Why are you interested in pursuing your graduate business degree at this stage in your life/career?

‘Even with a noted sword, it is useless if you do not understand how to use it’- A Korean proverb. Borrowing from this proverb, I understand that it is meaningless to get information from the best infrastructure when you lack the skills to interpret the data. Personally, statistics is an excellent course for me that will bring me to the knowhow of how to use a noted sword. Statistics in my point of view can also be referred to as a decision making science which is a representation of the critical roles and significance of statistics in our society. With a bachelor’s degree in Statistics and mathematics, I am a graduate from University of Connecticut. I have confidence that I would bring a positive contribution to the University of Connecticut environment with my master in Business Analytics and project management because of the fresh knowledge in mathematics and statistics I have gained previously.

The roles I have played in statistical computing and R programming course at Central Connecticut state university have required me to develop leadership, management and team work skills as well as engineering and cognitive skills. The strong understanding of the challenges introduced by mathematics and statistics I believe will contribute to success in my MBA. I need an MBA at this stage of my career to learn how to change my ideas into viable business. From 2012 to 2014, I was a squad leader at the Republic of Korean Marine Corps and during this time I performed activities like allocating resources efficiently to the human resources, coordinating and controlling the squad to come up with best operation results. With this experience I realized that I must learn different other skills related to marketing, finance and strategic planning so that I can participate in the whole process of incorporating new technologies in business.

I feel now is the perfect time to take all I have gained from the Republic of Korean Marine Corps experience as well as my initial skills gained from the bachelor degree in mathematics and statistics and take them forward with me into the business world. I have decided to challenge myself in new ways. An MBA at UCONN School of business I believe is the best way for me to transition from mathematics and statistics area into the business world with the help of corporations like Republic of Korean Marine Corps.

What are your short-term and long-term career goals and how will this graduate business program help you achieve these goals?

My main goal is to equip myself with skills in business acumen and data analysis however the experience I have got is not enough to explore the analytic world. My short term career goal is to further my knowledge in the MSBAPM program which will help me explore my analytic world. As for my long term goal, I would want to become a leader of a business company while making important decisions. Leaders are left to handle choices of whether they can fold the business, make changes or make a different investment and so I would want to take up a position where I am at the center of decision support and information sharing. An MBA at UCONN School of Business will help me achieve this goal because of the emphasis put on an entrepreneurial mindset which fit my goals exactly. The MSBAPM program will enhance my influence in the field of business and strengthen my leadership development and marketing.

Professionals whose jobs descriptions have been outlines as having an effect in people’s lives most of the time receive training on courses that would help address ethical issues that might pose danger in their profession. Information Technology experts most times have had too much access to individual data that is intended to be confidential. Power to get to personal company and individual information is likely to be abused and therefore ethical definitions should be developed. Ethics in professionalism gets its meaning from social norms that do not impose any cost to individuals and the society at large NATO (Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence 2013).

As Lessig discusses, there are four constraints that should regulate human behavior. Code, which is linked to ethics and morally from the discussion developed by Lessig imposes costs on individuals but at the same time can be treated as economic resources that motivate people to behave in an ethical manner. In this manner therefore we can conclude that ethics has a role to play in Computer Security (Post 2000). This profession is no longer a mere tool but equally a tool that develops significant environmental forces that keep changing our world day after day.

Ethics demands that information technology experts should not abuse the wide access opportunity that they have to view individual and company information. On the other hand, cyber law demands that the field should erase any thresholds existing between simulation and reality. This causes conflict between the state’s duty to protect its citizens and to the right to extend surveillance systems(Student News Daily 2015). In recent post, the American government was accused for invading Chinese Government information and this could have led to physical war that could have endangered the public at the same time increasing the number of casualties. Messing with IT information can lead to a more bloody, surgical and precise violence due to political disagreement.

Because of the exceptional focus and direction I had in high school, instructors always pointed to me as the group leader and as a class representative. At times we would be presented with a project to engage in and I would have little support from the rest of the class and it would happen that other streams would perform way better than us. My classmates would micro manage every single project and cause the team to miss deadlines, frustrate the efforts of the few who were determined and this brought group performance low. I got an idea that probably I would talk to my classmates and convince them on how we would perform better than other streams if we would only work together, trust each other’s efforts and help in contributing to one direction. Since it was evident that we worked against each other instead of working together, the rest of my classmates gained confidence in our ability if we worked together towards a main goal, do our projects fairly and regain our lost reputation.

I believe what is challenging in every human communication is trust; when trust is lost, communication declines and performance is affected. I believe as a group leader, I would have earlier spoken about what should be expected in these group tasks earlier before we could engage in completing group tasks. I was swallowed in the praises of being the best leader but forgot that the same position would be challenging without communication. Being a great leader is problematic and challenging because it also creates unnecessary stress of ensuring you as a leader performs and the rest of your group also performs. This led me not to play the greatest role of communication as a leader as I focused more on performance that group cooperation. With this instance, I do not need to worry ever again about group performance because I have realized that exceptional performance lies in group cohesion and communication.

Brethometer products have over time experienced tremendous success ever since the beginning of the product. The brethometer is designed in a way that ensures users carry breathalyzers whenever they want and plugs it in directly into the jacks of their smart phones. (Cooper, 1999). Once the customer is satisfied, there is increase in demand of the product and ultimately increase in sales and overall success of the company. For customer satisfaction, there must be prior conducting of field trials, market test and customer to know the tastes and preferences of the customer.

The Amazon fire phone has been named as the biggest product that did not guarantee market success (Mangalindan 2014). Even this product was designed to meet customers’ cost cutting needs; consumers could not find confidence in a product. Amazon Company did not find out the requirements, specification and relevant needs of the customer and thus, failed to position the product effectively in the market. It can also be said that it also probably failed to have accountable, dedicated, cross functional teams with strong leaders who are perfectly committed to the success of the product (Cooper, 1999).

Barriers to implementation of opportunities and marketing choice

Airlines all around the world are continuing to develop choices and strategies that can be used to increase on product offer, provision of better services, reduction in overall costs and enabling airline businesses to cope easily with challenges and competition within the same industry. Air Berlin has not been left out in its search to better its services, improve on product offer and further decrease its costs and this is evident in their talks with TUIfly. In as much as Air Berlin is paying more attention to quality of its products and services, there are certain social, economic, physical, political and technological barriers that may hinder success of its operations.

Competitive markets would be a fundamental barrier for Air Berlin’s expansion and is the major force behind obstacles to quality. Because there are many companies that have achieved success in the past and in the present in the aviation industry, Hoffman(2000) discusses that firms should strive to always make an effort to develop outstanding characteristics for the end users for them to distinguish themselves from the rest of industrial competitors. Teaming up with Etihad airways would be a perfect idea for Air Berlin but at the mention of Etihad airways, consumers are always drawn to previous successes of the business and would want to be fully associated with Etihad. Because Etihad airways has had a strong foundation ever since its inception, teaming up would far much beneficial to Etihad airways than it would be to Air Berlin.

To be able to achieve unlimited success in the aviation industry particularly in Air Berlin talks, it requires the management to have a competitive strategy. A competitive strategy according to Rostro & Grudzweski (2008) is necessary because every firm must be willing to take both offensive and defensive actions to be able to create a defendable situation. An important question that can be raised from this case study is ‘how can Air Berlin defend its competitive position when Etihad Airways later decide to pull out? From the case study above, it is evident that Air Berlin somehow relies on Etihad airline strategies to achieve success in the new airline plan. Cutting large fleets and reducing the number of employees to cut costs is not a competitive strategy for Air Berlin because having an extensive network and destination operations will require a combined effort for employees. A sustainable competitive advantage cannot be reached with this form of strategy. Looking at the case scenario for Air Berlin, it is evident that there is lack of customer focus. Most of its strategic plans revolve around making profit for the business and are not customer driven.O’Connelly & Williams (2005) discuss how competitive advantage be achieved when an organisation concentrated fully on customer related objectives and little of profit orientation for the organisation and therefore this opportunity might not be fully implemented.

National and international policies

Because of industrialisation and globalisation, airports and airplane operation business have been developed very close to calm residential areas. As part of the longstanding cooperation between Etihad and Air Berlin, it is equally obvious that the new operations are aimed at reducing secondary airports developed in non-business areas and move operational hubs to capital areas. Such a move provide Air Berlin with an opportunity to concentrate fully on primary points avoiding secondary hub distractions that might make it hard for them to fulfill their economic goals (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2009).

A fundamental objective of having airlines merge is for the purpose of encouraging local and international stakeholders to streamline and strengthen the manner in which they are able to work together (Aerospace Defense Security, 2010). Open Skies international policies liberalize regulations and rules of international aviation in order to develop a free airline industry.  Within the open skies regulation, aviation companies are required to have Bilateral Air transport agreement and a multilateral Air transport agreement. Air Berlin  in a bilateral agreement is required to have military personnel and two other states sign the Bilateral agreement while in Multilateral agreement, more than two contracting states are needed. Without these specifications, Air Berlin might fail to transport like it needs to.

PESTL ANALYSIS

Political

For successive growth, Air Berlin as discussed in the case study established close connections with the government which is of a higher concern in the success of its operations.

Economic

It is relevant to understand how economic opportunities with international and local policies are limited and this will be a key challenge in crippling the economy of Air Berlin especially with Open skies regulation. Since majority of airlines as well as Air Berlin has poor connections to the contracts needed, engaging legal processes will remain costly and hard for Air Berlin operations.

Socio-cultural

The establishment of Open skies regulation remains crucial in expansion operations of Air Berlin because Open skies regulation to some extent increase interdependency between firms making it hard to proper individually.

Technology

Depending on technology in the recent years had been a trend and will continue to be a trend in Air transport. Air Berlin is equally coming up with systems that will make flying comfortable and easier with advanced systems of communication that increase efficiency of its services.

Legal

Regulations and policies across the globe continue to rise making it hard for air transport to break through. For instance, Open skies regulation required Air Berlin to conform to the ever changing nature of regulations which might cripple different areas of operation.

 

Summary

Uber, also known as Uber technologies Inc. is a technical startup that involves providing ride sharing services through a high level facilitation of linking between independent drivers (contractors) and riders through an app. Uber Inc. operations have expanded to 58 countries all around the globe and with its worth estimated around &41 billion. In few years, because the cost of taking Uber is less compared to taking a normal taxi, Uber might take over the taxi industry as most people prefer to ride on their services. Uber Technologies Inc. has enjoyed success in the past two years and the company is looking forward to expand its operations both within the United States and Internationally (American Express Company 2015).

However, the rapid success for Uber has continued to create challenges in the form of social, legal, regulatory and technical difficulties. For instance, the Taxi industry has argued that Uber Inc. has had an unfair advantage because the company does not have to face the same licensing requirements that other taxis within the business do. Uber Inc. has been accused of not hiring licensed drivers or rather vetting their drivers this creating potential unsafe conditions for their riders. The leadership within Uber has been highly challenged after a rape case in India that has brought the issue of safety to light. Most cites have banned the ride sharing services not necessarily developed by Uber but by other companies because of the issue of safety and other various concerns linked to the leadership. To add onto the issue of safety, the leadership at Uber has also faced several serious law suits with the inclusion of the independent contractors lawsuits filed against them. The presence of Uber Technologies in the taxi market has also had some influence on lawmakers to develop other new industrial regulations to govern ‘app-driven’ business within the industry particularly the system of ride sharing (Auchard and Steitz 2015).

Even amidst these challenges, Uber Inc. has received lots of praises for presenting independent contractors with an opportunity to still earn money for as long as they are in possession of a car while at the same time providing its customers with convenient ways to move around at lower prices. The surge pricing techniques has also been criticized for charging higher than usual during popular times but has also becomes an opportunity to certain companies such as Zappos to compensate their employees at the call centers. The biggest issue that is challenging to the management of Uber is legal actions since their drivers are not licensed, driver and rider safety, security and protection of the customers as well as driver information and lastly the lack of adequate coverage with reference to insurance. However, the main challenge facing Uber can be summarized into the concept of social costs.

Uber Background information

Travis Kalanick together with Garrett Camp discovered a smartphone application that has the ability to make drivers connect with customers needing rides to various destinations in the city in 2009. Previous founded by a privately owned company (UberCab Inc.), this innovative service was later renamed as Uber Technologies after one year. The developers of this app have initially developed it for Android and iPhone smartphone users through a high level integration of the GPS system. Most customers like the app particularly because it is convenient and of course easy to use. Once customers have downloaded the Uber app onto their phones, they are able to pare for the rides through third party network known as the Transportation Network Company with the use of UberX platforms that has the ability to scan and send pictures of the credit cards with a smart camera. Uber has no automobile inventory for their drivers like limousines or a fleet of taxicabs.

In fact, each driver at Uber is on his own in providing supplies for his personal automobile, insurance, maintenance and gas for his car. Drivers can also drive their own cars to where they want whenever they want because Uber Inc. provides them with relevant freedom in running other small business without restrictions (Huet 2015). The surge model is used in times of high demand. While Uber has initially charged its drivers a 20% commission, the company later on introduced a new tiered system in most cities that indicted special rates of commission depending with the number of hours drivers worked. For example an Uber driver at San Francisco would be liable to pay 30 percent commission for every 30 rides in the first week, 25 percent in the next 20 rides and the rest of the rides of the month pay 20 percent. Because of the increased demand for rides in the industry if ride-for-hire, Uber estimates $ 10 billion revenue with an approximate of $40 billion.

Recently, Uber has moved its headquarters in San Francisco, building space for about 700 employees (Kristen 2014). Looking at the future plans of Uber technologies, their leadership have plans to expand their business into two ten story building, increase their sum of square feet office space and utilize more than 700, 000 square feet. The company provides their services to more than 250 countries worldwide maintaining its offices and presence in the United States with its major operations revolving around San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Washington DC. The company has also improves their present navigation service to Apple and Google with the use of deCarta Mapping Company. The new mapping system fortunately has continued to improve Uber navigation and their location technologies but the question of their success points fingers to the ethical problem of social costs within their leadership structures.

The Social cost of Uber problem

The problem

The ride-sharing corporation has continued to be polarizing in the last year. Venture corporations have in fact fallen in love with Uber prospects which is reflected in their recent approximation of $40 billion valuation. However, the company has seemed to separate everyone else in their operations as taxi drivers have termed Uber as a rapacious and unsafe competitor causing lawmakers to shut down numerous markets (Huet 2015). It is unfortunate that public debate that surrounds Uber has produced more heat than light and revealed little about the net impact of the company on public values and goods. The launching of Uber has come as a distraction to the taxi industry and became an instant hit because of the simple fact that they have provided its passengers with an effortless ride while drivers have been presented with the opportunity to earn more.

Uber Business Model

The business model at Uber works similar to that of a middleman connecting other people looking for taxi services and a cab driver in search for a rider. In a statement by Uber spokesman, Uber has provided insurance coverage to every driver, but every driver must have their own insurance for commercial purposes (Huet 2015). Adding to insurance, Uber drivers spend their money on rental, vehicle installment payment, fuel, toll, vehicle, fuel and maintenance. As these drivers do not belong to Uber, they have to cater for tax payment thus bringing lots of issues to taxi drivers, taxi industry and the Uber business itself.

Ethical Issues at Uber

Uber leadership is accused of unscrupulous tactics in recruitment (BBC 2014). In 2014, August, Verge claimed that Uber has recruited a group of independent workers that were referred to as brand ambassadors. This group of individuals used credit cards and burner phones to build accounts with company’s competitors particularly with its major competitor Lyft in order to lure its drivers. A contractor was pain a sum of $750 commission for success recruitment of a new driver with Uber. Uber termed this program as ‘Supplying Long Term Operations Growth’. This operation was termed unethical for Uber because the leadership at Uber would have come up with their ways of recruiting individuals and not steals individuals from their companies. Because of poor hiring systems, Uber had so many drivers all around the globe that they were unable to conduct successful background checks for these drivers. Looking at the organization’s website, it is quoted that ‘All Uber ridesharing and livery partners must be taken through a rigorous background check. The three-step screening process has been developed across the United States with inclusion of multi state checks and county federal new standards. These check trace back to 7 years of industrial check. This process involves prospective and regular driver checks, motor vehicle records, and driver partners to ensure safe driving. Unlike the taxi and driving industry, background checks process at Uber are consistent across the U.S and most times rigorous that what is required to operate taxi businesses? (Huet 2015)’

From this statement, it is evident that Uber does not operate from this statement. Uber does not observe industrial demands of conducting background checks for the purpose of customer safety. What about taxi drivers who operate away from the United States? The company has been accused of not conducting efficient background checks on drivers and in fact fails to conduct any background checks on distant drivers working for the company (Brustein 2013). Lack of background checks from Uber has resulted to issues of privacy and safety issues. As indicated earlier, the rape case in India has revealed how issues of safety are part of the operations at Uber. There are many instances where the drivers at Uber have been reported to threaten riders. In many other instances, Uber rider have exclaimed that Uber partners threaten them during rides and especially female riders are at a higher trend of threats. In 2014 July, one Uber passenger around Philadelphia purported that a driver partner for Uber company punched her face and went ahead to puncture her neck (Huet 2015). Later on the passenger filed a court case of 0.5 million dollar lawsuit against the driver. Adding to this, similar cases have reported in seven different countries where Uber passengers have been allegedly abused, sexually assaulted and raped among other threats from Uber partners. These incidents have been reported till date from all over United States.

The surge pricing issue is equally another ethical issue that faces the leadership at Uber (Decker and Saitto 2014). Most economists across the governmental spectrum have supported surge pricing. However, most Uber riders in many countries have been against the idea of surging and most of them have required that respective governments develop price controls on Uber and other companies of similar positioning. Kibardin Roland a 19 year old student at Pace University claimed ‘I am sure that yellow cabs are much more affordable minus the idea of surging and that the city should intervene so that Uber cabs should at least operate within some sort of cap’. However, Uber has come up with a justification of their surge pricing and said that it has been of help to both its driver-partners and riders (Huet 2015). Riders particularly have benefited as they are able to get vehicles with less delays particularly every time whether conditions are not good. Surge pricing Uber has claimed has helped get the vehicle of very high demand because most Uber drivers have mentioned that the surge pricing has also enabled them to work late at night. However, surge pricing is unethical to the whole industry particularly when other taxi business successes are jeopardized.

Apart from the surge pricing issues, the management at Uber has also been accused of numerous regulatory issues in most countries of operations. These countries have demanded that Uber Company as registered under Taxi Company should adhere to industrial norms. Uber however has seen itself as a technology company and not under taxi servicing company. Adding more drivers into its network has provided these same drivers with an opportunity to become their own boss and earn more than other taxi drivers. Retaining that they are a technology company and not in the taxi business industry has been claimed by many drivers, attorneys and labor leaders that it is a marketing gimmick to make Uber evade the norms that should be observed within taxi industry. Despite the ethical problems that have been addressed towards Uber Inc., there are several managerial ethics concepts that can examine the dilemma at Uber Technologies.

Managerial ethics concepts

The stakeholder theory in managerial ethics is formed around the traditional definition of a stakeholder being an individual or any group that is affected or has an effect on organizational objectives according to Friedman &Miles (2006). The concept behind the stakeholder approach is that the organization itself should be grouped with the needs, viewpoints and interests of the organization. That is to say, this group is solely for fulfilling the purpose of the organization. On one hand, the organization should manage the business for the benefit of these groups (stakeholders) and ensure their participations in discussions and rights while on the other hand the management must also act as stakeholder’s agent to ensure the business survives to safeguard long term goals of both groups. The dilemma at Uber can perfectly be understood from the stakeholder theory of managerial ethics that demands every corporation operates within the benefits of its stakeholders and the benefit of the business. The surge pricing according to Uber drivers is beneficial to them because it enables them make the most out of their rides and because business partners are making high incomes, commissions given to the business also are in an increasing measure. It is just right that Uber Inc. evades being part of the taxi industry maybe with the thoughts that these norms might cripple their returns and thus being registered under the technology industry. In a nutshell, these groups are significant for the survival of the business (Freeman 2004). That is to stay, once managers and stakeholders have a view of the benefits they need for the organization, they are actually fulfilling and behaving according to business norms and thus an explanations to the surge pricing at Uber.

The rational decision making theory is equally another theory in organizational ethics that helps managers make a multi-step procedure through from problem solving to solution identification and making sound and logical decisions. The rational decision making theory and approach has favor on objective data and analysis of a formal process over intuition and subjectivity. This model of rational decision making is based on the assumption that the decision makers have perfect or full data about alternatives that can be used in the business. This theory also assumes that leaders have resources, cognitive ability and the time to equally make evaluation of every choice the business makes. Management under this model at the same time also assumes that people are able to make the right choices that will maximize of the benefits for all stakeholders and minimize costs. Looking at the operations performed at Uber, Uber has its stakeholders (driver-partners) working on their own to secure insurance, maintenance of their vehicles and all other costs that pertain to taxi business with minimal operations from their management. The rational decision making process theory reveals that as long as the business is working towards minimizing costs and meeting the demands of their stakeholders then the business is on the right track.

However, the rational decision making theory does not have regard for industrial norms thus I think both the stakeholder and rational decision making theories are faulty in bringing managers to exceptional leadership. There are still ways in which the management at Uber can organizational decisions is performed on ethical platforms.

Steps to ethical leadership

A strategy to building an ethical company is by employing moral and upstanding leaders; it starts with having ethical leadership because ethical influential have an incredible consequence on what stakeholders in the organization achieve and how they behave. The very first step to have an effective leadership at Uber is to face the complexity in the business and make ethical decisions. The management at Uber should openly make discussion of the ethical issues of conducting backgrounds checks on their drivers and ensure that their drivers have certificates and can maintain customer security. Secondly, it is impossible to separate ethics from day to day business (Jones & George 2011). The management at Uber must have clarity to their employees with regard to what is acceptable and what is expected. Ethics should involve; how we operate, how to carry out what activities at what time, driver-rider conversations and all other discussions about ethics. Effective leaders should not permit negative interpersonal behaviors to come in the way of the client trust that they have taken long to achieve.

Uber should train their drivers even if it means training with the use of a manual to always have respect for their clients and conduct checks to ensure that the respect that should be accorded to clients is practiced. There should be a cultivation of a respectful environment at Uber particularly when clients are involves and further an environment where it is possible for people to speak about ethics and together share the ethical responsibility through open communication, building trust and sharing the ownership of organizational values (Jones & George 2011). Lastly, Uber should not think about ethics as a way of simply following regulations and laws. Leaders should take actions and show stakeholders and their customers that they are actively involved in matters of ethics. The leadership at Uber should recognize the influence of ethics of customers, the reasons why customers buy from them and further demonstrate how regulations and laws go beyond commitment and compliance.

Firstly, the visitor of the Great Wall is over loaded. The Great Wall is one of the top three scenic spot in China (Lindesay 2008). According to the research, there are around 87,000 visitors visiting the Great Wall in China every day, which means that there are around 30,000,000 visitors visiting the Great Wall ever year. This is a scary number. These years, the government has noticed the significant problem that will bring to the Great Wall with overload visitors. Thus, the Beijing Green Forest Office has reduced and control the daily visitor to 50,000 people every day. However, this is still a huge amount for the Great Wall. The huge amount of visitors every year has caused overloaded for the Great Wall. The surrounding environment, and the Great Wall itself has being serious damage because of the excess visitors. The China government should pay attention on this issue and find a way to solve the problem.

Secondly, the Great Wall itself is being continuously damage by two main people visitors and the nearby residents (Waldron 1983). First of all is the visitors, a great proportion of the visitors from all over the world did not aware that everyone should pay the responsibility to protect the Great Wall. During walking on the Great Wall, we can not only see the garbage on the floor but also can see that visitors climbed onto the wall and some people even do lettering on the wall to write down the date that they visit. The government has notice that a great part of the wall has been lettering. They send the experts to the Wall to ask for help. However, the experts said that they could not erase the world without any loss of the wall (Rojas 2010). They will have to take off the surface of the wall in order to erase the words. This will make the wall be thinner that before. Furthermore, the nearby residents are the another significant destroyer. Some resident who live near the Great Wall steal the bricks from the Great Wall in order to save their construction fee of their house or to sell it to the visitors. This behavior seriously damages the Great Wall. Both the visitors and the residents should aware the severity of these actions.

Thirdly, I consider, there surrounding environment are over developed by the businessman. Since walking is the only way to visit the Great Wall, businessman has built some facilities to visit the Great Wall (Karnow 2007). For instant, the Slideway and the horse riding. The Slideway is just next to the Great wall, so visitors do not need to walk back to the start point, they can just take the Slideway back to the start point. The Slideway which was built next to the Great Wall will cause the mudslide and the wall collapse. Some part of the Great Wall allows horse ridding visit. The horse riding will damage the road surface of the Great Wall and boost the road damage of the Great Wall.

The Great Wall is one of the most miracle constructions in the world. Everyone has the responsibility to protect the culture assets in order to keep out assets long and forever for our descendants. Fourth, the building materials used did not fulfill the primary purpose of protecting Chinese citizens from invaders; as the building materials were weak and substantial in nature. Originally, the Great Wall of China was built with stone and sand which could last the building for numerous centuries. Presently, finding fault in the building is easy and can be easily spotted in its building materials. The Great Wall of China is a world heritage that is built from substandard construction materials. The building materials are unable to provide the building with sufficient protection against invaders like it was in the past (Law 2002). About 50 percent of the materials used in building the Great Wall of China are materials that can be easily broken and interfered with if invaders decided to take control of the land of China. For this reason, a problem that arises with the use of poor and substandard construction materials lies in the collection of smaller and numerous walls that are presently built with improper timing.

Though the smaller walls and numerous units are still built in gigantic nature, the buildings are messy and the mess is evident from the poor materials used to build. But as it is stated in the law that objects are as a result of ‘network relations’ the building is viewed as a complication of networks that stem from the great wall itself with smaller branches that are not easy to understand from roots. The smaller units that are built in form of connection have no direct directions especially in what aspects of the whole building the small connections are trying to link up. According to the Actor-network theory of construction that has been discussed in previous construction and historical buildings, this theory finds base in the idea that things are only related when they have enactments of strategic logic. That is to mean that everything that is used in form of participation in a building must hold everything within the building together (Law 2002). The connection and network of building materials that make up the total construction of the wall of China is huge.

Its gigantic nature is evident in the sense that it stretched over to tens of centuries including the most basic construction materials such as leaves and dirt to a more form of modern though elaborate building tools. Trying to combine both building tools to bring us to an understanding of a gigantic construction, the construction materials that were used in building the modern great wall of China make it look as though it is built around somebody’ s private property and not for the purpose of future generations to witness. The art of engineering behind this construction is not fit at all and does not succeeded in communication the Great Wall as a cultural symbol. In Law’s (2002) description of the Portuguese vessels, we are able to see an intriguing construction. Through his description we are able to think of a cultural symbol and object in terms of what the object does in relation to social relativism which is very different from viewing a building from scientific naturalism. The Portuguese vessels would assist in transporting objects, people, enable colonial domination and exploration and at the same time had the ability to find way through non familiar territories and at the same time could be expanded or updated. From a scientific and naturalist view point, a vessel is constructed with a large collection of pieces and smaller bits of other significant vessels that work together to serve the full purpose of functioning within the community.

If certain parts of the vessel or other parts within the material network do not function fully, it is possible that the vessel no longer fulfills the purpose it was developed to fulfill. However, the vessel still has the ability to function even though other parts of its structures are weak with reference to social relativism. Even if the vessel is broken in some way, it can still be able to function just as the builder had intended. This could be likened to a human who would continue living a healthier life even when one of his kidneys is dysfunctional. Looking at the Great Wall of China, the builders had intended it to serve a fundamental purpose of protecting the society from invaders but because of the faultiness in the use of substandard construction material, the building ended up playing other roles like creating employment and acting as transportation routes (UNESCO 2012). Because the Great Wall of China has undergone construction and built again, it ceased to remain the same object that it was intended to be. The modern techniques used in construction, the new construction methods as well as the new tools have changed the shape of the object and the purpose of it (Bogost 2012).

In the 1950s, citizens around the place particularly farmers were incited to bring down the Great Wall and use the bricks from the demolition to build their own houses, build security walls for individual purposes and use the bricks in commercial processes. With the introduction of capitalism, most people begun to develop a belief that tourism would make more money that just having a building with ancient building materials that would not generate revenue. It is the construction in line with modern materials that has posed as the biggest threat to the survival of the Great Wall of China. Poor execution efforts have sanctioned the ability of the wall to serve its main purpose. A similar problem that is linked to the poor execution efforts is tied to the setting up of amusement facilities, restaurants, fast food chains, villas and very crowded parking lots just a stone throw away from the structure making the structure less visible. At the same time, a portion of the wall has been rented out to farmers who ‘reestablished’ the wall by covering it up with cement and later installed a gate that would help collect revenues through charging people some little admission fee (Harman 2012). How would the Great Wall now serve as protection to the people of China if the monument has been turned into an economic site instead of a historical site like it was meant to be?

Recommendations

The Great wall positively impacted Chinese residents since it was developed as a perfect source of protection and this was the main reason why it was built. Without the great stones and sand that were used in the past, QIN, MING and HAN as well as other dynasties could not have been protected (Edmonds 1985). The government of China in being part of the re-establishment would have insisted that the old materials not be thrown away and instead recycled to make a new building that would still the same purpose it was initially developed to. Apart from just developing policies, the government would have ensured full presence of its administration during construction to supervise on the materials and ensure that the new construction is effective. With government intervention, the scenic view from the Great Wall would evidently not be overloaded like it is reported by tourists. The Great Wall is a historic site and modern construction further made it a tourism site and this means that it attracts very many visitors each year not to mention each day.

The problem of overcrowding at the site could be understood from not creating enough space to accommodate visitors. The problem of overcrowding could also be an indication that lack of space might cause future problems for visitors because of accidents in the place. To control or rather solve the problem of overcrowding, the government can appoint officials at the administration gate to allow only a particular number of visitors at a particular time. At the same time, the problem of overcrowding can be fully solved by removing business people and economic procedures that are not certified to be around the area and expand the building so that it can accommodate as many people at one particular point. A fundamental impact from the Great Wall of China is that it has now become one of the most common places universally to tour and visit (Lovell 2006). This is a sign that the Chinese Government should render the surrounding environment fully to the purpose of tourism and businesses should be set up like 100 kilometers from the place to ease the problem of congestion. When businesses and residential areas are brought very close to the business, it increases the chances of destruction. Therefore, businesses those are not qualified as part of tourism within the Great Wall should be pushed away from the vicinity of the Great Wall.

During tourist visits, it has also been reported that the site is turning into a dumping site and a place for littering. To solve the problem of waste dumping and littering, people in charge with administration can come up strict management rules that would act as a form of punishment to anyone found littering during visitations. Because of overcrowding, it might also be difficult to spot specific people who might be practicing the littering habit. For this reason, the management and necessary administration could also place litter cans along the corridors and pavements of the monument so that it might be easy to collect garbage in small litter cans and at the same time making disposal easy. With the overdevelopment by businessmen, the government and relevant tourist administrations could push away businesses that are not needed close to the place and give way for businesses. Tension that comes from numerous businesses within the area would damage the surfaces and other relevant constructions within the area.

The Great Wall evidently was built to improve on the general positioning of the Chinese society. Ever since its construction, the wall has always contributed to the cultural, physical and tourist demands of the Chinese population and understanding the contributions of the Great Wall will first need us to understand the significant trends that made the construction insignificant. Moreover, even in its insignificant state of problems, something can still be done from the side of the government to bring the structure back to its original position.

I was privileged to attend the society of Human Resource Management yearly conference in Atlanta and I also had the privileged to have a one on one conversation with Dr. Jeff Peroni of Glaxo Smith Kline; the chief Human resource officer in the Company. In his new role as the chief human resource manager, I shall be finding out the ways he will be using to plan for diversity and inclusion. I asked Jeff whether he would spend ten minutes of his time to graciously respond to a few questions I had.

Q: Being at the position of the head of HR in one of the largest organizations around the globe, would you at least share with us the downside and the upside of being a HR pro in a non-HR organization.

Dr. Jeff: The downside is just like my fellow HR practitioners say. There are more than 200,000 people who think they can do a better job that you and think they can provide you with advice on how to run your HR activities. I would want to respond to these kind of people replying; I would love to have help because it is what we need to perform a better job. An advantage of being in the HR profession is through the members I am presented with a chance to help on a day to day basis. We get to design what HR practices are, what knowledge should be incorporated in HR, the standards and licenses that are needed in the practice. Most significantly, as a HR manager, we have to also figure out how all these relate to the performance of the business through people. I believe this is a great life.

1. The SHRM introduced another competency model in the recent annual conference. And since they are all important, which competency do you consider as the most significant

Jeff: The competency model s for the HR profession has about nine competencies: Business acumen, consultation, global and cultural effectiveness, critical evaluation, ethical practice, relationship management, communication for impact and HR technical expertise. If I am forced to choose, I would select HR technical expertise to be at the topmost level while business acumen follows with an objective of being a superstar in HR ability and knowledge in business. However, I do not think that these competency models work when one or two are picked. Instead, these competencies operate like a body that has tissues, muscles, tendons, joints, bones and organs. All of them are needed to function. Depending on where HR professionals are placed in the careers and what their specified jobs are, a varying degree of each competency is necessary.

Q: I am always interested in the C-suite visit for HR as a human resource professional. What are the three things that would be expected from me if I were to work with you?

Here is my top ten list of what I expect from every HR practitioner

Embrace diversity, being able to work in a team, acting with a sense of urgency, making tough decisions, always telling the truth, treating others with respect and dignity, enhancing other people’s reputation particularly those who deserve it and above all staying at the level of discipleship.

What I have learnt

Human resource has a lot of exciting opportunities. However, they must have certain characteristics to qualify for a HR position. HR managers have the responsibility of developing policies within an organization. HR managers’ advice the company on policies and procedures that benefit the company in the long run.

Question 1

CQ-Strategy

9/10- I carefully check the accuracy of my cultural knowledge while interacting with individuals from different cultures.

9/10- I am 100 percent conscious of any cultural knowledge before applying it in cross-cultural associations.

9/10 I have the ability to adjust my knowledge when interacting with people from cultures that are not familiar to me.

Knowledge

7/10 I am aware of the economic and legal systems of other cultures

8/10 I know language rules of other cultures

7/10 I have knowledge of other cultures marriage systems, cultural beliefs, religious beliefs and other culture crafts.

10/10 I completely understand the rules of showing non-verbal actions in other cultures.

CQ-Behavior

9/10- I am well able to transform my verbal behavior when intercultural associations demand

10/10 I can alter my tone, mood, accent and facial expressions

10/10 I am able to apply silence or pause as determined by cross cultural environments.

CQ Motivation

10/10 I really love associating with individuals from cultures different from my own

10/10 I am comfortable with living in cultures with beliefs different from my own

10/10 I have confidence while socializing with people in local cultures as well as those that are unfamiliar to me

10/10 I can very well deal with cultural stresses of adjusting to a new culture

9/10 Getting accustomed to shopping conditions of other cultures is easier for me.

Looking at the survey above, we can clearly see the relationship between emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence which is close to some extent. However, cultural intelligence picks up from where emotional intelligence stops. It is clear that an individual with a higher emotional intelligence would grasp easier what makes us humans and at the same time what have a quick understanding of what makes us different from one another (Livermore 2011). I think CQ is better assessed from EQ which relates to the above survey that gives my past experiences of interacting with different people.

Question 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9WYHN-NlLE

This advert is interesting because of its use of a team of professional orchestra and a live choir. This advert is really exciting because it communicates to us the idea of qualitative and good food that creates more than just a tasty experience. This adverts acts as a treat for all fiber in the body depicting a first bite of McDonalds dish that is exceptionally delicious causing you to get lost in the moment. With the use of a live choir and a live orchestra in this advert, McDonalds manages to maintain a composed product-focus process. With the setting of this advert, we can claim that McDonald’s menu appears limitless especially because it reveals a wider target market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNc4URR7TvE

The second advert is in the form of a Disney collector that presents a play Doh at McDonalds restaurant. In this advert a the audience is allowed to see and analyze what happens in the operations of the restaurant. With the Barbie and Cookie monster, this advert sort of creates a menu for its clients playing a set that extrudes shakes, French fries, bins, mold burgers among other tasty food provided at McDonalds. This advert is interesting because it also depicts a limitless menu of all the products sold. The easy steps of producing and assembling the products come in an understanding of how their operations are done in large volumes. We see how each crew of the restaurant skilled workers have distinct roles to plan in the repetitive focused process. I think McDonald chose this advert because as a multinational company, they are aware they have a large client base from different cultures and therefore the operations and menu reveal to its huge client base on how they can get comfortable and trust their activities. Understanding the cultures of your target group makes it easy to design marketing campaigns (Kotler & Gary).

Veblen was among the first economists who engaged in the study of the association between wealth and consumption in the society. Veblen did not at any point accept the theory of laissez faire of economics that was based on the Darwanian assumptions of ‘dog-eat-dog’ community. In his economic theories, he did not also believe in the fact that the economy is based on individuals who are simply trying to gratify their pleasure-seeking needs. In his explanation of why economics is not an evolutionary science, Veblen defined economics as the characteristic of a man doing something (Veblen 1898). Man is not simply a bundle of gratification that are to be flooded by being put in the path of environmental forces but instead a comprehensible structure of habits and tendencies that seek expression and realization in an activity that is unfolding. As a result of refuting economics as an evolutionary science, he also rejected the neoclassical economic theory of behavior. Veblen made recognition that both societies and individuals are driven by economic goals and both parties are adapting consequently to get to these goals.

Since the goals and the means to attain these goals keep on changing, Veblen termed his economic theory as dynamic or rather evolutionary (Veblen 1898). Evolutionary economy could be understood as the theory that looks at the process of cultural growth with full determination of an economic interest of a cumulative series of economic institutions with reference to the process itself. Looking at Veblen’s economic analysis, the foundation of human evolution lies in the invention of a more effective and new technologies. According to Veblen and his economic principles, life progresses through knowledge of how to handle material means of life. In this discussion, Veblen says that the goal of an economy therefore is to cause man to be more effective and easily adapt to natural environments as well as technology with the economic industry playing a larger role in the process. Economic and social institutions also play significant roles in this process since they are responsible for the evolution process. Veblen says natural selection is what occurs between economic institutions as they try to adapt to new circumstances within environments (Veblen 1899). Old institutions must die so that new ones might take over thus supporting his view of economy being evolutionary.

Veblen developed evolutionary economics in the 20^th century basing on the Darwinian principles and other new ideas that emerged from psychology, anthropology and sociology. Unlike the existing neoclassical economists at that time, Veblen offered a different description of economic behavior as being socially determined and viewed economic organizations as the process that completes an ongoing revolution. He strongly rejected all theories that found basis in individual action or any theory that highlighted the factor of inner personal motivation. According to him, such like theories were not scientific. Veblen had an intention for economists to grasp the cultural and social effects of change on economic transformation. In his Theory of the Leisure class, the concepts of predation and emulation play a major role in determining economic flow (Veblen 1899). Both the poor and the rich are alike because of their attempt to impress those around them and seeking to gain advantage through what he termed as ‘conspicuous consumption’ and the passion to be part of ‘conspicuous leisure’.

In his work, Veblen argued that in order to gain status, consumption is measured and it is through conspicuous consumption that conspicuous waste was born, an argument that Veblen detested. In his economic theory of Business Enterprise that was published in the early years of the 20^th century at the time of the American concern with business growth and trust, Veblen managed to employ an evolutionary analysis in explaining the new forms of business enterprise. Veblen in discriminated the conflict between economic engineers and businessmen saying that the human society will forever involve conflict between current and new norms developed out of simple human predisposition to influence the world in which we live in. He also generalized the business enterprise model to include the theory of processes of evolution as modeled by Sumner and the theory of instincts to enhance his theory of economic evolution (Veblen 1899).

Because the world is full of pragmatists, our beliefs about the world are rather a human construct instead of reality mirrors, transforming ways of manipulating nature and notions of truth and authority as well as institutional patterns. Veblen did not write his principles with so much confidence that his new theories are better but wrote his theories with confidence that the American economy would be much efficient. In addition, the theory of Leisure Class and that of Business enterprise were accepted as part of the universal economic theories because they stood to support labor movements, were compatible with socialism, Marxism and anarchism (Veblen 1899). Because he believed in technological developments that would eventually develop America to a form of socialist economy, the nature of evolution that he believed in saw his work be considered as part of civilization.