Tobacco Advertising And Its Dangerous Effects On Young People. Tobacco

Tobacco Advertising and its dangerous effects on young people. Tobacco Advertising Makes Young People Their Chief Target Everyday 3,000 children start smoking, most them between the ages of 10 and 18. These kids account for 90 percent of all new smokers. In fact, 90 percent of all adult smokers said that they first lit up as teenagers (Roberts). These statistics clearly show that young people are the prime target in the tobacco wars. The cigarette manufacturers may deny it, but advertising and promotion play a vital part in making these facts a reality (Roberts). The kings of these media ploys are Marlboro and Camel. Marlboro uses a fictional western character called The Marlboro Man, while Camel uses Joe Camel, a high-rolling, swinging cartoon character. Joe Camel, the "smooth character" from R.J. Reynolds, who is shown as a dromedary with complete style has been attacked by many Tobacco-Free Kids organizations as a major influence on the children of America. Dr. Lonnie Br istow, AMA (American Medical Association) spokesman, remarks that "to kids, cute cartoon characters mean that the product is harmless, but cigarettes are not harmless. They have to know that their ads are influencing the youth under 18 to begin smoking"(Breo). Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia report that almost as many 6-year olds recognize Joe Camel as know Mickey Mouse (Breo). That is very shocking information for any parent to hear. The industry denies that these symbols target people under 21 and claim that their advertising goal is simply to promote brand switching and loyalty. Many people disagree with this statement such as Illinois Rep. Richard Durbin who states " If we can reduce the number of young smokers, the tobacco companies will be in trouble and they know it "(Roberts). So what do the tobacco companies do to keep their industry alive and well? Seemingly, they go toward a market that is not fully aware of the harm that cigarettes are capable of. U.S. News recently featured a discussion of the smoking issue with 20 teenagers from suburban Baltimore. The group consisted of ten boys and ten girls between the ages of 15 and 17. When asked why they started smoking, they gave two contradictory reasons: They wanted to be a part of a peer group. They also wanted to reach out and rebel at the same time. " When you party, 75 to 90 percent of the kids are smoking. It makes you feel like you belong," says Devon Harris, a senior at Woodlawn High. Teens also think of smoking as a sign of independence. The more authority figures tell them not to smoke, the more likely they are to pick up the habit (Roberts). The surprising thing is that these kids know that they are being influenced by cigarette advertising. If these kids know that this advertising is manipulating them, why do they still keep smoking? The ads are everywhere, especially in teen-oriented magazines, such as Rolling Stone and Spin. The ads also fuel some of the reasons the chil dren gave for starting. They represent rebellion, independence, acceptance and happiness. These are all the things a young person, between childhood and adolescence, needs and desires. This type of advertising, on top of peer pressure, is the mystery behind the rise in adolescent smoking. How do we stop the future of America from smoking? Here are three things that the experts recommend. Try to convince your children that smoking is not cool. Talk to your kids at a young age about the dangers of smoking. Identify family members who smoke and ask them to stop (Thomas). Children are the most valuable commodity we are given in life. Let's try to educate them while they're young to be independent thinkers and to not be swayed by the tobacco companies who are trying to take advantage of their mind and body. Works Cited "Bill Clinton vs. Joe Camel." U.S. News Online. 27 Oct. 1996. "Selling Tobacco to Kids." America. 17 Feb. 1996: 3. Infotrac. Online. 27 Oct. 1996. Roberts, Steven. " Teens on tobacco; kids smoke for reasons all their own." U.S. News 18 Apr. 1996: 38. Infotrac. Online.

Loath and Loathe

Loath and Loathe Loath and Loathe Loath and Loathe By Maeve Maddox Paul Russell writes: I am loath to admit, or maybe loathe to admit, that I always thought the correct expression was â€Å"loathed to admit† But having Googled, I find the â€Å"loath† version scores about 1.1m pages,†loathe† around 55,000 with â€Å"loathed† in a lowly last place at 32,000. Please can you tell me which is correct, although I suspect Google has already answered my question. The forms loath, loathe, and loathed are not interchangeable. The word loath is an adjective. It’s from Old English laà ° which meant â€Å"hostile, repulsive.† It’s related to German Leid (sorrow) and French laid (ugly). Its most frequent modern usage is in the expression â€Å"to be loath to do something,† in which the meaning is not much stronger than â€Å"reluctant.† Ex. I am loath to admit my mistake. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath tells the story of the â€Å"loathly lady.† A young man must choose between an ugly (loathly) bride who will be faithful, and a beautiful one who will not be. The word loathe is a verb. It’s from Old English laà °ian which had the meaning â€Å"to hate, to be disgusted with.† The modern meaning is about the same: â€Å"to feel strong aversion for; have extreme disgust at.† The form loathed is the participle form. Ex. The child loathed the cruel teacher. A variant spelling of the adjective loath is loth. The th in the adjective has the unvoiced sound heard in thin. The verb loathe (despite the tutor’s note at Answers.com) has a different pronunciation. The th in loathe has the voiced sound heard in this. The silent final e is what signals the difference in pronunciation. In looking for examples on the web I came across the form â€Å"loather.† The Kingdom of Loathers is an online game. The Loathers is a music group. A blogger criticizing the ACLU indicated that the letters must stand for American Christian Loathers Union. I couldn’t find any indication of how the word â€Å"loather† in these examples is pronounced. If the â€Å"loather† is so called because of feelings of reluctance, I should think that the pronunciation is [lÃ… th-É™r] with unvoiced th. If the â€Å"loather† is so called because of feelings of intense dislike of something (as is presumably the case in the ACLU reference), then it would be pronounced with a voiced th: [lÃ… TH-É™r]. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Farther vs. FurtherList of 50 Great Word Games for Kids and AdultsPeople vs. Persons

Answer q Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Answer q - Research Paper Example The current managers did not seem to realize there was a current problem with theft. When she mentioned it to another student employee, he just shrugged it off. Should she tell on the others and risk being fired or should she wait it out until she was a manager and take care of it herself? Some of the strengths of the company are that they are a student run business on campus that offers convenience for food for them. The weaknesses are that they put other students in charge of business and they sometimes do not have training and since they are around peers, they are not seen as authority figures. Opportunities are that students can obtain management experience while in college so they might have better chances for jobs after graduation. They are in a hands-on learning situation. The threats of the company are that some authorities are not right there so cannot be looked to for help and the main managers are oblivious to the issue. As a consultant, in order to make the business more profitable, would be to hire one full time manager who is not a student. Let there be a few student managers that are part-time. All employees should have to follow a code of conduct and they would be let go if they did not follow it. People who notice problems should be rewarded and encouraged to report them to upper staff

Fashion Illustrations in France during the 17th & 18th Century Essay

Fashion Illustrations in France during the 17th & 18th Century - Essay Example The essay "Fashion Illustrations in France during the 17th & 18th Century" talks about French fashion illustrations in the 17th & 18th Century. The most famous fashion style in Europe during this time encompassed the Baroque style, which arrived late in France than any other part of Europe. During the 17th and 18th century, France witnessed a significant development in the fashion styles. Various styles of fashion emerged during this period and gained prominence all over France. This paper will discuss the fashion illustrations in France during the 17th and 18th Century. More specifically, the paper will discuss how the fashion illustrations emerged and developed in France during this period. In the 17th Century, France was under the rule of Louis XIV, the Sun King; during this period, French fashion gained prominence as the leading fashion in almost the whole of Europe. This resulted from the fact that France had developed into a significant cultural as well as political power. As s uch, the fashion illustrations from France became an absolutistic regime. Based on the absolutistic ideal, French fashion became rigid from 1660 because of the strong and strict etiquette, which characterised the fashion illustrations. By the year 1670, French fashion illustrations spread all over Europe to the extent that royal fashion of France dictated the fashion illustrations in many parts of Europe. This made European rulers imitate the powerful Sun King and they lost diversities and national differences in fashion.

Online Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Online Marketing - Essay Example One of the major companies that are currently practising online marketing and doing perfectly in the business is the coca cola company for soft and non-alcoholic drinks (Blum, Sandholm, & Zinkevich, 2002). Coca Cola Company is based in Atlanta, Georgia in United States under the management of Muhtar Kent. The company manufactures, retails, and markets non-alcoholic drinks all over the world. The company was launched by Griggs Candler in 1892 and has been in the business since then making tremendous steps and achieving great success (Hartogh, 2007). Coca Cola Company has been very successful in the market due to its quality drinks that differentiate its products from those produced by the competitors. The company’s great success is not only attributed to quality products but also to recent advertisement techniques such as online marketing and other forms of advertisements such as social media. The company’s high market penetration can be attributed to its ability to respond to customers taste and preferences depending on their geographic area. The company serves and distributes its drinks to over 200 countries all over the world currently. It has its headquarters in every country where bottling and distribution strategies take place (Ba, Whinston, & Zhang, 2003). Coca Cola being a giant company in the field of beverages has taken many steps in the business expansion. The best strategic decision taken by the business is online marketing. The company launched internet websites many years ago (Tian, 2006). Website plays a major role in the field of marketing by improving the relationship with the customers and better customer services. The company is currently running its website that can be accessed by using www.coca-cola.com. Apart from this website the company has several other websites depending on the country of interest. A website fulfils many purposes for an organisation. A website design serves as a

The Impact Of Education

The Impact Of Education Every year the Mauritian Government devotes an increasingly large share of its budget to the development of the education sector. The reason for such an increase in government investment in education lies in the belief that education has a direct impact on the economic growth of the country. In most developing countries, like Mauritius for example, education is regarded as a powerful instrument for reducing poverty and removing social and income inequalities, improving economic growth and standards of living, and helping the country to reinforce its autonomy. Appiah and McMahon (2002), Burneth et al. (1995) and others suggest that education also has some positive indirect effects such as increasing longevity, improving democratization and political stability, and reducing poverty and crimes. Education is considered as an investment in human capital. Human capital can be described as the knowledge, abilities and skills of an individual, acquired through education, training and experience, which help the latter to be more productive and thus improve his potential income earning. Ismael (1998), Becker (1964) and Mincer (1974) have emphasized on the fact that, by investing in human beings, we will gain from some forms of benefits in the future. However, Blankneau and Simpson (2004) find no clear evidence on the link between government spending on education and economic growth. Human capital is one of the most important components of sustainable economic development of a country as illustrated by Lucas (1988) and Romer (1990) in their new growth literature. The expanded neoclassical growth model developed by Mankiw, Romer and Weil (MRW) (1992) and the endogenous growth models developed by Lucas (1988), Romer (1990), Barro (1990) and others have only recently stressed on the importance of human capital in growth theories. Even though human capital incorporates health, experience, skills, education and other social factors, in this paper we will concentrate only on the role of education and its effects on the economic development of Mauritius. One problem that arises is when dealing with the measurement of human capital. In fact, there is no agreed definition of which proxy should be used to represent human capital. Generally, the average number of years of schooling has long been seen as a convenient proxy. Some researchers, for example, Mankiw et al. (1992) use secondary enrollment as proxy for education and Barro (1998) uses enrollment in different levels of education, i.e. primary, secondary and tertiary, and also enrollment by gender as proxies. In our study we will be using the average number of years of different schooling levels as proxies for education. Petrakis and Stamatakis (2002) have stressed on the fact that each different level of education has different impact on growth. For example, they find that the effect of primary and secondary education on the economic growth of developing countries is more significant than that of tertiary education, and for developed countries it is the reverse situation that takes place. Since it improves human capital, we could say that education does affect economic growth predominantly, but actually, the impact of education on the economic development is quite ambiguous. There were countless debates over the years by researchers over whether education has a positive, negative or no relationship at all with the economic growth of a country. Barro (1991) finds that education has a positive and significant impact on economic growth. He observes that any rise in enrollment rate, raises GDP too. De Meulmester and Rochet (1995) provide evidence that this relationship may not always be true. Devarajan et al. (1996) find that education has a negative impact on economic growth for some developing countries. They deduce that developing countries are not productive at the margin because these countries do not fairly allocate their public capital expenditure and this explains the opposing relationship between education and economic growth. Some other researchers, such as Hanu shek and Woessmann (2007), find that it is in fact the quality of education that promotes economic development and not the quantity of schooling or schooling attainment. They observe that the skills of the population directly affect the distribution of income and economic growth. The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of education on the economic growth of Mauritius. 2.1 Effects of Education Education is a never ending process and as said in a famous diction, Education starts from the womb and ends in the tomb. Education benefits the society by helping to increase economic growth, reducing poverty, reducing crimes, increasing employment etc and also helps the individual to earn higher income and therefore improves the latters living standard. The figure below gives a rà ©sumà © of the effects of education at the micro and macro levels. Source: Michaelowa, Katharina. (2000) Returns to Education in Low Income Countries: Evidence for Africa. The above diagram shows the micro and macro effects of education. There are irrefutable evidences that connect education to economic growth and education in form of human capital boosting productivity. Education is in fact productivity-enhancing. It is said that a person without basic literacy and numeracy skills have many difficulties in completing basic tasks of everyday life, which therefore shows the importance of education. Education affects the growth of the economy in various ways. We here discuss the direct effects of education. Education is said to be connected to the notion of empowerment. Individuals with a certain level of higher education not only have good job with interesting wages but also augment productivity of the economy. Some studies have shown that GDP per capita rises by 1 to 3 percentage points following a 1 percentage point increase in school enrollment rates. Therefore, education is said to increase individuals wages along with the augmentation of productivity and finally GDP per capita. Here we discuss indirect effects of education. According to Glewwe (1999), Schultz (1993), Hobcraft (1993), and Thomas, Strauss and Henriques (1991) mothers schooling have indirect positive effects on the economy. It is said that an additional year of mothers schooling will induce the child to be in a better health and encourage them to learn which will eventually increase their chances to be a productive person in the future and affect the economy positively. Furthermore, educated individuals are more likely to be aware about family planning and this will ultimately reduce childbirth. This results in families having more or less 1 to 2 children, that is, a smaller family where more time is dedicated to the childrens education. This attention in return motivates the children to be more motivated at school and have better results. These children are thus encouraged to pursue their education to higher levels. Moreover, educated workers are more likely to adapt to new technology and new working techniques easier than illiterate workers. It is also said that an educated workforce is more productive than an uneducated workforce, that is, the return of an educated worker is higher compared to that of an uneducated one. Higher returns have a positive impact on the economic growth. Michaelowa (2000) uses the example of an educated farmer who uses new agricultural techniques to produce goods. Through education, the farmer will acquire the knowledge and skills required to use these new agricultural techniques and therefore he will be more productive compared to other farmers who are still using traditional techniques. The other farmers in the neighborhoods will tend to do the same in order to achieve higher profits, so this causes both the farmer and the neighbors to have higher returns and in turn increases GDP per capita. Mincer (1974) says that there is a relationship between education and individual earnings which in turn produce private returns. The Mincerian equation helps to differentiate between the different levels of education and distinguish their effects on the economy. He also claims that an additional year of schooling will lead to higher private returns. 2.2 Theoretical Framework Ramsey (1928), Solow (1956), Swan (1956), Cass (1965) and Koopmans (1965) among others developed the neoclassical model of economic growth. In his model, Solow (1956) claimed that two important factors determined growth, namely the quantity of labor and the capital stock. The neoclassical model assumes diminishing returns to capital and labour independently, and the input-output ratio is determined by exogenous technological factors. This model does not take into account the effects of factors such as human capital, health etc on the economic development. In fact, Schulz (1961) proved that labor and capital did not explain completely the increase in output and Lucas (1988) pointed out that investment in human capital is one of the main determinants of economic development. Moreover, in order to offset the adverse effects of diminishing returns, thus allowing the economy to grow, the neoclassical model suggests that the country must invest heavily in technology. In theory, this is one of the reasons why low-income countries with low ratios of capital to labor are likely to grow faster than rich countries. But empirical results have shown some inconsistencies with this hypothesis as demonstrated by Summers and Heston (1988). Later, Lucas (1988), Romer (1990), Barro (1991) and others developed the endogenous growth models in order to overcome the shortcomings of the neoclassical growth models. In the endogenous growth model, exogenous technological progress does not affect steady growth. This model introduces human capital as an input in the form of effective labor and implies that the accumulation of human capital directly affects labour productivity. The main difference between effective labour and physical labour lies in the fact that the former is calculated by taking into account labour quality such as educational level, training and skills. Both Lucas (1998) and Romer (1990) have used agents to represent the effects of human capital in their models respectively. According to Romer (1990), human capital is the decisive input that generates new products and technology in the Research Development sector and therefore this implies that countries with high levels of human capital stocks will grow faster due to the more rapid development of new products and technology generated by them. Lucas (1988) incorporates human capital in his model and claims that the accumulation of human capital will enhance productivity of other factors and thus will boost economic growth. He also affirms that never-ending increases in human capital will result in never-ending economic growth. In his model, human capital is a measure of abilities and skills used in production by a worker. However, Grossman and Helpman (1994) state that it is some form of knowledge which can eventually cause never-ending growth, not human capital. Schultz (1999) outlines the importance of human capital through education and health in determining economic growth. He insists that education increases both peoples awareness and their investments on health services, and also healthy people tend to be more efficient and therefore more productive. 2.3 Empirical Evidence Barro (1991) finds that education and economic growth are highly correlated. He uses enrollment rate as a proxy for education and per capita GDP as a proxy for economic growth. Data are collected across more than 100 countries during the years 1960 to 1990 and Barro finds that each additional year of enrollment increases per capita GDP. Bils and Klenow (2000) also come across similar results in their research. They find that variation in schooling explains approximately one third of the variation in economic growth. Although Bils and Klenow (2000) provide evidence of the positive relationship between education and economic development, they also claim that more growth could result in more education and not the opposite, i.e. there is a reverse causation effect. Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995) use cross-country data made up of 90 countries over the time span 1965-1985. They employ the AK framework, which displays constant return to capital as it assumes that the other elements (labor and technology) that determine GDP grow proportionately with capital. In other words, each increase in capital increases output correspondingly. Their results indicate strong positive relationship on the long-run between average GDP per capita and the level of educational attainment, terms of trade and life expectancy. However, some researchers claim that the type of regressions performed by Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995) may be subject to reverse causation effect as stated before. For example, a rise in GDP could increase investment in education as the economy develops. Such type of results will have great influence on our research as we want to study the impact of education on the economic growth and not the reverse. Akcabelen (2009) uses the ARDL approach to determine the short-run and long-run effects of different levels of education on Turkeys economic development. Secondary enrollment and tertiary enrollment are used as different proxies for education and this enables us to examine the impact of each level of education on the economic growth. Akcabelen concludes that there is positive correlation between all levels of education and the long-run economic development of Turkey. Loening (2002) uses time-series data from 1951 to 2000 and applies the error-correction methodology to analyze the impact of education on the economic growth of Guatemala. He observes that output per worker increases by 0.16 percent following a 1 percent rise in the average years of schooling. So he agrees on the fact that education does have a positive impact on the overall economic development of the country. Afzal et al. (2010) use time series data from 1970-2009 to analyze the relationship between education, physical capital, inflation, poverty and economic growth in Pakistan. According to their findings, education and physical capital have both a positive and considerable effect on economic growth in the short-run as well as in the long-run. They also find that inflation slows down economic growth in the long-run and poverty has no effect at all on the economic development of Pakistan. Other researchers, such as Kakar et al. (2011), have used time series data for the time span 1980-2009 and apply the Error Correction Model (ECM) and come to the conclusion that education influences Pakistans economic development only in the long-run. They also observe that the quality of education is more important than the quantity of education in achieving economic growth, so the government should increase its investment in education with the aim of enhancing the quality of education further. Since Mauritius is part of Africa, it is also good to see the results of researches conducted in other African countries. Fonkeng and Ntembe (2009) use enrollment and GDP as proxies for education and economic development and they notice that education at higher level, i.e. at tertiary level, is positively correlated with economic growth of Cameroon. Musila and Belassi (2004) use government expenditure on education as proxy for education for the years 1965 to 1999. They apply the cointegration and the ECM methods and find that there is positive correlation between average workers expenditure on education and the economic growth of Uganda. Ndiyo (2007) uses time series data from 1970 to 2000 on real education expenditure, real capital formation and GDP, and employs the VAR technique. Based on the results obtained after computations, Ndiyo (2007) demonstrates that education does not have a positive effect on the economic development of Nigeria. He suggests that this result can be explai ned by various factors such as labor market distortions, redundancy, brain drain, industrial disputes and job discontinuities, and government failure etc. Khorasgani (2008) analyses the impact of higher education on Irans economic development for the period 1959 to 2005. The proxies used for human capital are education attainment and research expenditures. Khorasgani (2008) uses the Cobb-Douglas production function together with the ARDL method to determine the short-run and long-run effects of higher education on the economic growth. The study demonstrates that real output increases by 0.314 percent in the long run and 0.198 percent in the short run following a 1 percent increase in higher education attainment. Hence, higher education has a positive and significant impact on the economic development of Iran. .

Amazon.com - A Giant of E-commerce Essay -- Business Management Studie

Amazon.com - A Giant of E-commerce EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Electronic commerce industries that make â€Å"e-commerce† possible are growing at breakneck speed, altering not only how Americans, but also the global marketplace produces, markets, and acquires goods and services. In the e-commerce industry, it is generally agreed that Amazon.com provides one of the best business model â€Å"benchmarks† today. Amazon.com came online in the summer of 1995 with a mission to use the Internet to transform book buying into the fastest, easiest and most enjoyable shopping experience possible. According to their home page Amazon.com â€Å"since the summary of 1995 our customer base and product offerings have grown considerably, millions of people in more than 220 countries have made Amazon.com the leading online shopping site.† When you visit Amazon.com, you can buy books, music, videos, and more--by a click of the mouse. While the company has yet to turn a profit, they have revolutionized e-commerce by making customer interaction and feedback part of their brand image. Amazon’s method is to create a â€Å"community† of consumers. Much of their products speaks for themselves, so the customer feedback provides an objective measuring stick for the integrity of Amazon’s services. Individuals may express their opinions on all available products. Promoting such favorable business environment Amazon hopes to reinforce awareness and confidence in e-commerce customer population, as well as encouraging best practice among competitors. Amazon’s competitive threats come from other e-commerce, Web sites like: Walmart.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Ebay.com, etc. Amazon knows that customers are sensitive to product quality and price, and personal information security so at Amazon.com they can expect to benefit from all three offerings. Amazon.com has a world-class management team led by Mr. J effrey P. Bezos founder and company’s Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. He has exceptional knowledge of the industry. As stated in the home page new release â€Å"On a single Saturday in July, 100 airplanes and 9,000 trucks delivered more than 250,000 copies of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" to customers,† providing the hottest kid’s book faster than local bookstores. This action clearly shows the powers of our suppliers and buyers. Amazon.com is committed to customer satisfaction despit... ...C. (2001). Amazon to cut product offerings, drop layoff clause. Internet News. Retrieved April 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,,4_578031,00.html. Chait, M. (2001). Amazon releases preliminary q4 highlights. Internet News. Retrieved April 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,,4_554311,00.html Cox, B. (2001). Amazon tops in online ad spending. Internet News. Retrieved April 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,,4_534171,00.html Cox, B., Chait, M. (2001). 1,300 layoffs at Amazon. Internet News. Retrieved April 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,,4_580621,00.html Stepankowsky, P. L.(1998). Cyberspace hits the real world. Retrieved April 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.bus.utexas.edu/~west/wwwboard/messages/90.html#followups http://www.ecommerce.treasury.gov.au/ http://www.cordis.lu/esprit/src/ecomcom.htm http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/index.html http://www.ce.cmu.edu/GreenDesign/research.html http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-8139066-0.html?tag=ltnc Amazon.com - A Giant of E-commerce Essay -- Business Management Studie Amazon.com - A Giant of E-commerce EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Electronic commerce industries that make â€Å"e-commerce† possible are growing at breakneck speed, altering not only how Americans, but also the global marketplace produces, markets, and acquires goods and services. In the e-commerce industry, it is generally agreed that Amazon.com provides one of the best business model â€Å"benchmarks† today. Amazon.com came online in the summer of 1995 with a mission to use the Internet to transform book buying into the fastest, easiest and most enjoyable shopping experience possible. According to their home page Amazon.com â€Å"since the summary of 1995 our customer base and product offerings have grown considerably, millions of people in more than 220 countries have made Amazon.com the leading online shopping site.† When you visit Amazon.com, you can buy books, music, videos, and more--by a click of the mouse. While the company has yet to turn a profit, they have revolutionized e-commerce by making customer interaction and feedback part of their brand image. Amazon’s method is to create a â€Å"community† of consumers. Much of their products speaks for themselves, so the customer feedback provides an objective measuring stick for the integrity of Amazon’s services. Individuals may express their opinions on all available products. Promoting such favorable business environment Amazon hopes to reinforce awareness and confidence in e-commerce customer population, as well as encouraging best practice among competitors. Amazon’s competitive threats come from other e-commerce, Web sites like: Walmart.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Ebay.com, etc. Amazon knows that customers are sensitive to product quality and price, and personal information security so at Amazon.com they can expect to benefit from all three offerings. Amazon.com has a world-class management team led by Mr. J effrey P. Bezos founder and company’s Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. He has exceptional knowledge of the industry. As stated in the home page new release â€Å"On a single Saturday in July, 100 airplanes and 9,000 trucks delivered more than 250,000 copies of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" to customers,† providing the hottest kid’s book faster than local bookstores. This action clearly shows the powers of our suppliers and buyers. Amazon.com is committed to customer satisfaction despit... ...C. (2001). Amazon to cut product offerings, drop layoff clause. Internet News. Retrieved April 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,,4_578031,00.html. Chait, M. (2001). Amazon releases preliminary q4 highlights. Internet News. Retrieved April 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,,4_554311,00.html Cox, B. (2001). Amazon tops in online ad spending. Internet News. Retrieved April 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,,4_534171,00.html Cox, B., Chait, M. (2001). 1,300 layoffs at Amazon. Internet News. Retrieved April 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,,4_580621,00.html Stepankowsky, P. L.(1998). Cyberspace hits the real world. Retrieved April 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.bus.utexas.edu/~west/wwwboard/messages/90.html#followups http://www.ecommerce.treasury.gov.au/ http://www.cordis.lu/esprit/src/ecomcom.htm http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/index.html http://www.ce.cmu.edu/GreenDesign/research.html http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-8139066-0.html?tag=ltnc

Idealistic Politics Essay

â€Å"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles,† said Karl Marx, who is considered to be one of the world’s most seminal thinkers. Marx categorized these classes in two broad categories; the bourgeoisie versus the proletariats, the upper class opposed to the lower class and the caste that have access to the factors of production against everybody else who are compelled to sell their labor. In political terms the bourgeois were the â€Å"†¦committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie† (Marx, 20) and in order to reduce any friction, tension or resistance towards their supremacy they then laid down a set of ideals and values for all classes and citizens. The ultimate goal of having a monotonous set of principles was to disintegrate existing ideals and values by instigating the proletariats to fully accept the bourgeois’ set of principles by suspending their own. History, however, has yet to see such an outcome where the bourgeois triumph in instigating such circumstances successfully. What occurs in such circumstances instead is a conflict due to inconsistency that occurs between the dogmas of both classes; whereby the reality based ideals of the proletariats clashes with the idealistic values of the bourgeoisie. These conflicts in turn affect the political ideologies and actions since the politics is the arena where the battle of principles occurs, primarily due to two reasons. The first being that these conflicts will not surface in the first place except in the political arena due to the austere nature and secondly the outcomes will not be accepted unless at a level were they are made public and irreversible. Evidence of these conflicts exists in our texts and films, however in differing contexts. In Antigone, Creon represents the bourgeoisie and Antigone the proletariats; in A Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences the arts and sciences were the corrupting vales instigated by the intellectuals whilst the savage being was the unlearned and naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve proletariat, and finally in Marx’s Communist Manifesto where the distinctions are extremely clear among the two classes. In the course of my paper I wish to examine the strength and weakness of each of these ideal societies and their implications to political ideology and action. The values of Karl Marx’s idealist communist society â€Å"may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property† (Marx, 34). He believed that once private ownership was abolished people would change, and this would finally end the history of all class struggles. Communism to Marx was an extension or a purer form of socialism, whereby the people owned everything and everybody worked for the system, hence no form of personal interests was vested in the system. This assumption was made by placing a gamble on human behavior, probably the most unpredictable factor to place any form of wager on. Marx was assuming that among a whole class of people â€Å"no interests [were] separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole† (Marx, 33). The society that Marx visualized was one where all the citizens desired only the interests of the society by not desiring to satisfy their personal interests. History, however, does not have a basis for pure communism where a group of people have ceased to exist without any possessions and have lived only by the idea; the closest analogy one could give would be of hunter-gatherer societies. These societies, however, existed during the prehistoric times where human attitudes and behaviours were not being constantly reshaped by the changing economic systems in which people find themselves nowadays, which Marx himself mentions as there being no such thing as fixed â€Å"human nature.† Therefore, communism could never work because it goes against human nature. People are naturally more competitive than cooperative. Moreover, the possibility for revolution to occur where the bourgeoisie were to come down in their social status to the level of the proletariats and the proletariats rise to eminence of the bourgeoisies could only occur if human nature were to be dismantled, self memories be wiped out and in other words for the revolution to occur successfully in needs to be self induced. Marx in an indirect manner implies how one’s self worth has decreased with the current system when he discusses the dynamics of wage labour and whether it creates property for the laborer. He states that the system is self-defeating for the laborers, â€Å"which cannot increase except upon condition of begetting a new supply of wage-laborer for fresh exploitation† (Marx 34). If we were to refer back to the analogy hunter-gatherer societies the fruits of one’s labour were immediate; when an individual hunted his reward was immediate and did not wait for his fruits or â€Å"live only in so far as the interest of the ruling class requires it† (Marx. 35). In short man’s worth and dignity has been demoralized and â€Å"every individual has been converted in paid wage laborers†¦and has reduced†¦relations[s] to a mere money relations† (Marx, 21). Individuals were not bounded by the â€Å"social status† hunter-gatherer since everyone shared and everyone knew their worth. The advantage of this system is that it does not create any room for friction to occur because it does not include the idea of individuals desiring to wish to control the environment or vest any personal interests into the system. This can primarily be attributed to the value the system advocates of not wishing to differentiate people under any circumstances; the system does not know race, ethnicity and differences of age and sex no longer [have] any distinctive social validity (Marx, 26), a trait of hunter-gatherer societies, which Marx so dearly desires. These values would in turn affect the political ideologies of a system trying to covert to communism by picking on the one â€Å"essential condition for the existence†¦of the bourgeois class, the formation and the augmentation of capital: the condition for capital is wage labour† (Marx, 32). Therefore, the conflicts that would arise would be those that regarding wage labour and its supply; the bourgeoisie would advocate any action that would enhance the â€Å"competition between laborers† the key behind keeping a continuous supply of wage labour opposed to the proletariat’s immediate aim of cutting off this supply and by doing so ensuring its immediate aim of overthrowing the bourgeois supremacy. Any decline in wage labour would threaten the bourgeoisies’ capital by reducing its turnover, hence weakening their foothold in the marketplace in turn inhibiting their ability to â€Å"constantly revolutionize the instruments of production in order to exist and survive† (Marx, 21). The bourgeoisie quest to seek a continuous wage labour would see a shift in their political ideology; they would seek to manipulate cities, provinces and other nations that are weak cause them to become dependent on them. The consequence of such political centralization would lead to the â€Å"epidemic of overproduction,† whereby the only manner in which the crises can be overcome is â€Å"by the conquest of new markets, and by the and by the more through exploitation of the old ones† (Marx, 25). However, such exploitation of markets can occur only to a certain limit, until other nations impose regulations confiding the system to resort to desperate measures and turmoil, which occurred with China. Chinese products flooded the world market until recently and now they have been rejected entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and do not enjoy the benefits of free trade. Therefore, China have used â€Å"enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces† (Marx, 25) to decrease their output, which has lead to a lot of turmoil inside the country with dogmas of the government – political stability and international recognition – and the working class – subsistence and a better life – clashing against each other further depressing the situation. Like Karl Marx, J.J. Rousseau also painted a picture of ideal society. In his Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences he condemns how societies have succumbed to arts and sciences that have â€Å"molded our behavior, and taught our passions to speak an artificial language† (Rousseau, 6) † with the desire to please one another with performances worthy of their mutual approbation (Rousseau, 4). He believed that individuals were imprisoned in the values and ideals of society that the arts and sciences strengthened, whereby everyone followed and nobody dared to be prompted by their inner selves in order not be seen as outcasts, resulting in man losing his individuality. In a nutshell, Rousseau believed that the arts and sciences had tainted origins and they reinforced our crimes by fostering our desire for comfort by transforming individuals into sugar coated pills, whereby â€Å"jealousy, suspicion, fear, coldness, reserve, hate and fraud lie constantly concealed under the uniform and deceitful veil of politeness† (Rousseau, 7). He in turn pictured a society were he believed man was innately pious was not restrained by society’s decorum therefore abandoning the possibilities o the vices that evolve in modern societies are nonexistent. He understood virtue in terms of bravery, courage and strength in other words he saw it in raw military power. The weaknesses in Rousseau’s painting of the ideal society are the assumptions that are embedded in the question that he was addressing – â€Å"Whether the restoration of the arts and sciences has had the effect of purifying or corrupting morals?† Rousseau has to assume that there has been a revival in the arts as well as assume a relationship between abstract and applied knowledge with morality that being the human behavior and customs a society embraces. Such assumptions lead Rousseau to base his argument on a set of contradictions. He idealized the values of the Persians, Germans and Spartans who had an unusual social structure where there was no study of abstract education, no accumulation of property and military virtues were emphasized. The idealizations of such societies contradicted his resentment for etiquette or what he referred to as the â€Å"veil of politeness†, since there exists no organization whereby more discipline, etiquette or order to our â€Å"rude but natural† morals is required than military organizations. Throughout the discourse the theme of man becoming corrupt once he enters society and losing his individuality because they â€Å"all act the same under the same circumstances alike† (Rousseau, 6) is repeatedly emphasized. This argument in itself is self-defeating because if it is the grouping of people that induces people to conceal themselves and live among uncertainty, Rousseau’s ideal society would truly only function for isolated individuals since such a level of purity could not occur in the â€Å"natural† dynamics of human societies. When individuals interact, the views and ideals of others will indeed affect the way the individual will live his life, since it is part of human nature to conform to the rules and regulations of others, which are a collection of ideals and values that compromise the principles of society. For a society to function in harmony there has to be some common ground whereby all the different members of that society must conform to and must sacrifice some of their individual ideals for the betterment of the society. Rousseau argues that man would not have to sacrifice his own ideals if he was not placed in the blasphemies of modern societies since he assumes humans are sincerely good and everyone would approve of the actions of others. This in itself breaks Rousseau’s argument since there is exists no yardstick to measure good and even if there were to exist such a measure, differences on which â€Å"good† is appropriate would in turn cause conflicts. The simplicity of the society Rousseau describes is its initial strength; the simpler ones life, the palette on which he is to express his bad perspectives becomes less like the â€Å"American savages†¦who live entirely on the products of the chase†¦[and] yoke, indeed, [cannot] be imposed on men who stand in need of nothing† (Rousseau,5). In a society where the needs do not exceed the basic physiological, safety and social needs and are readily satisfied the room for corruption becomes minimal. Therefore, I believe Rousseau’s attack on the arts and sciences is not so much on their origins or sources but more so on how it manages to widen our needs to include self-actualization and self-realization needs, which are needs that are satisfied by luxuries and how we appear in relation to the people surrounding us; a need where the veil and corruption required to have those needs satisfied. Rousseau’s painting of such an ideal society would not require a political system, however if all his assumptions were suspended the political implications would be drastic. In politics rarely is something said literally – and in a society where the members innately believe that everyone is sincerely good, would not be capable of reading between the lines and would end up in turmoil since other nations would manipulate their naivety. Furthermore, in a society where abstract knowledge such a geometry and economics is not taught the politicians will be incapable of drawing upon actions that will be favour their society, since politics is the evil of all sciences and without a good base in its basic terminology that being the abstract sciences one will be incapable of mastering it and using it to his advantage. Speak from their heart†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦offend someone†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.do not take care In Antigone the Greek tragedy, morals, egos, and gender issues were the epics around which principles were based upon. Follow one man Harun Al Rashid†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..Mamluks†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..they use to be all loyal Lower class has less say in the political era in order to stop the formation of proletariats which is so important for the revolution to occur. Political laws that protect private property Enhance competitiveness (p.21) Dependence of poor countries on rich ([.23) Eradicate opposition immediately Strength of prletarits p.28 trade unions p.32 existence remains on capital 1) Basecaus they lay down ideals that seem utopian only to them, they forget 2) Might have noticed that there are more cons than pros Several of our texts paint images of ideal human society. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these imagined societies. How do these imagined ideal societies interact with political ideology and political action. Bibliography Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. New York: Bantam, 1992. Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays Antigone, Oedipus The King, Oedipus at Colonus. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1977. Communism Could Never work Because it goes against human nature. People are naturally more competitive than cooperative. http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/nature.html

Understanding Quantum Optics

Understanding Quantum Optics Quantum optics is a field of quantum physics that deals specifically with the interaction of photons with matter. The study of individual photons is crucial to understanding the behavior of electromagnetic waves as a whole. To clarify exactly what this means, the word quantum refers to the smallest amount of any physical entity that can interact with another entity. Quantum physics, therefore, deals with the smallest particles; these are incredibly tiny sub-atomic particles which behave in unique ways. The word optics, in physics, refers to the study of light. Photons are the smallest particles of light (though it is important to know that photons can behave as both particles and waves). Development of Quantum Optics and the Photon Theory of Light The theory that light moved in discrete bundles (i.e. photons) was presented in Max Plancks 1900 paper on the ultraviolet catastrophe in black body radiation. In 1905, Einstein expanded on these principles in his explanation of the photoelectric effect to define the photon theory of light. Quantum physics developed through the first half of the twentieth century largely through work on our understanding of how photons and matter interact and inter-relate. This was viewed, however, as a study of the matter involved more than the light involved. In 1953, the maser was developed (which emitted coherent microwaves) and in 1960 the laser (which emitted coherent light). As the property of the light involved in these devices became more important, quantum optics began being used as the term for this specialized field of study. Findings Quantum optics (and quantum physics as a whole) views electromagnetic radiation as traveling in the form of both a wave and a particle at the same time. This phenomenon is called wave-particle duality. The most common explanation of how this works is that the photons move in a stream of particles, but the overall behavior of those particles is determined by a quantum wave function that determines the probability of the particles being in a given location at a given time. Taking findings from quantum electrodynamics (QED), it is also possible to interpret quantum optics in the form of the creation and annihilation of photons, described by field operators. This approach allows the use of certain statistical approaches that are useful in analyzing the behavior of light, although whether it represents what is physically taking place is a matter of some debate (although most people view it as just a useful mathematical model). Applications Lasers (and masers) are the most obvious application of quantum optics. Light emitted from these devices is in a coherent state, which means the light closely resembles a classical sinusoidal wave. In this coherent state, the quantum mechanical wave function (and thus the quantum mechanical uncertainty) is distributed equally. The light emitted from a laser is, therefore, highly ordered, and generally limited to essentially the same energy state (and thus the same frequency wavelength).

buy custom American Business Culture essay

buy custom American Business Culture essay The research has focused on determining the similarities in attitudes and beliefs that are culture specific. These attitudes are studied in relation to work related attitudes, consumption patterns and other essential aspects. One significant study in this direction was directed towards international students in the United States. The study focused on the challenges that international students in universities of the USA experience due to the differences in culture. Some of the challenges are also caused by language differences. The researchers had 200 interviews with students from 35 countries in eleven universities. The results showed that the experiences for international students differ from those of local students in varied ways. International students were found to have less informed and lonely lives. The second aspect off their difficulties was in relation to the communication barriers in English one. Factors in relation to cultural identity also result in significant differences in interactions for international and local students. In a study on American business culture, a sample group of 17 international students was taken from two Texas state universities. The sample group consisted of non-United States students enrolled in a managerial communication course at the graduate level. However, the data collection method used in this survey was focused on group discussions. The students were selected from three graduate level courses and were facilitated in the focus group discussions by staff members who were not their instructors. Each focus group or the study consisted of 4-6 students. The focus group was meant to ensure efficiency in expressing their views, which would be difficult to express in writing. Despite the advantages of the research and methods being used, the study included an unusually small sample that would prevent generalization of the findings for all international students. The focus of the study was international students in United States universities, which differs from the focus of the current study. The questions asked were meant to enable the researchers to understand how the classroom experience could be improved for the international students (Hynes, Hill Johnson, 2011). The perceptions of students about business culture may differ from those of working individuals; thus the findings are not applicable at the organizational level. The current study overcomes this weakness by using stratified samples for the study. The respondents were selected from university students taking a course in international business studies and a sample group of employees. A similar study was conducted to identify the most prevalent business practices in India. It was also aimed at determining the top ten most significant characteristics of a productive and effective organization. The first portion of the study was made up of the current management practices in Indian organizations. This relied on the observations and experiences of the respondents. The subjects have to rate a list of fifteen management practices according to their observations of what is typical practice in India. The responses involved in the study were on a five-point scale to ease the decisions for the respondents in answering them. The second part of the study involved the ideal management practices for the respondents. This is the subjective ranking of ten most significant organizational aspects from a list of thirty. The study involved 64 members of the professional, business community from MBA programs. The sample consisted of 59 students while the rest were faculty members fro m two academic institutions in Bangalore. This study involved students and faculty members and was essential in analyzing potential differences between the perceptions of the students and faculty members. The absence of significant differences enabled the sample to be analyzed as a homogenous group (Mathew Kumar, 2005). This study was effective in using both students and faculty in order to determine variations in their perceptions about business culture in India. The ratings on perceptions of the respondents were essential in determining what they think about the business culture of Indian organizations. This study offered significant insight into the management practices of Indian organizations and the ideals that the respondents believe the organizations should portray. However, this study did not analyze the strategies and methods used by the respondents in handling changes in business culture. Aspects such as travelling, and learning a new language are essential in todays business culture due to globalization. This study failed to consider that aspect because it was not focusing on that one. Schwartzs study was focused on determining the significance of the value concept in human relations. The survey was used to test the revised theory of dynamic structures of value relations. The survey was essential in measuring the value priorities of people. Based on the motivational goals defining each of the universal value types, the researchers selected values that would be used to represent each type from among all the values the goal. The survey considered values developed in other studies on other cultures such as Rokeach 1973. The study had eleven value types and 56 values, which were selected as suitable for the survey. For each value type included in the survey, both terminal and instrumental values were selected. In the selection of the values, those having clear motivational goals were given preference. However, other values related to multiple goals were included when they were presumed to be particularly influential in many cultures (Schwartz, 1992). Testing universality of the hypothesized value types and the relations among them required a set of samples that was maximally diverse in terms of language, culture, and geographical region. The samples were from twenty different countries, which consisted of people from 13 languages, atheists, and adherents of 8 leading world religions. Most of the samples in the study were from two occupational groups of schoolteachers and university students. However, four samples consisted of adults with varied occupations. The meanings of values for most part of the survey were assumed similar for samples from the same culture irrespective of age. In each country that was involved in the survey, the researchers had to collect responses from a sample of 200 teachers in grade 4-10. The teachers had to be from type of school system that handles the largest proportion of children in the country. Teachers were selected due to their significance in value socialization because of their role as carriers of culture (Schwartz, 1992). Green and Langeard (1975) conducted a cross-national survey on innovator characteristics and consumer habits. The research instruments used for the different countries were varied in order to ensure collection of adequate and accurate data. The United States sample consisted of 193 women from Dallas and San Antonio that were randomly selected. Self-administered questionnaires were used for data collection in the United States portion of the survey. 226 women from Aix-en-Provence were included in the French sample. However, due to the reluctance of most French people to participate in mail surveys, the questionnaires had to be delivered and collected by research assistants. Stratified sampling was used in selecting the French sample in order to ensure comparability with the United States sample. The objective of the sampling method applied was to ensure that the French sample would bear a relationship to the French population in relation to demographics of education, income, age, and employment status. The relationship between the United States sample and the United States population had to be at par with the relation between the French sample and the French population. The survey requested information on purchase of 8 retail services and 15 grocery related products. A cross sectional method was used to classify innovators from the two samples. The method was based on the number of items purchased by each respondent or the number of items and services used from the list of retail services and grocery products. It was essential in determining the characteristic from the two cultures based on the variations in their spending habits and information gathering methods. The GLOBE study of 62 societies was a survey that utilized respondents from different cultures to study different aspects of culture, leadership, and organizations. The study was interested in understanding culture as it relates to leadership in the major regions of the world. The information was collected from middle level managers from three key industries in the economy: telecommunication services, financial services, and food processing industries. The study was conducted over a period of 10 years from 1993 to 2003 by 170 interviewers from a 735-item questionnaire. The entire sample for the survey was 17,300 mid-level managers from the three selected industries divided into 10 regions. The managers involved in the interview were selected from 951 organizations (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, Gupta, 2004). The team of interviewers led by House included 170 management scholars called country co-investigators or CCIs. The study established how the leadership dimensions of cultura l leadership theory vary in relation to the nine cultural leadership theory cultural dimensions across the 10 regions. A survey on behavior and culture was conducted on De Nederlansche Bank in 2011. The study focused on increasing financial supervision by studying business culture and behavior. The paper reviewed literature on organizational psychology in order to understand the pitfalls in relation to decision-making and leadership that have to be avoided. The review focused on issues such as overconfidence, dominance, and superfluous optimism, which may affect an organization and its employees negatively (Haan Jansen, 2011, p. 6). This is because they reduce the ability of the leader to recognize flaws in his or her leadership or in the team. Hofstede et al, 1990 cited in (Haan Jansen, 2011, p. 13) indicates that in-depth interviews would be efficient in collecting information from ten organizations in Netherlands and Denmark. The team obtained 180 interviews for the study with survey questionnaires used in order to verify the information. The survey was focused on determining business culture in the organizations. The employees surveyed during the study are diverse in relation to their fields of expertise, years of experience, and their having worked internationally. This is essential in providing variety in the responses in order to capture variations based on the job types and other aspects of individual employees. It also captures the strategies used by employees in gathering information about countries where they travel to, as well as what they think is the most essential aspect to learn about their destination countries. This provides information on the ideal information that they would require about a country before visiting and the available sources for the information. This survey also provides essential information on the timing for learning about a country in order to determine the level of dedication and information search. The survey also provides information on the socialization aspect of international business culture such as involving small talk with foreign business partners. This is essential in capturing whether employees are involved in practice and their reasons for involvement or lack of involvement. This shows whether language barriers or perceptions about time management have a significant effect on international business culture for the employees. This survey uses responses from students in graduate degree programs. These students are suitable for the study because most of them have work experience. The survey in this study utilizes primary data from students in international business course and employees from Phoenix Contact, which is an international company headquartered in Blomberg, Germany. The company operates in different fields of engineering and technology such as software development, electronics, and security. It has production sites in different countries such as Brazil, China, and Poland among others. The number of employees being surveyed is 100 people from different divisions of the company. The business students were from an international business studies course from the University of Paderborn in Germany. The students involved in the study were mainly studying economics and two foreign languages either Spanish and English or English and French. The surveys will be analyzed comprehensively in the following section to highlight the differences in the findings for two surveys. The impact of business culture on business is significant and takes place on different levels such as international and domestic ones. This is because of the clash of cultures occurring in business situations and causing inefficiency in international business. A survey on the perceptions of the respondents about the issue of business culture is essential because it sheds light on the operation of the multicultural market place in international business. Studies on business culture focus on communication, and the way to handle cultural conflict in international business. By providing organizations with tolls to communicate effectively across different cultures, organizations increase their success at the international market. By looking at German culture, it is essential to determine the areas of culture that professionals working in other countries may find different. Issues such as time management, interpersonal communication, and socialization have a significant influence on business performance. These issues also differ across organizations and countries due to the effect of national culture on business operations. The impact of business culture on interpersonal relationships in the office is significant with significant differences across countries. This is influenced by the differences in areas such as beliefs, values, norms, manners, and etiquette. These differences can result in misunderstanding within the organization and poor communication. The company survey is essential in enabling the understanding of the different aspects of business culture within the organization as well as other essential aspects of international business such as a foreign language and conducting business over the telepho ne. The survey on company employees provides significant insight on the variations in business based on the career of the individual and years of experience that they have in the company. The perceptions about business culture differ and have a significant effect on individual willingness to travel, how long they are willing to work abroad and their most suitable destinations. Innovations in communication such as teleconferencing have reduced the need to travel for business in many instances, thus reducing the cost of international business. However, understanding of the colleagues business culture is essential in ensuring efficiency in the business operations. The effort required in conducting international business over the phone is essential in the performance of the organization. This section focuses on the questionnaire used in the n company survey. The section is dedicated to providing an understanding of why it is necessary to ask interviewees about their travelling habits and communication skills among other things. The first segment of the questionnaire requires general information such as gender and previous work experience abroad. This section provides the respondent with a chance to highlight the differences experienced in business culture while working abroad. This section of the questionnaire would be essential in determining the variations in perception of business culture. These variations may also differ in relation to the employment type, the area of expertise and the purpose of employment in the international company. Travel is an essential aspect of international business and any individual working in an international company has to be willing to travel. Therefore, the willingness to travel has to be considered in understanding the feelings of employees towards international business opportunities. Communication with business colleagues, clients and corporate visitors indicate interaction and engagement in multicultural settings. Employees have to understand foreign languages effectively in order to communicate with international colleagues or clients. Asking the clients to explain their use of telephone in business conversations indicates understanding of the foreign language. Therefore, asking the individual to indicate his or her level of proficiency in English enables the study in highlighting difficulty in conducting international business. The final section in the questionnaire focuses on business culture. The questions in the section provide an understanding of the issue of business culture in the organization. This is essential in determining whether dealing with international business acts as an incentive for employees to have an interest in other cultures. It also provides information on the perceptions of employees about improvements in international business operations based on the information about business culture. The responses from this section are also essential in showing the employees feelings towards foreign countries. This can be manifested in understanding the countries that respondents are interested in, and when they get the information required about the country. The strategy used in gathering information about the foreign country also offers insight into the interest that an individual has in the country. The effectiveness of the methods differs and it probably has a significant impact on the inform ation gathered by the respondent about the country. The responses for the in-company survey show that 79 % of the respondents were male while the other 21% were female. 73% of the respondents had not worked abroad before while the other 27% had experience in working abroad. The findings from the study show that there are significant differences in culture between Germany and the foreign countries where the respondents had worked before. In the study sample, 25% of the respondents noticed significant differences between German business culture and the business culture in the other countries compared to eight who felt that business culture abroad and in their home country was the same. The characteristics of the group that did not notice significant differences in culture were varied. One respondent was staying in the United States and Singapore for four months. Another respondent with similar views was being to Luxemburg and Switzerland for seven months. One more respondent had been to Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic for a week in e ach country. The distribution of the respondents showed that 45% of them were fully employed in the company with 46% being apprentices and 9% part-time employees. The apprentices and part time employees included the cooperative students working in different departments in the company. Most of the employees being interviewed worked in workshops (62 %). 24% of the respondents were office workers with some of them indicating that they worked both in office and workshops. The cooperative students worked in both the workshop and offices, although some regular employees also worked in both the workshops and the offices. This group may include middle level managers that are involved in operation of the machinery or supervision of the workshop employees. The responses about the purpose of seeking employment in the company indicate the significance of different factors. The responses show that the possibility of working abroad is not a significant incentive for the employees. Only 3% of the respondents in dicated it as their only reason for seeking employment with 12 % more using putting it in combination with other factors. Career opportunities are the main factor for the employees because 33% highlighting it as the only factor. 30% of the respondents highlighted employment opportunities in conjunction with other factors. A high salary rate was the second most significant incentive for the employees seeking work in the company with 19% occurrence rate. However, a significant portion of the employees indicated high salary and career opportunities to be their main incentives. This shows that most of the employees only view working abroad as a secondary benefit of working in the company. These findings comply with the employeesrsquo; willingness to travel. 30% of the employees were satisfied with working in Germany, and they were not looking to travel much during their career in the company. However, 30%, which is a significant number of the employees were willing to go on business tri ps because of the effect in their careers. 27% of the respondents were hoping to spend some time abroad while only 11% appreciated having any opportunities to travel abroad. This indicates that most people are not fond of jobs that require them to travel abroad, but they travel in order to advance their career by gaining international exposure. At least 52% of the respondents were willing to work abroad for one month or a shorter period; however, 25% of them were only willing to stay abroad on business trips for one week or one day. At least 39% of the employees were ready to stay in a foreign country for a period exceeding one month. In relation to the destination country, 25% of them were willing to travel to any country. This section of the question had 7 missing responses while 26% of the respondents were only willing to travel to fully developed countries. Other aspects of the foreign country such as language and culture were only considered as combinations, as opposed to single factors. The most significant combination in relation to the willingness to travel is that consisting of those employees who would want to travel to fully developed countries and countries with entirely different cultures. A significant proportion of the respondents felt that one should be capable of experiencing different cultures in their bus iness trips. 29% of the employees answered that they were willing to travel to countries with cultures that are quite different from their home country in combination with other factors. While most of the respondents indicated that telephoning was not part of their job, 14% of the employees being sampled indicated that they sometimes had to call people from other countries. Only 18% of the respondents had indicated that they only make business related phone calls within the country. Communication with colleagues and customers indicates that 31% of the respondents communicate with telephone calls abroad on different levels such as colleagues, international customers, and foreign representatives of the company. The other aspect of telephone conversation is the use of English in business communication. 57% of the respondents indicated that English is used in international business communication. This number excludes the respondents that did not answer the question. This question was only answered by the regular employees because it was assumed that the apprentices and cooperative students did not have to telephone in their work. Few of the respondents, only five, have e xcellent skills in English language, which indicates why most of them indicated only being capable of talking fluently about their departments, as opposed to the entire company operations. A significant proportion of the respondents indicated that they had difficulty in communicating in English. 6% of the respondents that answered the question also indicated that they required significant effort to communicate in English. In relation to the use of English in business phone conversations, 29% of the respondents indicated that they conducted phone conversations in English. Only 6% of the respondents indicated that they failed to use English in their business communications because of their English being poor. International business partners are a common site in this company with 80% of the respondents indicating that internal partners visit the company often. Small talk with the international partners was a prominent aspect in the study. This is because the employees may have to spend time with the international partners during their business trip. Socialization may be inevitable in such cases. However, in order to engage in small talk, the individual requires understanding of the partners language. It is also essential to determine common ground in relation to the topics discussed in the interaction. 46% of the study sample indicated that small talk was involved in the socializations. Twelve of the respondents felt that small talk would be wastage of time for themselves or for the business partners. 32% of the respondents indicated that their failure to involve small talk was because they were not sure which topics would be appropriate to discuss. This indicates a low level of knowledge in the culture of the business partners. Eleven respondents indicated that they failed to engage in small talk with the international partners because of their low skill level in using the English language. 9 of the sampled employees indicated that they lacked knowledge in the English language, and suitable topics to discuss with the partners. Globalization has a significant effect in the movement of culture and enabling people to learn about varied cultures. However, the results of this study show that 68% of the respondents have not dealt with business culture. This indicates a low level of preparedness for employees in handling international business. However, their interest in foreign cultures was high with 83% of the respondents indicating that they are interested in the cultures of other countries. Their interest in cultures of other countries is directly related to the expected increase in efficiency. 87% of the respondents hold the view that being informed about business culture would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business. Perceptions about the different cultures influence on the willingness of employees to travel. This indicates that individual interest has a significant effect on their willingness to learn the culture or go to the country for a business trip. 28% of the respondents indicated that their main interest would be the cultures of the countries that they had to visit. However, 8% of the respondents indicated that they would not find any culture interesting. 37% of the employees were interested in the culture of the country where the company has subsidiaries and those countries that they have to travel for business. Taking combinations of different factors in the decision, the results show that 16% of the respondents included their business travel destination in the countries whose cultures they were interested in. This is in combination with the cultures that have the largest difference in relation to culture. The other factor considered in this combination is the country where the company has a subsidiary. Information search in relation to the business culture of other countries is an essential aspect among professionals. 51% of the respondents indicated that they would learn about the culture a few weeks before the trip. 16% of the respondents indicated that they would learn about the culture right before the trip. Few respondents, eight, felt that the business culture of foreign countries should be learnt when the individual arrives in the country. A further 14% of the respondents indicated that learning business culture before a business trip is not necessary. This is because they felt that it is something the business professionals should know. Information search for foreign business culture can involve different sources that the employee considers being resourceful. Most of the respondents seemed to be comfortable getting information from their colleagues. Two respondents felt that reading a book about the country would be sufficient while six said they would not try to inform the mselves about it. A closer look into the data shows that 80% of the respondents would ask their colleagues about business culture of their destination country, although some would include other sources such as Google, reading a book, or focusing on pictures to get an idea of the common cultures. Google was chosen as an adequate information source by 74% of the respondents. This shows the significance of Internet in relaying information about business culture. Despite the many information sources available, 77% of the respondents indicated that they would appreciate a course on the business culture of a country before they went on business trips. 21% of the respondents would not appreciate a course in business culture of a country. This may indicate that they felt that their information sources such as colleagues or Google were sufficient. Association and Relationship among the Variables Cross tabulation of some of the aspects shows that employees working in the office were willing to travel abroad. Most of the workshop employees prefer to work in Germany compared to the office employees. The employees who were willing to spend time abroad because of their career were mainly office workers (50%). Most of the employees that were willing to travel abroad because it is advantageous for their careers were those who had indicated the career opportunities as the reason for their joining the company. Cross tabulation of gender and willingness to travel shows that there are significant variations between the observed and the expected values for the survey. Moreover, the chi-square tests show that the variations are insignificant. Since the significance values for the chi-square tests are all larger than 0.05, the two variables occur randomly without any significant correlations. Cross tabulation of the gender and the period for how long individuals are willing to work abroad shows that the significance values for the Chi-square tests are higher than 0.05. This means gender and period are uncorrelated variables indicating gender as being insignificant in the determination. The countries where the employees are willing to work are another essential aspect. This is because it may limit the ability of an individual to work abroad. The significance value for linear by linear association is 0.034, which indicates a level of correlation between them. Appreciation for a course in the comp any about business culture is not correlated with gender. The observed and expected values vary minimally indicating a low level of association. Inclusion of small talk with the corporate visitors is also not correlated with the gender of the employee. The significance values for this relationship are larger than 0.05 indicating that the relationship is insignificant. Previous career of the employee in relation to having worked abroad was cross tabulated with willingness of the individual to travel abroad for business. The observed and expected values for the variables in relation to the distribution of previous career differ significantly. The significance values for the chi-square tests are lower than 0.05 indicating a significant level of association. This means that previous career and willingness to travel occur differently from the hypothesized observations. Therefore, previous career is a significant determinant of the willingness of the individual to travel. Cross tabulation of the period that individuals are willing to work abroad and the individuals previous career shows significant variations between the observed and the expected values. Chi-square tests for the association show significance levels below 0.05, which means that there is a relationship between these variables. Test for association between the preferred destination for bus iness travel and previous career shows minimal variations between the observed and the expected. The significance values for the chi-square tests indicate that there is not any relationship between the variables. Proficiency in language use and previous career in cross tabulation show insignificant variations between the observed and expected values. The significance values for the chi-square tests show insufficient proof of an association. Previous career and appreciation for a course on business culture of a country before going is also not correlated. Thus, the chi-square tests show an insignificant relationship without correlation. Some of the reasons for not including small talk when dealing with corporate visitors are not knowing what to discuss, being poor in English, or not wanting to waste time. However, these factors are not correlated with previous career based on the chi-square tests. Experience of differences in business culture and willingness to travel shows significant variations between the observed and the expected. There is high likelihood of association because of the low significance values for the chi-square tests. The experienced differences in business culture abroad and how long individuals were willing to stay abroad were also tabulated. The tests showed significance values below 0.05 for likelihood ratio and the linear by linear association indicating a correlation. Cross tabulation of differences in business culture and the choice of country indicated an insignificant relationship. The case was similar for proficiency in English and appreciation for a course on business culture in the company. Position of the individual in the company was related to the willingness of the individual to travel and the period that the individual was willing to stay abroad. Proficiency of language use and inclusion of small talk show possible relationship to the position of the individual in the company. The differences in office and workshop employees were investigated to show association with different aspects of international business. There was significant association between the working place and the willingness to travel. However, association with the preferred period was insignificant. Choice of country was also not based on the department where the individual worked. The responses from the in-company questionnaires show that business culture in Germany and other countries differs significantly. This is because most of the respondents who have worked in other countries noticed variations in business culture. Most of the fully employed workers were willing to travel abroad for business in order to improve their career. However, they also vary in relation to their main incentive for working in the company. The possibility of working abroad proved to be insignificant in the decisions to join the company. Most of them were interested in the career opportunities and the salary that they earned from working there. This indicates that working abroad is an incentive that the employees did not view as being significant. Their willingness to go on business trips was based on the positive effect that the trips would have on their career. Their trips increase their experience and giving them international exposure. The duration of stay in the foreign country was another significant factor in the study sample. Only 39% of the employees were willing to stay in a foreign country for more than a month. This can be attributed to their minimal knowledge on the business culture of different countries and the communication limitations because of low knowledge of English. In relation to their choice of the country, most of the respondents indicated countries with cultures different from theirs as being their favored choice. 25% of the respondents were willing to travel to any country. The excitement of experiencing new cultures offers a significant incentive for employees to visit foreign countries. Therefore, the feeling that one should experience different cultures in a foreign country is significant among the employees. The employees engage in phone conversations with foreigners on different levels. Being that Phoenix Contact is an international company, the employees have to deal with international customers, colleagues and foreign representatives. International business conversations in the company are conducted with English indicating the need for employees to have a clear understanding of the language. However, their skills in using the language are not excellent, which hinders communication with foreign corporate visitors. Most of the respondents were only capable of talking about their departments with their English language skills being inadequate for expressing ideas about company operations. This indicates the changes in German business culture to incorporate international partners or clients through using English in their communications. Being that most of the respondents have not dealt with business culture before, it explains the low willingness to work abroad. The employees are not well prepared to handle international business. This is evident in the large number of employees who were unwilling to socialize informally with the foreign visitors. 32% of them failed to engage in small talk because they did not know what to discuss. Despite knowledge of English being a potential barrier, it was less significant in this situation than cultural information about the foreign country. This also highlights variations in both social culture and in business culture. Therefore, the company should formulate strategies for improving the employees knowledge about international business culture and the culture of the leading countries where it has partners or subsidiaries. Most of the employees who indicate that they have not dealt with business culture before mean that they are not adequately prepared for international business relations. Most of the employees believe that improving their knowledge of the business culture of different countries would improve efficiency. However, the employees also express a willingness to experience new cultures that are different from their home country. Most of the aspects studied in this survey had significant variations that are not random. This indicates variations in individuals perceptions about business culture. The employees who viewed the high salary scale as their main incentive preferred to work within Germany compared to other places. A chi-square test for some of the factors essential for the determination of business culture shows that most of the aspects do not conform to a hypothesized distribution. The hypothesized distribution in this case is that most of the aspects are equally distributed for the respondents. However, the responses for previous career conform to the hypothesized meaning because the significance level is above .05. This means other variables such as willingness to travel, core purpose of employment, how long one is willing to work abroad, proficiency in English, and appreciation for a course on business culture vary significantly across the study sample. Issues such as willingness to travel, and how long one is willing to work abroad are directly related to perceptions about business culture. Proficiency in English and appreciation for a course on business culture were associated with individuals who had a higher level of willingness to travel abroad. Therefore, the company can improve the willingness of the employees to work abroad by equipping them with adequate information. This information should include improving their competence in the language used in international business and improving their knowledge on business and social culture of different countries. Gender and the willingness to travel are not correlated although period of stay and the countries where the individuals are willing to travel are correlated to gender. Small talk and taking a course on business culture were also not based on gender. Previous career was significant aspect because it was correlated with willingness to travel and the period of work abroad. The other factors were not significantly correlated. Experience of differences in business culture in the foreign country was only correlated to the willingness to travel and the period of stay, other factors showing insignificant relationships. Position of the employee in the company was related with the willingness to travel. Proficiency of the individual in English and inclusion of small talk were also correlated with the position of the individual in the company. The survey at the university was the second part of the study. The university population was selected because of the variations in perceptions and experiences with the employees. The university students were undertaking international business studies. This means that the likelihood of the students having dealt with international business culture in their studies was high. It involved 100 students from the University of Paderborn in Germany. The main subjects being studied by the students were economics and foreign languages such as French, English, and Spanish. However, the students were only two of the languages, which meant either English and French or English and Spanish. The students were involved in one seminar for each language per semester and a course in cultural studies. The composition of the sample was 25% male and 75% female. Of the students who answered that they had dealt with business culture in the past, some of them were participating in an international communicatio ns courrse while others were attending a class on the United Kingdom and United States affairs. The university students are used in the study because of the variation in their perceptions and the level of preparedness in relation to business culture. Because of the increasing significance of business, culture in the globalized economy, studies on it are included in university education. Increased level of cultural awareness among the students may also present findings that are significantly different from those of the professionals. The significance of these aspects is bound to increase in the future; thus, understanding their impact on students is significant for future development in business programs in universities. The findings from the university sample may provide significant insight into the deficiencies in the employment arena, which might enable employers to formulate strategies that are more effective in informing employees about business culture. Despite the high level of cultural awareness, it is essential to recognize the differences in business culture resulting from lack of experience with foreign business partners, clients, or colleagues. This study will highlight such differences, if they exist. The questionnaire used in the university survey had some differences from the used ones in the in-company survey. The variations were made because of the variations in issues such as business experience and business travel to foreign countries. The gender of the respondent was essential because it would be used to determine whether understanding of business culture is related to gender. The future career of the respondent was another crucial factor in the survey. The question was meant to capture the intentions of the student after completion of studies. It indicates whether the student would want to work abroad, work in an international company, or a company that operates only in Germany. This highlights whether the student will interact with international business colleagues or customers, which indicates the importance of aspects such as an international language for the student. The willingness of the student to travel is another significant question, which is directly related to the plans of the student. The period that the individual is willing to work abroad varies depending on the perceptions of the student and his career plans. Travel destination where the students would be willing to travel is another essential aspect in the survey. This indicates the countries that interest the respondent most. It may also be shown to how the most significant factors for the respondent in going to a foreign country. The section of the questionnaire on business culture focuses on the current situation for the respondent as well as future issues. This is achieved by asking whether the student has dealt with business culture in university studies. This shows the level of preparedness that the university is offering the students for the international business world. Asking whether the student would be willing to learn more strengthens the previous questions and it will provide insight into the area that have a deficiency in university programs. The students also have a chance to indicate how they would like to learn the suggested topics about business culture. Are you interested in other countries culture? This question requires the respondent to whether he or she feels that there are aspects of other countries cultures that he or she would like to learn. The interest could be because the individual has connection with the other country or just wants to learn new things. This question is essential in determining the impact of increased cultural awareness and globalization on peoples willingness to learn other cultures. Asking for the students opinion on the effect of learning other cultures on international business is essential in indicating the significance of culture on business operations. It is widely believed that adequate knowledge of business culture increases business efficiency. This question aims to help the study in determining whether business study students hold this perception. The next question involves determining when the individual should collect information about business culture before going for a business trip. This shows the amount of time required for information search about business culture of the destination country. The information sources for business culture are also essential in this survey because they indicate the level of commitment by the individual who is searching for information. The final question focuses on the perceived need and appreciation for a course about the country before taking a business trip. The answers for the university questionnaire show that none of the students indicated his or her intention to work for a company that only operates in Germany. 64% of the respondents were hoping to work for an international company. However, a significant proportion of the sample (86%) indicated that they would be willing to work in an international company, and spend their time working abroad, works with an international company and were planning to apply abroad, or three factors being combined. Although a few of the respondents were planning to apply abroad for jobs or to work abroad, an international exposure is significant in their career choices because of their willingness to work in international companies. The willingness of the students to travel abroad for business trips was high in the sample. This is because only three respondents were hoping to work within Germany. The rest of the students indicated that they were willing to go to foreign countries on business although t he level of willingness was varied. Twenty-seven of them were willing to go on as many business trips as possible with twenty-six more looking forward to spend some time abroad. Forty-one percent of the students in the survey indicated that they were willing to stay abroad for three months. This is high compared to twenty-two who were only willing to stay for a day or a week. However, a significant number of the students indicated their willingness to stay in a foreign country on a business trip for an indefinite amount of time. Thirty-one students chose this response although some of them chose it in combination with other options. This indicates that they are willing to stay longer than the options available as long as it is beneficial for their career. 23% of the students indicated that they were only willing to visit fully developed countries. However, 75 % of the respondents were willing to visit fully developed countries among other factors such as differences in culture, language, and places about which the individuals know little. 26 respondents indicated that they would be willing to visit countries that are relatively poor although none indicated this as the only factor in their decision. The distribution of students that had dealt with business culture in their studies was fifty-fifty. This indicates that the university does not provide exposure to business culture for all students. Of those students that indicated having dealt with business culture, 16 of them had encountered it in their international communication classes. A significant number of them had encountered it while studying foreign languages such as French, English, or Spanish. This group consisted of 25 students with 24 of them taking English either alone or i n combination with French or Spanish. International culture management and business management were also highlighted as providing exposure to business culture for some students. Despite the exposure provided to business culture to the students, 91% of them wanted to learn more on business culture at the university. They indicated different aspects that they would like to learn such as business habits in different countries, culture, peoples way of doing things, negotiation, and how to deal with and differences in business culture between Germany and other countries such as India, China, and the United States. Interest in other countries among the students was high with 98% of them indicating their interest; furthermore, all students believed that being informed about business culture would increase efficiency in the conduct of business abroad. 60% of the students believed that learning about the business culture of a country should take a couple of weeks before the trip. 37%, which is a significant proportion of the students, believed that business culture is something that one should know. The number of students believing that it should be learnt when one i s already there was small, which indicates a need to prepare oneself adequately before going on a business trip. This indicates variations in business culture that they expect; thus, the need to get information before taking the trip. Information on this essential aspect of business can be gathered from different sources. None of the respondents indicated that he or she would not find information on business culture. 12 respondents selected Google as their only source with another 77 indicating they would use Google in combination with another source. Nineteen respondents indicated that they would focus on pictures to get an impression of the countrys culture, although it was selected in combination with other factors such as reading a book, asking a colleague, and other methods. 67 of the respondents indicated their intention to use Google and advice from colleagues as their most suitable information sources. However, some respondents indicated that they would use travel guides and documentaries as their main information sources on business culture about countries where they wanted to travel. 86% of the respondents indicated that they would appreciate a course provided by their companies on business culture before a trip. Some of the responses on what they would like to learn included business habits, how the business operates in the foreign country. Association between the Variables Associations between the different variables in relation to business culture show that the students who have dealt with business culture are willing to travel on business trips. Chi-square tests for the association between these two shows a significance value of 0.016 for the linear by linear association indicating a significant association between them. This means having dealt with business culture is correlated with theirwillingness to travel. Cross tabulation of the countries that the students would be willing to travel to, and having dealt with business culture shows a high level of association. This is because the likelihood ratio and the Pearson chi-square are less than 0.05. The variations between the expected distribution and the observed distribution are significant indicating that two do not occur randomly. Chi-square test for the association between how long one is willing to work abroad, and whether they have dealt with business culture shows insignificant association. Variations between the expected and observed values are minimal. The chi-square tests show significance values that are greater than 0.05, which indicates a lack of association. This means that two variables occur randomly. The time when one should find information about the business culture of a country where he or she has to go on a business trip is not associated with having dealt with business culture. This means that knowledge of business culture does not reduce the need to find information about a country before going on a business trip. The other essential aspect of the survey was to determine the effect of gender on some aspects of business culture such as willingness to travel abroad. The analysis shows that the values have minimal variations between the observed and expected values given the ratio of male to female respondents. The significance values from the chi-square tests show that there is not any relationship between these variables. This means that gender does not have effect on willingness to travel among the university students sampled. The countries where the respondents would be willing to travel correlate with the gender of the respondent. This is because the chi-square tests show significance values that are less than 0.05 for the Pearson Chi-square test, linear by linear association, and likelihood ratio. Gender is not correlated with how long an individual is willing to work abroad because the significance values are higher than .05 for all tests. This means the observed values and the expected va lues differ minimally indicating that they occur randomly. Although willingness to travel is associated with the large number of respondents that are interested in other cultures, there is no correlation between these two variables. This is because the significance values for all chi-square tests are significantly higher than 0.05 indicating insignificant relationship. General interest in other cultures does not have a significant correlation with the choice of countries that the students would be willing to go for business trips. The significance values for all the tests show that association in minimal. How long the students were willing to work abroad, is also unrelated to the students general interest in other cultures. The effect was the same in the test for the relationship between interest in other cultures and the point that one should seek information on other cultures. This means that the time taken searching for information regarding business culture of the country and an individuals interest in culture occur randomly. Future career and willingness to travel showed a high level of association. This is because of the low level of variability between the expected and the observed values of the different variables. The significance values derived from the chi-square tests is all below 0.05 indicating that there is a possible relationship between the future career of the respondents and their willingness to travel. This means that higher willingness to travel is associated with individuals willingness to work abroad after they complete their studies. On the issue of the countries where the individuals would want to travel, the relationship with future career is insignificant. This means that the preferences of individuals in relation to countries where they would want to travel is random. This means that the choice and preferences of countries that individuals would want to travel are dependent on other factors besides the expectation of the individual concerning future career. The test of association between future career and the period an individual is willing to work abroad shows different results. The chi-square tests show that the significance values for Pearson Chi-square and the linear by linear association are lower than 0.05. Individuals, who indicate a high willingness to work abroad in their future career, are likely to prefer to work longer abroad than other individuals who wish to work only in Germany. Most of the students being sampledindicated their interest in the cultures of other countries. They also indicated they would appreciate a course in the company about business culture of a country where they have to travel. However, chi-square tests show that the occurrence of the variables is random because the relationship between them is insignificant. All the significance values for this set of variables are larger than 0.05 indicating low significance. The association between appreciation for a course on business culture in the company and perceptions of individuals about business culture is inconclusive. This is because the question on whether the information on business culture aids in international business is a constant. This is because none of the respondents indicated that business culture does not aid in international business. The university survey shows that all respondents were hoping to work abroad although the duration and frequency of work abroad varies. Their responses indicate that international exposure at the workplace is essential in their careers and it is valued. Their willingness to travel abroad was also high. However, the duration of their working in foreign countries was variable with 50% of them looking forward to spending some time abroad or going on as many business trips as possible. Exposure provided for students in relation to culture has a significant effect on their preferences in countries for business trips. Most of them wanted to go to fully developed countries; however, a significant number was interested in culture and language differences. The university does not provide adequate exposure to business culture for the students because fifty percent indicated not having encountered the issues in their studies. Most of the students indicated having encountered it in international communication classes or foreign languages. Therefore, the university should include topics on international business culture in subjects taught to business students. This is essential in order to ensure that the students are adequately exposed to business culture in order to increase their competence in business. From the responses, it can be seen thatsome students had the opinion that the university was neglecting other critical business cultures and focusing on the United States and the United Kingdom. The students agreed that there was a need to prepare adequately before going to another country for a business trip. Few of them indicated that they would learn when they arrived where they were going. Internet is a significant source of information about different countries as shown by the survey. 77% of the students indicated Google as one of their source of information on business culture before going abroad. This shows that the students have embraced technology as a learning tool, but it may also indicate that they lack other adequate sources of information. Association tests between the willingness to travel and having dealt with business culture was significant. This indicates that teaching business culture would influence on willingness of the students to travel abroad. Having dealt with business culture also influences on the countries where the students are willing to travel. However, the expected length of stay is not associated with studies in business culture. Having dealt with business culture in studies does not influence on information search on business culture. This indicates that the information provided in the studies may not be adequate. This may be associated with the information provided in studies being outdated or lacking in depth. However, a significant aspect of this finding is that the question did not specify the country or continent; therefore, since it is impossible to teach every culture, the students have to search information. The sample was largely female with only 25% male respondents. The tests show that the expected variations in willingness to travel, future career and other aspects of business culture are not in line with the distribution of male to female respondents. Therefore, gender does not have a significant effect on essential aspects of business culture. General interest in other cultures did not appear to have an effect on the willingness or frequency to work abroad. The correlation between this interest and information seeking was also lacking. Future career plans of an individual are significant in determining factors such as their willingness to travel, and duration of working abroad. However, preference in relation to the countries where they would be willing to travel was independent on career plans. The respondents indicated unanimously that they felt knowledge of business culture would improve business conduct at the international market. Most of them also indicate appreciation of a course on business culture for the different countries before going there. These responses show the need for the educational institutions and companies to provide courses on business culture because they are necessary and needed by the students. Findings from the two surveys show significant differences in business culture and social culture between Germany and other countries. This is attributable to the differences noticed by most of the employees who have travelled abroad for business. The main incentive for travelling abroad was the effect that it would have on their careers. Although most of them do not join the company because of the possibility of travelling abroad, they are willing to travel in order to progress in their career. International exposure was also a significant aspect for the business students. 50% of the students were hoping to work abroad or go on many business trips. Buy custom American Business Culture essay