Critical Theories of Bodies, Genders, Sexualities and Identities

Herd Behavior Bubbles And Crashes Essay Example

Herd Behavior Bubbles And Crashes Essay Example Herd Behavior Bubbles And Crashes Essay Herd Behavior Bubbles And Crashes Essay Above average returns are reflected in a generally more optimistic attitude that fosters the disposition to overtake others bullish beliefs and viscera. This economic influence makes bubbles transient phenomena and leads to repeated fluctuations around fundamental values. For a long time, the thinking about the functioning of stock markets in the economics profession was dominated by the Efficient Market Hypothesis (MME). Recent empirical investigations as well as factual developments have, however, eroded the trust in a theory which denies the existence of any systemic deviations of stock prices from their fundamental values. From the empirical side, one of the most discussed facts that gives rise to doubts in the verbal efficiency of stock marketers the finding that stock prices exhibit more volatility than fundamentals or expected returns do. The volatility debate has recently been summarized and evaluated by West (iii). He finds evidence in favor of the excess volatility hypothesis to be persuasive and states that it cannot be explained adequately by standard models of expected returns or rational bubbles. Being not compatible with the random walk models suggested by the MME, the finding of excess volatility points to intrinsic dynamic forces of speculative markets not related to fundamental factors. In his conclusion West, therefore,suggests that it might be necessary consider non-standard models focusing on fads and sociological or psychological mechanisms. A related empirical finding is the recent evidence on mean- reversion in asset prices (e. G. Potherb and Summers, 1988, and references therein). Technically, this means that there is positive autocorrelation over short horizons and negative autocorrelation over longer intervals in the data. A possible explanation is speculative overshooting of the price trend which is gradually eliminated beyond some range. Potherb and Summers, too, repose fads models to understand this regularity. The case for behavioral models Of financial markets was already made emphatically by Sheller (iii), where also some hints are given concerning relevant material in other sciences. Another important author to be mentioned here is Kindergarten (1989). Throughout his penetrating book he highlights the importance of psychological factors and * Earlier versions of this paper were presented in seminars at the Universities of Bamberger, Fielded, Cologne and Munich. I would like to thank Carl Carmella, Reins Franken, Max Hobble, Alexander Henderson, Lurch Meyer, Caravans Garnishment, Michael Schmidt, Hans-Werner Sin, Rajah Seth and especially Charles Kindergarten for helpful discussions, comments, and suggestions. The perceptive comments and suggestions of the referees are also gratefully acknowledged. Iii ] 882 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL irrational factors in explaining historical financial crises. L Following these authors, the aim in this paper is to construct an elementary model of stock market dynamics which explicitly includes contagion of opinion and behavior and to offer a behavioral explanation for the empirical findings discussed above. Of course, the search for a theory which includes some kind Of non-rational behavior has not gone unrecognized by economic and financial theorists and a new paradigm began gradually to arise in the past few years under the heading of noise trader models. This line of research is characterized by the introduction of traders which in some way deviate from a perfectly rational scheme of behavior. These agents appear as naive traders, noise traders or chartists. Some authors (Delano et al. 1990, 1991) assume that noise traders misperceive expected returns, others describe their behavior as following a impel feedback rule and study the resulting dynamics of the market (Day and Hang, 1990; connote and Leland, 1990; Carmella, 1992). The way in which this paper aims at contributing to this body of literature is that the psychological factors which influence the behavior Of unsophisticated traders will be modeled explicitly. This means that a formalism is introduced which describes the formation of expectations by those who are not fully informed about fundamentals. These expectations depend mainly (perhaps among other things) on the behavior and expectations of others. Thus, what will be modeled is the process of mutual mimetic contagion among speculators. The key mechanism is similar to that described in Karmas (1 993) recent formalizations recruitment ant populations, which Karma suggested to be also of relevance for the analysis of social dynamics in speculative markets. The mechanism introduced below seems to be also consistent with Topsoils (I 991) theory of mimetic contagion, where the agents try to trace out information about fundamentals from the bid and ask prices of others (who, however, may be as uninformed as they are themselves). The mechanics Of the contagion process are laid out in Section l. In Section II a more complete description of the market process is developed by adding a fundamentalist group of traders and deriving the dynamics of prices. Conditions are given under which contagion may lead to the existence of (positive or negative) bubbles, I. E. Stationary states where actual prices exceed fundamental values or are below them. Bull and bear markets are, however, not stationary in reality. Bubbles grow up and burst, and periods where assets are undervalued or overvalued do not last forever. So it seems to be more appropriate to model them as transient phenomena. Section Ill, therefore, develops a model where switches been bull and bear markets occur periodically. The reason for this oscillation is that we allow additional econometricians to influence the process of opinion formation. To be precise, a slowly changing optimistic or pessimistic bias is 1 The following quotation from the preface to the second edition seems to be characteristic his position: the dismissal of conventional explanations of historical events with the remark that they violate the assumptions of economic analysis [I. . Full rationality] is infuriating It is time that economics accept reality. Kindergarten, 1989, p. Xiii). K Royal Economic Society 1995 This content downloaded from 122. 170. 126. 130 on Moon, 9 Mar 2015 04:01 :50 1995] BEHAVIOR, BUBBLES AND CRASHES 883 added to the contagion process. This variable for the overall disposition of the market depends on the only hard information available to naive speculators: the development of their actual returns includin g capital gains. Hence, speculators are not simply blind followers of the crowd: they quickly react on others behavior in order not to miss profit opportunities, but they also try to find out whether prevailing optimism or pessimism has a firm grounding in he markets actual development. The consequence is that once the pool of additional buyers in a bull market is exhausted and price increases diminish a gradual erosion of confidence in the validity of bullish beliefs occurs. This ends with a crash, and the game is repeated with reversed signs. Section IV concludes and points to possible extensions of the present approach. AN ELEMENTARY FORMALIZATION OF CONTAGION The present section is mainly concerned with the determination of the behavior of those traders who do not have access to information about fundamental values. In the absence of any piece of such information they serially have to rely on what can be observed on the market as the only base of their actions. Though I do not intend to discuss h ere what kinds of behavior can be designated as rational, should emphasis that following others Opinion is not irrational as long as there is no other source of information (see Orleans (I 989) and Lectures (1 992) for intensive discussion). If we accept this extreme assumption as an accurate description of the information set of a considerable part of traders, then a first conclusion could be that a speculator will be more willing to buy (sell) if he sees most traders eying (selling). The reason is that others behavior may presumably be influenced by better information about future developments of the market and may thus reveal information. As already mentioned such conjectures may be false, but nevertheless may lead to self-reinforcing fluctuations. The underlying process of contagion will be formalized by referring to the concept of synergistic originally developed in elementary particle and laser physics (see e. G. Hake, 983) and applied to various problems from the social sciences by Woodlice and Hag (1983) among others. 3 Synergistic basically insists of a probabilistic, macroscopic approach to the analysis of the dynamics of multi-component systems with interactions among the units constituting the system. Infection of attitudes will now be made explicit: with a high portion of optimistic traders, it would be very probable that the few remaining, pessimistic ones would also change their attitude and buy stocks. The same is to be expected with reversed signs. Hence one may postulate probabilities exist for a pessimistic trader to become optimistic, say p+, and viscera,p,+. With contagion both probabilities should depend on the actual distribution of attitudes captured by the index x or the number n: = p_+(x) = p-+(n/N), p+_ = p+_(x) = p+_(n/N). Note that this formulation implies all other individuals influence one reticular speculator in the same way. This excludes the existence of financial gurus whose statements attract exceptional attention by others. Another simplifying assumption is that every individual may change his opinion only once at any one time. Assuming furthermore that the transition probabilities are the same for all actors and considering a large population of speculators the number of actual transitions from one subgroup to the other (I. E. Teens n+ and n_) can be approximated by the product members of subgroup times probability to change to another subgroup. Thus, the change n the composition of the population of naive speculators can be determined in the following way: those who are pessimistic turn to an optimistic attitude with probability p+,. Consequently, we expect a fraction n_p+- to switch from the n _ to the n+group. Vice versa, with the probability p+ a bullish speculator is infected with a nega tive disposition implying that approximately a fraction n+p+ of this population will change their trading strategy.

The concepts related to supply and demand Term Paper

The concepts related to supply and demand - Term Paper Example This can be affected by various changes in the economy for example inflation, fashion etc. Supply is the term used to refer to the availability of a commodity in the market. The demand and supply of a commodity exhibit a high correlation which is determined by price (Fisher 2007 p 15). The law of demand states that; the lower the price, the higher the demand but under normal circumstances. On the other hand, the law of supply states that an increase in the price of a commodity results to an increase in its supply. This essay is an evaluation of the various concepts of supply and demand. The law of demand states that the lower the price of a commodity, the higher its demand (Fisher 2007 p 20). This means that the prices of items determine the willingness of a customer to buy an item. This rule though has its exceptions which may involve circumstances that may result from quality and quantity. In that aspect, a customer may refuse to buy an item for example a vehicle which is cheap but which is highly depreciated even though it may be selling at a lower price than a new one. The quantity of the item being bought may also influence the customer towards buying a commodity due to the requirements he may be wishing to satisfy (Gorman 2003 p 14). For example, a packet of fertilizer may be selling at a price of $30 for 50 Kg. A similar bag of fertilizer may also be selling at a cheaper price but in a 30 Kg package. In this case, the demand for the 50 Kg package would not be affected since the consumer would be buying according to the vastness of the area the fertilizer is to be applied. However, the law of demand under the normal circumstances can be represented on a demand curve, whereby the effects of price change on demand can be represented. This curve shows the difference in the quantity demanded as compared to the price change. When the price is at the lowest i.e. P1, the demand becomes high i.e. Q3. When the prices are high i.e. P3, the

Confederation and Constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Confederation and Constitution - Essay Example The American constitution underwent a lengthy process during its drafting and various amendments have been made so that it can be more efficient for the governing of the states. In 1776, the continental congress drafted â€Å"the article of confederation† which brought together 13 founding states of the United States of America: This article was later ratified in 1781. In the article of confederation, the relationship between the uniting states was defined and also a common name was adopted for the union of the states (Howard, 2005). After various administrative set backs, this article of confederation was found to be inefficient and hence was later replaced by the American constitution in 1789. Though the article of confederation had some similarities with the constitution, these two documents were different in the following ways. The constitution established an organized form of government. The government was divided into three main braches, which included the executive, the judiciary, and the legislature. In the constitution, the executive was the supreme arm of the government and it was headed by the president. The constitution provided the rules and regulations governing election of the president and his deputy. However, in the article of confederation, there was no such structured government. The states had the liberty to decide the method of leadership they wanted. The constitution established a federal system government. In this system, the states had some authority.

Carbon dating the shroud of turin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Carbon dating the shroud of turin - Essay Example During the fourteenth century, the people in the little town of Lirey would not have been able to prove or disprove the image on the Shroud of Turin. What they h ad to rely upon was – again – faith, and faith was going around like the plague. Catholics in the fourteenth century were experiencing a form of hyper-religiosity, and the notion of associating â€Å"geography with ethnography was taking hold and manifesting itself through the singling out of non-Catholics, and was soon followed by expelling Jews from their homelands because of their non-Christian beliefs.† Blind faith, encouraged and fueled by Church priests, monks, and others who held positions in the upper echelons of the social ladder, led to cases of â€Å"ethnic cleansing, and, eventfully the expulsion of thousands of Jews from their homelands†. The time was ripe for exploitation of Christian fanaticism and for the Catholic Church to enlarge its sphere of influence. Relics, of course, served as a way by which to link certain areas, especially those remote areas, with Church-mindedness, causing villagers to form close and tight-knit bonds with the Church.

William Carlos Williams Poetry Analysis

William Carlos Williams Poetry Analysis William Carlos Williams was a grasping poet of the 20th century. Most of Williams work is centered on his personal life and the things that happened in it. Williams was born on September 17, 1883. He wrote his poetry from his late teens until his death on March 4, 1963 at the age of 79. Williams has a substantial number of both prose and poetry writings. He believed that: prose has to do with the fact of an emotion and poetry has to do with the dynamization of emotion into a separate form (volume 1, 219). What Williams is saying here is that in prose you are allowed to show emotion and in poetry that emotion must be hidden behind different forms. This Is Just To Say (1934) is one of the noted poems by William Carlos Williams. Written as it is a note left on an ice box, Williams poem seems to the reader like a bit of found poetry. Metrically, the poem exhibits no regularity of stress or of syllable count. The CliffsNotes analysis states:Building on sibilance and concluding on `so cold,` the poem implies that sweet, fruity taste contrasts the coldness of a human relationship that forbids sharing or forgiveness for a minor breach of etiquette. The words Forgive me, written as a command, stress on the sense of regret conveyed by the speaker. This hopeless need for forgiveness is an obvious confession of forbidden action, followed by Williams visual imagery of the plums suggests that this poem could be concerned with the uselessness or self-entrapment of sexual desire. Another, straightforward, understanding is that the writer of the note on the refrigerator tries to replace the experience of eating the plums with a clear, brief description:They were delicious / So sweet and so cold. Forgiveness in the poem hinges on the success of the description. This model serves well for the poets task, i.e. forsakes actual experience than mere words. The poem will triumph if the reader redeems the poets transgression. In another view, the poem was written from Williams to his wife. He ate her plums from the ice box and wanted to leave a small apology in the form of poetry on a napkin. She did answer to his poem with one of her own Little boy When reading Poem the first question, that the reader asks is, what exactly is Williams trying to tell us. The image is actual, the text of the poem is brief. The poem surfs as an extended metaphor. The cat is cautiously climbing over the jamcloset, placing each foot accurately. The readers first task is to define the meaning of jamcloset, which is naturally defined. But, this word is not defined in Websters or any other dictionaries. This implies that Williams intended for this work to invoke an image. Jam packed could be something that is chock-full with things to the point that nothing more can be added. Perhaps, with this word, Williams wants to show the reader an image of a closet jammed with stuff, with a cat carefully transferring to the top. Contrary, the word jam could denote a fruit spread used on toasted bread, in which case, the word jamcloset implies a pantry and there is the suggestion that the cat is after a tasty jam. In both cases, the emphasis of the poem is on the cats endpoint. The reader sees the cat stepping so gracefully, at first on one foot and then on the other. The short lines and smooth flow of words signify the watchful and agile movements of the cat. Just in the last stanza, the reader realizes that the cat has moved so cautiously, just to get into the pit of an empty flowerpot. This changes the image of the precise and careful cat into something funny. The first guess of the reader is that the cat is moving precisely for a specific goal. This is something that the reader would judge as a valuable intention from a human perspective. This, however, is not the case, as the cat ends up squeezed into the flower pot, which Williams, clearly shows, was the animals` aim after all. As this implies, the imagery says more about the reader, than it does for the cat. The humans are goal-oriented. The thoughtful, intended movement of the cat, that Williams describes, logically leaves a feeling in the reader that the cat has a certain goal, whether it is capturing a mouse or something else, but as it turns out, the cat has another thing in mind. What Williams is telling the readers is that, the world follows its own rules. The cat is captivated by and wants to sit in the flower pot, which does not make sense from a human point of view, but there is and that is the reality. There may be no goals, purpose or meaning from a human point of view, in the world, but it will be still meaningful. Children comprehend this, and a child would possibly laugh on the flower-potted cat and realize that, the world looks different depending on the perspectives. Grown-ups are likely to lose their joy in seeing the unforeseen and exploring the unknown by disregarding viewpoints that are new and different. As this shows, Williams use of imagery proposes meaning at multiple levels with concise and brief poetry. In Poem, the poet shows an image that implies more, than it states implicitly. The cat, so prudently placing first one foot and then the other delicately into the pit of the flowerpot, not only carries the inquisitive nature of the animal, but also the fact that the cat shows a part of the world, that adult humans often evade. By amazing the reader, with the cats destination, Williams delicately implies that adults are too foreseeable. We, like children and cats, should try to see the world with different eyes, and perhaps try twisting into the new perspectives that could seem unknown at first. Maybe, we should not smile at the apparent insanity of the cat until we have sat in a flowerpot on top of a jamcloset and seen things from cats perspective. Source list Litz, A. Walton, MacGowan (Eds.). The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams: Volume II 1939-1962. New York: New Directions Books, 1986. Modern American poetry. On This is Just to Say. 04.25.2011 Modern American poetry. On Poem. 04.25.2011 This Is Just To Say, This Is Just To Say. 04.25.2011

Review of Grahams Magazine Essay -- Literature History

Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine (Graham’s) is a monthly published literary periodical although it allots other fields including engravings, fashion, and music to a small portion. This magazine deals with variety of literary fields from short stories, poetry, and essays handle various tastes from belles-lettres to sentimental literature. During those periods, the contributors to the magazine, in addition to numerous writers who exist only in tarnishing paper, are included such canonical writers as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, among others. Through its inclusiveness in genres and wide range of literary works, Graham’s gained a broad readership, and simultaneously the magazine contributed to forging white American idealism by keeping silence on political or social issues at that time and reinforcing the already establish social system. This magazine’s silence for the contemporary issues is evident from its non-existent, editorial statement. One can hardly find explicit editorial position during 1843-44 for mainly two reasons. The owner and chief editor George R. Graham did not have his specific taste for literature or editorial position; his first concern was apparently a cultural business not culture itself. In his article â€Å"A Brief History of Graham Magazine,† Frank Luther Mott mentions that this magazine was the result of the combination of the Casket: Flowers of Literature, Wit and Sentiment and Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine. He continues to contend that when Graham purchased the two magazines and merged as Graham Magazine, he just followed the merits from each magazine, which would promote the readership (364). On the other hand, Grah... ...ally have when opening a printed magazine. That is mainly because of the textual modes, microfilm or digitalized texts. When author’s works display in the screen in a small portion at a time, it produces another ahistorical text. This time one needs not draw one work from an anthology. Instead, the reader has to read the text confined by modern technology, which again alienates the text from the cultural or social atmosphere in the period when the magazine actually published. Works Cited Casper, Scott E., et al. A History of the Book in America. Vol. 3. The Industrial Book 1840-1880. Chapel Hill: UP of North Carolina, 2007. Print. â€Å"Editor’s Table.† Graham’s American Monthly Magazine 26.6 (1844): 296. Google Books. Web. 25 Sept. 2010. Mott, Frank Luther. â€Å"A Brief History of Graham’s Magazine.† Studies in Philosophy 25.3 (1928): 362-74. Web. 9 Oct. 2010.

The Dover Castle

In fact, the central tower of the castle (also called â€Å"the keep†), which still stands today, was built by King Henry II. The keep served as a last point of refuge in case of an attack. This keep was unique because it was probably the most elegant one in the entire kingdom â€Å"with an elaborate fore-building, two residential floors above a basement, two chapels and many mural chambers, and even plumbing. † (Every Castle 2014 )He also built rectangular walls surrounding the castle. These walls were thick and tall and were most likely built to fortify the castle to protect the nobles. Every Castle 2014 ) After Henry II passed, his work was carried on by King John and was immediately tested by the French in 1 ,215 when the bloody civil war began. This war was called the Barons' War and it lasted about a year. In 1216, Prince Louis of France invaded England. Many of the citizens of England were unhappy with King John at the time so it was fairly easy for Prince Louis of France to carry out his invasion. At a certain point, he had conquered about half of England. He failed to fully invade and claim the Dover Castle and soon after King John's death, he lost a lot of his support.Therefore, he was never able to add England to his kingdom. In the thirteenth century, Henry Ill repaired many of the walls and added to his ancestors fortress by building what is now known as the Norfolk Tower. (Goodly 2012) Remarkable Features The Dover castle contains various tunnels that were actually built in 1 , 216 during the Barons' War. These tunnels are truly fascinating because they were used during World War l. Another reason why they are so intriguing is cause tunnels are not easy things to make these days despite all the technological advances, so it must have taken a really long time to build them back then.It makes you wonder what they needed these tunnels for. The location of the castle is by far the most fascinating thing because it has proven to be so pop ular throughout history. Why would they choose to build the castle on the coast? Would that not make the castle more vulnerable to invasion? Its location is definitely a big reason why this castle was so popular throughout history. Prior to the Norman invasion, its previous inhabitants mainly used the location as a fort.However, the kings of England really regarded this castle as a sign of power since it was the first thing that many people saw when heading over to England from mainland Europe. Conclusion In conclusion, the Dover Castle changed a whole lot in history as different kings ruled England. Despite all the changes, the castle is very well preserved and holds a lot of history even after the medieval times. In fact, the castle was again remodeled in nineteenth century. It was redesigned into a more contemporary fort that finally contained artillery. It was also used in World War I.This again goes to show how great the location for this castle was and how valuable it is to hi story. These days, the site is used as a tourist attraction and hundreds of people visit the site everyday to discover the deep history that this structure holds within it. (Every Castle 2014 ) 3 Questions 1) Who actually resided in the Dover Castle? Did the kings live in the Dover Castle? 2) How close did Prince Louis of France get to overtaking the Castle? What exactly happened? 3) What was the main purpose of the castle? Why did William I choose to build the castle in that location? 4) What were the tunnels used for?

Email overconfidence is a dangerous thing - Emphasis

Email overconfidence is a dangerous thing Email overconfidence is a dangerous thing Considering that an estimated 247 billion emails are sent each day, you might think we would all be dab hands at getting our messages across. But a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reveals that, while we believe we’re making ourselves clear, we actually need to be more careful. Lost in translation The tone and context of your email is likely to be misinterpreted in at least 15 per cent of emails, according to the study. And part of the problem is the fact that we are overly confident that what we write will be understood as we mean it to be. A series of five experiments showed that email senders overestimate how accurately the tone of their message will be identified. Sarcasm and humour are particularly problematic: trying to express either in email is clearly a risk. However, the most notable result from the experiments was not how many times the reader misunderstood the tone, but the disparity between how often the writer expected to be understood and how often they actually were. In one experiment, half the participants emailed a series of statements – a mixture of serious and sarcastic – to the other half, who had to deduce how each statement should be read. While the sending group expected 97 per cent to be recognised, only 84 per cent were. Put into real terms, that means almost one fifth of your recipients might be misled, confused or even offended by your emails. But my colleagues understand me Do they, though? Further experiments showed that the success rate in interpreting tone was the same whether the recipient knew the sender or not, meaning equal care is needed whether writing to a new client or a well-known colleague. Less surprisingly, the recognition of tone was identified correctly most often in spoken statements – though still not as regularly as the speaker predicted. Evidently, without the non-verbal cues – the facial expressions, body language and gestures – of face-to-face communication, any ambiguity of tone in your writing may well lead your reader to misunderstand your meaning. So judge your recipient well, or joke at your own risk. Read the full white paper, ‘Lost in translation’. Our blog contains lots of tips on how to write good emails, and we also run an in-company course on effective email writing.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at AstraZeneca

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at AstraZeneca Introduction This paper discusses the concept of corporate social responsibility using AstraZeneca Plc. as the case study. Specifically, the paper analyses AstraZeneca’s employees who are part of the company’s stakeholders.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at AstraZeneca specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This analysis is based on the safety, health, and environment (SHE) program which the company considers as a major component of the corporate social responsibility (Turner 2005, p. 38).  The data in this report has been obtained from members responsible for promoting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in AstraZeneca and also from previous articles and books on corporate social responsibility. Company Background AstraZeneca Plc. was established in 1999 after the merger between Zeneca Group Plc and Astra AB. The corporate headquarters of the company are in the Unit ed Kingdom. AstraZeneca Plc was formed with the aim of generating long term growth and value to all the shareholders using the strength from two companies. Currently, AstraZeneca Plc is among the leading combined pharmaceutical companies. AstraZeneca has a strong emphasis on both innovation and research, and on commercial and manufacturing activities. AstraZeneca Plc. produces medicines for treating different ailments such as cancer, infections, pain control, gastrointestinal, and other ailments that affect the central nervous system. The company’s operations are spread in more than one hundred countries while the manufacturing process takes place in twenty countries. Presently, AstraZeneca Plc employs close to 54000 workers globally (Turner 2005, p. 38). Describing Corporate Social Responsibility AstraZeneca Plc defines corporate social responsibility as the efforts and initiatives undertaken by a company in order to facilitate sustainable development. The company takes sust ainable development as the ability of a given economic activity to meet the requirements of both the present and future generation. Currently, the company has put in place a lot of effort to improve its corporate social responsibility framework and in order to establish an appropriate technique for implementing and controlling the effectiveness of CSR. This is an indication that the structure for managing corporate responsibility issues has not yet been developed.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More As a result, much of the work or activities of the company are based on the safety measures that were adopted sometimes back. However, the newly established safety, health, and environment (SHE) program is considered as a major component of the corporate responsibility that the company expects to launch. The program mostly targets the employees of the company who are part o f the stakeholders. The executives of the company believe that such a program will go a long way in promoting shareholders’ interests. This is in line with stakeholder theorists who assert that the executives of a given company should ensure that shareholders’ interests are promoted. This should also be done to other groups that may be affected by the activities of the company. The social approach demands that all corporation responsibilities be directed towards the company stakeholders and also ensure the safety and health of the general public (Boeger, Murray Villiers 2008, p. 187).  According to Pride Ferrell (2012, p.96), the various aspects of corporate social responsibility include the environment, social, and economic responsibilities. These responsibilities usually act as the building blocks of the overall corporate responsibility of an organization. In some instances, the environmental sustainability largely focuses on the impact caused by people on the en vironment. On the other hand, social sustainability incorporates a wide range of issues that concern or affect the society as a whole. It is against this backdrop that AstraZeneca has found it important to put into consideration all the company stakeholders such as the employees, members of the community and other shareholders. The concept of corporate responsibility of the company includes various activities like the working conditions of employees, issues that relate to the environment, responsibility on the products of the company, marketing, and other related activities that provide support to the community. Since AstraZeneca Plc operates within the pharmaceutical industry, it considers activities such as animal testing and provision of medical supplies to be of extreme importance in its business portfolio.  According to Trevinno Nelson (2011, p. 371), the supply of medical products has mainly benefitted the underprivileged population in the developing countries. In an effort to develop an extensive and a worldwide corporate responsibility, AstraZeneca has developed its policies in such a way that it is quite easy for the companies to comply with both the national and international rules, and also maintain the expected levels of health and security. It is important to note that the company has embarked on various measures that can offer positive contribution to the surrounding community.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at AstraZeneca specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More For instance, sponsorship and charity contributions are some of the philanthropic activities that the company has made positive impacts. There are also other initiatives that relate to the operational goals of the company that tend to improve the overall quality of life of the people. In addition, management of some of these activities is carried out from the company’s headquarter s.  However, some of the activities are conducted locally. In addition, the company has managed to contribute especially within the education sector in an attempt to increase people’s awareness on the importance of observing good health to avert health related problems. AstraZeneca’s corporate social responsibility on environmental activities focuses on addressing issues such as climate change, hazardous waste emission and disposal, and depletion of ozone layer as well as water resources. Creation of an environmental program has made it quite easy for AstraZeneca Plc to realize continuous improvements on issues that relate to the environment. Integrating corporate social responsibility The integration of corporate social responsibility within the company starts with the leaders. For instance, the chief executive officer of the company is actively involved in all the activities that revolve around corporate responsibility. In addition, the reporting system of AstraZen eca is framed in such a way that it allows the head of the corporate social responsibility to report directly to the chief executive officer. On the same note, the C.E.O. provides the necessary assistance to the head of corporate social responsibility especially when it is vital to approve new strategies and policies. In terms of the corporate mission and culture, AstraZeneca lacks a defined mission statement but believes that being among the leading pharmaceutical companies, its activities are focused in a bid to help the company in providing effective and innovative medicinal products in all the vital areas within the health sector. The company’s organization of corporate responsibility is not fully managed though some practices and structures are being incorporated. Moreover, there is no formal CSR structure in the company because the organization uses a global committee and separate corporations to carry out corporate responsibility. The code of conduct of the company hel ps the company to increase its commitment in various activities (Deck 2002, p. 39). As a result, the company is able to earn confidence and trust by maintaining the acceptable levels of ethical standards in different situations.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Considering the fact that the code of conduct is based on care, honesty, integrity, and diligence, it is effective for the code to cover variety of issues like business practices, political contributions, delegated authorities, equal opportunities, insider information, and group policies. Apart from relying on the code of conduct, AstraZeneca uses additional key principles and policies which include Global Human Resource Policy, Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, Bioethics Policy and SHE Policy (Cramer Bergmans 2003, p. 19). Monitoring corporate social responsibly At present, AstraZeneca lacks an effective mechanism for measuring, evaluating, and reporting corporate responsibility activities. However, the company finds it vital to avoid using measurement, evaluation and reporting systems that are associated with heavy bureaucracies (Baines, Fill Page 2012, p. 49). In order to achieve the latter, AstraZeneca is currently striving to develop slim and efficient systems that do n ot cause any suffocation to the existing enthusiasm. In addition, the company believes that it is necessary to develop appropriate systems that can be used to measure various aspects and at the same time help to identify the aspects that are reasonable to measure (Grayson Hodges 2004, p. 152). Criticisms of the AstraZeneca’s performance The current criticisms facing AstraZeneca are mainly as a result of the declining sales of its products. The company has also suffered a major challenge of failing to diversify in other areas to help increase the volume of sales. AstraZeneca has instead continued to focus only on prescription drugs (Burke Cooper 2009, p. 7). On the contrary, AstraZeneca’s competitors (such as GlaxoSmithKline) have managed to diversify into different areas o production such as consumer health, generics and vaccines. This has enabled such companies to gain a superb competitive advantage over AstraZeneca (Hancock 2005, p. 255). Conclusion In recap, it is evident that AstraZeneca Plc. has to a great extent, incorporated the concept of corporate social responsibility. The company has managed to address the needs of its employees in various ways. For example, the company has appreciated the value of employees as part of stakeholders of the company by introducing a safety, health and environment program known as the â€Å"SHE Program†. The program targets all the employees of the company as well as other members of the public who might be impacted by the activities of the company in one way or another. AstraZeneca has also integrated CSR effectively to an extent that even the leaders of company are actively involved in all the activities that relate to corporate responsibility. However, it is worth to mention that AstraZeneca lacks an effective system of monitoring the CSR activities. This means that the company is experiencing a lot of problems especially in identifying various aspects that need to be measured. In addition, Ast raZeneca continues to face increased criticisms because of its current performance whereby the sales are recording a declining trend (Trevinno Nelson 2011, p.54). The company has equally failed to diversify its activities and instead remained in a limited area of focus. This has occurred at a time when its competitors are doing considerably well because of their ability to diversify activities. This has consequently helped such companies to generate more sales and increase their competitive power. Recommendations In my view, it is evident that there is dire need for AstraZeneca to develop an effective system of monitoring its corporate social responsibility activities. Since the company lacks a well defined mission statement, it is important to come with an appropriate long term mission aimed at narrowing the gap between its mainstream operations and CSR. In order to improve its performance, AstraZeneca should try to diversify in different areas such as the production of vaccines a nd genetics. This will go a long way in minimizing the current competition being faced by the company. References Baines, P., Fill, C., Page, K 2012, Essentials of marketing, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Boeger, N., Murray, R., Villiers, C 2008, Perspectives on corporate social responsibility, Edward Elgar. Cheltenham, Glos, UK. Burke, R. J., Cooper, C L 2009, Research companion to corruption in organizations., Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Cramer, J., Bergmans, F 2003, Learning about corporate social responsibility the Dutch experience, IOS Press, Amsterdam. Deck, MC 2002, â€Å"Corporate Codes and Ethics Programs†. Perspectives in Business Ethics vol. 3 no. 1, pp. 22-39. Grayson, D., Hodges, A 2004, Corporate social opportunity!: 7 steps to make corporate social responsibility work for your business, Greenleaf Publications, Sheffield. Hancock, J 2005, Investing in corporate social responsibility: a guide to best practice, business planning the UKs leading companies, K ogan Page, London. Pride, W. M., Ferrell, OC 2012, Marketing, Ohio, South-Western Cengage Learning, Mason. Trevinno, L. K., Nelson, K.A 2011, Managing business ethics: straight talk about how to do it right, John Wiley, New York. Turner, T N 2005, Vault guide to the top pharmaceuticals and biotech employers, Vault Inc., New York.

The history of the United Nations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The history of the United Nations - Essay Example   Some of these countries included United States, china, Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, United Kingdom, Czechoslovakia, and France, among others. According to Shaw (N.d, p.1), the main concern of the United Nations has been the human welfare. The United Nations was divided into sub-divisions, which included the general assembly, the Security Council, the economic and social council, the international justice court and the secretariat. In addition, each of these divisions serves a specific task in promoting the United Nation’s goals. The United Nations was formed with several aims; for instance, ensuring that peace prevailed worldwide and developing strong relationships among nations, among others. This essay will discuss the various objectives of the United Nations and whether it lives up to the ideals of its founders to date. The main aim of the United Nations was to ensure that peace prevailed throughout the world, that nations would develop friendly relationships, working toget her to assist people in living better lives through elimination of poverty, illiteracy, and diseases globally. In addition, the UN aims at bringing to a stop environmental degradation, as well as fostering democracy and respect for each other’s rights (United Nations publications, 2000). Therefore, the United Nations is the main organization that assists countries in achieving the above aims. Generally, the UN has several principles that guide its operations; first, member states are expected to obey the United Nations charter.

Lyndon Johnson and how he handle the Tet offensive Research Paper

Lyndon Johnson and how he handle the Tet offensive - Research Paper Example Johnson the president of United States. His domestic public support for the war waned leading to his abandonment of re-election in the 1968 elections. As for Giap the North Vietnamese army general â€Å"they were not able to destroy enemy forces but the offensive sent shudders through vital points† (Willbanks, 2008, p. 66). However, the question we need to ask ourselves is: why was the Tet offensive carried out in the first place and how did Lyndon Johnson handle it? Americans under General William Westmoreland took troops to Vietnam for continuity of its foreign policy of containing the spread of communism and for nation building just like Lyndon’s predecessor John Kennedy. North Vietnam under General Giap wanted to win the war fast and weaken South Vietnam military and at the same time provoke an uprising that would see the overthrow of government which was under Thieu. However, they underestimated the military power of allied forces hence the defeat. Many criticisms have been leveled against Johnson on the way he handled the whole affair. The doves believed American should not have been involved in the war in the first place while the hawks supported the effort. This paper will argue that Johnson was guided by his domestic as well as foreign policy when handling the offensive. He only had two options: leave his domestic program of â€Å"Great Society† and get involved in war thus risk losing all programs at home or seek peace and let the communists win the war but this option would have rendered him a coward. He could not have the â€Å"guns and butter† as Eisenhower used to say (Bringham, 2008, p. 119). He had an option of granting Westmoreland more troops to finish the war but this would have resulted into full-scale war attracting China and Soviet Union into the war. On the other hand, withdrawing the troops and seek peace but this would definitely result in defeat. The withdrawal of the troops in the end gave North Vietnam the edge and when war finally ended in 1975, South Vietnam was under control of the communists. Background Tet Offensive of 1968 was carried out in the midst of Vietnam War. The war was an extension of the cold war between two superpowers: U.S and U.S.S.R after the Second World War. Though the two nations collaborated against common enemies such as Japanese and Germany, it was clear that the two had tense relations filled with suspicions and lack of trust. The two super powers had very divergent political ideals; the U.S wanted states to free and democratic under capitalism form of government while the U.S.S.R viewed capitalism as a source of all evil and the cause of world war in the first place. It thus wanted to eliminate capitalism and replace it with communism hence the beginning of cold war. The cold war shaped U.S foreign policy for decades to come with Harry S. Truman’s doctrine of containment being the guide. It was meant to contain the spread of communism by using U.S funds to promote economic development in affected nations especially Europe and South Eastern Asia. A developed nation which takes care of the well-being of its people and lets them determine their future by electing a democratic government would combat communism spread. U.S.S.R on the other hand, was bent of spreading communism especially to border countries for security reasons. Various indirect wars were fought in the struggle for dominance