J.B.Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls :: English Literature

Dear Mr. Anthony Hopkins Thank you for accepting the role of the inspector in my production of J B Priestley’s play ‘An inspector calls’. The play is set in the early 1912 before the First World War in a time when there was a relative period of economic and social stability. The play is set in a fictous North Midlands industrial city of Brumley. The play is about a family, the Birlings who are celebrating their daughter’s engagement to a young man called Gerald Croft whose family also own a business or factory similar to that of the Birling family business. Gerald Croft and all the members in the Birling family which include Arthur and Sybil Birling (the parents), Eric Birling (their son) and their daughter Sheila Birling who is engaged with Gerald Croft are all sat round at the their dining table having a dinner party to celebrate the fact that Sheila and Gerald are both engaged. Just after Mr.Birling has completed his pompous speech, there dinner party is interrupted by the arrival of Inspector Goole, who announces that he is making enquiries about a young woman called Eva Smith who has committed suicide by swallowing disinfectant. The Inspector first shows Mr Birling a picture of Eva Smith that Mr Birling recognises straight away because Eva Smith use to work in Mr.Birling’s factory, but was sacked because she was one of the ringleaders of a strike that was demanding a pay rise. Mr Birling tries to talk the Inspector in to leaving them alone by making threats to him and trying to impress him with his high social status. The Inspector is still determined to interrogate all of them hinting to them that they are all connected to Eva Smith’s death. He talks to Sheila next telling her that Eva Smith use to work at a big well known shop called Millward but lost her job due to a complaint that was made by a jealous and petty-minded customer, that customer was Sheila who now feels very guilty about Eva Smith’s death. We now also find that Gerald was also involved with Eva Smith, who at that time went by the name Daisy Renton. Gerald had had an affair with Daisy Renton (alias Eva Smith) the previous summer; she was his mistress until it no more suited him. Sheila admires Gerald for his honesty but doesn’t seem to keen on continuing her relationship with Gerald, Gerald d leaves the house to go for a walk. Mrs Birling is then also found to be responsible for Eva Smith’s death since Mrs. Birling refused to help Eva Smith through the Brumley J.B.Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls :: English Literature Dear Mr. Anthony Hopkins Thank you for accepting the role of the inspector in my production of J B Priestley’s play ‘An inspector calls’. The play is set in the early 1912 before the First World War in a time when there was a relative period of economic and social stability. The play is set in a fictous North Midlands industrial city of Brumley. The play is about a family, the Birlings who are celebrating their daughter’s engagement to a young man called Gerald Croft whose family also own a business or factory similar to that of the Birling family business. Gerald Croft and all the members in the Birling family which include Arthur and Sybil Birling (the parents), Eric Birling (their son) and their daughter Sheila Birling who is engaged with Gerald Croft are all sat round at the their dining table having a dinner party to celebrate the fact that Sheila and Gerald are both engaged. Just after Mr.Birling has completed his pompous speech, there dinner party is interrupted by the arrival of Inspector Goole, who announces that he is making enquiries about a young woman called Eva Smith who has committed suicide by swallowing disinfectant. The Inspector first shows Mr Birling a picture of Eva Smith that Mr Birling recognises straight away because Eva Smith use to work in Mr.Birling’s factory, but was sacked because she was one of the ringleaders of a strike that was demanding a pay rise. Mr Birling tries to talk the Inspector in to leaving them alone by making threats to him and trying to impress him with his high social status. The Inspector is still determined to interrogate all of them hinting to them that they are all connected to Eva Smith’s death. He talks to Sheila next telling her that Eva Smith use to work at a big well known shop called Millward but lost her job due to a complaint that was made by a jealous and petty-minded customer, that customer was Sheila who now feels very guilty about Eva Smith’s death. We now also find that Gerald was also involved with Eva Smith, who at that time went by the name Daisy Renton. Gerald had had an affair with Daisy Renton (alias Eva Smith) the previous summer; she was his mistress until it no more suited him. Sheila admires Gerald for his honesty but doesn’t seem to keen on continuing her relationship with Gerald, Gerald d leaves the house to go for a walk. Mrs Birling is then also found to be responsible for Eva Smith’s death since Mrs. Birling refused to help Eva Smith through the Brumley

Strength of the Human Spirit Revealed by Ivan Denisovich Essay

Strength of the Human Spirit Revealed in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich    Life can be incredibly hard at times; nearly everyone encounters a period of time when circumstances become unbearably difficult. Imagine being assigned to ten years of unceasing and tremendous hardships, as is the plight of the protagonist in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. This book describes in detail only one day of Ivan's ten-year sentence in a Russian work camp in the 1950's. During this day, which is like most others, he is starved, nearly frozen, overworked, and punished unjustly; however, as the day unfolds, it is obvious that Ivan will never give up and never give in. The character of Ivan Denisovich is a symbol of the human spirit and its never-ending will to survive, even through the harshest of conditions.    Ivan's day begins with reveille at 5:00, "as always" (significant because this day is just like every other day has been for the past eight years). On most mornings after reveille, he jumps out of bed to have a little time to himself, but today he is not feeling well and rises slowly. Usually, there are many things he could do during this time before the morning roll call: sweep up, carry something for someone, fetch the boots of the gang boss, gather and stack bowls at the mess hall, any number of little jobs.    On the surface, Ivan's actions look noble and kindhearted, as if the well being of others is his main concern. But like most kind gestures, there is an entirely different motive; for Ivan, it is just "another way of getting food"(2). He, like most people in a difficult situation, performs favors and tasks, not out of the goodness of his heart, but only out of his desir... ... Max Hayward, in his introduction to _One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich _, says the book "is a morality play in which the carpenter Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is Everyman" (xv). There are exceptions to the representation; Ivan is not a flat character, void of depth and definition, but through these examples, it is obvious that much of the time, Ivan Denisovich reflects the average human spirit and the way in which it reacts to difficult situations. Of course, the average human spirit does not endure the hardships presented in a Soviet work camp, but all hardships are related in their ability to destroy their victims or to strengthen them. In this case, Ivan is the spirit who is strengthened, the victim who will never give up, and never give in.    Bibliography Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York: Bantam Books, 1963.

Toyota Car Crisis

Halmstad University School of Business and Engineering Master in Management of Innovation and Business Development Toyota Crisis: Management Ignorance? – A Swedish Case of Consumers Perceptions Master’s Dissertation in Management of Innovation and Business Development, 15 ECTS Final seminar 2010-05-27 Authors: Yuanyuan Feng Supervisor: Mike Danilovic Hamlstad University Feng(2010) TOYOTA CRISIS: MANAGEMENT IGNORANCE? – A SWEDISH CASE OF CONSUMERS PERCEPTIONS Yuanyuan Feng School of Business and Engineering, Halmstad University, Sweden AbstractSince the late 2009, the famous vehicle manufacture Toyota has suffered a severe crisis due to unintended quality problems in its cars which had triggered Toyota’s largest officially recalls of its cars around the world. This crisis threatens the company’s previous reputation of good quality cars, as well as the brand image built up over time. This study aims to elaborate on the Toyota crisis in order to unders tand why Toyota faces this crisis and how they deal with the crisis; and investigate consumers’ perceptions of Toyota brand as the outcome of the crisis, with a focus on Swedish market.A qualitative research along with a number of face-to-face interviews with Toyota Swedish dealer and Swedish vehicle consumers is conducted. The findings reveal that the impact of the Toyota crisis in Sweden is not as serious as that in America; there remain satisfied and loyal Toyota’s customers who are not swayed by the negative publicities; While Toyota should manage the crisis even in a better way in order to retain its good reputation. Crisis, Toyota, Corporate Reputation, crisis management, consumer perception Key Words INTRODUCTION We deeply regret the inconvenience and concern caused to our customers and others by our recent recalls of multiple vehicle models across multiple regions. † – Aki Toyoda, the CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation1 (Toyota website). Since the abo ve apologetic speech was addressed by Aki Toyoda at a press conference in February 2010, it had been highlighted at the front page of Toyota’s official website for a few months. Beside the regretful expression we can learn from this public release, it also implies that the Toyota, one of the world’s largest automakers, is suffering in their recent recalls of millions of vehicles round the globe.Safety recalls are common issues occurring in automobile industry, few may have long run impact on the automakers involved if handled correctly. However, in this case, the disaster engulfing Toyota is of a different order (The Economist, Feb. 6, 2010). Toyota’s quality brand has been at a risk due to its sedans’ safety problems sequentially emerged recently. 1 Toyota Motor Corporation is the full name of the company, however, in this article the word â€Å"Toyota† will be used instead of Toyota Motor Corporation in order to make it short. Hamlstad University Feng(2010) In 2008 Toyota became the world’s largest carmaker when it successfully exceeded General Motors in sales and production. However, this leading position of Toyota had changed since the end of 2009. In United States, Toyota’s largest marketplace, a fatal crash of a Lexus ES 350 happening on August 28th 2009 was highly publicized, due to the gas pedal was stuck and the car was out of control (Los Angeles Times, Oct. 25, 2009).Since then, Toyota’s vehicles have been largely exposed to a series of issues associated with unintended acceleration problems, which had triggered Toyota’s escalating crisis and its massive recalls of approximately 9 million vehicles globally within six months. For Toyota, this is indeed a tragedy not only related to heavy financial losses due to repairing costs, market share lost and production suspending, but also to Toyota’s reputation for matchless quality and management.The firm's reputation for quality cars, on which the business was built over time, is shattered. Problem Discussion Toyota has long been regarded as the pinnacle of Japanese innovation, manufacturing quality and industrial pioneer (The Economist, Feb 13, 2010). Its vehicles are well known for economy, reliability and fuel efficiency. Its ‘lean’ manufacturing techniques and culture of continuous improvement were the envy of the business world (ibid). It is absolutely astonishing that Toyota has been embroiled in such a serious quality issues with its vehicles.Just within six months, almost 9 million cars have to be taken back for modification under the potential problems with floor mat, acceleration pedals, and braking, all of which were related to unintended acceleration problems by publics. As we know, cars nowadays have become more complicated in features and functionality. The growing numbers of wires, sensors and computer chips embedded in auto electronics have profoundly changed the automobile in the last decade (Krisher, 2010).As more and more hi-tech systems are fitted to modern cars, it has become more and more perplexing in quality-control testing along with troublesome interferences and uncertainties. Any small electronic flaws randomly happened in the complicated machine, as well as the influence of environmental factors, can easily lead to a failure of a car. In the Toyota crisis, we would wonder if the massive recalls were simply as a result of mechanical problems that could happen in any automaker potentially, or were caused by other errors of the company that can be avoided in term of their technology and management.No matter how, the recalls stories made the headlines worldwide. Especially in United State, Toyota has received unprecedented attentions from mass media, most of which have published a lot of negative news related to this issue, questioning to the quality problems of Toyota’s car and its reputation. Negative events usually come unexpectedly with the pote ntial to bring an organization into reputational crises and thereby imperil its future profitability, growth, and survival (Greyser, 2009).Whether the negative impacts are immediate or sustained over months and years, crises would probably affect both internal and external stakeholders of the company (Weiner, 2006). Suffering in such disaster, Toyota has taken action to manage the crisis, in order to retrieve their reputation and rebuild trust from stakeholders, especially the most important groups – consumers. Toyota has been in the hot center of coverage in United State, where the crisis is originally initiated. While, other countries involved in Toyota recall issues seem to pay less attention to this event than that of North America.Since the recalls have been conducted across regions globally not only in North America, it would be interesting to see how vehicle consumers in non-American regions perceive the crisis and the Toyota brand. 2 Hamlstad University Feng(2010) Pur pose and Research Questions With the above problems in mind, this study aims to elaborate on the Toyota crisis in order to understand why Toyota faces this crisis and how they deal with the crisis. This can be achieved through a detailed overview on what have happen in Toyota related to the crisis on a general level, as the recalls had been released globally.Moreover, the purpose of this research is also to investigate consumers’ perceptions of Toyota brand as the outcome of the crisis. To be specific in this aspect, Swedish market will be the focus of the research where Swedish vehicle consumers are examined. Accordingly, the research questions can be set as following: What are the reasons that force Toyota coming to the troublesome crisis? How does Toyota handle this crisis in order to retrieve its reputation? What are the Swedish consumers’ perceptions of Toyota brand as the outcome of the crisis?Although this research is inspired by an empirical case, the findings would also help to develop our understanding on how an organization can more effectively respond to crises, as well as building new knowledge to the area of corporate reputation and crisis management. It can also draw practical implication for crisis managers in auto motor and other industries. RESEARCH METHOD This study is done in a way of focusing on the Toyota case, it is therefore a case study that has an emphasis on empirical finding.Through empirically studying the Toyota crisis, which typically represents organizational crisis, the intent of this research is to develop an understanding of organizational response to crises and brand images management in auto motor industry and other industries. An explorative research along with descriptive characteristic is thus employed, by raising open questions to illustrate the crisis phenomenon and try to explore relatively new knowledge for organizational crisis management. A qualitative strategy is selected for formulating questions, p urpose and gathering data.Characteristics of this approach are closeness to the respondents, to capture their values, attitudes and perceptions based on their own words and meanings (Bryman and Bell, 2007). According to the study purpose and the research questions placed above, this research is conducted from two perspectives: the Toyota itself on a general base and the vehicle consumers in a specific market. When formulating the purpose and research questions, here raise a problem with the selection of consumer respondents.Although the Toyota crisis occurs on a global level, it is impossible to conduct the research targeting consumers in all the markets around the world. Furthermore, compared to the United States where triggered the crisis and dominantly receive extensive coverage negatively related to Toyota’s stumble, other countries and regions that are involved in the recalls are less focused and could present more pertinent opinions toward this issue. Consequently, in o rder to gain more reasonable insights, I would like to look into a specific market instead of American market.Since I live in Halmstad city of Sweden, the sampling respondents – Toyota dealer and vehicle consumers – will be targeted within Halmstad city, for the purpose of convenient location to conduct the research. 3 Hamlstad University Feng(2010) In order to elaborate on the Toyota crisis, secondary data associating with Toyota crisis on global level is examined and collected initially through different sources, such as media coverage, official releases from government regulatory bodies, critics’ comments in journals, and Toyota official websites.This is done to provide an overview on what exactly happen in Toyota connected to the crisis basically. In addition, to be more specific, primary data collection is considered significantly critical since it is a more exploratory-oriented study. In this research, face-to face interview manner, which is one of the mos t important sources for a case study (Yin, 1994), is employed to investigate the reflections toward this crisis both from Toyota’s dealer and vehicle consumers in Halmstad city.Consequently, in Toyota dealer store which is named as Toyota Center in Halmstad, a face-to face Interview with the sales executive is conducted, lasting about 40 minutes by following a semi-structure interview guide (see Appendix I). On the other hand, the consumer respondents are randomly targeted by separating into two distinct groups: 1) Toyota customers, who own Toyota cars or have the intention to buy a Toyota car, are found when they are visiting in Toyota dealer store; 2) other consumers, who are using other rands’ car, are randomly selected in some gasoline stations or large parking places in Halmstad city. It might be interesting to make comparison between these two consumer groups for the possibility to draw valuable insights on consumers’ perception of Toyota brand and the cri sis. As a result, total 21 consumer respondents are interviewed (9 Toyota consumers and 12 other brands’ consumers). The interviews with consumer respondents last with a range of time from 3 to 6 minutes respectively.Although pre-designed interview guides are used as well (see Appendix II & III), questions for consumers are asked flexibly and may not follow on exactly in the way outlined on the schedule (Bryman and Bell, 2007). This is to allow the consumer interviewees to have a great deal of leeway in how to reply according to specific situations (ibid). Despite the collected numbers of consumer respondents are too small to cover the whole sampling population in terms of generalization, it’s important to note that this research is not aimed to simply generate a universalized outcome covering the whole Swedish vehicle consumers.Instead, it intends to capture consumer respondents’ cognitive and affective values, attitude and perception, to explore new insights b ased on their own words. Their responses collected on a face-to-face interviews basis are therefore considered as valid and reliable to achieve this inclination, as well as to some extent standing for what the Swedish vehicle consumers really perceive toward the Toyota crisis. LITERATURE REVIEW When facing a crisis the former and present reputation of a firm would be shaken, and it might be twisted in something unfavorable for the organization.How a firm communicatively responds to the crisis can influence its stakeholders’ perceptions of the corporate reputation, and in turn impact their future purchase intentions. In this part, theoretical literature regarding corporate brand and reputation, crisis management and consumer perception about the post-crisis outcomes are mainly reviewed in order to serve as pre-understanding knowledge for better analyzing the Toyota case later on. Corporate Branding and Reputation A brand can convey a numbers of facets, such as attributes, bene fits, values, ulture, personality, and user identity (Kotler, 2003). Through a set of symbols and characteristics a brand convey, consumers 4 Hamlstad University Feng(2010) can easily identify what a brand stand for, what value it represents, how it differentiate from others. Corporate branding draws on the traditions of product branding with the same objective of creating differentiation and preference to customers, while it involves more complex activities at organizational level, and requires to manage interactions with multiple stakeholder audiences (Knox and Bickerton, 2003).Branding on corporate agenda has been increasingly recognized as a strategic tool that leads to a dramatic extension of the applications and scope of branding (ibid). Urde (2003) emphasizes that the importance of core values created in corporate branding process, in which the core values are linked to organizational mission, vision, culture and organizational values, all of which affect the brand architectu re, product attributes, brand positioning and communication strategy.Consumers tend to identify with the personification of brands through the association of the companies or brands to traits such as values, characteristics, attitudes, and ideals. Therefore, to personify the corporate brand, the impressions that the communication creates must be consistent with the values that the company claims to stand for (Urde, 2003). In addition, Benefit associations provide a central reason for consumer’s choice of a specific brand over other in the category (Dawar and Lei, 2009).To gain customer-based brand equity the consumers must be aware of, and familiar with, the value offering (brand awareness), and hold brand associations that are strong, favorable and unique in comparison with other brands offered in the same category (brand image) (Petruzzellis, 2010). Corporate reputation is the cornerstone in corporate branding. It is of significant importance to all organizations, regardles s of being commercial, governmental, or not-for-profit organizations (Watson, 2007). Essentially, orporate reputation is an aggregate evaluation made by stakeholders of how well a company is meeting stakeholder’s expectations based on its past behaviors (Wartick, 1992). The value of a brand is determined by both its tangible and intangible assets, and brand image and reputation forms a critical part of the intangible assets (Wang, 2005). Fill (2006) suggests that reputations are developed over time from the image, and it is more embedded and stable; while image is more transient and can be instantaneous and reality superficial.Watson (2007) argues that reputation does not occur by chance, it relates to leadership, management, and organizational operations, the quality of products and services, relationships with stakeholders, and communication activities and feedback mechanisms. A favorable corporate reputation can convince the undecided to choose a certain product or service and dissuade existing customers from moving to a competitor; whereas a damaged reputation can be irreparable and, in extreme cases, lead to a company’s downfall (O’Rourke, 2004).Fombrun (1996) claims that in order to build a favorable reputation four attributes need to be developed: credibility, trustworthiness, reliability and responsibility. Everything an organization does, and does not do, has a direct impact on their reputation (Dolphin, 2004). Stakeholders will develop expectations as to how the firm will act in a given situation. When customer’s expectations are satisfied, they will feel safety, credibility, and security as perceived value in this relationship, which all together increase trust and then enhance customer’s loyalty (Ravald and Gronroos, 1996).However, failure to meet those expectations may cause a negative reputational impact. Furthermore, despite firms have achieved overall and continued marketing success, it would appear that the r eputation of corporate brands can be tarnished when facing crises (Fill, 2006). Therefore, reputation may offer both benefits and challenges to organizations. Nevertheless, the strength of the brand, as well as the management’s 5 Hamlstad University Feng(2010) flexibility and willingness to be open and transparent with questioning publics, can protect the organization’s reputation in the long run (ibid).Crisis Management In such business environment the need of a robust, corporation-wide plan to deal with unexpected crises is required. Crisis management researches investigate the essences of organizational crises and how appropriate organizational response influences post-crisis outcomes for the entity involved (De Blasio and Veale, 2009). Through crisis management planning and implementation, organizations can be better prepared to deal with unforeseen events that may cause serious or irreparable damage (Zhao and Fan, 2007).Threats of Crisis Crises are rare events tha t disrupt the normal operations of an organization, with knocks on the implications for its assets, its future relationships with a company’s stakeholders and which threaten the very survival of the organization (Carroll, 2009). Crises are seen as threats to the organizational reputation, and could harm an organization’s future profitability, growth and possibly its survival (Tucker and Melewar, 2005). The extent to which a crisis threaten corporate reputation is rather complex.Some crises can be sudden and unexpected while others can be the result of problems that festered over time (Greyser, 2009). A business might face local citizens, competitors, industry commentators, statutory bodies, pressure groups, the media and academics as influencers of its reputation (Tucker and Melewar, 2005). Greyser (2009) proposes some typical sources of corporate brand crises, which are caused by: product failure, social responsibility gap, corporate misbehavior, poor business results , executive misbehavior, poor business results, loss of public support, and controversial ownership, etc.Tucker and Melewar (2005) argue that news media and internet are certainly a substantial threat to any corporate reputation since the public are more sensitive to a corporate scandal. When a crisis emerges, a wide range of stakeholders are adversely affected by a crisis including community members, employees, customers, suppliers and stockholders (Coombs, 2007). Most stakeholders will learn about a crisis through news reports and online social media, therefore the news media and the internet play a critical role in affecting people’s perception in a crisis (ibid).The headline-hungry media has vicarious appetite for obtaining newsworthy material. Their claims often go unchallenged if there is a possibility to create a sensational story (Tucker and Melewar, 2005). There is also the temptation for journalists to sensationalize any ‘corporate gossip’ which they mi ght hear, in order to maximize their own revenues, especially in the powerful news (ibid). As a result, crises pose certain risks to an company – potentially affecting critical aspects like reputation, image, brand equity, credibility, publicity, financial viability, legitimacy, community standing, etc. Smudde, 2001). The more respected a firm’s reputation the more sensational a corporate scandal will be and so these firms are subjected to the most intense scrutiny (Tucker and Melewar, 2005). A corporate reputation needs to be stable and consistent, if it is to withstand the scrutiny of many factors influencing it (Greyser, 2009). If a reputation shift from favorable to unfavorable, stakeholders can change how they interact with a corporate, and they may even server 6 Hamlstad University Feng(2010) ties to the organization and/or spread negative word of mouth about the organization (Coombs, 2007).Crisis Communication Strategies When facing a crisis, how the company han dles the crisis and what the reputation of the company is viewed by stakeholders may imply whether the firm can survive/recover or not. It's critical for organizations to recognize what is the issues generating the reputational threats, who is/are involved, and figure out what and how to respond the crisis (Greyser, 2009). In crisis management, corporate communication is widely acknowledged to play the key role in overcoming crises and repairing reputation.Sturges et al. (1991) suggest that communication content as a component of crisis management must meet three needs depending on different objectives: 1) instructing information tells stakeholders how they should behave in a crisis context; 2) adjusting information allows affected stakeholders to cope with the emotional aspects of crisis; 3) internalizing information is absorbed by stakeholder members and forms the basis for long-term judgments about the organization’s image as it endures a crisis.This is supported by Coombs (2007), who argues that since a crisis causes uncertainty and stress for the stakeholders, companies need to be more open with sincere information to their stakeholders in order to helps them cope with the psychological threat from the crisis; furthermore, stakeholder want to know what corrective actions are being taken to protect them from similar crises in the future and thereby reduce their psychological stress.When examining the role of corporate communication in crisis situations, the theory of image restoration have become perhaps the most dominant paradigm in this field (Dardis and Haigh, 2009)). Based on image restoration theory, Benoit (1995, cited in Fortunato, 2008) identifies a typology of five main communication strategies that can be used to restore image and reputation in face of crises: (1) Denial strategy – the organization attempts to remove any connection between the organization and the crisis by claiming that there is no crisis and offers a simple denial that it did not perform the act in question. 2) Evasion of responsibility – the organization attempts to reduce responsibility for the crisis by claiming that it was either forced into the crisis by another culprit and its inability to prevent the crisis that causes a mistake, or there were good intentions in its act. (3) Reducing the offensiveness of the crisis – the organization attempts to minimize perceived damage caused by the crisis and reinforce the good traits of the organization by creating a more complete context with which the organization should be evaluated. 4) Corrective strategy – the organization implements steps to solve the problem and prevent a repeat of the crisis by taking corrective actions; (5) Mortification strategy – the organization takes full responsibility for the crisis and asks for forgiveness. Based on Benoit’s typology, Coombs (2007) characterizes crisis response strategies by their level of acceptance by critical s takeholders. He identifies a full apology as having very high acceptance, where the organization takes responsibility for the crisis and requests forgiveness from stakeholders.There is also high acceptance for corrective action, where the organization conveys a notion that actions are being taken to prevent a recurrence of the crisis; while a denial strategy has no 7 Hamlstad University Feng(2010) acceptance even when the crisis occurred or attacking the accuser (Fortunato, 2008). However, in rumor and challenge crises, managers need to deny and argue that there is no ‘real’ crisis (Coombs, 2007).To effectively implementing different kinds of response strategies, crisis management often has a strong focus on public relations to recover any damage to public image and assure stakeholders that recovery is on-going. Public relations is defined as the practice of managing communication between an organization and its publics (Huang, 2004). It enables the organization to expo se themselves to stakeholders by using topics of public interest and news items.It is usually conducted in communication activities including speaking at conferences, working with social media, interacting with stakeholders, etc. In public relations, researchers also argue the need to form en executive ‘crisis-handling team’ directing to crisis response. Because the crisis-handling team can provide access to detailed crisis plans, control knowledge in terms of tactics, empirically established relationships, propositional facts, and strategies for making use of factual and procedural knowledge (Nunamaker, Weber and Chen, 1989, cited in Hale, 1997).In addition, the role of CEO is recognized to be important spokesman in crisis communication, as corporate reputation and CEO reputation are increasingly intertwined and the CEO is inevitably cast in the role of chief communicator (Watson, 2007). Therefore, what an organization says and does during/after a crisis can affect a v ariety of important crisis communication outcomes including the organizational reputation, anger, negative word-of-mouth, and account acceptance (Coombs and Holladay, 2009).Choosing appropriate crisis communication responses mitigating negative consumers, public and stakeholders’ perceptions are critical to managing corporate reputation (De Blasio and Veale, 2009). Consumer Perception of the Post-Crisis Outcomes As mentioned above, how effectively a company deals with a crisis will influence the post-crisis outcomes related to its survival or recovery. The more acceptable the crisis communication strategies are to consumers, the less serious outcomes occur to the company.In addition, the post-crisis outcomes perceived by consumers are also determined by other factors, such as consumer attribution of crisis responsibility, and company’s prior image and reputation, which will be discussed as follows: Crisis Seriousness and Crisis Responsibility According to Coombs and Ho lladay (2002), the evaluation of a crisis situation and its reputational threat to a company is largely a function of consumers’ attributions of crisis responsibility, which implies how much consumers believe organizational actions caused the crisis, and whether the crisis was accidental (e. . , technical error) or intentional actions (e. g. , human errors) by the organization. They identify the relationship between attributions of crisis responsibility and the threat to reputation through a range of crisis types, which are classified into three clusters based on attribution of crisis responsibility: 1) the victim crises (e. g. , natural disaster, rumor, workplace violence and product tampering), in which the company is regarded as a victim of the crises and thus is attributed to have low level of crisis responsibility; 2) the accidental crises (e. g. technical-error accidents, technical error, product harms and challenges) are considered unintentional or 8 Hamlstad Universit y Feng(2010) uncontrollable by the organization, and thus cause moderate attributions of organizational responsibility; 3) the preventable crises (e. g. , human-error accident, human-error product harm and organizational misdeed) are viewed as intentional and inappropriate actions taken by organizations to place people at risk, or violate a law/regulation, thus lead to high attributions of crisis responsibility (Coombs and Holladay, 2002; Coombs, 2007).Crisis responsibility is negatively related to corporate reputation (Coombs, 2007). The more responsible an organization is held to be for a crisis, the more negative the perceptions and the greater the damage to brand, image and reputation (De Blasio and Veale, 2009). Hence, a preventable crisis which leads to greatest attributed crisis responsibility in turn results in the greatest harm to organizational reputation (ibid).Crisis responsibility triggers affective reactions as well as being a reputational threat, especially the intent ional crisis cluster (Coombs, 2007). Negative emotions can cause stakeholders to criticize a company (engage in negative word of mouth) or to cease interactions with the organization (ibid). The more serious a crisis is perceived to be, the more involved the public become, the more negative emotions are triggered and, subsequently, the greater damage posed to organizational reputation (De Blasio and Veale, 2009).The Effect of Favorable Prior Brand Image and Reputation Researchers have demonstrated that good prior brand image and reputation have the potential to protect a company from harm caused by crises (Dawar and Pillutla, 2000; Coombs and Holladay, 2006; Dawar and Lei, 2009). When encountering negative publicity, consumers differentially weight aspects of the crisis information, such as the dangers of the product and the firm’s responsiveness, depending on their prior expectations (Dawar and Pillutla, 2000).The informational basis and other strength-related characteristic s of a prior attitude will influence subsequent judgments and evaluations (Pullig, Netemeyer and Biswas, 2006). Dawar and Lei (2009) suggest that consumers perceive familiar brands to carry less â€Å"responsibility† for the crisis, because when a crisis occurs at a familiar brand, consumers’ direct or indirect experiences with the brand will allow them to easily retrieve he pro-attitudinal information, which in turn reduces the influence of the crisis information. Therefore, the positive prior evaluations of familiar brands create a hypothesis-confirming context in which consumers interpret crisis information, leading to diminished negative impact on brand evaluations (Dawar, and Pillutla, 2000). In this way, Consumers’ existing positive expectations may provide firms with a form of insurance against the potentially devastating impact of crisis (ibid).By linking benefit association with a brand, Dawer and Lei (2006) argue that the perceived seriousness of a cri sis and the impact of the crisis on brand evaluations are a function of the relevance of the crisis to the brand’s key benefit associations. Since benefit association provide a central reason for consumer’s choice of a specific brand over other in the category, consumers may assess how seriously the crisis damages the brand depending on how relevant the crisis is to the key associations (Dawer and Lei, 2006).The less relevant the crisis is to the key associations, the less serious the crisis is perceived, the fewer damages occur to the brand image. In addition, proposed by Coombs and Holladay (2006), a favorable prior reputation can act as halo effect that protects an organization’s reputation during a crisis in two aspects: 1) halo as benefit of the doubt, which means if a consumer holds a general favorable view of the company, the consumer might assign the company less crisis responsibility which in turn result in less reputational damage 9Hamlstad University Feng(2010) from the crisis; 2) halo as shield, which serves as a part of the larger psychological phenomenon of expectancy confirmation, emphasizing that stakeholders will focus on the positive aspects of the organization and ignore the recent negative information created by the crisis. In these ways, a good prior reputation perceived by consumers plays as halo effect that has the potential to reduce its attributed crisis responsibility and dismiss the impact of the crisis on the brand (Coombs and Holladay, 2006).Therefore, the stronger and more positive the organizational image and reputation, the more resilient it may be to potential damage to its reputation. Post-crisis Reputation and Buying Intention On a macro-level, an organization is expected to suffer some loss in reputation capital from a crisis (Coombs and Holladay, 2006). As discussed above, how much reputational damage occur and how about the post-crisis reputation looks like in the mind of consumers may mainly rely on h ow the consumers perceive the company’s prior reputation and brand image, attributed crisis responsibility, and its handling of the crisis (Coombs, 2007).The more positive these aspects they have perceived, the less negative post-crisis reputation they declare, and the more likely they generate positive attitude and behavioral consequences for the company, such as, loyal attitude, buying intentions; vice versa (ibid). Consumers’ overall perceptions towards a company in the context of crisis can affect consumer’s trust in that company and its product and service (De Blasio and Veale, 2009). According to Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is one of the most important moderators of long-term relationship; it plays an important role in developing loyalty.Corporate reputation is rooted in trust and ethically shaped over time, and can be a highly visible signal of an organization’s capabilities and reliability providing information about future performance (Dolphin, 2004). When consumers hold good overall perceptions about the affected company, they are likely confident that the company will correct its mistakes from the crisis and has the capability to perform better in the future, on the basis of their trust beliefs.Trusts are developed in relationship, where consumers have direct interactions with the company over times. Such consumers’ experience-based beliefs are powerful, it reinforce and strengthen the brand meaning with existing customers, generate positive word-of-mouth, and stimulate new customer trials (Berry, 2000) TOYOTA CASE FINDINGS Toyota is the one of the world’s largest automakers, based in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. Since its establishment in 1937 in Japan, Toyota has a long history of building safety, reliable and high quality vehicles.Today, the company manufactures vehicles and parts at 53 production sites in 27 countries and regions around the globe, with a variety of sub-brands categories such as Lexus, Yaris, Corolla, Camry, Toyota trucks, and the world’s first gas/electric hybrid Prius, etc. (Toyota website). Its vehicles have been well known for quality, reliability and fuel efficiency. Recent years, Toyota’s fast global expansion made it successfully exceed General Motors in production and sales in 2008 to become the world's largest automaker.Its success has long been regarded as the pinnacle of Japanese innovation, manufacturing quality and industrial strength (The Economist, Feb 13, 2010). Its â€Å"lean† manufacturing techniques and culture of continuous improvement were the envy of the business world (ibid). This pioneering lean manufacturing technique includes continuous process improvement, flexible production with just-in-time principle, and removing waste without removing 10 Hamlstad University Feng(2010) value (Angel, 2008).So far, America has become Toyota’s largest market, where Toyota is rank as one of the top-selling brands (Toyota USA website) . Toyota Crisis Overview However, Toyota’s leading position has changed since the end of 2009. A highly publicized fatal crash of a Lexus ES 350 happening on August 28th, 2009, which killed four passengers of a family inside the car in United States (Los Angeles Times, Oct 25 2009), has triggered Toyota’s largest officially recalls and brought Toyota to the crisis misery.So far, Toyota has announced recalls of approx 9 million vehicles globally across a wide range of its sub-brands (Toyota website), due to problems associated with â€Å"unintended acceleration†. According to Stewart (2010), Toyota has a full-blown crisis on its hands, but the problem has been compounded by a long-delayed and less-than-reassuring response from Toyota. By looking back from the beginning of the horrific Lexus accident, quality complaints and safety problems involved in Toyota vehicles have been brought to light with the increasing investigations by The National Highway Traffic Safe ty Administration (NHTSA) in North America.Toyota American Sales organization (TMS) previously attributed the problem in the Lexus to an incompatible floor mat that may potentially interfere with accelerator pedal (Los Angeles Times, Oct 25th 2009). They issued a public safety advisory on Sep 29th 2009 inform the owners of specific Toyota and Lexus models of the ill-fitting floor mat problem, and then followed by the first large-scale recall announcement in November 2009 for remedy of this problem (Toyota USA Newsroom).However, Toyota’s explanation of ill-fitting floor mats was questioned by NHTSA, stating that the problem was â€Å"related to accelerator and floor-pan design† (Stewart, 2010). Consequently, the problem of gas pedals that get stuck led to Toyota’s second large recalls of 2. 3 million vehicles in U. S. market, as well as the third recall announcement of 1. 8 million vehicles in European markets in January 2010.Meanwhile, Toyota released the decisi on about temporarily suspending production at most of its North American plants and halting sales of eight popular models in U. S. market (Toyota USA Newsroom). These issues put Toyota’s reputation at a high risk. Suspicion and criticism toward Toyota were full of headline among mass media, especially in North America. By late January 2010, Toyota began issuing apologies and promises to do better; its engineers brought up a fix for the accelerator pedals and began rushing it to dealers around the world (Welch, 2010).In face of the blame from mass media presses, Toyota maintained that the recalls and actions were taken voluntarily rather than the insistence from NHTSA, with the intention to â€Å"help ensure the safety of our customers and restoring confidence in Toyota†, according to Group Vice President and Toyota Division General Manager Bob Carter (Toyota USA Newsroom). Subsequently, Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s U. S. organization TMS, apologized for the recall and acknowledged it was embarrassing for the company that built its reputation on the reliability of its vehicles (Linebaugh, Mitchell and Wakabayashi, 2010).Despite Toyota announced remedy solutions to fix the recalled cars, fresh reports of sudden-acceleration incidents continued to crop up from American Toyota owners involving vehicles excluded in the recalls, raising suspicions that whether the company has identified all of the factors that could cause unintended acceleration, which was closely linked to a failure of vehicle’s heart ‘the vehicle electronic throttle control system’ (ibid). In a conference call with reporters, Mr. Jim Lentz gave explanation that â€Å"these two fixes solve the issues that we know 11 Hamlstad University Feng(2010) f,† and â€Å"we have done exhaustive testing, and we have found no evidence of problems with the electronics† (ibid). Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s CEO, issued his public apology candidly at a news conference in Tokyo on Feb 5th 2010, emphasizing that they will â€Å"go back to the basics of â€Å"customer first† and â€Å"genchi genbutsu†(means ‘go to the source to find the problem’) by improving products quality around the world. He added that he will be the head of a global quality task force newly formed to lift quality standards within the company (Toyota Website). However, bad news seemed not to end up.Toyota’s tragedy were aggravated again with their further recall announcements in February 2010 including: the Hybrid vehicles containing the celebrated Prius with antilock brake problems in Japan and American markets; and the Tacoma trucks with drive shaft problems in American regions (Toyota USA website). After years of being the benchmark for quality, Toyota has been losing its edge even as its rivals catch up (Welch, 2010). Some analysts estimated that the immediate impact of Toyota’s global recalls and sales stoppages could c ost Toyota more than $2 billion USD (Trottman and Mitchell, 2010; Businessweek. om). Meanwhile Toyota could be forced to spend considerable amounts on advertising, sales incentives and legal bills (Linebaugh et al. , 2010). Moreover, Toyota has been blamed for its misreading and mishandling of the crisis. The longer-term damage to the automaker's brand could be much larger, according to Linebaugh et al. (2010). To respond those negative issues, Toyota maintains that they never misled regulators and they properly responded to potential safety problems (Linebaugh, et al. , 2010). We’re committed to doing everything we can – as fast as we can – to restore consumer trust in Toyota, and these recalls are part of this effort,† said Mr. Jim Lentz (Toyota USA website). Toyota President Akio Toyoda also outlined the company’s plans for earning customer trust back, stating that: â€Å"we are taking responsibility for our mistakes, learning from them and acti ng immediately to address the concerns of consumers and independent government regulators† (Toyota website). As BusinessWeek reported on Jan. 9, the company planned to break its silence, with an explanatory newspaper ad, as well as more tools such as the internet, social media, cable TV, etc. (Bush and Thomaselli, 2010). Special recall web pages were created in late January 2010 with latest recall and repairing information, along with posing some updated statements officially released by Toyota. Through various online or offline communicating tools, Toyota has attempt at highlighting its existing goodwill on, for instance, innovative technologies, excellent engineers, brilliant history, as well as its consistent social mission for making contribution to sustainable environment.In the American market, in order to solve quality problems involved in its cars, one area that Toyota has to focus on is how it manages its relationships with suppliers, which as outside firms play a big role in making engineering components for Toyota (Welch, 2010). There are reports pointing out that in recent years Toyota has been demanding that suppliers make parts more cheaply (ibid). Those accelerate pedals which had the potential sticking risk were mainly made by Toyota’s major supplier CTS Corp.Toyota American organization addressed that they have been working closely with supplier CTS on a revised design that effectively remedies the problem associated with accelerator pedals. In addition, an independent North American Quality Advisory Panel consisting of external distinguished group of safety and quality experts has been formed to advise the company’s North American affiliates on quality and safety issues. In retrieving customers, TMS in March 3rd 2010 announced plans to launch the company’s most far-reaching sales promotion programs for American customers 12Hamlstad University Feng(2010) includes 0% APR financing, low leasing rate, and complimentary two-year premium maintenance offers (Toyota USA Newsroom). Although Toyota has working on the crisis, the way they handling the crisis in United State seems not easy to go: they had to confront with three times testimonies in the American Congressional hearing; to pay $16. 4 million civil penalty imposed by NHTSA for accusing Toyota of a deliberate delay in recalling the vehicles by hiding its defects; and Toyota have been withstanding intense investigation from U. S. overnments and extensively keen-edged coverage from mass media. Dealing with the issues after a serious crisis is a long way to go before everything is back again. As Toyota stating, they are now â€Å"working as one, and putting all their efforts into new initiatives aimed at rebuilding consumer trust and contributing to society through our products and services. † (Toyota website). In sum, the following table shows the related events including five times’ major recalls and other issues that lead to the escalating crisis involved in Toyota since August 2009: Table 1 – Toyota crisis events Aug. 8th, 2009 A fatal crash of a Lexus car in USA due to the gas pedal was stuck was highly publicized that brought â€Å"unintended acceleration† problems of Toyota cars to the light with increasing investigations by NHTSA in USA. Toyota attributed the problem in the Lexus to the incompatible floor mat, but their explanation couldn’t convince NHTSA and public in USA. Toyota issued a public safety advisory suggesting owners of specific model about the ill-fitting floor mat issues in North America. 1st large Recall for potential accelerator pedal entrapment problems (ill-fitting floor mat), U.S. market, 4. 2 million vehicles. nd 2 large Recall for sticking accelerator pedal problems, U. S. market, 2. 3 million vehicles covering 8 models. Toyota Temporarily suspends production and sales of selected vehicles in the U. S. market. rd 3 large Recall for potential accelerator pedal issues, European markets; 1. 8 million vehicles. Toyota began issuing apologies and breaking silence with response to the crisis under the tense pressures from public media and governments in America. Toyota’s CEO Akio Toyoda made public apology for the recalls and nnounced global quality task force for focus on quality issues. th 4 Recall for antilock brake system (ABS) software problems on 2010 model-year Toyota Prius and Lesus HS 250, Japan and U. S. markets. th 5 Recall for inspecting the front drive shaft on 2010 model year Tacoma 4WD trucks, U. S. market. Three times testimonies to the Congressional Hearing in USA. Toyota agree to pay $16. 4 million civil penalty imposed by NHTSA in USA related to Toyota’s recall for slow-to-return and sticky accelerator pedals, but Toyota denies NHTSA's allegation that it violated the Safety Act or its implementing regulations.Source: Toyota Website (2010) Late of Sep. 2009 Sep. 29 , 2009 Nov. 25 , 2009 Jan. 21st, 2010 Jan,26 , 2010 Jan,29 , 2010 Late Jan. 2010 Feb. 5 , 2010 Feb. 09 , 2010 Feb. 12th, 2010 Late Feb. to Mar. 2010 Apr. 19, 2010 th th th th th th 13 Hamlstad University Feng(2010) Toyota Crisis in Sweden From the above information we could find that the serious impacts of the crisis on Toyota were mostly coming from the United State. To investigate the influence of the crisis in a more specific way, Halmstad market in Sweden is researched.The following sections present the primary data collecting from interviews with Toyota’s dealer and car consumers in Halmstad city, showing what the Toyota crisis is perceived in Swedish market. Toyota Swedish Dealer’s Reflection Compared the strenuous troubles in USA, it is surprising to find that Toyota has a different situation in Swedish market. The crisis is not a really big deal that influence Toyota brand in Sweden. According to the sale executive in Toyota center in Halmstad of Swden, what recently happened in Toyota is ot a big issue sin ce those quality problems never happen in Toyota’s vehicles in Sweden. He insists that Toyota didn’t have real quality problems with its cars, all the recalls made by Toyota are voluntary for the purpose to reduce potential risks within the affected models as well as reassuring its customers; the recall is normal issues in car industry, there are no repairs in the recalled vehicles but just little modification to make the affected cars even better.Those negative coverage related to Toyota in USA are not consistent with what things really are within Toyota. â€Å"When you became largest, the other competitors envy you and always want to put you down, this would happen in many biggest companies not only in Toyota†, the dealer says. While the recall news were exposed negatively, they would tend to eliminate unnecessary anxieties among customers through clarifying what really happen in Toyota when the customers made calls. We explain to customers and assure them the re are no such problems happen in Sweden; we never want to sell cars with brake problems or something defective; we are always concern about our consumer, concern about the safety quality of our cars. † According to the interviewed sales executive in Toyota Center in Halmstad, they have a head office named Toyota Sweden AB in Stockholm, which is responsible for guiding and communicating with other dealers around Sweden, as well as in charge of the recall issues in Sweden. Swedish dealers can get consultant advices from this head office.Accordingly, when Toyota officially released the recall announcements of affected vehicles involved in Sweden, Toyota Sweden AB in Stockholm is responsible for informing the Swedish owners of the affected cars with mail letters, by suggesting those consumers to contact their local dealer for arranging fix appointments. The interviewed sales executive states that they are satisfied with the interaction process with the head office in Stockholm; t hey are confident that Toyota is taking effective and professional measures in dealing with the problems.As for consumer complaints, he points out consumer complaints could always take place due to different daily indisposition in cars, regardless of the recalls issues happen or not. Since Toyota in Sweden didn’t have the similar issues as exposed in USA, the recall crisis do not have significant impact on the sales of the dealer. â€Å"We don’t have the same problems, but it of course more or less influences our sales when bad things were reported†, the interviewed sales executive says, â€Å"I’m not sure how much he effect occur, but in Sweden that [issues] haven’t affected [us] too much, because now we are selling the same numbers as we did a half of year ago, so I don’t think Toyota’s situation is really bad in Sweden. † 14 Hamlstad University Feng(2010) Swedish Consumers’ Reflection Since the consumer respondents ca n be separated into two distinct groups – the Toyota customers and other brands’ consumers, it is interesting to compare their reflections to see how the both groups’ consumers perceive differently on Toyota crisis as well as the brand.Some typical statements among the consumer respondents are showed in Table 2, which clearly reflects their cognitive and affective opinion toward Toyota crisis and the brand. The Toyota customers. The respondents within this group are mainly found in Toyota’s store. Some of them have owned Toyota cars before, while the others are new customers who didn’t have Toyota cars but visit the dealership store with purchasing intentions. The Toyota customers as observed are mostly in the middle age and elderly people, who usually tend to drive the cars with relatively lower speeds within cities.Being less influenced by news coverage about the crisis, Toyota customers in Sweden are not as sensitive as American stakeholders per ceive toward negative aspects of Toyota, such as quality problems, delayed handling crisis, etc. Being different from the affected American consumers, Toyota owners and new customers in Sweden do not exhibit much anxiety and panic by the recall events. Their attitudes toward the issues are mostly depended on their real past experiences with the brand or friends’ word-of-mouth effects.Accordingly, customers in this group have showed relatively loyal attitude toward Toyota, as well as presenting strong affective bonds to the brand. Their opinions about the brand are kind of positive even though Toyota is undergoing the troublesome crisis. They tend to trust in Toyota’s reputation, without perceiving the crisis as big as what has been reported in American mass media. Although with a little worry about potential safety problem, most of loyal consumers still think that Toyota cars are quality and energy saving with relatively good prices.Despite realizing that Toyota is get ting some troubles with the massive recalls and involving serious problems in USA, they believe that Toyota will solve this out and make it better in the future. Still, when stepping into Toyota dealership store, these customers would be willing to buy Toyota cars according to their own interests and needs, regardless of recall events. The other brands’ consumers. Compared with the above Toyota customers groups, the respondents within this group have shown relatively different opinions toward the crisis issues and Toyota brand.Since the respondents in this group are randomly selected in gasoline stations and parking places in Halmstad city, the backgrounds of the interviewees are mixed across a wide range of age, with different professions and interests. Therefore, their answers are various, depending on their background and the degree of awareness of the recall issues. Those who have little knowledge about Toyota’s troublesome recalls show little interests in talking about the crisis. While, the others who know much about cars are more willing to share their knowledge, which help to increase the opportunity to gain more deepened insights about the case.Since the interviewed consumers of this group are using other brands’ cars, most of them do not have direct experience in driving Toyota cars. Their knowledge about Toyota mainly depend on their awareness of Toyota’s brand image, as well as making evaluation by instinctively comparing Toyota with the brands they are using. Furthermore, most of them admit the situation in Toyota is kind of troublesome in USA but not in Sweden. They think car recalls is normal in car industry, not only happen in Toyota. As for the buying intention, most of the respondents in this group reveal their 15Hamlstad University Feng(2010) Table 2 – Typical Statements of Swedish Vehicle Consumers Toyota customers (owners and new customers) â€Å"I have a Yaris and it is reliable and economical. † Other brands’ consumers â€Å"I think it’s a wide brand with high function. † â€Å"It’s about fuel efficiency and fit for those who want an economical car, but if you enjoy fast driving, Toyota is not that kind. † â€Å"Toyota could be good in sustainable and innovative things, but since I’m Swedish, I more prefer our national brands which also have very quality function and more suitable for my personality. â€Å"I don’t think it is a bigger thing as media and newspaper report†¦it’s serious of course what happen in USA, but it can happen in any cars and I don’t think it’s so important to quality safe. Maybe in USA I don’t’ know, but in Europe I don’t think so. † â€Å"I’m not sure how exactly Toyota is handling this, I didn’t read much about this, but I guess they’ll solve this out with professional. † â€Å"[As being an engineer working in another a utomaker], I know too much [about cars]†¦ I don’t think Toyota should take the full responsibility for the problem.It is always customer complaining accelerate pedal get to stuck, but maybe they press the accelerate pedal as the brake pedal, and they are so sure they didn’t [do wrong]! So it’s hard to handle those issues, and no one trusts the technical specialist from the car manufacturer thing. But I think Toyota should handle this earlier to be clearer to the customers and the governments. However, the picture we have is that Toyota have a long time trying to buy this down and just say we don’t have any problems, and now they have this huge crisis caused by this. â€Å"Handling this serious now, keeping the public informed in time, then I think they may gain reputation again, but it takes time. † â€Å"They have lost some credits from safety point of view right now because of the crisis. In two years, they will recover, but right now, mayb e they have lost sales. They had sales stops [in America] because the recalls. † Prior brand Image Toyota Crisis Crisis handling Post-crisis reputation â€Å"Toyota is my favorite brand,†¦we driving too much, me and my wife, we are saving for much gasoline, saving about 7 thousand SEK per year. † â€Å"Capability, good technology, good service, and you can go with very good quality. â€Å"My friend who works with cars said it is a good car, and you can get a good car for nice money. † â€Å"We have two Toyota cars [which have been] running so many kilometers and just worked perfect. There’re not any such serious problems with my cars at all. I don’t think the problem is really so big, but maybe the news media is more so become reporting problems than reporting good things. † â€Å"[I’ve heard that they have] the problems with the brake and the gas pedal†¦but I don’t think it is a serious problem, because the first I know it is a good brand for years. â€Å"Actually I haven’t heard much about Toyota response†¦ I do care about [quality], I see the news, but since I have good experience with Toyota, I still very trust in Toyota, they will be nice to recall the cars together and fix alright. † â€Å"I got the recall notification letter, the dealer told me there was nothing wrong with it and that is just a voluntary recall for small modification. But since I more care about safety problem, I think Toyota parent company needs to report honestly what has happen, to be more open to the public. Toyota has given me years of reliable service, and I’ve always had respect for Toyota. I believe they’ll be getting better in the future. † â€Å"Perhaps Toyota has some troubles right now due to such big recalls, but I hope Toyota gets this solved correctly and still retains their reputation. † â€Å"Toyota will definitely have my trust as long as they stay honest and avoid the same mistakes happening again. † â€Å"So far it has been good, I want to buy another one. † â€Å"This is the first time we checking Toyota, if the price is suitable, I would consider to buy one. â€Å"Because we drive mostly in the city, it is good to have a car that driven by electricity, not so much by gas. † Buying intention â€Å"It depends on the price, and what it can help to hold money many years a car if it is new or not or whatever and the guarantee as well. † â€Å"Buying a car is a big decision, I’ll consider about price, service, insurance guarantee, quality, living place and other things as a whole, other than to be simply influenced by recall issues. † Source: primary data collection from interviews with Swedish vehicle consumers 16 Hamlstad University Feng(2010) reference in the brands they are using, while pointing out that they would not be influenced so much by a recalled crisis, instead, what can really inf luence their buying intention depend on many factors as a whole, such as the price, the guarantee, the insurance, the design, brand personality, etc. Overall, the perceptions of the Swedish drivers toward the Toyota crisis are quite mixed, but one common thread is that the Swedish respondents do not think the Toyota has so many serious quality problems as what extensively reported in America. Toyota’ crisis situation in Sweden is comparatively less serious.The Swedish consumers all believe that Toyota will recover in the future and regain its reputation. ANALYSIS The analysis will be made on a basis of combination with the pre-understanding of crisis management theory and the empirical data, by answering the three research questions respectively as follows: (1) What are the reasons that force Toyota coming to the troublesome crisis? Crises pose certain risks to an company – potentially affecting critical aspects like reputation, image, brand equity, credibility, public ity, financial viability, legitimacy, community standing, etc. Smudde, 2001). In auto industry vehicle recalls happen all the time and everywhere. However, the Toyota massive recalls show a very different situation and involves more serious consequences. We have seen that almost 9 million of Toyota vehicles around the world had to be recalled within a few months, and the potentially defective quality involved were mainly focused on unintended acceleration problems, which were closely related to the most important thing for drivers – safety driving. It’s thus hard to believe that there was nothing wrong with Toyota’s â€Å"quality† cars.The massive recalls were indeed a disaster for Toyota: not only means that they had to pay for the extensively financial losses due to repairing costs, market and stock share dropping down, production suspending, civil penalty, and other relevant expenses for dealing with the troublesome issues; but also it has heavily hit to Toyota’s intangible assets – its brand image and reputation of quality, which have been ethically shaped over time (Fill, 2006; Dolphin, 2004) and in turn influence the brand value (Wang, 2005).Although Swedish consumers do not blame Toyota itself that much for the crisis, by looking through the whole process it is obvious to find that the sequentially massive recalls were not just a couple of simple faults mechanically in the complicated machine; there should be something ignorant in the their management. Reputational troubles can come in many forms, from a wide variety of causes and from many pu

Enhancement (Philosophy) Essay

Cognitive enhancement is the improvement of one’s mental capacity and or mental attributes such as personality, where it is considered optional and not medically necessary (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). Enhancement is different to treatment as treatment is linked to the curing of an illness, whereas enhancement is merely improving an already medically healthy body or mind, however, at times it is quite difficult to draw a line between the two (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). Types of enhancements include improving one’s athletic abilities through the use of steroids, undergoing cosmetic surgery which is deemed medically unnecessary, or, reducing one’s need to sleep through the consumption of drugs such as Provigil. Enhancements can even encompass things that are commonly availed of every day, such as the consumption of caffeine (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). There are many ethical and practical concerns in relation to cognitive enhancement and whether or not it should be allowed such as Authenticity (Keeping true to oneself), which is a key concern , with both proponents and opponents of cognitive enhancement interpreting authenticity in different ways (Parens, 2005). Two ethical frameworks have developed which try to answer the questions raised by cognitive enhancement and indeed enhancement in general, these frameworks are known as the existentialist model (Self creation) and the Rousseauean model (Gratitude) (Parens, 2005). These frameworks differ on whether or not cognitive enhancement should be allowed, the existentialist model being in favour of cognitive enhancement and the Rousseauean model opposed to the application of it (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). Along with authenticity there are other major ethical concerns that could arise from the widespread use of cognitive enhancing methods, namely drugs (Butcher, 2003). Such concerns include a possible increase in the gap between rich and poor and the possibility of the loss of values, namely the value of hard work, which helps make a human being what they are (Butcher, 2003). Philosophers and indeed people in general who favour the existentialist model value autonomy greatly and therefore believe that so long as a human being does not harm another, they should be free to do with their body or mind what they please. If these things may be quite ridiculous and inadvisable, existentialist still believe that they should be condoned, so long as the person in question is well informed on the issue (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). There is also a view that Humans not only have the ability but may also have the responsibility to enhance their condition, not only through normal everyday enhancements but also through artificial means, which are not seen as qualitatively different (within existentialist circles) to everyday enhancements (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). There are, however, some problems with this framework. For instance, in many cases the individual who is given a cognitive enhancement, is not always fully autonomous (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). This is the case in many poor urban areas in the United States, in many schools in these areas up to a third of boys now take Ritalin, even though a large portion of them do not suffer from ADHD (Farah et al. 2004). Using enhancements to simply subdue easily distracted and unruly children could be seen as ethically wrong, this is because a large percentage of children simply are naturally unruly and easily distracted (Farah et al. 2004). To change this, could be seen as changing the personality of the child in question to such an extent that they are essentially no longer the same child, here we see the question of authenticity rise again (Parens, 2005). It is in situations such as these that we see a clear divide between the two frameworks. Most proponents of framework one (self-creation) would be in favour of this sort of cognitive enhancement as they would view the child as essentially the same person, only improved, while the opponents of this framework hold a different belief (Parens, 2005). Proponents of framework two, or the Rousseauean model, place huge importance in the value of â€Å"the given† (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). In other words, they believe we should not tamper past our natural potential. This however gives rise to problematic questions, such as, where can we draw the line between natural and artificial enhancements? (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). Framework two argues that cognitive enhancement ignores fundamental facts about the human mind and its limits, it asserts that these limits should be respected. These beliefs could also be seen as a breach of authenticity. When we think of the effects that cognitive enhancement could have on human authenticity we think of the effects it might have on the identity of an individual. While this is important, it is also important to look at the human race as a whole and how cognitive enhancement and enhancement in general might affect its authenticity. From the Stone Age right up to the current social age, humans have constantly strove to improve themselves and their quality of life. In recognition of this, it could be argued that to not enhance our current state of being would be in violation of our nature and of our identity as human beings. When this view is taken it becomes clear that the Rousseauean model can also lead to a breach in authenticity, this, along with other reasons is perhaps why a large portion of philosophers show a certain level of ambivalence towards the two frameworks when it comes to major ethical matters (Parens, 2005). Enhancement, cognitive enhancement in particular, raises many ethical concerns. As already discussed, authenticity is a prime concern, however there are also other important matters which need to be considered before any decision is made on whether or not cognitive enhancement should be allowed. For instance, the introduction of cognitive enhancing drugs could lead to a widening in the gap between rich and poor (Butcher, 2003). This would be that case as such drugs would likely be out of reach (financially) to the lower classes of society. In the long term further problems would arise, as the poor would likely have little or no access to these cognitive enhancing drugs, the upper class would essentially develop into generally more intelligent beings. This would make it far harder for a member of the lower class to compete for college places or jobs (Butcher, 2003). It has been argued, however, that the risk of a widening of the gap between the wealthy and the poor should not be a factor to stand against the introduction of cognitive enhancers as enhancers such as third level education already do this (Butcher, 2003). Another ethical issue is the possibility of the loss of the value of hard work (Butcher, 2003). While this may not seem like such a pressing issue, one must first fully consider the implications this may have in the long term. Humans may use there increased level of intelligence irresponsibly due to a lack of experience gained from having to work hard to overcome obstacles. Along with these issues the safety of such drugs is also an important matter (Farah et al. 2004). It is clear from these observations that the possibility of distribution of cognitive enhancers amongst the public is a very contentious issue, which makes the question â€Å"Should cognitive enhancement be allowed? † a very difficult one to answer. In my opinion, cognitive enhancement should be allowed, although only under certain conditions. The production of such enhancers should be undertaken only by the government so as to ensure the fair and equal distribution of cognitive enhancers amongst all social classes. Drugs should be extensively tested before mainstream introduction in order to assure the safety of the product. These measures may, however, not be enough. Governments would have the means to manipulate the public by introducing other properties to cognitive enhancing drugs, For instance they could use certain ingredients to create a more patriotic and docile population this would be a prime concern in politically unstable countries or in those of communist leanings. Should the entire population of a country regularly take a drug, which was deemed essential to take, untold damage could be done to the human condition. A world without free will could develop, with the world population under the control of one drug, and those who produced it. Perhaps the cognition of the human race is not yet evolved enough to consider its enhancement. Bibliography: Parens, Erik. (2005) â€Å"Authenticity and Ambivalence: Toward Understanding the Enhancement debate† Hastings Center Report, Vol. 35, Number 3, May-June, pp. 34-41. Schmidt-Felzmann, Heike. (2010) â€Å"Personal Identity and Human Nature: The Enhancement Debate, Heike Schmidt-Felzmann 12/10/12. † Philosophical questions & issues. [online. ] Available at: https://nuigalway. blackboard. com/webapps/portal/frameset. jsp? tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_31108_1%26url%3D%252Fwebapps%252Fblackboard%252Fexecute%252FdisplayIndividualContent%253Fmode%253Dview%2526content_id%253D_419734_1%2526course_id%253D_31108_1 (Accessed: 03/12/12.) Butcher, James. (2003) â€Å"Cognitive enhancement raises ethical concerns† The Lancet, Vol 362 (9378) p. p 132–133. Farah, Martha J. Illes, Judy. Cook-Deegan, Robert. Gardner, Howard. Kandel, Eric. King, Patricia. Parens, Eric. Sahakian, Barbara & Root Wolpe, Paul. (2004) â€Å"Neurocognitive enhancement: what can we do and what should we do? † Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Vol: 5. P. p 421-425.

Benifits of Walking

â€Å"Benefits of Walking† Walking provides a wide range of benefits, some of which are more obvious than others. The obvious benefits of walking include the benefits to the individual from physical fitness and mental health improvements. A less obvious benefit is the way in which getting more people walking more often can help to generate a stronger local community, which in turn will contribute to happier and healthier neighborhoods. Every channel you turn to, every magazine you flip through, and every sports store you go to, shows the concept of exercising.Most people think of exercise as too much work. They make excuses like I don’t have enough time, or I’ll do it later. The purpose of this essay is to persuade my listeners to get out their walking shoes and start reaping the benefits of a healthy life and start walking. First we will discover how walking benefits our bodies, second uncover how easy it is to incorporate walking in to our daily lives, and thir d reveal the only equipment that one needs to take the first step putting one foot in front of the other.For many of us we are always finding ways to get out of exercising. Either we are too busy or we are putting it off until we have more time, but actually we never get the time to exercise and we just see ourselves jumping from a size 6 to a size 12. Well I have help for you. We were all born with 2 arms and 2 legs, so let’s put those legs to the use they were intended. Walking is one of the easiest forms of exercise and provides many health benefits.Regular walkers have fewer heart attacks and strokes, have lower blood pressure, and have higher levels of healthy HDL cholesterol than couch sitters do. In one study of women, a regular walking program did just as much in the heart-protection department as more vigorous exercise did. Thirty minutes of walking a day makes your muscles more sensitive to insulin. That allows glucose to do its duty inside your cells rather than pi le up in your bloodstream and cause other havoc.Even just a 5-minute walk cuts down on cigarette cravings. It engages your brain's emotion centers, unleashing mood-enhancing hormones that decrease cravings and take your mind off that cigarette. And establishing a walking habit proves to you that you have the discipline to stick with your stop-smoking plan. Physical activity nourishes brain tissue and stimulates its production of neurons, synapses, and blood vessels. Some studies have found that walking can counter faltering memories in people over age 50.Anyone who has come back from a walk in a different frame of mind than they went out with can attest to this. Studies back up that walking benefits your mood and may even ward off depression and anxiety. Not only can a walk perk you up when you need it, but also it helps improve the quality of your sleep, so you're more energetic all day long. Walking regularly can lower your risk of arthritis, macular degeneration, and even cancer by an astonishing 50% compared with people who don't exercise. Walking has the highest compliance rate of any exercise.

Chinese philosophy Essay

. Introduction A. Thesis There are so many different philosophies and religions, and they greatly influence people’s life. In this paper, I am going to introduce and define the representatives of the Western philosophy such as Plato’s metaphysical Dualism and Chinese philosophy like Daoism. And I am going to compare these philosophies and explain the difference between them. ?. Dualism A. Explain Plato’s metaphysical Dualism Plato’s Dualism divided the reality into two different realms of existence (World of the Senses and World of the Forms). One world (the physical world) is constantly changing, and another world (the world of the Forms) is unchanging. Plato further divided these two different realms of existence. The world of Forms can be divided into the higher world (realm of the form) and the lower world (the Empirical world). The world of senses can be divided into physical objects (ordinary objects we perceive) and images (shadows, reflections and pictures). B. Summary of Allegory of Cave Plato explained his metaphysical dualism by using the Allegory of a cave. According to Marc Cohen: In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see. However, one day one of them is released from what keeps them the guy sitting, and they look back. At that time, the guy realizes that there are objects and the fire behind people and someone moves the objects. The shadow people have seen is a fake. People who are still sitting have never seen the objects behind them, so they believe that the shadow is real. The guy is free to move, so he starts to run to the exit of the cave. After getting out of the cave, the guy feels dizzy because the world out of the cave is too shiny. After a while, his eyes got used to the brightness and the beautiful world like the mountain, the sky, the river, or the sun is in the eyes of the guy. And then he realizes that the world out of the cave is real. He goes back to the cave and tells people who are still sitting in the cave what he saw out of the cave. However, they do not believe that what the guy told is the truth. C. Interpretation of the Allegory. By using this Allegory, we can think about today’s world. There are too much in formation in the world, and the world seems to be narrower than before. Especially the appearance of mass media like newspaper, television, magazine, Internet, or SNS changed how we deal with information. Too much information is created and flows every day, and we can get the information you need any time by the device like a smart phone, a PC or a tablet. However, is the information you can get really the reality? The information created by mass media might be like the shadow in a cave. Before I was born, there was already too much information. I learned much information like Japanese history in a school, and I also know the new information of the incidence that occurs every day at the same time through mass media. So I learned most of things that occurred around the world through the information created by mass media, and the information is like a shadow in Allegory of a Cave. Suppose that an internal warfare is happening in one country. We know about that through mass media. We might see suffers in a TV or in a photo. We feel like understand everything about the war through the picture on TV or words of the News, but that is not a whole thing but just part of that. We need to seek the reality by my own eyes today’s world. ?. Plato’s Legacy According to Philip, â€Å"Plato thought that the soul could and would exist apart from the body and would exist after the death of the body. He offered a â€Å"proof† for this position and was the first to do so in writing that we have any evidence of doing so. He offered several different proofs or arguments none of which are convincing today†. His argument was that humans were composed of bodies and souls, but soul was more important and immortal. His arguments used premises that are questionable today. For example, Plato thought he could conclude that the soul could exist separating from the body because it worked independently from the body when it engaged in pure thought. But today, it is proved that how we think depends on the physical brain works. So this is no longer accepted as true. Plato thought that they are remembering the knowledge implanted in their souls when the souls were in the realm of pure thought and eternal forms before entering into the body after which they forgot as they became confused by physical emotions and feelings and limited experiences through the senses. And that is the only way to explain how people come to know. This is no longer accepted as the best explanation of how people come to have knowledge. However, Plato is credited with being the first human to attempt to set out any sort of a proof that humans had souls and that they survived the death of the body and that they were immortal. A. Descartes-Substance Dualism According to Philip, â€Å"Descartes also believed that the soul existed prior to and separate from the body, and it was immortal. In his view, all of reality consisted of two very different substances: matter or the physical and spirit or the non-physical. † The physical was what would be extended in time and space and the non-physical would not be characterized. He thought that his famous claim that â€Å"I think therefore I am† established not just that he existed but that he existed without a body as a â€Å"thinking thing†. A â€Å"thinking thing† is a thing that thinks and by that would be included: imagining, conceiving, hoping, dreaming, desiring, fearing, conjecturing, reasoning, remembering and more. For him a â€Å"thinking thing† needed no physical parts to do what it does. Modern science has established that there is no evidence of humans that are without a physical body and its brain. There is no evidence that thought is possible without a brain. There is much evidence that what has been associated with Descartes’ â€Å"thinking thing† is now explained solely in term of the brain and how the brain is physically structured and the functioning of the brain. B. Aquinas According to the text, â€Å"Saint Thomas Aquinas is the philosopher who explained five ways to demonstrate the existence of the God within the framework of a posteriori (the knowledge comes from, or after the experience) and developed cosmological and teleological arguments. † I am going to explain one of the demonstrations. The way is from the nature of efficient cause. In the world of sensible things, there is an order of efficient causes. It never happens that the thing is the efficient cause of itself. If you look at one phenomenon, you can see many efficient causes behind it. But you cannot go back to infinity. There must be the first efficient cause. Aquinas claims that that is the God. The Aquinas’ claim is similar to Plato’s claim. He thought the God is the first efficient cause and independent one. That is close to the concept â€Å"the realm of the form† Plato claimed. And the things in the world of sensible things are the secondary things of the God. It is close to â€Å"the Empirical world† Plato claimed. ?. Chinese Natural Cosmology A. Ames `Image of Reason in Chinese Culture† Ames claims the difference between the dominant conceptions of reality in the West and in the Chinese tradition in his â€Å"image of Reason in Chinese Culture†. According to the text, Ames claims that â€Å"to explore the Chinese philosophy, he thought you needed to recognize at least that you are dealing with a fundamentally different world if you are familiar with Western culture. To bring into relief certain features of the dominant Indo-European view and Chinese alternative to it, he constructs a â€Å"logical sense of order with an â€Å"aesthetic† order. † What we call â€Å"logical† sense of order has developed Western philosophical and religious orthodoxy, and it is based on the presumption that there is something permanent, perfect, objective, and universal that disciplines the world of charge and guarantees natural and moral order-some originative and determinative arche, an eternal realm of Platonic edios or â€Å"ideas†, the One True God of the Judeo-Christian universe, a transcendental strongbox of invariable principles or laws, an annalistic method for discerning clear and distinct ideas. In a single-order world, the One God is the initial beginning of the universe. The God is primal and unchanging principle that causes and explains that origin and issues everything from itself, and that is familiar and presupposition in Western tradition. Although the world is explained by â€Å"logical† order in Western tradition, however, there is no â€Å"logical† order in Chinese philosophy. The order of Chinese tradition is immanent in and inseparable from a spontaneously changing world. The universe possesses within itself its organizational principles and its own creative energy. In the view of Chinese tradition, the world creates itself. That is scandalous from the view point of Western scholar reason. The yin and the yan come together and guide the infinite combination of these two opposite source of energy. These two sources of energy make a spontaneous intelligence possible. Yin and yan as the characterization of a particular relationship invariably entail a perception from some particular perspective that enables us to unravel patterns of relatedness and interpret our circumstances. They provide a vocabulary for sorting out the relationship among things as they come together and constitute themselves in unique compositions. Ames also mentions the Chinese word â€Å"li†. In both classical Chinese corpus and modern language, the closest term that approximates â€Å"reason† or â€Å"principle†. He claims that identifying the meaning of the word â€Å"li† correctly is essential to understand Chinese philosophy. According to the text, â€Å"Philosophically, the most familiar uses of li lie somewhere in the cluster â€Å"reasoning† or â€Å"rationale† (A. S. Cua), â€Å"principle† (W.T. Chan), â€Å"organism† (J. Needham), and â€Å"coherence† (W. Peterson). † Among these several alternative translations used for â€Å"li†, although philosophically as protean as â€Å"principle† for Western tradition, unwarrantedly restrict li to a notion of human consciousness and tend to introduce distinction such as animate and inanimate, agency and act, intelligible and sensible. Li is much different from being some independent and immutable originative principle that disciplines a recalcitrant world. It is the fabric of order immanent in the dynamic process of experience. That is why â€Å"psychology† is translated in to Chinese as â€Å"the li of the heart-and-mind,† but then â€Å"physics† is â€Å"the study of the li of things and events. † What separates li rather clearly from Western common understanding of â€Å"principle† is that li is both a unity and a multiplicity. Li is the coherence of any â€Å"member of a set, all members of a set, or the set as a whole. † Both the uniqueness of each particular and the continuities that obtain among them are reflected by this description. Li then is the defining character or ethos of a given community, or any other such composition. Ames also claims another point at which li departs from â€Å"principle. † In Western tradition, the discovery of originative and determinative principle gives us a schema for classifying things and subsuming one thing under another. That is why people seek â€Å"principle† in Western tradition. However, the investigation of li, by contrast, is to seek out patterns that relate things, and to discover resonances between things that make correlations and categorization possible. B. Hans-Gorg Moeller In Daodejing, the meaning of â€Å"the root† is described by using metaphor. From the view of the Daoist, our world is a â€Å"self-generating† process. In Daoism there is no initial beginning for â€Å"logical† order. In Daoism, order is immanent in and inseparable from a spontaneously changing world, and then â€Å"the world creates itself. † In this point of view, the role of â€Å"the root† is very important. â€Å"The root† is an origin of phenomenon, and many things are derived from â€Å"the root. † Unlike many Western philosophical perspectives, this â€Å"root† has a somewhat unique, interesting, and different meaning in it. The Western philosophy’s principle or arche is the first cause of the event. And nothing would exist if there were not any of the Western philosophy’s principle or arche. However, the concept of â€Å"the root† is different of that. From the Daoist perspective, â€Å"the root† is a part of the plant. â€Å"The root† does not exist before the plant although plant cannot exist if there is no â€Å"the root. † That is, â€Å"the root† itself is not a creator of the plant. It is the origin of the growth of the plant. â€Å"The root† is buried in the soil or ground, so it is invisible. However, â€Å"the root† greatly influences its visible part. This illustrates Daoist’s â€Å"autopoiesis,† self-generating concept well, which differs a lot from the Western philosophical concept â€Å"arche,† which is stated or recognized as â€Å"the God. † ?. Comparative Epistemology A. Hellenistic-Prescriptive theoretical knowledge In Western tradition, most of philosophers think there is one principle or one God and things happen from it. And the mind is separable part from the body. One of the examples is Plato. Plato’s dualism is that there are the realm of form and the imperial world. The body belongs to the imperial world and the world is constantly changing. And what we sense by the body is limited, and the Empirical world is not real. The true world is the realm of the form, and the mind belongs to the world. Plato argues that the â€Å"knowledge† continuously exists and must be justified conviction. However, the Empirical world that we belong to is contentiously changing, and there is no unchanging thing in the world. That is why there is no thing from which we can get â€Å"knowledge† in the Empirical world, so we cannot get â€Å"knowledge† by our own senses. The unchanging things exist in the realm of the form, and we cannot reach the world by using our senses. So we need to use our mind to get â€Å"knowledge†. Not all of Western philosophers claim like that, but most of philosophers claim that the truth does not exist in the world where we live today. This concept greatly influences Christianity or other religions that have the one God. In Christianity, there is one God named â€Å"Jesus Christ†, and he is the reason why things happen or why we live. People pray to seek â€Å"knowledge† that exists in the world where we are not living. That is, we cannot get the â€Å"knowledge† about it in the world where we are living, and we need to get it from the other world to know the essence of the things. B. Chinese philosophy-Prescriptive practical On the other hand, there is no the one God in Chinese philosophy. In China, the war occurred constantly, and Chinese dynasty changed over time, so people did not come to rely on one thing. This influenced the Chinese philosopher. Instead of one god or one principle, Chinese philosophers think that the world creates itself and that the world is constituted by the combination of determinacy and indeterminacy, and spontaneous, dynamic changing is the universal principle of the world. In Western tradition, the philosophers try to attribute many phenomenons to the one reason. However, Chinese philosophers think that each thing is â€Å"self-so† creativity, self-generating, and spontaneous. For Chinese philosophy, the Nature is very important, and in Daoism it is important not to try to force thing. That is why there is the concepts in Daoism; wu wei(without intentional action), wu si(without deliberate thought), wu si(without selfish interesting), wu ji(without self-awareness), wu zhi(without knowledge), wu xin(without heart-and-mind). Daoists claim that when you are thinking something, the world is also changing at the same time, so you are missing something. That is why it is important for Daoism to stop thinking by your head, get out of the world of your head, look around the world, and take action. The most important thing for Daoism is that we ought to take action as a part of the world. ?. Conclusion There have been so many philosophers through the history, and each of philosophy has been developed around the world. And how people think about the world is different, depending on the philosophy. Of many philosophies, the significant different philosophies are the Western and Chinese philosophy. In the Western philosophy, the philosophers try to attribute everything to the one principle or the one God. On the other hand, there is no principle, and the philosophers have recognized the world as self-generating process, and the world is the source of itself without no exact start and end point. This thought influences religion and how people think about the world. Around the world, many wars related to religion occur today. The difference between the religions is just what ancient people developed, so it is important to try to understand the difference in today’s world. Reference Pecorino, Philip, Ph. D. â€Å"Chapter 6 : The Mind-Body Problem Section 3: DUALISM. † Introduction To Philosophy an Online Textbook. Queensborough Community College, CUNY, n. d. Web. 4 Dec 2013. . Deutsch, Eliot. Introduction to World Philosophies. 1st ed. 509. New Jersey: A Pearson Education Company, 1997. Ex-255-256. Print. Deutsch, Eliot. Introduction to World Philosophies. 1st ed. 509. New Jersey: A Pearson Education Company, 1997. Ex-469. Print. Cohen, Marc. â€Å"The Allegory of the Cave. † Philosophy 320 History of Ancient Philosophy. University of Washington, 07 11 2013. Web. 4 Dec 2013. .