The Marketing Of Haier In Europe

The Marketing Of Haier In Europe Abstract In todays business world filled with kinds of opportunities, competitions and challenges, marketing is playing a more and more important role. Correspondingly, marketing strategy and marketing mix are also more and more crucial for a company to enter a certain market and to sell products, no matter it is a domestic or transnational one; meantime, they are also beneficial to take market share if used effectively. The Haier Group, with Haier Europe is a classic example that makes full use of the marketing strategy and marketing mix to achieve its marketing goals. The focus of this dissertation lay in the exploration of the marketing strategy and marketing mix of Haier Europe, of solutions to its current difficulties in launching their product portfolios there and of the implementation of its tactics in Europe. Section One Introduction As a professional tool used to analyze the market, understand customers, and present a product or a service to the potential benefits of customers thus persuading them to accept and buy it (Steinberg, 2005, p1), marketing is by no means common. In the right hands, it can be unlimited-powerful. This dissertation purposed to explore the marketing strategy and marketing mix of Haier Europe. On the base of datas collected, Haier is still struggling with many difficulties in launching their product portfolios there. In addition, it has entered the crucial strategic periodGlobal Branding. How to cope with current problems and to establish its tactics in Europe? The dissertation also aims to seek appropriate solutions to this pending issue. In terms, Haier, as a famous Chinese company incorporating in 1984 and a domestic who dare to go abroad, Haier performs remarkably in the respect of marketing. Since the 1990s, it has differentiated into related white, black and beige goods (Bell, 2008, p157). As Chinas ambassador to appliance stores worldwide, now Haier is the worlds 2nd largest white goods manufacturer making appliances under more than 90 product categories. Today, Haier is exporting its goods and selling them in more than 160 countries and regions such as North America, Europe and the Middle East etc.. After its first entering through Germany, now Haier is well-known in Europe, including United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden, where it obtained revenues of US ¼Ã¢â‚¬Å¾136m. In Europe, Haier target at the high-end market, and carried out its trilogyseeding, rooting and harvesting to create the localization of Haier brand (CRI online, 2004). The products Haier sells in Europe are refrigerators, freezers, top-load washing machines, home air conditioners, water heaters, microwave ovens, dishwashers, television sets, computers and cell phones (Haier Official Website, 2010). Even more important, having advanced through the Brand Building, Diversification and Internationalization stages, Haier has embarked on its fourth stageGlobal Branding. It makes meaningful sense to study its marketing strategy. This paper encompasses three sections with section II consisting of three sub-sections. In this paper, after some theories about marketing explained firstly, the current situation of European retail electrical equipment market will be identified, followed by a analysis about both the internal and external environmental factors facing Haier; then it will demonstrate the marketing strategy and marketing mix of Haier Europe; finally, from the perspective of a real-world business, some rational recommendations for Haier Europe will also be made. Section Two Literature Review Baker et al(1998) concluded that marketing is both a concept and a practice having important implications for the adoption and implementation of market thinking, and also an approach to exchange relations which drives and informs the strategies of every organization. Here some marketing theories, including the PEST, the Porters Five, the SWOT, the ANSOFF and Marketing Mix should provide a sound conceptual basis. There would be a lot of unexpected risks and challenges if it is carried out without a full understanding of the market. So firstly, comprehensive insights into the present condition, even the medium-to-long developing trends of an industry, say three to ten years ahead, is needed. To review and exploit the broader environment, it can draw support form a PEST analysis and the Five-Force Model. PEST typically refer to by its acronym, for the types of elements it involves: political, economic, sociocultural and technological, all of which are likely to have large or small effects on the organizations ability to achieve competitive advantages at some stage over the next few years (Sargeant and Jay, 2004, p175). This framework can be useful to forecast the changes that may have environmental influences on a firm. Some examples of changes the four subenvironments will lead to are given in Figure 2.1. However, the PEST analysis should be combined with the Five-Force Model, which analyses t he structure of an industry or market segment, from the viewpoint of its attractiveness to a player already in the industry (Faulkner and Bowman, 1995, p37). Porter(1980) depicted the five competitive forces operating in an industry and together affecting the extent of competition or the potential profitability of that industry as follows: à ¢- Competitive rivalry amongst existing firmsrepresents the competitive behaviors, which can be done using price cuts, product design, promotional campaigns or other weapons between established companies making similar products or selling them in the same market (Hill and Jones, 2009, p46). à ¢- The barriers to new entrantswhen bringing additional capacity, new firms must compete with those existing ones to hold a foothold or to gain a market share, especially when demand for the industrys products does not rise to match the increased capacity that entry has caused. à ¢- The bargaining power of buyersthey may enhance their bargaining power no matter powerful or weak (Peng, 2008, p42). à ¢- The bargaining power of suppliersto raise prices or reduce the quality of their inputs (Peng, 2008, p41). à ¢- The threat from substitute products or servicesplaying the same or the similar function as an industrys products by different means, and the threat it conceal may be downstream or indirect (Porter, 2008, 17). Political GATT Monopolies legislation Environmental protection laws Taxation policy (Foreign) trade regulations Employment law Government stability European integrationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Economic Business (or trade) cycle GNP trends Interest rates Money supply Inflation Unemployment Disposable income Energy availability and costà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Socio-cultural Population demographics Income distribution Social mobility Lifestyle changes Attitudes to work and leisure Consumerism Levels of educationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Technological Government spending on research Government and industry focus of technological effort New discoveries Speed of technology transfer Rates of obsolescerceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Figure 2.1 The PEST factors Source: Faulkner, D. and Bowman, C. (1995). Competitive Strategy. Pp.61 Another model here must be noted is the SWOT analysis, however, it has many overlapping points with the Porters Five. SWOT is a planning exercise in which managers recognize a organizations strengths(S), weaknesses(W), opportunities(O) and threats(T) to select the corporate-, business-, functional-level strategies to best position the organization (Jones and George, 2004, p151). Strengths are skills and capabilities that enable, while weaknesses hinder an organization to conceive of or implement its strengths, yet both of which it has some control over; opportunities are areas that may generate higher performance, while threats increase difficulties, and both of them are beyond the organizations control (Griffin, 2007, p67-68). Then Ansoff Matrix, a version in which strategies are often shown, is used to formulate basic product and market growth strategies,. Ansoff defines two key factors for marketingwhat is being sold and what it is sold to (Stone, 2001, p50-51). What can be inferred is that a businesss attempts to grow rely on whether it is marketing new or existing products in new or existing market (Fasnacht, 2009, p19). It gives a company four alternative actions when launching marketing (reference to Figure 2.2):. Same product, new market Market Extension Same product, same market Marketing Penetration New product, new market Diversification New product, same market Product Development Ma Figure 2.2 The Ansoff Matrix: risks increase with movement away from cuccent activities. Source: Faulkner, D. and Bowman, C. (1995). Competitive Strategy. Pp.80 à ¢- Marketing Penetration is referred to selling a existing product or increasing its existing share in the existing market to facilitate further growth; à ¢- Market Extension is a strategy to seek to extend an existing product into a new market; à ¢- Product Development aims to offer new products or modifying existing products into the existing market; à ¢- Diversification means to enter an existing market with related or unrelated products that are totally unconnected with the market, that is to say, to enter a new market (Stone, 2001, p50-51). Last, Marketing Mix to be worked out. It indicated all the parts which will be emphasized in an organizations promotional message, traditionally this has been defined in commercial marketing by the 4Ps Model (Products, Price, Promotion and Place) (Bush and Bell, 2002, p249). The Product is comprised of decisions about the products design, brand name, package and the like. The Price is concerned with both base price and various discount (Pride et al, 2009, p348). The Promotion focus on plans and programmes that drive demands, interests and actions and communicate to customers or potential ones. The Place should portray the productss intended movement to the end customers and avoid any latent conflicts or confusions (Haines, 2008, p403-404). A firm can vary its marketing mix by changing one or more of elements, for example, it may use one marketing mix to reach a particular target market and different mix to reach another, anyway, the most principle is to keep a balance across and betw een all marketing mix elements. Section Three Analysis and Discussion 3.1 Haier and European Retail Electrical Equipment Market Unlike in the US, where Haier America is in charge of all functions and sells full products portfolio under one roof. In Europe, Haier had established a bunch of different sales offices: Haier Europe Trading, based in Italy, sell Haier white goods into Europe; Haier Electronic Europe is responsible for Haier audio-video and mobile phones; Haier A/C Europe trade Haier air conditioners through separate subsidiaries located in Spain, Italy and UK (Bell, 2008, p183). Undoubtedly, this makes Haier Europes operations relatively dispersed, which scattered consumerss holistic and unified impression on it. At the same time, owing to European markets global marketing segmentation, the presence of more than 100 competitors making the appliance industry in the market is highly fragmented and highly competitive (Keegan, 2001, p191). Haier has to face the threats not only from those famous such as U.S. brands General Electric, Whirlpool and Asian Sony and Samsung etc., but also from the domestic m anufacturers like Changhong and Hisense, particularly the U.S. brands. European remains the largest buyer of American-made electrical machinery and parts (Black Enterprise, 1989, 172). However, there rarely exist comparison behaviors among the European electrical equipment consumers; in the case of some German middle-class families, they just enjoy the televisions, model and style of which are both common. So their custom that do not chase fashion form the unique features of European home appliances market (Sina, 2005). 3.1.1 External Environment Factors of Haier in Europe PEST analysis can help to develop a view of the external opportunities and threats(OT) facing Haier Europe (Henry, 2008, p61). Firstly, the political influence. No matter how multinational corporations is transnational, it can not really step over the country-of-origin issue. As far as Europeans are concerned, Haier Europe is still a Chinese company. With a series of overseas mergers and acquisitions, Haier is going toward to the internationalization, but it suffers interference from the host countries, who use government power to intervene in the foreign businesss mergers and acquisitions to domestic enterprises, or setting a variety of political obstacles to ensure the foreign players do not obtain a dominant position or abuse their market share thus protecting domestic enterprises, political and economic security (Arup, 2002, p75). For instance, both the bank and government would intervene to protect German firms from foreign takeovers (Safarian, 1993, p326). Haiers increasingly e xpanded M A make European countries shocked even panic, and they throw great difficulties in the achievement of Haiers internationalization. Secondly, as the most direct as well as the strongest category, economic affect the costs of the operation and the purchases of potential customers (Waters, 2006, p208). With uncertainty about employment prospect, many customers postponed purchasing decisions, or cut out some types of spending. Even though Kahn, the president of the IMF once said, European economy began to pick up at the end of 2009 and its economic recession will not last too long; in 2009 the global economy is expected to grow at an average rate of 3% , and the European economy at 0.2% (European Economic Rebound and Industry Raise Input, 2009). The economic slump may continue for some time, which is also a not small test to Haier. However, ongoing gratifying economic globalization and liberalization created more marketing opportunities, encouraging Haier to reap the benefits of emerging markets to achieve globalization and internationalization (Kumar, 2006, p38-39), and Haier Europe has started to increase investme nt. Meantime, the socio-cultural influence. Today every customer is driven by both the trends in society and the need to comply with the norms of various social groups to which they belong. With the advocacy of low-carbon economy in recent years, energy-saving and environmental-friendly have become important criterion to select home appliances. There have been more and more people, who are not necessarily deep green willing to allow this to influence their decision-making when buying an appliance, especially Europeans who has perceived the environmental protection as a public issue long ago and made environmental protections roots in varied areas (Wenk, 2005, p9-10), they look more favorably on green home appliances. This also urged Haier Europe to be green to meet their green demand, which become a selling point in the European market. Last but not the least, the impact of technology to home appliance industry is tremendous. Adopting new technologies or automaton for improving productivity and cost effectiveness is regarded as opportunities (Kumar, 2006, p38-39). For Haier, to defeat those competitors, a crucial is to keep up with the pace of science and grasp the most updated technology to create the most advanced products. 3.1.2 Internal Environment Factors of Haier in Europe Haiers internal strengths and weaknesses(SW) can be clarified by following the Five Force Model (Henry, 2008, p61). Haier has hard-won scale strengths (Harvard Business Review on Emerging Markets, 2008, p77), which is by no means just confined to sight and sound (Jinsheng Yi and Xian Ye, 2003, 8). They are mainly reflected in the following aspects: à ¢- Brand Strength After several decades of efforts, the reputation of Haier brand has increased significantly. In 2009, the value of Haier brand was as high as 81.2 billion (Lead, 2009). For most European consumers, Haier is their most trusted brands, which is the strongest strength of Haier. Meanwhile, its brand tend to reduce rivalry since they emphasize differentiation, and establish at least psychological switching costs for the consumers if they are to move to a different brand (Faulkner and Bowman, 1995, p42). à ¢- Products Strength Haier accounted its corporate strength in customer-tailored product and innovation speed, which will enhance its performance in future (Bell, 2008, p157). Among its various products, Haiers refrigerators and washing machines are world-class. In Europe, where quality and feature are top priorities among consumers, Haier is committed to manufacturing specific products and its tag line is Haier and Higher (McNally, 2007, p90). Haier strictly pay attention to manufacturing skills, technical progress and product quality all the time. à ¢- Service Strength Haier sets the benchmark of from in-store services to after-sales service. It is known that uniformed personnel of Haier offering on-site service will show up in less than 24 hours after a customer require services, with all necessary tools including a pair of socks not to dirty the ground of customers (Hexter et al, 2007, p137). It is Haiers intimate service that contribute to its success, which is also one of its core competitiveness. Haier has always adhere to the creed of users first and believes that brand is created, promoted, maintained and developed by high-quality service. à ¢- Channel Strength Haier was acknowledged to have the best and the most strict distribution system and sales force (Williamson, 2004, p47). Haier adopt personalized marketing according to the characteristics of different consumers. According to different channels, Haier Europe work out targeted policies and provide different support. However, Haier also has been fully aware of its weakness from early days, which can be analyzed with the Porters Five. à ¢- Competitive rivalry amongst existing firms Porter(1980) listed the the slow growth of or declining demand will create further intensification of competitiveness. It is true that the weedy recession and economic hardships the financial crisis swept inevitably overshadow European consumers attitudes, as well as their ability and willingness to consume. While the original competition in European home appliance industry has already made the rivalry intense. It can not be denied that the high-end market in Europe are still occupied by those real international brands such as Whirlpool, Panasonic etc., although Haier has always targeted at the high-end market, factly it still lack the appeal, the influence and the persuasion at local. The competition Haier face is unprecedented fierce and volatile. à ¢- The barriers to new entrants As counterparts learns more through technology, they are able to reduce costs, make better products, get more flexibility or expand their product range to suit different kinds of customers. So over time competition within the industry is likely to increase, as more entries are attracted to rush. They may try to outmanoeuvre the existing ones by cutting down prices or offering value-added features or quality or service, thus it also probably lower the overall level of profitability in the existing industry (Asch and Wolfe, 2001, p44). à ¢- The bargaining power of buyers According to Campbell(2002), the bargaining power of buyers will be accordingly more considerable if fewer they are. Now with many Europeanss consumer confidence declining, they have been more willing to buy cost-effective products but willingness to pay extra cost for a brand greatly reduced, which weakened the market competitiveness of Haier as a brand. Moreover, even though Haier Europes products are manufactured and sold in local market, most of their design work is still done in China, which may also affect the Europeans perceptions of Haiers products to a certain extent (Temporal, 2006, p89). à ¢- The bargaining power of suppliers Suppliers of Haier are those who provide inputs such as capital, material, special manpower, services and so on. Now Haier still remain highly dependent on foreign key components and technologies, such as high-performance electronic-motors, compressors, controllers and so on (Bell, 2008, p171). Lacking its own core technology, Haier is forced to rely on those suppliers offering technology and result in its bad situation. à ¢- The threat from substitute products or services Haier is a comprehensive home appliance manufacture making a wide range of products, and energy need to be put in each category, whether it is small or huge. So compared with those who specializes in just one aspect, Haiers specialization would be unavoidably challenged. What is equally important, Crum and Goldberg(1998) suggest that the threats to a focal company may derive from not only the firms giving customers equivalent alternatives, but also those applying new technology, new materials or even new methods of running a business. Despite of increasing R ¼Ã¢â‚¬  D efforts, Haiers lack of technological patent in developed markets is still serious (Bell, 2008, p171). 3.2 Marketing Strategy of Haier in Europe Haiers marketing strategy in Europe, known as a pivotal part of its internationalization strategy, aims at positioning the company as a local brand there (Wankel, 2009, p325). In the procedure of its Global Brand, Haier experienced a magnificent practice, which was also forward-looking and transformative. Any industry has its fixed period, so does the household appliances industry. After full development of competition, the space to further grow decreased sharply and the market has fell fall into a state of relative saturation. What is worse, due to currently existing homogenization among household appliances enterprises, senseless rounds of price wars overwhelmed, declining the expected profits. Now one most pressing problem facing Haier is determined by its overall strategic positioningwhether to hope the future value space of home appliances industry can slowly grow and continue to dedicate energies on it, or to further extend its industry chain to create a multi-products enterprises to avoid the natural-cycle issue of the appliance industry. This is a process that need prudent decisions-making. Combining with the Ansoff Matrix, Haiers risks and corresponding actions are discussed. As can be seen from the Figure 2.2, the lowest risk option is to continue to sell the same products into the existing market, or to attempt to grow by internal development. Unsatisfactory, the household appliance industry market has been saturated and the demand of the product obsolescent or at least decline, such a strategy may not realize acceptable results for Haier Europe. Then next options to be considered are to supply a new product to the current market, or to market the present product to a new market (Faulkner and Bowman, 1995, p80). Of course, the risk to bear will also ascend to a certain extent. In general, the above three options are most common and relatively insurance for Haier Europe. Only in few exceptional contexts should the option to market an unfamiliar product to an unfamiliar market be thought over. As the business is moving into a market which it has little even no experience in, the potential risks are excessively high. Having weighing the affordable risks an d the effects of each strategy, Haier Europe draw up the following-described marketing actions: à ¢- to penetrate the marketas the core strategy, Haier make greater marketing efforts to increase the makret share of its existing products. In accordance with the sequence from low to high, brand divided into the cheap brand, the economy brand, the standard brand, the high-performance brand, the high-quality brand and the luxury one (China Marketing, 2008, p96-98). When first entering Europe, Haier has declared its goal as to occupy the high-end market, meaning that it has abandoned the cheap and the economy brand. However, compared to the luxury goods, the appliance has no obvious features and group properties, so it still belong to the general category of consumer products; and lack particularity and competitive advantages. So for Haier who position its core business in the home appliance industry, the luxury market is not its target. Therefore, Haier has taken efforts to become a dominance in the standard, high-performance and high-qualtiy market, which is profitable enough. To root even to further consolidate and develop, on the one hand, Haier Europe sold more or increased share of its products; on the other hand, i t vigorously push the internationalization of its product design forward in Europe. Besides, whenever it is up-swing of a business cycle or recession, Haier has always focused on its core product, around which it form the products cluster; and according to the consumption power of consumers and their demands about the function, the costs etc. to modify its products. Even though having developed diversified products and began to regulate its industrial chain, Haier Europes focal product is always the refrigerator. With key energy put on this item, Haier succeed to enhance the level of product quality, reduce production costs and improve technical design standards, making up its product line gap, squeezing more market share of competitors and becoming the leader in refrigerator category in European market. à ¢- to extend market, that is, Haier try to enter all of European potential markets for its present principal line and also extend present products or service that could extend present line in present Europeans market (Reed et al, 2007, p21). When Haier began to launch its seeding stage in Europe in the end 1990s, it attempted to extend its existing products like refrigerators into this new market. To enter new international markets, unlike other Chinese companies who usually use mergers and acquisitions as a way or corporate with local well-known enterprises to access the market and the technology, Haier followed the model to extend market by building factories or sales channels (Advantage, 2010, p45). Yet Haier Europe does not blindly built its factory or channels, only after its target market fully developed, then it would consider to construct the plants. Furthermore, Haier has always been seeking to penetrate into the high-end market in Europe, trying to find more potential emerging markets to obtain more source of profits or opportunities. Haiers water heater is such a successful example. Having get cumulative advantage in European low-end market, in 2009, Haier introduced a new water heater, which effectively integ rated a number of leading technique and more concerned with the fashion and technology, marking its water heater taking the offensive to enter the European high-end market. What paid off is that its Cheong enjoy series win the 2009 Germany industry IF Awards and has become the first Chinas electric water heater to receive this award among similar products (SourceJuice, 2009). Undoubtedly, this success assure Haier to get a broader developing space and broke the unfavorable situation that Chinese household appliance business can only hold European low-end market. Apart from all these, Haiers products in Europe did not copy the design of domestic ready-made ones, but are tailored in the light of the European consumers characteristics. In 2007, Haier introduced a group of TV having various types and white shell, which was specially designed for the Europeans and in line with their sense of beauty (Sina, 2007). à ¢- to develop product, new products have been a source of fascination and excitement of a corporation as the age of mass production has began (Clark, 1991, preface), and this is true to Haier, too. When promoting the harvesting phase, on the basis of gradual maturation of European market and finished establishment of its own local sales and R ¼Ã¢â‚¬  D facilities, Haier offer new differentiated products to open up new markets. Moreover, when Haier has developed to a certain accuracy and depth in the household appliance field, its inevitable choice is to use product mix as an important tool to steady itself. It is just under this circumstance that Haier produce other home appliances such as computers and mobile phones in Europe. Unfortunately, the main source of its profit still generated from refrigerators and washing machines, but the market share of its computer and cell phone was poor for a long time. Their meager profits seriously impair Haiers competitiveness as a brand. Soon after then, Haier has turned to products improvement, products innovation and costs reduction to rise their competitiveness. à ¢- to diversify, which is contented to stabilize Haiers earnings and diversified its development. Haier has been conscious that the profit todays household appliance industry itself can get is so little that it is not sufficient to support Haier to earn extra benefits of marketing and service. So since the 1990s, Haier started to formulate a systematic and multi-dimensional industrial portfolio, which aims to expanding its business portfolio and avoiding the single cycle of appliance industry through reasonable combination of industry. Now Haier is mainly engaged in home appliances, concurrently involves a wide range of other industry like the information, the bio-pharmaceutical, the finance, the real estate and so on. In short, the trinity of local design, local production and local sales is the ultimate goal of Haiers internationalization strategy. In Europe, its emphasis lay in promoting differentiated high-end products of Haier and establishing its image as a local brand, then promoting the selling of its full line of products. 3.3 Marketing Mix of Haier in Europe Haiers marketing mix is known as the Haier Model, a model that committed to building standard international branding, which is characterized by unified and standard elements in all the marketing mix elements, in addition to all the necessary tactical adjustments (Kee, 2009, 357). To sum up, its marketing mix is distinctive. à ¢- Product Ingredientsalways being the most significant element in Haier Europes development. Haiers development objective is to create Chinas world-famous brand. In its Global Building phase, Haier has always concentrated on high-end technology, attempting to open up the European market with its high-tech products. Haiers refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and other products are all the forerunners to adopt the most advanced technology, having created one after another number one and uniqueness. With its high-tech products being introduced continuously, Haier does not only bring about new concept of fashion and consumption, but also lead a new trend of market consumption. What is more, the products philosophy that Haier always pursue is the goal to innovative is to create valuable orders. So Haier Europe has always firmly grasped product innovationthe lifeline of enterprise development and established a market-oriented product innovation, that is a Ring Product Development Mechanism, requesting product

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder was previously known as manic depression as it causes moods to shift between mania and depression. It may also be classified as a biological brain disorder causing severe fluctuations in mood, energy, thinking and behaviour. This disorder results in frequent anxiety and low frustration level in the young people (CABF 2007). Depression, in this situation, means a situation where you feel very low while mania would refer to a situation where you feel very high (NHS 2009). Sometimes, symptoms of mania and depression can also occur simultaneously (CABF 2007). These episodes can last for several weeks or longer. The high and low phases of the illness are often so extreme that they interfere with everyday life (NHS 2009). In bipolar disorder, the depression phase often comes first. One can be diagnosed with clinical depression before having a manic episode. The manic episodes usually take place after some time, after which the diagnosis might change. These episodes of depression may lead to overwhelming feelings of worthlessness, which often lead to thoughts of suicide. The manic phase may make you feel very creative and view mania as a positive experience. This is the time when you may also have symptoms of psychosis. During this phase you may feel very happy and have lots of ambitions, plans and ideas. Lack of sleep and appetite are other also common characteristics of bipolar disorder (NHS 2009). People with bipolar disorder fluctuate between intense depression and mania, interspersed by periods of relative calm (Macnair 2008). The causes of bipolar disorder arent completely known, but are often hereditary. A cluster of factors both genetic and environmental, such as personal traumas or stress, can highly influence systems. The initial manic or depressive episodes of bipolar disorder usually take place early in the teenage years or early adulthood (Macnair 2008) At least half of all cases start before age 25 (Kessler et al., 2005). The symptoms of the disorder can be fairly subtle and may result in being overlooked or misdiagnosed. This could result in unnecessary suffering while on the other hand, with proper treatment and support; a fulfilling life can be lived (Macnair 2008). In severe forms of mania, there are chances of a person becoming psychotic, with delusions. There is a conflict in perception and reality and there may be hallucinations and delusional beliefs about being persecuted. In some of the worst cases, people in mania become unintelligible and neglect themselves. The symptoms have varying patterns, frequencies and order. While in some case, where symptoms of mania are followed by symptoms of depression in a predictable pattern, some people have mixed symptoms its possible to have many of the symptoms of mania and also suffer from severely depressive thoughts (Bhugra and Flick, 2005). Although theres no cure for bipolar disorder, many people find that an understanding of their illness and what triggers episodes can help them live a relatively normal life Macnair 2008). Patients could monitor their moods and thoughts and ask someone they trust to help them cope with the disorder. But, sometimes some people have extreme mood swings that cant be managed by monitoring alone. There may be a need for antidepressants, antipsychotic medication, drug lithium, which seem to stabilise mood swings. High level of lithium in blood can be poisonous while too little will have no effect. So, its important to be seen regularly by the mental health team and have the blood levels checked (Smith et al., 2009). Johns Condition John had a bipolar disorder with first episode happening when he was 19. At 28, John had evidently had manic episodes, as he had been known to contact his colleagues and clients at odd hours to discuss novel ideas. He kept enthusing about his designs being imaginative and original. At the workplace, clients and colleagues would complain about Johns unprofessional behaviour suggesting a lack of understanding on the part of his workplace. Johns denial of his illness further aggravated his situation. John had already quit two excellent jobs because of his condition. Johns younger brother, Michael, managed to get John back to his consultant psychiatrist and pushed him to take his medicines regularly. With continuous support from his brother, John started responding well to the treatment. Although medication seemed to have positive effect on John, he would give up the medicines as soon he started feeling better. This resulted in relapses and repeated episodes. And unlike ordinary mood swings, the mood changes of bipolar disorder are so intense that they interfere with the patients ability to function (Smith et al., 2009). John did not participate actively in social activities making it difficult for others to recognize his needs. John could not focus on his work due to his medical condition being too unstable. John was not offered any job at the five places he had applied despite an impressive CV. This was due to the fact that John had mentioned his illness on all the forms raising doubts in Johns mind about disclosing his illness until it was specifically stressed upon. Work labelling and stereotyping Theory of stigma Stigma is the difference between the virtual social identity and the real social identity. Stigma has three forms, which can be characterised as external, personal and tribal. The first form of stigma relates to external or overt deformations like scars, leprosy, physical disability and social disability. The second form relates to deviations in personal traits, including mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism and criminal backgrounds. The third form, tribal stigmas, are imagined or real traits of ethnic groups, nationalities or religions that are deemed to constitute a deviation from what is perceived as to be the prevailing ethnicity, nationality or religion (Geoffman 1963). eoffman (1963) also went on to describe 3 levels of deviance. He described them as primary, secondary and tertiary deviances. Primary deviance would refer to original violation/deviance/and societal reaction to this non-conformity to societal norms. The secondary deviance is the deviants reaction to the negative societal reaction and the tertiary deviance is the reaction of the stigmatised person to the stigma from other leads to master status. The secondary deviant attempts to re-label certain behaviours as normal rather than deviant. This is an attempt to create a label that overshadows all other characteristics. The stigmatised person is seen as inferior by others and seen as having a perpetually flawed social identity and is thus discriminated. The stigmatised individual might also have additional imperfections imputed to them on the basis of the original stigmata thus creating stereotypes (Geoffman 1963). Stigma can also be differentiated as felt and enacted. The felt stigma is the condition where one feels the shame of being identified with a discrediting condition and the fear of encountering enacted stigma. Enacted stigma is the actual episode of discrimination, both formal and informal against people with stigmata solely on the grounds of their having a stigmatising condition (Scambler 2004). Scrambler (2004) through the Hidden Distress Model highlighted that people with a stigmata are fearful of experiencing enacted stigma and pursue an active policy of non-disclosure. The stigma has a far more disruptive effect on their lives as this also increases the stress of managing their disorder. The socio-cultural values can be viable in influencing the level of felt and enacted stigma. According to Geoffmanns (1963) classification of stigma, John fell in the second form due to hid bipolar disorder. As stated by Geoffmann (1963), John was ill treated and faced discrimination, which is quite evident from the behaviour of his clients and colleagues at work. Sociology of Health and Illness The sociology of health and illness argues that socio-cultural factors influence peoples perceptions and experiences of health and illness, which cannot be presumed to be simply relations to physical bodily changes (Nettleton 2006). Defining Health and Disease In the constitution of WHO established nearly half a century ago, health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (Saracci 1997). Temple et. al., in 2001 proposed a definition of disease though the approach did little to improve on previous attempts. They defined disease as a state that places individuals at increased risk of adverse consequences. Adopting this definition, every activity involving voluntary action carry a risk of adverse consequences. The problem with the concept of health and disease is that it is associated with social concepts such as normality and abnormality, normality and abnormality being relative terms. In common parlance, disease means a deviation from the established norm, consequently abnormal, with connotations of weirdness, strangeness, repulsiveness, viciousness, sickness, derangement, impairment, and disorder (Landy 1977). Conditions may be characterised as normal or abnormal based on the arbitrary diagnostic criteria as in most common diseases like diabetes, hypertension, etc. A condition is considered to be normal if it is prevalent amongst the population largely. But this issue seems to be complicated by the question of medicalization versus criminalization of abnormal social behaviour (Rosen 1968 and Foucalt 1972). Often the clinicians diagnosis is influenced by social views on mental diseases. In cases where mental disorders are involved, judging a sick person is to be avoided at all costs. Instead, the situation and the effects of the disease should be judged (Scheff 1979). The patient is worried with his own private and particular condition, while the doctor tries to make a diagnosis in the same way a zoologist or a botanist does with a specimen under the microscope: to weight individual variances against general signals and symptoms that agree with those of a recognized category of disease (de Avila Pires 2008). Failure to Recognize Mental States and Provide Required Support Radley (1994) reported that it was very difficult to live with illness in todays world where health is more than meeting the demands of specific tasks or fulfilling particular duties. Mental disorders may lead to the patient becoming socially isolated as was seen in Johns case. Figure 1. The patient suffering from chronic illness faces various modes of adjustment. (Figure adapted from Radley and Green 1985, cited in Radley 1994) According to the modes of adjustment to the chronic illness put forward by Radley and Green in 1985 (cited in Radley 1994) John was in the phase of active denial. He resisted the illness symptoms and participated in the normal life, treating his illness as of little importance. Even his colleagues failed to recognize his condition and complained calling Johns behaviour unprofessional. Factors that Pushed John to Seek Medical Help Despite Johns being a talented architect, he had already quit two good jobs. The reasons attributed to this may be an atmosphere of discriminative behaviour in the workplace. John had developed a stage of Bipolar disorder where regular attacks of mania took place. He might also have developed psychosis suggested by the novel ideas and strange behaviour. Johns brother, Michael actually got John to go back to the medicines. He tried to know what had happened and made sure John took his medicines regularly. Michael also managed to get John back to his consultant psychiatrist. So, it may be perceived that it was support of his brother, family support coupled with a discriminative behaviour at the workplace that pushed John to medications. Social Inequalities Disability and social inequality go hand in hand. The proof is well documented and evident in socio-economic circumstances (Nettleton 2006). Disabled people face many problems in their working life. In certain cases like accidents, a person may loose his value overnight while as, in case of recurrent illnesses, the patient goes through a gradual downfall Blaxter 1976). Lack of support from other people (family, friends, colleagues) often aggravates the medical condition of the patient (Radley 2004). Johns medical condition became a cause of concern for his employers and clients alike. He had to quit two jobs to cope with the situation. Despite having experience and impressive CV, John was not able to get a job at any of the five places he had applied to. Evidently, his revealing his bipolar disorder would have put his future employers on alert and thus the discrimination. Instead, of understanding Johns condition and helping him overcome his disability he was rejected every time. Community Care The World Health Organization recognizes primary health care to be effective in preventing illness. There has been a shift from primary health care to community care and this shift could be a result of three factors therapeutic, economic and reforms in the medical model (Busfield 1986, cited in Nettleton 2006). The entire concept of community care relies on the priority being given to the patient and not the disease. Social perceptions about the disability or the disabled, plays an important role in community-based rehabilitation. The term community care is used both in a perspective sense to related to how people should meet the health and social needs of the dependent people and also a description of the set of services that are currently provided (Stevenson 2008). Many people often object to being referred to as disabled. It leads to the segregation and often discrimination (Blaxter 1976). As was seen in Johns case, despite being an impressive architect he was refused job at five places, which he thought was because of him disclosing his bipolar disorder. The local authorities along with voluntary bodies are responsible for looking after the social needs of a disabled. This concept is based on the fact that community has to be involved in deciding the social needs of a disabled member and then making sure that those needs are taken care of in local conditions (Blaxter 1976). Michael, Johns brother played a major role in Johns rehabilitation. He understood his needs and convinced him to see his doctor. As is the concept of community care, Michael gave priority to his brother and his needs rather than his disease. The same cannot be said about his colleagues or his clients. Instead of understanding Johns special needs, they deemed him unfit to work with them. Cognitive Therapy of Depression Beck et al., (1979) defined cognitive therapy as an active, directive, time-limited, structured approach used to treat various mental disorders. The rationale behind this definition is based on how a disabled person perceives and structures the world. His previous experiences and relation with other people affect his cognitions. For example, if a person interprets all his experiences in terms of whether he is competent or adequate, his thinking might be dominated by the schema, Unless I do everything perfectly, I am a failure. In such case he would react to all situations in terms of his competence even if those situations were not related to his competence in any way. Johns getting rejected at five interviews, despite of an impressive CV, made him feel disadvantaged. He thought it was due to his mental disorder. These inequalities made him want to conceal his illness and not reveal it unless it was specifically asked about. Chronic Illness People experience serious chronic illness in three ways: as an interruption of their lives, as an intrusive illness, and as immersion in illness. Rather, from their perspectives, illness disrupts their lives; it intrudes upon the day-frequently each day; it engulfs them (Charmaz 1997). Johns illness was an interruption in his life. He had to quit two jobs because of his illness and was further rejected a job at another five places due to his illness. Parsons Sick Role Theory According to Parson (1951), sickness is not merely a condition or a state of fact, it is rather a specifically patterned social role. The sick people have the right to be exempted from the normal social role. They cannot be blamed for their medical condition and have to be taken care of. On the other hand, they are expected to seek professional guidance and show a willingness to get well. The disabled people are either vulnerable and are often exploited by others or they may adopt deviance to evade responsibilities and can prove to be threat to the society. John was vulnerable. He tried to get well and used to take medication as well, but his colleagues blamed him for his condition. They often complained against him. Moreover, after quitting his job, he could not get another job due to his disability. Zolas Theory According to Zola (1973, cited in Scambler 2008) most of the patients would over look their symptoms for quite some time before consulting a doctor. He also found that there had to be something else a trigger apart from the symptoms to convince patients to seek medical intervention. The characterised five types of triggers First, the occurrence of an interpersonal crisis (e.g., death in the family), second, perceived interference with social or personal relations, third, sanctioning (pressure from others to consult), fourth, perceived interference with vocalization or physical activity, and fifth, a kind of temporalizing of symptomatology (the setting of deadline). Moreover, patients personal and social circumstances also affect the patients decision to seek help. Applying Zolas theory to Johns case, one would realize that John did overlook his symptoms. He used to deny his illness and stop his medication as soon as he felt better. It was sanctioning (pressure from his brother Michael) that acted as a trigger and convinced him to consult his psychiatrist and start his medication again. Conclusion A certain medical condition or disability refers to be presented with problems and face problems earning ones living or any other day to day activities. Many disabled people find it hard or lack the willingness to participate in the social activities. They isolate themselves from the society and in certain cases from family as well. But constant support from family and friends coupled with proper medication can help the patient recover and rise above his disability (Blaxter 1976). Bipolar disorder being a chronic mental disorder has serious consequences on patients in particular and their families and societies in general. Effective treatment for bipolar disorder is available, but patients often hesitate to report their condition due to various social, economic and personal barriers. Patients often go into self-denial and try to remain away from social activities. There are two ways of caring for the bipolar disordered person; one, primary healthcare, that is consulting a general physician or a psychiatrist and second being community care. Concerted efforts on all levels (patient, family, community, healthcare provider and government) are required to improve the quality of care among the bipolar community (Bhugra and Flick, 2005). Apart from the professional help, self-help can greatly improve the condition of a person with bipolar disorder. The patient should learn about his condition. It will help him understand his needs better as well as help him in recovery. They should try and avoid stress, participate in social activities and indulge in hobbies. The patient should keep a track of his mood swings and watch out for the symptoms that have deleterious effects on their mood. Doing so would help them prepare better for adverse conditions. Maintaining a healthy schedule (healthy food habits, exercising, and proper sleep) can greatly influence the moods of a patient (Smith et al., 2009). References: Beck AT, Rush AJ, Shaw BF, and Emery G. 1979. Cognitive Therapy of Depression. New York, The Guilford Press Bhugra D. and Flick GR. 2005. Pathways to care for patients with bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disorder 7; 236-245 Blaxter M, 1976. The meaning of disability. London. Heinemann. CABF (Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation), Educating the Child with Bipolar Disorder, 2007 Charmaz K. 1997. Good Days, Bad Days-Illness and Time. USA, Rutgers University Press de Avila-Pires FD. 2008. On the concept of disease. Revista de Historia Humanidades Medicas, Vol. 4, No. 1 Foucault M. 1972. Histoire de la folie à   là ¢ge classique, Paris, Gallimard Goffman E. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identities Kessler RC, Berglund P, Demler O, Jin R, Merikangas KR, Walters EE. 2005. Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 62(6):593-602.) Landy D. [Ed.], 1997. Culture, disease, and healing. Studies in medical anthropology. NewYork, Macmillan Macnair T. 2008. Bipolar disorder. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/bipolar1.shtml [Accessed on 12/01/20101] Nettleton S. 2006. The Sociology of Health and Illness; Cambridge, Polity Press NHS 2009. Bipolar disorder. Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Bipolar-disorder/Pages/Introduction.aspx [Accessed on 12/01/2010] Parson T. 1951. The Social System. New York, Free Press. Radley A. 1994. Making sense of illness. London, SAGE Publications  Ã‚   Rosen G. 1968   Madness in Society. Chapters in the historical sociology of mental illness, New York, Harper Row Saracci R.1997. The world health organisation needs to reconsider its definition of health BMJ1997;314:1409 Scambler G, 2004. A jigsaw model of health-related stigma, University College of London Scambler G. [Ed.] 2008, Sociology as applied to medicine. (6th ed.) Saunders, Elsevier Scheff T. 1979. Decision rules, types of error, and their consequences in medical diagnosis. In Albrecht G. and Higgins P. [Eds.] Health, Illness, and Medicine. A reader in medical sociology, Chicago, Rand McNally, pp. 313-326. Smith M, Segal J, and Segal R. 2009. Understanding bipolar disorder. Available at: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/bipolar_disorder_symptoms_treatment.htm [Accessed on 13/10/2010] Temple LK, McLeod R, Gallinger S, and Wright J. 2001. Defining disease in the genomics era. Science, Vol. 293, No. 5531, New York, pp. 807-808

inquery project :: essays research papers fc

The question I choose to investigate was if beans needed soil to grow and if a bean which was soaked in water will grow faster than one that was not. The first step was to soak several dry beans in water overnight. Put four soaked beans on a wet piece of paper toweling and four dry beans on a piece of wet paper toweling. Then I labeled two plastic cups with the start date and soaked or dry, and put the toweling and beans in the appropriate cup and placed them on the windowsill. Everyday I checked the moisture level of the toweling and added water if needed. In the middle of the second week I noticed mold forming on three of my dry beans. I choose to discard of those beans. By the beginning of the third week someone suggested keeping the beans in an open Ziploc bag to keep moisture on the toweling so I switched. At the end of my inquiry I saw that neither the soaked nor the dry beans had extensive growth and I couldn’t understand why. Below I have charted my observations and then gave possible explanations as to why this did not work properly. Observations: Week 1: July 08, 2004: Start project. Leave beans in cups on windowsill. July 10, 2004: No change. July 12, 2004: Start to see sprouts come out of 2 beans in soaked cup. July 14, 2004: No Change Week 2: July 16, 2004: Mold is starting to form on 2 beans in the dry cup. 3 beans in the soaked cup have sprouted. 1 bean in the dry cup has sprouted. July 18, 2004: Mold is on 3 beans in the dry cup. July 20, 2004: Threw out 3 molded beans. Sprouts and roots are seen in the soaked cup. Week 3: July 22, 2004: Changed from a cup to Ziploc bags. Changed paper toweling. July 24, 2004: The bean from the dry cup has noticeable roots and a sprout July 26, 2004: The roots in both bags are attaching themselves to the paper toweling. My Research:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While researching this experiment I realized that I did several things wrong. First, the beans should have initially gone into a plastic bag, this would keep in the moisture, helping the paper toweling to keep the water. Second, the beans should have been placed side by side and laid flat.

Not All is Cheerless, Dark and Deadly in Shakespeares King Lear Essay

Not All is Cheerless, Dark and Deadly in King Lear      Ã‚  Ã‚   'All's Cheerless, Dark and Deadly' Are Kent's Words a Fair Summary of The Tragedy of King Lear? Samuel Johnson asserted that the blinding of Gloucester was an 'act too horrid to be endured in a dramatic exhibition', and that he was 'too shocked' by the death of Cordelia to read the play again until he was given the task of editing it.1 Nor was Dr Johnson alone in finding himself unable to stomach the violence and apparent injustices that unfold in King Lear. The 18th century certainly found the play 'all cheerless' and preferred Nahum Tate's 1681 watered-down version of Shakespeare's original.    King Lear is a dark play, with the near triumph of the malcontent Edmund, the intense sufferings of Lear and Gloucester, and the seeming lack of justice at the piece's conclusion. Shakespeare locates his tragedy in an extreme and entropic universe that makes his audience uncomfortable, and indeed is supposed to. On its own, the sheer violence of Act III.7 bears witness to Kent's nihilistic utterance at the plays close. However, Lear's universe, as I have just stated, is one of extremes, and not merely negative ones. As A.C. Bradley notes:    There is in the world of King Lear the same abundance of extreme good as of extreme evil. It generates in profusion self-less devotion and unconquerable love.2    The play contains a cluster of characters that are unequivocally good. Kent, for instance, is a paradigm of devotion. In Act I.I he is publicly insulted and humiliated. In spite of Lear's threats, Kent remains determined to serve his master, even braving the storm to be near him. Cordelia too, is traduced and punished by Lear, and yet she is the... ... condemned to short lives - 'nor live so long'. Edgar's closing words are disturbingly equivocal. They allude to the antithesis constantly at work in the play   a mixture of hope and despair. Perhaps the couplet is ultimately nihilistic, and the play as a whole equally so. Redemption remains unattained. However, while I would agree that Kent's words that 'All's cheerless, dark and deadly' may be the overriding message of the tragedy, I do not believe that King Lear can be simply summed up in such a comment. To do such a thing would be to see the drama two-dimensionally   to ignore the world of polarities, of good as well as evil, which Shakespeare creates in which to hold his play.       Works Cited: 1 Johnson as Critic, ed. John Wain, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1973, pp. 216-217 2 A. C. Bradley, Shakespearian Tragedy, Macmillan 1908, pp. 304 -305    Not All is Cheerless, Dark and Deadly in Shakespeare's King Lear Essay Not All is Cheerless, Dark and Deadly in King Lear      Ã‚  Ã‚   'All's Cheerless, Dark and Deadly' Are Kent's Words a Fair Summary of The Tragedy of King Lear? Samuel Johnson asserted that the blinding of Gloucester was an 'act too horrid to be endured in a dramatic exhibition', and that he was 'too shocked' by the death of Cordelia to read the play again until he was given the task of editing it.1 Nor was Dr Johnson alone in finding himself unable to stomach the violence and apparent injustices that unfold in King Lear. The 18th century certainly found the play 'all cheerless' and preferred Nahum Tate's 1681 watered-down version of Shakespeare's original.    King Lear is a dark play, with the near triumph of the malcontent Edmund, the intense sufferings of Lear and Gloucester, and the seeming lack of justice at the piece's conclusion. Shakespeare locates his tragedy in an extreme and entropic universe that makes his audience uncomfortable, and indeed is supposed to. On its own, the sheer violence of Act III.7 bears witness to Kent's nihilistic utterance at the plays close. However, Lear's universe, as I have just stated, is one of extremes, and not merely negative ones. As A.C. Bradley notes:    There is in the world of King Lear the same abundance of extreme good as of extreme evil. It generates in profusion self-less devotion and unconquerable love.2    The play contains a cluster of characters that are unequivocally good. Kent, for instance, is a paradigm of devotion. In Act I.I he is publicly insulted and humiliated. In spite of Lear's threats, Kent remains determined to serve his master, even braving the storm to be near him. Cordelia too, is traduced and punished by Lear, and yet she is the... ... condemned to short lives - 'nor live so long'. Edgar's closing words are disturbingly equivocal. They allude to the antithesis constantly at work in the play   a mixture of hope and despair. Perhaps the couplet is ultimately nihilistic, and the play as a whole equally so. Redemption remains unattained. However, while I would agree that Kent's words that 'All's cheerless, dark and deadly' may be the overriding message of the tragedy, I do not believe that King Lear can be simply summed up in such a comment. To do such a thing would be to see the drama two-dimensionally   to ignore the world of polarities, of good as well as evil, which Shakespeare creates in which to hold his play.       Works Cited: 1 Johnson as Critic, ed. John Wain, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1973, pp. 216-217 2 A. C. Bradley, Shakespearian Tragedy, Macmillan 1908, pp. 304 -305   

Effects on plastic surgery

Purpose: The audience will know about the effects of the plastic surgery. Thesis: Effects on plastic surgery. Introduction A. Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the â€Å"correction† or restoration of form and function. B. There are many types of plastic surgery such as cosmetic surgery, reconstructive surgery, hand surgery, microsurgery, and the treatment of burns. C. However, plastic surgery can have positive and negative effects. Transition: Let me start explaining about the positive effects on plastic surgery. Body 1. Re-contouring A.This is the process of plastic surgery that includes procedures such a liposuction, which involves the removal of fat from the body. B. Not only does this make you look more attractive, but controlled liposuction can remove safe amounts of fat from your body to aid in overall health. Transition: Another positive effect of plastic surgery is†¦ 2. Confidence A. This is a big benefit that comes along with plastic surgery. B. Confidence makes people psychologically fit and happy, and generally improves their style of life. Transition: Now let me turn to the third effects which are†¦ . Wounds & Accidents A. Many people go to a plastic surgeon because they have been in some kind of accident. B. In order to reduce major scarring, plastic surgery is required Transition: Lastly, the positive effects on plastic surgery are†¦ 4. Age-Deflance A. The affects of aging can be prolonged or reversed with plastic surgery. B. Wrinkles can be removed as well as age spots and sagging skin. C. When kept toa minimum, plastic surgery can take years off your apparent age. Transition: Now, let me proceed to the negative effects on plastic surgery. 1.Cost A. When people decide to undergo cosmetic surgery, they often consult a rofessional who gives them an estimate as to the cost. B. This estimate isn't a binding contract, but a guess as to how much the procedure will cost. C. The actual cost can rise dramatically over this estimate, leading patients to suffer pressure to pay the entire amount even if they cannot afford it. D. When the cost is spread out over a payment plan, it can cause more stress. Transition: Now, let's turn to a second negative effects on plastic surgery†¦ 2. Emotional Effects A.The emotional effects on patients' well-being are one of the negative effects of osmetic surgery. B. While they go under the knife to fix a problem they see on the outside, this sometimes only serves as a bandage on the larger problem. C. After the surgery they continue to sutter trom a body image distortion . D. A small number ot patients continue to go back to the surgeon to fix other problems they see instead of trying to find a real solution to the problem. Conclusion Before I end my speech, I would like to review that†¦ Plastic surgery can have either negative or positive effects. We should know how to evaluate it wisely.

Star Light, Star Bright Won’t You Find Me a Home Tonight?

There I lay looking up at the incandescent glow of the moon and stars, millions of them even billions just looking over me; each one with the beauty of a diamond, glistening so brightly. I truly loved the sky, the endless beauty it held, it made me feel safe. Sometimes I wondered if by some mysterious magical way the stars knew my thoughts and knew where I truly belonged. I hoped that when I looked up into the sky, that answers would seem clearer. All I’ve ever wanted was freedom, the feeling of being alive and the feeling of belonging somewhere real. That’s when I finally decided that the only way for me to be free was to run. When a door is closed, another door will open at the right time, this was my time. Why had I felt like this for so long? If people knew how I really felt would they of treated me differently? No, probably not. It was fact that I was the invisible girl in school; I was even invisible to my own family, I was doing them a favor in leaving. Besides, everything happens for a reason and nothing really lasts forever, so why hold on? Was I holding on because I wanted to fight for something, something that seemed like it mattered? But that something was what was holding me back. So I let that feeling go, I had to be free. I quickly got up and jogged to my house to pack. All my thoughts rushing around in my head, I was excited. I couldn’t wait to start on this adventure! Before I knew it I was standing in my room looking through my belongings and finding what I should take. Packing was never a strong suite of mine, but I’d have to say that this time I did a pretty good job. First my betty boop towel I’d bought myself on my 17th birthday, then my pyjamas that were old and fading, I then just shoved whatever type of clothes I had. My Country Road bag wasn’t very big, but it managed to fit the essentials. I then had to sneak past my parents which I knew wasn’t going to be very hard, they hadn’t even noticed I had walked in. They both just sat there perched on the couch watching some ridiculous reality TV show. I wanted to say bye, I wanted them to care; but all I could do was blame them for making me lean towards my decision in leaving anyway. I stood outside my house with my black Country Road bag pressed against my right shoulder; I was ready for this, ready to start feeling alive, to be able to feel like I belonged somewhere and to feel free from all the problems I carried. I looked back at my house; it looked old and even tired. It’s white paint now a creamy brown, and the mailbox merely held on by one screw, the grass so long that it was almost impossible to walk in. As I stared back at it, all I could see were memories from the past 18 years of me feeling trapped and alone. I don’t think I was ever truly happy here, this was never home to me, it was simply a house I was forced to live in, I had no trouble with saying goodbye. I started walking; I didn’t know where my final destination was, all I knew was that there was so much more out there. It wasn’t like I didn’t have any money either, I did I had a lot of it. My fear at that point was whether that money would stay with me, could someone sense my fear and protection of my pocket? I hope not, because what was in my pocket was my ticket out of here, and I needed every cent. Before I knew it I was standing in front of the airport, it was like I’d never seen it before, gleaming over me like a gate, a path towards my next move- the next chapter in my life. I suddenly felt a cold sweat running through my body. â€Å"One way to Chicago please†. What on earth was I doing? And why had a chosen Chicago? I stood there for a few seconds, just stunned at myself, what on earth had I gotten myself into? I took a deep breath and swallowed hard and thanked the lady who was handing me my ticket. It was only then I realised that I was leaving, leaving the only place I ever really knew. There I sat alone in the cold air conditioned room, waiting for my flight. I looked around the room and everyone seemed so happy, kids running around like nothing in the world mattered, young couples asleep on each other’s shoulders. Would I ever be as happy as these people? Why was my life so hard to turn good? Or was it me with the flaw? I realised that asking questions lead me nowhere except to a throbbing head from trying to find answers, answers that probably didn’t even exist. â€Å"Flight 239 to Chicago, please get your boarding passes out and wait in line to board the plane. Thankyou† I guess this was it, no regrets, no fears. Just me and whatever life brings. I stood there shaking as I handed the lady my ticket. I tried pulling myself together by giving her a reassuring yet trembling smile. I was terrified as thoughts ran through my head, all of a sudden I suddenly then felt bad that I never said goodbye to my family. Sure, my family never noticed me but maybe if I gave them a chance to stop me we would’ve been more caring and loving towards each other? I boarded the plane and sat done in my seat, luckily enough I had gotten one by the window. Trying to calm myself down I closed my eyes and remembered all the good and fun times I had at home when life and my family were good and when there were good times and memories. I opened my eyes, only to realise that I had fallen asleep, but something didn’t feel right. I felt cold and light, my body was tingling all over but most importantly I felt relieved. I’d never felt like this before, was I dreaming? No, I couldn’t have been. Everything looked so real, everyone was still on the plane; some asleep some looking scared and worried. I looked outside my window and saw the most gorgeous thing I had ever seen in my life- clouds and we were in them. It was then I realised where I was. I was floating, I was happy, I was unstoppable, I was dead but most importantly, I was home. Was it normal to feel so relieved and alive? Wasn’t that kind of ironic? To finally feel like you matter when you really have no matter at all. I made a choice to get on that plane and I wouldn’t look back and regret it. It’s funny how life is so ironic, but you take what you get and if you don’t like it? Well you learn to adjust; besides everything dies happen for a reason. COMMENTARY In my first assignment some comments made were that I needed to take more care with my wording and punctuation. Throughout my creative writing piece I tried to work on my punctuation by re-reading it and getting others to read and check it for me. My use of syntax was a major factor in my first assignment, I tried to improve this by also making others to read it and seeing if the way I structured my sentences made sense. I also read it out aloud to see if it sounded odd in some areas, this helped me a lot in this assignment. Another comment I was given on my previous assignment was that I wasn’t consistent with my format and my sentences weren’t tightened up. With my creative writing piece I tried to stick to my first person perspective. I wrote my creative writing piece as though I were retelling a story as it was happening, I let the readers get inside the girls head and see what she was thinking and feeling. I thought that this might add a bit of emotion and sympathy throughout my story. In my first assignment I was also told that I wrote a little to much considering the genre, with my creative writing piece I made sure to stick to the word count and that the story didn’t drag on for pages and pages. Some elements that I need to improve in my writing are still punctuation and syntax, these two areas are always a little confusing to me as I don’t tend to know when to put a comma or full stop. I’ll try and improve this by writing more and more, and asking others to read what I’ve written and see if they understand the points I’m trying to get across. My main strength in this assignment was that it was a creative writing piece. I had a broad imagination and can muster up many unusual scenarios from different things. I think in unrealistic ways so I find writing a creative writing piece somewhat fun and interesting. With ‘Star Light, Star Bright Won’t You Find Me A Home Tonight? ’ I made the girl die as that was what she truely needed in the end. She’s a confused young girl who was holding herself back from seeing the world and was too scared to start living her own life. I thought that her death would be ironic to the whole story and plot, as her death was her freedom the one thing she had been waiting for to feel alive. There’s more to living than being alive. I named my creative writing piece ‘Star Light, Star Bright Won’t You Find Me A Home Tonight? ’ referencing to the beginning of the story about her love for the stars and sky, I incorporated that with her desire to finally find a ‘home’, somewhere where she belonged.

A cultural analysis of Greece Essay

This paper presents a cultural analysis of Greece and how this translates into the country’s business practices. The importance in such profiling can be seen in the emergence of many cross-cultural studies that aim to come up with an effective theoretical framework that guides international companies to relate to other companies from different countries with different cultures. One of these frameworks was formulated by a series of national studies conducted by Hofstede in which the author identified cultures according to five indices. Basically, Hofstede’s approach presents that culture can be described as a set of characteristics ingrained or â€Å"wired-in† to the brains and the psyche of the members of a particular society thereby affecting behavior. With such understanding according to national cultures, cross-cultural managers can therefore make use of this information that can serve as a basis for cross-cultural and international initiatives of the organization. In application, this paper examines Greece according to Hofstede’s five dimensions and how this translates into the country’s business culture; this paper then compares this with the business culture in the United States. The conclusion then leads to the identification of the different points of compatibility and conflict, and the areas which the Greek and the American business cultures can reconcile for a more successful business communications and relations. Global Business Cultural Analysis: Greece I. Section One Introduction Communication plays an important role in any cross-cultural relations, and in the aspect of business, communication in the international context spans beyond language and includes protocols, perceptions and other elements pertaining to business practices. According to Hendon, Hendon and Herbig (1996), the challenge is that although two or more parties are trying to reach an agreement aiming to serve each other’s interests, cultural factors — whether in terms practice and perception — significantly contribute to the processing of information that would lead to either the success or the failure of the negotiations or the management strategy should international companies decide to operate together. As Hendon, et al. (1996) pointed out, cultural aspects influence managers, thereby affecting their behavior; this also reflects at the organizational level thereby the degree of the embodiment of the national culture of these companies is constantly present. Cross-cultural issues have become crucial given that more and more businesses are taking advantage of the opportunities brought by globalization. One of the issues that emerged from this is that there was an identified potential point of conflict based on the precept that the differences in the values of the different groups may lead to problems, thereby jeopardizing the advantages offered by the global and international markets (Fontaine, 2007). As a result, international organizations have invested in cross-cultural management initiatives in order to create the most effective approach should the company reaches the point of venturing into foreign operations or cross-cultural negotiations. In addition to the organizational dimension in cross-cultural issues are the elements that can further influence the operations of any business. Kanungo (2006) identified that globalization ha also created a significant impact to the consumers’ behavior now that they are aware of the strong global forces; technological innovation; and the environment. These elements do not only represent modifications in terms of the markets and the societies global businesses cater to but also the potential overall shift and cultural perceptions that resonate at various levels, from the individual to the organizational behaviors. Which is why given that globalization has become a phenomenon that represents present-day reality (Steger, 2003), even companies who are not â€Å"internationalized† are still subject to many global forces such as buying or selling their supplies from sources overseas. It is also possible that the company may have to work with a foreign employee or a worker from a different cultural background. In any case, the instances of a â€Å"cultural add-on† has become more and more regular (Berger, 1998, 124). However, it is important to look at the many theoretical foundations on cross-cultural studies, especially as to how national cultures are perceived as an important influence in organizational and management behavior. There is one distinctive studies that can be considered to have created a substantial buzz in the entire context of cross-cultural studies: Geert Hofstede’s four dimensions, which would later add another component. Hofstede’s studies gave way to conclusions that would help in the different approaches towards understanding different cultures, and how these can also create effects at individual, organizational and national levels. Hofstede’s Four Dimensions One of the most commonly used model in cross-cultural studies is Hofstede’s four dimensions; these dimensions emerged from Hofstede’s studies on 40 different countries in which he identified four major prevailing factors in terms of the cultural aspect (Bjerke, 1998): ? Power distance ? Uncertainty avoidance ? Individualism/collectivism ? Masculinity/femininity In order to understand these four dimensions, it is important to look at how Hofstede views culture and how this plays a role in global business applications. Hofstede is renowned for his research on differences among countries in terms of their culture and how these differences are essential. Hofstede operated based on the concept that comparisons among cultures can play a significant role in the making the right decisions based on the acquired information about other cultures; this is deemed helpful when it comes to making negotiations and even designing business strategies should companies decide to enter a foreign market. Hence, Hofstede’s works have been founded on how the differences of these cultures are influential to behavior across may social levels. Hofstede’s dimensions tend to generalize groups, hence, for instance, multicultural nations are taken as a singular culture (Fontaine, 2007). The four dimensions Hofstede formulated are the main indicators that can identify the points of similarities and differences across these many national cultures (Vinken, Soeters & Ester, 2004). His studies on many national cultures have therefore served as a reference point among many cross-cultural managers. Hofstede’s approach is known to adapt a more scientific approach as he argued that cultures can be â€Å"measured† and analyzed (Hofstede, Neuijen, Ohavy & Sanders, 1990); such can be seen not only in his database which analyzed countries according to their measures in power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, and masculinity/femininity but also in terms of how these factors can impact many organizational tasks such as business negotiations. Culture is therefore an important indicator of behavior and at the same time, it acts as a binding force that defines a group, a society or a region. The four dimensions Hofstede identified are based on how a culture can be also defined according to relations, attitudes and values; in specific contexts, it can be observed that these four dimensions that pertain to Hofstede’s definition of culture — â€Å"the programming of the mind that differentiates one group of another† (as cited in Fontaine, 2007, 125) — presents a predictable framework of characteristics. A fifth dimension was also introduced by Hofstede by including Confucian framework to his dimension, and he identified this as the long term/short term orientation. The long term/short term orientation, a recent addition to Hofstede/s dimension, was founded on the perceptions of time, and how this can affect the behavior of people. This dimension was based on the Confucian orientation with respect to past, present and future, and for Hofstede, this fifth dimension can reflect a society’s perception of time, especially as to how this affects their perseverance and regard for values, and how societies also wish to command respect and gain stability (Jacob, 2005). This orientation is seen as an important component as this can reflect how some people can act as based on their expectations with respect to time, such as, for instance, whether their actions are motivated by long-term causes or their short-term goals. The power distance aspect refers to a culture’s orientation towards authority. This orientation includes how people understand power and how power works in their communities. With this component, power distance serves as an indicator of equality such as whether some cultures tend to be more democratic or practices a great amount of inequality (Hofstede, 2001). Another index identified by Hofstede (2001) is the uncertainty avoidance. Generally, this refers to how society can tolerate uncertainty. This therefore shows how a culture may be more comfortable in a more structured and rational framework because the tolerance of ambiguity is low whereas some societies may tend to live in the uncertainty, hence, their systems do not adhere to strict rules. Individualism/collectivism pertains to how a culture tend to be more individualist and autonomous or the spirit of the collective fills the members of its society (Hofstede, 2001). In the former, there is a greater sense of independence because the individual is encouraged to think for himself or herself. A collectivist culture, its opposite, tends to have a greater degree of influence according to the social or cultural psyche and norm. Although individuals can be said to initially come from defined groups such as families, the degree of cohesion across social levels differs from one culture to the next. Last but not the least, the masculinity/femininity index measures gender roles in a culture, especially as to how each of these genders are positioned in the society. The values among these two genders are among the fundamental elements in any society because one tends to dominate the other, if not, the attempt to equalize roles can be said to be also present in some cultures (Hofstede, 2001). In addition to the aspect of the relevance of power in these roles, this indicator also describes whether the country is â€Å"masculine† or â€Å"feminine†; the former associates the culture as more assertive and competitive, thereby embodying the male characteristics whereas feminine cultures are viewed as caring and more modest. The strength of Hofstede’s approach is that the study and the gathered data have come up with a set of information that generally describes the national cultures thereby demonstrating a general sense how people in a certain country can be expected to behave. The five dimensions have served as an important framework and Hofstede’s model has served many nation-level researches especially as to how the applicability of his collected data can be regarded to be valid at a certain point (Smith, 2006). However, the model is not without any criticisms as this brings the issue on how many dimensions must be used as a means to measure culture (Smith, 2006). Another study conducted by Blodgett, Bakir and Rose (2008) that the model has limitations especially as to its validity among individuals. From this, it can be gathered that applicability of Hofstede’s framework mainly gives a good reference for a cultural overview of nation, but in more specific terms, there is still some debate as to the design of a more effective cross-cultural analysis model. II. Section Two Greek Culture: an Overview Greece can be easily associated with its glory during the antiquity, with the country immersed in a rich culture of intelligence and might, in addition to the production of several works of art and architecture that can be considered to still have an influence in the modern world. Hence, Greece has always had the impression of classicism, especially with the mark left by Hellenism in the world and Greek history transcending fact and has become an interesting subject for literary works. From political thought to mythology, Greek as a culture remains to be an object of fascination, especially as it has founded an important definition where the Western world begins in this Mediterranean archipelago. Culture can be basically defined through customs and traditions, and in Greece, albeit its development into modernity, has maintained a strong grasp for tradition; this tradition is defined by the roles played by religion and paganism in the country. Greece is dominantly Orthodox Christian although some variations of the faith, as determined by paganistic influences, can be seen to be present and also vary from island to island. This is why Greek culture is generally regarded to have a higher degree of mixed beliefs and that Greeks also tend to be superstitious (Buxton, 1999). Early Greek civilization has demonstrated a significant amount of intellect yet at the same time, the society was also driven by its mythological past. Such combination can be seen to present an attempt to balance myth and reason, and in modern Greece, this can be seen to have developed as modern Greek society remains to take pride in its past through the continuous presence of its customs and traditions, yet at the same time, modern Greek culture has demonstrated significant social changes that have take place in the last century. This is discussed by Mouzelis (1978) who mentioned how societal values remain to be dictated by its core values, and these core values, evidently, play a significant role in the definition of a society’s culture. The economy, in the past centuries, has created a significant impact to the social development of any society, and Greece, as it moved on to the modern times, had adapted to these changes. In the social context, Greece had demonstrated the ability to adjust to these new economic demands, and its society, inevitably, has redefined social classes. Its economy also started to redefine itself especially as to how it would define its role in the modern world. All in all, the modernization of Greece has created a degree of impact to its modern culture, but interestingly, Greek culture has strongly maintained what it has always been. As previously mentioned Greek culture has been distinct in terms of the roles religion plays in the lives of the people; this religion fuses the more organized leanings of the Christian Orthodox Church and the more paganistic or mythical practices that many Greeks still practice today. In addition to customs and traditions, Greek culture has maintained its strong identity across many cultural facets, from its art, music, food and wine. The Greek people has demonstrated a strong sense of resilience considering the number of wars they had to endure in the modern times. These wars include its conflict with the Ottomans in which the country fell under rule for a long time, the Balkan Wars, the First World War, and the Greco-Turkish wars. The country also fell under military dictatorship from 1967-1974. With their wounded past, the Greek people had redeveloped a strong national character that had adapted to the realities they faced, especially as Greece’s glory would seem to be stuck more in the past and the modernity seems to have favored more the Western nations (Chilton, Dubin, Edwards, Garvey, Fisher, & Ellingham, 2008). Interestingly, as Greece would struggle to find its place in the modern world, the Greek society and the people had gone through periods of diaspora in order to escape the conflicts at home. Those who were left behind would be stuck in the chaos of the country in which the economy would find a hard time adjusting to the greater powers coming from the western world, more specifically Europe. The Greek people experienced lack of opportunities in addition to poverty, especially as the country would prove to lack in enough economic resourcefulness until recently. Greece, for a significantly portion of the 20th century, was under-developed, but it was not until in the 1980s that the country would start to catch up and become more integrated with the rest of Europe (Chilton, et al. , 2008) There are some interesting factors in Greek culture that can be regarded to have influenced attitudes of its people. One of these concepts is filotimo. Although hard to translate, filotimo generally refers to the Greeks’ love for deep honor that they should possess; this goes well with anther important Greek characteristic of integrity which is about behaving as an upright individual. Although a sense of deep honor, as a translation, does not provide enough interpretation of the concept, filotimo can be considered to refer to a character that is highly desirable, but basically, it can be associated with a sense of self who is intrinsically good (Makedon, 1995). In addition to the concept of filotimo, modern Greece had emerged with additional cultural concepts in terms of character, and these are leventia and palikaria. Leventia refers to a sense of â€Å"manly excellence† thereby emphasizing the importance of having certain male characteristics. Leventia is paired with palikaria which also refers to the same meaning. As pair, possessing or being leventia and/or palikaria is about the ability to survive through hard times, especially if the individual or the family has been subject to a critical amount of duress. Having leventia and palikaria can gain an individual substantial admiration from those around him because of the display of a strong sense of self as seen in courage or proactiveness that addresses the source of any problem (Makedon, 1995). Last but not the least, albeit its painful periods of oppression, the Greek people have a great amount of love towards freedom. The love for liberty has always been a Greek characteristic, as seen from the ancient Greek civilization to the modern Greek society. Many themes in the Greek arts have portrayed the importance of freedom, and evidently, as the cradle of democracy, Greek culture had long wanted to fight oppression and aimed for a more liberal and democratic society in which they get to possess a certain amount of freedom despite the restrictions posed upon them (Makedon, 1995). Generally, these characteristics show how modern Greece have managed an important element of its identity, and that is its Orthodox church; however, despite the practice of orthodoxy, this aspect of â€Å"freedom† is practiced in such a way that the Greek people remains to have an open mind towards its paganistic past. In a way, the Greek culture can be regarded to have managed to lessen the conflict between mythos and logos, and today, the Greek people has been finding ways to make room for the modern and how it fits to its long standing tradition. Greek Business Culture Studies on the Greek business culture has had references to Hofstede’s cultural framework. In terms of the scores of Greece according to Hofstede’s four dimensions, Greece has the following measures in these four indices (Hofstede, 2001): ? Power distance index: 63 ? Individualism: 35 ? Masculinity: 57 ? Uncertainty avoidance index: 112 In terms of Greece’s score in the power distance index, this score shows how its people, according to Hofstede’s framework, demonstrates the emergence of the social classes in Greek society. This is to say that people are aware of the powers that are present in the society and they know their place with respect to that power. The score of the country in this index can be considered to be average, hence, demonstrating that although people do recognize the presence of inequalities in its society, they see the presence of means to get over certain barriers. The median score for this index is 55, and with Greece at 63, the amount of inequality is above average yet not as drastic as compared to other countries. Basically, this shows how hierarchy plays in the society which can be considered as a paradox considering the Greeks’ love for liberty and democracy. In a sense, such score shows how the Greeks have embraced reality and that certain powers have created a strong influence in the country. The next score shows that the country has lower measures of individualism thereby showing that Greece is a highly collective society. This shows how Greeks have a strong regard for family and community, and how individuals are strongly influenced by their environment. Kessapidou and Varsakelis (2002) mentioned that when Greeks enter an organization, there is already the expectation that the Greek employee expects to work for this company for the rest of his or her life, and at the same time, in exchange for this loyalty, they expect that the firm will also look after their family. The next indicator is masculinity, and Greece scored slightly above the global average of 50 (Hofstede, 2001). This is an interesting score as generally, the Greek society has demonstrated the strong male influence in terms of their position in the family and the society. The roles between males and females have been regarded to be also more distinctive, in which case the women know their positions and the limits of their power and influence. The uncertainty avoidance index shows the highest score for Greece, and based on this, there are many rules that prevail in the Greek society. Again, this is an interesting score because this contradicts the Greeks’ love for freedom, but then again, such rules and restrictions may have brought the Greek people to be hungry for more liberty in its societies. The many bounds in Greek society can be seen in its history where the country went through oppression through foreign occupancy and dictatorship. Overall, as employees, Kessapidou and Varsakelis (2002) discussed the characteristics of Greek employees, as follows (273): â€Å"For Greek people, the working culture is based on sense of honour, dignity, loyalty, and sense of duty reflected in the Greek word ‘filotimo’†¦ which is similar to the concept of ‘face’ as reported for China†¦ in these societies, ‘filotimo’ or ‘face’ becomes an asset for organizations. In cases, however, where expectations are not met, the personnel can be alienated†. From the results of Hofstede’s study, Greece can be summarized as â€Å"high power distance, strong uncertainty avoidance, collectivistic and masculine† (Joiner, 2001, 232). This profile, as translated into Greece’s business culture, strongly demonstrates its association with societal values. According to Hofstede (2001), among the four indicators in his cultural model, the most relevant in the aspect of organizational design can be attributed to power distance and uncertainty avoidance which is why these factors are important in assessing the relationship of national cultures and the organization. In the organizational context, the Greek business culture shows a strong sense of hierarchy and the partenalistic relations that exist in Greek companies; this is evident in the high score in the power distance. In further putting this with respect to Hofstede’s description of this dimension, the Greek society as well in Greek organizations, there is the accepted presence of inequalities in terms of the distributio of power. The acceptance in human inequality, interestingly, may not fair well with the Greek fundamentals on democracy but apparently, such cultural characteristic is more of an indicator of a strong sense of respect towards authority (Joiner, 2001). Leadership is therefore emphasized in Greek organizations, and in business, there is much dependence on the company’s leaders when it comes to making decisions. Such cultural factor can then be attributed to the historical development in Greece which, accoding to Psychogios and Szamosi (2007), lived in a society with the centralized Greek political system that highlights the â€Å"powerful state and the large public sector† (8). In terms of the reflection of Greece’s high uncertainty avoidance index, many studies have actually revealed that groups with hih uncertainty avoidance index demonstrate a fear of making decisios, hence, the presence of many rules that can be easily referred to. In Greece, according to studies by Bartholomew (1995), Bourantas, et al. (199), among others (as cited in Joiner, 2001), fear of decision-making has been found among Greek managers and subordinates, hence, much of these activities are left to the upper management. There is indeed the influence of culture in terms of the business’ own practices. Although this may not be true in all cases, the general perception towards Greek businesses reflect how the business culture have its foundations according to its societal values, these values are which influenced by the country’s culture. III. Section Three In Comparison with the US Business Culture Based on Hofstede’s cultural model, Greece scored high in power distance index, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance index, whereas it scored low in individualism. These scores translate to the Greek business culture of centralization, concentrated power, more distinct gender roles, and high reliance on the organizations to take care of the employees’ family. Greek employees are also found to possess the characteristics of loyalty, integrity and dignity, as guided by the concept of filotimo. In comparing this to the American culture, the contrasts can be immediately seen the differences in the scores Hofstede gave the United States (Hofstede, 2001). The US scored high in individualism, low in power distance index, uncertainty avoidance index, and long term orientation, whereas in terms of masculinity, the US scored above average. The similarities can be therefore seen in the masculinity aspect in which both shows that gender roles remain to be differentiated in the American business culture. However, the similarities end there. Based on the scores, the American culture can be described as highly individualistic, with a greater sense of equality and fewer rules thereby showing greater tolerance in new ideas and beliefs. Basically, the American business culture does embody these characteristics. As the country embraced capitalism and industrialization earlier than Greece, the country’s business culture tends to have a more progressive and liberal approach. There is a strong presence of market economy forces in the United States, and employees are also driven by the economic opportunitis presented to them. One of the important aspects in the American business culture is the presence of competition, and competition is present not only among businesses but among individuals as well (McCraw, 2000). Hence, unlike in Greece where a bulk of the important responsibilities are left to upper management, American organizations and their employees grab these opportunities to hold more responsibilities because it means more opportunities for them to gain better positions. Competitive is therefore a characteristic of the American business culture, and this makes sense according to the results of the scores of the United States according to Hofstede’s model. Although these scores and comparisons between national and business cultures can be regarded to be applicable, it should be noted that the degree of relevance may not be true in all cases. In addition to the challenges as to the validity of Hofstede’s model (Blodgett, et al. , 2008), there is also the case of change that can possibly take place at social and business levels. As discussed in the first section, the applicability is limited as to the relevance of national cultures to business cultures although the fundamentals of a national culture tends to become apparent generally. For instance, the Greek concept of filotimo can be considered to be true even at business levels, and at the same time, the collective spirit can be seen in how many Greek corporations are family-owned. Such is true in the case of the United States in terms of the masculunity scores. Although in some instances gender roles remain defined in the US, in the business world, more and more women have started to hold significant positions across many organizations. Therefore, the relevance of national culture perceptions are only true up to a certain extent but information such as those gathered by Hofstede’s studies serve as useful references to the basics of the social and business dynamics in a country. IV. Section Four Opening an American Business in Greece Based on the scores in Hofstede’s cultural framework, the USA’s national culture distance from Greece is at 3. 47 according to 42 surveyed American firms in the country (Kessapidou & Varsakelis, 2002). With this number, it can be assumed that there will be greater difficulty in the successful establishment of the American company in Greece; however, this may not be the case, and the same is true even if the company has a Greek affiliate. According to Kessapidou and Varsakalis (2002), the strength lies in the Greek’s characteristic to be collective, hence, they tend to comply with the requirements of the company. In addition, the concept of filotimo can drive Greek employees to perform better, thereby filotimo, in a sense, serves as a source of competitiveness, which is compatible with the American busines culture. However, there may be some problems in terms of the management aspect between the American and the Greek managers, or the Greek managers needing to comply with the demands of American management practices. Although there are highly centralized American companies, the delegation of power and responsibility is one of an American’ company’s assets, hence, should decisions need to be made, even some subordinates may step in and show a sense of leadership. This may intimidate Greek managers and employees, especially if the firm would have American employees working in the Greek operations. In addition, the Greek employees may think that the Americans are too aggressive and ambitious in the workplace, thereby possibly creating a rift among the employees. Hence, the recommendation is that prior to the establishment of the American operation in Greece, both sides need to be educated about the cultures they are about to encounter. Since that Greece is going to host the company, the American company needs to comply more with the Greek culture, but since it is the American company that is going to establish the business, the Greek employees and managers also need to