Themes of Crhistian Faith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Themes of Crhistian Faith - Essay Example For how can one fully know or predict the end when he employs mind closed at recognizing paths that wind to a triumphant outcome. As I see it with his tone of reactions on course placement, clearly, he hasn’t been properly acquainted to an in-depth assessment of theology or his limited former knowledge might have been brought across at the wrong approach so there is not a way he can be expected to entertain the course in the competitive framework of the academe. Because the formation of his argument lacks structure, rational profundity and barely sounds discerning, I am gradually convinced to disagree with his vie. I find it sufficient as well to disagree on the ground that due to reluctance, he has not at all considered looking over a few lessons which may yield to recognition of advantages other than academic. Mr. Dawkins’ position is weak, having sought no development from an educated process of arriving at a decision and I suppose that every person with similar influence is not likely to figure any relevance in a religious subject and would amount to the same set of reasons that draw support based on the common philosophic undertakings and working principle in which science, in the absence of God, lies at the core. Theology, in its basic essence or with lengthy technical definition taken off, is by terms of origin, a word (logos) of god (theos) from which to explore limitless possibilities how it may be done so to obtain answers required upon discovery of innumerable questions with rising complexities, since no physical evidence is available to testify how or what spiritual entity and faith are in form. So then accordingly, one can at least claim that theology, as a study of god, proceeds to be identified as making an abstract concept raise to the level of tangibility, or reality, which we know must take a definitive form if individual truth allows its perceived

W 5 OIS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

W 5 OIS - Essay Example At the organizational level, the lack of synchronization of the information systems with the larger organizational structure has often been a problem. An example of this is an information system that is introduced with no changes in organizational hierarchy and structure, creating conflict of roles among various departments of the organization. At the individual level Holladay and Coombs (2013) identified lack of training as the major problem that pull companies away from realizing their information technological investment ambition. This is because the comings of such investments, most of which are information systems demand very high level of training that would ensure that users are comfortable operating the various user interfaces of the systems. Once such training is absent, then it can be expected that efficiency of workers can even be worse than it was before. As far as technological factors are concerned, most organizations refuse to undertake adequate monitoring and evaluation of their information technology investment, making it impossible to adequately undertake system repairs and updating. Meanwhile, the malfunctioning of systems that arise from poor monitoring and replacement of parts can lead to several cases and instances of system mistakes, some of which can lead to adverse cases of errors (Howell and Frost ,

How Should They Practice CSR Activities Efficiently Commerce Essay

How Should They Practice CSR Activities Efficiently Commerce Essay The current focus of corporate social responsibility for corporations is no longer on how they implement CSR activities, but on how should they practice CSR activities efficiently and effectively (Roberts, 2003). During the last three decades, more and more companies, especially the large multinational corporations, have implemented and set up series of voluntary codes of conduct, formulated sustainability strategies and also announced and implemented environmental annual reports to engage in corporate social responsibilities. Indeed many multinational corporations have made efforts to engage in their corporate social responsibility by dealing with environmental and social issues in global supply chains. However, there is still a gap between the desirability of supply chain sustainability in theory and the implementation of sustainability in practice (Bowen et al., 2001; Andersen Skjoett-Larsen, 2009). In discussing the different aspects of corporate social responsibility; one issue needs to be particularly pointed out that this study cannot cover every single aspect of corporate social responsibility practices in terms of definition, application as well as management aspects. After all, corporate social responsibility cannot be easily disentangled from the companys operations. Since CSR is a complex concept and issue, it is embedded within the organisation from top to bottom and also across the global span of operations. This study focus on the key issues related to CSR practices in the global supply chains. Research questions and purpose This study is going to identify a conceptual framework for understanding and analysing CSR practices in global supply chains. The purpose of this study is going to address following research questions: Understanding corporate social responsibility and supply chains in the global context. How is corporate social responsibility related to and applied in global supply chains? How are corporate social responsibility activities and practices implemented and managed in a specific chosen multinational corporation- Primark? Structure of this study Chapter two explains the broad literature review on corporate social responsibility and supply chain management. In chapter three, methodology and data collection will be explained. Chapter four contains a theoretical framework of globalisation, corporate social responsibility as a challenge of business in a global context, supply chain in the globalisation, corporate social responsibility in global supply chains as well as the motivations of implementing CSR practices within supply chains. And how these concepts are interrelated will be also discussed in this section. Chapter five will provide empirical findings from a case study-Primark. Chapter six includes analysis of this study. Chapter seven will consist with conclusions, discussions, and limitations of this study as well as the academic and practical recommendations. Chapter eight is mainly followed by a reference list and the appendixes. The overall structure of this study is showing in the Figure 1. Figure 1. The structure of this study Literature review The main purpose of this section is going to provide a theoretical framework. It basically identifies the literature achievements and some current social issues that organisations confront with. Firstly, this section is going to explain three different concepts respectively including globalisation, corporate social responsibility and supply chain management. Then this section will explain how the process of globalisation influences the corporate social responsibility and global supply chains. This section is going to summarise the main motivations of implementing CSR practices in the global supply chains. An interrelated relationship between these concepts will also be identified. Globalisation Globalisation has become a common social phenomenon. Hines and Bruce (2007) provide a description of globalisation as the ways in which markets have converged throughout the world and the ways in which production poles have shifted geographically to satisfy global consumers. Levy (1995, p. 353) also presents the definition of globalisation from the economic point of view as the increasing internationalisation of the production, distribution and marketing of goods and services. Some academic researches argue that one motivation of globalisation could be the deliberate political decisions (Scherer Palazzo, 2009), supported by technological, social and economic development. The growing cross- area and cross- country transfer of resources in terms of assets, capital as well as knowledge, also foster the progress of globalisation (Scherer Palazzo, 2009). Along with globalisation, multilateral agreements and intergovernmental organisations are increasingly developed during the last three decades to regulate and maintain growth, stability and a minimum standard of living in the context of globalisation. The members of these intergovernmental organisations all agree to secure and maintain fair and human working conditions in home countries and countries where they have economic relationships with (Crane, Matten Spence, 2008). Although there are many agreements, regulations and intergovernmental organisations, in this section is going to discuss three of them which are most related to this study, including International Labour Organisation (ILO), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and also International Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO). The following portion is going to give a brief introduction and description of these multilateral agreements and intergovernmental organisations, identifying their potential to regulate gl obal standards for all nation states as well as multinational corporations. International Labour Organisation (ILO) General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) developed at the end of WWII leads to the breakdown of trade barriers and encourages cross-border trade and investments (Scherer Palazzo, 2009). International Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) International Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) are non-official, non-profit, professional organisations with a distinctive legal character, focusing on engaging and maintaining public welfare (Crane, Matten Spence, 2008; Clarke, 1998). The main public issues NGOs focus on are human rights, gender discrimination, social welfare, working and living conditions, the environmental issues, agricultural development and so on (Clarke, 1998). NGOs play an important role in working with national governments, international organisations as well as multinational corporations by using the net work of members to collect information related to specific issues (Ottaway, 2001). Many multinational corporations increasing confront with pressures from NGOs, to govern their behaviours based on various international agreements and codes of conduct. However, empirical studies and reviews suggest a link between corporate social responsibility, NGOs, and organisational performance (Doh Guay, 2004). As long as the multinational corporations believe those codes that NGOs provide could become uniform standard in their industry, they are willing to obey and agree those codes to gain global first mover competitive advantages which could improve efficiency and performance as well as build positive image in the long term. Researches in the role of NGOs in development of global corporate responsibility focus on the increasing growth in NGO influence as well as the involvement of government and corporations (Doh Guay, 2004). Corporate social responsibility Definitions of corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility is a debated subject and study concept in contemporary business and academia. It is also regarded as an important topic for research and worth for study (Burton Goldsby, 2009). Since the beliefs and cognitions about the relationship between corporations and larger society vary with the relevant issues of the day, there is lack of strong consensus on a definition for CSR. The most commonly cited definition is described by Archie Carroll (1979) as the social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organisations at a given point in time. Whats more, Matten and Moon (2004) offer further description of CSR as a cluster concept which overlaps with such concepts as business ethics, corporate philanthropy, corporate citizenship, sustainability, and environmental responsibility. It is a dynamic and contestable concept that is embedded in each social, political, economic and institu tional context.'(Crane, Matten Spence, 2008) Maignan and Ferrell (2004) develop a brief overview of conceptualisation of corporate social responsibility by summarising four different perspectives on CSR. The first perspective stated by Maignan and Ferrell (2004) is to view CSR as social obligation. Bowen (1953) states that organisations should take social obligations to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of society. Whats more, in the later literatures, Carroll (1979) distinguished social responsibility into a pyramid (Shown in the Figure 2.) with four different layers which are economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities. Companies should make profit with obeying the law, as well as act ethically in the business activities. Philanthropic responsibility is about corporate actions in response to societys expectations at the same time engaging in promoting goodwill or welfare (Gronvius Lemborg, 2009; Maas, 2010). Another perspective of corporate social responsibility is to view as stakeholder obligation (Maignan Ferrell, 2004). Stakeholder trust has a significant impact on the contribution to the long term success of the corporation. It is important for the organisation to take stakeholders interests into account. A stakeholder is defined by Freeman (1984:46) as any group or individual who can affect, or is affect by, the achievements of organisation objectives. Henriques and Sadorky (1999) identify four main stakeholders of organisations which are organisational stakeholders (including employees, customers, shareholders and suppliers), community stakeholders (including local residents and special interest groups), regulatory stakeholders (such as municipalities, regulatory systems and governments) as well as media stakeholders (Chung, 2005). Basically, the corporation has the responsibility and obligations to meet the rights and interests of all legitimate stakeholders, simultaneously, stak eholders place ethical expectations on business because they have a reciprocal relationship. However, how to balance the competing interests of these stakeholders is a crucial issue to organisations. The corporation has the responsibility for balancing delicately the multiple claims of conflicting stakeholders. However, the complex stakeholder terms make the decision-making process more complicated. It is also a major CSR challenge that companies could face during managing global supply chains. The third perspective mentioned by Maignan and Ferrell (2004) is CSR as ethics driven which implies that CSR practices are driven by the self-interests of a company. However, according to Jones (1995), when CSR is viewed as ethical driven, there is a lack of normative criteria to evaluate whether the business practices and activities should be considered as socially responsible. Thus CSR should be viewed as a self-developed regulatory mechanism based on its own interest independent of stakeholders obligations. The forth perspective stated by Maignan and Ferrell (2004) is that CSR is managerial processes. Under this perspective, Ackerman (1975) identified three main activities of corporate social responsiveness including monitoring and assessing environmental conditions, attending to stakeholder demands, designing plans and policies aimed at enhancing the firms positive impacts. Whats more Wartick and Cochran (1985) as well as Wood (1991) pointed out that issues management and environmental assessment could contribute to achieve a proactive social responsibility stance. Figure 2. Carrolls (1991) pyramid of corporate social responsibility By summarising the literatures of corporate social responsibility, there are two main characteristics of corporate social responsibility (Maas, 2010; Andersen Skjoett-Larsen, 2009; Crane, Matten Spence, 2008). The first one is the voluntary activities of companies in the realm of social and environmental issues that go beyond the law. Corporate social responsibility offers a more voluntary approach to address the role of corporations in society and manage externalities coherently, comprehensively and professionally. Another core characteristic is the relationship between business and larger society. Corporate social responsibility includes a wider consideration of interests and impacts of different stakeholders rather than just shareholders. The group of stakeholders and interest groups include customers, suppliers, employees, NGOS, the local community representatives, etc. The evaluation of capabilities and competences of companies is not just limited in a matter of making profits . Corporate social responsibility: a global challenge In a global context of corporate social responsibility, the literature on the study concept, both academic and practitioner, is wide and considerably large (Crane, Matten Spence, 2008). Various international institutions have set up guidelines and standards to make sure companies observe certain rules of conducts. Corporations pursue growth and market share through globalisation, they have confronted with several challenges that may limit the ability of gaining potential profits and organisational growth. These challenges may come from government regulations, environmental restrictions, tariffs and trade barriers. Crane, Matten and Spence (2008) conclude three main challenges for CSR in a global context. The first one is building new social capacities. In a global context of corporate social responsibility, the social meaning and definition differ in different regions of the globe. Thus, managing corporate social responsibility is not just enforced by the companies themselves and the legal framework issued by national government, it is also essential to consider and acknowledge the specific global standards and regional actual circumstances in which corporations practice and manage CSR. This current issue requires companies establish new roles or even found new operational department beyond their traditional expertise to develop partnerships with NGOs and local governments to address these issues. The second challenge mentioned by Crane, Matten and Spence (2008) is the involvement in rule-making. Under the nature of global governance, in a certain extent, corporations are involved in setting the rules of trade agreements, standardisation efforts as well as economic agreements. The participation in rule-making process makes corporations become the rule-maker as well as the rule-taker which could better implement and observe the regulations and standards they have agreed upon. The third challenge for CSR is broader accountability (Crane, Matten Spence, 2008). The accountabilities of CSR involve human rights, health care and education, global poverty and environmental issues such as global warming. At the global level, the accountabilities of CSR become more complex, broader and delicate. As mentioned above, it cannot merely focus on the local social and environmental issues, corporations also have responsibility and obligation on the countries they have economic relations with. However, more and more companies see corporate social responsibility as an opportunity rather than a threat in the global context, in order to increase market share, innovative power and employee motivation as well as cost advantages, Corporate social responsibility in a global context is no longer only on the agenda of large, multinational corporations, some small and medium enterprises which are involved in the network of international suppliers and customers also hold accountable for certain activities within the supply chains (Cramer, 2006). The way in which CSR is institutionalised, harmonised and practiced in the global context is fluctuating. Review of different motivations for CSR Supply chain management Handfield and Nichols (1999) present a definition and description of supply chain as the supply chain encompasses all activities associated with the flow and transformation of goods from the raw material stage through to the end-user, as well as the associated information flows. Material and information flow both up and down the supply chain. Supply chain management (SCM) is the integration of these activities through improved supply chain relationships to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (Handfield Nichols, 1999, p.2; Cited in ). The supply chain management consists with various interdependent activities from sourcing and purchasing, production, distribution and transportation as well as sales that operate and manufacture in both the developing and developed countries around the globe (Chung, 2005) , as shown in the Figure 3. Figure 3. Key activities in the supply chain management cycle (Chung, 2005) QQà ¦Ã‹â€ Ã‚ ªÃƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃ‚ ¾20120820202923.png Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the practice journals in the apparel sector developed the term pipeline to explain the whole process of raw materials through manufacturing processes to the final customer (KSA, 1987; Hunter, 1990; Hunter et al., 1993; Hunter and Valentino, 1995; Hines, 2007). More recently, demand chains and value networks (Hines, 2007) are used to describe supply chains which emphases the role of customers and adopts the trend of rapid changing customer demands. Figure 4 shows the supply chain process cycles. Figure 4. Supply chain process cycles (Hines, 2004; Cited in Hines Bruce, 2007) There are numbers of different perspectives on the development of the concept of supply chain management. Based on the analysis of Hines (2007), there are mainly four perspectives of managing supply chains. First one is to focus on improving productivity internally of supply chain management. The second perspective extends the first concern with productivity to improve operations. The third wave, which was developed in the transport and distribution literature and now is synthesised in the logistics literature, mainly concerned with moving goods efficiently. The forth and latest perspective emphases the important role played by customers within the demand chain. The development of supply chain increases the complexity and flexibility requiring organisations to deal with. During the last decades, active responsiveness to the supply chain has is becoming more and more important. Table 1 shows the main shift in analytic focus of supply chain over time (Hines Bruce, 2007). Table 1. Analytic focus From (pre-1990) To (post-1990 to present) Predominantly internal focus Operations (Internal efficiency) Exchange/transactional focus Functional processes (silo mentality?) Cost efficiency (inputs/outputs) Physical processes Product quality (only major concern) Simple (e.g. dynamic structures and relationships) Traditional linear supply chains Inventory management Predominantly external (dyadic, chain, network) Strategies (external market orientation) Relationship/structure focus Integration Value added (outputs/inputs) Financial, informational and virtual processes Service quality and total quality approaches Complex structures (e.g. networks) Digital supply chains (value nets) Information and customer service Source: Hines, 2004, Purchasing and supply chain literature from 1930s to present day (Cited in Hines Bruce, 2007). Until recently, most of the literatures and practice of supply chain management emphases on issues that relate to cost-efficiency of supply chains, relationships with supply chain partners, supply chain strategies, customer services as well as different types of supply chains. However, the increasing sourcing organisational activities and building partnership in developing countries as well as the increasing concern about environmental and social issues has led new social concepts which is normally recognised as sustainable supply chains, aiming at improving and protecting the companies and employees within the supply networks. The focus of sustainable supply is not only on the local optimisation of environmental factors, but also on the consideration of the entire supply chain processes. During the last decade, the study concept of supply chain sustainability has been received great interest in both academia and the practitioners (Hassini, Surti Searcy, 2012). Since companies are s uffering great pressures from various stakeholders, particularly from government regulators, non-government organisations (NGOs), as well as the global competition, a large number of companies have engaged in the commitment to corporate social responsibility practices. Hassini, Surti and Searcy (2012) provide a definition about sustainable supply chain management by summarising different academic and social concepts including business sustainability (Crane Matten, 2007) and the triple bottom line (Elkington, 1997), as the management of supply chain operations, resources, information, and funds in order to maximise the supply chain profitability while at the same time minimising the environmental impacts and maximising the social well-being. These definition emphases the importance of balancing and satisfying conflicting interests of multiple stakeholders. By analysing and summaries the literatures on the supply chain management and sustainable supply chains, there is a lack of appropriate and systematic performance measures and framework for supply chains which makes it difficult to evaluating the sustainability initiatives in supply chain management (Lehtinen Ahola, 2010; Hassini, Surti Searcy, 2012). The internationalisation of supply chains The process of globalisation creates competitive pressures for clothing and textile producers to search for ways to lower production costs, especially for the fast fashion, which is required quick respond to customer demands, high seasonal variation and creative design. Organisations improve and take efficiency measures from internal to a single organisation or network of organisations locked in a continuous supply chain. The second way that organisations to lower their production costs is to search lower cost sources of supply throughout the globe in order to find locations where conditions are more favourable than in the home market (Hines and Bruce, 2007). This process will create the global supply chains. Under conditions of globalisation, products are no longer manufactured and produced in just one country, but designed and produced in different production sites in various locations around the world which is a result of global investment (Homann, Koslowski Luetge, 2007). Globalisation has two facets which are globalisation of production and globalisation of markets, which means globalisation is present at the production stage as well as the retail stage. Primary products are increasingly manufactured in different production sites around the globe to benefit from lower labour costs, raw materials as well as the lower cost of transportation, which could increase the degree of division of labour. Homann, Koslowski and Luetge (2007) illustrate that division of labour could take place when manufacturers of primary products at different locations. Globalisation accelerates the process of international division of labour both in vertical integration and in the supply chain. Apparel manufacture is one of the areas that globalisation has offered significant cost reduction opportunities, due to high labour content and cost- effective to transport. As a result of globalisation, both multinational companies and local manufacturers in the apparel industry have benefited tremendously from cost reduction. Based on the statement of Cramer (2006), the globalisation of supply chains has led to heavy social criticism, especially when companies using child labour or working in countries that violate fundamental human rights, which damages companies reputation. During the last decade, one of the key business trends resulted by globalisation is the outsourcing key business and operation activities to suppliers and subcontractors. Based on the description of GEMI (2001), this trend has made certain suppliers more critical, extends liability throughout the lifecycle, and the result is a significant shift of corporate environmental, health and safety risks and opportunit ies off siteà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ As a consequence, some of those business risks and opportunities may become Procurements responsibility (Cited in Roberts, 2003) Based on the statement of Dicken (1998, p. 283), the textiles and clothing industries are the first manufacturing industries which are shifted by globalisation. The phenomenon of globalisation has shaped the structure, strategies and consequences in the textile and clothing industries. Global shifts in these industries also increase the trade tensions between developed and developing world (Hines Bruce, 2007). During the last three decades, many corporations restructure organisations and outsource many functional and traditional activities to the companies in the developing countries. Efficient and effective supply chains are essential to manage customer demand and brand operations, especially for the high-changeable fashion and apparel industry. The reasons that organisations pay attention on the supply chain management are due to the trend of globalisation, the reducing time of pushing into the market, as well as the rising standard of customer demands. Globalization has significa ntly changed the international market. Traditional supply chain is moving to the direction of the development of the globally integrated supply chain, becoming a cross-functional and cross-regional supply chain. Sustainable supply chain management plays an important role in maintaining brand integrity, ensuring business continuity and controlling operating costs. The main purpose to promote sustainable supply chain is to build long-term environmental, social and economic value. By continuing construction of the supply chain, companies could protect their long-term capabilities. The process of globalisation is one major reason of increasing reliance of corporations on suppliers and sub-suppliers (Welford, 2002). Thus the supply chain is more and more complex and international. This is what makes global supply chains within fashion markets and fashion marketing worth to study. The traditional supply chain management (SCM) is the process of the business operations in terms of supply chain planning, execution and control in order to maximise its efficiency. In general, the whole process of supply chain management could range from raw material acquisition, components, manufacture, logistics, quality services to pre-retail services including labelling and packaging (Hines Bruce, 2007). In order to reduce costs and improve efficiency, most of modern multinational corporations choose supply chain outsourcing services, namely, as the identity of the buyers chooses the most cost-effective suppliers (including foundries and logistics companies, etc.) to complete their production as well as enhance the marginal benefit. However, to maximise the efficiency as a prerequisite, the traditional supply chain management ignores the social and environmental factors, and therefore in the past decades, corporate social responsibility in supply chain management became a new m anagement philosophy in many organisations. Therefore how to better manage the supply chain performance and enhance their capacity is very worthy of study. Many well-known multinational enterprises, taking the cost of production into account, come to the Asian countries like China, India, etc., to corporate with local companies to manufacture their products. Since the majority of suppliers in developing countries are labour-intensive enterprises, and the relevant enforcement of laws and regulations needs to be improved, therefore working conditions are unsatisfactory. Frequent overtime, unpaid wages, under minimum wage standard happen consistently. Along with media exposure and NGOs fierce criticism of sweatshops in especially Europe and the United States as well as other countries, multinational enterprises are beginning to require suppliers to comply with the Code of Conduct (CoC) and the relevant laws and regulations in the location of the suppliers (environmental protection law, labour law, etc.) to conduct the labour and environmental requirements and policies. Subsequently a lot of industrial standards, such as the garment industr y, WRAP, EICC of electronic industry, the ICTI of the toy industry, and chemical industrys Responsible Care. In order to ensure the performance of suppliers in terms of labour and environment performance, internal staff or third-party would be sent to the supplier factories for review and evaluation. If the quality and feature of products are dissatisfaction, the suppliers will be asked to provide assistance to make improvements or even cancel the order. Corporate social responsibility in supply chain management For suppliers, the meaning and definition of CSR is relatively narrow, is merely about how to meet customers needs, achieve social and environmental compliance, such as timely payment of wages, make sure working hours, in order to maintain operational order and ensure efficiency and effectiveness. CSR for the majority of suppliers is only about law-abiding, however, they do not properly understand the benefits of the implementation of CSR, and thus they just implement the so-called CSR improvement involuntarily. Despite the long history of CSR, applications of CSR concepts to supply chain management have only emerged in the last few years. Sustainable supply chain management is about management of supply chains where all the three dimensions of sustainability, in terms of the economic, environmental and social sustainability, are taken into account. Supply chain relationships have a critical impact in a global world. In order to advantage from low labour wages, more and more companies frequently outsource part of or even whole business activities to companies in developing countries. When sustainable SCM principles are adopted, the companies are accountable for the social and environmental impacts along the supply chain, and are compelled to integrate ecological and social aspects into their decisions and actions along their supply chains. When supply chain relationships involve developing countries, companies also need to take responsibility for the well-being and performance of small upstr eam producers that work in those countries. The Figure 5 shows some CSR issues that companies may confront with in managing their global supply chains. Figure 5. Examples of CSR issues in supply chains (Neergaard and Pedersen, 2005, p. 103; Cited in Pedersen Andersen, 2006) Therefore, helping supplier social responsibility should focus on how to make suppliers understand the business value of CSR, how to reflect the return on invest

Organic vs. Sustainable Agriculture Essay -- Compare Contrast Agricult

Organic vs. Sustainable Agriculture Agriculture, to many is just an industry of farmers and cows. Most people can’t even come close to fathom just how essential the continuance of agriculture is to not just our well being, but our very lives. People of the United States have been spoiled, they’ve never had to worry about the grocery stores running empty because, even to this day, there hasn’t been a problem growing enough to feed, not only the U.S. but a good part of the world too. The day though is fast approaching that we won’t be able to keep those grocery stores stocked. Due to the depletion of the vital resources, needed to produce our food, it is becoming increasingly challenging for today’s agriculturalists to feed the world. The only way to be able to keep up with the exponentially growing population and shrinking resource base, is to radically change how we produce our food or we will be looking at a huge crisis in the very near future. From this, need of new farming and prod uction techniques, comes a couple new practices that will be discussed in this publication. One is sustainable, and the other is organic crop production. In the following, both practices will be discussed in detail hopefully clearing the air on which practice, in the long run should be the path production agriculture takes. Organic Agriculture, as defined by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB): â€Å"Is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain, and enhance ecological harmony.† Which is very fancily put for agriculture with as little man made input as poss... ...perations future sustainability. Sources Brodt, S, Feenstra, G, Kozloff, R, Klonsky, K, Tourte, L. (2006). Farmer –community connections and the future of ecological agriculture in California. Agriculture and Human Values, 23,75-88. Fouche, C, Tourte, L, Gaskell, M, Smith, R, Koike, S, T. Mitchell, J. (2006) Organic Certification, Farm Planning, Management, and Marketing. Publication #7247, 1-6 Earles, R, Williams, P. (2005) Sustainable Agriculture: An introduction. Retrieved October 22, 2006, from http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/sustagintro.pdf Gegner, L, Kueper, G. (2004) Organic Crop Production Overview. Retrieved October 22, 2006, from http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/organiccrop.pdf Pimentel, D. (2005) Environmental, energetic, and economic comparisons of organic and conventional farming systems. Bioscience, v. 55, no. 7, 573-579

Higher Education and Vocational Degree

Murray’s Essay On Education: What’s Wrong With Vocational School â€Å"What’s Wrong With Vocational School,† by Charles Murray is an Article that states Vocational schooling would be better off than a four year College degree. In Murray’s opinion, college should only be with those with a high IQ rate of 115 or higher and able to handle rigorous and challenging courses. If you are at an IQ below 110 it becomes an issue and you would be more successful in a Vocational program.This article calmly and rationally presents the notion that the population would be better served by the reintroduction of more training for careers in trade occupations becoming more prominent, therefore creating more job opportunities for people graduating with a vocational degree. Many students that graduate from a four year University do not learn what is needed to go into the working field. Murray states â€Å"For a few occupations, a college degree still certifies a qualif ication. This brings up the question, why do we pressure everyone to get a four year degree?In our society the college you go to means more than your actual qualification or talent you might have. Employers tend to pick a student that graduated from a university over that of a vocational school student just because of the name of the school not the talent the individual has. The degree itself also does not automatically qualify the student for the job and there are much faster and better ways such as a vocational degree for young people to provide credentials to employers.These credentials are needed in the job market for students with vocational degrees. As Murray says, â€Å"Finding a good lawyer or physician is easy but finding a good carpenter, painter, or electrician is becoming difficult. † The jobs needed such as an electrician or painters are those with vocational degrees. We often overlook some of the great jobs that don’t require a degree and are still very r ewarding. A vocational degree can bring just as much income sometimes even more than a four year college degree in half the time.We have a mindset that a four year degree is much more valuable than a vocational degree. As Murray conveys this is not true he used an example of a craftsman bringing intrinsic rewards with high income. Vocational degrees are becoming more susceptible in our community. A college degree is no more important than any other high tech occupation such as an NBA player or a cabinet maker. Many of our most high income people do not have a college degree and do not care because they are living happily without it.Murray states the social cachet of a college degree still remains but will erode over time when large numbers of high income people do not have college degrees. † Many employers are looking more at the evidence you are good at something without the benefit of a college degree and will increase more overtime. If this does continue our false outlook o f a college degree will diminish. As a society we look at the only way of becoming successful is going to a four university and look over vocational degree programs. Through Murray’s argument we learned tha

JAM session topics Essay

Audio-Video mixing is an important aspect of cinematography.Most videos such as movies and sitcoms have several segments devoid of any speech.Adding carefully chosen music to such segments conveys emotions such as joy,tension or melancholy. In a typically professional video production,skilled audio-mixing artists aesthetically add appropriate audio to the given video shot. This process is tedious, time-consuming and expensive. The PIVOT VECTOR SPACE APPROACH in audio mixing is a novel technique that automatically picks the best audio clip (from the available database) to mix with the given video shot.This technique uses a pivot vector space mixing framework to incorporate the artistic heuristics for mixing audio with video. This technique eliminates the need for professional audio mixing artists and hence it is not expensive.It also saves time and is very convenient. In today’s era, significant advances are happening constantly in the field of Information Technology. The development in the IT related fields such as multimedia is extremely vast. This is evident with the release of a variety of multimedia products such as mobile handsets, portable MP3 players, digital video camcorders, handicams etc. Hence, certain activities such as production of home videos is easy due to products such as handicams, digital video camcorders etc. Such a scenario was not there a decade ago ,since no such products were available in the market. As a result production of home videos is not possible since it was reserved completely for professional video artists. So in today’s world, a large  amount of home videos are being made and the number of amateur and home video enthusiasts is very large.A home video artist can never match the aesthetic capabilities of a professional audio mixing artist. However employing a professional mixing artist to develop home video is not feasible as it is expensive, tedious and time consuming. Introduction The PIVOT VECTOR SPACE APPROACH is a novel technique of audio-video mixing which automatically selects the best audio clip from the available database, to be mixed with the given video shot. Till the development of this technique, audio-video mixing is a process that could be done only by professional audio-mixing artists. However employing these artists is very expensive and is not feasible for home video mixing. Besides, the process is  time-consuming and tedious.In today’s era, significant advances are happening constantly in the field of Information Technology. The development in the IT related fields such as multimedia is extremely vast. This is evident with the release of a variety of multimedia products such as mobile handsets, portable MP3 players, digital video camcorders, handicams etc. Hence, certain activities such as production of home videos is easy due to products such as handicams, digital video camcorders etc. Such a scenario was not there a decade ago ,since no such products were available in the market. As a result production of home videos is not possible since it was reserved completely for professional video artists.So in today’s world, a large amount of home videos are being made and the number of amateur and home video enthusiasts is very large.A home video artist can never match the aesthetic capabilities of a professional audio mixing artist. However employing a professional mixing artist to develop home video is not feasible as it is expensive, tedious and time consuming. Fig(1) PivotVectorRepresentation AESTHETIC ASPECTS Movies comprise images (still or moving) ;graphic traces(texts and signs);recorded speech, music, and noises; and sound effects. The different roles of music in movies can be categorized into :– Setting the scene(create atmosphere of time and place) Adding emotional meaning , Serving as a background filler, Creating continuity across shots or scenes, and  Emphasizing climaxes(alert the viewer to climaxes and emotional points of scenes).  The links between music and moving images are extremely important, and the juxtaposition of such elements must be carried out according to some aesthetic rules. The scientist Zettl explicitly defined such rules in the form of a table, presenting the features of moving images that match the features of music. Zettl based these proposed mixing rules on the following aspects:– Tonal matching(related to the emotional meaning defined by  Copland) Structural matching(related to emotional meaning and emphasizing climaxes defined by Copland) Thematic matching(related to setting the scene as defined by Copland) Historical-geographical matching(related to setting the scene as defined by Copland) In the following TABLE ,we summarize the work of Zettl by presenting aesthetic features that correspond in video and music. The table also indicates extractable features because many video and audio features defined by Zettl are high level perceptual features and can’t be extracted by the state of the art in computational media aesthetics. VIDEO AESTHETIC FEATURES The table shows, from the cinematic point of view,a set of attributed features(such as color and motion) required to describe videos.The computations for extracting aesthetic attributed features from low-level video features occur at the video shot granularity. Because some attributed features are based on still images(such as high light falloff),we compute them on the key frame of a video shot. We try to optimize the trade-off in accuracy and computational efficiency among the competing extraction methods. Also, even though we assume that the videos considered come in the MPEG format(widely used by several home video camcorders),the features exist independently of a particular representation format. The important video aesthetic features are as follows:– LIGHT FALLOFF : Light falloff refers to the brightness contrast between the light and shadow sides of an object and the rate of change from light to shadow. If the brightness contrast between the lighted side of an object and the attached shadow is high, the frame has fast falloff. This means the illuminated side  is relatively bright and the attached shadow is quite dense and dark. If the contrast is low, the resulting falloff is considered slow. No falloff(or extremely low falloff) means that the object is lighted equally on all sides. COLOR FEATURES The color features extracted from a video shot consists of four features:- Saturation Hue Brightness Energy MOTION VECTORS To measure the video segment’s motion intensity, we use descriptors. They describe a set of automatically extractable descriptors of motion activities, which are computed from the MPEG motion vectors and can capture the intensity of a video shot’s motion activity. Here we use the max2 descriptor, which discards 10 percent of the motion vectors to filter out spurious vectors or very small objects AUDIO AESTHETIC FEATURES Music perception is an extremely complex psycho-acoustical phenomenon that is not well understood. So instead of directly extracting the music’s perceptual features, we can use the low-level signal features of audio clips, which can provide clues on how to estimate the numerous perceptual features. LOW-LEVEL FEATURES We described here the required basic features that are extracted from an audio excerpt. Spectral centroid The spectral centroid is commonly associated with the measure of a sound’s brightness.We obtain this measure by evaluating the center of gravity using the frequency and magnitude information of Fourier transforms.The individual centroid C(n) of a spectral frame is the average frequency weighted by the  amplitude ,divided by the sum of the amplitude. Zerocrossing In the context of discrete-time signals, a zero crossing is said to occur if two successive samples have opposite signs. The rate at which Zero crossings occur is a simple measure of the frequency content of the signal.This is particularly true of the narrowband signals. Because audio signals might include both narrowband and broadband signals, the interpretation of the average zero-crossing rate is less precise. However, we can still obtain rough estimates of the spectral properties using a representation on the short-time average zero-crossing rate. Volume The volume distribution of audio clips reveals the signal magnitude’s temporal variation. It represents the subjective measure, which depends on the human listener’s frequency response. Normally volume is approximated by the root mean square value of the signal magnitude within each frame. VDR(v)=[max(V)-min(v)]/max(V) PERCEPTUAL FEATURES EXTRACTION Dynamics Dynamics refers to the volume of musical sound related to the music’s loudness or softness, which is always a relative indication, dependent on the context. Tempo features One of the most important features that makes the music flow unique and differentiates it from other types of audio signal is temporal organization(beat rate) Perceptual pitch feature Pitch perception plays an important role in human hearing, and the auditory system apparently assigns a pitch to anything that comes to its attention. ADVANTAGES Before the development of the PIVOT VECTOR SPACE APPROACH IN AUDIO-VIDEO MIXING process can be carried out only by professional mixing artists. In today’s era the development in the field of MULTIMEDIA technology is so vast as this can be seen with the releases of a number of multimedia products in the market. Products such as Digital video camcorders, Handicams greatly helped even normal home users to produce their own video. However, employing professional audio-mixing artists is not feasible since it is expensive, time-consuming and tedious. The Pivot vector space approach enables all the home video users and amateur video enthusiasts to give a professional look and feel to their videos. This technique also eliminates the need for professional mixing artists and hence saves cost. Besides, it is not time-consuming. Since this approach is fully automatic as it automatically selects the best audio clip (available from the given database) to be mixed with the given video shot ,the user need not worry about his aesthetic capabilities in selecting the audio clip. The Pivot vector space approach enables all the home video users and amateur video enthusiasts to give a professional look and feel to their videos. This technique also eliminates the need for professional mixing artists and hence saves cost. Besides, it is not time-consuming. Since this approach is fully automatic as it automatically selects the best audio clip (available from the given database) to be mixed with the given video shot ,the user need not worry about his aesthetic capabilities in selecting the audio clip. Fig(4): Application of Audio Video Mixing. APPLICATIONS In today’s INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY era ,the advances in the various IT fields such as MULTIMEDIA,NETWORKING etc is very fast.Newer and better technologies arise as each day passes. This is evident with the release of a number of Technology packed products such as portable MP3 players,digital cameras,digital video camcorders,Handicams,Mobile handsets etc. Before the advent of such technologies, activities such as Production of videos etc could be done only by professional video artists. However in today’s era,with the releases of products such as Handicams,Digital video camcorders;production of videos is easy for all the home video users and amateur video enthusiasts.As a result, a large amount of home video footage is being produced now. The PIVOT VECTOR SPACE APPROACH is a novel technique for these users since it is able to provide a professional look and feel to these videos.It eliminates the need for professional mixing artists and hence cuts down the cost ,time and labour involved.Hence,the demand for such a technique will be only increasing in the coming years .This technique will definitely have a great impact on the IT market today. CONCLUSION The PIVOT VECTOR SPACE APPROACH is a new dimension in the field of AUDIO-VIDEO mixing. Before the advent of this technology, audio-video mixing was a process carried out only by professional mixing artists. However, this process is expensive, tedious and time-consuming. This entire scenario changed with the emergence of the PIVOT VECTOR SPACE approach. Since this technique is fully Automatic, it enabled a home video user to provide a professional look and feel to his video. This technique also eliminates the need for professional mixing artists, thereby significantly reducing the cost, time and labour involved. In today’s era,a large amount of home video footage is being produced due to products such as Digital video camcorders, Handicams etc.Hence,this technique will be of great use to all the amateur video enthusiasts and home video users. REFERENCES IEEE Multimedia journal (Computational Media Aesthetics) CHIP magazine DIGIT magazine http://computer.org/multimedia/mu2003/u2toc.htm http://www.pcmag.com