Effect of endorsement advertisement on rural vs. urban youth buying behavior Essay

In today’s highly competitive markets, big brands are at logger-heads when it comes to products being offered, each having a similar product to that of a rival. Where does one brand gain that quintessential advantage – advertising, service, promise of trust, or even the all important price factors? Advertising seems to be the best platform where brands prefer to compete on – right from hiring the best advertising agencies to getting the biggest celebrities. Celebrity endorsement is a special type of advertisement which includes a famous person from film fraternity, athletes, and sports, modeling world etc. It helps in promoting the Brand and also increasing the sales of the product. Celebrity endorsement has not developed in recent years, it is being used since the days of Lux and Dabur Amla Hair Oil. This type of marketing strategy is used to promote the Brand and has proved in itself a boon in advertising world. However, it is very expensive to endorse a celebrity for a product but in the long run it has helped in enhancing the Brand Image. Celebrities are also interested in endorsing themselves as they get highly compensated and their visibility also increase. Infact several celebrities from bollywood use these advertisements for Promoting their new releases and also vice-versa. India is a country where people are star-struck by film stars, cricketers, politicians, and even criminals. Why? Population of 1 billion and ticking, everyday people need something or someone to look up to. A sense of security, admiration, comfort, familiarity, and above all, someone they aspire to be at some hidden level in their lives. And clever marketers leverage this very  celebrity appeal and are successfully carrying out their jobs by giving the bottom lines of all the brands what they want – profit, market share and even recall. But how much star power is too much? â€Å"Does Amitabh really use Boro Plus† And â€Å"Does Salman Khan really uses Wheel† asked a 6 year old to her mother. Her mother laughs and says, â€Å"No way, just a gimmick.† What does that do to the brand? Many companies have had considerable success using celebrities as spokesperson, both endorser image serve as mediators in the equity-creation process of celebrity product endorsement (Seno and Lukas, 2007). Product attitude was predicted by inferences about the endorser’s liking for the product and by attitudes towards the endorser (Silvera and Austad, 2004). When however respondents are exposed to negative information about a celebrity endorser, a negative transference of affect in the endorsement relationship may also occur. When the situation is reversed and the respondents are exposed to negative information about the brand, the transference of affect is mitigated (White et al., 2009). Businesses have long sought to distract the attention of the potentials customers that live in a world of ever increasing commercial bombardment. Everyday consumers are exposed to thousands of voices and images in magazines, newspaper, and on billboards, websites, radio and television. Every brand attempts to steal a fraction of an unsuspecting person’s time to inform him or her of the amazing and different attributes of the product at hand. Because of the constant media saturation that most people experience daily, they eventually become numb to the standard marketing techniques. The challenge of the marketer is to hook the subject’s attention. 3 This is true for the classic forms of celebrity, like Film Stars (eg. Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Aamir Khan and Pierce Brosnan). Models (e.g., Malaika Arora, Lisa Ray , Naomi Campbell, Gisele Buendchen etc)., Sports Figures (e.g., Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virander Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Zaheer Khan , Steve Waugh, etc). Entertainers (e.g. Cyrus Broacha, Oprah winfrey, Conan O’Brien), and Pop-Stars (e.g., Madonna, David Bowie) – but also for less obvious groups like Businessmen (e.g., Donald Trump, Bill Gates) or politicians. Celebrities appear in public in different ways. First, they appear in public when fulfilling their profession, e.g., Viswanathan Anand, who plays chess in front of the audience. Further, celebrities appear in public by attending special celebrity events, e.g., award ceremonies, inauguration or world premier of movies. In addition, they present themselves in news, fashion, magazines, and tabloids’, which provide second information on events and the ‘private life ‘of celebrities through mass-media channel (e.g., Smriti Irani being regular feature in various publications). Last but not the least, celebrities act as spokes-person in advertising to promote products and services, which is referred to celebrity endorsement. For Instance: ï‚ · Vodafone signed Irfan Khan for advertisement of Sim cards. ï‚ · Tennis sensation Sania Mirza was appointed to increase the sales of ‘Bournvita energy drinks’. ï‚ · ‘ITC’ roped in Deepika Padukone for promotion of its soap named ‘Fiama di Wills’. ï‚ · Famous Brand ‘Veet’ roped in Katrina Kaif as its Brand ambassador. ï‚ · Shahrukh Khan has been chosen by Big Brands for their Advertisement which includes ‘Dish TV’ and ‘Airtel’. ï‚ · M.S Dhoni and Baichung Bhutia for ‘Project Tiger of Aircel’. Companies spend huge amount of money on Celebrities to sell anything from a candy, hair oil, soaps, colas, pens, paints, automobiles etc. Most companies know that celebrities have an appeal and a Brand can be best helped to reach out to the masses. 4 2.0 REVIEW OF LITERATURE The use of testimonials by advertisers dates back to the 19th century when medicines were patented. Firms have been juxtaposing their brands and themselves with celebrity endorsers (e.g., athletes, actors) in the hope that celebrities may boost effectiveness of their marketing. The late ’80s saw the beginning of celebrity endorsements in advertising in India. Hindi film and TV stars as well as sportspersons began encroaching on a territory  that was, until then, the exclusive domain of models. There was a spurt of advertising, featuring stars like Tabassum (Prestige pressure cookers), Jalal Agha (Pan Parag), Kapil Dev (Palmolive Shaving Cream) and Sunil Gavaskar (Dinesh Suitings). Of course, probably the first ad to cash in on star power in a strategic, long-term, mission statement kind of way was for Lux soap always endorsing the latest hit actress. A brand which has, perhaps as a result of this, been among the top three in the country for much of its lifetime. Today, the use of celebrity advertising has become a trend and a winning formula of corporate image building and product marketing. It provides empirical evidence demonstrating that attitudes can be affected in such a way. The impact of Tiger Woods tournament performance on the endorsing firm’s value subsequent to the contract signing was examined. No relationship was found between Tiger’s tournament placement and the excess returns of Fortune brands. No significant relationship was found for American Express, suggesting the market does not view a golfer endorsing financial services as credible. However, a positive relationship and significant impact of tiger’s performance on Nike’s excess returns was found suggesting that the market values the additional publicity that Nike receives when Tiger is in contention to win (Farrell et al., 2000). Some marketers choose to utilize multiple celebrities to promote their Brands. Fit between the endorsed product and various celebrities is a key factor for using multiple celebrity endorser in advertising (Hsu et al., 2002). The use of celebrity endorser in advertising is wide spread – as much as 20 percent of all advertising use some type of celebrity endorser. Marketers invest significance dollars in securing the promotional support of well-known individuals (Till, 1998). Products which are ultimately sold by retailers are endorsed more frequently by celebrities in certain sports than others (Lear et al., 2009). The importance of fit between the endorser and the endorsed product has been described as the â€Å"Match-up Hypothesis†, research has focused on physical attraction (Till and Busler 1998). Celebrities can be used to gain attention and maintain sales, while spokesperson’s effectiveness is in establishing a lifelong link with the product (Tom et al., 1992). 5 The perusal of above mentioned studies makes it very clear that endorsements advertisement does have strong impacts on consumers. The present paper has taken a leaf from these studies and has proceeded for an empirical investigation, into a Region-Wise Impact of Celebrity Endorsement which is presented subsequently. 3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research problems tend to be different from one another and so it requires own special emphasis and different approach. Since the entire research problem is unique in some ways, the research process has to be typically customized. All the steps adopted in the research have been elaborated in the following sections. 3.1 Statement of the problem The present paper aims at finding the extent to which endorsement advertising has been successful to influence the buyer behaviour across Urban and Rural groups. The research problem investigated herein has been precisely defined asâ€Å"Effectiveness of Endorsement Advertisement on Rural vs. Urban Youth buying behaviour†. 3.2 Objectives 1. To study the likeability of the endorsement advertising. 2. To study as to what extent endorsement advertising impact the consumer behaviour towards endorsed Brands. 3. To comparatively study the Impact of endorsement advertisement on Rural vs. Urban Buyer Behaviour. 3.3 Hypothesis In order to ensure effective analysis and understanding of data collected for the purpose of this study, the following hypothesis have been framed: 1 H0: There is no specific impact of celebrity endorsements in Advertising on Youth. 2 H1: There is no significant difference between Urban and Rural Youth with respect to effectiveness of endorsement in advertising. 3.4 Research Design The present research is descriptive in nature as it aims at comparatively studying whether endorsement advertising has an impact on Youth buyer behaviour. It also aims to find out as to what type of consumers in terms of locality is more 6 influenced by endorsements. Information has been collected from the respondent with the help of a structured questionnaire. The universe of the study is the state of Haryana covering both cities and small villages. Since it was not feasible to study the entire region, the researcher drew a sample. 3.5 Sampling Design and Sampling Technique Nine hundred eighty questionnaires were administered. Fifty questionnaires were found to be incomplete and hence were excluded in the final data. Therefore, data from nine hundred thirty respondents have been collected and analyzed. Due care has been taken to ensure that enough number of Urban and Rural respondents be included in the sample. 3.6 Data Collection Method In the present study, Structured Questionnaire method has been used to collect the data. In some case, particularly in case of semi-literate/illiterate respondents, personal interview technique was used to draw out information as per the questionnaire. 3.7 Scaling of Items A five point Likert’s scale from â€Å"Strongly Agree† to â€Å"Strongly Disagree† was used to measure the response to each statement (Items). 3.8 Tools of Data Analysis The data collected have been duly tabulated and classified. Thereafter it has been analyzed with the help of simple percentage technique to describe the present status of respondents. Chi-square test has been used by the researcher to study the association between various variables as well as to study the association between quantitative and qualitative variables. 7 Table 1.1 PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS Sr.No Percent N Percent 243 41.39 126 36.73 369 39.67 20-24 184 31.34 116 33.81 300 32.25 24-28 2) N 16-20 1) Profile of Respondents Age (in yrs) Urban (587) 160 27.25 101 29.44 261 28.06 Location Rural (343) Urban Total (930) Percent Rural N % N % 587 63.11 343 36.89 Percent 3) Occupation N Percent N 197 141 144 105 33.56 24.02 24.53 17.88 99 78 88 78 4) Students Self-Employed Business Housewife Gender N % 56.98 N Percent 28.86 296 22.74 219 21.28 229 16.90 183 Female Male 530 N N 400 % 43.02 INTERPRETATION: 1) The Profile of respondents as depicted in Table 1.1 shows that majority of them i.e. 243 respondents almost 42% fall in the category of age bracket of 16 to 20 years. 2) As the study was done to take the opinion of both Urban and Rural audience the data collected revealed 587 (63.11 %) respondents from urban areas as compared to 343 (36.89%) respondents from rural areas and suburb have been studied. 3) Majority of the respondents who were a part of this survey constituted of students (31.82%), followed by Businessman (24.62%) and Self-employed (23.54%). 4) Due importance was given to take response from both male and female respondents and hence 400 (43.02%) females participated in this survey as against 530 (65.98%) males. 8 31.82 23.54 24.62 19.67 ANALYSIS [S =Sample Standard Deviation] XU = 29.91 XR = 28.34 nU = 587 SU = 8.49 SR = 7.82 nR = 343 HÐ ¾:  µ1 =  µ2 (i.e. there is no significant difference between Urban & Rural with respect to effectiveness of endorsement in advertising) H1:  µ1 =  µ2 (Two tail test) USING Z – TEST At 5% level of significance, the critical value of Z = 1.96 for two tail test. Since calculated value is greater than critical value (Table-value) of Z, we reject HÐ ¾ in favour of H1 and conclude that there is a significant difference between Urban & Rural with respect to effectiveness of endorsement in advertising. 9 Table 1.2 Distribution of Respondents as Regards Attitude Indicators Sr. Indicators Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly No. Disagree Urban 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) Celebrity Advertisement is more noticeable. Celebrity Advertisement have high recall rate. Celebrity Advertisement positively motivates audience for product purchase. Audience enjoys watching Celebrity Advertisement. Audience have positive attitude towards product having Celebrity Advertisement. Celebrity Advertisement are remembered for a long time. Use of Celebrity Advertisement enhances the credibility of Brands. Celebrity Advertisement is used when brand performance is poor. 10 Urban Rural N % 1) Rural Urban Rural N N % N % % N % N % 214 23.0 170 18.2 97 10.4 48 N Rural % N % Rural N % N % 5.1 88 46 4.9 101 10.8 31 4.3 143 15.3 100 10.7 117 12.5 62 6.67 103 11.0 49 5.2 123 10.2 67 7.2 101 10.8 65 6.9 147 15.8 103 11.0 123 13.2 102 10.9 114 12.2 34 3.6 100 9.7 8.8 54 6.3 5.91 110 11.8 70 7.5 112 12.0 70 7.5 140 15.05 103 11.0 114 12.2 102 10.9 118 12.6 34 3.6 108 11.6 50 5.3 107 11.5 54 5.8 165 17.74 111 11.9 139 14.9 101 10.8 100 10.7 50 5.37 95 10.2 40 4.30 88 9.4 41 4.4 147 15.8 7.4 120 12.9 70 7.52 120 12.9 84 9.03 100 10.7 60 6.4 100 10.7 60 6.4 120 12.90 100 10.7 140 15.0 76 8.17 128 13.7 51 5.48 104 11.1 61 6.5 105 11.2 55 5.9 69 4.3 85 9.13 55 9.4 Urban 9.3 48 180 19.35 108 11.6 100 10.7 40 5.1 87 Urban 50 6.4 103 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) Celebrity Advertisement ignores product quality/feature. Customers only remember celebrities & not brands in Advertising. Use of Celebrity in advertisement increase the cost of brand sold in market. Poorly performing celebrity affects the brand perception negatively. Social ideas may be promoted well by celebrities. 11 154 16.5 91 9.7 100 10.7 65 6.9 118 12.6 77 8.2 110 11.8 55 5.9 105 11.2 55 5.9 150 16.2 135 14.5 126 13.5 94 10.1 120 12.9 50 5.37 95 10.2 25 2.6 96 10.3 39 4.1 200 21.5 115 12.3 145 15.5 80 8.06 90 9.6 40 4.3 77 8.2 43 4.62 75 8.06 65 6.9 194 20.8 103 11.0 131 14.0 76 8.17 102 10.9 69 7.41 95 10.2 35 3.7 65 6.9 60 6.4 146 15.6 109 11.7 132 14.1 104 11.1 133 14.3 57 6.13 91 9.7 33 3.5 85 9.13 40 4.3 ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION: 1) According to the analysis Shown in the table 1.2 it was found that majority 529 (56.88%) of the respondents including 311 (33.44%) from Urban segment and 218 (23.44%) from Rural segment were in the favor of this statement and hence it was proved that celebrity advertisement is more noticeable. 2) Analysis of Second indicator shows that majority of the respondents 422 (45.37%) including 260 (27.95%) from Urban segment and 162 (17.41%) from Rural segment believe that celebrity advertisement do have high recall rate. 3) As can be analyzed in table 1.2 it is seen that 475 (51.07%) respondents including 270 (29.03%) from Urban segment and 205 (22.04%) from Rural segment strongly feel that if the product is being endorsed by any celebrity it motivates the audience for purchasing that product. 4) Analysis shows that 428 (46.02%) respondents including 280 (30.10%) from Urban segment and 148 (15.91%) from Rural segment enjoys watching celebrity advertisement as it is evident from the above interpretation. 5) However, it was also seen that a total of 459 (49.35%) respondents which included 254 (27.31%) from Urban Segment and 205 (22.04%) from Rural segment do have positive attitude towards product having celebrity advertisement and they enjoyed watching such advertisements. 6) Study revealed this fact that majority 516 (55.48%) of respondents including 304 (32.68%) From Urban Segment and 212 (22.79%) from Rural segment felt that celebrity advertisements are remembered for a long time as they have a strong appeal in the minds of consumers and consumers correlate the products by their favourite celebrity. 7) According to the study conducted it was found 406 (43.65%) respondents including 267 (28.70%) from Urban segment and 139(14.94%) from Rural segment believe that generally celebrity advertisements enhance the credibility of the brands. 12 8) Analysis revealed that 436 (46.88%) respondents including 260 (27.95%) from Urban segment and 176 (18.92%) from Rural segment felt that companies generally used celebrity advertisements when their brands performance is poor and it is difficult for them to sustain their brand in the market. 9) It was evident from the study that 410 (44.08%) respondents including 254 (27.31%) from Urban segment and 156 (16.77%) from Rural Segment felt that that Celebrity Advertisement ignores product quality or any kind of features in it. 10) Accordingly it was found that 505 (54.30%) customers including 276 (29.67%) from Urban segment and 229 (24.62%) from Rural segment only remember the celebrity in that advertisement and somehow tends to forget the brand this shows the power of Celebrities which generally overshadows the Brand. 11) According to the study conducted it was found that majority of the respondents 540 (58.06%) including 345 (37.09%) from Urban segment and 195 (20.96%) from Rural segment felt that if a celebrity is used to advertise a product it however means that it will increase the cost of brand in the market. 12) However with reference to the study conducted majority of the respondents 504 (54.19%) including 325 (34.94%) from Urban segment and 179 (19.24%) from Rural segment felt that a poor performing celebrity does affect the brand perception negatively even if it is their favorite actor, actress or cricketer. 13) According to the study conducted majority of the respondents 491(52.73%) including 278 (29.89%) from Urban segment and 213 (22.90%) from Rural segment felt that the celebrities are perfect alibi when it comes to promoting social ideas. N.B- All the figures mentioned in the above Analysis & Interpretation is the accumulation of Strongly Agree and Agree Variables. 13 Table 1.3 TABLE OF INTERPRETATION Level of Significance – .05 ATTITUDE INDICATORS 1) Celebrity Advertisement is more noticeable. 2) Celebrity Advertisement have high recall rate. 3) Celebrity Advertisement positively motivates audience for product purchase. 4) Audience enjoys watching Celebrity Advertisement. 5) Audience have positive attitude towards product having Celebrity Advertisement. 6) Celebrity Advertisements are remembered for a long time. 7) Use of Celebrity Advertisement enhances the credibility of Brands. 8) Celebrity Advertisement is used when brand performance is poor. 9) Celebrity Advertisement ignores product quality/feature. 10) Customers only remember celebrities & not brands in Advertising. 11) Use of Celebrity in advertisement increase the cost of brand sold in market. 12) Poorly performing celebrity affects the brand perception negatively. 13) Social ideas may be promoted well by celebrities. 14 CHI-SQUARE VALUE 20.54 Hypothesis Accepted 4.28303 Accepted 22.4396 Accepted 5.05116 Accepted 29.466 Accepted 9.402 Accepted 3.9368 Accepted 64.66 Accepted 2.349 Accepted 37.745 Accepted 8 Accepted 13.67623 Accepted 19.764 Accepted DECLARATION This is to certify that the paper is the original work of the authors and has not been submitted elsewhere. For any violation of the copyrights, the author shall bear the sole responsibility. Signature (1st author) 15 (2nd author) BIBLIOGRAPHY Journals and other Articles 1) Brian D.Till (1998) â€Å"Using celebrity endorsers effectively: lessons from associative learning† Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol: 7, No. 5, Pp: 400-409. 2) Brian D.Till, Michael Busler (1998) â€Å"Matching products for endorsers: attractiveness versus expertise† Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol: 15, No. 6, Pp: 576-586. 3) Chung-kue Hsu, Daniella Mcdonald (2002) â€Å"An examination on multiple celebrity endorser in advertising† Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol: 11, No. 1, Pp: 19-29. 4) Darin W.White, Lucretia Goddard, Nick Wilbur (2009) â€Å"the effect of negative information transference in the celebrity endorsement relationship† International journal of retail & distribution Management, Vol: 37, No. 4, Pp: 322-335. 5) David h.Silvera, Benedikte Austad (2004) â€Å"Factors predicting the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement advertisements† European Journal of Marketing, Vol: 38, No. 11/12, Pp: 1509-1526. 6) Diana Seno, Bryan A.Lukas (2007) â€Å"The equity effect of product endorsement by celebrities: A conceptual framework from a co-branding perspective† European Journal of Marketing, Vol: 41, No. 1/2, Pp: 121-134. 7) Kathleen A.Farrell, Gordon V.Karels, Kenneth W. Montfort (2000) â€Å"Celebrity performance and endorsement value: the case of tiger woods† Managerial Finance, Vol: 26, No. 7, Pp: 1-15. 16 8) Karen E.Lear,Rodney C.Runyan,William H.Whitaker (2009) â€Å"Sports celebrity endorsements in retail products advertising† International journal of retail & distribution management, Vol: 37, No. 4, Pp: 308-321. 9) Gail Tom, Rebecca Clark, Laura Elmer, Edward Grech, Joseph Masetti, Jr., Harmona Sandhar (1992) â€Å"The use of created versus celebrity spokespersons in advertisements† Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol: 9, No. 4, Pp: 45-51. Media 1) Set Max viewed From 12th March 2010-17th March 2010. 2) Star Gold viewed From 9th March 2010- 14th March 2010. 3) Zee Cinema viewed From 2nd March 2010- 6th March 2010. 4) Channel V viewed From 18th Feb 2010- 24th Feb 2010. 5) NDTV News Viewed From 13th March 2010- 17th March 2010.

Manage Resistance to Change Proactively Essay

Register for this journal is available at http://www. emeraldinsight. com/researchregister The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www. emeraldinsight. com/0262-1711. htm Managing diversity using a strategic planned change approach Earnest Friday Management in the College of Business Administration, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA, and Managing diversity 863 Received October 2002 Revised February 2003 Accepted February 2003 Shawnta S. Friday School of Business and Industry at Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA Keywords Diversity management, Strategic management, Change management Abstract Many organizations have implemented various types of initiatives within the last few decades in an effort to deal with diversity. A possible missing vinculum (link) between how an organization deals with diversity and its impact on the bottomline is a corporate diversity strategy that is executed using a planned change approach to systemically manage diversity. While many organizations have implemented a corporate diversity strategy, most have not used a â€Å"planned change-corporate diversity strategy†. The lack of a â€Å"planned change-corporate diversity strategy† is quite likely to inhibit managing diversity from becoming systemic to an organization’s culture and its way of doing business, thus tending to disallow the potential bene? ts of diversity to be maximized. Hence, this paper offers a framework for using a â€Å"planned change-corporate diversity strategy† to: progress along the â€Å"diversity continuum† starting with acknowledging to valuing, and ultimately to managing diversity; and systemically managing diversity using a eight-step â€Å"managing diversity process†. Introduction Over the past few decades, academicians, practitioners and organizational researchers have recognized that diversity is a phenomenon that has a wide array of affects within the workplace, and society in general (Koonce, 2001; Stark, 2001; Williams and O’Reilly, 1997). In this paper, diversity refers to any attribute that happens to be salient to an individual that makes him/her perceive that he/she is different from another individual (Williams and O’Reilly, 1997). Some widely accepted differentiating attributes include racioethnicity (which encompasses race and ethnicity), gender, nationality, religion, functional expertise, and age. Even though racioethnic and gender diversity tend to receive the majority of the attention in the organizational diversity literature (Stark, 2001; Williams and O’Reilly, 1997), this de? ition allows for the frameworks offered to be applied to any type of organizational diversity salient to members. Diversity programs have been implemented in many multinational organizations, primarily, in an effort to improve working relationships Journal of Management Development Vol. 22 No. 10, 2003 pp. 863-880 q MCB UP Limited 0262-1711 DOI 10. 1108/02621710310505467 JMD 22,10 864 between white males, whose relative numbers continue to decrease, and demographically different individuals, whose numbers continue to increase in the workplace (Friedman and DiTomaso, 1996). While many multinational organizations have a corporate diversity strategy, most have not implemented it using the suggested planned changed approach posited in this paper. Given the intensifying â€Å"war for talent† in today’s competitive, global business environment, it is imperative that the execution and evaluation of a corporate diversity strategy use a planned changed approach to not only acknowledge and value diversity, but to also systemically manage and inculcate diversity into an organization’s corporate culture. This type of approach can contribute immensely to an organization’s ability to use all of its human capital as a strategic means to gain and maintain a competitive advantage in today’s dynamic, global marketplace (Richard, 2000). It has been purported that if diversity can be effectively managed in an organization, some potential bene? ts to the organization include greater creativity and innovation, and improved decision-making (Cox, 1991). Conversely, if diversity is not managed effectively, some potential major costs to the organization include, at a minimum, breakdowns in communication, interpersonal con? ict, and higher turnover (Cox, 1991). While there may not be much empirical evidence to substantiate claims that effectively managed diversity directly leads to bottomline increases (Chatman et al. , 1998; Richard, 2000; Stark, 2001), there is real-world evidence (e. g. Coca-Cola, Denny’s, Publix, and Texaco settlements) to suggest that not effectively managing gender and racioethnic diversity has been, and can be, detrimental to organizations and their bottomlines. Thus, it is a logical extrapolation that an organization’s ability or inability to create a culture in which diversity is systemically acknowledged, valued, and effectively managed is more likely to determine the affects diversity will have on it’s bottomline. Many organizations have implemented various diversity initiatives as a part of their corporate diversity strategy (Koonce, 2001), but most have not used a planned change approach to strategically align their initiatives with their long-term objectives and strategic positioning. It is highly probable that this lack of planned strategic alignment contributes immensely to the purported ineffectiveness of many diversity initiatives (Stark, 2001). Consequently, an organization that seeks to maximize the potential bene? s of diversity should devise a â€Å"planned change-corporate diversity strategy† prior to implementing diversity initiatives. The purpose of the planned change-corporate diversity strategy is to align the organization’s diversity initiatives (designed to manage diversity) with the organization’s strategic goals, and ultimately make managing diversity an integral part of the organization’s culture. An aligned planned change-corporate diversity st rategy will contribute immensely to the long-term effectiveness of diversity initiatives aimed at better managing all of he organization’s human resources. This is especially signi? cant for organizations with a highly diversi? ed workforce. With a planned change-corporate diversity strategy, diversity initiatives are aligned with organizational policies, procedures, and systems. Such alignment is desired to systemically reinforce an organizational culture that encourages the effective management of all employees in order to garner diversity’s purported bene? ts, including the end goal of increasing the bottomline. Thus, frameworks are presented for using a planned change-corporate diversity strategy to: advance from the initial passive states of acknowledging and valuing diversity to the ? nal active state of managing diversity on the â€Å"diversity continuum†; and systemically manage diversity using the speci? c eight-step â€Å"managing diversity process†. The diversity continuum and the planned change approach Valuing diversity and managing diversity as distinct phenomena Over the last few decades, a myriad of articles have been written on the subjects of valuing diversity and managing diversity (Wanguri, 1996). In some cases, valuing diversity and managing diversity have been considered, and sometimes used, interchangeable when, in fact, they are two different phenomena (Jenner, 1994). By the very nature of their de? nitions, valuing and managing diversity are distinctly different. Valuing refers to the relative worth, importance, or signi? cance of something, whereas managing refers to taking charge or coordinating and supervising situations. Given these de? nitions, valuing diversity should be considered a more passive phenomenon, where importance or signi? ance is given to individuals’ differences, which does not automatically lead to visible actions or reactions on the part of the individuals valuing the diversity or differences. Managing diversity, on the other hand, should be considered an active phenomenon, which involves supervising or coordinating and directing the diversity or differences individuals bring to the organization to ensure the organization’s strategic go als are being fully and effectively met. In other words, it refers to successfully organizing the organizational inputs of individuals with diverse backgrounds. This de? nition is consistent with the managing diversity de? nition given by Thomas’ (1991): â€Å"a ‘way of thinking’ toward the objective of creating an environment that will enable all employees to reach their full potential in pursuit of organizational objectives†. The diversity continuum As a result of the confusion in the literature between the two phenomena, valuing diversity and managing diversity, it is not dif? cult to understand why consensus does not exist on the claims of bottomline bene? s as a result of the attempts organizations have made to value and/or manage diversity. In addition to the confusion, lack of consensus could also be a function of the Managing diversity 865 JMD 22,10 866 complexity of the diversity concept in the organizational context. Given the complexity of diversity within an organizational setting, it is possible that perceiving it in terms of a set of three elements that delineates what to do with diversity may serve t o simplify or clarify the confusion in the diversity literature. Therefore, a diversity continuum is offered to guide researchers and practitioners in moving from the more passive states of acknowledging diversity and valuing diversity, on through to the more active state of managing diversity. As individuals ? nd themselves in situations with diverse individuals, they are likely to take one of two courses of action: avoid dealing with the diversity, or recognize that the diversity exists. In the case where individuals avoid diversity, they do not face the fact that diversity is an issue. It is likely that these individuals do not accept the idea that they are likely to be biased in their interactions with others that they perceive to be different from themselves. Although avoiding diversity is viewed as a possible response to diversity, it is not included in the diversity continuum. The diversity continuum is based on the assumption that individuals take the second course of action and recognize diversity. Once diversity is recognized, as previously stated, the diversity continuum serves as a framework to delineate the three potential states of dealing with diversity: acknowledging, valuing, and managing diversity. The three sequential components of the diversity continuum are: acknowledging diversity; valuing diversity; and managing diversity (see Figure 1). Acknowledging diversity, the ? rst component, refers to recognizing the existence of diversity or the individual differences individuals bring with them to a particular setting. In order for individuals to truly acknowledge diversity, they must be exposed to it, experience it, acquire knowledge about it, and they must develop an understanding of diversity. The second component of the diversity continuum is valuing diversity. Valuing diversity, as de? ed above, refers to the signi? cance or importance being given to the diversity or differences individuals bring with them to a particular setting. Having an appreciation for, as well as respect for, the differences that diverse individuals bring with them to the work setting can lead to the last component. The last component of the diversity continuum is managing diversity. As stated above, m anaging diversity refers to the planning, organizing, leading of individuals with differences or diversity in a particular setting, such that their inputs are used to accomplish the organization’s strategic goals. Even in racioethnically homogeneous organizational settings, organizations make large investments to ensure an appropriate organizational culture is fostered. An appropriate organizational culture is desirous, such that individuals are systemically managed to perform and accomplish its goals, not just hoping that their performance will somehow lead to the accomplishment of the organizations’ desired goals. Thus, similar systemic efforts are necessary in order to manage Managing diversity 867 Figure 1. The strategic management process emographically diverse individuals such that the organization can gain the maximum synergistic bene? ts from their contributions as well. The planned change approach Rather than being reactive and waiting for a â€Å"diversity crisis† to take place before a change is made (i. e. Coca-Cola, Denny’s, Publix, and Texaco settlements), an organization should be proactive in systemically Managing Diversity. Hence, an organization and its m embers should make the necessary changes to proactively move from just settling for the ? rst stage of acknowledging diversity to the ? al stage of managing diversity. The Lewin-Schein change model is offered as the theoretical framework to proactively and systemically facilitate the management of diversity in organizations. This planned change model is based on the premise that the organizational forces propelling change must subdue the forces resisting change for highly effective change to occur. Therefore, it is posited in this paper that the Lewin-Schein change model is a framework that can assist organizations and individuals in moving through the sequential elements of the diversity continuum. It is also posited that this model can be applicable at JMD 22,10 868 both the organizational and individual level for managing diversity. While Allen and Montgomery (2001) offered the Lewin-Schein change model as a framework for creating diversity, the model is offered in this paper as a framework for Managing Diversity. The Lewin-Schein change model involves three stages: unfreezing, change (moving), and refreezing (Lewin, 1951; Schein, 1992). For the organization or individual to experience successful change, the three stages need to be addressed in succession. Unfreezing using a planned change-corporate diversity strategy In the unfreezing stage, the organization’s or individual’s present culture (which includes perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors) toward diversity, needs to be unfrozen. This means there needs to be enough motivation within the organization or individual to want to change from its present state to the new desired state. Thus, in moving from one end of the diversity continuum to the other end, with managing diversity being the desired outcome, management must desire that its members move from just acknowledging and valuing diversity to managing diversity. As presented previously, managing diversity refers to systemically organizing and directing the inputs of all organizational members (including diverse individuals) to ensure the organization’s strategic goals are met. Likewise, the individual must want to move from just acknowledging and/or valuing diversity to the ? nal phase of managing diversity. At the individual level, this movement involves governing one’s actions toward diverse individuals in a way that allows for healthy, productive interaction with those diverse others. Therefore, to unfreeze the organization’s culture and its members’ current state of mind toward diversity, a planned change-corporate diversity strategy should be devised and aligned with the organization’s strategic positioning to reduce the forces that are striving to maintain the status quo (Dobbs, 1998). A ? rm’s strategic positioning The strategic management process is employed by many organizations in order to distinguish themselves from their competitors in the marketplace (David, 2001; Porter, 1985; Steiner, 1997). Although there are several schools of thought in the strategic management ? ld, the generally accepted components of the strategic management process are: strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation as explained in Figure 2 (David, 2001; Hill and Jones, 1998). Strategy formulation is comprised of developing or reviewing the organization’s mission, vision, and long-term goals; conducting internal and exte rnal assessments to identify the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT); setting selection criteria and selecting the strategies that will afford the organization the best strategic positioning relative to its competitors (David, 2001; Steiner, 1997). Strategy implementation entails allocating the appropriate resources to ensure the Managing diversity 869 Figure 2. The three levels of organizational strategy selected strategies are properly executed (David, 2001; Steiner, 1997). Strategy evaluation involves setting control processes to continuously review, evaluate, and provide feedback concerning the implemented strategies to determine if the desired results are being accomplished, such that corrective measures may be taken if warranted (Hill and Jones, 1998; Steiner, 1997). As illustrated in Figure 3, there are usually three levels of strategy associated with large-scale organizations. The corporate level strategy de? nes the organization’s purpose and the lines of businesses in which it plans to operate, thereby providing the overarching direction for the organization. If an organization only operates in one line of business, its corporate level strategy and business level strategy are effectively one in the same (David, 2001; Hill and Jones, 1998). A business level strategy is the blueprint that should enable an organization to leverage its resources in order to differentiate itself from the competition within a particular line of business (David, 2001; Hill and Jones, 1998). The functional-level strategies serve to support the organization’s business-level strategy by providing direction for the appropriate short-term activities required by each functional area to meet the goals established in the business-level strategy (David, 2001; Hill and Jones, 1998). Consequently, having properly aligned corporate, business, and functional level strategies aid an organization in its efforts to accomplish its goals, thereby strategically positioning itself to successfully compete within the marketplace (David, 2001; Hill and Jones, 1998; Porter, 1985). Combining highly differentiated and ef? cient human capital with clearly delineated corporate, business, and functional level strategies can prove to be a competitive advantage for an organization (Barney, 1991, 1997; Wright et al. , 1995). An organization must view strategies for developing and managing its employees JMD 22,10 870 Figure 3. Alignment between corporate strategy and planned change-corporate diversity strategy as a part of its overarching corporate level strategy if it desires to have highly differentiated and ef? ient human capital in today’s competitive, global environment. Therefore, one argument of this paper is that any organization seeking to realize the maximum bene? t from having a diversi? ed workforce should have a planned change-corporate diversity strategy that is aligned with the organization’s overall strategic positioning. Developing a planned change-corporate diversity strategy The organization â€Å"wishing to create an environment that enables all employees to reach their full potential will have to . . . change organizational practices as necessary† (Thomas, 1991). However, prior to changing any organizational practice, a comprehensive strategy for how to accomplish that change should be devised based on an in-depth understanding of relevant organizational dynamics (i. e. culture, structure, ? nancial position, strategic initiatives, etc). Theoretically, a strategy should precede the structure of an organization. Consequently, a planned change-corporate diversity strategy should be devised to align with the organization’s corporate strategy before structuring diversity initiatives (as illustrated in Figure 4), and reinforced using a planned change approach. Organizations that have elevated their diversity strategist to executive-level management are likely to have an overarching corporate diversity strategy in place. But, it is not as likely that the diversity strategist is using a corporate-wide planned change approach to systemically reinforce the proposed changes in the corporate diversity strategy throughout all of the Managing diversity 871 Figure 4. The diversity continuum organization’s policies, procedures, and systems. Regardless of whether an organization has a corporate diversity strategy or not, it may be necessary to superimpose a planned change-corporate diversity strategy over existing disjointed diversity strategies and initiatives. At the onset of such an endeavor or superimposition, corporate diversity mission statement, vision, and goals must be formulated to articulate the purpose diversity initiatives will serve within the organization and the desired outcomes to be achieved from such initiatives. The delineated desired outcome should be designed to systemically manage diversity. Conducting internal and external assessments are essential steps in devising a planned change-corporate diversity strategy. An internal assessment will allow the diversity strategist to decide how to position diversity strategies and initiatives within the organization’s structure, and to align them with all of the organization’s policies, procedures, and systems. To assess the external environment, the diversity strategist should use environmental scanning tools to extract best practices based on benchmarked diversity strategies and initiatives at other leading organizations. Through the internal assessment, the diversity strategist should become intimately familiar with the organization’s values, vision, mission, strategies, goals, and initiatives, all of which constitute a sound basis for understanding the organization’s culture, policies, procedures, systems, and overall strategic positioning. The diversity strategist must become equally familiar with the bene? ts and shortfalls of various diversity initiatives. The strategist must conduct an analysis to determine the most appropriate linkages between the organization’s overall strategic positioning, policies, procedures, systems, and its diversity initiatives. Before proceeding, the diversity strategist must recognize and effectively articulate a clear strategic ? t and alignment amongst the organization’s overall strategic positioning, policies, procedures, systems, JMD 22,10 872 and diversity. Both strategic ? t and strategic alignment are necessary to strengthen the business case for allocating resources to support the planned change-corporate diversity strategy. In order to realize the maximum bene? ts from diversity, the planned change-corporate diversity strategy needs to be properly executed, evaluated and refrozen to ensure that the stated goals are being met, and that the organization’s culture and members are moving toward and sustaining the desired state of systemically managing diversity. Moving to systemically managing diversity Once the present state is unfrozen, the move that will allow the organization’s culture and members to advance to the desired state should be put in place. In this case, the move is to culturally reengineer the organization and its members to the true state of managing diversity by implementing the managing diversity process. The social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) is offered as the theoretical framework for the managing diversity process. It has also been offered as the theoretical framework for developing training programs in the cross-cultural and expatriate literature (Black and Mendenhall, 1989; Harrison, 1994). There are four major tenets of social learning theory: motivation, attention, retention, and reproduction (Bandura, 1977). These tenets are re? ected in the eight steps of the managing diversity process. In an effort to truly manage diversity, a change in the attitudes and behaviors of individuals, and in organizations’ systemic and institutional ways of doing business is required. Therefore, it is posited that utilizing the tenets of social learning theory can aid in the acquisition of the learning that is necessary for organizations to maximize the inputs of all of its diverse members. The planned change-corporate diversity strategy serves as the motivation for the learning of new behaviors and attitudes. Hence, once the planned change-corporate diversity strategy is articulated, the move through the eight steps of the managing diversity process should be instituted to assist individuals and organizations in culturally reengineering and moving to the desired state of managing diversity. The eight sequential steps of the managing diversity process include: (1) exposure; (2) experience; (3) knowledge; (4) understanding; (5) appreciate; (6) respect; (7) modify attitudes and behavior; and (8) healthy interaction. All of these are undergirded by tolerance (see Figure 5). The acknowledging diversity component of the diversity continuum is composed of steps (1)-(4), and they re? ect the â€Å"attention tenet† of social learning theory. The valuing diversity component of the diversity continuum is comprised of steps (5) and (6), and is re? ective of the â€Å"retention tenet† of social learning theory. Steps (7) and (8) constitute the managing diversity component of the diversity continuum and the â€Å"reproduction tenet† of social learning theory. The movement through each of the eight steps requires individuals to progressively develop appropriate skills to enable them to manage how they deal with individuals whom they consider different from themselves. Therefore, executing the eight steps in the managing diversity process serve as the necessary movement required to progress from acknowledging and valuing diversity to managing diversity. The true movement through the eight steps from acknowledging diversity to managing diversity is a paradigm shift, in that it entails a change in the treatment of diverse individuals (Fitzpatrick, 1997). Managing diversity 873 Diversity training In order for an organization to realize the potential bene? ts that can be afforded by employing diverse individuals, there needs to be a paradigm shift in which the inputs of diverse individuals are systemically managed within an organization to enable the successful accomplishment of its strategic goals. Training of individuals is viewed as a necessary tool to facilitate the organization in achieving its goals. Diversity training should be viewed no differently than any other type of training in which an organization invests. Therefore, it should also be viewed as a necessary tool to manage members’ behaviors and their ability to work productively with diverse individuals. After canvassing the literature, it has been noted that most diversity training programs merely raise individuals’ awareness of or sensitivity to diversity (Grubb, 1995; Jenner, 1994). Some few diversity training programs go as far as attempting to change individuals’ perceptions of diversity and how they communicate with people different from themselves (Grubb, 1995). However, these programs tend to be offered to only select employees, and they tend to be short in duration, ranging from a one-hour session to a series of one-day sessions several times a year (Koonce, 2001). The major drawbacks to most existing diversity training programs are that: . they do not build skills to facilitate individuals’ ability to actually manage their interactions with individuals different from themselves; . they are not rigorous nor time-intensive enough to create a paradigm shift in individuals’ treatment toward individuals different from themselves; and JMD 22,10 874 Figure 5. The continuous managing diversity process . there are no enduring reinforcement mechanisms embedded in the organization’s culture to ensure all individuals’ inputs are successfully managed to met the organization’s strategic goals. Managing diversity As a result, most (if not all) existing diversity programs have not been successful in creating enduring change in the way individuals interact with individuals different from themselves, nor have they been successful in changing their organization’s culture to one that systemically manages diversity. In order to create enduring change in individuals and the organization’s culture, members of the organization at all levels need to participate in diversity training that encapsulates the comprehensive managing diversity process. The outcomes that should be expected from participation include, but are not limited to, skill building in the following areas: the ability to clearly articulate their ideas and feelings; con? ict management skills; effective giving and receiving of feedback; effective listening; group observation skills; and group decision-making skills, all of which will facilitate modi? d attitudes and behaviors, and healthy interaction with diverse individuals. Individuals have to come to grips with their feelings, thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors toward diversity and others with whom they are different. In the ? rst step of Exposure, individuals provide public notice of where they are at that point. They do this by: laying open who they are; divulging where the y are; unmasking themselves; and receiving others’ culture. Step (2), experience, involves gathering information through personal involvement, encountering, seeing ? rst-hand, and living through events. In the third step of Knowledge, individuals become well informed, thus able to be conversant because they become familiar or acquainted with the culture of others. Knowledge serves as the basis for step (4), understanding. Because of their grasp of cultural realities, individuals are able to comprehend (understanding) relevant cultural dynamics, which leads them to be sensitive, and enables them to share unique insights and perceptions. In step (5), appreciate, individuals’ acceptance of the worth of a person’s culture and values makes it easier for them to welcome and â€Å"justly† estimate diverse individuals. Resultantly, individuals are able to respect (step (6)) diverse individuals; thus, they are able to pay attention, pay deference, and pay tribute to the values, worth, and culture of diverse others, as well as give personal consideration to the diverse individuals. Successful movement through the ? rst six steps, along with tolerance underpinning each step, should lead to modi? cations in individuals’ attitudes and behaviors toward diverse individuals, which is step (7), modify attitudes and behaviors. This change in attitudes and behaviors, again, along with tolerance should lead to healthy interaction (step (8)) with and amongst diverse individuals. Step (8) is a function of continuous acceptance and execution of steps (1)-(7). Therefore, this is a ? uid (not static) process that must be recognized for its ever-changing and 875 JMD 22,10 876 evolving nature. The requirements for successful execution of the managing diversity process are strenuous and time intensive because it requires individuals to modify their attitudes and behaviors. Thus, they must modify the way they interact with individuals different from themselves, and not just expect that they either avoid, acknowledge, or value those individuals that are different. Given that all individuals in today’s global business environment are likely to encounter others that are different from themselves on a frequent basis, the managing diversity process should be viewed as analogous to the open systems approach – it is a continuous process that maintains a constant reciprocal relationship with the environment. Refreezing the systemic management of diversity Successful movement through the managing diversity process requires individuals to change. Resistance to change is inherent in any change process, and it will be no different in this process (Harrison, 1994). Therefore, the managing diversity process is a ? uid, continuous process that needs to be systematically reinforced and embedded in the organization’s culture and individuals’ interactions, such that the organization’s culture and its members do not revert back to just acknowledging or valuing diversity. Hence, refreezing the desired state of managing diversity requires reinforcing the new perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors with emphasis on the modi? ed behaviors and healthy interactions individuals have adopted as a result of going through the managing diversity process. In order for individuals and organizations not to revert back to their previous states, the new desired state must go through the refreezing stage to be institutionalized. This should be accomplished through systemic, on-going training and daily interactions at the individual level, and through revised policies, procedures, and systems at the organizational level. At the individual level, the systemic, on-going training should not be just periodic training that merely exposes individuals to diversity. A great deal of time is necessary to cement these newly adopted attitudes, behaviors, and skills for healthy interaction. This kind of cementation is required for these newly acquired attitudes, behaviors, and skills to become totally embedded in the individuals’ natural way of interacting with diverse individuals. The systemic, on-going training needs to be skill-based and experiential in nature to promote long-term changes in the way individuals work with individuals different from themselves. This type of reinforcement at the individual level will contribute to the cultural reengineering that also must take place at the organizational level. To reinforce the desired state of managing diversity at the organizational level, revised recruiting, appraisal, development, and reward systems, as well as an enforceable diversity policy need to be implemented (Allen and Montgomery, 2001; Hemphill and Haines, 1998; Miller, 1998). The revised policies, procedures, and recruiting, appraisal, development, and reward systems need to re? ct the organization’s position on how the inputs of diverse individuals will be managed, such that their contributions fully aid the organization in meeting its strategic goals. A written, enforceable diversity policy, stating the systemic action steps and behaviors expected by all employees is a must as it relates to effectively managing the organizational inputs of all individuals. Everyone’s inputs should be effectively managed to contri bute to the achievement of the organization’s strategic goals. The revised policies, procedures, and systems should also align with the planned change-corporate diversity strategy. Given the resources and time required to revise and initiate implementation of the revised organizational policies, procedures, and systems, individuals are likely to resist these changes initially. Therefore, it is quite likely to be a dif? cult and time-consuming process to make the appropriate and necessary revisions to the organization’s policies, procedures, and systems. This is an essential and critical step necessary to ensure the organization and its members do not revert back to their previous attitudinal and behavioral states. It is paramount that revised policies, procedures, systems, and planned change-corporate diversity strategy are clearly communicated to all members of the organization to ensure that it can be appropriately recognized, executed, evaluated, and reinforced. To reinforce this cultural reengineering effort, management needs to initiate and actively participate in the refreezing stage, the same as they must genuinely participate at the unfreezing and moving stages. Potential limitations As with any theoretical model, there are limitations. One potential limitation of this notional model is that no matter how well it is implemented, there are likely to be some individuals whose attitudes may never change or they may continue to consciously or unconsciously show favoritism toward those whom they consider to be similar to themselves (Gilbert and Ivancevich, 2000; Miller, 1998). Another potential limitation is that subtle forms of biases against diverse individuals may still exist informally within the organization and/or outside of the work environment; thus, highly impacting individuals within the organization. Backlash is also a potential limitation; members of the majority are likely to perceived that they are being excluded at the expense of including diverse individuals (Hemphill and Haines, 1998). Additionally, if the training initiated to implement the managing diversity process is perceived as a bad experience, the organization’s leadership may abandon the initial implementation, hence dooming all future diversity efforts. However, by using the suggested planned change approach along with well enforced diversity policies and disciplinary procedures for violations of the diversity policy, it is more likely that individuals’ behaviors can be altered to be more tolerant of others whom they consider to be Managing diversity 877 JMD 22,10 different (Gilbert and Ivancevich, 2000). This will allow the talents, skills, and abilities of all individuals in the work setting to be used to meet organizational objectives. Conclusion Given that individuals are less willing to leave their differences outside the doors of the workplace (Thomas, 1991), an organization’s ability to systemically manage diversity will become more important, in years yet to come, if it wants to ensure its ability to compete successfully in the global marketplace. This paper suggests that, ? rst, a planned change approach should be used to systemically manage diversity, by developing and implementing a planned change-corporate diversity strategy. Second, organizations should execute their cultural reengineering efforts to move individuals and the organizational culture along the diversity continuum from the states of acknowledging and valuing diversity to the desired state of managing diversity. Movement to the desired state of managing diversity can be achieved by using the managing diversity process. It is also suggested that the organization needs to provide on-going training, and needs to institute new policies and procedures. Additionally, it must engage in appropriately different recruiting, appraisal, development, and reward systems that systemically reinforce the cultural reengineering of moving to the state of managing diversity. These new undertakings will ensure that the newly reengineered culture of managing diversity is inculcated into the organization’s culture, and its way of conducting business domestically and abroad. By adopting and executing the frameworks offered in this paper for ystemically managing diversity through a strategic planned change approach, managers will have created an organizational environment where they will be able to enjoy healthy, innovative, and productive interactions amongst diverse members of the organization. The following is a list of other potential bene? ts that may be derived from using the offered frameworks: . in general, individuals will develop an increased knowledge of and appreciation for other cultures; . individuals will learn to value and respect the cultural norms, behaviors, and attitudes of others; . here is likely to be a greater receptivity to necessary organizational changes; . there is likely to be a lessening of workplace anxieties; . a reduction in organizational con? ict; . a more pleasant work environment; and . increased performance and productivity. 878 In conclusion, the proactive management of diverse human resources will aid organizations in gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage in today’s dynamic global marketplace.

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Industrial Ergonomics - Essay Example In a typical shift work schedule, workers may be scheduled to work for 8 hours in a day comprised of three 8 hour shifts. In another shift work schedule, workers may be subject to work for twelve hours for 4 days, and then 4 off days. Experts point out that shift work schedules, which allow employees to work on the same shift for a prolonged period, are healthy and effective in enhancing employee’s lifestyle and social life. Any attempt to change the shift schedule disrupts employees’ life patterns (Brain, 2001). Poorly planned shift schedules have contributed immensely in reduced productivity and increased medical complications at work places. The human body is controlled by a circadian cycle, which is a natural clock that plays a role in maintaining complex body functions throughout the day. Different physiological body functions change depending on specific times of the day creating what is known as circadian rhythms. Therefore, circadian rhythms change after every 24 hours by prevailing environmental cues. Naturally, the human body is designed to remain active during the day and the rest through sleep during the night. The reverse is contrary to the circadian cycle, and it is the cause of sleep related problems faced by night shifters (Brain, 2001). To avoid consecutive night shifts, night shifts should be accompanied by a sufficient period of rest, creating short night shifts, making changes that will allow employees to adapt as quickly as possible and avoiding morning shifts that start too early.

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Opportunity cost of corruption - Essay Example The research is aiming to find the impact of corruption on the economy of the country and the people as individuals. What are the sources and consequences of corruption. The results are based on the empirical study and search work available on the Internet.The results of the study and research leaded to outcome that corruption is a global problem that exists at all levels. Corruption can be defined as the abuse of public power for personal ends. Corruption can be defined as use of authority or power to meet personal ends. It has always existed in the world and now-a-days is being treated as global concern. In a corrupted society, personal enrichment considerations take preference over the establishment of rights for all, resulting in biased decision making. Corruption is not confined to a State or country but is prevalent at a global level. Let's have a look at state of corruption on a worldwide scale. The figures are indeed shocking. According to the Asian Development Bank, one East Asian country is estimated to have lost $48 billion over 20 years due to corruption, surpassing its entire foreign debt of $40.6 billion. It has been calculated that as much as $30 billion in aid for Africa has ended up not in Africa, but in foreign bank accounts. Thirty billion dollars is twice the annual gross domestic product of Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda combined. Corruption, it turns out, costs many governments as much as 50 percent of their tax revenues1. 2. Effects of Corruption When the effects of the corruption are considered they cannot be shown as a direct relation ship with the economic changes. The negative changes in the economy due to the corrupt ideas and deeds can be connected with each other to estimate cost of corruption. For example the subprime market is overloaded with bad loans that smashed the holes into a financial ship. This is due to the fact that the banks are giving loans to the borrowers without substantial proof of their income sources. The disbursal of loans without substantial proof or guarantee will result in bad loans. The loans that are given to the borrowers who have no source to pay are due to corruption. This resulted in 40 percent of sub prime market is made up of these loans. The appraisal will be fraudulent when the officers are corrupted and it costs the bank or any financial organization thousands and millions of dollars in the form of non profitable assets. This in turn will halt or slows down the growth of the economy i n the near future. When the loans are going bad the mortgage companies are making lot of money and the banks are at receiving end. These companies are spending few million dollars and are making money from billions of mortgage loans. As long as the artificial rise of the property continued the

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Deregulation of the Financial Sector in Japan - Essay Example Thomas Friedman in his book, â€Å"The World is flat†, described this process as â€Å"Glocalization†. What this means is the marriage of globalization with localization or adapting global practices to local needs. In the case of ML, it means that its managers if they are to get a share of the 1.2 Trillion in household savings, they have to re-orient their strategies towards the local market. The strategic challenges that confront global managers are how to work around the complex set of laws that govern capital movement in the countries in which they operate. Though many countries have joined the WTO (World Trade Organization), they have not yet fully embraced the conditions that govern this trade organization. For instance, in many of the countries, full capital account convertibility is not allowed and only partial convertibility is allowed. Global managers in the global economy need to go beyond the straitjacket attitude towards business that proclaims â€Å"one size fits all† approach. Instead, they have to ensure that their companies make tailor-made products for each country and each region. This has been illustrated in the case involving ML when the company tried to set up branches in the retail space and had to withdraw them later in the face of mounting losses. This was a clear instance of a global company retreating in the face of sustained local regulations over which it had no control. One reason multilateral institutions like the World Bank and the IMF prescribe policies that guarantee uniformity of regulations is to ensure that the local economy benefits from competition. However, this has led to demands for level playing fields from local companies. Hence, global managers have their task cut out when they present their case for uniform regulations. The best strategy would be to convince the regulators to liberalize the financial sector while keeping the checks and balances in place. Another point that the case highlights are for global managers to be tuned to the changes in the country’s regulatory and financial environment.

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The strong earthquakes happened in Sichuan province, how it influence local people - Research Paper Example The Wenchuan and Ya’an earthquakes have been devastating to the local people. Wenchuan earthquake occurred in 2008 while Ya’an earthquake occurred in 2013 (Chen et al 2013). This paper seeks to discuss the occurrence of the Sichuan Province’s earthquake and how influenced local people. Sichuan Province has a pre-cambrium basement with a double layer texture (Yueqiao et al 2013). This is exposed in the province forming the Western region. This pre-cambrium basement is what forms the Upper Yangtze Platform. In the time of late Palaeozoic-Masozoic geology states that the Sichad seat was the point where the Asian plates extended from. It led to Palaeo-Tethys extended from Southwest Asia to Southeast Asia. Sichuan Province harbors plateaus on its Western side. This  plateaus are cited as the greatest Indosinian fold zones on the planet Earth. The province has also experienced very strong Post- Triassic intercontinental modifications. This includes cases of various geotectonic movements in the Province like block faulting, seismic activity, glaciations and mudflows. This incidence has led to a situation referred to as a geological mystery in Sichuan province (Gioncu & Federico 2011). Sichuan Province is susceptible to earthquakes and studies have shown reasons for the occurrences of earthquakes in the region (der Hilst 2008). The man-made activities together with the natural factors have led to the high prevalence of earthquakes in Sichuan Province. Engineers in Geology and Seismology have reported that that the water collected in the Zipingpu water reservoir triggered the earthquake. The dam is made up of 470 fit high concrete upstream from Dujiangyan (der Hilst 2008). It was seen that the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008 its epicenter was close to the dam. It was four miles from the dam and the area around the dam was highly affected by the earthquake (Macdougall 2011). According to the world Commission on dams, the 2008

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Business Management System - Essay Example That's why special attention must be paid to hardware vendors, because even the most qualities software occurs to be low productive when it runs on outmoded facilities. Quick and wide range telecommunications should be used to hasten data exchange between parts of the BMS, such as optical fiber, satellite communications, 3G networks for mobile user of the system, etc. Usage of the most current technologies raises quality of service and reduces modernization costs in future. System reliability and survivorship are also very important issues. There are a lot of technologies developed for ascending of IT system reliability: backup servers and channels, RAID massive, caching and compression of data, etc. (Jones, 1986) It is important to choose competent software vendor or developers company for creating the software part of BMS. On selection of software provider it is necessary to gather information, on what sort of software it is specialized in, how many completed projects it has and if the customers are satisfied with the product of the company. (Brooks, 1995) It is also impossible not to admit importance of human factor during use of information system (Maslow, 1999). BMS must have comfortable and easy-to-understand user interface, so as novices in company could quickly to know about the system. Only simultaneous taking into consideration of all these factors allows creating really usable and productive information system, which will satisfy DVLA's requirements for the licensing information system. Possible benefits from the BMS for the organization: Elimination of Costly, Inflexible Legacy Systems Improved Work Processes Increase in Access to Data for Business Decision Making Upgrade of Information Technology Infrastructure Increased Control of Work Processes by Staff Reduced Paper Documents Greater Accuracy of Information with Detailed Content Improved Cost Control Increase in Customer Response Time Improved Monitoring and Quicker Resolution of Queries Quick Response to Business Operations and Market Conditions Improved Competitive Advantage Improved Supply-Demand Link with Locations and Branches World Wide Unified Customer Database Improved International Operations Improved Information Access and Management Throughout the Organization Information Entered Once into System Provides Functionality to Interact with other Modules The critical success factors of the BMS are: Clear forming of goals Effective and creative work of management Competent recourse management Keeping project time and recourses frames Understanding of consequences of the system implementation Involving staff in implementation process Also paying more attention to communications with the stakeholders is important for implementation of the Business Management System. The success of a project can be highly influenced by the support or otherwise of key stakeholders. A more iterative process, with more effective-working relationships between stakeholders allows compromise to be based on a more objective understanding by everyone. This process requires that managers and staff have both application and

Crips Essay Example for Free

Crips Essay Not only in the past but in today society the term gang is a hard word to define, because No two gangs are alike (Mays Winfree, 2006, 313) The National Institute of Justice report adopted the the definition of street gangs as groups of youths and young adults who have engaged in a sufficient amount of antisocial activity to warrant attention by the criminal justice system. owever to add on to that definition, the law enforcement uses the definition an ongoing, organized association of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, who have a common name or common signs, colors, or symbols, and members or associates who individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in criminal activity. However when talking about gangs you need to be specific in which gang you are talking about because there are over hundreds around the world. With that being said this paper will be giving information about the gang Crip. To give more insight on the Crip gang, you should know that they consist primarily of African-American males, and according to the NDIC there are approximately 35,000 members throughout the United States. But in 1970 the gang was established in Los Angeles, California by two men Raymond Lee Washington, and Stanley Tookie Williams, before they were expanding around the United States. Unlike normal people who work the gang gets its income by doing illegal crimes. The Crip gang members are represented by the color blue, there style, and some of the symbols they make with there hands. When many gang member get caught they all go through different procedures through the juvenile system because not all crimes are regulated on the same actions. Even though there are many minorities that make up the Crip gang such as Hispanics, Caucasians, Asians, African Americans, and others the group is primarily made up with African Americans. With all of the minorities coming together and joining along in the gang there are approximately 35,000 members through out the United States. With those numbers being so high, it is also said to be that there are around 400 different Crip sets throughout the United States,(P. O. I. G) and when I say different Crip sets I am talking about how they like to be referred to by their geographical names such as the Inglewood Crips or the Hoover Crips, and further by their set names such as the GrapeStreet Watts Crips or the Rolling 60s Crips. When they call themselves by there geographical name it does not mean that they are not in the crip gang that makes up the United states it is basicly just saying that is where they come from and how the group likes to be recognized as. Just like how many other things start, the gang was made up of individuals. Founder Raymond Lee Washington who was fifteen at the time and Co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams. Stanley Williams joined because he was not old enough to join in the Panther movement in the 60’s so he decided he wanted to take what he had learned, regarding control of neighborhoods, and start his own. That is just what the young boy did to. Both boys were from the Los Angeles, California area. Eventually gathering more people to join and the list started to add up of members day by day. Many members did not go by there first name and they all had nicknames or also known as street names. The main reason to start the group was to protect their neighborhood and act like community leaders. Many people got the same idea and started to have a copycat affect and decided to call themselves the crips too. However on a real note you could tell they were copycats because they would fashion themselves by regional cultural indicators that have nothing to do with Los Angeles. (Crip Gang. Internet 4) Like mentioned previous in this essay we talked about Geographical names, some of the following below: East Side Crips, Compton Crips, West Side Crips, Avalon Garden Crips, 43rd Street Crips, Harlem Crips, Hoover Crips, Inglewood Crips, and Grandee Crips should be added to the list. (Crip Gang. Internet 4) Both men Washington, and Williams passed away and the gangs kept rising and becoming bigger. The men both passed away from different incidents, Washington passed away on August 9, 1979 by a former gang member because of a verbal dispute. Williams on the other hand did not pass away until the later years of 2005 when he was fifty one years old. Before he passed away he was currently on death row at San Quentin for murder. Well like unlike many normal people who worked for there money legally, the gang did it in an illegal manner hoping to make it day by day risking there lives and familys lives. Although there family members might not of been in he gang they would be the first people targeted at when that family member in the gang messed up. Gang members are known to do anything from uncountable murders, assaults, the gang is involved in drug trafficking, racketeering, extortion, murder, prostitution and robbery,(P. O. I. G) drive-by shootings, graffiti, and violent takeover bank robberies. Most of the gang’s murders involve disputes over territory and drugs. One they have done all of the above and havent gotten caught they continue to do it and risk there lives and others. However after selling drugs, and participating in the other illegal acts the money adds up where they then can afford to purchase expensive cars, watches, and clothes Like any other type of gang or club there is always a symbol that the group goes by, and in this situation there are a select few important ones that should be talked about. There is anything from the color clothes, hand signals, and how they dance. The color that crips like to go by are shades of blues. However the Grape Street Crips in Watts and New Jersey wear the color purple. There style of clothes is just like any other young adult would wear jeans, t-shirt, sweat shirts, sneakers, polo and a hat. However many of them wear a blue rag or handkerchief as an identity item. Another type of symbol the gang likes to go by are the hand signals that they throw up at others or even each other. Some symbols they like to go by are making the letter C(P.  O. I. G) with there hands, this means Crip up, and Crippin. (P. O. I. G. ) Not only do they make the letter C but they are also aware of making the letters BK which stand for their status as blood killers. They talk about blood killers because the gang blood is one of there biggest rivals. They are also known for the symbols they make in graffiti the gang is also known to replace the letter â€Å"B† with the letter â€Å"C† in writings, and go by the six pointed star which represents Life, Loyalty, Love, Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding. The thing that gets me most about this is how they may be loyal to there gang but what about others? They are out there killing and breaking the law for no reason they dont know what any of the things they preach mean! Above it stated that they talk about blood killers because the gang blood is one of there biggest rivals. Just like the Crip gang the Blood gangs have symbols and identifiers that they go by so you know whos gang they belong to. Unlike the crips that wear blue and use the C in hang gestures the bloods like to wear red, usually a bright color. Not only to they wear read but they make a hand gesture. One of there most common gestures in spelling out the word blood with there fingers. When crips and bloods get together they will fight and fight untill one finally wins. In todays society all cases are looked upon differently, which basicly gets down to how each case gets ran through the juvenile justice system. Many people think that children can not be charged as adults through the system, however Today, all states allow juveniles to be tried as adults in criminal courts in one of four ways. (Siegel, 2001, 466) The four ways that a youth can be tried as an adult would be through direct file wavier, excluded offense wavier, judicial wavier, and reverse waiver. A direct file wavier, is were the prosecutor has the discretion of filling charges for certain legislatively designated offenses in either juvenile or criminal court. About 15 states have this provision. (Siegel, 2001, 466) The excluded offense waiver, states laws exclude from juvenile court jurisdiction certain offenses that are either very monor, such as traffic or fishing violations, or very serious, such a murder. About 29 states now have sch laws for certain crimes. (Siegel, 2001, 466) Believe it or not but after doing some more research I stumbled upon some shocking news about juveniles. Which was a quote that I found stating that After all, juveniles commit almost 9 percent of all the murders in the United States and about 15 percent of all rapes(Siegel, 2001, 451) Last but not least the judicial wavier comes into play after a formal hearing at which both prosecutor and defense attorney present evident, a juvenile court judge may decide to waive jurisdiction and transfer the case to criminal court. This procedure is also known as binding over or certifying juvenile cases to criminal court. (Siegel, 2001, 467) Then lastly there is the reverse wavier, which states laws mandate that certain offenses be tried in adult court. Once the case is heard in the adult court, the trial judge may decide that the offender would be better served by the juvenile court and order a reverse waiver. About 25 states have this provision for certain circumstances. (Siegel, 2001, 467) With that being said you know how juveniles can be tried through the adult system, but did you know that The problem of youths processed in adult courts is a serious one. About 8,000juvenile delinquency cases are now being transferred to the adult courts each year. Supporters view the waiver process as a sound method of getting the most serious juveniles offenders off the street. (Siegel, 2001, 467) Even though trieing youths as adults is now aloud many people think that it does more harm then it does good. If you think about it they are right, because now juveniles will be in cells with adults were they can be targets of the adult predators. Youths held in adults prisons and jails are five times likely to be victims of attempted sexual attacks or rapes that those held in juvenile institutions. (Siegel, 2001, 467) Also not only will they be victims of attacks but it also states that The suicide rate for juveniles in adult prisons and jails is nearly eight times higher than that for juveniles in youth detention centers. (Siegel, 2001, 467) Just like any other crime probation can always be a type of punishment to depending on how serious the crime was. Probation is a sentence entailing the conditional release of a convicted offender into the community under the supervision of the court (in the person of a probation officer),subject to certain conditions for a specified time. The conditions are usually similar to those of parole. (Siegel, 2001, 336) Probation however can be revoked just as quick as the person was put on it. If you brake the probation rules, or commit another crime you will be put back into a prison in most instances. In todays society there are approximately four million people on probation. However if there was not probation facilities would be even more overcrowded then they already are. If none of the above programs work they can be charged as a Juvenile delinquent as well. It basicly would all be based on what the crime did and how big of a crime it was. Each judge is going to have a different outlook on the situation. Not only will they have a different outlook on the situation but another thing that plays a major factor is weather or not you have been caught before for doing a crime. If you were caught before for oing a crime, or something else that was illegal that could affect the way you are charged through the system. Below I would like to talk about some of the reasons people join gangs and some of the things that people need to do in order to be accepted into the gang. Some kids join gangs because they need to feel acceptance, excitement, to earn money, peer pressure, protection, to socialize and etc. (S. A. P. D) If kids have nothing better to do or dont feel like they mean anything at home they are going to find mischief to get into because one way or another someone will notice them. Many minority groups have this problem because there family members have a tough time trying to live so they work alot and try to make money to support there familys. In situations like that though it pushes the child away because there is never anyone around. Then they go seek and find other kids with the same problem and they become a family. Its not as simple as it sounds to get into a gang. Not every gang is the same but some of the ways you can enter into a gang is by being rolled in also known as jumped in, quoted, lined in, then there are ways like being courted in, walked in, sexed in, and commit crimes. Being rolled in means usually consists of the recruit having to fight 3 or more members of the gang for a specified amount of time. The time limit is different from gang to gang, but usually last somewhere between 15 seconds and 1 minute. The reason for the beating is to see how tough the recruit is and if he is a fighter. (S. A. P. D. ) Courted in is were, sometimes and individual is asked to join a gang without going through any initiation. (S. A. P. D) If you are offered a spot in a gang like this that usually mean that you have something the gang wants rather it be talent, or special connections. Being walked in means that you can just join it is very similar to being courted in. Sexed in is as bad as it sounds, being sexed in means female recruits are required to roll 2 dice. Whatever number is thrown is the number of gang members the recruit has to have sex with. Lastly committing crimes is pretty self explanatory and means that you have to commit special crimes in order for them to see what you can do and if you are talented enough to do it without getting caught.

Asian Stereotypes Essay Example for Free

Asian Stereotypes Essay Stereotypes are everywhere in todays society. The media today such as television, radio, and the internet constantly remind us of the stereotypes for different races, genders, religions, and numerous other categories. Stereotypes of Asians in particular have been around for a fairly decent length of time. In the late 19th century, the term Chinky Chink was used to describe the American fear that a large number of Asians would immigrate to the United States. Americans were afraid that the Asian immigrants would invade the country and take jobs away from Americans. At this time, many anti-Asian feelings were expressed, especially on the West Coast, through headlines such as The Yellow Peril' (Los Angeles Times, 1886). In 1924, the Immigration Act was passed, limiting the number of Asians allowed into the United States because by then they were considered an undesirable race. Racism back then eventually evolved into the stereotype ingrained in todays society. One of the more common Asian stereotypes in our world specifically pertains to East Asians. East Asia as a phrase usually refers to the countries of China and Japan, as the main countries subject to stereotyping. Generally, Asians are portrayed as being smart in subjects such as math or science, hardworking, politically ignorant, and very polite and inoffensive. They are also portrayed as having no peripheral vision, which supposedly leads to bad driving. Common stereotypes are martial artists, geeks, and foreigners. Being foreigners, Asians are attributed to speaking poor English and replacing the letters -l and -r with each other. Muttering random nonsense and using words that rhyme on -ng sounds like ching, chang chong is another depiction commonly associated with Asians. Asians in America are considered to be inadaptable, inherently fixed in their own culture and unable to become truly American. A common stereotype for Asian parents is that they only care about their childrens grades and academic future. They dont allow their kids to go out with their friends, as parents of other ethnicities are wont to do. Instead, sons and daughters of Asian parents are told to stay home, study hard, get into a good prestigious college, and live life with a high-paying, high-status job. Old Chinese and Japanese people are described as being extremely wise with long beards, the image drawn from the Chinese philosopher Confucius. East Asian food is stereotyped as well, the most well-known Chinese food among Westerns being egg rolls, chow mein, and chow fun, and fortune cookies. Surprisingly enough, most of the Chinese food Westerns love to eat is almost 100% a Western adaptation of the original. The fortune cookie we know today was invented in America, not China as most ignorant people believe. Asian stereotypes based on physical appearances also exist. During World War II, efforts were made to distinguish enemy Japanese from friendly Chinese simply through physical appearance therefore leading to further stereotyping and the attribution of physical traits to each group. Such stereotypes include slanted eyes for slits. In the past, Asian men in particular have been thought to be fairly feminine. The main reason for this stereotype lies in the fact that Asians used to do what was considered womens work. These Asian workers were, as a whole, shorter than the average American man, sported long braids, and sometimes wore long silk gowns. Chinese men were seen as an economic threat to the white workforce so laws were passed that prevented the Chinese from working in many different industries. Due to those laws, Asians were forced to do what was deemed womens work by the society at the time. In the media, Asian men were often compared to white women. Two important fictional Asian characters in Americas cultural history are Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan. Both were created by white authors Sax Rohmer and Earl Biggers in the early 1900s. Fu Manchu is an intelligent, evil Chinese murderer with plots of world domination. He is the picture of Americas imagination of a supposedly mysterious and threatening Asian race. On the other hand, Charlie Chan is a submissive Chinese detective who solves cases while politely accepting or ignoring the numerous racist insults thrown at him by the white American characters. Charlie is the picture of Americas view of a good Asian. Both characters found huge popularity in many novels and views. Through these two characters invented by white Americans however, the American consciousness has been disillusioned with these stereotypes of Asians. As Asian men have stereotypes, Asian women also have stereotypes created mainly through the minds of perverted Americans. Asian women have been described as aggressive sexual beings. Western culture has promoted stereotypes of Asian women, calling them Dragon Ladies, China dolls, and Geisha girls. According to UC Berkeley Professor of Asian American Studies Elaine Kim, this stereotype of Asian women being submissive sex objects impedes their economic flexibility and has caused the increase in demand of ethnic pornography. Stereotypical portrayals of Asian women created by sexist white men continue to be a presence in movies despite their now disguised form. Researchers have theorized that the common stereotypes today could possibly be influencing the perception of Asians ability and probability of earning managerial positions. The stereotypes involving Asians as nerds, submissive, and quiet leads to the mindset that Asians are a good labor source. Therefore, this leads to the expectation that Asians are incompetent leaders. Because our society today values individuality, Asians find it extremely hard to fit in with these expectations, due to their original values of close families and groups. This stereotype has sometimes led to Asian employees being taken advantage of and lowers the likelihood for Asian professionals to be considered for a management position. Asians are supposedly highly qualified scientists and engineers, but lacking characteristics for leadership positions. Among all other racial groups, Asians have the least chance of advancing into leadership positions. A pattern has been created of education helping entry into professional fields, over-representation in technical fields, but under-representation in executive positions. The stereotype that Asian students are geniuses prevents them from accepting academic and emotional problems and asking for help. Whether they are excelling or having problems, it is imperative to acknowledge that Asian students may be experiencing school, social, and family stresses in order to uphold their model Asian image. Stereotyping Asians increases peer discrimination such as being threatened, having racist comments said to them, and being excluded from activities. By only focusing on the Asian stereotype of exceptional students and generalizing all Asians with it, this model does not take into consideration the large number of Asian American students and their families who suffer from poverty and illiteracy. WORKS CITED Chen, Tina T. Asian American Empowerment. Model Minority. May 2004. Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University. 15 Dec. 2008 . Kim, Angelea, and Christine J. Yeh. Stereotypes of Asian American Students. ERIC Digest. 15 Dec. 2008 . Stereotype: East Asian stereotypes. Wikipedia. 14 Dec. 2008 . Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians in the United States. Wikipedia. 14 Dec. 2008 . ? Response By doing this project, I have learned much about stereotypes and essentially racism against Asians. Prior to doing this project, I had already known some stereotypes, even some which were used on me. Among some of those I knew are Asians as smart students, Asian parents as very academic focused, and Asians that have poor English and driving. In reality, I had planned on writing a research paper on stereotypes in general, but there probably wouldve been too many aspects to cover. Therefore, I decided to choose a single stereotype, which was the East Asian stereotype. Through researching, I have learned many different stereotypes for Asians. For example, I now know different stereotypes pertaining to Asian men as well as Asian women. While writing my research paper, I was rather surprised at the number of stereotypes I was unaware of. On the other hand, I already knew some of the stereotypes mentioned. It was just a matter of taking some of the stereotypes in my own life to add details to the stereotypes I found online. By the time I finished researching and writing my paper, I felt like I knew tons more about Asian stereotypes than I had before. It was a bit saddening to see how many completely wrong conceptions there are today of Asians. Although I am Asian myself, I do not find any offense in any of these stereotypes for I know that they are not true. They may apply to a majority of the Asian American population, but I rest in the knowledge that I can be an exception to the stereotypes set by todays society.