Ryanair Analysis of Strengths and Weaknesses

Ryanair Analysis of Strengths and Weaknesses Michael Porter defines Strategy as a combination of the goals for which the firm is striving and the means and policies by which it is seeking to get there. According to him the Strategy is about competitive position, about differentiating yourself from the point of view of the customer, about adding value through a mix of activities different from those used by competitors. Kenneth Andrews defines Corporate strategy as the pattern of decisions in a company that determines and reveals its objectives, purposes, or goals, produces the principal policies and plans for achieving those goals, and defines the range of business the company is to pursue, the kind of economic and human organization it is or intends to be, and the nature of the economic and non-economic contribution it intends to make to its shareholders, employees, customers, and communities.. Background Currently, the commercial world and its borders are changing more rapidly with regard of terms of size and speed. Travelling all around the world is no longer a luxury but a requirement for many of the population. In the past only rich people could afford to travel, in nowadays with the increasing movement of the technology, students as well as people with average profits can benefit. Due to this fact, in the past decades the number of airlines worldwide has been increasing significantly and respectively in early70s a new type emerged for the first time in the U.S.: the low cost airlines. The first low cost airline was Southwest Airlines which began operations in 1971 and was profitable only in 1973 (Oliveira and Huse, 2008). After twenty years after the Americans (Beigbeder, 2007) due to the fact of the deregulation of European skies in early 1990s, the phenomenon appeared in Europe. One of the first low-cost airlines which emerged was Ryanair (Ireland) and Easy Jet (UK) and they keep being still among the most active on the market. Companys history, development, and growth Ryanair is one of the Worlds favorite airlines and operates more than 1,400 flights per day from 44 bases and 1100+ low fare routes across 27 countries, connecting 160 destinations. Ryanair operates a fleet of 250 new Boeing 737-800 aircraft with firm orders for a further 64 new aircraft which will be delivered over the next 2 years (www.ryanair.com). Ryanair is a innovator among LCA (Low Cost Airline) companies in Europe. They were among the first and they are still today the most active LCA on the continent. This business is increasing fast and from the beginning has passed through very significant phases. Ryanair was founded in 1985 by the Ryan family in Ireland. In 1988 and during only one year due to financial losses, the company launches a business class service and a frequent flyer club for customers, neither of which prove particularly successful. This change has meant that Ryanair has changed its generic strategy. Indeed, the company since the early 90s pursuing a cost strategy. Ryanair now offers the lowest fares in every market, high frequency flights, moving to a single aircraft fleet type, scrapping free drinks and expensive meals on board. These decisions have significantly reduced ticket prices for customers. In order to reduce again costs, Ryanair decided also to narrow down traveling lines from 19 to 6 routes between 1990 and 1992. With this new policy the Irish firm carry over 1 million passengers in one year for the first time in 1993. On 29th May 1997 Ryanair becomes a public company for the first time with a successful flotation on the Dublin and NASDAQ (New York) St ock Exchanges. In March 1999, Ryanair accepts the delivery of five new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft. Those new aircrafts began operations from the main base at London Stansted, and their impact allowed Ryanair to operate with significantly lower seat costs and to offer much lower airfares, but with better reliability and a fantastic new customer product (www.ryanair.com). Communication between customers and the company is always a priority. In 2000, Ryanairs website (www.ryanair.com) became the largest booking website in Europe with more than 50.000 bookings each week. This source of information allows also customers to avail of the lowest car hire, hotel accommodation, travel insurance and rail services. At that time, Ryanair was the only LCA which developed interactive useful internet services for customers. Ryanair was in 2003 in the category most popular brand the fifth most searched website in the world (http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2003.html). The Irish airline became also the first LCA to sponsor a program on television in order to gained more customers. The company decided to sponsor Skynews Weather reports. Following this effort in communication, 1 million people traveled for the first time in during a month with Ryanair in august 2001. According to R. OBrian (mail communication, 15 April 2009) in order to be closer to custome rs, they build also the first continental base at Brussels Charleroi Airport in Belgium between 2001 and the end of 2002. In 2002, the company selected Frankfurt Hahn as the second Continental European base and launched in April with 10 routes. German customers flock in their millions to avail of the lowest air fares to and from Frankfurt according to J. Meier (personal communication, 15 April 2009). To accommodate this growth, Ryanair announced the largest ever aircraft order by an Irish airline by increasing their aircraft order with Boeing from 45 to 125 firm aircraft, with a further 125 options. The value of this order exceeds à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 6 billion and signals Ryanairs ambition to continue to be the largest LCA in Europe. Ryanair became also the number one in Europe of customer services beating all other European airlines for punctuality, fewer cancellations and least lost bags (www.ryanair.com). Meanwhile according to the company respondent communications to customers have not stopped. In 2004, Ryanair is named the most popular airline on the web by Google, as the website continues to be the most searched travel one in Europe. These performances continued and now more than 98% of all Ryanair bookings are made through the website and Internet customer services. During 2005 and 2006, Ryanair used communication tools in order to try to be different from other airlines for customers. First, they made a big communication called no fuel surcharge guarantee. Following the statements by the respondents , this was a new communication for customers because many full service airlines such as British airways, Air France or Lufthansa continue even today to supplement already high fares fuel with surcharges in case of extra costs. Second, Ryanair became The Worlds Favorite Airline because they carried more customers than British Airways and all other airline and LCA firms. Third, Ryanair was and is still the most punctual company in Europe with more than 90% of flights who arrived on time and respect schedules. Many radio advertising were made with this information. Finally, in order to attract new customers, they offered 100.000 seats for 1à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ for the 20th birthday of the Irish brand. From 2006 until now, a new customer service was launched . According to the respondent This is a web check-in service giving passengers the opportunity to check-in online across Ryanairs entire route network. The company is also the first airline worldwide to carried more than 5 million travelers in a month and created plan for a new customer service: onboard mobile. For the moment, Ryanair has 830 low fare routes all around Europe and across 26 different European countries. They produced customer services from their 31 European bases. Ryanair currently has a team of more than 8,000 people and expects to carry approximately 73.5 million passengers in the current fiscal year (www.ryanair.com). Strategy Ryanair strategy remains the same from the beginning of the 90s and since then it continues to act as the European LCA leader and continues the expansion in order to attract more customers. Ryanair aims to offer low fares that generates increased passengers traffic while maintaining a continuous focus on cost-containment and operating efficiencies (Ryanairs annual report from 2008). Business Model Full Service : Low Cost: Using HubSpoke network, Congestion during peak hours Delay of only a few inbound flights Will spill over across large portions of the network Low average daily utilization of aircraft, higher costs per seat mile Enormous transaction costs Complex fare structure Non-stop point-to-point services High seating density and load factors, Uniform aircraft types (usually the 737-300) Direct booking (internet/call centre no sales commissions) No frills such as free food/drinks, lounges or air miles Simple systems of yield management (pricing) Use of secondary airports to cut charges and turnaround times The main components of their strategy are low fares, customer services, frequent point-to-point flights on short-haul routes, low operating costs, high maintaining productivity, high personnel productivity, low customers costs, airport access fees, taking again a better advantage of Internet in order to serve the customer, commitment to safety and quality maintenance, enhancement of operating results and ancillary services and focused criteria or objectives for growth (Ryanairs annual report from 2008). Passengers may trade-off price savings against service reductions but anyway Ryanairs market success shows that the product/price trade-off is broadly in line with customers requirements so far. One of the key to the success of Ryanair was that they adopted the decision to build a powerful brand and as an example in 2003 the company was declared the fifth most searched website in the world. This confirms Gilbert ´s (1996) assumptions that branding is becoming increasingly important when it comes to product differentiation. In the case of LCA`s building brand recognition can be seen as another effective tool to be prepared for the competitive environment. These assumptions will be tightened through the argumentation by O ´Connelly and Williams (2005) that for LCA ´s who are offering a strong alternative to full service airlines it is from special relevance to build a strong brand around the company, but with the addition of customer loyalty and satisfaction. During the years the airline has stated clearly the product and stayed rigidly to that model with over 180 routes and 17 bases. In order to maintain the low fares the company has decided to eliminate the amount of travel agents and marketing costs and to sell tickets per internet. This strategic decision had a positive impact and as a result the number of the customers has increased because the clients prefer to avoid the agency and to check, compare and buy the tickets themselves. Since the implementation of internet booking in 2000, passenger numbers has grown rapidly. The growth rate increased from 15,7% (in 1999) to 30,7% (in 2000) and to over 40 % in the following years. Ryanair stimulated the passenger growing by focusing on price and not on service. Thinking on long terms this can arouse problems when another new airline enters the market and this may adversely affect Ryanair`s market share and profitability. This assumption is mainly based on statement by Lawton (1999) where it is said that just having the focus on one strategy, for instance price leadership, will be unsustainable in the future. Mainly driven by the Ryanair will to expand it is certain to sustain its competitive advantage by setting the focus secondary. While the rate of price reduction in air fares charged by low cost airlines is likely to moderate the passenger demand for the Ryanair product is likely to remain high. Ryanair clearly satisfies the markets demand which indicates that the strong price reducing strategy attracts a high number of customers. We can suppose that this fact will remain the same as far as the clients dont change their preferences and their necessities, as long as they want just to move from one point to another and nothing more. The clients tend to keep and select the low cost airline especially for the low cost services provided by them. However the Ryanair is not really focused in the relations with the customers and are counting every penny in order to maintain them on the market. To give you anecdotal case experience I had with Ryanair: one of my Ryanair flight was cancelled so I ended with no communications at all, no change of the ticket, no accommodation provided. Writing numerous letters to Ryanair didnt get me not even a reply and only after writing to the European Commissions for Air Passengers Rights after 3 years Ive got my money back. The conclusion is that what is really important for the company is to keep the low cost as low as possible, no matter what is takes. Otherwise Ryanair could even however face the problem of cost cutting itself out of the market. What counts to the customers is to obtain fair services in direct rapport with the fair prices. The focus that Ryanair need to be focus is the importance of relationship building with its customers, otherwise it may risk losing its position. In case that the airline is capable to unite the low price with a special network of customer fidelity, only then the competitive advantage can be obtained. Strategies could be influenced directly by the numbers of travellers. According to the history of the Ryanair, in its initial stages the company wasnt very effective and after introducing the hard discount pricing strategy the firm became really successful and attractive for the clients. Companys internal strengths and weaknesses SWOT Analysis Strengths Low Cost Pioneer First in cost reductions 1stmover advantage Strong Brand Established market share Variety of supplementary services Weaknesses Week relations with customers Unpredictable customer relations Poor relations between employees Refused to recognize unions Reliance on Michael OLeary Unfriendly connection with competitors Opportunities Continuing development Advanced fee decreasing EU growth Traveller Destinations Rapidly developing competition New low cost entrants Alliance/Mergers between rivals Threats Industry criticism Alternative transportation(cars, trains) External environnement Analyzing the external environment we can define 4 categories of external factors that influence the strategy of Ryanair. Political and legal: Have an increased Trade-Union pressure, EU abolishment of Duty-free Sales, EU expansion Advertising and Marketing Campaigns Economic: Continuously price growth of fuel Depreciation of US dollars EU Commissions Decisions regarding: communication with passengers, cancelled passenger compensation, overbooking, getting illegal subsidies from airports. Sociocultural: The developing of new style of living by travelling, increasing demand of business with require travelling Increasing of new high-speed trains, better cars and other ways of travelling Technological: With Internet, and all the IT technology, everything is much simple you can book, cancel, buy easily a ticket wherever you like Competitors Ryanair now has a number of low-cost competitors. In 2004, approximately 60 new low-cost airlines were formed. Although traditionally a full-service airline, Aer Lingus moved to a low-fares strategy from 2002, leading to a much more intense competition with Ryanair on Irish routes. AirBerlin wich uses a Business model -instead of point to point connections, it offered guaranteed connections via its hubs, low fare alliances. Another new competitor is BNIBaby a subsidiary of BMI British Midband and leading low cost carriers in the Midlands and Nothern England. Alos is FlyBE which has an incorporated aspect of budget airline model. Airlines which attempt to compete directly with Ryanair are treated competitively, with Ryanair being accused by some of reducing fares to significantly undercut their competitors. In response to MyTravelLite, who started to compete with Ryanair on the Birmingham to Dublin route in 2003, Ryanair set up competing flights on some of MyTravelLites routes until they pulled out. Go was another airline which attempted to offer services from Ryanairs base at Dublin to Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland. A fierce battle ensued, which ended with Go withdrawing its service from Dublin. [Quinn, Eamonn. No competitors for Ryanair in Dublin, says Cassani, 30 November 2003, at Tcm.ie. Retrieved 18 December 2006.] Ryanairs biggest competitor is EasyJet, announced routes to the Republic of Ireland for the first time, beginning with the Cork to London Gatwick route. Until then, EasyJet had never competed directly with Ryanair on its home ground. [Mulligan, John. Ryanair wins judicial review of decision over Knock route, 10 September 2008 at Independent.ie] External Analysis Porters Five Forces Threat of new Entrants Medium Is somehow affected by new comers in the market Suppliers Bargaining Power Low Industry Competitors Competition Among existing Firms High There are several strong competitors fighting for the same clients. Buyers Bargaining Power Low Threat Of Substitute Products Medium There is a living style that makes EU people to travel during the weekend with, buses, cars, caravans, trails Ryanair Competitive Advantage In nowadays the company tries to position itself by providing a strong brand on the market and obtaining a good reputation. Driven by this, company has to adapt each time to the condition of the market following strategies that can improve their competitiveness. These include cost leadership, differentiation, focused cost leadership and integrated cost leadership/differentiation. Ryanair restructured the model and they moved from conventional airline to the first European low fare. At the beginning it provided services only between Ireland and the UK. At the end of 1990 in spite of the increasing in clients, Ryanair faced losses of 20 mln IR pounds. At this period of time and directed by Michael OLeary the company decides to adopt the model of successful American Southwest Airlines. The problems encountered at this stage were that, Ryanair tried to concentrate and on costs and also on focus. At this stage, the competitors can invade the market, and without a proper strategy the compa ny cannot position themselves on a segment and survive. So they choose to go for Cost Leadership which proved to be a right choice. So how they do that: Fleet Standardization The company uses the most sold and used planes from the world Boeing 737. Maintenance costs are low, spares parts are chip and because of this, the Ryanair is capable to keep the low prices, New Aircrafts, Owns Own Fleet, Operations Denominated in Euro, Hedge Fuel Risk Airport Charges The company chose to avoid main airports and to use secondary or regional airport but closed to big cities, and respectively these airport charge lower taxes Limited Airport Transportation Employees and Productivity The company provides lower employment costs, but the staff can earn more money based on their performance Model Online Bookings, One Class Travel, Ticketless Boarding, Unallocated Seats, Point-to-Point Flying, No Frills, Reduced Turnaround Times, No Refund Policy Outsourcing of Services The company uses the third part services such as aircraft handling, ticketing. Highly Successful Ancillary Service Offering, Outsourcing of Services at International Airports, Marketing and Advertising The companys promoting is basically in newspaper, radio, television and their web site Advertising on Airplanes, In-house Marketing Basic Service on board Offers minimum standards of service and very low prices for point-to point short have flights, no extra such as in flight meals, advance seat assignment, free drinks and other services. Eliminating seatback pockets, No blankets or pillows, Airsickness bags distributed on request, Charges larger penalties for overweight luggage This strategy was a success and by 1997, Ryanair was floated on the Dublin Stock Exchange and on NASDAQ. Expansion strategy is another factor that enables Ryanair to position itself in the marketplace. The company has been known to be an airline which launches new routes since its operation begins. In addition, under the expansion strategy, company acquires Buzz in February 26, 2003. Such acquisition enables Ryanair to gain immediate access to11 new French regional airports and makes the company the largest airline operating at London Stansted Airport. In addition, the company continues to expand by opening two new Continental European bases with low-fare flights from Milan Bergamo and Stockholm. In the year, 2003, the company has been able to launch 73 new routes and carry over 2 million passengers in one month (July). In addition, the company website has been able to make the company position itself in the global market. Corporate Strategy High Global Strategy Transnational Strategy Low International Strategy Multidomestic strategy Low High Future of Ryainair Cutting costs: Race to bottom Ryanair, the Worlds favorite airline, today (9th  July) launched an online poll to ask if   passengers would stand on short flights if it meant they could travel for FREE, or pay 50% less than seated passengers.  Ryanair is gauging passenger demand for its vertical seating which will allow passengers to travel for free in a secure upright position on short flights of approximately one hour. Source:http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php?yr=09month=julstory=gen-en-090709 Ryanairs Future Plans, Cutting the costs, No Window Blinds , No Reclining Seats, Leather Seats , Velcro Headrests , Carry-on Luggage Profit enhancement Satellite Television , Internet On-board , Rented In-flight entertainment Future plans Free tickets. In a decade or so, airlines will pay travellers to distribute people around Europe. The airline industry is Tesco, is Ikea, is network TV in the way viewers watch for free and advertisers Pay for access to them, is the internet in the same way that websites earn money for delivering click-through traffic or other sites. Michael OLeary ,Chief Executive Officer of the Irish airline Ryanair Issues at Ryanair Risks and Challenges Extra capacity building would create certaintly about the success of new routes and locations Fuel Prices Vulnerable to rising fuel prices Represents 35 % of the operating costs Compensation to passengers Regulation by the European Union Terrorism and security Added risks and Costs to the industry Expand into Central and Eastern Europe Continue aggressive acquisition Overhaul the customer service Internet ticketing Develop the smaller operating base Increase the ancillary revenues-focus on after sales Future Conclusion Despite the fact that Ryanair is tied to low cost policy and doesnt care about the loyalty of the clients, the relations with the Clients, the service and with bad experience with them, the customers and myself will keep to buy their services, yes we will get the basic service but is cheap, is easy and after the exams I will fly with them in Portugalia. Ryanair rapid growth is due to: Low cost Airline Business Model that restructured European Aviation Industry Pioneer innovative cost reduction methods Creative alternative revenue generation free flights goal in next phase evolution Value segments consist of travellers interested to optimize comfort, time and price. This would mean a requirement for city-centric airports, and comfortable departure times. Competitors are catering to value market segment and have established slots at some primary airports, furthermore provide cost effective basic services. Acquisition of a similar airline would enhance expansion into value-orientated market segments without comprising its top position in the low-price segment. The key challenge for Ryanair in the next few years therefore is developing a successful strategy for not only winning the war in Low Price segment but acquiring solid position in the Value Segment and in new non-European markets. 5. ReferencesBelfast Telegraph. Finance crisis good for

Code of Ethics Essay

The code of ethics is a very important part of the business workplace and must be managed in the right way in order to become successful and maintain the perfect work role. Being able to come up with ideas and plans for code of ethics is a good thing in the workplace because it gives the employees boundaries and policies that have to be followed in order to have a good code of conduct. Code of conduct is a little different from code of ethics because conduct talks about behavior skills in the workplace and ethics plays a role as choosing the right ethical behavior that an employee might show. There are many organizations out there and mostly all of them have either a code of ethics, code of conduct, or even both. These codes are put into the working industry and the environment of the workplace in order to run a business that has no complications and employees have to do what their told. In order to create a code of ethics for an organization, you need to know the components to which can be referenced back to the code of ethics. A code of ethics is also to be accompanied by plans for organizational education, implementation and audit. The overall achievement for creating the code of ethics for the workplace is to come up with a perfect solution theory and be able to translate it into a code that speaks out to the employees and lets them know the rules and regulations of their present day work environment. There are many components that make up the code of ethics because it is initially the rite of passage for workers in a business working environment. What does a statement mean when it is called unethical? Who is the one to decide on whether or not a situation is ethical or not? What are the exact theories and solutions of ethics in the workplace? All these questions relate in a way because of how the work environment is suppose to play a role only by following the right code of ethics and conduct. But there are some who say that the code of ethics cannot be morally wrong or right. Some others believe though that the ethics of code should not have a place in the business industry. We live in a world that is filled with competition and every single individual is trying to be the best they can be at trying to get ahead of one another. In order for this theory to play out, it would be practically impossible for a code of conduct or ethics to be able to be played out in the work environment. By being ethical, there are many ways to win over certain individuals and be at the top of the rat race. In order to be a winner, it is a long journey and passage, but with cretin components of ethics, a positive individual is able to build up work power and use it towards a workplace in a professional way. No matter how badly you need something to be done, going beyond the established code of ethics in the workplace to achieve it is simply unacceptable. † (Lalwani, 2010) Before someone goes into the path of work ethics, one must first take a look at the ethics and benefits of a workplace in order to become a winner of the business industry. Soon as an organization has an established code of conduct and ethics, it is always better to be able to have a greater image and function than a normal man. When a code of ethics is established in the workplace, it enables self-regulation on part of the employees, and it is this code of ethics that guides employees when challenging decisions have to be made. † (Lalwani, 2010) This quality is able to enforce professionalism in the working environment and can also be a provider of products and services in and around an organizations capital. If none of these accusations are able to be produced and made ethically, it is due to the lack of inspiration towards the ethical code of conduct. These are some examples of code of conduct and code of ethics: â€Å"Misrepresentation of data, taking advantage of a professional situation just for personal benefits, working for an organization whose values and ethics conflict with your personal ethics, instigating colleagues and fellow employees to follow unethical paths for group benefits or gains, stealing or misrepresenting information for personal benefit, or on behalf of the employer for the benefit of the organization, stealing or misrepresenting information for personal benefit, or on behalf of the employer for the benefit of the organization, flouting the norm of confidentiality in the workplace regarding sensitive information that will benefit the organization, engaging in corporate espionage, misreporting the amount or number of hours worked, taking credit for work done by another colleague, dressing inappropriately or against the dress code set by the organization, getting personal with any colleague or superior in a professional setup, being dishonest in professional situations for personal or group gain, being insincere, uncommitted, and disloyal towards the organization, violating the established code of ethics in the workplace in the name of individual rights, disrespecting the personal values and beliefs of colleagues in the workplace, with which you have no concern, and dealing with problems in the workplace in an unprofessional manner by making the issue personal. (Lalwani, 2010) By all these rules and codes being engage in opportunity and failure, by following these codes of ethics, you can be the best employee that you possible can be in a work place. A workplace should be able to have ethical organizational subjects helping to decide what is right from wrong. But there are many certain business basics that one must follow and endure in order to play a role as a fellow works men. The basic role of ethics in the work place is for employees to make sure that productivity and progression of the business stay to a descent speed. In not doing so, unprofessional actions can start to take place and employee management will be harder to deal with. By carrying out suitable training to establish workplace ethics, these ethics can be imbibed by every person that comprises an organization, to achieve a common goal that has been laid out by this organization. † (Lalwani, 2010) There are many goals that employees set themselves to and to accomplish those daily goals, they must follow the code of ethics and the code of conduct in the workplace. There are multiple key components of work ethics in the business industry. But there are some organizations that go above and beyond the code of ethics and would soon end up violating the key components of an ethical work environment. There are companies such as Enron and Goldman Sachs show, which have dealt with violations towards the ethics code of conducts and have gone outside of their boundaries only to have failed. The code of ethics is the set of behavioral rules employees should follow to ensure the company’s values are reflected in all business dealings. Regardless of the size of the business, clearly defined codes and closely monitored transactions should keep your company from violating laws and make it a place where employees feel comfortable doing the right thing. † (Sullivan) The first major component of ethics is the values of ethical decision making. Businesses are able to express the performance of a company or an organization in terms of how they work with suppliers, employees, and customers on a day to day basis. â€Å"A primary objective of the code of ethics is to define what the company is about and make it clear that the company is based on honesty and fairness. (Sullivan) Values are defined as a word that describes interactions and the importance of what a company has to offer. A second component of ethics would be the principles of it and how they work towards the company’s performance. The principles come into play by supporting a value of the business industry then having employees of a company following the right scheduled operations. When principles play a role in the business world, customer satisfaction is the most important subject of running a business. No customers, no business. â€Å"Corporate responsibility to the environmentally friendly use of natural resources is another business principle that often is found in code of ethics. (Sullivan) Manager support comes from both the principles and values of the code of ethics. This subject is able to include a process of reporting any ethic violations towards the code of ethics and by the process of which people can run an organization. â€Å"To reflect how seriously management considers the code, some businesses display the code of ethics with management signatures in prominent areas, such as the break room, where employees will see it on a daily basis. † (Sullivan) The fourth component that comes into play with the code of ethics is personal responsibility. Personal responsibility regards that each of the employees working in an organization have total responsibility to uphold and keep with the program of ethics. There are both legal and moral issues regarding this certain component because if an employee decides to violate an ethic of code, he or she will have to deal with the consequences. The requirement for personal responsibility is that it can relate to the other components towards the code of ethics. If an employee goes against the rules of ethics, the violators will become an issue towards the company. â€Å"This is meant to show that it is not sufficient to merely adhere to the values and principles but to help ensure every employee supports the code of ethics by reporting violators. † (Sullivan) One of the final components of ethical decision making is compliance. Compliance comes into play when any laws or regulations are referenced as rules towards an association or organization. Relating back to the Enron case, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was the execution of falsified financial records and became a big problem for Enron. The full details of financial filing is that when a file becomes a record, is has a lot of information towards any company or organization. â€Å"Compliance to all financial reporting and any licensing requirements such as ISO 9000 by the International Organization for Standardization can be documented, along with the expectation that all licenses will be maintained and legal regulations met. (Sullivan) Overall, the code of ethics is a great way to pursue organizational skills in a company and by doing so an organization is able to come up with a code of ethics that employees can follow on a day to day basis. The construction of ethics is how a company or organization is built around by provided a good work environment for certain individuals in the workplace. In order to build an ethics program that helps and supports a company’s actions, you must have a compliance program that is in relation to the code of ethics. There have been recent financial scandals that have been seen by corporate companies. Financial scandals have shown us that there is more need for compliance programs and the need of better business ethics throughout organizations. Out of the National Association of Corporate Directors, there are about 280 corporate CEO’s that have been discussing the problems of the code of ethics being dealt with in all companies. It’s about one out of three CEO’s that talk about how highly they were affected by ensuring legal compliance. When it comes down to the brass tacks of a corporate organization, every organization should have a code of ethics and the only way to come up with one is to construct multiple ideas that support and help the employees of a major organization. By building an ethics and compliance program, most companies are entitled to realize that it takes a lot of development and time to be put into the creation of an ethics and compliance program. Businesses are filled with all sorts of different codes, but here are some examples that can relate to an ethics program and be able to support the company in a long term effective program: â€Å"Establish a code of conduct that reduces risk of criminal behavior, detect wrongdoing, foster quick investigations, minimize consequences, demonstrate company’s ethical/legal philosophy during an investigation, reduce fines if company is found guilty of wrongdoing, and enhance company reputation and stature. † (How to Build a Business Ethics Program) It is not all just about coming up with the code of ethics and that’s it. A company or an organization always has to look at the options they are able to deal with in order to create the perfect effective program. A lot of companies have the power to create the best programs possible, but with just three options to look at, a program can go from a failure to a progressives and successful plan. Here are the three examples that are able to help out building the perfect effective program: â€Å"Develop in house from scratch, hire and external consultant, and use a pre written manual. † (How to Build a Business Ethics Program) Most companies use these options to create the perfect system, but some company’s decision makings go the wrong direction and they eventually have to find of decisions the hard way. A company or organization must have strong decision making skills because creating a code of ethics from scratch is the hard part of developing a program. The company also might have to fully understand the complexity of creating a knowledge list of codes that can be support in the workplace. Companies are dealing with the hiring’s of an extra consultant to help them out with an organizations decision making. Organizations say that an extra consultant might be a cost effective plan, but the question is, what else is left? It all comes down to actually building the ethics program of choice. A company or organization should either use a manual of choice or a pre written template that they can base their ideas off of. By using these two subjects of choice, organizations and companies find it a lot easier to make guidelines towards the production of building a code of ethics. Companies are looking for the strength in an idea to be produced in the program of needs. In order to come up with the best ideas and tools for running a business, it is important to look for the right tools that can implement the ethics of business and strive to create the perfect program. Here are some examples of what a successful compliance program should provide in their development of ethics: â€Å"Sample policies and procedures, step-by-step instructions for the development of a program, a business ethics training program outline with classroom materials and a detailed session leader’s guide, business ethics and compliance officer position description, templates for employee involvement, and sample code of conduct. † (How to Build a Business Ethics Program) After coming up with the perfect ideas to support a company’s foundation, an organization must start to implement the ethics program into the business workplace. The next step to creating a perfect code of ethics is to bring the ideas to the corporate office of the company and have the executives take full responsibility for implementing the code of ethics into the company’s compliance program. By taking the idea to corporate, the effectiveness of the tools needs to be yielded with a solid program that the company or organization can work with. Such as understanding it, endorsing the program, and being able to monitor the code of ethics for total true effectiveness. â€Å"With step-by-step guidelines and accompanying examples of policies, procedures, a training program and an employee survey, such an effective tool provides an excellent road map for implementing an ethics and compliance initiative. † (How to Build a Business Ethics Program) After all the hard work is completed by creating the compliance program, certain companies have to make certain decisions that can be related to the code of ethics from the workplace. The compliance manual should provide the full files of what the code of ethics is suppose to represent and how it is suppose to be reliable with the company’s boundaries. The files can be written with policies, surveys, forms and training session outline for the organizations progression levels. â€Å"Also, businesses should ensure their ethics compliance system manual is fully endorsed by The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) as a tool to maintain a culture of integrity. † (How to Build a Business Ethics Program) Overall, the construction of building the code of ethics come from a lot of planning and brainstorming ideas towards the relations of an organizations boundary limit and employee’s satisfaction.

Childhood experiences Essay

The quality and type of relationships differ between individuals:some are happy with long term-relationships, others prefer more temporary, less passionate relationships. Some individuals seem ‘lucky in love’, while others seem to struggle to maintain a long term stable relationship. Bowlby (1951) believed that the type of quality of relationship that individuals have with their primary caregivers provides the foundation for adult relationships by forming an internal working model hat acts as a template for all future relationships. This is the Continuity Hypothesis, the belief that similar relationships will occur as an adult. One theory that is thought to affect someones future relationships is the attachment styles a child can develop. These Attachment styles are determined by Mary Ainsworth’s strange situation experiment, where a child is either Secure attachment, Insecure-resistant attachment or Insecure-avoidant attachment type. It is believed attachment style provides children with a set of beliefs about themselves and others and the nature of relationships. The Continuity Hypothesis sees attachment as a main factor as predicting the nature of adult relationships. Therefore, someone who is securely attached as an infant will have similar relationships throughout life. This is Theory is supported by the study of HAZAN & SHAVER (1987). The experiment consisted of a ‘love quiz’ questionnaire that was published in a newspaper. The questions were designed to classify and individual as one of Ainsworth’s attachment type. The questionnaire also included q’s which aimed to assess the pps childhood relationships with their caregivers, and their romantic experiences in their life. Results showed that attachment type that individual had shown as a child was related to how they felt about adult relationships. Showed secure attachment types in childhood were more likely to enjoy secure relationships as an adult. Those with insecure-avoidant found it more hard to trust people in an adult relationship. Those with  insecure-resistant were more likely to feel anxious in adult relationships and find it hard to get as close to them as they wanted. As a result they concluded that relationships formed with parents during childhood affect relationships in adulthood. However this study does have issues with reliability as it is based on self-report data which is subjective. Furthermore the data is also retrospective further reducing reliability of the study. Also because the study relied on volunteer sampling, so the sample they have may not be truly representative of the population. However there are contradicting results in experiments done on the effect of attachment type on adult relationships as STEELE et al. (1998) found a small correlation of 0.17 between having a secure attachment type in childhood and early adulthood. This is also true for the study of RUTTER et al. (1999) who reported that individuals without secure attachments to their parents went on to secure stable relationships contradicting the findings of HAZAN & SHAVER. It is also believed that interaction with peers during childhood also influences later adult relationships. Peers become more influential as children progress into adulthood, playing a significant role in individuals becoming independent adults, helping develop social skills including those needed for adult relationships. GARNETT(2007) suggests that friendships during childhood give opportunities to develop skills needed to form successful adult relationships including: how to resolve conflict and how to take on different roles needed in relationships. COLLINS VAN DULMAN (2006) supports this theory and also suggests that relationships with peers give individuals the opportunity to learn behaviours and expectations involved in adult relationships. Supporting the idea that experiences during childhood and adolescence influence the quality of adult relationships. However some believed that it is difficult to measure the impact of a childs peer relationships on adult relationships, as there is a need to differentiate between having friends, who the friends are and the quality of each of the relationships, making it hard to identify the direct influence each of these factors has on quality of adult relationships. Furthermore it is thought that children who have witnessed unstable relationships between their parents and others around them will be influenced by this and thus influences their adult relationships. Studies have shown that people who experienced parental divorce during childhood have more negative attitudes towards relationships than those who didn’t experience parental divorce. These negative attitudes include being less optimistic about having a successful relationship, feeling less trustful of partners, having more favourable attitudes towards divorce and more negative attitude towards marriage. SILVESTRI (1991) supports this notion as he found that having divorced parents significantly increased an individuals own chances of getting divorced. JOHNSTON and THOMAS provide an explanation for this suggesting that this could be because individuals model their behaviour on their parents behaviours. Linking back to bowlbys theory that children form an internal working model as to how relationships should be whilst not only being in a dysfunctional relationship themselves but observing these dysfunctional relationships too. However this theory cannot be generalised to the entire population as there are a large amount of people who experience divorce during childhood but still go on to have successful adult relationships. Thus proving that their must be many other factors that can influence the long term effects. Also research into this area of how divorce effects a child’s adult relationships can be used to minimise the effect of divorce on children. To conclude it seems that there is sufficient evidence to support bowlbys theory that early childhood experiences both being involved in relationships and observations of parents to does to some extent play a role in affecting their adult relationships. However due to the causal nature of much of the studies related to this area means that it can be difficult to establish what the true cause and effects are of early childhood experiences or whether it is other factors that are contributing to this, supported by the contradicting results of many studies in this area. Furthermore attachment theories are somewhat deterministic, perceiving childhood/peer attachments as causing later adult relationships. However it is likely that other factors are influential such as the different attachment types other people  bring to the relationship. e.g if a insecurely attached person can have a secure relationship if they are in a relationship with a securely attached person.

Using the ArrayList in Java

Standard arrays in Java are fixed in the number of elements they can have. If you want to increase of decrease the elements in an array then you have to make a new array with the correct number of elements from the contents of the original array. An alternative is to use the ArrayList class. The ArrayList class provides the means to make dynamic arrays (i.e., their length can increase and decrease). Import Statement import java.util.ArrayList; Create an ArrayList An ArrayList can be created using the simple constructor: ArrayList dynamicArray new ArrayList(); This will create an ArrayList with an initial capacity for ten elements. If a larger (or smaller) ArrayList is required the initial capacity can be passed to the constructor. To make space for twenty elements: ArrayList dynamicArray new ArrayList(20); Populating the ArrayList Use the add method to append a value to the ArrayList: dynamicArray.add(10); dynamicArray.add(12); dynamicArray.add(20); Note: The ArrayList only stores objects so although the above lines appear to add int values to ArrayList the are automatically changed to Integer objects as they are appended to the ArrayList. A standard array can be used to populate an ArrayList by converted it to a List collection using the Arrays.asList method and adding it to the ArrayList using the addAll method: String[] names {Bob, George, Henry, Declan, Peter, Steven}; ArrayList dynamicStringArray new ArrayList(20); dynamicStringArray.addAll(Arrays.asList(names)); One thing to note about ArrayList is the elements dont have to be of the same object type. Even though the dynamicStringArray has been populated by String objects, it still can accept number values: dynamicStringArray.add(456); To minimize the chance of errors its best to specify the type of objects you want the ArrayList to contain. This can be done at the creation stage by using generics: ArrayList dynamicStringArray new ArrayList(20); Now the if we try to add an object that isnt a String a compile-time error will be produced. Displaying the Items in an ArrayList To display the items in an ArrayList the toString method can be used: System.out.println(Contents of the dynamicStringArray: dynamicStringArray.toString()); which results in: Contents of the dynamicStringArray: [Bob, George, Henry, Declan, Peter, Steven] Inserting an Item into the ArrayList An object can be inserted anywhere into the ArrayList index of elements by using the add method and passing the position for the insertion. To add the String Max to the dynamicStringArray at position 3: dynamicStringArray.add(3, Max); which results in (dont forget the index of an ArrayList starts at 0): [Bob, George, Henry, Max, Declan, Peter, Steven] Removing an Item from an ArrayList The remove method can be used to remove elements from the ArrayList. This can be done in two ways. The first is to supply the index position of the element to be removed: dynamicStringArray.remove(2); the String Henry in postion 2 has been removed: [Bob, George, Max, Declan, Peter, Steven] The second is to supply the object to be removed. This will remove the first instance of the object. To remove Max from the dynamicStringArray: dynamicStringArray.remove(Max); The String Max is no longer in the ArrayList: [Bob, George, Declan, Peter, Steven] Replacing an Item in an ArrayList Rather than removing an element and inserting a new one in its place the set method can be used to replace an element in one go. Just pass the index of the element to be replaced and the object to replace it with. To replace Peter with Paul: dynamicStringArray.set(3,Paul); which results in: [Bob, George, Declan, Paul, Steven] Other Useful Methods There are a number of useful methods to help navigate the contents of an arraylist: The number of elements contained within an ArrayList can be found using the size method: System.out.println(There are now dynamicStringArray.size() elements in the ArrayList);After all our manipulations of dynamicStringArray were down to 5 elements:There are now 5 elements in the ArrayList Use the indexOf method to find the index position of a particular element: System.out.println(The index position of George is : dynamicStringArray.indexOf(George));The String George is in index position 1:The index position of George is : 1 To clear all the elements from an ArrayList the clear method is used: dynamicStringArray.clear(); Sometimes it can be useful to see if the ArrayList has any elements at all. Use the isEmpty method: System.out.println(Is the dynamicStringArray empty? dynamicStringArray.isEmpty());which after clear method call above is now true:Is the dynamicStringArray empty? true