General Patterns among Friendships of College Students - Essay Example

Economy, Organizations and Work: General Patterns among friendships of college There arefour major patterns of friendships observed amongst college students. These patterns are based on the following concepts (Venkateswaran, 22), The various departments in which these students are from. Race and Age Technological interactions Reciprocity and Transivity. The departments upon which students come from play a great role in determining the kind of friendship they have with their peers. For example, students who pursue a career in sociology will always tend to have friends who are in the same department as theirs, which is the department of sociology. One of the main reasons advanced for this pattern is that most of these students are constantly interacting with each other, and hence it is easier to form some elements of friendships amongst them. Students pursuing a similar course, also have some elements of similarity, and commonality (Venkateswaran, 22). For example, students in the same department of sociology have a similar factor in common, that is sociology. On this basis, this subject binds them together. In terms of race and age, it is important to denote that students are always comfortable interacting with one another. This is because they are always conscious of each other’s races, and to avoid discrimination and victimization, students would rather interact with people of their own races. Technology also plays a great role in influencing the social interactions and friendship of students. Social media such as face book and twitter help students to create a large network of friends, whereby they can share their thoughts and perceptions about the school, classes, and the curriculum in general (Venkateswaran, 12). However, there is a difference between online and offline friendship networks in the manner in which information is shared. Sensitive and private information is not shared with online friends. On the other hand, this type of information is always shared with offline friends. In relation to reciprocity and transivity, students normally help each other while in school. On this basis, students who are helped usually have a sense of loyalty to those who have helped them. On this basis, they tend to have a close relationship with these students. It is important to denote that the most popular students in school are those who have a helping hand. That is, they will always have money to share with their colleagues (Krackhardt and Hanson, 3). This is because college life is always difficult, and students normally want to out partying. They cannot achieve this objective without money. A student who offers to pay for them will hence achieve loyalty and popularity. On this basis, he or she will have a large following. II: In order to make the friendship networks beneficial to students for purposes of spreading innovative ideas, it is important for the administration to carry out a survey for purposes of finding out the relationship between students. In such surveys, the management can use questionnaires to ask questions pertaining to the relationship amongst the students under consideration (Kadushin, 31) . For instance, in the questionnaires, and the administration can ask students the people that they normally seek for advice, and the students who might keep their confidence. The next step is to cross check the answers contained in the forms for purposes of finding out if they are consistent with one another. On this basis, the final information that the management will use should be based on information that is consistent and contained in the surveys/ questionnaires (Krackhardt and Hanson, 11). The next and the final step is to process the information for purposes of devising a strategy that can help in promoting innovative ideas amongst college students. It is important to denote that these processes help in acquiring information and building of trusts amongst students. The importance of building of trusts amongst relationships is seen in the case of David Leers, a Chief Executive officer of a computer company in California. Due to poor performances in his business organization, Mr. Leers formed a task force to solve this problem, with Tom Harris, a company veteran as the head of the task force. However, because the members of the task force could not trust Tom Harris, the task force was inefficient in finding solutions for the problem. Mr. Leers introduced Bill Benson on the managerial team of the task force. On this basis, the task force managed to make some progress because of the trust that members of the task force had on Bill Benson. On this basis, the best way of creating innovative ideas amongst friends is to build find ways and methods of making them trust each other, and this will emante to an ease in information sharing. Close Competitions: Close competition refers to the nature of competition whereby the competitors are always on level with each other, nut some minor factors are the ones which can contribute to one party in emerging a winner or not. For example, the political rivalry between President Obama and Hillary Clinton in the preliminary is regarded as a close competition because both parties had chance of winning the preliminaries. On this basis, for a competition to be regarded as a close competition, a winner to such an association must not be able to win the completion by a larger margin. For example, the competition between George Bush and Al Gore was decided by the Supreme Court. This is because there wasn’t any clear winner of the elections. The Cola Wars: In the cola wars, there are four main participants, namely the bottlers, the concrete producers, the retail channels and the suppliers. These four participants work hand in hand in ensuring the success of the business under consideration. For example, the role of the concrete producers is to prepare the ingredients for manufacturing the products. They blend the ingredients of the raw materials, and they package the mixture in plastic canisters. After the packaging, they ship the containers to the bottlers. Bottlers on the other hand, are responsible for packaging the mixtures, and delivering them to the retail channels. The retail channels can include super markets, or even individual shops. Suppliers on the other hand work together with the concrete producers and the bottlers. To the concrete producers, suppliers will always deliver coloring agents, natural flavors and caffeine. These are some of the ingredients involved in the production of the beverage. On the other hand, bottlers will need packaging materials such as glass bottles, cans and plastic bottles. On this basis, suppliers will serve the bottlers and concrete producers. It is important for the two organizations to control the bottlers because it is they who are engaged in the packaging of the products under consideration. Packaging is an important marketing tool that can decide the success of the failure of the organization. However, it is very expensive for the two organization to control the bottlers. This will always increase their operational costs, and hence lead to the lower profitability of the two soft drinks giants. Competitive Dynamics: In the 1970s, Coke was the most dominant player in the market. To counter the dominance of Coke, Pepsi introduced the Pepsi Challenge in Dallas. Under this challenge, Pepsi runned some blind tests on the residents of Dallas, for purposes of demonstrating that its products were popular. In response to this campaign, Coke embarked on a series of advertisements that questioned the validity of the tests under consideration. Coke also reduced the retail prices of its products, for purposes of countering this move by Pepsi. However, by the end of 1979, Pepsi managed to surpass Coke in terms of its market share. On this basis, this challenge was a successful marketing strategy by Pepsi. This forced Coke to renegotiate its contract with bottlers and other franchise holders for purposes of obtaining flexibility in recovering its market share from Pepsi. In the 1980s, Pepsi was still the most dominant player in the soft drinks industry. To win this war, Coke decided to change the formula of its ingredient. This happened in 1985; however, this was a strategic era that costed the company. This is because the formula they introduced produced a similar brand and taste of soft drinks like that of Pepsi. The management of Pepsi called for an holiday, denoting that they were winning the war. However, Coke quickly changed this strategy, and resorted back to its original formula. Coke later on introduced 11 other brands, which included the Cherry Coke (1985), and the free coke (1983). To counter this strategy, Pepsi introduced 13 other brands, which included Caffeine Free Pepsi brand (1987), and Lemon slice (1984). Imitation is therefore a poor marketing strategy, that can cause the collapse of a company. In the 1990s, Coke began to win the soft drinks war. Its strategies included buying of independent bottlers, reducing its staff by 20%, renegotiating new contracts with suppliers, and investing in case production lines which had high levels automation. Coke embarked on becoming an investment bank that specialized on the acquisition of franchised bottlers, and selling them to CCE. In 1997, Coke managed to acquire revenue of 7 billion dollars from such deals. In 2000s, Coke was still the dominant player in the market. In as much as the soft drinks industry was facing challenges, Coke managed to introduced a series of innovations that made it to stay ahead of Pepsi. For instance, in 2009, the company created a new free style soda machine that had the capability of creating dozens of custom beverages. Coke also embarked on aggressive marketing, spending about 230 million dollars on advertisements. It also embarked on sponsoring global events such as the 2010 world cup, just for purposes of creating a strong brand name. On this basis, innovation played a great role in increasing the market share of Coke. Due to the dominance of Pepsi and Coke, small concrete producers and bottlers could not compete effectively in the market. This meant they had to close their operations. Potential Challenges: During the 1990s, the consumption habits of Americans in regard to soft drinks began to go down. This is because Americans were concerned with their health status, and there was a general agreement that sugary elements found in the products of Coke and Pepsi were responsible for the development of obesity. In 2005, a Federal guideline identified soft drinks as the largest causes of obesity in America, and on this basis, academic institutions banned their sale. The government also introduced taxes to Sodas, and some energy beverages for purposes of cutting down on calories. Due to these developments in the market, the two companies began to experience a drop in their sales. In fact, in 2009, Coke managed to identify Obesity as one of the major risk factors for its business operations. To address these challenges, the two companies began to engage in a series of innovative and marketing strategies. For example, Coke developed free style soda equipment that had the capability of creating dozens of custom beverages, of different kinds. The company also decided to involve itself in aggressive advertisements, and endorsement deals. For example, Coke spent around 230 million dollars in advertisements during the periods of 2000s. It was also an official sponsor of the 2010 World cup in South Africa. Pepsi on the other hand decided to re-design its logo. This was a three year deal that could cost the company an approximate amount of 1 billion US dollars. Pepsi embarked on an a marketing strategy of promoting the overall image of the company. This was through the marketing concept of, The Power of One. However, these strategies by Pepsi failed to make it a company of choice by consumers. Due to the strategies that these companies are using, it is highly possible for them to perpetuate their advantages in new markets. On this basis, they do not need to lay down a second foundation. Example of a Closed Competition: Another example of a closed competition is the competition between Google and Yahoo. This competition is fierce because of the recent increase in search engine advertising. Currently, the search engine advertising constitutes an 8 billion worldwide industry. Yahoo and Google have invested strongly in this industry, with Yahoo’s search market technology referred to as YSM, and Google’s search engine technology referred to as Adsense. The management and business approaches of the two companies are different. For example, Yahoo is leaning more on media, rather than technological innovation. Google on the other hand is leaning more on technological innovations, and it depends on its engineers to create innovative products that will help the company achieve its objectives. Currently, Google has an upper hand in terms of controlling the online advertising market. This is because of their innovations, and focus on technology. On this basis, advertisers will always prefer to make their advertisements with Google, because of technological innovations, and the fact that Yahoo is always late with coming up with a technology that will serve the market. Conclusion: In order to win in a close competition, it is always important for a company to involve innovation, and technological advances. For example, Coke managed to introduce technology in its production. This is by the use of its free style soda equipment that had the capability of producing a variety of beverages at the same time. It is also important to initiate a culture of a strong leadership, which is also employee centered. For example, Coke had to re-negotiate its contracts with all its suppliers and stakeholders in order to create a win-win situation. These would enable its stake holders to acquire the company’s loyalty, and hence work towards attaining the goals of the company. The organizations culture is also an important element in creating a winning strategy for the company in a closed competition. For example, the culture of Google was to allow employees to develop innovative products that would satisfy the needs of their users. On this basis, Google is able to attract highly talented engineers in its work force. Part 2: Practical Skills: J Clyde Mitchell In this article, J Clyde identifies the major researchers done on social networks, and its evolution. He main reason of analyzing these works, is to come up with an understanding on what social networks entails in sociology, anthropology, and in business organizations. For instance, she denotes that this concept emerged for purposes of explaining the behavior of individuals and people within a community and society. From this research, J Clyde Mitchell denotes that the concept of social networks first emerged in 1954, through the works of John Barnes. From this research, Mitchell explains the evolution of the social network theory, through the works of John Barnes. For instance, Mitchell (280) denotes that social network does not focus on a social unit or an individual, but on the relationships that arte created by the networks under consideration and how to sustain those relationships. However, the major weaknesses of this research by J Clyde Mitchell are that it relies heavily on the works of other people. Mitchell does not provide her own opinion concerning this concept, but the opinion of authors and researchers like John Barnes. Henrik Egbert: Henrik Egbert did a research on the effective of social networks in improving the success of a business organization. Egbert studied business organizations in developing countries, specifically in Tanzania, the city of Tanga. However, from this research, Henrik Egbert denotes that social networks are not effective in ensuring that the business under consideration achieves success. On this basis, Egbert (667) is specifically against the one sided view that social networks are an essential tool for the success of a business organization. His main argument is that due to the existence of this social network, people within an organization will always create loyalty amongst each other, and not for the company. On this basis, it will always be difficult to retain employees when one of them leaves the organization. However, this research by Egbert consists of a number of flaws. This is because he is biased from the beginning against the concept of social networks. In as much as he identifies the weaknesses of this concept in a business organization, does not provide a mechanism on how to mitigate on these weaknesses. Stephen Chen: Stephen Chen basically did a research on the internet and the social media. From his research, Stephen Chen denotes that the social media such as face book and twitter have become an important element of the day to day interaction process. Chen (527) identifies the various importance of social networking through the internet. For instance, Chen denotes that it is easy to communicate with peers over a long period of time. Chen further denotes that the use of the social media in marketing is an effective advertisement strategy. This is because the advert has the capability of reaching a wide population of people, which is the main aim of an advertisement. Chen does not only concentrate on the positive effects of the internet social media. He also identifies their negative effects. For instance, Chen denotes that the social media has led to loss of privacy. This is because there is a lot of information pertaining to people posted on their web pages. In this article, Chen manages to effectively explain how the relationships between members of a social network manage to influence their corporate behavior and attitudes towards their work. This is a very strong article and research conducted by Stephen Chen. This is because he does not only talk about the internet and social networks, but other non-internet based social networks. Katherine Faust: This research by Katherine Faust focused on how local settings can help in the advancement and promotion of social networking. In this research, Katherine Faust studied around 82 social networks of different species. This included goats, sparrows, human beings, cattle and baboons. Her main aim was to analyze how social networks are created, and sustained (Faust, 213). From this research by Katherine Faust, she managed to observe how friendships are created, the choice of work partners, dominance and social interactions. On this basis, Katherine Faust was able to prove that a variety of factors contribute to the evolution of social networks, and this includes the desire for survival, and the desire to achieve successes in an individual’s life. The major weakness in this research is the failure by Katherine Faust to identify the challenges she faced while collecting data. On this basis, her works are not reliable, because they failed to achieve validity. Jan Fuhse: Jan Fuhse insists on viewing the evolution of social networks as a socio-cultural structure. He argues that social relationships are developed as a reason of reciprocal behavior. For example, a relationship will be developed as a result of an action of another individual. On this basis, Jan Fuhse talks about the culture of relationships. This culture comprises of narratives, symbols and relational identities. On symbols, Jan Fuhse identifies technology as an aspect that develops the relationship of individuals. Technology is therefore an instrument that helps to form relationships. On relational identities, Fuhse denotes that specific factors can help to create a social network (46). These factors include race, age, social status, and academic qualifications. However, the major weakness of this theory is that it fails to explain how to sustain a relationship that emanates from a social network. Part Three: Personal Reflections: In this article Lucien Pye explains the various dynamics of Chinese politics. There are a variety of information that I did not know about the Chinese politics, and one of them is how factions shapes the manner in which politics is conducted in China. For instance, I managed to learn that there are various factions within the People Republic party, but these factions do not have any ideological agenda. These factions also do not present any institutional or geographic interest. They are only concerned with how to grab power and accumulate wealth. On this basis, these factions only exist for selfish reasons (Pye, 214) . Pye manages to explain this concept of factions. For instance, he explains a faction as an organization of people, who came together, because of a common interest, and recognition of a common enemy. However, the main reason as to why these factions come together is to advance their careers and to protect them. On this basis, factions within the party always manage to influence the various policies that the party adopts, and whoever takes control of the party. This is a very useful lesson I learnt. From this article therefore, I can manage to understand the various foreign policies of the Chinese government, and its internal policies. Abraham Zeleznik on the other hand talks about managers and leaders. He manages to distinguish between a leader and a manager. For instance, Abraham Zeleznik (75) denotes that a leader needs to have influence for purposes of convincing his or her follows to follow a certain direction. A manager on the other hand depends on rules and protocols for purposes of influencing people to move to a particular direction. This article is very efficient in disseminating the information intended because Abraham uses illustrations to explain these concepts. For instance, in his explanation of the concept of a manager vs. manager personality, Abraham uses an illustration of an animated cartoon. Under this illustration, Abraham manages to effectively explain how a leader uses influence to direct the behavior of his or her followers, while a manager will use rules to direct those interests. Earlier on, I was always convinced that a leader is another way of explaining who a manger is. Thanks to Abraham, this has changed. Another article that I liked is the article by Krackhardt and Hanson. These people manage to effectively explain the concept of informal networks, and how they affect a business organization Krackhardt and Hanson, 5) . For instance, these two authors believe that informal networks in a business organization play a great role in the successes or failure of the business organization under consideration. This is an aspect I never knew before, and this is because I was always convinced that it is only formal networks that influence whether a business organization will succeed or fail in its endeavors. From these lessons, I managed to acquire extensive knowledge from the field of management and business. For instance, in business, my role model is Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was a leader in the field of technological innovation. While managing Apples, Steve Jobs was able to influence his workers on the need of being innovative, and hence the development of innovative products such as iPods and iTunes. On this basis, this class had greatly played a role in helping me to understand the various concepts of social networks and management practices. To improve enrollments therefore, I will suggest the following; Creating a website for the class that will explain the importance of pursuing this class and how beneficial it is. Creating a face book profile that will help in interacting with various potential students. Using students to encourage their friends on the importance of attending this class. The use of technology is beneficial because the class administrator will manage to reach a variety of students who want to take a enroll in this class, but do not know how they stand to benefit. Students normally have some sense of influence on their peers, and on this basis, they might manage to convince their peers on the importance of taking the lessons under consideration. Works Cited: Chen, Stephen. "Corporate Responsibilities in Internet-Enabled Social Networks." Journal of Business Ethics 90.4 (2009): 523-536. Print. Egbert, Henrik. "Business Success through Social Networks? A Comment on Social Networks and Business Success." American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc 68.3 (2009): 665-678. Print. Faust, Katherine. "Very Local Structure in Social Networks." Sociological Methodology 37 (2007): 209-256. Print. Fuhse, Jan. "The Meaning Structure of Social Networks." Sociological Theory 27.1 (2009): 41- 73. Print. Kadushin, Charles. Understanding social networks: theories, concepts, and findings. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print. Krackhardt, David, and Jefferey Hanson. "Informal Networks, the Company Behind the Charts." Harvard Business Review 3.2 (1993): 1-10. Print. Mitchell, J Clyde. "Social Networks." Annual Review of Anthropology 3 (1974): 279-299. Print. Pye, Lucien. "The Spirit of Chinese Politics." Journal of Political Studies 37 (1992): 207-217. Print. Venkateswaran, N.. International business management. 2nd ed. New Delhi: New Age International, 2012. Print. Zeleznik, Abraham. "Managers and Leaders, are they different." Harvard Business Review 1 (1997): 74-83. Print. Read More