Impact of U.N. Global Compact on Employment Practices in Gap Inc.

Table of Contents Introduction Stakeholders Lessons Learned Recommendations Conclusion Bibliography Footnotes Introduction Gap Inc. is a retail company that deals with clothing and related accessories. The company was founded in California in the year 1969 and it has expanded to other parts of the world. The major brands for the company are namesake Gap banner, banana republic, old navy and Athleta among others.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Impact of U.N. Global Compact on Employment Practices in Gap Inc. specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The company has more than 140,000 employees and it has many operating stores in and outside the United States of America. The company has had several labor disputes and allegations of bad practices therefore it is important to review its operations with regard to the U.N. Global compact principles.[1] This report will show the lessons Gap Inc can learn from the implementa tion of U. N. Compact principles by Army Navy, which is a competitor to Gap Inc. The U.N. Global compact principles are guidelines developed in order to provide a common understanding of labor issues and give principles to address the labor issues all over the world. These ten U.N. Global Compact principles were developed by the Labor working Group established in 2008. They were developed under extensive consultations with the International Labor Organization.[2] The two principles, which will be discussed in this report, are the Principle 2 and Principle 3. Principle 2 states, â€Å"Businesses should make sure they are not complicit in human rights abuses†[3]. Principle 3 states, â€Å"Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.†[4] These principles are relevant to Gap Inc. The company is an international organization since it has many stores in many parts of the world. Over the past, the co mpany has been implicated in several violations of human rights in their employment practices. For instance, the company was sued in 2003 for failing to pay their workers their overtime dues and poor working conditions, which are tantamount to violation of human rights. The company has been struggling to effect policies that could help it to improve on human practices. The U.N. Global Practices are therefore very useful to the company.[5] Stakeholders The two U.N. Global Compact principles discussed above affects almost all the stakeholders in an organization. The most affected stakeholders are the customers, employees and the management. The employees are the most affected of the others. The two principles seek to promote labor practices in businesses that are why employees are most affected. Managers are the ones who are responsible for implementing the principles. It is therefore the duty of the managers to ensure that the organization follows the laid down principles.[6] The oth er group of stakeholders affected by these guidelines is the customers. This is because the principles provide against violation of human rights and provides for freedom of association[7]. These principles affect the performance of GAP Inc. both positively and negatively. Compliance with the principles will need some restructuring which will be costly to the organization. After the implementation however, the performance of the company will improve.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Lessons Learned The lessons will be derived from the implementation of the U. N. Global Compat principles by Army and Navy Stores Inc. In order to comply with the Principle 2 and Principle 3 of the U.N. Global Compact, Army Navy Stores Inc has taken some steps from which Gap Inc can learn some lessons. One of the steps is to assess the effect of the activities of the company on human relations an d also to assess its employee decisions. This has enabled the company to improve on its efforts to respect human rights and enhance freedom of association of the employees. As a result, Army Navy stores has been able to increase its productivity since the employees are more motivated. Gap Inc. has learnt the need to assess its practices in order to know any cases of violation of human rights and to know whether the company has prevented freedom of association. From these assessments, the company came to an understanding that there were many cases of human rights violations in the company by the employees, security personnel and even the management. The company had also been making efforts to suppress freedom of association for employees. Because of these actions, the employees of the company were not motivated and their productivity was down. After this, the company has decided to set out clear guidelines on how to adhere to the U.N. Global Compact principles. Up to today, there ha s been no official report on the progress of the process of setting out the guidelines. This has a negative effect to the company since many customers and other stakeholders are not contended with the first step.[8] Recommendations There is need for Gap Inc. to step up its actions to ensure compliance with the U.N. Global Compact principles. In order to comply with Principle 2 on violation of human rights, after assessment of the human rights situation in the company, Gap Inc. should develop and promote policies aimed at ensuring respect of human rights. These policies should be communicated to all stakeholders and posted to all work situations. Gap Inc. should also adhere to any other provisions on human rights such as those by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and other legal provisions. The company should also interact freely with the stakeholders in order to get suggestions and support in upholding human rights in the company.[9] In order to adhere to Principle 3 on fre edom of association, Gap Inc. should encourage its employees to form trade unions in order to enhance their bargaining power. The company should involve the trade union in major decisions and there should be extensive consultations between the company and the trade union in the course of its decision making process.[10]Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Impact of U.N. Global Compact on Employment Practices in Gap Inc. specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The company should ensure adequate representation of employees in the bargaining table and uphold respect for the trade union. The company should preserve the secrets of the trade union and keep distance from the operations of the trade union. By doing so, the company will have ensured full compliance with the two principles of U.N. Global Compact. Full compliance with the guidelines will have several benefits to the concerned stakeholders. To the employees, they wil l have better working conditions and they will be in a good position to bargain for better salaries and better working conditions. The management’s role will be made easier since the employees and other stakeholders will be satisfied and will thus give the management amble time.[11] In order to combat these risks, I would recommend that Gap Inc. should conduct seminars in order to sensitize employees on the changes, their advantages and the risks associated.[12] Conclusion Labor practices around the world have become difficult to manage due to globalization, increasing competition, increase in human rights activism among other factors. This was the prime reason for the development of the 10 principles by the United Nations in 2008. These principles have both negative and positive implications to business organizations. Most organizations have not managed to implement the policies full. For instance, Gap Inc. has a long way to go despite the fact that the company needs the pri nciples guidelines badly to avoid labor issues it had over the past[13]. The benefits of compliance with the principles are many as compared to the associated risks therefore I really encourage the management of Gap Inc. to take the recommendations seriously. Bibliography Cayreyre, Mireille, Filiz Demirayak and Paul Dickson. Global Compact International Yearbook 2009. Geneva: United Nations Publications, 2009. Davila, Anabella. Best human resource management practices in Latin America. London: Taylor Francis, 2009.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Dunning, John and Sarianna Lundan. Multinational enterprises and the global economy. Cheltenham: Edward Edgar Publishing, 2008. Gregoratti, Catia. The UN Global Compact. London: Taylor Francis, 2010. Idowu, Samuel and Celine Louche. Theory and Practice of Corporate Social Responsibility. New Jersey: Springer, 2010. ILO. â€Å"The labour principles of the united nations Global Compact, A guide for business†. Geneva: International Labour Organization: 2008. Web. ILO. The cost of coercion: global report under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work: International Labour Conference, 98th Session 2009. Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2009. Lawler, John and Greg Hundley. The global diffusion of human resource practices: institutional and cultural limits. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 2008 Pattanaik, Kumar. Human rights and business: perspectives and practices. New Delhi: Icfai University Press, 2008. Perkins, Stephen and Su san Shortland. Strategic international human resource management: choices and consequences in multinational people management. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Publishers, 2006. Rasche, Andreas and Georg Kell. The United Nations Global Compact: Achievements, Trends and Challenges. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. United Nations, Global Compact Principle three. United Nations Global Compact, 2009. Web. United Nations, Global Compact Principle two. United Nations Global Compact, 2011.   Web. United Nations. Human Rights Translated: A Business Reference Guide. Geneva: United Nations Publications, 2008. Footnotes ILO. â€Å"The labor principles of the united nations Global Compact, A guide for business†. (Geneva: International Labor Organization: 2008). Catia Gregoratti. The UN Global Compact. London: Taylor Francis, 2010, p. 26. United Nations, Global Compact Principle three. United Nations Global Compact, August 14th 2009. United Nations, Global Compact Principle two. U nited Nations Global Compact, January 10th 2011. John Dunning and Lundan Sarianna. Multinational enterprises and the global economy. Cheltenham: Edward Edgar Publishing, 2008, 133. ILO. The cost of coercion: global report under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work: International Labour Conference, 98th Session 2009. Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2009, p. 214. United Nations. Human Rights Translated: A Business Reference Guide. Geneva: United Nations Publications, 2008, p. 156. Andreas Rasche and Kell Georg. The United Nations Global Compact: Achievements, Trends and Challenges. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 93. John Lawler and Greg Hundley. The global diffusion of human resource practices: institutional and cultural limits. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 2008, p. 103. Kumar Pattanaik. Human rights and business: perspectives and practices. New Delhi: Icfai University Press, 2008, p. 57. Stephen Perkins an d Shortland Susan. Strategic international human resource management: choices and consequences in multinational people management. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Publishers, 2006, p. 291. Mireille Cayreyre, Demirayak Filiz and Dickson Paul. Global Compact International Yearbook 2009. Geneva: United Nations Publications, 2009, p. 212. Anabella, David. Best human resource management practices in Latin America. London: Taylor Francis, 2009, p. 33. This report on Impact of U.N. Global Compact on Employment Practices in Gap Inc. was written and submitted by user Nora Ewing to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

7 Important Considerations for Writing a Postgraduate Personal Statement Essays

7 Important Considerations for Writing a Postgraduate Personal Statement Essays 7 Important Considerations for Writing a Postgraduate Personal Statement Essay 7 Important Considerations for Writing a Postgraduate Personal Statement Essay You are applying for postgraduate but you don’t know how to write a postgraduate personal statement. Well don’t worry†¦ a lot of students don’t know how these statements are written. Even if some students know how to write it they certainly don’t know how to write a compelling one. Basically this statement, which is also referred as a statement of purpose, allows the applicant to elaborate on his/her experience, potential, skills and determination. There are some statements that ask the applicant to answer particular questions while there are also some that only asks general questions. The statement of purpose is a golden opportunity for an applicant to stand out. It is indeed an opportunity that allows you to describe your influences, motivation, determination and your worth to the team of the admission department. In this application you are given a wonderful chance to list down the reason why you are seeking admission in this university and the personal or professional goals you have in mind. The statement of purpose also allows you to discuss your talent and skills that you possess and which you are not able to discuss in the standard admission application. Without further ado, let us discuss the 10 important considerations that are necessary for writing an eye-catching postgraduate personal statement. Before jotting down letters onto your personal statement, first brainstorm and create a list of material that you want to include and discuss in the statement. Keep the list specific and concise. Also check out the prompt that is given by the university at the time of acquiring the admission application. Analyze the prompt carefully and see what types of requirements you will need to keep in mind while writing. Now, briefly explain what makes you different and special from the rest. This explanation will help you in setting yourself apart from other applicants who are applying for the same postgraduate program. Convince them that you are the best fit not only for the university but also for the community of your field. List down some particular reasons why you are only interested to get admission in their university. It may be that their fee is affordable than other universities or they offer some special programs that others don’t. It may also be that they are the most prominent university in the country. Also explain them how you came to know about them. List down and explain any work experiences that you have had. This demonstrates your interest in your field of interest. List and discuss your career goals that you have set in your mind. However, keep the explanation concise and specific. Don’t tell but demonstrate and give evidence to support your claims. List and discuss your most prominent qualities and strengths. Yet again, you have to support those qualities or strengths with supporting evidence. One more important consideration that one needs to take into account is that the opening of the statement must be an attention-grabbing one. It must be able to hook the reader right from the start.

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Research Paper - 1

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - Research Paper Example This happens rarely but it does happen and in this kind of scenario we can totally lose our self respect, confidence and will to live. A similar scenario was faced by the narrator of the novel ‘the invisible man’. It is about the person who explains that his invisibility owes not to some supernatural cause of biochemical accident but instead to the reluctance of other people to notice him. He finds himself in a position where he considers himself as invisible among the people who are sleepwalking around him and thus can’t notice him (â€Å"Invisible man†). This above mentioned instance is also known as â€Å"Alienation". As stated in PsycINFO Database by A. Davids, Alienation is a syndrome composed of five interrelated dispositions: egocentricity, anxiety, distrust, pessimism, and resentment. Alienated individuals are "lone wolves," distrusting their fellow men and apprehensive and ominous about their own future. They tend to apperceive others in their social surroundings as being more alienated than they actually are, yet less alienated than themselves. It is also stated that the alienated person has a "weak ego structure as estimated by experienced clinical judgment." However, when talking about the narrator of ‘the invisible man’, we have to make it crystal clear that his case was different, yet he had most of the symptoms of being alienated as described above. The narrator isolated himself in his room which was a shut-off section of a basement where only white tenants were allowed to live, and disguised himself by we aring dark glasses and a hat. It was not because he had a weak ego structure but he did that because he found ‘white people’ his enemy. One of the reasons that a person can get himself into the state of loneliness is when he isolates himself from the world and decides to live alienated. It is really dangerous for anyone to isolate himself, so it was dangerous for narrator of ‘the invisible man’. As

Ansoff versus Three Generic Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Ansoff versus Three Generic Strategies - Essay Example What is also important to understand that Porter also suggested three important strategies which can be used in order to successfully deal with five forces. Though Porter’s Generic strategies as well as the Five Forces model is considered effective however, there are also other alternative models outlining as to how a firm can successfully deal with the competition and make strategic decisions. One such model is the Ansoff’s Matrix which is also called the Product Market Expansion Grid. Developed in 1975, this matrix largely depends upon the product as well as the industry in which a firm operates and resultantly offers different choices to a firm in order to deal with different strategic challenges. Ansoff’s Matrix suggests four important strategic alternatives available to a firm to successfully operate under a given competitive scenario. These strategies include market penetration, product development, Market Development as well as diversification. This paper will attempt to first explain and explore Five Forces Model along with three generic strategies as suggested by Porter to successfully outperform other firms in the industry. Finally a comparison will be made between three strategies and the Ansoff’s Matrix to strategic development.... These are some of the key factors which need to be looked at in order to critically assess as to how the suppliers may have an impact on the firm. This is also critical owing to the fact that reliance on one supplier or few suppliers may geoperadize the overall position of a firm within an industry and therefore it is critical for a firm to assess this power in more critical manner. Buyers’ Power Buyers’ Power is also critical in the sense that it directly defines as to how the demand dynamics of the firm will behave if buyers have relatively superior bargaining power. This factor becomes more critical if the firm is involved in the B2B type of business with large buyers forming stronger clout. Factors such as brand identity, sensitivity towards price changes, threat of backward integration as well as the availability of substitutes can really define as to how buyers may have an impact on the firm. Threat of New Entrants When an industry is profitable and the prospects of earning profitability are sizeable, new firms tend to enter into the market in order to share the gains. Thus the overall threat of new entrants is considered as significant for any firm working in any industry. Factors such as barriers to entry, cost advantages as well as economies of scale and stronger brands are some of the factors which can allow a firm to successfully meet the threat of new entrants in the market. It is also important for a firm to critically assess this possibility and develop its competitive advantage and core competencies so that it can successfully withstand the challenges posed by the new firms. Threat of Substitutes Threat of substitutes can also be an important force which can result into significant strategic challenges for a firm. Threat of substitutes

Social Media Advertising Becoming Central To Marketing Media Essay

Social Media Advertising Becoming Central To Marketing Media Essay Social media today is simply online media that facilitates social interaction. There are numerous websites, channels and resources that allow advertisements to be distributed reaching millions of people worldwide. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and Bebo all contain users that have identities or profiles that display demographic and social information about themselves. These users can create connections with one another by following one another or by becoming friends. This social media interaction and communication with one another has provided advertisers with a new opportunity to infiltrate and display their messages to a vast online audience. For example, Facebook has over 400 million members (Facebook 2010) and 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day. It also boasts over 80 million unique users each month and people spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook. The reality is that social media delivers the Holy Grail for advertisers on th e Internet: a mass-concentrated audience reaches similar levels to television.  However, successful advertising to this environment is not necessarily straight forward and without problems. There are several concerns regarding some advertisements that invade privacy and publish users identities making the adverts intrusive on peoples online social lives. Furthermore there are cultural concerns related to social media advertising and these will be explored in greater detail later in this essay. Nevertheless, social media advertising is considered to be central to marketing, as the Internet has become a powerful platform for advertisers to reach mass audiences. Social media has become an integral part of modern society. Astonishingly, there are some social network sites with user bases larger than the populations of most world countries. It was therefore only a matter of time before advertisers began to permeate the online social media environment. These adverts could be based specifically on user demographics and interests and this focused selling point appealed to many advertisers. Social networking sites have developed over the past decade and are frequently changing to accommodate new advertising campaigns. However this social medium is still a relatively new environment for advertisers. Dating sites are often considered to be the first social networks, as they seemed to appear around the same time people first started going online. These sites allowed users to create profiles and to contact other users, often sharing photographs. Social media has come a long way since those days and social media advertising has developed into a platfor m that is becoming central to modern marketing campaigns. Nowadays there are social and user-generated sites for numerous different activities and purposes. Social shopping sites, social financial planning sites, sites for people to share their goals and ambitions aswell as sites to meet like minded people. Over the past decade, social media has developed and become an enormous influence on the lives of millions of people worldwide. Whether people need something as simple as a film review or seek answers to personal problems or major life decision, there are social sites out there to provide people with the information they require. Accompanying these sites, in dedicated web space (often within a page), advertisers have ideal opportunities to target new products based on specific user searches or necessities. Social media advertisements continue to evolve on a daily basis. With advertising on major social networks and social media sites making changes and improvements on an almost d aily basis, its sure to keep evolving over the coming years. Advertising is concerned to urge consumers to buy the commodities (or services) that will satisfy existing wants more adequately or that will satisfy new ones (Harris, Seldon 1962) As advertisers seek to promote their products based on popular culture and emotive desires, social media sites provide a perfect vehicle to access a wider range of consumer. Social media advertising is becoming more important to marketing campaigns as the levels of people reached online can often surpass peak television advertising viewership figures (Ord 2008). One way to advertise products on social media sites is to create dedicated pages or profiles where customers and potential customers can become friends or fans of the actual business or brand. These profile pages are like miniature Web pages within social medial sites and can include information about businesses such as locations, official websites, lists of services and how to contact the business directly. Furthermore businesses often include dynamic content, for instance, comments left by customers or fans, an RSS feed, an up-to-date blog and even special offers or sale details. Other adverts include Pay-per-click (PPC) ad s where advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. However advertising on social media is not only about clicks or click rate, its about reaching a huge worldwide audience. Social media advertising is becoming so central to advertisers nowadays as this is a great way to reach mass audiences and in terms of audience size, there are several Super Bowls every day on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. Click rates offer an indication to page views and social media sites have a large overlapping audience that hang around them all day, every day. Television would have a low click rate too if an ad campaign were measured over the course of a months worth of programs on the same network, assuming you could click the screen(Ord 2008). People also flick between social media adverts much like tuning in and out of TV adverts. Twitter grew more than 1500% in mid-2009 and Facebook has almost caught up with Google in web traffic (Sav 2010). In April 2010, the company Nielsen (audience measurement firm that tracks TV, internet, and radio usage worldwide) published results of a 6-month research campaign into usage patterns of users on Facebook. Nielsen found that Engagement ads (see figure 1.1) on average generated a 10% increase in ad recall, a 4% increase in brand awareness and a 2% increase in purchase intent among users who saw them compared with a control group with similar demographics or characteristics who didnt (Wauters 2010). Figure 1.1 Different Facebook adverts with varying levels of success (c/o Nielsen) According to Nielsen, the increase in recall rose to 16% when adverts displayed friends who were fans (Adverts with social context figure 1.1), and this jumped to 30% when these ads appeared in other friends newsfeeds (Organic advert impression figure 1.1). This is an example of how advertisements are being modified and adapted to generate maximum interest from the target audience. In spite of this, there also remains the belief that users will subconsciously continue to ignore attempts to intrude into private social media environments. Many critics maintain that advertising exists primarily to create demand among consumers. People have certain types of wants and needs, and they are perfectly capable of discovering for themselves what they are (Leiss, Botterill, Jhally, Kline, 2005) The consumer now appears to have the power of communication and the traditional business to consumer marketing model is replaced with consumer-to-consumer conversations over social media sites. The problem for advertisers nowadays is how to insert their own brands into those conversations. The Internet has become a powerful platform for advertisers to reach mass audiences via user-generated video too. According to data collected by comScore, online video views from U.K. users grew 37% in 12 months. The measurement firm estimates users streamed a total of 5.5 billion videos in February 2010, up from an estimated 4 billion in February 2009. This is another reason why social media advertisement is considered so important in modern marketing. Advertisers envisage short commercials with each video streamed, thus creating a platform for the Internet to compete with broadcast TV in delivering commercial views. Additionally on the advertising sub-page for YouTube, companies are provided useful tips and pointers to create a successful advertising campaign on the massive ad-sharing network. According to a Google spokesperson, there is tremendous scope for capturing the attention of an audience that surpasses Americas Super Bowl, the most watched TV event in that country each yea r. As Google owns YouTube it can feature in-video advertisements that appear at the bottom of certain videos (often popular videos with over 5000 hits). These adverts are not only content-specific but also location-specific aswell. This has great financial ramifications as online video advertising has risen 9% to $7.9 billion over a 12-month period (Skepys 2010). Furthermore search-based advertising through Google reached $11.4 billion, an annual rise of just under 6%. With well over 13 billion YouTube views in March 2010 alone (Skepys 2010), advertisers could well be reaping the rewards of these in-video promotions as a result of augmented online video views. This is another example of how social media advertising has become so important to marketing schemes today as the potential financial rewards are substantial. However the future success of social media advertisements is threatened by potential social and cultural problems that need to be properly addressed. A general concern with advertising on social networking sites is that people that use these sites are only interested in interaction with the people who they care about and their attention lies in communication with friends and family. People rarely pay attention to advertisements, as they are not relevant to what people are doing at that specific time. This is where Google ad-words are most successful, as people searching for products are inundated with places to buy that product as a result of optimised advertisement placement on Google. In contrast Facebooks average click through rate on their social advertisements is just 0.08% (Agishtein 2010), this means that for every 10,000 times an advert is shown, it will only be clicked 8 times. It can be assumed that social network users are ignoring these advertisements on mass. These social advertisements are publicised by demographics and target the specific user based on interests and information provided in their own profile. Despite this focused advertising, the products or services promoted are ultimately not related to the social activities people participate in during online social-networking sessions. Other social advertisements create additional ad messages based on purchases or interests that are viewable to the public and friends (see Organic ad impressions figure 1.1). However many people are uncomfortable with this as it violates users privacy and control which is critical for social network users to feel safe online. Consequently, advertising must be injected into online conversations. For advertisements to be successful, the users ideally should want to talk about and share advertising messages with their social network friends. If advertisers hijack those conversations by not respecting the users desire for privacy and control, the adverts will backfire. This is ultimately bad for the advertiser, the social network and the user. The question remains, how do advertisers insert their messages into the conversation between friends on social network sites and social environments? According to Seth Goldstein, co-founder and CEO of Social Media Networks (an ad consultancy firm focused on monetizing the social web), Social media is killing Internet advertisingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the problem is, a few years ago, people started to become more interested in each other and less interested in the ads. This view is supported by the relatively low click through rates on social networking sites like Facebook and e xplains usage patterns whereby users visit social network sites to primarily interact with friends and rarely pay attention to advertisements. There is a danger that social advertisements will follow similar patterns to Internet banner ads that show an even lower click through rate on social media sites of 0.04%(Corbin 2008). Banner ads fail because social network users are accustomed to seeing them, and ignoring them has become a reflex. Advertisers have therefore aimed to try new innovations and marketing schemes to try and generate greater interest in this enormous window for consumers. One such scheme is the integration of advertising within social network applications. Applications are becoming central to the social networking experience. The success of these can be measured directly in the number of downloads and monitored by how they are shared between friends and family. A recent example of advertisement integrated into an application was the BMW application intended for Facebook. The intention of this application was to promote BMWs new line the 1 Series and provide the user with an interactive, virtual joyride to various worldwide destinations. Furthermore, users could personalise their cars by changing colours and adding modifications. BMW aimed to create an online community with this application, centralised around the brand. This allowed Facebook members to interact with the product on an entirely opt-in basis (Corbin 2008). However, this opt-in element has become increasingly critical and has led to cultural problems relating to social media advertising. On November 6th 2009, Facebook launched a service called Beacon. This was an advertisement system that sent data from external websites to Facebook, and permitted targeted advertisements with greater accuracy whilst allowing users to share activities with friends and publish these activities on other friends newsfeeds. However, this system provoked major uproar when users started complaining that Beacon was violating their privacy. Since that incident, the ethical and cultural concerns have been heightened with concerns over profile-based ad targeting. CEO of Social Media Networks, Seth Goldstein states Beacon was a setback, not just for Facebook, but for the whole industry. Engagement with modern social advertising remains difficult to measure but the downloadable application installations are easily tallied up and also whether it has been passed along to friends or not. Additionally these profile-based adverts frequently portray media stereotypes. These stereotypes can be problemat ic and instigate cultural tensions. Often they reduce a wide range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations and transform assumptions about particular groups of people into realities. Ultimately this could perpetuate social prejudice and inequality. More often than not, the groups being stereotyped have little to say about how they are represented. Furthermore many people would deny that they are being influenced by advertisements and regard them at worst as lies, at best idiot triviality. People are considered to be sceptical of advertising however, they might find it more difficult to resist the more general social image or message presented with advertising campaigns located in social media channels. (Dyer 1982) Specific media stereotypes provide problems for advertisers using social media environments, however it is not just stereotypes where potential issues lie with advertising through this medium. There is a raised level of concern for parents as marketers look to interact with children through the aforementioned social networking sites, online-video sites and gaming sites. Advertising on Television is meticulously regulated with advertising standards, yet the Internet is so far avoiding such regulations making it easier to target children with brand positioning adverts (Finklehorn 2009). Furthermore there are anxieties that children and under-age audiences are engaging with advertising on social networks for alcohol brands. It is evident that new guidelines and regulations are required to protect children aswell as the publics privacy. New guidelines for advertising on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are being proposed in the UK. Under these new proposals the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) would control digital marketing to ensure that it is responsible, legal, honest and truthful (Bryant 2010). These new regulations are scheduled for implementation later in 2010 and a clear mandate of these new guidelines state that first and foremost consumers and children will be protected. Location will also become more important to social media and the future of social media advertising. According to Debra Willamson, eMarketer senior analyst, brand monitoring will increase sophistication so that companies can begin to understand the why of consumer chatter aswell as the who, what and when. It can also be expected that companies will strive to provide additional services in social channels that essentially aim to gather greater understanding of the market and grab the attention of mass media audiences. Social media interaction and communication with one another has provided advertisers with a new opportunity to infiltrate and display their messages to a vast online audience. There is some evidence to suggest that advertising plays a part in defining reality in a general or anthropological sense. It projects the goals and values that are consistent with and conductive to the consumer economy and socialises us into thinking that we can buy a way of life as well as goods. (Dyer 1982) The goals and desires that Dyer refers to here are achievable by purchasing the intended products and services advertised to users of social media sites. However some adverts use media stereotyping to target users and the relatively low click through rate of adverts on social networking sites suggests that these types of intrusive adverts are largely being ignored. This coupled with other privacy issues could potentially leave social media advertisements following in the same fateful path as Internet banner ads. However the enormous scope for mass audiences that could result in substantial financial reward is too great for advertisers to ignore. They consider social media advertising central to marketing as nowadays this is a great way to reach mass audiences and in terms of audience size as there are several Super Bowls every day on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. With online-video streaming up 37% in the last year and an estimated 5 billion videos being streamed per month, there are multiple opportunities for products to be advertised based on video content and even location. With advertising regulations due to be published later this year, greater control can be seized over online social media advertisements. These guidelines will prevent children viewing inappropriate material and also protect peoples privacy being exploited by intrusive web systems monitoring page history and detailed consumer interests. There are still tremendous opportunities for social media advertising in the future, so long as advertisers adhere to these new guidelines and continue to persevere with new marketing schemes. The development of new initiatives, such as advertising in applications on social network sites in addition to the continued pursuit of subtle advertisements in consumer-to-consumer conversations, will see products reach a wider range of consumer and consequently result in substantial financial profits for advertisers on social media sites.

A House Divided

â€Å"House Divided† Essay Discuss the relevance today of Abraham Lincoln’s statement, â€Å"A house divided against itself cannot stand. † Abraham Lincoln’s statement in his 1858 speech that â€Å"A house divided against itself cannot stand,† is an extremely true statement that is as relevant today as it was when he originally stated it in 1858. Lincoln made this statement when he was accepting his nomination by the Republican Party to become the United States senator for the state of Illinois.Lincoln was attempting to distinguish himself from his opponent for the seat in the Senate, Stephen Douglas, who was a major supporter of the doctrine of popular sovereignty. Lincoln disagreed with Douglas because he believed that the United States could not exist under two opposing forces, that of advocates for slavery and of abolition. Lincoln knew that the country would eventually have to decide between slavery and freedom, and the imminent Civil War is pr oof that he was right.Lincoln’s statement in 1858 correctly predicted that the United States could not exist forever torn between the issue of slavery. His statement continues to be valid, even in today’s world, more than one hundred and fifty years later. When the country was divided about the existence of slavery, it was not able to cooperate. Proper authority could not be executed, because the leader had to choose a side. If he was pro-slavery, the north would not be devoted to his leadership. If he was pro-abolition, the south would refuse to acknowledge him as their leader.This enormous dilemma wreaked havoc throughout the country, leading to the south’s eventual secession from the Union. Today, the concept of when an institution is on completely different terms with each other they cannot function properly can be applied to many situations, both specific and non-specific. This notion being misunderstood by the majority of the world is on display in daily l ife. When two parents are attempting to instill authority over their child but disagree on something, the child is erroneously disciplined.When the child receives two conflicting views about something they should or should not do, they will not understand what is right. When two business partners are in disagreement about their business policies, the business will fail with no proper guidance. Two friends with seriously incompatible qualities or moral codes will not be able to maintain their friendship. Nothing can survive without unity, which is why slavery was unable to prevail. One specific example of the validity of Lincoln’s statement is the Civil Rights movement of the mid twentieth century.The Civil Rights movement was an extension of the slavery issue of a century earlier. Black people were still not being treated as equal to whites in the southern part of the country. Because there was much division on the issue, there was political controversy during that time. Howe ver, just as with slavery, blacks eventually received equal rights and treatment. Another example of Lincoln’s statement being applicable many years after it was said is communism in Russia.Communism and socialism in Russia eventually failed because it always had a clear winner and loser. One party was greatly benefitted, while the other party was severely disadvantaged. Because the country was so divided on the issue, communism collapsed in the Soviet Union in 1991. Perhaps the greatest and most relevant example of the validity of Lincoln’s statement is the current economic depression occurring in the United States. In the United States, the difference between the wealthy and the poor is by an extremely large margin.The wealthy people of the country possess almost all of its wealth, while the vast majority of the people possess a much smaller portion. As a result, the economy of the United States crashed in the year 2008. This economic depression and the failure of th e wealthy to help the poor have been the subject of much discussion and debate throughout the country. Almost everyone is divided on the issue, causing the economy to increasingly become worse. Hopefully, if the country can one day become united on the solution for the economy’s downfall, the economy will recover.It is clear that Lincoln’s statement in 1858 that â€Å"A house divided against itself cannot stand,† was very on the point when he stated it, as well as in today’s world. Lincoln made this statement on the brink of the great Civil War, and he correctly predicted that if the United States continued to be divided on the issue of slavery, it would prove disastrous for the country. Today, this statement continues to apply to many of the world’s problems, both specifically an non-specifically.

Conduct Unbecoming

â€Å"Conduct unbecoming† is a punishment that is only for Commissioned OFFICERS – not for enlisted soldiers. Article 84 is regarding unlawful enlistment†¦ and therefore not applicable to this situation. Article 15 is the article that allows for non-judicial punishment – it is NOT something you can be charged with. Article 91: Insubordinate conduct toward a non-commissioned officer (you failed to obey the order). Article 92: Failure to Obey a Lawful Order (he ordered you to tell the truth, and you didn't). Article 107: False Official Statements (told a lie when asked). Article 134: Disloyal Statements (prejudicial to the good order and discipline) Article 134: False Swearing (you took an oath and then lied) Article 134: Obstructing Justice (you lied to hide wrongdoing) The max punishments you can be hit with are as follows (in the same order!! ) Article 91: BCD, 1 year confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances (willfully disobeying an NCO's order), BCD, 6 month confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances (for showing contempt to the NCO) Article 92: Dishonorable discharge, 2 years confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances (if the situation involved a general order). BCD 6 month confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances (for the failure to tell the NCO the truth). Article 107: 5 years confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances. Article 134 (statements): 3 years confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances. Article 134 (swearing): Dishonorable Discharge, 3 year confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances. Article 134 (obstructing): Dishonorable Discharge, 5 year confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances. And it depends entirely upon what it was that you are being accused of lying about and the Commander. If it was important, or really impacted Good Order and Discipline, you'll be charged with the maximum number of charges. If it is bad enough situation to warrant an Article 15 you are going to get hit with a Field Grade Article 15. For this, the max damage is no more than 30 days of correctional custody, 45 days of extra duty, 45 days of restriction (it can be 60 days, but extra duty and restriction must be the same amount), loss of TWO pay grades, and loss of half your pay for two months.