Supply chain management supermarket performance

Supply CHAIN MANAGEMENTAbstractions:The chief intent of the study is to analyse the public presentation of supermarkets with supply concatenation direction and analyse how these supermarkets where able to keep back force per unit area and could win by developing assorted schemes implementes by them. Since Analyzing all the supermarkets is non executable we will analyze how the supply Chian direction helped Sainsbury ‘s during critical times.If we have to analyze the schemes implemented by Sainsbury ‘s during critical times so we have to analyze the Sainsbury ‘s fiscal market during 2000-2003 and 2008-2009. These two clip periods were the critical minutes handled by the Sainsbury. Analyzing the clip period 2000-2003 shows how it could defy the market when they wee on the brink of fall ining in late 90 ‘s and Analyzing th clip period 2008-2009 shows how Sainsbury ‘s were able to efficaciously manage the econimic crisis. A tendency Analysis is done to show the form of Sainsbury ‘s public presentation over the old ages 2005 to 2009. An Analysis of developments in the supermarket wee besides developed for the old ages. In add-on, analysis is done on how the company were ready to confront any force per unit area by the downswing or any other ground. These analysis are really utile inorder to aviod the impact on the fiscal performace. These will atleast assist them to diminish impact of these on the fiscal sector.1.1 INRODUCTION:Definition:â€Å"Supply concatenation direction ( SCM ) is the direction of a web of interrelated concerns involved in the ultimate proviso of merchandise and service bundles required by terminal customers† – ( Harald, 1996 ) . [ 1 ] .It comprises of all activities associated with the flow and transmutation of goods from the natural stuffs phase to supplying it to the terminal user along with the associated information flows i.e. , it deals with the whole proc edure of making each component of a merchandise to the concluding ingestion of the merchandise. Material and information flow both and down the supply concatenation. The ultimate end of any company for utilizing the supply concatenation direction would be to cut down the stock list supposed that the natural stuffs we needed are available. As the figure of companies interested in bettering their supply concatenation direction are increasing many we b based application service suppliers are viing with the package systems provided with web interfaces for the company. These web based application service suppliers are ready to supply all or portion of the SCM services for the companies who rent their service. There are 3 different types of supply concatenation direction flows: The merchandise flowThe information flowThe finance flowThe merchandise flow:It corresponds to the flow of goods to client from provider.The information flow:It corresponds to the flow of conveying orders and updating the bringing position.The finance flow:It corresponds to payment agendas, recognition footings, cargo and rubric ownership agreementsThere are 2 types of SCM software†planning applicationsThese applications analyzes all the different ways to make full in an order and selects the best manner to make full in this order. These applications used advanced algorithms for this.executing applicationsThese applications largely deal with the information on the goods like tracking the physical position of the application, pull offing fiscal information of all the companies involved ( like payments done, payments pending etc. , ) and they besides deal with the direction of the stuffs. In some instances we need supply concatenation direction applications which portion informations both inside and outside the endeavor. For these type of application they are developed from a information theoretical account. Proper information theoretical account is created so that all the inside information of the endeavor will non be distributed to the exterior of the endeavor, To avoid any corruptness of informations this information is stored in database systems or information warehouses. By supplying a agency to portion informations at that place can be immense benefits. These type of applications have the potency to better clip to market of merchandises, they cut down the costs they besides provide aid in pull offing their resources and plan their future demands. As the figure of endeavors turning towards the web sites and for the web based apps are increasing these web sites became a good market places. They are even ready to offer e-procurement market topographic points where makers and providers can merchandise, they besides provide installation to auction commands with providers. An overview of the supply concatenation system can be shown by the undermentioned diagram: beginning: hypertext transfer protocol: //www-935.ibm.com/services/uk/bcs/html/bcs_scmsol.htmlSome Definitions of Supply Chain:A web of independent or semi-autonomous concern entities jointly responsible for procurance, fabrication, and distribution activities associated with one or more households of related merchandises. — Jayashankar Supply Chain Management is the integrating of cardinal concern procedures across the supply concatenation for the intent of adding value for clients and stakeholders — Lambert [ 1 ] Harland, C.M. ( 1996 ) Supply Chain Management, Purchasing and Supply Management, Logistics, Vertical Integration, Materials Management and Supply Chain Dynamics. In: Slack, N ( ed. ) Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Operations Management. United kingdom: Blackwell. A supply concatenation is a web of installations that procure natural stuffs, transform them into intermediate goods and so concluding merchandises, and present the merchandises to clients through a distribution system. — Lee and Billington A supply concatenation is a web of installations and distribution options that performs the maps of procurance of stuffs, transmutation of these stuffs into intermediate and finished merchandises, and the distribution of these finished merchandises to clients. — Ganeshan and Harrison Harmonizing to Wikipedia.org Supply Chain Management ( SCM ) : Supply concatenation direction ( SCM ) is the procedure of planning, implementing, and commanding the operations of the supply concatenation with the intent of fulfilling client demands every bit expeditiously as possible. Supply concatenation direction spans all motion and storage of natural stuffs, work-in-process stock list, and finished goods from point-of-origin to point-of-consumption ( hypertext transfer protocol: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_Chain_Management ) . Supply concatenation direction encompasses the planning and direction of all activities involved in sourcing, procurance, transition, and logistics direction. It besides includes the important constituents of coordination and coaction with channel spouses, which can be providers, mediators, 3rd party service suppliers, and clients. In kernel, supply concatenation direction integrates supply and demand direction within and across companies. More late, the slackly coupled, self-organizing web of concerns that cooperate to supply merchandise and service offerings has been called the Extended Enterprise. — -Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals ( CSCMP )1. 2 Need for Supply Chain Management:From the past few decennaries there is a rapid addition in supply ironss due to globalisation. The merchandises produced by the companies are no longer confined to a little countries. The globalisation has inceased the extent to which merchandises can be marketed and distributed. Companies have been seeking to market their merchandises all over the universe. As the extent to which the selling is done increases the supply concatenation grows bigger and bigger and becomes complex, this changes demands for the Supply Chain Management. This asks for the alteration in package used for the supply concatenation. In the yesteryear, maketing be aftering deistribution, manufacuring retailing and buying organisations each of the used to be operated independently. Each of these organiations followed their ain programs which produced struggles between the organisations. Most of them concentrated on bring forthing maximal end product so that it would take down costs. They forgot to see impact on stock list degrees and distribution capabiities. And the orders are taken with really small information. All these jobs were because of the ground that there is no intergrated program between the organisations. To work out these jobs a scheme should be made which would supply integrating between all the organisations which is call the Suppply Chain Management.1.3 Development and range of supply chainmanagement:As the suppy concatenation grew longer, the order times and the bringing times additions. These addition in times will do batch of jobs like less production flexibleness i.e. , one time an order is pl aced it is really hard to alter it, and it asks for higher degrees of stock list. Inorder to work out these job we need to rush up the supply concatenation. Even though we can rush up the supply concatenation to cut down these jobs it is non ever appropriate as we keep rushing up the supply concatenation the sum of the job solved lessenings i.e. , after rushing up the supply concatenation to some extent, farther rushing up of it might non give better consequence. When this bound is reached this method no longer works. So we need to alter and reconstitute the supply concatenation. This means we need to discourse and measure and reconsider every strategic degree determination we made before. We can specify the supply concatenation as the flow of information and stuff to and from providers and clients. The range of Supply Chain Management ( SCM ) is to: 1. Reduce the entire supply concatenation rhythm clip and costs. 2. Rushing up the supply concatenation procedure and its flexibleness to clients. 3. Increase the capacity, use, and net income. 4. There are four cardinal rules for SCM: ( a ) Use the most simpler manner of information flow from manufacturer to the comsumer. ( B ) Use the most simpler manner of stuff flow from manufacturer to the comsumer. ( degree Celsius ) Fix a smoothe possible manner of production and use. ( vitamin D ) Reduce the lead times and the demand for stock lists so that there will be adequate clip so work out any jobs if appearedDevelopment of Supply concatenation direction:There are precisely six major motions that can be seen in the development of supply concatenation direction. They are Creation, Integration, and Globalization, Specialization Phases One and Two, and SCM 2.0.Creation:The construct of supply concatenation direction came to great importance with the creative activity of assembly line in twentieth century. During this period the the supply concatenation direction manily needed big scale alterations like rhenium structuring and downsizing driven by cost decrease plans.Integration:The development of Eectronic Data Interchange ( EDI ) in 1960 ‘s and the developmet National Trust of Enterprise Resource planning ( ERP ) systems in 1990 ‘s were the greatest interruption though in this period. However with the usage of internet-based collaborative systems . This period has both the increasing value and cost decreases through integrating.Globalization:This period is supply concatenation direction is used organizatons with the end of increasing their competitory advantage and reduction costs through planetary sourcing. This motion gives attension to planetary systems of supplier relationships and enlargement of supply concatenation direction over national boundaies and over into other continents.Specialization -Phase One: Outsourced Manufacuting an Distribution:During 1990 ‘s companies were concentrating on a apecialization theoretical account. These theoretical account which soleley focal point on the nucleus competences. This manner works for design, manfacture, distribute, sell and supply service for the merchandise. The set of spouses might alter depending on the part and handiness of stuffs. So each merchandise produed may hold its ain alone features. While the industry entirely gets its focal point on the nucleus. It often sells all the non-core operations to other companies increasing the supply concatenation direction.Specialization -Phase two: Supply concatenation direction as a serviceThis motion began in 1980 where industries focused into facets of supply planning, coaction, executing and public presentation direction. The ability to rapidly make merchandises by utilizing the best spouses to lend to the overall valley concatenation itself, which increases overall effeciency. Outsourced engineering for supply concatenation began in 1990 ‘s and chiefly focused on transit and collabpration. It progressed from Application service provide in 1998 -2003 to On Demand theoretical account from 2003-2006 to Software as a Servie modell presently in focal point.Supply Chain Management 2.0This motion describes the development in the supply concatenation direction its methods and tools used in this decennary. Web 2.0 utilizations wolrld broad web that is meant to increase coaction, interction comng users. The nucleus portion of it was to voyage through the information available on the web. It is a way to the SCM consequences, procedures, methods, tools and bringing options to steer companies for speedy consequences due to effects of globalisation and rapud fluctuations in monetary values.Goal and Principle of SCMGoal:Supplying Quality merchandises and support to clients at the least possible sum costSCM Principles:1. Try to cognize th merchandise closest to the clients and velocity transition across the supply concatenation. 2. Pull off the natural stuffs sagely to cut down the entire cost of having stuffs and services. 3. Develop supply concatenation that supports multiple degree determination devising 4. Guage the success of the merchandise making the client efficaciously and effeciently 5. Listen to market vibraphones and alter the supply concatenation consequently 6. Customerize profitableness of client 7. Serve serment customrs based on service needed and accommodate the supply concatenation to function with profitableness.Cycle clip decreases:By sing restraints every bit good as its options in the supply concatenation, it helps to cut down rhythm clip.Inventory costs decreases:Demand and supply visibleness lowers the demands of stock list degrees against uncertainness. Ability to cognize when to purchase stuffs based on the client demand, logistics, capacity and other stuffs needed to construct together. Optimized transit: By optimising logistics and vehicle tonss. Increase order fill rate: Real-time visibleness across the supply concatenation ( alternate routing, alternate capacity ) enables to increase order fill rate. Analysis of the supply concatenation direction can assist to foretell extension of perturbations to downstream.CASE OD SAINSBURY ‘sSainsbury holding repute for its high quality food market concatenation in UK. It was shaws supermarket in the US. In mid 90 ‘s it had a one-year gross of $ 27 billion from 450+ shops, it was a crisis clip of Sainsbury ‘s, everyone thought that Sainsbury may no longer maintain up as most of the market net incomes drifted towards it longtime rival Tesco with besides an competitory force per unit area from Asda. Sainsbury had 11 million clients at that clip who were looking for merchandises with broad assortment of picks and high quality merchandises with good client service but with no higher monetary values. Suppliers were disappointed with the unsteady order flow and the stockhold ers have seen 30 % bead in net incomes. When executives were looking for the grounds for the failures it was clear that they had an outdated supply concatenation direction with 30 twelvemonth old WMS ( Warehouse direction system ) which was non sufficient to manage 2000 providers, 35000 SKU ‘s ( Stock Keeping Units ) and 800 million instances of merchandise each. And the applications developed for the sainsbury where are in developed independently utilizing the available informations. As the figure of applications increased the system grew complex and in one suh instance when a order was placed otherwise all of the terminal systems crashed. Having more than 400 applications developed inhouse which are complex and old was non assisting either. The alteration came in 2000 after Sir Peter Davis joined as CEO. He realized that most of the bussiness is being affected by the IT systems. Davis stopped all the inhouse undertakings and outsourced all the IT map to Acceture. The primary ends were to halve the IT operating costs and bring forth user friendly applications. The transmutation accounted for $ 1.8 billion which would update all the package applications and the hardware and besides provide strong informations security and low cost of ownership. Accenture could non make everything for Sainsbury ‘s. Even though it provided with all the nucleus engineering it was of import that it incorporate all the best engineerings to take down the the efficiency. Sun Microsystems Inc provided the necessary aid for sainsbury ‘s in this. With an experience of developing more than 5000 supply concatenation directions, holding more than 100 package spouses it besides had cutting border engineerings like radio mobility and Auto ID ( automatic designation of parts and matrials ) which fitted Sainsbury ‘s demands absolutely. At present Sainsbury is one of the top three retail merchants in UK. It has more than 800 shops and has a huge sum of online shopping service which offers both the nutrient and nonfood merchandises. It now has around 18.5 million clients every hebdomad of which 100,000 clients are through online. Even though assorted thing accounted for the success of Sainsbury ‘s. There are 5 of import things that contributed greaty to the success1 ) Low cost of ownershipSainsbury placed a bound on the containable sum costs. Accenture provided so batch of nest eggs in hardware outgo by supplying them with the Sun Fire V880 waiters ( waiters that are widely used ffor warehouse direction ) . These waiters replaced all the waiters with all the waiters from all the Sainsbury UK terminals. The entire nest eggs amounted for $ 7.5 million. The IT service costs are besides minimized because of the simple and standardised architecture with V280 waiters. And besides they were operaiting their waiters on solaris OS which is a dependable OS. Which provided for 99.95 % uptime harmonizing to the contract provided by the Accenture.2 ) Partner led concern theoretical accountAccenture and Sun Microsystems Inc. , have greatly contributed to the success of the Sainsbury ‘s While Accenture provided all the nucleus engineerings for Sainsbury ‘s, Sun Mircosystem ‘s contributed for the promotion and easy to managing of all the applications developed. While Accenture was supplying a great trade of flexibleness and great pick, Sun provides aid for to assist clients incorporate and streamline their concern procedures.3 ) Data IntegrationAccenture had done truly one is supplying with the nucleus compenents of the sainsbury ‘s. This can be easy said because non many jobs had showed up while incorporating assorted su pply concatenation applications on top of he Solaris and other Operating system. Sun besides provided the right architecture which helped a batch in supplying the right model. The JES ( Java Enterprise System ) was the in-between bed for all the substructure at Sainsbury ‘s. Which provided services like web entree, individuality direction and directory services. The JES has three cardinal elements ( a ) a new package ( B ) new systemetic attack  © a new concern theoretical account. When the three of these combines we can supply system. Sun worked with SeeBeyond so that it can supply with the simple architecture and besides a flexible 1. The JES provides with a broad assortment of characteristics. JES provided the indispensable constituent like version control, updating at regular intervals of clip which intime reduces the IT operating expense and care costs.4. Robust securityIn early 2000 when Sainsbury ‘s were utilizing the windows Personal computer ‘s the front office was attacked by a worm ( type of computing machine worm which speads quickly to all the computing machines in the web ) . Sainsbury ‘s was out of action for several hours which accounted for a immense loss. If the similar thing happened with the supply concatenation so it can digest it. After this incident Sainsbury ‘s and accenture focused on the security and they replaced all the winows Personal computer ‘s with the stable solaris Operating system and Sun ‘s high dependability waiters. After that Sun introduced several beds of security for beef uping the instance for all the new packages developed like Auto ID.5 ) Open criterionsAll the IT operations outsourced to accenture were to be done in unfastened criterions. So that it would non be a job for future programs. And besides it enables to utilize assorted commerically availble package to be used without minimum issues. Sun suppports all the criterions of Electronic Product Code ( EPC ) which would be really helpful for the future generaion supply concatenation networks.. With the trade made with Intel challenger AMD made the point of unfastened systems, because of the high dependability of UNIX waiters. â€Å"Open systems are the systems that allows 3rd parties to do merchandises that plug into it. For illustration, the Personal computer is an unfastened system. Although the primary constituents are controlled by Microsoft, Intel and AMD, hardware devices and package applications are created and sold by other sellers for the Personal computer. The term â€Å" unfastened systems † referred to the Unix universe because Unix ran in more types of computing machine hardware than any other operating system. â€Å" [ www.your definition.com ] The first stage of supply concatenation transmutation completed in 2004. Sainsbury ‘s incured net incomes in varius sectors and with really flexible and standard systems placed allowed the company to elimiate the compexity of assorted issues and it could cut down the IT operating costs by several creases. During the 2003 financial twelvemonth at that place was a increased gross of 2 % and boosted operating costs by 9.4 % . The online gross revenues grew by 35 % and put a standard land for the coming old ages.Issues faced in 2004:In october 2004 Sainsbury ‘s reported its first of all time loss after a failed IT undertaking. It created a immense tumult in market. Sainsbury ‘s wrote down ?140 million in IT assets and ?120 million in automate distribution. Due to the overhal the stock monetary value hae went really low. To acquire back things to normal it axed 750 caput office occupations while taking on 3000 staff to stock shelves. And the company started to concentrate on reconstructing its IT squad inhouse and dialogues have been done wih Accenture. Sainsbury brought back Swan Infrastructure ( the company apparatus to run transmutation plan ) for ?553 million. Problems with the Accenture started in here when Sainsbury ‘s found that Accenture has been give major responsibilty of all the jobs. And Accenture distanced itself fom the supply concatenation jobs and stressed that its contract did non cover the job countries. Now if we think about how sainsbury survided over old ages and hows it making now we need to cognize how it has gone through the downswing because of the economic rising prices. Which is discussed in the paragraphs belowL Income Statement 2009 ( ?m ) 2008 ( ?m ) 2007 ( ?m ) 2006 ( ?m ) Gross saless 18,911 17,837 17,151 16,061 Gross Net income 1,036 1,002 1,172 1,067 Entire Operating Income 18,968 17,867 17,168 16,062 Balance Sheet 2009 ( ?m ) 2008 ( ?m ) 2007 ( ?m ) 2006 ( ?m ) Good will 114 114 112 109 Stockss 689 681 590 576 Cash & A ; Equivalent 627 719 1128 1080 Entire Current Asset 1591 1610 1915 3845 Entire Current Liabilitiess 2919 2605 2721 4810 Long Term Debt 2,177 2,084 2,090 2,178 Cash Flow 2009 ( ?m ) 2008 ( ?m ) 2007 ( ?m ) 2006 ( ?m ) Net Cash Generated from Operating Activities 1,206 998 830 780 Returns from disposal of Property, works and equipment 390 198 106 164 Dividends paid to stockholders 218 178 140 131 Cash at terminal of twelvemonth 599 601 765 842Sainsbury Key Financial s 2006-2009Beginning: London Stock Exchange ( 2009 ) Despite the trickle in the gross net incomes for twelvemonth 2008 Sainsbury ‘s net incomes continued to increase because of the assorted schemes placed by Sainsbury ‘s. The tabular array shows the Sainsbury ‘s public presentation over the past few old ages. Maclaney and Atrill stated, ‘Profitability ratios provide an penetration to the grade of success in accomplishing the intent of the concern ‘ . The tabular array below demonstrates Sainsbury profitableness ratios. 2009 ( % ) 2008 ( % ) 2007 ( % ) 2006 ( % ) Remarks Gross Profit Margin ( GPM )  § Industry – 3.53 % 5.48 ( 0.14 % lessening from 2008, 1.35 % lessening from 2007 5.62 ( 1.21 % lessening from 2007 ) 6.83 ( .19 % addition from 2006 ) 6.64 GPM increased from 2006 to 2007 by 0.19 % . In 2008, it fell by a border of 1.21 % from 2007. GPM in 2009 continued to fall in little s. Net Net income Margin ( NPM )  § Industry – 0.92 % 3.56 ( 0.59 % addition from 2008, 0.53 % addition from 2006 ) 2.97 ( 0.06 % lessening from 2007 ) 3.03 ( 1.60 % addition from 2006 ) 1.43 NPM increased by 1.60 % from 2006 to 2007. During the downswing in 2008, it fell by merely 0.06 % from 2007. However, it increased by 0.53 % in 2009. Tax return on Capital Employed ( ROCE ) 9.46 ( 2.40 % addition from 2008, 1.87 % addition from 2007 ) 7.06 ( 0.53 % lessening from 2007 ) 7.59 ( 4.70 % addition from 2006 ) 2.89 ROCE about tripled from 2006 to 2007. In 2008, it fell by 0.53 % . In 2009, the house showed the largest addition over the past four old ages.Sainsbury Profitability Ratios 2006-2009Beginning: London Stock Exchange ( 2009 ) The ratios above shows a diminution in profitableness in 2008 when compared to 2007. The ground for the diminution is due to the economic lag of UK which led to the alterations on policies and patterns for a manner to get the better of the rising prices and additions in nutrient monetary values. However in 2009 the profitableness increased by about 3 % overall. This was possibe by inciting the buying behavior of the client ‘s and to pull them by cut downing the wasteges by revamping and intensily increasing publicities. The Gross Profit border decreased somewhat by 1.35 % and net net income border increased by 0.59 % over 2008 and 2009. The return of the capital increased by 20 % chiefly due to belongings disposal and utilizing that to finance the overall operations. From 2007 to 2008 it decreases somewhat due to oil related costs and increased concern rates.Investing Ratio Analysis2009 2008 2007 2006 Remarks Net incomes per portion ( EPS ) 16.60 ( Decreased by 2.50 % from 2007 and 2.6 % from 2007 ) 19.10 ( Decreased by 0.10 % from 2007 ) 19.20 ( Increased by 15.40 % from 2006 ) 3.80 From 2006-2007, there was a 20 % addition in EPS. From 2007-2008 there was 10 pence border between the s. It decreased in 2009 by 2.50 % Diluted Net incomes per portion 16.40 ( Decreased by 2.20 % from 2008 and 2.50 % from 2007 18.60 ( Decreased by 0.30 % from 2007 ) 18.90 ( Increased by 15.10 % from 2006 ) 3.80 DPS remained reasonably stable during the downswing but decreased somewhat by 2.20 % Beta Ratio – 0.73 ( Increased by 0.18 % from 2007 ) 0.55 ( Decreased by 0.28 % from 2006 ) 0.78 Beta ratio showed a little lessening in 2007 but increased by a mere 0.18 % in 2008.Sainsbury Investment Ratios 2006-2009Beginning: London Stock Exchange ( 2009 ) Net incomes per portion fell by 10 pence during the economic downswing and declined farther by 26 % in 2009, therefore stockholders gained lower rate per portion in 2008-2009. Diluted Net incomes Per Share somewhat declined by the same rate from 2008-2009. Beta ratio Tells that the there is a small impetus in the portions when compared to the market since it remains at less than one. In 2008, beta ratio increased a small due to downswing of the economic comditions but still the beta ratio remained under one.Concluding Analysis:Sainsbury ‘s operates in a extremely competittive environment. There are 4 major supermarkets Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury ‘s, Morrisons which account upto 75 % of the UK ‘s market which can be clearly seen in the image below. All the 4 supermarkets follow the same low cost scheme. As the consumers are profiting there is a addition in demand and the net income is steadily increasing. Each one of them is seeking for the short clip schemes so that they can derive the clients. But from the past few old ages the market is steady and there is no impetus towards any supermarket. All o them holding a steady province of market portion. There is neither a lessening nor addition in ther market portion.Market Share of the Too Four Supermarkets in the UKBeginning: www.marketresearch.co.ukChanges in the UK Financial Market:Due to econmomic crisis their were many alterations happening in the market. Addition in unemployment: The UK labour market was badly affected by recognition crisis. This create batch of ballad offs and unemployment increased from April 2008 to september 2008. The figure of unemployment rose to 164,000 which is the highest recording since 1990. The unemployment rate was 5.8 % for these 6 months. Due to this their was a sudden decline on the demand and the market was hit. Beginning: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.economicshelp.org/blog/economics/uk-economy-2009/ Due to rising prices the costs increased and the market shrivel due to less demand as consumers has a hard clip buting things. Due to downswing of the economic crisis the supermarkets can no longer limit themselves for merely a few nutrient merchandises. Their was already a nutrient rising prices which made them look for other merchandises like finance and Mobile and broadband markets. This helped a batch as though there was a lag in nutrient merchandise gross revenues they cold maintain their gross revenues in other countries. In 2008 the supermarket spenf ?123 billion for consumer disbursement while it was merely ?119.8 billion which records a addition of ?3.2 billion from the old twelvemonth. This shows how the supermarkets developed schemes to acquire net incomes even during the clip of rising prices.PESTEL Analysis:PESTEL stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technical, Environment and Legislative. It is a strategic planning technique that provides a utile model for analyzing the environmental force per unit areas on a squad or an administration. PESTEL Analysis of the UK Supermarket Industry 2008-2009 Beginning: www.marketresearch.co.ukEffectss of Financial Market on SainsburyIn 2008 due to downswing the supermarkets deployed several schemes to get the better of the slow gross revenues growing. Some of the alterations in the schemes are discussed below:Effectss of the downswingChanges made to accommodateAddition in unemployment, rise in nutrient rising prices and lessening in disposable income. Household budgets were clearly under force per unit area from the effects of the downswing. Sainsbury had to cut down the cost of necessities and basic merchandises as clients faced the biggest squeezing on income in 50 old ages. Selling scheme shifted to concentrate on cost and their value concatenation was adjusted to better layout, addition infinite, future hedge with providers, and shed off unneeded costs. Customers were demanding low cost merchandises and Sainsbury adjusted to accommodate demands. Decreased Interest rate and decreased CPI one-year rising prices rate. Sainsbury benefited from decreased involvement and CPI rising prices rates as more clients were able to take advantage of lower adoption. Sainsbury took advantage of this by take downing monetary values, and intensified selling of their cheaper ain label goods.Lifestyle alterationsAs the economic system dipped, more people chose to fix home-cooked repasts to extinguish the costs attached to eating out. Penny-pinched consumers depended on Sainsbury to supply low cost veggies and meats from tied in providers.Competitive competition, client truenessFierce competition caused Sainsbury to concentrate on value, monetary value and advertisement while reenforcing first-class client service Sainsbury one-year study ( 2009 ) stated that a clear scheme was developed to concentrate on five chief countries: great merchandise at just monetary values, addition growing of non-food scopes, extra selling channels to make more clients, increase infinite and active belongings direction ( includes dispos al of belongings and investment in increasing infinite in profitable countries ) . Sainsbury increased publicities and marketing schemes such as ‘Making Sainsbury ‘s Great Again ‘ , trueness price reduction cards, online shopping, cheaper and high quality ain trade name goods and addition in engineering and faster check-out procedure clip. They to boot branched out distributing hazards into the fiscal sector, oil-related countries and section shops.Effectss of the downswing on SainsburyBeginning: Sainsbury Annual Reports 2008 and 2009 Logisticss is the direction of the flow of goods, information and other resources, including energy and people, between the point of beginning and the point of ingestion in order to run into the demands of consumers ( often, and originally, military organisations ) . Logisticss involve the integrating of information, transit, and stock list, repositing, material-handling, and packaging.Logisticss direction Logisticss direction is that portion of the supply concatenation which plans, implements and controls the efficient, effectual forward and contrary flow and storage of goods, services and related information between the point of beginning and the point of ingestion in order to run into clients ‘ demands. A professional working in the field of logistics direction is called a logician.Logisticss Management Software Software is used for logistics mechanization which helps the supply concatenation industry in automatizing the work flow every bit good as direction of the system. There is really few generalized package available in the new market in the said topology. This is because there is no regulation to generalise the system every bit good as work flow even though the pattern is more or less the same. Most of the commercial companies do utilize one or the other custom solution. But there is assorted package that is being used within the sections of logistics. Few section in Logisticss are viz. , Conventional Department, Container section, Warehouse, Marine Engineering, Heavy draw, Etc. The package that is used in these sections is: Conventional section: CVT package / CTMS package Container Hauling: CTMS package Warehouse: WMSBusiness logisticsLogisticss as a concern construct evolved merely in the 1950s. This was chiefly due to the increasing complexness of providing one ‘s concern with stuffs and transporting out merchandises in an progressively globalized supply concatenation, naming for experts in the field who are called Supply Chain Logisticians. This can be defined as holding the right point in the right measure at the right clip at the right topographic point for the right monetary value and is the scientific discipline of procedure and incorporates all industry sectors. The end of logistics work is to pull off the fruition of undertaking life rhythms, supply ironss and attendant efficiencies. In concern, logistics may hold either internal focal point ( inbound logistics ) , or external focal point ( outbound logistics ) covering the flow and storage of stuffs from point of beginning to point of ingestion ( see supply concatenation direction ) . The chief maps of a qualified logistician include inventory direction, buying, transit, repositing, audience and the organizing and planning of these activities. Logisticians combine a professional cognition of each of these maps so that there is a coordination of resources in an organisation. There are two basically different signifiers of logistics. One optimizes a steady flow of stuff through a web of conveyance links and storage nodes. The other coordinates a sequence of resources to transport out some undertaking.Production logisticsThe term is used for depicting logistic procedures within an industry. The intent of production logistics is to guarantee that each machine and workstation is being fed with the right merchandise i n the right measure and quality at the right point in clip. The issue is non the transit itself, but to streamline and command the flow through the value adding procedures and eliminates non-value adding 1s. Production logistics can be applied in bing every bit good as new workss. Manufacturing in an bing works is a invariably altering procedure. Machines are exchanged and new 1s added, which gives the chance to better the production logistics system consequently. Production logistics provides the agencies to accomplish client response and capital efficiency. Production logistics is acquiring more and more of import with the diminishing batch sizes. In many industries ( e.g. mobile phone ) batch size one is the short term purpose. This manner even a individual client demand can be fulfilled in an efficient manner. Track and tracing, which is an indispensable portion of production logistics – due to merchandise safety and merchandise dependability issues – is besides deriving importance particularly in the automotive and the medical industry. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Sainsbury ‘s is the UK ‘s longest standing major nutrient retailing concatenation. It started it foremost store in 1869 age-related macular degeneration now it has 500 supermarkets and 300 convenience shops with more than 150, 000 employees. The company besides includes Sainsbury ‘s bank which is a joint venture and besides it provides cyberspace based place bringing service from 165 shops. On avergae it offers around 30,000 merchandises. Since 2004 the figure of stires for Sainsbury ‘s had increased by 30 % . To increase their market evenmore there are 5 things that has been the premier focal point of the Sainsburys from so. They are 1 ) Good nutrient at just monetary values 2 ) Increasing the growing of nonfood merchandise ranges so that to cut down the impact of the nutrient rising prices on the endeavor. 3 ) Advertising the extra clients through convenience shops, onlines based place bringing operations and Sainbury bank. 4 ) In June 2009 the endeavor announced a mark to increase its floor infinite by 15 % by 2011. This 15 % besides includes he 2.5m square pes of the store floor infinite. 5 ) Active belongings direction.Challenges:All on-line operations and supply concatenation are dependent on the handiness of IT substructure. Eventhough the whole company ‘s web is managed externally, it could retain control of its DMZ ( de-militarized zone ) which provides the agencies to associate to the external systems and cyberspace through a unafraid connexion. If any job may happen likebreack of the secure connexion are a job with the DMZ so it could impact all of the online shoppers and besides it would impact on te merchandise stock degrees. With more than 100,000 deleveries every hebdomad Sainsbury ‘s is the 2nd largest online nutrient retail merchant in UK. It represents an of import beginning of income for the company.To manage this a dependable and cost effectual IT substructure is needed for the Sainsbury ‘s online every bit good as for the twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours operations of the supermarket. All the shops, concern centres and catastrophe recovery site rely on the company ‘s web to treat client payments and for internal and external communicating. All tha WANs ( broad aread webs ) and LAN ( Local Areas Networks ) are managed by Sainsbury ‘s web service supplier. It operates a DMZ which acts as a gateway for all the communications that are to be done outside of the endeavor this subdivision of the web is extremely unafraid and protects the nucleus subdivision of the Sainsburys system from all the external menaces. The DMZ web includes more than 100 waiters. These are of import for the Sainsbury ‘s ability that aid in pass oning wit the providers andplace merchandise orders every bit good as for the web based online shopping services. A job in DM web could impact the telling anf receiving of the client orders and procedure the orders. It is one of the beginnings of income for Sainburys where the gross is increasing at a rapid rate, so a downtime could be highly damaging to the repute every bit good as for the future growing of the company. To avoid this job Sainsbury had retained the internal control of the DMZ utilizing a specializer squad who will be responcible for back uping andmaintenance of the substructure. The iteam came with an thought based on CA NSM and older CA web direction option. Sainsbury ‘s demands advanced web direction solution that can supply visibleness of all DMZ devices and still should be able to incorporate with CA NSMsolution:To get the better of this the Sainsbury implemented CA Spectrum Infrastructure Manager which handles 1800devices within DMZ and wider web. This Infrastructure director provides qui vives to any jobs that arise in the DMZ and besides it integrates with CANSm which is used to supervise 1200 waiters within the production environment and centrally consolidate system qui vives. In July 2008 Sainbury deployed CA spectrum Infrastructure director with aid from CA spouse Darasoft solutions. Th CA spectrum substructure director non merely monitors the 1800 deviceswithin DM but besides provides good transperancy and public presentation degrees and besides assist in direction of its outsourcing spouse. When of all time a job is detected in Sainsbuey ‘s DMZ substructure an machine-controlled dismay is raised. The substructure director used even correlationa dn mistake isolation which helps in validatinf tha qui vives and take any unneeded noise. This besides aids in prioritizing the qui vives raised so that the high hazard qui vives will be dealt first and besides it removes any extras generated in the system. The qui vives are routed through a CA NSM, which acts as the retail merchant system directors, It besides handles qui vives from hardware systems and mainframe environments. CA NSM provides a individual interface for pull offing any issues that occur all through over the 1200 production services. This solution is integrated with a service desk system which raises it tickets for high priotity issues. In addtio to alarm the Infrastructure trough besides provides hebdomadal studies for the Sainsburys on the web public presentation and besides elaborate roperts on an ad hoc footing. These are really utile for looking into jobs encountered in the web and besides to heighten the security of the web for illustration utilizing these studies all the unfastened ports in the system were studied and how they are used. With the aid of this all the fresh ports are identified and have been closed. CA spectrum substructure director was besides easy to utilize with one chink interface and is firmly accessed from any desktop in the squad this means that it was able to increase the figure of users intern its assisting to use the resources more efficaciously.Benefit:By the usage of this the visibleness of the full IT substructure had beem improved and it can prioritize its response to the jobs i.e. , it responds to each of the jobs harmonizing to their precedence degrees. By this means the retail merchant can safeguard the handiness and public presentation of the DMZ. This in return ensures that all the on-line orders are processed quickly and the there is no break to the supply concatenation. With the usage of CA spectrum substructure director the Sainsbury ‘s is able to safeguard the handiness and performace of DMZ which besides helps for: 1 ) It ensures that all the 100,000 online orders made are processed promplty every hebdomad. 2 ) Ir provides the entree to e-mail and internet all the clip 3 ) It prevents break to the supply concatenation. The company states that† Many of our operations rely on the DMZ web. By safeguarding its handiness with CA solutions, we can minimise any impact to online shopping and guarantee that our shelves remain to the full stocked†trade with IBM:Sainsbury ‘s has signed a 5 twelvemonth contract with IBM to retrace the supply concatenation. Under the contract the IBM will host a system which replaces bequest platforms with the seller Wesupply. The host system will be made based on the web and vissibility application. By this the supermarket concatenation is seeking to heighten its supply concatenation public presentation and interaction with its 4000 providers. And they are be aftering to put up a existent clip position of supply concatenation performance.And all the electronic information interchange will be changed Inovis. Sainsbury is looking for a advanced It service which would supervise all the position of the orders and better managibility. It should besides should be able to streamline information flows on orders, transporting information and bills. R ve The new platform created will incorporate with the office systems of the company and does the look intoing anf proof of content against concern regulations. If there of all time occurs an mistake or any holds occurred in the information so it would make qui vives and will be sent. And all these qui vives are prioritised depending on their hazard degrees. And the mistakes are resolved based on theit precedence. Harmonizing to Sainsbury ‘s â€Å"the steps will better stock handiness every bit good as client service. â€Å"To support our continued growing, we were looking to heighten our coaction with providers without a important addition in cost, while go oning to present greater intelligence into our supply concatenation, † said Sainsbury ‘s manager of supply concatenation operations Tim Goalen. Even though each supply concatenation has its ain demands and challenges there is a basic form to the pattern of supply concatenation direction. There are five Aress in which each all the supply concatenation direction pattern. Even though each of the companies may look to better one of these countries all the companies who pattern supply concatenation direction work on one of these countries so that they can run into their market demands and operating challenges. And these five countries are1. Production:It is about what merchandises the market desire? what merchandises needed to be produced? how much production has to be done? And by when should they be produced? This All these activities include creative activity of maestro production agendas which will look into the capacity of the works, work load on the machines quality of the merchandises produced and equipment care.2 ) Inventory:Inventory is has an of import it acts as a buffer for the supply concatenation because inmost instances the supply concatenation can non state how much of the natural goods, semi finished goods and to the full finished goods are needed. It will stay unsure in most instances until the production is done. However maintaining a burden of goods in the stock list is expensive so the stock list holds the cardinal facet of how much is the optimum stock list degrees of the goods and the reorder points.3. Location:Where should be the production unit? Where should be the stock list? What is the most cost efficient locations for the production and stock list? Are the current and productions units plenty or should we necessitate new stock lists and production units? Once all the se inquiries are answered they determine the possible waies for merchandise to flux to the concluding consumer.4. Transportation system:How the goods are moved from one unit to the other? What is the best agencies of transit? Transportation system by air and by route are dependable but expensive. Transportation by sea or through rail route is really inexpensive but it takes longer theodolite times and so the transportation times or largely unsure. These unsure times will be okay for carrying the discoverer. So these rail and sea transit is used for carrying up the stock list. And the route and air path is used for transportation of the finished goods. Although these agencies of transit seems to be effectual its ever uncertain how the conditions might originate so what is the better manner of transit is ever unsure.â€Å" 5 ) Information:How much informations should be collected on the production units and stock list units and how much of this information should be shared? Accurate information at the right clip holds the cardinal function in determination devising. With accurate information effectual determinations can be taken like what should be produced? , how much should be produced? And where to turn up stock list and how best will the transit be and the effectual manner for the merchandise flow is taken. By doing determinations based on the above five facets will find how effectual the companies supply concatenation is. The manner the company does the work and the manner it competes with the other companies in the market is all depends on the effectivity of its supply concatenation. Depending on the demand the market companies introduce schemes to function a mass market and vie on footing of monetary value. It would had been better if it had a supply concatenation that is optimized for low cost. If a companies scheme is to vie on footing of client service and convenience so it should hold better supply concatenation optimized for reactivity i.e. , it should supply a speedy response to all the petitions made to it. What a company is and what can it make depends on its supply concatenation and the market it serves.How the supply concatenation plants. ?Production:Production refers the sum of goods the company can do and hive away them. The mills and warehouses are used for these intents . The most hard undertaking that the directors face when doing determinations on production is to decide the tradeoff between reactivity and efficiency. If the installations and warehouses are built large so that they can hold a extra batch of capacity so they will be really flexible and they can react to any order instantly. But on the other manus they cost a batch and besides all the inordinate capacity which we have in the installation has no usage and they can non even supply the gross, so the more extra capacity that exists the less efficient the operation becomes. If the installations are built a spot little so that all the goods would precisely suit in. Then if there is any alterations in the supply concatenation so it would non be plenty. So the installations should non be constructed excessively large that the goods would be of no usage or should non be excessively little plenty they can non non even suit the a few excess in goods. These installations can be built to suit o ne or two attacks:1. Merchandise Focus:A installation that takes a merchandise focal point performs operations to the given merchandise line over a scope from developing of these single merchandise parts to piece all the parts to do it as an entity` 2. Functional focal point:While the merchandise focal point performs all the operation like selects all the group of parts and assembles them together the functional focal point merely performs portion of the operations like merely choosing the group of parts or merely merely piecing all the parts. These maps can be used to make little operations but can make different sorts of operations. While the merchandise focal point attack gives a consequence of expertness in all the maps the functional attack consequences in expertness about peculiar maps. The endeavors should make up one's mind on which attack to utilize whether to gaiin expertness on the given merchandise or to derive expertness on an given map or a mix of the true attack besid es works all right every bit long as the companies demands are approached. Actually the mix of the two attacks will give the companies the capableness and expertness they need to react to client demands. As the mills have attacks likewise the warehouses besides have different attacks. There are three attacks on the footing of which the warehouses are built so that they can suit different attacks:1.Stock maintaining unit ( SKU ) :This is the effectual and easy to understand manner to hive away the merchandises. This attack follows the traditional manner of hive awaying things. By this method all the similar merchandises are stored together.2. Job Lot Storage:In this type of approached based on type of the merchandise the merchandises are divided. In most instances demands for a certain type of consumers are stored together or merchandises related to a peculiar occupation are joined together. This helps in effectual picking and wadding operation but normally requires batch of storage country than the SKU storage attack.3 cross moorage:Wal-mart is the supermarket that first made this attack. By this attack the merchandises are non in the warehouse. Alternatively the installation is used to work on procedure where the goods are arrived. All the procedure is done here where all the provider ‘s arrive and all the unload is done. By this method the big tonss are divided into smaller tonss. By the method ther ailment be many little tonss of merchandises. These smaller tonss are all recombined harmonizing to the demands of the dayand they are rapidly loaded into trucks that deliver these merchandises to the concluding finish.***Inventory:Inventory is installation where all the natural materia cubic decimeter, semi finished goods and finished goods are stored. These stock lists are all over the supply concatenation and they contain goods a that are held by the makers, distributers and retail merchants in supply concatenation. Even though there can be batch of goods in the inventoy the director plays tha major function in make up one's minding the merchandises that will be contained in the supply concatenation. Because hive awaying all the natural stuffs and semi finished goods has no usage and besides that do non supply any gross. So depending the the size of installation and the merchandises available directors decide the stock list merchandises based on the efficiency and reactivity needed by the company. Even though a big inentory costs a batch and is kept every bit low as possible there are three basic attacks to make up one's mind sing the creative activity and retention of stock list.1 ) Cycle Inventory:It refers to that sum of stock list needed to merely fulfill the denad for the given merchandise in the period between merchandise purchases. Most of the companies try to buyimportant goods in majority. The companies make trades for big sums so that they can acquire the goods at a small cheaper monetary values. But the thing is when big tonss of goods are purchased there will be batch of transportation and the transportation costs will surely amount to a batch. Not merely that transporting costs besides account to a batch these transporting costs refer to storem grip and see the stock list. Directors ever face the confusion of which one to utilize whether the decre ased cost of orering or the better proces offered for the merchandise by the company. This increases the transporting cost of rhythm stock list that comes when the merchandises are purchased in a majority.3 ) Safety discoverer:4 ) Seasonal stock lists.

Is the Octoroon a Typical Victorian Melodrama

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the genre of melodrama as, â€Å"a stage play, usually romantic and sensational in plot†, this description certainly applies to The Octoroon. It was an extremely popular form of stage drama and what I will discover is whether its themes, content and structure are typical of the Victorian period melodrama. From the first time it was presented at the start of the nineteenth century, melodrama attracted big audiences. It started out very popular with the lower classes in society but as the century progressed melodrama became appreciated by large sections of society(Leaver,444). It usually contained themes of love, murder and honour. Audiences that went to see melodrama’s were looking for cheap entertainment that was accessable for all and didn’t require a knowledge of other more sophisticated modes of drama. As the genre progressed, events on stage became more and more sensational, none more so than the burning steamboat scene in The Octoroon(Faulkner,35). Melodrama contains a few characters that are common to the majority of plays, the hero, the heroine, an old woman, an old man, a comic woman and a comic man. These characters are reproduced constantly(Booth,26). Evidence of these stereotypical characters in The Octoroon is blindingly obvious. A common component of melodrama was the upkeep of strict moral justice, and social and ideological justice aswell. This is evident in the American ending of The Octoroon, when Zoe takes poison to commit suicide, thinking that because of the society she lives in, she cannot be with her beloved George. Maybe Boucicault felt that the American audience’s sense of moral justice could not allow Zoe and George to be together. Dion Boucicault was one of the most successful and prolific dramatists of the nineteenth century. He produced a huge number of plays of which the exact number is between 135 and 400 titles (Kosok,82). He is a prominent figure in Victorian era drama and is said to belong to more than one national literature, Irish, English and the United States. He is said to have â€Å"combined sentiment, wit and local colour with sensational and spectacular endings†(Nova). His greatest successes however, were on London’s stages. Only three of his plays were to have an American setting, The Octoroon is one of these. The version of The Octoroon Boucicault used in Britain differs from the version he premiered In the U. S. A. The U. S version had a tragic ending while the London version had a happy one. At the British Premiere in the Adelphi Theatre on November 18th, 1861, to the shock of boucicault and the performers, the fifth act was hailed with boos and jeers from the crowd. Zoe’s suicide angered the British audience. They had heard that Southerners sometimes found a way around the problem of mixed-race marraiges by cutting their veins and mixing blood(Enkvist,167). Some argued that the audience had felt it wasn’t melodramatic enough, even though there was a slave sale and a burning steamboat in the play. One critic said, â€Å"Deep tragedy will not do for melodrama†. The audiences active dislike of the death of Zoe, forced Boucicault to substitute a more happier ending(Enkvist,170). At the end of the play in the London version, the mixed race couple, Zoe and George are united. The fifth act which shows Zoe’s final agony and death is simply omitted. Boucicault was perhaps showing that Victorian British audiences harboured less predjudices and could accept the marraige of a young southerner of good birth to a slave girl and see nothing unusual in that ending(Degen,76). More likely he was giving the audience what they wanted by changing the ending to one that is more appropriate to the melodramas that the Victorian public would have been used to. This ending shows me that boucicault altered his play to fit the British publics preconceptions of what a melodrama should be, therefore making it into a standard melodrama for the time. The fact that the plot in The Octoroon is based around the topic of slavery shows us that it is in someway different from other melodrama’s of the time. Slavery was a hot topic when the Octoroon was produced and some argue that it is abolitionist in its tone. Victorian melodrama’s while sensational, tended to be centered around more common everyday settings and themes. Some argue that the play is abolitionist in its tone but I disagree. Boucicault himself denied the piece was meant to be an anti-slavery statement(Degen,173). In a letter to The New York Herald in December 1859, Boucicault explains that he is not taking sides, â€Å"I have laid the scene in the South, and, as slavery is an essential element of society there, insomuch I have been obliged to admit it into my scheme. . . .I believe the drama to be a proper and very effective instrument in the discussion of all social matters. . . .It is by such means that the drama can be elevated into the social importance it deserves to enjoy. Therefore I have involved in ‘The Octoroon’ sketches of slave life, truthful I know, and I hope gentle and kind†(NY Times,6/12/1859). I think that the use and portrayl of slavery in The Octoroon is not Boucicault venting his feelings on slavery, but just the background and setting of the overall text and his honest view of the South. There are no anti-slavery tirades in the play and the villian of the piece, McClosky, is not a Southern slave-owning tyrant but an Northener(Faulkner,35). I think this shows that The Octoroon is being different from other melodramas of the time by containing a divisive topic like slavery but it is also being typical of its counterparts by not being a political piece of drama.

Religion and Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Religion and Politics - Essay Example A long tradition of involving religion in political matters exists in the United States. According to Servin-Gonzalez & Torres-Reyna, questions have come up concerning the relationship between how government activities are conducted and the prevalent religious values in the United States (592). The American population has, however, for the longest time been split concerning whether political decisions should be largely influenced by religious beliefs. Servin-Gonzalez & Torres-Reyna write that although most Americans accept that the clergy and other religious groups have a role to play in politics; most people feel that these religious people should not be involved in actual politics and campaigns (593). Religion is used as a tool for ensuring that politicians keep in line with the moral issues of the society. In essence, this means that religious leaders are tasked with the responsibility of keeping politicians in line and ensuring that they do not oppress the society. One of the ways in which religion has contributed towards political strategies in the United States is through the practice school prayers. Prior to 1963, public schools used to conduct religious prayers but the Supreme Court banned this practice in that year (Servin-Gonzalez & Torres-Reyna 599). In subsequent years, although public opinion has increasingly supported religious prayers in public schools, the Supreme Court has ensured that religious activities are not encouraged in schools. In this case, Servin-Gonzalez & Torres-Reyna write that the religious groups have failed to influence political decisions because the constitution has not been changed to permit prayer in public schools (600). Concerning the issue of reading and teaching of the bible in public schools coupled with prayers, religious activity has failed to convince the public to take up political action and change the constitution. During the Reagan

Health care sector Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Health care sector - Research Paper Example Health care is provided by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers. It denotes the activity done in rendering primary care, secondary care and tertiary care, besides public health (Premier Occupational Health Care, 2009). The availability of services to doctors differs from country to country, groups and individuals, greatly affected by cultural and financial conditions as well as the health policies in that region. States and dominions have diverse policies and programs with respect to the health care targets of their societies in terms of population growth. In any country, the system of healthcare is established in order to fulfill the health needs and requirements of the target population and thus, the exact configuration of this system varies from one country to another (Kaplan & Esther, 2003). Every organization possesses its own professional and occupational differences which are based on the culture of the country, organization, or on the nature of the job description. In the health care department also, there exist certain factors which are responsible for creating the occupational disparities within the jobs. Some of those factors are discussed below: One of the factors of great importance, which usually creates occupational differences these days, includes gender. Many countries, and their business organizations, tend to differentiate between male and female worker in term of the jobs assigned to them. Besides this, the element of job segregation is also one of the major contributors on the differences between genders which have been observed in the exposure to hazards at workplace. Both the genders have a strong separation at the place of work and they are also exhibited to be holding dissimilar positions in the hierarchal ladder of the organization. Not only this, but both the genders are subject to pay differences

McCain and Obama Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

McCain and Obama - Essay Example The following is a chart which pinpoints the candidates on issues which revolve around this election. Each man walks into the election with an enormous amount of talent and disparate views. Feels that medical and personal health care bills are the reason why people are filing for personal bankruptcy; believes in universal health care; would mandate that all children receive health care; would create a national insurance program so that people and small businesses could purchase affordable insurance Supports lowering taxes to help small businesses; would cut the small corporate tax return from 35-25%;supprts giving tax breaks to businesses that invest in equipment and technology; wants a permanent tax credit for research and development Supports tax incentives for companies that keep jobs in the United States;believes that the NAFTA Agreement should be re-negociated;would put more money in unemployment insurance;would give federal money to the states hit hardest by the housing crisis;

Physics assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Physics assignment - Essay Example This research will focus on using wave models to describe and give various properties concerning waves. During the research, there will be some demonstrations to prove that traveling waves propagate. Though, the particles of the medium are stagnant. Various properties of waves will be studied. Among the main properties of waves is the speed at which waves travel through a given medium. Wavelength is also another property of the waves that will be considered in depth and lastly the wave frequency. Another area of research will be determining the different types of waves. The distinct properties of waves will be considered in order to identify and classify various types of waves in existence. Waves make particles of the medium in which they are travelling to be displaced. This displacement of particles affects their equilibrium positions in the medium. For a string, the particles to be displaced are either small segments of the string or its sections. Wave displacement forms a crucial while discussing about formation of harmonic oscillations commonly referred to as sinusoidal waves. Wave speed: Taking a look at travelling waves, it becomes clear that waves have a source. A laboratory practical to analyses the source and behavior of waves will be carried out. During the laboratory experiment, a metal wire, sensor, pulley and a hanging mass will be connected as shown in the set up below. The hanging mass is attached at the end of the string to provide tension. When a horizontal pick is used to pluck the string just at the pulley, a pulse is created in the string and travels along it in form of a disturbance. A timer is started by the pulse created in the wire by the plucking effect. The timer continues recording the time until the traveling pulse reaches the sensor, which stops it. When the mass attached to the other end of the string is changed, the

DDS Consulting Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

DDS Consulting - Case Study Example The growth of DSS is as a result of the complex challenges that faced the small school back in 1990s. This comes as the complex challenges forced the school districts to reduce the administrative cost thus calling for a consultation firm or specialist to solve the situation. DSS responded to its growth by subdividing it organs into different practice department mandate to perform distinct duties. These include the information technology, procurement, and system, facilities planning and contract negotiation. The activities of the different department took place with the help and contribution of its members. That is, a selected manager who reports to the general manager of the company heads each department. However, the groups are subjected to get any technical support from the external sources, for instance in case of any query on the way to apply a certain strategy an individual or group should seek assistance from the specialist and the general manager. The manner or the level of un derstanding and cohesiveness amongst the member determines the effectiveness and efficiency of the groups. Situation - Change at DSS How DSS unfreezes old behaviors and moving to a new system The transition of DSS consulting was triggered by the changes of the management strategies. This after the founder decided to cut back the engagement of the management of the organization. The new appointed chief operating offer took the duties and responsibilities of overseeing the entire transition process. She instructed the establishment of a new system that is she felt that it is important to expand the organization operation beyond the traditional customer and strive to deliver more services to the target group (large districts). Its objective was accomplished through the development of new reorganizing and service in a customer-focused and cross-functional approach. The two phases of change, and discuss how this transition influenced Chris, her team, and the feedback she received from Me g. The first phase of change in the company took place immediately after the founder cut back their engagement and involvement in the company. The action of the founders forced Meg to come up with strategic planning on how to maintain the company’s position and realization of its success. The chief operating officers therefore went ahead to promote Chris as the head of the Southwest Region team. The other phase of changes that took place is the decision by Meg to transform the organization’s operation that is her decision to reorganize the departments into a cross- functional team entitled to work on different projects. This influenced the realization of the company’s objective due to the commitment of the member of the group. The team members welcomed the new system because it gave room for diverse ideologies target common goals, which in turn was evident through some positive feedback from the districts and the specialist. Mega also supported the changes and c ommented Chris efforts to work as a group despite the many challenges they encountered. The feedback from Meg was not the expected result after the hard and committed of the group but the group went ahead in accomplishing the projects into the beta testing. Situation: Manager Profile (Chris) Identify the management functions that best reflect Meg’s strengths. Meg stands out as a strong manager with

How far could ancient tribal traditions and religious beliefs be held Thesis

How far could ancient tribal traditions and religious beliefs be held to blame for the problems between African nations or What - Thesis Example ’ I believe that the proposed assignment has much relevance in the present context where the international relationships between nations are at stake and the tuck of war is undergoing in many countries. As a student I am much interested in the international relations of the nations. Even though I don’t have much knowledge in it, I believe that if the international ties between the nations are strengthened up, much of the problems among the nations will come down. The international court has a predominant role to guide the nations through peace and security. In the field of international justice, day by day, many issues related to the encroaching, terrorism, territorial dispute, and unhealthy competitions between and among nations are rising to an intimidating level. As this topic is dealing with the present situations of the world and it has become a focus for interest, I wish to take up this assignment. I believe that this study has some relevance for studying. As far as I am concerned I wish to have a thorough study on the topic. The knowledge about the various elements of international law and the implementation of it in the present situation are to be studied. ... I believe that the aspect of international law and the strategies for settling the disputes among the nations is a major concern that the law should look through. At many times the international law has failed to judicially execute the disputes that emerged from different parts of the world. There should be enough clarification in the implementation of law by the different agencies. I plan to give more stress on this aspect in my research. It is sure that if ever I get a chance to meet an expert on this subject I would ask certain questions which is puzzling in my mind. Of course the major doubts of mine will be in the reforming of the international law. I want to know the how this law can take reforms and how this law will arbitrarily make decisions on different issues that are coming up day by day. I would like to list out some of the questions that I ask to the expert. I will ask him about the shift in that occurred in the international level as the powerful nations consider this as a tool of their supremacy. It is also good to ask about the modern changes that are to be there in the international law. I propose to ask on how the international court can exercise power in dealing with the dominant nations of the world. I will ask him what the reforms are proposed by the international law committee regarding the upcoming elements of terrorism in each country. By asking many questions I believe that I will get a clear cut idea on the international law and its role in maintaining peace among nations of the world. If ever I was asked to get a book on their reforms of International law I would suggest the article, ‘International Law in Times of Hegemony: Unequal Power and the

The moral and political status of children Essay Example for Free

The moral and political status of children Essay The children rights are human rights given to children with specific attention to the rights of special care and protection to minors. Children have the rights to associate with both parents, basic needs such as food, human identity healthcare, education and criminal laws. The interpretation of the rights of children ranges from permitting the children the autonomous capacity action to enforcement of children being mentally, physically and emotionally free from abuse. Most states defines a child as a human being below the age of eighteen, unless under the law that is applicable to the child. The question of whether the legally accorded rights should be afforded to children, and what extent and nature of the anticipated rights should be, has elicited vigorous debates among sociologists and law experts. The movement of the children’s rights can be attributed to the inclined concerns in the society over the individual rights and the recognition of a child abuse as a challenge to the society. Thesis Statement: Children should not be given equal rights to adults The idea of children being afforded legally recognized rights is a revolutionary subject in numerous approaches. Historically, the children were taken care of by their parents. However, since they are presumed by the law to lack the capacity of adults, they are denied extended participation in legal, social and political processes. According to Smyth (2013, p. 47) children are afforded special protection by a majority of the states. However, today most scholars consider the control to be oppressive and harmful to children. The immense volume of the scholarship literature referencing the multiple approaches of affording the expression to the notion that children should have rights, the content of the rights and the actual formulation f the rights. There is no yet a coherent theory of the rights of children that is hardly surprising (Couzens 2007, p. 91). The demand for enforcement and recognition of the rights of children attracts the attention of various societal believes. One hurdle in the development of coherent theory of the rights of children is the fact that in defining the children’s rights, it is significant to consider the children status as being a member of a family group and as an individual.Glendon argues that rights are good and essential; however, they have dominated the public discourse in unhealthy ways. Referring to Fernando (2001, p. 221) children rights are by nature individualistic and frequently unable to deal with the non-individualistic struggles in the society. Glendon further writes that children rights are legalistic and spurious law talks they contain have corrupt debates from the public. Likewise, the rights based on the claims of powerlessness to slow the dislocation and destruction of the formerly thriving communities by both urban renewal and de-industrialization destroy the society. The libertarianism provides that rights have drawn a distinction between adults and children. They assert that the children’s rights ar e rational, a creation of divine and persuasion of interests. According to the theory, moral rationality is the ability of an individual to reason about justifications and actions (Archard Macleod 2002, p. 173). Thus, the beings that can reason about moral matters should be accorded moral worth. Therefore, being given rights means being of moral reason. Consequently, the conception of rationality avoids the paternalistic counter that a person is not acting rationally to be forced to do so. So, by virtue of the lack of capacity that adults have, children should not be accorded similar rights to adults. Likewise, the functionalism asserts that every part of the society should contribute to the societal stability. According t the functionalism there is an order that exists in the society that brings social stability. Therefore, the children lack the capacity to stabilize the society. In similar assertions, the Marxist theory underscores that the property within the state belongs to th e individuals who created the wealth. Therefore, only people who work should benefit in the labour equally (Smyth 2013, p. 175). Therefore, by virtue of the inability of children to take the unrightfully profits and possessions as a claim of rights would not benefit them. Conclusion The correct policy of children’s rights lies somewhere between the extremes of minimum intervention and maximum coercive. Therefore, to determine the limits state intervention, the correct policy that lies in the correct application of the child’s standard of interest is significant. In a nutshell, there must be a safety net and no non-interventionist can be absolute. The children must be protected from dangers, but they should not have equal rights in the society. References Archard, D., Macleod, C. M. (2002). The moral and political status of children. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Couzens, M. (2007). Autonomy Rights versus Parental Autonomy. UN Childrens Rights Convention : Theory Meets Practice : Proceedings of the International Interdisciplinary Conference on Childrens Rights, 18-19 May 2006, Ghent, Belgium. 419-439.Fernando, J. L. (2001). Childrens rights. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications.Smyth, C. (2013). Is the right of the child to liberty safeguarded in the Common European Asylum System?. European Journal of Migration and Law, 15, 2.) Source document

Sociology Research Essay Example for Free

Sociology Research Essay Sexism is also known as  gender discrimination  or  sex discrimination, is defined as prejudice or discrimination based on sex; or behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex. Sexism is a form of discrimination or devaluation based on a persons sex, with such attitudes being based on beliefs in traditional stereotypes of gender roles. The term  sexism  is most often used in relation to discrimination against women, in the context of patriarchy. Sexism involves hatred of or prejudice towards a gender as a whole or the application of gender stereotypes. Sexism is often associated with gender-supremacy arguments. Gender stereotypes A 1952 magazine feature stereotyping women drivers. Gender stereotypes are widely held beliefs about the characteristics and behavior of women and men. Gender stereotypes are not only descriptive, but also prescriptive beliefs about how men and women should be and behave. Members of either sex who deviate from prescriptive gender stereotypes are punished; assertive women, for example, are called bitches whereas men who lack physical strength are seen as wimps. Empirical studies have found widely shared cultural beliefs that men are more socially valued and more competent than women at most things, as well as specific assumptions that men are better at some particular tasks (e. g. , mechanical tasks) while women are better at others (e. g. , nurturing tasks). For example,  Fiske  and colleagues surveyed nine diverse samples, from different regions of the United States, and found that members of these samples, regardless of age, consistently rated the category men higher than the category women on a multidimensional scale of competence. Gender stereotypes can facilitate and impede intellectual performance. For instance,  stereotype threat  can lower womens performance on mathematics tests due to the stereotype that women have inferior quantitative skills compared with men. Stereotypes can also affect the assessments people make of their own competence. Studies found that specific stereotypes (e. g. , women have lower mathematical ability) affect women’s and men’s perceptions of their abilities (e. g. , in math and science) such that men assess their own task ability higher than women performing at the same level. These biased self-assessments have far-reaching effects because they can shape men and women’s educational and career decisions. Gender stereotypes are sometimes applied at an early age. Various interventions were reviewed including the use of fiction in challenging gender stereotypes. For example, in a study by A. Wing, children were read  Bills New Frock  by  Anne Fine. The content of the book was discussed with them. Children were able to articulate, and reflect on, their stereotypical constructions of gender and those in the world at large. There was evidence of children considering the different treatment that boys and girls receive, and of classroom discussion enabling stereotypes to be challenged. Sexist and gender-neutral language Research has found that the use of  he  as a generic pronoun evokes a disproportionate number of male images and excludes thoughts of women in non gender-specific instances. Results also suggest that while the plural  they  functions as a generic pronoun for both males and females, males may comprehend  he/she  in a manner similar to  he, as  he  usually is placed before the dash and  she  after. This is usually done because the word  she  already contains the word  he  so it is positioned after the dash. It also has nothing to do with stereotypical gender roles. Nearing the end of the 20th century, there is a rise in gender-neutral language in western worlds, which is often attributed to the rise of  feminism. Gender-neutral language  is the avoidance of  gender-specific job titles, non parallel usage, and other usage that is considered by some to be sexist. Supporters claim that having gender–specific titles and gender–specific pronouns either implies a systemic bias to exclude individuals based on their gender or else as unnecessary in most cases as race-specific pronouns, religion-specific pronouns, or persons-height-specific pronouns. Some of those who support gender-specific pronouns assert that promoting gender-neutral language is a kind of semantics injection itself. Anthropological linguistics and gender-specific language Unlike the  Indo-European languages  in the west, for many other  languages  around the world,  gender-specific pronouns  are a recent phenomenon that occurred around the early 20th century. As a result of  colonialism, cultural revolution occurred in many parts of the world with attempts to modernize and westernize by adding gender-specific pronouns and animate-inanimate pronouns to local languages. This resulted in the situation of what was  gender-neutral pronouns  a century ago suddenly becoming gender–specific. (See for example  Gender-neutrality in languages without grammatical gender: Turkish. ) Gender-specific pejorative terms Gender–specific pejorative terms intimidate or harm another person because of their gender. Sexism can be expressed in a pseudo–subtle manner through the attachment of terms which have negative gender oriented implications  such as through  condescension. Many examples include swear words. A mildly vulgar example is the uninformative attribution of the term hag for a woman or fairy for a man. Although hag and fairy both have non-sexist interpretations, when they are used in the context of a gender–specific pejorative term these words become representations of sexist attitudes. The relationship between rape and misogyny Research into the factors which motivate perpetrators of  rape  against a specific gender, for example, women, frequently reveals patterns of hatred of said gender and pleasure in inflicting psychological and/or physical trauma, rather than sexual interest. Researchers have argued that rape is not the result of pathological individuals, but rather systems of male dominance, cultural practices and beliefs that objectify and degrade women. Mary Odem, Jody Clay-Warner and Susan Brownwiller consider sexist attitudes to be propagated by a series of myths about rape and rapists. They state that contrary to those myths, rapists often plan a rape before they choose a victim and that acquaintance rape  is the most common form of rape rather than assault by a stranger. Odem also states that these rape myths propagate sexist attitudes about men by perpetuating the thought that men cannot control their sexuality. In response to  acquaintance rape, the Men Can Stop Rape movement has been implemented. The US military has started a similar movement with the tagline My strength is for defending. Occupational sexism Occupational sexism refers to any  discriminatory  practices, statements, actions, etc. based on a persons  sex  that are present or occur in a place of  employment. One form of occupational sexism is  wage discrimination. In 2008, the  Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development  (OECD) found that while female employment rates have expanded considerably and the gender employment and wage gaps have narrowed virtually everywhere, on average, women still have 20% less of a chance to have a job and are paid 17% less than men. Moreover, the report stated: [In] many countries, labor market  discrimination  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ i. e. the unequal treatment of equally productive individuals only because they belong to a specific group – is still a crucial factor inflating disparities in employment and the quality of job opportunities [ ] Evidence presented in this edition of the  Employment Outlook  suggests that about 8% of the variation in gender employment gaps and 30% of the variation in gender wage gaps across OECD countries can be explained by discriminatory practices in the labour market. The report also found that despite the fact that almost all OECD countries, including the U. S. have established anti-discrimination laws, these laws are difficult to enforce. Gender stereotypes Gender roles  (or sex roles) are attitudes and activities that a society links to each sex. A culture that defines males as ambitious and competitive encourages them to seek out positions of leadership and play team sports. To the extent that females are defined as deferential and emotional, they are expected to be supportive helpers and quick to show their feelings. According to the  OECD, womens labor market behavior is influenced by learned cultural and social values that may be thought to discriminate against women (and sometimes against men) by stereotyping certain work and life styles as male or female. Further, the OECD argues that womens educational choices may be dictated, at least in part, by their expectations that [certain] types of employment opportunities are not available to them, as well as by gender stereotypes that are prevalent in society. There is a long record of women being excluded from participation in many professions. Often, women have gained entry into a previously male profession only to be faced with additional obstacles. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive an M. D. in the  United States  and  Myra Bradwell, the first female lawyer in the state of  Illinois, illustrate the prevalence of women being excluded from certain professions and the changing culture. Professional discrimination continues today according to studies done by  Cornell University  and others. Some have hypothesized that gender bias has been influencing which scientific research gets published. This hypothesis coincides with a test conducted at the  University of Toronto  led by Amber Budden. The study showed that, in the journal  Behavioral Ecology, after implementation of double-blind review in which both the author and reviewer identity is concealed, there was an increase of 7. 9% in the number of papers authored by women. This was more than three times the increase of female ecology graduate students in the United States. In addition, women frequently earn significantly lower wages than their male counterparts who perform the same job. In the U. S. , for example, women earn an average of 23. 5% less than men. In 1833, women working in factories earned only one-quarter of mens wages, and in 2007, womens median annual paychecks reflected only $0. 78 for every $1. 00 earned by men. A study showed women comprised 87% of workers in the child care industry and 86% of the health aide industry. Some experts believe that parents play an important role in the creation of values and perceptions of their children. The fact that many girls are asked to help their mothers do housework, while many boys do technical tasks with their fathers, seems to influence their behavior and can sometimes discourage girls from performing such tasks. Girls will then think that each gender should have a specific role and behavior. A 2009 study found that being overweight harms womens career advancement but presents no barrier for men. Overweight  or  obese  women were significantly under-represented among company bosses, whereas a significant proportion of male executives were overweight or obese. The author of the study stated that the results suggest that the glass ceiling effect on womens advancement may reflect not only general negative stereotypes about the competencies of women, but also weight bias that results in the application of stricter appearance standards to women. Overweight women are evaluated more negatively than overweight men. There is a tendency to hold women to harsher weight standards. At other times, there are accusations that some traditionally female professions have been or are being eliminated by its roles being subsumed by a male dominated profession. The assumption of baby delivery roles by doctors with the subsequent decline of  midwifery  is sometimes claimed to be an example. Wage gap [pic] Euro stat  found a persisting gender pay gap of 17. 5% on average in the 27  EU Member States  in 2008. Similarly, the OECD  found that female full-time employees earned 17% less than their male counterparts across OECD countries in 2009. In the U. S. , the female-to-male earnings ratio was 0. 77 in 2009, meaning that, in 2009, female full-time, year round (FTYR) workers earned 77% as much as male FYTR workers. Womens earnings relative to mens fell from 1960 to 1980 (from 60. 7 percent to 60. 2%) and then rose rapidly from 1980 to 1990 (from 60. 2% to 71. 6%), and less rapidly from 1990 to 2000 (from 71. 6% to 73. 7%) and from 2000 to 2009 (from 73. 7% to 77. 0%). At the time when the first  Equal Pay Act  was passed in 1963, female full-time workers earned 58. 9% as much as male full-time workers. The gender pay gap has been attributed to differences in personal and workplace characteristics between women and men (education, hours worked, occupation etc. as well as direct and indirect discrimination in the labor market (gender stereotypes, customer and employer bias, etc. ). Studies always find that some portion of the gender pay gap remains unexplained even after controlling factors that are assumed to influence earnings. The unexplained portion of the wage gap is attributed to gender discrimination. The estimates for the discriminatory component of the gender pay gap vary widely. The OECD estimated that approximately 30% of the gender pay gaps across OECD countries is due to discrimination. Australian research shows that discrimination accounts for approximately 60% of the wage differentials between women and men. Studies examining the gender pay gap in the United States  show that large parts of the wage differential remain unexplained even after controlling for factors that affect pay. One study examined college graduates and found that the portion of the pay gap that remains unexplained after all other factors are taken into account is 5% one year after graduating college and 12% 10 years after graduation. Research done at  Cornell University  and elsewhere indicates that mothers are less likely to get hired than equally qualified fathers and, if hired, would be paid a lower salary than male applicants with children. The  OECD  found that a significant impact of children on women’s pay is generally found in the United Kingdom and the United States. ]  Fathers, on the other hand, earn  $7,500 more on average that than men without children. Glass ceiling The term glass ceiling is used to describe a perceived barrier to advancement based on discrimination, particularly gender discrimination. In academic achievement, great improvements have been made. However, as of 1995 in the United States, women received about half of all Masters degrees, but 95 to 97% of the senior managers of Fortune 1000 Industrial and Fortune 500 companies were male and in the Fortune 2000 Industrial and service companies, only 5% of senior managers were women. The  United Nations  asserts progress in bringing women into leadership and decision making positions around the world remains far too slow. Objectification Some argue that  sexual objectification  is a form of sexism. Some countries, such as  Norway  and  Denmark, have laws against sexual objectification in advertising. Nudity itself is not banned, and nude people can be used to advertise a product, but only if they are relevant to what is being advertised. Sol Olving, head of Norways Kreativt Forum, an association of the countrys top advertising agencies, explained, You could have a naked person advertising shower gel or a cream, but not a woman in a bikini draped across a car. Sexism in the Workplace Sexism in education is clearly associated with sexism in the workplace. When women are expected to â€Å"stay in the home,† they are unable to access the necessary educational resources to compete with men in the job market. If by chance they are able to secure a position, women may be less prepared educationally for the task, and thus draw lower wages. In recent decades more women have entered the United States workforce. After WWII (from about 1947), about 30 percent of women were employed outside the home; today, at the start of the 21st century, the figure is well over 50 percent. (Some estimates approach 75 percent if â€Å"part-time† jobs are included. Yet women are far from treated equally on the job. Typically, they hold lower-paying, lower-status jobs than men. In fact, women may account for only 25 percent of the upper-level managers in large corporations. And although half of the employees in the largest, most prestigious firms around the United States may be women, perhaps as few as 5 percent or less actually hold senior positions. In general, women are under-represented in the higher-status, higher-paying occupations, such as university teaching, law, engineering, and medicine. In contrast, women are over-represented in the lower-paying occupations, such as public-school teaching, nursing, and secretarial work. In stereotypical female jobs, referred to as  womens ghettos, women are subordinate to the positions of men. For example, executives supervise secretaries who are likely to be women, and lawyers supervise paralegals, who are also likely to be women. Women in the same jobs as men usually earn less, even though these women may have the same or better training, education, and skills. As a general statistic, women make only 60 percent or less than men in comparable positions. Why this disparity? Sociologists speculate that, in some cases, the fact that women often must take time off to have and raise children interrupts their career path. As much as Americans may hate to admit it, women in the United States still bear the primary responsibilities of child-rearing. Conflicting demands may partly explain why married women with children are more likely to leave their jobs than are childless and single women. Also, men are seen as the â€Å"chief bread winners,† so the belief is that they should be paid more than women in order to support their families. Whatever the reason, paying women less than men for equally demanding work is discrimination.