Design of a Sustainable House

Design of a Sustainable House This report will implement and evaluate how and what makes the design of a house sustainable and energy efficient to suit the needs of the Australian climate. Climate change is arguably the greatest challenge faced by society. Global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise each year due to the continual usage of fossil fuels, despite attempts to limit them through mitigation and energy efficiency measures. To deal with this challenge, important goals for housing include using renewable energy e.g. Solar panels, Insulation is also the most practical and cost effective way to make a house more energy efficient, keeping it cooler in summer and warmer in winter and can create financial savings in heating and cooling bills. In addition, insulation may reduce condensation in the home. This can provide health benefits by reducing mould and damp. Saving energy in homes would also help Australias fight against global warming by reducing global warming pollution from homes would be the equiv alent of taking millions of cars off the road or shutting down several coals fired power plants. The model of our house that will be implemented will be designed to accommodate an Australian family. It will be energy efficient, spacious, cool, and warm to make it suited for the change of seasonal weather. It will also be designed to have passive solar heating which is the least expensive way to heat a home. The goal for this house is to make sure it has a potential future design option for builders and architectures to design and implement a house that can suit the needs for the Australian climate that can be cool in the summer and warm and comfortable in the winter. It must also be able to reduce its reliance on coal power. If we design and construct our house with insulation, it will not allow a conduction transfer of heat then the overall temperature of the room will be lowered. Our home will have energy efficient features such as orientated windows, doors and solar panels. The Design Phase of our project will exhibit the designs, materials used, purpose and aim for this project. The aim for this report is to exhibit the design and development phase of constructing a sustainable house model that is practical for the Australian climate. The Aim for this project is to encourage the use of sustainability in the housing and construction industry by being energy efficient in design and practicality. The proposed materials we will be using for construction are: Hot glue gun Paddle pop sticks Aluminium foil Soil Paper Coloured paper Toilet rolls Discs Dirt Our Houses design is intended to be liveable for the hot and humid Queensland climate, by providing features that will make the house cool in summer and warm in winter to live in. Main Features of our House: Swimming Pool: Great for recreational activities and for cooling down in summer, which can promote overall wellbeing. Garden: Is perfect for any home that has a backyard, designed for sustainability. Residents can grow their own trees and plants so oxygen can be produced in the backyard, benefiting your overall health. By growing your own vegetables, you can reduce your carbon footprint avoiding freight on these products. Alfresco dining area: Allows passive cooling throughout the home by allowing the breeze to enter the house and creates a cool and comfortable dining and entertaining area in summer. Underground Water Tanks: Provide water for flushing toilets, washing clothes, swimming pool, reduce water consumption, reduce water bills and can be used as grey water to maintain lawns and gardens. Insulation: Insulation in the walls and roof will keep the home cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. This will reduce energy bills and the costs of cooling and heating the home. Windows and doors: Windows and doors create passive cooling through the home, it allows breeze to enter through the front door, and orientated windows allow sunshine to beam through perfectly in the summer and winter months, and allows the breeze to flow through the home of a one or multistorey home. The Measurements of the home are listed below: Height: 550mm Length: 410mm Width: 360mm The development phase of our project will exhibit the method we used for constructing the model house, safety procedures we used for construction and a photo exhibiting the model house. The method we used for constructing our model house are listed below: Step 1: We commenced the planning for the construction of our proposed house design. Step 2: We then prepared our workstation and wore safety clothing and equipment e.g. PPE glasses. Step 3: We then gathered materials and began construction. Step 4: When the house construction was completed, whilst sticking to safety procedures we commenced house room temperature testing. Step 5: We then measured the room temperature for the non-energy efficient house for 1 hour while simultaneously measuring room temperature for our energy efficient house. Step 6: Compare results from room temperature experiment. Hot Glue Gun: When using the hot glue, gun make sure that you avoid contact and minimise the distance with others as serious burns and blisters to the skin may apply. Outside taking experiments: Precautions need to be taken when experimenting outside. Wearing a hat while in the sun is the best method from keeping safe from UV rays. To minimise to much exposure from sunlight while you are not taking temperature reading sit in the shade to prevent getting burnt by the sun. Stanley knife: Stanley knifes can be extremely dangerous if used wrongly, they are only to be used to cut cardboard in equal parts for the walls of your house. If they are used incorrectly they will result in another student being injured. Scissors: Scissors can be dangerous if not used correctly. If used incorrectly they can result in a student injuring himself or another student. Splinters: While some students are cutting up planks of wood and using wood based supplies, this comes with the issue of splinters. Be mindful of sharp and wooden planks as they have the highest chance of giving us splitters, to avoid this make sure to sand them first. Looking after your workspace: Make sure there is a safe enough distance between yourself and peers in your workspace. After working, clean up any potentially hazardous and dangerous items from the ground to minimise the risk of injury. Space: Space is an important factor. If you are constructing your house in a cramped space near other students building theirs then accidents may happen. Make sure there is a safe enough distance between yourself and peers.          These results that were recorded from our 1 hour experiment was analysed and discussed below.          This table will compare and differentiate results received from an experiment analysing the change in temperature over a one hour period. Time: Non-Sustainable Home: Sustainable Home: 0 Minutes (Start) 33 degrees 29 degrees 5 Minutes 36 Degrees 30 Degrees 10 minutes 39 Degrees 34 Degrees 15 Minutes 31 Degrees 38 Degrees 20 Minutes 37 Degrees 39 Degrees 25 Minutes 35 Degrees 39 Degrees 30 minutes 39 Degrees 36 Degrees 35 Minutes 39 Degrees 36 Degrees 40 Minutes 40 Degrees 36 Degrees 45 Minutes 44 Degrees 37 Degrees 50 Minutes 45 Degrees 36 Degrees 55 Minutes 46 Degrees 35 Degrees 60 Minutes (Finish) 46 Degrees 35 Degrees The results we received from our experiment exhibited that our sustainable house was 10 degrees cooler than the non- sustainable house. There was a contrast between our house we designed and the non-sustainable house model. There were anomalies from the results we recorded, as our sustained home recorded temperatures over 35 degrees at some times, However the non-sustained home recorded a hot high 40s-degree average, Meaning our house more sustainable to the climate. The results were conducted on a day where the forecast was a 33-degree max, meaning our result was greatly affected. The placement of our house being on a hot concert surface in direct sunlight, thermodynamics may have alerted the results we received because hot air is less dense than cold air and hence air pressure will exert an upward force, making our overall house temperature warmer. Also, human error may have contributed to not receiving accurate results such as delay with completing construction and experimenting o n a different and warmer day, also the delay when recording minutes in 5-minute interval with the stopwatch and having measurement errors may have resulted for us to receive flawed data and faulty conclusions. Energy efficiency factors in the home vary according to geography, climate, home design and location. The design for ours followed the passive concepts such as passive cooling and heating, which minimize energy demands, such as solar orientation, latticework for shading, insulation and landscaping. To achieve this, we added a garden for landscaping, and alfresco house design for shading and entertainment, solar orientated windows and doors to allow breeze and fresh air throughout the house, a swimming pool for recreation activities to improve overall wellbeing and finally insulation in the walls and roof to keep the home cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, because this will reduce energy bulls and costs of cooling and heating in the home. After analysing our results in depth, we can say that our house we designed contains several areas of insulation which is more sustainable and liveable than a non- sustainable home after analysing our results in detail. If we were to conduct a similar experiment again, we would change the way we operated the construction for our house. Our goal if we coordinate another experiment like this would be to minimise human error. To achieve this, we would not touch the bulb of the thermometer as it can alter the temperature readings, we could also minimise human error by recording the time over the one hour period more accurate otherwise or results may be altered and not consistent. If we were to work in pairs again we would use communication as our best method for achieving better and more accurate results to minimise injury, record accurate readings and work together well to build a smarter designed house. Also by keeping a detailed, written log of what part of the experiment we did that day, can help us learn from your mistakes. We would also change our safety procedures by taking safety more seriously by having an exceptional risk management to mitigate the risk of injury by following health and safety procedures extremely carefully. Technology available today can achieve dramatic improvements in home energy efficiency. Many people find it difficult to improve their homes comfort or reducing their environmental footprint. Every person and every home is different often there are no simple answers to peoples needs and wants. Houses need to be suited to their climate for their location such as a home in Tasmania would have a passive heating design that would allow a conduction transfer of heat to naturally warm the home and not rely on heaters during the winter. As the pace of technological change accelerates, we can clearly see that our home would be designed to be sustainable to live if it was to a real-life scale. You would be able to live in the design we created of our home, and it would suit the climate of Queensland easily. My hypothesis was predicted correctly that our home would record cooler temperatures over the 1 hour period than the non-sustainable home, however I didnt predict that the temperatures we would recorded would be in the 30-degree range, however the forecasted temperature for the day was recorded being a hot 33 degrees and there was no wind or breeze observed on the day to alter the results. If our house was to be built to a real-life scale, then it would be energy efficient in the summer as you would not need to relay on air conditioning meaning your power bill would be lower making the house energy efficient. Rather than adapting to climate change and global warming we can phase out our reliance on coal power to energise our homes by thinking and building smartly. Proficient design for a changing climate is a design that is flexible enough to adapt to prevailing conditions while optimising the residents comfort and the houses liveability. Adaptation and mitigation can complement each other and together reduce the threat of climate change. Architecture is one of the key drivers of climate change. Between construction and the energy required to keep buildings and homes up and running, the industry is responsible for nearly half of the carbon emissions in Australia. There are three ways we can use energy smartly, by using equipment that is more energy efficient, produce energy locally from renewable energy resources and finally share energy generated by solar panels which can be feed it into the energy grid. Progress can begin immediately because knowledge and technology exist today to slash the energy buildings use, while at the same time improving levels of comfort. By constructing houses with energy-savvy design it can lower carbon emissions tackling global issues such as climate change and global warming we can save energy for a brighter future. With the cost of batteries coming down houses could eventually be taken off the electricity grid completely ending their reliance on fossil fuels forever. References       Australian Government. (2017) Energy-efficient home design. Available at: https://energy.gov/energysaver/energy-efficient-home-design (Accessed: 3 March 2017). Queensland Government. (2015) Energy-efficient homes. Available at: https://www.qld.gov.au/families/government/sustainable/pages/homes.html (Accessed: 4 March 2017) Meres, A. (2015) House designs. Available at: http://www.yourhome.gov.au/house-designs (Accessed: 3 March 2017). Ergon Energy. (2011) Building an energy efficient home. Available at: https://www.ergon.com.au/retail/residential/home-energy-tips/energy-efficient-home (Accessed: 3 March 2017). Mark, P. (2015) Energy-efficient house plans available now | energy efficiency exchange. Available at: https://www.eex.gov.au/2015/09/energy-efficient-house-plans-available-now (Accessed: 3 March 2017). Green Homes New Zealand (2016) New home builders of energy efficient homes green homes New Zealand. Available at: http://www.greenhomesnz.co.nz (Accessed: 3 March 2017). Healy, C. (2012) NZs energy efficient house. Available at: http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/7446028/NZs-most-energy-efficient-house (Accessed: 3 March 2017) Department of Energy 2017, Energy, Australian Government, Canberra, http://www.australia.gov.au/information-and-services/environment/energy (Accessed: 10th March 2017) The Sydney Morning Herald. 2017. Majority of Australians fear the cost of converting to a sustainable home. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/more-than-half-of-australians-fear-the-cost-of-converting-to-a-sustainable-home-20160719-gq926t.html. [Accessed 12 March 2017]. The New Zealand Herald. 2017. Sustainability: Sustainable and profitable Business NZ Herald News. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3objectid=11683076. [Accessed 12 March 2017].

Heat Stress in Workplac

August 2001 . HEATSTROKE / SUN STROKE This is not necessarily the result of exposure to the sun. It is caused by exposure to an environment in which the body can no longer rid itself of excess heat. As a result, the body soon reaches a point where the heat-regulating mechanism breaks down completely and the internal temperature rises rapidly. SYMPTOMS Hot , dry skin which maybe red or bluish, severe headache, visual disturbances, rapid temperature rise, The v ictim s h o u ld b e r e m v d fro m o e t h e h e a t i mm d i a t e l y e and c o o le d r a p id ly , u s u a lly by wra p p i n g i n c o o l , we t s h e e t s .PRECAUTIONS Acclimatization: Acclimatize workers to heat by giving them short exposures, followed by gradually longer periods of work in the hot environment. Mechanical Cooling: Forced ventilation and spot cooling by mechanical means (fans, blowers) are helpful in cooling. Using power tools rather than manual labour keeps the body cooler. Rehydration: W o r k e r s should be advised to drink water beyond the point of thirst (every 15 to 20 minutes) . High-carbohydrate diet tends to increase fluid absorption and caffinated beverages like coffee tend to increase Safety & Fire DepartmentFor more detailed information on Heat Stress, please refer to the proceeding pages. HEAT STRESS IN THE WORKPLACE Heat stress includes a series of conditions where the body is under stress from overheating. It can include heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat rash or heat stroke. Each produces bodily symptoms that can range from profuse sweating to dizziness to cessation of sweating and collapse. Heat stress can be caused by high temperatures, heavy work loads, the type of clothing being worn, etc. It is important to know the signs of heat stress and the proper first aid to treat it. See Common Forms of Heat Stress and recommended first aid on page 4). The signs of heat stress are often overlooked by the victim. The employee may at first be confused or unable to conce ntrate, followed by more severe symptoms such as fainting and/or collapse. If heat stress symptoms occur, move the employee to a cool, shaded area, give him water and immediately contact the supervisor. At Risk Employees Some employees are more likely to have heat disorders than others. Younger employees and those more physically fit are often less likely to have problems.Employees with heart, lung or kidney disease, diabetes and those on medications are more likely to experience heat stress problems. Diet pills, sedatives, tranquilizers, and caffeinated drinks can all worsen heat stress effects. It often takes two to three weeks for employees to become acclimatized to a hot environment. This acclimatization can subsequently be lost in only a few days away from the heat. Thus employees should be more cautious about heat stress after coming back from a vacation, when beginning a new job, or after the season’s first heat wave.In short, precautions should be taken anytime there are elevated temperatures (approaching 33 degrees C) and the job is physically demanding. Other Factors Other heat stress factors are also very important. In addition to temperature, increased relative humidity, decreased air movement or lack of shading from direct heat (radiant temperature) will all affect the potential for heat stress. Prevention of Heat Stress – Supervisors †¢ Allow time for employees to adjust to hot jobs when possible. It often takes two to three weeks for an employee to become acclimated to a hot environment. †¢ Adjust the work schedule, if possible.Assign heavier work on cooler days or during the cooler part of the day. †¢ Reduce the workload. Increase the use of equipment during the summer period to reduce physical labor. †¢ †¢ Establish a schedule for work and rest periods during hot days. Train workers to recognize signs and symptoms of heat stress disorders and be prepared to give first aid if necessary. †¢ Choose appr opriate employees. Avoid placing â€Å"high risk† employees in hot work environments for extended time periods. Realize individual employees vary in their tolerance to heat stress conditions. Prevention of Heat Stress – Site Workers Learn to recognize the symptoms of heat stress. Pace the work, taking adequate rest periods (in shade or cooler environment). †¢ Use adequate fans for ventilation and cooling, especially when wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). †¢ Site workers have to wear regulation overalls and hardhats. Always try to keep shaded from direct sunshine when possible. Your hardhat will not only protect your head from falling objects and such, but will also protect your head from direct sunshine. †¢ Drink plenty of water. In hot environments the body requires more water than it takes to satisfy thirst.Small quantities taken at frequent intervals, about 150-200 mL of water every 15 to 20 minutes is an effective method for body fluid rep lacement. COMMON FORMS OF HEAT STRESS Condition Heat Cramps Signs/Symptoms Painful muscle spasms First Aid Salt water intake (. 5% solution) Sport drink intake (Gatorade) Rest in cool environment Heavy sweating —————————————————————-Brief fainting Blurred vision Water intake Lie down in cool environment Heat Syncope —————————————————————-Dehydration Fatigue Reduced movement Fluid and salted food intakeHeat Exhaustion —————————————————————-Pale and clammy skin Lie down in cool environment Possible fainting Water intake Weakness, fatigue Loosen clothin g Nausea Dizziness Heavy sweating Blurred vision Body temp slightly elevated —————————————————————-Cessation of sweating Immediate, total cooling Skin hot and dry Transport to hospital Red face High body temperature Unconsciousness Collapse Convulsions Confusion or erratic behavior Life threatening condition —————————————————————–Heat Stroke Please direct any safety questions or concerns to SFE/2 the Safety and Fire Department, RAA. Tel: 440-2534

Critically Assess Geert Hofstede’s Use of Cultural Dimensions

ABSTRACT: Along with the trend toward globalization, communication across cultural and national boundaries has a significant effect on business. The Dutch management researcher Geert Hofstede’s work of culture dimensions is regarded as an approach to measure inter-cultural differences to business for scholars and practitioners. However, such a significant work does not escape criticism. Even though his theory consummates to six dimensions based on varies datum and is widely applied by many academics, McSweedney and many specialists assert his work as an absolute assumption.INTRODUCTION: Nowadays, the country boundaries are shaped by the spread of global communication networks and the development of transportation. Because of globalization, countries are tied closer than ever before. Since the beginning of 1970s, scholars such as Geert Hofstede started to notice the importance of cultural differences for many aspects of business life, in particular, when business related to com municate between people with different cultures. Hofstede (http://geert-hofstede. com/dimensions. html) claimed that â€Å"Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy.Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster. † Such conflicts are determined by the people’s perception which is partly the product of culture. Therefore, in order to avoid the conflict caused by culture, it is important to recognise cultural differences under global business environment. Hofstede’s cultural framework provides a guideline to recognize the differences between cultures and may improve the inter-cultural communication in business area. However, his work is critiqued by scholars and researchers as an unreliable framework.This essay firstly outline Hofstede’s cultural framework briefly and then apply his theory into practical situation to access whether it can improves the inter-cultural communication in the workplace. Afterwards, it will criti que the limitations based on the literatures opposite to Hofstede’s viewpoint. HOFSTEDE’S MODEL: Geert Hofstede’s work is ground-breaking and he himself is considered as the pioneer and pathfinder in inter-cultural study(Bond, 2002 and Sondergaard 1994). He described his significant research result based IBM employees’ attitudes and work-related values around the world.In the past 30 years, he persists to refine his theory from the previous four to six dimensions: Power distance, Individualism versus Collectivism, Masculinity versus Femininity, Uncertainty avoidance and Long-term orientation, and Indulgence versus Restraint (Hofstede et al, 2010). In his book, each country is evaluated by scores on every dimension, thus people can take an insight into the cultural differences by comparing countries’ scores. Power distance (PDI) is defined as that, to what degree people can perceive the unequal power distribution in a society.PDI scores, deriving fr om value of the less powerful people, indicate the level to which members accept power inequality. A low score demonstrates that members of the society prefer equality; whereas a country has a high PDI score means that people accept large power differences. Individualism versus Collectivism (IDV) is the dimension relating to how people ties to others within the community. Individualism pertains to societies whose members tie loosely and concern about themselves and their immediate family. On the contrary, in collectivistic countries people belong to strong and cohesive group.Masculinity versus Femininity (MAS) refers to whether emotional gender roles are distinct or overlap. In masculine societies men are supposed to behave ‘assertive, competitive and tough’, on the contrary, women are supposed to be ‘modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life’ (Hofstede, 2010: 140). Uncertainty avoidance (UAI) related to extent to which members handle anxiety w ith ambiguous and unknown situations. Strong UAI Countries maintain â€Å"rigid codes of belief and behaviour and are intolerant of unorthodox behaviour and ideas†.Countries exhibiting weak UAI encourage practice than principles with a more relaxed attitude. Long-term versus Short-term orientation (LTO) deals with which kind of value is fostered. This dimension is based on Bond’s World Values Survey on â€Å"Confucian dynamism†. Long-term oriented countries foster virtues such as perseverance and thrift for future rewards, whereas short-term orientation focuses on rewards in the present and the past, which means particularly ‘respect for tradition, preservation of ‘face’, and fulfilling social obligations’ (Hofstede, 2010: 239).Indulgence versus Restrain is linked to happiness. An indulgent society permits ‘relatively free gratification of basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having fun’ (http://geert -hofstede. com/dimensions. html). On the contrary, restraint countries use strict social norms to control gratification of needs and regulates. Application As the world becomes globalized, to remain competitive and minimize conflicts which are the result of ignoring cultural differences, companies should not adopt an ethnocentric management mode to different cultural staff.To minimize these conflicts, many scholars and practitioners utilize Hofstede’s work of cultural dimensions as a means to narrow the cultural gap in business. One reason why his framework is widely adopted is that his data are collected from varies companies and the fifth dimension is based on ‘Confucian dynamism’. Thus, to access its practical applicability to decrease the negative aspect of cultural differences and to elevate cross-cultural communication level, it is important to apply Hofstede’s work into real cases.Since the late 2009, the famous Japanese auto-maker Toyota struggled into an unprecedented crisis due to pedal quality problems which led Toyota to its historical largest recall in the world. The Economist (Feb. 6, 2010) commented that safety recall is a common issue in vehicle manufacture but Toyota changed the order. In the process of managing crisis, Toyota acted according to Japanese culture without taking the American cultural values into account. It can be said that one reason deteriorates the normal recall cars to a crisis is the ignorance of cultural differences.Some literatures analyse the cultural aspect affecting the crisis and group them into two main points (Feng, 2010, Huang, 2010). Firstly, the Japanese management mode and organizational behaviour is different from American. As a result of the Japanese organizational culture, Toyota responded slowly after the accident. It is reported that on American time 28th August 2009, a Lexus ES 350 caused a fatal crash due to the gas pedal was stuck and the car was out of control (Los Angeles Tim es, Oct. 25, 2009). Yet Toyota did not respond to the accident immediately.US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that documents show that Toyota knew of the problem in late September but did not give response until late January, moreover, â€Å"they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from US officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families† (Thomas, 2010). The second reason is the different communication behaviours between Japan and the U. S. A. In the American hearing and variety interviews, Akio Toyota, the president of Toyota Motor Corporation, spoke implicative, tactful and modest with a large number of modest words without any directly answers (Huang, 2010).In addition, Akio Toyota’s behaviours are understood as hiding the truth by American people. According to Hofstede’s framework, Western culture, represented by the U. S. A. , and such Japanese Eastern culture have significantly differences. The magnitude of the differences has been directly described in ways. See from the figure 1. 1. Figure 1. 1 Japan and the U. S. A It is obvious that there exist large differences between Japan and the United States. One of the most telling to explain the crisis can be the collectivist versus individualist dimension.The fundamental issue related to IDV is the extent of connection between individuals and the group (Hofstede, 1980). From the data provided by Hofstede, Japan, at a score of 46 on a scale of 1 to 100, is a collectivist society, whose group allegiances are strong, cohesive and invoke higher authority. The individuals adhere to the entity and preserve harmony. Thus the Toyota North American office was been called a â€Å"little safety deaf† by LaHood (CBC news, Feb, 2010). The North American office need invoked by the highest authority to handle the accident and the applicable proposal must pass through the whole company.Nevertheless, this system is not adaptable in handling probl ems in America. According to Hofstede, Toyota needs to handle the problem immediately rather than make a long-term agreement. Meanwhile, the high power distance (Japan 54) can be used to analysis the slow response. Japan is a more centralized decision country, and it is therefore all the command should be endorsed by the president of Toyota Motor Corporation, Akio Toyoda. Because only the CEO can respond to the allegations, the response to the event was hauled in respect to the stakeholders living in a country that has only 40 in the index.As mentioned before, the official recall and apologize came four months later after the car accident has been reported. Yet the stakeholders demanded immediate response to the accident from Toyota regardless from the CEO or other representative. Moreover, during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, in response to why Toyota responded so slow, Toyoda claimed that do not answered directly but reiterates his plan to set up a g lobal commission to address complains more quickly (CNN Politics, Feb. 24, 2010).This phenomenon can adopt Hofstede’s fifth dimension, long- term versus short-term orientation to demonstrate the inevitability of this divergence. Hofstede himself defines long-term orientation as ‘the fostering of virtues oriented towards future rewards' (Hofstede 2010: 239), which means that high long-orientation scores countries (Japan 80) pay more attention to the things that will benefit the future whereas low score countries tend to focus on nearby benefits or rewards. Jealous writes, â€Å"In America, we ultimately judge people on what they are doing today for tomorrow, not for what they did yesterday. (CNN Politics, Feb. 24, 2010). In the hearing, American part were expected that Toyota undertake their obligations by providing continuous plans to the stakeholders. Akio did not account for this and responded indirectly to the solution to the current accident therefore caused Americ ans the disgusted and suspected feeling. Consequently, if Toyota can notice the cultural differences and adopt Hofstede's theory to handle the problem in their American market in the bud, the common recall would not exacerbate American people and became a crisis which will threaten its reputation. CRITIQUE:Culture is deeply rooted in many aspects of business life when people must interact with the people such as suppliers, buyers, employees or stakeholders. The case of Toyota crisis demonstrates that Hofstede’s framework of cultural dimensions is practical to uncover these conflicts in cross-cultural communication. If people could realize the cultural differences concluded by Hofstede and take proper communication style and management mode, the fate of Toyota might be changed. However, the framework cannot act as a textbook to interpret the whole cultural gap even in the case of Toyota crisis.Many intercultural researchers criticized Hofstede’s theory for not providing valuable guiding intelligence or regard it as absolute assumptions. Hofstede did not mention the impact of linguistic on the communication. Different languages and contents have objectively impact on the understanding of the conversation. Take the US-based 3M Company as an example. The company earns $7 billion per year in their overseas market, it become the â€Å"forefront of language instruction by sponsoring an in-house Language Society that provides linguistic and cultural support† to 3M (Frey-Ridgway, 1997).Freivalds (1995) said that the French firm Bull adopted the 3M model to train its employees in the competition of global marketplace and still in success. Language plays an irreplaceable position in the inter-cultural communication. Different types of body languages cause misunderstanding as well. In japan, apology needs humility, in order to be forgiven, Japanese usually avoid eye contact stands for rudeness, offend and provocation, but it would be decoded as disint erest, dishonesty and cunning in western countries (Huang, 2010, Dahl, 2004).Gudykunst and Nishida (1994:2) said that misunderstanding between Japan and American people often â€Å"stem from not knowing the norms and rules guiding each other’s communication†. In hofstede’s model, the data come from the English-speaking company IBM and it is aim to evaluate work attitude and value, this led his theory ignore linguistic and body language difference. Moreover, in the process of communication among Akio Toyoda and the American interlocutor, the stakeholders, the Congress representatives or the media people, misunderstanding occurred continually.As mentioned above, Toyota responded euphemistic to the problem (Huang, 2010). Akio repeated the apology several times and declined to give pithy answers to undertake the obligation and to interpret the information and plan for the stakeholders in the hearing (Clark ; McCurry, 2010). The answer type can be derived from the pa tterns of Japanese communication. Lincoln (1995) studied Japanese and found that due to the politeness cultural they reluctance to say â€Å"no† directly. Hall (1976) separated communication into High-context and low-context.The United States is a typical low-context communication country while Japan belongs to high-context communication. Low-context communication refers to the patterns of communication use explicit verbal to convey meanings, whereas high-context pattern draw heavily on context. This cultural difference is raised by Hall instead of Hofstede. Michael (1997) claim that literatures are lack of specific details and are concluded in broad behavioral terms. Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997) classified cultures has seven value orientations which is more than Hofstede’s six dimensions and has somewhat different perspectives.Additionally, Dahl (2004) criticizes the theory is the result of very little data, especially from specific companies with limited num bers of questions. This indicates that culture can be separated into more dimensions and those national scores and ranks are not the exclusive guide to improve inter-cultural communications. From Hofstede’s (1980) research, Japan ranks in the middle level of Individualism versus collectivism dimension. Yet Japan is widely stereotyped as a harmonious society.Woodring (2010 cited in Jandt, 1995: 163) used the original Hofstede’s questionnaire to study Japanese students and found that students scored lower on power distance whereas higher on individualism comparing with Hofstede’s original sample. Woodring explained that the different scores might be the result of age; that is means, students may praise more on individualism and equality than the whole Japanese society. About 1990, youths 25 years old and under were named as shin jin rui (literally â€Å"new human beings†), who were described as â€Å"selfish, self-centered, and disrespectful of elders and tradition† by older Japanese.In the description from Hofstede suggested that the Japan is a group oriented and hierarchical country. However, there are evidences to show that the young generation seeks for egalitarian and individualism. This demonstrates that Hofstede’s research can lead to stereotype and this ought to be avoided. Furthermore, this study shows that cultural value is dynamic. Holden (2002) criticizes the â€Å"relative reliance† on Hofstede’s paradigm in the workplace. He points out that the data is outdated as it was collected before 30 years.Hofstede attempts to set a certain form of culture for people to understand specific cultures and he (Hofstede, 2010: 34) states that â€Å"cutlures, especially national cultures, are extremely stable over time†. This has been criticized as â€Å"functionalist ambition of measuring largely unquantifiable phenomena† (Gray and Maloory, 1998: 57). Hostede himself stated, â€Å"There is no such thing as objectivity in the study of social reality: we will too often to be subjective, but we may at least try to be ‘inter subjective’. As His data are come from the questionnaire made by a group of western people, as a result of this, the question are tend to reflect western culture which means Hofstede’s theory has its cultural bias. Meanwhile, there is a debate about what level of analysis is practical for the term â€Å"culture† to be a viable tool. McSweeney (2000) questions the classification of culture in Hofstede’s theory. Hofstede (2010: 10) stated that people are shaped by â€Å"certain cultural trains† from the same country. Although general cultural dimensions can be established at a cultural level, ndividuals may not necessarily reflect the national culture they belong to. Hofstede (1980, 1991) admits that using data from the level of country to analyze the individuals is not appropriate, and labeled it â€Å"ecological fallacy†. He (1991:253) affirms that national cultural level reflects â€Å"central tendencies (†¦) for the country†, it is, not practical to analyze and predict specific individual behaviors or events. Conclusion: Generally overview the assessment, Geert Hofstede’s use of cultural dimensions provides a measurable paradigm to attract people’s attention to cultural differences and contribute to the inter-cultural study.For those people who are involved in international commerce, culture is important for many aspects of business life, thus, if people go into another country to communicate with local company, changing the management process and practices to meet their values is essential. Concluding from the case analysis of Toyota crisis, Hofstede's cultural model indeed provides an effective reference to support better cross-cultural communication as it uncover the reasons of cultural conflict for people to apply appropriate method to minimize its nega tive influence.However, cultural dimension theory functions limited in small space as it is not perfect. It regards culture as a fixed concept and separates it by national boundaries is improper. The data is collected in several decades years before even it has been updated in recent years based on questionnaire in a specific group in international companies from a perspective of western people. Moreover, it narrows culture into six dimensions may potentially disturb the derived value prediction as certain context influences on the individual respondents.The inter-cultural communication conflicts exist no matter how much understanding goes both ways. In conclusion, Hofstede’s work of cultural dimensions is a supplement for supporting better inter-cultural communication, the bilateral respect of culture and positive attitude are the core to successful inter-cultural communication. Bibliography: Bond, M. H. (2002). â€Å"Reclaiming the Individual from Hofstede's Ecological Ana lysis- A 20-Year Odyssey: Comment on Oyserman et al. † Psychological Bulletin, 128 (1): 73-77 CBC news (Feb 2, 2010), â€Å"Toyota slow o react: LaHood- US Transportation Secretary criticizes automaker†. Available at (13 May, 2012) Clark, A. & McCurry, J. (2010). â€Å"Toyota boss offers ‘sincere regrets' for faulty accelerators†, The Guardian, Thursday 25 February 2010. Available at < http://www. guardian. co. uk/business/2010/feb/25/toyota-akio-toyoda-congress? INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487> (13 May, 2012) CNN Politics (Feb 24, 2010). â€Å"Toyota president testifies before Congress†. Available at < http://articles. cnn. com/2010-02-24/politics/toyota. earing. updates_1_toyoda-inaba-national-press-club? _s=PM:POLITICS > (13 May, 2012) Dahl, S. (2004). â€Å"Intercultural Research: The Current State of Knowledge†. Middlesex University Discussion Paper No. 26. Available at < http://papers. ssrn. com/sol3/papers. cfm? abstract_id=658202 > (13 May, 2012 ) Feng, Y. (2010). â€Å"Toyota crisis: management ignorance? – a swedish case of consumers perceptions†. Available at < http://hh. diva-portal. org/smash/record. jsf? pid=diva2:349746> (13 May, 2012) Freivalds, J. (1995). â€Å"Learning languages†. Communication World, December: 24-7.Frey-Ridgway, S. (1997). â€Å"The cultural dimension of international business†. Collection Building, 16(1): 12 – 23 Gudykunst, W. & Nishida, T. (1994), Bridging Japanese-North American Differences, Communicating Effectively in Multicultural Contexts Series, Thousand Oaks: Sage, p. 2 Hofstede’s website, available at < http://geert-hofstede. com/dimensions. html > (13 May, 2012) Hofstede, G. (1980) Culture’s Consequences:International Differences in Work-related Values Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and Organizations: software of the mind, 2nd Ed.New York: McGraw-Hill Hofstede, G. , Hofstede, G. J. & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures an d Organizations: software of the mind, 3rd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Holden, N. (2002). Cross-cultural management: a knowledge management perspective. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall Huang, Z. (2010). â€Å" —— â€Å" â€Å" † (From the perspective of inter-cutlural communication to see Japan-America cultural differeces—analysis Toyota â€Å"recall†). Journal of Huaihua University,29 (6) Jandt, F. E. (2009). An Introduction to Intercultural Communication: Identities in a Global

Aeneid - Dido - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 1 Words: 315 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/09/11 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? The Aeneid Character of Dido Dido is the queen of Carthage, daughter of Belus. Like Aeneas, Dido fled her homeland because of circumstances beyond her control. She leads her people out of Tyre and founds Carthage. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Aeneid Dido" essay for you Create order When we first meet Dido, she is busy leading her people to build a great city. She is a strong leader and is loved by her fellow citizens. Through the eyes of Aeneas, we see that she is beautiful, intelligent and not afraid of hard work. She is compared to the goddess, Diana leading the dance on the banks of the Eurotas or along the ridges of Mount Cynthus with a thousand mountain nymphs thronging behind her on either side. She is determined not to marry again, after the murder of her last husband, Sychaeus. Unfortunately, Dido is doomed to be a victim of uncontrollable consequences, that is yet to come. Looking through the eyes of Aeneas, we see the kindness of her heart. She ensures the Trojans that there will be no harm caused and they can leave safe under her protection. She offers them supplies for their journey or the place for them to settle down on an equal footing, in the city of Carthage. Dido sent twenty bulls, a hundred great bristling hogs backs and a hundred fat lambs with their mothers back to the men down at the ships. Dido is a pious person, she appoints sacrifice to be offered in the temples of the gods. Dido shows great hospitality towards her guests. She prepares a meal for them and offers them gifts. Dido shows curiosty at the end of the first book, when she asked Aeneas to tell her about the treachery of the Greeks, the sufferings of your people and your own wanderings, for this is now the seventh summer that has carried you as a wanderer over every land and sea.