Employee Strengths And Decision Making Strategies

Employee Strengths in Decision Making Strategies Different individuals in a work environment possess various unique strengths which can be applied in making effective work related decisions. Participating in the Strengths Finder Test would therefore help employees to identify what they are good at and how they can use it for the benefit of the company. This paper will focus on developing a training tool that can be used by the management to coach the employees on how to use their unique strengths in making decisions. Some of the strengths that individual employees may possess include flexibility, creativity, teamwork, communication and interpersonal skills, dependability and leadership among others. Each strengths listed above play a†¦show more content†¦Decision making process depends on the trust build between members of the team. In the absence of trust, members will always be suspicious of decisions or suggestions made by other members of the team resulting to challenges in making sound business decisions. Teamwork and creativity among employees also play a major role in the decision making process. To begin with teamwork, members ought to be in unison and direct all their efforts, knowledge and skills towards achieving specific goals set by management. The process of bringing this team together involves various business decisions which require teamwork. All members of the team for instance should agree to work together in order to form an effective team. The success of the team will also be pinned on the creativity and innovative abilities of the individual members forming the team (Phillips Gully, 2013). The modern business environment is very dynamic and therefore requires a creative and innovative team to make the complex decisions in the dynamic environment. It is therefore clear that the personal strength of each employee in a modern work environment plays major role in the decision making process. Managers have a role to play in developing their employees to utilize their strengths in decision making processes. Their role involves providing a conducive environment in the work places for employees to use their strengths to develop courses of action that solve a variety of the managementShow MoreRelatedHRM - Best Practices and RBV1107 Words   |  5 PagesNB: Look at how the weaknesses of one model can be fixed by another model. BEST PRACTICE MODELS INTRODUCTION Due to the ever increasing rivalry between organisations, managers have been forced to develop strategies to allow them to compete in the competitive business environment and to provide the organization with a sustainable competitive advantage. This is where HRM, and the topic of best practice models appear. WHAT IS BEST PRACTICE MODELS? 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Analysis Of The Film Paris Is Burning - 1628 Words

After the Civil Rights Movement, negative attitudes towards black people had a lessened; however there was still some racial tension nationwide. Racism, the disease that plagued this country (and still does today) was not gone in addition to that, other issues plagued America. The fruits of the labor of the Civil rights movement was not reaped by all of Black America. There was an omission of queer* black Americans when it came to who got the benefits that came from the Civil Rights movement. The film â€Å"Paris Is Burning† illustrates one of the ways how gay black men and gender nonconforming black people were able to survive in a largely homophobic black America. Despite the sense of unity that was gained from the Civil Rights, Black america created a divide between them and black members of the LGBT community. From the anecdotes given by the individuals in the film, Black America was certainly not welcoming to black lgbt people. In order to survive and cope with their alie nation from the black community, queer black men had created safe spaces where they could really live and be their authentic selves without having to face rejection and/or risking their personal safety. From these safe spaces emerged a new culture. â€Å"Paris Is Burning† explores the main safe space that black gay men created for themselves: the â€Å"ballroom†. It also looks at the culture that grew out that space. Many individuals in the film mention that they were kicked out of their homes upon coming out orShow MoreRelatedThe Cultural Identity Of The African American Community1653 Words   |  7 Pageshistories. But, like everything which is historical they undergo constant transformation.† (Hall, 225). 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Operations Management Vodafone Telecommunication Company

Question: Discuss about theOperations Management for Vodafone Telecommunication Company. Answer: Introduction The concepts of operational management help in revealing the management processes of internal work processes concerning the production of goods along with the distribution of the services. Vodafone Telecommunication Corporation is one of the leading telecommunication companies throughout the different countries of the world (Vodafone.com, 2016). The company is engaged in providing a high quality of services to all its customers and the primary aim of the firm is to provide unmatched services to all its customers. This research paper will explain the distinction between the services and the goods along with the concepts of the operations management (Armstrong, 2014). There are five of the crucial performance objectives which need to be identified in order to enhance the performance standard of an organization. The four Vs of operation management helps in providing the desired competitive avenge to the concerned organization and therefore its evaluation becomes very significant. Thus, the role of the performance objectives is of great importance as it provides he desired way for enhancing the performance of the team. The inventory management process along with the quality of the goods and the services offered to the customers. Operations Management The operation management mainly refers to the supervision of the business processes as to develop the highest level of the efficiency and effectiveness possible within a particular firm (Baker and Filbeck, 2013). It is basically the desired activities that are required to carry out the entire business process of the firm. There exists a crucial difference between the goods along with the services and in order to enhance the management of the entire operations there needs to be an improvement in the services delivered to the concerned customers. Vodafone is one of the leading telecommunication companies which are offering good quality of products along with the efficient services (Ballester-Bolinches, Esteban-Romero and Asaad, 2010). The company is engaged in offering various types of products such as messaging facilities, internet facilities and calling facilities throughout different countries of the world but the most important are to assist the customers with the better quality of services as to enhance their reliability. Explanation among the Distinction of Services and the Goods There exists a crucial difference between the services offered to the Selling is being distinct from the products as for the goods and this helps in evaluation of the sales revenue based on the number of goods available (Corvo and Symons, 2011). These were some of the detailed about customers and the products offered to them. It becomes very crucial to understand the details of what are the services and what are goods which can be offered to the customers of the firm concerned. The goods are those physical products which can be resold to the customers by various means (Kemme, 2013). The goods can be inventoried and there are certain aspects having to measure the quality of the concerned goods. Now the distinction of the services can be made from the goods. The services reveal the offering of the products to the concerned customers in the desired way. Moreover, the reselling of the services is unusual and it needs to be enhanced as per the satisfaction of the customers. The services a re difficult to the inventory and the qualities of the services provided to all of the customers are very difficult in measurement (Kendrick, 2010). Moreover, it needs to recognize that the selling is not the crucial part of the services delivered to all of the customers concerned. Furthermore, there are certainly important factors which should be critically recognized as they influence the selling of the products and offering of the services to the targeted customers. One of the vital factors is the implementation of the effective communication strategy as this increases the reliability and satisfaction of the customers to a great extent. In a case of the products the quality of the goods offered can be easily measured and it needs to be measured as it increases the number of the customers for the concerned firm (Lee, 2010). Vodafone Corporation critically reflects that the services help in retaining good relations with the customers. Moreover, a quality team works along with the c ustomer care executives to monitor that the customers are assisted as per their reliability and satisfaction (Mallory-Hill, Preiser, and Watson, 2012). The quality of the services offered to the customers cannot be measured but it can be improved in order to establish good relations with the customers as this helps in increasing the customer base for the organization concerned. Therefore, the fact clarifies that in order to become the leader in the market segments most crucial is to understand the desired aspects of services and the goods and to assist the customers with the greatest quality. Introduction to the Operation Management The concepts and the theories of operational management are supposed to e of immense importance as they help in the evaluation of the business methods of the concerned organization. The expression "operations management" signifies the organization as well as the culmination of key business activities that effect in achieving directorial goals along with objectives (Phillips and Phillips, 2010). Operation supervision focuses on aligning operation with the corporation objectives, serving the industry go wherever it desires to go. However this might appear too overarching to consist of commonplace daily responsibilities, there is numerous example of how superior operation supervision can develop the competence of an industry operation (Schmidle, 2011). Most of the well-known researchers evaluated the information that these vital theories and the concepts of operation management should be critically understood in order to bring out the probable possible outcomes for the particular organi zation (Thomack, 2012). Two of the most significant aspects of the evaluation of the operations management are the inventory control along with the quality control. These two elements help in improving the desired standards of the products as well as the services been offered to the customers concerned. 4 Vs of Operation Management The four Vs of the operation management are volume, variety, variation and the visibility and these plays the major role in the development of the work processes of the concerned firm. Vodafone Corporation eventually understands the role of these elements in the development of the products and services. The volume refers to the quality of the products or the number of services been offered to the respective customers (Van Hecke, 2010). Next is the variety which refers to the differentiation of the types of the products and the services by which the customers are assisted. This variety of the services along with the products helps in increasing the satisfaction level of the customers that they do not have to visit different companies for their needs, all of the products and the services can be availed at a single company (Wong and Ma, 2013). Vodafone Corporation understands the desired needs and the demands of the different categories of the customers and thus, they offer the wide var iety of the services as well as the products as to retain the required attention of the customers within the business and finally increase the overall profitability and the productivity of the firm. Next is the variation in the required products and the service label, such as the demand of the customers which changes time to time. The variation in the services and the products offered to the consumers helps in providing required elevation in the growth and expansion of the firm within the targeted market areas. Visibility reflects the percentage of the internal working processes which are eventually exposed to the customers concerned. There are certain implications of these four Vs concerned and these implications generate crucial impact on the development of the business process of the concerned firm. Competitive Objectives of Operation Management The five competitive objectives of the performance management are speed, quality, dependability, cost, and flexibility. These helps to improve the overall performance of the entire firm by enhancing the quality of the services along with the products been offered to the customers. The Vodafone Corporation has developed a team of professionals to monitor the performance objectives of the organization. Quality Quality has been the most crucial aspects of the selling of the product and the services within the targeted market areas. Vodafone corporation works more efficiently in improving its network connectivity services as to enhance the reliability and satisfaction of the customers from the services they are been assisted with. The increase in the best quality of the services and the products differentiate the products of the concerned organization from that of the competitors within the market segments. Speed Speed objectives describe to the charge at which a corporation can create sale quotes as well as how fast and frequently a corporation can bring its goods (Zhang and Zhang, 2011). In addition, rate refers to such issue as the time requisite to produce one or additional goods and the instance the corporation need to investigate and expand a latest product. Dependability Referring to corporation operations as reliable if the business produces and deliver goods to its clients on time as well as according to decided to expenses with prices. A corporation also measures the required dependability with the help of goods capability to a utility as intended and as expected as well as to perform constantly over a sensible quantity of time. Flexibility Flexibility is one of the most significant factors which describes that the services offered should have the flexibility as it improves the overall presentation of the corporation. Flexibility requires that a corporation can create products of dissimilar levels of quality as well as with different plan modifications. Cost The prices of the products as well as the services from different companies increase the toughest competition within the targeted market segments. Vodafone corporation works on the pricing strategy by adapted as per the desired of the clients. Evaluation of the Performance Objectives in Enhancing the Companys Competitive Advantage The competitive performance objectives provide an elevation to the business methods of the corporation. The five of the performance objectives s mentioned above provides the competitive edge to the firm as it reflects the issues and the improvements needed in each of the crucial section of the development process of the products and the services offered by the organization. Two of the most effective objectives are the quality and the development of the pricing strategies as the customers look forward that which company is providing the best services at affordable prices but the development of the brand image of the firm crease the profitability of the concerned organization (Zhang and Zhang, 2011). The evaluation of the performance objectives for Vodafone increases it selling of products and services within targeted market segments. The differentiation in the variety of the products available and the cost of the products or the services increases the sale revenue and efficiency of th e entire firm. The corporation then configures its working surroundings to inclusive one or additional of five the prepared presentation objectives: dependability, flexibility, quality, speed, or costs. Conclusion This research paper helps in bringing out the distinction between services and the products that are been offered to all of the clients concerned. Vodafone Corporation finally understands the role of these fundamentals in the expansion of the products and services. The five competitive objectives of the performance management are speed, quality, dependability, cost, and flexibility. , a quality team works along with the customer care executives to monitor that the customers are assisted as per their reliability and satisfaction. One of the imperative factors is the accomplishment of the effective communication approach as this increases the consistency and fulfillment of the customers to a great extent. Therefore, the paper reflects the concepts of operation management and the different aspects of five performance objectives for the development of the firm concerned. References Armstrong, M. (2014).Armstrong's handbook of management. London: Kogan Page. Baker, H. and Filbeck, G. (2013).Alternative investments. Hoboken: Wiley. Ballester-Bolinches, A., Esteban-Romero, R. and Asaad, M. (2010).Products of finite groups. Berlin: De Gruyter. Corvo, T., and Symons, H. (2011). Broadband and cable industry law, 2011. New York, NY: Practising Law Institute. Kemme, N. (2013).Design and operation of automated container storage systems. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag. Kendrick, R. (2010).Cyber Risks for Business Professionals. Ely: IT Governance Pub. Kendrick, R. (2010).Cyber Risks for Business Professionals. Ely: IT Governance Pub. Lee, G. (2010).Business process management of Japanese and Korean companies. Singapore: World Scientific Pub. Co. Mallory-Hill, S., Preiser, W. and Watson, C. (2012).Enhancing building performance. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. Phillips, J. and Phillips, P. (2010). The power of objectives: Moving beyond learning objectives.Performance Improvement, 49(6), pp.17-24. Schmidle, T. (2011). Performance Management.Public Performance Management Review, 35(2), pp.370-389. Thomack, B. (2012). Time Management for Todays Workplace Demands.Workplace Health Saf, 60(5), pp.201-203. Van Hecke, M. (2010).The brain advantage. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. Vodafone.com. (2016).Visit the Vodafone corporate website. [online] Available at: https://www.vodafone.com/content/index.html [Accessed 22 Oct. 2016]. Wong, W. and Ma, T. (2013).Emerging technologies for information systems, computing, and management. New York, NY: Springer. Zhang, L. and Zhang, C. (2011).Engineering education and management. Berlin: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Vodafone Strategy free essay sample

Task 01 In this case of strategy formulation for a selected organization, I have selected Vodafone Group PLC which is the worlds leading mobile telecommunications company, with a significant presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States through the Companys subsidiary undertakings, Joint ventures, associated undertakings and investments. At 30 June 2010, based on the registered customers of mobile telecommunications ventures in which it had ownership interests at that date, the Group had 347 million customers, excluding aging customers, calculated on a proportionate basis in accordance with the Companys percentage interest in the seventures. The current mobile market competition is very tight so that to survive in the market, the strategy which we prcatice is very important. Lets discuss what is Strategy and strategic management. As Johnson and Scoles defined strategy is the direction and scope of an organizaion over the long term which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within changing environment to meet the needs of arkets and to fufll statkeholder expectations. We will write a custom essay sample on Vodafone Strategy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Strategic management is the development, implementation and control of agreed strategies. There is more to strategy than merely deciding what you want to achieve and how you are to achieve. Corporate Strategy is concerned with what types of business the organization in. It denotes the most general level of strategy in an organization. Business Srategy is how an organization approaches a particular product market area. It can involve decisions such as whether to segment the market and specilise in particular rofitable areas, or to compete by offering a wider range of products. Some of the large companies cannot operatre under one strategic business unit so that, these firms have diversified Strategic Business Unit (SBU) dealing with paricular areas. So, Business Strategy for such large organizations is startegy at the Strategic Business Unit (SBU) level. In the case of Vodafone, it has the network over the world and its main product is telecommunication network. When we consider this telecommunication network service providers, its direct competitiors are T-Mobile, and Orange. The goal of the shareholders is maximizing their wealth and profitability. This is known as very basic goal and every shareholder may have different goals and objectives. As we know who are the shareholders? Groups or individuals whose interests are directly affected by the activities of a firm or organization are stakeholders. In the case of Vodafone PLC, there are lots of stakeholders and their expectation is to survive in the market and increase the earning per share (EPS). We can classify the shareholders as follows; * Internal Stakeholders Vodafone Employees, Management * Connected Vodafone Sharehoders, its customers, suppliers and lenders. stakeholder groups can exert influence on strategy. The greater the power of a stakeolder group, the greater its influence will be. Each stakeholder groups has different expectations about what it wants, and the expectations of the various groups will conflict. To some extent, the expectations of stakeholders will influence the organizations mission. As mentioned above, the employees expectations will be expecting high level salary, quick promotions, incentives and Job security. When we look into the environment of Vodafone Group PLC, there are various participants such as internal group and external group. A large part of business strategy consists of making the organizations interaction with its environment as efficient as possible. The degree of uncertainity in the environment is of great importance. The great uncertanity is a challenge to the strategic management and uncertainity depends on complexityand stability. PEST analysis. As we know the environment is divided into micro environment and macro nvironment but, we consider more on macro environment and to drill down it we can do PEST analysis. That is the general environment relates to PEST factors in the environment affecting all organaizatins. * Political Legal factors * Economic factors * Social and cutural factors * Technological Factors Political Legal factors The political environment is not simply limited to legal factors. Existing Government policy affects the whole economy, and governments are responsible for enforcing and creating a stable framework in which business can be done. The recent time 2009/10, e were able to see that government power has changed and the economy recession. Political risk in a decision is the risk that politoical factors will invalidate the strategy and perhaps severly damage the firm. Legal factors affect the particular industries such as telecommunication, electricity, gas and other services subject to regulators who have influence over market access, competition and pricing policy. Economic factors It is very important because it influences at both level national and international level because the world economy decides the national economy. The recent economimc recession is the best example for it. And also, othe economic factors such as economy growth, inflation, exchange rate, overseas market, capital flows and trade, telecommunication local trend, interest and tax rate, business cycle and government spending are influencing the industry. Social and cultural factors The following factors influence the industry such as population growth, rate of mobile users, age limit, geography, social family structure, empoyement rate, wealth and willingness of people to use mobile. The conduct of the company, its management, nd employees will be measured against the ethical standards by the customers and other members of the public with whom they deal. Technological factors In the fastest growing world, the role of technology becomes as an essential for our day to day life because that much it has taken part in the life cycle. In the case of Vodafone PLC, they do not manufacture anything and source from third party with latest updations. The word technology is used to mean three rather different things * Technique * Organization This technoogy contributes to Vodafone to overall growth and with the help of latest echnology Vodafone is able to increase total output in following ways; * Gains in productivity * Reduced costs * New types of product at chepest cost The five forces model provides a comprehensive framework for analysing the competitive environment. Such factors are as folows; 1. Potential entrants 2. Bargain power of customers 3. Bargain power of Suppliers 4. Threats of substitute and 5. Rival. According to this five forces analysis the position of the Vodafone organization is very tight competition and threats of new products are more at lower price so, it is in a osition to introduce new product to manage its competitors and keep the customers loyal. Task 02 Task 03 To select alternative strategies, we shoud do some more analysis and bring them in to practice. The most common way of doing this is to analyse the factors into strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. We can call this as SWOT analysis and this is assessment of strengths and weakness, opportunities, and threats in relation to the internal and environmental factors affecting the entity in order to establish its condition prior to the preparation ofa long term plan. If we identify the strengths and opportunities properly, then we should convert them in to new strategy formulation. Weakness and threats should be converted into strengths and opporturnities rerspectively. We should match the strength with the available opportunities because strength which do not match any available opportunity are of limited use wile opportunities do not have any matching strengths are of little immediate value. The conversion requires the development of strategies which will convert weakness into strenghts in order to take advantage of some paricular pportunity, or converting threat into opportunities which can then be matched by existing strengths. Same as this corporate analysis, there is GAP analysis which compares the organizations targets for achievement over the planning period and what would the organization be expected to achieve if it carried on in the current way with the same products and selling to the same markets, with no major changes to operations. To develop a new strategy we can use the following ways. 1 . Generic Competitive Strategies 2. The Strategy Clock 3. Value Chain differntiation and focus on both.

Financial Statements Paper

Financial Statements Paper Financial Statements Paper December 11, 2012 Acc/280 Professor Kenneth Popp Accounting is a technique where a person/people create(s) reports of business dealings and records the fiscal infrastructure of the company. Three key activities of accounting are determining, communication and documenting. The main goal of these activities are to determine and properly document the activity which has had a fiscal effect (if any) on the organization and to assist in control, recognize danger, and make decisions. All activities are put into categories in fiscal words, as per their financial assumption, and placed in specific accounts in journals, and ledgers. This is the procedure of bookkeeping, which then allows the data created from bookkeeping to be utilized to produce correct and timely financial statements for the organization. Two key divisions of accounting incorporate managerial accounting as well as financial accounting. Managerial accounting assists people in dealing with their finances. It allows inner records to assist people in making decisions and then helping to predict the wants regarding their organization. Financial accounting helps outside people because it gives economic/financial details to them on whether or not their organization complies with laws, rules, and regulations. To know an organization, a person must first be able to understand figures. There are four fiscal reports that an organization produces: Income Statements, Retained Earnings Statements, Balance Sheets, and Statements of Cash Flow. Each one of the reports plays their individual part in being able to display what is going on inside the fiscal infrastructure of the company. An income statement- displays company revenues, expenditures, and net income or net loss of the company through a specific time period. Retained earnings statements- summarize any alterations in built up net income that has been reused for reinvestment in an organization. A balance sheet- states any possessions, debts, and stockholders’ equity of a firm by a specific date. A report of cash flows- summarizes the information regarding money arriving in (bills) and going out their door in (payments) throughout a particular period of time (Weygandt, 2008). Fiscal reports are a comprehensive approach to convey fiscal information to both internal and external people. Inner consumers, for example: a marketing manager, administrator, CEO, or CFOs, utilize information to reply to significant queries, for example â€Å"can we afford to give raises, or should we revisit selling a product or another (Weygandt, 2008, p. 6)?† Outer people, for example: a shareholders or lenders, utilize details to make decisions and assess any dangers of approving credit or financing funds (Weygandt, 2008, p. 6). They reply to such queries like- will the organization be capable to pay back any debt loaned to them? Financial reports have been created to satisfy requirements, and the details given in fiscal reports are stated in units of money as per the fiscal assumption, one of 2 key assumptions. The details that are given on the reports are usually

buy custom The Impact of Technology on Education essay

buy custom The Impact of Technology on Education essay Teachers should be particularly careful when using technology in teaching. Nowadays students use computers frequently than in the past. The National School Boards association found out that students exposed to technology perform better in standardized tests than those students not subjected to technology. Teachers and educators ought to be aware of the potential negative impact of technology on learning. Inappropriate use of technology leads to poor effects of technology. Some disadvantages of technology on learning include increased plagiarism and cheating, lack of vocabularies while speaking, time wasting, overuse of technology, and lack of seriousness among the students (Reed, 2010). Discussion Most students take advantage of the internet to cheat while doing the exams. Plagiarism is yet another problem, where students copy information from the web. This means that students have become lazy to do their own work. All they have to do is to go to the internet, copy the information they need, and finally paste it down. At times, it proves difficult for teachers to trace the source of such information on the web; hence, they do not discover plagiarism. Some other students use the mobile phones during exam time to browse the correct answers and get helpful material from their friends. A study conducted by the University of Washington revealed that DVDs, meant to educate babies, have slipped infant vocabulary. The study found out that babies, who watch DVDs, do not develop their vocabulary unlike babies who did not watch the educational videos and games. To teach the new generation in classrooms; teachers make use of educational games and videos. This is to help the babies to develop their growing minds and increase their level of knowledge, as well as awareness (Petrina, 2007). Neurological changes serve as another disadvantage of technology on learning. In todays world where the computers can be found everywhere, reading and writing take a back seat because students find it easy to click and scroll using the computer mouse. People no longer make their own decisions as they mke little sense to them. Temple University conducted a survey, in the year 2007, and the findings revealed that more than 80% of families in Philadelphia did not read or buy a book. Doctors link certain illnesses to exposure to a lot of information. Some teachers lack experience when it comes to the use of computers. Now that every minute counts, some teachers end up wasting valuable time because of technical problems with the computers. Computers experience problems from time to time. These problems could be malfunctioning of some computer parts or even problems with the software. Teachers also face a problem because they teach students with different computer literacy skills. Some students have no or little exposure to computers, and this proves it hard to teach such a class. Time, therefore, becomes wasted because the teachers will need to cater for each childs needs (Montague, 2004). Another problem faced by the teachers is the mentality that the students have that computers should be used for playing games. Since most students use computers in their homes primarily for playing games, they, therefore, associate them with technology and games. Failure to address this issue properly can affect the learning process. Some students get distracted and bored fast since they will not be using the computer as they have previously used it. However, some teachers can use this as an advantage to them. They can explore it by utilizing it and making learning more enjoyable. Overuse of technology, especially computers, can interfere with the learning process. This is because a good number of students learn best when they mentally and physically interact with the subject of study. Therefore, excessive use of the internet will not care for such students needs. Learning, using computers, does not allow enough time for analysis, reflection or imagination. These vital skills become ignored when teaching using computers, video games or television. These skills are getting lost with time, yet they used to be there before the introduction of technological learning. Several studies show that imagination develops through reading. Reflection, induction and critical thinnking are also essential skills developed through reading different materials. Visual media deny students those skills, as well as print skills (Gev, 2002). Overcoming negative effects of technology in education Teachers should ensure that students do their original work and that there is no cheating or plagiarism. Strict measures, such as examination cancellation, ought to be taken on students who engage in cheating and plagiarism. Teachers should also be advised to use programs that detect plagiarism to ensure that their students do original research while doing their assignments and research (Pierson, 2003). Students should be taught using alternative methods, especially the young children. Visual media in teaching should be avoided at all costs. Teachers should encourage students to read books and other reading materials, so that they improve on their imaginative, analysis, induction and thinking skills. Reading would help learners to improve on their writing skills. Students ought to be encouraged to read for pleasure. Teachers and parents need to instill a reading culture to the children. They should also read for the young children to set an excellent example for them. Students should also be encouraged to use the computer when necessary to avoid certain illness, associated with the use of computers in learning. Technology should be an alternative method of teaching and not the sole method of teaching. Linguistic knowledge comes through interacting with people who use the desired language. Rather than spending time watching DVDs and videos, children can be exposed to people who speak so that they learn from them. Students, who use technology frequently, do not stick to the task. They aim at jumping to the next step even without understanding the concept. Parents should teach their students that computers are not merely used to lay games. They ought to teach them some other uses of computers, such as learning. Again, if computers are to be used in teaching, all areas, rural area inclusive should be supplied with computers and internet so that all students receive the same education (Ferranti, 2003). 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Presidents Day Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Presidents Day - Essay Example However from January 1, 1971 onwards instead of February 22, Presidents day started to celebrate on every third Monday of February. Since then Presidents day never happened in Washington’s actual birth day (February 22) as third Monday of February occurs in between February 15 and 21. In this year or 2011, Presidents day was on February 21. Thus, at present presidents day lost its significance as the actual birth day of America’s first president since it is celebrated based on the day rather than the date. Today, people celebrate Presidents day to mark their respect towards the entire Presidents of America, but most significantly George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. â€Å"The official US holiday is meant to honor only George Washington, but many people consider President's Day a day to honor both George Washington (born on Feb. 22, 1732) and Abraham Lincoln (born on Feb. 12, 1809)† (Activities, Worksheets and Crafts for Presidents Day).The story behind fixing t he presidents day as the third Monday on February is interesting. According to the Gregorian or "New Style" calendar that is most commonly used today, George Washington was born on February 22, 1732. But according to the Julian or "Old Style" calendar that was used in England until 1752, his birth date was February 11th. Back in the 1790s, Americans were split - some celebrated his birthday on February 11th and some on February 22nd.When Abraham Lincoln became president and helped reshape our country, it was believed he, too, should have a special day of recognition. Tricky thing was that Lincoln’s birthday fell on February 12th. Prior to 1968, having two presidential birthdays so close together didn't seem to bother anyone. February 22nd was observed as a federal public holiday to honor the birthday of George Washington and February 12th was observed as a public holiday to honor Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (Himiac). The confusion over the significance of Presidents day is still prevailing in America. Some people celebrate it for honoring first president George Washington whereas some others use it to honor Abraham Lincoln. In order to avoid confusion or controversy some people celebrate the entire week for Presidents day celebration. Some of the America schools and colleges conducting regular classes currently even on Presidents day. At the same time, many other schools in America often been closed for the entire week. In other words, Presidents day is celebrated or observed differently by the academic community. Even though Congress had made federal legislation for celebrating Presidents day, still individual states are keeping their preferences while observing Presidents day. States like California, Idaho, Tennessee and Texas started to use the term "President's Day rather than Presidents’ Day. The confusion about the Presidents day helped the business community to exploit it. Business people interpreted presidents day differently with t he help of different advertising campaigns and currently people’s perception about president day has been changed a lot. Instead of honoring the Presidents, current people use this occasion for shopping and enjoying. Presidents day is currently celebrated more by the business community. They use this occasion to boost their sales just like other significant occasions like Memorial Day, Christmas Day, Veterans Day, Columbus Day etc. Earlier most of the American shops were remain closed

Democracies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Democracies - Essay Example However, different inaugurals, studies, and declarations such as; The Four Freedoms which were presented by Franklin D. Roosevelt for the strengthening of democracy; the UDHR; President Obama’s Second Inaugural; etc. This paper critically analyzes these articles and declarations on the topic which are in significant relevance with each other; UDHR and Four Freedoms and Kaplan’s Article and Obama’s Second Inaugural. Moreover, it will also highlight the impacts on each other. Likewise, other responsible democracies of the world, United States also have great respect and serious interest towards democracy and human rights. These components have long been the core focus of the U.S. Foreign Policy. The increased emphasis on democracy by its leaders, government, and other concerned authorities is because of the fact that it allows them to advance their national interests on global levels. Moreover, the freedom for religion and the workers and labor rights as essential American ideologies are also well promoted through it. It is believed by the U.S. Government and people of U.S. that, democratic nations have more contribution towards global peace; it helps in diminishing aggression; allows expanding open markets, and ensures and safeguard the basic rights of Americans (Patterson). It is due to these reasons that many U.S. Presidents have addressed the topic of democracy and has shown its importance in their speeches at different occasions. Similarly, different institutions and the UN have also highlighted its significance. The UDHR in 1948 was also presented to show the vitality of the human rights. It was due to this declaration that the organized community of nations declared the human rights and the relevant essential freedoms for the first time (United Nations). However, the declaration was presented for democracies all over the world and was conceived as ‘a common standard of achievement for all people and nations’ (United Nation s). It was formulated to measure and identify the level and degree of respect for an agreement with the international human rights principles. Varying from economic, social, cultural, to political rights, to which all individuals are authorized without any differentiation, the UDHR consists of 30 articles (United Nations). Declaring all humans as equal individuals since their birth (Article 1), the UDHR is a complete set of rules. The economic, cultural and social rights to humans are mentioned in Articles 22-27. All individuals are declared as equal members of the society (Article 22). The declaration’s mandate limits everyone and every state and government to provide all humans the same rights without any discrimination (Article 2). The declaration in its 4th Article also highlights the curse of slavery telling that no one should be held in slavery or servitude (United Nations). The right to justice is also declared to all individuals and that all of them can make use of th e right before the law as a person everywhere. Right to privacy (Article 12) and the freedom of thought, conscience and religion is also declared to all in Article 18. Article 19 deals with the freedom of expression and speech. The declaration also deals with religion giving every human equal right for it (Article 26). The United Nation’s, UDHR worked as a chief declaration for the human rights and many democratic states including U.S. followed it with its full implementation. However, the

Comic tension Essay Example for Free

Comic tension Essay ‘Taming of the Shrew’ is the only known play written by Shakespeare to have an Induction. This Induction was written by Shakespeare to introduce the idea of a play within a play to the audience.  The Induction to the play is quite a complex structure; at the start of the induction the audience is introduced to a drunken tinker named Christopher Sly, caught in a fight with the Hostess of what is presumed to be a tavern or alehouse. There is an immediate sense of comedy to the opening of the Induction as the audience is shown Sly cussing the Hostess with foul language, â€Å"I’ll pheeze you, in faith†. In return the Hostess threatens to put Sly in a ‘pair of stocks’. This is an example of Shakespeare trying to create comic tension as this drama is clearly commenting on the sexist inequality between both genders during this time. Sly perceives himself as quite noble, stating to the Hostess that he â€Å"came in with Richard Conquer†. Being drunk this would probably be discredited as he is clearly trying to exert power over the hostess as she is a woman. Shakespeare has created this argument involving Sly to capture the attention of the audience, the language used by Sly and the Hostess, the swearing and the anger, this causes a lot of tension between the characters and additionally, this scene was created by Shakespeare to present Sly as a fool to the audience.  However, when the Lord is introduced, the audience is given an image of what seems like a descendants of royalty, the way the lord orders the huntsman to â€Å"tender well my hounds†, it gives the audience the true impression of someone who holds great power over others as he is of a higher class. When the Lord finds Sly in the street, he describes him as a â€Å"monstrous beast, how like a swine he lies†, this reference insinuates that Sly should be depicted as a lowly creature, of whom the upper classes should be disgusted of his type, that men like Sly are feeble and not worthy of anyone’s time. This parallels with Katherine in Act 1of taming of the shrew where the audience sees that Katherine has no tolerance over men as she sees them all feeble and not worthy of her presence and time. The lord’s idea to trick the tinker into believing that he is really a lord is an idea that is reflected in the taming of the shrew where Petruchio plays a trick on Kate, the purpose of this is to add to the comedy of the original play by making obvious parallels between the induction and the taming of the shrew.  The lord speaks of all the deeds that must be carried out before Sly awakes from his sleep, giving commands as to what his servants shall say to him when he awakes, â€Å"tell him of his hounds and horse, and that his lady mourns at his disease†. The extent of the planning of which the lord is going makes it easy to predict what is going to happen in the play ahead of the characters themselves. Also the element of disguise creates tension between the characters as when Sly is presented with his ‘wife’, he genuinely believes everything despite previously suspecting that he was being fooled. However, the Lord has instructed that his pageboy act as and dress as a woman to fool Sly into believing the trick is real. This then makes the trick more elaborate, thus showing how Shakespeare is managing to create comic tension on Sly, the audience can see that Sly is clearly being fooled by the lord, however the character Sly himself has no awareness of what is happening. Shakespeare’s plays were well known for their drama and the comic tension he managed to create between them, the comic tension displayed in this play, plays a big role in how the comedy is perceived by the audience.

The Efficacy of Lithium in Treating Bipolar Disorder Essay -- Treatmen

The Efficacy of Lithium in Treating Bipolar Disorder Lithium is a psychotropic drug that became available in 1970 as a mood stabilizing medication for the long-term treatment of bipolar disorder. It has been shown to reduce the frequency and severity of manic states, as well as the depression that is concomitant with bipolar disorder. Much research has been done in the short duration of lithium's employment to evaluate its efficacy and side effects. As stated above, "Lithium stabilizes the mood of a bipolar patient, preventing a relapse into either mania or depression" (Kalat, 2004, p.472). Bipolar disorder (also known as manic- depressive illness), is characterized by the presence of the following symptoms: motor hyperactivity, flight of ideas, elation, a diminished need for sleep, grandiosity, poor judgment, aggressiveness, and possible hostility (FDA, 2005, 4). Manic-depressives are recognized by their constant mood swings, wherein they may be overly euphoric, subsequently becoming rapidly irritable, sad, or hopeless. A person is experiencing a depressive episode if five or more of the following symptoms are experienced for most of the day, every day, for at least two weeks: difficulty concentrating, loss of interest in sex or formerly enjoyed activities, a lasting empty mood, decreased energy, difficulty making decisions, chronic pain that is not caused by physical injury, and recurring thoughts of death or suicide (MedicineNet, 2005, 3). A manic episode is diagnosed if a person displays three or more the following symptoms for most of the day, every day, for one week or more: increased energy and restlessness, extreme irritability, distractibility, unrealistic beliefs i... ... Increased Lethargy Somnolence Weakness Confusion, drowsiness Gross confusion Unsteady balance Gross ataxia Profound loss of balance Nausea Vomiting Urinary incontinence Decreased Slurred speech Random muscle twitching concentration Worsening hand Muscle twitching Coma tremor Diarrhea Note. From Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Bipolar Disorder (p.48), by Monica Ramirez Basco and A. John Rush, 1996, New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Conclusion At this point in time, it is not known exactly how lithium alleviates the symptomatology of bipolar disorder, only that it is highly effective and will be continue to be one of the primary treatments in alleviating bipolar disorder until new remedies are discovered.

SPSS Computer Project

Blue Marketing research is conducting an experiment with the patients of the Midwest University Medical Hospital. The goal of this experiment is to find out if the residents of Midwest University Medical Hospital are happy with their service, and to judge whether or not the current state of customer service is affecting the amount of residents that reside at the hospital. The experiment will consist of a survey questionnaire administered to a random assortment of patients within the hospital. The patients will be questioned about the overall quality of the hospital, the intention to return and see the same doctor, the intention to recommend friends and family, the intention to compliment management, the intention to complain about service, the intention to seek other health care services, and the intention to not use any provider. The respondents were asked to rate the likelihood of each future behavior based on a 1-7 scale, 1 being â€Å"would not†, 7 being â€Å"definitely would†. A summary of the data collected is show below.Windows 7 Check Your Understanding From this summary of data we are able to make recommendations for the hospital to improve quality and service. Summary of Findings Overall quality is rated as poor. Most people intend to return to the same doctor. Most people intend to recommend this hospital to family and friends and few will complain to them. Many people intend to complain to management, but few to hospital management. Very few intend to complain to local medical society. Very few intend to seek similar care elsewhere. Few intend not to use any provider. About half discussed their visit, afterwards. Most aspects of perceived service were about neutral. There was an outlier in the perceived service section: the customers were clearly unhappy with the operating hours. Difference between male and female responses After collecting all of the surveys, we have found that both men and women rate the overall quality about the same. Both men and women are likely to return, and recommend family and friends. We found that women are more likely to compliment management, men complain to hospital management, and men were more likely to complain to hospital management. Women are more likely to seek help elsewhere, and men are more likely to use to healthcare at all. Both genders thought that the facilities were appealing, and women thought that the equipment was up to date more than men. Women felt that the employees were better dressed, more than men. Women rated the in keeping with service better than men, along with promise and do it. More women thought that the provider was sympathetic, and men were more likely to believe that the hospital was dependable. Men were happier with the time in which services were held compared to the time they were promised, and women were happier with the way records were kept. Men were more likely to be satisfied with when the service was provided, were also more likely to expect prompt service, and also were more likely to believe that employees were helpful. Men were more likely to select that employees were too busy, both groups believed that they could trust employee’s, and both groups felt safe. More women thought that employees were polite, and that they had organizational support. More women believed that they had individual attention compared to men, and also believed that employee’s knew their needs. Women thought that the doctors had their best interest at heart compared to women, and women thought that the operating hours were acceptable, while men did not. Recommendations The data from this study shows several opportunities for improvement in the quality of the service they provide. The overall quality of the hospital was rated very low. This is a major opportunity for improvement. This is a broad general view of the hospital by the patients this should improve as all of the smaller issues get improved. Intent to complain to management- There is room for improvement in almost all of the perceived service areas. The appealing facilities question was about neutral. Improving the appearance of the facility and making sure it is constantly clan would improvement customer perceptions of the quality of the hospital. Maybe it’s time to do some renovations. The respondents were about neutral to equipment being up to date. This isn’t that bad, but it would still be good to have newer equipment and would raise this section.

Essay on Human Behaviour and Social Norms

Running head: HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND SOCIAL NORMS Do social norms influence human behaviour? Human behaviour is the response to given stimuli, which are socially and environmentally affected. This response is something that can easily be influenced and shaped through many personal, situational, social, biological, mental factors. In this essay the case of social norms influencing human behaviour will be analyzed using previous studies. Social norms are part of a larger influential scale generally named as social influence.Social influence is the exercise of power that an individual or a group can use on other individuals or society in order to alter their attitudes, behaviours and lead them to a desired direction. Social influence has as an outcome three different behavioural patterns, which are conformity, compliance and obedience. All of them will be discussed, but especially conformity and compliance, which mainly include the influence of social norms on behaviour (Franzoi, 2009; Cia ldini & Goldstein, 2004).Firstly, conformity in general is the action to adapt with the behaviour of the rest of the people due to perceived group pressure. Practically, this means that the way people dress, entertain themselves, protest, work, eat, go on vacations, disclose themselves and substantially anything an individual can occupy himself, is formed by group’s direction and tendencies because the majority of people, if not all of them, try to socialize and be accepted by their society in any possible way.This phenomenon is called conformity and it is an ambiguous question if independence, which indeed is a reality, exists anyway. This happens because people voluntarily direct their independence towards society’s preferences and tendencies in order to feel that they belong somewhere and they have a particular social identity (Franzoi, 2009). The second factor of influence is the compliance and it is has to do with the public and clear acceptance of one’s pe rson to act according to given social direction by the indicated social power. However, compliance can be divided into internal and external.This means that a person can comply with a situation either because someone else indirectly forces him or either because he believes he should act like this. For example, if someone asks his friend to lie in order not to have problems with parents (e. g. cover a sneaking out) but he does it in the name of friendship even if he does not really want it, this is a clear example of external force making you to comply. Internal compliance is the opposite state where personal beliefs and attitudes force you to do something without having any external pressure to do something.This issue is very important because in the case of external compliance, social norms are in a great influential position in contrast to internal compliance where personal beliefs mainly take place on the decisional process (Franzoi, 2009). On the other hand obedience is the tota l performance of a given order by social power without any resistance against it or trial to sustain independence. Social power is the available social sources through social acceptance and social status that a person or a group of people can have in order to exercise persuasion and give motivation to make people change or fulfill their requests.Consequently, these three parts of social influence represents the levels of personal accordance to social patterns, authoritarian or not. Specifically, it can be noticed that the level of individual’s independence sets if a situation is more about conformity (unconscious but voluntary acceptance of the norms), or compliance (internal or external acceptance) or obedience (total accordance to social power) (Cook et al. , as cited in Franzoi, 2009; Franzoi, 2009). Focusing more one the aspect of conformity and the influence of social norms, there are specific factors that affect conformity and levels of social norms’ influence on it.These factors can be situational, personal and cultural. Situational factors can be group size, group cohesiveness, and social support. Group size is important because as Asch (1955) found, the larger the group, the bigger the phenomenon of conformity due to social norms. Group cohesiveness makes the group to have greater bonds due to similarity and ability to easily show empathy to each other (Christensen et al. , 2004) and social support is noticed to groups with higher levels of cohesiveness and bonding. On the other hand, there are personal factors ffecting the type of conformity such as self-awareness (ability to understand own self), self-presentation (try to present ideal self in order to conform), personal control (desire to feel that one has control, as a human right, over particular situations) and gender (gender differences- women are more likely to conform) (Franzoi, 2009). Based on all the previously referred material, conformity is totally driven by social norms, n orms that are not written but sometimes are more powerful than law; the way that a person conforms to society affects the level and type of his compliance to society’s requests.For example, if a person has as personal characteristic not to like altering his self-image/ presentation based on society’s preferences due to his intense belief in independence, it is possible that this person will comply more difficult because of external motivation instead of internal. On the other hand, this means that if a person has an internal compliance only to smile to people who knows and not to anybody else due to his belief, this will affect the way that he conforms to the social norm of smiling to people in general in order to be kind.This shows how social norms can affect conformity and consequently compliance and the other way around, respectively. Furthermore, people have a tendency to create and maintain meaningful relationships with other people because they need socializing a s human beings, which is called as affiliation. Affiliation is a good example of internal compliance. This motivation makes the compliance to socializing and dedicating energy and time on building relationships, an internal acceptance for personal growth (Franzoi, 2009; Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004).Nevertheless, there is the issue of how and when external compliance to social norms such as stereotyping occurs. In particular, Bargh and Chartrand (1999) did a study on automaticity of behaviour and found that when people are unconsciously pre-occupied with e. g. stereotyping words, even if they believe that stereotyping is wrong, they are likely to stereotype because they unconsciously externally comply with the given stimuli. Stereotyping is a form of social norm. People may stereotype in order to protect themselves; for example, filthy aggressive people on the street may be perceived as thieves or criminals.So there are two outcomes on this example. One person may believe that the app earance cannot indicate anything about personal characteristics but in the end he conforms to the social norm and try to avoid him as the other people around him do (external compliance). On the other hand, one may truly believe that these kinds of people are definitely criminals because he might have a bad experience in the past so he avoids him due to his belief (internal compliance to the social norm of avoiding this kind of people) (Franzoi, 2009; Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004; Bargh & Chartrand, 1999).Rimal and Real (2005) did a study on how perceived norms affect human behaviour with college students in order to investigate intentions to alcohol consumption. They proposed the theory of normative social behaviour that includes three mechanisms: injunctive norms (such as social approval), outcome expectations (such as personal benefits) and group identity (such as similarity). Their hypothesis was that these three mechanisms are able to moderate the influence of social norms on the human behaviour. Indeed, their results showed that these normative mechanisms could predict the intention of alcohol consumption to college students.Consequently, this study is a clear answer to the question whether social norms affect human behaviour. In addition, Rivis and Sheeran (2003) did a study on Theory of planned behaviour in order to find out whether added descriptive norms can be good predictors of human behaviour in the particular model. Their results showed that younger participants and health risk behaviours are greatly related to stronger correlation between intentions of behaviour and descriptive norms; confirming that behaviour is affected by norms.As a conclusion, the general point of view in all these theories and facts is that social norms affect human behaviour through the state of conformity and compliance. Substantially, the intentions of behaviour can be affected either implicitly or explicitly. People conform to the society in order to be accepted and compl y with various social norms that conformity requires through implicit/internal or explicit/external way. Even if personal and situational factors may influence the level of compliance and conformity, people constantly comply with various requests either due to personal beliefs or due to accepting other’s personal beliefs.Word count: 1. 440 References Asch, S. E. (1955). Opinions and social pressure. Scientific American, 31-35. Bargh, J. A. , & Chartrand, T. L. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist, 54, 462-479. Christensen, P. N. , & Rothberger, H. , & Wood, W. , & Maltz, D. C. (2004). Social norms and identity relevance: A motivational approach to normative behaviour. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1295-1309. Cialdini, R. B. , & Goldstein, N. J. (2004).Social influence: Compliance and conformity. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 591-621. Franzoi, S. L. (2009). Social psychology (5th ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill. Rimal, R. N. , & Real, K. (2005). How behaviours are influenced by perceived norms: A test of the theory of normative social behaviour. Communication Research, 32, 389-414. Rivis, A. , & Sheeran, P. (2003). Descriptive norms as an additional predictor in the theory of planned behaviour: A meta-analysis. Current psychology, 22, 218-233.

Frankenstein Essay Essays - Frankenstein, English-language Films

Frankenstein Essay Essays - Frankenstein, English-language Films Frankenstein Essay Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley is a complex novel that was written during the age of Romanticism. It contains many typical themes of a common Romantic novel such as dark laboratories, the moon, and a monster; however, Frankenstein is anything but a common novel. Many lessons are embedded into this novel, including how society acts towards the different. The monster fell victim to the system commonly used to characterize a person by only his or her outer appearance. Whether people like it or not, society always summarizes a person's characteristics by his or her physical appearance. Society has set an unbreakable code individuals must follow to be accepted. Those who don't follow the "standard" are hated by the crowd and banned for the reason of being different. When the monster ventured into a town"...[monster] had hardly placed [his] foot within the door ...children shrieked, and ...women fainted" (101). From that moment on he realized that people did not like his appearance and hated him because of it. If villagers didn't run away at the sight of him, then they might have even enjoyed his personality. The monster tried to accomplish this when he encountered the De Lacey family. The monster hoped to gain friendship from the old man and eventually his children. He knew that it could have been possible because the old man was blind, he could not see the monster's repulsive characteristics. But fate was against him and the "wretched" had barely conversed with the old man before his children returned from their journey and saw a monstrous creature at the foot of t heir father attempting to do harm to the helpless elder. "Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore [the creature] from his father..." (129). Felix's action caused great inner pain to the monster. He knew that his dream of living with them "happily ever after" would not happen. After that bitter moment the monster believed that "...the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union [with the monster]" (138) and with the De Lacey encounter still fresh in his mind along with his first encounter of humans, he declared war on the human race. The wicked being's source of hatred toward humans originates from his first experiences with humans. In a way the monster started out with a child-like innocence that was eventually shattered by being constantly rejected by society time after time. His first encounter with humans was when he opened his yellow eyes for the first time and witnessed Victor Frankenstein, his creator, "...rush out of the [laboratory]..." (56). Would this have had happened if society did not consider physical appearance to be important? No. If physical appearance were not important then the creature would have had a chance of being accepted into the community with love and care. But society does believe that physical appearance is important and it does influence the way people act towards each other. Frankenstein should have made him less offending if even he, the creator, could not stand his disgusting appearance. There was a moment however when Frankenstein "...was moved..." (139) by the creature. He ".. .felt what the duties of a creator..." (97) were and decided that he had to make another creature, a companion for the original. But haunting images of his creation (from the monster's first moment of life) gave him an instinctive feeling that the monster would do menacing acts with his companion, wreaking twice the havoc! Reoccurring images of painful events originating from a first encounter could fill a person with hate and destruction. We as a society are the ones responsible for the transformation of the once child-like creature into the monster we all know. The public needs to know that our society has flaws and they must be removed before our primal instincts continue to isolate and hurt the people who are different. With such a large amount of technology among us, some people may wonder why such an advanced civilization still clings on to such primitive ways of categorizing people.

How to Manage and ID Yoshino Cherry

How to Manage and ID Yoshino Cherry Yoshino Cherry grows quickly to 20 feet, has beautiful bark but is a relatively short-lived tree. It has upright to horizontal branching, making it ideal for planting along walks and over patios. The white to pink flowers blooming in early spring, before the leaves develop, can be damaged by late frosts or very windy conditions. The tree is glorious in flower and has been planted along with Kwanzan Cherry in Washington, D.C. and Macon, Georgia for their annual Cherry Blossom Festivals. Specifics Scientific name: Prunus x yedoensisPronunciation: PROO-nus x yed-oh-EN-sisCommon name: Yoshino CherryFamily: RosaceaeUSDA hardiness zones: 5B through 8AOrigin: not native to North AmericaUses: Bonsai; container or above-ground planter; near a deck or patio; trainable as a standard; specimen; residential street tree Cultivars ‘Akebona’(‘Daybreak’) - flowers softer pink; ‘Perpendens’ - irregularly pendulous branches; ‘Shidare Yoshino’ (‘Perpendens’) - irregularly pendulous branches Description Height: 35 to 45 feetSpread: 30 to 40 feetCrown uniformity: symmetrical canopy with a regular (or smooth) outline, and individuals have more or less identical crown formsCrown shape: round; vase shapeCrown density: moderateGrowth rate: mediumTexture: medium Trunk and Branches Trunk/bark/branches: bark is thin and easily damaged from mechanical impact; droop as the tree grows, and will require pruning for vehicular or pedestrian clearance beneath the canopy; showy trunk; should be grown with a single leader;Pruning requirement: requires pruning to develop strong structureBreakage: resistantCurrent year twig color: brownCurrent year twig thickness: thin Foliage Leaf arrangement: alternateLeaf type: simpleLeaf margin: double serrate; serrateLeaf shape: elliptic oval; oblong; ovateLeaf venation: banchidodrome; pinnateLeaf type and persistence: deciduousLeaf blade length: 2 to 4 inches Culture Light requirement: tree grows in full sunSoil tolerances: clay; loam; sand; acidic; occasionally wet; alkaline; well-drainedDrought tolerance: moderateAerosol salt tolerance: noneSoil salt tolerance: poor In Depth Best used as a specimen or near the deck or patio for shade, Yoshino cherry also works nicely along walks or near a water feature. Not a street or parking lot tree due to drought-sensitivity. Large specimens take on a weeping habit with delicate branchlets arranged on upright-spreading branches affixed to a short, stout trunk. A lovely addition to a sunny spot where a beautiful specimen is needed. Winter form, yellow fall color, and pretty bark make this a year-round favorite. Provide good drainage in an acidic soil for best growth. Crowns become one-sided unless they receive light from all around the plant, so locate in full sun. Select another tree to plant if soil is poorly drained but otherwise Yoshino cherry adapts to clay or loam. Roots should be kept moist and should not be subjected to prolonged drought.

HR Management in the Small Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

HR Management in the Small Business - Essay Example In both small and large businesses, the major functions of HR management are recruitment, selection, training, and compensation of employees (Longenecker et al., 2011). However, not all-small businesses are able to have a full functioning HR management system that can handle the above-mentioned activities in formal and efficient ways. As a result, small businesses are forced to choose to either run these activities informally or outsource them to another organization. The small businesses due to their size and level of income are in most cases not able to adapt new technologies that have been developing to improve efficiency in managing human resources. One of such technologies is the Human Resource Management System that can provide information necessary for effective decision-making (Mathis & Jackson, 2011). As a result, small business is forced to employ the outdated method of decision making which can be inefficient in our current era. Another reason that makes small business not to use such technologies is that they do not prioritize the management of human resources. Majorities of the small businesses are not able to maintain an HR department with fully qualified HR professionals necessary for effective and formal HR management. In such organizations, the owner of the business or a clerical employee who is employed to do so carries out the HR roles. Moreover, in case of new employees who are hired, the supervisors and managers do the recruiting, selecting and training (Mathis & Jackson, 2011). Due to the limitation in the HR knowledge of the people tasked with HR management mandate in small businesses, it is always found out that in most cases they fail to meet standards required. Some of these HR activities are time consuming and, thus, they largely reduce the time the people assigned to undertake them have to focus on their main role in the business. Most of these small businesses decide to outsource most of their HR activities to another organization. The outsourcing process means that a business contracts or hires another business or organization to undertake certain activities in the business on its behalf (Mathis & Jackson, 2011). The outsourced activities might be recruiting, selecting and training of employees as well as managing its HR records and employees compensations. In such a case, this helps the people involved in running the business to focus mainly on their area of specialization and, thus, makes them to be more efficient in their roles. Furthermore, it enables the business to acquire services of HR specialist in undertaking its HR activities that can result in more efficiency despite their size. The major reason why most of the small business chooses not to have an HR department to handle HR activities and issues is the relatively low interest in human resource management in their different stages of operation (Cornelius, 2001). In most cases, it is very difficult to convince a manager or owner about the fundament al contributions of an HR department in the success of their business. This makes them not to prioritize it and most of them only plan to introduce them when their businesses grow to become large corporate. However, these individuals should be convinced about the role that properly managed human resources can play in resolving their

Video review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Video review - Essay Example That is, it could be fitted to be suitable to what the engineers or customers wanted. The traditional iron triangle of waterfall was more rigid and could not accommodate some alterations. The modifications included things that could suit new customer behaviours. Contrary to the traditional iron triangle of Waterfall the agile model allowed an accelerated time to the market and allowed for aligning of IT to the business. With agile, the results depict an increase in productivity and software quality. There is also greater project visibility and a reduction of risks when compared to the iron triangle model of project management (Beierwaltes 1). Finally, it is less costly for a company or an individual to apply the agile model than the Iron Triangle of Waterfall. It is less costly to maintain the software involved in Agile than that of Iron triangle of Waterfall. Agile could be used on our project efficiently. The first reason is due to its cost effectiveness both in initial set up as well as the costs of maintenance. In addition, we could quickly alter its specifications to suit the needs of our projects better. There will be increased productivity and better results as a result of the software’s high quality (Beierwaltes

Caterpillar Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Caterpillar Case Study - Essay Example The major problems that it faces are from the low-cost indigenous products which are aggressively marketing their products especially in places like China and Russia. Low priced locally manufactured products are the main competition that the company faces. The brand equity of its product makes it difficult to lower the prices of its core product line. The company is thus faced with several perspectives which may or may not jeopardize the market position of its popular and core products. To remain in the competition, it can either lower the cost of its main product line permanently or it can bring down the prices temporarily or it can introduce a new LEA (less expensive alternative) with a product that is different or locally manufactured or refurbished and sold under its brand umbrella with caterpillar standard service. The company faces the dilemma of whether the market status of its core product would be cannibalized in the price war or an alternate product line would help meet the competition in a more healthy manner while retaining its market position vis-Ã  -vis its core products. If the company permanently lowers the prices of its main product line, it faces a loss of credibility globally and eventually a huge profit margin which may prove disastrous for the company image and challenge its position as a global leader. Temporarily lowering the prices would have the same consequences as the previous ones. The company is thus left with the option of introducing a new low priced product line to meet the challenge of the local products. The third alternative needs to be investigated deeply because of several hidden problems like cost differentiation between its premium brand and LEA and between LEA and local product and how far down it can be lowered with relation to the local goods.

Telling the Truth About History Essay Example for Free

Telling the Truth About History Essay The struggle to find truth in telling the stories of history has been a source of constant debate amongst historians and intellectuals. With the emergence of religious rejection during the seventeenth and eighteenth century Enlightenment, the influence and undoubted supremacy of the heroic model of science provided historians with new ways for obtaining truth—absolute truths—through the dispassionate eyes of a â€Å"heroic† observer. Although this remains unchallenged for many generations, with the cultural changes and the democratization of education, the idea of an absolute truth—a universal story of national progress which neglects to encompass the diversity of America—is challenged by post-modernity. In all its pessimisms towards absolute truths and objective knowledge, post-modernism illustrates the importance of and sets the foundation for questioning historical accuracy and the idea of objectivity. Can there be truth when the words and language of the â€Å"objective† observer is unintentionally dripping in their own personal, social, and political agendas? Through the works of Foucault and Deerdas, who get at the heart of this very question, historians are encouraged to reject the Enlightenment project, and look deeper into historical evidence to interrogate the structure and organization of the text, its vocabulary, and hidden assumptions. Although, post-modernity—a critique of the Enlightenment ideals—creates the framework for the questioning of historical accuracy, it is very important to recognize its inability to formulate its own solutions to this historical dilemma. Fortunately, with the succeeding ideas of practical realists, there is a sense of hope and optimism for the future of history and the all-encompassing truths that it can uphold. How did post-modernity challenge the heroic model of science and enlightenment ideals? With the digression away from enlightenment ideals of objectivity, absolute truth, and progress, post-modernists set the tone for a new way of thinking—similar to the way Enlightenment philosophers challenged the absolutisms of the church. With the new social historians, the American story is challenged by the competing ethnic cultures that didn’t fit into the white-protestant American story, and penetrate below the surface to where the stories of women, slaves, and immigrants had been veiled for so long. The idealized American story – a fallacious story of unity and equality—had represented the founding fathers political, social, and religious agendas towards progress and modernity which produced justifications like â€Å"manifest destiny†. With this new idea of the influence of personal experiences and agendas, even Newton and Darwin are put on the stand, to find that even these so called â€Å"dispassionate† and completely â€Å"objective† observers had political, social, and religious agendas that greatly influenced their work. This opens the door for the post-modernists attack against the possibility of objective historical or scientific knowledge, reality, and in essence, truth. They deny our ability to represent objective knowledge in any true fashion because of the language barrier which serves, in a sense, as a funnel that reflects every personal, political, social, and religious agenda or experience. Post-modernists, like Foucalt and Deerdas, â€Å"made western man into a modern day Gulliver, tied down with ideological ropes and incapable of transcendence because he can never get beyond the veil of language to the reality ‘out there’†. (p. 208) With the conflict between the signifier and the signified, as expressed by Saussure, reality or truth can never be reached because in the process of representing an actual object- or the signified – there is a risk of distorting and obfuscating it (p. 214). Objects allow us to create stories—narratives— not necessarily accurate—about the object and its existence. These narratives are inescapable personal and rely upon the experiences and agendas of the individual creating it. Therefore, language is not a direct correspondence to reality. It represents differences, personal agendas, experiences, beliefs, and power relations and knowing this, according to post-modernists, eliminates the possibility of any kind of reality or truth for both science and history. The post-modern cynicism towards reality, truth and objective knowledge created a new way for writing history. The rejection of the old absolutisms created an opportunity for questioning and discourse of previously accepted historical knowledge. It created a space for the stories of marginalized groups who had until this time, been veiled by the universal, romanticized American story of progress toward modernity. A story of success and opportunity on the frontier was substituted by a story of struggle—of women’s rights, of slaves, and of the killings of Native Americans. Within the Enlightenment objectives for history there are limitations to the possibility of anything else but progress. When progress and modernity are the only ideals being stressed, there is little room to create a history beyond this. These ideals consumed the thoughts, beliefs, politics and social structures of man, and it was reflected in their work. History until this time was being tied down and restricted to the old absolutisms, to one universal story which supposedly encompassed all of nature. However, with social history and the door it opened for post-modernity, history could take on the task of telling a more encompassing story that could be discussed, criticized, and built upon. Although, post-modernists believe that there is no truth and that the possibility of reality is non-existent, they set the foundation for future historians to question the history books which they are learning from, to look deeper into the hidden agendas that are sometimes veiled, and to then write a history that, although cannot be completely objective and dispassionate, can embody some sort of truth and historicism for that time. This idea of taking a middle ground between the traditionalist philosophers of the Enlightenment and the pessimistic post-modernists is the main goal the authors of this book try to make. They recognize the need for questioning and interrogation but not to the extent that we end up a nihilistic view that there is no truth and nothing matters. The gap between past events, like records, and the way historians describe and interpret them is accepted by practical realists. This allows for the possibility of obtaining truth and a method for writing history. Some words, they explain, however socially constructed, reach out to the world and give a reasonably true description of its contents because of a relationship between the object and the observer (p. 250). With the practical realists emphasis on archival research, the use of our memories and curiosity, and discourse upon discourse the writing of history is now possible. However, without the post-modernists cynicism and interrogation of the Enlightenment project history may still be a discipline of absolutisms and â€Å"heroisms†.

Southwest case analysis Essay -- essays research papers

Southwest has made an organization out of providing low-fare, short haul routes between city pairs. It has concentrated specifically on offering low-fares on all of its flights by maintaining its no frills attitude and high frequency of flights. This has afforded Southwest Airlines with the lowest cost structure in the industry. Southwest has created a niche for itself by flying a network of flights between smaller U.S. cities that average just one hour apart. This has differentiated them from their competition and avoided many clashes with industry giants who concentrate more on coast-to-coast flights. Kelleher, who is the president, chairman and CEO of Southwest Airlines is the companies single biggest asset and driving force. Kelleher runs the company very tightly and makes all the major decisions through a very centralized decision making process. This brings to light two potential problems. Firstly, how can a company such as Southwest airlines maintain such a centralized organi zation in the face of growth. Secondly, how is this company going to survive once Kelleher is no longer running it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The problem that Southwest Airline is facing, is how are they going to survive in an aggressive industry without Kelleher’s leadership. It is a significant problem as the company is a symbol of Kelleher. However, unlike the company, Kelleher has a limited life-span and therefore the company will likely outlive him. This problem therefore requires some urgency as the succession of Kelleher could be the airlines biggest problem. The consequences of Kelleher leaving could be that the company loses its corporate identity. Employees may not respond well to new management. Customers may perceive that the company will not be run in the same manner and will therefore lose its niche market. This could also apply to stakeholders, who will see the departure of Kelleher as a serious decrease in the value of the company. Competitors may also try to take advantage of the company during this unstable period.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kelleher is the face of Southwest airlines, even going as far as starring in most of their TV commercials. He also personally maintains an excellent relationship with a virtually all-union workforce. He has single handedly given Southwest the lowest employees turnover rate in the industry. Kelleher’s personal motiva... ...with the reality of the firm.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The implementation of this decision will require a marketing campaign that will be used to phase out Kelleher. The major resistance will be from the employees who will be fearful of new management. This will be addressed by the management team reinforcing the corporate strategies to the employees and reiterating the fact that Southwest airlines will remain the same company and the employees should expect things to stay the same. The ramifications of this plan is that power within Southwest could become to decentralized, therefore changing the core competencies of the firm.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In order for this plan to work it would require: Assembling a team to head the marketing campaign, restructuring of upper management, and decentralize decision making. The objective is to redefine and restructure the upper management in such a way that the loss of Kelleher is manageable. This plans effectiveness will be measured by employee and customer satisfaction throughout the transition. The project will be concluded when the new structure has been phased in and the reaction to Kelleher’s departure is under control.