International marketing management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

International marketing management - Essay Example is report aims at understanding the various definitions that have been set down by the various authors in the past and to analyse whether the statement by Markides (1999) has significance in the true sense. The following section will deal with the various definitions that have been developed over the years. Strategy includes a number of different aspects that it is associated with. Firstly, a strategy is normally long planned. This is in a hierarchical system of goals and objectives. A strategy is a combined effort to create a blend between the external environment, internal resources and the capabilities of the resources within the business (Bernus, et.al, 2003). â€Å"Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations† (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2006, p. 9). According to Johnson et.al, (2006), there are six major elements that strategic decisions are made out off. It is essential to understand that strategic decisions are normally long term directions of organisations, which include the scope of the organisation. Also this includes to a great extent gaining advantage over the competitors and addresses the changes that happen within the business environment. Strategies that are developed, try to develop the resources and try to improve the capabilities of the people within the organisation. These strategies are also expected to be based on the values and expectations of the stakeholder. According to George Steiner, strategy has become a part of the management literature as a mode to compare and counter the competitor’s actual or possible moves. He also highlights in his works that there is very little people who agree to the meaning of strategy in the real business world. He uses a few different definitions to explain strategy: According to Henry Mintzberg, strategy can be

Clients Requiring Psychotropic Medication Essay

Clients Requiring Psychotropic Medication - Essay Example It has been demonstrated that the results of combined therapy are superior to either type of therapy used alone. This approach is used by practitioners as pharmacotherapy-oriented psychotherapy (American Counseling Association, 2008). A major indication for using medication when conducting counseling, particularly for those patients with major mental disorders such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder is that psychotropic agents reduce anxiety and hostility. This improves the patient's capacity to communicate and to participate in the psychotherapeutic process involved in counseling. Another indication for such combined therapy is to relieve distress when the signs and the symptoms of the patient's disorder are so prominent that they require more rapid amelioration than psychotherapy alone may be able to offer. In fact there is a current consensus that each technique may facilitate the other; counseling may enable the patient to accept a much needed pharmacological agent, and the psychoactive drug may enable the patient to overcome resistance to entering or continuing counseling and psychotherapy (American Psychological Association, 2005). With the introduction of psychoactive medications ... theoretical issues about the value of medication in the overall treatment of a patient, as well as the practical issues of whether a psychotherapist can also be a medication provider. Consequently, there had been an idea of the counselors which saw medications as intrusive, unnecessary, and even harmful. Their belief was that relief was provided by talking with patients, understanding their problems, and assisting in resolving developmental conflicts and early life traumas. The biological school of mental health professionals began to assume that medication was the way to change brain functioning and that biological change was the only method leading to symptom relief. If the right combination of medication and/or medications could be found, the patient could eventually be "cured." In this framework, verbal therapy was superfluous and of relatively little value. Such clinicians also began to discount the importance of the prescriber/patient relationship, feeling that the only importa nt mechanism was the chemical effect of the medication (Antonuccio, D. O., Danton, W. G., & McClanahan, T. M., 2003). This debate still continues in a vestigial manner, but most clinicians now see value for both medications and psychotherapy in managing a mentally ill client. Both have importance and both can result in relief of symptoms, better when used together in a judicious manner. Often the combination of medication and verbal therapy is the most efficient route to rapid symptom relief. Today's therapeutic premise is that a combination of both forms of treatment, psychotropic medication and psychotherapy of various kinds, will not only be helpful, but also should be prescribed for many patients. While not all patients will opt for both therapies, it is the task of the clinician to