The Sedition and Alien Act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Sedition and Alien Act - Essay Example The act also brought an end to protesting to the government, restricted immigration into the United States, denied citizens freedom of speech, and also gave room for the arrest of the lawmakers. These laws were under national security guise; however, the bottom lines was that they were signed to decrease the number of people especially voters who were against the Federalist Party. It should be noted that at this point, many immigrants especially the French and Irish most of which supported the Democratic republicans and Thomas Jefferson and Madison who were the main Federalists opponents. Notably, Thomas Jefferson opposed the terms of these acts and this led to his 1800 election and brought to the end the effects of Alien and Sedition acts by 1801 (Kellogg 81). Many nations and political systems are still applying this situation or often introduce laws that favor their rules opposed to the advances of their opponents. In most cases, these have led to war and rebellion across many nations across the world. Thus, it is vital for political leaders to act or introduce acts and laws that benefit the country and the people as opposed to their personal gains especially retaining them into

Dissenminating Evidence O BESITY IN cHILDREN Essay

Dissenminating Evidence O BESITY IN cHILDREN - Essay Example Decision makers are identified as senior health workers who have the powers of implementation of policies in the health facility. It also includes local government representatives who rationalize ideas generated from research and scientific studies of this nature and make them work (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.a). For these decision makers, the strategy to disseminate the information to them is through the use of formal memos or proposals, outlining the key findings of the research and explaining to them why it would be a prudent decision to implement the ideas within the identified setting in a bid to battling obesity in children. The reason for choosing a memo or a formal proposal is that it makes the dissemination more official, making it possible for the issues raised in the memo to be considered at all levels of official or formal decision making meetings. The nursing community is identified to include colleague nurses and other health professionals who work mainly as service providers to patients. Because the battle against obesity in children have been identified to be a collective task that cannot be implemented successfully without the involvement of other nursing officers within the nursing community, the findings and ideas shall be made available to them also. The strategy of dissemination has been targeted to be the use of fliers, which will be made up of summary of the objective of the study, key findings of the study, as well as approaches to tackling obesity in children. Because of the target group involved, which is the nursing community, the researcher shall ensure that the specific roles and duties needed to be played by these nurses will also be clearly outlined on the flier. It is the hope of the researcher that because fliers are very handy and portable, nurses, who are normally busy with patient care can easily carry them in their bags and purse and take them home and use them in their own

The Role Of Cocoa In Conflicts Politics Essay

The Role Of Cocoa In Conflicts Politics Essay A great deal of attention has been given to the role of resource abundance in the onset and duration of conflicts. It is difficult to prove that the sole abundance of a certain natural resource can increase the risk of conflict. Different studies emphasize that the mismanagement of resources actually raises the risk of potential conflict.  [2]   Cote dIvoire, a resource-rich country, certainly had the potential to be just another African country in the claws of a resource-motivated civil war. As one of the worlds leading producers of cocoa beans, the cocoa trade undoubtedly played an important role in the countrys conflict.  [3]  Cocoa was used to finance the military expenditures of both government and rebel forces. However, little has been said about the role of cocoa in onset of the conflict. Cocoa cannot be considered the only resource that contributed to the conflict, but one must acknowledge the importance of cocoa. This is the case because it has been the backbone of Cote dIvoires economy for decades. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of resource governance in the onset of the conflict in Cote dIvoire. The analysis will be based on resource governance as transparent, efficient and fair allocation of revenues and non-harmful participatory implementation of policies including all relevant actors and affected communities.  [4]  This paper will analyze the governance of the cocoa sector because this sector has been the most important aspect of the countrys economy to date. It will begin with the post-colonial period and the rule of President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, and then continue until the onset of the conflict in 2002. It was during this year that the united rebel forces Forces Nouvelles (FN) managed to gain control of the cocoa-rich northern part of the country. The management of resources, or resource governance, cannot be explained simply via an analysis of a countrys economic policies. It is important to examine both economic and political decision-making processes since the two are often interconnected. This paper will explain the relationships between the states economic and political decisions that, directly or indirectly, contributed to circumstances in which a conflict was more likely to begin. II SHORT OVERVIEW OF THE CONFLICT A former French colony located in West Africa, resource-rich Cote dIvoire was considered one of the most prosperous countries in the region. After gaining independence from France in 1960, it was subsequently ruled for 33 years by an autocratic leader named Felix Houphouet-Boigny. President Houphouet-Boigny is often referred to as the father of the nation. Although rich in various resources such as cocoa, coffee, timber, gold, diamonds, oil and gas, the golden years of prosperity during Houphouet-Boignys government were closely related to agricultural advances. To be more precise, the economic prosperity of the country was primarily due to the export of commodities. Dependence on primary commodities export directly influenced Houphouet-Boignys political platform. The governments policy encouraged migration from neighboring countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Liberia etc.) to cocoa rich regions. Over time, this drastically altered the ethnic structure of the country. When world market commodity prices fell in the 1980s, the effects were intensely felt in both economic and governmental sectors. Social unrest triggered by the governments unpopular attempts to downsize the unsustainable state apparatus ultimately resulted in the introduction of a multi-party system. The power struggle that occurred following President Houphouet-Boignys death in 1993 planted the seed of the ethnic division in Cote dIvoire. Henri K. Bedie succeeded Houphouet-Boigny. Bedie and other politicians placed questions of identity at the forefront of the political agenda. During this period of economic decline and uncertainty, it was not difficult to manipulate questions of identity that focused on distinctions between local the local first-comers and the migrant late-comers.  [5]  The distinction between foreigners and locals was an important political tool for defining citizenship. When Bedie enacted the new electoral code in 1995, all foreigners lost their right to vote. The new code also required that the parents of any presidential candidate be citizens of Cote dIvoire. Similar practices of exclusion occurred within military institutions. Although Bedie believed such tactics would minimize political opposition, it ultimately resulted in a military coup. In 1999, G eneral Robert Guei came to power. Political violence slowly became entrenched in Ivorian society. This occurred via a violent boycott of the 1995 elections, Gueis military coup and the military and civil unrest which preceded the 2000 presidential elections. When Laurent Gbagbo took over the presidency, he introduced a new program of identification that further deepened the gap between locals and migrants. In September 2002, multiple army personnel staged an attempted coup against President Gbagbo. This led to a de facto division of the country in which southern Cote dIvoire remained under the control of the government and the north was overtaken by rebel forces. French military forces called Licorne monitored a ceasefire-line, the zone de confience. Three rebel movements (Mouvement Patriotique de la Cote dIvoire (MPCI), Mouvement Populaire Ivoiren du Grand Ouest (MPIGO) and Mouvement pour la Justice et la Pix (MJP)) ultimately joined forces and became the Forces Nouvelles (FN). The Linas-Marcoussis Peace Agreement was signed in January 2003. As per the parameters of the agreement, all conflict parties committed themselves to forming a government of national unity. In the following years, both parties repeatedly obstructed various peace efforts following the Marcoussis Treaty.  [6]  After years of sporadic outbursts of violence, the March 2007 Ouagadougou Political Accord (OPA) was signed between president Gbagbo and FN leader Guillaume Soro. Soro was subsequently appointed Prime Minister. Implementation of the OPA has been very slow. However, it provided an adequate level of security and made the November 2010 presidential elections possible.  [7]   Preliminary elections results showed that President Gbagbo had lost the elections to his rival, former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara. The ruling party contested the results on charges of massive fraud in the northern territories of Cote dIvoire, which were controlled by the FN. International observers disputed these charges. The report of the results led to severe tension and violent incidents. To this date, the dispute over the election results in Cote dIvoire has not been settled. III RESOURCE GOVERNANCE USE AND ABUSE Post-Colonial Period Although often considered the golden years of Cote dIvoire, Houphouet-Boignys post-colonial rule did contribute to the countrys conflict. An abundance of land used for cocoa cultivation triggered the effects of the so-called resource curse. The resource curse thesis addresses reasons why a resource-abundant country fails to use resources in a way that would be economically beneficial. It refers not only to the socio-economic development of the country, but also to its governance and prospects for democracy.  [8]  The following chapter will analyze resource governance, economic development and the political decisions of Houphouet-Boignys government. It will demonstrate that these factors ultimately contributed to the onset of the conflict. 1.1. Economy, Politics and Policies Cote dIvoire gained its independence from France in 1960. By 1978, it was already one of the worlds leading cocoa producers. Cocoa, or more broadly the agricultural sector, constituted the backbone of the countys economy. Agricultural growth was mostly due to the conversion of forest areas into cropped areas and a shift in production from food stuffs to highly remunerative coffee and cocoa. Liberal immigration policies promoted by the government attracted a foreign workforce from neighboring countries. Rapid deforestation carried out by immigrant farmers later impacted agricultural capacities. 1964 marked the establishment of an important governmental institution. Caisse de Stabilisation et de Soutien des Prix des Produits Agricoles (CAISTAB) commercialized the cocoa and coffee sectors and guaranteed a fixed price for farmers through an advance sale system. CAISTAB bought cocoa directly from farmers and then sold it on the world market. The differences between the world market prices for cocoa and the prices paid to farmers were significant. The management of public revenues from cocoa was far from transparent and enabled government officials to indulge into corrupt activities. However, CAISTAB did bring about government investment in economic infrastructure and other services of great importance to farmers.  [9]   In 1967, President Houphouet-Boigny issued a decree stating that the land belonged to the person who cultivated it. This caused patronage relationships to form between the local landowners and the migrants who came to work the land. It essentially meant that the new laborers could sell part of the crops they helped produce. These relationships were often regulated through informal agreements between locals and migrants. However, some migrants gained land access on the grounds of a valid principle of entitlement to rights by virtue of invested labor (and not by virtue of descent), which was fostered by Houphouet-Boignys policies.  [10]  Migrants were also given the right to vote. The subsequent impact of this policy and its relation to the onset of the conflict will be discussed later in the paper. Cocoa prices continued to rise on the world market during late 1970s and revenues further contributed to Cote dIvoires development. CAISTAB, a stabilizing factor, ensured good prices for the farmers and continued to stimulate cocoa production. Additionally, inclusive politics regarding migrant farmers lended political support to the regime. The government was able to purchase social peace by ensuring that different ethnic groups received a share of the revenues. However, macroeconomic imbalances had grown to unsustainable levels, and the country carried a budget deficit of approximately 10% GDP. This was primarily a result of debt servicing problems due to rapid build-up of external debt during the second half of the 1970s, as well as inefficient resource allocation.  [11]  Unsustainable development and governance were only possible due to soaring cocoa prices on the world market. It is important to stress the interplay between the socio-economic, political and institutional dimensions. Lack of transparency regarding the distribution of revenues via CAISTAB and the nature and efficiency of infrastructural investments indicate the presence of politically motivated state activity in the economy. Most state investments were typical white elephant projects  [12]  that did not contribute to the countrys overall development.  [13]  Undoubtedly, there was too much government interference in economic activities. This resulted in the insufficient development of a strong, independent private sector vis-a-vis the government. Concurrently, Cote dIvoire endured widespread corruption and an absence of government accountability due to an autocratic regime and a lack of checks and balances. The Cocoa War Whether or not certain regime types are more susceptible to conflict than others is subject to debate. What is known is that the type and quality of political institutions that develop overtime within a country may determine how natural resources are managed.  [14]  The government failed to contribute to economic diversification or invest in infrastructure for cocoa processing. As the prime recipient of vast amounts of external rent, Cote dIvoires government had no intention of changing its policies or cutting excessive public spending. Excessive state intervention in the agricultural sector, dependence on cocoa export and an inefficient public sector all played a role in Cote dIvoires economic development when world market cocoa prices collapsed in the 1980s. The governments response was the two year Cocoa War in which a government-imposed cocoa embargo sought to influence global prices. This plan backfired and only proved beneficial to other cocoa-producing countries. When Cote dIvoire returned to the market, its share in world production was reduced to 20% and prices for farmers were halved. As the country hovered on the verge of bankruptcy, state expenditures were reduced. International financial institutions, such as the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), intervened. Cote dIvoires government was pressured into downsizing its large civil service and introducing greater transparency. CAISTABs powers were restricted and farm gate prices were cut by half. Succumbing to both pressure at home and abroad, the government introduced a multi-party system. Cote dIvoires high dependence on primary commodities export made it extremely vulnerable to external shocks. Furthermore, such vulnerability and dependence compounded the risk of potential conflict. The correlation between different economic characteristics such as dependence on primary commodity exports, low average incomes and slow growth played a role in increasing the risk of civil war.  [15]   New Government, Old Governance After Houphouet-Boignys death and forced political reform that introduced a multi-party system, the political arena was primed for a power struggle. New political circumstances and the continued economic downturn only increased overall political and social instability in the country. The following chapter will stress the lack of political will to introduce new, effective measures and ease the governments grip on the cocoa trade. It will also illustrate the political manipulation of identity. 2.1. CAISTAB and its Successors A scandal involving the embezzlement of 34.5 million USD in European Union (EU) credits intended for health care projects caused the WB and IMF to liquidate CAISTAB.  [16]  This resulted in even greater pressure on Cote dIvoires government to liberalize the cocoa market. Although liberalization meant the discontinuation of guaranteed prices for farmers, it did not improve their wages. Following CAISTABs liquidation, new institutions to govern the cocoa (and coffee) trade were formed. In barely a year, five new institutions came into existence. These included the Autorite de Regulation du Cafà © et du Cacao (ARCC), Bourse du Cafà © et Cacao (BCC), Fonds de Regulation et de Controle du Cafà © et Cacao (FRC), Fonds de Developpement et de Promotion des activites des Producteurs de Cafà © et de Cacao (FDPCC) and the Fonds de Garantie des Cooperatives Cafà © et Cacao (FGCCC). In order to fund the rapidly multiplying cocoa institutions, the government introduced new levies on each kilogram of exported cocoa. This had a direct impact on the farmers wages, as exporters simply transferred the cost of levies to the farmers. The reform of cocoa governing institutions only permitted diversion of cocoa revenue à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ for private purposes and towards off-budget expenditure by the Government, particularly military spending.  [17]   2.2 The Question of Identity Political opponents manipulated identity issues as a means of maintaining power. The distinction between the first-comers, or autochtones, and the late-comers, or allogenes, became central to the ongoing power struggle. In 1995, President Bedie enacted a new electoral code that exempted foreigners from their right to vote and stipulated that the parents of any presidential candidate hold Ivorian nationality.  [18]  This meant that approximately 25% of the population (mostly in cocoa rich regions) was deprived of its right to vote or run for president. Additionally, the parliament passed a new land law excluding non-Ivorian planters from acquiring land titles in principle (Art.1).  [19]  Due to the overall instability in the country, this law was never enforced. President Gbagbos contribution to the issue was the introduction of a new program of identification based on the concept of autochtony.  [20]  This new concept made it even more difficult for migrants to prove thei r village of origin  [21]  , thus further contributing to the autochtone allogene distinction. The lack of positive effects of liberalization coupled with the continued mismanagement of cocoa revenues through state institutions contributed to overall economic decline. High unemployment rates in urban areas put more pressure on the areas where cocoa was cultivated, because many youth returned to their villages and attempted to claim the land from migrants. Questions of ownership naturally arose. The 1967 decree stated that the land belonged to the person who cultivated it.  [22]  However, this principle now came into conflict with the principle of intergenerational justice, which guarantees the younger generation appropriate access to family land.  [23]   Onset of the Conflict The politization of the identity question that ethnically divided the country was a result of a fight for control of the countys vast resources. Continued poor resource governance further destabilized the economy. The following chapter will analyze the development of the discourse of grievance. 3.1. The Discourse of Grievance The grievance hypothesis suggests that part of a certain population, or a certain region of a country, may feel deprived of the benefits of resource-related income and therefore decide to fight.  [24]  In the case of Cote dIvoire, the fact that migrants were working the cocoa land turned out to be crucial. This is because the cocoa production sector was most affected by the governments suicidal economic strategies. Collier argues that rebel organizations develop a sense of grievance in order to function.  [25]  However, concerning Cote dIvoire, one may ascertain that the government actually fomented an objective sense of grievance among the migrants. This sense was then further exploited by the rebels. Collier argues that the motive itself (i.e. the real or imagined grievance) is not the core determinant regarding whether or not a country will experience civil war.  [26]  What appears more important is the feasibility of predation which determines the risk of conflict.  [27]  Different studies of Cote dIvoire do not examine whether the cocoa trade was used to finance the onset of the conflict. These studies find evidence suggesting that the FN rebels illegally traded diamonds and gold in order to finance themselves. Cocoa has been identified only as a resource that contributed to the duration of the conflict. Still, cocoa was a substantial source of revenue for the FN rebels. As soon as the rebels managed to seize power over the northern part of the country, they began taxing cocoa. They introduced the so-called protection taxes for travel within the FN controlled zone. Additionally, all trucks were weighed and the additional tax per kilogram of cocoa had to be paid. This s ystem later developed into an official taxing body called Le Centrale. Collier argues that sense of grievance alone is not enough for a conflict to start. Rather, it is the feasibility of the rebellion that will determine whether a country will experience civil war.  [28]  In the case of Cote dIvoire, both of the factors were present. The negative effects of poor resource governance, along with a number of political and judicial decisions, created an objective sense of grievance among the migrant minority and inspired this segment of the population to take up arms. Although the lootability of cocoa itself is debatable, the taxation system imposed to collect revenues from the cocoa trade was very profitable. IV CONCLUSION In Cote dIvoire, both resource governance and political decision-making processes had a significant impact on the later onset of conflict in the country. This interplay resulted in circumstances that made conflict more likely. The post-colonial autocratic regime of Houphouet-Boigny led to a government apparatus with full economic control. The lack of transparency and government accountability resulted in populist redistribution policies. The expansion of cocoa production and favorable policies for migrants changed the ethnic structure of the country and played a significant role in the onset of the conflict. Although favorable migrant policies might have been good for the countrys economy at one point, one other reason for their implementation was the fact that migrants were good soldiers and gave the government more legitimacy. Such policies were implemented in a country with no democratic institutions and under developed human rights mechanisms, which later made it possible for other political actors to abuse them. Mismanagement of cocoa revenues through CAISTAB made the country dependant on primary commodities export and therefore vulnerable to external shocks. The clumsy political and economic reforms that followed did not deliver the expected results and only paved the way for further instability. The manipulation of identities was the outcome of a power struggle due to the recently introduced multi-party system. Further mismanagement of resource revenues through new cocoa institutions, continued high public spending and forced liberalization of the market caused high unemployment rates and impoverished the population. One cannot say that the attempt to democratize the country and liberalize its economy was wrong, but one can question the way new rules were imposed. The country did not possess basic democratic mechanisms, an efficient system of control, or a satisfying level of transparency. The state was not ready to give up its piece of the cake from cocoa revenues and start playing fairly on the new liberal market. Ultimately, farmers had to pay the price. Growing unemployment rates, especially in urban areas, caused people to return to their villages and try to claim their land from migrant farmers. Unclear ownership of cocoa land impacted the developing identity issue by deepening the gap between the autochtones and allogenes. In addition to being deprived of some basic human rights, this raised the question of the access to cocoa land they considered their own. The farmers were also affected by the overall economic instability in the country and bore the weight of the governments reforms. Ultimately, the stage was set for the feeling of objective grievance to develop and serve as a motive for the onset of conflict. In the case of Cote dIvoire, the root causes  [29]  of the conflict were socio-economic development (dependence on primary commodities export, slow economic growth, high poverty rates, forced institutional reforms, liberalization of the market), state institutions (CAISTAB, new cocoa trade institutions), political processes (migrant policies, introduction of new democratic institutions, politization of the identity issue) and government accountability (lack of transparency resulting in high corruption levels, mismanagement of resource revenues). In order to understand the conflict in Cote dIvoire, it is important to analyze the interplay of all of these factors. These factors developed the sense of grievance and provided the motive that aggravated and triggered the conflict. The means and opportunity for sustaining the conflict were provided through the lucrative taxation system imposed by the rebels. V BIBLIOGRAPHY Basedau, M., Ley, J., (2005). Conceptualizing the Resource Curse in Sub-Saharan Africa: Affected Areas and Transmission Channels. In M. Basedau A. Mehler (Ed.),  Resource Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa  (pp. 9-24). Hamburg, Germany: The Institute of African Affairs. Basedau, M., (2005). Resourse Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa beyond the Resource Curse: Towards a Future Research Agenda. In M. Basedau A. Mehler (Ed.),  Resource Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa  (pp. 325-348). Hamburg, Germany: The Institute of African Affairs. Central Intelligence Agency, (2011). Africa: Cote d Ivoire. Retrieved January 24, 2011, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iv.html. Collier, P., The World Bank, Development Research Group. (2000).  Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and Their Implications for Policy. Washington, USA: World Bank. Global Witness, (2007). Hot Chocolate: How Cocoa Fuelled the Conflict in Cote dIvoire. London, UK: Global Witness. Retrieved January 20, 2011, from http://www.globalwitness.org/library/hot-chocolate-how-cocoa-fuelled-conflict-c%C3%B4te-d%E2%80%99ivoire. International Cocoa Organization, (2001). Annual Report for 2000/01. London, UK: International Cocoa Organization. Retrieved January 20, 2011, from http://www.icco.org/pdf/An_report/anrep0001english.pdf. International Cocoa Organization, (2002). Annual Report for 2001/02. London, UK: International Cocoa Organization. Retrieved January 20, 2011, from http://www.icco.org/pdf/An_report/anrep0102english.pdf. Ross, M. L., (2004a). What Do We Know About Natural Resources and Civil War?.  Journal of Peace Research, 41(3), 337-356. Ross, M. L. (2004b). How Do Natural Resources Influence Civil War? Evidence from Thirteen Cases. International Organization, 58 (1), 35-67. Schure, J., Guesnet, L., Mà ¼ller, M. (2010). Natural Resources in Cote dIvoire: Fostering Crisis or Peace? The Cocoa, Diamond, Gold and Oil Sector. Bonn, Germany: Bonn International Center for Conversion. The World Bank, Occidental and Central Africa Department. (1994).  Republic of Cote dIvoire: National Agricultural Services Support Project (No. 12388 IVC). Washington, USA: World Bank. The World Bank, (2011). Data. Retrieved January 27, 2011, from http://data.worldbank.org/country/cote-divoire?display=graph.

Exploring Teacher Pay Incentives Essay examples -- education reform, t

This study analyzes four articles’ study findings as well as authors’ conclusion on the teachers’ incentive pay issue based on the studies presented by the authors. Those articles include Steele, Murname and Willnett (2009) that seek to analyze the effect of incentives on teachers’ retention. In the article, a natural experiment done in California between the year 2000 and 2003 involving an incentive of $20,000 that was called the Governor’s Teaching Fellowship (GTF) analyzes the incentives’ effect on talented teachers’ attraction and retention in low-performing schools. In addition, Fryer (2011) is the other article presenting an analysis of teacher’s incentives’ effect on students’ success in terms of attendance, academic performance or graduation. The article utilizes a school-based random trial involving more than 200 public schools in New York. Further, the analysis reviews an article by Figlio and Kenny (2006) which is a documentation of students’ performance’s relationship with teachers’ performance incentives. The study utilizes United States data combining the authors’ survey that was conducted in 2000 with National Education Longitudinal Survey on students and schools in regard to teachers’ pay incentives. Finally, Nael (2011) is an article on an analysis of education incentive schemes through a review of empirical studies that evaluates educators’ performance pay programs. Thus, the article will provide a suitable review on designs of student’s achievements measures and teachers’ performance metrics. Article 1: Relationship between teacher pay incentives and student’s performance Figlio & Kenny (2006) presents the first systematic documentation of the relationship that exists between students’ performance and the ... ...g jobs at the existing pay. In addition, incentives would retain the teachers as they would not be motivated to look for alternative jobs. (Barron & Lynch, 1987) Works cited Barron, J. & Lynch, G. Economics. London: Richard D. Irwin Inc, 1987. Print. Figlio, N. D. & Kenny, L. â€Å"Individual Teacher’s Incentive Programs and Student’s Performance†. NBER Working Paper 12627, October 2006. Print. Fryer, G.R. â€Å"Teachers Incentives and Students Achievement: Evidence from New York City’s Public Schools†. NBER Working Paper 16850, March 2011. Print. Neal, D. â€Å"The Design of Performance Pay In Education†. NBER Working Paper 16710, January 2011. Print. Steele, J., Murname, R. & Willnett, J. â€Å"Do Financial Incentives Help Low Performing Schools in Attracting and Keeping Talented Teachers? Evidence from California†. NBER Working paper 14780, March 2009. Print.

Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices

This article discusses the issues surrounding plagiarism and providing detail into what plagiarism is and identifying how it can be regulated in an attempt to address this growing educational concern. The article describes plagiarism as an act â€Å"when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledg ¬ing its source (Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2003). The most common problems with regard to plagiarism lie in distinguishing plagiarism from misuse of sources.Plagiarism, as defined previously, is the use of another’s ideas without attributing it to its source, while misuse of sources, is the failure to properly attribute the ideas to its source (Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2003). The difference is that in plagiarism, a person attempts to take credit for another’s idea while in misuse of sources, a person attempts to give credit to the source but fails to do this in the pr oper manner or format.The reasons that students usually commit one error or another can be attributed to students difficulties with the integration of the information into their work, student’s failure to properly document research material, or simply be ignorant of the mistakes because of various learning backgrounds (Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2003).Whatever the causes for these mistakes, the difficult part for the educators is in discerning the intent of the writer in using the sources in order to determine whether or not there was merely a simple misuse of sources or a blatant attempt at plagiarism. Students may simply not be aware that what has been done is already plagiarism or has attempted to plagiarize but cleverly disguises it as a simple misuse of sources. The key therefore to addressing this educational problem lies in making sure students understand the relevance of proper citation in their work.

H&M company analysis Essay

H&M were established in Vasteras, Sweden in 1947 by Erling Persson. World events and trends of monumental significance have occurred, since the little Swedish ready-to-wear chain developed into a multinational concern with stores in 18 different countries. When their store opened in Stockholm’s kungsgatan, there was a queue one kilometer long and the traffic police were forced to intervene. H&M stands for Hennes and Mauritz, it is a Public Limited Company, whereby all the stores are owned and solely run by H&M.  Business forms such as joint ventures and franchising are therefore not possible. H&M are regarded as a high street fashion retailer, aimed at ‘everybody’ – and always with the best prices. They are recognised for inexpensive but trendy clothing. They currently have 901 stores located in 18 countries, employing 39,000 employees. The focus on foreign markets began with a store in Norway in 1964, and due to this inter? national status they currently occupy market share allover the world. By 1961 H&M opened a store in Norway and by 1964 in Denmark, they were quick to keep up with changing trends. In 1974 H&M was listed on the stock exchange, and they opened stores in Europe. By the 1980’s H&M began focusing on internationalization with a new managing director Stefan Persson. Stores were opened in Germany and the Netherlands and the share prices rose. H&M got their first in house designers with pupils hand-picked from the fashion and tailoring colleges in Stockholm to work in Norrlandsgatan, where there was also a major drive on jewelry and accessories. In 1983, H&M offered their customers a new and convenient way of shop? ping, by selling clothes by mail order, in order to keep up with competition, which was becoming more and more intense. By the 90’s H&M were greatly worried by the impact of e-commerce, more companies were starting to have web pages, and by 1995, companies began providing the service of Internet shopping. In 1992 H&M opened in Belgium, 1994 in Austria, and by 1996 in Luxembourg. A dramatic change came about for H&M in 1998 when they began selling on the Internet. It was apparent to directors, which they had to do this, as competition was becoming fierce, and profits were lowering. Today H&M has received global recognition for its designer collaborations, including Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Roberto Cavalli, Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garà §ons, Matthew Williamson, Jimmy Choo, Sonia Rykiel and Lanvin. Every H&M store is unique: our One New Change store is H&M’s first in the City of London and carries collections and accessories for women and men, including tailoring and suiting and a selection of swimwear. H&M Company Profile Production H&M does not own any factories. Instead, clothes and other products are commissioned from around 800 independent suppliers, primarily in Asia and  Europe. The H&M buying department plans the range. After that, all practical aspects are dealt with by our production offices. These production offices, where most of the employees are drawn from the local population, are in constant contact with the suppliers. The production offices are responsible for placing the order with the right supplier and for items being produced at the right price, making sure that they are of good quality and delivered at the right time. They also audit that production takes place under good working conditions. The production offices perform extensive safety and quality testing, including checks for shrinkage, twisting and colour fastness, as well as ensuring that the chemical requirements have been met. A product’s lead-time can vary from a couple of weeks to six months. For high-volume fashion basics and children wear it is advantageous to place orders far in advance. Trend-led garments produced in smaller volumes require considerably shorter lead times. H&M strives to order each piece at its optimal moment, finding the right balance between price, time and quality. Strategy- Global expansion H&M stores should always be located in the best business locations, whether in a big city or a small-town shopping centre. This has been a firm principle of H&M’s since the very first women wear shop opened in 1947, and it is still true today. We always look for the best business location combined with the most favourable market terms. That applies to H&M as well as & Other Stories, Cheap Monday, COS, Monki and Weekday. H&M does not own any store premises, which makes way for flexibility and adaptability. By renting space, we can move at the same pace as our markets. Long-term quality lies at the heart of the expansion strategy. Before H&M moves into a new country or city an assessment is made of the market’s potential. Factors such as demographic structure, purchasing power, economic growth, infrastructure and political risk are analyzed. Alongside expansion, existing stores are renovated, offering customers all over the world exciting new shopping experiences. H&M is also working actively to make all stores sustainable in the long term, for example through energy-saving initiatives and environmentally adapted materials. H&M remains positive towards future expansion and new business opportunities. The growth target  is to increase the number of stores by 10–15 percent per year with continued high profitability and at the same time increase sales in comparable units. The strong pace of expansion is continuing in 2013 with a planned 350 new stores net. This means that we will effectively be opening a new store every day. In 2013 the highest rate of expansion will again be in China and in the US. Investments will also continue within online sales. H&M plans to launch online sales in the US, the world’s largest market for e-commerce. Vision and Mission H&M ‘s vision is to always provide the customers with better offers than before and to constantly exceed their customers’ expectations. At the same time, H&M also trying to be most popular fashion brand in the world and H&M took many years of efforts to realize it. â€Å"2010 was a very good year for H&M with a sales increase of 15 percent. Profit after financial items increased to SEK 25 billion. During the year we improved our market position further with a strengthened customer offering by giving the customers even more fashion and quality at the best price. The economy improved from 2009 but in several countries the economic situation was still uncertain and difficult.†-Karl-Johan Persson, CEO From the comments of CEO Persson, we can see that the mission for H&M is to strengthen customer offering by giving more fashion and quality at the best price. H&M Strategic Planning Establishment & Effectiveness To achieve that vision and mission, H&M strive to make the costumers the best offering about the design and fashion. for example, the British fashion designer created a capsule women’s collection got a fantastic sales when it was launched in around 200 H&M stores on 23 April, 2009.Its bright colors and lively patterns attracted customers. And only a month later, a more comprehensive summer collection which was typical Matthew Williamson wonderful colors and patterns arrived in the stores. The pieces also worked really well with H&M’s own summer collections. H&M expanded substantially during 2009 and 2010, opening stores in numerous exciting new markets. For example, Lebanon in October 2009,Russia in March 2009, Beijing in April 2009,South Korea, Israel and Turkey in 2010 and Croatia, Romania, Jordan,  and Morocco in 2011.With the fast expansion all over the world, H&M is gradually becoming stronger and have a firm position in this industry. At the same time, H&M are still trying to expand the online and catalogue sales, because the stores are not the only place customers can enjoy shopping with H&M. At the beginning of 2011, they have been launching the new H&M Shop Online in the markets where they offer online and catalogue sales before, easy and fun as visiting a store, regardless of whether customers shop by tablet or smartphone, via apps or directly at hm.com. H&M’s interactive shop online offers easy navigation and is much appreciated by customers in all eight countries where H&M and H&M Home offer online shopping: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and the UK. Since January 2013 H&M shop online is completely mobile-adapted. In the US, the world’s largest retail market, H&M plans to offer online shopping from summer 2013. Distance selling is a vital and growing complement to stores. COS, Monki and Weekday offer online shopping in 18 European countries. The new H&M brand & Other Stories, which is launching in spring 2013, will be available both in stores and online. & Other Stories will offer shopping online at stories.com in ten European countries. H&M’s communication is global and hm.com is one of the world’s most popular fashion websites. Fashion enthusiasts all over the world interact with H&M via social media and apps. H&M is also one of the leading fashion companies on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, as well as on China’s social networks Youku and Sina Weibo and Russia’s VKontakte. Social media spreads the news further about H&M when the brand expands into new, exciting markets. Naturally, it will help H&M to achieve its vision in the future. Furthermore, goal of H&M is â€Å"to increase the number of stores by 10 – 15 percent per year† Under the goal, in 2009, H&M was expanding rapidly. We can see from annual report 2009-2012, during 2012 H&M opened 304 new stores n et. Achieve goal that 10 – 15% new stores net per year. External Analysis Opportunities There are several opportunities for H&M to develop its business. As the online market is more and more developed and H&M should start to sell its  product online. At the start of 2011, H&M are launching the new H&M Shop Online in the markets where they offer online and catalogue sales already. Shopping experience and functionality have been improved. Around the end of 2010 they plan to start online sales in USA where should be the world’s largest online market. In addition, the economic crisis was really strong and it may increase the interest of the population for cheap and fashionable clothes. Finally the development of some Asian countries such as Vietnam can give the opportunities to H&M to found new suppliers cheaper and more preferment in terms of quality and time of production. Some supplier markets with high purchasing power and plenty of customers are with an interest in fashion, just like in our Asian markets, China and Japan. H&M’s expansion is rapid and running parallel on four continents. Many potential projects are running simultaneously and competing with each other. â€Å"There are considerably more opportunities for new openings than the stores that we actually door open,† says Stefan Larsson. â€Å"During the establishment process we decide against some potential stores. Only the best business opportunities remain. The aim is to create the best H&M stores through a combination of best location and best possible business conditions, wherever they are in the world.† Threats The major threat is that this market is full of competitors that are constantly growing and that are generally aggressive. That’s why H&M should keep its effort in differentiation in order to face this competition. In addition, there are other risks and uncertainties they cannot avoid and predict. It related to fashion, weather situations, climate changes, trade interventions and exchange rates, but also in connection with expansion into new markets, the launch of new concepts, changes in consumer behavior and handling of the brand. The year was also full of challenges. The global financial crisis and recession, with more consumer restraint and discount driven markets, naturally affected. However, H&M recognized that there were things they could have done better too. Self-criticism and striving to make constant improvements are part of H&M’s corporate culture and they work hard to become more efficient in all areas. Increased efficiency also means that they can invest i n giving the customers an even more attractive offering. Internal Analysis Strengths H&M’s strengths include a good brand image and cheap price. H&M has established a strong brand which motivates employees creating unity and attracts skilled work force. The company benefits from a good image from the customers and they have a strong fame everywhere in the world thanks to its huge number of outlets. Also the prices that H&M offer to its customers are really competitive thanks to the cost saving management way of the company. Cheap price is known by everybody. Their other strength is that they have a wide range and many different concepts. The entire concept of low priced apparel has brought loyal customers for H&M for years. The various departments for women, men, teenagers and children are their foundation. They can work with them in different types of buildings, street locations and shopping centers with very different characters. Weaknesses As the company wants to save money everywhere it’s possible, the distribution system is really slow and it takes a lot of time to deliver a product to the outlet. It may be really bad for the reaction time if the company to the competitors offer. Also the low quality of the product could give to the customers the need to go to the competitors. H&M has amount of suppliers. This is a good thing. However, as H&M’s production units add up to 2700, the control of all these demand great resources and management. If H&M cannot maintain its effective organizational structure, the situation may lead to the failure of control. SWOT Analyze Strengths: Qualitative and high fashion items for a extremely low price. A wide range of collection of products which are permanently renewed Some lines products in store are created by guest designers This company is very reactive and has very fast delivery times Well-known brand with powerful financial resources. Weakness: Production at one time of a wide volume of product with no guarantee of any sale. A wide range of targeted customers and so a wide range of different  style without any real focus on a particular type of customer or tendency. Not innovative fashion products but copy of the luxury or high fashion brands. Opportunities Fashion plays an increasingly important role in society. For both men and women. Growing market and so at a worldwide level. Economic crisis: people try to find solutions to buy the cloth which is economical and practical. Threats: Many competitors present on this market. Fashioning products change very frequently and quickly. Other risks and uncertainties they cannot avoid and predict. It related to fashion, weather situations, climate changes, trade interventions and exchange rates Benchmarking Benchmarking is an analytical tool which is often used to determine whether a company’s competency of value chain activities are strongly competitive compared to other rivals so that it can be confident to winning in the marketplace. Benchmarking includes measuring costs of value chain activities in an industry to formulate â€Å"best practice† among competitive firms with the views of learning or improving on those best practices. Benchmarking can make a firm to take action to improve its competitiveness and win a good position by identifying value chain activities where rival firms have comparative strengths in cost, service, operation and reputation. It can be typically measured by quality, time and cost. Through learning the benchmark company, we can make improvements which help to do things better, faster, and cheaper. The most important part of benchmarking is to gain access to other company’s value chain activities with associated costs. Benchmarking needs to compare the process of management or results with the best firm in this industry, think about how they perform it, how to compete with them. Organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best practice companies’ processes, usually within a peer group defined for the purposes of comparison. As an organization, benchmarking allows to develop plans in  order to make improvements or adapt specific best practices, usually with the aim of increasing some aspect of performance. In this case, the rival of H&M, Zara has been selected as the benchmarking target. They have something in common which is easy to compare with. Both of them are successful apparel company and have a huge popularity in the same industry. However, they own difference business strategy to conduct the business performance. The aim of benchmark in here is to evaluate H&M’s strategic management and learn some experiences to improve their strategy and performance better. Zara is a subsidiary company of the Spanish Inditex Group. It is a famous apparel brand, and also the exclusive brand of apparel retail chain of Zara brand. It was established in 1975 in Spain. As a part of Inditex Group, Zara is ranked to the third around the world and the first brand in Spain. Among 56 countries, it has owned the establishment of more than two thousand clothing chains. Zara is always favored by the young people who love the fashion. It stands out by the excellent design and cheap price. In short, everyone can embrace high fashion in Zara. Now Zara has established 2200 women’s apparel chain shops in 27 countries in Europe and the 55 countries in the world. In 2004 its revenues ups to 4.6 billion Euros, profits of 440 million Euros. This performance is even better than GAP and H&M which is the largest brand in U.S. The main point of the H&M strategy is to achieve lower costs combined with differentiation. The differentiation is mainly based on more fashionable limited collections. For Zara it’s completely different because they try to be more fashionable for reasonable prices. Not the cheapest prices in general, but cheap prices comparing to competitors who offer similar products. Hierarchy of strategy 1. Corporate strategy The first hierarchy is corporate strategy. It describes the set of businesses, markets, or industries in which the organization competes and the distribution of resources among those business. The direction an organization takes with the objective of achieving business success in the long term. H&M have a constant corporate strategy based on really fast market coverage by opening constantly new stores every week. The company has plans to double its number of outlets by 2013 that implies that they plan to have about 3000 stores around the world. It means that they open every days a new store. They want to be present everywhere in the world and in every activity areas. They are also always looking for occupying markets share from the competitors and increasing the amount of sales, the popularity and the profit 2. Business strategy The second hierarchy is business strategy. Business strategy usually happens at the business unit or product level and it emphasizes improvement of the competitiveness, positions of a corporate products or services in the specific field or market segment served by that business unit. There are two main categories in business strategy: low-cost and differentiation strategies. The strategy of H&M is both lower costs and differentiation: They are constantly looking for reduce cost in every step of the business in order to offer to the customers the best prices. First they have a simply supply chain management that is based on a â€Å"just in time† management system. Delivery times vary from 2-3 weeks to six months, depending on the type of product. It is therefore important to be able to order each item at the right time for stores in order to have it on time. The short delivery times is not always wanted because they must consider the compromise between price, time and quality. They also save cost in producing in Asia and they have partnership with cheap suppliers that produce fast and cheap. In the same time they really want to be different than the competitors in order to have a competitive advantage. This sector is really competitive and H&M need to be different to attract the customers and increase the market  shares. To achieve this differentiation, they regularly offer special limited collections designed by famous artist or designers such as Roberto Cavalli, Madonna, Karl Lagerfeld and so on. 3. Functional strategy The third hierarchy is functional strategy. It is the approach taken by a functional area in order to achieve corporate and business unit objectives and strategies by means of optimizing resource productivity. For example, an IT company such as Samsung will surely have a functional strategy based on research and development in order to create new IT materials and be more competitive. The H&M functional strategy is also based on the research and development area of its organization as they are constantly looking for new models in order to be different from the competitors. They use more than one hundred designers to create the new model in order to create fashion and not following what the competitors did. In addition, as we previously seen, they also work sometimes with famous designers to make special collections. These strategies must complete and consistent with each other in order to have an efficient global strategy. But we must also say that these strategies must be in accordance with the goals and the image that the company wants to share with customers. In this case H&M has a goal that is really different to the strategy is that the company wants to offer products that are good in term of quality, nevertheless at the same time they use cheap suppliers in order to be competitive and offer the best price to the customers. BCG MATRIX In order to construct the BCG matrix of H&M, first we need to identify the SBU-Strategic Business Unit. According to H&M’s annual report, there are 4 main SBUs are currently been run by this firm, namely, women, men, teenagers and children. Recommendations for H&M The paper has analyzed various aspects of H&M’s strategic management and its implementation. Based on these facts and theories, recommendations can be made for the company. Generally speaking, my recommendations are simple. 1. As the most competitive rival, Zara is not so dangerous yet, but H&M should keep an eye on their growth and strategy, and try to change the strategy flexibly all the time. 2. Lacking own supply chain is one of weak point of H&M. If H&M develop own supply chain management, the production process will be faster and reactive which can bring more profits. 3. H&M has already had a big market share in the world. For the present, maintaining the development efforts and getting the market penetrations are better strategy. 4. H&M should take more efforts on the fashion design and product more fashionable clothes with cheaper price to attract own specialized customers. Most importantly, I think that H&M doesn’t need to reduce the expansion. Because of this speed of expanding, many people doubt that H&M raised the cost and loosed the control due to the amount of suppliers. In my opinion, it has the ability to control and monitor the suppliers. I also recommend that it can focus on some emerging markets, like China, Malaysia, Singapore†¦As a Chinese, I think China had indeed embraced globalization, but of a sort. For example, traveling through Shanghai, it would be hard to distinguish it from Taipei, Hong Kong, or any US city for that matter. The wide street ispacked with automobiles. Bright Neon lights decorate the shops. You will find Chinese wearing Nike shoes or Calvin Klein tees, and drink Coca cola. The impression is that foreign products and influence flows free and accepted readily at China. Compared with domestic products, they prefer international brand like H&M and Zara. There are of course foreign companies able to set a stronghold in the Chinese soil, but only those who came utterly prepared, knowledgeable in Chinese society, and committed to do business. After all China is a large country with its transportation and communication sector still under development. The immediate issues faced by the investors were cultural differences, trade barriers and government restrictions.