Organizational behavior of HK Disneyland Essay

Introduction Hong Kong Disneyland, opened to visitors in 2005, is one of the two largest theme parks in Hong Kong. It successfully brings magical experience of Walt Disney to all the visitors just like other Disneyland around the world. Hong Kong Disneyland has created a culture for their employees with open communication with their managers and subordinates, professional training, and rewards. This philosophy of treating employees well has long been adopted by Walt Disney for many years. The belief of Walt Disney is that you can have joyful guests as long as you have employees who enjoy working for Disneyland and bringing happiness to visitors. With the comprehensive training for each employee, they make all visitors  experience a memorable magical moment. No matter the cast of Disney characters, or the people working in Disneyland’s restaurants or hotels, all of them receive comprehensive training. This training can ensure that every Disney employee can work together as a team, and provide excellent customer services to cater for their customers’ needs. In this report, we will illustrate how Disneyland incorporates organizational behavior concepts to create a culture for their employees where they feel satisfactory for their work environment and feel that they are important to the team. Motivation and learning are two main focuses in our research. We will also provide suggestions on how Disneyland can further improve in terms of organizational culture. Motivation Hong Kong Disneyland has many ways to motivate its employees to work. Our team is going to apply Theory X and Theory Y, Herzberg’s two-factor theory, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need these three theories to analyze the employee motivation methods of Hong Kong Disneyland Theory X and Theory Y Here is a brief introduction on the Theory X before the application on Disneyland. Theory X based on pessimistic assumptions. It is impediment to employee morale and productivity. For example, it assumed that labors are inherently lazy and avoid to work, only interested in money and in need of close supervision. Also, they would have little ambition without incentive programs, avoid responsibility and need to be driven through control systems. So, once the manager adopting this theory, they will end everything in blame without evaluating the situation, structure the work, energize the employees and also in authoritarian style based on the threat of punishment. Here comes to the application on theory X. According to the spokesperson of Disneyland, Angela Bliss, Disney employees have to adhere to strict guidelines and rules for their behavior and appearance. Once hired, they have to maintain the â€Å"Disney Look, and the Disney look is a fresh, clean and  approachable look, ensuring that every guest feels comfortable with our entire cast. Therefore, â€Å"Cast members,† Disney’s way of referring to their employees, receive a â€Å"Disney look book† that details all of the requirements, emphasizing a natural look with natural hair color and makeup. The purpose in doing this is to keep the focus on the ‘show’ and not on the individual cast member. Besides, a cast member with purple hair may not appear approachable to all of their guests. According to Disney rules, anytime a cast member confronts a guest who appears lost or frazzled, the employee must offer their help and point them in the right direction. Pointing must always be done with either two fingers or the full hand. So, the above showed that the workers in Disney are suffered serious and high intensive instructions and rules by the theory X style managers. What’s more, with reference to the article by Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel on November 16, 2010, The Walt Disney Co. has issued a new policy banning employees from texting while driving on the job. The ban applies to all of the Burbank, Calif.-based entertainment giant’s worldwide employees — including its roughly 60,000 workers at Walt Disney World. The policy, which recently took effect, also prohibits employees from making or receiving phone calls while driving on the job unless they use a single earpiece. It applies to workers who are either driving company vehicles or using their own vehicles while on the job. Disney punishments for workers caught violating the driving policy will be decided on case-by-case basis. The policy does not apply to employees during their drives to or from work. In short, the evidences above status that the management of theory X style, use to set up regulations and punishments to motivate their ‘‘actors’’. On the other hand, here comes to the theory Y. On the contrary, it based on positive assumptions, and also more positive view of workers and the possibilities that create. For instance, they assumed that employees are ambitious, self-motivated and anxious to accept greater responsibility. Employees exercise self-control, self-direction, autonomy and empowerment,  also exercise creativity and become forward looking. So, once the managers are adopted this theory, they believes that people want to do well at work, have a pool of unused creativity and that the satisfaction of doing a job is in itself motivating. Here comes to the application on theory Y. The Walt Disney Co focuses on creating a culture in which employees can flourish and find meaning in their work. Together with more than 10,000 online reference materials and resources, instructor-led classes, performance support systems, and education reimbursement for job-related degree programs, The Walt Disney Company offers an array of tools. From the website of The Walt Disney Co., they claimed that ‘It takes a special kind of person to work at The Walt Disney Company. Our employees and cast members contribute to the success of our many brands in a way no other company can match. That is why our employees and cast members are the most valuable part of our organization. But we know your life isn’t just about work. You have additional things going on – family, friends, personal interests, education and more. The Walt Disney Company offers a comprehensive total rewards package that helps you live your best life, grow p ersonally and professionally, and get rewarded for the results you deliver. The programs, benefits and perks you receive as an employee or cast member may vary based on where you live and work. But when you add it all up, the total package provides the same results: your total rewards support you throughout all stages of your life and career.’ Herzberg’s two-factor theory The two-factor theory states that there are certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction. The theory suggests that to improve job attitudes and productivity, administrators must recognize and attend to both sets of characteristics and not assume that an increase in satisfaction leads to decrease in not pleasurable dissatisfaction. Two-factor theory distinguishes between motivators and hygiene factors based on the notion that the presence of one set of job characteristics or incentives leads to worker satisfaction at work, while another and separate  set of job characteristics leads to dissatisfaction at work. Therefore, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not on a continuum with one increasing as the other diminishes, but are independent phenomena. Motivators such as challenging work, achievements, recognition, responsibility, or anything else that given positive satisfaction, arising from intrinsic conditions of the job itself, which is based on the long lasting working environment but not short-lasting achievement. The Walt Disney Company offers a comprehensive total rewards package that helps employee live better life, grow personally and professionally, and get rewarded for the results they deliver, for example, there are incentive and special recognition programs which includes quality of work, length of service, community volunteerism and employee of the month recognition. Reward will be varied by company, job status, location and/or the terms of any applicable collective bargaining agreement. The company have a diverse workforce is critical to the business. Variety of opinions, ideas and perspectives to ensure staff and their managers continue to top the performance and represent the company’s global marketplace. When employee reflects the communities, it can enhance the way for them connect to guests, audiences and consumers. Employee can feel that they work toward an inclusive environment that fosters creativity, innovation and camaraderie across all of the Disney companies. The c ulture can also inspire the workers. For instance, they are committed to a tradition of innovation and technology. Employee can be easily given job satisfaction from setting a high standard of excellence and maintain high-quality standards across all product categories. Apart from that, working in The Walt Disney Company can always enjoy in the joyful atmosphere as the entertainment is about hope, aspiration and positive outcomes, they can create positive and inclusive ideas about families and provide entertainment experiences for all generations to share. The rewarding, inclusive and supportive work environment is committed by the company. Thus, the staffs are able to gain satisfaction from working in Disney. Hygiene factors, for example, status, job security, salary, work conditions,  the benefits for employee, that do not give positive satisfaction, though dissatisfaction results from their absence. The Walt Disney Company provides employee base salaries with the total compensation opportunity and health and wellness benefits which includes medical, Disney Health Pursuits Wellness resources, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), behavioral health, prescription drug coverage, dental, healthcare and dependent day care flexible spending accounts, accident and disability Insurance, long-term care insurance. Besides, the employee can have enough time off working in Disney. They can have 11 paid holidays per year, vacation, sick pay and short-term disability, leaves of absence, bereavement and jury duty, personal life resources, group legal plan, adoption assistance program and onsite childcare centers. Moreover, they can also enjoy the retirement and financial benefits. 401(k) savings plan wi th company match, retirement savings plan for salaried employees and employee stock purchase program would be included. Also, they can enjoy special extras which are complimentary theme park admissions, employee discounts, merchandise discounts at Disney-owned stores, company-sponsored events and services, Disney employee matching gifts, commuter assistance program and many other unique advantages. Last but not least, some world-class training programs are customizable for employee to join such as professional development, management and leadership development, computer skills, business immersion programs and individual career development as the company encourages staff to learn and reach their goals. To sum up, the Herzberg’s two-factor theory can be applied into The Walt Disney Company as motivators and hygiene factors can be found in the policy of the company and working environment. It can satisfy both motivators and hygiene factors of employee and that is the reason staffs enjoy to work there. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need Maslow’s theory relates motivation to a hierarchy of needs. At the bottom are essential physiological needs such as air, food, shelter and clothing. As individuals satisfy one level of need, their motivations change as they aspire to reach the higher order needs. Therefore, to motivate an individual Maslow suggests that it is necessary to know where within the hierarchy each  employee is placed so that these factors can be taken into account. Physiological needs – Hong Kong Disneyland offers competitive salaries. This gives employees the means to acquire the basic needs for living. Also, provide benefits programme to employees which suit them. These benefits and competitive salaries help workers’ pay go further and so motivate them to be loyal to the company. In Hong Kong Disneyland, empolyees can earn more than just a pay-check and will receive a total rewards package that consists of different types of compensation and benefits, such as: Cast exclusive MTR discount scheme Comprehensive group medical insurance, including outpatient, hospitalisation, specialist, Chinese herbalist and dental services Group life and group personal accident insurance Discretionary gratuity Paid annual leave, maternity leave, marriage leave and examination leave Overtime payment for frontline overtime eligible positions Overnight shift premium Laundry services for uniforms and costume Safety needs – Hong Kong Disneyland values the safety of all employees. It is committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment to prevent accidents. Hong Kong Disneyland provides a clear rule and regulation to employees. For example, how to access the control of the machines; therefore employees are accountable to create a safe working environment too – that means they have to take responsibility for observing the health and safety rules and practices. Hong Kong Disnetland also offers employees a range of working patterns. For example, it provide a flexible working schedule, some employees may want to work as a part-time, they can choose among the schedule. This helps employees to choose the best option for a healthy work-life balance. Social needs – These are associated with a feeling of belonging. These provide informal opportunities for employees to get along with each other. This helps strengthen teams and enhances workers’ sense of belonging. Having an open approach to communication keeps everybody focused on the Hong Kong Disneyland’s aims helps individuals contribute to the company. In Hong Kong Disneyland, there is a RACE Club which provides a variety of interest programs, instructor-led courses and outdoor recreational activities for cast members and their family and friends. The RACE Club strives to promote diversity and work-life balance for cast members. It is also a platform for passionate and talented cast members to unleash their potential by being program instructors. Esteem – All employees in Hong Kong Disneyland have a need to be respected and to respect themselves. Esteem is the normal employees desire to be accepted and valued by others. Employees need to engage themselves in activities, to gain recognition and a sense of contribution. Esteem needs can intersect with motivation in the Hong Kong Disneyland too. For example, employees’ voice will be heard at the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. Cast members are welcome to share any feedback employees may have with the Cast Advisory Council (CAC). The CAC meets regularly to listen to cast member feedback and make suggestions to improve the working environment. Self-actualisation – Hong Kong Disneyland provides employees with the opportunity to take on challenging and stimulating responsibilities. This enables them to develop and improve. Hong Kong Disneyland offers more than 100 instructor-led programs to all cast members, including the Operations and Professional Teams. As a full time cast member, Employees can receive an average of 35 training hours per year to help them excel in their career. Typical instructor-led training courses include: Classes for All Cast Members: Disney Traditions Training Communicating Effectively in the Workplace Giving and Receiving Feedback in Disney Style Influencing Team Members as a Role Model Good Show Begins with Me Classes for All Managers: Coaching for Win-Win Outcome Problem Solving & Decision Making Skills Time Management Seminars and conferences hosted by Guest Speakers Learning Organizational Learning in Disneyland Learning in Disneyland take parts in three aspects, it includes Disney University, DU Learningland and Emerging Leader Program. 1. Disney University The Disney University (DU) offers more than 100 instructor-led programs to all cast members, including the Operations and Professional Teams. As a full time cast member, people can receive an average of 35 training hours per year to help them excel in their career. This also acts as a guide to providing world-class service to our guests. Typical instructor-led training courses include: Classes for All Cast Members: -Disney Traditions Training -Communicating Effectively in the Workplace -Giving and Receiving Feedback in Disney Style -Influencing Team Members as a Role Model Classes for All Managers: -Coaching for Win-Win Outcome -Problem Solving & Decision Making Skills -Time Management -Seminars and conferences hosted by Guest Speakers 2. DU Learningland The DU Learningland provides a wide variety of self-learning materials to study at workers own pace. There are about 1,000 collections including Disney feature films and books on career development as well as personal growth. 3. Emerging Leaders Program Hong Kong Disneyland Emerging Leaders Program can help workers develop for future leadership roles at the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. The six-month program focuses on developing your core leadership competencies. During the training, workers and other cast members work on group projects, attend classroom training and do on-the-job shadowing with a Guest Service Manager. Current situation of learning aspects in Hong Kong Disneyland 1. Explicit knowledge Explicit knowledge is Knowledge that is articulated through language, such as documents. Hong Kong Disneyland provides training to its workers. With the aim to progress along a steep learning curve, Disneyland offers learning opportunities for the trainees, including classroom training that give workers guidelines of the way workers should behave. 2. Tacit knowledge Tacit knowledge refers to knowledge acquired through observation and direct experience. From the recruitment post of Hong Kong Disneyland, it suggests that previous work experience at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort (e.g. Part Time Host / Internship) or any other Disney theme parks will be considered as an added advantage. This proves the workers are likely to have some experience of welcoming guest before they enter the firm. Moreover, abundant mentorship and mentoring workshops are offered to colleagues so that that new workers can have deeper understanding about Hong Kong Disneyland more easily. 3. Skills Most of the job offered in Hong Kong Disneyland requires that applicants should have excellent command of English and Chinese, including spoken Cantonese and Mandarin. Despite the language requirement, Hong Kong Disneyland further requires candidates have the ability to demonstrate strong computer proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, familiarity with Apple presentation products, and willingness to learn new software programs Generally, Language skills and computer skills are the two fundamental skills that Hong Kong Disneyland is looking for. 4. Attitude Hong Kong Disneyland demands that workers should demonstrate outgoing personality with good communication skill. Moreover, applicants should be those that are energetic, strong team-players and passionate about Disney. That is to say, Hong Kong Disneyland tries to let co-workers to imagine working for an organization that brings smiles to millions every year, or working with people whose passion for what they do is simply indescribable. Problems of Disney Learning Style From the above description, we find that Disneyland provide extensive training program to their employees. These training programs have equipped their employees with basic knowledge on facilitating daily operation of Disneyland; however, these training programs do not equip employees with creativity on how to make their service better. In other word, the training programs of Disneyland do not give enough reinforcement to their employees. Reinforcement is classified into two categories: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement occurs when positive consequence is presented to a desired behavior while negative reinforcement refers to the presentation of negative consequence to undesired behavior. Both operant conditioning and classical conditioning state that extinction of particular behavior will occurs if reinforcement is no longer presented upon the completion of behavior which is previously reinforced. Moreover, social learning theory also suggested that human will learn though observing because of self-reinforcement. In other words, reinforcement has played a very important role in every types of learning. Without reinforcement of desirable behavior and severe punishment of misbehavior, employees may not have any incentive to perform better. Some of them may even lose their incentive to maintain their expected performance and withdraw from Disneyland. This may lead to severe consequences Disneyland in a few aspects. First, with employee losing their work incentives, there will be a reduction of average customer service quality. As Disneyland aims to bring the greatest experience to its customer, their reputation as the world most famous theme park may be harmed. Moreover, if employees resign from Disneyland frequently, the turnover rate of staff is high. In this case, not  only the cost of training newly join staff will increase, the time of training new staff will also be boost as every Disneyland staff needs to receive sufficient training before they become available to work. With the total c ost increase in a great proportion, this will lead to a loss of comparative advantage of Disneyland. To solve the problems mentioned above, Disneyland may need to provide enough external reinforcement and self-reinforcement to their employees. Suggestions 1) Since Disneyland is a service industry, their staffs are required to provide high-quality customer services. And this kind of customer service is not only an explicit knowledge, but also a tacit knowledge. That is, knowledge acquired through observation and direct experience, it cannot be obtained directly through knowledge, such as document. Explicit knowledge is provided by Disney University, while tacit knowledge can be learnt from on-job training, new worker are asked to observe their mentor and learn. At the same time, employees are required to deal with different scenarios to obtain customer satisfaction, and they can only learn through real-time experience since there are many unexpected situations happened in reality. So, extensive training can just provide the existing and past experience to their employees and after they obtained the explicit knowledge from Disney University, they can apply it to customers and make a change to satisfy customers with different needs. And this implies practice makes perfect, only through dealing with actual cases with continuing improvement to obtain a high-quality customer service and that is a tacit knowledge. 2) Positive reinforcement can be used since it occurs when a positive outcome follows a desired behavior. In this case, desired behavior will be the high quality service provided by employees, positive outcome can be bonus and commissions. It is the common way for manager to create learning among their employees, and it becomes the motivator for employees to provide a better service in order to achieve the target set by Disneyland. Before the positive outcome launched, employees will less be motivated since they think there is no problem to work as usual. But after having this positive  outcome, it will motivate employees to provide a better customer service as they want to get the bonus based on the checkpoint set by Disneyland which is related to themselves, the monetary benefit. So, it can create a win-win outcome that Disneyland can continue to have a positive reputation and a continuing improvement on customer relationship through the effort provided by employees, at the same time employees can receive bonus as rewards to affirm their effort directly. Employees can learn from social learning theory. First, behavioral modeling and learning behavior consequences are observing and modeling behavior of others and its consequences afterwards; Since one department have lots of employees who have their own method to deal with customer matters, like the ways to deliver customer service when dealing with customers with different tempers, so everyone can be a role model towards the others. For example, for a host at Chef Mickey (Food and Beverage), there are many staff to serve customers, such as ordering, serving, and cleaning up. They can first observe how the other staffs perform their job responsibilities to get customers’ satisfaction, and then the consequence is they can improve themselves to provide a smoother customer service after observation and modeling. For self-reinforcement, it is a conclusion that employees should reinforce their behavior with consequences within their control after the learning from observation. Disneyland can carry out the performance management through defining the criteria: define what is high-quality customer service by the management department, items may include customer preferences, establishing rapport, dealing with complaints, promoting and up-selling; measuring and appraising employees’ performance: how often to carry out quality assessment and when will have appraisals based on the needs with the current situation, like the peak season for Christmas or The Lunar New Year; providing them either positive or negative feedback: using face-to-face approach in order to deliver their feedback directly: self-reinforcement will occur if the feedback is positive, employees can accumulate a higher marks for the overall performance in order to get the bonus and rewards from achieving the checkpoint set by Disneyland. And their performance can be  improved through providing a better service to achieve the bonus and rewards, learning from colleagues, personal development, such as the goals and schedule set by an individual to provide a better customer service. 3) Using a reward allocation decisions can shape ones behavior in Disneyland. Which people to reward: who meet the requirement of providing high-quality customer service, how to reward them: whether using monetary or non-monetary term. When to reward them, depending when will the appraisals be released. Since Disneyland is a service industry, using team reward systems will be more appropriate as employees should have a good interpersonal and communication quality, and this reward approach can emphasize cooperation and joint efforts, also employees can share their experience to others in order to achieve a better performance and gain a higher reward through cooperation. At the same time, competency-based reward should be used as a financial reward practice as it is the fundamental part of employment relationship. The pay has multiple meanings, such as symbol of success which provides high-quality customer service performance, reinforcement and motivator, reducing anxiety that the worries about how is their own customer service providing performance. Competency-based reward is a pay increases with competencies acquired and demonstrated. It is a skill-based pay which means how well is the customer service provided, pay will be increased with skill modules learned. The advantages is having flexibility on the workload with a better quality, since different employees will provide different customer service, they can learn from dealing with real-time cases in order to adjust how can the customer service be delivered better. Not only is this reward focusing on individual rewards: commissions, but also team rewards: gain sharing and the most important part – organizational rewards: profit sharing, stock options, balanced scorecard. 4) It is suitable to use the job rotation in Disneyland. The existing one is  called the Internal Transfer Process, which is eligible to regular full time cast members who have been employed at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and held their current position for at least six months. And the purpose is to provide Cast Members with cross-functional transfer opportunities and equip them to be multi-functional and multi-tasked. Cast members can first have six-months experience in their department, after being familiar with its job responsibilities and they feel it is time for them to experience the different challenges, they can submit the application for internal transfer without getting a supervisor’s approval. They can transfer within a Single Team, across different teams or between Operations Team and Professional Team with the same career path. And they can have job rotation after their demonstrated performance, education background, as well as work experience being assessed. Undoubtedly, it has a slightly difference with the job rotation approach since cast members need to submit their application and be assessed. However, the goal is actually similar that offers their employees a chance to have internal transfer. It can minimize repetitive strain injury and reduce the job boredom after staying as the same position for a long time; it is good for employees to experience different customers’ needs through working in different department and it is the only way for them to obtain a real experience through working by their own but not on books or documents. At the same time, there will be some drawbacks that cannot be ignored, such as the extra resources on training as some employees may only work for six months and have internal transfer, that means they need another training which lead to an extra cost on training, the extra training cost will be much higher for employees transferring between Operations Team and Professional Team because the trainin g criteria are totally different; also employees may not be an expert in all fields, this problem may occur frequently also in the case of transferring between Operations Team and Professional Team, since the job requirement will be totally different and they need more theoretical knowledge to manage employees or work out for a win-win outcome and also have decision making which will have a significant influence of Disneyland’s market share or status. Conclusion Hong Kong Disneyland has demonstrated how a world class theme park creates a working atmosphere for its employees. As motivation and learning are always two most important aspects of employee management, so our team has taken these two factors for study. In motivation aspect, we have introduced Herzberg’s two-factor theory and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need to explain the motivation of employees. The two factor theory and the hygiene factors can be applied in the ways that how Hong Kong Disneyland motivates its employees. The Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need explains how Hong Kong Disneyland motivates its employees according to the five stages of needs, that is, physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem, and self-actualization. In learning aspect, currently, Hong Kong Disneyland provides Disneyland University and mentoring sections for its employees to acquire both explicit and tacit knowledge. Its problem is that is does not give enough reinforcement to the employees on bettering the services, resulting in lower incentives and even job resignation. Therefore, we have suggested Hong Kong Disneyland to provide positive reinforcement such as bonus and team reward to boost their motivation and arrange job rotati on to keep the employees’ passion about the company as well as their job. In a nutshell, Hong Kong Disneyland is an international level organization hiring thousands of employees for operation. Its employee management method is a great model for studying but there are still rooms for improvement.

Ethics and Social Responsibility Essay

As a business grows and expands, eventually the goal of a business is to transform from company into a corporate powerhouse. Once the goal of a company turned corporate is met a corporation is to operate eventually internationally within other countries. With the ability to operate a business internationally this will enable a corporation access to several features. These features are more revenue income, acquire and disperse domestic and international stocks, capital expenditures in the forms of resources and manpower in foreign countries. These features also spell the recipe for creating more jobs within those foreign countries a corporation plans to operate within. Culture Issues Affecting Corporations Actions Outside the United States The well known jean clothing company known in the retail business as Levi’s operates under the business name of Levi Strauss and Company. Levi Strauss and Company is located in the heart of Northern California’s Bay Area city of San Francisco. Levi Strauss and Company operates and own its factories of clothing internationally in 110 countries (Levi Strauss & Company, 2012). With the business growth and years in operation Levi Strauss and Company also have been put under extreme scrutiny because of business practices and business ethics. Most of the examinations and criticizing of the company business practices have been from various groups and individuals ranging from employee unions, stock market companies and individual, even from external companies associated with Levi and Strauss. One of the reasons for criticism was the attention brought onto Levi and Strauss operating two of the corporation’s factories in Bangladesh, India. What the assessment of Levi and Strauss Company found was that its resources also included the employment of children working within the factories. Many of these children working within the two factories working under the minimum age limit. This had put Levi and Strauss into a bad business situation. With the United States the minimum age limit to work legally in non-hazardous areas is 14 years of age (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010). In India the children working at two of Levi Strauss and Company were under the age of 14 years of age. With many of these children working there most of the wages were used to help support their families who depended on their child’s wages. Levi’s implemented into its Terms of Engagement that any child working under the minimum age limit would have his or her salaries covered while paying for his or her full education (Levi Strauss & Company, 2012). Ethical Perspectives Of Levi and Strauss Company Global Organization Levi Strauss and Company have ethical perspectives are in agreement with the majority view of operating as an ethical global business entity. Levi Strauss and Company operates under a Worldwide Code of Business Conduct, and a Global Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Policy (Levi Strauss & Company, 2010). Under the Worldwide Code of Conduct Levi’s operates its business affairs with good responsibility and integrity. The Code of Conduct also encourages the corporation’s employees base business decisions under the corporation’s ethical values. Operating under anti-bribery and anti-corruption policy, Levi’s operates under each country’s specific laws and regulations, in addition, these policies are put into effect to help the company’s employees be able to identify any potential business scenarios and avoid situations, which can put the company’s ethical policies at risk (Levi Strauss & Company, 2010). While operating in 2008 Levi Strauss had received pertinent information regarding its factories in the country of Uzbekistan. Levi Strauss and Company had gone under pressure to investigate about the working conditions of forced child labor to harvest cotton in Uzbekistan. With inquiries from the company’s external stakeholders, environmental nongovernmental organizations, socially based firms, and internationally based retailers, the company addressed the issue of forced child labor to harvest the cotton in that country. What Levi’s did was ban the cotton harvested in Uzbekistan (Levi Strauss and Company, 2010). From the part of 2008 through the middle of 2009 the company brought the issue to the United States Government and engaged the country of Uzbekistan government to resolve the situation of the country forcing children to harvest the cotton within that country (Levi Strauss and Company, 2010). Levi’s Ethical Perspectives Across Cultures Levi Strauss and Company faces different challenges operating in different countries and abiding by various cultural ethical differences. While operating in different Asian countries Levi and Strauss took part in The Asia Foundation to help support the end of corruption that is common in many Asian countries (SUPPORTING VULNERABLE POPULATIONS IN ASIA, 2012). the Asia Foundation helps with funding from Levi Strauss and Company develop programs which are to enable a better life for many people in Asian countries. With helping to end corruption Levi and Strauss has taken a pro-active approach to end this dilemma that is still in many of the Asian countries. In working internationally Levi and Strauss has addressed the issue of women’s rights in countries such as Egypt. In other countries the humane rights of women are equivalent to almost nothing putting women down at the bottom of the social pyramid. Levi and Strauss has partnered with Business for Social Responsibility to run a program also known as the HERProject-for Health Enable Returns that is meant to help women in educating women about health reproduction and access to get health services (Jill Nash , Vice President, Levi Strauss & Co. Corporate Affairs, 2010). With regards to operating in international countries Levi and Strauss must be able to handle each challenge differently and adapt policies for each specific region. One solution may work in one country but may not work effectively in an another country. Levi and Strauss operate under a high standard of ethics and code of conduct within the United States, which is far higher when compared to other foreign countries. Operating business in a high ethical standard is something Levi and Strauss have been innovating as the corporation ventures to operate in foreign countries. With each country come challenges, which may be similar and different from other countries, which are unique to each region. In conclusion businesses are either currently or entering into the global market as the realization of more income revenue is abundant. When companies look to grow with expansion into other countries sometimes the earnings of revenue will tend to take a company’s focus of concentration away from dealing with cultural aspects and challenges unique to those specific country regions. When the distraction on not learning about the different cultures and ethnicity conducts business do companies create mistakes that can have a major ethical issue in the public view. The best result would be to conduct business research on how business conduct operates in each country to avoid any potential ethical dilemmas.

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4 books on writing comedy screen plays - Essay Example This author explains the core components of comedy, as the author himself loves to read the funny aspects of books and to watch various funny movies. John Vorhaus emphasizes that the screen play writers should be creative and free from all the fears and troubles so that one should be able to develop appropriate comedian writing skills, which will help them to produce comedy, work. He has also provided various tools and comedy writing techniques in this book. (Vorhous, 1994) The screenplay that makes a person laugh is the successful piece of comedy. These screenplays have certain aspects which are important. Such secrets of screenplays which involve the excellent comedy work are given by the author Stuart Voytilla in his book of Writing the Comedy Film. He further describes as to how to create a good comedy and how to be successful in writing or producing various comedy plays. This book provides tips for writing comedy screen plays and teaches how to be creative through the way of comedian world. It consists of all the detailed facts and figures of comedy that helps its learners to understand the concept of screenplay writings in a better manner (Voytilla, 2002). Billy Mernit in his book describes the simple ways indicating how to write the romantic-comedy screen plays as he observed that it was the need of the upcoming generation. He has mentioned â€Å"seven basic romantic comedy beats† and five ways through which a person can learn to write the romantic comedy screen plays. This book is helpful for those who are interested in producing romantic comedy plays; it consists of the basic concepts of creating romantic comedy. The author also provides the history of romantic comedy in his book which gives a better understanding to the readers. This book provides it readers the right path when there is no way out of creating

Disseratation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8250 words

Disseratation - Essay Example This conclusion is reached based on the observation of children and their teachers in a primary school from levels 1-6 as well as the concerns of the SENCO.It was found that there were wide gaps in the theory and practice of SEN teachers as apparent from the discrepancies from their interviews and what the author had a chance to observe later on.Other issues that arise in the discussion is the difficult task faced by the primary schools as they come to terms with the effective management of the special educational needs struggling from funding problems and parental expectations. The paper recommends that either there should be a return to the formerly segregated learning techniques or home teaching or there should be better initiatives to promote the development of flexible training modules which are designed to be practical and relevant for primary schools. Such training facilities would require the collaboration between the primary teachers , LEA staff and local training providers. The past two decades have been pivotal to the change in the ways in which the local Education Authorities and schools have been required to respond to pupils with special educational needs (SEN). ... Such training facilities would require the collaboration between the primary teachers , LEA staff and local training providers. introduction The past two decades have been pivotal to the change in the ways in which the local Education Authorities and schools have been required to respond to pupils with special educational needs (SEN). This began when the 1981 Education Act was passed and there was a rush to change the assessment and referral systems of the SEN pupils.The change sped up with the more recent Education Act 1988 with its intense implications for the practice and provision of SEN learning.This legislation combined with the introduction of the National Curriculum,and the 1992 White Paper have all brought a large challenge to management of the SEN initiatives.This has also in part been affected by the altered in service funding arrangement which have also impacted teacher funding.The changing SEN initiative in the UK was based on the Warnock report the recommendations of which were aimed at revolutionizing the historic practice of dealing educationally with children with disabilities or learning difficulties in a segregated fashion. However how successful this initiative to has been in letting learning disabilities not get in the way for children to be educated in their neighborhood school, sharing learning with their peer is debated in this dissertation.This is particularly obvious from the funding problems and the difficulties faced by the teachers in dealing with learning disabilities.In this regard my dissertation offers a fresh perspective which actually favours that when segregated these children might be treated by specialist teachers.Admittedly it is unfair to separate SEN pupils from

Xedit Li Yuan polisy 24 hours services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Xedit Li Yuan polisy 24 hours services - Essay Example When it came to my passion in modeling, height turned to be a limiting factor once again, but this time in the reverse order. I didn’t meet the height requirements for the university level modeling. This couldn’t stop me from achieving my dream towards modeling, as I turned myself into a coach and a team builder. I not only successfully chased my dream but also helped others to do the same by establishing university’s first modeling association. Accomplishments value more when it serves towards ones social commitment. My neighborhood in Tianjin saw agitations from small shop owners as the government had forcefully relocated them as a part of the Olympics despite the long term contracts with their landlords and had spent ample money on shop restructuring which was not compensated. In spite of joining them in the less successful protest, I decided to use my negotiation skills developed in business environments to intervene in the issue. I discussed in detail the problems of the shop keepers which were wide and vivid ranging from location to inventory. Meanwhile, I analyzed the government’s blueprint of the new street and the time schedule for the reconstruction .Resultantly I developed a compensation plan which was approved by the shop keepers as well. This professional approach made room for discussion and finally the plan got approved. The accomplishment resulted from my innovation and I could successfully utilize my business skills into a social stage .This was counted as substantial because it attributed much towards my confidence to strive in changing scenarios of life. Successful accomplishment of my dream to establish Gravity Advisor Inc, a state of the art financial consultancy was a proof of my entrepreneurial skills. I developed the dream as I was curious about venture capital since Chinese companies started to be listed in American stock exchanges. Starting with NET 263 as CFO assistant, I was later

CASE STUDY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

CASE STUDY - Essay Example The business’ vision to be the most consumer-centric business in its industry reflects how Amazon continues to develop strategies, both corporate-level and business-level, to ensure that it fulfils these promises for focus on providing value to its many diverse markets. One method of promoting this value and convenience is the recent program entitled Frustration-Free Packaging, which was designed to ensure consumers could easily remove their products from Amazon’s packaging. Cloud computing, additionally, provides its developer customers with low-cost IT services and the ability to outsource many business functions for further cost-savings. The continual development of new services, such as the MP3 Music Store, IMDb.com allowing for television program viewing, and launch of the Office Supplies Store in 2008, illustrates the constant evolution of the business model that caters to a wide variety of target markets with varying needs. Innovation, as compared to competition, is what makes this business model difficult to replicate by rivals and secures the promises of being consumer-centric that makes up the foundation of corporate strategy. Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, is a firm believer in corporate frugality. In the company’s headquarters, this thrift is evident with employee desks that have been recycled from doors, at an estimated cost of $130 USD and monitors that rest on telephone books to avoid the high costs of stands (University of Graz 2013). Amazon maintains very powerful competitive advantage as it relates to human capital, having established a firm set of values and a shared vision that allows for decentralised business function for better teamwork and interpersonal relationship development. In order to develop the appropriate service culture necessary for Amazon to achieve its mission of consumer-centrism, the organisation must have leadership that