Research Topics: Evidence Of Knowledge Of Theory

Is creative advertising essential?

Is creative advertising essential? Coke Vs Pepsi A Literature Review             Introduction             Organizational theorists regard creativity as the foundation of competitive advantage (1988, 1996; 1990;1995), and further defining it (creativity) as the production of fresh and utilitarian products that heighten a firm’s ability to react to environmental opportunities (1983;  1990; 1986; 1993). Earlier research has studied personal characteristics such as general creative ability, domain-relevant skills, and intrinsic motivation (1981), as well as organizational factors, such as job complexity and supervision style (1988; 1996;1989), as factors that alleviate creative performance. Lately, researchers have also looked into the joint contribution of personal and organizational factors and have found that high levels of both factors promote the highest degrees of creative performance ( 1996).             However, creative processes in organizations are not fully understood (1993), allowing some key unanswered questions such as “Are there processes that are capable of developing creative designs, and are these processes different from those that may be used to produce designs that are not considered creative?” (1993). Such questions are especially appropriate to advertising organizations, for in spite of Ford’s (1996) conclusion that domains at the organizational level do not generally encourage creativity, the advertising domain is singled out as an exception because of its inherently creative purpose. What is ironic though is advertising creativity has hardly been studied. Creative Advertising Theories The sound of music- Many researchers have considered the impact of music in advertising, either from a classical conditioning perspective (1992;1982; 1989; 1988), or they have examined how sound effects 1992) or different physical characteristics of the music such as the tempo, pitch, and loudness (1990; 1990; 1993) affect listeners’ responses. Music can be incredibly evocative, and therefore of tremendous use to advertisers with a strong aspirational element in their advertising. Music can be used in an ad to achieve a variety of objectives – sometimes in combination such as to gain attention (1994 ; 2000).To create a mood to give an ad pace or energy To make the ad more likeable/enjoyable To identify the brand, or emphasise it To reflect/borrow a lifestyle To provide background to a commercial To make the ad – or the brand – more memorable (1997). Furthermore  (1997) also pointed out that there is evidence to suggest that the regular use of the same music for a brand can, over time, generate familiarity and enhance involvement with the brand. Music’s main contribution to an ad is to increase interest and enjoyment. Music does little to convey a message or aid understanding of the brand – but can act as a ‘signature tune’ for it, with frequent repetition. It can, however, provide clear brand identity. It can create atmosphere. It can support a clear brand personality. It can make a lifestyle statement about the brand. Background music has little effect, though it may enhance a mood. Braithwaite’s conclusions on the effect of music on understanding are reflected by  (2000) who found that music does not help brand understanding, but enhances brand familiarity.  (1995) reports a detailed analysis of a music video that carries potentially valuable lessons for commercial producers in the ways in which music can create the structure of an ad, defining changes in mood, pace and emotional intensity. The Sounds of Coke and Pepsi  In 1969, The Coca-Cola Company and its advertising agency, , ended their popular “Things Go Better With Coke” campaign, replacing it with a campaign that centered on the slogan “It’s the Real Thing.” Beginning with a hit song, the new campaign featured what proved to be one of the most popular ads ever created. The television ad “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” was released first in Europe, where it garnered only a tepid response. It was then released in the U.S. in July, 1971, and the response was immediate and dramatic. By November of that year, Coca-Cola and its bottlers had received more than a hundred thousand letters about the ad. I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” has had a lasting connection with the viewing public. Advertising surveys consistently identify it as one of the best commercials of all time, and the sheet music continues to sell more than thirty years after the song was written. Such is the power of television advertising that through the enduring popularity of this ad, at least, Coke has borne out something of Backer’s ambitious claims for it, becoming a common connection among people. I’d like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love, Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves. I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company. [Repeat the last two lines, and in the background:] It’s the real thing, Coke is what the world wants today.   Pepsi, likewise, have been using music as it’s identity from generation to generation of Pepsi lovers. From today’s “Joy of Pepsi,” as sung by , to yesterday’s ” (1939), its musical ads are as memorable as the products it produce. Pepsi’s last major campaign change was in 1999, when it debuted “The Joy of Cola,” which became “The Joy of Pepsi” in 2000. Pepsi ads identifies itself with the youth and its youthful attitude and Pepsi continously updates its look with a bolder, more contemporary image that better captures the brand’s youthful attitude. Mere Exposure The Ad Size (the bigger the better) – In the late 1960s, social psychologist  (1968) offered the world a theory of mere exposure in forming a preference (attitude). Based on his experiments, he concluded that “preference is created simply from repeated exposure, with no associated cognitive activity” (1996). Few would argue that a relatively large ad is a powerful attention-grabber. Perhaps more importantly, the size of a print advertisement may convey important brand-related information that consumers use to form purchase-relevant inferences. That is, people tend to evaluate the success or reputation of the business by the size of an ad based on the notion that the bigger an ad is, the more credible the business is (1986). The impact of ad size and its ability to communicate success or credibility is, in part, due to consumer inferences about the perceived cost of the advertisement. Using ad size to manipulate perceived ad cost, it has been shown that consumers use their impression of the amount of money spent on advertising as a cue to product quality when such information is not provided in the ad (1990). Coke vs. Pepsi and Visibility Both Coke and Pepsi being international brand enjoy wider exposure and visibility. Generations after generations have seen numerous advertisements of both brands on the most popular medium, the television. Both brands also employed huge print media from magazines to huge billboards as a medium in promoting and identifying their product. At present, both brands are also highly visible in internet ads and pop-ups. Coke and Pepsi also invested on creating websites to ensure continuous and farther reach of their ads. Both brands also invest heavily on events sponsorship like Olympics, the World Cup, the NBA, and Super Bowl. Marketing Strategy in UK             In a European study, it was found out that more people drink soft drinks than tea. Pepsi and Coke are the major market players in the soft drink industry in UK. But in 1994, Virgin Cola entered the scene by taking the soft drink giants into price war. Coke answered not by matching Virgin’s price cuts but with a £40 million advertising campaign that punctuated its product as the ‘real thing’. On the larger market Pepsi has launched a world-wide advertising campaign. The £500 million ‘Project Blue’ aims to distinguish Pepsi from its chief competitor Coke and other brands such as Virgin Cola by changing the color of the Pepsi can to electric blue.             At present both Coke and Pepsi are focusing more on enhancing their Gender Marketing Strategies. Both the giant brands are investing on research about the current consumer behavior involving gender in European Countries. In progressive countries like Norway, Sweden and the UK, it has been found out that the lifestyle of men and women are increasingly becoming more similar that purchasing opportunities are also becoming gender neutral. In traditional countries like Spain, purchasing opportunity is more gender specific, because women usually do the shopping. It was also found out by Pepsi that there is a negative bias as to men dieting, in response to that they created Pepsi Max and Pepsi One as opposed to Diet Cokes (2005). Pepsi also established partnership with sports in UK especially in football (FA), and they are integrating the brand to popular websites especially football sites as part of their advertising campaign. Coke on the other hand made a deal with one of the most popular movie in the decade, Harry Potter, Coca-Cola has revealed its marketing plans for its multi-million dollar tie-in with the Harry Potter movie, including the aim to get children reading. Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy will see television advertisements, in-store promotions, giveaways and reading tours. More than 850 million Coca-Cola, Minute Maid and Hi-C promotional packages are being produced with Harry Potter imagery. Consumer Perception on Advertisement             Most of the theories on consumer perception actually can be integrated into a single one, which is selective perception. Other theories usually talks about repetitive exposure, and attention grabbing ideas. All of this theories can be incorporated to selective perception for according to this theory, we only pick information as to what we deem relevant to us.             Selective perception- Most of our knowledge about everyday life is integrated in terms of what we perceive to be relevant to us, and it follows that our actions are governed by what’s relevant to us. It thus makes sense that for advertising to be effective is to make it relevant to the consumers.  (1967) said that advertising could reach that level of significance if it speaks what are the immediate interests of the consumers or the general situation the society.  (1981) added further that essential element needed for involvement is perceived personal relevance.             Coke and Pepsi, in all its advertising themes involve both brands trying to create an image as being part of the popular culture, the “in” thing. When the diet fad became the popular thing to do, both brands produce diet soda to the market. Diet Coke and Pepsi Max were imaged as an alternative to those who enjoys soft drinks but are on the diet. They also associate the brands to world events such as coke’s partnership with the Olympics and Pepsi to European football. Coke even advocates reading to children as part of its advertising campaign. Coke was also successful in its “coke collectibles” as part of its ad campaign of trying to image coca-cola as part of the yesteryears. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Is creative advertising essential?

Is creative advertising essential? Coke Vs Pepsi A Literature Review Introduction Organizational theo...

Operations Management Assignment

Introduction Improving organizational productivity is an issue that has been showing for some time and will continue to be important. All types of organizations need to be as productive as possible to best utilize their precious resources, to meet their customers needs, and to stay competitive with similar organizations. Productivity improvement is also important at a national level. As people continue to improve their national productivity, inflation is moderated, their standard of living improves, and jobs are created or retained. There are two basic approaches to improving productivity within an organization. One can change technology or one can change how people work. The former is the realm of the engineer; the second is the realm of the behavioral scientist. Although improving technology is, of course, important to long-range productivity growth, it is how people use this technology that makes it a worthwhile investment to the organization. Thus, the concern is how to structure work so that people can and will want to behave in a way that will maximize their productivity (1995).   The term productivity means different things to different people. However, most definitions fall into one of three categories. The first is the economist/engineer definition, where productivity is an efficiency measure: the ratio of outputs over inputs, where both usually are expressed in dollar terms. An example of productivity or efficiency under this definition would be the dollar value of refrigerators produced this month divided by the total costs to produce them. The second definition of productivity is a combination of efficiency that can be said as outputs/inputs and effectiveness or outputs/goals. In this definition a company making refrigerators could measure productivity by a combination of the efficiency measure above plus an effectiveness measure, such as number of refrigerators divided by the objective or goal for the number to be produced that month. The third definition of productivity is the broadest and considers productivity as anything that makes the organization function better. In this definition, productivity would include efficiency and effectiveness, but also things like absenteeism, turnover, morale, innovation, etc (1995).   Industrialization puts increasing emphasis on the need for higher productivity of labor.  Management is the principal factor determining the productivity of labor, if it will be assumed that capital and raw material inputs are the same. Thus, the compulsion for higher productivity in the advanced industrial countries demands high-level manpower resources. The technical problem involved in raising productivity of labor is the most obvious and historically the earliest reason recognized for adding to the managerial group. The increase of dexterity which the division of labor facilitates is applied generally to direction and control of production; and the tasks of management become professional specialties. Thus, management must decide how its increasingly complex tasks can be subdivided and carried out (1959).    The essential function of selecting, training, and developing the work force becomes the special concern of the personnel department, employing a variety of experts to assist management in finding the best workers, and providing advice and assistance in their most efficient utilization. It is well known that marked increases in labor productivity can be achieved in an enterprise simply through better selection and utilization of the work force, combined with improved layout and planning of the production process ( 1959). The paper will focus on how to improve the operation efficiency in an organization. To determine the ways to improve the operation efficiency of the organization different methods will be used to analyze the operation efficiency. Included in the method is SWOT analysis of the firm. After determining ways to improve efficiency a proper conclusion will then be made.   Operations management concepts Planning Fundamentally, operating plans allocate tasks to specific facilities in each planning period for example week, month, or some other time period in order to achieve particular objectives. In seasonal businesses, operating plans must reflect seasonal variations in capacities, resolve supplies, product demands, quality requirements, prices, and costs. Operational planning deals in aggregated or average values of variables in the system, such as product demands, equipment capacity, standard costs, and inventory levels. An example of operational planning is the specification of an oil refinery’s quarterly running plan, comprising flow rates, crude oils, and processing conditions required to make the needed amounts of products and blending components. The quarterly running plan establishes ground rules for short-term production planning, such as determining what components will be available with which to blend products according to different formulas. Short-range planning, like medium-range planning, is an extension of long-range corporate plans (1987).  The end result of all short-range planning activities focuses primarily on financial data that is flexible or variable budgets that are developed for stated levels of possible production. To produce detailed balance sheet and income statement data for the coming year, financial data are fed into the corporate computer. The flexible budgeting computer program takes into account the values set forth for the lowest level of expected plant capacity, and develops corresponding figures for other levels of capacity. Appropriate financial statements are developed and printed for these various levels of capacity. Flexible budgeting data are also written onto the corporate computerized files for comparison with actual figures as they occur month by month (1987).   Generally, problem finding is found at the higher levels of planning, namely, strategic and tactical. However, if one examines operational planning in some depth, it is not too difficult to determine the need for problem finding. For example, reference can be made to the area of scheduling and dispatching. The objective is to assign and sequence units of identifiable resources such as people, machines, raw materials, and so forth to manufacture or deliver given quantities of products, consistent with a longer-interval operating plan such as a quarterly operational plan. At this level, planning deals with specific units and operating rates (1987). Products and facilities must be identified explicitly, and start-up times, sequences of production steps, actual and not average production rates, unit downtimes, and costs must be treated in detail. Nonlinearities in cost or production functions that are properly ignored or approximated in longer range planning are critical in scheduling and dispatching. Based upon these facts surrounding scheduling and dispatching, there are a number of techniques for improving these production control activities. However, the behavioral aspects of how line personnel think and act must be considered. Typically, the approach to manufacturing operations results in do what you are told and don’t ask questions. This one-way directive approach turns many employees off. Hence, they do only what they are told (1987).   Organizing Total quality management (TQM) is an approach to improving the effectiveness and flexibility of businesses as a whole. It is essentially a way of organizing and involving the whole organization; every department, every activity, every single person at every level (2002). Total Quality Management is both a philosophy and a methodology. It can assist institutions to manage change and to set their own agendas for dealing with the plethora of new external pressures. Considerable claims are made for TQM. There are those in education who believe that TQM properly applied to it can complete a similar transformation. However, TQM does not and will not bring results overnight; neither is it a panacea for all the problems that beset companies. Rather it is an important set of tools that can be employed in the management of institutions (2002).  Total quality management incorporates quality assurance, and extends and develops it. TQM is about creating a quality culture where the aim of every member of staff is to delight their customers, and where the structure of their organization allows them to do so. In TQM the customer is sovereign. TQM is about providing the customer with what they want, when they want it and how they want it. It involves moving with changing customer expectations and fashions to design products and services that meet and exceed their expectations. Only by delighting customers will they return and tell their friends about it although this is sometimes called the sell-on definition of quality. The perceptions and expectations of customers are recognized as being short term and fickle, and so organizations have to find ways of keeping close to their customers to be able to respond to their changing tastes, needs and wants ( 2002).   Organizing often has been looked upon as purely a technical matter. There is no need to assemble the evidence. The point should be plain even to the casual reader of the literatures of business administration or public administration. In its most unadulterated form, this technical concept encourages a view of organization as simply a drawing-board task, a matter of assigning responsibilities, of allocating jobs or functions and mechanically coordinating them (1967). Organizing is essentially a planning process. It is inter-relating the subdivisions of work by allotting them to men who are placed in a structure of authority, so that the work may be coordinated by orders of superiors to subordinates, reaching from the top to the bottom of the entire enterprise. In this view, organization has order and form, but no life. More exuberant exponents of this view often lapse into mechanistic metaphor. Thus organizing becomes a meshing of gears and wheels in a smoothly running machine. Such metaphors are merely explicit evidence of a technicist bias. The act of organizing must be guided by a design that helps achieve a working consensus among members while it meets technical requirements. The traditional theory of organization does a rather poor job with regard to the latter feature of the double-barreled task of organizing. Fortunately, research to be reviewed in due course suggests that people need not sacrifice consensus for technical efficiency. The word fortunately is used advisedly. Neither consensus nor technical performance can be sacrificed over the longer run, and particularly at advanced technological levels. Thus the stakes are high in the game which the analysis proposes to play (1967).   Scheduling Scheduling is often recognized as the major function in project management. The main purpose of scheduling is to allocate resources so that the overall project objectives are achieved within a reasonable time span. In general, scheduling involves the assignment of time periods to specific tasks within the work schedule. Resource availability, time limitations, urgency level, required performance level, precedence requirements, work priorities, technical constraints, and other factors complicate the scheduling process. Thus, the assignment of a time slot to a task does not necessarily ensure that the task will be performed satisfactorily in accordance with the schedule. Consequently, careful control must be developed and maintained throughout the project scheduling process. Project scheduling is a major function in project management. The project schedule shows the timing of the efforts and resources committed to the project. A master schedule for the overall project is often developed for general overview of a project. In addition, detailed work schedules are developed for specific segments or phases of the project. The detailed schedules serve as operating guides for the project personnel. Project scheduling should be distinguished from sequencing and scheduling in production management even though the same principles and procedures are applicable to both. Production sequencing involves ordering of operations on each machine so as to satisfy the sequence of operations required by a job ( 1993).   A sequence of operations on a job may require that the same type of operation be performed on the same job or product at different times while the job is in production. This may necessitate repeated routing of the job to the same machine at different times. Production scheduling provides a basis for determining when a job is routed from machine to machine for specific operations. This establishes the starting and finishing times of each operation. Production sequencing and scheduling involve developing relative priorities of operations at each machine in order to meet scheduled due dates of individual jobs. The method of prioritizing jobs is often referred to as the dispatching rule for sending jobs to resource centers. In production management, sequencing and scheduling are performed as complementary functions. By contrast, project scheduling deals strictly with the timing of tasks that must be performed in a project. This does not require a machine sequencing process. Even when a task requires multiple performance of the same action, each occurrence of the action is viewed as an activity that must be scheduled separately. Thus, project scheduling is a simplified form of the production scheduling problem. Project scheduling can be carried out as the specific means through which the tasks involved in production management are scheduled and accomplished ( 1993).   Project scheduling involves the following functions. First time and resource estimation wherein estimates are made of the time and resources required to perform each of the network activities. Second is basic scheduling where the basic scheduling computations are performed on a project network by using forward pass and backward pass computational procedures. These computations give the earliest and latest start and finish times for each activity. Schedule management often involves performing time-cost trade-off analysis. The scheduling procedure makes use of tools such as CPM (Critical Path Method), PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique), and Gantt charts. Third time-cost trade offs. In this function, the time-cost trade-off analysis of activity performance times is conducted to determine the cost of reducing the project duration (1993). Fourth is resource allocation where constrained resource allocation refers to the process of allocating limited resources to competing activities in a project. Scheduling heuristics or mathematical allocation models are used in allocating the limited resources during the scheduling phase. A data base of resource availability should be developed for each project prior to starting the scheduling process.  Fifth resource loading and leveling: Resource loading develops the profile of the resource units allocated over time. Resource leveling refers to the process of shifting activities to reduce the period-to-period fluctuations in resource requirements. Lastly schedule control this is used when the network plan and schedule have been satisfactorily developed, they are disseminated in final form for operational use. The schedule is tracked and controlled by comparing actual status to expected status at selected review times. Schedule tracking facilitates frequent review and revision of the project plan (1993).   Monitoring Monitoring and evaluation generate an ongoing, ever changing form of knowledge. It is the product of reflection and the relating of hard facts to theory and a collective vision that produces useful information for the subject leader. Such an approach is particularly relevant when a subject leader attempts to explain how assessment data relate to teaching methodologies employed; it a necessary part of realistic target-setting. Monitoring and evaluation are more than mere measurement; they include a knowledge of how to improve performance given institutional considerations and constraints. That is not to say that the use of comparative data, inspection evidence and local and national standards of achievement do not serve a purpose in providing useful benchmarks. Leaders should be continuously striving for improvement and development. Survival and the maintenance of standards through a climate of stability is stifling. In the face of imposed change, a climate of certainty and predictability can lead to a siege-victim mentality, when leaders feel de-skilled, long-held beliefs and practices are challenged and morale suffers ( 2000).   Monitoring is about the collection of information about an action or activity. The information to be collected has usually been pre-determined and its collection will enable the leader to check out whether or not the action or activity has been successful. Evaluation is the consideration of evidence against criteria, in order to make an overall judgment of the success or otherwise of a series of actions and activities. The evidence that is considered will be the aggregation of the assumptions made as a result of monitoring activity, however informal. Review is the making of decisions about what action, if any, to take as a consequence of the decision reached through evaluation. Monitoring involves a range of activities to collect data about specific aspects of performance. What gets monitored is usually informed by pre-determined targets and performance indicators. Data can then be analyzed to check if targets and indicators are being met .Decisions can be made to improve those actions which do not meet performance criteria (2000). Monitoring activities usually take place continually, although different aspects of performance will be examined according to a schedule outlined in an improvement plan. Evaluation involves making judgments about the overall performance of the aspect in question. These judgments are made based on looking across the analysis of monitoring data in relation to the goals or objectives set out in a plan or policy. Judgments are made about whether the goals or objectives are being or will be met and decisions are made about what action might be taken to change a previously arranged activity. Evaluation usually takes place when there is enough data to make judgments about goal achievement. Annual improvement plans will usually have points identified when evaluation of progress is necessary. Review involves taking a broader view of performance in relation to the summative achievement of the longer-term strategic vision and goals. It takes the outcomes of evaluation, seeks to identify trends and patterns, and estimates the longer-term effects that these may have on desirable achievement. Strategic decisions can then taken about the allocation of staff and resources or the adjustment of future goals and targets for the subject (2000).   Controlling Classic management components are helpful models for public relations practitioners. Functional views of contemporary managerial roles prove more enlightening. They apply to all organizations and fall into six categories that include one organizing resources for optimum productivity, two producing services and products, three managing human resources, four marketing services and products, five financing operations, and lastly controlling operations. Today, a seventh category must be added: environmental assessment. A decade ago, management functions safely could be viewed strictly from organizational perspectives. Managers could concentrate on meeting internal needs. There existed little risk of unpleasant surprises from external sources. These conditions have changed radically. Managers now must be concerned with organizational environments. Social and political trends demand organizations be viewed as components of community, nation, and world rather than self-contained entities. Within seven categories, then, falls every management component applicable to public relations practice. Few differences exist between corporate/institutional departments and consulting firms. They arise primarily where new organizations are contemplated. Public relations counselors then must deal with organizational questions inapplicable to corporate or institutional practice ( 1987).    Uniformity otherwise prevails. Every organization and subunit ultimately must evaluate performance and draw up future plans based on the evaluation. The procedure is a control process. It involves two components: decision making and control. Both apply to all public relations operations. Decision making includes analysis, defining alternatives, selecting courses of action, and implementing decisions. Certainty, risk, and both objective and subjective probabilities must be considered. Control requires developing standards, measuring results, and taking corrective action. Both processes require information. Much of it is generated as accounting and data. The balance is created through production reporting (1987).   Controlling is the management function of adjusting plans to predetermined objectives as they are executed. The controlling process involves distinct activities to measure actual performance, compare performance with standards, and take action to correct deviations when required. Planning points the way to goals, organizing relates goals and structures, coordinating links personnel and resources, and controlling attempts to keep the operation on target. Controlling involves active intervention into ongoing organizational processes to maintain and direct activities in achieving planned objectives. Stated in another way, controlling is a process of monitoring functions or activities to ensure that they achieve stated plans and correct unacceptable deviations. Controlling is a function of all managers, and they know when they are performing well only when actual performance is compared with predetermined or desired standards (1998).    The success of any control system is determined by the degree of congruence between planned and achieved objectives, also known as the control accountability gap.  Control is critically important. It is the final link in the management process, making sure that activities are achieved as planned. Control provides the continuing link between planning and delegating responsibilities. The operating assumption is that there will not necessarily be automatic execution of assigned activities ( 1998).   SWOT analysis To improve the operation efficiency in the organization, different methods can be used. One method is strategic planning. Through this method the company can be given better analysis. The way it operates can also be analyzed. By determining how it operates ways to improve operation efficiency can be given. Strategic Planning is an element of a manager’s job and of the organizations function that deals with the contrivance of change rather than the simple reaction to it. It is a process for setting future direction, a means to reduce risk, and a way to train managers. Lastly it is the process by which the guiding members of the organization envisions its future and develop the necessary procedures and operations to achieve that future (1991). Effective strategic planning includes an environmental scan; a mission statement; a set of strategies; Objectives for each strategy; tactics; and controls, measures and evaluation steps. Environmental scan includes situation analysis, and swot analysis including examination of internal and external factors. A mission statement defines the fundamental function of the organization and its purpose. A tactic is a short term operation plan to meet the objectives. A principal part of strategic planning is SWOT analysis whereby the organization accesses its principal strengths, weakness in comparison to opportunities and threats in the external environment (1998).  The goal of the SWOT analysis is to identify critical strategic factors and then to build on core strengths; eliminate undermining weaknesses; take quick advantage of significant opportunities; and circumnavigate or mitigate threats.  There’s no point to a half-hearted or cosmetic SWOT analysis; that only reinforces the status quo. SWOT is a tool for questioning assumptions and thinking outside the box (2003). SWOT analysis gives the company information on the strength and weakness it has and matches it with the competitive environment it engages in. It also helps a company create strategic plans that can counter any problem or threat from competitors. SWOT analysis tends to help companies determine what aspects they excel in and what aspects they have problems in. It also helps companies determine its status against rivals.    Strength Strengths are the strong points of the business. To know the strengths of the things that should be known includes the sources of the company’s revenue, the market share of the company in various product lines, the availability of strong brands of a company, the effectiveness of the advertisement of the brand or product, the availability of pool of skilled workers, the morale of the employees, the innovativeness of the company and the ability of the company to withstood international competition.  One of the strength of Shell with regards to its operations management is procedures that are well planned and organized.  The procedures that shell used are well arranged and are made so that lesser problems will arise. Another strength of shell with regards to its operations management is well trained employees. Having well trained employees who makes sure that the production process works is a good thing for the company. These employees doesn’t need too much supervision and monitoring. Through these employees the operations of the company will go through without much hassle. Moreover a strength of shell with regards to its operations management is it having the best source of raw materials that it uses to produce the best products. The raw materials came from the best places and through it the best products are made. Lastly a strength of shell with regards to its operations management is its competitiveness with the operations management of other companies particularly its competitors. Through having such operations management the company can gain advantage against its rivals and the company can produce products superior than their rivals.   Weakness Weaknesses are the current problems of the company. To determine the weakness of the company the things that should be known includes the products that are least profitable, areas of the company that is not able to recover cost, the weak brands, the ability of the company to raise money when it needs to, the ability of the company to stand price pressures against competitors, the ability of the company to create new ideas, the faith of employees in management and the ability to compete with other companies in the technology front. Shell’s weakness with regards to its operations management is its lacking safety policies. The policies in the operations management are of good quality but it lacks safety policies. Problems may arise out of it. The safety policies prevent the company to have problems due to accidents while the business is operating. Another weakness of Shell’s operations management is it having no backup plans. The company must have secondary measures to use when its operations management is not working. This prevents any problem to enlarge. Moreover a weakness of shell’s operations management is it not being able to adjust to trends.  As the world changes the operations management should adjust to it so that the company can offer the best product to the clients. Lastly a weakness of shell’s operations management is it still using traditional techniques. Using traditional techniques is not entirely bad but it hampers the improvement and the changes that can still be done.   Opportunities             Opportunities are those events or situations that may arise in the future. To determine the opportunities of the company the things that should be known includes competitive position of the company, new technologies that the company can innovate for low costs, the capacity and opportunity to extend brands, the capacity to implement incentive plans to boost employee effectiveness, the ability of the company to move up the value chain, the ability of employees to be multi-skilled to reduce levels of redundancy, opportunities to cooperate with companies that are not competitors for both companies to be beneficial. An opportunity for shell’s operations management is modernization of its techniques. Through modernization of the company’s techniques it can create high quality products and give outmost satisfaction to its clients.  Another opportunity for shell’s operations management is to update its processes to world standards. By doing such they can gain advantage over their competitors and attract more clients. Moreover an opportunity for shell’s operations management is introduce safety measures to make sure that the personnel acquiring raw materials and producing the products will not be encountering problems or accidents. Lastly an opportunity for shell’s operations management is improvement in the training process of the employees. By making the employees the company will reap its future benefits and be more competitive than ever.   Threats Threats are problems that may arise and should be avoided. To determine the threats of the company the things that should be known includes the capacity of employees to be adequately trained, the capacity of the company to withstand sudden changes in the environment, the ability of the brands to withstand price competition, the financial being on the verge of liquidity, is the company considered a good employer, and the ability of the company to cope up with technological changes. A threat for shell’s operations management is possible loss of raw materials. The company’s raw materials may not be available forever and if not given proper attention and focus the company may not have any materials that it can use to create its products. Another threat for shell’s operations management is other alternative raw materials competitors may find out. These raw materials may last longer than the company’s raw materials.  Moreover a threat to shells’ operations management is changes in trends. In the future the company’s product may not be anymore useful. The company should formulate plans to ensure that the company will continue to exist when such event happens. Lastly a threat for shell’s operations management is the laws in the country they are operating in. Laws are a vital part of a country. These laws are the ones that initiate order and discipline in the country. There may be laws that can cause some delay in selling and producing the products. These laws can hamper business operations to be completed. These laws are enacted to protect the welfare of local sellers in that specific country.  Since there are different laws in different countries it can also cause problems for the company. Laws in Taiwan are different from the laws in Switzerland therefore the laws in one country may cause problems for the company while in another country it may not be a problem.     Deming Wheel Aside from the SWOT analysis one method that can be used to determine how to improve a company’s efficiency is the Deming wheel. The Deming wheel has four division namely act, plan, check and do. The said wheel is used to determine sources of variations that cause products to deviate from consumers. Through the wheel problems with regards to clients and customers can be determined. Through the wheel possible means to alleviate efficiency concerning products and clients can be made. () In the wheel the first thing that is done on operations management is planning. Planning includes determining rules, procedures, budget, personnel, and other things that will make sure that no problems will be encountered and operations will run smoothly. Planning involves what how much budget will be used in making shell’s products, it involves determining certain rules and practices that must be followed in creating shell’s products.  In planning, potential problems regarding the personnel are addressed and preparations are made so that its effects will not be too big. Personnel can have problems regarding safety methods, insurances, and other concerns they have in producing the company’s product.  The success of the whole operations depends on how well a plan has been formulated.   The next thing that transpires is doing. In this part the plan is put into action, operations is underway, production is being implemented. In doing, the plan should be followed and the plan should be the main focus. Without a proper plan doing in a business operation would be worthless. The next part is checking. In this part problems are known and what causes these problems is discovered. In checking, the events after implementing the plan are analyzed. After the plan has been executed there are different situations and problems that can arise out of it and checking takes a look at each.  After which actions regarding the problems are made. In acting, problems seen in checking are given solution. Acting should be the stage in operations management that less to no problems will come out. In the case of shell the Deming wheel lets planning be done then the plan is used in running the operation. Afterwards the effects of the implementation of the actions are done then the next thing done is to solve the problems seen and observed.   Improving the operation efficiency in the organization Suggestions to improve the organizations operations efficiency includes giving additional seminars and trainings to the personnel, creating safety measures, strengthening processes, learning new techniques, keeping the plants safe, solving problems among personnel and finding means to counter financial problems. To improve the operations efficiency of the organization one thing that can be done is to give trainings and seminars to the personnel by doing so the operations will not encounter any problems and it the products created will be of good quality. The personnel are the ones that have a main function in the business operations and giving them added knowledge can be beneficial for the company in the long term. To improve the operations efficiency of the company safety measures should be created so that the personnel will have no worries in performing business operations. One thing that hampers efficiency is when employees fear that something might happen to them while in the process of making their product, having safety measures help in lessening such fear. To improve the operations efficiency of the company one thing that can be done is to strengthen the operations processes. By doing so lesser mistakes can be committed. By strengthening the operations processes the company can minimize redoing a project or a product.   To improve the operations efficiency of the company the company can learn new techniques. By learning new techniques the company can make the product in a faster way and with lesser errors. The new techniques can help in increasing the speed of production and through it problems that are encountered when using old techniques will be avoided. New techniques can be achieved by having a company representative attend seminars and symposium by doing so this representative can learn more and he/she can share this learning with the company. Another thing that the company should do to improve its operations efficiency is to make plants safe. When threats on the lives of the personnel are present they might not do well and they might be uninterested to work and produce products. By making sure that the plants are safe the employees will have lesser worries and fears.  Moreover to improve operations efficiency solving problems among personnel should be done. Dissension among the employees makes efficiency more difficult to achieve. Lastly to improve operations efficiency one thing that can be done is finding means to counter financial problems. Through having more finances the operations will be done with better equipments and techniques thus efficiency can be acquired. These ways to improve the efficiency of the company’s operation will be beneficial to the company if used well and no other problems will come out.   Conclusion All types of organizations need to be as productive as possible to best utilize their precious resources, to meet their customers needs, and to stay competitive with similar organizations. To improve the operation efficiency in the organization, different methods can be used. One method is strategic planning. Through this method the company can be given better analysis. The way it operates can also be analyzed. A principal part of strategic planning is SWOT analysis whereby the organization accesses its principal strengths, weakness in comparison to opportunities and threats in the external environment. Aside from the SWOT analysis one method that can be used to determine how to improve a company’s efficiency is the Deming wheel. The Deming wheel has four division namely act, plan, check and do.  Suggestions to improve the organizations operations efficiency includes giving additional seminars and trainings to the personnel, creating safety measures, strengthening processes, learning new techniques, keeping the plants safe, solving problems among personnel and finding means to counter financial problems. These ways to improve the efficiency of the company’s operation will be beneficial to the company if used well and no other problems will come out.  Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Operations Management Assignment

Introduction Improving organizational productivity is an issue that has been showing for some time and will continue to be important. Al...

Business Ethics

Business Ethics “The role of employees in wealth creation” Introduction             This chapter focuses on business ethics.  Specifically, it deals with the role and importance of employees in wealth creation.  Moreover, this paper talks about the impact of employees on the growth of companies in proving to the employers’ claim that their employees are their greatest asset.              There is also been a discussion about perspectives on corporate social responsibility.  Additionally, this paper analyzes the impact of national cultural values on the ethical practices of companies towards employees.              As a closing and finale statement is the analysis of the role of employees in wealth creation and of course how do companies respond to the welfare of employees as their most important asset.  This paper also assesses the responsibility of companies for the wellbeing and interests of employees.              The difficulty that we have today in finding and keeping the skilled employees who make us successful is the result of a revolution.  The revolution is the new understanding of the role of employees in organizations.  We now realize that those skilled employees make the difference between winning and losing.  And, like other revolutions, its impact will be with us for a long time.  If you think it is hard to retain employees now, be aware that in the future it will be worse.  The revolution in our thinking—that employees have a critical role in our success—led to the rise of the twenty-first century employment relationship.    Scarcity of skilled employees. As more and more organizations understand that the right workforce gives them a competitive advantage, the demand for employees with the right skills increases.  This is happening at all levels of the workforce, from frontline customer service representatives to professional engineering experts to top management. Retention is about keeping the skilled employees who make a difference.  Most employers find that people with technical skills as well as analytic, communication, and other so-called soft skills who work creatively and deal effectively with customers are in short supply.    Revolution of the Employment Contract             There has been a paradigm shift in the employee-employer relationship. The old contract was one of mutual obligation but an unequal power balance: It paired an employee’s “doing a good job” with the employer’s “I’ll take care of you.” The new contract is an exchange relationship in which each side has a degree of freedom.  The employee says: “I’ll do my best as long as I can get what I need from you.” In response, the employer says: “You’ll have a job if you can contribute what I need as we go along.” Impact of the Employment Revolution             The shift is not a temporary phenomenon.  It is a result of long-term economic, political, and technological processes that have shifted power in the direction of the employee.  Employees, especially the most capable ones, have an increased confidence in their ability to work under conditions that fill their own needs. They can negotiate the terms of employment that suit them and change jobs and careers to secure better conditions. The movement of power to the employee will continue over a long time, despite fluctuations associated with the economic cycle and specific labor markets. That is why retention is so important today and why we will continue to find it difficult to retain the employees we want to keep. The Role of Human Resource             It is erroneous to assume that technological advances have abolished scarcity and there are plenty of resources to satisfy our affluent society. We are neither as rich nor as technologically advanced as we think, but our economic growth has come about primarily through over-absorption of unemployed resources. The ultimate price of this extravagance will probably be the need to recycle all materials as there will no longer be abundant resources. Conservation, rather than consumption, will become virtuous ( 1966).             The other basic assumptions are generally accepted as being valid under prescribed circumstances. First, the productive abilities of a nation or firm are based upon the integration of the abilities of its members with the physical resources and technology available to it. The human abilities consist of the capabilities of all the individuals, as modified by environmental factors. Second, the quality, as well as the quantity, of the human resource can only be improved through finding the individuals with the required productive capacities and increasing those capabilities through education, training, and development. Third, the most effective utilization of this resource can be obtained only through motivating individuals to apply those abilities to the productive effort in the greatest degree feasible. Although there is no clearly stated and adequate definition of the term, human resources, it can be thought of as the total knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents, and aptitudes of a nation’s production population, as well as the values, attitudes, and beliefs of the individuals involved. From the point of view of an individual firm, it is the sum of the inherent abilities, acquired knowledge, and skills represented by the sum of the talents and aptitudes of its employees. Human Resource Philosophy             The human resources philosophy views the productivity of employees as being an economic resource of a firm or a nation. The employee himself, in his relationships to the other members of the organization, is viewed according to the concept of human dignity. This approach provides for the economic aspect of personnel administration, which is judged in terms of the economic analysis of employee productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, costs, and profitability. On the other hand, the philosophical aspect of personnel administration is given credence, that is, the importance of recognizing and respecting the personal dignity of each human entity. Although the human resources philosophy is made up of the better elements of both the previous philosophies and may at first appear quite similar to the human relations philosophy, there are subtle but significant differences in its assumptions, the emphasis being placed upon the assumptions, and in the cause and effect relationships drawn from the assumptions (1969). Managing Human Resources “The highest and best form of efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of a free people. (1987). It is believed that the most significant aspect of personnel management is to be found through the direction and control of the human resources of an organization in its daily operations. Reliance cannot be placed upon organized personnel programs and procedures; instead, success is predicated upon a living, practical managerial philosophy. Such an ethical value provides the manager with his basic assumptions and his sense of values, and permits him to make equitable decisions that are “fair” to all members of the organization, not to just a relatively few. As the success of any enterprise is almost entirely dependent upon the manner in which managers supervise and direct the employees in the course of their working activities, it is advantageous to managers to develop such a philosophy. Of necessity, as well as by choice, an effective executive must give much time and attention to the effective and efficient utilization of the human resources at his disposal. Also, the successful performance of the personnel function necessitates that each manager orient himself within his total business environment in order to help achieve the various organizational programs and objectives ( 1972). The achievement of this goal requires an intensive search for managerial theories and a study of their application to organizational growth and behavior. This goal can only be achieved through research and the development of management theory. As this occurs, the discipline we know as “Personnel management” will be better understood and this, in turn, will lead to a greater perception, understanding, and predictability of human behavior. A preliminary step toward achieving this type of understanding is to study the role of the human resources in an organizational setting, how they are organized into viable work groups, and how they are managed. A major premise of this study is that the human factor is the most important element in business enterprises, as well as in other organizations. When analyzing the components that constitute the wealth of a country or organization, the irreplaceable value of the human resource must be considered in addition to that of the material and financial resources. As this important element involves the intangible and aesthetic factors of human life, however, the same criteria of value cannot be applied to it as to material or economic goods. Implications for Employers             The problem for many managers is what direction to take in positive treatment of employees. Many managers are well schooled in the finance and economics of management. But few are equally trained in human resource management. For most who have received some training in management, it has proven to be mostly a history lesson. That is, we were taught that if we “did something” to employees, like changing a light bulb, they would respond positively. The emphasis did not even have to be positive and productivity would increase. We learned of the “Hawthorne Effect” and, unfortunately, paternalization of the employee was the lesson we took away with us from the training (1987). Financial Rewards as Stimulants to Productivity             Employee remuneration serves as a reward for past performance and as a stimulus to increase future performance.  These are called financial stimulants such as incentive wages, profit sharing, bonuses, merit wage increases, and measured day-work.  Employee Benefits             These items are increasing in importance as part of the compensation package because bigger and costlier benefits continue to be major goals of labor unions. These benefits are often emphasized by individual employees in choosing or remaining with an employer. Other factors leading to increased emphasis upon these items are: increased leisure time available to all workers; higher levels of affluence; and further social legislation by governments ( 1970).             Business management has long been concerned with welfare programs designed to protect the employee, or the employee and his dependents, against the basic hazards of life such as the problems of old age, disability, illness and accidents, unemployment, and health.  Some of the programs that have been established to provide a measure of economic protection against these contingencies include private pension plans, private death and disability benefits plans, workmen’s compensation, unemployment compensation, and Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance.               Many of these programs, such as private pension plans, were established directly by management. In other instances the programs were initiated by the government, at either the state or the federal level, even though they are largely financed by industry. Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, for example, while established by the federal government is financed equally by industry and its employees, and workmen’s compensation was created by government at the state level but is also financed entirely by industry. To the average worker, employee benefits are a concrete and visible evidence of the good life which is his goal. He tends to perceive them as a means of security and a means of tax saving–which is a pleasure to everyone. Conclusion             This paper provided awareness of how important are the employees and workforce to organizations, firms, and nation as well.  Smart managers are becoming increasingly responsive of the nature of their investments in people.  Chosen carefully, maintained thoughtfully, and fueled with adequate wages, fair hours, and a committed concern to nurture their emotional and career-oriented growth needs, the people that make up the labor force will respond better than a well-maintained machine.  As a result, labor will produce efficiently, effectively, enthusiastically and will respond with dedication, loyalty, and a commitment to the company and the product.    Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Business Ethics

Business Ethics “The role of employees in wealth creation” Introduction This chapter focuses on business ethics. Specific...

Business Case Study and Critique: Your Choice of Entrepreneur

Business Case Study and Critique: Your Choice of Entrepreneur

Metaphorical Systems and their Implications to Teaching English as a Foreign Language

p class=”MsoBodyText” style=”text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 200%”>                                      Metaphorical Systems and their Implications to Teaching English as a Foreign Language       Abstract       This paper is about an investigation into metaphorical systems as an approach to teach polysemous words to foreign language learners. Metaphorical usage is prevalent in authentic texts and the foreign language learner when dealing with them is faced with words that carry several meanings. In order to see the prevalence as such and also to see the nature of polysemy in comparison with the first language, two newspaper articles at random were chosen. The articles are both on the same topic, elections, and one is in English and the other in Japanese. The metaphorical systems found in the articles were found to be prevalent in both languages except for a few marked ones. However, the extent of polysemy seemed to differ. The method of translating each article into the other language made comparison of the usage of the polysemous words useful. It is argued that such an effective way of discovering polysemy may facilitate vocabulary learning. In conclusion, this study favors the introduction of an approach that uses metaphorical systems to develop the foreign language learner’s English vocabulary.     Introduction In their joint commitment to finding out ‘how people understand their language and their experience’,  (1980) studied the patterns of metaphors that occurred in everyday English. They found a systematicity in the usage of conventional expressions and novel language constructions as well as a systematicity in the reasoning of abstract concepts. Their findings led them to the generalization that ‘our ordinary conceptual system is metaphorical in nature’ (1980) and that it is in constant use just like the ‘system of grammatical and phonological rules’ that operate unconsciously and automatically (1993), and thus challenging the traditional view that figurative language is ‘unimportant, deviant, and parasitic on “normal usage” ’ (1993:). For the English teacher, such as myself, this has some important implications. I have often wondered of ways to promote the understanding of metaphorical concepts ‘in the way that the target language community does’ (1998). In the ‘authentic material’ I use, such as humorous language, song lyrics, movie scripts, newspaper and magazine articles, myths, tales and fables, the students have to deal with numerous metaphorical concepts which are sometimes quite different from their own Japanese ones. Usually, I would resort to paraphrasing, translations and dictionary definitions. But now with mounting evidence and empirical findings (1987; 1986;  1990) related to the systematicity and pervasiveness of conventional metaphors, I am motivated to think of a more macroscopic way of dealing with the problem. In this paper, I will attempt at identifying and comparing the ‘metaphorical systems’ (i.e.: the systematicity of metaphors) used in two newspaper articles, one in English and the other in Japanese. This is relevant to my teaching situation at Kyoto Municipal Saikyo Senior High School in Japan where I am preparing my students to read and comprehend university entrance examination reading texts which are usually‘adult level, well-written, grammatically and stylistically correct’ (1995). After an analysis of the metaphorical systems, it will be argued that the systematic nature of metaphorical systems can be of use to the foreign language learner. But, first I will clarify my understanding of the term metaphorical systems, and attempt at showing how pervasive they are supposed to be in everyday language. It is argued that by showing the pervasiveness of metaphors and their systems, the necessity of bringing them to the attention of learners becomes clearer.   1.      Metaphorical Systems             Metaphors   In their study of metaphors,  (1980) have found that far from being poetic and figures of speech, they were pervasive in conventional language and thought. Expressions like, Your claims are indefensible; He attacked every weak point in my argument; His criticisms were right on target; revealed the underlying metaphorical concept of: ‘Argument is War’. In this way, they were able to identify many metaphorical concepts underlying our language about time, events, motion, spaces and emotions, to name a few.   One salient feature of these concepts is the systematic way the words from the source domain (war) are used in everyday language to describe the abstract war-like aspects in the target domain (argument). Another, is that when using the Argument is War system, other aspects of the target domain (e.g., cooperative aspects) become ‘hidden’ ().   Metaphorical language allows us to express our abstract and difficult concepts in concrete terms. Therefore, I can talk about love in terms of falling in some bounded region; and not just be content with the literal meaning of love to convey that extraordinary feeling. These are some of the features that make up the essential nature of a metaphorical utterance.   For the native speaker who is unaware of the metaphorical systems operating in the mind readily understands and uses expressions such as: ‘Look how far we have come’, ‘It’s been a long, bumpy road’, ‘We can’t turn back now’ and ‘We’re at a crossroads’ (1993). Lakoff and Johnson say that this is possible due to the ‘generalizations governing polysemy’ and ‘generalizations governing inference patterns’ found in language.   This brings up the question, How can the foreign language learner acquire such unconscious behaviour?   Hypothetically speaking, the acquisition process may be facilitated when the metaphorical systems are used to bring to the attention of the learner the ‘generalizations governing polysemy’ that are described ‘in terms of conceptual organization’ (1987) or for practical purposes exposure to the conventional usage of metaphorical expressions.   As far back as 1973,  hypothesized that many of our everyday metaphors relate to human perceptual systems and experiences with the real world and thus would occur across languages (1995). However,  (1980) have shown that everyday metaphors in a language are culturally as well as perceptually based.               Primary Metaphors   Just by functioning normally in the world, we automatically and unconsciously acquire and use a vast number of such metaphors. Those metaphors are realized in our brains physically and are mostly beyond our control. They are a consequence of the nature of our brains, our bodies, and the world we inhabit. (1999)    () point out that the reason we conceptualize for example: understanding an idea as grasping an object, lies in the primary metaphors we have built up since early childhood (). These metaphors are said to have developed after a period of conflation of our subjective and sensorimotor experiences. These experiences gradually give way to ‘a period of differentiation’ creating separate domains, while the cross-domain associations continue to persist (). This cognitive mechanism of cross-domain associations is what allows us to view a subjective experience of understanding an idea in terms of the sensorimotor experience of grasping. Similarly, there are supposed to be several hundred of such primary metaphors () prevalent in a culture. Some of them possibly exist, it is predicted, universal across cultures.               Basic Event-Structure Metaphor   The basic event-structure metaphor reveals ‘our most fundamental understanding of what events and causes are’ (1999). In addition,  (1993) had previously emphasized that ‘various aspects of event structure, including notions like states, changes, processes, actions, causes, purposes, and means, are characterized cognitively via metaphors in terms of space, motion, and force’.   The basic event-structure metaphors are fundamental categories through which we comprehend the world and such basic event-structure metaphors ‘are fundamental not only to our literal conceptualization of the world but to our metaphorical conceptualization as well’ (1999). Support for this comes from the studies of  (1974),  (1977),  (1981) and  (1984) who have shown that ‘our earliest and most natural form of categorization’ (1987) are the basic-level categories.   Of the many salient features of the basic event-structure metaphor (1999), the hierarchical nature found in the interaction between metaphorical systems seems to stand out as being relevant to the foreign language learner. For example, the Life is a Journey metaphor entails the interaction of other events in life such as, love, career and so on. In other words, The Love is a Journey and Career is a Journey metaphors inherit the structure of Life is a Journey metaphor ( 1993: ). This inheritance factor allows for expressing love and career domains in terms of the journey domain. This expression of metaphors in general categories is what connects them or in Lakoff and Johnson’s words gives them ‘coherence’ (19805).   2.4  Shortcomings   Though (1980; 1999) and  (1994) have emphasized that metaphorical systems motivate large areas of our language use, (1998) cites two crucial problems. One, that the perceptual experience ends up being, once again, “disembodied”,’ in their ‘well-structured and predictable mappings’ bearing similarities to the ‘abstract-based format of traditional semantic accounts’. Two, that findings in the field of meaning representation studies( 1997; 1997) show the inadequacy of the ‘inferential-literal’ language in describing many visual, haptic, kinesthetic and other perceptions (). In addition,  (1999), finds the present theory of metaphorical systems to be inadequate in explaining the partial and overlapping aspects of metaphor.   Furthermore,  (1991) points out, that we need more justification before we rush to generalize for example, She lost me then as evidence that she is behaving according to the underlying metaphorical concept of Learning is a Journey.  (1999) agrees and  () suggests the need for more ethnographic evidence.   2.      Metaphorical Systems in the Newspaper Articles In the next part of this paper, an attempt will be made at identifying the metaphorical systems found in similar newspaper articles of an English newspaper and a Japanese one. The systems will be compared and their similarities and differences will be highlighted. Finally, in this way, some important implications for the foreign language learner will be formulated.                 Materials and Method   For this study, an article about the elections in Iran from the February 21, 2000 issue of the Herald Tribune (see Appendix A) and a similar article on the same date from the issue of the Asahi Shimbun (see Appendix B), randomly selected, will be the subject of this investigation.   First, the metaphorical systems in the English newspaper article have been listed by categorizing the conventional metaphors (Table 1, Appendix C). Next, the same can be seen for the Japanese newspaper article in Table 2, Appendix D. Later, for the purpose of locating the similarities and differences in the metaphorical systems of the respective articles, the conventional metaphors were translated into the language of comparison (Table 1, and Table 2). However, only those metaphorical systems occurring more than once in the articles have been considered as the main metaphorical systems. The other metaphorical systems in the articles that were determined from single occurrences of conventional metaphors are not dealt with in this paper, but only those found to be different or marked when translated are cited and dealt with in section 3.6 of this paper (also Table 3, Appendix E). For this study, ‘The New Japanese-English Dictionary’ ( 1974) was the basis for all the Japanese to English translations, and  (Japanese English teacher at Rakusei Junior and Senior High Schools) expertise for the Japanese translations.               Limitations The method of identifying the metaphorical systems is limited by the ability to recognize the source and target domains. There is going to be a ‘measure of subjectivity’ and ‘randomness’ in such a ‘unilateral approach’ (1999). In addition, ‘peripherally relatable’ () cases of metaphors might be emphasized due to reading the articles many times over. Finally, with an approach that is dependent on translation for seeking out the differences and similarities there is the danger of being satisfied when the ‘truth conditions’ (1987) have been fulfilled, thereby missing ‘how concepts are organized’.                       The Main English Metaphorical Systems in the English Newspaper Article and their prevalence in Japanese   The following metaphorical systems were found to operate in more than one instance of conventional metaphorical expressions in the English newspaper article: l  Election is a Race l  Election is War l  Elections are Locations l  Election is a Movement of an Object                                     (refer to Table 1, Appendix C for details)   The four metaphorical systems underlying the English newspaper article is dispersed in the following way: l  Election is a Race has thirteen sentences. l  Election is War has nine sentences of which seven overlap with the Election is a Race system. l  Elections are Locations has four sentences. l  Elections is a Movement of an Object has five sentences.     Now, in order to see the prevalence of the conventional metaphors found in the English newspaper article in Japanese, the expressions were translated. Conventional metaphors in Japanese were found prevalent for a majority of the cases. The exceptions were found for one sentence in the Election is a Race system, and all the five sentences in the Election is a Movement of an Object system.   The sentence, ‘Preliminary results showed Mr. Rafsanjani coming in as far down the list as twenty-fifth’ uses the words coming in metaphorically. This when translated to Japanese is nonsensical as the ni kiteiru the Japanese translation for coming in cannot be used to describe the meaning of the English sentence. Instead, the sentence would have to be translated using the Japanese words ni ranku sareta to literally mean, was ranked so as to describe the result of the candidate.   As for Election is a Movement of an Object, all the five sentences do not have translations using the same English equivalents for went to, put in, give, handed and moving (refer to Table 1, Appendix C) which in Japanese are ni itta, ni oku, ataeru, tewatasu and ugokasu, respectively. Instead, tori meaning has taken; nari meaning became; ni yori meaning through, ijoushita meaning transfer, and ni meaning towards, are the translations for the English words cited above. Nevertheless, these are words describing movement of an object. This indicates the similarity of the system but differences in describing the concepts. Moreover, as the words are all from the same source domain of movement of an object, it is likely that this is a case of ‘coherence’ showing the connections between the metaphors in both languages.               The Main Japanese Metaphorical Systems in the Japanese Newspaper Article and their prevalence in English   The following metaphorical systems were found to operate in more than one instance of conventional metaphorical expressions in the Japanese newspaper article: l  Election is War l  Election is a Race l  Positions are Body Parts                                     (refer to Table 2, Appendix D for details)   The Japanese newspaper article is mainly based on two metaphorical systems and one other metaphorical system in a minor way. The occurrence of the metaphors are as follows: l  Election is War has twenty-one sentences. l  Election is a Race has seven sentences of which three sentences overlap with the Election is War system. l  Positions are Body Parts has two sentences.   Interestingly, all the Japanese conventional metaphors in the newspaper article could be translated into English without any sense of loss of the concepts that are expressed (refer to Table 2, Appendix D).               A Closer Look at Both the Systems   The two articles seem to highlight similar concepts about the elections in Iran. They highlighted the war and race aspects of the elections. However, the Japanese newspaper article stressed the war aspects more while the English newspaper article stressed the race aspect a little more than the war aspect. There were quite a few sentences indicating the location and movement of an object aspects, as well.   As a result, the cooperative and journey aspects that elections carry were hidden in both articles. For example, the elections might have been held in a very orderly and under civil circumstances (in some areas) showing cooperation among the voters, election officials and candidates. Besides, the long-term effects elections have on a country and the direction they take the country in have been hidden or downplayed.   Other similarities can be seen in the use of the expression landslide victory in both newspaper articles, and many instances of the use of the same polysemous words in the war and race domains. Similarities in most of the concepts can be seen in translations, where most of the metaphorical expressions were found to exist in both languages.   However, the use of the exact same words differed in certain places. For example, the word run used to express running for elections had a corresponding word in Japanese called shutsuba (literally meaning running away or run for). On further analysis this word revealed that it is used only to describe the act of standing for election or running for election. Though the Chinese characters of 出 (shutsu, meaning emerge or put out), and 馬 (ba meaning horse) have metaphorical connotations, Lakoff and Johnson would call such usage as a ‘dead metaphor’ (1999).   Moreover the Japanese word for run is hashiru which is not used to express the act of running in an election. In other words, the polysemous meanings of the English word run are not the same for the ones found for hashiru. One clear example can be seen in the following sentence where hashiru is not used for the translation: His arguments run counter to what we have proposed. The converse is also true. The Japanese language uses the word hashiru (run) to describe a moving car such as in the following: hashitteiru kuruma kara tobi oriru (Jump off a moving car). In the English language it would sound nonsensical to say, Jump off a running car.   There were many such words where the extent of polysemy varied. The Japanese particles ‘ni’ and ‘o’ are polysemous, too. ‘ni’ can mean in, at, on and into. While ‘o’ can mean at, of, on, in and with. This could be a very troublesome area to learn for a foreign language speaker, and in addition this seems to cause a lot of confusion to my students when dealing with English prepositions.   In the Japanese expressions under Positions are Body Parts, English equivalents were available, but on closer examination, there is a small difference in the Chinese character for head used to describe a leader or a head of an organization. The character used is 首 (neck) and not 頭 (head).   There were also two Japanese sentences with words that would sound odd when translated into English.  The metaphorical systems followed were, Blood Relations are Real and Omission is a Leakage which are quite marked for the English language (refer to Table 3, Appendix E). The word jittei (real younger brother) is used to distinguish blood relations from other relations. It is common in the Japanese language to combine the Chinese character for real (実) with family relations such as, real-father (実父), real-mother (実母), and real-older-brother (実兄).   In the case of the metaphorical system Omission is a Leakage, a single occurrence of a Japanese sentence that describes a person being omitted from the list as a leakage (moreta), quite awkward in English. However, this word moreta (past tense of moreru) is also used for describing a leaked secret, very similar to the English usage in this sense.   Finally, phrases such as social labels, labeled as an American and labeled as a slang in my dictionary are marked expressions in Japanese. The conventional usage of the word for label (retteru) is different in Japanese, though it is used to translate the just mentioned phrases. The English metaphorical system of Categories are Labels seems to sound odd in the Japanese language.   All in all, most of the metaphorical systems found in both the newspaper articles could be translated back and forth into the two languages with little loss of the meaning they carry. It may be safe to say that the metaphorical systems used for describing elections are very similar in the two languages. This could be due to the universality of the concepts governing elections across many languages. However, the extent of the polysemous usage of the words appearing in the metaphors seems to vary.   3.      Implications for Foreign Language Learners It is believed that as foreign language learners already possess ‘ world knowledge’ and ‘discourse knowledge’ which can be used to help where there is a lack of ‘linguistic knowledge’ (1991), an awareness of universal and differing metaphorical concepts may also be helpful. Translating tasks are very common in Japanese English classrooms and this practice is highly favoured by most of the Japanese secondary school English teachers (1988;1999). However, using this task for ‘hypothesis testing’ (1987) is rare as mostly the practice is to do with building vocabulary and grammar knowledge (ibid). It is possible that by using translation as a tool to seek the metaphorical systems that underlie the target text the Japanese English teachers may find a way of providing for a more stimulating discussion of the phrases and words being used. By contrasting and comparing the metaphorical systems used in authentic texts by first setting up a task of translation may offer the foreign language learner the opportunity to obtain ‘data crucial for the testing of hypothesis’ (1987). The data will speak of the similarities and differences in the metaphorical expressions and polysemous usage of words. For example, the information gleaned from the comparisons made between the English and Japanese newspaper articles on the elections in Iran could be extended to a writing exercise to describe elections in Japan. Furthermore, such topics as politics or debating could be described using the same source domain of War (same as for elections). In this way, the foreign language learner could form generalizations and strategies through trial and error for expressing abstract concepts, and in addition develop a strong familiarity with the polysemous meanings of the words. However, the introduction of metaphorical systems as an approach for understanding the target language may first require some understanding of the ‘approach’ itself. Metaphorical idioms may be a good source. One book, The Big Picture (1999) in particular stands out for listing such idioms under metaphorical systems.  () suggests that it becomes easier to remember such idioms when the meanings they entail are understood. Interestingly, the many metaphorical idioms are described in pictures, too. Again, a compare and contrast task by translation of the metaphorical idioms could be one way to introduce the ‘approach’. Familiarity to the foreign language may be facilitated, if not accelerated, by developing a familiarity to the metaphorical concepts that underlie the target language. Teachers of English as a foreign language need to provide tools and strategies to their learners to help them effectively build semantic memories of the words and phrases in the target language. The effectiveness can only be judged to the extent such knowledge of words and phrases are retained in long-term memory. The argument here is that metaphorical systems provide patterns in the linguistic data which may help build solid semantic mappings of words and phrases in the learner’s brain as opposed to rote learning and learning from lists. However, it is acknowledged that for a pattern to be discerned the brain requires quantum amounts of experience (2002), which again are necessary for applying the pattern (ibid). In learning a foreign language as opposed to a second language, exposure is mainly limited to the classroom thereby making ‘quantum amounts of experience’ a far cry. Then what should be given priority is to provide efficient modes of exposure to the foreign language learner. It may be interesting to note, that for example, a study in 1987 concluded that students (not foreign language students, however) were generally retaining, 10% of what they had read, 26% of what they had heard, 30% of what they had seen, 50% of what they had seen and heard, 70% of what they had said, and 90% of what they had said as they were doing something (1987). It could be possible then, that the task of translating into the first language with the purpose of discovering the behaviour of polysemous words through contrast and comparison with the target language may actually help the learners retain more knowledge of the vocabulary and its semantics.     4.      Conclusion This paper has been an attempt to find the implications of metaphorical systems in teaching English as a foreign language. For this purpose, random and dated newspaper articles which appeared in both English and Japanese dailies, that happen to be about elections in Iran, were selected and their respective metaphorical systems were compared and contrasted. The findings point to the many similarities in concepts regarding the description of elections. This study attempted to formulate some implications metaphorical systems have for the foreign language learner. Though this research has not been exhaustive, an attempt has been made to find a use for the pervasive nature of metaphorical systems. Metaphorical language is often a part-and-parcel of authentic material. In dealing with such material the foreign language learner is faced with the polysemous use of words. To be able to adequately grasp and use these words the learner requires a methodology that follows a systematic and reliable approach. This study into the nature of metaphorical systems and their pervasive nature in languages has shown that it may be one such approach. However, further research, especially empirically based evidence, is required to justify the use of metaphorical systems as a tool for teaching some areas of English as a foreign language. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Metaphorical Systems and their Implications to Teaching English as a Foreign Language

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