Describe factors to consider for effective communication The WritePass Journal

Describe factors to consider for effective communication References Describe factors to consider for effective communication Describe factors to consider for effective communicationWRITEPASS CUSTOM ESSAY WRITING DISSERTATION EXAMPLESIntroductionReality vs. perception of realityThe formation of divergent perceptionsInterrelationship of the stagesNature of factors that affect perceptionReferencesRelated Describe factors to consider for effective communication WRITEPASS CUSTOM ESSAY WRITING DISSERTATION EXAMPLES Introduction When it comes to communication, the problem of perception takes the central stage. Varner and Beamer (2010, p. 35) defines communication as the perception of verbal and nonverbal behaviour and the assignment of meaning to them. They considered perception so important that as long as the perception process takes place, communication occurs. Covey (1992) also emphasised the significance of perception by attributing perception problems as one of the root causes of communication problems. Differences in perceiving the world would inevitably lead to communication barriers because people communicate on the basis of their own perceptions and perception determines how people behave toward the world (Singer, 1998). Therefore, great stress has been put on the role of perception in interpersonal communication that Singer (p. 10) even proposed in communication reality  ·Ã‚ ·Ã‚ · is less important than ones perception of reality. To discuss the crucial role of perception in communication, this essay first examines the relationship between reality and perception of reality, followed by a discussion on how perception affects communication in the stages involved. Finally, the role of three types of factors in perception physical, environmental and learned factors, will be examined. Reality vs. perception of reality Effective communication is hindered when communicators have different understandings of reality. Cognitive theorists are convinced that reality is more about the things in here in the mind, ratherthan the actual things out there (Singer, 1998). Perception, an active process by which people become aware of the world, is the window through which we experience the world .To illustrate the relationship between the two, Singer makes an analogy between the human perception process and a class assignment, both comparing and contrasting what enters and exits the mind (p. 187). Since it is impossible for a person to either experience everything in the world or have exactly the same life story as another person, no one will have absolutely right perception about the world or exactly the same perception as others. The fact that family members of twins can often easily tell one from the other explains that even twins do not have identical experiences and perceptions. The formation of divergent perceptions As Roger asserts, nothing, neither the Bible nor Freud, is more reliable than personal experience in the perception process (as cited in Griffin, 2006, p.32) . This supports Stacks, Hickson and Hills (1991, p. 4) suggestion that â€Å"Communication brings us together and perceptions tend to separate us.† Clearly, the impact of divergent perceptions in interpersonal communication has gain great attention of communicators. To reduce the difficulties in communication, it is necessary to understand how the divergent perceptions are formed in the first place. Perception is a series of procedures that blend into one another. To conveniently discuss the these procedures, perception is generally divided into three stages: selection/stimulation, organization, and interpretation/ evaluation (Lane, 2010; Kelly, 2006; Dwyer, 2009). The first stage is selection, in which the world comes to us through our sensory receptors. Naturally you cannot perceive everything; rather you engage in selective perception, where you pick up some stimulation over others. Two types of stimuli are considered more likely to draw our attention: meaningful ones and noticeable ones (Devito, 2009). Things meaningful or noticeable to one person do not often mean the same to another person. Therefore, during this stage, people of different backgrounds often receive different messages from the same world. For example, when a couple attend a concert, the husband, a musician, tends to focus on the musical part while the wife, a fashion designer, pays more attention on the costume and stage design. Suppose the design of the concert is excellent but the singer is off key from time to time. It is very likely that the couple end up having different comments on the concert. In this way, differences occur in the very first stage of perception proc ess. In the next stage organization stage, the stimuli that come into our brain will have to pass through the filters of our censor screens where they are rearranged and decoded in some ways we are used to or we learn to (Singer, 1998. p. 11) These ways of organizing data become the shortcuts that enable us to make connections between new information and previously gained knowledge, and thus simplify our understanding and remembering of new people and events. However, these shortcuts can be misleading if you rely on them too much. You may either add additional data which are consistent with your way of organizing or ignore those which is inconsistent, in order to make the new experience organisable. As the constructivists identifies, we often fit over realities to bring order to our perceptions (Griffin, 2006, p. 191). As a result, perceptual variations occur because we gain our perception not in the way it should be, but in a way every individual needs it to be. Having discussed the first two stages, we will now have a look at the third stage – interpretation/evaluation, in which we make sense out of the organised stimuli and find out the value of them. As Kelly (2006) suggests, we never have all the facts, and our interpretation and evaluation are largely dependent on the past knowledge and our own value systems. When personal experience and values are involved, differences are bound to occur. In other words, we get used to seeing some stimuli in a certain way that we dont take others into account (Lane, 2010, p.41). A good example of this would be stereotyping. When people stereotype others, they put people into categories and assert all people in the category share the same characteristics. The consequence is that barriers in communication often occur on the basis of false perceptions of others because great deal of individual differences are not taken into consideration (Lustig, 2010). The results of two studies of stereotypical p erception of African Americans show that African Americans are estimated to earn less than they actually do, are seen as poor and intimidating (Dixon, 2008) and are more likely to commit crimes (Ford, 1997). Many of stereotypes are created by direct experience with only a few members of a certain group. Others may even come from second-hand materials such as mass media without any direct experience. Yet many of us still use stereotypes to make assumptions and interpretations. This is very likely to cause communication gaps between people who perceive and expect others in their own understandings. Interrelationship of the stages Above is an analysis of how perceptual differences come into being in each of the stages. However, it is helpful to clarify, though listed in such a way, the three stages do not occur one by one. Rather, these stages often take place almost simultaneously (Lane, 2010, p. 36) and there is no way one can draw a dividing line between any of them. In addition, we should not see any stage as the start or the finish of a perception process (Russel, cited in Kelly, 2006, p. 36). It is common for people to think of these stages as a linear sequence, from gathering data to organizing the data and finally attaching some meanings to them. However, this process does not end at the interpretation stage because the result of interpretation/evaluation would affect your future sensing/selecting behaviour. In this case, some other ways of breaking down perception process would help make the point clearer. Initial three stages remaining the same, DeVito (2009, p. 64) believed two other steps take plac e afterwards: memory and recall. These two steps can lead to peoples perceptual inaccuracy in a way that people may lose or unable to recall some information. Even worse is retrieving the wrong message. Griffin (2006, p. 189) add a utilizing stage to emphasise the effect of memorized and recalled data on future communication behaviour. His suggestion of comparing the stages to the five interconnected Polemic Rings is extremely helpful in explaining the relationships of these stages of perception process (p. 187). Seeing the fact that the stages are actually interrelated and never come to an end, we can better know how we make mistakes when we think we see every aspect of an issue and make a right judgement. The truth is that previous interpretation has already had an effect on the selecting process, and we only pick up those data we want to, which further influence our organizing and evaluating process. For example: A person who experienced a destructive earthquake may notice a noise from the ground seconds before the shaking (Sensing stage). He then established a connection between the two: A noise often comes before a big earthquake and considered it a way to make predictions of future earthquakes (Organizing and interpreting). This interpretation inserts an influence on his future processing of information in the way that he may become very sensitive to similar sounds and more likely to link some other unusual phenomenon to an earthquake. From above we can see that differences take place in almost every step we take when perceiving the world. Just like what Ribbins and colleagues words said, the factors which shape and sometimes distort perception can reside in the perceiver, in the object or target being perceived or in the context of the situation in which the perception occurs (as cited in Dwyer, 2009, p. 14). These stages are like a giant filter, every information in the external world have to pass through the filter which is made of your own experience, beliefs and value systems (Bjorseth, n.d.). Again, similar to the analogy of class assignment described in the beginning of this essay, what exits your mind differentiate from what comes to your mind because your uniquely designed filter has performed its job. Nature of factors that affect perception Having identified how the factors impact on the perception process in each stage, the essay now focuses on the nature of the factors that affect perceptions. Singer (1998) has suggested three categories of them: physical determinants, environmental determinants and learned determinants. Physical determinant are commonly understood as our five sensory receptors recognized by Aristotle. Interestingly, Singer’s later research has revealed at least thirty-seven differentiate sensory inputs and even more are expected to be discovered (Singer, 1998, p.14). Apart from these, other physical differences such as body shape, skin colour, hand size that make us unique in the world can contribute to differences in perception. Just like every the uniqueness of individuals physical characteristics, everything happens in a unique context. The unique surroundings of an event can be very powerful in forming different perceptions. For example, the result of judging whether a person is young or o ld will probably be influenced by which age group he is compared with. The third type of determinants, learned determinants, is seen as the most important. How people acquire their perceptual constructs has been thoroughly studied. The result of an experiment on people who are born blind but later restored with their sight shows that without the visual experiences, these people cannot tell a figure or discriminate simple shapes until several months visual learning (Perception – Innate and learned, n.d.). This reveals that learning experience is necessary and powerful in shaping and changing peoples perception. Similarly, in Varner and Beamers (2010) perception model of choices, they explain that when you encounter something unfamiliar, you either choose not to attend to it or lose memory of it until you learn how to change your mental category to accommodate it. Singer (1998, p. 19-27) also devised an exercise to test how perceptions of the same stimuli differ in different cultures. The exercise finds out that perception is greatly influenced by culture, a combination of learned activities. The more specific the symbol is, the more the interpretations are alike. The more abstract the symbol is, the more various meanings are attached to it. With such findings, it is not difficult to understand that communicators from different cultures would undoubtedly meet difficulties with the different views they hold on the same thing. From the discussions above, we have seen that misperceptions can arise when we collect information, organise it in different ways, and assign different meanings to it. In addition, differences of perceptions are determined by various factors, especially learned ones. Communications based on divergent perceptions will inevitably meet difficulties. To make communication of higher level of effectiveness, it is a good start for communicators to bear in mind the powerful influence of different perceptions on communication process, to learn the culture of other groups and to make your perceptions closer to each other. References Bjorseth, L. D. (n.d.). Improve your communication skills by cleaning your filter. Retrieved March 21, 2011 from: sideroad.com/Business_Communication/improve-communication-skill.html. Devito, J. A. (2009). The interpersonal communication book (12th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Dixon, T. L. (2008). Network news and racial beliefs: Exploring the connection between national television news exposure and stereotypical perceptions of African Americans. Journal of communication, 58, 321-337. Dwyer, J. (2009). Communication in business: Strategy and skills (4th ed.). Australia: Pearson Education Australia Ford, T. E. (1997). Effects of stereotypical television portrays of African-American on person perception. Social Psychology Quarterly, 60(3), 266-275. Griffin, E. (2006). A first look at communication theory (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Kelly, M. S. (2006). Communication at work: Ethical, effective, and expressive communication in workplace. London: Pearson Education Inc. Lane, S. D. (2010). Interpersonal communication: competence and contexts (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Lustig, M. W. Koester, J. (2010). Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Perception Innate and learned. Retrieved March 23, 2011 from: http://science.jrank.org/pages/5093/Perception-Innate-learned.html Singer, M. R. (1998). Perception and identity in intercultural communication. Maine: Intercultural Press, Inc. Varner, I., Beamer, L. (2010). Intercultural communication in the global workplace (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill sideroad.com/Business_Communication/improve-communication-skill.html

Feminist Poetry Movement of the 1960s

Feminist Poetry Movement of the 1960s Feminist poetry is a movement that came to life during the 1960s, a decade when many writers challenged traditional notions of form and content. There is no defining moment when the feminist poetry movement began; rather, women wrote about their experiences and entered into a dialogue with readers over many years before the 1960s. Feminist poetry was influenced by social change, but also by poets such as Emily Dickinson, who lived decades earlier. Does feminist poetry mean poems written by feminists or poetry about feminist subject matter? Must it be both? And who can write feminist poetry- feminists? Women? Men? There are many questions, but generally, feminist poets have a connection to feminism as a political movement. During the 1960s, many poets in the United States explored increased social awareness and self-realization. This included feminists, who claimed their place in society, poetry and political discourse. As a movement, feminist poetry is usually thought of as reaching a greater apex during the 1970s: Feminist poets were prolific and they began to achieve major critical acclaim, including several Pulitzer Prizes. On the other hand, many poets and critics suggest that feminists and their poetry have often been relegated to second place (to men) in the poetry establishment. Prominent Feminist Poets Maya Angelou: This incredibly prolific and powerful woman is one of the most well-known feminist poets, though she hasn’t always fallen in line with the cause. â€Å"The sadness of the women’s movement is that they don’t allow the necessity of love,† she wrote. â€Å"See, I don’t personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed.† Her poetry has often been praised for its depictions of black beauty, female women, and the human spirit. Her book Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water fore I Diiie, published in 1971, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1972. Angelou received the Literarian Award in 2013, an honorary National Book Award for contributions to the literary community. She died at the age of 86 in 2014.Maxine Kumin: Kumin’s career spanned more than 50 years and she won the Pulitzer Prize, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award. Her poetry is deeply connected to her nat ive New England, and she was often called a regional pastoral poet. Denise Levertov: Levertov wrote and published 24 books of poetry. Her subjects reflected her beliefs as an artist and a humanist and her themes embraced nature lyrics, protest poetry, love poems and poetry inspired by her faith in God.Audre Lorde: Lorde described herself as a â€Å"black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.† Her poetry confronts the injustices of racism, sexism, and homophobia.Adrienne Rich: Richs poetry and essays spanned seven decades and her writing tackled issues of identity, sexuality and politics and her continued search for social justice, her role in the anti-war movement, and exploring her radical feminism.Muriel Rukeyser: Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist; she is best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism.

Integration paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Integration paper - Assignment Example The first tool used to formulate an investment strategy is the feasibility of making concentrated purchases (Fabozzi, F., Focardi, S. & Kolm, P. 2010, 22). Concentrated purchases simply entail the buying of shares or stocks at times when the industry that a firm is operating in has been hit by economic meltdowns. Often, investors or firms cogitate on this tool before formulating an investment strategy. This is because equity markets are believed to yield good returns in the long run. Thus, making concentrated purchases can give a high probability that an investor or firm will earn good returns in the long run when the economy stabilizes (Russell, C. 2006, 34). The second tool is value investment, which involves stock purchases at a cheaper price that is lower than its intrinsic value (Götze, U., Northcott, D. & Schuster, P. 2008, 56). The purchase of stocks at such rates reflects the future value of the stocks to rise as opposed to the present value. The last tool is risk assessm ent, which generally engrosses the evaluation of the possible risks associated with an investment venture. Before the formulation of a strategy, a firm must always recognize the financial perils exposing themselves to so that they can avert potential risks (Russell, C. 2006, 56). The link between investment strategies of a firm and its environments cannot be dismissed. To begin with, a firm highly depends on the financial markets for profitability when it has invested, say, in shares (Herbst, A. 2002, 29). The dynamics of a financial market within which a firm operates, determine the profit margin that it gets. When the financial markets are selling shares at reasonable prices, a firm can quickly buy them. However, when a market needs to sell its shares and the market price is low, it will end up making losses (Russell, C.2006, 61). Thus, the financial market within which a firm operates is a key determinant of its profitability. This implies that

Women's Studies. Claiming Feminism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Women's Studies. Claiming Feminism - Essay Example Logical and intellectual study and discussions of gender inequalities allows students to become aware of the injustices in the world towards women and to work and make effort towards changing unhealthy dynamics in any situation. Feminism Feminism is support and encouragement of women right on the basis of political, social and financial equality to men (Heywood, 34). Feminism is a belief that women and men are equal. To support this belief a movement started. In history feminism came into existence due to inequality between the two genders. Nowadays Feminists activist work towards area like domestic violence, gay marriage, equal pay, equal rights, sexual harassment, discrimination and reproductive. When I think of feminism first thing that comes to my mind is a woman with a broom. It is simply because a woman is associated as being a house wife. Her main responsibility is to look after the house and children. In third world countries this idea still prevails. A woman is still not fre e in her decisions about her life. What she wants is either decided by her elders or her husband. There are countries where women are not allowed to drive. They cannot travel without their male partner. History In 1800 women had very little control over their lives. Even the rich women had limited authority in domestic life. They had no property rights, political rights or financial independence. Higher education was not accessible to women. Lower class women worked hard alongside men. Lower class women faced same social and legal restrictions. The awakening started in the 1790 which emphasized emotion experience over a certain belief or view. It allowed women more opportunities outside home. The First Wave of feminism started from early 19th century up till the year 1921. The first wave started in abolitionist movement. Feminism movement was aligned with anti salivary and anti racism movements. As the civil war ended the right to vote or suffrage was granted to former slaves but no t to women. Many women who were part of feminist movement left their coalition with anti-racism movement. In the initial stage the aim was to support a wide range of rights for women. But with time the first wave of feminism movement narrowed its focus on the goal of achieving women's right to vote. The first college that enrolled first 15 women in higher education was  Oberlin College  in Oberlin. In 1948 the feminist movement started at Seneca Falls convention. It was the first women’s rights convention. It was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, with others. It all started in June 1840 at World Anti-Slavery Convention. The Convention was held in London. The ordinary point of view at that time was that women are not capable of speaking in public. The topic that was discussed was not slavery as planned but rather it was whether women are capable of leadership.. The conclusion was that women are not fit for public speaking. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth C ady Stanton were sent away from convention. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton went out angrily from the convention. There were many achievements made by First Wave Feminist. In 1954 Florence Nightingale established female nurses with the military. In 1860 Suffragists New York passed the Married Women’s Property Act. The bill allowed women to inherit property, share custody of children and control over their wages and wills. In 1916 Margaret Sanger opened first birth control clinic in the U.S. She was giving reproductive rights to women. The clinic had all-female staff. These actions led to her arrest. In 1918 â€Å"Married Love† was published by Marie Stopes. Book was about women’s sexual desires (Jutte, 165). The book got very famous at that time. The right to vote was

The LM curve Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The LM curve - Essay Example IS curve or IS schedule explains the investments and savings aspect of market or economy. This explains the activity of goods and services performance in the economy. The LM curve, on the other hand, explains the money market or money aspects of the market and economy. As a whole, they both describe the overall activities of the economy which lead national income. The FE schedule describes the labor market and the labor aspects of the economy. The IS-LM-FE model addresses the three major areas of any economy. Labor, money and goods and services are all addressed by this model. We have the IS curve equation. Using the given data, we can calculate for the income Y. r = 0.1(I+G+0.2Y*-0.2Y+50RE) as r = r* = 5, we can substitute the value of r* for r in the IS equation. 5 = 0.1 (100 + 100 + 0.2*500 - 0.2Y + 50*1) Yielding Y = 1500 This gives us the income, Y, as 1500. Y, the income, is local income only as the foreign income Y* has also been considered. This is the equilibrium level of income in the economy. To calculate for the resulting equilibrium level of money supply, we use the LM curve. The LM curve explains the supply and demand aspects of money in the market and economy. Using the equation for the LM curve, we can calculate for the equilibrium money supply level in the market. M=0.25Y-5r We calculated Y to be 1500 and r is given to be r* which is 5. Solving for M, money supply, we get M = 350 The money supply has equilibrium value of 350 for the given values of income, exchange rate and other variables. b)to what extent does r* have to move in order to obtain an income level of 1600explain For the income to be 1600, we can calculate for the value of r* which is also r is our case. Solving the same equation of IS schedule for r we get, r = 0.1(I+G+0.2Y*-0.2Y+50RE) Putting values of I, G, Y*, Y and RE, we get, r = 0.1 (100 + 100 + 0.2*500 - 0.2*1600 + 50*1) r = 18 r has to be 18 in order to make the income equal to 1600. This means that the value of r has to increase to 360% of its original value. By reaching this level, the income in the market will be

Government Legislation And Market Structure Of Airline Industry Economics Essay

Government Legislation And Market Structure Of Airline Industry Economics Essay Over the past two decades the airline industry has experienced major changes that has affected the overall structure and segmentation of the market. The Low-Cost Carrier (LCC) market has stolen ground on the established market, at a substantial rate. This essay will focus on the Low-Cost Carrier (LCC) market and in particular will look at the easyJet firm based in Luton, England. The essay will asses the position that easyJet has acquired in the European airline market and the microeconomic factors that affect the firm. In addition, the essay will provide an analysis of how past, current and future prospects of the economy and how macroeconomic factors influence easyJets growth. Finally, based on analysis of the key discussions raised throughout the essay, a set of recommendations will be made outlining possible strategies that the firm could consider in order to prosper further. History of easyJet Greek entrepreneur Stelious Haji-Ioannou founded easyJet in 1995. The company was created to take advantage of the deregulation of the European Airline industry and to offer customers a low cost alternative. The company along with Ryanair pioneered the no-frills airline. The reduction of costs lies at the core of the low-cost business model, which aims to offer lower fares, eliminating some comfort and services that were traditionally guaranteed (Malighetti, Paleari Redondi. 2009). EasyJet was floated on the stock market in 2000. It has grown since then into a leading European Low-Cost Carrier. The company provides airline services on short-haul and medium-haul point-to-point routes, operating primarily in Europe on over 400 routes. SECTION 1, MICROECONOMICS: Government Legislation Market Structure: In the past the European airline industry was characterized by an oligopoly market structure, a form of imperfect competition in which a limited number of firms dominated the industry (Rubin Joy, 2005). However although airlines may use oligopoly market power to restrict competition, new innovative firms can carve out a niche, which is the strategy of easyJet (Rubin Joy, 2005) In order to stimulate competition, during the 1980s the European Commission implemented the open skies legislation. This aimed to liberalise air travel within the European Community and challenge the cartel of flag-carrying national airlines such as British Airways, Air France and Lufthansa which controlled 40% of the available passenger-kilometers on scheduled intra-European flights through bilateral agreements, regulated by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) (Ghoshal, Lefefebure, Jorgensen Staniforth, 1988) As easyJets annual report in 2001 eludes to the market environment for too long, many of Europes airlines have considered themselves immune from the realities of their operating environment. State aid, entrenchment at Europes busiest airports and favourable restrictive bilateral agreements have been used to prevent proper competition from sweeping continental Europe. According to Rubin et al., (2005) although high entry costs of aircraft acquisition and other capital requirements make entry difficult, the industry appears more contestable (e.g. imperfectly competitive but subject to potential entry if warranted by prices or profits). This paved the way for the LCCs to enter the market, armed with completely different business models which have erode the dominant carriers market share even at large hub airports. Figure 1 shows how the UK in particular where easyJet are based have taken to the LCC idea. Figure 1 Low Cost Carriers operating to/from major European countries by frequency in November 2005 Source: OAG MAX Online. February 2006 Competitive analysis: The airline industry is characterised by high levels of competition, therefore the profit margins can be result in low returns. Because profit margins are very small, during a recession or a lull in demand airlines can become bankrupt within a short space of time. In order for easyJet to sustain there profit growth they rely on very quick turnarounds in order to maximize there profit. In addition the expansion of the Internet has made the pricing of fairs more transparent to the customer and has eradicated the travel agents fee, which has brought huge cost savings for airlines. These costs have been passes onto to the passengers, which has triggered a boom in flight capacity. However, the internet has also resulted in more price comparison websites for the price sensitive customer to compare ticket prices from different airlines. Customers now do not have much loyalty towards specific airlines, as they are more concerned with finding the cheapest price for their journey. However easyJet have now become one of the leading LCC airlines in the UK as illustrated by market share in Figure 2. Figure 2 Shows the dominance of both easyJet and Ryanair that have a large market share in the UK. Figure 2 Low Cost Carriers to/from the UK Source: OAG MAX Online. March 2006 Major determinants of demand: The demand for air travel is sensitive to changes in easyJets own prices, the price of related goods, incomes and individual taste preferences. However the degree of sensitivity is dependent on varying market conditions. EasyJets own price The low cost carriers have profoundly changed the airline industry, by increasing the demand for air travel. Alertness to latent demand, characterized by the passengers willingness to pay elastic prices, which is not the attitude of the so-called traditional passengers, is among the key factors of easyJets success (Pels and Rietveld, 2004). Because of the their alternative business plan, easyJet are able to offer a reduced price to customers. The price choices and the ability of the airlines to understand the characteristics of the demand are decisive in the balance of the business model itself (Malighetti, Paleari, and Redondi, 2009) The Internet has also increased the transparency of costs and allowed customers to compare prices instantly. There is now no loyalty, because customers will most often than not choose the cheapest ticket. No-frills airlines tend to use simplified pricing structures based on demand regulated single fares or flexible return tickets without the high- cost premium fares required by mainstream airlines for fully flexible travel (Baum, 1997). Lower fares have meant that those more frequent shorter holidays are not necessarily a more expensive option and the trend towards more flexible booking arrangements has encouraged this development (Graham, 2006). Price of related goods: The price of substitute goods and the consumers purpose of travel consistently affect the demand for easyJets services. There are numerous forms of substitutes that could cater for the customers needs such as travelling by car domestically or by train internationally. The structure of demand, which guides the optimisation choices of the carrier, is influenced by the presence of competitors, and the passengers opportunities to opt for a substitute service (Malighetti, Paleari, and Redondi, 2009) Therefore if Eurostar decreased their prices to travel from London to Paris then this would affect the demand for and the price customers are willing to pay to travel with easyJet. In addition airline passengers usually travel for different purposes, either leisure, business or to visits friends and family. Typically, business travelers have lower demand elasticity, and higher willingness to pay than leisure travelers. (Alves, and Barbot, 2009) Income The demand for travel is also affected by the average household income. If the household income increases so does the purchase of luxury goods such as travelling abroad. On this basis a elasticity multiplier of 1.1 is used to adjust air travel price elasticitys for short-haul flights (Deaton, 1975). Tastes SECTION 2: MACROECONOMICS This section of the essay will asses how past current and future prospects of the economy has affected easyJet. Monetary and Fiscal policy: Monetary policies in the shape of interest rates affect the demand on the airline industry. Higher interest rates raise the retail price index by raising the cost of living. This has made borrowing from banks more expensive and coupled with the current economic climate has had a negative impact on consumer expenditure. Therefore people have less disposable income to spend on travelling aboard. Figure 3 Relationship between Interest rates easyJets annual total profit Source: Bank of England As Figure 3 illustrates, between 2005 and 2007 there was a sharp increase in easyJet profits. However, because of the recent economic recession the Bank of England have responded to the current climate by reducing their interest rates from 5.5% to 2.0% to try and stimulate the economy. EasyJet are affected by fiscal policies through the implementation of tax duties on air carriers. The government allocate these fees to fund for increased security needed since the September 11th terrorist attack and support operations at airpark facilitates. As the graph illustrates during the 2007-2008 period there was a sharp decline in profits due to the unexpected doubling of Air Passenger Duty (APD) in the UK (easyJet Plc Annual report, 2007). Although the government use fiscal policies to try and stabilise the airline industry, they ultimately decrease the already tight profit margin that easyJet operates under. In addition the future of the airline industry seems likely that there will be more taxes levied at easyJet and the airline industry as a whole. As easyJets annual (2008) reports states the European Union has now finalised the terms of aviations entry into the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). This will require us, from 2012, to hold carbon emission allowances to cover our CO2 emissions. ETS is a cap and trade scheme, covering many sectors, and is designed to ensure that carbon emissions in the EU are reduced as efficiently as possible. Crude oil The airline industry uses kerosene, which is now ranked as the third highest petroleum because it is widely available and can withstand a wide range of temperature fluctuation. Therefore, the price of kerosene has an obvious and direct impact on the cost of easyJets and the airline industry as a whole, because it is one of the major costs occurred in the business. Figure 4 The relationship between Crude Oil and easyJets net profit Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Independent Statistics Analysis Figure 4 illustrates the relationship between crude oil prices and easyJets total revenue. As you can see from the graph there is a direct correlation between the two values. Crude oil has been rising astronomically since 2000. EasyJets annual report highlighted the affect that oil is having on their profits the price of oil, which constituted some 14% of our costs for the year ended 30 September 2004 (easyJet Plc Annual Report, 2004). In 2008 the price of oil was still high on the agenda of easyJets annual report, which stated The price of fuel rose to unprecedented levels and less well positioned competitors struggled to survive resulting in capacity exiting the market. In addition it is alarming to realise that the price of jet fuel has risen by more than 50% in the last year. This is directly affecting easyJets baseline profits as Table 1 demonstrates. (IATA Website, 2010) Table 1 This weeks price of aviation jet fuel Percentage change vs. 1-Jan-10 Index* $/b cts/gal $/mt 1 week ago 1 month ago 1 year ago Jet Fuel Price 241.7 88.4 210.5 696.7 3.7% 1.6% 50.3% Sourced from Platts  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   * 100 in 2000 (87 cts/gal) Increases in fuel prices have an obvious affect on the operation, but they also trigger economic recessions, which in turn result in a substantial decline in demand for air travel and air cargo. However, like many other industries that rely on crude oil high prices forces them to cut down their use or look for alternative resources. In order to tackle this problem easyJet have bought fleets of new airliners. To offset this, we are concentrating both on operating the most fuel-efficient aircraft and reducing costs elsewhere (easyJet Plc Annual Report, 2004). The new aircrafts are more fuel-efficient enabling them to reduce the expenditure on fuel. In addition, when fuel prices are raised it also affects the consumers decision on whether to fly at all or look for substitute modes of transport. GDP Growth: GDP growth has historically been a key determinant of the leisure travel demand and it continues to play an important role in many forecasting models (Graham, A. 2006). EasyJet and the airline industry are affected by the overall condition of the national and international economy. When there is a healthy economy the nations expenditure on travel increases. However, when there is an unhealthy economy the buying habits of the consumer falls because travelers will have fewer resources available to travel for pleasure. Figure 5 The relationship between GDP and easyJet net profit Source: Office for National Statistics As the graph illustrates 2002 and 2003 there was a sharp decrease in easyJets profit. A statement from the annual report attributes these facts to the War in Iraq, economic uncertainty and the SARS epidemic all adversely affected sentiment about travel, both business and personal (easyJet Plc Annual Report, 2003). However, A fundamental weakness in comparing travel growth to economic growth is that ignores the important influence that travel cost or price can play. The travel cost will determine the amount of income that needs to be spent on travel (Graham, A. 2006). Recent reports have suggested that the UK and the rest of Europe are slowly emerging from the recent recession. This should help to contribute to easyJet reaching its projected growth forecasts. Conclusion: Based on the previous analysis of discussion that was raised I will now sate recommendations and describe possible strategies easyJet could consider to increase their net profit. The current economic conditions have had an adverse affect on the airline industry as a whole. The near future may see more mergers of airlines in order to survive or heavy consolidation of their routes. The future of easyJet is heavily reliant on outside influences. However, because the easyJet company is based on a low-cost business plan coupled with the fact that population is rising, one could argue that they are in a better position to weather the storm and increase market share. In order to take advantage of the current situation easyJet need to face a number of problems. There is no question that the price of fuel is playing a significant role in the underlining profit of the easyJet company. Both in terms of the reduced profit margin and the overall affect the price of oil can have on the overall economy, history has shown us that it can contribute to the manifestation of recessions. However because the price of oil is set externally it is out of easyJets control, therefore there is need to explore alternative avenues of curtailing the effect that oil prices has on the easyJet company. One solution to reducing the affect that oil prices has on easyJet is by investing in more fuel efficient aircraft that reduce the amount of miles per gallon. As technology is moving forward at a unprecedented pace new airliners are becoming more aerodynamic, using lighter materials and pilots are utilising more cruise control technologies so that the consumption of fuel is used more efficiently. In addition, investing in more fuel efficient aircrafts will reduce the amount of money that will need to be paid in 2012 when the new Emissions Trading Scheme is enrolled, which is designed to ensure carbon emissions are reduced as efficiently as possible. Another alternative method to curbing the affect oil prices is to invest in research and development of alternative fuels. Although this may initially require large investments, but if alternatives are found easyJet will be ideally placed to be one of the first airlines to take advantage of new technologies and pass the savings onto their customers. In recent years easyJet has expanded its operations around Europe especially in Italy, France and Spain with nearly half of easyJets passengers now originating from outside the UK (easyJet Plc Annual Report, 2008). However, these expansions may have caused their operations to slip in their overall efficiency. Because of the nature of easyJets business plan, the company relies on very quick turnarounds at airports and highly efficient operations in order to maximise their profit margin. Therefore it would be beneficial for easyJet if they were to focus on economies of scale by making their operations more lean in order to increase profit margins. Because customers are becoming price sensitive to airline prices, another strategy that could prove beneficial is to target the business class who will have less of a price elasticity compared to leisure travellers who do not necessarily have to use easyJets services. In order to appeal to the business class easyJet will need to offer more flexible and more frequent services to the major business capitals in Europe.

Bush A= Plan :: essays research papers

Bush A+ Plan Lieutenant Governor Brogan and Governor Bush fought for approval of what they called, the Bush/Brogan A+ Plan for education. This was a comprehensive system of school reform. They believed that each student should gain one years of knowledge with one year of school. They also believed that no student should be left behind. These are the principals that the plan was built upon. In order for them to be assured that a student gained a years knowledge in a years time, the FCAT was set in place. This FCAT tests students till the tenth grade. The results of this test is then used to make sure the student is not left behind. The education is then centered around the individual needs of each student. Although this is not the only reason for the FCAT test. The test also shows if the school is performing to standards. Schools are assigned a performance grade based on the student achievement from the FCAT. If the school receives a failing grade, then resources are put into effect. The school receives addition money assistance, along with salary incentives for the teachers in those schools. I personally do not see the reason to award a failing school or a teachers of that school. But I guess I stand corrected, due to the fact the program seems to be working for the most part. I believe there are some problems with this plan. I believe that the children that exceed the standards are left behind. When my daughter entered the sixth grade she was ready for Algebra 1. The school felt that only eight graders should take algebra 1. Their reasoning was that in the seventh and eighth grade they would not have a math for her to complete. Due to this reasoning, I feel, they decided to leave my child behind. My daughter was taken out of the public school and placed in a private school. In the private school she was able to exceed at her learning capabilities. Today she is attending CFCC as a full time student. This is her second semester. She carries thirteen credits this semester, with a 4.0 grade average. My daughter is thirteen years old. She shall receive her A.A. degree by the time she is fourteen. I believe if she had been left in the public school, she would of been held back from her abilities.