Process Improvement Essay Example for Free

Process Improvement Essay ABSTRACT This document will be evaluating an existing process within Toyota during the time of their accelerator crisis. A problem statement will be defined around the process of internal communication of concerns and ideas between foreign-based Toyota employees and the authoritative management of Toyota based in Japan. PROBLEM ANALYSIS OF SELECTED PROCESS Problem framing is a very important, but easily overlooked, part of decision-making. Framing a problem can have a heavy influence on the decisions that are made. It isnt enough to frame the problem; it should be framed with the solution in mind. This helps to keep the end goal of the decision-making process in mind so that the correct choices are made. In the case of Toyota, at the highest level, they had a major problem with some of their products involving unintended acceleration and their handling of  customer reports of the problem led to a whole mess of other problems. So from the outside looking in, it seems that many processes internal to Toyota had room for improvement. Although there are many different business sections of Toyota with their own respective problems such as customer service, public relations, manufacturing, the problem I would like analyze and offer improvement on is internal communication process between management and foreign employees and how the breakdown in this process affected some of the business decisions made by Toyotas upper management. As Toyota grew into a global powerhouse in the auto industry, the organizational structure that emerged was a centralized design †¦that put key decision-making in the hands of executives in Japan†¦ Some believed that Toyotas structure in the U.S. ultimately impaired its ability to prevent the safety problems before they reached the crisis (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 7-8). A quality tool or method used to help with the identification and prioritization of the potential causes of quality problems in a process is cause-and-effect analysis. In a way, this is a reverse engineering method used to identify the elements of a specific quality problem and to identify the causes so that it can be corrected. The problem wasnt the unintended acceleration of certain vehicles; the problem was the internal management decision-making that impacted the engineering of those vehicles which created the engineering problem. For some background information, the defining and founding philosophy of Toyota, the Toyota Way, has been around for a long time but it wasnt until the late 1980s in which they began production of their vehicles in the U.S. Specifically the problem of ideas from U.S.-based employees has been largely ignored for almost 20 years when it comes to key engineering or financial-based decisions. Despite the global sales volume gain, Toyota reported revenues of US $211 billion for 2009, a decrease of 19% for the previous year (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 2). Even though Toyota has been making large profits throughout the past 20 years, they experienced a decrease in 2009 and part of this was related to the ambitious initiatives and business decisions made by Toyotas upper management. Japan is notoriously consensus oriented, and companies have a strong tendency to mediate differences among individuals rather than accentuate them (Porter, 1996, pg. 63). Japanese culture and Toyotas centralized decision-making structure made it difficult for U.S. based employees to offer ideas, suggestions for improvements, or to elevate critical problems to upper management in Japan. Toyotas upper management, in their minds, let the U.S. employees do what they do best, which is supposedly marketing and selling. The process used by Toyota to communicate foreign employees ideas to upper management was heard, but not listened to. Even the process of internal communication between management had its breakdowns because of the perception by family-oriented managers of nonfamily managers in that nonfamily members didnt have such thoughts as safety and quality in the forefront of their minds. Overall, the communication process seemed to be that ideas were submitted from employees, whether by Japanese or foreign employees, to management and ideas were reviewed and pushed up the management chain when it was appropriate. However, ideas that might have some bearing on engineering, manufacturing or financing were largely ignored when the source of the ideas were from U.S.-based employees and this violated the Toyota Way. To add to the complexity, the process for communicating ideas became more convoluted depending on the audience, nonfamily or family-based managers. To sum this up into a problem statement: Toyota has violated their founding philosophy of employee empowerment, especially for non-Japanese employees, and continues to make important business decisions without any regard to concerns or ideas from foreign employees when appropriate. Employees may have ideas that could be used in the decision-making process to achieve better quality solutions. Toyota needs a better mechanism or improvement to this internal communication process to capture the knowledge and ideas of all employees and to share these ideas across the organization. All in all, its to improve the internal communication process bet ween employees and management in order to support the idea of continuous improvement and quality. CONTEXT OF SELECTED PROCESS FOR IMPROVEMENT The _Toyota Way_ mandates planning for the long term; highlighting problems  instead of hiding them; encouraging team work with colleagues and suppliers; and, perhaps most importantly, instilling a self-critical culture that fosters continuous and unrelenting improvement (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 3). Two cores ideas from the statement above are the idea of team work and most importantly employee empowerment. These two values are what made Toyota into a successful global corporation during their fast rise in the 1980s. Employees were encouraged to offer ideas for improvement for any process within the organization and this helped with continuing the idea of continuous improvement. An important part of making business decisions is having real-time and critical information. The selected process for improvement: improving the communication of ideas and concerns and the sharing of foreign employees ideas to Toyotas Japanese management team needs to be addressed immediately. The process selected for improvement is the process used to capture the ideas of all employees, U.S.-based included, and to have these ideas be properly represented and presented to management for review in real-time. You know the joke that every bank branch has a president well, every Toyota facility has a president, and one cant tell another what to do (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 8). This statement touches the surface of why the internal management communication process needs improvement at Toyota. The way the process is currently being represented in Toyotas organization is a complete violation of their founding philosophy. During the 2000s, Toyota pushed for a lot of initiatives that in hindsight were either short-term profit driven or too ambitious. For example, despite the savings of more than US $10 billion over the six years since CC21s inception, Watanabe set out to achieve even more cost savings through the new VI (Value Innovation) strategy (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 5). This was a business decision made to further drive up profits despite the respectable amount of savings already made financially. If the knowledge, ideas and concerns of employees were properly captured and communicated to management, it could have prevented some of the poor business decision-making made and the impact of these decisions on engineering and manufacturing. Two impacts of the poor decision-making was the decision to become leaner with the manufacturing process and  overstretching existing resources in trying to supplant GM as number on in the automobile industry. Toyotas has employees in many different markets who most likely had concerns regarding these decisions or ideas on how to improve the ideas and _communicated_ these ideas but these ideas werent being heard in time or heard at all by management. To put this all into context, the process for communicating ideas and concerns internally is impacted by the culture and internal structure of Toyota. These are both tough things to change but the process used to capture and represent ideas to management is something easy to improve. IMPLICATIONS OF THE PROCESS If the current internal communication process continues as is, there will continue to be a breakdown in the communication of potentially important ideas and concerns from employees to management. If employees feel as if their input isnt listened to or even heard, they will become apathetic or not even bother trying to communicate important ideas or concerns. As a result, this can lead to the cycle of poor business decisions being made resulting in more damage to the company. Even worse, this will continue to cause Toyota to stray away from the core values of the Toyota Way that made them a successful global corporation. Already what has happened as a result of the ignoring of ideas and making business decisions with only the goal of short-term profits in mind is that Toyota during the oil sludge crisis had to pay millions of dollars as a result of class action lawsuits and took a hit to their business image. Fast forward to the accelerator crisis, Toyota experienced losing $2 billion dollars during the recall, had to pay a $16.4 million dollar civil penalty under U.S. law, experienced a customer relations nightmare and even had some of their car models dropped from Consumer Reports. The dollar amount lost due to the alienation of customers, lack of accountability at first by Toyota, and corporate reputation and image hit is immeasurable. Implementing some mechanism to improve the communication process between  employees and management and even management can be improved with the use of something such as a knowledge management system. Effective knowledge management tools can help firms reduce internal costs of maintaining electronic filing systems and reduce the administrative expense of locating documents. Second, just as efficiency can improve profitability, leverage can have the same effect where knowledge transfer enhances the quality of work performance, and therefore, its value. In this context, leverage is the ability to delegate work to the most cost-effective resource. The transfer of knowledge is, in fact, the essence of knowledge management (Martin, 2002, pg. 1). Although it is a large internal expense, the benefits of a KM system would have a great effect on the general business results and business relationships of Toyota with its employees, management and even their supply chain. POTENTIAL OUTCOMES OF IMPROVING THE PROCESS Improving the current internal communication process of ideas and concern helps to improve employee relations between management and their reports. It helps to re-establish a culture of knowledge sharing and representing that captured knowledge in such a way that it can help to improve the business decision-making by upper management. Any important business decisions made by upper management have a direct impact on the shareholders. So any improvement in the process that results in better business decisions being made will have a direct positive impact for the shareholders. The current decision-making and straying away from the founding principles of the Toyota Way has damaged the company and continuing down this path will only make the future worse for Toyota. So having an internal mechanism to capture ideas and improve communication such as a KM system can only improve the situation. Employees would feel like their ideas are being heard and will continue to offer suggestions for continual improvement. An improvement in communication can help to break down the false perceptions that family-oriented managers have of nonfamily managers. For example, a family-based manager might come across an idea from an unexpected source, a nonfamily manager, and come to respect that person for their knowledge. In a  way, this could help to improve the Japanese culture way of making decisions internally. Toyota is almost in the top of their market, so they are their own worst enemy when it comes to being competitive. So an improvement in their internal decision-making around all important financial, engineering and manufacturing decisions will only help to sustain and further their current competitive edge. Sometimes an organization has to make a large internal expense in order to position themselves differently from their competitors. Strategic positioning means performing _different_ activities from rivals or performing similar activities in _different_ ways (Porter, 1996, pg. 62). So collecting ideas internally and using them to make better business decisions will help Toyota to strategically position themselves even further away from their competition. SUMMARY Overall, Toyota is its own worst enemy with the current decision-making process they have in place internally. Even though the centralized decision-making structure is what Toyota currently has in place, the decision-making needs to take into account employee input, whether foreign or not. Employee input has been a cornerstone of the Toyota Way and Toyota has strayed from this founding principle. The implications of continuing down this path will result in more crises which in turn results in loss business, damaged business reputation, lawsuits and losing the competitive edge. Improving this process will result in better employee relations; establish a knowledge sharing culture which is needed for an environment that is striving for continual improvement and better business decisions being made. REFERENCES Greto, M., Schotter, A., Teagarden, M. (2010). Toyota: The accelerator crisis. Thunderbird School of Global Management. Martin, K. (2002). Features Show Me the Money Measuring the Return on Knowledge Management. LLRX. Retrieved from http://www.llrx.com/features/kmroi.htm Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? _Harvard Business Review, 74_(6), 61-78. Russell, R.S., Taylor, B.W. (2011). _Operations management: Creating value along the supply chain_ (7th ed.)_._ Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons. ISBN: 9780470525906

Impact Of Economic Globalisation On Communication English Language Essay

Impact Of Economic Globalisation On Communication English Language Essay Global trade is a complex structure. Two-thirds of international trade are connected with Translational corporations. The biggest TNCs are a part of chemical, energy and the communication industry. International activities of those corporations promote English. TNCs are based on joint ventures and they usually choose English as their lingua franca. Agreements that they make are written in English. Those legal documents sometimes demand specialist English language training. Staff associated with tehnology transfer has to know English as well as the staff of secondary entrprises ( hotels, tourist facilities, etc.) connected with the TNCs. Changes More and more people are being employed in service industry, and this shift from producing goods towards services is visible also in English language. Material goods are becoming more valuable because of branding, and English is the primary language of advertising and marketing. Working at home while communicating with office by telephone or a computer, became very popular. Every day the number of those that sit in front of the computer gets bigger. Labour has become screen based. A shift towards knowledge-intensive industries is happening. Culture Language has been regarded since the Renaissance in terms of territory. Statistics about language, culture and economy, collected by international bodies, have been based on nation states, populations of speakers and relative sizes of economies. But chaos theory suggests the concept of ow may be better suited to understanding language in a borderless world.'(pp36) English is seen as a complex system. It flows into other languages, which adopt English words and phrases. But at the same time it is under the influence of those languages that It is effecting. As a result new language varieties in second-language-speaking are appearing. The ultimate drivers of language are the people who use it.'( Graddol 36) Every day people are moving. Sometimes it is because of education or business, and in other cases they are in a role of a tourist or maybe an imigrant. Where ever they go they take their languages and cultural values with them. International travel has a globalising effect; the impact on the use of English is noticable. Cmmunication People communicate with the help of the telephone and the internet. English is the dominant language of intercontinental communication, but some say that this dominance is unlikely to continue. With improving communications infrastructures, telephone conversations will be held on other languages more often; regional lingua francas will appear. Inequalities Proficiency in English may be one of the mechanisms for dividing those who have access to wealth and from those who do not.The global spread of English may also be associated with decreased use of endangered languages.'( Gradol 37) Some see English as a language of power, language that brings success, while others say it brings inequality; that it brings poverty. In the past, being extremely poor was connected with geography and ethnicity, but now it seems to be linked to the lingua franca. It has been claimed that English is associated with the loss of other languages. The fact is that a lot of languages are dissapearing. Usually those with least political or cultural power die faster and easier but the big languages are also likely to suffer from language shift. English is rarely the main, or direct cause of this.'(Graddol 39 ) The Internet is also a good example for inequality. There are a lot of materials on English, and the amount of the same on other languages cannot be compared; so access to information technologies makes a difference between the information poor and the information rich. English medium education is one of the mechanisms of spreading social and economic power but, spreading of English skills could influence the balance of power between ethnic groups. Study of gender balance at university in Brunei Darussalam showed that more women than men are graduating with science degrees and obtaining higher grades. Men, on the other hand, form the majority for literature courses. -This phenomena can be explained by the fact that science is taught through English a subject in which, from early secondary school, more Brunei girls than boys have excelled whilst literature is taught through the medium of Malay. (Graddol 39 ) Impact on English Everyday use of English is affected by trends; demographic, tehnological and economic ones. The work place- There are two tipes of working English; first one deals with communication between other professionals; workers use specialised language, and a specific vocabulary. The second type is linked to communication with people who are not members of the trade. Workers have to adopt a wide variety of language styles so demands on an employees competence in English are rising. Education- One of the most significant educational trends world- wide is the teaching of a growing number of courses in universities through the medium of English. (Graddol 44 ) At this point English is the most widely studied foreign language and there are no clear rivals. It is a part of languages curriculum in Europe, and pupils are starting to learn it at a really early stage. There are some factors that could stand in a way of English being the first foreign language in the worlds schools. Firstly there is growing competition from other languages. Secondly, The education system in multilingual country has to provide for some amount of languages used within that country. Thirdly, regionalisation could encourage the use of non-english lingua franca. And finaly, study of languages from neighbouring countries could be supported instead of those from a different cultural and economic region. The main reason why English did not take over the worlds schools is lack of teachers. There is not enough primary school teachers with the necessary language skills. Those that have the essential knowledge usually decide to work in a higher education system, like secondary school and college, or they start working in some better payed job. When talking about colleges one has to mention the rising number of courses held on English. It became the need. English became more suitable than the national one for some subjects. Take science, for example, all up-to-date materials can be found in English but one would probably have some dificulties with finding it in some smaller language. This shift towards English-medium education is having some long-term consequences. The number of people using English as a second language is rising , they are starting to use it more often for social communication between themselves, and some even raise their children speaking English as a first language. The knowledge that university students have may not be sufficient for other enterprises, so education of adults is neccessary. It could be done in some conventional way, like taking coursess, but there is also an idea of electronic education. Training through the virtual universities The global media The media is an international industry. It is competing to reach audiences all around the world. Until the 1990s, the BBC World Service was one of the few broadcasting institutions with worldwide reach.'(Graddol 46) In Europe satellite TV is encouraging the use of English but it is also moving into languages other than English. Profit is the most important, so networks adjust the material for a specific market. They show comercials, series and other in a language that is best suitable for te target country. One of the oldest forms of adjusting these materials are dubbing and sub-titling. Dubbing has a linguistic effect and it maximise the profits of the English language media industry. Dubbing English is emerging as a relay language for the marke ting of films: a Hong Kong action movie, for example may be dubbed into English to show at an international festival. It will then be bought and translated into a third language.'(Graddol 47 ) So as you can see this technology could develop linguistic and cultural diversity; instead of creating a homogenus product it could become more supportive towards local languages. Youth culture Young people are the target of the globalised industry. They are the ones that shape the world, they are the new driving force. Some of them see them selves as a part of a certain group, that may not belong to their culture. These sub-cultures as well as the culture effect life in general. Changes are also visible in the language. English is not a unitary language. There are a lot of forms of it. The basis for all of those is the standard form. Native-speakers experiment with social identities. (In English speaking countries Black English has developed) Non-native speakers promoted the use of foreign-language varieties.(e.g.German and Italian English accents) Internet communication The Internet is regarded by many as the agship of global English.'( Graddol 49) Most of the informations that are stored in the worlds computers are on English, and internet brings it to almost every country of the world, in almost every home. Users working in other languages depend on their knowledge of English, which they have to use to communicate in cyberspace. This situation might be explained with the fact that 90% of the worlds computers ,connected to the Internet, are based in English-speaking countries. If more countries get the possibility to connect on the Internet the profile of the users will change. And with the new customers, demands will become different and therefore the number of languages presented on the Internet will rise. It will be normal that a page existing in English automatically appears in the language of the user. Time and place The World is divided into three major time zones on the base of geographical location. These time zones could cause adventages as well as disadventages for some countries. It will bring some into closer integration and others will have problems. Differences in distance can be solved by technology but those in time present a problem. Those countries that will rise in term of economics, they will become the source of skills and technology for neighbouring countries. Also, those neigbouring countries, will be used for production because it will be cheaper to do it there. A symbiotic relationship will be developed. Conclusion Globalisation has a great Effects of Globalisation, as mentioned, can be seen in economy, but also in politics and culture. Hybrid formas of those are being developed. Will hanging out on the Internet become as formative as hanging out on the street? Electronic media will become not just a means of communication, but a generator of global style Works cited Graddol, D. The Future of English? London: The British Council, 2000. YourDictionary Avaliable http://www.yourdictionary.com/globalization

Teens, Sex, and Virginity - I Lost My Virginity Essay -- Personal Nar

I lost my virginity i arrived at college a seventeen year-old virgin who had been drunk only once before. it wasn't a concious decision to change all that, but i definately had no intention of remaining the awkward, hesitant good girl i had been throughout high school. i had resolved to try everything without fear, which was one reason i signed up for a rock climbing orientation trip. it is here that martin enters the picture. he was one of my trip leaders, a twenty three year old senior from california. he was a runner and a republican, and his looks were not unlike those of teen heartthrob scott wolf. i quickly dismissed the idea of his being interested in me. he seemed too hot, too experienced, too suave. i was so young. the rock climbing trip was quickly over, and i returned back to campus covered in bruises and pride. classes started, i settled into the swing of things, and i gave martin no further thought, except when i ran into him at parties. i learned to drink, a lot, and learned to pass out at parties to avoid having to go back to my room alone. i experienced my first...

Inetgrity:The Control of a Dream :: Economics Businesses Papers

Integrity:The Control of a Dream Last year I spoke to you on Patriotism, the Belief in a Dream. I tried to relate this subject to the commitment one feels to employees, suppliers, and customers from the day they first start their business until it is molded into success, and beyond. I termed Patriotism as a love for and devotion to the success of the business. During the journey of building and running a business there are numerous challenges that test the meddle of the many individuals involved. The foundation of this business must be built on a bedrock of integrity or these challenges will destroy it overnight. But what is integrity and how can you get it ? Webster’s dictionary defines the word as soundness of and adherence to moral principal and character going further to say that it is a state of being whole, entire, or undiminished, in perfect condition. It is not hereditary. It is more about breeding than birth. It is a â€Å"second nature† developed through education, experience, and choice. One needs to pay more attention to virtues like honesty, integrity, responsibility, respectfulness, and fairness to build the character that can help you navigate the ever changing world of business. Teddy Roosevelt reportedly said, â€Å"To educate a person in the mind but not morals is to educate a menace to society†. Rarely has this been more evident than in the past few years where we have seen the highly educated managers of once respected corporations such as Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom and others wreck havoc on our economy. In the last decade we have shown great concern about the low moral code being proliferated by the media, the entertainment industry, fast rising businesses, and even our top elected officials. I do not see where much has been done to correct a glaring issue that tears at the very heart of American society. Building Character isn’t easy. It starts with attentiveness but it’s not just a matter of hanging posters or listing virtues. It requires serious and sustained effort to enhance the ethical consciousness, commitment, and competence of our workers and our families. Our domestic school system is thought to be taking the issue more seriously, but most are only giving it lip service. Cheating and disrespect flourish in classrooms and on sports fields; and young people are unintentionally nudged toward moral agnosticism, or a belief that there really is no right or wrong.

Top 5 College Basketball Teams of All Time :: essays research papers

"They are very, very, very good." But are they one of the greatest teams of all time? 1. 1968 UCLA Bruins (29-1) Hard to pick just one of the Lew Alcindor squads as the best, so we defer to John Wooden: "I've never come out and said it, but it would be hard to pick a team over the 1968 team." The Bruins, playing with an injured Alcindor, suffered a mid-season loss to Houston and Elvin Hayes in the Astrodome, but proved that was a fluke in the tourney semifinal, burying the Cougars 101-69. The final was also cake, a 78-55 win over UNC. How'd they do it? To start, they had Alcindor, the best player in college basketball history, who averaged 26 points and 16 rebounds per game. Junior guard Lucius Allen, senior Mike Warren, Jr., Lynn Shackleford and senior Mike Lynn also averaged in double figures for the season. 2. 1996 Kentucky Wildcats (34-2) Rick Pitino's Wildcats were so good that they could have been a decent NBA team in 1995-96 -- Antoine Walker, Tony Delk, Walter McCarty, Derek Anderson and Ron Mercer would all be first-round picks, and Mark Pope was a second-round draft choice. Even though Kentucky lost two regular-season games, they established themselves as one of the all-time great teams by destroying the competition in the Big Dance, winning their six tourney games by an average of 21 points. The Wildcats were, by far, the deepest team in recent college basketball history, with so many stars that some were amazed that Pitino was able to keep it all together. "Rick's done a phenomenal job," Providence coach Pete Gillen said. "I mean, how does he keep Ron Mercer happy playing 12 minutes a game? This guy was maybe the No. 1 high school player in the country last year, according to some magazines or newspapers or gurus. Rick's got to be the greatest psychologist since Sigmund Freud. He's my idol. He could sell freaking snow to the Eskimos. It's unbelievable." 3. 1976 Indiana Hoosiers (32-0) Over the two seasons that culminated in their 1976 national championship, the Hoosiers, coached by the ornery Bob Knight, went 63-1. To win the title in Philly, Indiana, behind a combined 51 points from Scott May and Kent Benson and a great all-around performance by Quinn Buckner, defeated Big Ten rival Michigan, 86-68. To get to the final, Indiana had defeated the 1975 national champion UCLA Bruins.

The Paris Basin: Tertiary Activities

Paris Basin: – Tertiary Activities Account for the development of tertiary activities in one non-Irish region of your choice. Tourism * Capital city – naturally draws tourists ranging from sight-seers to historical enthusiasts. * Home to monuments and buildings and areas of interest. Eiffel tower – daily tours to the top with a restaurant at the top – iconic monument designed by Gustave Eiffel overlooks the city + Rvr Seine on which are numerous daily cruises * Sacre Coeur Cathedral – on top of Montmartre hill – opens every day to public – originally – relatively inaccessible as it is atop the highest point in city – glass cable car link was built in 1990s – further increased amount of visitors to this attraction. * Nearby – Artist’s quarter + the Salvador Dali museum. Other attractions drawing millions of visitors each year – Louvre – holds famous pieces (Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci) * S. lies the palace of Versailles * E. (in Marne de la Valley) is the world famous Euro Disney. * Arc De Triomphe, Champs d’Elysees and the Notre Dame Cathedral. * 2008 – These sites drew in over 25 million visitors. * Over 60% of visitors – from outside of France – generate over â‚ ¬20 billion each year. * Tourism industry – 20% of Frances total GNP – indicates importance of this business is to economy. Result of tourism – hotels, restaurants and other spin-off industries have developed due to the demand for additional services. * Towns Reims and Epernay – grown in size due to the viticulture industry – draws in wine tasters, home to the famous Champagne houses. Transport * Transport industry – highlights development of tertiary activities * Agriculture, industry and tourism continue to grow – need for highly developed transport network – in high demand. Development of Euro Disney in east broug ht the RER train line – meet needs of the ms of visitors (Part of the SNCF train network in France) * Home to the Metro system – seven routes linking all areas of capital and further * Three international airports: Charles De Gaulle, Orly and Beavais. * The port of Le Harve – mouth of the river Seine (further example of level of development of the transport network in this core region) * France’s second busiest port (after Marseilles) and is the entry + exit point of raw materials and finished products of the region.

Gender Identity Essay

There are many factors that can determine gender identity. There is continuous research comparing the affect of both biology and environment on gender identity. Gender identity is almost always chromosomal sex although that isn’t enough to rule out the affect of environment. Intersexuals are rare individuals who posses the typical external genitalia while possessing ambiguous sexual organs of the other sex. There are also hermaphrodites who possess both testicular and ovarian tissue. These two factors that determine gender identity are caused by hormonal factors in prenatal development. Hermaphrodites usually assume the gender identity of the sex assignment at birth. A sex assignment is the process of determining the sex of a child at birth. Intersexualism has given scientists a chance to compare environment and biology. Intersexualism means a person possesses a whole, either male or female reproductive organs. They also possess internal or external tissue of the other sex. Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia is a form of intersexualism in which a genetic female has internal female sexual structures but masculinized external genitals. Androgen-insensitivity syndrome is a form of intersexualism in which a genetic male is prenatally insensitive to androgens such that his genitals are not normally masculinized. Dominican Republic Syndrome is a form intersexualism in which a genetic enzyme disorder prevents testosterone from masculinizing the external genitalia. CAH is caused by exposure to androgens which are produced naturally through adrenal or mothers may have received synthetic androgens to prevent miscarriage in women who have a family history of miscarriages. Research has been done on CAH and results have shown that girls with CAH act more like a boy. They are more interested in masculine toys such as trucks while girls without are more interested in playing with dolls. Girls with CAH show more aggression in play and tend to have more male friends while girls without CAH play with other girls. There are many kinds of androgen-insensitivity syndrome. One involves a male having a sensitivity to prenatal androgen due to a mutated gene. At birth, their genitals are feminized and can even include a small vagina. This insensitivity causes male internal reproductive organs to remain undevelo ped. Girls can have partial androgen-insensitivity syndrome or complete androgen-insensitivity syndrome. Girls with CAIS develop typical genital external organs but their internal reproductive organs to  not function properly. Girls with PAIS are usually raised as boys but sometimes as girls. Research results show that women with PAIS have no difference in gender identity in comparison to women without although they are born with external masculinized genitalia. Three things that have effected the gender identity of my own are very simple and generic. Of course, I have external male genitalia which in turn makes the perception I have of myself lean more towards being a man. I was raised by mom and only my mom so being the man of the house was always being presented to me because I was also an only child. This masculinized my attitude overall and gave me an alpha male self-esteem at an early age. I played a lot of sports which exposed me to aggressive play and taught me how to play hard. One of my reasons is backed by biology and the other two are backed by environment. This doesn’t mean that environment has a larger affect on gender identity but it is the direction I chose to go when analyzing my own factors of determining my gender identity. In conclusion, there is still no real answer when the question is asked: nature or nurture? Gender identity is largely influenced by biology and prenatal androgens but parenting and encouraging by a primary caregiver can influence gender identity greatly. Many factors can determine gender identity and prenatal conditions can cause internal and external differences in genitalia which will affect both sex assignment and gender identity.