Moral Development

The elementary years can be considered as a crucial point when it comes to the character formation of a person. This is where he faces new things; knowledge and information that could greatly affect his life in the future. This is the time in the child’s life where he or she develops a concept about what’s good or bad. Because of this, adult intervention is necessary; parents as well as teachers should do their best in supervising every step of development their children undergoes. In Kohlberg’s theory, the time when children enter elementary school is his second in three broad levels of moral development (Boeree, 2003). This is the conventional morality level, wherein the definition of right and wrong would usually depend on â€Å"what the people would say† (Colman, 2001). This part is what requires most adult attention, since they are the ones the children look up to, being the basis of what they would follow in the future. This stage is further divided into two sub-stages. The first stage is the good boy/good girl stage, wherein children try to live up to what others expect them to be, as well as seek their approval in everything they do. It is important for adults to show them the â€Å"right things† because everything they do becomes a basis of the children’s actions. Another sub-stage is the law and order stage, where children now takes a perspective that involves the social system as well, taking into consideration the rules and laws of the society they are living in, as well as the authorities they have to follow. At these elementary years, we can address the teaching of moral development in schools by devising or structuring out what should be taught to these children (Nucci, 2002). At this stage, they should be already provided with the basic laws and regulations that they should follow as a â€Å"good citizen†. These could start by introducing the school laws and regulations and relating it to the laws of the society. Another concern also would be about their teacher. These children’s teacher should be a model they could look up to as a person, so that their concept of conventional morality would depend on what their teachers show them. References: Boeree, C. G. (2003). Moral Development.  Ã‚   Retrieved November 10, 2007, from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsymoraldev.html Colman, A. M. (2001). Conventional Morality. In A Dictionary of Psychology: Oxford University Press. Nucci, L. (2002). Moral Development and Moral Education: An Overview.  Ã‚   Retrieved November 10, 2007, from http://tigger.uic.edu/~lnucci/MoralEd/overview.html       Moral development According to the Social Learning Theory, our moral behavior is shaped by the reinforcement and punishment stimuli through the process of learning. It means that if a child was punished in the past for a certain behavior and is faced with such a situation again, he/she will avoid this behavior. As a social being, a person lives within a group or a community and â€Å"tends to perform actions and behave in a manner conducive to community approval†. The greatest criticism of this theory is that â€Å"it does not provide a proper overall personality assessment†. â€Å"It focuses more on the factors perceived as negative by the learner – it does not account for what may be considered positive.† (Social Learning Theory) According to Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, â€Å"there are six identifiable stages of moral development† which could be classified into three levels. (Kohlberg’s stages of moral development) The pre-conventional level. In stage 1, â€Å"people behave according to socially acceptable norms because they are told to do so by some authority figure†. â€Å"This obedience is compelled by the threat or application of punishment.† Stage 2 â€Å"is characterized by a view that right behavior means acting in one’s own best interests†. (Barger, Robert N. A Summary Of Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages Of Moral Development) The conventional level. In stage 3 individuals â€Å"seek approval from other people’. Stage 4 is â€Å"oriented to abiding by the law and responding to the obligations of duty†. (Barger, Robert N. A) The post-conventional level. Stage 5 is â€Å"an understanding of social mutuality and a genuine interest in the welfare of others.† Stage 6 is â€Å"based on respect for universal principles and the demands of individual conscience.† (Barger, Robert N. A) It appears that people rarely reach stage 6 of this model and Kohlberg â€Å"had difficulty finding participants who use it†. (Kohlberg’s stages of moral development) â€Å"One criticism of Kohlberg’s theory is that it emphasizes justice to the exclusion of other values† and â€Å"may not adequately address the arguments of people who value other moral aspects of actions.† Carol Gilligan has argued that the theory is â€Å"male-centric† and â€Å"did not adequately describe the concerns of women†. (Kohlberg’s stages of moral development) Kohlberg claimed his  six stages are cultural-universal. Simpson (1974) argues that â€Å"Kohlberg’s interview employs analytic and theoretical modes of thought and language such as â€Å"justice, equality and reciprocity at a high level of abstraction† which are not valued by many cultures†. According to Bergling (1981), Kohlberg’s stages 1 – 4 are â€Å"empirically supported in western industrialized countries but findings from the Bahamas and British Honduras fail to support even a stage 4†. (Ma, King Keung Problems In The Cro ss-Cultural Study Of Moral Judgment Development) BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Barger, Robert N. A Summary Of Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages Of Moral Development, (August, 23 2005) 2. Kohlberg’s stages of moral development,   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg's_stages_of_moral_development (August, 23 2005) 3. Ma, King Keung Problems In The Cross-Cultural Study Of Moral Judgment Development, http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:LAHMEA0UqdAJ:sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/33/3300251.pdf+weak+points+in+Kohlberg%60s+moral+development+theory+&hl=uk (August, 23 2005) 4. Social Learning Theory, http://www.termpapergenie.com/SocialLearningTheory.html (August, 24 2005)                Moral development According to the Social Learning Theory, our moral behavior is shaped by the reinforcement and punishment stimuli through the process of learning. It means that if a child was punished in the past for a certain behavior and is faced with such a situation again, he/she will avoid this behavior. As a social being, a person lives within a group or a community and â€Å"tends to perform actions and behave in a manner conducive to community approval†. The greatest criticism of this theory is that â€Å"it does not provide a proper overall personality assessment†. â€Å"It focuses more on the factors perceived as negative by the learner – it does not account for what may be considered positive.† (Social Learning Theory) According to Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, â€Å"there are six identifiable stages of moral development† which could be classified into three levels. (Kohlberg’s stages of moral development) The pre-conventional level. In stage 1, â€Å"people behave according to socially acceptable norms because they are told to do so by some authority figure†. â€Å"This obedience is compelled by the threat or application of punishment.† Stage 2 â€Å"is characterized by a view that right behavior means acting in one’s own best interests†. (Barger, Robert N. A Summary Of Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages Of Moral Development) The conventional level. In stage 3 individuals â€Å"seek approval from other people’. Stage 4 is â€Å"oriented to abiding by the law and responding to the obligations of duty†. (Barger, Robert N. A) The post-conventional level. Stage 5 is â€Å"an understanding of social mutuality and a genuine interest in the welfare of others.† Stage 6 is â€Å"based on respect for universal principles and the demands of individual conscience.† (Barger, Robert N. A) It appears that people rarely reach stage 6 of this model and Kohlberg â€Å"had difficulty finding participants who use it†. (Kohlberg’s stages of moral development) â€Å"One criticism of Kohlberg’s theory is that it emphasizes justice to the exclusion of other values† and â€Å"may not adequately address the arguments of people who value other moral aspects of actions.† Carol Gilligan has argued that the theory is â€Å"male-centric† and â€Å"did not adequately describe the concerns of women†. (Kohlberg’s stages of moral development) Kohlberg claimed his  six stages are cultural-universal. Simpson (1974) argues that â€Å"Kohlberg’s interview employs analytic and theoretical modes of thought and language such as â€Å"justice, equality and reciprocity at a high level of abstraction† which are not valued by many cultures†. According to Bergling (1981), Kohlberg’s stages 1 – 4 are â€Å"empirically supported in western industrialized countries but findings from the Bahamas and British Honduras fail to support even a stage 4†. (Ma, King Keung Problems In The Cro ss-Cultural Study Of Moral Judgment Development) BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Barger, Robert N. A Summary Of Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages Of Moral Development, (August, 23 2005) 2. Kohlberg’s stages of moral development,   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg's_stages_of_moral_development (August, 23 2005) 3. Ma, King Keung Problems In The Cross-Cultural Study Of Moral Judgment Development, http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:LAHMEA0UqdAJ:sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/33/3300251.pdf+weak+points+in+Kohlberg%60s+moral+development+theory+&hl=uk (August, 23 2005) 4. Social Learning Theory, http://www.termpapergenie.com/SocialLearningTheory.html (August, 24 2005)               

President Speech Essay

Delegation: India Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen of the house, Terrorism is a worldwide phenomenon. Every minute, two people are killed in conflicts around the world. Often very little is known about the people who are fighting and dying. The country of India calls upon greater participation of the United Nations in countering terrorism. Worldwide participation should be taken in the implementation of the present anti-terrorist conventions, and new international methods must also be developed in order to counteract terrorist threats. We ask that countries cooperate with each other, particularly through bilateral and multilateral agreements and arrangements to make extraditions easier and deny terrorists asylum, in order to prevent and suppress terrorist acts. Countries must realize that suppressing acts of international terrorism are essential to international peace and security, because even if their countries are not facing terrorism as a crisis, they may eventually do so, as terrorism is a worldwide occurence, which is, as we have seen, often interconnected. Thank you for your attention.

Human Resource Management in Competitive Environment Essay

Human Resource Management in Competitive Environment - Essay Example These areas account for the vast mainstream of academic work in the field. The paper concludes with our appraisal of how research should be built-up from this point forward. There is still important diversity in the literature over the implication of 'strategic human resource management' and its cohort term, 'human resource strategy'. It is vital that we take time to explain our terms, because the definitions we assume color the way we think about the key conjectural tribulations connected with the subject. To initiate with, what do we mean by 'human resource management' and by that old word 'strategic' Our inclination is for a broad, comprehensive definition of HRM. human resource management comprise anything and all connected with the management of service relationships in the firm. We do not connect human resource management exclusively with a high-commitment model of labor administration or with any exacting ideology or style of organization. High-commitment strategies do exist, but we are also apprehensive with the many cases in which management is following routine goals through lower levels of regard or is looking for to manage composite, segmented employees through variable levels of dedication (Boxall 2001; Purcell 2001, 1999a). To produce better theory and enable better practice, the academic regulation of human resource management should identify and evaluate the variety of organization styles that exist in modern workplaces. What dissimilarity does it make, then, when we apply the adjective strategic to HRM In many cases, together with a large number of manuals, it means nothing at all. If, though, we aim to be careful about words, the request of the adjective strategic must imply a concern with the ways in which human resource management is critical to organizational effectiveness. There are always strategic alternatives associated with labor progression in the firm -- whether highly considered or largely developing in management behavior -- and these choices are unavoidably associated to the firm's performance (Child 1972, 1997; Dyer 1984; Mintzberg 1978; Purcell and Ahlstrand 2003, 37-42). It is helpful to think of strategic choices on two levels: they either play a vital role in reinforcement the firm's viability (make-or-break choices) or them explanation for major, ongoing differentiation in business performance (Boxall and Steeneveld 1999). In adopting this sympathetic, it is suitable to refer to a firm's pattern of strategic choices in labor administration (including critical ends and means) as its 'human resource (HR) strategy' (Dyer 1984). To illustrate what we mean about strategic choices in HRM, take the case of a management consulting firm that aims to join the elite cluster of firms that are transnational, if not 'global' in their reach (firms such as McKinsey, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Anderson Consulting). There is no doubt that such a firm must have highly selective recruitment and strong development of staff to ensure it can consistently offer clients high-quality service on complex business problems.

An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of realist, neoliberal and Essay

An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of realist, neoliberal and social constructivist approach on European integration and European security - Essay Example Firstly, the end of the Cold War would increase relative gains concerns among the European states, creating barriers to cooperation. Secondly, institutions could not overcome this barrier to cooperation. (Smith, 2000, p.40). In Mearsheimer's view international institutions were 'merely an intervening variable in the process' by which the balance of power mechanism leads to war (Mearsheimer, 1995a, p.13). Neorealist Joseph Grieco (1995) argued that the successful negotiation of the Treaty on European Union (TEU, 1992) and Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) rebuked the neorealist theory that states hold international institutions in low esteem (Rosamond, 2000, p.133). Further, a more likely explanation of the EU's longevity was the post-Second World War balances of power politics (Rosamond, 2000, p.134). Grieco stated that throughout the last 20 years: Grieco's alternative hypothesis offered a potent explanation for the intensification of European integration in the 1980s/1990s. For Grieco EMU negotiations were an interstate bargain without initial supranational sponsorship. This questions how and why states came to choose the mode of EMU development in the TEU (Rosamond, 2000, p.134). "if states share a common interest and undertake negotiations on rules constituting a collaborative arrangement, then the weaker but still influential partners will seek to ensure that the rules so constructed will provide sufficient opportunities for them to voice their concerns and interests and thereby prevent or at least ameliorate their domination by stronger parties". (Grieco, 1995, p.35) The key question for Grieco was "why did the EC countries undertake such an ambitious risky, programme of institutional innovation as is envisioned by the Maastricht Treaty, and especially its elements on EMU" (Grieco, 1995, p.23) More specifically, Grieco argued that neorealism faced "an acute need" to explain why "key middle-rank" EU members, particularly France and Italy, decided to "join with a potentially hegemonic partner in an economic balancing coalition" (Grieco, 1996, p.304). Grieco proffered a revised neorealist argument about secondary states and the interests that might lead them to cooperate with stronger partners through international institutions (1995, p.24). There were economic and policy influence benefits for doing so (Grieco, 1996, p.287). The 'voice opportunities' associated with participation in institutions offered states a means both to encourage the 'compliance of stronger partners' and to address any unequal distributions of gains which may arise in the course of cooperation (Grieco, 1996, p.288). Grieco believed that 'neorealism should be amended to ascribe significance to institutions' because the 'voice opportun

Research Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Research Project - Essay Example Hence, Google Inc. Company is on average. Gross profit margin shows the percentage for availability of revenue to cover cost of operating and expenditures. The gross profit margin has increased from 43.4% to 58.9% for years 2013 and 2014 respectively. Hence, there is improved profit margin. It analyses financial statements that are operated on a single period. On income statements, correlation is represented by percentage of each account that is separate to net sales. Express accounts apart from net sales as a percentage of net sales. Net income is calculated as a percentage of net sales that has not been used on expenses. It makes comparison of data for two periods. Users of financial statements review changes in the data that much like an indicator. Analysts determine for growth in assets, net income, revenue, in addition to decreasing in liabilities and expenses. In determining changes in absolute dollar need users to deduct base figure from the current number. To determine percentage need users to divide by the value now and multiply by 100. Helps to review financial statements of three or more years. The earliest years in the data represent the base year, and dollars can be used for consecutive periods. For comparability, analysts use percentages. Improved financial statements include decreased expenses and an increase in

Ibarra & Hansens Are you a Collaborative Leader Article

Ibarra & Hansens Are you a Collaborative Leader - Article Example The employees could also use the video broadcast and express their views. Beinoff kicked off the debate by grabbing an iPad and commenting on the Chatter, soon employees from their offices started commenting back. The debate lasted for weeks thus allowing Beinoff the opportunity to align the employees to the mission and create an open culture for salesforce.com. Command and control policies hinder collaboration in many organizations. A survey of â€Å"best performing CEOs in the world† done early 2010 revealed that collaborative leaders require strong skills such as acting as connector, ensuring diversity of talent, guiding teams and modeling collaboration at the top (Ibarra and Hanse 3). According to Malcolm Gladwell, collaborative leaders play a global connector role by linking the employees, the ideas and resources. David Kenny, President of Akamai Technologies is one of such leaders who spend time travelling in order to meet with business partners, customers and employees around the world. Collaborative leaders can attain insightful ideas such as macroeconomic issues and impact of climate change through collaborating with business partners. Collaborative leaders will make global connections in order to spot business opportunities and model the top managers on the business expectations. Collaboratibve leaders will attend to conferences outside their professional specialty and meet people outside the organization like external partners (Ibarra and Hanse 4). According to previous research, diverse teams will produce better results. Collaborative leaders will engage diversity in their teams in order to enhance creativity. Such teams should consider the diversity in terms of nationality, age and time dedicated to visiting emerging markets. For instance, nonnative English speakers may be disadvantaged in Multinational companies in emerging markets. Danone of France has

Marketing Strategies Implementation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Marketing Strategies Implementation - Assignment Example The present research study endeavours to produce ways to implement marketing strategies for British Sugar. British Sugar was founded almost 100 years back. Today the company can boast about being one of the leading sugar producers in the United Kingdom. The company is into several types of products like sugar, aggregate, animal feed, bio ethanol, electricity, food centre, tomatoes, TOPSOIL, and LimeX. 2.0 Identification and prioritization of the current issues and challenges 2.1 Industry as a whole The sugar production industry sourced the raw materials over the past five years. United Kingdom is highly dependent upon the global sugar market. This kind of over dependency on the global sugar market, makes the UK sugar market susceptible to huge fluctuations in production, supply, and other factors like the weather conditions and the prices in the internal sugar market (Armstrong and Schultz, 1992). United Kingdom was slow to realize that the sugar industries need to have some kind of reform. This is the reason the sugar reform happened after much delay, as late as 2006. This reform which is supposed to create facilities for the sugar market has in turn created a lot of problems, like imposing various kinds of quotas, various kinds of import tariffs and export tariffs. The imposition of the various tariffs has created a lot of problems (Brown and Dant, 2009). For example the companies which are small in size and also do not have very high turnover have problems paying innumerable tariffs. This adds to the production cost of the companies. Statistics indicate that the production of the sugar beet has fallen sharply across the whole of European Union. For this reason a lot of states in UK have decided to substitute beet sugar for ethanol and other kind of bio fuels. Despite the fact that the sugar industry is experiencing increasing pressure to keep the costs of production as low as possible together, compounded with dwindling profit margin, the sugar business stil l remains as one of the most vibrant business in UK (Day and Montgomery, 1999). 2.2 The current market position The UK sugar market excluding artificial sweeteners, but including sugar and spice is dominated by two firms which are British Sugar and Tate & Lyle. These two firms have a combined market share of 75%. This indicates that the national sugar market is highly concentrated. Although the overall sugar market of Europe is not as concentrated as United Kingdom (Dillon, 2001). The very high concentration is due to the strict regulatory reforms that increased the tariffs, which in turn has decreased the competition. Unlike the other competitor companies like Ab Sugar, the company alone has the privilege of holding the whole quota of the European Union. British Sugar alone caters to a market which is larger than the market served by the rest of the competitors in all respects. This explains that British Sugar is in a better position compared to competitors in terms of exposure to market. Unlike the competitor like Tate & Lyle and different smaller companies which resort

Report Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Report - Coursework Example In this context, poor communication resulted from unclear goals and duties that the woman had. Indeed, it seems like the woman did not have a clear understanding of her duties in the group. Lack of a job description in this context led to poor communication since the woman did not know what to do in the group presentation. Moreover, the cultural diversity in the group led to poor communication since members had their own way of interpreting things especially the visual aids used by the woman in the presentation. As such, they felt that she did not contribute much to the work done by the group. The group had poor leadership who failed to offer clear direction throughout the assignment. Indeed, the incompetent leadership in the group failed to inspire confidence on the members (Brookins 2014). As such, the woman lost confidence in her work leading to poor communication. In some cases, the leadership failed to address the queries raised by the woman leaving her in the dark over her role in the group. The woman lost interest in the assignment and only did what she thought was right and nothing more. She felt unappreciated as she lacked an opportunity to exploit her skills, knowledge, and creativity. As a result, other group members felt that she did not contribute much to the work done by the group. On the other hand, the woman and other group members had personal issues that affected their concentration and commitment to the assignment (Brookins 2014). This fostered poor communication that led to the dismissal of the woman from the group. Additionally, fear is another factor that led to poor communication in the group. After losing her confidence and interest on the assignment, the woman developed the fear of failing in the assignment. As such, her contribution to the group was below the group’s expectation and hence the dismissal. There was low momentum in the group where members were not facing

Prestige plastics (PP) pricing problem Case Study

Prestige plastics (PP) pricing problem - Case Study Example Major Facts Sue, being a graduate majored in materials management, discovered a pricing problem while working at a manufacturing firm named Prestige Plastics (PP) operating as a supply manager. Her job description consisted of purchasing chemicals for the firm’s plastic productions. The problematic chemical purchase for Sue was that of a chemical called X-pane made specifically for PP. A bid for this chemical was forwarded to six suppliers with an annual requirement of 10,000 drums. The Chicago Chemical Company bid the lowest. Greater Sandusky Chemical said it was impossible to bid that low based on approximate production costs of $750,000 amortized over the one-year contract to reduce loss. Other bidders agreed with this statement. Sue assessed that over the years bidding prices did increase reflecting cost growth. She knew something was wrong but also wanted to maintain the competitive bidding process. Major Problems The major problem consists of the cost growth required to produce the chemical X-pane increasing each year adversely affecting the competitive bidding process. The approximate setup cost of 750,000 for producing x-pane seems to be an issue with buyers in seeing this return over a one-year contract. Possible Solutions/Alternatives A. One alternative would be for Sue to work with the engineering department and assess if there is a better cost efficient chemical that gives the same product results as X-pane that is already on the market for purchase. B. Another alternative would be to reduce the estimated annual requirement of purchase and expand it over a longer period of time. Instead of the required purchase of 10,000 drums a year it can be pushed back to 10,000 drums in 19 months. C. Finding a more cost efficient product that produces the same result and expanding the purchase contract to 10,000 drums within a 19 month period would produce the best results. D. The advantage of finding a cost friendly chemical would decrease costs for the manufacturing firm and increase production from eager buyers. The disadvantage of this would be that the new chemical would not meet the standards set by X-pane. The advantages of increasing the contracts purchase period would allow for buyers to make a greater profit which would be pleasing for them and increase production for the company in the long run. The disadvantage of this would be that PP would not make as much money as it would if it kept the original contract in place. Choice and Rationale I chose choice B. Expanding the purchase contract would be more cost efficient than taking time to search for a new product and gambling on those results. Questions 1. Usually when five prerequisites are satisfied the buying manager can be assured of obtaining the lowest price. 2. According to the case a buying firm may fall into the â€Å"competitive bidding trap† when one company bids lower but increases its bid over time to produce an appearance of a demand but then the hidden fluctuated production costs over time decreases the demands for other competitors. This can create a blind spot in thinking that production is going well and not considering extra costs as time procures. Sue saw the fact that the Chicago Chemical Company placed a low bid for five years straight but failed to realize that the competitive market was decreasing which essentially decreases production. 3. During the first contract at Prestige Plastics Chicago Chemical’s bid was $202 per barrel which was $3 lower than the second lowest price. Each year Chicago Chemical’s prices were $3 to $15 lower than the lowest bid. This could be a strategic move played by the bidders making it seem like a competitive market while reflecting cost growth in materials required to get Prestige Plastics to offer a better deal in order to keep competitive bidding active. 4. During the current buy things seemed good for Prestige Plastics with Chicago Chemical giving the lowest bid but the othe r competitors were not satisfied with growing production costs. They felt the competition was unfair to them

The Pursuit of Happyness Essay Example for Free

The Pursuit of Happyness Essay America is a land of great hope and opportunity, but with its many benefits, there are also flaws, such as a large homeless population. The Pursuit of Happyness is a movie based on a true story about a man named Chris Gardner, and his struggle to live a happy life. Jonathan Kozol’s essay, â€Å"The Homeless and Their Children† is about Laura and her struggle to maintain a good life for herself and her family. Will Smith, as Chris Gardner, in The Pursuit of Happyness is very similar to Laura from â€Å"The Homeless and Their Children† because they both are unable to provide for themselves or for their families, and do not have a stable place to live thus, supporting Kozols picture of homelessness. Both have different causes for being homeless, but share similar effects. Chris Gardner’s story starts in 1981, in San Francisco. He is a very smart and hard worker who deeply cares about his wife, Linda, and son, Christopher. Gardner takes a chance and invests his life savings into a device called a bone-density scanner. He goes around selling these from door to door. Soon the people stop buying it, due to it being expensive. This leaves Chris on his knees, with his wife leaving him and moving to New York, with very little money, and being kicked out of his apartment. His wife tries to take her son, but Gardner refuses. He then applies for a stockbroker position at Dean Witter, but in order to get that position he has to go through training for six months without pay. At the same time, the government takes what little money he has left in his bank account for his taxes. This makes him unable to pay for the rent, leaving him and his son homeless. From this point on, Gardner goes through numerous hardships such as sleeping in a bathroom, searching for a job day by day, and finding a way to feed himself and his son. Chris does not give up at all, but rather works even harder for that one and only position, which is also being pursued by nineteen other people. In one scene, he tells his son â€Å"Hey! Dont ever let somebody tell you You cant do something. Not even me. All right†? Chris finally gets the job, goes to his son, and embraces him. In â€Å"The Homeless and Their Children,† Jonathan Kozol visits the Martinique hotel and interviews one of the homeless families. He decides to call the mother Laura. She has four children and they face many difficulties. Her oldest son has been diagnosed with lead poison, and the youngest daughter with scabies. The hospital keeps sending letters to her, but due to her illiteracy, she is not able to read them, thus preventing her from helping her children. She also has many problems with her home. Her room’s radiator is broken, and the bathroom plumbing has overflowed. Laura has four rooms in her apartment and each is more dangerous than the other one. The screws are loose in the crib; the corners of the beds are sharp and unprotected. Just by being homeless, she has enough problems, but also being illiterate only adds more. Her apartment also has big rats that come out at night and bite sometimes. Laura has gotten into many arguments with the manager of the building and complained to him about fixing the problems â€Å"Why you give my son lead poison and you didn’t care?†(Kozol, p.308) of her apartment, but he just ignores her and says that she is causing trouble for him. On Christmas, her children complain that they did not get any presents, but Laura tells them you will get something soon. Laura faces many numbers of problems each day, but she does not give up. She says â€Å"I figure: Go to church. Pray God. Ask him to help. I go on, my knees, I ask Him from my heart†. (Kozol, p. 309). Chris Gardner and Laura are similar in that they have both made wrong decisions in their lives. Gardener invested in the bone density machine, Laura, being young, got drunk with a boy, and that lead to her having a child. Laura did not believe in abortion so she kept the child however; she should n ot have had any more children since she was not capable of taking care of them by herself. Gardner on the other hand had to only worry about his one son and his son become a motivation for him to exceed in life and be a good father. Another similarity is that both individuals tried to make things better for there families. Laura did her best to read and since she could not read, she tried to understand the pictures she saw in the newspapers, grocery store etc, to help better her life. Gardner was capable of reading but he had a changed in career even though he did not poses the right education for the job that he was going for, he taught himself many things and ended up getting the job. The cause of Gardners ending up homeless was a bad financial decision. The effect of his homelessness was that he was unable to find a suitable place to operate from. He had to bounce around from motels after motels and eventually homeless shelters, which made his life more difficult. Laura ends up being homeless because she never got a chance to be educated, and then she got married very early and had kids, and this became a burden for her. The cause and effect on the society are that people can appreciate the little things they take for granted just by imagining themselves in Laura’s situation, and learn how harsh a life of a homeless person is. The society can learn from this, and thus, choose to help people like Laura by volunteering. The effect of Gardner’s story is that his patience and perseverance became an inspiration to the society. The Pursuit of Happyness portrayal of a homeless person is very similar to Kozol’s portrayal of homelessness. They both are unable to support their families, Gardner cannot find a job, due to Laura’s illiteracy she is unable to reply to the hospital or the welfare department. In this situation for both characters, many things can be done to improve their lives. First of Laura should have done something to keep her childrens father around all the time. When a family supports each other, they are successful and are able to prosper through many hardships. In case of Mr. Gardner, he should have made his early decisions carefully and through consulting family members and other who might have knowledge in the product that he was investing in. These two stories are very similar but with very different endings. In the end, people should not blame problem on themselves or others, instead they should come together and find a solution.

London Congestion Charge: Cost-Benefit Analysis

London Congestion Charge: Cost-Benefit Analysis Road pricing is the application of various charges to the usage of roads. These charges include fuel taxes, tolls, parking taxes, licence fees, and congestion charges. Pricing may vary by time of day, or by the specific road or vehicle type using the road. The two main aims of road pricing are generating revenue and managing demand. The latter can be achieved through congestion pricing, which is a system of surcharging users of a transport network in periods of peak demand to reduce traffic volumes to optimal levels. This variable pricing strategy aims to regulate demand, thus enabling congestion management without increasing supply. Market economics theory, which includes the congestion pricing concept, proposes that road users will be forced to pay for the negative externalities they create, making them conscious of the costs they impose upon each other when consuming during the peak demand, and more aware of their environmental impact. The very notion of urban congestion pricing w as proposed in London as a response to the challenges faced by the Ministry of Transport around 1960. These challenges consisted of a significant increase in the number of new car registrations, the considerable cost of congestion for the road users due to the reduced average travel speed and corresponding delay, and other negative impacts on the environment. In this regard, the positive and negative aspects of the London congestion charge can be considered as follows: Positive Aspects Of The London Congestion Charge: Analysing the results of the TfL study(2003) indicates that the most important positive aspect of the London congestion charge is the time-saving to drivers and passengers of vehicles that continue to use the road system after charging is introduced including cars, taxis, buses, and commercial vehicles within and outside the charging zone. This is a common point highlighted by Leape(2006), Mackie(2005), Raux(2005) and Prudhomme and Bocajeros(2005). In addition to time-saving, a reduced travel time and an improved journey time reliability (of an average of 30%) are two other key positive aspects of the congestion charge(Leape,2006, Mackie,2005, Raux,2005 and PB,2005). Factors that contribute to these two positives include an almost 30% reduction in congestion, a 30% decrease in traffic delays inside the zone, an 18% decrease in traffic entering the zone during charging hours, and a 15% reduction in traffic circulating (vehicle Km) within the zone. Evidence on average travel speeds on roads inside the charging zone indicates that the all-day average network travel speeds increased from a pre-charging average almost 17% (Leape,2006). Other benefits include a considerable decrease in queuing time at junctions (Leape,2006), the environmental benefit of reducing the pollution emissions by 34% (PB,2005), and an improvement in safety, by 2-5% or 30-70 fewer accidents per year for Central London(Mackie, 2005). Through reallocating road space from private cars to public transportation (Leape,2006), the congestion charge has increased public transport patronage. For example, bus passengers entering the charging zone in the morning peak period rose by 38%, while number of private cars decreased by 16%, which in addition to direct time savings, reduced accidents and lowered carbon dioxide emissions (Leape,2006). Increased number of bus passengers and reduced average operating costs (increased speed, travel time reliability) have enabled providers to offer some combination of improved service levels (more routes, higher frequencies) and lower fares (Leape,2006). These effects can encourage an even greater use of public transport whilst also reducing average costs per passenger to transport providers, leading to further shifts from car travel to public transport, and an additional reduction in congestion. Negative Aspects Of The London Congestion Charge: The higher-than-expected set-up and operational costs for the congestion charge must be considered as the most prominent negative aspect. In London, the operational costs were more than twice the level initially estimated (implementation costs averaged  £95 million in the first two years). This resulted in the net annual revenue falling far short of expected levels (Leape,2006, Mackie,2005, Raux,2005 and PB,2005). A congestion charge is likely to have different effects across businesses and land value in the long term. Negative effects are the changing land-use patterns and reduced land value caused by a restriction on car mobility within the congestion charge area (Tehran Congestion Charge Study, 2005). This decrease in car trips could have an adverse impact on retail businesses located within the congestion area, whereas it could benefit those outside the zone (Leape,2006). Summary: Although the cost-benefit estimates for the London congestion charge, produced by Transport for London (2003a), is subject to some controversy by PB(2005), Mackie (2005) and Charles (2005), generally the London congestion charge has been both a political and practical success in reducing congestion and related negative externalities. It has also been met with a high level of satisfaction from most Londoners. As mentioned above, the time-savings to drivers and passengers of vehicles resulting from increased average speed and decreased delay is the most important positive aspect of congestion charging. Increasing reliability of travel time for car and bus, decreasing queuing time at junctions, decreasing the level of pollution emission and improving safety, as well as improving public transport patronage and improving its level of service all must be considered as positive aspects of congestion charges. In contrast, the high operational costs of running the scheme is the dominant negat ive aspect of congestion charging. This can significantly influence the net annual revenue for the congestion charging scheme. Moreover, other factors such as decreasing the flow of mobility in the congestion charging zone in the long term can lead to changing the land-use patterns and probably decreasing the land value. As mentioned by PB(2005) there were concerns that the diverting impact of the congestion charge could lead to higher levels of congestion on the inner ring road that borders the zone and the area surrounding congestion zone, which needs to be considered in more detail. Therefore, a degree of caution is appropriate before generalizing from the London experience.

oppertunity costs :: essays research papers

In today’s society, economic decisions made involve the concept of scarcity. There are â€Å"opportunity costs† associated with any choice that you make. In order for an economy to produce more of one type of product, it will be forced to sacrifice units of production of another product. The shifting of resources from the production of one good to another involves increasing sacrifices of the first good in order to generate an equal increase of the second good. This is known as the â€Å"law of increasing opportunity costs.† The economic rational for the law of increasing opportunity costs is that economic resources are not completely adaptable to alternative uses. The opportunity cost of producing a product tends to increase as more of it is produced because resources less suitable to its production must be employed.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Prices are a measure of opportunity cost because they provide information about the value of one product in relation to another.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The shape of the Productions Possibility Frontier, (PPF), illustrates the principle of increasing opportunity costs (Graph 3). As more of one product is produced, increasingly larger amounts of the other product must be given up. In Graph 3, some factors of production are suited for producing both Product A and Product B, but as the production of one of the other brands increases, resources better suited to production of the other must be diverted. Producers of product A are not necessarily efficient producers of product B and just the opposite, so the opportunity cost increases as one moves toward either extreme on the curve of the production possibility frontier. If two products are very similar to one another, the production possibility frontier may be D’Orlando 2 shaped more like a straight line (Graph 2). As an example, let’s say that two brands of wine are produced, Brand A and Brand B. These two brands of wine use the same grapes and the production process is the same. The only thing that is different is the name on the label. The same factors of production can produce either brand equally efficiently. If an increase in production of Brand B goes from 0 to 3 bottles, the production of Brand A must be decreased by 3 bottles. In this case, the two products are almost identical and can be produced equally efficiently using the same resources. The opportunity cost of producing one over the other remain constant between the two extremes

Horror and Self-punishment in Sophocles Oedipus Rex Essay -- Oedipus

Horror and Self-punishment in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex An ancient plate portraying Oedipus listening to the riddle of the Sphinx. Oedipus Rex is a play whose qualities of inscrutability and of pervasive irony quickly come to complicate any critical discussion. It is a play of transformations in which things change before our eyes as we watch; where meanings and implications seem to be half-glimpsed beneath the surface of the text only to vanish as we try to take them in; and where ironical resemblance and reflections abound to confuse our response. The play encourages us to make connections and to draw out implications that in the end we are forced to reassess, to question and perhaps abandon. The play's meaning through two oppositions is defined by its stage action and its language, are parallel and complimentary to each other. The play is, in a way that determines our response to its meaning, a sequential experience. Our response is shaped through the duration of its performance. The opening of the play presents us with a gathering, the old and the young, no women, no fully adult males, so that Oedipus is, at once, magnified and isolated. His calm authority is overwhelming and majestic. But on what does Oedipus' authority rest? There is a crucial uncertainty here. The opening scenes present us with an image of Oedipus as a political figure, a human king whose power derives from the community he rules, whose perceptions and whose feelings are indissoluble bound up with the experience of the men of Thebes, whose language he speaks and where he belongs. We are swept aside as a gathering panic occupies Oedipus' mind at hearing mention of a place he remembers, where he once killed a man. If that man was Laius, Oedipus s... ...e vain attempts of mankind to escape the evil that threatens them. There is an unmistakable indication in the text of Sophocles' tragedy itself that the legend of Oedipus sprang from some primeval dream-material that had as its content the distressing disturbance of a child's relation to his parents owing to the first stirring of sexuality. At a point when Oedipus, though he is not yet enlightened, has begun to feel troubled by his recollections of the oracle, Jocasta consoles him by referring to a dream, as she thinks, it has no meaning. It is clearly the key to the tragedy and the complement to the dream of the dreamer's father being dead. The story of Oedipus is the reaction of the imagination to these typical dreams. And just as the dreams, when dreamt by adults, are accompanied by feelings of repulsion, so too the legend must include horror and self-punishment.

The Relationship Between Culture and Technology Essay -- Environment E

The Relationship Between Culture and Technology The relationship between technology and culture is cyclical. Logically, a culture will develop technologies based on the needs or desires of the people, because this is where the creative influences lie. As this technology spreads and is absorbed into the people’s lives, it affects their culture and way of life. This change in lifestyle can also occur when a technology developed outside a culture is introduced into the culture, providing an external influence. As Paul Ehrlich explains, there are technological evolutions and associated cultural evolutions, and they do not necessarily occur concurrently. Ehrlich [believes] that, in our modern era, technology is evolving faster than culture, and a major cultural evolution needs to occur to be able to deal with modern technology properly. (NPR, Ehrlich) Throughout history, though, there have also been cultural evolutions that lead to the creation and evolution of technology; hence, the cycle. History often makes it evident that when people desire something that another culture has, they show little hesitation in taking it. In many cases, trade has taken the place of blatant theft and warfare, but there are always exceptions. As technologies evolved and spread to different parts of the world, the interdependence between peoples increased. At this point there are few self-sustaining societies. (Even our interdependent societies are not permanently sustainable on our Earth). This limitation of resources leads to need, which in turn may lead to warfare. It is true that the civilized, even moral – if morality can be an argument in this politically correct world – approach involves trade and does not involve senseless killing. And... ... up world, and how could it be worth having' -Sting, All This Time    Sources Chant, Colin, "Chapter 2: Greece" in "Pre-industrial Cities and Technology," Routledge Press, 1999, pp. 48-80. Econ.: Introductory Economics, taught by Prof. Amanda Bayer at State College, Fall 2001. Ehrlich, Paul R., "Ch.11: Gods, Dive-Bombers, and Bureaucracy" in "Human Natures: Genes Cultures, and the Human Prospect" Island Press, 2000, pp. 253-279. Ehrlich takes the Pope Urban II quote from â€Å"Burns, 1963, p. 358† NPR interview with author Paul Ehrlich on his book "Human Natures, Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect" from October 27, 2000. Teresi, Dick, "Lost Discoveries: The ancient roots of modern science", Simon and Schuster, 2002, ISBN 0-684-83718-8, pp. 325-367. *****I can’t find this source†¦ Ehrlich pulls the Pope Urban II quote from â€Å"Burns, 1963, p. 358†

Project Managemetn Concept and Application Paper

Hector Gaming Company Hector Gaming project is study growth. Their goal for the firm is grow to be the largest and best educational gaming company in the world. To achieve the end state goals, every member of the firm has to be on-board and linked to the organizational strategic plan. Moss and McAdams Accounting Firm M&M was a well-established regional accounting firm with 160 employees located across six offices in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The main office, where Palmer worked, was in Green Bay, Wisconsin. M&M’s primary services were corporate audits and tax preparation. Over the last two years the partners decided to move more aggressively into the consulting business. M&M projected that consulting would represent 40 percent of their growth over the next five years(Gray, Larson 2008) This was a very competitive position. During the last five years, only 20 percent of account managers at M&M had been promoted to partner. However, once a partner, they were virtually guaranteed the position for life and enjoyed significant increases in salary, benefits, and prestige. Film Prioritization The company is the film division for a large entertainment conglomerate. The main office is located in Anaheim, California. In addition to the feature film division, the conglomerate includes theme parks, home videos, a television channel, interactive games and theatrical productions. The company has been enjoying steady growth over the past 10 years. (Gray, Larson 2008) Project Management Styles Organizational culture Organizational culture is the pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by an organization’s members. Culture includes the behavioral norms, customs, shared values, and the â€Å"rules of the game† for getting along and getting ahead within the organization. In certain organizations, culture encourages the implementation of projects. In this environment the project management structure used plays a less decisive role in the success of the project. This is true for Film Prioritization; their overriding objective is to create shareholder value by continuing to be the world’s premier entertainment company from a creative, strategic, and financial standpoint(Gray, Larson 2008) The project management structure plays more decisive role in the successful implementation of projects. At a minimum, under adverse cultural conditions, the project manager needs to have significant authority over the project team. Project Life Cycle The project life cycle typically passes sequentially through four stages: defining, planning, executing, and delivering. The starting point begins the mo ment the project is given the go-ahead. HGC struggled through the (4) phases of the life cycle. A consulting firm along with top managers defined and planned continued expansion of the company. HGC internal conflict and fear of competition prevented them to progress through the execution and delivery phase. The 10 top managers couldn’t agree on the company new direction. M&M accounting firm allowed internal competition to move successfully through the project cycle. The accounting firm manager defined and planned, but like HGC fell short in executing and delivering. In the process, they overworked a valued employee and forced the employee to make a decision that didn’t benefit both projects. Film Prioritization, moved through each phase of the cycle success from start to finish. This company had a well defined end state goal for the project and company as a whole. By developing proposal it game project managers direction on the other (3) of the cycle. The project cycle is a key resource in project management that tracks the success of the plan. References Clifford F. Gray, Erik W. Larson (2008). Project Management. The Managerial Process, Fourth Edition. Chapter One: Modern Project Management. McGraw-Hill, a business unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Clifford F. Gray, Erik W. Larson (2008). Project Management. The Managerial Process, Fourth Edition. Chapter. Chapter Two: Organization Strategy and Project Selection. McGraw-Hill, a business unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Clifford F. Gray, Erik W. Larson (2008). Project Management. The Managerial Process, Fourth Edition. Chapter. Chapter Three: Organization: Structure and Culture. McGraw-Hill, a business unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Marketing Reflection Paper Essay

Marketing is a major component for most business in the United States but is only just beginning to take hold in the healthcare field. Within the healthcare arena the concepts of marketing has taken a long time to develop. In the late 1970s Evanston Hospital in Illinois was the first hospital to hire a marketing person for healthcare. We are now in the early 21st Century and healthcare marketing is going full steam ahead. The purpose of this essay is to examine some of the healthcare marketing techniques and its possible impact on healthcare workers. General OpinionI have only been working in the healthcare industry for about seven years. Of the seven years, I worked five of them in one large medical center in a local town. Marketing was never a part of my vocabulary until recently. I honestly didn’t pay too much attention to advertising campaigns until I started working for Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Mass communication was and still is a major marketing technique that Saint Francis uses. A day doesn’t goes by that you will not see the â€Å"Medical Minute† spot on the local television stations. Shortly after Saint Francis started using this technique, three other local hospitals developed their own television campaigns. Even though some people may get tired of the constant bombardment of these TV commercials, I believe that they may save lives as well as promote more business for the hospitals. As quoted by Wagner, Fleming, Mangold, and Laforge (1994), a 46-year old male wrote to a local hospital thanking them for saving his life through their TV campaign on the signs of heart attacks. From this campaign, this individual was able to identify that he was having a heart attack at which time he went straight to the emergency room. Another technique that Saint Francis used was the â€Å"We Care† campaigns. According to Beckham (2001) the â€Å"We Care† campaign was listed under the section â€Å"What Hasn’t Worked† of his article. Beckham claimed that consumers are more concerned with competence and results than whether the hospital cares or not. In my opinion, I would have to agree with this concept. Yes, Saint Francis did care, but is the service good? I believe that the TV campaigns are more successful as a marketing tool than wearing buttons reading â€Å"We Care.†Are Current Marketing Techniques Affecting Consumer  Trends?The answer to this question is hard to pin down at this point in my current opinion. According to Beckham (2001), some marketing strategies worked better than others. Positioning is one technique where an organization/hospital creates an image of clinical competence. Becham claimed that â€Å"positioning required more than advertising and facilities: there had to be underlying capabilities, and evidence, to back up the claims.† Another technique that Becham outlined in his article was â€Å"Missionary Work,† which is used when a physician cannot compete with his local hospital physicians and goes out into the countryside and builds relationships with the primary care physicians for referrals. This proved to be a successful technique being used. I do believe that the new techniques such as the ones mentioned above have or will affect consumer trends. The technique that I believe affects the most is the missionary work technique. There was a time when consumers believed that the only healthcare available to them was the primary care physician within their small countryside communities. Now with the relationships that are being built between the local physicians and the small countryside physicians, more specialized healthcare can be offered/provided to the citizens of these small communities. Thus, the trend of only using the local hometown physician has changed. Negative Impact on Healthcare WorkersI am sure some healthcares workers can be found that do not believe there is a negative impact from the techniques being used within healthcare. However, I believe there are some. Take for instance the technique outlined by (Wagner, Fleming, Mangold, & Laforge, 1994) of the marketing technique of building image and not on increasing demand for services. The negative impact that could be realized here is losing consumer business because consumers want to know more about the services provided to meet their needs than the hospital image. One hospital was quoted as having to shut its doors because of this type of marketing technique. The impact here is loss of jobs for the staff members of the hospital. A positive impact would be due to the technique that was listed as under the  sub-title â€Å"What Worked† in the article written by Beckham (2001). When the techniques work, everyone benefits because the consumer is satisfied and will continue to use the services, as well as, refer their friends to the hospital/clinic. ConclusionUnlike prior to the late 1970s marketing is now considered one the most important aspects of healthcare. There are many marketing techniques used today in which some have proven to work and others not so well. The main point to remember is there has to be a complete understanding of the background and foundation that identifies the importance of marketing. The right people need to be hired as marketing staff. If the wrong person is selected, not only will business fail, but healthcare workers would be affected as well. Marketing is good, it just has be worked properly for all to benefit from it. References Beckham, C. (2001, Jul/Aug). 20 years of healthcare marketing. Health Forum Journal, 44(4), 37-40. Retrieved June 29, 2008, from ProQuest database. Wagner, H. C., Fleming, D., Mangold, W. G., & Laforge, R. W. (1994). Relationship marketing in healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Marketing, 14(4), 42-47. Retrieved , from EBSCOhost database.

Australian poems Essay

The First Australians is a poem expressing Troy Hopkins’ hatred towards white settlers because of how they claimed Australia and labeled the natives ‘Aboriginal’. He called it an invasion, not a settlement and he says that the natives were the first ones there so they shouldn’t call them â€Å"aboriginal†. Hopkins then tells how the white settlers spilt the native’s blood on ‘sacred ground’ and they get rewarded for it. Hopkins speaks of Lex Wotton who is an aboriginal man who helps other aboriginals in places that they struggle such as court, because the juries are white australians. Lex Wotton eventually went to prison and is now an inspiration to Hopkins. The author then goes on to talk about an aboriginal by the name of Richard Saunders, who was an aboriginal who died in prison due to poor treatment, Hopkins explains how no ‘Blacks’ are taken care of in prison because they are ‘expendable’. Hopkins says that he has ‘seen a pattern’, which is that aboriginal people are persecuted worse than white Australians and even half-cast aboriginals. Hopkins talks about how his daughter is a half-cast aboriginal and she wants to have true black skin like her father, but he tells her that she doesn’t want that because to him it is a curse. Hopkins believes that to the aborigines, Australia is a dictatorship, not a democracy. The author thanks the SBS channel for sharing the aboriginals beliefs and that it’s kept them hopeful that some white Australians believe the same. Hopkins ends with a powerful line which reads ‘Aboriginal is abbreviated, it means Abolish Original. We are The First Australians here; they are convicts, which are criminals’. ‘GAGADJU WAYS’ By Bill Neidjie: In the poem ‘Gagadju Ways’, the poet Bill Neidjie talks about the old, traditional Aboriginal way of life and how the old practices are slowly vanishing due to colonization. the poem is written in a peculiar way, a simple yet grasping format which puts across the views in a straight forward fashion. the poet first reminices that when he was growing up, he had good people around him. He says that the people now are a bit wicked. due to colonization he met have met some ‘foreign’ people living in his own country and yet not treating him nicely. there is a posibility that he misses the companionship of his own people before the ‘outsider’ stepped in and began dominating him. They tried to made him feel like a stranger in his country. Nextly he tells us how the white man brought school and the Aboriginals began losing all their knowledge. It got in the way of their traditional upbringing and acted as a binding on them. the white man’s ‘education’ brought them no good. the poet talks on the behalf of all other native people and says that they never damaged the earth. when he burns grass, new grass comes up and it leads to new life. More animals come in that area after this burning. The native’s people camped at different places during different seasons but the white man doesn’t understand this. The natives look after the earth, they do not spoil it. But once again we see that the invader is unable to understand the relationship between the natives and the nature. The white man wants to exploit the land in the country to earn money from it. But the poet says that money is nothing to them, they are not crazy for money as the white man is. The natives need the earth to live because when they die, they’ll become earth. The earth is their mother and their brother. That is why they ask the invaders to leave their sacred land alone. They cannot bear their land been taken away from them because they are given birth by the earth and when they die, their ashes are going to be a part of the earth too. This poem shows us how beloved the earth is to the Aboriginals. ‘OKAY, LET’S BE HONEST’ By Robert Walker Robert Walker’s poem ‘Okay, Let’s be Honest’ is a heart wrenching poem about the suffering of an Aboriginal boy. He tells us honestly that he is no saint, he wasn’t born in heaven. He is called a bastard, animal and trouble maker by many. He admits that he has been mean and hateful. Since the age of eleven he had been in and out of jail. He confesses that he has been dangerous and commited crimes. Then he suddenly tells us that he has always cursed his skin which is neither black nor white, just another ‘non-identity’, fighting to be Mr Tops. The accusers who have called him an animal were the silent audience when his brothers were getting smashed. His memory is still wet with his mother’s tears and by his father;s grave. His family was one among the many black families who were alona and lost in the race for money. He was made aware of his differences right from a very young age. His pains educated him to either fight or lose. He was discriminated and exploited as a stranger in his own land. The scars on his brain can never be erased now and they keep him reminding how the others abused their sacred land. He is frustrated with the white man’s way of life and resists to live like him. Full of anger and complaints, he asks the white man that why is he made to live like a slave and earn the things which were once free. He refuses to be pushed aside and tramped on. He will not close his eyes to the sufferings of his people. He can no more pretend to not know what the white people are doing to his people. He shouts out in rage and says â€Å"Why do I have to close my eyes, and make believe I cannot see just what you are doing: to my people- OUR PEOPLE- and me? He is not one side at all and wants the other to came and experience the lonliness and confusion he feels within the seven by eleven cell of the prison. He again repeats that he is no saint but then surely he wasn’t born in heaven. This is a very strong and evocative poem that depicts the anger in the minds of the blacks in Australia. FROM THE ENGLISH QUEEN By Henry Lawson: The poet addresses the English Queen as an ordinary woman. She is kept in a palace and people worship her. The poet boldly says that those people must be blind to call that ‘dull old woman’ the ‘Queen’. The reason for the poet to be so openly rude about the Queen is that she has reigned for so many years but has scarcely done a kind deed to anyone alive. It is said in scorn that the poor sre starved the same day she was born. The poet complains that yet she is praised and worshipped for being nothing more than an ordinary woman. Henry Lawson goes to the extent of calling her a ‘cold and selfish’ woman because he sees no point in praising her for she has never brought happiness to anyone. The Queen might be great for many but for the poet she is just a cold hearted woman who usurped his land and has no sympathy for the people. Thus a Queen who makes people suffers is no fit Queen in the eyes of the poet. ‘NOBODY CALLS ME A WOG ANYMORE’ By Komninos Zervos: The poet begins with the poem stating that nobody calls him a wog anymore. He is respected as an Australian, an Australian writer, poet. But this respect didn’t come on it’s own for the poet had to fight for it. He asserted himself as an Australian and as an artist. He stood up and screamed and fought for his identity. He teels Australia that it likes it or not but the poet is one of it. He saya his first name Komninos is rather unusual but now Australia is stuck with it and cannot do anything about it now. He tells Australia that they both need eachother. He concludes the poem by saying that he likes ustralia now because it has stopped calling him a wog and calls him ‘the Australian poet, Komninos! ’. This is a weird yet fun poem which shows us how the poet rightfully asserts his right on Australia and merges to become a part of it. ‘WHO ARE WE? ’ By Richard G Kennedy. Richard G Kennedy opens the poem with a question that asks where an aboriginal can truly be free in Australia, and how everything changed when the Europeans settled in Australia. The life before the white settlers was ‘Idyllic’ and that they had a ‘Oneness with nature’ and that they can never have that back. Kennedy explains how aboriginals now live in poverty and resort to crime to get through each day. The author tells how this is wrong and that nature is pained by the loss of the true aboriginal race. The aboriginals have no identity and are not heard amongst the white Australians. The punishment for white Australians is that the ‘Vengeful Spirit will awake’ and the earth will be cleansed of the white race. Kennedy says it’s destiny and that there’s no going back. Thus through these poems we see how varied in culture and history Australia is. The different aspects of the country make it unique and the love of its people make Australia their home inspite of many problems. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. TWO CENTURIES OF AUSTRALIAN POETRY: EDITED BY MARK O’CONNOR. (Oxford University Press, 1988). 2. THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF AUSTRALIAN VERSE (1918). 3. INTERNET.

Little Gemini

Describe your favorite food. You should say: What it tastes like When people eat it How it is made and explain why you like it. Describe a child you know well. You should say: Where you met him/her What he/she looks like What personality he/she has and explain how you feel about him/her. Describe a close friend of yours. You should say: Who he/she is How you got to know each other what activities you do together and explain why you feel close to him or her. Describe a toy you used to play with. You should say: What it was made of How you got it What you did with it and explain whether you liked it or not and why.Describe an exciting period of your life. You should say: When it was Who was with you What you did and explain why it was exciting for you. Describe a garden/park you enjoyed visiting. You should say: Where it is What it looks like When you first visited it and explain how you enjoyed the visit. Describe a change in the past few years in your city. You should say: What the c hange was What caused the change Whether it was easy to change and explain what you think of the change. Describe a popular TV program in your country. You should say: What time it is on What is it about Who watches it and explain why it is very popular in your country.Describe a book you enjoyed reading very much. You should say: What the name of the book was When you read it What the book was about and explain why you liked it. Describe a recent news story that you heard or read about. You should say: How you heard about the news story What people, places or events were involved How you felt about the news story and explain why you found this news story particularly interesting. Describe a subject you enjoyed studying at school. You should say: When and where you started studying it What the lessons were like What made the subject different from other subjects And explain why you enjoyed the subjectDescribe an artist or entertainer you admire. You should say: Who they are and what they do How they became successful How you found out about them And explain why you admire them. Describe an important choice you had to make in your life. You should say: When you had this choice What you had to choose between Whether you made a good choice And explain how you felt when you were making this choice Describe a job you have done. You should say: How you got the job What the job involved How long the job lasted Describe how well you did the jobDescribe an area of countryside you know and like. You should say: Where it is What its special features are What you and other people do in this area And explain why you like it Describe an object you particularly like. You should say: What it is and what it looks like What it is made of What it is for And explain why it is special for you Describe a newspaper or magazine you enjoy reading. You should say: What kind of newspaper/magazine it is Which parts of it you read regularly When and where you read it Explain why you enjoy reading it Describe something healthy you enjoy doing.You should say: What you do Where you do it Who you do it with And explain why you think doing this is healthy Describe a game or sport you enjoy playing. You should say: What kind of sport it is Who you play it with Where you play it And explain why you enjoy playing it Describe someone in your family who you like. You should say: How this person is related to you What this person looks like What kind of person he/she is And explain why you like this person Describe a museum or art gallery that you have visited. You should say: Where it is Why you went there What you particularly remember about the place.Describe an enjoyable event that you experienced when you were at school. You should say: When it happened What was good about it Who was there And explain why this event has special meaning for you. Describe a song or piece of music you like. You should say: What the song or music is What kind of song or music it is Where you first heard it And explain why you like it Describe a festival that is important in your country. You should say: When the festival occurs What you did during it What you like or dislike about it And explain why this festival is important

Discuss Spielberg's treatment of history in Schindler's List and Essay

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Value Creation and Business Success Essay Example for Free

Value Creation and Business Success Essay Copyright  © 1998 Pegasus Communications, Inc. (www. pegasuscom. com). All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, without written permission from Pegasus Communications, Inc. If you wish to distribute copies of this article, please contact our Permissions Department at 781-398-9700 or [emailprotected] com. The most successful organizations understand that the purpose of any business is to create value for customers, employees, and investors, and that the interests of these three groups are inextricably linked. Therefore, sustainable value cannot be created for one group unless it is created for all of them. The first focus should be on creating value for the customer, but this cannot be achieved unless the right employees are selected, developed, and rewarded, and unless investors receive consistently attractive returns. What do we mean by value creation? For the customer, it entails making products and providing services that customers find consistently useful. In todays economy, such value creation is based typically on product and process innovation and on understanding unique customer needs with ever-increasing speed and precision. But companies can innovate and deliver outstanding service only if they tap the commitment, energy, and imagination of their employees. Value must therefore be created for those employees in order to motivate and enable them. Value for employees includes being treated respectfully and being involved in decision-making. Employees also value meaningful work; excellent compensation opportunities; and continued training and development. Creating value for investors means delivering consistently high returns on their capital. This generally requires both strong revenue growth and attractive profit margins. These, in turn, can be achieved only if a company delivers sustained value for customers. If the purpose of business is value creation, it follows that the mission of any company should be defined in terms of its primary value-adding activities. Simply put, Honda should think of itself primarily as a maker and marketer of quality automobiles. McDonalds should think of itself as providing meals of consistent quality throughout the world, in a clean, friendly atmosphere, etc. While this may seem obvious, many managers and strategists behave as though the day-to-day business of a firm is irrelevant. Hence, an oil company might buy a hotel chain, while a national chain of automobile service centers is caught systematically charging customers for unnecessary repairs. What conception of business lies behind these actions? Typically it is a very narrow definition of purpose: to maximize the wealth of the shareholders, or to achieve a set of short-term financial goals. Managers are expected to address shareholder wealth, earnings growth, and return on assets, but the most successful firms understand that those measures should not be the primary targets of strategic management. Achieving attractive financial performance is the reward for having aimed at (and hit) the real target; i. e. , maximizing the value created for the primary constituents of the firm. Paradoxically, it is when an organization thinks of itself as a financial engine whose purpose is to generate attractive financial returns that the company is least likely to maximize those returns in the long run. Often, finance people end up shuffling a portfolio of assets in a self-destructive quest for growth businesses or superior returns, with no real understanding of the value-creation dynamics of the businesses they are acquiring and selling. Or, as with the automotive service chain, attempts to profit without delivering superior value end in lost business, long-term customer alienation, and corporate disgrace. Redefining an Organizations Self-Interest Why do managers so often choose not to focus on value creation and instead ake decisions that systematically decrease the long-term value of their businesses? One reason may be that their training and education lead them to define their organizations interests too narrowly. This narrow view is powerfully reinforced by financial accounting systems that were well adapted to the industrial economy, but are inadequate in the information economy. The accounting and finance conventions of the industrial age are good at valuing tangible assets, but they largely ignore the value of harder-to-quantify assets like employee satisfaction, learning, RD effectiveness, customer loyalty, etc. In the information age, those intangible assets are far more important than the bricks and mortar that traditional accounting systems were designed to measure. If management defines the organizations self-interest (and consequently its goals) too narrowly—for example, to maximize this years or this quarters reported earnings—it will view that interest as being at odds with the interests of customers and employees. Given that perspective, in the short term every dollar spent on employee training is a dollar of lost profit. Every additional dollar squeezed out of a customer, even if it comes at the cost of poor service or price gouging, improves this quarters results. This approach is based on win/lose or zero-sum thinking: The underlying assumption is that there is a fixed pie of value to be divided up among customers, employees, and investors, so the interests of the three groups must be traded off against one another (see Zero-Sum Versus Win/Win Thinking). Companies that act on this myopic conception of self-interest may stumble into a downward spiral of poor decision-making that is difficult to reverse (see When Customers Defect). For example, as reduced employee training and compensation lead to low employee morale and poor performance, and as underfunded RD allows a product line to age, customers can become dissatisfied and begin to defect. In situations where customers are locked-in owing to large investments in proprietary equipment or some other temporary monopoly effect, they may not defect immediately. Instead, they will become increasingly alienated and defect as soon as a technology shift, regulatory change, or competitive offering allows it. When customers inally do defect, profits shrink, tempting management to cut back even further on training, compensation, and RD, thus accelerating the spiral of customer dissatisfaction and defection. Expanding the Pie Alternatively, if managers define their companys interests broadly enough to include the interests of customers and employees, an equally powerful spiral of value creation can occur. Highly motivated, well-trained, properly rewarded employees deliver outstanding service, while effective RD investments lead to products that enjoy a significant value-adding advantage and generate higher margins. Satisfied, loyal customers (and new customers responding to word-of-mouth referrals) drive revenue growth and profitability for investors. Clearly, the undesirable reinforcing processes described in When Customers Defect can work in reverse. This win/win scenario is illustrated in the figure Zero-Sum Versus Win/Win Thinking. An expanding the pie approach to management requires that a company alter its thinking along several dimensions. Time horizons and perceived self-interest. The time horizon within which you evaluate a business decision dramatically influences your notion of self-interest. Considered at an instantaneous moment in time, virtually any transaction is a win/lose or zero-sum game. At the moment you spend a dollar on employee training, that dollar is in fact lost to the shareholder. Conversely, in a well-designed value-creation system, almost any transaction can become a win/win or positive-sum game, if it is managed within the context of an appropriately long time frame. For example, if a companys rate of return on the dollar invested in employee training is 20 percent (in the form of higher productivity, increased sales effectiveness, etc. ), then the shareholder hasnt lost a dollar—he has gained a stream of future cash flows that represents an attractive return on investment. One way to build an understanding of these dynamics is to identify the key capabilities, resources, and relationships that are the basic ingredients of value creation for a particular firm, and to think of those ingredients as assets that either grow or diminish over time, depending upon how they are managed. It is useful to map a companys key assets by building four Strategic Balance Sheets focused on customers, employees, processes, and investors (see Balance Sheet Dynamics). In building the balance sheets, managers must first decide which assets are the most important drivers of the companys value-creation system. For example, employee learning and job satisfaction are two assets that could be tracked on the Employee Balance Sheet. As managers identify the strategic assets that belong on the various balance sheets, they also must articulate the relationships among those assets. By tracing the dynamics through which customer, employee, and process assets accumulate, interact, and ultimately drive profitable growth, a company will be well on its way to managing the fundamentals of value creation and avoiding the pitfalls of managing by a set of narrow financial measures. Expanding the pie between a company and its employees. In a true win/win dynamic, two or more parties aim first to create more total value, then concern themselves with distributional issues (who gets what share). When the parties focus first on dividing the pie, they are diverted from the innovative strategies that could have made everyone better off. One way in which companies and employees can expand the pie is flexible work schedules. If an employee has the freedom to see to personal business (while completing all required work), the employee is better off, and the employer is likely to benefit from higher morale and the ability to attract and hold onto the best people. A key element of win/win scenarios is that they are aimed more at creating opportunity than at minimizing costs. Outback Steakhouse has become a very successful, rapidly growing business by resisting the temptation to view a dollar of additional compensation to employees as a dollar of lost income to the shareholder. Outback has made its restaurant managers partners, attracting the best, most experienced people in the industry with a compensation system that more traditionally managed chains would view as ludicrously extravagant. Outbacks general managers sign a five-year contract and invest $25,000 up front. In return, each manager receives 10 percent of her units cash flow (earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation) on top of a base salary of $45,000. In 1994, total manager compensation averaged $118,600. In addition, managers receive 4,000 shares of stock, which vest over the five-year contract period. All hourly employees participate in a stock ownership plan as well. Another Outback innovation—not opening for lunch—generates benefits for investors, employees, and customers. Because they dont compete for lunch business, restaurants can be located in less costly suburban locations instead of expensive business centers. The benefit to managers and employees is that they work only one shift per day. Outback also insists that managers work only five days per week to avoid burnout and high turnover. Finally, focusing on dinner allows the restaurants to maintain high levels of food quality. From its 1987 founding, Outback grew to 420 restaurants by the end of 1996 in a very crowded, competitive industry. Over the last five years, revenues have grown at a 55 percent annual rate, while earnings have increased 36. 5 percent per year. For the year ending September 1997, Outbacks 20. percent return on equity placed it in the top 5 percent of restaurants (restaurant industry average ROE was 10. 6 percent). The Outback story illustrates one of the key characteristics of successful win/win thinking: The companys strategy is based on a systemic view of the entire value-creation process, and it seeks to align the key elements of that process. For example, if the restaurants were in higher rent locations, they might be more tempted to open at lunch to cover that cost. If managers worked longer hours, turnover would be higher and the partnership model that motivates those managers would be unworkable. If the quality of the food dropped, the number of meals from repeat customers would decrease, putting pressure on margins and tempting the owners to cut compensation to restore profits, etc. Expanding the pie between a company and its customers. As markets become increasingly competitive and one industry after another is forced to deliver greater value in the form of lower prices, higher quality, or both, companies in those industries respond to the mounting pressure with one of two broad approaches. Many firms focus narrowly on cost-cutting measures, playing an intensified win/lose game with their suppliers (pressuring them for cost concessions) and their employees (squeezing them to work longer hours for the same compensation or to do their own jobs plus the jobs of their laid-off former colleagues). This approach can yield some short-term profit increases, but it is not sustainable. You can only squeeze so hard for so long. A smaller number of forward-thinking firms innovate their way out of this zero-sum dilemma. For example, instead of focusing on individual transactions, such as the cost of a particular product, these firms examine the entire value-creation chain associated with their products (and their customers use of those products) and devise ways to make the entire system more effective. This increase in effectiveness often creates enough new value that the buyers total costs can be significantly reduced while the suppliers margins can be maintained or even increased. One example of this kind of value-chain innovation is the Custom Sterile program of Allegiance, Inc. a leading healthcare cost management and product distribution company. Under the Custom Sterile program, all of the supplies needed for a particular surgical procedure are collected, packaged together, and sterilized in advance at an Allegiance facility. This helps hospitals to standardize and optimize their use of surgical supplies, and creates dramatic savings compared to the traditional process, in which expensive nursing labor locates the supplies from storage facilities within the hospital, collects them, and sterilizes them for each operation. The innovation is also good for Allegiance. Instead of having their margins relentlessly squeezed in a series of transaction-focused, commodity sales, the company has created a relationship-focused, high-value-added offering that justifies higher margins. This is the best kind of win/win outcome: using innovation to create a value (and margin) umbrella from which all parties can benefit. Competition and Customer Value Another fallacy that has cropped up in much of the literature on strategy is that the purpose of business is to beat the competition. There is no question that competition, like profit, is an important dimension that companies must be aware of and manage to successfully create value in the long run. For example, a company typically creates value for customers and superior returns for investors by producing goods or services that are better than their competitors at meeting a set of clearly defined needs for a specific set of customers. So competition is a key variable in determining whether a product or service provides a differentiated benefit to the customer, and one that she is willing to pay a premium for. However, competition should never divert management from the primary task of creating those benefits by understanding and anticipating target customers needs, excelling in product and process innovation, providing outstanding service, etc. Thus, we need to think of competition not as a goal, but as part of the business environment—a key element of the context in which a firm seeks to create value. What then become critical are the alternative responses to competition undertaken by different firms, some of which are more likely to succeed than others, given the nature of the business environment. In the emerging information economy, the most successful responses to competition focus on two areas: (1) innovation that drives down the cost of products and services while increasing their quality and variety, and (2) building a deeper understanding of changing customer needs within increasingly specific market segments. Responses that are rooted in a win/lose framework, such as taking share from existing competitors in a zero-sum game, gaining power over customers (for example, by locking them into a proprietary computer operating system), or seeking to become the low-cost producer without simultaneously driving for world-class quality, are extremely dangerous. Many of them pit the interest of the company against the interest of the customer—a prescription for customer alienation and long-term disaster. The most fundamental weakness of those win/lose responses to competition is that they divert management from the more important engines of value creation in the information economy: innovation, imagination, cooperation, and knowledge. Managements time, creativity, energy, and imagination are among the scarcest organizational resources. At the same time, they are by far the resources that yield the highest returns. So it is important to recognize that all of the time, energy, and imagination expended on win/lose activities entails a high (sometimes fatal) opportunity cost. Managers are more likely to stay focused on the higher return, win/win levers if they aim not to beat the competition, per se, but to create more value than the competition—in other words, if they seek to achieve a value-adding advantage. And by doing so, they are likely to be more successful than their competitors in the long run.