Answer a sustainability memo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Answer a sustainability memo - Essay Example Starting with nutrition, McDonalds promotes the use of natural fruits and vegetables directly from the firm. Also, it has specially designed milk products with low fat contents for children. By tailoring their efforts to meet specific consumer demands, this company has managed to cut down on wasteful supply of food products. As regards to environmental conservation, McDonalds has partnered with several other agencies to carry out research aimed at developing sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging materials. By reducing effective weight as well as improving the design of materials used for packaging, the firm has significantly reduced the amount of raw material required to make the packages. In addition, the package materials are organic in nature, hence biodegradable. This reduces the environmental impacts of the waste packets. McDonalds has further taken measures to tap the most of the recyclable green energy. In their restaurants, they have installed solar panels and wind turbines so as to utilize the solar and wind energy respectively. These actions reduce the overall dependence on oil energy that is not only non-recyclable, but also the greatest contributor to air pollution

Marketing Strategy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Marketing Strategy - Research Paper Example   There are numerous companies providing logistical services within the region providing intense competition. Within the African region, many logistics companies are local and have limited exposure to international logistics business. The company intends to utilize the business experience gained in offering logistical services within different states. This will become essential in ensuring the quality of services offered, displayed through the quick and timely delivery of services. Many of the companies operating within the industry offer logistical services in the transportation of manufactured goods. As a company operating a farm, the company will offer logistical services for agricultural products. This will become a relatively new aspect which could be essential in achieving sustainable competitive advantage   (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2003). The company will maximise on the weaknesses of existing competitors in gaining a competitive advantage, ultimately achieving sustainabili ty in the business.   The company will effectively utilize this weakness to ensure the provision of cross-border logistics and increase its market share. The international experience and presence will enable the company to offer logistics services to increased numbers of clients. Differentiation remains an essential business strategy utilized in gaining a competitive advantage within a highly competitive business environment. Differentiation includes making a company services unique and creating an identity within a crowded business environment. The company intends to begin offering trucking services for agricultural non-perishable products within the African market. With numerous African regions facing the continuous shortage of food, offering transportation services for agricultural products will attract surmountable customers within the organizations providing relief food. With many organizations covering several countries, the global aspect of the company will become a fundamental element in undertak ing these business ventures. Having been involved in growing of barley, the company already has the capacity to transport similar agricultural products like dry maize and beans. Market leadership The company will undertake a market leadership approach in performing the various business operations within the regions covered. The company will focus on offering services across the borders as many of the competitor companies have continued to offer services with limited coverage. The increased coverage of the services will ensure the company becomes a market leader in a wide region.

Rhetorical analysis of Ha-Joon Chang's My Six-Year-Old Son Should Get Essay

Rhetorical analysis of Ha-Joon Chang's My Six-Year-Old Son Should Get a Job - Essay Example Chang begins the essay with an appeal from a unanimous father that his six-year-old son should get a job like other millions of children. The father justifies his appeal saying that the child one day is going to enter the adult world of survival, that is why; the sooner is the better. Chang expresses this thought through a bold sentence â€Å"I should make him quit school and get a job.† This technique immediately delivers the expected answer. Chang expresses it, â€Å"I can hear you say I must be mad. Myopic. Cruel. You tell me that I need to protect and nurture the child.† Chang’s explains this is how the noble rich societies are going to criticize a father who wishes to send the six-year-old child to the job. Ha-Joon Chang with the above approach received his readers’ attention and achieved the goal. He then delivers the key concept of his article â€Å"This absurd line of argument is in essence how free-trade economists justify rapid, large-scale trad e liberalization in developing countries.† Chang used literary analogy to achieve his goal and to establish his case to his audience. Devolved countries while do not morally approve sending a six-year-old child to the job, at the same time, care less if developing countries industries are forced to enter into an unequal battle because of free-trade economic policies. Chang, again uses analogy to explain the future economic conditions that these countries will eventually be facing due to free trade policies, â€Å"If I drive Jin-Gyu into the labor market at the age of six, he may become a savvy shoeshine boy or even a prosperous street hawker, but he will never become a brain surgeon or a nuclear physicist -- that would require at least another dozen years of my protection and investment.† Again, this is how Chang argues against the implementation of free trade policies in developing countries. After establishing his case to the audience, Chang starts proving the case. H e uses the term infant industries for developing countries and compares it to the process of bringing up of children by parents. Chang’s principal advocacy revolves around rendering protection to the infant industries. He also knows that he has to face opponents’ views that express governments can be over protective, and industries can manipulate for prolong government protection through clever lobbying. Chang explains that the policy needs to be used wisely (â€Å"My Six Year Child Should Get a Job†). In the process of defending his case, Chang uses historical facts. He juxtaposes current infant industries of developing countries with that of United States in the late 18th century. In this respect, Chang refers to the thoughts and proposals of Alexander Hamilton, the United States first Secretary of Treasury. At the age of 33, Alexander Hamilton, declares that a backward country like the US should protect its 'industries in their infancy' from foreign competiti on and nurture them to the point where they could stand on their own feet (â€Å"My Six Year Child Should Get a Job†). This is Chang’s core concept towards today’s free trade policies with respect to the developing countries economies. Hamilton proposed a series of protective measures to achieve the

Educational Practice in a Multilingual Context Essay

Educational Practice in a Multilingual Context - Essay Example The writer is a Sri Lankan, born into a Hindu Brahmin family and the eldest of three sisters. Brahmin is the name of the priestly caste, the highest in the Hindu social system. In fact, the word Brahmin translates to "divine" and its role has been defined as one of teacher or advisor. In the Hindu Sri Lankan society, members of the Brahmin caste are tasked with officiating at religious rites and are responsible for studying and teaching the Vedas. The oldest and most developed of the Dravidian languages is Tamil. It is also the primary language of the minority Tamil region in Sri Lanka. However, majority of Sri Lanka is dominated by people who speak Singhalese, which accounts for the fact that this is the nation's official language. All Sri Lankan children are required to learn Singhalese. In the first two years of primary school, Tamil children were taught Singhalese as an additional language, which accounts for the writer being able to understand, read, and write but not speak Singhalese. Thus, this writer calls herself bilingual rather than multilingual because she does not consider herself competent in both productive and receptive skills in Singhalese, unlike what could be said for her proficiencies in both Tamil, her native language, and English, her second acquired language (Porter, 1990). In the central or up country part of Sri Lanka where the writer was born, the Tamil accent is different from the Jaffna Tamil accent spoken in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. Jaffna Tamil is regarded as a higher form of the language. The reason for this status-defining characteristic of the language is that in former years, Tamils from the up country were brought to work in the tea plantations of India by the British Empire. When her family moved to Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka in the early 80s, she found it difficult to adjust to the Jaffna Tamil accent. It was so difficult that she felt like she was learning a new language altogether. However, upon her mother's death in the late 80s, she and her family went back to the up country, allowing the writer to switch back to her Tamil up country accent once again. In the school where the writer spent her primary schooling, the medium of instruction was both Tamil and Singhalese. Classes were taught separately in either language, and since she never had friends for whom Singhalese was the primary language, she never learned to speak Singhalese fluently as much as she did Tamil. Over the years, she improved her competence in both productive and receptive skills in Tamil, and until she migrated to England, Tamil was her language for study and communication with friends and family. At an early age, she was reading Tamil children's magazines and books, and by the time she was 8 years old, she was already reading complex historical novels. This not only improved her reading abilities but also encouraged her to read proficiently in front of the whole class with more confidence (Rossell & Baker, 1996). The first encounter of the writer and her sisters with the English language was at home, when their parents preferred to be called using the English words "Daddy" and "Mummy". In Sri Lanka, English was considered a higher status language, and her mother must have thought that this would give the family some added social

Electronic Health Record Essay Example for Free

Electronic Health Record Essay An Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a system of records that are electronically managed, providing longitudinal information of the patient’s health.   The information is generated during one or more encounters with the patient.   Information can be recorded and stored under several sections including demographics, encounters, interventions, treatments, immunizations, prescriptions, laboratory and imaging data, etc.   The EHR is not only a recording system, but also helps in clinical decision-making.   It has several features incorporated such as providing reminders, precautionary measures to be taken, alerts, evidence-based information, tips in improving prognosis and the quality of care provided.    An EHR system can function within one department of the enterprise, in the entire enterprise, or even between several enterprises within a nation or region.   EHR’s can be customized depending on the type of department requiring them and the purpose for its use (NIH NICRR, 2006 Gurley, 2004). Advantages of the EHR system:- †¢ Patient information can be stored for longer periods and would occupy lesser space †¢ Patient information can be accessed from any point in the hospital and also from one hospital to another, if needed †¢ Patient information can be secured and confidentiality can be maintained (as a particular user would be accessing the system with a username/password, and would get information only about his/her patient) †¢ Information can be updated from any of the user points †¢ Several features such as alerts, reminders, etc, which are very useful to the user can be enabled in an EHR system †¢ Built-in intelligence of the EHR would provide several benefits to the physicians such as providing evidence-based information, potential drug reactions, etc †¢ The quality of care can be improved †¢ The requirements and standards set by accreditation organizations, legislations and insurance companies can be more easily met using an EHR system †¢ Potential life-threatening situations and hazardous drug reactions can be better prevented and managed using an EHR system †¢ The patient workflow can be effectively managed if an EHR system is present †¢ Communication between several structures of the healthcare organization can be improved (faster and more effective) †¢ Depending on the needs of the hospital, a customized EHR can be enabled †¢ Risk assessment, management processes and error identification can be better enabled using an EHR system (NIH NICRR, 2006 Gurley, 2004). Disadvantages of the EHR system:- †¢ Initiating and maintaining an EHR system may be very costly for the organization (however, the improvements in quality need to be considered) †¢ Training healthcare professionals in EHR use may be difficult (as it requires some amount of technical knowledge) †¢ Getting competent with the EHR system requires a sharp learning curve †¢ The EHR systems incorporated from one hospital may be different from another, which may hamper the flow of information – Lacks standard architecture and terminologies (effective interconnecting links need to be considered) †¢ Staff members may find it difficult to adopt to the clinical changes brought about through incorporation of an EHR system †¢ Slow systems may affect the workflow †¢ Risk of the system being hacked and data misused (certain standards should be compiled with and protocols need to be followed) (NIH NICRR, 2006 Gurley, 2004).

Textual Analysis of Advertisement | Gender in Advertising

Textual Analysis of Advertisement | Gender in Advertising Liang Wang Perform a close, textual analysis of one of these advertisements. What does it imply about gender and/or sexuality? You should refer to concepts such as sexualisation, postfeminism, and/or stereotypes, and consider both femininities and masculinities. The advertising I choose to perform: In advertisements which targeted at men or women are always objectifies to sell objects. This can be seen in many advertisements like the Axe. Yet according to the codes of gender, men and women are always represented differently in advertising. Men are always shown vigilante and lucid of their surroundings, standing higher up then women, eye open, bodies under controlled as an â€Å"independent, purposeful and clear thinking†(Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, p223) object. On the other hand, women are frequently shown laying down, touching themselves, bending their knees, sitting in a bed or on a chair, eye close, confused, body contorted, dressed up as sexy or sexually available, â€Å"appears subordinate, dependent, emotional and absent- minded†(Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11)object. The depiction of women in advertisement representations, at the same time, has been a sign as part of a spacious patriarchal system of male dominance. Indeed, in the mainstream advertisements depictions, which emphasis women on getting and keeping a man, especially whin the domestic roles of wife and mother. It has been focused on by many feminist commentators in order to achieve gender equality. However, in nowadays, both femininities and masculinities are represented in many advertisements, though femininities and masculinities do not map onto biological sex, but gender issue is still shown in many different ways. Throughout all forms of advertisements, it is obvious to see that we are live in a sexual world. Magazine advertisements, TV advertisements, commercials and ever internet advertisements are shown in a very sexual way and women are often been the objects of sexualization in the advertisements. â€Å"Sexualization is when a persons value comes only from his/her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics and when a person is sexually objectified†(Media’s Portrayal in Women, Laura Russell, The Sexualization of Women in the Media). Through many advertisements, it is easy to find that women are very sexualized and they are often portrayed as objects that draw men’s attention, even belong to men. According to the AXE shower gel’s advertising, the right side woman is dressed up, wearing a sexy vest in a very sexual way, with her shoulder and arms nude, coiled hair and we can indistinct see her sexy hip shape, while the whole image are sho wn as shown to get â€Å"the dirtier†. The advertising is showing that the women â€Å"need to look good and the need to get male attention†(Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, p225)and the word â€Å"dirtier† is making her seems inferior to men. With advertising such as AXE one, women that choose that they should treat there bodies as sexual subjects, thus, it is lead women to believe that is important and lost their personality. Along with these type of advertisements represented, men start to believe that the sexual picture of women that is what makes them attractive. With this sexualized advertisements that is being depicted in the media is become difficult to women to be accept their own appearance, hence, constantly compare themselves to those sexually images and lost self-confidence. Therefore, many other advertisements and some women’s magazines are inclined to treat women in low-down way, depicting women as o bjects in inferiority, subordination and low social power positions.â€Å"Women’s physical appearances – especially their sexual attributes – are portrayed as their most important assets. This is presented as liberating and empowering†(Brumberg JJ (1997) The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, Random House). While women’s sexual expression is important in some ways, nevertheless, a woman’s value is not only dependent on her sexual appeal, woman can also be successful and independent with femininities. During the 1970s and 80s second-wave feminism movement, the representation of woman have changed considerably. In the mass media, feminism has had strong criticism of the representations of women in visual world, particular advertising industry, along with the feminism movement, more then others, â€Å"the emphasis on domesticity, deference and traditional romance†(Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, p223) has been displaced by more independent, assertive depiction of femininity â€Å"something that can sometimes include a proud and explicit quest for sex†(Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, p224). Women can be successful and independent, go out and get what they want. Link to the AXE advertising, the feature objectifying image of the naked man with shower gel has referred to as â€Å"post-feminism† that women have the ability to have sexual relationship on their own wants. Moreover, the confidence, successful and independent female figure also continually showing in advertising in nowadays. Chanel’s campaign for its Coco Mademoiselle perfume adverting in 2011, for instance, shown on connotations of women independence, by featuring images with a successful woman with the background song’s lyric â€Å" this is a man’s world, this is a man’s world, but it would be nothing without women or girl† highlighted the independence and assertiveness of female â€Å" they consume autonomously, engage in relationships on their own terms and sometimes manipulate and exploit men†(Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, p224). However, back to the AXE advertisement, both femininities and masculinities are represented in this advertising but shown as different ways. On one hand, the man are presented as active, independent and all he do is cleaning and represented the product in a directly way in order to show his masculinities, on the other hand, the woman in this advertising was shown her femininities as well, but meanwhile, the way that the woman represented the product seems more metaphorically that the purpose of the woman use this product is all about get attention from male. This is against the center of the â€Å"post-feminism† and backword on gender stereotypes. Currently, when it comes to representations of gender, advertisements often fall behind on well established gender stereotypes. However, in particular these days, the media always represented images of women in power, attempted to reverse old established gender stereotypes, these images seems against the more objectification of the role women used to be, so-called ‘challenging’ and even ‘feminist’. In the old times, â€Å"female objectification to the most media depictions of female sexuality†(Dworkin, 1981;MacKinnon, 1988), according to the mainstream media depictions, woman are frequently presented as â€Å"subordinate to and dependent on men†(Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, p222). This phenomenon was also represented on the AXE advertisement, shower gel for men is for clean, yet for women, it is a way to make themself more sexy and attractive in order to catch men’s attention, getting and keep ing them, this advertisement seem to be reinforcing our stereotypical notions of femininities. In addition, commercials are one of the vast source of gender stereotyping that advertisers used in their work to targeted either male or female groups. While, woman are more often represented in commercials, because of they are seems seen as responsible for daily purchases as a householder, however, men always advertise things more masculinities, such as cars, computers or business products, otherwise women are represented femininities rather in the commercials with make-up, clothes and domestic products. And female are often shown in the home or inside environment, not the same as male, men are always shown outdoors. Moreover, the most popular that women presented in advertisements is the figure of housewife, their main problem in life is lack of ideas for housework or dinner, that is very stereotypical. The other stereotype for women is sexy seductresses, the desire of every man. They m ost advertise beauty products and fashion clothes, but they are also arise in the commercials directed to male. Furthermore, woman has been major care is to preserve her appearance, hence, this advertising image of â€Å"perfect femininity and heterosexual success is deemed to act as a ‘window to the future self’†of the audience. As a result, many women has been fall into the perplex with their appearance and body shape, which can have negative influences. Male stereotypes are also various and presented with masculinities as a ‘real man’, â€Å"athletic, successful, professional, seducer with a beautiful woman by his side†(). However, â€Å" the growth of female employment and changes in attitudes towards gender have also contributed to ambiguities in the status of masculinity†(Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, p235). In conclusion, gender issue has always been a controversial problem in advertisement industry, such as the AXE advertising, the concepts of sexualisation, postfeminism, and stereotypes are the main cores of the gender problem. However, along with the growth of feminism, female has been a large part of responsibility for the development of understanding of gender in media and advertisement. Female are should no longer been bounded in the tight ‘vest’, women should have the right to go out and do what they want, moreover, women should dress up for themselves instead of men’s attention. At the same time, the development of understandings of non-heterosexual gays, lesbian and bisexual representations in media or advertisements remind us, the most important link between the enhancement of dominant understandings of gender, sexuality and generally constructions of both femininity and masculinity. Eventually, â€Å" dominant representations of masculinity and femininit y in media tend to be those that are most effective when it comes to the selling of advertising space or, indeed, the selling of consumer goods themselves.†(Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, p241) Reference list Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, Media, Gender and Sexuality, patriarchal romance and domesticity, p223 Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, Media, Gender and Sexuality, patriarchal romance and domesticity, p223 Media’s Portrayal in Women, Laura Russell, The Sexualization of Women in the Media Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, Media, Gender and Sexuality, The enduring gaze, p225 Brumberg JJ (1997) The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls,   Random House, New York Levy, A (2005) Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, Schwartz Publishing, New York. Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, Post-feminism independence, p223 Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, Post-feminism independence, p224 Keira Knightley, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle perfume adverting, 2011, background song’s lyric Dworkin, A. (1981) Pornography: Men possessing women. London: Women’s Press MacKinnon, C. (1988) Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on life and law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, Media, Gender and Sexually. Masculinity or masculinities? P235 Matthews, J. L., 2007 Hidden sexism: Facial prominence and its connections to gender and occupational status in popular print media. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 57, 515-525. Hodkinson, P 2013, Media, culture and society, Sage, Los Angeles, ch. 11, Media, Gender and Sexuality, a balanced approach, p241)

Employment Relationship in Industrial Relations

Employment Relationship in Industrial Relations The employment relationship between an employer and an employee has often led to being described by two different terms ‘Industrial Relations or ‘Employee Relations. These, though seen as interchangeable terms often have been under the scrutiny of writers. Employee relations in general can be seen as a relationship between any employer and his workers, i.e., be it in the form of domestic labour, self-employed employers or professionals. On the contrary, Industrial Relations take into account employment in all spheres where economy activity takes place, i.e., industrial relationship. Since there is a misconception that Industrial Relations is just concerned with the study of trade unions, strikes, labour markets etc., and hence in some books writers have used the term employee relations to evade these among general public. However, in context with UK, the term industrial relations is seen to be more appropriate. Industrial relations is a multidisciplinary field and is influenced by a lot of internal as well as external factors. The main actors that play an important role in affecting a countrys industrial relations system are employers and management of an organisation, third-party agencies like the state and finally, employees and their representatives, i.e., trade unions. However, it must be noted that each of these actors have functions towards themselves as well as towards the role of other actors. In other words, there is a dependency between all of them. Brief Overview of the Current Changes in Industrial Relations over the last three decades In the last three decades, i.e., since 1980s the industrial relations in Britain has undergone a massive reform. The major changes undergone include the demise of collective bargaining, decline in trade union recognitions and membership density, a reduction in the number of strike activities and an increase in the intervention on law in the industrial relations since 1979. Moreover, there have been reforms in the organisation of the work which is related to restructuring of labour market, new management practices adopted by the employers and globalisation. However, in order to understand how these changes have played a role and influenced the present industrial relations, it is important to have a look at the historical background of it prior to the reforming. Industrial Relations in UK Historical Overview, i.e., before 1979 Earlier, it was seen that the central matter of industrial relations in UK was the concept of ‘free collective bargaining, a term introduced by the Webbs and developed in practice by the trade unions. According to this, the rights of the employees like wage determination among others were supported by the trade unions present in organisations. It was their peak presence during 1960s and 1970s which contributed to the decline of UKs economy because of them leading to increasing unemployment and lower productivity. The employers believed in the old tradition of unscientific management where all the costs regarding technical staff as well as capital were kept to minimum. And any alternative systems regarding organisation of work and for controlling of labour were looked upon as risky. Also, it was seen that the state was not looked upon as a part of the industrial relations system and a contributor towards labour strength due to both the employers and trade unions implying collect ive bargaining or voluntarism phenomenon (as it was called) not wanting any kind of legal intervention. Unions believed that the presence of law might take away workers from unionising and hence just believed in a labour law system and moreover, since employers looked for employee cooperation and productivity, they encouraged trade unions. Owing to all these factors, the Industrial Relations in UK till 1960s started being looked as a problem because of low wage, low productivity and increasing strike activity. Therefore, the concept of reforming it was a prime concern. Now we shall see how there has been change in the management of industrial relations during the last three decades and what does it tell us about the influence of the three major actors on the current framework of industrial relations in UK. Change in the Role of State and Law and its influence During the last three decades, there has been a drastic change in the legislative frameworks with the coming up of Conservative Governments during 1980s and 1990s and the Labour Party beyond 1997 contributing to the development of participation by the law in industrial relations moving beyond the traditional voluntary approach among organisations. The criticism by pluralists that state couldnt play any role in industrial relations was not justified during the Conservative Government Period of 1979-1997. During this period, the government curbed the presence of the trade unions and eradicated the collective bargaining phenomenon with an aim to restricting individual employment rights, giving more freedom to the employers. However, owing to the EUs directive influence on the domestic UK Law, there were a number of issue mismatches between the UK policies and the EU employment policy. As a result of which, UK opted out of the EU Community. Nevertheless, the influence of the EU is still seen there. These de-regulatory measures did not contribute much towards juridification of the industrial relations and the employment relationship was still determined voluntarily. Also, due to the changing law, it was seen that in the period after 1980s and 1990s, the number of days which had been lost in dealing with strikes suffered a decrease indicating that the strike pattern in UK observed a diminishing trend. The influences of these successive Conservative Governments show that the role of the state has had only a negative impact on industrial relations. Though, a number of acts and commissions were developed in order to combat certain issues, but the outcome was very different. In regard to the trade unions, The Employment Act in 1982 made sure that they suffered penalties for all their wrong doings as a result of which the statutory immunities enjoyed by them were gradually reduced. This showed the restoration of the private law. Also the restrictive re-regulation of collective action made changes in the unfair dismissal law to protect the rights of strikers. Both these regulatory techniques made sure that a fully functional labour market was restored unlike before. However, it is noted that though the legislative change provided unions with some national leadership like controlling of strike ballots, it has also led to the deterioration of the financial expenses of the unions. Similarly, the rising influence of the European Community Law saw policies like equality in pay for equality in work between men and women and employment protection taking place in Britain. In spite of restoration of the Equal Pay for Equal Work in 1983, the negative economic outcomes of legislative action relation to pay and productivity have been there. The removal of wage councils has led to pay differences in low-wage sectors and hence widened the pay inequalities in UK. As for the contribution of legislation in improving economic performance, it has only been seen in areas where unionism and closed-shops have eradicated. Moreover, it was Conservatives who were keen on the idea â€Å"of de-regulating labour markets and removing ‘obstacles to the free operation of market forces (Blyton and Turnbull, 1998)† for which they wanted to remove trade unions. However, adopting a strategy based on cost-reduction (i.e., the least labour costs) in times of high levels of unemployment, bad economic activity state, deficits in payments etc., only led to the uprising of an economy having low skill, productivity and wage along with being technologically backwards. Therefore, it is seen that although the successive Conservative laws has reformed the old traditions of UK industrial relations relying on centralised bargaining systems and absence of statutory rights but it hasnt managed to solve many of the problems like that of still continuing unemployment and no legal protection right with employees (be it collective or individualistic). But, post 1997, Labour Party came into force and has been there since then been, maintaining a balance between using legal regulation where required like in new concepts of national minimum wage, individual employee rights and supporting collective bargaining and employee representations along with retaining some earlier Conservatives approaches like restrictions on strikes and internal trade union procedures. But still some restrictions on industrial relations from previous times like the ballots are still there. Moreover, in this period UK signed up with the EU Social Charter which resulted in current legal framework developments like working time regulation and improved rights for non-standard workers among others. This new legislation has also affected the British industrial relations in a different number of ways with having positive along with negative implications. The current Labour Law sees that a legal intervention is a source of employment rights in Britain and the Labour Party seems to maintain labour flexibility with fair universal minimum standards unlike the previous governments. The most important piece of legislation introduced by the Labour Party was the introduction of National Minimum Wage and its influence is seen in the sense that it prevented employers from cutting pay and hence did not affect employment and inflation adversely. Also, in order to support collective bargaining, there was a statutory procedure to gain trade unions recognition under the Employment Relations Act 1999. Though, the current legal framework in UK shows there has not been an aim to remove old philosophies and accept new changes but the aim is to maintain continuity. Nevertheless, it is still evident that there have been tensions and contradictions due to the present Labour Government balancing between pressures from the domestic law as well as maintaining the standards of the EU employment law. This has led to compromises between many aspects like those between managerial freedom and workers relationship and not all EU developments being welcomed in spite of the no longer opposition to becoming a part of it. Furthermore, though the Labour Government has advocated social partnership and fairness, but it is unclear as to how it will achieve these by retaining the old Conservative Law practices of restriction on trade union governance and strikes along with ensuring flexibility in labour market. Also, in UK the employees still have no rights to bargain which is considered important by the all the other European states as necessary and legitimate elements for the industrial relations to work effectively. It is also questionable that how will productivity and flexibility increase in an environment of removed individualistic legal rights and counteracting collective representation. Change in Employers and Management Strategies and their outcomes The earlier British management style was predominant on collectivism but depended on a hostile union-management relationship along with the cost-driven individualism. Moreover, till 1980s, management as an actor in Industrial Relations was not given much importance due to it being considered as not interested in changing things and just responding to the other actors being trade unions and the state in its decision making. However, after the period of 1980s, management has started getting lot of attention owing to its increased activity in taking a lot of initiatives leading to the emergence of lot of key issues. Firstly, it is due to the development of management models which shows the respective roles of it as being a system actor, a strategic actor and a capital agent. However, all these three models arent sufficient to explain the role of management which is diverse consisting of complexity and variety. Secondly, due to the non-presence of legal regulations and multi-employer bargaining, it might be easy for British managers to opt for any choice but this is not as such and can be influenced by variables like sector, size, occupation etc., indicating the variety of management practices. Also, as the British economy shifted after 1980s, the industrial relations underwent a change and the interest of employers too changed. The current framework sees an attitude of social partnership and voice arising from EU policy giving much more rights to employees though not to a great extent as also indicated by the role of state. This new UK policy has begun to reshape the participation of the employees by a direct and an indirect impact and also though the increased legal regulation. Moreover, attempts to involve EI into management practices and consolidate and integrate voice measures indicate the confident approach of the current British management towards organisational participation. Furthermore, new management prerogatives have emerged with changes in the thinking of management and strategic intentions of large firms to manage labour with an emphasis on individualism moving away from the traditional norms of collectivism in 1970s. They are looking forward to a single-employer bargaining system which helps firms link its labour to the product market and brings in new payment systems and grades along with need for more flexibility, single unionism and individualisation of industrial relations. Therefore, this new strategy shows moving away from external market structures by linking industrial relations to the needs of business. In spite of all these changes, the influence of the new management too hasnt been that good. It is clear that employers after 1980s and 1990s adopted individualistic manners for determination of pay conditions and shift from the collectivism approach led to the introduction of two different styles involving high commitment practices in a union as well as non-union environment. However, what ais seen contrasting here is that, even though union presence led to encouraging efficient management along with the high commitment practices and partnership agreements with the employees relating to a new form of collective bargaining so as to increase productivity, still it has not been possible to identify the current style of management. The main reason seen to be is that after 1980s, the decline in unionism has allowed management wider choice to choose which style to adopt be it with unions or without. And evidence still suggests that â€Å"management are driven more by a cost-minimisation and opportunistic approach to employees, reflecting more than anything a traditional lifestyle (Edwards, P. 2003)†. Also, the deregulation of collective bargaining has led to the development of organisational employment systems with employment relations dependency on human resource management having minimized unionised role. Furthermore, there also have been problems with individualism or non-collective reforms stating that they cannot comply with a single formula. An example of this is seen from the fact that in order to restructure and reorganise its business when Knowco created an individualised employee relations it was faced with employee insecurity and low trust between managers and staff. And hence it is worth questioning that whether, the use of individualism will protect the firms or worsen competitive tendencies. These facts state that the present influence of management is to manage its employee relations both individually and collectively. To add to all this, despite decline in unions as a means of employee representations, still more and more companies are indulging in partnership in the presence or absence of trade unions. And even though there has been a shift from conflicting industrial relations to a one with new employment trends, still the new employers and unions have a striking relationship. This is due to the new management strategy model consisting of its effects on trade unions and partnerships. Hence, even without partnership or with it, trade-unions will have to make organisational participation work as well as manage tensions and conflicts in employment relationship skilfully. Lastly, it should be pointed that the managements main aim is cooperation and compliance both in regard with its employees, but the problem faced by the former till date is the old managerial issue of maintaining a labour which is cost-effective, productive and co-operates. This is due to the fact that the management in UK still relies on short-term tendencies. Moreover, the absence of the trust between employees and management is the biggest obstacle for a better industrial relations system in UK. This is evident from the so called Labour Partys social partnership strategy, according to which where there are no employee rights either governed by law or through rights in a de-regulated market; employees can just trade their pay for their labour resulting in exploitation by employers. Therefore, for management to effectively contribute for the development of better Industrial Relations and improve the UK industry, it should bring about a change in its attitudes so as to build up trust and confidence in its workers along with concentrating on enhancement of productivity than maintain cost-minimising approach. Changes in Trade Unions and their influence Though the unions have been at their highest peak till 1979, but after this with the emergence of the Conservative Governments, there has been a decline in Union membership from 55% in 1979 being at its peak to 33% presently along with a huge demise in collective bargaining indicating a continual drop in trade union recognition after 1980s. Though, union membership is required, but if it doesnt influence dealings with the management it is not worth anything. The 2004 WERS survey showed that in comparison to the 1998 survey there has been a fall in union recognition from 33 to 27 percent. Also, 77 percent managers agreed that they would directly speak with the employees instead of wanting trade unions to fight for employee rights in comparison to 8 percent who disagreed to it. Moreover, 33 percent stated that unions dont help in improving performance at the workplace in comparison to 23 percent who agreed that they improve. These results show that management believes in generally sett ing terms for its workers, with legislation, trade unions and industry agreements playing a minimalist role. In the current scenario, by means of interviews with different industry employers and unions, a case study shows the impact of Employment Relations Act (ERA) 1999 on trade unions and employers. According to the study, there has been a widespread agreement between the two with employers recruiting mangers with an ability to deal with unions showing no hostility towards unions and unions tolerating the legal law interference by the government. Most of the employers have agreed to the statutory recognition of the unions and started reviewing their policy of anti-unionism. Though they have accepted the presence of unions, still they give them limited rights seeking their views for organisational changes but giving them no influence on pay-setting. However, while giving employees consultative rights, ERA moves away from the contemporary industrial relations practices taking it back to the adversarial system. This can affect trade unions by giving them a chance to develop their presence wi th no-members. This indicated that collectiveness of workers is returning but with an attitude of representative and consultative agreements rather that the old norm of free collective bargaining. Contrary to this is a fact that though this collectiveness gives consultations rights, it might make unions have more influence on employers by the former just letting the latter know of the key issues and this might make them freer from the dependence on the fundamental levels of the lay activists. This weakening of power of the unions can be attributed to have taken place due to a variety of global changes highlighting an employment shift from unionised to non-unionised sectors due to competitive product markets and internationalisation of labour markets. Also, restructuring of employment led to more self employment and a fragmented workforce with the size of the workplace being smaller, indicating challenges for the unions to recruit elsewhere which they couldnt afford due to lack of resources and organisation skills. Though a contrasting point was that in 1980s during unemployment rise in the entire Europe, when all countries unions brought a wage cut to stir employment opportunities, UK was the only exception with its distribution of wages brining a real gain. A discussion on union membership in countries outside and within OECD during 1970-2003 showed that there is a level of decline in the union density in many of these countries (except four) with unions being more popular in public than private sectors. This was also evident from the WERS 2004 Survey, according to which union density in public sector was 64 percent compared to meagre 22 percent in the private sector. Although there was a probability that more male members were a part of unions but females too were there though in public sectors noted again by the WERS Survey (53 percent women being members compared to 46 percent men). The most important feature which came out from the discussion was that age plays a major role in deciding to be a member in unions and it follows an inverted U-shape with maxima at 50. This is due to a main factor that since young and new workers in a union are usually paid less than that of the older union workers, it becomes an added advantage to employ ers to hire them. Also, a number of possibilities arise like older union members quit their jobs and get promoted to non-union jobs in order to increasing their earning levels, older members though enjoy union benefits, they forget to pay their union due etc. The increasing decline in Unions in 1980s and 1990s along with the increase in non-union workplaces show that the reversal of this trend is unlikely. However, these findings indicate that unions now know how they can get recognition through different routes (example: the participation in ballots) by the ERA. But, the potential of this act to control decline can be seen as a future research agenda for industrial relations. Unions have not been able to influence the Industrial Relations in a positive way, in spite of the fact that during the reforms of unions in 1980s and 1990s, their decline has been able to stop the decline of UKs economy to an extent, because of the new legislation adopting a ‘third way of interaction between the government and the unions, thereby eradicating the phenomenon of anti-unionism. They still are faced with a number of challenges. The key problem is that there is still rivalry between unions for members in UK which leads to a lack in coordination between union movements and depicts further problems of recruitment and organisation. They also have to deal with the challenges of their decreasing membership along with the increasing managerial attack in the form of policies of cost-reduction leading to the unions having to bear a scope with limited finances. Also, there has been evidence by a research conducted on to test unemployment measures effects on inflation results , which lead to the fact that high union density can cause unemployment and hence shouldnt be there. Finally, though the presence of the traditional unionism approach of collective bargaining can although lead to a less attrition rate, it also contributes to low productivity and poor performance in jobs in firms. Thereby, it should be stated that in order for the industrial relations in UK to not crumble further and rise again, the unions have to find a way to deal with these current problems. Conclusion In the end we should examine whether Industrial Relations in UK has really improved from the previous times. There have been some positive as well as negative outcomes. Firstly, though there has been a decline in the number of strike activities saving work stoppage days but other problems have also arisen particularly relating to an increase in number of ACAS or tribunal cases with employees complaining about the behaviour of their employers. This suggests that the climate at workplaces still shows a dispute between managers and employees perceptions. Secondly, diminishing collective measures and resorting to individual measures indicate the present scenario has little place or role for trade unions to influence events. However, a contrary point to this is that, the concept of individualism is already seen as a failure and hence the recognition for the efficaciousness as well as legitimacy of representation by collective interest is seen to be encouraged both by the UK as well as the European Law. Also, the efficacy of challenging systems of workers involvement, i.e., partnership and high performance workplaces indicate more scope for trade unionism analysis in future. Finally, in spite of the fact that Labour Party will maintain legal regulations in employment conditions and markets, UK becoming a part of the EU Social Charter, leads to the imposition of EU laws into the national laws which can have implications on domestic laws like the directive introduced in national system for informing and consulting workers. To sum it all it can be said that the Industrial Relations in UK can be improved to a greater extent if all the actors in it, i.e., state, management and trade unions realise the need for long-term measures indicating a wider area for the rights of employees and the joint regulation of the employment relationship.