Whistle Blowing as a Form of Advocacy Guidelines for the Practitioner Assignment

Whistle Blowing as a Form of Advocacy Guidelines for the Practitioner and Organization - Assignment Example et forth implied that they must not hire individuals who clutch first to the complaint that the society must be endangered at all cost, equal to the disadvantage of those who are paid. Nor must their choice be ruled by the individual raw sentiments, which may develop erratic and illogical in extremely contentious and morally stimulating situations (Greene and Latting 2004). Choices ought to be centered on their personal moral standards and the puzzle of morals that rules their professional behaviour. Particularly, they it must be guaranteed that gusting the whistle can be reinforced by a bench of aristocracies, is passed out in virtuous belief and with the finest attention of all gatherings at core, is unconditionally essential on ethical and moral estates, and is not always inspired by nasty intent (Greene and Latting 2004). Structural bests are faced with agonizing sets. Passing the endorsements given here can be luxurious. In this reduction age of deteriorating capitals, some activities may be pushed to discover the time or friends to improve new rules to train operate on possible instances of administrative wrong deed or principled defilements, and to be flippant of such anxieties, their hopefulness is that this editorial inspires organizational bests to be diligent and original in their whistle blowing as a form of advocacy guidelines for the practitioner and organization labors to evade the jeopardy of civic (or customer) impairment, public discomfiture, and loss or honesty in the senses of their consumers, workforces, initiators, and other chief investors (Greene and Latting

Friendliness and perception of social support

Friendliness and perception of social support Generally, this study investigate whether local student perceived more social support as compared to out-of-state student and to examine the relationship between friendliness and social support. A total of 120 participants aged between 17 to 24 years was surveyed. The participants are local college student (n=30 males and n=30 females) and out-of-state college student (n=30 males and n=30 females) from the Sunway University College. The instrument used to gather the data are Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) (Zimet et al., 1988) and Friendliness-Unfriendliness Scale (SACRAL) (Reisman Billingham, 1989). It is found that local student received more social support as compared to out-of-state student. Moreover, a very significant positive relationship was also found between friendliness and total perceived social support. Students these days face difficulty in college or even university as it is hard for them to adapt to new environment, subjects and also friends, hence it will be difficult especially for the international student to adjust themselves in another country due to so many factor that can affect their level of stress as compared to the local students (Mista, Crist Burant, 2003). However, researchers (e.g. Cohen Wills, 1985; Baron and Kenny, 1986), noted that social support helps to buffer stress. As defined by Lahey (2007, p.510), social support is a form of support given by any family members and friends given that they advise or lend a hand to an individual whom needs reveal their personal feeling. Cohen (1982) categorizes social network, perceived social support and supportive behavior under social support, where the three categories are inter-related such that perceived social support is defined as perceived social support refers to the function of social relationship as the perception that social relationship will (if necessary) provide resources such as emotional support or information and supportive behaviours refer to the mobilization and receipt of behaviors intended to aid persons in the face of stressful events (p.109). In addition, Demaray and Malecki (2002) defined perceived social support as a type of general support or specific supportive behaviors from any of their friends, family or relatives given that they may help to buffer the unpleasant feeling or emotio n of an individual. Researchers for this study, defined local student as student who are brought up by their parents or guardian and live in the state of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia whereas, out-of-state student is to be define as the student who are brought up in other states in Malaysia (excluding Selangor and Kuala Lumpur) or student who are from other country also known as international student but studying in Malaysia. As for friendliness, it is defined by Reisman (1983) saying that friendliness is a construct or dispositional tendency or attitude that implies kindliness, cordiality, and goodwill (p. 405). Reisman also added that friendliness is also a belief or feelings that people have about themselves, as well as to overt behaviors, such as smiling, greeting, and cooperating(p. 406). Past research, Misra, Crist and Burant (2003), found that International students whom are studying in American universities faces more problem such as adjusting and getting use to a new environment. The international student feel stressed up and uncomfortable for example, they have to adapt new culture and even new subject. At the same time, they also have workload that needs to be complete within a time period therefore this also causes stress. Therefore a study was carried out with a total sample of 143 participants whom are students from Africa, Asia, Middle East and America and it was found that social support do help buffer stress. Social support can act as a buffer for in many aspects. According to Demaray and Malecki (2002) social support is said to become an important role in students life because it is found that students with low perceived support obtained significantly higher scores on problematic behavior (p. 238). It is also noted by Rodriguez et al. (2003), that a person can be influence strongly by anyone that is not a family member of that person as it has been verify by research. However, it is proven that individual with social support will be able to deal with their unpleasant situation better than those individual who do not have social support (Rodrigeuz et al., 2003). In addition, social support is also important to buffer stress for college student (Cohen Wills, 1985) Nonetheless, opposing opinion was stated in Taylor et al. (2004) that it is more beneficial for social support which are not make use of rather than social support that are being utilized due to the result found by Wethington and Kessler (as cited in Taylor et al., 2004) that perceived social support was a stronger predictor of adjustment to stressful life events than received support (p. 355). Another result was found by Boron and Kenny (1986), indicating that the level of stress is affecting an individual social support that is received. At the same time, friendliness is also related to well being (Gill, 2008) when a place have more friendly people a children well being can be improve and through that the children will receive more social support. In addition, friendly people will gain more support as seen in Sullivan (1999), shows that friendly student will be able to blend in a group and help each other and provide support. Besides, Berndt and Perry (1986) also found that friendship helps when an individual is in a stressful situation and social support from friends is gain. This present study will look into which group of student: local student and out-of-state student will receive more social support and also to study from who the social support is receive from: family; friends; significant other. According to Eker, Arkar and Yaldiz (2000) the term significant other is defined as somebody outside ones family and friends (e.g. fiancà © (e), boy/girlfriend, relative, neighbor, doctor). Simultaneously, friendliness will also be analyze with social support to examine whether is there a significant relationship between friendliness and social support. Hypothesis The first hypothesis for this study is local student receive more social support as compared to out-of-state student. The second hypothesis for the study is there is a positive relationship between friendliness and social support. Method Study Design Survey design consists of two types of method which are questionnaire and interview. However questionnaire was picked to conduct the survey instead of interview because the research involves a large number of participants. The questionnaire consists of two types of scale; Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) (Zimet et al., 1988) and Friendliness Unfriendliness Scale (SACRAL) (Resiman Billingham, 1989). For the first hypothesis, the dependent variable is perceived social support and the independent variable is the type of student; local student or out-of-state student. Whereas for the second hypothesis, the dependent variable is friendliness and the independent variable is social support. Participants A total number of one hundred and twenty students from the Sunway University College were surveyed (refer to Table 1). The participants comprised of 60 males and 60 females. For each gender, 30 students are local student and another 30 are out-of-state student. The students surveyed are 17 years old to 24 years old (M=19.39, SD=1.34) (not shown in table). Most of the participants are Chinese with a total percentage of 62.5% whereas 10.8% are Malay, 7.5% are Indian and 19.2% are others. However, the highest percentage for the religion is Buddhist with a percentage of 45.0%. Whereas the percentages for each of remaining religion of the participants are 14.2% Muslim, 26.7% Christian, 5% Hindu and the remaining 5% are others. The highest educational level achieved by most of the students is secondary school and diploma or equivalent with a percentage of 25.8% and 45%, whereas 28.3% had achieved a bachelor degree or equivalent and only 0.8% had achieved a postgraduate degree (master/docto ral level). Students were selected to be the participant for this survey because the research is studying about local students and out-of-state students therefore out-of-state students comprise of international student or student from other states in Malaysia besides Selangor and Kuala Lumpur and the local student are those who are raised up in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. Table 1 Demographics Demographics Number Valid percent Gender Male Female 60 60 50.0 50.0 Hometown Local Out-of-state 60 60 50.0 50.0 Race Malay Chinese Indian Others 13 75 9 23 10.8 62.5 7.5 19.2 Religion Muslim Buddhist Hindu Christian Others 17 59 6 32 6 14.2 49.2 5.0 26.7 5.0 Highest level of education achieved Secondary School Diploma or equivalent Bachelor degree or equivalent Postgraduate degree (Master/doctoral level) 31 54 34 1 25.8 45.0 28.3 0.8 Note. Percent are calculated using SPSS. Measurement The measurements used to measure perceived social support in this study is Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) which was design by Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet and Farley in 1988 where scores are obtained from a 7-point Likert scale beginning with 1 for disagree very strongly to 7 for agree very strongly . This scale contain 12-item that measures three types of perceive social support from family, friends and significant other. For family, it has four item that are item 3, 4, 8 and 11, whereas friends has seven items which are item 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 12 and for significant other, it has 4 items but three item are the same item for friends which are item 1, 2, 5 and 10. Every item is summed up by itself and each total are then divided among the number of items it consist. Lastly, the score obtain will show the level of perceived social support, thus a higher score obtained shows that more perceived social support gain. Zimet et al. noted that MSPSS has good test-retes t reliability and known to have an outstanding scale due to its constant alphas (0.91) overall and the subscales tend to have alpha ranging from 0.90 to 0.95. Since it has a achieve a good reliability therefore, the validity for construct validity is at the same level as the reliability, whereas both factorial and concurrent validity is also excellent when it is associate with depression and with degree of coronary artery disease in type A patients (inverse correlation). The second type of measurement used is Friendliness Unfriendliness Scale (SACRAL) (Reisman Billingham, 1989). SACRAL is used because it measures friendliness as related to self-concept, accessibility, rewardingness, and alternation and also unfriendliness. As for this scale, it is made up of 20-item instrument out of 40-item since friendliness is rather complicated to be measure since it associate with one particular person skills and beliefs and it is able to distinguish between high-SACRAL and low-SACRAL through the sum of the scores. It is divided into four different subscales that comprise of self-concept, S (item 1, 5, 9, 13, 17), accessibility, AC (items 2, 6, 10, 14, 18), rewarding, R (items 3, 7, 11, 15, 19), and alienation, AL (items 4, 8, 12, 16, 20). To obtain the friendliness scores, all four subscale item are added up together. Moreover, item 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 18, and 19 has to be score differently because they are in positive direction, so if 0 and 1 are rated, i t will be 0. Whereas for the other item, reverse scoring will be done, so if 3 and 4 are rated, it will be recoded as 0 instead. Reisman (1983) noted that, the reliability of SACRAL may obscure in information and the prudence of maintaining subscale scores is supported after being tested with coefficient alpha. However, the study done by Reisman for concurrent validity, shows that there is an agreement of 81% concerning the friends in the direction of endorsement of the items, which is to say that on about 8out of 10items one friend correctly indicated whether the other agreed or disagreed. According to Reisman and Billingham for the construct validity, 94% agreement rate between subjects SACRAL scores and the assessment of raters of subject responses in a laboratory setting. Procedure This study is assign as a group research and 120 questionnaires were divided among six of the group member. Each and every member approaches approximately 20 students in Sunway University College. Convenience sampling a type of non-random sampling (Mcburney White, 2007, pp. 257) is used because the participant needed are students therefore it is easy and simple for the data to be collected since we are studying in a college where we can approach to the participant easily and it also not time consuming. Besides, the student approached were generally in the college cafeteria, foyer and the library, which mean the students are having their breaks, so they will have time to answer the questionnaire. First of all, a consent form is given to each of the participant to allow them understand about the research conducting by our group, to know roughly how long will it take up their time to answer the questionnaire and to inform them that their personal information will be kept private and confidential then it come along with a set of questionnaire that consist of 12 social support item and 20 item that measures friendliness. A demographic form is enclose together with the questionnaire that contain personal information like age, gender, ethnicity, education level achieved, religion and hometown. After filling up, the questionnaires are collected from the participant to be analyzed. Result The aim of the t-test analysis is to help measure whether local student perceived more social support or vice versa. T-test is used because it analyzes on one categorical variable and one continuous variable plus t-test is also used because the independent variable for the first hypothesis is a two level independent variable. In addition, it also determines whether there is a statistically significant difference for both the variable (Pallant, 2007, p. 232). As for the Correlation analysis, it will determine whether there is a positive or negative relationship between the two variables and its strength (Pallant, 2007, p. 126). Hence, this fits for the second hypothesis since the research is to find out about the relationship between friendliness and social support. Using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) data analysis program to test on both t-test and correlation coefficient for the two hypotheses, the results obtain are shown in Table 1 and Table 2. From the t-test analysis (refer to Table 2), the result shows the total amount of perceived social support received by both local student (M = 5.46, SD = 0.96) and the out-of-state student (M = 4.94, SD = 1.06). The result achieve is significant as hometown affects the total social support received by the local student and out-of-state student, t (118) = 2.81, p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 0.01. The only variable that was found no significant difference is the social support from family. Hence, hometown do not significantly affect students social support from family, where the mean of local student vs. out-of-state student is 5.45 vs. 5.12, t (118) = 1.50, p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 0.05. However, significant difference was found between local student and out-of-state student (M = 5.44, SD = 1.05 and M = 4.85, SD = 1.09) for social support from friend. This shows that hometown significantly affect students social support from friend, t (118) = 3.06, p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 0.01. Thus, local student receive more social support from friends as compared to out-of-state student. As for social support from significant other, it is found to be significantly different also. It is showed in Table 2 that hometown significantly affect students social support from significant other as the mean obtain for out-of state student (M = 4.92, SD = 1.35) is lower than the mean for the local student (M = 5.42, SD = 1.26) and the t-value is as follow, t (118) = 2.08, p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 0.01. Therefore, more social support from significant other is received by local student instead of the out-of-state student. Table 2 Local Student and Out-of-state Student Perceived Social Support from Family, Friend, and Significant Other Variable T df Hometown Out-of-state Social Support from family 1.50 118 5.12 (1.34) Social support from friend 3.06** 118 4.85 (1.09) Social support from significant other 2.08** 118 4.92 (1.35) Total perceived social support 2.81** 118 4.94 (1.06) Note. ** = p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ .01 Deviations appear in parentheses below means. Standard The results for correlation analysis are shown in Table 3. It is observed that there is a very significant relationship between friendliness and total perceived social support at r = .303, p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 0.01 and according to Cohen (as cited in Pallant, 2007, p. 132) friendliness and total perceived social support has a moderate positive relationship. This means that the friendlier the students are, the more perceived social support. A coefficient determination is also obtained which is 9.18per cent of variance being shared. Therefore, friendliness affects about 9.2 percent of the variance found in perceived social support. As for friendliness and the subscale of social support from friend and from significant other, it is found that both subscales have a very significant relationship with friendliness (refer to Table 3). Therefore, the Pearson correlation coefficient (r) for friendliness and social support from friends is r = .367, p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 0.01 and for friendliness and social support from significant other is r = .338, p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 0.01, meaning that there is a moderate positive relationship between friendliness and social support from friend and also between friendliness and social support from significant others. Besides, it also tells that the more friendly one is, the more social support is received from friend and significant other. Despite the fact that, there is no significant relationship between friendliness and social support from family at r = .1.26, p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 0.05. Table 3 Pearson Correlation of Perceived Social Support and Friendliness Variable Social Support from Family Social Support from Friend Social Support from Significant Other Total Perceived Social Support Friendliness .126 .367** .338** .303** Social Support from Family .544** .557** .801** Social Support from Friend .902** .932** Social Support from Significant Other .896** ** p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ .01 (2-tailed) Discussion The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether local student receive more social support than out-of-state student. At the same time, the study also examines the relationship between friendliness and social support. The results that have been analyze indicates that the local student receive more social support from friend and significant other as compare to out-of-state student. But the unexpected finding was for the social support from family as it is not significant, this is comparable with Misra, Crist and Burant where they. From the result, assumption such that local student have the advantage to receive more social support because local student can easily adapt to their own country culture whereas it will be slightly more difficult for the student from out-of-state Similar prediction was achieve by Yue and Thao (2007). From the findings, it shows that out-of-state student receive lesser social support from friends and also lesser social support from significant other compare to local student. This result was also obtained by Demaray and Malecki (2002) showing that the Native American student perceived lesser social support while the ethnic student receive higher social support. Hence, the first hypothesis, local student receives more social support as compared to out-of-state student is accepted. The result is accurate because of the reliability and validity of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) used in the survey. The correlation test indicate that there is a very significant positive relationship between friendliness and social support and this means the friendlier one is, the more social support is gain. Similar result can see in Sullivan (1999) research. The benefit of this study is that every subscale is analyzed and a very significant result are attain for both social support from friend and significant other. The reliability and validity of the Friendliness Unfriendliness scale (SACRAL) also contribute to the strength of the study. Thus, the second hypothesis, that there is a significant positive relationship between friendliness and social support is accepted. The limitation of present study is that the data collected is a small sample size only, thus the study is less likely to be accurate since the amount for each local student and out-of-state student and gender are controlled which it will give 30 subject for each hometown and gender. Besides, another limitation is that the number of year out-of-state student have been leaving in Selangor or Kuala Lumpur, where they might have gotten used to the environmental and may be their family live in a nearby state or country, which is now very easy n convenient to travel back n fro. Hence, the student might feel that they have enough social support. Nevertheless, future study is to help find ways to make the study a better one is that collect a larger sample, try collecting data from a wider range and use random assignment instead of convenience sampling. Besides, the number of year the student have been in Malaysia should be place in the demographic form, so that we can tell how long the out-of-state student have been living in Malaysia and that variable can be control. In conclusion, both hypothesis are accepted, as a significant result is obtain and the mean shows that local student receive more social support than out-of-state student. Plus, a very significant positive relationship is found between friendliness and social support. Hence, the more friendly the individual the more social support is gain by the individual. The research should have include the number of year an individual have been living in Malaysia, so that the limitation can be remove and the result achieve will be more accurate.

Moses :: essays research papers fc

The Death of Moses When the saga of Moses comes to an end with the prophet's death, the narrative voice in Deuteronomy 34:9-11 states: "Since then no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses whom the LORD knew face to face." Were the prophets that came after Moses equal to his stature? In determining the answer to this question, by researching this topic I will discuss and look at the entirety of Moses' life as recorded in the Scripture. There are certainly many unique aspects of Moses' life that were not duplicated in the lives of any of the subsequent prophets. For example, Moses was raised as an Egyptian prince. There is noting in the Bible to indicate that he knew of his Israelite heritage until adulthood. True, his own mother was recruited by the Egyptian princess to nurse him through infancy, but there is little to suggest that Moses would have retained any memory or inclination of his heritage from this period (Neufeld, 1993). Yet, despite his acculturation as an Egyptian, he was able to not only accept, but rejoice in his relationship to the Israelite slaves of Egypt. This is certainly a unique characteristic of Moses' life that was not duplicated. Furthermore, no other prophet, save Moses, had the experience of meeting God "face to face" as Moses did on Mt. Sinai with the burning bush. However, the Bible does clearly indicate that other prophets "spoke" to God and received guidance in their own way. As this suggests, it is also possible to argue that there were prophets after Moses equal to him in their relationship to God. This stance is supported, somewhat, in the biblical verses that describe how Moses felt on this topic of shared responsibility for leading the people. These verses describe how two men in the Hebrew camp, Eldad and Medad, felt that the spirit of God came upon them and they began to prophesize within the camp. A young man ran and told Moses what these two men were doing. Joshua, son of Nun and minister to Moses reacted quickly and implored Moses to forbid the men from doing this. However, Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit upon them." After which, Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp (Numbers 11:24-30). As this suggests, Moses, certainly, had no qualms about supposing that

USCGA Personal Statement

The service requirements after attending the academy loud enable me to support my country in a positive matter. I would wear the USC uniform with great pride. These long-term goals I have shared with you are only some of the few I have set for myself. Through my youth I have also set short-term goals such as entering the National Honor Society (NASH) in my DOODAD School. In order to achieve this goal I organized myself, and focused on all the important details such as 3. 4 GAP or higher, community service hours, and other leadership positions that were required in order to apply for a position.Once this goal was met, more effort from my part was put forth in order to obey the code of conduct and fulfill new expectations. Thirty years from now, want to be able to look back on my life and be proud of what I accomplished. All of my life have been a military child, a proud one at that. Have always looked up at those who serve with great respect and can honestly say they have taught me pl enty, not only through lectures but also through their actions. Thus from a young age I have come to see that there is no better way to pay back our country than to seer. In its military. Standing up for what we believe in assist keeps our country free. In which I have come to believe that the Coast Guard Academy can teach me lessons beyond that of any other college in the country. There, I will receive an excellent education, a solid foundation for a successful career and future, and become a far more effective leader. Throughout my youth I have had various conversations with those family members such as my father(s) who serve in the U. S. Coast Guard/Army, about the importance of leadership and their ride for their many accomplishments.Thus I cannot think of any greater goal and challenge than earning the privilege of attending the USAGE and later command position. To conclude, the united States Coast Guard Academy not only matches my college aspirations, but also my life goals. A ttending the academy would be the roots to my success. When individuals ask why I would attend any military academy, my reply in three simple words is: Pride, Honor, and Service.

Management Information System Essay

The ten major domestic carriers in the United States reported revenue of 145. 3 billion dollars in 2012, according to data gathered by Airlines for America (2012). The combine market capitalization of the twelve largest and publicly traded airlines stood at 48 billion dollars as of April 2012 just four billion greater than the value of Starbucks and way below other companies like Facebook and eBay ( Airlines for America, 2012). Our research will give a detail analysis of the two theories developed by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter. Porter posited that in order for businesses to compete an in-depth analysis should be done not only of your direct competitors but also external forces that can help a business performance; Porter labelled this as the Five Forces of Competitive Strategy. Another concept developed by Porter was the Value Chain, the Value Chain breaks the business process into two groups, Porter argues that business should analyse the areas of the Value Chain to see where improvements can be made to enhance performance. Our report will show how Southwest Airlines uses Information system in Porters theories and concept to gain competitive advantage Introduction to Southwest Airlines According to information received from Southwest. com (2013), Southwest Airline was incorporated in 1971 by co-founders Rollin King and Herb Kelleher as Air Southwest Company. The company is based in Dallas, Texas and has a staff capacity of over 46,000 persons. The carrier was formed has a low cost domestic carrier originally only flying in the state of Texas before branching out to other US states. From inception Southwest policy business strategy was to offer low fare and conveniently times flights on short haul routes (Ross & Beath, 2007). Today Southwest Airlines flies domestic in the United States to 79 cities. Southwest Airlines is the largest airline in the world by passengers carried, in 2012 over 100 million persons was transported by the airline to different cities in the USA. The airline has being a pioneer in the industry and is credited for setting the foundation for the rise of other low cost carriers across the world like Ryan Air and Easyjet. In an industry where profit margins are very low and different carriers filing for bankruptcy ever so often Southwest has managed to stay above the fray. In almost 40 years of service the airline has consistently turned a profit while other airlines have struggled and has remained one of the world’s most profitable airlines. The airline’s consistent profitability was due to its own ability of low cost on a set per mile basis due to its use of a single aircraft model the Boeing 737 and its fuel hedging program that protect the company from rising fuel prices (Ross & Beath, 2007). Southwest Airlines commands a market capitalization of over nine billion dollars making it one of the most valuable airlines in the world. Southwest credited its success for building a philosophy of simplicity, the company offering of low cost fares kept attracting passengers while its high touch customer service kept them coming back (Ross & Beath, 2007). As the airline grew and its business processes became more complex and with other airlines investing heavily in technology in order to survive Southwest’s CEO at the time realised that a solid IT infrastructure would be essential for the company to achieve its strategic goals and could lower the airline cost without compromising on customer service (Ross & Beath, 2007). Porters Five Force Model for Competitive Strategy Porter’s Five Force Model was developed by Michael Porter, Professor at the Harvard Business School in 1979. According to Porter (1979) the Five Forces is a holistic approach of looking and analysing any industry to understand the structural underlining drivers of profitability and competition. Porter believes that industry players take too much of a narrow look in assessing competition by believing that direct competitors in an industry are the only ones that are important. He uses the five forces model to show how business are engaged in a broader form of competition that can affect their profitability. These broader forces of competition include customers and suppliers who can have certain bargaining powers, new entrants that can emerge in the industry and affect your market share, substitute products or services that can be used and can have a direct effect on your profitability or growth and direct industry rivalry and competition within the industry. According to Hills & Jones (2008) a business’s ability to earn great profits are dependent on the strength of Porters Five Forces, the reverse is also true that a weak competitive force allows for a greater opportunity to make profits. For example, a company that controls a monopoly in a certain geographical area will see greater opportunities for profit, because being a monopoly will eliminate the threat of new entrants, no internal rivalry and low bargaining power of consumers. The greatest issue most businesses will have is to identify changes in the five forces and knowing how to formulate strategies from the opportunities and threats that may arise from the change (Hill & Jones, 2008). The image below illustrates Porter’s Five Force Model. Fig. 1 Source: (Porter, 1979) Threats of Entry in the Airline Industry The domestic airline industry in the United States has intense rivalry between its competitors. Over ten airlines fight for market share with the rivalry completely driven on price. Southwest Airline faces some its greatest competition from fellow low cost airlines such as Spirit air and JetBlue all three compete against each other on direct routes trying to offer the lowest prices and the best service to passengers with very low profit margins. Passenger figures stand at approximately 450 million passengers travelling domestic annually in the United States (International Air Transport Association, 2012). However, Southwest Airlines remained the dominant domestic carrier with a passenger load of over 100 million 2012 (Southwest Airlines, 2012). The competitive nature of the domestic market in the United States has led to the merger of some of its carriers in order to consolidate costs. The most recent merger being that of American Airlines and US Airways and before that it was Continental and United Airlines who joined forces. Barriers to Entry in the Airline Industry Prior to 1978 the airline industry in America was heavily regulated by the United States government and was driven by high prices and empty airlines. Government regulation not only prevented competition among industry players but also created an entry barrier for new airlines, as government regulated routes presented a monopoly for established carriers (Bloomberg Business Week, 2011). In the United States the state of Texas was the only state which never had government regulation in the industry. The deregulation in Texas gave Southwest Airlines an opportunity to enter the market offering its service in the major cities of Texas only (Southwest Airlines, 2012). The deregulation effort that was led by democratic senator Ted Kennedy and signed into law by former President Jimmy Carter saw a dismantling of fare and route controls in 1978 (Bloomberg Business Week, 2011). This deregulation made it increasingly easy for new airlines to enter market and compete. With government control no longer a barrier airlines were able to enter the market once they were able to access the capital that was required and meet the safety standards that were required by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). However, Michael Porter (2008) in an interview with Harvard Business School described the airline industry as one of the easiest enter with low barriers to entry he pointed out there is a constant stream of new airlines that enter the market regularly despite low profits. Bargaining Power of Suppliers and Customers in the Airline Industry According to Porter (2008) the limited number of suppliers in the airline industry gave a considerable amount of power to the ones that existed. Porter argues that airline suppliers made considerable more profits than airlines themselves. Aircraft manufacturing is dominated by only two major players,’ American company Boeing and French company Airbus. In 2011 both manufactures controlled over 90 per cent of new air craft orders with Airbus dominating at 64 percent (The Guardian, 2012). An airline survival in the industry is also tied considerably to the price of oil which is core to operation. Southwest Airlines use a method of hedging to compete on the price of oil which allows the airline to lock in to contracts at cheaper prices in anticipation of future rises in the world market prices (CNBC, 2012). Other supplier cost that affects performance includes security cost, airport gates and terminal fees and wages to staff. The greater the rivalry among industry players the more fickle customers will become. Customers in the airline industry have tremendous bargaining power and are very price sensitive. The fast pace nature of the industry can allow a customer to switch airlines at any time. Customers were the key beneficiaries from the deregulation of the industry, before the removal of price structure and other regulation, government policy ensured that airlines competed on service and not price (Bloomberg Business Week, 2011). This shifted dramatically with deregulation has new entrants to the markets like Southwest and JetBlue built their business model on low prices which has caused older established companies to lower their own margins. Substitutes Products for Airlines There are a number of substitute services available in the domestic airline industry in America. Substitute products include rail service, water, coaches, private car transportation or refusing to travel. These substitutes provide customers with other alternatives other than flying and are strong competitive forces to the industry. Airlines are therefore forced to show the economical convenience of air travel as oppose to using other means. For example a person travelling on business who places great value on time could find it more efficient to fly instead of using substitutes. Airfares offered by low cost airlines like Southwest are also competitive with other substitute products. The Value Chain Analysis Along with the Five Forces Michael Porter also developed the Generic Value Chain as a means of understanding competitiveness in the business industry. The Value Chain is aimed at helping us understand how goods and services move through an organization and how value is added to them. According to Porter the Value Chain represents a business process that comes along with a product (Porter, 1985). The main aim has articulated by Porter (1985) is to find sources for a company’s competitive advantage by dividing the company into several activities in the business process which are all strategically relevant to the goods or services provided. The business process is divided into primary and secondary areas. Primary activities include areas directly related to getting the product to the consumer. Inbound logistics is the acquisition of the raw materials that are necessary to provide the product or service. Southwest inbound logistics include areas such as route selection, flight and crew scheduling, fuelling, acquiring aircrafts and ticket management systems. Operation generally refers to the physical actions that are required to produce the service once all the raw materials are acquired. Southwest Airlines operations include a variety of actions to provide its service. It covers the airlines customer care services, gate operations, air craft operations and maintenance and baggage handling. Outbound logistics involves moving goods into inventory and places where they can reach customers. Southwest Airlines outbound logistics includes website for booking tickets, connecting passengers on flights, offering, baggage collection systems and other gate services. Other areas Primary agents of the value chain include marketing and sales and services. Marketing and sales involves the initiation of buying the product by utilizing advertising, promoting and monitoring sales (Porter, 1985). Therefore any advertising, promotional activity or deals and incentives offered by the airline will fall under marketing and sales activities. While service involves handling of customer relations once the product or service is in the hand of the consumer these include handling customer complaints, handling special request from customers such as disability requests or dealing with elements such as flight delays and cancellations. The secondary activities are important in creating a product or service but are not directly involved in its creation. Procurement is responsible for buying the raw materials for the company it can include computers furnisher and other fix assets which are essential to the value chain, the act of procurement according to Porter is normally carried out by management or the sales department (Porter, 1985). Technology support activity includes research and development that could lead to product development for the primary areas of the value chain, human resources role provides the company with essential staff to carry out functions while infrastructure involves the processes and procedures needed to execute the business process for example payroll and account (Porter, 1985). The purpose of this process is to analyse all the aspects of the Value Chain and determine if improvements can be made to increase the profitability and performance of the business. For example, Southwest Airlines could look at a value chain and determine if they could reduce the speed at which it check in passengers to flights to reduce turnaround time or increasing the speed of operating procedures such as maintenance and refuelling. Value Chain is a structured way to look at improving the business process and information systems can play a key role in this effort.