Organization Behavior Case Study

Communication is the process of information exchange between two and more than two individuals or organizations (Bowditch and Buono, 1997, cited by Anotony and Macvicar, 2011: 106). In general, communication process could be divided into two forms, verbal and non-verbal (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2010). Verbal communication includes oral and written, non-verbal communication includes body language and eye contact (ibid. ). Because of the development of technologies, especially the progress of internet, communication approaches becomes more diverse and effective (Shrivastava, 2012). In organizations, effective communication strategies could improve their both internal and external managing process (ibid). Thus, most of organizations are keep developing their communication strategies for improving their competitiveness in the market. However, communication process always launch with several noise, which considered as communication barriers, and these problem could occur in every phase of transmission stages (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2010). There are various kinds of barriers defined by scholars, for instance, Shrivastava (2012) labeled barriers into physical, emotional, perceptual, culture, gender and others. These barriers contribute to the lack of efficiency and uncertainty in the process of communication (ibid. ). Due to communication is the fundamental issue in the stage of the management in an organization, most of organizations are looking for an appropriate strategy for improving the efficiency and reliability of communication (Goh et al, 2005). Consequently, this essay will try to figure out three organizations’ challenge of communication, these three samples will be Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Ferrari and Saint John’s international school, meanwhile, their solutions for overcoming communication barriers will be evaluated in the essay. Enterprise Rent-A-Car Enterprise Rent-A-Car is one of the biggest car rental company which has over 370 locations throughout the UK. As a multinational company, Enterprise’s business covers seven countries with 8,200 rental office for offering daily and weekend car rental for individual and business (The Times 100, 2013). To guarantee that a variety of internal and external stakeholders are able to receive messages effectively, Enterprise has used different communication strategies. However, the challenge for Enterprise is that they cannot ensure that the methods and channel they used are the most appropriate for each audience (ibid). To be specific, this phenomenon is considered as medium barrier in the communication process. To solve this problem, Crothers (2007) claims that each particular communication could be effective by an appropriate medium. Enterprise communication strategies launched with the internal and external stakeholders, which aims to deliver the values and culture of the company according to such induction events, website, meeting and poster (The Times 100, 2013). Mostly, the communication approaches which are used by Enterprise are verbal communication. According to Waldstrom et al (2011, cited in Antony and MacVicar, 2011:112), verbal communication is able to express information much clearer than that of non-verbal communication. However, verbal communication might lead several misunderstanding of the massage. The communicator and receivers are not in the same position, even receivers can understood the words, they might cannot understand the meaning and attitudes of the communicators who are not familiar with them (Wright and Whalley, 1979). Meanwhile, Sonnenberg (1990) states that verbal communication cannot be effective without developed listening skills. Thus, if receivers’ listening skills such as ability of emphasis and evaluate the information and be able to chose the important information can be improved, such misunderstanding and incertainty can be avoided (ibid. ). On the other hand, An appropriate channel for feedback could be crucial for internal communication, communicators can collect feedbacks to analyse receivers needs and give them explanation of confusing questions. (Wright and Whalley, 1979). Thus, Enterprise builded a internet based system which is called â€Å"The Hub† to ensure that employees exchange their opinion directly (The Times 100, 2013). For the external communication, Enterprise’s service is divided into business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) approaches (The Times 100, 2013). Enterprise used various channels includes TV advertising, -mail and company newsletter to deliver the information, which ensured that they can cover all of the customers (ibid. ). Goh et al. (2005) shows that multiple communication channels not only deliver rich information effectively, but also be able to catch specific receivers’ needs. Therefore, Enterprise created multiple communication approaches to ensure the information could be deliver effectively and cover both internal and external stakeholders. Ferrari Ferrari is an excellent values company which has high reputation in the sport car industry and performance quite well in car racing events (Patrono, 2012). Meanwhile, Ferrari is the only car manufacture which has entire production line, that allows Ferrari to design every part of car just for its production (Invernizzi and Romenti, 2012). Before Luca di Montezemolo became Ferrari’s CEO, Ferrari faced an internal feedback communication barrier which is that employees cannot communicate well with senior executives, since the internal communication approaches were closed, it contributes that even Ferrari had a very good performance in racing events, but did not performance well in general market (ibid. ). Goh et al. 2005) states that a closed internal communication environment might leads the reducing of stakeholders sense of participation, commitment and passion. Similarly, Wright and Whalley (1979) claims that if employees feel under pressure, they cannot present their information clearly, and also, they might be not willing to exchange their creative advice of work. The closed communication channel not only contributes the barrie r between employees and employers, but also leads an ineffective communication process between different sectors of Ferrari (Invernizzi and Romenti, 2012). In order to solve the invalid communication process, Greenbaum (1980) point that a crucial element in internal communication process in organization is that senior executives should be more initiative to receive stakeholders idea. Thus, Ferrari’s CEO Luca di Montezemolo create a new communication system which is called ‘Formula Uomo’ (Patrono, 2012). For the internal communication, Formula Uomo creates a permanent listening instruments, such s the ‘open door’ office, which requires leading managers have to listen and pay more attention to the needs of employees to improve employees’ participation, commitment and performance (Invernizzi and Romenti, 2012). It not only provide a easier way for sender to communicate with the receiver, but also shared the whole information includes every aspects of this company, that allows participant to give their opinion of each processes (ibid). This open communication strategy is able to encourage employees jo in the whole operation of organization (Greenbaum, 1980). Therefore, eventually, Ferrari figure out an effective communication system in order to increase employees’ senses of belonging. Compare with the case of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, if Ferrari build an accessible intranet for internal communication, their efficiency of communication might be able to improve further. Saint John’s international school Saint John’s international school is using British curriculum to teach Thai children in Thailand, all the teacher in the campus are from Britain. It faced a culture barrier between teachers and pupils (Monthienvichienchai, et al. 2002). In this case, the major problem is that due to the culture difference, students cannot understand what teachers want to communicate and the meanings they want to convey (ibid. ). According to Hofstede (2001), in a cross-culture organization, the main barriers of communication is the different awareness of working style and the cognition of the goal. In the Saint John’s case, Thai students are more likely to learn how to do rather than how to learn and they feel more comfortable in a structured leaning situations (Monthienvichienchai, et al. 2002). For the major goal of learning, the major gap between British education purpose and that of Thai, Thai people consider that diplomas are more essential in building personal self respect (ibid). This might cause British teachers and Thai cannot working in the same way for a same purpose. In order to solve this problem, Wiseman, cited in Monthienvichienchai, et al. (2002) claims that three essential elements of improving the efficiency of communication are knowledge, motivation and skill or action. Thus, Saint John’s international school not only provides the basic curriculum for pupils, but also creates face-to-face communication opportunities for students to communicate with teachers, which aims to improve pupils’ knowledge of the purpose and the teaching style of British education (Monthienvichienchai, et al. , 2002). English (2001) states that in an interculture organization, informal communication might reduce receivers’ tension and increase the comprehension of different culture. Therefore, students in Saint John’s school are able to understand the British culture through the well-designed informal activities (Monthienvichienchai, et al. , 2002). In summary, Saint John’s international school overcomes several culture gap between Thai pupils and British teachers, however, due to the different education from home and school, this barrier cannot be completely solved. Compare with Ferrari case, Saint John’s international school might also need a better communication environment, such as ‘open door’ office and teacher might need to be more initiative. In conclusion, this essay has analyzed the three different organizations’ (Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Ferrari, Saint John’s international school) communication process, and discussed the communication barriers of them separately. Furthermore, the solutions which in order to remove these barriers also have been evaluated in the essay. According to these cases, to improve the internal and external communication efficiency, an appropriate channel, a harmonious communication environment and suitable methods could be beneficial. Additionally, communication strategies are flexible, they could be change and improved in an appropriate time and situation. Thus, it is important that organizations need to be more sensitive for the changing communication barriers. However, this essay targets are narrow, there are also a considerable number of different types of communication barriers such as gender and language barriers are existing in some organizations, which are leading to the inefficiency and uncertainty in the process of communication. Organization Behavior Case Study Communication is the process of information exchange between two and more than two individuals or organizations (Bowditch and Buono, 1997, cited by Anotony and Macvicar, 2011: 106). In general, communication process could be divided into two forms, verbal and non-verbal (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2010). Verbal communication includes oral and written, non-verbal communication includes body language and eye contact (ibid. ). Because of the development of technologies, especially the progress of internet, communication approaches becomes more diverse and effective (Shrivastava, 2012). In organizations, effective communication strategies could improve their both internal and external managing process (ibid). Thus, most of organizations are keep developing their communication strategies for improving their competitiveness in the market. However, communication process always launch with several noise, which considered as communication barriers, and these problem could occur in every phase of transmission stages (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2010). There are various kinds of barriers defined by scholars, for instance, Shrivastava (2012) labeled barriers into physical, emotional, perceptual, culture, gender and others. These barriers contribute to the lack of efficiency and uncertainty in the process of communication (ibid. ). Due to communication is the fundamental issue in the stage of the management in an organization, most of organizations are looking for an appropriate strategy for improving the efficiency and reliability of communication (Goh et al, 2005). Consequently, this essay will try to figure out three organizations’ challenge of communication, these three samples will be Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Ferrari and Saint John’s international school, meanwhile, their solutions for overcoming communication barriers will be evaluated in the essay. Enterprise Rent-A-Car Enterprise Rent-A-Car is one of the biggest car rental company which has over 370 locations throughout the UK. As a multinational company, Enterprise’s business covers seven countries with 8,200 rental office for offering daily and weekend car rental for individual and business (The Times 100, 2013). To guarantee that a variety of internal and external stakeholders are able to receive messages effectively, Enterprise has used different communication strategies. However, the challenge for Enterprise is that they cannot ensure that the methods and channel they used are the most appropriate for each audience (ibid). To be specific, this phenomenon is considered as medium barrier in the communication process. To solve this problem, Crothers (2007) claims that each particular communication could be effective by an appropriate medium. Enterprise communication strategies launched with the internal and external stakeholders, which aims to deliver the values and culture of the company according to such induction events, website, meeting and poster (The Times 100, 2013). Mostly, the communication approaches which are used by Enterprise are verbal communication. According to Waldstrom et al (2011, cited in Antony and MacVicar, 2011:112), verbal communication is able to express information much clearer than that of non-verbal communication. However, verbal communication might lead several misunderstanding of the massage. The communicator and receivers are not in the same position, even receivers can understood the words, they might cannot understand the meaning and attitudes of the communicators who are not familiar with them (Wright and Whalley, 1979). Meanwhile, Sonnenberg (1990) states that verbal communication cannot be effective without developed listening skills. Thus, if receivers’ listening skills such as ability of emphasis and evaluate the information and be able to chose the important information can be improved, such misunderstanding and incertainty can be avoided (ibid. ). On the other hand, An appropriate channel for feedback could be crucial for internal communication, communicators can collect feedbacks to analyse receivers needs and give them explanation of confusing questions. (Wright and Whalley, 1979). Thus, Enterprise builded a internet based system which is called â€Å"The Hub† to ensure that employees exchange their opinion directly (The Times 100, 2013). For the external communication, Enterprise’s service is divided into business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) approaches (The Times 100, 2013). Enterprise used various channels includes TV advertising, -mail and company newsletter to deliver the information, which ensured that they can cover all of the customers (ibid. ). Goh et al. (2005) shows that multiple communication channels not only deliver rich information effectively, but also be able to catch specific receivers’ needs. Therefore, Enterprise created multiple communication approaches to ensure the information could be deliver effectively and cover both internal and external stakeholders. Ferrari Ferrari is an excellent values company which has high reputation in the sport car industry and performance quite well in car racing events (Patrono, 2012). Meanwhile, Ferrari is the only car manufacture which has entire production line, that allows Ferrari to design every part of car just for its production (Invernizzi and Romenti, 2012). Before Luca di Montezemolo became Ferrari’s CEO, Ferrari faced an internal feedback communication barrier which is that employees cannot communicate well with senior executives, since the internal communication approaches were closed, it contributes that even Ferrari had a very good performance in racing events, but did not performance well in general market (ibid. ). Goh et al. 2005) states that a closed internal communication environment might leads the reducing of stakeholders sense of participation, commitment and passion. Similarly, Wright and Whalley (1979) claims that if employees feel under pressure, they cannot present their information clearly, and also, they might be not willing to exchange their creative advice of work. The closed communication channel not only contributes the barrie r between employees and employers, but also leads an ineffective communication process between different sectors of Ferrari (Invernizzi and Romenti, 2012). In order to solve the invalid communication process, Greenbaum (1980) point that a crucial element in internal communication process in organization is that senior executives should be more initiative to receive stakeholders idea. Thus, Ferrari’s CEO Luca di Montezemolo create a new communication system which is called ‘Formula Uomo’ (Patrono, 2012). For the internal communication, Formula Uomo creates a permanent listening instruments, such s the ‘open door’ office, which requires leading managers have to listen and pay more attention to the needs of employees to improve employees’ participation, commitment and performance (Invernizzi and Romenti, 2012). It not only provide a easier way for sender to communicate with the receiver, but also shared the whole information includes every aspects of this company, that allows participant to give their opinion of each processes (ibid). This open communication strategy is able to encourage employees jo in the whole operation of organization (Greenbaum, 1980). Therefore, eventually, Ferrari figure out an effective communication system in order to increase employees’ senses of belonging. Compare with the case of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, if Ferrari build an accessible intranet for internal communication, their efficiency of communication might be able to improve further. Saint John’s international school Saint John’s international school is using British curriculum to teach Thai children in Thailand, all the teacher in the campus are from Britain. It faced a culture barrier between teachers and pupils (Monthienvichienchai, et al. 2002). In this case, the major problem is that due to the culture difference, students cannot understand what teachers want to communicate and the meanings they want to convey (ibid. ). According to Hofstede (2001), in a cross-culture organization, the main barriers of communication is the different awareness of working style and the cognition of the goal. In the Saint John’s case, Thai students are more likely to learn how to do rather than how to learn and they feel more comfortable in a structured leaning situations (Monthienvichienchai, et al. 2002). For the major goal of learning, the major gap between British education purpose and that of Thai, Thai people consider that diplomas are more essential in building personal self respect (ibid). This might cause British teachers and Thai cannot working in the same way for a same purpose. In order to solve this problem, Wiseman, cited in Monthienvichienchai, et al. (2002) claims that three essential elements of improving the efficiency of communication are knowledge, motivation and skill or action. Thus, Saint John’s international school not only provides the basic curriculum for pupils, but also creates face-to-face communication opportunities for students to communicate with teachers, which aims to improve pupils’ knowledge of the purpose and the teaching style of British education (Monthienvichienchai, et al. , 2002). English (2001) states that in an interculture organization, informal communication might reduce receivers’ tension and increase the comprehension of different culture. Therefore, students in Saint John’s school are able to understand the British culture through the well-designed informal activities (Monthienvichienchai, et al. , 2002). In summary, Saint John’s international school overcomes several culture gap between Thai pupils and British teachers, however, due to the different education from home and school, this barrier cannot be completely solved. Compare with Ferrari case, Saint John’s international school might also need a better communication environment, such as ‘open door’ office and teacher might need to be more initiative. In conclusion, this essay has analyzed the three different organizations’ (Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Ferrari, Saint John’s international school) communication process, and discussed the communication barriers of them separately. Furthermore, the solutions which in order to remove these barriers also have been evaluated in the essay. According to these cases, to improve the internal and external communication efficiency, an appropriate channel, a harmonious communication environment and suitable methods could be beneficial. Additionally, communication strategies are flexible, they could be change and improved in an appropriate time and situation. Thus, it is important that organizations need to be more sensitive for the changing communication barriers. However, this essay targets are narrow, there are also a considerable number of different types of communication barriers such as gender and language barriers are existing in some organizations, which are leading to the inefficiency and uncertainty in the process of communication.

Cosi hsc practice essay Essay

Discuss how Nowra’s perspective on personal relationships is conveyed in Cosi. The play Cosi by Louis Nowra is an emotional portrayal of personal relationships in a Melbourne mental institution ostracised by society. Throughout the play Nowra’s perspective on personal relationships develops and changes through character relationships and development, especially the development of the main protagonist Lewis. Nowra conveys his perspective on personal relationships through themes such as the importance of love and fidelity, the empowerment of women and learning and self-development. Techniques such as symbolism, intertextuality and contrast are also used to further highlight Nowra’s perspective. Nowra’s perspective on personal relationships is primarily shown through the character Lewis and his personal relationships with other characters in the play, especially in his relationship with his girlfriend Lucy. Act Two, Scene Two which features a confrontation between Lewis and Lucy on their relationship is significant in showing this. In this scene, Lucy comes to pick Lewis up to take him to the moratorium meeting and Lewis must decide between staying for the play and going with Lucy. Nowra’s belief on the importance of the existence of love and fidelity in a relationship is shown when Lewis says to Lucy â€Å"It’s about important things like love and fidelity†. Intertextuality is used here through Lewis’ character development and change of values that is evident in this line. This change occurred through his participation in the production of Cosi Fan Tutte with the patients and his exposure to the themes in the play. The women in both Cosi Fan Tutte and Cosi are often compared with the Arabian Phoenix which acts a symbol for a woman’s constancy or fidelity. â€Å"A woman’s constancy is like the Arabian Phoenix. Everyone swears it exists, but no one has seen it.† This is quoted by Lewis to Lucy to further convey Nowra’s belief in the importance of love and fidelity in a relationship. As Cosi was written in a time where a huge social change was occurring and women were beginning to have more sexual freedom with the invention he birth control pill, a lot of aspects of the play focus on the empowerment of women and the double standards that exist between and women in society especially when it comes to fidelity. This is shown in Nowra’s contrast of Act Two, Scene One and Act Two, Scene, Two. In Scene One, Lewis is unfaithful as he kisses Julie but in Act Two he reprimands Lucy for sleeping with Nick failing to mention his own infidelities. Intertextuality is used in this scene when Lewis claims that a woman’s constancy is like the Arabian Phoenix, revealing his hypocrisy. Through Lewis’ condemnation, Nowra demonstrates that, although modern society has become more sexually lenient, there are still double standards that occur which condone men’s fidelity but condemn women’s fidelity. It is revealed that Nowra believes that men and women should be equal not only in relationships but in society too. Julie articulates the message at the beginning of the play when she says that men â€Å"want women to deceive them because it will prove their worst thoughts about women† which in contrast is confirmed by Lewis’ attitude towards Lucy’s infidelities.

Economic Growth and Development Essay

During the beginning of the evolution of economics of development, no distinction was drawn between the economic growth and economic development. During the seventies, the economists thought of distinguishing the economic growth and economic development. When it comes to economic development, there are two different views. The traditional view has been to interpret it in terms of changes in the structure of national product and the occupational pattern of labor force and the institutional and technological changes that bring about such changes or accompany such changes. In this view, the share of agriculture in both national product and employment of labor force declines and that of industries and services increases. Various strategies of development which were suggested until seventies generally focused on rapid industrialization so that the structural transformation could be achieved. For this purpose, the appropriate institutional and technological changes were recommended to bring about such structural changes. According to C. P.  Kindleberger, economic growth means more output and economic development implies both more output and changes in the technical and institutional arrangements by which it is produced. Thus according to this view, the economic development implies growth plus structural change. Structural changes refer to the changes in technology and institutional factors which cause shifts of labor from agriculture to modern manufacturing and services sectors and also general self sustaining growth of output. An aspect of structural change which is of special mention is that during the process of economic development there occurs a shift of the working population from low productivity employment in agriculture to the modern industrial and services sectors having higher levels of productivity of labor. It is quite interesting to note that during the process of economic development the percentage share of the working population in agriculture sharply falls whereas the percentage shares of the working population employed in modern industrial and services sectors substantially increase. Apart from the change in the sectoral distribution of the labor force, there occurs a change in sectoral composition of national income in which while percentage contribution of agriculture to national income declines, percentage contributions to national income of industrial and services sectors increase. This is on account of the various changes taking place namely; a change in the pattern of consumption of national income of the people; economy growing steadily and moving upwards; income level of the people is found to be increasing and various changes that are taking place in the levels of productivity in the different sectors of the economy.

Abortion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 12

Abortion - Essay Example Nevertheless, one should note that support for abortion in the first 3 months is complicated and is dependent on the grounds why the same is to be carried to out. This is according to past Gallup survey and generally speaking, Americans for instance more supportive of making abortion legal especially in the earliest pregnancy stages of pregnancy than in the advanced stages, when the pregnancy is more developed or can survive outside of the womb. Another common ground that has been agreed upon by most parties of pro-choice and pro-life regarding abortion as legal is when the life of a woman or her physical health is endangered by pregnancy or when pregnancy is caused by rape or incest. Thus when the victim cannot accept the fact that she had been raped or the pregnancy was due to incest, the fetus will pose a serious impact on her psychological well-being and future, abortion is still acceptable. Finally, abortion has been a contentious issue in several countries in the world; nevertheless, self-proclaimed â€Å"pro-choice† and â€Å"pro-life† individuals widely agree on over half of 16 principal policy matters. It is these policies that normally have everything to do with women’s vital health protection, thus avoiding late-term abortions, as well as making sure that abortion patients as well as their parents are wholly informed of all the risks

The Stone Angel Hagars objective moment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Stone Angel Hagars objective moment - Essay Example On the one hand, her fighting spirit is a great attribute in her life, and on the other hand, her pride in her early years has been a problem for her while managing the changes that take place in course of a life time. Looking at the life of Hagar Shipley in this book, the most objective moment in her life was the one when a stubborn and proud Hagar is broken at the hands of poverty. The moment where she realizes that she is no more the all important wealthy person but just another woman who does not have any money, is the most objective moment. In this moment, Hagar who has been stubborn all her life and whose heart has been full of pride, has gone back to the â€Å"Curries† General store. This was the store once opened by her father and thus she was confident she can get a credit from this store. However, by the time she meets the manager, instead of requesting a credit, she just begs for a loaf, to feed her kids and herself. She was dressed poorly as she could not afford an ything fancier. The proud stubborn Hagar Shipley realizes her life has changed; she’s not the same fancy wealthy person she once was with her family. She finally sees herself for the lower class old lady she has become. References: Laurence, Margaret.

Blue Jean Waste Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Blue Jean Waste - Essay Example Public health should always come first because I believe that this is foremost important for betterment of a society. This personal belief propelled my reaction to the video which called for more stress to be put on social and environmental responsibility on a global level. I believe that the corporations involved in this case like Gap and Levi reacted appropriately to pandemonium created by the responsible plant. Different regulatory measures taken to prevent blue jeans waste from ruining health of local people in the future are reliable. This is because myriad inventive strategies were engineered by those corporations only days after the incident got reported (Macvicar, 2009). The most valuable action in my opinion was formation of a neutral organization to keep a check on performance of garment manufacturers in Lesotho. Such a neutral monitoring organization was bound to make most objective and unbiased observations regarding actions of the factories

Criminal Law Case Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Criminal Law Case Report - Essay Example She therefore initiated a legal action in order to challenge the constitutionality of the criminal abortion laws in Texas. There were additional plaintiffs, however, the facts were quite different than those of Roe. In particular, these plaintiffs were not pregnant and they did not present the same sense of urgency and relevance as existed in the case of Roe. The United State Supreme Court dismissed these plaintiffs because they lacked legal "standing" and because the issues in their cases were not yet decidable or "justiceable." This report, consequently, will focus on the specifics and the legal merits of the case involving Roe. The main questions presented are whether the Texas criminal abortion laws violate certain constitutional principles and provisions. Roe, a resident of Dallas, Texas, initiated this lawsuit in a federal court. The defendant was the District Attorney of the county in which she resided. She didn't sue for money; instead she requested that the federal court issue a declaratory judgment stating that the criminal abortion laws violated the federal constitution and she further requested that the federal court issue an injunction to prohibit the District Attorney from enforcing the criminal abortion statutes. ... Roe was successful as the federal trial court found that the ninth and fourteenth amendments did, in fact, extend to women a "fundamental right" to decide whether or not to have children. The federal court further decided that the Texas criminal abortion laws were "unconstitutionally vague" and that Roe was entitled to a declaratory judgment. A difficulty, however, was that because the criminal abortion laws were declared void, the injunctive relief requested by Roe was dismissed. Neither party was satisfied. Roe appealed from the rejection of her request for injunctive relief and the District Attorney appealed from the declaration that the criminal abortion laws were unconstitutional and therefore void. Traditionally, cases are appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. In this case, by contrast, a "protective appeal" was made to the 5th Circuit and also directly to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court noted some awkwardness with the skipping of the intermediate appellate court, but at the same time noted that it had discretion to review the appeals. Therefore, the Supreme Court proceeded to review the case on its merits. Legal Discussion: The United States Supreme Court Justice Blackmun was compelled to address a number of preliminary issues prior to addressing the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws. There was a suggestion that Roe did not have legal standing to bring this case because she was not pregnant at certain times during the course of the litigation. The Supreme Court dismissed these arguments by stating that pregnancy is by its very nature a limited condition and that the legal issues were of sufficient important to