Public Reactions to the Qantas Grounding Crisis

Despite a growing number of studies on crisis communication, there is very little research that examines corporate crises from a consumer perspective, particularly for crisis case studies within Australia. Using Yin’s (2002) framework for case study research methods, this research group conducted a qualitative content analysis of 1121 audience comments attached to three news articles on the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis.Using Weiner’s Attribution Theory (1986, 1995) and the qualitative content analysis software; Leximancer, we used these comments to deconstruct audience perceptions of the Qantas crisis and isolate different emotional, attitudinal and behavioural responses. Our first major finding indicated that the majority of audience members attributed the cause of the Qantas crisis to managerial decisions or union action. Working Conditions and Government policy was also found to be secondary factors to the crisis cause.We also found these four causal factors to be st rongly associated with audience’s responsibility judgments. The four key responsible stakeholder groups that emerged from our analysis were Alan Joyce (Qantas Management), Unions, Employees and the Labor Government. Another important focus of this study examined audience’s crisis emotions. Anger was found to be the predominant emotion that emerged from our analysis and was largely directed towards management and union stakeholders.Sympathy also emerged as a secondary emotion but was largely directed towards employees and management. Our final research finding uncovered a number of behavioural intentions within the audience comments. While the majority of these behavioural intentions centre around avoidance and negative purchase intentions, a few increased investment intentions also emerged. Although our Leximancer analysis was restricted by a number of technical limitations, these research findings indicate that Weiner’s Attribution Theory can be successfully ap plied to a real life crisis case study.Despite a growing number of studies on crisis communication, there is very little research that examines corporate crises from a consumer perspective, particularly for crisis case studies within Australia. Using Yin’s (2002) framework for case study research methods, this research group conducted a qualitative content analysis of 1121 audience comments attached to three news articles on the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis. Using Weiner’s Attribution Theory (1986, 1995) and the qualitative content analysis software; Leximancer, we used these omments to deconstruct audience perceptions of the Qantas crisis and isolate different emotional, attitudinal and behavioural responses. Our first major finding indicated that the majority of audience members attributed the cause of the Qantas crisis to managerial decisions or union action. Working Conditions and Government policy was also found to be secondary factors to the crisis cause. We also found these four causal factors to be strongly associated with audience’s responsibility judgments.The four key responsible stakeholder groups that emerged from our analysis were Alan Joyce (Qantas Management), Unions, Employees and the Labor Government. Another important focus of this study examined audience’s crisis emotions. Anger was found to be the predominant emotion that emerged from our analysis and was largely directed towards management and union stakeholders. Sympathy also emerged as a secondary emotion but was largely directed towards employees and management. Our final research finding uncovered a number of behavioural intentions within the audience comments.While the majority of these behavioural intentions centre around avoidance and negative purchase intentions, a few increased investment intentions also emerged. Although our Leximancer analysis was restricted by a number of technical limitations, these research findings indicate that Weiner’s A ttribution Theory can be successfully applied to a real life crisis case study. Abstract Tamara Dorrington (s4177314) | Sarah Natasha Raziff (s4275762) | Jasmine Soriano (s4272997) | Kate Fitzpatrick (s4201686) | Roxanne Lim (s4256084) Supervisor: Lyn McDonald The University of Queensland, 2012Tamara Dorrington (s4177314) | Sarah Natasha Raziff (s4275762) | Jasmine Soriano (s4272997) | Kate Fitzpatrick (s4201686) | Roxanne Lim (s4256084) Supervisor: Lyn McDonald The University of Queensland, 2012 Public Reactions to The Qantas Grounding Crisis, A Qualitative Content Analysis A corporate crisis often poses an unpredictable threat that can have resounding effects on an organization and its stakeholders (Coombs, 1999, 2010). These effects are largely dependent on how effectively the crisis is managed (Coombs, 2010) and upon stakeholder’s perceptions of the crisis cause (McDonald, Sparks & Glendon, 2010).To date there has been very little research on consumer reactions to corpora te crises (McDonald, et al. 2010), especially for crises  outside the United States (Lee, 2004). In order to understand the implications of this research project on crisis communication, one must first gain an understanding of the Qantas grounding crisis. As one of Australia’s leading domestic and international airline brands, Qantas has a well-established reputation for upholding â€Å"excellence in safety, operational reliability, engineering, maintenance and customer service† (Qantas, 2012, pp. 2).On October 2011, the company faced one of the largest corporate crises in its 95 years of history, a crisis that had widespread negative impacts on its reputation. After months of failed negotiations between management and union representatives, around 4000 Qantas employees took part in an organized strike, demanding greater job security, better wages and fairer working conditions. Qantas management responded by grounding its entire domestic and international fleet, lock ing out staff involved in the action and stranding around 68,000 passengers worldwide (Sydney Morning Herald, 2011).The Federal Government also became involved in the dispute, threatening to terminate strikes under the Fair Work Act if negotiations between union members and management proved unsuccessful (new. com. au, 2011) Our case study analysis adds to existing crisis research by analyzing 1121 audience comments attached to three news articles on the Qantas grounding crisis: 734 comments from the Sydney Morning Herald article (Live: FWA orders Qantas dispute terminated, 2011), 171 comments from the ABC article (Qantas grounds its entire fleet, 2011) and 216 comments from the news. om. au article (Qantas crisis: Who won and who's to blame). Using Weiner’s Attribution Theory (1986, 1995) as a theoretical framework, we used the comments from these three articles to deconstructed audience perceptions of the Qantas crisis and isolate audience member’s different emotiona l, attitudinal and behavioral responses. While studies into crisis communication are a popular area of research, much of the existing research has used experimental designs to examine the effectiveness of different types of crisis accounts or apologia.A case study analysis of audience reactions to the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis has many wider implications for crisis management strategies in future. First, by evaluating audience comments, this study provides an insight into stakeholder crisis reactions that may have greater generalizability than experimental studies. Second, knowledge of audience’s attribution processes will help future public relations managers to mitigate negative crisis outcomes and manage brand reputation more effectively. Literature ReviewTo date, there has been very little research on consumer reactions to corporate crises (McDonald, et al. , 2010) particularly for crisis cases outside the United States (Lee, 2004). The majority of existing literature has approached crisis communication from an organisational perspective, using experimental design to examine the relationship between different types of crisis accounts and consumer’s purchase intentions (Lee, 2004). Very little research has taken a content analysis approach, examining audience reactions to real life crises cases.In bridging this gap, it is relevant to examine real life audience perceptions of crisis cause their association with different emotional, attitudinal and behavioral responses. According to Lee (2004), taking a consumer orientated approach should provide valuable insights into how individuals understand and react to organisational crises. Such knowledge would help public relations managers to mitigate negative crisis outcomes and manage brand reputation more effectively.Theoretical Framework: Weiner’s Attribution Theory (1986, 1995) Our research was primarily guided by Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory (WAT), which examines the p sychological process by which individuals understand and react to external events. While WAT was originally used as a theoretical framework for examining interpersonal relationships, it has been successfully applied to the context of company crises (McDonald et al. , 2010). Adapting Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory (WAT) audiences bserve and interpret events, such as the Qantas crisis, making attributions about its cause along two causal dimensions: Locus (whether the cause was internal or external to the company) and Controllability (whether the cause was controllable or uncontrollable). The interpretation of crisis cause under these two constructs leads to a responsibility judgement that, in turn, results in emotions, which then influences behaviors (McDonald et. al. , 2010).Weiner (1995) also suggests that mitigating circumstances or personal relevance may also impact the individual’s responsibility judgement or the strength of their emotional reaction. The relationship between the various components of Weiner’s (1986, 1995) theoretical framework is depicted in the flow chart below. Mitigating Circumstances Mitigating Circumstances In order to successfully apply Weiner’s (1986, 1195) Attribution Theory (WAT) to the context of the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis, we first examined the individual components of this theoretical framework.A)   Attributions of Cause (Locus and Controllability) As previously discussed, Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory (WAT) suggests that audiences evaluate an event and make attributions about its cause along two dimensions. The Locus dimension refers to the location of the crisis cause as being either internal or external to the organisation (Lee, 2004). Controllability refers to whether the crisis cause is within the control of the organisation or not (Lee, 2004). According to Lee (2004) a crisis cause that is within the boundaries of an organisation (internal locus) is also ofte n perceived as controllable.Likewise, a crisis cause that judged to be outside the organisation (external locus) is often viewed as uncontrollable (Lee, 2004). However Coombs (1995) and McDonald et. al. (2010) both hypothesised that crises could be internal and controllable (neglected maintenance), internal and uncontrollable (employee sabotage), external and controllable (failure to comply with government regulations) as well as external and uncontrollable (terrorism sabotage). The graph below represents the causal matrix summarized by McDonald et. al. (2010) | Internal| External|Controllable| Neglected Maintenance| Failure to comply with government regulations | Uncontrollable| Employee Sabotage | Terrorism Sabotage| In the context of the Qantas crisis, this leads us to the following research questions: Research Question 1: What are the audience perceptions of the key contributing factors to the crisis cause? Research Question 2: Are these key factors internal and controllable or external and uncontrollable? According to Coombs (1995) the causal dimensions of Locus and Controllability have a direct impact upon an audience’s crisis response.A study by Folkes (1984) found that locus and controllability had separate effects on customers’ responsibility judgments, emotions and behavioral intentions. Lee (2004) also suggested that, in a crisis context, events that were perceived to be internal and controllable were viewed more negatively by audience members than those that were considered external and uncontrollable (Lee, 2004). Although separating these two constructs was challenging in analyzing audience comments, the following research questions aided us in mapping out ideas for our Leximancer data analysis.Research question 3: What crisis causes are associated with negative and positive crisis reactions? B)   Ã‚  Responsibility Judgment The next step in Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory is the process by which individuals attribu te responsibility. Social psychologists Fincham and Jaspars (1980) noted that, in an interpersonal context, individuals would often go beyond the attributions of causality to make judgments about who should be held accountable for an observed outcome.Likewise, audiences will assign crisis responsibility after a causal attribution (Lee, 2004). The direction and degree of responsibility judgment will therefore depend upon the audience’s attributions of crisis cause (Lee, 2004). Coombs and Holladay (1996, 2002) and Jorgensen (1994, 1996) both used Weiner’s (1986, 1995) causal dimensions of locus and controllability as the foundation for their studies into crisis communication. All found perceptions of crisis cause to be a major determinant of responsibility judgments and subsequent stakeholder reactions.Of particular relevance to our current study, Lee (2004) found crises that were perceived to be internal (locus) and controllable (controllability) were more likely to bri ng about responsibility judgments aimed at the company and its managers. On the other hand, audiences tended to attribute less blame to the company in situations where the crisis cause was viewed as external and uncontrollable, instead reacting with sympathy and support (Lee, 2004).In analysing audience comments through the use of the Leximancer program, we aim to uncover public sentiment and reveal what major stakeholder groups or individuals are held responsible for the 2011 Qantas crisis. This leads us to the following research question: Research question 4: What stakeholder groups are perceived to be responsible for the crisis? C)   Ã‚  Crisis Emotions According to Choi and Lin (2009) there is a strong need to explore a variety of crisis emotions, in particular the impact that crisis emotions have upon attitudes toward the company and upon subsequent behavioral intentions (McDonald et. l. , 2010). Several studies (e. g. Coombs ; Holladay; 1996, 2002, Jorgensen; 1994, 1996 and Lee; 2004) have used Weiner’s causal dimensions of locus and controllability, finding causal attributions to be a major determinant of stakeholder crisis emotions. McDonald et. al. (2010) found that crisis controllability was the single strongest predictor of anger, sympathy and negative attitude while Lee (2004) found that in cases where crises were viewed as uncontrollable, pity was elicited.In McDonald’s (2010) study, internal crises were found to correspond with fear and surprise while external crises were more likely to result in a sympathetic emotion response (McDonald et al. , 2010). These findings validate the concept within Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory that causal attribution precedes responsibility judgment, which in turn affects crisis emotions. This leads us to the following research question for our Qantas crisis analysis: Research question 5: What audience emotions have emerged? D)   Ã‚  Behavioral IntentionsWhile responsibility judgm ent affects emotions, emotions, in turn, impact upon behavioral intentions (Weiner, 1995). Several studies have investigated the relationship between crisis emotion (anger, fear, sadness, joy, surprise) and consumer’s behavioral intentions. A review of previous literature by McDonald et at. (2010) found that anger influences punitiveness (Jorgensen, 1996), negative purchase intentions (Coombs ; Holladay, 2007), negative word of mouth (Coombs ; Holladay, 2007) and indirectly lowers investment intentions (Jorgensen, 1996).Sadness lead to a higher reliance on emotional support while fear was associated with venting intentions or avoidance (Jin, 2009). Coombs and Holladay (2007) also found that dissatisfied customers were more likely to voice negative sentiments about a product or service than happy customers. This leads us to our final research question regarding the application of Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory to audience’s Qantas crisis response: Resea rch Question 6: What audience behavioral intentions have emerged?Based upon the review of existing literature, the current case study examined how Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory can be applied to a current crisis case in Australia using actual stakeholder comments. In particular, we expect to uncover associations between Weiner’s (1986, 1995) causal constructs (locus and controllability), judgments of responsibility, emotions and behavioral intentions within the context of audience comments. Methodology According to Yin (1994), case studies involve a methodical way of looking at an instance or event within its real-life context.It is a process of collecting data, analyzing information, and reporting the results in order to gain a sharpened understanding of why a particular event occurred, and what might be relevant to future research in the area (Yin, 1994). This research project involved the development of a case study analysis that followed a reputation cri sis faced by the Australian national airline, Qantas, in October of 2011. By conducting a content analysis of 1121 audience comments, this group was able to deconstruct the crisis narrative and examine audience’s attribution process during the 2011 Qantas crisis.Yin defined the research design as a sequence that links data to the study’s research questions and findings. In order to address our research questions, this group adopted a variation of Yin’s (1994) case study design, collecting appropriate evidence, analysing the data and reporting on the findings. Step one of Yin’s (1994) case study research methods involved the collection of data for content analysis. Yin (1994) noted that data collection could rely on many sources of evidence, one of which includes documentation such as media articles.Following Yin’s (1994) data collection guidelines, this group collected 1121 reader comments attached to three news articles on the Qantas crisis, inclu ding 734 comments from the Sydney Morning Herald online (Live: FWA orders Qantas dispute terminated), 171 comments from the ABC website (Qantas grounds its entire fleet) and 216 comments from news. com. au (Qantas crisis: Who won and who's to blame). We then inputted the 1121 audience comments into an excel spreadsheet, organising them on the basis of media source and comment characteristics.The second step in Yin’s cases study research methods is data analysis. This involves examining and categorizing evidence that is relevant to the study (Yin, 1994). To achieve this, we conducted a content analysis, aided by the concept association software; Leximancer. According to Hsieh and Shannon (2005) a qualitative content analysis is one of numerous research methods used to analyse text data. Qualitative content analyses go beyond a simple word association and instead involves an in depth classification of language into an efficient number of categories with similar meanings (Weber, 1990).Leximancer is a software program designed to perform this conceptual analyses of text data in a largely independent manner (Smith, 2003). It is able to analyse large volumes of comments and to statistically assess the association between words, identifying emergent themes in the body of text. The basis for Leximancer’s qualitative data analysis is a concept association matrix that is built from frequency data (Rooney, 2005). The result is a visual map and insight dashboard that identifies the relational characteristics of key concepts (Middleton, Liesch & Steen, 2011).However this raw Leximancer data requires further human analysis. By further analysing these Leximancer results we were able to analyse audience reactions to the Qantas grounding crisis under the construct of Weiner’s (1986, 1995) attribution theory. The final phase of Yin’s cases study research methods involves reporting the results and checking their validity. According to Yin (1994) conte nt analyses involve a danger of committing what has been called the narrative fallacy.This fallacy consists of a propensity to simplify data through a preference for compact stories over complex data sets (Yin, 1994). In case study research, the way to avoid the narrative fallacy is no different from any other error: the usual consistent checks for validity and reliability in how data is collected, analyzed and presented. Therefore it was important to conduct a thorough check of the Leximancer results, correlating Leximancer findings with contextual examples within the article comments and providing exemplar samples of audience statements. Research ResultsLeximancer is able to generate two types of sentiment analysis reports: a visual concept map showing a detailed assembly of prominent concepts, and an insight dashboard which provides quantitative rankings of concepts and their associated terms (Middleton, et al, 2011). The insight dashboard generates information about the data set by analysing the frequency, strength and prominence of reoccurring terms within the text. It then organises these terms into ‘categories’, which are groups of recurring sentiments, and ‘concepts’, which are ideas that bear a strong contextual link to these categories (Middleton, et al, 2011).Leximancer also automatically identifies ‘compound concepts’, which are two terms that are mentioned adjacent to one another within the context of a larger category (Middleton, et al, 2011). Leximancer analyses the data set using a default thesaurus which it uses to identify terms as ‘positive evidence’ towards a certain sentiment or category. The user can also adjust the focus of the output results by controlling a number of manual settings within the program. By adjusting these settings, results in answer to our research questions were analysed.Research Question 1 asked â€Å"what are the audience perceptions of the key contributing factors to the crisis cause? † In order to answer this research question, a preliminary Leximancer analysis, examining key causal factors, was conducted. The concept map in figure 1 was generated by inputting all 1121 audience comments into the Leximancer program and adjusting the thesaurus settings to recognise related terms (such as ‘Alan Joyce’ and ‘AJ’). The resulting concept map clearly illustrates the key causal categories and maps their association with surrounding terms.The main causal concepts that emerge from figure 1 are ‘union action’, ‘managerial decisions’, ‘working conditions’ and ‘industrial action’. These four terms appear as prominent categories from which smaller, related concepts stem. Figure 1: Leximancer concept map The concept map in figure 1 forms the foundation for the subsequent graphs 2 and 3, where these key concepts are examined in more depth using related data from the insight dashboard. Examining these four main causal categories and their related terms, we can begin to deconstruct the narrative surrounding the Qantas crisis.In particular, we can begin to analyse audience member’s attribution process in terms of Weiner’s theoretical framework. Figure 2 (below) is a pie chart, isolating the four main causal categories and their associated terms. The terms surrounding each main category represent the associated concepts that appeared with relative frequency and strength under each main causal category. Terms such as ‘pathetic’, ‘appalled’ and ‘abominable’ were linked strongly with Managerial Decisions, while Union Action was associated with concepts such as ‘bloody minded’, ‘bashing’ and ‘dominated’.Industrial Action was positioned within the context of government policy with related terms such as ‘Gillard’, ‘Fair Work Act’ and ‘Labor ’. Finally, ‘Working Conditions’ can be seen positioned alongside key terms like ‘employees’, ‘pay’ and ‘unreasonable’ Figure 2: Four key crisis factors and related terms Figure 3 shows a further breakdown of each of the four main causal categories. Each pie chart was generated using the quantitative data in the insight dashboard, which outlines the strength, frequency and prominence of the four key categories and their related terms.The first of the four pie graphs explores the category of ‘Managerial Decisions’. Here we can see that the two major concepts associated with the managerial decisions category are MGMT (an acronym for management) and Alan Joyce. ‘Brand’, ‘restructures’ and ‘failures’ are secondary concepts that also appeared in association with Managerial Decisions. The second pie graph depicts the breakdown of concepts associated with the category of Industria l Action. Here, industrial action is positioned closely with concepts such as ‘Gillard’, ‘Fair Work Australia’ and ‘Federal Government’.Therefore it is evident that this causal category refers to the impact of government policy on the Qantas crisis. In the working conditions pie graph, the strong association between terms such as ‘employees’, ‘afford’ and ‘earn’ with terms such as ‘pay rise, ‘wages, and ‘salary’ indicate that one of the causes of this crisis involved current pay schemes and unfair working conditions. Finally, ‘Union action’ is also identified as a main contributing factor to the crisis cause. This pie graph explores this category by highlighting some of its key associated terms.In particular, one can see the clear association between ‘unions’, ‘demands’ and ‘striking’. In the context of the Qantas crisis, union gr oups made a number of demands regarding current working conditions and this was responsible for a large majority of subsequent employee strikes. Figure 3: graphs exploring the compound categories of managerial decisions, working conditions, Industrial action, and union action Research Question 2 was concerned with the application of Weiner’s (1986, 1995) causal dimensions of Locus and Controllability.It asked whether the key causal factors in the Qantas crisis (identified in figures 1 – 3) could be classified as internal and controllable or external and uncontrollable. As previously discussed in our literature review, past studies on crisis communication have shown that crises can be either be internal and controllable (neglected maintenance), internal and uncontrollable (employee sabotage), external and controllable (failure to comply with government regulations) or external and uncontrollable (terrorist sabotage). If we adapt our understanding of McDonald et al. 2010 ) we can apply the following attribution matrix to the current Qantas case study. Figure 4: Qantas’ attribution matrix . Research question 3 asks â€Å"what crisis causes can be associated with negative and positive crisis reactions? † Figure 5 addresses this research question by using Leximancer insights to compare the appearance of favourable and unfavourable terms within the context of audience comments. To justify the results, Leximancer’s insight dashboard provides examples of each sentiment with comments directly from the data set.The graph below shows that audience comments carry both favourable and unfavourable connotations towards the concepts of management, industrial action, and employees. The balance of favourable and unfavourable terms for all four causal concepts (managerial decisions, union action, working conditions and industrial action) is consistent with our preliminary sample of audience comments. Figure 5: unfavourable vs favourable terms Fi gure 6 addresses research question 4 (What stakeholder groups are perceived to be responsible for the crisis? by using a Leximancer visual concept map depicting the major stakeholder groups identified in the audience comments. The main stakeholder groups that are identified in this visual concept map are: * Alan Joyce * Employees * Unions * Government * Qantas customers * Australians in general Figure 6: Responsible Stakeholder clusters Based on the information obtained in figure 4, we can take a step further and categorise these major stakeholder groups as either internal or external to the company. As the CEO and head of the Qantas company, Alan Joyce is identified as largely responsible for managerial decisions.Baggage handlers, ground staff and cabin crew are grouped under the stakeholder heading of employees, while the Australian Licenced Engineers Union (ALAEA), the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and the Australian and International Pilots Union (AIPA) are grouped under the sta keholder heading of unions. Finally, the government is also identified as a responsible stakeholder group, with many audience comments citing the role of Julia Gillard, the Labour government and the Fair Work Act in failing to mitigate the industrial dispute. Figure 7: Responsibility JudgementFigure 8 is a visual representation of the crisis emotion that have emerged from our anlaysis of audience comments. This graph is based on the information taken from Leximancer’s insight dashboard about the strength, prominence and frequency of various sentiments. Anger was the predominant emotion that emerged from the data set and was directed toward all stakeholders, particularly ‘unions’ and ‘management’. While ‘sympathy’ emerged as another primary meotion, it was used to express empathy towards workers’ plights while ‘Sorry’ was used in relation to customers, employees, and industrial action. Support’ was also a prodom inant sentiment that emerged and was expressed toward all parties in relatively equal degrees. Figure 8: Audience emotions Due to the informal nature of comments and the variation in sentence structure, it was challenging to isolate behavioural intentions from the data set using the Leximancer software. However, a preliminary manual analysis uncovered a number of trends in consumer’s behavioural intentions. Major findings indicated that of the 4% of comments that implied a behavioural intention, most were negative, while a small number showed positive purchase or investment intentions.Figure 9 shows a cross selection of comments extracted from the data in response to research question 6. This conceptual depiction summarises the main behavioural intentions that emerged from the Qantas crisis. Figure 9: Behavioural intentions Figure 10 is based on a manual analysis of comments over all three news sites, and shows the frequency of behavioural intentions that have emerged from th e data set. The category ‘miscellaneous intentions’ refers to behaviours such as buying shares, venting action, or switching carriers.Figure 10: Behavioural intentions frequency Discussion This case study analysis uncovered a number of key findings that are relevant to crisis communication research. First, our research found that audiences perceived the key contributing factor to the Qantas crisis to be ‘union action’, ‘managerial decisions’, ‘working conditions’ and ‘industrial action’ with the majority of comments attributing the crisis to managerial decisions and union action.When analysing these key causal factors under Weiner’s dimensions of Locus and Controllability, managerial decisions can be interpreted as both internal and controllable to the company while ‘Union Action’ can be seen as both external and uncontrollable. If we analyse ‘working conditions’ in the context of its r elated terms, we can understand that this cause is about employees’ observations of their working conditions and the resulting strikes.In particular, this casual factor is about employees being unhappy with current circumstances and demanding better working conditions from Qantas management. While employees are internal to the company, their objections to their working conditions and the ensuing strikes can be understood as relatively uncontrollable. Finally, ‘industrial action’ in seen within the context of government policy and work place regulation. While the government is external to Qantas, the company’s compliance with government regulations is certainly within management’s control.Therefore we classify this causal concept as both external and controllable. These findings build upon previous research by Coombs (1995) and McDonald et. al. (2010) – that Locus and Controllability can have separate effects on audience’s attribution p rocess and that crises may not only be internal/controllable and external/uncontrollable but also internal /uncontrollable and external /controllable. The second major finding of this research project linked causal attributions to audience’s responsibility judgements.When audiences identified the major causal factor as ‘managerial decisions’ they also tended to attribute blame to Qantas management, in particular to Qantas CEO; Alan Joyce. The resulting emotions that emerged from this attribution were anger towards Qantas management and support for unions and employees. This sentiment is exemplified in the audience comment â€Å"As a QF F of 20+ years †¦ I wish to register my total support for the staff and crew at QF over their current legitimate and understandable attempts to prevent Management from destroying the airline which I hold so dear. This customer is sick and tired of being exploited by senior management and the board. †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (ABC. net. a u, 2011). These findings are similar to those of Lee’s (2004) who stated that crises that were perceived to be internal (locus) and controllable (controllability) would bring about responsibility judgements aimed towards the company and its managers. Another key trend in the data identified ‘union action’ as the main cause of the crisis. These audience members tended to attribute blame to unions and employees involved in striking action.When union action, which we identified as external and uncontrollable, was attributed as the primary cause of the crisis, audience members tended to respond with anger towards unions and employees and sympathy towards the company and its managers. One example of this is conveyed in the audience’s comment: â€Å"Well done Alan Joyce. Striking is the lowest form of human behaviour in my opinion†¦. I hope all these lazy striking staff lose their jobs and are replaced by hardworking people, †¦ who unlike Qantas emplo yees appreciate their jobs, rather than expect that they are their god given right† (ABC. et. au, 2011). The third major finding in our case study uncovered a number of audience crisis emotions. While we anticipated finding negative audience emotions such as anger and helplessness, we also uncovered a number of positive emotions that expressed support and sympathy towards all stakeholder groups. One such comment that expressed empathy towards the Qantas brand was sourced from the Sydney Morning Herald (2011), â€Å"Qantas made the right decision and any company which has a strong union presence should do the same if their future is threatened by them.The Australian dollar is strong and to remain competitive globally, hard decision must be made. † This leads us to our final major research finding. As could be expected, positive audience emotions were found to be associated with favourable behavioural intentions while negative emotions were found to predict negative purch ase intentions. While 81% of behavioural intentions centred on avoidance, complaint and negative purchase intentions, another 14% of the behavioural intentions indicated that the audience intended to continue flying with Qantas, signifying the audience’s loyalty to the brand.An example of such positive behavioural intentions is evident in the following audience comment from new. com. au: â€Å"I have always flown Qantas and always will, and to those who say they will never fly them again, you know you will let all those FF perks go to waste Good on you Mr Joyce. † (News. com. au, 2011, pp. 8). Although the technical limitations of Leximancer restricted our study, our research project successfully applied Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory to audiences’ attribution process in a real life crisis case.These research findings provide valuable insights into how individuals understand and react to organizational crises in the real world. Knowledge of this type will assist public relations managers in creating effective reputation management strategies in the future. Limitations Although our case study can be considered largely effective, we did encounter several limitations that impeded the progress of our research. Most of the limitations we encountered involved the technical capabilities of Leximancer.Of particular relevance to our content analysis was Leximancer’s inability to comprehend tone and colloquialisms. This meant that a comment that Leximancer identified as positive might actually be a sarcastic remark meant as a negative. We also found that the informal nature of comments was problematic, since there were multiple ways of expressing a particular sentiment. The data set too was limited by the individual news site’s comment system. The anonymity of contributors made it hard to clearly identify an audience member’s level of involvement, unless it was explicitly mentioned in the comment.The anonymity m ay have led to audience responses phrased more assertively and argumentatively than they would have been if they were named. The news sites also censor the time frame of the comments. By identifying the time stamp attached to each comment, future studies could examine how audience crises responses changed over the crises lifecycle. This would be particularly important as it would reflect the dynamic nature of audience’s crisis response (McDonald et. al, 2009) – particularly in this study where the online commentary between the audiences is a highly interactive exchange.Conclusion Based on Yin’s (1994) case study research methods and the theoretical framework of Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory, this research project found that managerial decisions and union action were the two key contributing factors to the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis. We also identified the main responsible stakeholder groups to be Alan Joyce (Qantas management), employees, uni ons and the government. Our findings have shown that the primary crisis emotion that emerged was anger, and that this was targeted primarily towards the management and unions.This was followed by sympathy, which empathized with the worker’s plights, and sorrow which was used in relation to Qantas customers. However, contrary to expectations, â€Å"support† also emerged as a dominant emotion and was expressed towards all stakeholder parties involved in the crisis. These findings suggest that, despite the negative sentiment that has emerged from the grounding crisis, there is still an existing group of passengers who remain loyal to the Qantas brand. Qantas should also take a lesson from these findings in order to better safeguard the interests of their stakeholders in future.This may include being mindful of employee moral and considering the plight of the passengers before taking such drastic measures in the future. Acknowledgments Supervisor: Lyn McDonald Course Coord inator: Aparna Hebbani References ABC News. (2011, October 29). Qantas grounds entire fleet. ABC News. Retrieved from http://www. abc. net. au/news/2011-10-29/qantas-locking-out-staff/3608250 Ackoff, R. L. (1981). Creating the corporate future. New York: John Wiley & Sons Colgan, Paul. (2011, October 31). Qantas Crisis: Who won and who’s to blame? News. com. au. Retrieved from

Effects of Social Media on testing ability

As a society we are constantly connected to the world around us. The accurate definition Is explained best by Boyd and Allyson. 2007 â€Å"SONS or Social Networking System Is a web-based service that allows individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. This system or software is made up of all social networking sites some of which are Faceable, Mainstream, Twitter, Tumbler, Snatch, and the list goes on. It Is clear that we live In a world where we have access to any piece of information at any given time during the day. With this boom of technology It Is becoming harder and harder for us to disconnect from the world around us. There is very little chance to decompress have access by not only our computers, but also our phones now have APS that allows us to connect to social media at any giv en time of the day or night.The question is does this constant access of information and constant staying on social media affect our performance as students? Prospectus The Higher Education Research Institute in 2007 reported that ninety four percent of first year college students use social networking websites. In 2005 research by Macrobiotics and kepi revealed, â€Å"Eighty five percent of students at a large research university had accounts on Faceable, the most popular social networking site. † This leads us to the question does this way of revolving around social media impact our daily lives and the way we function?The National Sleep Foundation conducted a survey to reveal if there was a correlation between long hours of social media use and if it affected sleep habits along with performance levels. To be able to function properly one's sleep is Just as viable as the basic needs such as food and water. Before the big boom of technology humans lived much simpler lives. Fo r example, before the invention of computers, cellophanes, and even motor vehicles people had a more organic and natural way of life. Even the food they put into their bodies was untarnished by chemicals.Technology is intended to make one's life better; however like many things that are used in excess it becomes unhealthy. When these forms of social media affect our sleep cycle we maybe dealing with an addiction that must be managed. Lead researcher Diana Tamari of a recent Harvard study told the Los Angles Times, â€Å"l think the study helps to explain why people utilize social media websites so often. I think it helps explain why Twitter exists and why Faceable is so popular, because people enjoy sharing information about each other (Nature,2012). Diana Tamari was involved in a study conducted by Harvard University, which sought the answers to why social media was so addictive. The answer to their question turned out to be very a simple one. People are addicted to talking about their problems. They found in researching â€Å"That the act of disclosing information about oneself activates the same part of the brain that is associated with the sensation of pleasure, the same pleasure that we get from eating food or getting money (Nature, 2012). I say all of this to lead to the main point of our own research; social media is addictive. When social media becomes a problem and affects our basic needs such as sleeping patterns; the problem flows over into our daily lives. To simply state it our performance levels will decrease. In a study done by Christina J. Calamari, PhD, Thornton B. A. Mason, MD, PhD, MACE, Sarah J. Radcliff, PhD. , â€Å"Teenagers getting 8 to 10 hours of sleep on school nights tended to have 1. – to 2-fold lower multitasking indices compared with those getting less sleep.Thirty-three percent of the teenagers reported falling asleep during school. † Research is proving that social media is unhealthy. This problem did not escala te quickly overnight, but has been slowly evolving monster that has grown into a problem that must be dealt with. Kirsches and Sharkskin (2010, p. 1238) claim that â€Å"Students tend to participate in such website activities while doing their homework so that it may have negative effect on their academic achievements by interrupting them from the learning process.Therefore, between SONS usage and student academic performance shown at schools and universities. Many doctors, websites, self-help books, etc. Tell us that social media is a huge leader in sleep loss, however in Sleep Care's article on social media and sleep they write that they believe social media can cause individuals to get more, effective sleep. â€Å"Faceable has over 1 billion users worldwide while Twitter had over 500 million last year and is quickly growing every day'(Sleepwear, 2014).This goes without saying that a big chunk of the world is connected to one social media site or another. In order to be engaged in a social media site, one must â€Å"follow' or â€Å"like† another. They continue with, â€Å"Social media enables an individual to feel supported from individuals closely tied to their lives and from friends and family afar† (Sleepwear,2014). By connecting with people who share similar interests and opinions a person who actively utilizes social media finds oneself in an overall better state of mind.This relates directly to better sleep because having a peaceful mind when lying down to go to bed is essential in a good night's sleep. In 2010 media headlines read: minor Friends Can Make You Fat. Reading these headlines, researchers at US San Diego and Harvard studied the correlation between social networks, sleep patterns and drug usage, after much research and hours of examination they discovered, â€Å"The use of social networks by adolescents influences sleep patterns, sleep deprivation, and drug use† (Beers 2010). Why is the sleep cycle important?What occ urs during the sleep cycle that is so valuable to the human body? â€Å"Stage 1 is the beginning of the sleep cycle, and is a relatively light stage of sleep in which the brain produces high amplitude theta waves, which are very slow brain waves. Stage 2 is the second stage of sleep and lasts for approximately 20 minutes. The brain begins to produce bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity known as sleep spindles. This stage was previously divided into stages three and four. Deep, slow brain waves known as delta waves.Most dreaming occurs during the fourth stage of sleep, known as rapid eye movement (ERM) sleep† (Cherry, 2011) These stages of sleep are very valuable for the wellbeing of humans. These processes allow us to recuperate from the day and heal. The body can physically heal itself by resting. The same concept applies to the mind. Once the technology is finally set aside most young adults only receive approximately five hours of sleep per night. Sleep deprivatio n is the reason why in this day and age there are more mishaps and â€Å"slip-ups† than ever before.With the lack of sleep one's comprehension skills are severely lacking. When it is time to sleep individuals around the world grab their phones. Peg Fitzpatrick surveyed 1,000 online individuals thus finding, â€Å"Our Faceable and Twitter activities continue even after we've hit the hay, with forty-eight percent of respondents checking in on activity when they wake p in the middle of the night or as soon as they wake up in the morning (Fitzpatrick 2011). In her online blob, Peg Fitzpatrick asked many friends about how social media affects their sleeps habits.Sadly, many of her friends responded with low affects because they have -in few words?grown immune to social media. They check their social media sites every night in the same amount of time so their body is used to getting that same amount of sleep. Social media has affected these friend's sleep habits. They have been a part of the world of social media so long that their body has accepted it as a part of the daily routine. With easy access to sites responsibility to bedroom may result in sleep loss, delays in initiating sleep, daytime sleepiness and more,† says researcher Teresa Roar.Those who said they usually connected to friends online before getting into bed reported sleeping an average of â€Å"8 hours and 10 minutes a night compared with 9 hours and 2 minutes among those who never connected† (Thomson & Reuters 2014). Studies also show that sleep loss can lead to a variety of other problems such as: obesity, depression, high blood pressure, difficulty regulating emotions and lower grades. Kids who frequently viewed TV before bed were four times more likely to report waking up several times during the night than non-viewers, and frequent social networks were three times more likely to wake up a lot.Researchers reported in Sleep Medicine, † kids who regularly played video gam es or listened to music at bedtime had significantly more difficulty falling asleep† (Thomson & Reuters 2014). Another factor that also may play into the problem is when a device with access to social media is near the bedtime pillow, people tend to wake up throughout the night. Some tend to immediately return to leap but others may stay away for an hour or more in the middle of the night on social media before they return to sleep. This growing problem may seem insignificant, but over time this continual routine is unhealthy for the body.The life of a student, no matter what age, takes a toll on the body. Deadlines to meet, Jobs to do, activities to plan, activities to attend, homework to complete, grades to maintain, etc. The life of a student is often either all about freedom or all about grades. This is because as students we are learning what actions to take in order to have a balanced life. Sleep is one area that is often neglected by young adults because there is more o n the plate than ever before. The society of today is fast paced and demanding. In order to stay in control one must lose a few hours of sleep to stay ahead of the game.What is the accurate definition of sleep and rest? It is referred to as, â€Å"The period in which the basic metabolic rate decreases, soft tissue and muscles are relaxed and revalidated, and the brain is able to process things that have been learned during the day (Clifford, 2007). Harvard Women's Health Watch states, â€Å"There are six reasons for eating enough sleep, namely for improved learning and memory, maintenance of metabolism and weight, increased safety, enhanced mood, cardiovascular health and boosting up the immune system† (Fanned, 2013). With any choice comes an appropriate consequence.Depending on the choice the consequences could be positive or negative. When an individual decides to push off sleep for whatever reason negative consequences follow?sickness, a drop in school performance, a nega tive or poor attitude, and an exhausted body. In a 2009 study Tracker noticed that students experiencing sleep deprivation try to avoid more difficult tasks. Also, they often are not aware that the difficulties they are experiencing academically can be directly related to their poor sleep habits. This can often lead to frustration and depression due to the low-test scores they are receiving.This would explain the commonly heard comment, â€Å"l can't understand why I did so badly, I spent all the previous day studying† (Engle-Friedman, 2003; Filcher, 1997). In 2013 an experiment was put into action to identify the factors affecting quality of sleep, and assess the impact of low quality sleep on the daily activities of students. The Results of social Edie follow: â€Å"Non-users of social networking, such as Faceable, MANS, and Twitter, 0. 5-2 hours a day had the best sleep quality among the groups, but the result again cannot be taken into consideration due to the non-signif icant p value (p= 0. 42) ( Fanned, 2013). † Even though social media is relatively new, it has found itself into the daily lives of many young students. With most media distractions are not uncommon. People see social media as way to relax, but are blinded by the negative effects that it has on their health and even on their grades. A large-scale study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (Beers,2012) found that, â€Å"teens spent fifty three hours per week engaged with some form of electronic media. † That's more than seven hours per day. Most of the time spent was during the night when the volunteer is in bed.Research also shows that lack of sleep has been linked with mood swings during the day. Social media has a negative impact in that it influences friends in a network. It has also brought about a sleep disorders such as sleep testing. This is a recent development. The brain is hardwired to do what it is become adapted to. In this age brains are coming more and more ada pted to staying on computers and cellophanes all day long. This practice has drifted over into our sleeping habits. This is not only a distraction to the one who is doing it but also to the one who receives the text because the alert wakes them up in the middle of the night.The brain cannot function at maximum capacity when it is weary. This causes one who loses sleep to perform poorly on test and during their daily activities. In the research done by Dry. Rubin Had, social media effects on sleep are analyzed in the life of young students. Sleep is a vital necessity such as eating a proper diet, drinking plenty of eater, and exercising daily. Dry. Had also shows that poor quality sleep negatively affects a person's physical, psychological and emotional well being and leads to poor job performance.She goes on to further explain how sleep is like a cave you have to enter, this meaning that each human body has to prepare itself for the sleep cycle. A person must develop a routine to he lp their body to shut down and begin to recuperate. By adding light from computers or cellular devices the body is not able to properly shut down for the night. The light from laptops or cellular devices causes the brain to be confused. When the brain senses darkness it connects this with sleep so it makes the hormone melatonin. This hormone makes us sleepy.When a student is on a computer the brain is tricked by the light, believing that it is earlier than it usually is. Because of this it takes a student longer to merge into the ERM cycle. â€Å"The college student needs about eight hours of sleep. When a college student puts down their cellular device they can therefore get more sleep. † (Pipsqueaks, 2013). Method To conduct this study, participants will be recruited on the Blue Mountain College campus. Participants will be comprised of eighteen and older, male and female, rotational and nontraditional college students.We will recruit the participants by word of mouth, sign s posted around campus and the incentive of coffee and doughnuts. The participants will be required to sign a consent form to the study, answer demographic questions, take the short survey and not talk about the survey to friends. Upon request noted on the demographic form, participants can be emailed the surveys results, which will be the debrief section of the study. This study is designed to figure out if prolonged hours of social media use at nighttime will affect test scores the next morning.Total hours spent on social media will be test complied with demographic questions and five questions from the fifth grade level language arts section of the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MAC). Testing will take place in the student lounge between the hours of on varies days, to which we will take participants at any time during that block of time. Participants can score between O and 100 on the MAC section and that score will then be compared to the total amount of time they stated they spe nt on social media in the demographic section.We believe higher test scores will show a lower amount of nightly social Edie use and lower test scores will show a higher usage of social media. Results The survey we conducted involved sixty-two volunteers. Group A participants spent less than one hour on social media the night before and group B spent anywhere from an hour to over six hours. The purpose for our testing was to create a correlation between low comprehension skills and late hours spent on social media. Our hypothesis stated that students who spent more time on social media would make a lower grade than those who did not.Figure 1. 1 is a scatter plot to show the range of test scores from our 62 participants. Figure 1. 1 Figure 1. 2 The break down of hours spent on social media per individual is seen in figure 1. 2. Majority of hours that were spent on social media falls between less than an hour and two hours. For this reason we created two groups and compared their test scores to each other. The total hours grouped can be viewed in figure 1. 3. Out of the 62 participants 47% spent less than an hour on social media and 53% spent an hour or more on social media. Figure 1. The correlation of our survey shows our hypothesis to be false. The two-tailed P value equals 0. 1683, which is 16%. By conventional criteria, this difference is insider to be not statistically significant because it is not less than . 05 and thus not supporting our claim. The mean of Group One less than 1 hour minus Group Two greater than 1 hour equals 9. 67, 95% confidence interval of this difference: From -4. 20 to 23. 53. Participants who spent less time on social media approximately had the same average as those who spent more than two hours on social media.Figure 1. 4 below displays the statistical data from the study. Mean. 24 57. 58 SODS. 09 28. 97 SEEM 4. 66 5. 04 N 29 33 Figure 1. 4 Discussion The Age of Information is here and it is here to stay. As a result, our social m edia use is steadily on the rise. The purpose of the study was to see if prolonged usage of social media at night affects our comprehension skills the proceeding morning. This research is important because if people are aware of the effects that social media could have, they might reduce the amount of time they spend on different networks.Our hypothesis was, if a student spends two or more hours on social media before entering their sleep cycle it would negatively affect their test scores the following day. After conducting the experiment, our team found no correlation between hours spent n social media the night before and low comprehension skills. We found many factors in need of improvement throughout our experiment. If time allowed a pilot study would have been ideal to allow for us to discover things that we might fix before conducting the study.Also, we could have fine-tuned our data collection method and made sure we were selecting the proper statistical analyses. One of our initial plans was to incorporate the experimenters' GAP in order to determine if the student had a learning disability. However, when making out the test samples, we chose not to add a blank for the test takers to insert their GAP. Additional reading comprehension questions would have been helpful for us to determine if the student had any reading or learning disabilities. Also, incorporating a variety of questions could have better helped our results.The demographic portion of our test became a distraction for the test takers. The amount of demographic questions that was asked seemed to bombard the participants of the study. Fewer questions could possibly have been more helpful in this instance. In our attempt to mask our study we ended up causing our participants to rush through the numerous demographic questions. Another factor that hurt the results of our study was the number of participants who refrained from social media. Our data was skewed due to a low number of participants who spent less than one hour on a social media website.The location we chose to conduct the experiment could have been moved to an area better fitted for testing. Instead, we chose a central location in one of the buildings on campus. Many people came in and out of our testing room. This offered many distractions for our participants. The constant flow of traffic allowed the volunteers to be distracted. Having a quieter environment could have helped our test takers focus more. In our tests. The group's definition of social media was clearly explained. We spread the word about our experiment in a timely manner so that the majority of students on campus were made aware of our experiment.Also, we provided multiple days for students to come in so that testing did not interfere with their class schedules. We offered donuts and coffee, which were effective incentives for the students. Our experiment could be useful for other groups studying sleep by helping them better calculate the corr elation between social media use and sleep habits. For future studies we will need to develop a more effective way to study the effects of prolonged social media use on students so that we will have more accurate results.

Chinese Dress Essay

Chinese clothing is an important part of their culture. Although China no longer dresses in their older more traditional styles, the traditional garments are still worn for holidays and ceremonies. There have been many historical changes in Chinese clothing, and the Chinese style choices vary depending on what region is being scrutinized. Hanfu is a term that includes all traditional Chinese dress worn prior to Manchurian and western influences. All Chinese citizens living under the Ming dynasty, and many dynasties prior to it adopted this style of dress. It was widely worn by all until the beginning of the seventeenth century and the start of the Quing dynasty. Hanfu, which was the widely accepted style in China for over three thousand years, consists of the Shenyi. A one-piece robe, which wraps around the body, the Shenyi is made up of different parts. The Jin, or the upper front of the body, the Jiaoling Youren, which means â€Å"crossed collars to the right† in Chinese and is the collar usually seen on the Hanfu of both men and women. The collar is only tied to the left as burial dress. The Qu and Mei are the cuffs and sleeves, and the Chang is the name of the skirt. The first recorded dynasty in China was the Shang dynasty. Although they did wear Hanfu clothing, most specifically the Shenyi, the garment worn by them was actually made of two separate pieces. The jacket, referred to as the Yi, and the skirt, or the Shang. It did not become a one-piece garment for many years. During the Shang dynasty the colors most often used for the garments were warm colors such as red and yellow. As time moved forward the Chinese began to decorate the fabrics with red and yellow designs. Different regions of the country had different norms as far as Hanfu dress. During the Zhou dynasty the western people used different styles of the Hanfu Shangyi to differentiate between classes. The differences in classes are shown through the two styles of sleeves, the broad and the narrow, and the decorations that the wearer hung from his or her belt such as pieces of jade. When the Quing dynasty took over, so did a new style of clothing. The Qipao was the traditional style for women and the Cheongsam was the style commonly worn by men. All Chinese were required to switch from the old Hanfu style of dressing or they would be killed due to the new rulers in place. The Qipao is a one-piece dress that traditionally fits loosely on the body and was designed to hide the woman’s figure. It is also sometimes referred to as the mandarin gown. In the early nineteen hundred the Qipao was updated into the dress we recognize as traditional Chinese dress today. The close fitting dress with a high neckline is now often worn as a party dress and has been copied and worn by American women as well. The Cheongsam is the men’s version of the Qipao. It is a two-piece outfit made up of a pair of simple pants and a top with a high neckline extremely similar to that of the Qipao. The Cheongsam is traditionally made in the color black, and was the formal dress worn by Chinese men up until the introduction of the western-style suit.

Internal Audit Deparment Background description about TJX Company Essay

Internal Audit Deparment Background description about TJX Company - Essay Example Similarly, the audit department is involved in making optimal recommendations on the improvements that should be established to the senior management and audit committee. The audit director of TJX reports to John Caban in updating him on the auditing process and plans that need to be implemented (TJX.com, 2). John Caban is supposed to report to the CFO of TJX company who is known as Scott Goldenburg. In addition, Caban is responsible of approving the audit plan prepared by the audit department. Similarly, the chief audit chief is responsible of updating the audit department of the organization through the quarterly reports during the regular meetings held in the organization (TJX.com, 1). One of the aspects that have enabled the auditing department of TJX organization to expand significantly in the past is the close relationship it has developed with the management. The management of the organization usually requests the audit department to undertake special auditing apart from the r outine audits to measure the compliance level of the organization. This has enabled the department to comply with the established accounting regulations, financial and operational audits. Consequently, the objective of the TJX auditing department is to conduct accounting audits that are independent and designed to test compliance to the procedures and policies. In addition, the department goal is to ensure the control standards and securities are complied in the financial reporting of the various transactions encountered in the organization. Similarly, the auditing department helps the management of the company in meeting the internal control objectives of the organization. Owing to the numerous objectives and responsibilities that the audit department of TJX is expected to meet, a number of operation scope have been established to ensure the audit department improves the financial reporting of the organization. One of the capacities the auditing department is supposed to undertake is to review the integrity and reliability of the operational and financial information provided. In addition, the department is supposed to review the various means that can classify, report, and measure the financial and operational information provided by the various departments. Another scope of the department is evaluating the systems that have been established in ensuring that plans, laws, policies, regulation and procedure compliance that can affect the operation of the organization. Similarly, the auditing committee of the organization undertakes a review on the various means that can secure vital organization assets like computer data and investigating if the data is in existence. Furthermore, the department evaluates the efficiency, security and control of the IT system investment to ensure it enables the organization to comply with the established procedures. In addition, the auditing department reviews and appraises the efficiency and economy in the utilization of the av ailable resources. Moreover, the department evaluates the certainty of the financial results in determining they are consistent with the founded goals and objectives. Accordingly, the auditing department of TJX Company has been able to ensure the financial and accounting reporting complies with the founded regulations, laws and policies. Audit Staff Description The auditing

Managining Business Facilities Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managining Business Facilities - Assignment Example However, this paper is not purely an expression of complain but just one aimed at elaborating the memorandum so as to quell any future conflicts that many arise from within all the quarters that access these joint services and facilities. Sharing of resources does not imply any weakness in either or lack of investment plans but such arrangement are entered into simply for convenience. Both the facilities run parallel program and they therefore are not competitions for each other. They thus coexist symbiotically. By accepting and signing the memorandum, the two parties committed themselves to the terms of the terms of sharing and by default agreed to uphold its terms to the latter. The two parties signed the memorandum willingly and on grounds of mutual consent. There are thus no stated mechanisms of supervising the application of the memorandum or any manner of punishing whichever party that faults the terms of the agreement. Such an environment creates room for exploitation in the a pplication of the memorandum, as has been the case lately. The facilities manager is one of the key creations of the memorandum. The office was created to observe the application of the memorandum. It seeks to ensure that both the parties enjoy equal rights and access to the services. Additionally, the office addresses any complains pertaining the application of the memorandum. It is understood that the two facilities exist independently yet mutually share the stated resources. The memorandum provides for equal payment for the services, the office of the facilities manager therefore ensures that the dues are paid in time and looks into all the issues raised by the service providers (Painter, 2012). The memorandum effectively provides for the manner in which the facilities are shared, in managing the facilities the office therefore does very little ground work. Besides the

Weighing the Value, Benefits & True Cost of Outsourcing Information Research Paper

Weighing the Value, Benefits & True Cost of Outsourcing Information Technology - Research Paper Example Information Technology outsourcing is a great way to achieve the organizational objectives in an efficient and cost effective manner. However if practiced properly the benefits of IT outsourcing goes beyond than just mere outsourcing. Outsourcing offer significant business impact that leads to a stable, secure and most importantly a robust business unit that operates like a well oiled machine. The main fundamental of business process outsourcing is to outsource the mundane task to the specialists so that the organization can focus upon the core activities. As a matter of fact that is the very basic root cause of any form of IT outsourcing. However it must also be mentioned that there is another angle to the whole outsourcing saga. As the business landscape gets more and more competitive and the global economy gets unpredictable, a significant effort can be seen on the part of the companies to reduce size of the business units and budgets. Now getting into the shoes of an entrepreneur it is pretty safe to say that it is more likely that the entrepreneur would look to reduce the size of a business department that doesn’t include in the checklist of the core business activities. Such factors are the catalysts behind the rise of outsourcing business. The study has been conducted in lieu of determining the productivity benefits of IT outsourcing and to go beyond the cost effectiveness aspect of IT outsourcing (Delen, 2009. p. 25). A business of any organization irrespective of the size is quite likely to be familiar with recurrent challenges. The chances get even higher in the modern volatile economy. Some of the most familiar challenges include limited budget, shortage of quality manpower, assigning manpower keeping their core competency in mind. To make things harder there is constant need of technology enablement in almost every business department. Whatever be the situation it is pretty needless to say

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Marketing for apple company - Research Paper Example According to the recent history, behavioral trends, and industry expertise, particular experiences will drive the uptake of Apple Watch. Apple sold nearly 5 million iPad units in the first two quarters of release and Apple Watch is no exception. According to a study by ABI Research on wearables and smart accessories market research, it was found that iOS will gain a 35% share in the universal smartwatch segment by 2015, just behind Android at 42%.   Studies have indicated that Apple has a track record for developing products which have revolutionized people’s lives. With regard to marketing data, the smart watch will be able to locate the location of consumers. As the wearables become increasingly popular, market research analyst firm has predicted that, in 2015, Apple will successfully dominate the smart-watch market. The shipments of the wearable brands will increase by 129% with 28.2 million of the 43.2 million sold being smart brands, whilst 15 million will be basic brands (Vasanth, 2014). The sources of primary data include surveys and in-depth interviews. According to an in-depth interview conducted on Ryan Raffaeli, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, he affirms that Apple Watch is certainly the most advanced smart watch on the market currently. Ryan further points out that Apple Watch introduces various incremental innovations which enhance and combine several technologies which have been evolving in the wearables market in the last few years (Harvard Business School, 2014). From the in-depth interview, it can be deduced that Apple Watch brings the greatest functional value to the consumer. The smartwatch brings forth user integration within their existing ecosystem. Apple Watch can track biometric and personal data. By forming partnerships with the health care industry, it can improve consumer health and wellness. It

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Cultural difference between the eastern and western - Assignment Example For such cultures, it is not uncommon to have more than one family living in single house. People from the East tend to put their families and community first before engaging in any activity. Western culture on the other hand focuses less on the family and more on the individual. For example, it is rare to find two American families living together. Instead, western cultures encourage people to stand on their own as opposed to relying on the family and community. Western cultures are highly individualistic and therefore the benefits to the individual are more important than those to the family and society. Secondly, these cultures differ in the way hierarchy and leadership is viewed. According to Eastern cultures, a leader is a powerful individual who is elevated above the rest in the society. For this reason, individuals show tremendous respect to those above them in the society. As a result, Eastern cultures rarely question or challenge the decisions made by leaders. For instance, in the workplace, top management is likely to make and impose rules to the staff members without being challenged. However, Western cultures emphasize on equality. Leaders are not seen as God-like figures but are viewed and treated almost equally with the rest. Leaders in Western countries are likely to be challenged more compared to their Eastern counterparts. Thirdly, Eastern and Western cultures have differing views when it comes to gender equality. Many Eastern cultures still believe that women are supposed to focus on raising the family and taking care of their husbands. In these cultures, a woman’s professional life is not important but rather the family life. On the contrary, gender equality is highly practiced in the West. It is common today to find women in Western countries taking up jobs that were previously reserved for men. Women in the Western world have tremendous freedom compared to those in Eastern countries. Forth, Eastern cultures

Poetry anthology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Poetry anthology - Essay Example The poems are organized into three sections: first "seasons" like spring, summer and winter which talk about the changing seasons of love: from hope of new love in spring, to warmth and passion in summer. Although there is no poem entitled "winter", it is dealt with in the first poem, showing a transition from "frozen faith" to "growing green". The second section deals with elements like "sunshine", "rain", "wind, "fire" and "sea". I wanted to do the four elements but instead the poems just happened this way. I found it was very natural to compare love to sunshine, and tears to rain but this is a bit clich, so I decided instead to use rain in terms of quenching a thirst with a kiss. The poem "wind" associates wind and freedom, and doing things that society doesn't expect you to do when you are in love, while "fire" is a good transition to the next section "violent elements" because it talks about things like "fire" and "lightning" and "thunderclouds" which are frightening and violent but are beautiful too, like love is. Then the section "violent elements" transition into "stormy night and the end section with only one poem: "evening" which talks about love dying like the day dying. I know that people will say that it is common to write about love and to compare it with nature, but I think these poems are different in that they try to avoid the usual clichs. I am very grateful to the person that inspired this anthology - even though there are many painful things to feel and say about love, it is a life-changing experience to have. I. SEASONS spring I know it's spring when the leaves turn green again when my soul like shriveled straw starts to grow green again when my frozen faith in life and love starts to melt and thaw again when my heart that's brown and cold opens at the touch of your hand summer the smell of flowers in June goodbye which came too soon and your memory which fills this room the sound of tropical waves the burn of bright sun rays and your memory which stays and stays the taste of yellow fruit the bitter taste of truth and memory of lost youth II. ELEMENTS sunshine like I'd miss the sunshine if it went away like I'd miss the stars at night like I'd miss the air I breathe I miss you so when you're out of sight like the sand would miss the waves I miss you so when you're away and as there's such a drought in my heart I miss you like grass misses rain rain I run a mile through wind and hail and storm and gale through fire and flame to quench my lips in the rain of your kiss sea I feel so blue my world is gray all my world without you is like a ship gone away I looked at you you smiled at me all my life without you is like a blue blue sea Every time the waves rush in I just feel so alone Every time the tide goes in I remember you're gone wind wind in my hair sun on my face what do I care got to leave this place dirt on my heart mud on my feet where do I start I just got to be free blood on my hands wine on my cheeks feel so high can't even sleep forget these chains forget society I'm drunk with love in love with your sanity fire sometimes it's fire sometimes it's lightning sometimes it's thunderclouds and rain I'll tame a sunset when times are frightening to be your light through darkness and pain III. VIOLENT NATURE thunder cloud eyes of wonder laugh of thunder take me under with your kiss smile like heaven I rise like

Georgia & Southwestern Asia Essay Example for Free

Georgia Southwestern Asia Essay Georgia is located in Southwestern Asia. It borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia. It is slightly smaller than South Carolina in size and has a population of 4,630,841 people. It enjoys a warm and pleasant climate and has a largely mountainous terrain. The primary religion of Georgia is Orthodox Christian. Smaller groups practice the Muslim and Armenian-Gregorian religions. Georgia operates under a republic type of government with its capital being located in T’bilisi. It gained independence from the Soviet Union on April 9, 1991. Georgias economy has sustained robust GDP growth of close to 10% in 2006 and 12% in 2007, based on strong inflows of foreign investment and robust government spending. The citizens of Georgia rely on citrus, grapes, tea, hazelnuts, vegetables and livestock for food. They also rely on steel, aircraft, machine tools, electrical appliances, mining (manganese and copper), chemicals, wood products, wine for industrial work (The World Factbook, 1). Tunisia is located in Northern Africa and borders the Mediterranean Sea between Algeria and Libya. It is slightly larger than Georgia in size making the size of these two countries relatively similar. It also has a much larger population of 10,383, 577. Tunisia also has some mountainous terrain but it also plains in the central part of the country and a semi arid south that merges into the Sahara desert. As a result, Tunisia has a much different climate than Georgia with rainy winters and hot dry summers. In direct contrast to Georgia, ninety-eight percent of Tunisia’s population practices the Muslim religion while only a very small number practice the Christian religion. Tunisia also operates under a republic style of government with their capital located in Tunis. It gained independence much earlier than Georgia did on March 20, 1956 from France. Real growth, which averaged almost 5% over the past decade, reached 6. 3% in 2007 because of development in non-textile manufacturing, a recovery in agricultural production, and strong growth in the services sector so Tunisia also witnessed growth but not as much as Georgia. The citizens of Tunisia rely on olives, olive oil, grain, tomatoes, citrus fruit, sugar beets, dates, almonds; beef, dairy products for food. They also rely on petroleum, mining (particularly phosphate and iron ore), tourism, textiles, footwear, agribusiness, beverages for industrial work. The two countries grow different types of food and work in different industries but both countries rely on these resources for survival (The World Factbook, 1). The World Factbook. (2008). Georgia. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved on November 3, 2008 from https://www. cia. gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gg. html. The World Factbook. (2008). Tunisia. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved on November 3, 2008 from https://www. cia. gov/library/publications/the-world-fa

The Role Of Mass Media In Gender Roles

The Role Of Mass Media In Gender Roles Gender roles are very significant to an individual as they determine whether someone is male or female and therefore it can be said to be the attitudes and behaviors that a particular society expects from an individual or member of that society. The gender roles within different communities may vary depending on the expectations that a particular society expects of its individuals. For instance the gender roles that the society expects from its citizens has tremendously changed over the past decade and such changes have really affected relations at work, home, school and all Americans at large. This paper seeks to expound on the role of mass media in the development of gender roles. When talking about gender role formation and development, clear and precise definitions of the term sex or gender, need to be perfectly known and what makes sexuality to differ from gender roles is that the latter is usually influenced externally through various social factors while the expression sex represents the actual physical composition of individuals that describe them as male or female. Gender role mainly occurs during the childhood to the adolescence phase and what one chooses affects him/her throughout his life. At times situations may arise where one is not at peace with his identity. The strongest influence for the formation of gender role are the parents as they are our first teachers on earth and are the ones responsible for teaching children basic things such as walking, talking also attitudes and behavior for instance they tend to allow the boy child to try different things unlike the girls as there is fear for their safety Peer pressure can also contribute to reinforcing the traditional gender roles. This clearly arises when children tend to tease those that that are not fitting to the usual traditional roles which they are normally exposed to. For instance it is vividly clear that a girls color is pink therefore a boy spotted having a pink item will be teased therefore being forced to hate the color Mass media and gender roles formation Introduction Television for a long time has been a tool in promoting the stereotypes of gender roles and tends to show them as being natural. The television industry is usually male dominated therefore most of what is produced tends to take a male perspective therefore bringing about male gaze. Through such productions girls get to learn that this is a mans world and hence they get to change their personalities. It is a very powerful and highly influential means to make and communicate gender equality and gender culture of society are mass media technologies which have become an essential part of individual daily lives and culture in the world over (Craig, 2003, p.93). The mass media are able to genuinely make legal gender ideas and philosophy shaped by gender politics and beliefs, and to increase the likelihood or chance of their reception by the general audiences. The mass informs and also gives great pleasure and full entertainment. It is a dominant influence in distinguishing the roles of men and women in a civilized world. Morley in his work opines that, The younger generations are especially influenced by its depiction of gender roles. Even though television has improved very well in its representation of gender, women are still stereotype in conventional roles, and under-represented, while men are revealed or seen as dominant figures (Lawrence, 2004, p.28). Generally, women are known to be mothers whiles men are depicted as the bread winners of the family. Advertisements by the mass media In mass media advertisements, sex stereotyping tends to be at its greatest because the intended audiences are normally either male or female. Men are seen in further occupations than women; women are seen generally as house-keepers and mothers. Men have greater possibilities to be seen advertising car companies or marketing products; women are mostly advertising household products. Men are more likely to be shown outside or in a big business backgrounds; women in domestic settings. Men are more often seen to represent authority. Craig writes, As far as advertisement is concern, with older men gaining more authority than the younger men, at the same time as women seem to fade away. Television and radio commentary represent the interpretations of what is actually seen by the initiator of the TV or radio program me (Craig, 2003, p.82). These commentary or voice over is the tone of power or authority. A recent figure shows that television commentary majorly male. Even though the number o f female voice-overs in recent years has been on the rise, women still engage in their regular, domestic products and feminine care products advertisement. Male voice-overs are more likely to be linked with a far wider variety of products. Influence of TV gender images There is a general agreement that the mass media act as very significant agents of interaction, in cooperation with the family unit and peers, and it contribute to ensuring the gender roles are shaped effectively. Without doubt, at individuals level, it is normally learnt to be male or female this does not come naturally and the mass media helping in making such roles seem as if they are normal. And there is no doubt that the mass presents influential, compelling images of gender. It has been shown that many male individuals spend most of their time with male role-models on the television. But television as a means of socializing is not accountable for shaping the gender roles of individuals. There is abundance of instances of gender-typed conducts around the world today. An exceptional involvement of the television may be to present clear examples of models seen in a larger world than that which is more honestly experienced domestically and the locality. Wherever they get their tho ughts from, by the age of about eight, it seems that most kids develop precise and definite stereotypes about what the sexes can perform or cannot accomplish. Most individuals tend to see the mass media as unavoidably socializing children into customary stereotypical roles, because of the commonness or popularity of such images on the television and the importance attribute to them by children (Donna, 2010, p.35). On the other hand, such records tend to overrate the power of mass media and underrate the multiplicity of ways in which people; mostly children tend to handle their lifes experiences. Most television images of boys, girls, men and women are more different and less clear-cut than such arguments suggest. In the world today, the television offers conflicting images which can be understood in several ways, and viewers are far more dynamic interpreters than the inactive recipients suggested by such records. Craig states that, The prospective influence of the television may be greatest during teenage years (between 12 and 18), since at this phase gender plays such a significant role in social life. At this juncture prevailing gender pictures on TV may tend to strengthen and support traditional expectations among adolescents, thus bringing to mind role variances (Craig, 2003, p.90). Some individuals speculate that the space between a teenager self-concepts and highly fascinating media images may occasionally induce personal uncertainty. In a nutshell, although there are enormous gaps in our understanding of developmental factors, the developmental point of view gives emphasis to the problem of talking about the weight of television on a growing kid in general. And the critical significance of the family should not be ignored, either. It would be improbable for children not to be subjective by the contradictory ways in which their parents use the television. In some families in which the g ender roles are basically traditional, the television may tend to serve to strengthen such gender roles. In this way TV most definitely plays a very vital role in the building of gender roles. Despite the fact that there is little uncertainty that TV presents largely conventional gender photos there is this mixed evidence about the effects of such images or pictures on gender thoughts and behaviors? It is quite hard and extremely difficult to cut off the role of mass media (TV), since people are influenced by their entire environment, even though there is reasonably widespread acceptance that over time, still yet the mass media seems possible to influence peoples thoughts concerning gender roles. The watching of television by individuals may tend to contribute to gender role development and/or strengthening amongst children and teenagers, and some associating stereotyping of gender roles with profound TV spectators. On the other hand, there is proof that opposing stereotypical portr ayals do appear able to influence the perceptions of most kids, but in general such portrayals are uncommon. In summary, the influence of television gender images or pictures on kids is not very beyond question, partially because they have not constantly been well designed. Rheingold writes, There is a modest relationship between presentation patterns and gender stereotypes. There is not much confirmation yet for any great impact of the mass media (TV). Kids are not inactive recipients of images shown on the television (Rheingold, 2000, p.447). Their open feelings to gender role play a significant part in understanding the meaning of images of gender on the television. Conclusion From the above findings it is clear that there are various factors that bring about gender role formation and these factors are rooted within the society and are passed on from one generation to another. The media has also been a factor in bringing about gender roles as it tends to focus more on the ancient stereotypes that cover the boy and girl child roles in the society hence bringing about the inflexibility in the gender roles Conclusively, there is proof that a stereotypical view of gender role may weigh greatly on the viewers, particularly young viewers. There is also clear evidence to show the effect of television messages on young viewers. On the other hand there is indication to show that there is a strong potential correlation with stereotypical ideas. The ideas of conventional or long-established roles of the genders are very deceptive. So as to ensure a change in the gender roles there should be campaigns against stereotypes that surround gender roles

Using The Mother As A Model In Meditation :: essays research papers

I feel that using the mother as a model in meditation fascinating because one can Personalize their own experience by visualizing his/her own mother and in effect, associate inner emotion & raw compassion for the one who created and protected them. I also thought that the realization of immense inapplicable rebirths, that everyone has been everyone’s mother in a sense, is a powerful tool towards introducing compassion for all beings. Just understanding the respectful nature of this compassion in general is a basic fundamental towards what the second Dally Lama, Gendun Gyatso calls ‘giving and taking’. It (‘giving and taking’) has many phases, and taking responsibility, and feeling empathy, towards all things is essential throughout. First one pictures his/her own mother personalized in his/her own frame of reference and associates the compassion of his/her mother towards other people close, like friends, family and pets by ‘giving and taking’. The second level of this concentration of the mind is feeling compassion for his/her enemy and even strangers he or she has never ever met. The next stage of this meditation is of course having compassion for all beings through compassion for the sake of helping other people to fulfill enlightenment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I should mention that anyone who wishes to practice the meditation of ‘giving and taking’ must have the self control and discipline attained by more basic meditations, for example 'mindfulness of breath'. With out such discipline, his/her mind may easily be swayed by any various stimulation that ‘giving and taking’ may evoke.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I thought it was interesting the book said that realizing the love of my Mother is indirectly responsible for who I am today, and here I sit writing and studying the holy practice of Dharma. And here I am appreciating my good fortune. And of course stay away from the negative and strive towards the positive for all, eliminate the harmful and to produce and encourage happiness towards all.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I also want to add some positive criticism towards the excerpt ‘How to Meditate upon the Ultimate Bodhi-Mind’, on page 163 of ‘Entering the Stream’.

Music Analogy :: essays research papers

â€Å"The final years of the 1970’s saw the emergence of a new style of pop music that would continue in popularity into the early 1980’s. This music was known, by its fans at that time, as New Wave† (http://www.erols.com/alloyd/adam2.htm). â€Å"New Wave† had a particular style that utilized the synthesizer as a main instrument. The synthesizer was a machine that electronically produced music. It gave a certain artificial and metallic feel to the music. The Cure and Erasure, bands formed during that period of time, were some of the bands that implemented the synthesizer into their music. Though both bands fit into the category of â€Å"New Wave† the feel of their music is somewhat different. To explain the difference I would have to analyze their songs. Two examples of their music that I will analyze are â€Å"Friday I’m in Love† by The Cure and â€Å"Always† by Erasure. The song â€Å"Friday I’m in Love† by The Cure had a 4/4 meter. The song began with a pickup by the guitar and led into a backbeat by the drums. The synthesizer played a continuous riff providing the â€Å"tinging† artificial sound and there’s also bass in the background. There were also sounds towards the end of the song that sounded a lot like the â€Å"theramin.† The beat subdivisions seemed to be triplets because the song seemed to swing and the other subdivisions didn’t match. The correct sequence and lengths of the sections in this particular song can be best labeled as I8+8 A8 B8 C6 B8 Solo8 B8 C6 D8+8 A8 B8 Solo8 Solo8. The labels A and B are to distinguish the two different verses, the label C stands for the chorus and the label D symbolized the new section (the bridge). The vocals within this song have a deeper and a more wailing kind of voice than that of the band Erasure. The song â€Å"Always† from Erasure also had a 4/4 meter, but unlike The Cure the song did not start out with a pickup and instead of the guitar the song began with the synthesizer. There didn’t seem to be any other distinguishable instruments besides the synthesizer and the drum, though I did seem to hear the use of the theramin for the eerie effect. There were also these clicking sounds, but I’m assuming the synthesizer made it. The groove of this song was more harmonized and brings to mind the music of the early Beatles. The subdivisions of this song were 8th notes. The sequence and lengths of the sections for this song can be labeled as I8 V8+8 C8+4 V8+8 C8+4 CFADE. The label V symbolizes the verse of the song and

Satire About Anorexia Essay -- essays research papers

Satire Local Anorexic Still Way Too Fat Staten Island, New York- Despite years of intense dieting and vigorous exercise, local anorexic Lucy Fernandez is still excessively fat. Reported Monday to the Staten Island Advance, Fernandez who stands five feet and weighs approximately ninety pounds is still overweight and needs to lose a few pounds. â€Å"I cannot believe how gross I look,† said the corpulent Fernandez, examining herself in a full-length bathroom mirror. â€Å"I am such a whale.† Pinching her bulky, misshapen body, Fernandez expressed frustration with her inability to transform herself into a reasonably svelte person. â€Å"I eat celery, I drink only water or diet coke, I do three hours on the Stairmaster everyday,† she said. â€Å"But despite all that, I have still got, like, these huge rolls of fat all over.† However, Fernandez could stand to lose a few pounds in nearly every area of her body, worst of all her arms. â€Å"I have got this totally disgusting flab on the back of my arms that swings back and forth when I move,† said Fernandez, wearing an oversized champion sweatshirt to conceal... Satire About Anorexia Essay -- essays research papers Satire Local Anorexic Still Way Too Fat Staten Island, New York- Despite years of intense dieting and vigorous exercise, local anorexic Lucy Fernandez is still excessively fat. Reported Monday to the Staten Island Advance, Fernandez who stands five feet and weighs approximately ninety pounds is still overweight and needs to lose a few pounds. â€Å"I cannot believe how gross I look,† said the corpulent Fernandez, examining herself in a full-length bathroom mirror. â€Å"I am such a whale.† Pinching her bulky, misshapen body, Fernandez expressed frustration with her inability to transform herself into a reasonably svelte person. â€Å"I eat celery, I drink only water or diet coke, I do three hours on the Stairmaster everyday,† she said. â€Å"But despite all that, I have still got, like, these huge rolls of fat all over.† However, Fernandez could stand to lose a few pounds in nearly every area of her body, worst of all her arms. â€Å"I have got this totally disgusting flab on the back of my arms that swings back and forth when I move,† said Fernandez, wearing an oversized champion sweatshirt to conceal...