Factors effecting Motivation Essay

* Job satisfaction: if workers get job satisfaction they will enjoy working which will mean high quality work is being produced. Workers will come early to work, they will have good attendance at work, workers will take pride in their work, workers will want to work overtime, and would want to help the business meet its objectives and goals. If employees do not get job satisfaction they will not be motivated at work and will become really lazy, will not put time and effort into the quality of the work, targets which are set will not be met because employees are not enjoying themselves. * Challenge: if you are in a monotonous environment you are in a day in day put routine where you have no motivation, you feel your work is not challenging enough. Therefore it is necessary for employees to have a challenging role within the work place. By having more challenges employees will set themselves targets, work harder more importantly they will feel the necessity to work to their best potential. * Rewards: if employees are given rewards it will motivate them to work more harder. Rewards may be shares for the business, profit related pay, performance related pay, introduce schemes such as employee of the year, company cars etc. * Money: money is one of the greatest factors for motivation, when pay rises are given employees tend to work much more harder. However apart from money there are factors that motivate employees such as social status, recognition, responsibility, opportunity for promotion etc. * Promotion/Career development: if employers offer employees chance to develop their career, it will be a great method of motivating employees, because they will want to work towards the companies goals and also will want to work up the organisational structure. * Training: Having training schemes within the business is another motivating factor. If employees feel that employers are spending time and effort on them they will feel appreciated and in return will work really hard during the training and will try there best to put the training skills in practise. THEORIES OF EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND BEHAVIOUR Abraham Maslow and ‘the hierarchy of needs’ Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) said that all motivation comes from meeting unsatisfied needs. He stated that there was a ranking of needs which must be achieved in the correct order – from the bottom to the top of a ‘pyramid’ (see diagram below) Basic physiological needs (e.g. food, water,)are at the bottom and self actualisation is at the top. The need †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Which is achieved by†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Self actualisation Personal growth and self fulfilment Esteem Recognition Achievement Status Social needs Affection/love/friendship Safety needs Security Freedom from pain and threats Physiological needs Food, water, air, rest, sex Abraham Maslows Hierarchy of needs was first formulated in 1943. Maslow suggested that human motivation was dependent on the desire to satisfy various levels of needs. Maslow saw these needs as being organised in a hierarchy as shown on the diagram. * Physiological needs: persons first concern is to be fed, clothed and house themselves and family to an acceptable standard. Insys provide this need to their employees as these basic needs are met by an adequate wage which allows the employees to have there physiological needs. * Safety and security: this includes things like job security, social security and protection from arbitrary actions of others for example superiors. Insys ensure employees are have job security, sick pay, pension schemes. If these securities are not met then they will move to jobs, which provide these securities. * Social needs: these needs include the feelings of belonging and affection. Once low level needs are met relationship with others seem of great importance, everyone wants to be expected in a team, and if these needs are not met individuals will want to move to a job which will welcome them, and will be nice to them. Insys believe in ensuring that social needs are met such as liasing with one another, this is done in team briefings (informal), internal memos, emails. This helps the all the individual to feel as part of a team. * Esteem needs: desire to self-respect and respecting others, employees need to be recognised. Employers should give respect, and employees should value the work employee’s produce. Also bonuses should be given to employees for their hard work. This is a part of praise. Insys invest in incentives and bonus schemes for commending employees on outstanding efforts. They believe the team should work together, respect one another and help each other to be successful. * Self-actualisation needs: this involves self-fulfilment and release of potential. There will be a need to release ones full potential. Work becomes truly satisfying only it enables the individuals to realise their full potential. Insys believe that it is really important to encourage employees to release their full potential as it will give the individual self-satisfaction and it’s a great asset to Insys to have multi skilled employees. Insys may not realise that the Maslow Hierarchical of needs relates to there company but when people like myself cross reference the theory and Insys itself you can link the theory to Insys as indicated above. Due to the current redundancy situation at Insys, it has been closely analysed that employees who had been employed there for over a number of years feel rather demotivated due to the situation. Referring back to Maslow’s theory Insys can closely relate to the situation of hierarchical needs. The remaining employees at Insys were at the top of the Maslows hierarchical of needs, i.e. they were content with their jobs, felt secure. Due to the redundancies taking place the employees have know travelled down the hierarchy of needs feeling low self esteem and they have no sense of stability within there jobs. DOUGLAS McGREGOR THEORY X AND THEORY Y McGregor believed that manager’s basic beliefs have a dominant influence on the way that organisations are run. Mangers assumptions about the behaviour of people are central to this. McGregor argues that these assumptions fall into two broad categories – theory X and theory Y. these findings were detailed in ‘The human side of enterprise’, first published in 1960. Theory X and theory Y describe two views of people at work and may be used to describe two opposing management styles. Mc Gregor formulated two theories: X and Y, which makes a number of assumption: Theory X is summarised as follows: The traditional view of direction and control * The average human being has a dislike of work and they avoid there work * Due to the basic dislike of work, most people must be coerced, controlled, directed, threatened with punishment to get them to put forth-adequate effort towards the achievement of organisational objectives. * Most humans prefer to be directed they wish to avoid responsibility, and have little ambition and overall want security. A theory X management style therefore requires close, form supervision with clearly specified tasks and the threat of punishment or the promise of greater pay as motivating factors. A manager working under these assumptions will employ autocratic controls, which can invariably lead to mistrust and resentment from those they manage. In contrast, ‘people centred’ employers who subscribe to the alternative Theory Y assume their employees: * Like working and seek responsibility * Do care about the objectives of their organisation * Like to be fully employed and developed to their full potential * Like variety in work and are motivated by interesting tasks * Are not motivated simply by money or threats These categorise are too broad and too extreme to be entirely useful in human resource planning and management. The workforce is an organisation, it may contain different employees who conform to both theories, or display muted elements of both. The same employees may also move between these categories over time as their working environment, expectations, and attitudes change. SUMMARY OF THEROY X AND Y X Y In a realistic workplace it is very difficult to get staff which fit in theory Y. and there are individuals who do fit into theory X. Insys encourages and aims to get employees from theory X and works towards theory Y. this is done via performance reviews (Appraisals). FREDERICK HERZBERG – The hygiene motivational theory The hygiene motivation or ‘two factor’ theory resulted from research with two hundred Pittsburgh engineers and accountants. These people were asked what pleases and displeases them about their jobs. From their reponses, Herzberg concluded that man has two sets of needs: * Lowers level needs as an animal to avoid pain and deprivation * Higher level needs as a human being to grow psychologically Some factors on the work place meet the first set of needs but not the second and vice verser. The first group of factors he called ‘hygiene factors’ and the second ‘motivators’. Fredrick Herzberg developed his ideas in 1966. From his research he listed those factors which improve job satisfaction and those which, if improved or handled correctly, would reduce or at least prevent job dissatisfaction. Herzberg said that certain elements in a job motivate people to work harder. He called these elements SATISFIERS. They include: * Achievement * Recognition * Responsibility * Advancement * Personnel growth * And the actual work itself Other elements do not motivate people to work harder. These are called HYGIENE FACTORS. They include: * Pay and conditions * Status in the organisation * Job security * Benefits (pensions, company cars etc) * Relationships with fellow employees * The quality of the organisations managers Herzberg’s key point was that hygiene factors do not motivate but if they are not very good then the satisfiers will not motivate either. For example: ‘even if a job is interesting and gives a person a substantial sense of achievement it will not motivate them properly if they are not earning enough money to live in a reasonable house and cannot feed themselves and their family properly. Obviously all individuals differ. The personnel administrator at Insys was interviewed, her views on the theory were: ‘pay is not the only motivating factor, there are other aspects to consider such as experience of different jobs, gaining new skills and achievement. However views can differ some employee’s priority may be the pay, you will never get all members of the team thinking in the same manor. FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR – FATHER OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT Taylor (1856 – 1915) worked as a factory superintendent in a locomotive axle factory in the USA. From his studies of how people worked making axles he concluded that: > Employees got jobs there because they were friends or relatives of the managers, not because they were any good at the job > Employees did not work hard because they thought it would throw some of their friends out of work > Employers paid employees as little as they could get away with > Employees got very few instructions on how to do their jobs so they did them badly. The amount produced and the quality of output was often poor. Taylor said that the following ideas would improve matters: * Only money would motivate employees to work hard – therefore they should be paid on a piecework system, i.e. each item made would earn the certain amount of money – this would encourage hard work. * Properly trained managers should run organisations and supervise employees effectively with firm but fair disciplinary methods * Employees must be properly trained, through what he called ‘scientific management’ to do specific tasks efficiently – this was the beginning of what we today call Organisations and Methods Study or Work Study * Employees should be properly selected through tests and interviews to make sure they are right for the job; Taylor was one of the first people to see the need to do this * Employees, if motivated by good pay, would work efficiently without questioning what they were required to do. Many organisations still operate Taylorism, even in rich countries, but there has long been a recognition that employees want more from their jobs than job security and good pay. Other writers have developed more complex theories about what motivates people at work – as I have explained a few of them above. Insys and other organisations do have a linkage with the motivational theories I have explained above. However they do not use all the parts of the theories. Some theories do not even apply to the organisation such as Insys. Such as Frederick Taylor’s view of motivational theory does not apply to Insys itself as shown above that employees want more from their jobs than job security and good pay. Some other motivational theories Expectancy theory This theory states that an employee will only be motivated to work harder if they believe that it will lead to a reward, which they feel is worth having. The key point is that the reward does not match the employee needs it will not motivate them very well. Equity theory This means that people are better motivated if they feel they are fairly treated by their bosses and on par with other employees. Goal Theory Setting employees specific goals motivates them more effectively. If the goals are achieved they get more money or promotion. Reactance Theory This means that people are motivated by what they think they have achieved. For example, where pay is tied to employee’s performance it motivates them to work harder. Their achievement has been rewarded.

An Analytical Response to the 1978 film, F. I. S. T. Essay

The plot of the film basically revolve around the life of a worker who desperately seeks a better and a more comfortable life by working hard in a very low-paying job with a management who imposes very harsh and unjust rules and guidelines. The story also deals with the struggles of the workers to earn respect and the right and fair kind of treatment they deserve. The plot centers on the life and struggles of Johnny Kovac’s character which was played by Sylvester Stallone. The character was portrayed as a willful trucker who decided to join the Federation of Interstate Truckers (FIST) to fight and campaign for just treatments among all the country’s truckers like him (â€Å"F. I. S. T. 1987†). Through out the story, Kovac was challenged by a lot of more powerful individual since he was seen as a very strong threat to their deceptive intentions. He also received a lot of threats and physical tortures since he was actually fighting very powerful people. But despite all these challenges, Kovac was nevertheless able to prove that he is stronger than anyone who opposes his intentions to uplift the lives of simple truckers who just deserve fair treatment from their superiors. This was the major conflict and drive of the story. Kovac, as the main protagonist both serves as a hero and the base character of the story where all the other conflicts and highlights are based from. The story emphasized on Kovac’s principles and his efforts of fighting for their rights as truckers. Kovac and all the other characters in the story were portrayed to be simple and typical people with whom, viewers can easily empathize. However, his defeat and death at the end has put a rather distressing and saddening effect to the story. II. Issues The story was basically about the lives and struggles of truckers. Just like other workers, truckers have rights and privileges that they can demand from their superiors. However in this movie, the workers were rather treated unjustly by the management. They were given inadequate compensation and several unfair rules and regulations have been imposed on them. Kovac, as a trucker himself stood up and fought for his principles and afterwards fought for the influence of the labor union, FIST, which he became part of. The movie had a particular emphasis on the laborer’s rights and privileges. The unjust treatments to these workers portrayed in the film are one manifestation that in the real world, this undeserved treatment is also observable. Through the depiction of this issue it can be implied that some capitalist may really have been so fed up by their wealth that they forget that there are still other important things to consider aside from getting richer and this is the welfare of their workers. And because of this issue, the characters of the movie can be observed to seek for their rights and privileges in a rather aggressive way because of the unpleasant manner their company has used to treat them. The issues were basically about, (1) what implications can unjust treatment and deprivation of privileges causes workers; and (2) how well do labor unions actually help in eliminating the hostile relationships between workers and companies. And because this issue has been depicted to have taken all the patience of the workers, some of them have even developed stronger sense of selfishness and greed. Some also developed greed towards money. Kovac on the other hand became more and more obsessed of recruiting for member to join FIST since he wanted his mission and his intention to voice out the wants of the workers to be accomplished as early as he can. These implications may in some ways appear similar to the effects of unjust treatments to laborers people experience in real life. Just like in this film, people may indeed grow hostile and aggressive once their rights and privileges will be deprived of them. But nonetheless, if there is one lesson that this movie was able to send out, it is the fact that it is never just and acceptable to fight for one’s principle in destructive ways. III. Discussion In several ways, this movie appears to carry considerable significance to the real occurrences of unjust treatment among workers in the society. In real life, these incidents are undeniable that is why unions exist. However, the arguable thing is this movie is that Kovac and his other colleagues appeared to fight for what they believe in rather hostile and destructive ways which only made the situations worse. Aside from this, a lot of characters were also depicted to be deceived by wealth and power which made them turn their . backs to their moral perspectives. Thus, this can be considered as one of the moral threats unjust treatments can really cause an individual. In its entirety, the movie appears to be a total representation what goes on in a union and how its members fight for what they believe in. But what appears to be an upsetting and disturbing part of the story is the aggression and immorality which brought about . worse situations and events. IV. Opinion Truly, every person in this world deserved fair treatment as every person deserves equal rights and privileges as well. In a company, the relationship of the executive management to the workers can be considered very crucial. In order to form a pleasant relationship between these two, each party must respect and provide the deserved treatment and benefit of the other party. Because once this rule is broken, hostility might definitely spark which will eventually form an unpleasant relationship between the workers and the management. Personally, I think the movie had an interesting inspiration; however, the real message was not that effectively sent out to the viewers because of the distractions that came from all the unnecessary actions and violence portrayed in the film. But nonetheless, I see this film as a good depiction of how worse a situation may get once a worker’s rights and privileges be unjustly deprived from him or her. Works Cited â€Å"F. I. S. T. (1987): Plot Summary. † The Internet Movie Database. IMDb. com. (n. d. ). (14 May 2009). . F. I. S. T. Dir: Norman Jewinson. Writer: Joe Eszterhas and Sylvester Stallone. Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Rod Steiger, Peter Boyle, Melinda Dillon, David Huffman, Kevin Conway and Tony Lo Bianco. Chateau Productions, 1987.

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The e-Project will be based on the United States Patent and Trademark Research Paper

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Resume Cover Letter Essay This letter is to express my interest in bringing my expertise as a Human Resource Director to your organization.   I possess excellent interpersonal skills and am effective in management employment and payroll-related issues to achieve company goals and objectives. As you can gather from my attached resume, I have expertise in working effectively with executive management and employees in resolving human resource and payroll issues.   I am a detail-oriented individual with a proven track record for ensuring accurate compliance with state human resource rules and regulations.    In the past 12 years, I have gained invaluable experience as an Employment and Payroll Manager with management and training responsibilities for as many as 3000 employees. In addition to the skills noted on my attached resume, I can also offer your organization: A goal-oriented Professional with a commitment to personal and professional growth and development. Excellent verbal and oral written communication skills. Technical proficiencies in human resource and payroll computerized systems. It is my hope that my education and professional experience will convey to you that I have the qualifications to make a valuable contribution as a Human Resource Director with your organization.   Should you have any questions, I can be reached at the number listed above.

Dawn of the (Evil & Symbolic) Dead Essay Example for Free

Dawn of the (Evil Symbolic) Dead Essay Over the past decade, interest in zombies in pop culture has sky rocketed. There have been over 100 games and movies featuring the living dead. George Romero’s 1978 film Dawn of the Dead, sequel to Night of the Living Dead, gives its audience insight into these evil symbolic structures known today as zombies. In this film, there are four survivors that take refuge in a huge shopping mall, sealing the doors and creating a zombie-free hideout. This movie is often referred to as one the best horror films of its time and a door way to today’s interest in zombies. Throughout the film, the four survivors deal with hundreds of zombies and at the climax are also having to deal with a biker gang. Although not all four of these characters survived, the mall was a perfect spot for the movie to take place according to a review done by the Spinning Image Company. â€Å"The mall is a brilliant location, not just for the satirical possibilities it offers Romero, but also for creating some clever, unsettling imagery,† said Daniel Auty in his review. Auty is speaking of the several times throughout the film where Romero would cut to a scene of just zombies roaming random parts of the mall. These zombies were different than what we see today however. â€Å"[The zombies] look silly, they fall over a lot, and Romero mostly shoots them in either broad daylight or the stark fluorescence of the mall† (Auty). The zombies in Dawn of the Dead appeared from the first minute without Romero giving any sort of insight on how it happened. So in order to understand the body in its monstrous state, one must know the origins of the zombie. Many scholars agree that the term zombie originated from the voodoo religion in Haiti. In â€Å"Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites: The Race and Religion of Zombies†, writer Elizabeth McCalister discusses these origins in great detail. â€Å"The word zonbi appears in writing as far back as colonial Saint- Domingue, glossed by travel writer Moreau de Saint-Mà ©ry as the slaves’ belief in a returned soul, a revenant†(3). The Haitians still heavily believe that this is a part of the spiritual world. They say that these entities separate the body and the soul and compel one to work without the other, in this case the body without the soul. Over the years, however, these origins have begun to vanish due to new forms of the zombies. In the early 20th Century, films began to show Eurocentric ideas that created African-Americans to be viewed as these zombie creatures. Films such as White Zombie (1932) and I walked with a Zombie (1943) â€Å"invariably cast black sorcerers plotting for conquest of and control over white women, and blackness is unmistakably linked with primitive menace, superstition, and the diabolical† (5). These views began to change by the time Romero’s films came out. Now this monstrous creature is as simple as â€Å"a ghoul who lumbers around trying to eat people.† Today’s society is used to seeing these ghouls in pop culture. Because of the more than 100 shows, movies and video games on the market now, people are more accepting of this idea of a â€Å"zombie apocalypse.† In many places, they have held events, such as 5K races and obstacle courses, that center around a zombie theme. In Muskegon, Michigan they held a zombie apocalypse day where civilians dressed as zombies and chased after those that were dressed as civilians. â€Å"Zombie participants got creative and tore up and stained their clothing. They also added scars and bloody makeup,† said an article in the Muskegon Chronicle. This goes to show how immune today’s society has become to the idea of these flesh-eating monsters. Not everyone is taking it lightly though as some have plans set in stone for when the apocalypse may happen. The CDC, Center of Disease Control, has its own website dedicated to a zombie outbreak. The blog includes a brief history of the creatures, a list of survival tools for a kit and their own plan for survival if it would ever happen. â€Å"If zombies did start roaming the streets, CDC would conduct an investigation much like any other disease outbreak.† The CDC tells us that it would be taken just as seriously as any other disease, and thanks pop culture and today’s society in helping to prepare for that day. Christopher Moreman takes a look past the plan in his book Zombies Are Us: Essays on the Humanity of the Walking Dead. The author looks into a world that is already ruled by the dead and sees how society would have to live to survive. He speaks for society as a whole through one line by referencing the graphic novel The Walking Dead: â€Å"In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living† (5). The creatures in Romero’s Dawn of the Dead may not be the scariest or deadliest of monsters, but it is when they are in large numbers that they can cause havoc. It is hard to deal with hundreds of flesh eating monsters at once no matter how fast or intelligent they may be. Much of the films’ audience saw Romero’s zombie as a symbolic structure of other things that could take down America. McCalister analyzes all of Romero’s films on the living dead and the time frame that they were made. â€Å"Night of the Living Dead attacks the nuclear American family, patriarchy, and racism; Dawn of the Dead fastens its attention on the deadening effects of rampant consumerism; and Day of the Dead offers an indictment of militarism and American misuse of science and technology† (17). These things were on the minds of Americans in the time the movies were made. Now they can be related to something different such as the events going on in the Middle East. Stephen Asma takes a look into the torturing of Iraqi soldiers and how the Americans may be the ones viewed as the evil creatures. In his book On Monsters, Asma references Dr. Philip Zimbardo and his theory called The Lucifer Effect. This idea helps to explain how good people can become evil in specific ways. He focuses on the torture of Iraqi soldiers. â€Å"The fact that seemingly normal American soldiers engaged in torture and degradation techniques on Iraqi detainees offers more evidence, Zimbardo thinks, for his view t hat abuse and aggression are not the results of inner character flaws† (Asma 413). He goes on to explain how Zimbardo believes these soldiers were not just a case of just one spoiled apple, but a bad barrel that spoiled anything put into it. In the case of the zombies, one can make the case that everyone on this planet will eventually fall to the disease and it is not because of the one zombie who started it all, but because everyone is infected to begin. These kinds of ideas are what bring the monstrous view of zombies into society. Kyle Bishop writes in his book American Zombie Gothic about how the use of the zombies in Dawn of the Dead creates a connection with the audience. He says that because the zombies look very similar to just another regular human being, it can make the audience feel terrified of the creatures. However, the way that the zombies act can tell the audience obvious differences between one that is still human and one that has turned. â€Å"Romero’s monsters are primarily ‘othered’ creatures, possessing virtually no subject ive, human qualities and encouraging almost no psychological suture with the audience† (Bishop 159). The comparison of zombies to human qualities can go on forever. Asma continues to analyze the psyche of the monstrous through the Id. â€Å"Rage is a powerful force that, along with other socially deleterious impulses, lives like a frustrated virus in the dark cellars of the Id† (354). The Id is the part of the personality that can make decisions unconsciously based off of desire and instinct. In the case of the zombies, all they want and need is food and in this case, the flesh of the protagonists. The zombies in Romero’s film were often times the ones being killed, whether it is a gunshot to the head, a bat to the head, a car hood to the head or a screwdriver through the ear. However, Romero kept scenes where humans were eaten by these creatures to give the audience a clear understanding of what to expect from the movie and who would be the good guys. In David Gilmore’s Monsters, the author discusses of ways on how to approach the monster. â€Å"Mythologistsâ € ¦ have written much about the theme of the Epic Hero who goes out to fight monsters in order to rescue maidens or to save society as a whole† (12). The monster is obvious in film but no Epic Hero is there to save the day. Taken this perspective into Dawn of the Dead, the audience can tell that it is society as a whole trying to fight the monsters to save the world from the dead. There are several ways to see why Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was up for awards. Much of it was not based off the effects and acting but what thought and background was put into the project. The study behind the zombies was thorough and began giving more meaning to the story. The symbolism of these creatures and how the good human being became an evil, flesh-seeking monster were just two of the things to write about. When all is said and done, the zombies may never come, but if they do, it is because of films like this that could help with survival. Works Cited Asma, Stephen T. On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print. Auty, Daniel. Dawn of the Dead. Rev. of Dawn of the Dead. n.d.: n. pag. The Spinning Image. Web. Bishop, Kyle William. American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular Culture. Jefferson, NC: McFarland , 2010. Print. Gilmore, David D. Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2003. Print. Haiti and the Truth about Zombies. Www.umich.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. http://www.umich.edu/~uncanny/zombies.html. McCalister, Elizabeth. Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites: The Race and Religion of Zombies. Anthropological Quarterly 85.2 (n.d.): 457-86. Web. Public Health Matters Blog. Public Health Matters Blog RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/.

Understanding Cultural Diversity In Humans Sociology Essay

Understanding Cultural Diversity In Humans Sociology Essay The three branches of human sciences (Social sciences), Sociology, Anthropology and Psychology are interlinked in that they try to describe the different areas of human life and their relationships to each other. They offer an explanation on human behavior and in the society they live. Furthermore, these social sciences provide essential skills in analyzing the intentions and behavior of individuals and groups they encounter. Individual identity is forged by ones culture, groups, and by institutional influences. Institutions such as families, schools and even churches greatly influence human beings yet these institutions are merely organizations whose aim is to develop the core social values of its constituents. In discussing cultural diversity on the perspectives of the three social sciences there is a need to understand the difference between culture and society. This is because the all the three disciplines explore culture and society to understand human behavior in depth. The term Culture has many different meanings, for some it is the appreciation of art, literature, music and food, while for others like biologists; they take it as a colony of microorganisms growing in a nutrient medium in a laboratory. However for social scientists, culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns. Cultures are traditions and customs, transmitted through learning and adaptations. Children obtain such traditions by growing up in a certain society, through a process called enculturation. A culture results into a degree of uniformity in behavior and thought among the inhabitants of a particular society (Baugher et. al, 2000, p. 4). The terms culture and society are different as cultures are co nsidered to be complexes of learned behavior patterns and perceptions while society is a group of interacting organisms. Therefore this paper will critically analyze cultural diversity based on the three social sciences, evaluating the social sciences similarities and differences. Discussion Anthropological perspective of culture diversity When it comes to understanding diversity in cultures, the anthropological view can help humanity understand and appreciate the complexity of diverse cultures. This discipline involves the study of biological and cultural origins of the humans. The subject matter of anthropology is wide-ranging, including, fossil remains, non human primate anatomy and behavior, artifacts from past cultures, past and present languages, and all the prehistoric and contemporary cultures of the world. The subfield of cultural anthropology is the most commonly studied and useful in analyzing and interpreting the diverse cultures of the world. In recent years, recognition of the need for multicultural awareness, understanding, and skills has grown in our society. The aim is to achieve multicultural diversity competence, which is a term that refers to the ability to demonstrate respect and understanding, to communicate effectively, and to work with different cultural backgrounds (George Fischer, 1999, p. 71). These diversities in culture encompass differences in gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, social class and physical appearance. Misunderstandings and conflicts in the society are two major consequences of lack of awareness in the ever increasing cultural diversity. Cultural anthropology explains cultural diversity through aspects of social life such as material culture, social organizations, politics, economics, symbolism, change and development, ethnici ty and modern nation-state formation. In explaining and interpreting the diverse cultures, anthropology uses ethnography- describing particular cultures; and ethnology- comparing two or more cultures. In addition it incorporates the holistic approach in cultural studies by studying biological and cultural aspects of human behavior; encompassing the broadest possible time frame by looking at contemporary, historic and prehistoric societies; examining human culture in every part of the world; and studies many different aspects of human culture (George Fischer, 1999, p.68). Cultural diversity is relevant to a cultural approach in learning, in that learning and motivational styles and cross cultural pedagogical strategies assume attention to diversity in learner populations and pluralistic learning outcomes. The data, concepts and insights derived from the study of other cultures helps us meet our professional goals and lead more satisfying lives in a multicultural society. Moreover, the process of studying anthropology is also valuable because of the skills and competencies that it helps to develop. Activities such as taking courses about different cultures, participating in local internships and international organizations, living in the universitys international dormitory, and participating in study abroad programs all combine to provide students with valuable skills in understanding diverse cultures hence achieve multicultural diverse competence. There is a need to come up with a strategy to accept cultural diversity, for example, in the United states of America the freedom to pursue ones individual dream and fortunes in the united states has produced a widening gap between the haves and have-nots. According to Hutnyk, 2006, managing directors in United States of America made forty times as much compared to the average worker in 1973 and three hundred as much in 2004. At the same time, earnings of middle class were growing slightly and those of lower class were actually shrinking. This situation to a European means that the state is working against well being of the population, particularly in light of tax cuts during this period. Another instance is when expressing feelings of affection which is typical for all human. The manner in which the affection is expressed is cultural, the kiss is not universally accepted as a symbol of affection; some societies consider it suggestive of cannibalism. A basic anthropological strategy for understanding other cultures is to look at a cultural feature from within its original context rather than looking at it from the perspective of ones own culture; being inquisitive, non-judgmental, and open to new ways of thinking is vital in understanding other cultures; Balancing contradictory needs instead of trying to eliminate them; emphasize global team work; develop a cognitive complex which is made up of twin abilities of differentiating and integrating; and developing a personal acuity (Naylor, 1997, p. 157). The strategy will not only help you personally in understanding other cultures but assist you in integrating to any culture globally. Sociological perspective on Cultural Diversity Sociology is critical analysis of the society in which humans live. People who make sense of the social world-past, present and future- are referred to as sociologists (Anderson Taylor, 2005, p. 8). Sociologists research on social structures such as class, family, politics, social problems like drug abuse and crime all of which influence the society. Social interaction amongst humans is the basic sociological concept, because all humans and groups that make up a society socialize. Specialists who focus on particular details of specific interactions as they occur daily are called micro sociologists and those that focus on larger patterns of interactions amongst larger sections of the society such as state and economy are called macro sociologists. A society is rarely culturally uniform hence the result of different cultures. As societies develop and become more complex, different cultural traditions appear. The more complex the society, the more likely the culture will be internally varied and diverse. The causes of cultural changes in a society are cultural diffusion, innovation, and imposition of cultural change by outside world (Anderson Taylor, 2005, p. 72). Two concepts from sociology help in understanding complexity of culture in a given society, dominant culture and subcultures. Dominant culture is the culture of the most powerful group in the society. Although it is not the only culture in society, it is commonly referred to be the culture of a society, despite other cultures present. Subcultures on the other hand are cultures of groups whose values and norms of behavior differ from those of the dominant culture. Members of subcultures tend to interact frequently and share a common world view. Sociology stipulates that culture consists of both material objects and abstract thoughts and behavior. Several elements which sociologists consider in understanding culture diversity are language, norms, beliefs and values (Kaufman, 2004, p. 7). Language: Learning the language of a culture is essential to becoming part of a society. Language shapes culture as it provides the categories through which social reality is understood. This was proved by Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Worf in the 1950s through their theory called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. The hypothesis states, it is not that you perceive something first and then think of how to express it, but that language itself determines what you think and perceive (Anderson Taylor, 2005, p. 83). In understanding cultural diversity language is seen to reflect the assumptions of a culture. This is seen and exemplified by: language affecting peoples perception of reality; Language reflecting the social and political status of different groups in society; Groups advocating changing language referring to them as a way of asserting positive group identity; The implications of language emerging from specific historical and cultural contexts; language distorting actual grou p experience; language shaping peoples perceptions of groups and events in society. Norms: They are specific cultural expectations for how to behave in a given situation. Lack of norms in any society results in turmoil however, with established norms people would be able to act, behave and interact in a society properly. In the early years of sociology, William Graham Summer in 1906 identified two types of norms; folkways and mores. Folkways are general standards of behavior adhered to by a group, example wearing pants and not skirts for men. Mores are stricter mores which are seen to control moral and ethical behaviors such as injunctions, legal and religious. Beliefs: They are shared ideas people hold collectively within a given culture, and these beliefs are also the basis of many cultural norms and values, example in USA there is a widespread belief in God. Sociology study belief in a variety of ways, and each theoretical mentation provides different insights into the significance of beliefs for human society. Values: They are abstract standards in a society or group that defines the ideal principles of what is desirable and morally correct, for example in USA equality and freedom are important values which provide a general outline for behavior. Values provide values for behavior, but can also be sources of conflict like the political conflict over abortion. Understanding the four elements of sociology enables proper integration in any society. Integration into the society is achieved by respecting the diverse cultures that are found in a society. Sociology studies culture in a variety of ways, asking numerous questions about the relationship of culture to other social institutions and the role of culture in modern life. The new cultural perspective on culture according to Naylor, 1997, is that it is ephemeral, unpredictable and constantly changing; is a material manifestation of consumer-oriented society; and is best understood by analyzing its artifacts- books, films, television images. Psychological Perspective on Culture Diversity Social psychology a subfield of psychology has its origins in the early years of the twentieth century. Its findings do not necessarily concern human thinking throughout history but rather meet the requirements of our modern society. Social psychology research aims to capture the interplay between social thinking and socio-historical dynamics in order to understand how societies function and how culture is produced (Xenia, 2004, p. 13). Psychology is distinguished from neighboring social sciences through its emphasis on studying samples of organisms within controlled settings rather than focusing upon larger groups, organizations or nations. Psychologists test the specific results of changes in a controlled environment on the individual in that environment, but there are strongly set procedures through which organisms are tested psychometrically. There is a big debate in psychology and more generally in social sciences how to define culture. In some definitions the concept of culture includes behavior, in the sense that our behaviors are expressions of our culture. Other definitions emphasize that participating in a culture means having understanding of our world. However with trying to find a consensual definition of this concept, the main argument of researchers in psychology is to highlight how important it is to take into account the cultural context in which psychological studies were conducted (Kerr Tindale, 2011). They were right to point out that humans are linked to the social context in which they live, proving that psychological functioning and human behavior are universal and culture specific. Sharing a culture means that people have a common way of viewing their relationship with the social and physical environment; of communicating their thoughts and emotions; of prioritizing their activities; of dividing tasks and resources; of attributing values, honors, and power (Xenia, 2004, pp.17-18). When they do not share the above listed elements then culture diversity occurs from a psychological point of view. The people of diverse cultures are not like minded hence the question is, whether individuals from diverse cultures can coexist harmoniously in time space and under the same political and social organizations? The answer to this question provides the idea of how to cope with culture diversity. Various cultures flourish from the recognition that they represent a set of beliefs, modes of thinking and practices that are peculiar to them and different from others. Some cultures are more inclusive example western cultures, others refer to a small group of people for instance the Basque culture, but each one of them is important for its members because they represent the way they construct their social reality, and provides them with action alternatives. Conclusion Culture Diversity has been discussed using the three social science disciplines of Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology. Even though all of them have a similarity of trying to understand culture diversity in humans, they are different in terms of how they approach the study. Anthropology looks at culture diversity at the perspective of humanity, his origin and through aspects of social life such as ethnicity, symbolism, politics, race and so on. Anthropology explains that the origin of culture diversity is through mankind hence the concentration a human perspective. Sociology looks at the society which humans live so as to explain culture diversity. It states that elements such as language, beliefs, norms, and values are what bring about culture diversities. Psychology on the other hand analyses culture diversity with focus entirely on internal factors that influence individuals. Therefore the three social sciences provide an understanding of culture diversity and a basis of respec ting other cultures.

Canals :: essays research papers

Explain changes that took place in Canals during 1750 – 1900 Water transport was a lot quicker than road transport, the only problem was that rivers meandered and flooded, some places were too shallow for boats to go through. A lot of trade was done by sea, coal mainly came to London by sea. Before 1750 improvement schemes were planned but the rivers still flooded travelling by land with goods ment they would get damaged and broken. IN the 18th century the main rivers were; The River Themes, Dee, Trent, Severn, and Humber. Here is a table of when the canals opened: <table border="1"> NAME AND LOCATIONLENGTH (KM/MI)YEAR OPENEDBaltic-White Sea, Russia226.91 / 141.001933Suez, Egypt162.13 / 100.761869Albert, Belgium130.36 / 81.001939Moscow, Russia128.75 / 80.001937Nord-Ostsee, Germany96.56 / 60.001895Gà ¶ta, Sweden86.91 / 54.001832Panama, Panama81.63 / 50.721914Houston Ship Channel, United States80.47 / 50.001914Amsterdam-Rhine, Netherlands62.76 / 39.001952Manchester Ship Canal, England57.13 / 35.501894Chicago Sanitary and Ship, United States48.28 / 30.001900Welland Ship, Canada*44.42 / 27.601932Juliana, Netherlands33.80 / 21.001934Chesapeake-Delaware, United States30.58 / 19.001829North Sea-Amsterdam, Netherlands28.97 / 18.001876Cape Cod, United States28.16 / 17.501914Kronshtadt-Leningrad, Russia27.36 / 17.001885Lake Washington Ship, United States12.88 / 8.001916New Orleans Industrial, United States9.66 / 6.001923Sault Sainte Marie (N.), United States2.57 / 1.601919Sault Sainte Marie, Canada2.09 / 1.301895 * Reconstructed from the old Welland Canal, which was originally completed in 1833. In 1757 the first canal was built, it was called Sankey Cut, it went from St. Hellans to the river Mersy to let barges carry coal from Lancastershire mines to Liverpool. The Duke of Bridgewater built a canal to get coal from his colliery in Worsley to Manchester, a few km away. He employed an engineer (James Brindley) to do so. The Duke made a profit of  £100,000 a year. James Brindleys most famouse canal was the Grand Trunk canal, it links the river Trent to the river mersy and runs through potteries, it was finished in 1777. By 1790, a canal network linked four major ports; Bristol, Liverpool, Hull and London. Enthusiasm continued in the 1790’s so canals were built in rural areas and never made very much profit from them, even if they did benefit people who live near them. Between 1760 and 1840 almost 6,500 km of canal had been built.Some people converted their barges to carry animals to market. From 1774 and comfortable passenger service ran from Altrichham to Manchester. Businessmen hired people like James Brindly, Thomas Telford and William Jessop to build canals to raise the money they set up campaigns.

Teaching ESL Writing (Final Paper) -- Education Learning Essays

Teaching ESL Writing At times the plethora of professional journals and the myriad subjects treated therein seems like little more than a dizzying exercise in redundancy and a forum for education professionals to justify their worth in a competitive job market; however, I would like to think that there is a hidden value for those of us whose brains seem to operate in what some might call a â€Å"spiral† rhetorical pattern, that as we work our way around and around certain issues related to composition instruction, we are moving gradually upward toward broader understanding and better practice. Some studies seem to do little more than show the need for more studies, their authors falling back on such standard phrases as, â€Å"clearly more research is needed,† but that at least is evidence that we’re moving toward something – we’re trying to pinpoint the exact gap between educational practice as we know it and as we sense it might exist in an improved state. So, it is with this hope in mind that I’ve undertaken yet another literature review, consuming the writings of others in order to find a specific gap in (at least my own) understanding of educational practice as it relates to college-level ESL composition students in general, and to college-level ESL students with learning disabilities (LD) specifically. For the purposes of this paper I shall borrow Skinner and Gilespie’s definition of learning disabilities as follows: [Learning disabled persons are those] of average or above average intelligence who have difficulty mastering skills in reading and spelling (often in the form of dis- lexia), and /or writing, or math. ... ...es. March/April 2001, 34, 2. 136-152. Munro, Murray J. and Tracey M. Derwing. â€Å"Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Inteligibility.† Language Learning. June 1999, 49, 2. 285-111. Poon-McBrayer, Kim Feng and Shernaz B. Garcia. â€Å"Profiles of Asian American Students with Learning Disabilities at Initial Referral, Assessment, and Place- ment in Special Education.† Journal of Learning Disabilities. Jan/Feb 2001, 33, 1. 61-71. Skinner, Louise and Phyllis Gillespie. â€Å"The Challenge of Adult Literacy: Students with Learning Disabilities in the ABE Classroom.† Adult Basic Education. Fall 2000, 10, 3. Spack, Ruth. â€Å"Student Meets Text, Text Meets Student: Finding a Way into Academic Discourse.† Reading in the Composition Classroom: Second Language Perspectives. Ed. Joan G. Carson and Ilona Leki. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers, 1993. 183-196.

Monopolistic Competition

INTRODUCTION Pure monopoly and perfect competition are two extreme cases of market structure. In reality, there are markets having large number of producers competing with each other in order to sell their product in the market. Thus, there is monopoly on the one hand and perfect competition, on the other hand. Such a mixture of monopoly and perfect competition is called monopolistic competition. It is a case of imperfect competition. The model of monopolistic competition describes a common  market structure  in which firms have many competitors, but each one sells a slightly different product. Monopolistic competition as a market structure was first identified in the 1930s by American economist  Edward Chamberlin, and English economist  Joan Robinson. Many small businesses operate under conditions of monopolistic competition, including independently owned and operated high-street stores and restaurants. In the case of restaurants, each one offers something different and possesses an element of uniqueness, but all are essentially competing for the same customers. The aim of the given work is the study of monopolistic competition. The paper consists of introduction, body, conclusion and bibliography. In the introduction the aim of the work is defined and the structure of the paper is described. The body gives the definition of monopolistic competition, studies it main characteristics and comments on the main advantages and disadvantages of monopolistic competition. Conclusion sums up the results of the study. Bibliography comprises the list of references used when carrying out the work. MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION Monopolistic competition  is a type of  imperfect competition  such that competing producers sell products that are  differentiated  from one another as good but not perfect  substitutes, such as from branding, quality, or location. In monopolistic competition, a firm takes the prices charged by its rivals as given and ignores the impact of its own prices on the prices of other firms. In a monopolistically competitive market, firms can behave like  monopolies  in the  short run, including by using market power to generate profit. In the  long run, however, other firms enter the market and the benefits of differentiation decrease with competition; the market becomes more like a  perfectly competitive  one where firms cannot gain economic profit. In practice, however, if consumer rationality/innovativeness is low and heuristics are preferred,  monopolistic competition  can fall into  natural monopoly, even in the complete absence of government intervention. In the presence of coercive government, monopolistic competition will fall into  government-granted monopoly. Unlike perfect competition, the firm maintains spare capacity. Models of monopolistic competition are often used to model industries. Examples of industries with market structures similar to monopolistic competition include  restaurants,  cereal,  clothing,  shoes, and service industries in large cities. The â€Å"founding father† of the theory of monopolistic competition is  Edward Hastings Chamberlin, who wrote a pioneering book on the subject  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Theory of Monopolistic Competition†Ã‚  (1933). Joan Robinson  published a book  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The Economics of Imperfect Competition†Ã‚  with a comparable theme of distinguishing perfect from imperfect competition. Monopolistically competitive markets have the following characteristics: * There are many producers and many consumers in the market, and no business has total control over the market price. * Consumers perceive that there are non-price differences among the competitors' products. There are few  barriers to entry  and exit. * Producers have a degree of control over price. The long-run characteristics of a monopolistically competitive market are almost the same as a perfectly competitive market. Two differences between the two are that monopolistic competition produces heterogeneous products and that monopolistic competition involves a great deal of non-price competition, which is based on subtle product differentiation. A firm making profits in the short run will nonetheless only  break even  in the long run because demand will decrease and average total cost will increase. This means in the long run, a monopolistically competitive firm will make zero  economic profit. This illustrates the amount of influence the firm has over the market; because of brand loyalty, it can raise its prices without losing all of its customers. This means that an individual firm's demand curve is downward sloping, in contrast to perfect competition, which has a  perfectly elastic  demand schedule. Monopolistically competitive markets exhibit the following characteristics: 1. Each firm makes independent decisions about price and output, based on its product, its market, and its  costs of production. . Knowledge is widely spread between participants, but it is unlikely to be perfect. For example, diners can review all the menus available from restaurants in a town, before they make their choice. Once inside the restaurant, they can view the menu again, before ordering. However, they cannot fully appreciate the restaurant or the meal until after they have dined. 3. The   entrepreneur  has a more significant role than in firms that are perfectly competitive because of the increased risks associated with decision making. 4. There is freedom to enter or leave the market, as there are no major  barriers to entry  or exit. 5. A central feature of monopolistic competition is that products are differentiated. There are four main types of differentiation: a. Physical product differentiation, where firms use size, design, colour, shape, performance, and features to make their products different. For example, consumer electronics can easily be physically differentiated. b. Marketing differentiation, where firms try to differentiate their product by distinctive packaging and other promotional techniques. For example, breakfast cereals can easily be differentiated through packaging. c. Human capital differentiation, where the firm creates differences through the skill of its employees, the level of training received, distinctive uniforms, and so on. d. Differentiation through distribution, including distribution via mail order or through internet shopping, such as Amazon. com, which differentiates itself from traditional bookstores by selling online. 6. Firms are  price makers  and are faced with a downward sloping  demand curve. Because each firm makes a unique product, it can charge a higher or lower price than its rivals. The firm can set its own price and does not have to ‘take' it from the industry as a whole, though the industry price may be a guideline, or becomes a constraint. This also means that the demand curve will slope downwards. 7. Firms  operating under monopolistic competition usually  have to engage in advertising. Firms are often in fierce competition with other (local) firms offering a similar product or service, and may need to advertise on a local basis, to let customers know their differences. Common methods of advertising for these firms are through local press and radio, local cinema, posters, leaflets and special promotions. 8. Monopolistically competitive firms are assumed to be  profit maximisers  because firms tend to be small with entrepreneurs actively involved in managing the business. 9. There are usually a large numbers of independent firms competing in the market. Product differentiation Monopolistic competition firms sell products that have real or perceived non-price differences. However, the differences are not so great as to eliminate other goods as substitutes. Technically, the cross price elasticity of demand between goods in such a market is positive. In fact, the XED would be high. Monopolistic competition goods are best described as close but imperfect substitutes. The goods perform the same basic functions but have differences in qualities such as type, style, quality, reputation, appearance, and location that tend to distinguish them from each other. For example, the basic function of motor vehicles is basically the same – to move people and objects from point A to B in reasonable comfort and safety. Yet there are many different types of motor vehicles such as motor scooters, motor cycles, trucks, cars and SUVs and many variations even within these categories. There are many firms in each monopolistic competition product group and many firms on the side lines prepared to enter the market. A product group is a â€Å"collection of similar products†. The fact that there are â€Å"many firms† gives each MC firm the freedom to set prices without engaging in strategic decision making regarding the prices of other firms and each firm's actions have a negligible impact on the market. For example, a firm could cut prices and increase sales without fear that its actions will prompt retaliatory responses from competitors. How many firms will an MC market structure support at market equilibrium? The answer depends on factors such as fixed costs, economies of scale and the degree of product differentiation. For example, the higher the fixed costs, the fewer firms the market will support. Also the greater the degree of product differentiation – the more the firm can separate itself from the pack – the fewer firms there will be at market equilibrium. In the long run there is free entry and exit. There are numerous firms waiting to enter the market each with its own â€Å"unique† product or in pursuit of positive profits and any firm unable to cover its costs can leave the market without incurring liquidation costs. This assumption implies that there are low start up costs, no sunk costs and no exit costs. The cost of entering and exit is very low. Each monopolistic competition firm independently sets the terms of exchange for its product. The firm gives no consideration to what effect its decision may have on competitors. The theory is that any action will have such a negligible effect on the overall market demand that an MC firm can act without fear of prompting heightened competition. In other words each firm feels free to set prices as if it were a monopoly rather than an oligopoly. Monopolistic competition firms have some degree of market power. Market power means that the firm has control over the terms and conditions of exchange. An MC firm can raise it prices without losing all its customers. The firm can also lower prices without triggering a potentially ruinous price war with competitors. The source of an MC firm's market power is not barriers to entry since they are low. Rather, an MC firm has market power because it has relatively few competitors, those competitors do not engage in strategic decision making and the firms sells differentiated product. Market power also means that an MC firm faces a downward sloping demand curve. The demand curve is highly elastic although not â€Å"flat†. There are two sources of inefficiency in the MC market structure. First, at its optimum output the firm charges a price that exceeds marginal costs, the MC firm maximizes profits where MR = MC. Since the MC firm's demand curve is downward sloping this means that the firm will be charging a price that exceeds marginal costs. The monopoly power possessed by an MC firm means that at its profit maximizing level of production there will be a net loss of consumer (and producer) surplus. The second source of inefficiency is the fact that MC firms operate with excess capacity. That is, the MC firm's profit maximizing output is less than the output associated with minimum average cost. Both a PC and MC firm will operate at a point where demand or price equals average cost. For a PC firm this equilibrium condition occurs where the perfectly elastic demand curve equals minimum average cost. A MC firm’s demand curve is not flat but is downward sloping. Thus in the long run the demand curve will be tangent to the long run average cost curve at a point to the left of its minimum. The result is excess capacity. While monopolistically competitive firms are inefficient, it is usually the case that the costs of regulating prices for every product that is sold in monopolistic competition far exceed the benefits of such regulation. The government would have to regulate all firms that sold heterogeneous products—an impossible proposition in a  market economy. A monopolistically competitive firm might be said to be marginally inefficient because the firm produces at an output where average total cost is not a minimum. A monopolistically competitive market might be said to be a marginally inefficient market structure because marginal cost is less than price in the long run. Another concern of critics of monopolistic competition is that it fosters  advertising  and the creation of  brand names. Critics argue that advertising induces customers into spending more on products because of the name associated with them rather than because of rational factors. Defenders of advertising dispute this, arguing that brand names can represent a guarantee of quality and that advertising helps reduce the cost to consumers of weighing the tradeoffs of numerous competing brands. There are unique information and information processing costs associated with selecting a brand in a monopolistically competitive environment. In a monopoly market, the consumer is faced with a single brand, making information gathering relatively inexpensive. In a perfectly competitive industry, the consumer is faced with many brands, but because the brands are virtually identical information gathering is also relatively inexpensive. In a monopolistically competitive market, the consumer must collect and process information on a large number of different brands to be able to select the best of them. In many cases, the cost of gathering information necessary to selecting the best brand can exceed the benefit of consuming the best brand instead of a randomly selected brand. Evidence suggests that consumers use information obtained from advertising not only to assess the single brand advertised, but also to infer the possible existence of brands that the consumer has, heretofore, not observed, as well as to infer consumer satisfaction with brands similar to the advertised brand The advantages of monopolistic competition Monopolistic competition can bring the following advantages: 1. There are no significant  barriers to entry; therefore markets are relatively  contestable. 2. Differentiation creates diversity, choice and utility. For example, a typical high street in any town will have a number of different restaurants from which to choose. 3. The market is more efficient than monopoly but less efficient than perfect competition – less allocatively and less productively efficient. However, they may be dynamically efficient, innovative in terms of new production processes or new products. For example, retailers often constantly have to develop new ways to attract and retain local custom. The disadvantages of monopolistic competition There are several potential disadvantages associated with monopolistic competition, including: 1. Some differentiation does not create utility but generates unnecessary waste, such as excess packaging. Advertising may also be considered wasteful, though most is informative rather than persuasive. 2. As the diagram illustrates, assuming profit maximisation, there is allocative inefficiency in both the long and short run. This is  because price is above marginal cost in both cases. In the long run the firm is less allocatively inefficient, but it is still inefficient. . There is a tendency for excess capacity because firms can never fully exploit their fixed factors because mass production is difficult. This means they are  productively inefficient  in both the long and short run. However, this is may be outweighed by the advantages of diversity and choice. As an economic model of competition, monopolistic competition is more realistic than perfect competition – many famil iar and commonplace markets have many of the characteristics of this model. Conclusion Our study gives us an opportunity to come to the following conclusion. Monopolistic competition is a  market structure  in which several or many  sellers  each produce similar, but  slightly  differentiated  products. Each producer  can set its  price  and quantity without affecting the marketplace as a whole. Monopolistic competition differs from perfect competition in that production does not take place at the lowest possible cost. Because of this, firms are left with excess production capacity. It is a type of competition within an industry where: * All firms produce similar yet not perfectly substitutable products. All firms are able to enter the industry if the profits are attractive. * All firms are profit maximizers. * All firms have some market power, which means none are price takers. Monopolistic competition has certain features, one of which is that there are large number of sellers producing differentiated products. So, competition among them is very keen. Since number of sellers is large, each seller produces a very smal l part of market supply. So no seller is in a position to control price of product. Every firm is limited in its size. Product differentiation is one of the most important features of monopolistic competition. In perfect competition, products are homogeneous in nature. On the contrary, here, every producer tries to keep his product dissimilar than his rival's product in order to maintain his separate identity. This boosts up the competition in market. So, every firm acquires some monopoly power. The feature of freedom of entry and exit leads to stiff competition in market. Free entry into the market enables new firms to come with close substitutes. Free entry or exit maintains normal profit in the market for a longer span of time. Selling cost is another unique feature of monopolistic competition. In such type of market, due to product differentiation, every firm has to incur some additional expenditure in the form of selling cost. This cost includes sales promotion expenses, advertisement expenses, salaries of marketing staff, etc. And the last feature of monopolistic competition is that a firm is facing downward sloping demand curve i. e. elastic demand curve. It means one can sell more at lower price and vice versa. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Ayers R. and Collinge R. , Microeconomics, Pearson, 2003 2. J. Gans, S. King, N. Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Economics, Thomson Learning, 2003 3. Hirschey, M, Managerial Economics Rev. Ed, Dryden, 2000 4. http://www. britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/390037/monopolistic-competition 5. http://www. investopedia. com/terms/m/monopolisticmarket. asp 6. http://kalyan-city. blogspot. com/2010/11/monopolistic-competition-meaning. html Monopolistic Competition INTRODUCTION Pure monopoly and perfect competition are two extreme cases of market structure. In reality, there are markets having large number of producers competing with each other in order to sell their product in the market. Thus, there is monopoly on the one hand and perfect competition, on the other hand. Such a mixture of monopoly and perfect competition is called monopolistic competition. It is a case of imperfect competition. The model of monopolistic competition describes a common  market structure  in which firms have many competitors, but each one sells a slightly different product. Monopolistic competition as a market structure was first identified in the 1930s by American economist  Edward Chamberlin, and English economist  Joan Robinson. Many small businesses operate under conditions of monopolistic competition, including independently owned and operated high-street stores and restaurants. In the case of restaurants, each one offers something different and possesses an element of uniqueness, but all are essentially competing for the same customers. The aim of the given work is the study of monopolistic competition. The paper consists of introduction, body, conclusion and bibliography. In the introduction the aim of the work is defined and the structure of the paper is described. The body gives the definition of monopolistic competition, studies it main characteristics and comments on the main advantages and disadvantages of monopolistic competition. Conclusion sums up the results of the study. Bibliography comprises the list of references used when carrying out the work. MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION Monopolistic competition  is a type of  imperfect competition  such that competing producers sell products that are  differentiated  from one another as good but not perfect  substitutes, such as from branding, quality, or location. In monopolistic competition, a firm takes the prices charged by its rivals as given and ignores the impact of its own prices on the prices of other firms. In a monopolistically competitive market, firms can behave like  monopolies  in the  short run, including by using market power to generate profit. In the  long run, however, other firms enter the market and the benefits of differentiation decrease with competition; the market becomes more like a  perfectly competitive  one where firms cannot gain economic profit. In practice, however, if consumer rationality/innovativeness is low and heuristics are preferred,  monopolistic competition  can fall into  natural monopoly, even in the complete absence of government intervention. In the presence of coercive government, monopolistic competition will fall into  government-granted monopoly. Unlike perfect competition, the firm maintains spare capacity. Models of monopolistic competition are often used to model industries. Examples of industries with market structures similar to monopolistic competition include  restaurants,  cereal,  clothing,  shoes, and service industries in large cities. The â€Å"founding father† of the theory of monopolistic competition is  Edward Hastings Chamberlin, who wrote a pioneering book on the subject  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Theory of Monopolistic Competition†Ã‚  (1933). Joan Robinson  published a book  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The Economics of Imperfect Competition†Ã‚  with a comparable theme of distinguishing perfect from imperfect competition. Monopolistically competitive markets have the following characteristics: * There are many producers and many consumers in the market, and no business has total control over the market price. * Consumers perceive that there are non-price differences among the competitors' products. There are few  barriers to entry  and exit. * Producers have a degree of control over price. The long-run characteristics of a monopolistically competitive market are almost the same as a perfectly competitive market. Two differences between the two are that monopolistic competition produces heterogeneous products and that monopolistic competition involves a great deal of non-price competition, which is based on subtle product differentiation. A firm making profits in the short run will nonetheless only  break even  in the long run because demand will decrease and average total cost will increase. This means in the long run, a monopolistically competitive firm will make zero  economic profit. This illustrates the amount of influence the firm has over the market; because of brand loyalty, it can raise its prices without losing all of its customers. This means that an individual firm's demand curve is downward sloping, in contrast to perfect competition, which has a  perfectly elastic  demand schedule. Monopolistically competitive markets exhibit the following characteristics: 1. Each firm makes independent decisions about price and output, based on its product, its market, and its  costs of production. . Knowledge is widely spread between participants, but it is unlikely to be perfect. For example, diners can review all the menus available from restaurants in a town, before they make their choice. Once inside the restaurant, they can view the menu again, before ordering. However, they cannot fully appreciate the restaurant or the meal until after they have dined. 3. The   entrepreneur  has a more significant role than in firms that are perfectly competitive because of the increased risks associated with decision making. 4. There is freedom to enter or leave the market, as there are no major  barriers to entry  or exit. 5. A central feature of monopolistic competition is that products are differentiated. There are four main types of differentiation: a. Physical product differentiation, where firms use size, design, colour, shape, performance, and features to make their products different. For example, consumer electronics can easily be physically differentiated. b. Marketing differentiation, where firms try to differentiate their product by distinctive packaging and other promotional techniques. For example, breakfast cereals can easily be differentiated through packaging. c. Human capital differentiation, where the firm creates differences through the skill of its employees, the level of training received, distinctive uniforms, and so on. d. Differentiation through distribution, including distribution via mail order or through internet shopping, such as Amazon. com, which differentiates itself from traditional bookstores by selling online. 6. Firms are  price makers  and are faced with a downward sloping  demand curve. Because each firm makes a unique product, it can charge a higher or lower price than its rivals. The firm can set its own price and does not have to ‘take' it from the industry as a whole, though the industry price may be a guideline, or becomes a constraint. This also means that the demand curve will slope downwards. 7. Firms  operating under monopolistic competition usually  have to engage in advertising. Firms are often in fierce competition with other (local) firms offering a similar product or service, and may need to advertise on a local basis, to let customers know their differences. Common methods of advertising for these firms are through local press and radio, local cinema, posters, leaflets and special promotions. 8. Monopolistically competitive firms are assumed to be  profit maximisers  because firms tend to be small with entrepreneurs actively involved in managing the business. 9. There are usually a large numbers of independent firms competing in the market. Product differentiation Monopolistic competition firms sell products that have real or perceived non-price differences. However, the differences are not so great as to eliminate other goods as substitutes. Technically, the cross price elasticity of demand between goods in such a market is positive. In fact, the XED would be high. Monopolistic competition goods are best described as close but imperfect substitutes. The goods perform the same basic functions but have differences in qualities such as type, style, quality, reputation, appearance, and location that tend to distinguish them from each other. For example, the basic function of motor vehicles is basically the same – to move people and objects from point A to B in reasonable comfort and safety. Yet there are many different types of motor vehicles such as motor scooters, motor cycles, trucks, cars and SUVs and many variations even within these categories. There are many firms in each monopolistic competition product group and many firms on the side lines prepared to enter the market. A product group is a â€Å"collection of similar products†. The fact that there are â€Å"many firms† gives each MC firm the freedom to set prices without engaging in strategic decision making regarding the prices of other firms and each firm's actions have a negligible impact on the market. For example, a firm could cut prices and increase sales without fear that its actions will prompt retaliatory responses from competitors. How many firms will an MC market structure support at market equilibrium? The answer depends on factors such as fixed costs, economies of scale and the degree of product differentiation. For example, the higher the fixed costs, the fewer firms the market will support. Also the greater the degree of product differentiation – the more the firm can separate itself from the pack – the fewer firms there will be at market equilibrium. In the long run there is free entry and exit. There are numerous firms waiting to enter the market each with its own â€Å"unique† product or in pursuit of positive profits and any firm unable to cover its costs can leave the market without incurring liquidation costs. This assumption implies that there are low start up costs, no sunk costs and no exit costs. The cost of entering and exit is very low. Each monopolistic competition firm independently sets the terms of exchange for its product. The firm gives no consideration to what effect its decision may have on competitors. The theory is that any action will have such a negligible effect on the overall market demand that an MC firm can act without fear of prompting heightened competition. In other words each firm feels free to set prices as if it were a monopoly rather than an oligopoly. Monopolistic competition firms have some degree of market power. Market power means that the firm has control over the terms and conditions of exchange. An MC firm can raise it prices without losing all its customers. The firm can also lower prices without triggering a potentially ruinous price war with competitors. The source of an MC firm's market power is not barriers to entry since they are low. Rather, an MC firm has market power because it has relatively few competitors, those competitors do not engage in strategic decision making and the firms sells differentiated product. Market power also means that an MC firm faces a downward sloping demand curve. The demand curve is highly elastic although not â€Å"flat†. There are two sources of inefficiency in the MC market structure. First, at its optimum output the firm charges a price that exceeds marginal costs, the MC firm maximizes profits where MR = MC. Since the MC firm's demand curve is downward sloping this means that the firm will be charging a price that exceeds marginal costs. The monopoly power possessed by an MC firm means that at its profit maximizing level of production there will be a net loss of consumer (and producer) surplus. The second source of inefficiency is the fact that MC firms operate with excess capacity. That is, the MC firm's profit maximizing output is less than the output associated with minimum average cost. Both a PC and MC firm will operate at a point where demand or price equals average cost. For a PC firm this equilibrium condition occurs where the perfectly elastic demand curve equals minimum average cost. A MC firm’s demand curve is not flat but is downward sloping. Thus in the long run the demand curve will be tangent to the long run average cost curve at a point to the left of its minimum. The result is excess capacity. While monopolistically competitive firms are inefficient, it is usually the case that the costs of regulating prices for every product that is sold in monopolistic competition far exceed the benefits of such regulation. The government would have to regulate all firms that sold heterogeneous products—an impossible proposition in a  market economy. A monopolistically competitive firm might be said to be marginally inefficient because the firm produces at an output where average total cost is not a minimum. A monopolistically competitive market might be said to be a marginally inefficient market structure because marginal cost is less than price in the long run. Another concern of critics of monopolistic competition is that it fosters  advertising  and the creation of  brand names. Critics argue that advertising induces customers into spending more on products because of the name associated with them rather than because of rational factors. Defenders of advertising dispute this, arguing that brand names can represent a guarantee of quality and that advertising helps reduce the cost to consumers of weighing the tradeoffs of numerous competing brands. There are unique information and information processing costs associated with selecting a brand in a monopolistically competitive environment. In a monopoly market, the consumer is faced with a single brand, making information gathering relatively inexpensive. In a perfectly competitive industry, the consumer is faced with many brands, but because the brands are virtually identical information gathering is also relatively inexpensive. In a monopolistically competitive market, the consumer must collect and process information on a large number of different brands to be able to select the best of them. In many cases, the cost of gathering information necessary to selecting the best brand can exceed the benefit of consuming the best brand instead of a randomly selected brand. Evidence suggests that consumers use information obtained from advertising not only to assess the single brand advertised, but also to infer the possible existence of brands that the consumer has, heretofore, not observed, as well as to infer consumer satisfaction with brands similar to the advertised brand The advantages of monopolistic competition Monopolistic competition can bring the following advantages: 1. There are no significant  barriers to entry; therefore markets are relatively  contestable. 2. Differentiation creates diversity, choice and utility. For example, a typical high street in any town will have a number of different restaurants from which to choose. 3. The market is more efficient than monopoly but less efficient than perfect competition – less allocatively and less productively efficient. However, they may be dynamically efficient, innovative in terms of new production processes or new products. For example, retailers often constantly have to develop new ways to attract and retain local custom. The disadvantages of monopolistic competition There are several potential disadvantages associated with monopolistic competition, including: 1. Some differentiation does not create utility but generates unnecessary waste, such as excess packaging. Advertising may also be considered wasteful, though most is informative rather than persuasive. 2. As the diagram illustrates, assuming profit maximisation, there is allocative inefficiency in both the long and short run. This is  because price is above marginal cost in both cases. In the long run the firm is less allocatively inefficient, but it is still inefficient. . There is a tendency for excess capacity because firms can never fully exploit their fixed factors because mass production is difficult. This means they are  productively inefficient  in both the long and short run. However, this is may be outweighed by the advantages of diversity and choice. As an economic model of competition, monopolistic competition is more realistic than perfect competition – many famil iar and commonplace markets have many of the characteristics of this model. Conclusion Our study gives us an opportunity to come to the following conclusion. Monopolistic competition is a  market structure  in which several or many  sellers  each produce similar, but  slightly  differentiated  products. Each producer  can set its  price  and quantity without affecting the marketplace as a whole. Monopolistic competition differs from perfect competition in that production does not take place at the lowest possible cost. Because of this, firms are left with excess production capacity. It is a type of competition within an industry where: * All firms produce similar yet not perfectly substitutable products. All firms are able to enter the industry if the profits are attractive. * All firms are profit maximizers. * All firms have some market power, which means none are price takers. Monopolistic competition has certain features, one of which is that there are large number of sellers producing differentiated products. So, competition among them is very keen. Since number of sellers is large, each seller produces a very smal l part of market supply. So no seller is in a position to control price of product. Every firm is limited in its size. Product differentiation is one of the most important features of monopolistic competition. In perfect competition, products are homogeneous in nature. On the contrary, here, every producer tries to keep his product dissimilar than his rival's product in order to maintain his separate identity. This boosts up the competition in market. So, every firm acquires some monopoly power. The feature of freedom of entry and exit leads to stiff competition in market. Free entry into the market enables new firms to come with close substitutes. Free entry or exit maintains normal profit in the market for a longer span of time. Selling cost is another unique feature of monopolistic competition. In such type of market, due to product differentiation, every firm has to incur some additional expenditure in the form of selling cost. This cost includes sales promotion expenses, advertisement expenses, salaries of marketing staff, etc. And the last feature of monopolistic competition is that a firm is facing downward sloping demand curve i. e. elastic demand curve. It means one can sell more at lower price and vice versa. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Ayers R. and Collinge R. , Microeconomics, Pearson, 2003 2. J. Gans, S. King, N. Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Economics, Thomson Learning, 2003 3. Hirschey, M, Managerial Economics Rev. Ed, Dryden, 2000 4. http://www. britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/390037/monopolistic-competition 5. http://www. investopedia. com/terms/m/monopolisticmarket. asp 6. http://kalyan-city. blogspot. com/2010/11/monopolistic-competition-meaning. html