Characteristics of a Metropolitan

Characteristics of a Metropolitan ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to understand what Groningen appropriates as a mini-metropolis city. The first step is to find the meaning of the metropolis from a variety of sources, the second step of searching for data about Groningen and the third step is to compare between the two data. In the end is at a conclusion that the metropolis are not only associated with the factor number of population, area and economy of a city, but a related metropolis of a character which is owned by the city. So Groningen with all matters and functions and its ability to further develop its compliance is said to be a mini-metropolis city. Metropolis Characteristics Metropolitan is a term used to describe a relatively large urban area, both of the size of area, population, and the scale of economic and social activity. While the etymology, said metropolitan (noun) or metropolis (adjective) is derived from the Ancient Greek language, which the word meter means mother, and the word polis means city. (Wackerman, 2000) In general, the metropolitan can also be defined as a large residential center that consists of a large city and some in the surrounding area with one or more major cities that serve as a point of contact (hub) to the towns in the surrounding areas. A metropolitan area is an agglomeration of several settlements, settlements should not be the city, but the overall form a unity in nature activities and lead to the city center (a large city that is the core) that can be seen from the flow of labor and commercial activities. According Goheen (in Bourne, ed. 1971), City / Metropolitan District is an urban area with a population characteristic that stand out in comparison with the surrounding countryside. This term is used to give a more precise picture of the amount and concentration of the population in a large area, which in turn can show the magnitude of the centers of the main settlements in the country. In general, the metropolitan region can be defined as l arge, with economic and social unity integrated and characterize the activity of the city. The characteristics of the Metropolitan of several aspects such as the amount of population, economic activities, mobility, activities of the population, and the structure of the region. 1. The amount of the total population The magnitude of population becomes a major consideration in determining the aspects of the definition of a metropolitan. However, some urban experts set different limits for the determination of the minimum number of metropolitan area population. 2. Economic activity In the metropolitan area occurs agglomeration residential areas and jobs. That is, the metropolitan area is an urban area with a specializing in social and economic activities function. The economic specialization is the industrial and services sectors. Industrial activities and services is the dominant sector in the growing metropolitan region. Economic activities that take place in the metropolitan area is heterogeneous and has a role as a central / center of economic activities on a regional scale, both within the province or state and national scope.

International strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International strategy - Essay Example Disadvantages of Scandinavian business culture From the case study, it is clear that IKEA has been following a Scandinavian business culture, even in most of its international assignments. Scandinavian business culture is dominated by a direct style and more open culture. Conversations are more liberal and personal, and they prefer not asking questions after meetings or presentations. It should be noted that this culture is opposite to America or Asia, where business meeting are more formal and structured (Warner and Joynt, 2002). A typical Scandinavian culture gives high importance to consensus in every decision they take. Hierarchical structure is more or less flat and decision making can be sometimes very lengthy, because agreement has to be taken from every member of the business. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA followed a similar culture. His distinctive style and objective of making a difference in the lives of common people drove his expansions strategy. He followed a non- conformist philosophy and looked at all facets of his distribution strategy, in order to focus and innovate (Politis, 2000). During the initial days, the objective of the company was to keep the costs low, and most of the strategies were made keeping this objective in focus. Supplier relationships were made reciprocal so that the company is above to sell whatever they have produced. Managers were expected to keep caring and close relationships with their subordinates and co-workers. Interactions between the co-workers and managers were characterized by egalitarianism and informality. In the following sections, IKEA business cultural and strategies will be discussed which the company implemented in different international assignments. While the culture of IKEA was a strong factor in contributing for the success of the company in its homeland, the same culture caused many issues and roadblocks when the company went for expansion strategy (Hofstede, and Minkov, 2010). The business cult ure of the host countries was vastly different from the way IKEA was doing business and caused cultural as well as business conflict (Huettinger, 2008). In Germany managers do not call each other by their first names as it is perceived as disrespectful. Business culture in Germany is mostly authoritative where managers takes order from bosses and are not supposed to perform any activity taking their own initiatives. This is vastly opposite from IKEA’s normal way of doing business. Thus, when IKEA entered Germany, its collaborative and opted business culture did not go well with the strict authoritarian German business culture. IKEA’s preference for informal relations between managers and co-workers was misinterpreted as disrespecting the boss and undermining the traditional rule of respecting authority. Also, the business culture is more adaptable to detailed work structure and a lengthy procedure, which is opposite IKEA’s cultural of minimalist bureaucracy and making things less burdensome. Similarly, in case of France, the informal culture of IKEA was interpreted as a sign of indecision and weakness. Also, in IKEA, recognition of status was not considered important, which again was interpreted as a negative sign in Germany. Even though the company was able to reduce communication problems arising in most of its international counterparts,

Empiricism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Empiricism - Essay Example We should reject knowledge claims concerning matters of fact about the nature of the world which are not supportable by the evidence of experience. This leads to a tendency among empiricists to emphasize that the limit of human knowledge and imagination is bounded by the limit of our experience. Empiricists reject the rationalist claim that it is possible to come to know by a priori reason alone the nature of an intelligible real world inaccessible to experience that stands beyond appearances. The empiricist may argue that concepts (such as substance), and the terms that express them, are meaningless or else must relate to some possible experience, since concepts and terms get their meaning by reference to some possible experience, but a world beyond experience cannot be a world that might possibly be experienced; in either case it is not possible to use meaningful concepts to talk of a world beyond possible experiences. The tendency in empiricism is also to deny the existence of natural necessity: necessity is a property only of logical relations between concepts, or of logical relations between ideas or thoughts, not between things or events in the world whose existence, nature and connections are all contingent; such natural contingent connections can be discovered not by reason, which can establish only necessary truths and necessary connections, but only by experience. Empiricism is inclined to argue that there are two exclusive and together exhaustive types of proposition. (a) Propositions whose truth, logically speaking, can be known merely by understanding them, or by deductive reasoning alone, independently of the evidence of experience: truths of reason. (b) Propositions whose truth, logically speaking, cannot be known merely by understanding them, or by deductive reasoning alone, but which depend on the evidence of experience: truths of fact. All propositions which tell us anything about the real or actual world are truths of fact. Propositions stating matters of fact cannot be known to be true merely by our understanding them, or by our deducing them from other propositions known to be true by the understanding alone; if we can know them to be true at all, they must be known through consulting experience. It should be noted that the distinction is not the genetic one of how we come to have, acquire, or understand these different sorts of proposition, but a logical question concerning on what, once acquired or understood, the truth or falsity of a proposition depends, and on what knowledge of the truth or falsity of a proposition depends. If the truth or falsity of a proposition depends only on the meaning of the terms in it, then it is an a priori proposition whose truth or falsity can be known a priori by reason alone independently of empirical evidence. If the truth or falsity of a proposition does not depend only on t he meaning of the terms in it, then it is an a posteriori proposition whose truth or falsity can only be known a posteriori by empirical evidence, not by reason alone. (Frederick Copleston, 1964, 54) The basic contrast between rationalism and empiricism is an argument about the extent and nature of what truths it is logically possible to know a priori by the understanding independently of experience, by intellectual intuition