The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 Research Paper

The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 - Research Paper Example A whistleblower is a person who makes a disclosure that evidence improper or illegal activities in an employment setting (Whitaker, P1). On the other hand, King defines the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 as a United States of America’s federal law that protects federal whistleblowers or government employees who report any misconduct by a federal agency. An example of a famous whistleblower was Jeffrey Wigand, Brown & Williamson’s former research and development vice president in 1966, who disclosed that cigarette companies’ executives were aware of the fact that cigarettes were addictive and increased the amount of nicotine deliberately to make them even more addictive (King, para5). The Whistleblower Protection Act/WPA was enacted in 1989, following apparent weaknesses in the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act, which was an earlier attempt to protect whistleblowers. This law led to the creation of the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates complaints from government employees that they received punishment after reporting about abuse, fraud or waste in their agencies to Congress. This office has jurisdiction over whistleblower reprisal allegations that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission employees make. The Congress passed the Act with the intention of strengthening and improving Federal employees’ rights protection, to end retaliation and to aid in the eradication of unlawful activity within the government. It mandates that workers should not go through adverse consequences because of personnel practices that are prohibited  and establishes that the Office of Special Counsel’s primary role is protecting workers, particularly whistleblowers, from forbidden personnel practices.

Letter of Reflection (letter to Dean (chair of English department)) Essay

Letter of Reflection (letter to Dean (chair of English department)) - Essay Example My persistence with the work and timely completion of assignments made it possible to catch up with the demanding environment of classes. My inquisitive nature won some good friends in the class and extra attention of teacher. Thanks to the broad smiles of my teachers they always welcomed my questions. This would be unfair if I do not refer here Dr Jones whose interesting and attractive styles made impossible things to understand very easily understandable. This was because of his passionate teaching with the help of pictures and interesting stories that I shun my shyness over a short passage of time and became a lively character in the class. At the end of the course I am thankful to the interactive environment that left a lot of creative techniques in me. 2- Exercises on autobiographies gave me a chance of retrospection on my past experiences and to jot them down in a comprehensive and systematic manner. This was again an impressively good manner of rediscovering an author in myself. 3- Literature analysis essays like the one I did on â€Å"Strange Meeting by Wilfred Owen† mad it possible for me to understand how to analyze a text, conceptualize the text, relate it with the plot, and comprehend it from author’s point of view. 5- While analyzing drama of Shakespeare - The Merchant of Venice: I have been able to learn the conventions, language, character/plot, tragedy and comedy in a drama. The theater of imagination was the mort important thing that impressed me in this exercise. After having said all above, I would like to submit that my writing skills might have not improved that much had I not been perfectly exposed to a variety of readings on daily basis. The reading habits enriched my ideas on literature and made my ideas more sequential and logical. This habit added volumes of vocabulary into my knowledge that I was never familiar with. I became familiar with the logos in

Market analysis for cadburys

Market analysis for cadburys Cadbury  was a British  confectionery  company, the industrys second-largest globally after the combined  Mars-Wrigley.[2]  Headquartered in Cadbury House in the Uxbridge Business Park in  Uxbridge London Borough of Hillingdon,  England  and formerly listed on the  London Stock Exchange, Cadbury was acquired by  Kraft Foods  in February 2010. The company was an ever-present constituent of the  FTSE 100  from the indexs 1984 inception until its 2010 takeover.[3][4] . What products or services does it offer customers? At what price(s)? Products Main article:  List of Cadbury products Cadbury plc manufactures chocolates and sweets such as the popular  Cadbury Dairy Milk. Notable product introductions include:   Cocoa Essence  Easter Eggs   Milk Chocolate Cadbury Fingers   Dairy Milk   Bournville  Chocolate   Milk Tray Flake Creme Egg Crunchie   Roses   Fudge   Dairy Milk Buttons   Picnic Curly Wurly   Wispa  (relaunched 2007)   Boost Twirl Time Out   Fuse Brunch Bar,  Dream  and  Snowflake Cadbury dairy milk silk  (richer, finer milk chocolate) and  Wispa Gold Prices of sme of its products Boost High Protein Nutritional Energy Drinke:  $35.955 Cadbury Dairy Milk Bar of Plenty Berry Fruit and Vanilla Shortcake 140g.  Price:  Ã‚  Ã‚ £2.34   Cadbury Dairy Milk Bar of Plenty Toffee Apple and Roast Hazelnut 140g.  Price:  Ã‚  Ã‚ £2.34   boost High Protein Energy Drink, Vanilla, 8 oz, 6 pk $10.69 Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk, a brand priced at Rs 49 for 69 grams and Rs 99 for 160 grams available in Milk chocolate, Roast Almond and Fruit Nut variants. The company aims to position Silk as smoother, creamier and chunkier. Who are its customers and what do they want? Its main customers are children and youngsters especially girls. They want Cadbury chocolates to be Very creamy delicious taste and widely available.   it still smells nice. One Pound for one hundred grams is good value, Nice box Presentation reasonable price yummy . Who are its competitors and how does the company differentiate itself from its competitors. Within Chocolate, its interesting that Cadbury is a very small player outshone by Nestle, MM Mars (now called Masterfoods) and Hershey. Cadbury is a distant 4th. But, in Canada Europe, Cadbury is a huge player perhaps #2. This is because Cadbury Schweppes is British based and hence has a much larger presence in Europe, Canada Australia. Within Confections (e.g. gum, hard candy), competitors would include Wrigleys. Within Soft Drinks, Cadbury Scheppes is a distant 3rd, with Coke in the lead, followed closely by Pepsi. Interestingly enough, I think that 7-Up, one of Cadburys products, is actually sold by Pepsi outside the US. Within Juices Juice Drinks, competition is w/ Coke (e.g. Minute Maid, Hi-C) and Pepsi (e.g. Tropicana, Gatorade, Brisk Iced Tea), Ocean Spray, Welchs and many smaller players. Within Fruit Snacks, Dole Del Monte are the largest competitors. the corporate site has a lot of stakeholders: shareholders, potential investors, journalists, job-seekers, employees, analysts financial and sustainability, suppliers, partners, customersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ There needs to be somewhere that at least the core facts about the company can be found by all these people, for convenience as well as for legal reasons.  adbury monitor the production process by using total quality   management to ensure that the chocolate/products that are produced are   of a high quality and meet the needs of the customers, this is vital   for Cadbury because they produce chocolate products mainly which has a   lot of substitutes, this means that customers could loose interest in   Cadbury products if their demands are not met or thought about.  An alternative quality assurance method that Cadbury could use is   benchmarking. Benchmarking is a method for comparing the performance   of one business against another, this would of an advantage to Cadbury   because they could compare their sales figures, production figures etc   against a major competitor (Nestle for example), the comparisons would   help Cadbury to set aims and goals for the business itself and once   the aims have been met it may almost be certain that Cadbury is   outperforming its competitor.   However the competitor that Cadbury choose has to be near enough the   same size business as Cadbury, this is to make the benchmarking fair.   As well as the above benchmarking will help Cadbury to do better than   their competitor(s).   . How do they communicate with customers and how do they sell their product to customers? Cadbury have continued their innovative work but off the corporate site. The Cadbury approach seems to be to maximise the brand benefits they can get from their customer-facing social media outposts, while retaining the static and more corporate information on the corporate site. There are hundreds of thousands of fans of Cadbury fans on Facebook. These are mostly brand pages (Dairy Milk: two pages with over 400,000 fans; Creme Eggs: two pages, with over 500,000 fans; Mini Eggs: two pages with over 300,000 fans à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and thats just on the first page of results). But there is also a corporate page with over 248,000 fans, and even a page for their recent Eyebrows advertisement campaign with nearly 225,000 fans. That is more than a glass and a half of customer loveà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Cadbury is clearly doing something very right here; Facebook works well for them, and they are making the most of their advertising successes, and welcoming the mashups and spoofs that their loyal customers create. (Youll no doubt remember the  Mars/Snickers  episode from a few months ago). But it isnt just Facebook: there are many Cadbury inspired videos on YouTube, and theres at least oneCadbury channel. There also seem to be several Cadbury-owned Twitter accounts (such as  @ButtonsFOTF,@haveyouearnedit,  @Cadbury_Gorilla  and  @GoingFairTrade). These are the only ways through customers get attracted towards their different brands of chocolate and they sell their products.

Transcendentalism Essay -- essays research papers fc

Transcendentalism   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many people have theories and philosophies about life in general. There have been hundreds of thousands of books published by many different people on the ideas of people in the past and the present. Transcendentalism falls in amongst all of these ideas. There have been articles, essays, poems, and even books written about this subject. Transcendentalism has effected many people since the philosophy was first introduced. The idea was complex and hard to grasp for many commoners and therefore it was understood by few people, and some would think that the idea was not understood at all and that was part of the idea. Henry David Thoreau once stated about himself, â€Å"I should have told them at once that I was a transcendentalist. That would have been the shortest way of telling them that they would not understand my explanations† (Reuben 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even the people that called themselves â€Å"transcendentalists† had only their own thoughts of what transcendentalism was, which in turn were based on the thoughts of others. So, transcendentalism is defined as a philosophy. This philosophy was uniform for everyone that believed in it. This is a difficult concept to comprehend because the philosophy called for people to trust themselves and their own thoughts, which meant that even though transcendentalists held the same central idea, all of their individual thoughts branching off transcendentalism contradicted the other transcendentalists. In Paul Reuben’s web site, Noah Porter made this statement about transcendentalism:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The word Transcendentalism, as used at the present day, has two applications. One of which is popular and indefinite, the other, philosophical and precise. In the former sense it describes man, rather than opinions, since it is freely extended to those who hold opinions, not only diverse from each other, but directly opposed. (1)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  These transcendentalists all had different opinions on the different things in life, but they believed in the philosophy of transcendentalism. According to Webster’s Dictionary, transcend means to go further than, or to go past. This would give transcendentalism the definition of an idea beyond other people’s ideas, or even possibly beyond this earth. The idea of transcendentalism is definitel... ...ed to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority† (American 1). The major players in the transcendentalist movement are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. They shared ideas such as self-reliance, and ideas about how there is a divine being that controls every person. They influenced many other writers and they even had an effect on the American society, then and now. Transcendentalism was a philosophy and a way of life. It will continue to be this as long as we have access to the great minds of the transcendental movement. Works Cited â€Å"American Literary and Philosophical Movement.† The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition. 1 Jan. 1993. Atkinson, Brooks. Walden and other writings of Henry David Thoreau. New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 1950. Durant, Will. The Story of Philosophy. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1926. Reuben, Paul. Towards a Definition of Transcendentalism. http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transweb/tr-aldef.htm Runes, Dagobert D. A Treasury of Philosophy. Chicago, IL: Spencer Press Inc., 1955. Von Frank, Albert J. Transcendentalism. The Reader’s Companion to American History. 1 Jan. 1991.

Case Study-San Francisco Bay Consulting

Case 2: San Francisco Bay Consulting The problem in this case is the identification of the role of Computer Service and its relationship between it and other departments. The three solutions all have advantages and disadvantages. I think if we still keep the current system, the role of CS department remains unclear. If the staff are not clear about their role, they would behave nor too conservative nor too risky. So whey still lack can-do attitude on occasions, because they have no criteria in their mind to judge their action.However, if we make CS a profit center, and free the researcher from their ties to CS, new problems arise. As CS could set any prices it liked and change them as often as it liked, and researcher also are allowed to go outside and purchase the software and hardware they want, hopefully it can work like total competition market. But the CS firm has no difference between other hardware store provider outside. That is to say there is no need to build such an indepe ndent department inside the company.It is not performing its function and create value for the company. Besides it is a waste of time which actually decrease the efficiency of the whole company. For the third solution, running CS as an expense center says the total cost would be allocated to programs or groups in proportion to hours billed. I think this the cause for the potential of encouraging researcher to ignore the costs. Instead I think it is better for every individual of group assume the risk for purchasing new hardware and software.So in my opinion, I think every solution have its advantages and disadvantages. And it actually also depends on the environment and style of strategy. If the company is in a world developing fast, and the company is trying to expanding itself, it is better to make CS expense department, it can encourage the researcher to apply the newest technology and get advantage of it. However, if the economy is not good and demand is not strong, the company is trying deducting cost, I think it is better to stick to current system.To summarize, there is no perfect system here. It depends on the economic environment and the company’s strategy. Or I may come up with another solution, but I am not sure. How about just treat the CS department neutral. It is actually just the service department and provides computer service to the company. The risk or gain or loss totally belongs to every consultant in the group. The staffs in CS only get fixed salary and return of company stocks.

Kinship of two cultures

INTRODUCTIONâ€Å"Culture is a shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences perception and behavior†(). Culture influences people and it shapes people in manifesting a particular identity. Every individual is greatly influence by his culture. When people see a man and the way he is living his life, he can easily be identified as part of a particular culture. People from a particular place are always intertwined with a particular culture as seen in their pattern of actions and beliefs and way of life in general.It is of an inevitable reality that cultures differ around the world. Every place and context has their own unique set of norms, beliefs and practices. These set of norms, beliefs and practices make up the identity of a culture. These make up the whole of their system. A particular culture produces a pattern of actions that a group of people will manifest as they live in this world. Because of the diversity of cultures of p eople from different places around the world, there exist conflicts due to differences if one culture is imposing its will to the other.In this paper, we will dwell on two rich cultures- the Dinkas and Amhara People. We will try to show their similarities and as well as differences. The two cultures that are the subject of this paper will be thoroughly examined. Therefore, without further delay, let us begin our discussion.THE DINKA CULTURE IN SOUTHERN SUDANThe Dinkas are found In Southern Sudan. It is the largest ethnic group region in the Nile Basin. The Dinkas have the population of 3-4 million people that comprises approximately 45% of the population of the whole country. The Dinkas are known to have beautiful women in their tribe and known to even grow up to seven feet tall. One of their famous tribe members is the former National basketball Association (NBA) player Manute Bol who stood for 7’7†. This tribe at the Nile River is also known to maintain a culture of m arrying people within their communities and even families.â€Å"Most of Dinkas beliefs that keeping cultures in our modern societies is beneficial enough to keep generations move successfully. The Dinkas believed that maintaining their culture amidst the changing world is the road to the next generation’s success†(http://www.madingbor.com/page/page/2064097.htm). This is the reason why even in the influences of many diverse cultures, the Dinkas still maintained and treasured the richness of their culture.Men in having their own families in the Dinka tribe, they must at least be eighteen years old and above. This age bracket is perceived by Dinkas as an age that can already be capable of providing for a family and considered as persons who can live with their own. The Dinkas live a pastoral life, relying mainly on livestock. In a Dinka family, the husband is the provider in the family. He brings something to eat for the family. The wife is the one who cooks for the famil y, the one in charge for preparing food for the whole house and in taking care of the children in the family. The wives in the Dinka communities are obedient and respectful women for their husbands. Despite the growing influences of other cultures in women empowerment, they remain in this family devotion of women.In cases of the death of the husband or absence for a long time, the wife is asked to remarry. Remarrying for the wife would mean marrying the brothers of his husband. If there is no brother available, the first cousins of her husband are the second option. This remarrying scheme is for the purpose of bearing a child that would be named after the deceased person. The culture believes that in doing such practice, they are maintaining the dignity of their generations from their fore-fathers to the grand children. The act is called â€Å"lahot† or entering the hut. The Dinkas give emphasis on the purity of their culture that is manifested in their practices of remarriag es.THE AMHARA CULTURE OF ETHIOPIAThe Amhara people of Ethiopia are one o the most dominant cultural and political group in Africa. Their population is at 15,000,000. These people live in the highlands of Ethiopia. The Amhara people are mostly farmers. The tribe can be traced back from Menelik I who is a child born of the King Solomon and Queen Sheba. â€Å"The Amhara appear to be descended from the same people group as the Tigray-Tigrinya people.   Their Sabaean ancestors came to the highlands of what is now Eritrea and Ethiopia from the Arabian Peninsula†(http://endor.hsutx.edu/~obiwan/profiles/amhara.html).The general situation in the Amhara farming society is very hard. They live in terrains and mountains because of wanting their place to be easily defended but at the same time making it hard for them to travel and move. They have the advantage in defense but also have the disadvantage in mobility. The location of their community is hard to reach by foreigners because of rugged mountain terrains.The people in Amhara believe that children must be breast feed in two years. No hard discipline is imposed to the children until the age of four. On the fortieth day after birth, the boys in the family will be baptized and the girls are on the eightieth day. As early as the age of five and six, the children are trained to watch their family animals such as sheep and goats. The boys are in charge in watching over the animals and the girls are in charge in accompanying their mother in gathering firewood to use in cooking. Girls of the tribe are allowed to get married in an average age of 14. The boys to be grooms are normally 3-5 years older of the bride.â€Å"Most marriages are negotiated by the two families, with a civil ceremony sealing the contract. A priest may be present. Divorce is allowed and must also be negotiated. There is also a â€Å"temporary marriage,† by oral contract before witnesses. The woman is paid housekeeper's wages, and is not eligible for inheritance, but children of the marriage are legally recognized and qualify for inheritance. Priests may marry but not eligible for divorce or remarriage† (http://www.africaguide.com/culture/tribes/amhara.htm). Women also banner the attitude of respect and to their husbands. Priests are only allowed to get married once. There is variety of religions present in the Amhara culture but the most dominant religion is the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.The Amhara people are not fond of trusting people coming from other places. They are people who are cautious in their relation to foreign people and things.COMPARISON AND CONTRASTThe two cultures highlighted in this paper (Dinka and Amhara) are two great cultures who have rich traditions. In looking at the two cultures, there are noticeable similarities and as well as differences.The Dinkas lived in the Basin of the Nile while the Amhara people are from high terrains and mountains. It is harder for the Amhara people to be acc essed by foreign people and even for them to travel. The two cultures rely more on farming and animal raising as the source of their subsistence but it was harder for the Amhara people to farm because of the location of their inhabited places while it is also harder for the Dinkas to defend themselves from foreign enemies because also of the location of their homes.The Dinkas however, are more conservative in their view of marriage. Though in both cultures, remarrying is allowed, the Dinkas only allow remarrying if the husband has already died or absent for a long time. In Amhara tribe, divorce is allowed and is done by negotiation. In the Dinka tribe, they are more giving emphasis to family dignity that is why they only allow women to get married again if she marries the brother or the cousin of the former husband. The Amhara tribe on the other hand, allows their priests to get married.The two tribes have the same view on the women in their families. Women are there to prepare food for the whole family and to take care of their children. Women have respect for their husbands in both of the tribes. The marrying age for men however differs for the two tribes. The Amhara tribe allows a lower marrying age at approximately at least 16 years old while the Dinka tribe allows men to get married at 18 years old.CONCLUSIONThere are a lot of different cultures around the world. No culture is exactly the same with another. It is of great reality that culture is different coming from different contexts. In the case of the two cultures examined and discussed I this paper, there are differences found and as well as similarities. This presupposes the richness of one’s culture. We cannot really limit the innovativeness of people’s minds. The only certain in this world is the constant development of cultures in their beliefs and practices and there is a constant change in it. The conception of people regarding families also evolves through time and differs in dif ferent cultures.May this paper remind us how rich people’s cultures and how they evolve and grow over time. Cultures are true manifestations of man’s richness in his mind and in his being because cultures are created from people’s discovery and thinking. The cultures of today may not be present tomorrow but it is of great significance in building tomorrow’s cultures.BIBLIOGRAPHYJenkins, Orville Boyd & Lundquist Robert. The Amhara People of Ethiopia. 2006. 10 Mar. 2007 Kuol, William. Dinka Religion and Culture. 10 Mar. 2007Dinka Background. 10 Mar. 2007African People & Culture. 10 Mar. 2007http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/courses/122/module1/symbolic.html