The effect of Leader Member Exchange(LMX) on employee's performance Dissertation

The effect of Leader Member Exchange(LMX) on employee's performance and turnover rate (or employee retention) - Dissertation Example According to the research findings it can therefore be said that leadership is not just a word, it is a responsibility, and it is the step towards the success story for any organization. Leadership qualities cannot be developed overnight but continuous effort put in by the people can make them achieve the price tag of leadership which brings along responsibility and further expectations to perform beyond potential. Organizations, small or big have and will always require people who can mould themselves according to what the situation demands and bring the best solution on the table. Leadership qualities are also measured on the basis of employees’ performance and their job satisfaction. A leader can be called a successful torch bearer only if his/her followers equally contribute towards the growth of an organization. Leadership in itself is an important quality but there are certain factors which define the true leadership qualities a leader should possess. These essential com ponents to develop leadership qualities at par are- a) Setting an example and motivating others b) Enhancing skills c) To be an influential figure d) Finding a solution to doubts and ambiguities e) Honesty f) Being ethical g) Bringing in the desired change h) Managing cultural assortment i) Rewarding for the success. Leadership is a sequence, a process which has different elements intact to it, prevailing towards the successful attributes of a true leadership quality. These elements of leadership are of three types- the leader, the following group or the followers and finally the substance. A leader is the one who sets an example, leads from the front, motivates, sets objectives and inspires others to grab the opportunity in achieving these objectives. It is believed that every individual has an inborn

Computer Virus Essay Example for Free

Computer Virus Essay The emergence of technological innovations such as the advent of computer and computer programs, also paved way for the birth of certain viruses that can disrupt software programs. These viruses infect a program and allow it to spread from one computer to the others (â€Å"Viruses†). As it transfers from one computer to another, it leaves complications or ailments that like human viruses, has varying degrees of severity. Some are merely designed to annoy the computer user while others can destroy the entire computer hardware (Beal). Viruses may be categorized as a worm, Trojan or just a virus. A worm is quite similar to a virus, but unlike a virus that needs human intervention in order for it to spread, worms can spread on its own. It has the capacity to replicate itself and travel from one hardware to another through the transport features of the computer’s system. Because of its replicating capacity it poses harm as it can slow down the computer the moment it becomes multitude (Beal). A Trojan on the other hand does not replicate as viruses and worms do. They appear at first as some legitimate program or file but the moment it is ran in the computer it can create various damage. Sometimes they are made to annoy while other can seriously destroy the computer by deleting files or programs. It can also create backdoors that can give other users access to the system that may give away personal or confidential information (Beal). Most of the time, these malicious programs spread with human intervention. When viruses cling onto a file and was run in the computer, it automatically spreads in the system of that computer.Trojans spread in the same way, while worms replicate itself in the system, to another system and to another. Works Cited Beal, Vangie. 2007. The Difference Between a Computer Virus, Worm and Trojan Horse. Webopedia. 11 November, 2008 http://www. webopedia. com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/virus. asp. Brain, Marshall. n. d. How Computer Viruses Work. HowStuffWorks. 11 November 2008 http://computer. howstuffworks. com/virus2. htm. Viruses. n. d. Kasperskylab. 11 November 2008 http://www. kaspersky. com/virusinfo.

Charles Taylor :: essays research papers

In The Politics of Recognition Charles Taylor explores the possibility that in order to affirm individuals' equal dignity, we must acknowledge their cultures. He claims that individual identities are socially and dialogically constructed. That is why recognition is important. It shows how the study of identity and its politics is very important in the effort to understand control and somehow reduce the occurrence of group conflicts. The views of others may not be the last word concerning our identities, but they are the first word. If so, misrecognition can damage and can be the basis of oppression and domination (p 25). Charles Taylor argues that human identity is constituted by cultural group membership, and an individual's sense of self worth is thus deeply tied to the value that others attach to his or her cultural group. As a result of this "new understanding of the human social condition," cultural recognition can be construed as a necessary component of individual recognition, and misrecognition can reasonably be considered a form of oppression (Taylor, 1994: 25-26). If cultural group attachment is a feature of the human social condition, liberal theory had better deal with cultural group rights if it is to be relevant. Such observations form the basis of several criticisms of what Taylor terms procedural liberalism. Taylor sees this form of liberalism as rooted in a Kantian view of the self in which the essential feature of the self is autonomy; procedural liberalism requires, in order to respect human dignity, a polity in which each person is able to conceive and pursue his or her own vision of the good. Taylor argues that while procedural liberalism is committed to the view that different cultures are to be tolerated and respected, it also insists that we must live according to a common set of political rules uniformly applied. This kind of liberalism, he claims, is unable to vary basic rights in order to accommodate the survival requirements of minority cultures.

Romanticism Analysis

To a Mouse†- Robert Burns (Handout) Let life run its course The poem denotes the narrator of the poem is plugging his field when he cuts through a mouse nest. The poet shows regret and apologizes to the mouse before he goes on a tangent which reveals the deeper meaning of the poem. The connotation is that in life, we plan and do everything to make the future sweet Just like a mouse, yet luck can come and ruin it in one second. Life is unpredictable, and while preparing for the unpredictable future we aren't enjoying the present moment – which the souse seems to be able to do.The narrator reminisces on ‘prospects dreary', I. E. Bad events that have happened in the past which in some ways prevent him from moving on. Furthermore, some say that he is very fearful of the future and that these two reasons do not allow him to enjoy the present. He is also hinting that we ‘humans' aren't very empathic or sympathetic towards animals and nature like this mouse, but bot h species prepare for the future hoping for nothing to affect our smooth lives. He asks, so what if the mouse steals our corn it still has to survive – and this is the same or humans: so why are we so apart?Burns is talking about dreams and how there's no difference between mice's dream or a man's dream. He's saying that dreams are useless that they only leave you in pain and grief. â€Å"The Lamb†- Blake (712) Lamb represents goodness kindness and Jesus The poem begins with the question, â€Å"Little Lamb, who made thee? † The speaker, a child, asks the lamb about its origins: how it came into being, how it acquired its particular manner of feeding, its â€Å"clothing† of wool, its â€Å"tender voice. In the next Tanta, the speaker attempts a riddling answer to his own question: the lamb was made by one who â€Å"calls himself a Lamb,† one who resembles in his gentleness both the child and the lamb. The poem ends with the child bestowing a blessi ng on the lamb. â€Å"The Tiger†- Blake (712) Good and evil come from the same source? Did lamb creator create tiger? The poem begins with the speaker asking a fearsome tiger what kind of divine being could have created it: â€Å"What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame they fearful symmetry? † Each subsequent stanza contains further questions, all of which refine this first one.From what part of the cosmos could the tiger's fiery eyes have come, and who would have dared to handle that fire? The speaker wonders how, once that horrible heart â€Å"began to beat,† its creator would have had the courage to continue the Job. Comparing the creator to a blacksmith, he ponders about the anvil and the furnace that the project would have required and the smith who could have wielded them. And when the Job was done, the speaker wonders, how would the creator have felt? â€Å"Did he smile his work to see? † Could this possibly be the same being who made the lamb? The world s too much with Us†- Wordsmith (733) Man is so out of tune with nature and so obsessed with the materialistic things in life. The writer would rather be pagan than suffer seeing how man is attached. At least Pagans are intact with nature as he is very angry with man. â€Å"Chimney Sweeper†- Blake (Handout) Argument against child exploitation The poem â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper,† in both Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, protests the living conditions, working conditions, and the overall treatment of young chimney sweeps in the cities of England.Little boy soothing other ho is crying due to loss of hair as someone shaved it. No hair no dirt no problem innocent view. Having a dream about heaven that if he does his duty then all will be alright and he will move to heaven â€Å"London†- Blake Harsh conditions of England through the French Revolution The poem was published during the upheavals of the French Revolution, and the city of London was suffering political and social unrest, due to the marked social and working inequalities of the time.An understandably nervous government had responded by introducing restrictions on the freedom of speech and the manipulation f foreign mercenaries. The City of London was a town that was shackled to landlords and owners that controlled and demeaned the majority of the lower and middle classes. Within the poem that bears the city's name, Blake describes 18th century London as a conurbation filled with people who understood, with depressing wisdom, both the hopelessness and misery of their situation. The Sick Rose†- Blake (714) Love destroyed by Jealousy possessiveness Alternatively the poem may suggest that all beauty is susceptible to destruction or itself has the power to destroy. It is a reminder that there is a good and evil side to all things – love can be both Joyful and painful, and all life is proceeded by death. â€Å"l Wandered Lonely as a Cloud†- William Wordsmith (735) The memory of daffodils remains imprinted in the tellers mind as it is beautiful The speaker says that, wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys, he encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake.The dancing, fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the waves of the lake danced beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in glee. The speaker says that a poet could not help but be happy in such a Joyful company of flowers. He says that he stared and stared, but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him. For now, whenever he feels â€Å"vacant† or â€Å"pensive,† the memory flashes upon â€Å"that inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude,† and his heart fills with pleasure, â€Å"and dances with the daffodils. † â€Å"Solitary Reaper†- Headwords (Handout) Girl speaking in dialect.Although can't understand still hears songs playing in his head for which he is grateful even as he hears no more â€Å"The Solitary Reaper† begins tit the speaker instructing us to look upon â€Å"Yon solitary Highland Lass† who is â€Å"Reaping and singing by herself†. Thrilled by her song, the speaker compares the girl to a nightingale whose â€Å"melancholy strain† welcomes â€Å"weary bands / Of travelers† to â€Å"some shady haunt, / Among Arabian sands†. Yet he does not understand the words of her song (presumably they are in the Scottish Gaelic language), and impatiently cries, â€Å"Will no one tell me what she sings? He wonders if the subject is of â€Å"battles long ago† or of commonplace and universal things (â€Å"familiar matters of to-day†), reaps â€Å"some natural sorrow, loss, or pain. † Then he dismisses his own musings â€Å"Whatever the theme,† he says, â€Å"the Maiden sang / As if her song could have no ending† -and refocuses his attention on the song. He listens, â€Å"moti onless and still†, before finally mounting the hill and leaving the solitary reaper, still singing, behind. Though his ears cannot hear the song anymore, the sound of the Highland Lass's music will forever be a fresh and evocative memory in his heart. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner†- Coleridge Mariner has to tell a story- when he has an agony feels he must let it out by telling Tory. First he tells it to wedding guests- admits to shooting albatross for no reason and that nature will punish him, the albatross hangs around his neck as a burden until he blesses the sea creatures and continues towards penitence for remorse. Eventually it falls off. The wedding guests learn that all creatures regardless of size great and small, are made equal in Gods eyes and that none is to harm one over the other. â€Å"Ode to the West Wind†- M. Shelley Wind is both a destroyer and preserver.West Wind Blows leaves off tree only to cover up seeds to allow them to grow. Spring Wind â €Å"Commanding†- Shelley (782) Traveler tells story of irony that he witnesses in the desert. A broken statue that has inscribed king of kings, look on my works, but in reality there is nothing but vast desert surrounding him. Egyptian attempt towards eternal life. â€Å"Bright Star WSDL I Were Steadfast As thou Art†- Keats (804) Man addressing star. He longs to be like the star as it is steady and unchanging. But does not want to resemble the loneliness, lone splendor and doesn't want to look down on life by himself. Ode on a Grecian Urn†- Keats (799) Images inscribed onto urn prove to be story. His imagination wonders and he embraces a love so close to kissing the women but would rather hold back in order to always have that wondrous feeling of what it would feel like. Beauty and truth are only things that actually last for ever. â€Å"When I have fears that I may cease to be†- Keats (803) Keats describes fears of death through what the narrator wishes t o accomplish through life. He fears death because he will miss the great things such as love, fame, and writing.This poem reflects Keats worst fears; to die too soon† When I have fears hat I may cease to be†. The speaker in Keats poem actually reflects what is going on in Keats' mind†¦ Keats knew that he will die too soon because of his disease, and what hurts him the most is not being able to write his poems which will lead him to fame, and the loss of his beloved one†¦ Keats recognizes the fact that death is inevitable but he doesn't want to die before he writes his poems†¦ And before his â€Å"pen has gleaned my teeming brain†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ He is afraid that he will never be able to look at his â€Å"fair creature of an hour†.

Culture and workplace ethics Essay

Culture in the workplace has very little to do with the well known culture of literature, music and art. In the workplace, culture actually refers to the shared work environment, belief systems, behavior expectations and expected efforts, all of which usually characterize a certain organization or business enterprise. The work setting culture mainly includes things like, socialization expectations, dress code, how different groups within the organization perceive issues relating to attendance, problem solving and quality of work output. Finding the appropriate culture to fit an organization is a vital element in ensuring that a particular field or job is successful. Corporate culture has a lot of influence on ethics of an organization. It is through it that right or wrong decisions are made. They determine whether to adopt strategies that will benefit majority of the people in the workplace positively or adopting ones with an impact of affecting most workers in a negative manner (Russell, Para 3). Effect of culture on workplace ethics The organization’s culture is quite important perhaps more than most people appreciate. It holds various categories of people within an organization together and thus it has a lot of impact on what people within the organization perceive to be right or wrong. Even though certain conducts like corruption might be considered to be vice and thus culturally immoral in some organizations, there are other workplaces where the behavior is considered to be appropriate. Culture is usually deep rooted in an organization since although it is manmade; it takes several decades to grow. New employees in each and every work place are first introduced to the operating culture in the workplace and thus it is usually in each and every person working in the workplace. Ethics comes after culture and it therefore has to sing to the tune of culture (Lagan, & Moran, pp 46). The depth of culture within an organization is usually realized when someone attempts to alter an organization’s culture in a manner that is not consistent with the shared believes and norms of the organization. Such a person usually meets a lot resistance regardless of whether the intended cultural change is ethical or not. Culture within an organization is usually not stagnant but it is rather dynamical so as to take into account the changing business and workplace environment. Due to the fact that the workplace ethics are tied to culture, they also have to keep on changing so as to be consistent with the workplace culture (Russell, Para 4). Workplace ethics is highly influenced by the leadership of the entire organization. These are the people who are charged with the mandate of running the business and making decisions for the entire organization. The organizational culture determines the type of people to take managerial decisions. Therefore, if the culture of an organization is to be led by men and women of high integrity, then the workplace in such an organization is likely to be ethical. This is due to the fact that when an organization is led by such people, they will always make decisions with each and everyone within and without the organization in their mind. Their decisions will in most cases affect majority of the people in a positive manner. In this case, culture is very important on business ethics since it determines in an indirect manner the type of decisions to be made by the managers leading the organization (Hopkins, pp 78). On the other hand, if the organizational culture of a particular enterprise is one that allows men and women of less integrity to lead it, people who enter these offices via unethical channels where merit is not a priority, then such managers will in most cases be unethical. They will in almost all cases make unethical decisions which are likely to only benefit very few individuals within the organization while exposing the majority, mainly the junior members of staff to unfair treatment. Workplaces operating from such environments are mostly unethical and clearly this is as a result of the organizational culture. Most of the decisions adopted in such organizations are usually only aimed at maximizing the profits of the organization without putting into consideration other parties who are likely to suffer as a result of such decisions. These types of managements are mainly self centered and are only worried about their business organizations with little or no concern at all for other people. They are not worried of whether their actions are ethical or not, as long as business is running and making profits nothing else worry them. This attitude is usually enhanced by the organizational culture which in turn affects the workplace ethics significantly (Russell, Para 7). The corporate culture of an enterprise determines the criteria of promotion. If the culture of an organization enhances promotion based on merit, then the workplace will be more ethical as compared to instances where promotion is not based on merit. Since employees seek for promotion every now and then, they have to look for the criterion that is used for promotion so that they can be well equipped to qualify for promotion. Such a culture of promotion will take decades to develop and will thus be very much deep rooted to eliminate within the workplace (Lagan, & Moran, pp 69). The culture of an organization determines the values that are to be held in high regard within the organization. If a culture holds unethical behaviors in high esteem, then such conducts will be dominant in the organization. Rewards will be awarded to those people who excel in such conducts. In this case, the organizational culture is mainly concerned with appreciating the efforts of its employees who have excelled in certain field regardless of whether their actions were ethical or not. Such a culture therefore, promotes unethical behaviors among its employees (Brooks, & Dunn, pp 120). In other organizations, the culture is very clear and is tailored towards promoting ethical behaviors among its employees. In fact, the employees who excel in ethical conducts in various fields in the course of their work are identified in a fair manner and rewarded so as to encourage them to continue in the same spirit and be even more ethical in future. The other employees are also challenged to act ethically and at the same time they are made to desire to act ethically so as to be rewarded like their counterparts who were more ethical than then in a certain period. This form of culture thus acts as a tool for enhancing ethical behaviors within an organization to develop (Bassman, pp 55s). Culture within an organization determines how the organization as whole perceives the outsiders, more so its competitors. There are cultures which are tailored towards viewing the competitors as enemies and thus it promotes actions which will deal with such enterprises as enemies. Such a culture will promote unethical behaviors to its competitors and enmity arises between the two organizations. Culture is responsible for various unethical actions that might be penetrated to the other organization since it has made everyone within the workplace of the organization to develop a negative attitude towards its competitors (Russell, Para 9). At the same time, culture can act as a catalyst for enhancing ethical behaviors among the various employees of the organization especially in their actions towards the competitors. Culture will in this case promote good relations among the two organizations and it will make the employees to perceive the other organization as a competitor and not an enemy. This form of culture will promote actions that will enhance positive competition between the two sides and thus ethical behaviors will be enhanced greatly (Lagan, & Moran, pp 89). While there are employment regulations and laws governing the manner in which employees are to be treated, the ethics of an organization are more tailored by the organizational culture and not such laws and regulations. The ethics therefore goes beyond the regulations and the laws connecting the business practices of an organization to the workers’ personal beliefs. Culture in this case plays a leading role in ensuring that the actions adopted by the organization are in line with it. In this case, the organizational culture ensures that various employees in the workplace within the enterprise work together for a common objective as well as having the intention of doing the right thing in a world that is quite diverse and complex (Bassman, pp 126). The culture in operation within an enterprise determines how an organization treats its outsiders and whether or not it does anything that is likely to affect them negatively. For culture to be able to promote ethical actions among its employees towards the outsiders, then it must be one that encourages decisions that will affect these people in a positive manner. Among the current issues that has brought a lot of criticism in the entire world is that of pollution. An organization is considered to be ethical if it emits fewer pollutants to the environment. This means that it is concerned about the environment and the consequences of disposing untreated chemicals to the environment. On the other hand, there are organizations that are completely unethical. They pollute the environment without really caring how many people will be affected by the same. This affects the workplace environment indirectly since the employees will face hostility from members of public and will in several occasions be referred to as unethical people who do not care about tomorrow. This might make the organization to loose several employees to other companies which are more ethical as employees will like to be associated with organizations with good reputation (Brooks, & Dunn, pp 258). Conclusion Culture is a very important element in every organization. It is responsible in shaping the ethical behavior of the employees and also the workplace ethics. This is due to the fact that ethics within an organization is driven by the culture that is in operation within an organization. Culture is therefore a very important force in driving ethical practices of an enterprise. This is mainly because the organizational culture takes time to grow and mature and that it is taught to all new employees which make it to be deeply rooted within all employees. Culture has the ability of making an organization to act either ethically or unethically. Work cited: Bassman, Emily S. ; Abuse in the workplace: management remedies and bottom line impact; ISBN 089930673X, Quorum, 1992. Brooks, Leonard J. & Dunn, Paul; Business & Professional Ethics for Directors, Executives & Accountants; ISBN 0324594550, Cengage Learning, 2009. Hopkins, Willie Edward. Ethical dimensions of diversity; ISBN 080397289X, SAGE, 1997. Lagan, Attracta & Moran, Brian; Three Dimensional Ethics: Implementing Workplace Values; ISBN 097574223X, eContent Management, 2005. Russell, Mike; Workplace Ethics & Business for Social Responsibility: Initiatives for corporate culture’s committed to ethical business practices, concern for the environment and global humanitarian causes (2008): Retrieved on 5th August 2009 from http://sandiego. jobing. com/blog_post. asp? post=8929.

the life of Jackie Robinson essays

the life of Jackie Robinson essays Jackie Robinson, actually called Jack Roosevelt Robinson, was born on in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 to a family of sharecroppers. His mother, Mallie Robinson, single- handedly raised Jackie and her four other children. They were the black family on their block, and the prejudice they encountered only strengthened their bonds. From this humble beginning would grow the first baseball players to break the Major League Baseball's color barrier that segregated it for more than 50 years. When Jackie was only sixteen months old, his father left. His mother decided to move the family out to California. When they got to California they lived with his mother's brother, Burton. Before they arrived at California, his mother had made arrangements to find other living conditions because; Burton's house would be over-crowded, so Jackie's mother took a job washing and ironing clothes. There was not enough money from her job though, so she went to welfare for help. Welfare added to her salary, which barely made enough to keep them alive. The family, at times did not have enough food to eat and his mother would bring scraps from her job to feed them. His mother was a very busy person, and she always went to work before sunrise, and always returned from work late. When she was home, she was usually exhausted, but she still made the energy to help her kids and take care of them. One time, a girl in the neighborhood ran up to Jackie and called him "Niger, Niger, Niger." He had retaliated by calling her "cracker." When he called her that, she went and told her father and he stormed out of the house. He and Jackie had a stone- throwing fight until the father's wife came out and took her husband inside. From then on, all the white people in the neighborhood signed a petition to get them thrown out of the neighborhood. Jackie's mother stood her ground and would not make anybody force them to leave. ...

Cloning--Our Next Generation essays

CloningOur Next Generation essays Some people believe that biologists are cloning human embryos only to see how far they can go, but in actuality, there are many legitimate reasons for investing cloning. Embryologists believe that research into cloning could help improve the life of future generations. I believe this is the main concern of most scientists. The idea that humans may one day be cloned created either in part or whole to be genetically identical to the original plant or animal from a single somatic cell without sexual reproductionbecame a more realistic dream on February 23, 1997. On that date, the news broke that Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Insitute were about to announce the successful cloning of a sheep by a new technique. This technique had never before been successful on mammals. It was called somatic cell nuclear transfer. The technique involved transplanting the genetic material of an adult sheep into an egg from which the nucleus had been removed. The resulting birth of the sheep, named Dolly, was born on July 5, 1996. However, Dolly was different from prior attempts to create identical offspring. Dolly only contained the genetic material of one parent and was, therefore, a delayed genetic twin of a single adult sheep. There are two very different procedures referred to as cloning. The first is embryo cloning. This involves the removal of one or more cells from an embryo and encouraging the cell to develop into a separate embryo with the same DNA as the original. This has been successful on many species of animals. Some limited experimentation has been done on human embryos. Yet, nature remains the true cloning agent. About 1 in every 75 human conceptions, results in a split ovum for an unknown, reason to produce monozygotic twins or triplets. The second procedure is Adult DNA cloning or cell nuclear replacement. This involves removing the DNA from an embryo and replacing it with the DNA of a cell that has been rem...

The Fastest Way to Find Money to Write

The Fastest Way to Find Money to Write Got you on the edge of your seat, right? Everyone loves to find money, and in this business, so few people make much of it. I just returned from a conference where publishers and agents alike warned the attendees not to quit their day jobs because the competition is just so fierce. I appeared on three panels at PubSense 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina: One on promotion, one as an example of a small press success, and the third, which I moderated, on funding. My favorite topic. Sowhat was the hot topic of both the panel and the crowd when it came to finding money? Crowdfunding. Some people deflate thinking about the effort of crowdfunding, but it is 1) You set the bar as to how much you need. 2) You establish the rewards to those who donate to your cause. 3) You choose the crowdfunding site/platform that best suits your taste. 4) You are not judged 5) You develop a platform of ambassadors, followers, and fans during the process. 6) You become respected as an entrepreneur. 7) You might become discovered or picked up Projects to post and request money for? First of all, you dont say you need money to live on. Instead, you might show how you are soliciting funds for: 1) Research 2) Travel 3) Cover, editing, formatting 4) Public speaking 5) Performances 6) Part Charity in affiliation with the subject of your book 7) Raising awareness of a subject And if you dont like asking for money for a project? Many people dont like holding their hand out. Then consider using the platform to ask for pre-orders of your book. Hey! Thats not painful at all. My favorite crowdfunding sites: 1) Pubslush.com 2) Kickstarter.com 3) Indiegogo.com

Internet advertising in relation to Cultural groups (Iran vs.USA) Essay

Internet advertising in relation to Cultural groups (Iran vs.USA) - Essay Example The advertisements on the net are outlined considering the exact country wherein the company is situated.They can also be seen by people from other countries. The culture outline wherein this person has been brought up makes him recognize this advertisement in a different way. Consequently, it becomes a prerequisite for advertisers to take into account the concerns involved in such differences while outlining advertisements on net. According to Kennedy (1995) the web as compared to other types of advertising, have a tendency of being high on information, low on creating an emotional reaction and of partial value in strengthening behavior that is on hand. Sutherland illustrates that the net is also different in the sense that it is a medium that involves so highly given that it needs is a high involvement medium because it requires a frequent flow of judgments from the consumer and each snap signifies a judgment.Internet advertisements are capable of and are frequently besieged to a c onsumer outline that sequentially influences the way the point will be established.As Mooij,puts it: Culture is seen by lots of people as the soft feature of global marketing and that its significance is best seen as inferior to other fundamentals of global marketing strategies.... On the other hand Mueller, et al., (1994) claims, that advertising mirrors confined cultural values, it is impressive and influential as compared to culturally insensible advertising. A number of researchers, as a result, have highlighted usage of country-specific cultural morals appeal when developing global advertising promotions and message material (Albers-Miller et.al 1994). Consequently, it is essential that marketers take into close account the principles of a specific culture, since cultural values establish the manner of behaviors and end states for every person. (Pollay, 1983). Therefore, I decided to study the relation of internet advertising to two different cultural groups: Iran and America in view of their perceptions. Culture and Internet advertising Advertising on the Net and Culture appears to be an aspect that may not be influencing each other, however, culture influences advertising on the internet. Edward (2000) has planned a cultural outline, wherein he declared that every culture can be positioned in relation to one another via the manner in which they communicate. In some cultures, for instance Scandinavians, Germans and the Swiss, communication occurs mainly through open statements in text and talking and they are thus classified as Low-Context cultures. In other cultures, like the Japanese and Chinese, messages comprise of other communicative indications like body language and the usage of silence. These advertisements utilize different language adaptations of the site as they are predisposed by culture sensitivity and differences in requirements among cultural groups. Analysis Internet considers contents or design depending on which the site was developed.

Tattooed Soldier Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tattooed Soldier - Essay Example Antonio Bernal, a Guatemalan refugee is traumatized by the brutal death of his wife and only one son. He flees to Los Angeles to find solace, forget the problems and redeem his life. ‘When he first came to Los Angeles, Antonio thought of it as the place where he would redeem himself, undertake a new beginning’. Being a middle class civil servant once, seven years down the line, Antonio is wandering like homeless tramps in the city. He has been evicted from a rental house for failing to clear rent. The bitter truth that Los Angeles is no better than Guatemala reveals itself. He finds that life in the city is much more difficult and all his hopes abort. Guillermo Longoria is an ex-military soldier, an perpetrator of Antonio’s family and a member of death squad, the jaguar battalion of the Guatemalan army. He has tattooed his forearm with a yellow menacing jaguar as a mark of ruthless executor. Having contributed to the genocide that burnt the Guatemalan highlands and participated in the assassination of many Guatemalan citizens, he also flees to Los Angeles. He hopes to rid off the feelings, memories and the guilty consciousness he is suffering from as a result of his actions. He believes Los Angeles is not infected with the filth and pandemonium like that in Guatemala. Unfortunate for him, he learns that the city is even worse. ‘This place, this Los Angeles, is a cloud of filth, even the sky is muddy brown†¦ no one in Los Angeles seemed to care about trespassing, about people breaking the law†... Unfortunate for him, he learns that the city is even worse. ‘This place, this Los Angeles, is a cloud of filth, even the sky is muddy brown†¦ no one in Los Angeles seemed to care about trespassing, about people breaking the law† (Tobar, 34). The two men have been brought up in humble backgrounds. Both are haunted by past experiences and hopes for bright future in America. Antonio, seven years ago a middle-class civil servant, married and with one son comes home from work to meet his wife and son killed. The memories and fear ignites cowardice and he is fighting with self esteem in the move to avenge his family murderer. Longoria was a peasant before being coerced to join the army, a profession he eventually came to love. Luckily, his military experience earns him a job and is able to have his own home in America. Having committed crimes in Guatemala, he believes to find peace in Los Angeles, where he thinks is crime free. â€Å"He would not be swallowed by the uncle anliness around him’ (Tobar, 34) The book is a story of exiles, outsiders, the marginalized, and the powerless. Immigrants have very high expectations about America. Unfortunately, when they move in, especially elites, their profession and social statuses are reduced. Tobar says’ Women with medical degrees became laboratory assistants, accountants became ditch diggers.† (Tobar, 51). the social inequalities are very visible. Only a few like longoria can survive in the city because of its diversity. But immigrants have a hard time being assimilating in the American cultures. The powerless have no option but to concede injustice. Longoria has gotten away with so many crimes but his military experience earns him a

Violations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Violations - Essay Example The longer the call lasted, the stronger became my urge to identify myself and say something to the person I called. Violation 2 – Answering the Question â€Å"How are you?† The reactions to this violation were very similar. Whenever I gave them an earful, they looked very surprised. All of them were clearly not expecting me to give them such a long answer. At first, they tried to look interested, but all of them tried to disrupt me as politely as they could. Although this is part of my culture, it made me actually realize that people ask the question without being interested in how I really am. It almost made me wonder why we ask that question in the first place, instead of just saying â€Å"Hello†. Violation 3 – Walk away from a conversation without excusing yourself Most people kept talking to me: they were either asking me where I was going or they were making some kind of ironic remark. Only one person did not say anything at the time and asked me the next day why I walked away without excusing myself. Compared to all other violations, this was the most difficult one, because I felt I was being impolite and disrespectful. It feels bad to just walk away from somebody without excusing yourself or saying anything else, because I have been taught otherwise by my

Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility Research Paper

Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility - Research Paper Example In return, though it may not be required by law, but an organization should have this significant consideration of the welfare of its society through its moral thought (Kettunen 137). It has to start giving concerns not just on its profit-making activities but there should enough time for giving something for the community. In line with this, profitable organizations have a moral duty to make charitable contributions in an effort to â€Å"give something back† to the community. At some point, this may not be required by law, but an organization should consider itself as a model within a community on showing the importance of being concerned with others. This is a matter of influencing behavior (Holmqvist 68; Thiele 204). For instance, the human resource is an integral part of the community aside from it belongs directly to an organization. The organization should motivate them so it has to give something back to them. However, the moral obligation to make charitable contributio ns should be outside the bound of personal gain, interest or concern of an organization in order to impart genuine concern for others’ needs. 2. Do successful profitable organizations have an ethical responsibility to make charitable contributions in an effort to â€Å"give something back† to the community? Why or why not? Society has social and moral values. Within these values ethical responsibility is normally imposed. Considering that an organization is an integral part of the society, so then it is not outside the ultimate impact of social and moral values (LePage et al., 2011). It is therefore clear that to make charitable contributions in an effort to â€Å"give something back† to the community depends on its prevailing social and moral values. In some countries, it is not ethical to receive certain prize, reward for something out of what good has been done. Some culture just like in Japan has this belief that performing one’s responsibility at wor k is already sufficiently paid and that other payments outside of it would mean an insult. In the same manner, it may not be always necessary to have ethical responsibility to make charitable contributions to give something back to the community. Considering that an organization has already done what is morally good for the society, then there is no need to have this ethical responsibility to give more just to reciprocate considering that there are different and prevailing social and moral values. For instance, producing the right quality of products that say what they tell they have is enough to give back something out of the high level of trust given by the community. The ethical responsibility to make charitable contributions in an effort to â€Å"give something back† to the community depends on the prevailing social and moral values of the society. Thus, it may not necessary to employ it in all the time or everywhere. 3. If you said there was either an ethical or moral du ty to make charitable contributions, how does that affect the corporation's duty to its shareholders to maximize profits? Corporate social responsibility is becoming a must especially among profitable organizations. In their implementation of corporate social responsibility particularly on providing charitable contributions, an organization is becoming clear on its role and stand within the society. As a result, an organization creates specific policies and provides information that will always guide its

Case study on Western States University Hospital Essay

Case study on Western States University Hospital - Essay Example In the present case, the lack of nursing leadership is the main reason that information system is not being used to its full potential. The importance of IT/IS system needs to disseminated amongst the employees so that they are able to understand the vast potential of computer and how it would improve and improvise their performance outcome. The success of system could only realized when the people who are directly involved with the various aspects of the information, ensure that small effort from them would significantly impact the outcome of the necessary outcome. ABC system is fully capable of coordinating activities and ensuring smooth operation of the hospital when details of patients are entered timely. While admitting clerks need to fill in the initial details of the patients, the discharge and transfer of patients need to be timely entered within the database by the nursing staff to produce updated reports of the patients. There is definitely huge room for improvement. The basic purpose of all business is to strive for improved performance. The hospital management must also ensure performance improvement through leadership initiatives that promote team building, shared goals and collective decision making. Indeed, performance measurement and improvement have increasingly become key issues in healthcare delivery. Meeting the needs and requirements of patients are the major objectives of effective healthcare delivery system.... Hence, in the present case, development of core performance improvement team would help to motivate, inform and train the employees, especially nursing staff, in improving their individual and collective performance for improved results. The most appropriate type of PI team would be the one that understands that knowledge leads to empowerment so that people can make decisions based on informed choices. Hence, team members must comprise of persons who have strong cross cultural understanding and understand the implicit and explicit importance of technology. The main goal of the team would be to identify the areas where the creative inputs of the staff would impact on the performance. The necessary linkages like training of staff on new skills would also be part of PI team so that staff can keep up with the on-going changes within and outside the organizations and ensure continuous improvement in their performance. Answer 3 Organizational structure of hospital is complex in its deliver y of goals. Smooth operations within its various departments become critical part of its success. The PI team of the hospitals should therefore, comprise of managers and leaders from different department. Nurses, physicians, administrators, clinicians, dieticians and pharmacists should be included. They should understand the need for continuous improvement of performance and have clearly defined goals for their team and provided with requisite knowledge skills to achieve their target. The team members must be educated on the need for coordinated efforts to achieve the wider goals and objectives of the hospitals. Nurses and physicians are intrinsic part of healthcare industry that is directly

Critical review on norther canada Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critical review on norther canada - Essay Example He is one of the most qualified and eminent scientists of fresh water today. Professor John P. Smol is a professor in the Department of Biology and also chairs Environmental Change at Queen’s University. He has rested his entire career to the study of environment and problems related. His work has been widely used in acid-rain debates and in studies related to global environmental change. He has written more than 230 publications and will soon publish his thirteenth book related to environmental issues. In the last ten years he has been awarded 18 medals, fellowships and various prizes for his phenomenal contribution. The article throws light on the impact of climate warming on the Arctic over the North America, Eurasian Arcitic and other polar regions. The authors stress that Arctic is high latitude system which has come under threat due to warm climate and human-caused environmental activities. The paper seeks to refute claims and the widely believed perception that Arctic l akes, ponds and rivers are immune from the impact of activities undertaken by humans. It is explained how changing albeta and cold water biota make them sensitive to climate changes and green house warming only accelerates the process. They suspect Arctic Aquatic fauna to comprise of a high concentration of contaminants due to changes in its lakes and rivers over the years. The purpose of the paper is to point out the gravity of impact of human activities on the Arctic and it is way more than most environmental mangers predict. The authors cite Sprague’s (2006) work â€Å"Great wet north? Canada's myth of water abundance† in pointing out that the flowery stories planted by Canadian media and politicians over abundance of water in the region are a fluke. Sprague’s work is correctly quoted to correct the false impressions people have about the country’s water resources. The biggest strength of this paper is the consistency of the work. The authors of the pa per do not digress. This assertion is repeated again with a plausible concern in the end when Krummel’s (2003) work is cited to explain why in high latitude regions politicians tend to ignore environmental problem. It is well illustrated with a lot of pictures and graphs. The article is well supported with a lot of correctly cited statistical references. For instance, the authors point out Brunskill’s hydrological figures when stating that most lakes in the north have less than one percent of their water replaced every year. However, there are places, where the authors could have gotten into more insight for instance they assert that high exposure to ultra-violet rays can inflict a lot of harm to the DNA in phytoplankton’s and zoo-planktons. Hessen and Williamsons work from the nineties is quoted but without any further explanation. When I piqued through their work, I figured they had also explained how and what causes the damage. Again while specifying how snow cover affects lake properties, they point out by citing Sorwari’s (2003) workthat snow cover can have huge limonological implication. But they failed to cover what kind of limonological limitations? These were some of the minor glitches in the otherwise well researched paper. The authors made it a point to use most of the latest references which was a major plus point. There were only a few places where they had referenced all the way back to papers from 1980s- Carmouse (1983) and Prowse (1985) to name a

Case study on Western States University Hospital Essay

Case study on Western States University Hospital - Essay Example In the present case, the lack of nursing leadership is the main reason that information system is not being used to its full potential. The importance of IT/IS system needs to disseminated amongst the employees so that they are able to understand the vast potential of computer and how it would improve and improvise their performance outcome. The success of system could only realized when the people who are directly involved with the various aspects of the information, ensure that small effort from them would significantly impact the outcome of the necessary outcome. ABC system is fully capable of coordinating activities and ensuring smooth operation of the hospital when details of patients are entered timely. While admitting clerks need to fill in the initial details of the patients, the discharge and transfer of patients need to be timely entered within the database by the nursing staff to produce updated reports of the patients. There is definitely huge room for improvement. The basic purpose of all business is to strive for improved performance. The hospital management must also ensure performance improvement through leadership initiatives that promote team building, shared goals and collective decision making. Indeed, performance measurement and improvement have increasingly become key issues in healthcare delivery. Meeting the needs and requirements of patients are the major objectives of effective healthcare delivery system.... Hence, in the present case, development of core performance improvement team would help to motivate, inform and train the employees, especially nursing staff, in improving their individual and collective performance for improved results. The most appropriate type of PI team would be the one that understands that knowledge leads to empowerment so that people can make decisions based on informed choices. Hence, team members must comprise of persons who have strong cross cultural understanding and understand the implicit and explicit importance of technology. The main goal of the team would be to identify the areas where the creative inputs of the staff would impact on the performance. The necessary linkages like training of staff on new skills would also be part of PI team so that staff can keep up with the on-going changes within and outside the organizations and ensure continuous improvement in their performance. Answer 3 Organizational structure of hospital is complex in its deliver y of goals. Smooth operations within its various departments become critical part of its success. The PI team of the hospitals should therefore, comprise of managers and leaders from different department. Nurses, physicians, administrators, clinicians, dieticians and pharmacists should be included. They should understand the need for continuous improvement of performance and have clearly defined goals for their team and provided with requisite knowledge skills to achieve their target. The team members must be educated on the need for coordinated efforts to achieve the wider goals and objectives of the hospitals. Nurses and physicians are intrinsic part of healthcare industry that is directly

How can microeconomics help small business owners Essay

How can microeconomics help small business owners - Essay Example Microeconomics derived from the Greek word â€Å"mikros† which means small, deals with a part of the economy rather than the whole. It deals with total output, total employment, total spending but in relation to single firms and single households. Microeconomics seeks to understand the individual consumer, the buying decisions that are made at this level and the different factors that affect the consumer behavior. The subject matter of microeconomics is mainly commodity pricing, factor pricing and welfare theory. Commodity pricing entails how prices of commodities are affected by market forces of demand and supply. The price of commodities usually determines the demand of the products by the consumer. Factor pricing are the determination of rewards for the different factors in the production process that include land, labor, and capital. These earn the business rewards in terms of wages, rents, interest and profits. Welfare theory explains the optimum allocation of resources in order to maximize utility. It is therefore crucial for small business owners to understand more about the consumers and different factors that affect the spending behavior of consumers such as price of products, income and supply Any business whether start-up or on-going needs to undertake a research of the market and actually draw up its business plan before starting operations. This gives the business its objectives and goals and provides sense of direction in the market. The following are some of the ways in which micro economics aids small business owners achieve their business goals and objectives: Understanding the individual behavior of the consumer. Consumer decision making is the most critical aspect of the micro economics as consumer spending makes up the highest part of the economy. Consumers after spending usually save surplus invest and put away for future use. Microeconomics determines how much a household save, for how long and

Instructional design Essay Example for Free

Instructional design Essay Instructional design is an important tool in any system of education. It enables all the stakeholders of the educational sector to achieve their objectives. This paper critically analyzes the various approaches to institutional design, their benefits and weaknesses, and further examines the principles relevant to instructional designs. Introduction There has been a massive increase in institutions that offer e-learning and this can be attributed to the changes from the traditional methods of teaching, to the future trends in the same. E-learning enables learners to get access to various curricular from the comfort of their computers. It also enables students to earn degrees from prestigious universities, without being physically present there. However, the success of e-learning can be largely attributed to instructional design programmes that guide teaching methods, and ensure that all stakeholders in the education industry achieve their objectives. Instructional design involves transforming the learning principles into learning activities. It goes further and develops, utilizes, manages and evaluates resources and processes for learning. Instructional design also involves creating the right environment, that will transform learners from states of inability to accomplish tasks, to states of the ability to accomplish tasks. There are three main approaches that are used in achieving these objectives. The first approach is the behavioral approach, the second is the cognitivism approach, while the third is the constructivism approach. These approaches have benefits and limitations, and are discussed below. Behaviorism approach. The founder of this approach to instructional design, is John Watson. He wrote a paper in 1913, in which he argued that when studying social science, we should study and record overt behavior only. This is the behavior that can be observed and measured, and he further added that we should ignore inner states such as mental states or motives. The reason for ignoring the inner state, according to him, was that it cannot be objectively measured. This implies that the inner state cannot be simultaneously observed by many observers. Watson called the inner processes, the black box, and his view was that they were not accessible, scientifically. In behaviorism, our focus is overt behavior and its stimuli, thereby making it the stimulus-response-psychology. Watson further says that all behavior can be attributed to external stimuli, which is observable. How the stimuli is processed inside the body is regarded as irrelevant, since it cannot be objectively measured. Since the behaviorists view behavior as a response to environmental stimulus, change of behavior can be realized by creating the favorable environment. Watsons approach to behaviorism was influenced by Ivan Pavlovs earlier perspectives on operant conditioning and classical conditioning. Pavlov, had discovered that responses of salivation, brought about by seeing food, could also be generated by stimuli present during the presence of food. He observed this by doing an experiment with his dog; the fact that a bell was rang, just before the dog ate food, made it salivate every time it heard the bell, even though food was not present. This is what Pavlov referred to as classical conditioning. Skinner, on the other hand, came up with the operant conditioning perspective. His view was that behavior is only likely to be repeated, after getting a certain reward and that the repetition is dictated by the consequence of the same behavior. Edward Thorndike is another social scientist who supported the behaviorism approach. He stated that if there is a response to a situation, and it leads to a consequence that is satisfying, it is very likely that the response will be repeated, if the situation happens in future. He conducted an experiment using cats in puzzle boxes and realized that the time they took to escape from the box gradually reduced. He further attempted to see if the cats were using insight or whether they were gradually learning. His findings were that they were gradually learning, since the reduction in time used did not change abruptly, but instead changed gradually. The philosophy behind behaviorism is that a person can derive meaning, in the environment, without using personal experience (Ainslie, 2001). The instructional goals are framed in observable and specific behavioral terms. This approach looks at the immediate change in behavior, that can be recognized. In a learning environment, the instructor presents well structured materials to the student, and assesses his or her complete understanding of the same. The instructor focuses on interaction and presentation, offering individual students tutorial relationship. The students read provided materials and the assesses their mastery of the same, through individual tests and assignments. Since the general agreement is that stimuli leads to a specific response, most of this type of research is carried out with animals, in laboratories. It makes no difference in whether the response is observed using an experiment, as opposed to real life situations, if stimuli generates certain responses. The approach has been very useful in introducing humane education environments, since it was realized that rewards encouraging desirable behavior achieved better results, than punishments for undesirable behavior. Types There are basically three types of behaviorism; the first type is the methodological behaviorism. In this case, behaviorism is seen to ignore the mental state and other internal processes that affect behavior of an organism. This type of behaviorism sees no additional benefits that can be derived from consideration of an entitys desires or beliefs, in understanding patterns of behavior and therefore ignores them. This type of behaviorism views the mental state as a poor object of empirically studying the behavior of an entity. The second type of behaviorism is the psychological behaviorism and it tries to explain animal and human behavior as influenced by external stimulus. This is explained by Watsons experiment on the dog and bell, which is explained above. The dogs characteristic of salivating every time it hears the bell can be explained by this type of behaviorism. The third type of behaviorism is the analytical behaviorism, which is also called the logical behaviorism. This is a philosophical theory that explain the meanings of mental concepts and terms. It further goes on to explain that the idea of a mental condition or state is a behavioral disposition idea. Strengths According to Graham (2004), one of the strengths attributed to this approach is that it avoids regressive explanation of behaviors. This is through avoidance of explaining a form of behavior, using another form of behavior, that is, explaining overt behavior using covert behavior. This is achieved through ignoring mental activities, which are forms of behavior and using other forms non behavior, such as environmental stimulus, to explain behavior. Another strength that behaviorism possesses is that it is anti-nativist. Nativists believe that the mind at birth, has rules of processing that are used when learning. Behaviorism is supported by theorists since they believe that the mind learns through exposure to a stimulus and not through implicit procedures. Weaknesses. One weakness of behaviorism is the inadequate understanding of the effect of reinforcements on behaviors. The reinforcement should always increase frequency of responses, but this relies on the ability of the organism to recall the circumstances under which the stimuli was presented. This means that in the event that the organism forgets those circumstances, there will be no response to the stimuli. The second weakness is that this approach ignores the mental state and the inner motivation. This is commonly referred to as the black box and is usually ignored by behaviorism. The disadvantage of this ignorance is that both the mental state, and motivation play a part in determining the behavior of an individual. The third weakness is that for the organism to react to the stimuli, the reinforcement has to be consistent, otherwise the organism will not notice it. Some theorists regard intrinsic human conditions as limitation to this approach. These include loss of memory, presence of pain, paralysis of the body and the language barrier. All these can make the organism or human fail to respond to the reinforcement, either because they do not sense it, or they sense it but are unable to respond. Cognitivism Cognitivism is an approach that tries to study the inner processes that are ignored by behaviorism. Cognitivism attempts to open the black box that is closed by behaviorism. According to cognitivism, human minds process information, which makes it important to understand the processes, which include problem solving, remembering, attending and knowing work. Cognitivists relate to the computer language of input of information, and processing of the same, leading to output of information. Cognitivism started in the 1960s, when there were limited perspectives on approaches to behaviourism. Some of the theorists that were associated with cognitivism include; Robert Gagne, Jerome Bruner and Ausubel David. Ausubel stressed importance of content meaning, which could be associated with the pre-existing information. Bruner, on the other hand stressed the importance of motivation in the learning process, while Gagne defined the conditions of learning, which include intellectual skills, verbal information and cognitive processes. Questions were asked about the black box and someone had to open it. The basic view in this approach, is that the response to a situation by human beings is dictated by processing of information. Cognitive theorists view much of learning as taking place through repetition and contiguity. They view the role of reinforcement as more of provision of feedback on accuracy of a response, rather than motivation. It is easier to remember information with the following qualities; The first is meaningful effects, which means that meaningless information is difficult to remember and vice verse. Practice effects means that information that is rehearsed is easily remembered, especially if done with distributed practice (Place, 2000). Schema effects imply that it is difficult to remember information that cannot fit a persons schema. Mnemonic effects are used to transform meaningless words and expressions into meaningful semantics. State dependent effect means that it is easier to remember something, under the context it was taught in, than on a different context. Weaknesses The weakness with this approach is that the learner may not learn the best way of accomplishing a task, using this approach, since it might change in different situations. This means that the knowledge learned may not be applicable in solving new problems. For instance, the correct way to log into a computer may vary with the model and software being used. The other weakness, according to Kearsley (2007), is that this approach does not always work, this may be due to a combination of several factors. The brain cannot be taken to work exactly like a computer, since a computer is a machine. There are human factors that might hinder a person from effectively remembering what is learned, but the same cannot be said of a computer. The person might have stress or be exhausted and this affects the working of the processes. Constructivism This approach views learning as a process that is constructive and active. Learning is seen to occur when children construct representations of the information that they have acquired and processed. This requires the link between pre-existing knowledge and new information. This link is subjective and varies from one person to another, since everyone possesses different knowledge, brought about by undergoing different experiences. However, it is important that the pre-existing knowledge is stimulated in order for the person to remember it, and subsequently link it to the new information. Jonassens model Jonassen is a University of Missouri don and an expert in implementing innovative theories of learning. He designed a learning framework for curriculum development and the following are the elements; the first element is the plan for establishing and developing the instruction program. The second element is the methods for advancing existing programs, while the third is strategies for sustaining partnerships. The fourth is assessment of the instruction impacts and evaluation of the learners understanding. These guidelines help in transformation of students gestalt from the stage where they are confused to the stage where there is familiarity. Gestalt psychology This is a theory of the brain and mind that explains that the whole of the brain is not equal to the sum of the parts. It is used to explain how human senses work, especially in recognizing whole forms and figures. There are four properties in this approach and the first is emergence. Here, the vision is not properly visible. The second property is reification and here, the perception of the aspect is generated. The third stage is multistability and in this case, ambiguous perceptions moves between two possible interpretations. The last property is invariance and this is where geographical objects, simple in nature are recognized, even though they may be rotating or distorted in scale. Techniques The techniques used in constructivism include collaborative learning, where learners who have different backgrounds and skills discuss and do tasks together, such that they come to an agreement on the truth about a certain situation or circumstance. Another technique involves library research and the learners discover new facts by themselves, without the aid of the instructor. Similarly, field work excursions may also help the learners discover things as they are in real life, through conducting research on the ground. Learners can also learn through teaching, which is different from presentations, since the learners have the freedom to use their own approach to teaching. The strength of this approach is that it is useful for the learner when dealing with real-life situations. According to Robinson (2003), the basic forms of teaching using this method are coaching, scaffolding and modeling. These methods help the students in acquisition of cognitive skills, through practice and observation. Modeling provides an opportunity for the learner to observe problems and their solutions, in order to enable them to create conceptional models. Scaffolding and coaching provides feedback, hints and sometimes guidelines so that they are able to complete tasks. Examples of such forms of teaching are on-line message boards, workshops, simulations and games. Criticism While the constructivists state that learning can be enhanced by doing, critics argue that this is not always the case. They further argue that some novice learners lack schemas or the mental capability to learn through doing. Some critics even go further to say that years of research have not proved that the constructivist approach leads to discovery, and in the instances where discovery has occurred, this was as a result of guided discovery, through help by instructors. Some critics see the constructivism approach as impractical in certain fields since it reveals certain weaknesses, that are attributed to the constructivism approach, which they view as focusing on memorization as opposed to behavior action or change. For example, in a study done on medical students, project based learning revealed weaknesses in the students abilities to pass written tests, due to the bias in learning the experimental aspects. Principles of instructional design These are the principles that should be followed when undertaking instructional design, and their purpose is to achieve the objectives of instructional design. The first principle is the fairness and this implies that all learners should use equal means to achieve the requirements of the course. The instructions should be accessed by equally by all learners. Diversity and the different abilities of the learners should be taken into consideration. An example of such a learning environment is an on-line based course. The second principle that should be applied is the flexibility in participation, use and presentation of learning materials. This means that there should be several ways of accessing the learning materials, interacting with them, and evaluation of use of the materials. The instructions should be designed to satisfy the wide range of preferences of the learner. Examples of such learning environments are ones with provision of optional assignments, due dates and formats where possible. The third principle, according to Wells (2000), is consistent and straightforward instructions, and this means that the instructions should be clear and free from unnecessary distractions and complexities. This can be done through ensuring that grading, content, learning objectives and assignments are consistent. The fourth principle is explicitly presenting information, and this is where expectations of the course are clear. It also entails making all communication lines clear and removing any barriers to the same. It also involves presentation of the information in a multiple format. This can be achieved through making explicit expectations on assignments and providing a rubric or grading system. The fifth principle is a supportive environment for learning. This entails proper handling of mistakes made, and viewing them as opportunities for learning. It also involves minimizing the hazards that have the potential to cause irreversible failures and errors. An example of such a learning environment is one where very large assignments are broken into smaller components so that there are minimal errors by students. Another way to achieve this is to provide questions that are frequently asked during assessments. The other principal is having learning space that can accommodate all students and finally, minimizing unnecessary physical requirements or efforts by the students. This can be achieved by for instance, allowing the students to use word processors for a submission, and allowing the electronic submission of the assignments. Conclusion There are several approaches that can be used in instructional designs. Each approach has its own pros and cons. It is important to evaluate these before using an instructional design approach. The instructors should understand the learning process, when dealing with students, and the obstacles to learning so that they can avoid them. It is also clear that there are several principles that should be followed when practicing instructional designs. It is very important to create the right environment for learning, since that is what motivates students to learn. It is also important to take care of the diverse needs of learners since they come from different backgrounds, and most of all, equality should be observed regardless of the background of the learner. References. Ainslie, G. (2001). Breakdown of Will. Washington: AMACOM. Graham, G. (2004). Identifying the Mind: Selected Papers of U. T. Place. Oxford: Oxford

Costs, revenue and breaking even Essay -- Business and Management Stud

Costs, revenue and breaking even INTRODUCTION In this part of the coursework I will be looking at costs, revenue and breaking even. To do this we will have to work out our fixed costs, variable costs, expected total revenue, the amount of cars needed to break even and whether we make a profit or loss. A Business Plan Material and Equipment Fixed costs All of these materials and supplies will be bought from a local D.I.Y shop. * 4 sponges incl. 1 revolving sponge: -  £32 * 4 buckets: -  £10 * 4 scrubbing brushes for wheels: -  £4 * Advertising Leaflets: -  £5 * 4 chamois leather: -  £12 Total fixed costs: -  £63 Variable costs The washing up liquid can be bought from any local shop, but the water will be supplied from each of us from our homes although we wont be actually paying for the water it is included for business purposes. * Washing up liquid (10 cars per bottle): -  £2.50 * Water: -  £0.20 (per car) Total Variable Costs: -  £0.45 (per car) Breakeven This is a table to show a break-even analysis for a high price of  £4.00 per car. --------------------------------------------------------------------- No. f. Costs v. Costs t. Costs Revenue Profit/ Loss Of cars. ( £) ( £) ( £) ( £) ( £) 0  £63 0  £63 0 ...

The Deplorable Willy Loman of Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman :: Death Salesman essays

The Deplorable Willy Loman of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For those of you that don't know what deplorable means then you need to check out the tragic play "Death of a Salesman", by the American writer, Arthur Miller.   The main character of this story is Willy Loman, who is almost the walking definition of this word. The life of Willy Loman is portrayed as a   tragic existence for these   few reasons;   he was a ghastly role model for his sons,   a inconsiderate and unfaithful husband, he allowed one incident to affect the rest of his life, and finally, he killed himself, when he still had so much to live for.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   First of all, Willy was a dire role model for his two sons Biff and Happy.   He was a loving and giving father, but he always treated Biff better than he did Happy.   Biff was the all-star quarterback and everyone in the city loved and admired him.  Ã‚   Willy was no different, he always put Biff before anyone else in his household, which is something that a father should never do to his family.   Willy's love for his sons was very apparent, however he set in them very low moral values.   For example, Willy told Biff and Happy to run up the street and steal some sand to finish some steps, which tells them that stealing is OK.   This is a trait set in him by his father, which proves to haunt him his entire life.   Willy was also a cheat, whether it was adultery or simple card cheat, his dishonesties certainly rubbed off on his children, and proved to be the downfall in their lives.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the other hand, Willy affected more than just his sons   life with his deceit.   He greatly altered his own when he was caught in the mist of an affair with a meaningless prostitute, by his beloved son Biff.   This event proved to be the turning point in these two individuals lives. Willy's wife Linda, was a great women who certainly didn't deserve the heartache and disrespect that Willy gave her.   For instance, on many occasions in the story Willy is talking to his sons, and Linda will simply try to state something until Willy orders her to, "shut up.

Helping Others Essay

One day on the way home from work, I was driving on the freeway. I passed a car that had broken down and was sitting on the side of the road. There was a lady and her two littlechildren that were stranded. It was hot outside and I stopped to see if I could help. I gave them a ride to their house, made sure that they would be ok and then I left. I never saw them again. I didn’t know this family; I didn’t stop because I thought that I may win an award or get famous because of it. I stopped because I have been in that position before and know how it feels to be stranded with your children. Why would someone help another person whom they don’t even know? There have been some controversial theories on the helping of others. One theory is from the egoists. A major believer in the egoism theory is the famous author, Ayn Rand. She believes that a person should only help another person if they hold value to them, or if in helping them they will receive something in return , which is all supposed to relate to one’s own happiness. Egoism claims that each person has but one ultimate goal: his or her own welfare. This theory also implies that not everyone can be an egoist. It relies on other people being altruistic. Most altruists believe that each person has an obligation to give pleasure and take away the pains of other people. Altruism involves the unselfish concern for others. It entails doing things only out of a desire to help, not because one feels obligated to do so because of loyalty, duty, or religious reasons. Altruism involves true selflessness. The sacrifice of one’s own welfare for the welfare of another is what this theory is about. Rand believes, as do most egoists, that an altruistic person has low self-esteem and a lack of respect for other people. I can’t see how this could be true. I think that one would need to have some self-esteem in order to risk their lives for others. And in reference to the lack of respect for others, I think that is exactly the opposite of the reality: respect for others would seem to be a driving force behind altruism. I do not agree with Rand and the egoism point of view. I wonder what the world would be like if there were more people who follow egoism. Would the heroes of the world not exist? What would happen to us  all? If every person were out for themselves and didn’t care about others, except for what they would get out of being nice, what a mean and selfish world this would be. Would there have to be more altruistic people in order for our world to survive? I h ope not. I truly would hate to live in a world like that, mainly because a person, me included, would either have to be the egoist or the altruistic and I don’t want to be either one of those. There have been many stories about the brave people who helped to rescue wounded and trapped victims under the ruins of the twin towers, September 11, 2001, after the terrorist attack. I believe that these heroes did this because of their concern for others. I don’t believe that the rescuers would have time to stop and figure out their priorities and possible gains from helping the victims. They acted immediately and ran in there regardless of the danger to themselves. Most of the rescuers had no idea who they were rescuing, nor what would happen to themselves once they got into the rubble. If there were egoism principles applied to this rescue, would anyone have been saved? I believe that unless there was some kind of reward offered, not as many people would have been rescued. I don’t know how an egoist could have friendships or ever find real love. What kind of parent would an egoism enthusiast make? I believe that the child would definitely suffer and ultimately end up being altruistic. Living under a dominating and controlling person would be horrible, and it would cause low self-esteem and lack of respect for others outside of the relationship. I think that the less respect you show another person, the less respect that person has for others. On the other hand, I think the altruistic person is the one who gets walked on all of the time and used. This would not be good either. What kind of real relationship can one have if they are never concerned for their own welfare? I would think that it would be a very one-sided relationship. Personally, I believe that there has to be some balance between the two theories. I think that egoists are selfish, and I would not fit into that category. I do not believe that I would fit fully into the altruistic category either. It would be really difficult to be fully one way or another. The theories of egoism and altruism are contradictory to each other. I don’t believe that being fully one way or the other could provide true happiness. If there could be a society that is fully altruistic or fully egoistic, then I think our ethical system would not work. I believe  that my life shows a mix of the two theories. I look out for myself, while at the same time I look out for my children and animals. My family knows that they are most important to me, but they also know that I am important to myself. I don’t think that I could take care of my family if I did not take care of myself at the same time. Self-respect and healthy self-esteem are important to me.

Depreciation and Vital Spark Essay

p. 182The New Economy Transport Company (NETCO) was formed in 1955 to carry cargo and passengers between ports in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. By 2008 its fleet had grown to four vessels, including a small dry-cargo vessel, the Vital Spark. The Vital Spark is 25 years old and badly in need of an overhaul. Peter Handy, the finance director, has just been presented with a proposal that would require the following expenditures: Mr. Handy believes that all these outlays could be depreciated for tax purposes in the seven-year MACRS class. NETCO’s chief engineer, McPhail, estimates the postoverhaul operating costs as follows: These costs generally increase with inflation, which is forecasted at 2.5% a year. The Vital Spark is carried on NETCO’s books at a net depreciated value of only $100,000, but could probably be sold â€Å"as is,† along with an extensive inventory of spare parts, for $200,000. The book value of the spare parts inventory is $40,000. Sale of the Vital Spark would generate an immediate tax liability on the difference between sale price and book value. The chief engineer also suggests installation of a brand-new engine and control system, which would cost an extra $600,000.15 This additional equipment would not substantially improve the Vital Spark’s performance, but would result in the following reduced annual fuel, labor, and maintenance costs: Overhaul of the Vital Spark would take it out of service for several months. The overhauled vessel would resume commercial service next year. Based on past experience, Mr. Handy believes that it would generate revenues of about $1.4 million next year, increasing with inflation thereafter. But the Vital Spark cannot continue forever. Even if overhauled, its useful life is probably no more than 10 years, 12 years at the most. Its salvage value when finally taken out of service will be trivial. p. 183 NETCO is a conservatively financed firm in a mature business. It normally evaluates capital investments using an 11% cost of capital. This is a nominal, not a real, rate. NETCO’s tax rate is 35%. QUESTION 1. Calculate the NPV of the proposed overhaul of the Vital Spark, with and without the new engine and control system. To do the calculation, you will have to prepare a spreadsheet table showing all costs after taxes over the vessel’s remaining economic life. Take special care with your assumptions about depreciation tax shields and inflation. New Economy Transport (B) There is no question that the Vital Spark needs an overhaul soon. However, Mr. Handy feels it unwise to proceed without also considering the purchase of a new vessel. Cohn and Doyle, Inc., a Wisconsin shipyard, has approached NETCO with a design incorporating a Kort nozzle, extensively automated navigation and power control systems, and much more comfortable accommodations for the crew. Estimated annual operating costs of the new vessel are: The crew would require additional training to handle the new vessel’s more complex and sophisticated equipment. Training would probably cost $50,000 next year. The estimated operating costs for the new vessel assume that it would be operated in the same way as the Vital Spark. However, the new vessel should be able to handle a larger load on some routes, which could generate additional revenues, net of additional out-of-pocket costs, of as much as $100,000 per year. Moreover, a new vessel would have a useful service life of 20 years or more. Cohn and Doyle offered the new vessel for a fixed price of $3,000,000, payable half immediately and half on delivery next year. Mr. Handy stepped out on the foredeck of the Vital Spark as she chugged down the Cook Inlet. â€Å"A rusty old tub,† he muttered, â€Å"but she’s never let us down. I’ll bet we could keep her going until next year while Cohn and Doyle are building her replacement. We could use up the spare parts to keep her going. We might even be able to sell or scrap her for book value when her replacement arrives. â€Å"But how do I compare the NPV of a new ship with the old Vital Spark? Sure, I could run a 20-year NPV spreadsheet, but I don’t have a clue how the replacement will be used in 2023 or 2028. Maybe I could compare the overall cost of overhauling and operating the Vital Spark to the cost of buying and operating the proposed replacement.† QUESTIONS 1. Calculate and compare the equivalent annual costs of (a) overhauling and operating the Vital Spark for 12 more years, and (b) buying and operating the proposed replacement vessel for 20 years. What should Mr. Handy do if the replacement’s annual costs are the same or lower? 2. Suppose the replacement’s equivalent annual costs are higher than the Vital Spark’s. What additional information should Mr. Handy seek in this case?

Personality Profile Essay

In modern business, it is important to have a mindset of sustainability and environmentally friendly business practices. Two fundamental characteristics of an effective and sustainable leadership model are having the foresight of what the company is trying to attain and identifying the worth in the process and supplying the leadership to reach the companies goals. Leadership begins with trusting in the process, and adhering to the steps themselves. The single best way to achieve this is to lead by example. In this paper the author will explain how Marie Ziegler of John Deere help set the company on the path it follows today. Marie Ziegler has set the standard for John Deere and the employees of the company. As the vice president and treasurer for the John Deere Corporation it is within her responsibilities to ensure that the product that they are producing meets and exceeds the standards of the industry. All of John Deere’s products meet the Environmental Protection Agencies (EPA) off-highway equipment emission regulations as of 2011. The regulations set out to reduce the particulate matter in the atmosphere by 90% in addition to reducing oxides of nitrogen emissions by as much as 50% (John Deere, 2012). In one position or another Marie Ziegler has preformed various duties within John Deere since 1978. During this time Marie has grown to know the company and industry well and has helped the company to grow, remain profitable and become an industry leader. The decision to make sure that John Deere’s products met the EPA standards was just another stepping stone towards the goal of being an industry leader. The virtues of a good leader within an effective and sustainable business include vision, values, strategy and systems. Marie began with the vision to achieve a product that met the standard set forth by the EPA guidelines and pushed forward with that goal (Weitzman, H . 2010). Values, values include the practices and beliefs that the company uses to achieve success. These include people, people being the employees of John Deere who treat each other with respect which in turn promotes teamwork and the ability for the company to succeed and grow. Marie recognized that the  customers are the reason a company exists. As a good leader she understood that without customers, there is no need for the products that John Deere provides. The product and the service that any company provides is a direct reflection of the dedication of a company, its values and its employees. The conduct of a business from the president and CEO all the way down to the staff on the sales floor reflects a company’s values. Strategy is what a leader uses to develop a set of actions to follow that supports long term visions, values and objectives (Desjardins, 2007). Strategy is the crucial aspect for the integrated management system. There are key elements to developing the strategy that surrounds all the health, safety, and environmental considerations required to fulfill the strategic plan. Included within this are the planning process, setting targets and objectives, establishing and environmental policy that backs the vision of the company, contemplating which industry code of practices will be instituted, and defining the framework for communication. When these aspects are combined, they create an environmental policy that states a company’s base principals and projected intentions for environmental performance. Marie exhibits a take control type personality which is a strong leadership style. As an effective business leader she knows what needs to be done, she develops a plan and sets it in motion. When the EPA established new emissions standards Marie knew how to strategize a plan to implement the changes to John Deere’s production process in a timely manner. This meant that she had to clearly communicate the needed changes to her team of employees to enact the strategy that she developed. Communication is the key aspect to ensuring a plan is enacted properly, effectively and efficiently. One of Marie’s actions as a leader in sustainability was instilling a culture of sustainability amongst her employees by implementing sustainable practices and adhering to those policies herself in order to lead by example. In addition to leading by example she uses clear communication skills to communicate her needs to her employees to ensure her decisions as a leader are disseminated down the chain and that policies are understood by all employees and team members. Marie displays strong leadership skills and knows John Deere inside and out, she believes in the product they produce and this is an important aspect to being an effective leader in sustainability. With the leadership of Marie Ziegler John Deere can set  forth a standard that allows the company to be a leader in green sustainability. The author of this paper tries to uses general management strategies that promote sustainability within the work environment but finds that it can be difficult for an individual to do so considering the following. As an employee of EC3 International, the author’s duties are usually prescribed by test plans which leave little room to enact sustainable management methods of his own. However, the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of the Army (DoA) have been enacting environmental standards and practices that promote sustainability and are more environmentally friendly for many years now. The army has most recently switched its primary small caliber ammunition to more environmentally friendly ammunition in order to reduce the negative environmental effects on weapons ranges. Many years ago the DoA along with the Proving Grounds implemented a new policy of no longer indiscriminately firing depleted uranium (DU) tank rounds out on to ranges. The DoA mandated that all DU test rounds must be fired into a catch box that can be cleaned out and disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. In summary as a leader in sustainability within a company it is crucial to lead by example. No manager or business leader can expect his or her employees to conduct themselves in a professional and responsible manner unless they practice what they preach. When a leader takes a shortcut employees take note and will feel that it is not a problem to do so because their leadership does it. Marie Ziegler is an excellent example of how to conduct oneself who wishes to become a leader in sustainability. References DESJARDINS, J. R. (2007). Business, Ethics, and the Environment. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Lomborg, B. (2008). Cool It. New York, NY: Vintage Books. John Deere, Products, (2012). Retrieved August 10, 2012 from http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/corporate/our_company/citizenship/environmental_stewardship/products/products.page Weitzman, H. (2010, Nov 25). Deere counts cost of emission controls. Financial Times Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/811393069?accountid=458

Management Information Systems Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Management Information Systems - Research Paper Example 1.4 MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM The Management Information System is an application program designed to produce predesigned and predefined reports for the use of people responsible for the management. These reports are generally analytical information based on following parameters:- Periods: Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and periodical. Trends: Upward, downward, straight. Movement: Fast, slow, normal Comparison: based on past and present data Age: Based on 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and older Exceptions: Based on if and then conditions. Chapter 2 Management Information System Development Phases Understanding the development process of MIS An information system is developed and designed by going through number of processes and phases. It is important to understand them so that we can asses the true value of the system on one hand and determine needs for improvement on the other hand.. An entirely new solution based on latest technology involves number of phases for planning, organiz ing, executing and controlling to achieve the required quality software. There are also constraints of time, money / budget and quality. The Management Information System is developed after going through the following phases: 2.1 REQUIREMENT GATHERING In this phase, all the users are interviewed for gathering information about the requirements, the existing software are studied simultaneously and details of the requirements are noted down. A Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document is prepared from the data collected has deliverables:- i. Business Requirements ii. Functional Specification iii. Non-Functional Specification iv. Use Case Diagram v. Usage Scenarios The above documents are formally reviewed in a meeting for discussion and final approval. 2.2 DESIGN AND ANALYSIS... An information system is developed and designed by going through the number of processes and phases. It is important to understand them so that we can assess the true value of the system on one hand and determine needs for improvement on the other hand. An entirely new solution based on latest technology involves the number of phases for planning, organizing, executing and controlling to achieve the required quality software. There are also constraints of time, money/budget, and quality. The Management Information System is developed after going through the following phases:REQUIREMENT GATHERINGIn this phase, all the users are interviewed for gathering information about the requirements, the existing software is studied simultaneously and details of the requirements are noted down. A Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document is prepared from the data collected has deliverables:-i. Business Requirementsii. Functional Specificationiii. Non-Functional Specificationiv. Use Case D iagramv. Usage ScenariosThe above documents are formally reviewed in a meeting for discussion and final approval.DESIGN AND ANALYSISIn this phase, the requirements gathered are analyzed and a design is made for the construction of the software consisting of following deliverables:i. Data Flow Diagrams (DFD)ii. Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)iii. Activity Diagramiv. Sequence Diagramv. Architectural Diagramvi. Class Diagramvii. Database Designviii. User Interface Designix. Deployment Diagramx. Test Cases