STRATEGY consulting brief about Air Australia Essay

STRATEGY consulting brief about Air Australia - Essay Example Michael James joined Strategic Group in 2002 as an equal shareholder, alongside Shaun Aisen, and executive director. However, in 2011, Shaun Aisen exited the company resulting in Michael James becoming the sole owner. A few months later, other key members of staff, including the chief executive, commercial manager, and chief operating officer, left the company citing disagreements with Mr. James’ leadership as the main cause. On February 17, 2012, the company’s directors agreed that the company be placed into voluntary administration. Finally, in March of the same year, the company’s creditors voted, for Air Australia to be placed into liquidation. This was because the company could not be sold since nobody had expressed interest, and the company’s assets were not enough to cover the debts it had incurred. Air Australia’s main appeal was their cheap tickets since the company was a low-cost carrier. The budget airline provided affordable travel and, therefore, families could opt to travel short distances by air rather than spend several hours on the road. By providing low-priced, convenient, and frequent flights, Air Australia obtained its competitive advantage over its competitors. Air Australia competitive strengths also include the company’s superior customer service and capability to offer the lowest fares. Although, the company was knee-deep in debt, it had an unequaled customer service within the airline industry (Horst, 2011). Air Australia had debts amounting to an estimated $90 million but only had assets worth $1 million, since the company leased much of its equipment. The company had also been unable to pay aviation charges and fees to Air Services Australia, and owed both Melbourne Airport and Perth Airport vast amounts for terminal leasing. The company’s business had been ailing for a long time but had managed to survive, because it was cash

Climate Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Climate Change - Essay Example The milankovitch theory implies that over time three cyclic events vary the amount of solar radiation that reaches the earth and eventually it causes climate change. According to Burroughs (2007) eccentricity is a cyclical variation that determines the shape of the earth’s orbit around the sun. The more elliptical the earth’s orbit is, the greater the the greater the variation in solar energy that is received at the top of the atmosphere between the earth’s perihelion and aphelion. As the earth rotates on its axis, it wobbles hence changing the timing of the solstices, and equinoxes a process known as the procession of the equinox. Volcanic eruptions eject large amounts of sulphur dioxide gas which reacts water vapor found in the stratosphere to form a dense layer that reduces atmospheric transmission of sun’s incoming radiation. Sun spots, which are caused by the sun’s magnetic field are dark, planet sized regions that appear on the sun’s su rface. These regions are colder than with an average temperature of 4,000K. Climate change can be explained by these factors although they are only some of those which cause climate change. Since 1979, the summer polar ice cap’s size has shrunk more than 20% and this has not only affected the natives but the globe as a whole. The contraction of the arctic ice cap accelerates global warming since the protective, cooling layer over the arctic is melting and hence the earth absorbs more sunlight (Kininmonth 2004). If the arctic is warmer, this will affect weather patterns since the rest of the world will also warm up and eventually food production will decrease. In contrast, most of the world depends on melted glaciers for fresh water supply through lakes and rivers hence their melting will cause short supply of the same. It will also cause shortage of electricity since a great percentage of the world’s population depends on melting glaciers for hydro electric power. Animals, birds and fish will lose their

Control Mechanisms - the Disney Company Essay Example for Free

Control Mechanisms the Disney Company Essay Control Mechanisms The Disney Company Bonita Johnson, Christi Cavanaugh, Gloria Aguilar, Hillary McCabe, Jeffrey Harriman MGT 330 January 9, 2012 Susan Mills Control Mechanisms The Disney Company In more than eight decades The Disney Company continues to be one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. Founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney as a small animation studio, today The Walt Disney Company is one the largest Hollywood studios and owns 11 theme parks, two water parks, and several television networks including the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The name Walt Disney has and always will be preeminent in the realm of family entertainment. Additionally, The Disney Company continues proudly to provide quality entertainment for all family members across American and around the world. The Walt Disney Company did not become one of the largest entertainment corporations in world without developing secure control mechanisms. The Disney Company has earned its reputation by tight control and although control pervades the company, Disney’s control mechanisms are not considered heavy-handed or condescending. This paper will examine that although The Disney Company enforces strict control mechanisms within its organization, it is also an organization independent in its thinking and approaches. The Walt Disney Company has always, and continues to use control mechanisms to help regulate policy and procedures which contribute toward effectively achieving organizational goals (The Walt Disney Company, 2008). The Disney Company has been widely successful both nationally and internationally for over 70 years primarily through successful implementation of control mechanisms throughout all aspects of the organization (The Walt Disney Company, 2008). The four types of control mechanisms that best serve The Disney Company would be budgetary, financial, management audit, and bureaucratic. The bureaucratic control function is the lifeline of Disney’s corporate structure because it provides the company’s ethical standards, mission statement, and organizational structure. Moreover, bureaucratic control is a constructive system used to influence subordinates and structure reward systems. Budgetary control is a method used by The Disney Company to bring their vision to life. Budgetary control is detailed, step-by-step documentation of a company’s accomplishments or deficiencies by contrasting data. The Disney Company has implemented many ways of using budgetary control before building or acquiring any new real estate. Management audit controls are equally important to The Disney Company particularly if expansion is in their future. The Disney Company uses both an internal and external audit system. Through management audits The Disney Company has a set checks and balances system to ensure all assets are properly maintain and nothing is compromised (The Walt Disney Company, 2008). Financial controls are just as vital as budgetary controls with a company such as Disney. The marketing strategies that Disney employs help to produce revenue for the company thereby stabilizing assets and liabilities. Financial controls also help to make it possible for Disney to build more parks and resorts in the future. These four control mechanisms enforced by The Disney Company helps provide the company with a format in sustaining the company in a profitable direction. Equally important, these four components of Disney’s control mechanisms are the key in keeping the organization focused, and diverting away from any unethical misconduct from their employees.

Looking At Internet Crimes Against Children Media Essay

Looking At Internet Crimes Against Children Media Essay The internet is a fundamental resource that provides adults and children with opportunities for learning, entertainment and communication. But how hard is it to use the internet? Any child that is old enough to find a letter on a keyboard can access the World Wide Web. New technologies provide number of ways to communicate, and youth of today have mastered those techniques. The world of computers and internet is constantly expanding and changing, and it is not unusual if a child might know more about some software or website than a parent. But, the truth is that a child does not know that one of these technologies might have a negative impact on his/her moral values and behavior. As great of a resource as internet is, sometimes it might be used for illegal activities such as sexual exploitation, harassment, and pornography. The sad thing is that the victims of these activities are mostly children. Thats why in this research paper, I am going to focus on internet crimes against children, measures that should be taken to prevent these crimes, and punishment for those who commit them. Pornography and Children as a Target First of all, how often are children exposed to sexually explicit material on the internet? Unfortunately, any child that has access to the internet may come in contact with sexually explicit material. They do not even have to know the name of the URL of the website to view pornography on the internet. Most of the youth today are familiar with search engines such as google and yahoo, and it is really simple to type in something that might contain sexually explicit words and get at least ten thousand results in return. The study of adolescents ages fourteen to seventeen has been done, and it shows that most of the children came to exposure to pornographic material accidentally or unintentionally. Sometimes they would get e-mails with links to unknown or unfamiliar websites, and out of curiosity they would click on the link, which brought them to a page that contained pornographic material. Some exposures to the pornographic material are intentional and are done mostly by teens in puberty with the purpose of pleasure. So how often do children view pornographic material on the internet? An online survey was carried out which included 500 students, and 72.8 percent reported that they viewed sexually explicit material on the internet before the age of eighteen. Most children that intentionally viewed pornography in on the web in the past are likely to do it again almost every time they get a chance. This happens when parents are not around, and it even happens in random places that have computers and access to the internet such as public schools and libraries. Impact of Online Pornographic Material on Children It influences the moral values and sexual attitudes of youth. It changes the way children think about sex. They start perceiving sex only as pleasure, not thinking about consequences that might arise such as unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Children that view pornography are more likely to become sexually active earlier that children that do not. One of the ethical issues that arises is questioning if pornography should exist on the web or not, since it obviously has a negative impact on youth. Well, in this case the three of workable ethical theories could be applied to analyze the problem, and decide if having pornographic material on the internet is fair. Lets look at Kantians 2ndFormulation of Categorical Imperative, which states that people should never treat other people as a means to an end. So when a new website is uploaded to the server, people are not forced to view that website. Since no one is forced to do so, it can be said that in this case people are not being used as a means to an end. But, here we are talking about children and youth as victims of being exposed to sexually explicit material on the Web. Well, thats up to the parents to take part and get familiar with activities that their children are doing online. We can also apply Utilitarianism to analyze the issue of pornography on the internet. First of all, we have to consider who benefits and who is being harmed by presence of pornographic material on the Web. Porn industry has great benefits from their websites being available to the people on the internet. For them, it is a way advertising their products and making money as well. There are also a lot of adults who benefit from it because they view it for their pleasure. Children and youth are being harmed by their actions because sexually explicit material influences their moral values and sexual attitudes. In this case its hard to tell if there are more people who benefit then people who are being harmed by presence of pornography on the Web. On the other hand, it is easy to tell that there are greater benefits on pornographic material being on the internet. Utilitarianism does not mean the good of the greatest number, therefore having pornography on the Web is fair. Now lets look at Social Contract Theory, and how it approaches having pornographic material on the internet. Most of the pornography pages now days have their policy listed for users before they can access the page. It has the terms of use, and users have a choice to exit if they have any obligations. At the bottom of any pornography page, there is a warning that urges users to exit the page if they are under the age of eighteen. So this is one of the ways for porn industry to guard themselves against any opposition and illegal activities. Having the warning label, they are following the US law, which gives them legal rights to upload their websites to the server. So according to the Social Contract theory, it is acceptable to have pornography containing material on the internet. Pornography on the internet is not the only issue that arises with easy accessibility to the World Wide Web. Whats more of an issue is that some people are using the Web for sexual exploitation. Online Sexual Exploitation Easy access to the internet has led to increased exposure of children to online sexual exploitation exposure of children to online predators. Most of the children that are victims of online sexual exploitation are under the age of seventeen. A year-long survey has been conducted in 2001, which analyzed 129 Internet-initiated sex crimes. It involved victims age seventeen or younger, and it found that 74 percent of those victims actually met with the predator. What is even more heartbreaking is that 93 percent of those occurred meetings involved sexual contact. Are girls and boys equally exposed to online sexual exploitation? It was assumed that girls are at higher risk and are more likely to fall victims to online sexual exploitation than boys. Well, this turned out to be true confirming that seventy-five percent of victims included in the survey from 2001 were girls. Online Predators Today there are more ways than ever to find a mate, but sometimes search for love can be devastating. When it comes to potential of meeting new mates, nothing compares to the internet. Most of the time, the danger of this modern way of dating can be ignored. There are also situations where people involved in online dating might be in it for love. Well, these people are known to our community as online predators. So where do online predators come from, and is it easy to tell who might be online predator by their physical appearance? Online predators come in different shapes and sizes, and have different expectations from their victims. Social status does not matter when it comes to determining who might a potential online predator. They come from all backgrounds, and are not easily detectable. They might seem like respectable members of the community, which of course can be deceiving to many of us. Who would ever come to thinking that an online predator might be a teacher, fireman, ph ysician, former military personnel or a successful businessman, but the cases of these have been reported. A reality television show To Catch a Predator was featured on NBC, and there was an episode where a high school teacher, caught on hidden cameras, showed up to a meeting, which he thought he arranged with an under aged girl. There was no under aged involved, instead police officer was posing as a thirteen year old. He was caught and trialed thanks to the effort of the police and enough evidence collected by hidden cameras. There was also one case were a former military officer was involved in online sexual exploitation. He was also caught and sentenced to serve time in jail. Most of the time when online predators get caught; they are publically humiliated and sentenced to prison time. The prison time depends on the severity of the case, and it ranges from two to twelve years. Some predators were just placed on probations because they did not make sexual contact with their victims, but did set up the meeting which they never showed up to. They were also ordered to pay a big fine. Bullying and Harassment on the Internet Communication technologies such as social-networking websites like MySpace and Facebook have led to rapid growth of teens harassing their peers. In 2005, a survey was conducted, and it has been found that almost thirty percent of youth have harassed their peers via the internet. Seventeen percent of those have harassed the others multiple number of times. The survey was also done with the purpose to show the incidence of children being bullied on cyberspace. It showed that thirty-two percent of 900 teens under the age of seventeen have been harassed when using MySpace, Facebook or instant messaging. What is heartbreaking is that cyber-bullying may lead to a tragic end sometimes. A 13 year old girl committed suicide after being cyber-bullied by her neighbor who pretended to be a teenage boy. It turned out that he was an adult, and of course he had to pay for his actions. Measures Parents are taking to prevent Their Children from Internet Crimes Although kids feel like they are aware of dangers of using the internet, in reality, they are naive when it comes to online communications. The following are measures that parents should take to prevent their children from becoming a victim. Parents need to become familiar with their childrens online activities. There is software that comes with Windows 7 and Windows Vista, or that can be downloaded for free such as Windows Live Family Safety Setting. Most of the social-networking sites have policies that require users to be thirteen years or older. If a child is not old enough to fulfill that requirement, parents should not let them use it. Some parents educate their kids about the dangers of online chatting, and set certain expectations from their children. Many parents are taking part in becoming familiar with who their kids talk to when they use chat rooms. They are also educating their children to stay in public areas of chat room since many chat rooms allow for one on one commu nication in chat rooms private area. Parents are also encouraged to keep their computers in most common areas of the house so that they can monitor their kids when theyre online. Since there are potential risks of email, many parents are setting up family emails, which their kids can use as well. This is one of the ways to protect their kids from being exposed to pornographic material contained in emails. They also urge their kids not to open any unknown emails reducing the risk of internet related crimes. Some also have passwords to their childrens social networking sites, which enables them to check the messages. There are options which allow parents to use parental controls, and other setting and preferences. Another way of monitoring that same parents use are is spy software. A Spybot by Brickhouse Security was advertised on CNN, which enables parents to monitor everything their children do on the internet. Its easy to install, undetectable, and the kids will never know its there. Internet Crimes against Children and Law Enforcement The expansion of the computers and internet has played a major role in sex crimes being committed against children and youth. The new communication technologies created new challenges for Law Enforcement to come up with new investigation techniques, and handle the crimes done on internet. The federal government has increased funding in the effort to prevent internet related crimes. They created Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which supports state and local law enforcement agencies in fight against internet crimes. Internet crimes are divided into three categories. Internet Crimes Against Identified Victims, which involves production of child pornography and other internet related crimes committed against identified victims. Then there Internet Crimes Against Unidentified Victims, which involves undercover law enforcement posing as minors in chat rooms. And the third category of internet crimes deals with offenders who are involved in possession, trade or distribution of Internet Child Pornography not using the internet to sexually exploit identified victims or solicit undercover investigators. Most of the arrests are made against offenders who commit crimes against identified victims. Sixty-seven percent of the arrests involved offenders who possessed child pornography. Eighty-three percent had images of children mostly ages 6 to 12, and 80 percent of those images showed sexual contact between minors and adults. Majority of offenders were non-Hispanic white males over 25 years of age. Eighty-five percent of arrests involved state, local or county law enforcement agencies, 46 percent had agencies operating on federal level. Moral Question Related to Online Predators and Law Enforcement Is it ok for Law Enforcement Agencies to set up traps in which online predators can fall into? According to all three workable ethical theories, it is ok for law enforcement to pose as minors in order to catch a predator. Minors are being used as a means to an end since predators introduce themselves as cute teenage boys. Minors do not benefit from these kinds of actions, and they get to live with the fact that they were sexually abused by an adult. On the other hand, predators get pleasure from these actions. So there is greater bad than good in it. Social Contract Theory approves actions of law enforcement because they are dealing with someone who shows up to the meeting ad forces a minor into something that they do not want to do. As we could see, Internet use has become widespread. Some use with the purpose of sexual exploitation of children and distribution of child pornography, while some use it to harass their peers. These kinds of activities have created concerns among parents, lawmakers, educators and law enforcement agencies. Parents have taken part in educating their children about dangers of internet crimes. Despite all these measures, internet crimes against children are still present, and law enforcement agencies are operating on local, state and federal levels to catch those committing these crimes, and preventing internet related crimes from happening as well.

The Lords of Discipline - Life in a Military Academy Essay -- essays r

The Lords of Discipline - Life in a Military Academy   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To the average person, school is a place to learn where one may speak their mind freely, yet stay orderly through a light set of values and order. In The Lords of Discipline, we learn of a different type of school. The Institute is a military academy with rigorous mental and physical standards, and very straight-forward and rigid policies. What is learned at the Institute is to stay loyal to your classmates. The upperclassmen do their best to keep this primary rule imbedded in the minds of the plebe’s. In this story, we learn about an open-minded student at the academy whose own pride and determination allows him to stay in the system and not give up. He disagrees with the ways of the academy, but finds himself able to deal wit...

how Is Helium Produced? :: essays research papers

"How Is Helium Produced?" Production: Although Helium is one of the most common elements in the universe it is a rare gas on earth. It exists in the atmosphere in such small quantities (less than five parts per million) that recovering it from the air is uneconomical. Helium is produced as a by-product of the refining of natural gas, which is carried out on a commercial scale in the USA and Poland. In these areas natural gas contains a relatively high concentration of Helium which has accumulated as a result of radioactive decay of heavy elements within the earth's crust. Helium is supplied to distribution centres throughout the world in liquid form in large cryogenic containers. The Helium is filled into liquid containers, gas cylinders and cylinder packs as necessary. History of Helium Production: Government involvement in helium conservation dates to the Helium Act of 1925 which authorized the Bureau of Mines to build and operate a large-scale helium extraction and purification plant. From 1929 until 1960 the federal government was the only domestic helium producer. In 1960, Congress amended the Helium Act to provide incentives to natural gas producers for stripping natural gas of its helium, for purchase of the separated helium by the government, and for its long-term storage. With over 960 million cubic meters (34.6 billion cubic feet) of helium in government storage and a large private helium recovery industry, questions arise as to the need for either the federal helium extraction program or the federally maintained helium stockpile. In a move which would take the federal government out of the helium business, Congress passed the Helium Privatization Act (H.R. 873) as part of the Seven- Year Balanced Budget Reconciliation Act of 1995 (H.R. 2491). Although the measure died when the President vetoed the Budget Act on December 6, 1995, the Administration has made a goal the privatization of the federal helium program. On April 30, 1996, the House suspended the rules and passed H.R. 3008, the Helium Privatization Act as agreed to in the House-Senate conference on the Budget Act. Subsequently, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee amended the bill to provide for the National Academy of Sciences to study how best to dispose of the helium reserve. On September 26, 1996, with limited time remaining for the 104th Congress, the House again suspended the rules and passed H.R. 4168, a new bill containing the Senate Committee language. This would avoid the need for a conference if the Senate would also pass the same bill. The Senate did so on September 28, 1996. This report reviews the origin and

Diary of Emotions

Experiencing different emotions have been a normal part of my daily life and thus having to take notice of it and be keenly aware of the physiological and psychological aspects of the emotion made me think of how difficult it is to fully explain emotion. Usually, what stays with our memory are the emotions that are intense and powerful, like anger, sadness and happiness, while the fleeting emotions of annoyance, impatience, worry and anxiety are taken for granted.With the emotion diary I was acutely aware of what I was feeling but rather had difficulty in naming what I felt or in identifying what kind of emotion I was feeling. A number of theories have tried to explain human emotion. Since emotion is a subjective experience and that mush of it is experienced physically, then the theories that explain emotion do so by looking into the biological and psychological components of emotions.The James-Lange (Atkinson, et. al. , 1996) theory says that the biological component of emotions suc h as physiological arousal and facial expressions are most influential in producing the subjective experience of an emotion. The theory argues that because perception of autonomic arousal constitutes the experience of an emotion and because different emotions feel different, there must be a distinct pattern of autonomic activity for each emotion.Thus, when my heart beat races and the hairs at the back of my neck rise, I feel fear and so I cower in my seat or close my eyes as I watch a horror movie. On the other hand, the cognitive appraisal theory of Schachter and Singer (1962) espoused that cognitive appraisal are sufficient to determine the quality of emotional experience, thus if people could be induced to be in a neutral state of autonomic arousal, the quality of their emotion would be determined solely by their appraisal of the situation.Hence, upon observing my surroundings wherein I was in front of the TV inside my house with all the doors and windows locked, I would feel tha t being afraid of the movie is childish and hence I would stop being afraid. Based on my experience, I could say that to be able to have a complete understanding of emotions, one must take into account the biological and the psychological aspects of the emotion. With the various intensity and kinds of emotions that we go through in a single day, it is unrealistic to say that emotions are entirely biological or physiological or that it is purely psychological. Diary of Emotions The Diary of Emotions made me realize that a person could feel a number of emotions in a single day and that each emotion is triggered by different situations and it affects us physically and mentally (Cornelius, 1996). Based on the entries on my diary of emotions for three days, I more or less felt happy during those times and also had several anxious periods. When I felt happy, I had a smile on my face, like someone was tickling me. When I go about my work, I just breeze through it and I don’t worry about anything. I feel that my body is full of energy, that I am not tired at all and that I want to have a good time.Sometimes I feel that my heart beats more than the usual, sometimes I feel warm and sweaty, but in a good way. When I am happy, I think good thoughts and laughter comes easily. But when I was anxious, my body manifested several changes, one was that I was sweating profusely, and my hands had fine shakes. I also felt a little headache and my heart beat was racing a nd it’s almost I am at the verge of tears or exasperation. Then I was thinking of worst case scenarios if ever I was late for class or my friend would not talk to me when I approached her, or when I was waiting for the exam.There was also a period when I was upset and felt guilty. When I was upset I felt terrible, I couldn’t get my thoughts together and I felt like crying. It felt that there was a chunk of wood on top of my head weighing me down. I also kept repeating the event in my head the one I was upset about. After getting upset, I felt guilty that I quarreled with my friend knowing that I should have not snapped at her like that. Guilt though was more difficult to define, the physical changes was quite the same as being upset, but in a lesser degree but I was thinking of how I could patch up with my friend andplanning what to say to her when I see her. Being angry was exhausting, it seemed that my head was bursting and my heart was beating so fast, and then angr y words just came out of my mouth and I felt justified at saying it. I was thinking of how to get even, how to hurt her as much as she did me. After which I felt like water in the pot simmering and still heated up. Fear was actually like being anxious angry but there was something else, I was quiet and trembling all over. I was afraid that I might fail the test and mentally I was imagining what would happen if I failed it.Feeling sad was like the opposite of being happy, I felt heavy, I did not want to eat and move around or to work on anything. Surprise and feeling relieved was like being happy and being interested felt like I wanted to know more about the movie, that I was glad I was watching it, I was attentive to the story, I was listening intently and I think my eyes were very alert then. This exercise actually helped me learn how to identify my emotions and by paying attention to what it is then allowed me to think about how we are sometimes overwhelmed by what we feel in a ce rtain situation.