm the firms competitive advantage. Competitive advantage, as seen by Porter (1996), denotes the ability of a company to outperform others from successful differentiation from rivals actions. This strategic fit between the outside environment and companies internal resources and capabilities (Hoskissoon et al., 1999) results in superior financial results, as indicated by various measures of profitability. Hence, as per Burke and Logsdon (1996), a strategic implementation of social responsibility benefits all by resulting in strategic outcomes such as customer loyalty, future purchases, new products, new markets and productivity gains. Arguably, CSP can be a source of competitive disadvantage for firms which regard CSP as an additional cost. Business contributions to social prosperity (CSP) are seen by Keim (1978, p.33) as an investment in public good which is consumed or enjoyed by a number of individuals disregarding the cost sharing. Thus, investing in CSP is likely to bear negative effects for the firms which are in curring costs that might otherwise be avoided or that should be borne by others, for example, individuals or government (Aupperle et al., 1985). 2.2.4 CSP, CFP and the Stakeholder Theory Following the above arguments, a new perspective of CSP, based on the stakeholder analysis, emerges to argue furthermore that there exists a positive relationship between CSP and CFP. As such, S.A. Waddock and S.B. Graves (1997) propose that a tension exists between the firms explicit costs (for instance, payments to bondholders) and its implicit costs to other stakeholders (for example, product quality costs, and environmental costs). Hence, a firm which tries to outweigh its explicit costs by increasing its socially responsible actions incurs higher implicit costs, resulting in competitive advantage. Thus, high levels of CSP are seen as indicators of superior management by Alexander and Buchholz (1982) which lead to lower explicit costs and enhanced financial performance. The stakeholder theory accompanies the concept of CSR by shedding more light on the issue of social responsibility. This theory is spread over three aspects (Donaldson and Preston, 1995) namely, descriptive, instrumental and normative. While the descriptive aspect describes and explains the theory, the instrumental aspect discloses the cause-effect relationships between stakeholder management practices and improving corporate performance. The normative aspect, on the other hand, as perceived by I.Y. Maroam (2006) emphasizes on the moral imperatives for practising stakeholder management, rather than the business benefits it may provide. A parallelism between the core business domain and the CSR domain will maximise a firms profitability. The stakeholder theory provides a framework for investigating the relationship between CSP and CFP by examining how a change in CSP is related to a change in financial accounting measures. In fact, the two concepts of CSR and stakeholder share the proposition that social responsibility affects financial performance in some way or other. This subject area has been so vastly explored that this trend is now seen as a natural progression which goes associatively with developments in the industrial and business world. There is an increasing concern and emphasize on humanity, environmental preservation and enlightened social consciousness. Thus, a new area of research began to pave its way within the field of business and society where the relationship between corporate social conduct, both toward the corporations stakeholders and the wider society, and the corporations financial performance was and is still being investigated across several countries. Over environmental issues, research h as revealed that businesses which are eco-friendly and demonstrate good CSR practices enjoy increased consumer purchase preference (Gildea, 1994; Zaman, 1996) and good economic performance (Al-Tuwaijiri, et al., 2004). A stakeholder group, as identified and defined by Freeman (1984), is one that that can affect or is affected by achievement of the organisations objectives, that is, which can be harmed as well as can help it to achieve its goals. Therefore, there is a growing need for firms to address the needs and expectations of the stakeholders to avoid negative outcomes and produce positive outcomes for themselves (Donaldson and Preston, 1995; Freeman, 1984; Frooman, 1997). Pursuant to the stakeholder theory perspective, CSP can be assessed in terms of a company meeting the demands of multiple stakeholders, ranging from cost minimisation to societal maximisation. Building on the previous mentioned definition of CSP, Wood and Jones (1995) propose that stakeholder theory is the key to understanding the structure and dimensions of the firms societal relationships thereby assuming that firms are responsible for honouring all the implicit and explicit contracts they hold with their various constituen ts. Therefore, the stakeholder theory provides a system-based perspective of the organisation and its stakeholders where it acknowledges the dynamic and complex nature of the interplay between them. The various stakeholders of the firms, such as the employees, shareholders, financers, environmentalists, government, communities, customers and even competitors should be convinced by the management that it is working harder to satisfy them. The more important the stakeholders to the firm, the more effort the firm needs to put to uphold its relationship with the former. According to Clarkson, Donaldson and Preston et al. (1995), the stakeholder theory must place shareholders as one of the multiple stakeholder groups which managers should consider in their decision-making process. However, like the shareholders, the other stakeholders may have a say upon the firm, bestowing societal legitimacy. Notably, Bernadette M. Ruf et al. (2001) asserted that firms must address these non-shareholder gro ups demands otherwise they might face negative confrontations which can ultimately result in diminished shareholder value, through boycotts, lawsuits, protests and so on. Hence, firms have a fiduciary duty relationship not only to the shareholders, but to all stakeholders (Hasnas, 1998, p.32). So far, recognising a companys contractual relationship with the various stakeholders has been instrumental in better comprehending the relationship that CSP and CFP share. Stakeholders have expectations from the organisation. Nevertheless, these expectations may conflict with the firms limited resources leading the firm to evaluate its costs and benefits tradeoffs. Firms must thus come with measures representative of the various factors of CSP and stakeholders interests. Unlike neo-classical stockholders who were only interested in financial performance (Grouf, 1994; Shapiro, 1992), the major stakeholders of today, that is, the stockholders are more interested in the firms current and future financial benefits and social performance. 2.3 Empirical Review This section reviews the works done and methods used by researchers on the relationship of CFP and CSP. Empirical results on the latters correlation are mixed whereby some yielded in positive, some in negative and some in non-significant relationships. Basing on the stakeholder theory approach, several models on the CFP-CSP relationship have been proposed, where the largest number of investigations found a positive CSP-CFP linkage. Notably, different methods to compute indexes for CFP and CSP have been used since data on both cannot be possibly obtained in absolute figures. As such, using aggregated weights assigned to K dimensions of social performance obtained through questionnaire for CSP and using change in return on equity (ROE), change in return on sales (ROS) and growth in sales as financial measures on a sample of 496 firms, Bernadette M. Ruf et al. (2001) came up with a positive relationship between CSP and CFP. They, in fact, regressed change in CSP on change in CFP. The results revealed a significant positive relationship between change in CSP and change in ROE and change in ROS in the long term but that with growth in sales was significantly positive only in year 0 and 1. The study suggests that improvements in CSP have both immediate and continuing financial impacts. The authors have furthermore suggested that since many financial performance measures follow a random walk or mean reversion  [1]  , it is important to use lead/lag studies to establish a causal sequence of CSP and CFP. Concerning time period, one year may be short in strat egic terms and could well be distorted by rogue figures, hence, it suggested to take two or five years data in analyses. A paper by S. A. Waddock and S. B. Graves (1997) also found positive linkage between CFP and CSP. An index for CSP was computed using eight attributes relating to shareholder concerns and were rated consistently across the entire Standards Poors 500 by a rating service. The firms profitability was measured using three accounting variables, namely, return on assets (ROA), ROE and ROS used to assess CFP by the investment community. Factors such as size, risk and industry which affect both CFP and CSP were taken as control variables. Used on a sample of 469 companies and using CSP as both dependent and independent variable, the results revealed that CFP does depend on CSP and vice-versa and also indicated the importance of controlling for industry in assessing such a relationship. Size has been suggested in previous studies, like that of Ullman (1985), to be a factor which affects both CFP and CSP. Size remains a relevant variable because there had been evidence that smaller firms may not demonstrate the same obvious socially responsible behaviours as larger firms. Authors like Pinkston and Carroll (1993), for instance, investigated the extent social responsibility orientations, organisational stakeholders, and social issues can differ among firms of differing sizes. P. A. Stanwick and S. D. Stanwick (1998), on the other hand, found a significant positive association between size (annual sales) and CFP at the 10% level for three of the six years of their study. Firm size is particularly the scale of operations in an organisation (Price and Mueller (1986, p. 233)). Previous literature has indicated a need to control not only for industry, and size (Ullman, 1985; Waddock and Graves, 1997), but also for risk (McWilliams and Siegel, 2000) to render research results more complete. The argument to use risk as a control variable is supported by the fact that the degree of risk is seen as the other important component of firm performance assumed by a firm in order to achieve a given level of financial performance as stated by Bettis and Hall (1982). Baird and Thomas (1985) also advocated risk as being both as a strategic variable (firms choose a given level of risk) and as an outcome variable (strategic choices lead to a level of risk) which ultimately leads to improved financial performance. As such, M. Brine, R. Brown and G. Hackett (2004) used risk alongside size as control variables to assess financial performance of 277 companies. Their preliminary results stated that the adoption of CSR does lead to increases in turnover and also an increase in equity, which in turn improve the CFP level. To bring more integrity, M. Orlitzky et al. (2003) conducted a quantitative meta-analysis on the CFP-CSP relationship building on the hypothesis that CSP and CFP are generally positively related leading to competencies, learning, efficiency and reputation-building with its external stakeholders. Taking CFP as a companys financial viability through three broad subdivisions consisting of market-based (investor returns), accounting-based (accounting returns), and perceptual (survey) measures and constructing CSP through four broad measurement strategies, namely: (a) CSP disclosures (annual reports, letters to shareholders); (b) CSP reputation ratings; (c) social audits, CSP processes, and observable outcomes; and (d) managerial CSP principles and values (Post, 1991), the study suggests that corporate virtue in the form of social responsibility and, to a lesser extent, environmental responsibility can pay off, despite the CSP-CFP operationalisations can also moderate the positive associa tion. CSP appeared to be more highly correlated with accounting-based measures of CFP than with market-based indicators, and CSP reputation indices were more highly correlated with CFP than are other indicators. According to Mahoney L. and Roberts R.W. (2007), there is no significant relationship between a composite measure of firms CSP and CFP. Using four years panel data of Canadian firms, they calculated a composite measure of CSP score by summing all dimension strength ratings, such as, community relations, diversity, employee relations, environment, international, product safety, and amongst others and subtracting all dimension weaknesses ratings. Following Waddock and Graves (1997a), ROA and ROE were used separately to measure a firms CFP. As CFP was expected to be positively related to CSP, a one-year lag between CFP and all independent variables (CSP, firm size, debt level, and industry) was used. Inconsistent with their expectation, they found no significant relationship between the composite CSP measure and either ROA or ROE. However, the use of individual measures of firms CSP regarding environmental and international activities and CFP resulted in a significant relationship provi ding mixed support for the business case for CSP. A study, using the Granger causality approach, by Rim Makni et al. (2008) reaffirms Mahoney and Roberts (2007) works on the non-significant relationship. However, there may also be a simultaneous and interactive negative relation between CSP and CFP, forming a vicious circle.