Thursday, October 31, 2019

International Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 5

International Marketing - Essay Example Fast food restaurants are reflecting greater flexibility in adapting to the local tastes and cultures and also in generating price ranges for the products through evaluation of the economic potential of the people. Global fast food companies like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Dunkin Donuts to name a few are observed to take resort of the localization strategy to help gain an effective penetration in the local markets. Fast food restaurants pertaining to America are observed to produce food products of hybrid varieties relating to the different countries in which they have opened up their branches. Customization and localization are generated in the food products by the fast food restaurants like that of McDonald’s that produces McKroket a beef and bun product for the Netherlands market while selling shrimp with cocktail sauce in Germany. For Greece and Israel, McDonald’s has its own set of Greek Burger and McKebab respectively. KFC operating in the Ch inese market aims to produce food products for the breakfast menu catering to regional preferences and tastes. Similarly, Dunkin Donuts operating in the South Korean market is observed to market breakfast foods like bagels and doughnuts which contribute in attracting potential customers (Sten, 2010). Federal Republic of Brazil is identified as the largest nation compared to other Latin American countries measured in terms of population and also the size of its geographical territory. Brazil tends to attract potential tourists from different nations owing to its natural and social diversity. Cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro reflect a larger population mix owing to the growth of urban and industrial development. Brazil also reflects to be the sole country in the whole of America that has a Portuguese speaking population. The continuous inflow of tourists in the Brazilian region owing to the existence of social, cultural, ethnic and biodiversity is observed as a

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Understanding the Motives and Benefits of Volunteer Vacationers Essay Example for Free

Understanding the Motives and Benefits of Volunteer Vacationers Essay With the growing trend of volunteer vacations, research has been warranted in regard to understanding the motivational factors of individuals who participate in such endeavors. With this understanding, the goal is to increase these travel offerings in the industry, which will bring better understanding between cultures. This study examines different travel motivation factors for someone who chooses to use part of their vacation participating in volunteer or humanitarian activities. Considering that ‘mission’ often has connotations of a religious purpose, the phrase ‘travelling with a purpose’ brings on even more significance as this concept expands. To understand travel motivation in general, a variety of scales and theories have been researched. Maslow, Dann, Iso-Ahola, Plog and Pearce are some included in the Literature Review. A qualitative focus group and semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted. The analysis of the data revealed that four main themes for why people traveled with a purpose emerged. Cultural immersion was a strong objective; the desire to give back; the camaraderie that occurs on volunteer vacations; and the fourth theme focused on family. Non-verbal communication and bonding occurs at several levels with the local people and family members. This is a good example of cultivating peace through tourism. Keywords: volunteer tourism, travel motivation factors, benefits, impacts Introduction The concept of ‘volunteer tourism’ is a growing trend in the tourism industry and is starting to draw attention from researchers and marketers alike (Wearing, 2003). In the United States, for instance, a broad variety of organisations offer volunteer vacations. They vary from tour operators to non-profit organisations. One of the longest published guides to these organisations, Volunteer Vacations, by Bill McMillon et al., listed only 75 such organisations in its first edition in 1987 (Campbell, 1999). In its newest edition, published in 2003, the number of organisations increased to 275. These organisations offer a wide spectrum of volunteer vacation experiences. Volunteer vacation destinations range from local to regional to global reach. Volunteer vacation costs range from $100 and under to $3000 and above, with project length from under one week to six months or more. While summer appears to be the most predominant travel season, there are packages and programmes pro vided in all seasons. Analysing how an organisation positions itself within the volunteer tourism sector may reveal factors that influence a potential tourist’s organisational choice. The organisational types of volunteer vacation experience suppliers are comprised of a mix of non-profit organisations and for-profit tour operators. Some examples 1368-3500/05/06 0479-19 $20/0  are ‘Cross-Cultural Solutions’ (www.crossculturalsolutions.org), ‘The American Hiking Society’ (www.americanhiking.org), and ‘Earthwatch’ (www.earthwatch. org). Types of projects offered for volunteers vary widely and include agriculture, archaeology, community development, conservation, construction, education and teaching, environmental protection and research, technical assistance, historic preservation, medical and dental, work camps. The nature of volunteer vacation offerings appear to be closely allied with the organisations’ respective missions and mandates. For instance, Ambassadors for Children (AFC), a not-for-profit charitable organisation based in Indianapolis, Indiana, offers global volunteer opportunities by providing trip opportunities for hands-on interaction with disadvantaged children of the world, balanced by opportunities for sightseeing and experiencing the native culture of the destination (www. ambassadorsforchildren.com). AFC has facilitated volunteer activities for passengers travelling to destinations like Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Haiti, Ecuador, Peru, Alaska, Vietnam, Belize, Guatemala, N ative American Reservations, and other communities in need. Humanity International seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world. Volunteers build houses together in partnership with families in need. Global Volunteers offer opportunities that include teaching conversation English, nurturing at-risk infants and children, renovating and painting community buildings, assisting with healthcare, and natural resource projects. Other organisations are geared more towards ecotourism such as Catalina Island Conservancy and Wilderness Volunteers, both giving back through stewardship of organising and promoting volunteer services. The commonality of the volunteer vacation suppliers appears to be the singularity of volunteering theme-focused experiences that reinforce organisations’ overall mission. Despite the growing popularity of volunteer tourism, systematic academic research in this field, particularly from the perspectives of the volunteer vacationers, is still in its infancy stage. Preliminary research appears to sugge st that volunteer tourism can take two different forms based on participants’ mindsets: the ‘volunteer-minded’ versus the ‘vacation-minded’ (Brown Morrison, 2003). The ‘volunteer-minded’ individuals tend to devote most or all of their vacation time to volunteer activities at the destination. Volunteerism is the central notion for them. This type of volunteer tourism is often called a mission or service trip. The second form of volunteer tourism takes on a lighter undertone where the individual is largely ‘vacation-minded’, but spends a small portion of the vacation on volunteer work at the destination. The term ‘VolunTourism’ refers to this type of tourism experience where a tour operator offers travellers an opportunity to participate in an optional excursion that has a volunteer component, as well as a cultural exchange with local people. These brief encounters have often proved to be the highlight of the individuals’ vacations. This latter form of volunteer tourism has gained popularity among tourists. While this classification scheme takes a simplistic approach, it provides a baseline for typology development of volunteer tourists. While there has been increasing research on volunteerism which sheds insights on motivational and destination choice factors of the ‘volunteerminded’ service trip participants, very little research has been con ducted on the ‘vacation-minded’ volunteer tourists. There is lack of conceptualisation and fundamental understanding of why individuals take part in volunteer work while  on a vacation trip. What motivates them? What benefits do they derive from the volunteer experience? What are the highlights of the volunteering experience? How do the volunteer activities influence their overall vacation experience and satisfaction? As a result, more research is warranted to fully understand this growing form of volunteer tourism. The focus of this research was on the ‘vacation-minded’ volunteer vacationers. The purpose of this study was to examine the motives that drive vacationers to participate in some form of volunteer or humanitarian activities while on a leisure vacation trip and the benefits that the volunteer tourists derive from the experience. This study also sought to broker the link between motivations for the general form of tourism and those for the volunteer vacationing. The outcome of this research was expected to contribute to better understanding of the destination choices and tourism experiences sought, thus bearing important implications for organisations that are targeting this particular market segment. Literature Review The literature review of this study was intended to provide some contextual background for the research. It centred around two key components of volunteer vacation: the tourism component and the volunteer component. More specifically, it dealt with the general leisure travel motivations and how they pertain to and interplay with volunteer tourism. Motivational scales To understand travel motivation, a variety of scales and theories have been proposed and empirically tested in tourism literature. The importance of motivation in tourism is quite obvious. It acts as a trigger that sets off all the events involved in travel (Parrinello, 2002). Many researchers have used motivational theory to try to interpret the motivations of tourists. On the premise that motivations derive from a real or perceived need, it is justifiable to analyse tourist choices of destinations and activities as a consequence of need deficiency (Burns Holden, 1995). Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ – self-actualisation, esteem needs, love needs, safety needs, and physiological needs forms the basis for further development and applications to understand travel behaviour and demand for tourism (Maslow, 1954, 1970). The decision to visit a destination is a complex amalgam of needs, motivating an individual to set and prioritise goals in a belief that achiev ing these will satisfy the perceived needs. One of the main reasons for the popularity of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is probably its simplicity (Hudson, 1999). This hierarchy could be related to the travel industry in the sense that unless individuals have their physiological and safety needs met, they are less likely to be interested in travelling the world to make a difference. Self-actualisation can, in fact, be considered the end or goal of leisure (Mill Morrison, 2002). Vacations offer an opportunity to re-evaluate and discover more about the self, to act out one’s self-image as a way of modifying or correcting it. Echoing Maslow, Pearce (1982, 1993) suggested that travel behaviour reflected a hierarchy of five levels of travel motives. The five levels of the Travel Career Ladder are: relaxation; stimulation; relationship; self-esteem/development; and fulfillment. As with a career at work, people start at different levels  and are likely to change levels during their lifetime. Pearce explicitly recognised that tourists’ travel motivation can be self-directed or other-directed; they do not always seek the same type of f ulfillment from travel, and that people can descend as well as ascend on the ladder. To what extent tourists do so from one trip to the next, or whether this only occurs over longer time periods, is not quite as clear (Oppermann, 2000). Classifying tourists into different typologies is an approach to link psychological motives to behaviour. The earliest model that forms the basis of tourism typology theory was established by Stanley Plog (1974). He constructed a cognitive-normative model based upon psychographic types. At one end of the continuum are psychocentric tourists and at the other end allocentric tourists. The allocentrics are explorers and adventure seekers, who tend to choose remote and untouched (by tourists) destinations. Middle-centrics are likely to display characteristics of a limited adventurer, but they want home comforts. It is this group that represents the mass tourist market. Psychocentrics dislike destinations that offer unfamiliarity or insecurity. It is suggested that the psychocentric is dominated by safety needs. Dann (1977) made a significant contribution in suggesting a two-tiered scheme of motivational factors: the ‘push’ and the ‘pull’. The push factors social-psychological motives that drive the desire to travel. The pull factors are external factors that affect where a person travels to fulfil the identified needs or desires. Dann suggested that anomie and ego-enhancement were the basic underlining reasons for travel. Crompton (1979) agreed with Dann’s basic idea of push and pull motives but went further to identify nine motives for travel. They were: the escape from a perceived mundane environment; exploration and evaluation of self; relaxation; prestige; regression; enhancement of kinship relationships; facilitation of social interaction; novelty; and education. He classified the first seven motives as push factors, and the last two as pull factors. There was no mention of the need for the authenticity of the destination. Mayo and Jarvis (1981) suggested that travel motivations could be divided into four categories: physical motivations such as rest, cultural motivations such as the desire for knowledge, interpersonal motivations such as the desire to meet people, and status and prestige motivations such as the desire for recognition. In 1983, Beach and Ragheb developed a model called the Leisure Motivational Scale, which sought to summarise motivators into four components, based on the work of Maslow. The four types of components were intellectual, social, competence-mastery, and stimulus-avoidance. The most recent motivational theories are founded on very complex interactive  models, which are based on personal and situational factors (Graumann, 1981; Schmalt, 1996). Behaviours are increasingly associated with life satisfaction, or perceived quality of life (Kernan Unger, 1987). Kernan and Domzal  (2001) believe that people express who/what they are, to themselves and to others, by engaging in action–leisure activities. Swarbrooke and Horner (2003) believe the main factors determining an individual tourist’s motivation are probably: personality, lifestyle, past experience, past life, perceptions and image. Changes which occur in an individual’s life stage may also have an impact on travel motives. Having a child, an increase or reduction in income, worsening health, and changing expectations or experiences as a tourist are circumstances that will affect motivation. Swarbrooke and Horner stated that no tourists are likely to be influenced by just one mo tivator. They are more likely to be affected by a number of them at any one time. Bello and Etzel (1985) investigated the role of novelty in pleasure travel. They argued that people with a low level of arousal in their daily routines seek a higher level of arousal in their vacation (a novel trip), whereas those people who lead a hectic, fast-paced life with frequent problems and challenges seek vacations that provide a minimum of stimulation and/or a familiar environment. Similarly, Wang (2000) emphasised  that holidaymaking is an institution of escape. It is freedom from the modernised mode of existence that is associated with rigid schedules, deadening routines, and stressful deadlines. People on holiday have entry into an alternative track of tempos and rhythms. They have freedom to change. The motivation to travel is to have a specific lifestyle separate from the routines of daily life. Understanding tourism motivation is important. It acts as a trigger that sets off all the events involved in travel (Parrinello, 2002). In other words, it represents the whys and the wherefores of travel in general, or of a specific choice in particu lar. The extensive literature on leisure travel motivation provides a solid theoretical background and some guidelines for studying the volunteer vacation phenomenon in this general tourism motivational context. Volunteering and volunteer vacations Volunteering has been a buzzword for some time for many socially oriented individuals both in the US and throughout the world. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 63.8 million people volunteered from September 2002 to September 2003, an almost 7% increase from the previous year. Women are more likely than men to volunteer, and individuals between the ages of 35 and 44 years old make up the largest group of volunteers (Kellicker, 2004). Stebbins defines volunteering as ‘un-coerced help offered either formally or informally with no or, at most, token pay done for the benefit of both the people and the volunteer’. Similarly, other definitions of volunteering have included the recognition that volunteers are those who provide assistance, or unpaid service, usually for the benefit of the community (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1986). Others emphasise the characteristics of the action perceived as freely chosen, without financial gain and generally aimed at hel ping others (Stebbins, 1982, 1992; Van Til, 1979). In terms of the volunteering process, the ‘American model’, proposed by Leopold (2000) starts with what is needed and then recruits volunteers to do the work. In Europe there is a membership tradition where everything starts with the members. It is up to the members to decide what to do. Regardless, volunteering has been viewed as beneficial to the well-being of the  volunteers (Cnaan et al., 1996; Stebbins, 1982; Thoits Hewitt, 2001). Volunteering gives participants a  sense of purpose, provokes serious contemplation, encourages concern for others, provides the opportunity to further an interest, and generates a sense of deep personal fulfilment (Stebbins Graham, 2004). Stebbins (1992) suggests that volunteering bears durable benefits for the volunteer such as self-actualisation, self-enrichment, recreation or renewal of self, feelings of accomplishment, enhancement of self-image, self-expression, social interaction and belongingness. Thoits and Hewitt (2001) empi rically examine how volunteering affects six different dimensions of well being: levels of happiness; life satisfaction; self-esteem; sense of control over life; physical health; and depression. Their research reveals that people who are in better physical and mental health are more likely to volunteer, and conversely that volunteer work is good for both mental and physical health. People of all ages who volunteer are happier and experience better physical health and less depression. Broad (2003) suggested that volunteers were more open to positive attitude changes when exposed to a different culture, which may explain why volunteers frequently reported becoming more broad-minded, content, and relaxed, and less selfish and psychocentric as outcomes of volunteering, along with a changed way of looking at the world. Stebbins  (1982, 1992, 2004) has conducted some pioneering work in conceptualising volunteerism in the context of leisure. There continues to be much research in regard to serious leisure volunteers and their motivation to volunteer as well as the fulfilment they derive from their diverse pursuits. Stebbins believes that the motivational reasons and socioeconomic conditions vary vastly with different demographic categories of people taking up volunteering. Each category is rather differently motivated, but the twin motives of altruism and self-interest are common to all categories. In his consideration of ‘serious leisure’, Stebbins points out that it is an important part of people’s lives in its relation to personal fulfilment, identity enhancement and self-expression (1982). Since volunteering in many cases involves some form of travel, the phenomenon has been examined closely in the context of tourism. The term ‘volunteer tourism’ refers to tourists who volunteer in an organised way to undertake holidays that involve ‘aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments, or research into aspects of society or environment’ (Wearing, 2001). Volunteer tourism has also been viewed as a form of alternative tourism or ecotourism emphasising the sustainable, responsible and educational undertone of the activity (Moskowitz, 1995; Wearing, 2001). Wheelan (1991), for instance, suggested that ‘ecotourists represent a potential army of recruits with free time and money to spend on sustainable development efforts’. Further, volunteer tourism experience has been viewed as a contextual platform for the intertwining interactions among the ecotourism element, the volunteer element, and the serious leisure element (Stebbins, 1982, 1992; Wearing, 2001). Travelling overseas as a volunteer appears to have begun around 1915 (Beigbeder, 1991; Clark, 1978; Darby, 1994; Gillette, 1968). Although most of the literature in this field has focused on profiling the volunteering tourist ( Brown Morrison, 2003; Wearing, 2003), there has been increasing interest in understanding vacation volunteers’ motives and the benefits derived. Exploratory research on volunteer vacationers suggests that their motivations appear to be similar to long-term volunteers, but the relative value of various factors can differ, with  self-actualisation being very important for short-term volunteers (Gazley, 2001). Brown and Morrison (2003) propose that a volunteer vacation helps heal ‘corporate burnout’ by providing the individual with a sense of accomplishment outside the workplace. The role of peace appeared to be another discussed benefit. And, according to Bud Philbrook (pers comm), president and CEO of Global Volunteers, volunteer service engenders hope and friendship, both of which are crucial to waging peace: ‘The more people volunteer all over the world and make friends with local people, the more peaceful the world will be.’ However, alongside ‘service trips’ or ‘mission trips’, where the primary purpose of the trip is volunteering and individuals spend the majority of the trip participating in volunteer work at the destination, there is also a lighter form of volunteer vacation that is gaining popularity. Here, the main purpose of the trip remains largely as a leisurely vacation, but the tourists also spend a small component of their leisure time on volunteer work at the destination. This form of volunteer vacation, although not a new practice, has gained increasing popularity. Rather than taking up a trip just for volunteer work, these groups of individuals join leisure-oriented vacation packages that provide a volunteering component as part of the itinerary. Tourism theories and research have ranged from micro-social-psychological  explanations to macro-social explorations concerning the globalisation of tourist venues. Given the rise of volunteer tourism, tourism practitioners have begun to strategically incorporate volunteering activities into their product planning. Some market-sensitive travel companies are offering leisure tour packages with optional excursions that allow tourists to participate in volunteer work. However, empirical research for this type of volunteer vacation is very limited. Many questions remain to be answered. For instance, what motivates vacationers to spend part of their vacation working at the destination? Are their motivations similar to the service trip or mission trip volunteers? What benefits do vacationers derive from participating in volunteer activities? And what are the highlights of the volunteer experience? Does the volunteer experience enhance the overall vacation experience? This research, there fore, was aimed at further exploration of these important issues. Study Objectives The objectives of this study were threefold. They were to discover: (1) What are the motivational push factors that drive some leisure tourists to seek volunteer experience during their leisure trip? To what extent do these motives differ or coincide with the general tourism motives? (2) What are the perceived benefits that vacation tourists derive from participating in volunteering activities at the destination? To be more specific, what are the immediate impacts participacting has on the overall vacation satisfaction? To what extent does it transcend the temporal boundary and exert long-term influence on the individuals? Methods This research adopted focus group and in-depth personal interview approaches, instead of a more quantitative approach such as structured surveys. The researchers believe this is an area of investigation that is at its exploratory stage. There are no proven measurements or theories for researching this particular phenomenon. In addition, unlike traditional quantitative research, focus group and in-depth personal interviews are centrally concerned with understanding attitudes rather than measuring them. In an academic sense, the goal of a focus group or personal interview is also to gain access to more inclusive sets of feelings and emotions that a structured instrument could not capture. These research methods are more direct, sensitive, and interactive in nature in assessing attitudes, motivations and opinions. Thus, it was believed that qualitative research methods would facilitate better in-depth understanding of motivational factors of volunteer vacationers instead of merely obtai ning the distant panoramic view through quantitative channels. It was hoped that that these approaches would draw out the ‘motivational factors’ behind the ‘top of mind’ opinions – which is critical to understanding what is driving volunteer vacation. A focus group session was conducted in May 2004. The focus group was composed of nine people with ages ranging from 40 to 72: four males and five females. All were married. The focus group attendees  were from a variety of life situations ranging from an engineer, healthcare consultant, and business owner, to a retiree, stay-home mother, and community volunteer. While university education appeared to be the norm for the group, the participants’ educational background varied by level from high school education to PhD. The diversity in backgrounds of the participants was intended to reveal different insights and opinions on the volunteer tourism issue. A few commonalities brought the group together. They all had extensive leisure travel experiences. They had a shared interest and passion for travel. All had participated in volunteer work while on a leisure trip. The volunteer experience ranged from visiting an orphanage and volunteering at local hospitals to participating in Habitat for Humanity projects. The volunteering experiences occurred during leisure vacation trips but the volunteering locations varied from domestic desti nations such as New Mexico and Alaska to international destinations such as Guatemala, Cuba, and Brazil. The focus group participants were asked to share their thoughts. The discussion centred around three issues: (1) Why would an individual become involved with using part of his or her vacation for volunteering activities? What are his or her motivations? (2) What are the highlights of the volunteer experience? (3) What are the benefits and impacts of the vacation volunteering experiences? In order to separate motivational factors from beneficial factors resulting from volunteer vacation experience, we conducted a second focus group session that  was made up of three males and three females who were first-time participants of volunteer vacation. This focus group was conducted in June 2004, before the individuals departed for their first volunteer vacation trip. Both focus group sessions were video and audio-taped. Transcripts were made by a graduate research assistant who was also present at both focus group sessions. Following the focus group sessions, the researchers conducted 10 in-depth personal interviews with individuals who had participated in volunteer work on a vacation trip. The interview sessions lasted approximately 30 minutes each and were audio-taped and subsequently transcribed. The purposes of supplementing the focus group sessions with in-depth interviews were three fold: (1) it was felt that in-depth personal interview allows more time and space for personal reflection on the part of the interviewee; (2) it was logistically flexible to include and capture the viewpoints of the younger individuals that felt underrepresented in the focus group sessions; and (3) employing a multi-method approach (focus group plus in-depth personal interview), researchers could cross-validate the themes and patterns of the findings from the focus group sessions. Based on the review of literature in volunteerism and volunteer tourism, as well as the results of the focus group session, the personal interviews took on a semi-structured format with a list of 15 open and semi-open questions that centred on motivational factors and impacts of volunteer vacation. All 25 study subjects were members of Ambassador Travel Club, the largest travel club in the US, and were recruited to participate in the study on a voluntary basis. The researchers considered different approaches for the text data analysis. Text analysis software tools such as CATPAC were initially considered. However, the researchers felt that the computer-aided, more quantifying approach does not seem to handle well the complexity of language context, the dynamics of the group interaction and the richness of relationships revealed in the text data. As a result, a decision was made to use the more traditional approach of content analysis. Both researchers analysed the transcripts simultaneously but independently. The results were later compared and compiled together. This effort, while more time consuming, resulted in a more consistent interpretation of the text data and increased the reliability of the study. Results The motivator: Why volunteer while on vacation? Using the multi-method approach, four major motivational themes appear to take shape concerning why individuals volunteer while on a leisure trip: cultural immersion, giving back, seeking camaraderie and seeking educational and bonding opportunities. Cultural immersion When asked, ‘Why volunteer while on vacation?’ it was found that being able to physically and emotionally immerse oneself in the local culture and community is a strong motivational factor. It was a common sentiment from the research subjects that participating in volunteer work provided the travellers with invaluable opportunities to immerse themselves in a local culture to a degree that would not be possible without the first-hand interaction with the local people  and community through volunteer work. These volunteering experiences enable travellers to experience and learn beyond the typical tourism platform, where one is surrounded by staged settings typified by beautiful beaches and fancy resorts, to see the people as they really are, their lives and their living environment. It appeared that volunteer travellers tended to attach strong value to seeking and experiencing authenticity of a place. They also demonstrated their insatiable curiosity about other people a nd places and their belief that working and interacting with the local people and communities leads to opportunities to become immersed in local culture and connect with the local people in a more profound way. As a result, long-term relationships and friendships were built between the hosts and the visitors as testified by the participants: I’m a doer, you know. I like to do stuff for people and it gave me a chance to do that. And also, you know, as other people said, to really get immersed into the community and I think when you work with people you really can see the real aspects of the population there much more so than, you know, in a hotel lobby. And so on even if you are friendly and outgoing and so on, you just don’t get to really know what peoples’ lives are like and this gave us such an opportunity to do that and get acquainted and make relationships. Giving back and making a difference The second motivational theme that emerged was the desire to give back and reach out to the less privileged. Many participants felt that they do well in life and wanted to give back. Spending time to help people in need is a good way to just do that. ‘A trip with a purpose’ is appealing to participants because it offers them a chance to help with the less fortunate instead of pure self-enjoyment. It appears individuals who are seeking a ‘purpose-driven life’ as put by one of the focus group participants, are drawn to the notion that volunteer vacation serves as a means to give back to society. So I decided to do it because I do well in life and I like to give back. I enjoy doing that kind of work and so I think my main reason was it’s time to start giving back again.  My daughter and I went. My husband and I have been lucky enough to travel a lot, and I just got to thinking that it’s really nice to go just and lay on the beach and have people wait on you and I really enjoy it, don’t get me wrong. And we also enjoyed immersing yourself in the culture through taking bicycle trips but it just seemed to be kind of selfish, so I thought maybe it would be nice to be a little unselfish. Seeking camaraderie A third motivational theme attests to the camaraderie that is sought on volunteer vacations. For well-travelled individuals, these trips bring together the ‘most enjoyable groups’, according to half of the study subjects. Meeting and interacting with people from the same travel group who share common interests and values appear to be major motives behind volunteer vacation. Many interviewees and focus group members concurred that travelling with people with similar minds and making friends certainly added value and enjoyment to the overall leisure trip experience. ‘Working with fellow group members in the volunteer And you know you are working side by side with a lot of good people. It also shows other cultures that Americans are willing to give in a physical way, in terms of getting down and dirty. Folks from Guatemala were taken back by the fact we were working. I think it is just another way of making ourselves ambassadors for the good people in our society. Seeking camaraderie appeared to be a sentiment voiced by the majority of the first focus group as a stronger motivator for volunteer vacations. However, considering the first focus group participants were composed of individuals who had various levels of prior volunteer vacation experiences, the researchers were concerned that seeking camaraderie could be attributed more to a ‘benefit’ factor than a ‘motivational’ factor. That is, would individuals actually choose volunteer vacation because they anticipate building new friendships or was it a benefit realised in retrospect resulting from the vacation volunteer experience? The researchers conducted a second focus group with six individuals prior to their first volunteer vacation. The second focus group appeared to confirm that meeting with and having a good time with people of similar interests was one of the motivational aspects that they were looking forward to. As one participant put it: ‘It is about blending good hard work and volunteering with some fun activities wrapped around it and know that there will be some pretty neat people doing the same thing.’ Seeking educational and bonding opportunities for children The volunteer vacationers appear to be also motivated by the educational and family-bonding opportunities that volunteer vacation experience presents. In the case where volunteer vacationers travelled with their children, informants agreed that the volunteer experience was an opportunity for them to impart their value system to their children. They believed that the volunteer experience they shared with their children can teach children that there are people in the world who are less fortunate, that there is broad diversity in the world, and that material items should be of minimal importance. Informants also believe that the volunteer experience helps teach children the value of giving, an important component in life. It is  apparent that participating in volunteer work with children while on vacation is perceived as having an educational component for the younger generation as testified by one participant: Well, in conjunction with the father–daughter bonding quality time to spend with my daughter, the thing that appealed about Ambassadors for Children for me was that many of our children live in a privileged world compared to the rest of the world. And I wanted my daughter to understand the environment, the social issues, the lack of any kind of parenting that some of these children are exposed to, just to give her a better understanding of the world outside, of course, the sheltered environment that many of us live in. And Ambassadors for Children sort of fit that bill. It was something that I could actively participate in instead of serving on a committee. That attracted me to Ambassadors for Children initially and  now it is that I can have hands-on experience with the children and share those experiences with my family also. Another related, but distinct, motivational factor is seeking better bonding opportunities with children. Volunteering together with children appears to be a very good interacting context for parents and their children and/or  grandchildren. For many interviewees and focus group members, it is very important to be able to spend quality time with loved ones, especially children or grandchildren, and taking a volunteer vacation together appears to enable them to achieve that goal. A volunteer experience builds a special shared experience with children, as echoed by one father: Initially I became involved with Ambassadors for Children because I’m a father and I have daughters. And there were so many things I could do with my son athletically. I coached sports. I’m involved obviously in games and things with my son all the time. But for a father sometimes there are limits how he can interact with his daughters. So I wanted to look at something my daughter and I could do together other than going to the mall or going shopping or going to the beach. So I looked into Ambassadors for Children and that’s how I initially got involved in it. The benefits and impact of volunteer vacations It appears to be consensual among all participants that the volunteer component of the vacation became, in fact, the highlight of the total vacation experience: This personal interaction with the family, and their obvious appreciation of having a home and having people that they didn’t know willing to help them – that made the whole experience. I think again that the self-fulfillment and the memories you bring back of what happened between you and the people that you met to me are wonderful. And you think of travel and the beautiful sites you’ve seen, but the kids’ faces are the most beautiful. I think the vacation was fun! I just think it (the volunteer experience) was another element to bring to it that was even neater. It just gave you a little more culture and that puts you in direct touch with the people and that helps you talk to them a little more. It was a lot of fun. I think there’s a great number of people who are looking for new experiences. In other words you can only lay on the beach so many times, you can only stay in nice hotel so many times and although that’s good and it’s good to  get away I think people many people are looking for new experiences and here’s an opportunity for you to travel to have a vacation experience and at the same time take a small time out of that vacation experience and do something that is meaningful, and do something that last in your memory and do something that makes a difference. The volunteering component of the leisure vacation seems to have become a vacation experience enhancer in multiple ways. First, meeting and interacting with people with shared interests from the same travel group has added value to  the overall leisure trip experience. It was brought out repeatedly that participants genuinely enjoyed the interaction and group dynamics of their travel companies. This type of travel companionship and interaction appears to enhance the enjoyment of the overall leisure trip. Second, volunteer vacationers discovered that material needs were of minimal importance and the little things that happen such as the exchange of love, care, curiosity, understanding, and appreciation were the highlights of their trips. Third, in a broader sense, the volunteer vacationers became the ambassadors for their own country. The helping and commitment appeared to provide a window for international communities to understand the American people, projecting  the friendly, g enerous and helpful American image as was attested by one informant. . . . But I always want the children to know and understand that we’re from the US, that we represent American people that we’re being American interest there . . . People have done things for them that they didn’t have to do. They’ve taken their time their money and their energy to help these people. And maybe some day that will make a difference. Maybe instead of someone having bad thoughts about the US they can remember there were people that came here for me and helped me from a dental standpoint, from a medical standpoint, from a clothing standpoint, or whatever, and maybe they won’t have such a negative bias towards the US like so many people do these days. When asked whether there were any enduring benefits or impacts from their volunteer vacation experiences, the study participants also agree that the impact permeates beyond the vacation trip itself. A sense of self fulfilment and personal growth are among the most mentioned enduring effects: You go thinking you are going to help people makes their lives better. But you end up getting far more out of it than you put in. It is a real blessing. I don’t know how to put it into words but it went above and beyond my expectations I guess. What I expected to get out of it and how it still affects me today three years later and my friend that went with me how its changed her life dramatically its just one of those things that blows me away when I look back it was just a beginning point for what I can see myself doing in the future and for her as well. Another common sentiment is that the shared volunteering experience appeared to have an enduring effect on enhancing family relationships. Well its helped me to in some ways to communicate with my children that the life that they have is a very privileged life and a lot of people don’t have even the percentage of opportunity or life that they’re able to enjoy. I don’t think children get that by seeing it on television, I think children have to have a personal relationship with particularly young children have to have personal experiences to help you communicate with them. The one thing that I do notice is we have a lot of stuff around the house. We’ve collected bits and pieces. But stuff that we’ve gotten on these trips has fairly prominent locations and all of it tends to say, ah . . . that was a neat  experience. They are reminders. There’s a Guatemalan embroidery here, and a Cuban picture there, and a picture from Brazil. It’s a great shared experiences when you get back to, you know, talk about it. When we talked and shared pictures with friends and so on to remember the, you know even if we didn’t always do the same thing. We were there at the same time and saw a lot of the same things and met a lot of the same people and had very much the same feelings. That’s a neat thing to share and compare. Many informants also emphasised the realisation of the stark differences in material life: ‘how privileged we are versus them’. The transcending effect is especially apparent among the younger informants. In the individual in-depth interview sessions with individuals in their teens and early 20s, informants agreed that the volunteering experience went beyond their expectations for the trip, and impacted their lives in a profound way. For instance, several interviewees said that their future career choices would be influenced as a result of their volunteering experiences. It challenged me. It opened my eyes to other parts of the world. My passion for children and missionary work has grown. My friend who went with me is now in Uganda on a mission! It just brings you back that basic humanity with everything else stripped away, we are just the same and that is exciting and encouraging. I see them in God’s eyes. We’re all the same. We have the same needs, the same wants, the same desires and same fears. They want family just as much as I do. Discussions and Conclusion Using qualitative focus group and personal interview approaches, this study examined the motivational and benefit factors of volunteer tourism from the perspectives of vacationers who spend a small proportion of their trip volunteering at the destination. More specifically, we sought to understand what the underlying psychological factors are and whether they are similar to or different from two phenomena: (1) volunteerism – those of pure missionary or service trips where individuals devote the entire or the majority of their time to volunteer work, and (2) mainstream tourism where individuals travel for pure leisure purposes. The goal of the research was to broker the linkages between volunteer vacation motives, mainstream tourism motives, and volunteerism travel motives. The findings of this research appear to suggest some similarities as well as differences between the ‘volunteer-minded’ travellers and the ‘vacationminded’ travellers. The motivatio ns of the volunteer vacationers appear to be conforming to some degree to volunteering motives in general in such aspects as ‘personal fulfilment’, ‘identity enhancement and self-expression’ (Stebbins, 1982, 1992, 2004), ‘promoting peace’ (Philbrook, pers comm) and ‘cultural exchange’(Broad, 2003). However, this study also revealed factors that appear to be specific to the phenomenon of volunteer vacationing. For instance, volunteer vacationers appear to attach high values to the opportunities for educating children and bonding with family members. Seeking camaraderie also appears to be a strong sentiment that is reflected in both motivational and benefit discussions  among the participants. Further, volunteer vacationers seem to be driven by sense of adventure and desires for exploration and novelty, that are not as prominent with the more serious volunteer travellers. Borrowing Plog’s (1974) theorisation, the volunteer vacationers can also be labelled as allocentrics – explorers and adventure seekers, who tend to choose remote and untouched destinations. While both groups have demonstrated certain altruistic motives, the notion of altruism for the volunteer vacationers is much less apparent. Using an ethnographic case study approach, Broad (2003) examined the relationship between volunteers, their volunteering experiences and the outcomes that eventuated. Broad’s study subjects were serious volunteers in Phuket, Thailand. His study found that just under two-thirds of volunteers were motivated by an ‘altruistic desire to help’, although other motives similar to the volunteer vacationers were also present such as working with like-minded people, or a desire to develop personality as a result of volunteering. Interestingly, serious volunteers also indicated that their volunteering was at least partly motivated by a desire to travel and a chance to experience a new culture. This study also revealed some intriguing patterns of the interplay between the general leisure travel motivation and motivational factors underlining  volunteer vacation. It appears that the motivational factors for volunteer vacation intertwine with multiple layers of general leisure vacation motivation. While volunteer vacationers demonstrate that there is a definite notion of self-actualisation and authenticity, the highest level of needs as per Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, the volunteer vacationers appear to also be strongly motivated by lower-level factors such as love and social needs as well as learning needs. Another interesting observation is that the volunteer vacation motivational factors appear to follow the directional argument about self- and others-directed motivations, as proposed by Pearce (1982) in his ‘travel career ladder’ model. This investigation showed that the motivational factors were largely driven from two different aspects: sel f-directed – acquaint, learn, feel better, self-actualise; other-directed – help, connect, understand. The benefits resulting from the volunteer vacation experience also seem to align with the directional argument. They can be grouped as self-enhancement (such as becoming a better person) and other-enhancement (such as imparting values on children). This study also adds a new dimension to this post-modern tourism phenomenon and is in line with trends that mass tourism is in more of a spiritual search and a desire for travel opportunities that increase the sense of place. While the increasingly popular ecotourism experiences emphasise the notion of learning, environmental obligation and social responsibility, which breaks away from the mass commodified tourism products, volunteer vacations present an altruistic theme in which participants can make a difference and help others. What is the significance of spending only a small proportion of time volunteering during a holiday? The volunteer vacation purports an infusion of an ideological divergence from the market-driven priorities of mass tourism. This divergence, however unintentional, seems to converge well with the societal needs of the fast-paced, stress-driven contemporary world. Individuals are in fact increasingly using tourism, especially experiences with a strong spiritua l notion, as a means of improving their home life, rather than merely escaping from it. This  could explain the rapid growth of volunteer vacation as a travel phenomenon in recent years. The benefits derived from the volunteer vacation appear to be temporary or enduring in nature. Temporary or immediate benefits could be having a higher level of satisfaction with the overall leisure trip as a result of the volunteering experience. The enduring benefit effects centre around the developments of both self and others, as well as social relationship enhancement. The social interactions pertaining to the volunteer vacation domain appear to enhance relationships in a multifaceted manner: (1) Interacting with people from the destination community promotes mutual understanding and appreciation and friendship. (2) Interacting with travel group members with similar interests and values promotes friendship and peer bonding. (3) Interacting with family members, such as spouse and children, promotes healthier family relationships and tighter bonding. This research contributes to the tourism literature by brokering the linkages between the volunteering, volunteer vacationing, mass tourism vacationing and motivation to travel. The volunteer vacation phenomenon appears to bridge the altruistic motives of volunteering with the general commodified tourism experiences. In this regard, the outcome of this research also bears some practical implications for the tourism industry practitioners.  Volunteer vacation seems to provide a new avenue for tourism satisfaction. As demonstrated in this research, this concept brings about a higher level of trip satisfaction for the participants. We are identifying a new and unique market segment that is neither a pure leisure trip nor a pure volunteer experience. Implementing this concept will create authentic cultural experiences unlike any other in the industry. This philosophy and practice of volunteer tourism can be linked to the mainstream tourism with its focus on market priorities. The outco me of this hybridised approach in the global marketplace of tourism can potentially generate new market dynamics and promises while enabling every traveller to be an ambassador for peace. The authors acknowledge that while this research presents an interesting snapshot of the emerging volunteer vacation phenomenon, the generalisability of the research outcome is limited, as it is based on a small sample from one organisation with qualitative methodologies such as focus groups and personal interviews. Substantially more research is needed in this area to better attempt to understand the dimensionalities of the motivational and benefit factors of volunteer tourism and the interplay of mass tourism motives and volunteer motives. To achieve this goal and increase internal and external validities of the research findings, more stringent measurement scales will be developed based on the qualitative analyses and extensive literature review. Quantitative approaches based on structured measurements and more inclusive or representative samples should be adopted. Nonetheless, this research serves as an excellent baseline for more statistically rigorous follow-up research which s hould produce broader inferences in this specialised field of tourism studies. References Australian Bureau of Statistics (1986) Volunteering in NSW. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. Beach, J. and Ragheb, M.G. (1983) Measuring leisure motivation. Journal of Leisure Research 15 (3), 219–28. Beigbeder, Y. (1991) The Role and Status of International Humanitarian Volunteers and Organizations. London: Martinus Nijhoff. Bello, D.C. and Etzel, M.J. (1985) The role of novelty in the pleasure travel experience. Journal of Travel Research Summer, 20–26. Broad, S. (2003) Living the Thai life – A case study of volunteer tourism at the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, Thailand. Tourism Recreation Research 28 (3), 63–72. Brown, S. and Morrison, A. 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MA Thesis, School of Leisure and Tourism Studies, University of Technology, Sydney. Gazley, B. (2001) Volunteer vacationers and what research can tell us about them. E-Volunteerism (12). Gillette, A. (1968) One Million Volunteers. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin. Graumann, C.F. (1981) Motivation. Wiesbaden: Akad. Hudson, S. (1999) Consumer behavior related to tourism. In A. Pizam and Y. Mansfeld (eds) Consumer Behavior in Travel and Tourism. New York: Haworth Hospitality. Kellicker, P. (2004) Volunteer vacations: The health benefits of helping others. On WWW at http//www.http://somersetmedicalcenter.com/110299. Accessed 07.07.04. Kernan, J.B. and Domzal, T. (2001) Playing on the post-modern edge: Action as self-identity. In A.G. Woodside, G.I. Crouch, J.A. Mazanec, M. Oppermann and M.Y. Sakai (eds) Consumer Psychology of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure. Oxon: CABI. Kernan, J.B. and Unger, L.S. (1987) Leisure, quality-of-life and marketing. In A.C. Samli (ed.) Marketing and the Quality-of-Life Interface. Westport, CT: Quorum. Leopold, C. (2000) International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. On WWW at http//www.e-volunteerism.com/fall2000/intlexchintro.html. Accessed 07.07.04. Maslow, A.H. (1954) Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper and Brothers. Maslow, A.H. (1970) Motivation and Personality (3rd edn). New York: Harper and Row. Mayo, E.J. and Jarvis, L.P. (1981) The Psychology of Leisure Travel: Effective Marketing and Selling of Travel Services. Boston: CBI Publising Co. McMillion, B., Cutchins, D. and Geissinger, A. (2003) Volunteer Vacations Short Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others (8th edn). Chicago: Chicago Review Press. Mill, A.S. and Morrison, A.M. (2002) The Tourism System: An Introductory Text. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt. Oppermann, M. (2000) Where psychology and geography interface in tourism research and theory. In A.G. Woodside, G.I. Crouch, J.A. Mazanec, M. Oppermann and M.Y. Sakai (eds) Consumer Psychology of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure. Oxon: CABI. Parrinello, G. (2002) Motivation and anticipation in post-industrial tourism. In Y. Apostolopoulos, S. Leivadi and A. Yiannakis (eds) The Sociology of Tourism Theoretical and Empirical Investigations. London: Routledge. Pearce, P. (1982) The Social Psychology of Tourist Behavior. Oxford: Pergamon. Pearce, P. (1993) Fundamentals of tourist motivation. In D.G. Pearce and R.W. Butler (eds) Tourism Research, Critiques and Challenges. London: Routledge. Plog, S.C. (1974) Why destination areas rise and fall in popularity. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Quarterly 14 (4), 55–8. Schmalt, H.D. (1996) Motivationpsychologie. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. Stebbins, R.A. (1982) Serious leisure: A conceptual statement. Pacific Sociological Review 25, 251–72. Stebbins, R.A. (1992) Amateurs, Professionals and Serious Leisure. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. Stebbins, R.A. (2004) Introduction. In R.A. Stebbins and M. Graham (eds) Volunteering as Leisure, Leisure as Volunteering – An International Assessment. Oxon: CABI. Stebbins, R.A. and Graham, M. (eds) (2004) Volunteering as Leisure, Leisure as Volunteering – An International Assessment. Oxon: CABI. Swarbrooke, J. and Horner, S. (2003) Consumer Behavior in Tourism. Oxford: ButterworthHeinemann. Thoits, P.A. and Hewitt, L.N. (2001) Volunteer work and well-being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 42, 115–31. Van Til, J. (1979) In search of volunteerism. Volunteer Administration 12, 8–20. United States Department of Larbor Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2003) Volunteering in the United States. On WWW at http//www.bls.gov/newsrelease/volun.nr0.htm. Accessed 07.07.04. Wang, N. (2000) Tourism and Modernity. Oxford: Elsevier Science. Wearing, S.L. (2001) Volunteer Tourism: Seeking Experiences That Make a Difference. Wallingford: CABI. Wearing, S.L. (2003) Editorial. Tourism Recreation Research 28 (3), 3–4.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Key Consumer Behavior Issue Marketing Essay

Key Consumer Behavior Issue Marketing Essay The brief overview of the article is about Jet Star as Australian low cost airlines that going to spend more budget in social media marketing instead of using high price conventional way. Jet Star is facing an issue in how to compete with other airlines company and whether Jet Star can be success in changing consumer attitude toward its new plan in advertising. This becomes the key issue in consumer behavior raised by the reporting. An explanation of how the article relates to consumer behavior theory So basically this article is relevant to be selected since it is related with theory of consumer nature of attitudes and also changing the cognitive component of attitudes through the way Jet Star advertise in social media. The first theory is about the nature of attitudes. While on the attitude there were two components which are cognition and emotion. Cognition is about beliefs of attitude, while emotion is about consumer feeling to an entity. Also there is hierarchy of effects exists that relates consumer emotion, thought, and behavior together with marketing communication. The first one is standard learning hierarchy (learn-feel-do); the next is the low-involvement hierarchy (learn-do-feel) and finally is the experiential hierarchy (feel-do-learn). (Solomon, Russel-Bennet, and Previte, 2010). Based on that theory, Jet Star is applying the standard learning hierarchy. This is similar to process where consumer attitudes are being constructed. Consumer sees their preference in decision making as a problem solving process. The first step is they collecting the knowledge about the product, in this case is airline ticket, about the price and the differences among other airlines and in feeling stage, consu mer evaluate whether the price is suitable for them and finally consumer begin to realize the decision by real action in choosing to buy the Jet Star ticket flight. It seems that from this hierarchy, consumer tends to be bonded with the product instead of buying other product. This hierarchy makes consumer to have high involvement by discovering any knowledge of the product and then come out with a conclusion. (Solomon, Russel-Bennet, and Previte, 2010). Again based on Solomon, Russel-Bennet, and Previte (2010), the aim of marketer in attitude change is to make consumer go through their product, or go in opposition to competitors product. There are two ways in changing consumer attitudes, by changing the cognitive component of learn and by changing the emotional component of feel. In changing cognitive component of attitudes, marketer can use any message that constructing the argument, drawing conclusion, or use comparative advertising. While on the other hand to change emotional component of attitudes, marketer can use any feeling such as humor or fear to change consumer attitudes. Apparently in this case based on the nature and consumer relationship with the product, Jet Star is using changing the cognitive component of attitudes to influence the attitude of its potential consumer. The way they choose is constructing the argument in which Jet Star try to argue and persuade the consumer about the advantage of them by choosing Jet St ar as flying partner. So basically in this case, Jet Star wants to change the attitude instead of consumer feeling through this kind of social advertisement. There are two kind of measuring argument, the first one is supportive argument, and the other is refutational argument (Lecture slide, 2010). Using Twitter and YouTube as well, Jet star is presenting all of positive characteristics that they can offer in their service. It always does promotion in twitter and show how great they are on their service in the flight and mainly what they sell is their super cheap price. However, Jet Star can be considered as having refutational argument as well when the negative issues is raised and then solve it. This case appear from twitter, in which Jet Star is being asked by people or potential consumer who followed Jet Stars account about negative thing, such as complaining, and then effectively, Jet star could solve the problem directly to the consumer. Implications for marketing or advertising in the category, or industry, or sector discussed by The article In order to compete and win the consumer with the new plan in advertising, Jet Star should stick with their plan to invest more in social media and online advertising. This is based on evidence that from previous year in 2009 where they had try to launch the advertisement in social media, the result came into a huge success as the cost of doing advertisement in conventional media is became more costly and fragmented. Moreover, with the usage of social media, Jet Star could minimize the cost of using conventional media and get higher ability in reaching the consumer. Using social media as tool for reaching consumer, could makes Jet Star to reach hundred from thousand prospective consumer, just with one uncomplicated online message. (Reed Group, 2010). Hopefully consumer is required to change their attitudes in choosing a service from Airline Company, and in order to do this, the consumer needs to adapt with this kind of advertising in social media. Only little adaptation that they needed, as this kind of new way in advertising is now part of consumers social daily life. In conclusion, using YouTube which is open video sharing site as medium for advertising representation of the future (Incisive Media, 2010) and twitter that has many users out there and searches on trending topics are to be anticipated place for mass advertise ads (Bernoff, 2010), will make Jet Star to successfully change consumer attitude from using another airlines into using Jet Star flight service. In addition if people using twitter and have to go through direct link into Jet Stars main page, they will come up to website that have predicate as the fastest homepage load time of Australian airlines website (Marketing Mag, 2009). Furthermore, in the future Jet St ar could change consumer attitude in getting information about their service from conventional way, into adapting up to date information of service offered to consumers social daily life. And the reason of their future success is based on the fact that they will shift 40% of their marketing budget into social media that had been proved before, in which this idea is getting phenomenal responses (Incisive Media, 2010). Main article Reed group, 2010, JETSTAR to shift 40% of spends online, viewed 15th April 2010, . Secondary article Bernoff,J., why you should advertise on twitter, viewed 15th April 2010, . Incisive Media Investments Limited, 2010, YouTube hailed as advertising medium of the future, viewed 15th April 2010, . Marketing Mag, 2009, Tiger and Jetstar big winners online, viewed 15th April 2010, . Solomon, M. R., Russell-Bennett, R., Previte, J, 2010,  Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, Being. Prentice Hall/Pearson Education, Australia. Lecture slide, 2010, Consumer behavior; attitudes and attitude change, University of Queensland Attitude and Attitudes Change Benno Arsanto 41953734 Faculty of economic, University of Queensland

Friday, October 25, 2019

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program Essay -- Drug Abuse, D.A.R

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program known as D.A.R.E has become a very widespread and popular program throughout the United States. The program appeals to all ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic lines, which is a large part of the reason why the DARE program has grown exponentially. The program’s basic premise was meant to introduce kids to the danger of drugs, before the drugs got to them. The implementation of the DARE program appeared to be what America needed to begin to put a dent in the war on drugs. Trained uniformed officers who introduce the program to 5th and 6th graders teach the program. The officers inform them about the dangers of all drugs from Tylenol to heroine. The program develops rapport between officers and students and teachers, which is another added incentive to the continuation and growth of the DARE program. The public also embraced the DARE program with open arms. Teachers, Principals, students, parents, and officers believe in the program adamantly. With all the accolades surrounding the DARE program, a three year study took place looking into the effectiveness of the program. The results gave us a very dismal outlook on the headway that was being made with this program though. The study conducted by the National Institute of Justice discovered that DARE does raise children’s self esteem, polishes their social skills, and improves their attitudes toward police. But the report also proved that DARE doesn’t have a measurable effect on drug abuse. America’s war against drugs took a blow with this study though. Students who participated in the DARE program were more likely to stay off of drugs while in the program and shortly after. However, the results showed that over the long-term... ...n still has a lot of room for growth. In the last couple decades we have seen many new drugs introduced into society. Which in turn, makes the idea of prevention a difficult subject. There is basically a â€Å"high† out there to fix nearly any ailment you have. And we are all affected by different ailments. The only way I see to slow down the drug addicted population is to begin at an early age as the DARE program does, however, the program should continue past elementary school. I understand you can only tell an individual about drugs so many times before it loses its effectiveness. But a long-term program that builds a strong moral foundation as well as treats these young students as individuals instead of a mass entity would allow for a holistic approach to prevention. This I believe is what it will take for long-term prevention to begin within our society.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Crisis intervention theory Essay

The crisis intervention theory was developed by Linder Mann and Gerald Caplan, this theory however was developed by a team of sociologist, social workers, doctors and counselors, the incident that led to the development of this theory was the coconut clove fire where 493 people perished in a night club in the US. The behavior and thought of people in crises change, they are usually confused, agitated in that they are easily angered, they feel helpless, they feel helpless and headaches. However the two scholars identified two types of crisis situations Developmental crisis- in this type of crises the situation is predictable example old age crisis. Situational crisis- this type of crisis is unpredictable and unexpected example natural disasters, fatal illnesses and rape. Techniques of crisis intervention according to this theory – Assessing the events that triggered the crisis. – Assessing the coping strength of the client under normal circumstances. – The human service worker should focus on the target area and give hope to a client. – The worker should have a plan of action with well planed specific tasks. – The worker should always keep the client in touch with reality and avoid asking question that may hinder the thinking of the client. – The worker should concentrate on obtaining the missing information and concentrate on the present situation and not much on the past. How this helps solve the client’s problem – This intervention strategy helps to give hope and encouragement to the client to coupe with the crisis. – It also helps to build the confidence of the person in crisis. – By concentrating on a specific task the client changes the way of thinking, feelings and actions. – The model emphasizes that the termination of the services should be done until the client overcomes the crisis. Contribution to crisis intervention This theory has contributed to crisis intervention strategies in that it emphasis that when dealing with a client it does not necessarily mean that the mechanisms that worked in the past can be used in the present situation. The theory also states that it is not easy to point out people with crises because people interpret crisis differently but the theory states that people make comments such as they cannot cope, they feel helpless and that they are failures, however this theory has contributed to crisis intervention in that it emphasis putting the needs of the clients first. Reference: Albert R. Roberts (2005) Crisis Intervention Handbook: assessment, treatment and research, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Malcolm X in Mecca and His Conversion to True Islam

Malcolm X in Mecca and His Conversion to True Islam On April 13, 1964, Malcolm X left the United States on a personal and spiritual journey through the Middle East and West Africa. By the time he returned on May 21, he’d visited Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, and Algeria. In Saudi Arabia, he’d experienced what amounted to his second life-changing epiphany as he accomplished the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, and discovered an authentic Islam of universal respect and brotherhood. The experience changed Malcolm’s worldview. Gone was the belief in whites as exclusively evil. Gone was the call for black separatism. His voyage to Mecca helped him discover the atoning power of Islam as a means to unity as well as self-respect: â€Å"In my thirty-nine years on this earth,† he would write in his autobiography, â€Å"the Holy City of Mecca had been the first time I had ever stood before the Creator of All and felt like a complete human being.† It had been a long journey in a brief life. Before Mecca: The Nation of Islam Malcolm’s first epiphany occurred 12 years earlier when he converted to Islam while serving an eight-to-10-year prison sentence for robbery. But back then it was Islam according to Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam- an odd cult whose principles of racial hatred and separatism, and whose strange beliefs about whites being a genetically engineered race of â€Å"devils,† stood it in contrast with Islam’s more orthodox teachings. Malcolm X bought in and rapidly rose in the ranks of the organization, which was more like a neighborhood guild, albeit a disciplined and enthusiastic one, than a â€Å"nation† when Malcolm arrived. Malcolm’s charisma and eventual celebrity built the Nation of Islam into the mass movement and political force it became in the early 1960s. Disillusion and Independence The Nation of Islam’s Elijah Muhammad turned out to be much less than the upstanding moral paragon he pretended to be. He was a hypocritical, serial womanizer who fathered numerous children out of wedlock with his secretaries, a jealous man who resented Malcolm’s stardom, and a violent man who never hesitated to silence or intimidate his critics (through thuggish emissaries). His knowledge of Islam was also relatively slight. â€Å"Imagine, being a Muslim minister, a leader in Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam,† Malcolm wrote, â€Å"and not knowing the prayer ritual.† Elijah Muhammad had never taught it. It took Malcolm’s disillusionment with Muhammad and the Nation finally to break away from the organization and set out on his own, literally and metaphorically, to the authentic heart of Islam. Rediscovering Brotherhood and Equality First in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, then in Jeddah, the Saudi city, Malcolm witnessed what he claims he never saw in the United States: men of all color and nationalities treating each other equally. â€Å"Throngs of people, obviously Muslims from everywhere, bound for the pilgrimage,† he’d begun to notice at the airport terminal before boarding the plane for Cairo in Frankfurt, â€Å"were hugging and embracing. They were of all complexions, the whole atmosphere was of warmth and friendliness. The feeling hit me that there really wasn’t any color problem here. The effect was as though I had just stepped out of a prison.† To enter the state of ihram required of all pilgrims heading for Mecca, Malcolm abandoned his trademark black suit and dark tie for the two-piece white garment pilgrims must drape over their upper and lower bodies. â€Å"Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jedda, was dressed this way,† Malcolm wrote. â₠¬Å"You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know.† That, of course, is the point of ihram. As Islam interprets it, it reflects the equality of man before God. Preaching in Saudi Arabia In Saudi Arabia, Malcolm’s journey was held up a few days until authorities could be sure his papers, and his religion, were in order (no non-Muslim is allowed to enter the Grand Mosque in Mecca). As he waited, he learned various Muslim rituals and spoke to men of vastly different backgrounds, most of whom were as star struck with Malcolm as Americans were back home. They knew Malcolm X as the â€Å"Muslim from America.† They plied him with questions; he obliged them with sermons for answers. In everything he said to them, â€Å"they were aware,† in Malcolm’s words, â€Å"of the yardstick that I was using to measure everything- that to me the earth’s most explosive and pernicious evil is racism, the inability of God’s creatures to live as One, especially in the Western world.† Malcolm in Mecca Finally, the actual pilgrimage: â€Å"My vocabulary cannot describe the new mosque [in Mecca] that was being built around the Ka’aba,† he wrote, describing the sacred site as â€Å"a huge black stone house in the middle of the Grand Mosque. It was being circumambulated by thousands upon thousands of praying pilgrims, both sexes, and every size, shape, color, and race in the world. [†¦] My feeling here in the House of God was numbness. My mutawwif (religious guide) led me in the crowd of praying, chanting pilgrims, moving seven times around the Ka’aba. Some were bent and wizened with age; it was a sight that stamped itself on the brain. It was that sight that inspired his famous â€Å"Letters from Abroad†- three letters, one from Saudi Arabia, one from Nigeria and one from Ghana- that began redefining Malcolm X’s philosophy. â€Å"America,† he wrote from Saudi Arabia on April 20, 1964, â€Å"needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases the race problem from its society.† He would later concede that â€Å"the white man is not inherently evil, but America’s racist society influences him to act evilly. A Work in Progress, Cut Down It’s easy to overly romanticize Malcolm’s last period of his life, to misinterpret it as gentler, more amenable to white tastes then (and to some extent still now) so hostile to Malcolm. In reality, he returned to the United States as fiery as ever. His philosophy was taking a new direction. But his critique of liberalism went on unabated. He was willing to take the help of â€Å"sincere whites,† but he was under no illusion that the solution for black Americans would not begin with whites. It would begin and end with blacks. In that regard, whites were better off busying themselves with confronting their own pathological racism. â€Å"Let sincere whites go and teach non-violence to white people,† he said. Malcolm never had the chance to evolve his new philosophy fully. â€Å"I never have felt that I would live to be an old man,† he told Alex Haley, his biographer. On Feb. 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, he was shot by three men as he was preparing to speak to an audience of several hundred. Source X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley. Alex Haley, Attallah Shabazz, Paperback, Reissue edition, Ballantine Books, November 1992.

Monday, October 21, 2019

A Bridge Over The River Kwai by Pierre Boulle.

A Bridge Over The River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. A Bridge Over The River KwaiA bridge needed to be built over the River Kwai, connecting Bangkok to Rangoon along the Burma-Siam Railway. The task needed to be accomplished in 1943 by a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma. This camp was run by Colonel Saito. The prisoners of war at this camp were mainly British soldiers led by Colonel Nicholson. The prisoners had to work from dawn to dusk in jungle heat and contend with malaria, dysentery, beri-beri and jungle soars. They only had six months to complete the bridge.Colonel Saito uses the British soldiers because they are very skilled at building bridges and allows their colonel, Colonel Nicholson, to command them. Colonel Nicholson becomes very obsessed in building the bridge and doesn't want any interference.While the bridge was being built, Force 316 (an envoy of American and British soldiers) were hiding in the jungle near the bridge planning to blow it up upon completion.Crew List for the Ship 'Tory'They couldn't get word to Col onel Nicholson in fear they would be discovered.The bridge gets completed in six months. On the day the first train is to go over it, Force 316 has it rigged to be blown up. Colonel Nicholson discovers the plot to blow up the bridge minutes before the train arrives. The British men of Force 316 try to tell Colonel Nicholson that they are British soldiers, just like him, and have orders to blow up the bridge but he would not listen.He calls to Japanese guards for help and the bridge never blows up. However, Colonel Saito, Colonel Nicholson and two Force 316 soldiers die.The Bridge Over The River Kwai was a very interesting book. It pitted two colonels against each other, one British - one Japanese, and both out to do their...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Essay about Advertising and Job

Essay about Advertising and Job Essay about Advertising and Job Business introduction the attributes needed by a person to perform a job for example, personality type, education and qualifications and experience. A person specification is different from a job description because the person specification describes the person needed for the job, it can help to decide the most suitable candidate whereas the job description describes what you have to do for the job. employees that they may recruit. A job description is fundamental to any business because it allows the business to set expectations so staff duties are met in turn leading to the vision of the business being met. Next is a major fashion retailer in the current market and so one of the main things they’ll be looking for is people who have a passionate interest in the world of fashion Impatient unit Size and Scale Tesco is an international company Job adverts Job adverts are created so that suitable candidates are attracted to a job position, in order to recruit suitable candidates job adverts usually include: Details of the business (name, brand, location) An outline of the job Any experience and qualifications that are required Application process (how to apply, deadline) A good job advert is likely to include an accurate description of the job and its requirements. It will have honest and true information about the job and business and will give a positive feel to potential employees. The information in the job advert should also be relevant for example, giving information that the applicants need to know at the first stage of the recruitment process such as, qualifications and shift hours. The choice of medium used to advertise the job depends on the type of job that is being advertised for example, if it is a senior job it might be advertised in a national newspaper or specialist magazine (the Economist, BusinessWeek). If it is a job that requires less skill than one of a senior job than this may be advertised in a local newspaper. Advertising in a local newspaper costs significantly less than advertising in a national newspaper or television. Another medium of advertising is online. Many business advertise job positions online as the internet is widely used. Next also post job positions online, they do this a number of ways: Through job sites where job adverts are posted Through their own website where they post current vacancies that are

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Child Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Child Development - Essay Example For the realization of an optimal development, the cognitive, social, emotional, and language development of children needs to be well understood. There was the need to establish an in-depth understanding towards the development of a child cutting across cognitive, emotional, social and language development. This paper explores a case study of Kevin’s development explaining the areas where Kevin achieves the developmental steps every day. This case study will refer to Kevin as the main subject of the paper in order to maintain confidentiality. Kevin is 9 months years old and resides with his mother and father, in their home, in the country. He was born in UK. His father is an African where as his mother is an Arab. Kevin’s parents have full time employment. They not only speak English as a second language but also French and Arabic. Kevin lives with his parents, two older brothers of ages eight and six years old, and a sister who is nine years old. They also have neighb ors who do not speak English as their first language. Kevin has toys that he likes to play with them. He also likes to eat biscuits. Kevin does not like a separation from the mother and finds it difficult to adjust to his mother’s attempts to live him in the kitchen alone. In this study, Kevin’s observation shall take place in their quiet home environment. This observation would be carried out in different stages. First, Kevin shall be observed with his mother in the kitchen. The second observation will be done in the presence of Kevin’s brothers and sister. Cognitive development. According to the cognitive development observation (Appendix A) Kevin could be able to repeat actions intentionally so as to trigger environmental responses. For instance, Kevin moved his legs and smiled when his mother showed him his milk bottle. In this case, Kevin was confidence to identify his milk bottle. In this case, Kevin demonstrated figurative intelligence by perceiving his m ilk bottle. Figurative intelligence involves a static intelligence aspect which involves the representations that are used to retain the state of mind. Like for the case of Kevin, figurative intelligence involved the mental imagery, and perception of the milk bottle. When his mother shows him his milk bottle a mental picture is created in his mind thus making him perceive the milk bottle. When he identifies the shape of his milk bottle and smiles he shows that he obtained intervened transformation in his mind. Piaget (2001, p .7) points out that the figurative intelligence aspects obtain their meaning from the operative intelligence aspects. Operative intelligence in this case involves covert or overt actions that are undertaken so as to anticipate objects transformation for the interest of a child. In addition to this, Kevin identification of his milk bottle was a representative aspect of intelligence development. This was also a clear indication of assimilation of new ideas. Piage t (2001, p.8) argues out that assimilation occurs in children when they come across unfamiliar ideas and refers to the information learnt previously so as to make sense out of it. When Kevin saw his milk bottle, he remembered using it some other time hence making sense of it. To recognize the milk bottle, Kevin focused on the objects contours, recognize the size of the object, thus developing mental schema of the milk bottle thus operative intelligence. This was evidenced when he looked at the milk bottle and smiled, showing out that he had gained enough object performance, and, therefore, reaction coordination. This was also an indication of a construction of knowledge that is new without the knowledge being poured into a child's head. During observation, when Kevin realized that his bottle was missing, his face changed,

Friday, October 18, 2019

Reaction paper 2 parts 7 and 8 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Reaction paper 2 parts 7 and 8 - Essay Example Given this second viewpoint, I would say that this hardly contributes to the definition of masculinity, because it informs on what women are based on what men are, but does not establish what being a man is. Recent research into masculinity has underscored this male-female polarity. In the American setting, cultural masculinity studies have dealt nearly exclusively in heterosexual masculinity behaviour and attributes (Traister, 2000, p. 274), which precludes homosexual masculinity as a seeming misnomer since it does not fit into the polar male-female model. Cultural changes are at the center of an evolving meaning given to â€Å"masculinity†, with the socio-economic developments in Europe defining the directions of Western thought in this regard. When Renaissance secular culture spread, interest in sexuality broke free of its strict regulation during the monastic period. When European monarchies embarked on overseas conquests and commerce prospered, the male role became identified with business, finance, and overall economic success. The fact that a man had more, and more expensive, possessions made him more of a man, better able to provide for his wife, their children, and his household members. The patriarchal system was further strengthened by the imperial monarchy where the power of men over women was further institutionalised (Connell, 1995, p. 248), formalising men’s domestic authority over women and enforcing the latter’s dependence upon the former’s economic property, not because the women did nothin g to contribute to it, as they often managed the running of the estate and the network of alliances among the gentry (p. 249), but because they could not legally own property. The Western image of masculinity is an ideal that was fostered upon the colonial East as a means of further strengthening the rule of the colonizers upon the conquered (Krishnaswamy, 2002, p. 292). Primary among these ideals is the image of the white, elegantly proportioned,

Change Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Change Management - Essay Example Change forces usually have direct impact on the management and running of business resulting to the need for transitioning to the desired state which an organization will operate at an optimum capacity (Paton, Paton and McCalman 2008). Resistive forces to change usually diminish the change forces effects by advocating for status quo, resulting to change failure. These resistive forces may be categorized into organizational resistances or individual resistances. Organization resistance may include structural inertia, group inertia and having limited view of change importance. On the other hand, individual resistances may vary from fear of the unknown, limited information and lack of security. These forces can be effectively reduced through education and communication from the change pioneers (Gonà §alves 2007). Change management plays an important role in ensuring that employees are aware of the importance of change. In addition, it is the means through which resistance forces can be earlier identified and resolved. Thus, change management is the way of combating resistive change forces and effectuating change forces in the process of implementing

The role of 19th century women in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Research Paper

The role of 19th century women in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - Research Paper Example The Angel was passive and powerless, meek, charming, graceful, sympathetic, self-sacrificing, pious, and above all—pure† (Melani, par. 2). Desperate to put their writing talents to effective use, the sisters used pseudonyms â€Å"to hide their sex when they published their poems and novels. They chose names which were not obviously masculine: Acton Bell (Anne Bronte), Currer Bell (Charlotte Bronte), and Ellis Bell (Emily Bronte)† (Melani, par. 3). The research hereby aims to present a critical appraisal of the role of 19th century women in the novel through one’s personal perspectives and through the points of views of various scholars who analyzed this literary work. Critical Review The prejudice and restrictions faced by women during their times provided the impetus for Bronte to relate the burning desire to assume expanded and challenging roles that encourage the use and enhancement of women’s skills beyond the home. The character of Jane Eyre, cl assified as a round character and a protagonist, focused on â€Å"the directness, even bluntness, of the young heroine's voice. Here is no prissy little-girl sensibility, but a startlingly independent, even skeptical perspective† (Oates, par. 4) – surprisingly unexpected to stem forth from a woman in 1847, the year the novel was written.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

The War on Drugs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The War on Drugs - Essay Example r on Drugs is a combined effort at the prohibition and stoppage of drugs into the United States, involving various military operations, financial expenditures, and propaganda initiatives to change the social attitude regarding the acceptability of drug consumption. Such programs include the renowned Just Say No campaign, most familiar from the 1980s, which involved teaching children the dangers of drug use (Rogers & Blackstone, 2003). Further, as part of the international initiative to halt drug trafficking in the U.S., the military implemented Operation Just Cause which involved the 1989 invasion of Panama due to alleged reports that Panamas leadership was heavily responsible for drug movements into the United States (Rogers & Blackstone). However, outside of the activities being conducted every year by the government to prevent drug use, it is important to identify that despite these high financial expenditures, drug use and drug-related problems continue to escalate in the U.S. One sociological professional argues that the War on Drugs campaign has provided illegal drugs with heavier, however unintended, marketing and promotion, allowing society to become far too knowledgeable about drug movements thus they are more apt to consume them (Henslin, 2003). Engraining the existence of drugs, according to the author, into the social consciousness is what is believed to be the reason as to why drug use continues to climb domestically. Of course, Henslins viewpoint on the War on Drugs only represents a singular opinion, however statistics illustrate that drug convictions related to the movement and consumption of illegal substances has risen by nearly 20% since 2001 (Rogers & Blackstone). This should raise the question in the minds of the American populace as to whether these state and federal billions are being spent appropriately, as it appears that the War on Drugs is not making any significant impact on drug trafficking and consumption. Further, it is estimated

Criminology Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Criminology Research Paper - Essay Example In the previous periods, citizens thought that the introduction of democracy would lead to reduction of abuse of power. However, with democracy, abuse of power is on the verge of increasing. The government crimes can be categorized in to a wide range, depending on the point of view of the citizens and the country of concern. Taking for instance; in Africa land grabbing is considered to be a governmental crime, while in the Western parts of the world, it is the opposite. However, scholars have tried to categorize different government crimes thus, finally coming up a conclusive number. The major ways in which governments abuse their powers include; Most governments tend to use a country’s resources for unintended and unplanned projects. This is a crime that is mainly caused by lack of accountability of the government officials (Grant & Keohane, 2005). The article explains that accountability is so problematic among all leaders globally. Most government officials take advantage o f the power placed upon them to misuse a country’s resources due to lack of accountability. In addition, other leaders use the resources on projects that they claim are meant to help the citizens. However, research shows that they are the key beneficiaries of these projects (Abraham, 2006). This is indeed a crime since; resources used on other projects should be used for the sake of the citizens. For instance, African government officials have been known to use their powers to enrich themselves before the end of their terms of leadership. Government officials also abuse the power rested upon them by coming up with projects that are worth lot of money without even consulting the citizens. This is abuse of power since; the officials take such actions on the basis that no one can question them. This is a case that was clearly manifested in Venezuela in the year 2006. Projects were started but the returns and revenues from the projects were not clearly shown. In addition, the exp enses of the projects were overly stated, giving rise to large figures (Coronel, 2006). The issue of bending and breaking of laws is also a crime committed by the government officials. Most governments in the world have put in place laws that they do not follow themselves. The legal accountability is exceedingly poor in most states because courts do not have a wide general authority over governments. Previously, it has been noted that the courts will only ask the leaders if they have performed their duties well. However, the courts do not follow up to know if the duties have been performed or the officials could be lying sometimes (Grant & Keohane, 2005). Governments have been involved in these crimes and many others such turning a deaf ear to the cries of the poor in the society. While citizens cry out for help with issues such as hunger, unemployment problems and poverty, the government takes no action to control these issues. Most government officials in the world have also been involved in rigging during elections in order to win the elections. This of course is a crime since; they will have attained leadership the wrong way. Again, in such cases the courts will do nothing to punish these leaders since; in most cases they will have no evidence of the crimes committed. Governments have also committed the crime of corruption against the citizens. This is decidedly different from the embezzlement of funds in the country. It involves the use of a country’s money to manipulate people in order to get what they want. For