History Of Green Supply Chain Management - 1324 Words

Introduction Environmentally sustainable (Green) supply chain management has gained attention within the area of industry, because the environmental issue is one of the serious concern for governments. Green supply chain management is one of the key approach for Chinese manufacturing industry to achieve their market share objectives and to make maximum profit for the companies(van Hock and Erasmus, 2000). Green supply chain management is a management with combination of environmental and supply-chain, considering environmental concern into supply - chain management has become extremely important for a company which will also give that an advantage for the company to gain their market and maintain their position in the competition with their competitor (Qinghua Zhu 2009). Obviously, environment,logistics and strategy are the three key steps to involved to green supply Chain management. Historical development of green supply chain management The term â€Å" Green supply chain management† only defined in the last several years. The concept of Green supply chain is a new concept, however before the concept â€Å" Green supply chain† had been defined, â€Å"Sustainable Development† was the major term as discussed in 1992 Earth Summit in Rio ( Nimawat Dheeraj and Namdev Vishat 2012). In order to made a long term economic development in 1992, according to Nimawat and Namdev’s report, they said that â€Å"governments and some other global organisations decided to take useful measures toShow MoreRelatedGreen Procurements And Managerial Decision Making1080 Words   |  5 Pages GREEN PROCUREMENTS AND MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING IN SUPPLY CHAIN ENVIRONMENTS: A REVIEW OF NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY APPROACH Research Background Establishing the context Increasingly, individuals, organizations and governments have become very concerned about the impacts of public procurement and utilizations of goods and services on the environment in particular and society as a whole. Regarding the scale, recent estimates suggest between 8-25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) of OrganizationRead MoreConsumer Confidence : Product Lifecycle Pricing1542 Words   |  7 Pageslifecycle creation of their product or service, the firm’s risks their reputation in being accused of green washing. 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The sustainability manager creates a green strategy for the whole company. This person will have the opportiunity to influence the entire organization in a very strategic way that will enable them to present a clear strategy for Top Shelf. Top Shelf has a history of unstability and it willRead MoreSunset Growers Cultivates Its Supply Chain1278 Words   |  6 PagesGrowers Cultivates its Supply Chain Sunsweet Growers Inc. is the world’s largest agricultural corporate dealing in dried tree fruits. It has its headquarters in Yuba City (California) and it processes and markets 40,000 cases of dried fruits every day. It is the global market leader of prunes. Like any other company, Sunsweet has issues with its supply chain management. Some of the constraints faced by the company are as follows: * Single limited source of supply * Supply and demand beyondRead MoreA Brief Analysis of the Hayward Lumber Company’s Environmental Strategy (Case Study)1179 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿OM 671 – Supply chain environmental management â€Å"Green† Building A Brief Analysis of the Hayward Lumber Company’s Environmental Strategy 1/23/2014 HLC initially looked into FSC-certified wood when custom home-builders began to generate a demand for the material. This consumer base is generally providing a service for luxury home buyers who tend to be less price-sensitive and willing to pay the higher rates in order to claim environmental friendliness. The other portion of their

The Legacy Of John Carter, And Nathanial Rochester (...

James Cutler, and Nathanial Rochester (Thomas, 10-17). The many people that are brought into Mt. Hope’s grounds all bring their own unique memory to a place where it can be properly honored and cherished as equals. Another way Douglass is honored is by marking all of his points of occupancy as almost hollowed ground, by putting up plaques to mark their significance. The first notable plaque resides at the now office building on Main Street. In Douglass’s time he transformed the building into the center for his newspaper. He was the editor of the paper The North Star from 1847 until 1863 (Frederick Douglass Newspaper Office). In the building’s heyday it was used as a stopping point along the Underground Railroad. When Douglass left the†¦show more content†¦His name carries the weight of thousands of individual’s message, even to this day, to gain equal rights for African American citizens. And Rochester has taken it upon themselves to label him as their own, seen through a mass number of sites they have set aside to carry his name. This idea of ownership and an overall message for Douglass brings up a lot of concerns, and therefore a lot of ways one can hope to improve the situation. This overall message showing Douglass as the human embodiment of freedom can easily be translated over into Rochester’s message. By taking great ownership of the Douglass name, and using it to put up many monuments in his honor, the city hopes to bring forth this idea that they greatly support racial equality. In a time where racial tensions are still extremely high, this message is vitally important. It can be used as a cloak to hide behind when the public is unsatisfied with how the city is handling race issues. By using Douglass as their mascot they seem to think they can do no wrong in this department, as long as they acknowledge the themes he stood for, and now represents. It is thought that a city named after a Maryland slave owner (Frederick Douglass Newspaper Office), Nathaniel Rochester, could greatly benefit in this day in age by updating their image to show support for Frederick Douglass’s ideals. There is a major problem that comes with this idea of using Fr ederick Douglass as a

Yahoo free essay sample

Yahoo! Inc. is a global US Internet Corporation, founded in California in 1994, which provides a range of products and content, including email, media streaming and downloads. Surviving the dot. com crash in 2001, Yahoo concentrated on pursuing partnerships with telecoms and internet providers to compete with AOL, they acquired smaller search engines and built their own technology to control the search results. There were various merger discussions held between Yahoo and Microsoft over the course of 2005-2007, however all attempts to form a merger were unsuccessful. The company had maintained it’s value proposition from 2005-2009 as one of the market leaders in search, it had healthy top line growth however it suffered from falling profits, web traffic and share price and this resulted in the appointment of their new CEO, Marissa Mayer in 2012. This essay will examine Yahoo’s business model, it’s value proposition and attempt to forecast its future financial performance based on ability to generate future revenues, drive traffic to it’s properties and investors’ confidence in Mayer’s strategy for the remainder of 2013. We will write a custom essay sample on Yahoo or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Business Model Yahoo business model is primarily a two-sided business model. According to Evans Schmalensee (2005), this business model is where firms act as platforms and sell two different products to two different groups of buyers taking into account that demand from one group of buyers depends on demand from the other group of buyers, while buyers of the two groups do not take this indirect network effects into account, so that these are in fact externalities for buyers. According to Wely (2010), three key characteristics of two-sided markets are; (1) price discrimination between two distinct groups of users, (2) cross network effects between market sides and (3) bilateral market power of the platform. NETWORKED MARKETED 1 SIDE 2 SIDE PLATFORM PROVIDERS Web Search Searchers (subsidy side) Advertisers Yahoo, Google, Bing Yahoo offers free use of its search services and products to its’ users. It provides a range of services to consumers via their web portal, search engine Yahoo Search and related services including Directory, Mail, Finance, Groups, Answers, mapping, video sharing and social media. It also sells Internet user data to third party affiliates, who have integrated their advertising offerings into their websites. Thirdly, it provides a range of marketing tools to advertisers and publishers who visit Yahoo and it’s affiliate sites. Yahoo generates revenues by providing marketing services to advertisers across a range of Yahoo owned and affiliate sites. Yahoo also charges for a range of premium services that it offers users for some of it’s services. In 2011, Yahoo and Microsoft formed a Search Alliance, which enabled Microsoft to provide web, video and image listings to Yahoo. Yahoo’s value proposition Yahoo is a global brand name, reaching large audiences with leading positions in search function and display advertising. Yahoo’s value proposition has been created for both it’s customers (advertisers and affiliates) and it’s users (search, products) by creating quality services that attract over 500 million users worldwide. Yahoo’s emphasis is on the quality of the user experience, personalised content and information. Yahoo’s strategy CEO and former Google executive, Marissa Mayer has been in control of the new business strategy for just over 12 months. According to Mayer, Yahoo’s biggest opportunities for growth are increasing usage, growing its international presence and appealing to a broader demographic of users, in that order. Mayer has been in the spotlight for the number of acquisitions she has bought, including the popular blogging site Tumblr. com for 1. 1billion. Graph 1: BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK Data from YAHOO financial reports Mobile Market Mayer says Yahoo has more than 200 million unique mobile users a month, but is struggling to monetize it’s offerings, although as Mayer points out, neither has any of its’ competitors. In response to the fast growing mobile advertising market, Yahoo has been actively pursuing partnerships with carriers and original equipment manufacturers in the mobile industry, as well as tailoring their existing marketing services to mobile user. Mayer is trying to improve or enhance existing products in the mobile market, acquiring apps, redesigning and recreating their web offerings for mobile. Recently Apple launched a new weather app, which looks identical to that of Yahoo’s and according to Jay Yarow from Business Insider,â€Å"If Mayer really wants to succeed in mobile shes going to have to create new categories not just iterate on the existing categories. † Financial performance and performance forecast As reported in Yahoo’s 2nd quarter 2013 financial reports, year on year their revenue remained flat at $4. 98 billion, although the company grew net income 276. 18% from 1. 05 billion to 3. 95 billion. Yahoo’s 2nd quarter 2013 revenue of 1. 07bn was below the prior year’s 2nd quarter results. Yahoo Financial Highlights Yahoo’s display advertising revenue dropped 12% and search advertising revenues fell by 9%. Mayer attributes this to the fact that as the company is growing traffic, the opportunity to run more ads presents itself however this hasn’t translated to revenue growth yet. Mayer is confident that this will follow through in Quarter 4. According to the financial analysts reporting to markets. ft. com, Yahoo’s revenue will increase in Q4 (see graph 3). Mayer will concentrate now on improving Yahoo’s top-line revenue which is projected will rise by the end of 2013. The projection is that she will roll out the mobile advertising platform which will attract advertisers who are eager to utilise the power of mobile. Her new products and acquisitions are growing in popularity and will drive traffic to Yahoo properties. This combined with the seasonal boost for the final quarter of 2013 will bring their final revenue for 2013 to a projected 5. 1 billion. Graph 3: YAHOO FINANCIAL REVENUE FORECAST 2013 markets. ft. com Market Capitalisation According to Selena Larson from ReadWrite. com Yahoo’s market capitalisation has grown by $14 billion since Mayer’s appointment as CEO in 2012. Mayer attributes this to the increased value of Yahoo’s investments in Yahoo Japan and China. Yahoo’s growth in earnings per share items increased 301. 54% and according to market. ft. com the company’s five year annualised earnings per share growth ranks above the industry average relative to its peers. Mayer’s aggressive acquisition strategies have impressed the market along with the company’s focus on mobile growth, as the consensus among financial forecasters across a variety of agencies is that Yahoo will outperform the market in the final quarter of 2013. The forecast is that their share price will rise to a high of $36. 00 in the next 12 months. Graph 4: YAHOO FINANCIAL SHARE PRICE FORECAST 2013 markets. ft. com Web Traffic According to comScore almost 197 million individuals visited a Yahoo! website in July 2013 versus 192 million for Google. This figure does not include traffic of recently acquired blogging site Tumblr, which itself had 38 million visitors that month, nor mobile phone usage. The number of unique visitors to yahoo. Yahoo’s strategy to drive traffic to its’ properties appears to be working, users are rediscovering Yahoo and its’ affiliate sites. Yahoo believes there is a future value for users and customers in personalisation, having recently launched a new homepage called â€Å"My Yahoo†, where users can personalise their homepage newsfeed. Yahoo’s new CEO, Marissa Mayer personally took to Twitter with a promise to retweet anyone who would make the new product their homepage. Yahoo offers a range of premium digital media through their web portal, comprising of 63 different products and services. Conclusion Yahoo is operating in a highly competitive market, where the cost of revenue appears to be rising faster than the growth in revenue, which poses a challenge for the Internet giant. However, in the 12 months since Marissa Mayer took over as CEO, Yahoo stock has risen 75%, she has reorganised the workforce and attracted new talent including some of her old colleagues from Google. Under her direction, the company launched a new products that are engaging consumers, acquired new ventures that will enable the company to and has made Yahoo an attractive place to work. Her strategy to date appears to be working, this is still very early stages of the Yahoo turnaround and Mayer needs to concentrate on developing new products that are unique, personalised and engaging and reach consumers via mobile in order to drive web traffic, increase Yahoo’s top-line revenue and increase the share price. References Ankeny, J. Yahoo tops 340m monthly mobile users, suffers Q2 revenue decline† Fiercemobilecontent. com Chaey, C. (2013) â€Å"Marissa Mayer: Yahoo will crack out a dozen products that fix â€Å"digital daily habits†. FastCompany. com Evans, D. Schmalensee, R. (2005), â€Å"The Industrial Organisation of Markets with Two-Sided Platforms,† NBER Working Papers, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. Juliet Garside (2013). Google overtaken by Yahoo! in US website visitors for first time in two years. The Guardian. Larson, S. â€Å"With 800 Million Monthly Users, Yahoo CEO Touts Turnaround in Growth.

Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous free essay sample

Alcoholics Anonymous (A. A. ) is a worldwide fellowship for individuals to share their experiences, and to gain strength and support from one another in an effort to recover from alcoholism. A. A. is based upon a Twelve Step program to recovery that acts as a personal guide to sobriety. Countless individuals find their sobriety in this volunteer fellowship, in fact many find the Twelve Steps to be their personal miracle; this is eloquently articulated in Understanding the Twelve Steps: Working the Steps can create the miracle of sobriety, but the miracle isn’t magic. The miracle occurs because working the Twelve Steps allows people to use powerful principles of recovery. Those who are willing to dig beneath the surface and truly understand the principles upon which the Steps are based are better able to use the principles in their lives (Gorski, 1989, p. 2). To reiterate what Terence T. Gorski has expressed, those who are willing to truly adopt and ‘work’ the Twelve Steps experience the persuasive nature of one of the most powerfully rhetorical texts of modern society1 To gain perspective on this very unfamiliar rhetorical text, I accepted an invitation to attend an open A. We will write a custom essay sample on Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page A. meeting as a guest. Before entering this meeting I underestimated and misunderstood Kenneth Burke’s complex notion of rhetoric as a phenomenon dependant on audience self-persuasion. I attended the meeting with this simplified notion of rhetoric in mind. I mistakenly expected to experience individual alcoholics express their personal gratitude to the Twelve Steps for their healing and sobriety. However, in opposition I experienced a fellowship, one where numerous individuals are able to understand and reiterate each other’s successes and failures, struggles with the Twelve Steps and above all, they share utmost gratitude for the honest and supportive community created through the Twelve Steps. While my first understanding of Burkean rhetoric is true, I ignorantly had not understood the power of a collective voice. Furthermore, Burke emphasizes that words are only effectively persuasive when they â€Å"speak the language of the voice within. Persuasion is only complete when an audience member convinces himself or herself of what has been said by others†(Burke in Borchers, 2006, p. 151). This experience reminds me of the African proverb: It takes a village to raise a child; it takes the collective fellowship of A. A. for the Twelve Steps to rhetorically foster successful sobriety for so many individuals. With this I am able to understand that discourse of any sy mbolic form involves rhetorical action as the means for an individual to link oneself to another and to collective social environments. The A. A. culture that embraces the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous does just this, it weaves together a number of individuals battling alcoholism forming a collective; â€Å"It is a fundamental means through which we create identification- what Burke sometimes calls ‘consubstantiation,’ whereby identification is achieved through a sharing of the ‘substance’ (the terms, the meaning potentials) of text† (Stillar, 1998, p. 6). I liken Michael Halloran’s theory of ‘spectacle’ with Burke’s theory of ‘substance;’ Halloran explains ‘spectacle’ as, â€Å"a public gathering of people who have come to witness some event and are self-consciously present to each other as well as to whatever it is that has brought them together† (Halloran, 2001, p. 5). With this in mind, for the purpose of this analysis let us understand A. A meetings as a ‘spectacle’ where members of the A. A fellowship collectively understand the ‘substance’ of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Identification through and with this rhetorical text, one that is a communal substance, aids each individual to be stronger in their sobriety together as a fellowship, than he or she is able to be apart. I am inspired by Glenn F. Stillar’s Analyzing Everyday Texts: Discourse, Rhetoric, and Social Perspectives, in which he proposes a framework that stems from Kenneth Burke’s work which further extends theories of discourse analysis to understand how and why symbolic action occurs. I will utilize this framework for a rhetorical analysis of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. In particular I will pay specific attention to the Burkean perspective that focuses on a social agent(s)’ dual relationship with symbolic systems and symbolic action. This perspective will prevalently influence my dissection of the Burkean System including: Grammar, Rhetoric and Logology (p. 60). In extension, I will breakdown these three rhetorical theories to better understand how the combination of environment, relationships and hegemonic ideology create the rhetorical nature of the Twelve Steps of A. A. Grammar seeks to understand how a motive is constructed in discourse, based in Burke’s pentad and theory of ratio I will analyze how elements are selected and combined into ratios to create meaning. In addition, I will attempt to dissect Burke’s idea of substance and how the classification of such creates meaning. Next under the theory of rhetoric, I will analyze the importance of identification and construction of unity by means of substance also known in Burkean terms as consubstantiation. Finally I will discuss logology, where I will attempt to understand what rhetorical effect motives inherent to symbol systems especially language, have on an audience. Dramatism is Burke’s method of analysis to understand how language and other symbol systems (i. e. text) embody and construct motives. Furthermore, this method of analysis focuses on language as a ‘species of action’ inspiring the receiver to act rather than simply define the cluster of words that create a text (Stillar, 1998). Within this method of analysis, language is a strategic mode of symbolic action rather than a mode of individual definition (Stillar, 1998). This notion is shared and placed into context by Terence T. Gorski author of Understanding the Twelve Steps, he reiterates that individual digestion and usage of the Twelve Steps of A. A. is not the text’s only purpose; â€Å"Twelve Step programs are not just meetings; they are a sober, recovery-focused, social network. And this, together with the Steps and sponsorship, creates a sobriety-oriented community that makes recovery happen†(1989, p. 6). Burke’s pentad is a tool of analysis to help us understand how motives are constructed in rhetorical language. There are five elements of the pentad: Act is what happened or took place, Scene is the background of the act, Agent is the person(s) who performed the act, Agency is the means through which the act took place and Purpose is the reason the act took place (Borchers, 2006). Additionally, Timothy Borchers notes that the pentad should not be used to identify the elements of rhetoric, but instead to explore the motives of the rhetor. It is important to remember that the pentad is a strategic tool utilized by a rhetor to shape text by arranging pentadic elements into ratios. Therefore as Burke suggests, the rhetor or social agent will construct a ratio to determine reality by selection and deflection; â€Å"A particular pentadic pattern in a text is both a ‘selection’ and a ‘deflection’: A text deploys selected pentadic resources and the elements can combine in different ways, each leading to a different construction of motive†¦Ratios are principles of ‘determination’ and ‘selectivity’† (Burke in Stillar, 1998, p. 4). Furthermore, because pentadic elements are interchangeable, so too is the rhetorical message within text. The Twelve Steps have a linear nature in which the rhetorical motive of the text is constantly transforming along with the progress or regress of rhetor’s recovery; ratio mirrors these alterations pending on environment, relat ionship or ideologic influence. It is necessary that we understand the self-persuasive nature of this text and therefore, the alcoholic as the rhetor. Again, from Halloran’s perspective, â€Å"Members of the audience become rhetors through their visible and audible reactions, transforming the event as it transpires into an enactment of their social order†(Hallorin, 2001, p. 6). An example of this can be noted in the first step: 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable. To be able to successfully ‘work’ through the steps this individual must first understand this step as andagent: act’ ratio. What this means is the individual (agent) understands that he or she is at fault for the act of his or her alcoholism. For the alcoholic to successfully complete this step and move forward to ‘work’ through the remaining eleven steps, he or she must determine a ratio such as this to provide an appropriate frame. The second aspect of grammar is assigning substance, similar to a pentadic ratio; substance requires both ‘selection’ and ‘deflection. ’ Glenn Stillar clarifies these relationships: He defines a selection as, â€Å"the ways in which motives may be attributed or understood, and it is a deflection because it impels us to see in its terms, not in others† (1998, p. 7). Again much like ratio, substance is a socially constructed phenomenon that also produces identities (Stillar, 1998). To identify with someone or something is to be united by a similar substance. This self-persuasive phenomenon can be likened to a domino effect, when multiple social actors identify with one another through similar experience the substance’s rhetorical power is compacted. In this sense, the definition of substance within Alcoholics Anonymous is not the substance of the text, but instead the text as the ‘substance. Each individual member is encouraged to work with and interpret the Steps in a fashion appropriate to the individual (Gorski, 1989). Furthermore as an A. A. fellowship comes into formation, common ground is based on each member’s relationship with this text and one’s ability to discuss this text with other members. For example, if Member A was struggling to work through Step five: 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs, then perhaps he or she needs to reassess completion of the first four Steps and discuss this with his or her fellowship. Terence Gorski insists that when Member A has succeeded in indentifying his or her mistaken beliefs and character defects he or she should discuss these things with other Members: â€Å" It’s self-defeating to keep it a secret. One recovering person put it this way: â€Å"We are only as sick as our secrets. † Why? Because keeping secrets forces us to live in isolation†¦Your addictive self keeps you out of touch with yourself and isolated from other people. The Fifth Step is the path out of isolation (Gorski, 1989, p. 4-95). Therefore, it can be said that the rhetorical characteristics of the Twelve Steps of A. A. lie within this communal ‘substance’ shared by all members of A. A. This social dimension must not be underestimated, the rhetorical power lies within the collective commitment to this individual process. Admitting and accepting this idea is the only possible way to begin the process of sobriety; to begin the ‘work’ of the Twelve Steps; to join the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. To relate oneself to the substance of a particular group or community, Burke suggests that the rhetorical practice of identification must occur. Thomas Harte summarizes this Burkean notion, â€Å"Persuasion takes place only as the result of some variant of the process: You persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his. Through the employment of stylistic identification strategies the speaker establishes rapport with his audience, causing it to identify its interests with his† (Harte, 1977, p. 5). It is key to reiterate that in our discussion of the rhetorical nature of the Twelve Steps, the speaker and the audience are the same social actor. Thus far we have dismantled top-down rhetorical practice, we have blurred the roles of rhetor and audience, and we understand that lived experience has a heavy influence on the rhetorical nature of text. All of the above have utilized one form or another of identification, let us now dismantle Burkean rhetoric and understand this theory’s true persuasive power. Identification is the tool we use to reduce the division between ourselves and to construct our own reality united by a similar substance. Kenneth Burke eloquently illustrates the process of identification, â€Å"A is not identical with his colleague, B. But insofar as their interests are joined, A is indentified with B. Or he may identify himself with B even when their interests are not joined, if he assumes that they are, or is persuaded to do so† (Stillar, 1998, p. 73). The function of rhetoric is to overcome separation and create social realities, collective communities in which we must operate. Alcoholics are usually people who have been collectively socially identified and outcast as diseased. With this in mind, we must acknowledge the refreshingly positive nature of identification that is utilized within the Alcoholics Anonymous fellowship. To counter this societal narrative and renegotiate the individual’s relationship within society one must join the other team; the recovery team and this is possible, â€Å"so long as the ‘sufferer’ agrees to take on responsibility for the sickness†(Cloud, 1998, p. 2). The Twelve Steps are separated in a rhetorical fashion as to speak a different sermon for a different Sunday; any given step is never interpreted in the same way, instead each step is intended to give new insight each and every time it is worked with (Gorski, 1989). Appropriately, the first three steps ask newcomers to admit their powerlessness and surrender control to a higher power, and in doing so begin the process of identification as an alcoholic. The Twelve Steps are a launch pad for a relationship of consubstantiality between members of the A. A. ellowship and therefore, if the steps are to be misinterpreted the fellowship should self-correct. George Jensen emphasizes this consubstantiality that exists within the fellowship, â€Å"When a newcomer is making the steps too cryptic or onerous, and old-timer will simplify them. When a newcomer claims to have mastered the steps, an old-timer will, in some way, suggest that they are too complex and difficult to have mastered so quic kly†(Jensen, 2000, p. 53). Without judgment, the communal process that surrounds the steps gently guides new or old members onto their rightful path by way of the Steps. As we have seen, the process of releasing one’s personal power throughout the first three steps, allows the individual rhetor to identify as an alcoholic. However the second set of steps challenge this consubstantial progress. Steps four through and including nine ask the alcoholic to examine one’s moral character, challenge one’s character defects, and make amends. These six steps are key because they allow the individual an opportunity to understand who he or she really is and it is this rigorous honesty that forms the foundation of recovery. For example the problematic Step four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of Ourselves, it proves to be one of the more difficult steps to ‘work’ through because it forces members to move past denial towards honesty (Jensen, 2000). This is the case for two reasons, for one because this step is acutely focused on the individual member opposed to the previous steps that reiterate the fellowship’s strength. Second, while the individual rhetor will continue to align oneself as a member of the A. A. fellowship, momentarily he or she must come to terms with their past before A. A. While difficult, this step allows the individual an opportunity to reflect and understand one’s personal strengths and weaknesses so as to build upon the strengths and overcome the weaknesses (Jensen, 2000). The interesting aspect of this process is as the individual grows, so too does the fellowship, the substance morphs and changes strengthening the consubstantiality. Jensen confirms this reality and suggests, â€Å"some members claim that those who have completed-really completed- a fourth step never relapse† (Jensen, 2000, p. 5). With every member’s success the fellowship grows in spirit. The final three steps can be described as spiritual maintenance; â€Å"Members of the program work these steps, often on a daily basis, as a means of continuing their spiritual progress and staying in touch with the fellowship† (Jensen, 2000, p. 56). At this point within the fellowship, not only has a member conquered the majority of the steps, he or she has a safe ty net of a sponsor and/or friends to call at anytime if any need arise. Within the final leg of the Twelve Steps I think it is safe to agree with Halloran’s notion that lived experience sometimes overwhelms the persuasive nature of the text (2001). Step twelve extends is rhetorical power to the experience of a spiritual awakening as a result of working through the Twelve Steps: 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. As we can see the Twelve Steps have created a fellowship and an A. A. ommunity that is unshakeable, it seems that the text of the steps are mere words that set the stage for success. Dramatism is interested in how language creates and maintains collective communities of individuals (Borchers, 2006). One could say that Burkean rhetorical theory is of the same substance as dramatistic perspective; both methods of analysis favor language as the foundation for successful rhetoric by activation of the audienceâ€⠄¢s willingness to act. Similarly, logology is interested in language itself as a motive and how the rhetorical nature of language characterizes ratio, substance and identification. Furthermore, this branch of rhetorical theory questions the conditions in which language is socially constructed and explores the consequences that language impose on social actors (Stillar, 1998). If language creates and maintains collective communities of individuals we must acknowledge that this occurs because of two forms of classification: identification and division. Denise Jodlowski confirms and expands this: Identification, he argued, [Burke] inherently invites consideration of its opposite—division. Although group members will identify with one another in order to cohere as a unit, they will also necessarily define themselves in opposition to or division from other groups. Additionally, group members can divide against one another. Such is the case in storytelling, where the teller faces division if a story does not resonate with others (2007, p. 17). Such is the case for an alcoholic, he or she is often outcast from ‘normal-functioning’ society and is placed in a wasteland until he or she finds the Twelve Steps and the fellowship of A. A. Even an open and welcoming community such as the fellowship of A. A. uses language both to define identification and division between other groups; us versus them, sobriety versus illness, and alone versus fellowship. The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous prevalently use the collective pronoun â€Å"We,† a word, a mere fragment of language that unites any number of people as a collective. This two-letter word frames the Twelve Steps and the A. A. ommunity as approachable and accessible, likewise George Jensen reiterates this thought: The subject of the steps is plural â€Å"we,† which is less preachy, emphasizing the importance of working the steps within a group, and its actions are expressed in the past tense, which emphasizes that this is the plan others have already followed and found effective in achieving sobriety (Jensen, 2000, p. 52). Logology is interested in just this, the use of â€Å"We† as unifying language that inspires the social actor and fu rthermore the alcoholic to commit to the Twelve Steps and to the fellowship. It is this simple word that creates and maintains collective communities of individuals. The text of the Twelve Steps of A. A. linguistically lends itself to another collective community; that being a community embraced under the umbrella term therapeutic discourse or better known as ‘self-help. ’ Under this umbrella, social actors are inherently plagued with illness, disease and moral indecency. Dana Cloud emphasizes this notion through Wendy Simonds’ research data collected from interviews with readers of self-help text; â€Å"readers are persuaded by messages in these texts encouraging them to take responsibility of their ‘illnesses’†(1998, p. 3). As a ‘self-help’ model, the very core of A. A. culture is linguistically constructed in a way as to constantly humble its members through ‘self-help’ discourse. To be able to work through the Twelve Steps, a member must first and foremost admit their illness: 1: We admitte d we were powerless over alcohol- that our lives had become unmanageable; this is the only way for a individual to truly be of the same substance as the fellowship of A. A. An example of this is as follows, the fellowship requires its members to introduce oneself as follows: â€Å"Hello my name is Marissa. I’m an alcoholic† followed by the routine response â€Å"Hello Marissa,† and by acknowledging oneself as an alcoholic and taking personal responsibility for one’s ‘illness,’ the response is a sincere welcome for who is soon to be, if not already a friend. By admitting one’s illness, he or she is commended and embraced by the A. A. fellowship. As in most ‘self-help’ texts, beauty is found amongst the wreckage, A. A. doesn’t differ, and in fact its consubstantial unity thrives upon shameless surrender. Just as there isn’t one single face to the disease of alcoholism, there certainly isn’t one single voice for successful sobriety. Instead, the power of sobriety is found in the collective voice of multiple members, the fellowship. The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is the substance of which the members of the A. A. fellowship are nourished. The consubstantial nature of this text provides a stage for success; Terence Gorski insists on the simplicity of this success, â€Å"there are certain conditions that make this happen- namely, sober people, operating under free choice, discussing the principles that underlie the Steps†(1989, p. 181). The Twelve Step program is a volunteer fellowship, a community where members help themselves and others to stay sober. With confidence, I conclude that it is the Alcoholics Anonymous experience that allows a member to transform, to solidify his or her sobriety and to support one’s fellow members along the same journey. Appendix The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcoholthat our lives had become unmanageable. 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. : Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 0: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.