Straighten Up Business Analysis

Read: Roller Bags Case Study

ROLLER BAGS: Lightening the Load All Over The World.

In 2002, Claude Ciseria started the Straighten Up program, the premise of which was to provide backpacks with rollers for children in need. For every roller bag sold, a free roller bag would be donated promoting Ciseria’s belief that the purpose of all humans is to help others and give to those less fortunate.

Why Roller Bags?

Ciseria asserts that children in many countries have to walk miles with either a heavy backpack that adds weight to their spine or carry heavy books and other items to school in their arms, also lending to curvature of the spine. Furthermore, this damage to the spine can have life-long damaging effects as the children move into adulthood. Ciseria’s idea to provide roller bags so that children can pull their books may prevent lifelong back pain.

The Spine

Prolonged carrying of backpacks can cause scoliosis or curvature of the spine. In children, progression can be an issue and may require the use of a brace. Additionally, chronic neck and shoulder pain starts in middle school and can cause the need for inflammatory drugs throughout adulthood.

Furthermore, the constant weight of backpacks actually causes the spinal cords to compress and cause significant back pain. Compressing the spine by carrying a heavy backpack can affect how tall you one will grow. The lumbar disks, located in the lower spine, contribute to about an inch of human height. When children carry an extremely heavy backpack, 5 days a week for years, the spine is compressed causing them to shrink more quickly.

Straighten Up Program

Roller bags are produced in Ethiopia, Cuba, and Somalia and are provided to children in 20 countries. An outside firm audits the factories to ensure that the workers receive a fair wage and that children are not being exploited.

The Straighten Up program had donated 1 million roller bags by 2008. There is also a segment of the program that returns to villages and replaces worn or damaged roller bags.

How Straighten Up Works

Ciseria and his partners first established partnerships with global humanitarian organizations that have a long history with the communities in which they serve. Using the criterion of economic, health, and educational conditions and the needs of the community, the program identifies communities with the most need. Straighten Up ensures that the program will not have a negative effect on local businesses and that the children who receive the roller bags also receive support with health and educational needs.

Critiques of the Program

There has been concern over whether Straighten Up hurts local businesses that also make bags or backpacks. Critical needs require donations, but long-term, it may be better to teach local businesses to make the roller bags and develop entrepreneurs who would generate revenue to help the community.

Additionally, as a privately held company, Straighten Up is not required to provide financial statements. It may be beneficial to customers and stakeholders to know how much it costs to make each roller bag, as well as how much it costs to give away each bag. Without transparent financial reports, the program has been criticized as being more or a marketing ploy than a corporate social responsibility program.

Imagine you are an I/O psychologist and have been asked to evaluate this company.

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word formal evaluation of this company. Include the following:

• Outline the stakeholders of the organization, and identify ways for managing them.
• Describe the ethical business practices this program encompasses. Explain how these business practices are similar to or different from ethical business practices in the United States.
• Explain organizational community responsibility, and justify whether this program complies with this requirement.
• Describe recommendations for ethical business sustainability practices to meet the needs of the future.
• Recommend strategies, based on psychological concepts, for ethically addressing employee- and consumer-related concerns. Describe how this feedback can be implemented in the program.
• Evaluate the program’s methods of marketing and advertising. Determine whether the program’s methods comply with ethical guidelines. Describe ways to ensure that their marketing is honest and transparent.

Include a minimum of three scholarly peer-reviewed sources.

Format your paper according to APA guidelines.

OpenStax College (2017). Psychology. https://openstax.org/details/psychology.

Read the following:

• Chapters 3 and 4

Video Resources

• Hari, J. (2015, June). Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong [Video]. TEDGlobalLondon. https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong
• Walker, M. (2019, April). Sleep is your superpower [Video]. TED2019. https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_walker_sleep_is_your_superpower

Part 1

Part I.  Genetics and Epigenetics

Based on your readings, please explain how you think genetics and epigenetics affects:

• us, as persons,
• how we view and interact with others,
• the kinds of perceptions and judgments we have about people, cultures, and populations,
• how public policy, government benefits, corporate structure, and other systemic structures can be changed (if needed), and
• how our own values can change or be modified to make room for a new understanding of epigenetics

Part II.  Indigenous understanding of Genetics and Epigenetics

Studies in cultural psychology speak of “folk knowledge”.  Much of these are oral traditions passed down through multiple generations and carry the beliefs, stories, and wisdom of previous generations.  One inherent understanding is that heritability that runs in families is not exclusive to the way we look but is extended to the way we act, think, and to how personalities develop.  The environment in which we develop is also important to many cultures and traditions.  The language used in indigenous psychology does not utilize scientific terms; they used their own terms to explain multi-generational and multi-dimensional inheritance (genetics and epigenetics).

• Please describe how your Grenadian culture explains heritability (genetics and epigenetics).  You can incorporate customary practices, beliefs, rituals, myths, and academic studies.

Your Discussion should be at least 250 words in length, but not more than 750 words. Use APA citations and references for the textbook and any other sources used.

Part 2

It is a known fact that sleep is important in order for us to thrive in our environment. There is research that seeks to understand how sleep affects our day-to-day activities.

Find a research article that describes one of the negative effects of being sleep deprived. Then write a report about this study, their methods, participants, and findings. Describe the study’s limitations as well as any future applications.

In the conclusion of the paper, you should indicate whether these findings have ever affected you, or someone you know, and what steps were taken to remedy the situation.

The Written Assignment should be 3-4 double spaced pages in length, not including title or reference pages. Make sure your assignment is APA format with double-spacing, Times New Roman, 12-point font, and 1” margins. Include citations and a list of references in APA format. Edit for spelling and grammar errors.

Here are some tips for reviewing a research paper. Follow these tips when you are reviewing any article in this class:

1. From the introduction: what is the general topic that the article is addressing? What is the purpose of the research described in this article? What is the author(s) hypothesis/hypotheses?
2. Briefly describe the methods: who were the participants? What did they have to do in this study? What were the measures that were collected? How was it collected?
3. In general, what were the results of this study? (Don’t use numbers or describe statistics).
4. What were the major conclusions of the study? What are the implications of this study, both in terms of future psychological research and understanding social behavior out in the “real world”? Make sure you don’t simply use the limitations described in the study—come up with your own.
5. In your opinion, what are the strengths and limitations of this research? Could there have been modifications in the way the study was conducted? What kind of “tips” would you have given the researchers with what you know?
6. Form a conclusion about the value of the study. How does it apply to our world today? Was it valuable and/or informative? How did it enhance the way you view current or historical experiences/events?

Part 3

For your Learning Journal, answer the following questions:

1. Briefly describe the general structure and function of the nervous system.
2. Why is the study of “sleep” important in a psychology course?  What benefit does sleep provide to the nervous system and to the body in general?
3. Have you experienced sleep disturbances?  If so, please explain the effects to your physical, mental and emotional health.

The Learning Journal entry should be a minimum of 400 words and not more than 750 words. Use APA citations and references if you use ideas from the readings or other sources.