Employment Agencies Must Know About Contract and Negligence

Employment Agencies Must Know About Contract and Negligence Introduction Before a business launch its ideas (product/services) with in an environment both locally and or internationally, one must understand the legal environment that governs that place. This will eliminate conflicts of interest. With the understanding and knowledge of business law, opportunities, and potential benefits it will bridge the gap of the unknown. Furthermore, when purchasing a business, it is also important to understand the legal ramifications as it relates to the region in which that business will be operating and as it pertains to the nature of interaction and relationship with the local people. There are basically two types of business relationships: (i) Formal and (ii) Informal. This report will be focused on formal relationship between employer and employee relative to the legal aspects of Contract and Negligence in operating an employment agency. Business law though generally similar across the globe, will have subtle variations of interpretation and legal structure, whi ch are usually dictated by regional norms. Since the business acquired is an employment agency, the report will addressing some of the relevant aspects of Contract and Negligence for this employment agency business as applicable by the local rule of law. More specifically, this Business Law Report aims to feature the essential elements of a valid and binding contract, types of contracts and terms, the tort of negligence and the principles of liability with respect to the operations of an employment agency. This qualitative research will combine research, analysis, solution integrated approaches to business problems from a legal perspective. Hitlers employment agency is a small partnership business that deals with hiring of pupils. The research proposal includes a description of Hitlers employment agency background, the purpose, literature review, the objectives after acquisition, methodology of analysis, and the limitations of the study. The potential impact of the study could influence the perception of the investors. Project background The business acquired is an employment agency. The report will address some of the relevant aspects of Contract and Negligence for this employment agency business as applicable by the local rule of law. However this will help the business in making legal decision, nature of liabilities, different types of business decision and terms of contracts. The unknown of the legal system environment the business is operating in can result law suits if not operated in the law of the land. Hitlers employment agency is a small partnership business that deals with hiring of pupils. The company is partnership, managed by four friend. The company was formed in 2001. As a results, the main goal of Hitlers employment agency has been focused on creating more demand for their services while expand operations in other parishes of the island. The group of investors purchasing Hitlers employment agency believes there is an opportunity. K.C Deorgins is a consultant Firm. The firm analyzes existing and start-up businesses, create solutions to problems, and help small businesses to develop efficient plans for meeting their goals. K.C Deorgins have been in business since 2000, it was started by four college friends that recognize that small businesses in the Kingston area never survive more than a year and wanted to find the underline problem of the cause of this continuous occurrence. In 2006, K.C Deorgins branch out in St.Thomas, St.James, St. Elizabeth and St.Catherine. After the branches were open business that the K.C Deorgins help business strive to another level and survive even in the country bad economy downfall. Purpose To set out the relevant aspects of Contract and Negligence for an employment agency Objective To identify the essential contents of a Contract To apply the elements of a Contract in a business situation To outline the elements of Negligence relative to Law of Tort To illustrate the principles of Liability in Negligence Literature Review Employment agencies have a contractual relationship with prospective employees, which compels the agency to act in the best interests of the applicants. So in the normal course of business, an employment agency’s failure, to (i) foresee some danger to their applicants and (ii) in its ability to exercise some control over which employers it makes available to the applicants, will make the employment agency liable for damages. In other words, the employment agency will be liable for negligence if it fails to exercise the duty of care. As such, according to UsLegal.com, â€Å"the basis of liability under the doctrine of negligent hiring is the master’s own negligence in hiring or retaining in his employ an incompetent servant whom the master knows, or by the exercise of reasonable care should have known, was incompetent or unfit, thereby creating an unreasonable risk of harm to others.† Hence ultimately the employment agency owes a duty to its inventory of employees and to the general public to ascertain the qualifications and competence of the potential employee applicants it hires, especially where employees are engaged in occupations that require skill or experience and where there could be a hazard to the safety of others. It therefore goes without saying that due to the nature of the contractual agreements involve with operating an employment agency, it is imperative that operators of such an establishment be aware of the legal concepts of liability in order to ensure that negligent risk is minimized and contractual agreements are not in breach between employer and employee. The formal relationship between employer and employee relative to the legal aspects of Contract and Negligence, as noted by reviewed literature, is of paramount concern when conducting the of an employment agency. Methodology To set the relevant aspects of Contract and Negligence for an employment agency. The qualitative study will seek to find out the problems surrounding business law and also the opportunities and potential benefits of being knowledgeable about business law as it relates to the new business enterprise. Secondary source of information will be employed from websites and journals. Secondary source of information is gathered information from other individual who did an in-dept research about a particular topic. This type of information is usually factual but sometimes is tainted by the subjectivity of the researcher or author. The limitation of secondary source is that the information is not been updated. With the information collected twenty years back would not necessarily apply to the same issue of solving a problem as technologies has evolve over the years that even has forensic evidence. It is this researcher opinion that primary sources will not be of any benefit to this business law report. References USLEGAL.COM. 2014. Liability of Employment Agencies for Negligence or Violation of Statute See more at: http://employmentagencies.uslegal.com/liability/#sthash.zqo0UYtL.pa7Y2v6I.dpuf. [ONLINE] Available at: http://employmentagencies.uslegal.com/liability/#sthash.zqo0UYtL.dpuf. [Accessed 12 March 14]. StudyMode.com . 2014.Aspect of Contract Negligence in Business. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.studymode.com/course-notes/Aspect-Of-Contract-Negligence-In-1953205.html#. [Accessed 14 March 14]. BLACK, H C B, 1968.BLACKS LAW DICTIONARY. 4th ed. ST. PAUL, MINN. : WEST PUBLISHING CO. e-lawresources.co.uk. 2014.Contract law. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.e-lawresources.co.uk/Contract.php. [Accessed 14 March 14]. LAW.COM. 2014.Search Legal Terms and Definitions. [ONLINE] Available at:http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?letter=T. [Accessed 14 March 14]. kaunainassaria. 2013.Aspects of Contracts and Negligence in Business. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.studymode.com/essays/Aspects-Of-Contracts-And-Negligence-In-1635053.html#. [Accessed 14 March 14].

Functional Role of Neurogenesis in Humans

Functional Role of Neurogenesis in Humans Self-renewing stem-like cells in the adult hippocampus have captured the imagination of neuroscientists and clinicians for decades. Unfortunately, there have been relatively few studies investigating the functional role of AHN in humans. Throughout this thesis, I have described a number of studies in which we undertook the challenge of identifying indirect correlates of AHN in humans as well as elucidating the functional role of adult-born granule cells in everyday memory. We accomplished this by assessing various lifestyle- and blood-based factors known to influence neurogenesis from the animal literature and comparing these factors to behavioural performance on tasks which tested the proposed roles for AHN in learning and memory. There has been much speculation regading the functional role of neurogenesis in humans. Computational modellers and theorists have proposed several distinct roles for AHN in cognition based on what is known of their location in the brain, functional connectivity with surrounding regions and physiological poperties. Some have proposed that the constant turnover of newborn cells in the hippocampus would allow memory storage for novel events, while avoiding interference with older memories, a computational process termed pattern separation (Becker et al., 2005; Chambers and Conroy, 2007; Appleby and Wiskott, 2009; Becker et al., 2009; Weisz and Argibay, 2009; Aimone and Gage, 2011). However, events occurring close together in time may be subject to enhanced interference because the same population of cells would be firing in response to each event encountered. This process of increasing interference between events occurring close together in time is referred to as pattern integration (A imone et al., 2006). Indeed, some studies have shown paradoxical improvements in working memory tasks following ablation of neurogenesis (Saxe et al., 2007). However, working memory circuits outside of the hippocampus may be responsible for such improvements. Across short timescales, the majority of behavioural evidence from rodents has actually demonstrated that the role for neurogenesis in cognition, although seemingly widespread, converges on one function in particular. The formation of context-shock associations is impaired in animals lacking neurogenesis (Saxe et al., 2006; Winocur et al., 2006; Imayoshi et al., 2008; Warner-Schmidt et al., 2008; Wojtowicz et al., 2008; Hernandez-Rabaza et al., 2009; Ko et al., 2009; Guo et al., 2011; Nakashiba et al., 2012; Pan et al., 2012b), especially when the shock is relatively weak or training paradigm relatively short (Drew et al., 2010; Pan et al., 2012a, 2013). Animals lacking neurogenesis are also impaired at discriminating between o verlapping odor pairs (Luu et al., 2012) or between nearby, but not far apart spatial locations (Clelland et al., 2009). In contrast, upregualting neurogenesis via aerobic exercise or genetic manipulation has been shown to increase AHN and leads to enhanced behavioural pattern separation or CFC performance (Creer et al., 2010; Sahay et al., 2011; Kohman et al., 2012). While it seems like a wide-variety of tasks require adult-born granule cells, many, if not all of these tasks require overcoming interference. All of these tasks require the animal to form separate representations of similar stimuli, regardless of whether the stimuli are different contexts, objects, spatial locations or odours. This is why I say that AHN is required for a wide-variety, yet specific set of memory tasks. The behavioural requirements of tasks shown to depend on neurogenesis have differed substantially, but the psychological construct shown to rely on AHN has been fairly consistent. Neurogenesis may further help separate similar events occurring over longer time periods (Becker, 2005; Aimone et al., 2006; Becker and Wojtowicz, 2007). A distinct pool of newborn neurons would help to add a degree of contextual novelty to similar events that are separated by a sufficient amount of time. Without new cells being added to the hippocampal network, the same populations of cells would end up reperesenting multiple different memories, leading to catastrophic interference (Wiskott et al., 2006). This account of the role for neurogenesis in learning and memory has generally been reffered to as the memory retention hypothesis throughout this thesis. In contrast, others have proposed that the addition of newborn cells to the hippocampus would result in existing connections being altered in such a way that information is lost (Feng et al., 2001; Deisseroth et al., 2004; Frankland et al., 2013). This account of the role for neurogenesis in learning and memory has generally been referred to as the memory clearance hypothesis throughout this thesis. Behavioural evidence from non-human animal studies has supported the memory retention hypothesis, especially for spatial or context-rich memories. For instance, rodents with ablated neurogenesis display marked deficits in remembering the platform locaton following MWM training across long, but not short timescales (Snyder et al., 2005; Deng et al., 2009; Jessberger et al., 2009; Kitamura et al., 2009; Inokuchi, 2011; Pan et al., 2012a, 2012b, 2013). In contrast, some studies have shown impaired long-term retention of fear memories in younger mice with relatively high rates of neurogenesis compared to their older counterparts (Akers et al., 2012). When older mice had wheel-running- or antidepressant drug-induced enhancement of neurogenesis, they were impaired on tests of remote memory compared to control mice (Akers et al., 2014). Therefore, it would seem that behavioural evidence from rodents has also supported the memory clearance hypothesis. The persistence or clearance of memories as a result of ongoing neural turnover in the DG may depend on the type of memory. There is evidence to suggest that spatial memories are always dependent on the hippocampus (Snyder et al., 2005; Deng et al., 2009; Jessberger et al., 2009). For these memories that are permanently hippocampal-dependent, AHN may help keep overlapping events disctinct from one another, thereby promoting long-term retention of the original memory. On the other hand, fear memories may be supported by regions outside of the hippocampus (Kitamura et al., 2009). Thus, for those memories that can be supported by extrahippocampal structures, AHN may accelerate the process of systems consolidation (Kitamura et al., 2009), shifting the dependence of the memory from the hippocampus to neocortical regions (McClelland et al., 1995; Squire and Alvarez, 1995; Maviel et al., 2004; Squire and Bayley, 2007). While animal studies have provided val uable clues as to the importance of AHN in learning and memory, it has nonetheless become apparent that studying the functional role of neurogenesis directly in humans is the critical next step that must be taken in order to alleviate some of the confusion generated in non-human animal studies. In the set of studies that comprise this thesis, we have demonstrated that change in aerobic capacity following chronic physical activity correlates with change in performance on a putatively neurogenesis-dependent visual pattern separation task. On the other hand, stress and depression scores had opposing effects on behavioural pattern separation performance. Importantly, neither exercise response nor depression scores predicted performance on other trial types within the BPS-O, repeated or novel items, nor the visuo-spatial CANTAB ® PAL task. We have also shown that lower stress and depression scores are associated with improved visual object recognition on repeated items following a two-week delay from the study phase. Further, on two-week delayed retention tests, participants scored near chance at identifying lures as â€Å"similar†, regardless of stress and depression levels. Interestingly, they more often misclassified these items as â€Å"new†, as opposed to â €Å"old†. Our results provide indirect evidence from human participants that AHN is important for pattern separation across shorter delays, while contributing to the persistence of memories for repeated items across extended time intervals. Future studies could explicitly test the memory clearance hypothesis in humans by measuring recognition memory across longer timescales with a pro-neurogenic intervention, such as long-term exercise, in between study and test. Pattern separation and memory retention (or clearance) may be coexisting phenomena. The addition of immature neurons to the hippocampus may at first bias the network towards pattern separation, as opposed to pattern completion, thereby reducing interference between events (Yassa and Reagh, 2013). In turn, the amount of pattern separation may decide what information will be subject to reconsolidation and what information will be cleared (Yassa and Reagh, 2013). Reconsolidation is the process whereby an existing memory becomes susceptible to change. If an event is considered similar, but not the same as, a previously stored event then the original memory may be modified to accommodate the discrepent information. Thus, the constant addition of adult-born neurons to the hippocampus may serve as a means of adding contextual information to existing memories. However, the original memory may be altered so drastically during reconsolidation that it is no longer accessible (essentially cleare d), depending on the amount of interference between the original memory and the novel event. Indeed, a number of computational models predict that the addition of newborn neurons to an existing circuit would hinder retrieval of previously stored memories (Deisseroth et al., 2004; Weisz and Argibay, 2009, 2012). On the other hand, if two events are considered one in the same, then information may be strengthened, although more generalized in nature. As these adult-born neurons that once contributed to pattern integration or pattern separation continue to mature and establish new synaptic connections with the pre-existing circuitry, they may destabilize previously established memories in the hippocampus, leading to the loss of previously stored information (Josselyn and Frankland, 2012; Frankland et al., 2013; Yassa and Reagh, 2013). In turn, the clearance of older memories would make room for new ones and the newborn neurons would become part of the physical storage site for new memo ries (Josselyn and Frankland, 2012). Thus, both processes may be beneficial in their own way. Whether or not memory clearance is a benefit or detriment to memory performance really depends on the relative importance of information is being cleared. Correlates of Neurogenesis in Humans and Animals Neurogenesis is down-regulated in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, so being able to characterize AHN in vivo is critical for better disease prevention and/or treatment. Unfortunately, there is no way to non-invasively quantify newborn cells in the living human hippocampus. Therefore, it has been difficult to improve our understanding of how neurogenesis influences the onset or recovery from certain disorders associated with downregulated neurogenesis, such as depression. In addition, we cannot assess the specific contribution of newborn neurons to learning and memory.

Discussion of the four noble truths of Buddhism Essay -- essays resear

Q2. Outline and discuss the four noble truths: is the Buddhist view of existence optimistic or pessimistic? The question of the Buddhist view of existence being optimistic or pessimistic is one which is many have an opinion on. It could be said that the four noble truths provide the views of the Buddha in the way that life is led and more importantly, should be led. Certainly, the end goal is clearly optimistic, the attainment of spiritual enlightenment, or nirvana. However, the Buddhist view of life as we lead it is often deemed pessimistic as it is so concerned with suffering. As there is more than one school of thought to, â€Å"is the Buddhist view of existence of optimistic or pessimistic?† our understanding of these truths is crucial to the answer. The first noble truth is the full understanding of suffering. In an obvious way, people are aware of suffering and know when they have unpleasant sensations such as hunger, cold, or sickness. However, the first noble truth includes â€Å"awareness of all the ramifications of suffering because it encompasses the very nature and essence of suffering† (Gethin, 1998). This includes knowledge of the subtle as well as the obvious aspects of suffering. The obvious aspect of suffering is immediate pain or difficulty in the moment. Subtle suffering is more difficult to understand because it begins with happiness. In that respect it might be considered a â€Å"pessimistic† view that happiness leads to suffering. However, it is a fundamental Buddhist belief that the â€Å"very nature of happiness must change because it is impermanent.† (Gethin, 1998). To non- – Buddhists situations that might give one greatest happiness may be those which are the most actively desired and pursued e.g. love marriage and children. However, the need to maintain this happiness makes the happiness itself a suffering in Buddhist terms. If a sufferer is not aware of his suffering, s/he will never have the motivation to eliminate it and will continue to suffer. On the other hand if one becomes aware of suffering, one may be able to overcome it. In the same sense with the more subtle forms of suffering, if a person is happy and becomes aware and accepts that the happiness automatically includes the seed of suffering, then s/he will be much less inclined to become involved in the attachment to this happiness. One will then think. And so the first truth is that ... ...sting in contrast to worldly happiness which is exciting for a time, but then changes. In contrast, this ultimate liberation and omniscience is a definitive release from the defilement which is the cause of suffering. Their cessation is the most deeply moving peace. Within that peace all the powers of liberation and wisdom are developed. It is a very definitive release from both suffering and its result and four main qualities of this truth of cessation. First, it is the cessation of suffering. Second, it is peace. Third, it is the deepest liberation and wisdom. Fourth, it is a very definitive release. Cessation is a product of practising the path shown to us by the Most Perfect One, the Lord Buddha. The actual nature of that path is the topic of the fourth noble truth, which is called the truth of the path because it describes the path that leads to liberation. 7211, essay two Bibliography. Cush, D, (1994), Buddhism, Hodder and Staughton, Gethin, R, (1998), The Foundations of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, (pp. 74 –96) Sumedha, Ajahn, (2001), The Four Noble Truths, www.buddhanet.net Francesconni, (2001), The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, www.dharmawest.com

My Generation Essay -- essays research papers fc

People throughout the world experience catastrophes, and contentment throughout their lives. Some incidences may impact just their lives, or even the world. People experience occurrences in their generation where only they could have an emotional connection. Ancestors, grandparents, and our parents have experienced situations in their lives, which we could only take a glimpse of. We see the photos, we hear the stories but we don't feel the emotions, which they experience during that time. In my generation there have been events in my life that I classify devastating and memorable. In the following paragraphs I will present the aspects of my generation of how incidences may impact our lives and the lives all across the world. In 1981 the year of my birth, Pope John Paul II and President Reagan, are both shot in assassination attempts. He was the first non-Italian pope in 450 years and the first Polish pope. John Paul traveled widely early in his reign, e.g., to Poland and the U.S. in 1979. Following a trip to E Asia (1981), he was shot at the Vatican on May 13, 1981, by a Turkish terrorist (Zpub). The assassination attempts on John Paul II and President Reagan have lifted a dilemma and gun control. Gun control is government limitation of the purchase and ownership of firearms. The availability of guns is controlled by nations throughout the world. In the U.S. the right of the people to keep arms is guaranteed by the Constitution but has been variously interpreted (Zpub). Some states have strict licensing and other control measures, and federal legislation prohibited the sale of rifles by mail. After years of controversy, the growing number of gun-related crimes pushed congressional passage of the Brady bi ll. Named for press secretary James Brady who was seriously wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan. The 1994 Federal Crime Bill banned the manufacture, sale, and possession of certain assault weapons. In 1984 a Rock n’ Roll Group Queen release their album Queens Greatest Hits Volume I. Without a doubt the album goes Platinum, with hits like â€Å"Bohemian Rhapsody,† â€Å"Another Bites The Dust,† â€Å"We Are The Champions† and â€Å"We Will Rock You†. My favorite song from the album is â€Å"We Will Rock You.† I really enjoy the song because it has personal significance and not only that, but it has a nice beat to it. The song has become an anthem in Am... ...and Elton John. And Steven Spielberg creates movies to help better understand the concept and tragedies of war. This is just a glimpse of what my world/generation was like from 1981-2002. Works Cited Atkinson, Rick.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Crusade.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  New York: Princeton Press, 1997. Schindler’s List. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Ben Kingsley, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes. Videocassette. Universal, 1993. No Author.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Online source   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.cnn.com/US/OKC/bombing.html Reeve, Simon.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The New Jackals.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999 Rees Mat.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"World Trade Center Tragedy†Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Time Sept. 2001 35-37 No Author.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Online source   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.zpub.com/un/pope/ G.I. Joe An America Hero: WPIX 11. New York. 1988

9/11 :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout history there have occurred many tragic events. On Sept. 11, 2001 and Aug. 29, 2005, two unforgettable event have occur, where is will be remember throughout the ages of the United States history. In this essay I ¡Ã‚ ¯ll be discussing the impact to the life ¡Ã‚ ¯s and the economic changes in the U.S.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On the tragic day of 9/11 a day that will be unforgettable, happen in the pages of American history, the unthinkable happen. The terror stuck the heart of the big apple, New York City, two planes crashed into the world trade center and total chaos occurred, and lives have been lost, and many injured. The terror didn ¡Ã‚ ¯t end there, other plane hit out nations capital Washington DC, The Pentagon. Thousands of lives were lost in a single morning, people scatter for help and to be saved, and some die from trying to save them. The aftermath of this tragic event occurred have help brought us Americans close together and to support each other in times of greater needs regardless of all the events that occurred.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On Aug. 29, 2005, a great nature disaster occurred in the city of New Orleans, hurricane Katrina. Flooding and drowning hundreds of people, and destroying billions of dollars building and house and etc ¡Ã‚ ­, these tragic events have cause millions to be homeless and many deaths. In these times of need people fight to survive and to get back what they have lost.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  These two events have affected everyone through out the world, many people struggling to live and to move on in life, some just can ¡Ã‚ ¯t let it go, both tragic incidents cause a lot of great pain and lost, an affected the US greatly. The American economic has greatly increase in price of everything, from the food we buy and to the gas use need for our cars, has sky rocketed, because of these tragic event which help rebuild and recover what was lost from these events.

African Folktales Essay

In the actual Nigeria tribe African folktales, form a very important part of the African culture. There are different ways in how those folktales affect the African culture in general; one of this ways is that it’s used as a way of communicating. There is a rich, fertile legacy of folklore from Africa. On this vast continent, folk tales and myths serve as a means of handing down traditions and customs from one generation to the next. The storytelling tradition has thrived for generations because of the absence of printed material. Folk tales prepare young people for life, as there are many lessons to be learned from the tales from the history of this large continent, this includes the forceful transplanting of the people into slavery on other continents. In addition to the folk tales, there are myths, legends, many proverbs, tongue twisters, and riddles. In the African folk tales, the stories reflect the culture where animals abound; consequently, the monkey, elephant, giraffe, lion, zebra, crocodile, and rhinoceros appear frequently along with a wide variety of birds such as the ostrich, the secretary bird, and the eagle. The animals and birds take on human characteristics of greed, jealousy, honesty, loneliness, etc. Through their behavior, many valuable lessons are learned. Also, the surroundings in which the tales take place reveal the vastness of the land and educate the reader about the climate, such as the dry season when it hasn’t rained for several years, or the rainy season when the hills are slick with mud. The acacia trees swaying in a gentle breeze, muddy streams that are home to fish, hippos and crocodiles, moss covered rocks, and giant ant hills that serve as a â€Å"back scratcher† for huge elephants, give the reader a sense of the variety of life in this parched or lush land in this part of the world. There is wealth of folktales in the African culture of different kinds some examples of them are: Uncle Remus Tales, Tortoise and the Hare, Crocodile Tales, The voice of the Drums, The Kind of Lion, String Tales, The Sacred Vulture, Anansi, and Dilemma Tales. Those kinds of tales above are just some examples of the huge African folktales repertory, and the subcategories which take a major role in the African and Nigerian culture and society, reflecting the animals that abound there. In conclusion, I can say that folktales plays an important role in the African Society, even more than books or other kind of source, this is because in Africa are very few resources of written history, so they know more about their history via these folktales; without folktales, African history may be inexistent CITATIONS: Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Random house, Inc., 1995 http://www.teachervision.fen.com/folk-tales/resource/3716.html?page=1&detoured=1

Ryanair Case Study

Nova School of Business and Economics 2012/2013 DOGFIGHT OVER EUROPE: RYANAIR Case Study This set of questions refers to Version (A): 1. Which kind of customers was Ryanair trying to attract when, in 1999, Michael O’Leary took charge of the firm? Those with a low price elasticity of demand or those with a high price elasticity of demand? Explain.Considering that we are talking about the same product, in an industry with many firms, where producers and consumers know all quoted prices and where the consumers can identify the product as homogeneous, it is fair to say that we are talking about a scenario close to perfect competition, thus demand for the product is very elastic. So, Ryanair is trying to attract high price elasticity customers.Accordingly to the article: Ryanair marketed itself as â€Å"the low fares airline†; before open new routes, the company cared about low landing fees, low turnaround costs in order to be able to charge low fares to customers; it made a greements with secondary airports, where they did not pays fees (in fact those airports paid to Ryanair to use their locales); it tried that 70% of the available seats in the two lowest fare categories; it made fewer restrictions on its tickets (important for who had extra bags, or who wants to change the flights in order to pay less); it observe competitors, so it would be able to apply a lower fare; its customers were a mix of leisure travelers (70-75%) and business travelers, mostly from small and mid-sized businesses (25-30%). ifferences in airfares could persuade some leisure travelers to visit one destination rather than another; it has chosen the cost leadership so it seeks to be the lowest cost producer in Europe by selling standardized, mass products and Ryanair’s profit maximization was through lower fares in order to attract more customers contrarily to competitors where they maximize their profits through find opportunities to increase fares without losing custome rs. So accordingly to the customers with a high PED (price elasticity demand) following the formula (Q/P) x (P/Q): a little negative variation in prices (decrease in fares), will originate a big positive variation in the amount sold. 2. Why was cost cutting so essential for the strategy chosen? First of all it is important to refer that in 1991, Ryanair was facing a bankruptcy.In response, ‘the company removed all frills from its service, cut its costs to the bone, and dropped its fares to levels unheard of in Europe’. It became priority, to connect all the efforts to preserve and generate cash. Company’s main concern was charge lower fares in order to attract high elasticity price demand customers, with this new strategy, the company became low-cost or low-fare airlines and to maintain it within these measures the firm needed to adapt its strategy to new restrictions, which means, cost cutting. The flag airline faced a really competitive market (in 1999), and to keep competitive the firm had to keep its strategy, and for that was necessary cost cutting. Cost cutting, if it is efficiently done, brings more profits.Besides, using the model used in classes, â€Å"Bertrand – Asymmetric Model† where it says that if certain firm charges ‘P1’ for its product, and other firm charges ‘P1-e’ (because it is able to reduce its marginal cost), so the second firm will get all the demand. Well, Ryanair did not get all the demand, but is observable in ‘Exhibit 4’ that the company carried approximately 60% (353/575) and 56% (180/321) of the passengers on the route ‘Dublin-Manchester’ and the route ‘Dublin-Glasgow’ respectively. 3. Ryanair uses a performance-based pay scheme to compensate its flight attendants. Why? A performance-based payment scheme combines the interests of both flight attendants and the company. This happens because obviously, the flag airline will gain more i f the attendants are working efficiently (making an effort to sell the snacks, drinks, or whatever they have on board; being nice with the passengers, and help them as much they can), then if they are lazy during work. If a salesperson receives a fixed wage, no matter how much it sells, then he or she will not have any incentive to sell more than the expected. But, of course, if they receive an extra commission for each sale, then the salesperson will do the effort that it maximizes its utility. By having a higher effort, the workers have a higher payoff which maximizes its utility.A sector payment or an in-flight sales commission allowed flight attendants to earn 10% more than those from competitors and allowed the firm to fly to 50% more sectors than its rivals. Consequently, a higher number of flights increase the profits of Ryanair. The company’s rapid growth permitted job mobility, for instance, a flight attendant could take a job at the yield operations management on th e headquarters; job mobility was a solution for the company to avoid coordination problems. 4. Why wasn’t this performance scheme also offered to maintenance personnel? The majority of European airlines pay their employees based on the length of their tenure with the company. However, Ryanair only applied this to their maintenance and engineering personnel.As a company obsessed with cash, the most important part of the business was the operational part, the one which actually gave money to the company: flights and duty-free revenues. So, this was the only personnel where it was justifiable to apply a performance-based pay scheme. Engineering and maintenance were paid based on their formal qualifications: more qualified personnel would do the job more accurately. Maintenance personnel only represented 9,34% of the total employees as of March 31, 1999. Besides the company concerns about security: let’s say that if they receive a fee for each plane that is ‘fixedâ⠂¬â„¢, they will want to fix the maximum planes, as fast as possible, and that may not be the best for the passenger’s security.It’s more important to seek personal with higher qualification, and pay them a reasonable (but fixed) salary, because this is kind of business where mistakes cannot happen, and so, the personnel has to be focus in its work, and not in the ‘extra money’. 5. Can you suggest means of rewarding maintenance personnel that would induce high productivity without hindering Ryanair’s strategy? Ryanair’s strategy is keep low fares so it will be able to keep â€Å"fiercely competitive† and â€Å"ferociously cost conscious†, which implies, minimize costs (everywhere where it is possible), so increase their salaries would hurt the company’s strategy. Given this, it would be a good idea to search for some ‘non-monetary’ alternatives.First of all give them some lectures about how important is to do a good maintenance of the aircraft, aware them that a single mistake can be fatal for hundreds of people (unless they are murderers or mentally sick people they will get alert! ). They can make promises to them in the long-run like if there are no mistakes, Ryanair’s credibility increases, and that will attract more passengers, which means more revenues, which means they can increase wages (and keep the same profit). Monitoring them is a good way of keep the high productivity, this measure leads to an increase in veracity of the employee's reports, in other words, if an employee knows that he or she is being watched, then it will for sure do a better job.The creation of bureaucracy that implies the creation of rules in order to limit the employee’s actions, these rules can be benefit for the maintenance workers, for example, the creation of a rule that says it is mandatory to do a 15 minutes break, every two hours. 6. What are the likely consequences for Ryanair of a steep decrease in the price of jet fuel brought about by a significant decline in the price of oil? Consider both the direct and the strategic effect. All the airline companies are strategic complements, which mean that if one firm takes one action, the others will respond with aggressively actions (upward sloping). And they exhibit tough commitment, in other words, is a commitment that is going to have an adverse effect on the competitors.In Bertrand (this case), the company makes a tough commitment, no matter how much its rival changes the price, the firm’s price will be lower than it would have been if there were no commitment. The companies make tough commitment to avoid that new entrants increase the price competition. Given this, we built the following graph: The red line stands for direct effect and the blue line stands for substitution effect. The direct effect is the commitment’s impact on the present value of the firm’s profits, assuming that the compe titors’ behavior does not change. Applying to the case is basically the profits that all the others airline companies would earn if Ryanair would not decrease its prices as well (point 1 to point 2).The substitution effect takes into account the competitive side effects of the commitment, this means, how much does the tactical decisions of the rivals change, under the commitment conditions. Basically is the adjustment made by Ryanair after the competitors decrease their prices (point 2 to point 3). Decline in the price of oil, brings a decrease in the price of jet fuel. With this shock, all the airline companies will decrease their prices, P1*’. As it was said before, Ryanair always observes its competitors, and then make its move, so they will decrease their tickets’ prices even more, P2*’(one of the principals of tough commitment). As it says in exhibit 2, ‘fuel ; oil’ constitutes approximately 16% of its costs (6. 0/37. ), so despite it is not visible on the graph (due to lack of data related to prices), the prices of the flight’s tickets will decrease considerable, because (repeat) this is a really competitive market, and the airline companies find themselves in a tough commitment, that it will originate a decline even bigger that the one it would happen without though commitment. It is important to refer that the company’s product has a low-level of horizontal differentiation because the difference between the products of each one of the companies is based on the quality in the in-flight zone. And there are tons of people who simply do not care about that.For those ones, their only concern is to get to their destination. 7. What are the most serious threats that Ryanair faces? Explain your perspective. Europe Union’s measure â€Å"Under the package, carriers were given full freedom to set fares. Any company was allowed to start an airline provided that it had majority European ownership, adequ ate financial backing, and the ability to meet safety requirements. The package permitted any European airline to fly any route between two EU countries and, starting in 1997, any intra-country route between two European cities. † This measure means no patents’ system, which means that as long as there is positive profit, other companies will enter in the market.Without proper cautions this may lead to perfect competition, where the companies will lower their prices until it equals the marginal cost, which implies that the profit will be zero. Even worse than that is if Ryanair adheres to a new technology (in order to decrease its marginal cost), and if we are in a situation where the other companies can copy and use the technology discovered by Ryanair, the company will have negative profits. Contrarily if the competitors are able to decrease its marginal cost, and the antitrust agencies that may lead to monopoly (if there is a patented system that says that is illegal to copy and use technology of others firms). Possible merges by competitors, which would increase their market share. For example, in 2002, easyJet purchased Go for ? 374m.Ryanair may face laws taken by the antitrust agencies that may limit its actions, for example the use of ‘dumping’ strategy (‘monopolistic strategy’ where the firm sells its products below their production cost in order to eliminate competition, and when it occurs, the firm increase its prices again). Ryanair has faced aggressive marketing campaigns and charity efforts by Virgin Express, subcontracts and reliability on third parties (lower costs), total direct selling and a very informal environment by easyJet, predatory pricing by British Airways’ Go and in-flight entertainment and comfort by Debonair. The last one went bankrupt but all the others provide serious competition to Ryanair despite not achieving the profitable results desired.