A. Grocery Store/Courthouses

The courthouse is found on the grocery store’s premises itself. While there are court hearings, the pungent smell of cheese and other strong-smelling meat which Starky is able to identify with his nose, and not with being able to read labels. The overpowering smell plus the proximity of where food is stored to where justice is supposed to be upheld suggests that there is not much respect given to justice in the place. B. The de Spains’ mansion Compared to the other buildings, the deSpains’ mansion becomes more opulent. It has a gate that protects it from the outside world and even a covered walkway.Before reaching the big house, one must pass through a wide driveway. The mansion is representative of the luxurious life of the Southern landowners. C. The Snopes cabin A two-bedroom house may seem more than enough for a sharecropper family such as the Snopes, but the house becomes cramped when there are seven people sharing it. The Snopes have to be used to sharing; they do work for other people’s lands, contributing their effort to plant on ground that will never be theirs. The cabin represents the poverty of sharecroppers in a world where landowners reign. D.Barns – The barns symbolize the properties of landowners that ultimately separate them by status and wealth from other classes of people. Since the barns are symbols of separation, Abner Snopes feels like he is making everyone equal by removing one of the major sources of the landowners’ wealth. 2. Some of Snopes’ possessions are listed as â€Å"the battered stove, the broken beds and chairs, the clock inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which would not run, stopped at some fourteen minutes past two o'clock of a dead and forgotten day and time, which had been his mother's dowry†.They symbolize neglect, just as the lower classes are being neglected by those who have more power and more wealth. Meanwhile, the ribbons that Starky’s sisters wear symbolize th e small luxury that the poor sharecroppers indulge in. These may seem pretty for them as they use the ribbons to adorn their hair, but they are to be labeled as â€Å"tacky† by the rich landowners. 3. The passages that describe the houses of the de Spains and the Snopes show the extreme difference between the two social classes.Moreover, the incident with the rug emphasizes the difference in wealth, as the rug which de Spain claim to be worth a hundred dollars is considered to be several times more costly than the ten bushels of corn that Snopes can produce. The corn is already of great importance and worth to the Snopes family, a family who only cares about the food that they will eat and not about any expensive, luxurious rug. 4. Before the events of the story, Abner Snopes has already been guilty of letting his hog loose on Mr. Harris’ property.Even with Harris trying to negotiate by providing him materials that can be used to build a fence to hold the hog, Snopes i s still uncooperative. He goes unpunished because there is not enough evidence but is ordered to leave town. Although he is guilty of barn burning during the time interval of the story, there is enough evidence to show that he has done the deed several times before: â€Å"that niggard blaze was the living fruit of nights passed during those four years in the woods hiding from all men, blue or gray, with his strings of horses (captured horses, he called them)†.Such a persistent type of behavior shows the disrespect Snopes has for Southern landowners. For him, it is mere property that has made these landowners important, and without the property they are just ordinary men like him. His is not an ordinary envy but a festering hatred that pushes him to perform such extreme actions. 5. An explicit passage that references the idea of `Owning people` is when Abner Snopes declares that: â€Å"I reckon I'll have a word with the man that aims to begin to-morrow owning me body and soul for the next eight months.† There are other more subtle references to owning other people in the text, like â€Å"Pretty and white, ain't it? That's sweat. Nigger sweat. Maybe it ain't white enough yet to suit him. Maybe he wants to mix some white sweat with it. † This line of dialogue suggests that Abner Snopes believes that the black servant is considered by the de Spains as mere property as his sweat is considered to be an ingredient that has helped build the white, pretty mansion. His work is given value but he is still nothing compared to his masters. 6.The story implies that though the United States has already been dubbed as the land of opportunity and justice at that time, there is still an inequality in terms of how justice and opportunity are distributed among the different social classes. The Snopes are mere sharecroppers. They contribute the sweat that feeds the ground but even with daily toil, they are not able to improve their circumstances. The wealthy, meanwhile, has all the opportunity in the world to become wealthier as they sit back and wait for the next harvest. Justice also smiles on people like the de Spains because they are respected by the community.

Freedom Writers Changing Perspective Essay

The natural and reoccurring aspect of life, change, is one that has positive outcomes and cannot be reversed. The outcome of how change affects a person can be modified due to extrinsic factors of people or place. The inevitability of change can be daunting or reassuring for a person, depending on the way it is embraced. Humans change their perceptions of the world due to what they are subject to. Ones extrinsic factors and how they see the world is constantly shaping their intrinsic factors and his manipulating the ideologies of the forever developing human mind. As individuals, people continue to grow and mature due to how they lead their life. This Change can be seen in the Richard Lagravanese’s composed Freedom Writers, The students undergo a significant change in perspective that breaks down the cultural barriers between the students and opens their minds. This is due to the supreme catalyst figures of Erin Gruwell and also Miep Gies. Place is also a key factor in the sculpting of one’s perspective and the Holocaust Museum The students venture to is a momentous place that furthers their change in perspective. In the film The Composer supports this message through various film and language techniques. The student’s Teacher Erin Gruwell was the driving force behind the student’s positive change in perspective toward life, education and their fellow peers. Her enthusiastic attitude toward her students and job give her students the best chance in life. In the first scene we see Erin at the school, she confesses to the English Coordinator she â€Å"chose Wilson because of the Integration program† and is clear on her teaching goals that â€Å"by the time you’re defending a kid in the courtroom, the battles already lost†¦ he real fighting should happen here in the classroom†. This shows her enthusiasm for teaching and the composer juxtaposes Erin with the Margret (English coordinator) as Margret is now an outdated teacher who sees the children as no more than scores on paper. Erin’s bright radiant blue and red clothes and attitude portray her mind-set and the reoccurring motif of the pearls her father bought her are also present as a close up camera angle is used to show them. Erin meets resistance from the students in room 203 during their first lesson as they show her no respect by arriving late to class and apathetic. The dialogue intensifies the idea of them being apathetic and shows they lack inner belief, â€Å"this is the dumb class† and their body language furthers this, Marcus is eating in class. The Camera angles the composer has used always shows Erin isolated from the class, signifying her lack of control. In the line Game scene, Erin Finally breaks down the barriers dividing them through the confronting questions she asks them, â€Å"Step up to the line if you have lost a friend to gang violence†. As the students realise the similarities they share they start to open up and become more understanding of each other. Erin takes them on a self funded school trip letting them know they are worth more than the give themselves credit. After this scene the students start to write positive and optimistic thoughts in their diary. One student writes in their diary â€Å"Miss G had a beautiful dinner for us†. Erin Does an implausible job at opening the students minds on education and other racial clans and providing them with their own â€Å"kicking spot† where they can escape the dramas of life and be themselves. Erin Met quite a lot of resistance from Eva, who expressed hate for Erin on multiple occasions during the film, until eventually Erin and Eva sat holding hands after Eva, showing the connection they had now established. Another life she gets back on the right track is Andres, as after he is completely isolated from all of his family, he stops attending class and reunites with drug dealing. Erin uses tough love on Andre to get his perspective back on track; she says â€Å"i know what you’re up against†. Andre sheds a single tear which represents him returning to his former functioning life. As the students have now opened up to Each other and start to build relationships between themselves, they are provided with more stimulus to change their perspective on their life, education and their viewpoint on other racial groups in the form of Miep Gies. As the students listen to her story, their attention is engulfed in her and they realise that the problems they are facing are pedestrian to that of what Miep faced. A man pointed a gun at me†¦ and put it against my head† she said. There is sad and quite non-digetic music played during her story to intensify the depression of the time. During her speech there was numerous close up camera shots of the students faces and their facial expressions as they were taking all the information in, however the camera kept showing Eva, it showed her face when Miep said â€Å"I did what I had to do, because it was the right thing to do† . In the next scene Eva Testified in court against â€Å"her own† Because of the influence of Miep Gies’ speech and when she saw the innocent defendants family which reminded her of what she had to face many years before. The surroundings of a person go a long way in shaping their perspective, ideas on life and opening their minds, The Holocaust museum that Erin took the students too played a huge factor in changing their perspective. They Realise that the opportunity for education they are being given is very valuable and they are not utilising the opportunity as not everyone is as lucky as them. The students are really taken back from all the pictures of the affected children. The lighting the composer has used is all dark, black in some spots to exaggerate the sorrow during the visit to the museum and the photos of the children affected by the holocaust are a contrast to this as they are bright, to bring attention to them and show their innocence. The students feel so sad at the experience because they can relate to the holocaust victims, â€Å"I’ll never forget those people† Andre states. The important and unavoidable feature of the world, change, has lasting effects on people that can be beneficial and positive. The fact that the world a person lives in can mould them into something more is a prosperous idea. Its positive outcomes arise from significant aspects of people and place. As a person, one repeatedly embraces change as they thrive off the endless possibilities of the outcome. Richard Lagravanese’s Freedom Writers is a perfect representation of this idea.

Corporate Risk Management Essay

Risk refers to the uncertainty that surrounds future events and outcomes. It is the expression of the likelihood and impact of an event with the potential to influence the achievement of an organization’s objectives. Risk management is a systematic approach to setting the best course of action under uncertainty by identifying, assessing, understanding, acting on and communicating risk issues. The Corporate Risk Management framework is a systematic, integrated approach with a focus on managing financial risks to enhance shareholder value. The Corporate Risk Management processes are indentification of the risk, measurement , policy, process and execution. Those processes are utilised by corporate enterprises to manage the risk of fortuitous loss. Once corporate risks have been identified and their impact on the firm measured, risk management attempts to control the size and frequency of loss, and to finance those fortuitous losses which do occur. Those are the main definition about the subject, which are to be discussed in this document. Risk Management is an ongoing activity and should be carried out as a part of day-to-day business. The management of risk can only take place within an organisational framework that is inclusive of all parts of the corporate infrastructure. Without this framework, risks cannot be efectivelly discussed, communicated, compared and managed in a coherent way across the whole organisation. Risk should be a feature of any management discussion of any uncertain circumstances including new initiatives of any kind and the implementation of significant projects Risk management deals with insurable and with uninsurable risks and is an approach which involves a formal orderly process for systematically identyfying, analysing and responding to risk events throughout the life of a project to obtain the optimum or acceptable degree of risk elimination or control. Risk management is an essential part of the project and business planning cycle which requires acceptance that uncertainty exists, generates a structured response to risk in terms of alternative plans, solutions and contingencies ,is a thinking process requiring imagination and ingenuity and generates a realistic attitude in an investment for staff by preparing them for risk events rather than being taken by surprise when they arrive. Risk management involves identifying risks, predicting how probable they are and how serious they might become, deciding what to do about them and implementing these decisions. Corporates finance is the specific area dealing the financial decisions corporations make and the tools and techniques used to make the decisions. Categories of corporate financial decision making are : objectives of investment decision, financial decision and financial techniques. Corporates need a more advanced risk management approach in order to benefit from a competitive advantage from strategic risk management. They should manage risks proactively via an integrated approach with a focus on measurable financial risks. Quantitative techniques, such as cash flow-at-risk and earnings-at-risk, are necessary to look at the combined effect of risks on the formulated business objectives. Identification of risks, analysis of implications, response to minimise the risk and allocation of the contigencies are part of the process of managing the corporate risk. The objective to managing the corporate risk is to understand the risk that is known to be associated with the corporate strategy plan. This corporate risk management plan will enable the communication of the risks and risk treatments to be passed down to the strategic business units that may be impacted by the risk and maintenance of the corporate risk register. Altough risks are evaluated at the corporate level, the power they maintain over governments and consumers is phenomenal. Corporate risk startegy often implies planned actions to respond to identified risks. A typical corporate risk strategy includes the following: * accountabilities for managing the corporate risk. * A corporate risk register will be maintained as a record of the known risks to the corporate strategy plan; the types of mitigating action recorded. * Treatment plans are identified that form part of the corporate strategy and will be communicated to the SBUs, so they in turn may manage the risk which may affect them. A first estimate of potential effects can be determined using assumption analysis, decision tree analysis and the range method. These models can then be used to evaluate the effectiveness of potential mitigating actions and hence select the optimum response. Mitigating actions can be grouped into four categories and potential action : * Risk avoidance * Risk reduction * Risk transfer * Risk retention Corporate management, often referred to as corporate strategy, is concerned with ensuring corporate survival and increasing its value not just in financial terms but also by variables such as market share, reputation and brand perceptions. Thus the scope of corporate risk management is wide ranged to support the corporate strategy. A senior corporate manager owns the process and has the staff to resource the analysis and administrative activities. A board member champions the process ensuring access to information and resources. A core group of corporate broad members and strategic business unit executives can draw additional input from stakeholders such as shareholder representatives, representatives from major customers, partners and suppliers and external experts. At the corporate level a corporate strategy plan is often produced. The plan objectives are: * Create and maintain a strategy that achieves the corporate intent, corporate commitments and expectations of the customers, shareholders and other stakeholders. * Incorporate and maintain the commitments and the requirements of business sectors, specifically strategic business units and process owners that support the strategic direction. * Communicate the strategic direction and relevant objectives and target to each strategic business unit. * Manage strategic change to maintain or gain competitive advantage. The risk management process can be viewed as the application of traditional management techniques to a particular problem. Risk management is a continous loop rather than a linear process so that, as an investment or project processes, a cycle of identification, analysis, control and reporting of risks is continuously undertaken. Steps in the risk management process include: * setting risk-return goals, * identification and evaluation of the causes of potential expense or revenue fluctuation, * choice and balance of loss control and loss finance tools, and * implementation, monitoring and review. There are many opinions about those processes. For example Chapman and Ward believe that there are eight phases in the risk management process. Each phases is associated with broadly defined deliverabe, and each deliverable is discussed in terms of its purpose and the tasks required to produce it. Phases and deliverable structures: * Define : the purpose of this phase is to consolidate any relevant existing information about the project, and to fill in any gaps uncovered in the consolidation process. * Focus : the purpose of this phase is to look for and develop a strategic plan for the risk management process, and to plan the risk management process at an operational level. * Identify : the purpose of this phase is to identify where risk may arise, to identify what might be done about the risk in proactive and reactive terms, and to identify what might go wrong with the responses. Here, all the risks and responses should be identified, with threats and opportunitiess classified, characterised, documented, veified and reported. * Structure : the purpose of this phase is to test the simplified assumptions, and to provide a more complex structure when appropriate. Benefits here include a clear understanding of the implications of any important simplifying assumptions about relationships between risks, responses and base plan activities. * Ownership : at this phase client/contractor allocation of ownership and management of risk and responses occur, such as the allocation of client risks to named individuals, and the approval of contractor allocations. Here, clear ownership and allocations arise; the allocations are effectively and efficiently defined and legally enforceable in practice where appropriate. * Estimate : this phase identifies areas of clear significant uncertainty and areas of possible significant uncertainty. This acts as a basis for understanding which risks and responses are important. * Evaluate : at this stage synthesis and evaluation of the results of the estimation phase occurs. Diagnosis of all important difficulties and comparative analysis of the implication of responses to these difficulties should take place, together with specific deliverables like a prioritised list of risks or a comparison of the base plan and contingency plans with possible difficulties and revised plans. * Plan : at this pase the project plan is ready for implementation. The main processes involved in project risk management are: * risk identification, risk quantification and analysis, * risk response, selection of risk response options, * outputs from the risk response process, * outputs from the risk response process, * risk management within the project life cycle, * the tasks and benefits of risk management, * the beneficiares of risk management. Risk identification consists of determining which risks are likely to affect the project and documenting the characteristics of each one. Risk identification should adress both the internal and the external risks. The primary sources of risk which have the potential to cause a major effect on the project should also be determined and classified according to their impact on project cost, time schedules and project objectives. Inputs and outputs of the Risk Identification Process . Inputs to risk identification are given as product or service description; other planning outputs (work breakdown structure, cost and time estimates, specification requirements) historical information. Outputs to risk identification are sources of risk; potential risk events; risk symptoms; imputs to other processes. After identification risks should be ’validated’, for instance, the information on which they are based and the accuracy of the description of their characteristics should be checked. The purpose of risk identification is to identify and the project or service components, the inherent risks in the project or service, to capture the most significant participants in risk management and to provide the basis for subsequent management, to stabilise the groundwork by providing all the necessary information to conduct risk analysis. Risk quantification and analysis involves evaluating risks and risk interactions to assess the range of possible outcomes. It is primarily concerned with determing which risk events warrant a response. A number of tools and techniques are available for the use of risk analysis and quantification and the analysis process. Risk response involves defining enhancement steps for opportunities and responses to threats. Â  Risk avoidance involves the removal of a particular threat. This may be either by eliminating the source of the risk within a project or by avoiding projects or business entities which have exposure to the risk. Since the significance of a risk is related to both its probability of occurence and its effect on the project outcome if it does occur, risk reduction may involve either lowering its probability or lessening its impact ( or both ). Projects may be seen as investment packages with associated risks and returns. Since a typical project or business involves numerous stakeholders, it follows that each should ’own’ a proportion of the risk available in order to elicit a return. Basically, risk transfer is the process of transferring risk to another participant in the project. Transferring risk does not eliminate or reduce the criticality of the risk, but merely leaves it for others to bear the risk. Risk Retention .Risks may be retained intentionally or unintentionally. The latter occurs as a result of failure of either or both of the first two phases of the risk management process, these being risk identification and risk analysis. If a risk is not identified or if its potential consequences are underestimated, then the organisation is unlikely to avoid or reduce it consciously or transfer it adequately. Corporate risk refers to the liabilities and dangers that a corporation faces. Risk management is a set of procedures that minimizes risks and costs for businesses. The job of a corporate risk management department is to identify potential sources of trouble, analyze them, and take the necessary steps to prevent losses There are several steps in any risk management process. The department must identify and measure the exposure to loss, select alternatives to that loss, implement a solution, and monitor the results of their solution. The goal of a risk management team is to protect and ultimately enhance the value of a company. With corporations, financial risks are the biggest concern. Just as with standard insurance policies for physical damage, some financial risks can be transferred to other parties. Derivatives are the primary way that corporate risk is transferred. A derivative is a financial contract that has a value based on, or derived from, something else. These other things can be stocks and commodities, interest and exchange rates or even the weather when applicable. The three main types of derivatives that corporate riskmanagers use are futures, options, and swaps. Corporate risk is especially prominent during difficult times in the economy. Risk management teams will take less chances when the economy is less forgiving. They will do everything necessary to avoid additional risks, which in some cases can contribute to a decrease in credit availability and less overall spending. * Corporate Risk Management ,second edition, Tony Merna & Faisal Thani 2008 * Analysis & Evaluation,second edition, Neil Cowan 2005 * http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/docs/documents/1/DecsRiskManagementFramewo.pdf * http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-corporate-risk.htm

Conducting Business Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Conducting Business Research - Essay Example r sample size results in a higher confidence interval; this explains the degree to which the research findings are precise and reliable (Zickmund & Babin, 2007). Lastly, the researcher has to consider the confidence level in the research findings. In most cases, researchers do prefer a higher sample group to achieve a 95 percent confidence level, though the decision is usually based on convention and may not be an important parameter. Determining the sample size is, in most cases, a tricky step in the research process. After considering the above factors, which are the heterogeneity of the population in the study, has to be done, the magnitude error and the confidence level, a researcher can then decide on the right sample size. Therefore, to determine the best sample size, the researcher has to have facts about the homogeneity of the community before the research and then decide on the magnitude error allowable in the research. If the research is convinced that the population is homogeneous and the research needs a low error magnitude, the researcher has to use a much lower sample size when in a heterogeneous population. Determination requires proper investigation about the area in which the researcher has to undertake the business

The Meaning of Genotype and Phenotype and the Effect of the Coursework

The Meaning of Genotype and Phenotype and the Effect of the Environment on the Phenotype of an Organism - Coursework Example    The CFTR gene which for encodes a protein that transports chloride ions across cell membranes has two genes. The dominant gene (A), which is the normal version of the gene. The recessive gene (a), which is the mutated version of the gene. Those with cystic fibrosis receive both the recessive alleles. The genotype of individuals is then (a, a). While the phenotype of the recessive genotype, is the absence of protein that transports chloride ions, and so, cystic fibrosis. The phenotype is not only expressed by the effects of the phenotype alone. The environmental condition also affects the expression of phenotype. The effect of the environment on the phenotype of an organism is best understood through an experiment. Taking two samples of the colors plant, both samples originate from the same plant. The samples are grown in two separate chambers. The environmental condition varied is the amount of light delivered. All other factors are kept constant in both samples. Though both sam ples have similar genotypes, the growth of both samples varies. The sample that receives higher proportion of light compared to the other grows faster and thrives. While the sample that receives lesser light compared to the other, has stunted growth and is weak. The environmental condition has affected the phenotype irrespective of the genotype being common to both samples. Explain how DNA replicates itself. (200 words) DNA replication is based on the model presented by Watson and Crick. The model suggests semi-conservative replication of DNA strands. This replication is called so, because a half of the strand is conserved while the other half is newly formed. DNA replication occurs in the nucleolus of the nucleolus.DNA replication takes place in the interphase of the cell cycle. In order for DNA replication to take place, the DNA strands must first be separated. The DNA strands are separated by the enzymatic action of an enzyme. The enzyme breaks the hydrogen bonds present between the complementary base pairs. The two DNA strands are separated. The four bases involved in DNA replication are adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine. Nucleotides when paired with an additional phosphate become activated nucleotides. The activated nucleotides are capable of pairing up with their complementary base pairs with the help of enzyme DNA polymerase. The activated nucleotides form bonds with their complementary base pairs. DNA polymerase links the sugar and innermost phosphate groups of adjacent nucleotides together. The extra phosphate ions are released. This marks the replication of DNA from a single DNA molecule; both new DNA molecules conserve a single strand of the old DNA molecule. Explain the type of mutation that resulted in the sickle cell anaemia. (200 words) Mutation is the change in genetic material of an organism as results of base deletion, base substitution or base addition. The change in genetic material causes a different allele of a gene to be expressed, which in turn causes different phenotypic characteristic. Sickle cell anaemia is an inherited blood disorder that causes a change in haemoglobin characteristic. Haemoglobin is composed of four polypeptide chains. That is two alpha chains and two beta chains. The normal coding for haemoglobin in the beta chains is; Val-His-Leu-Thr-Pro-Glu-Glu-Lys-. These coding codes for normal hemoglobin. However, a base substitution, causes the normal base sequence CTT to be expressed as CAT.  

Leadership (Task oriented and People oriented) Essay

Leadership (Task oriented and People oriented) - Essay Example People-oriented leadership is quite different from task-oriented leadership, involving a focus on interpersonal relationship development between leader and subordinates. There is an emphasis on team-building and facilitating an open system of communications in order to motivate employees. People-oriented leadership works to create positive psychological or sociological connections with employees, a type of transformational leadership, with much more human resources-based policies and practices designed to gain commitment and ensure that there is no resistance to change. Having defined both task-oriented and people-oriented leadership styles, there are several circumstances where each would be applicable. Task-oriented leadership would be most relevant within an organization where there are strict quality standards and performance expectations. For instance, Toyota, a leader in quality, would be concerned with compliance to specific rules and regulations associated with production and achievement of quality outputs. A task-oriented leader would develop rigorous schedules in order to produce quality results. In this type of production environment, there would be established important quality expectations that are expected to be met, creating a system of rewards or punishments for failing to produce quality products along the production system. The task-oriented leader at a company such as Toyota would have strict deadlines in place to ensure timely delivery of quality products and then working to monitor and evaluate whether the employees have met with delivery and performance expectations. A people-oriented leader would be relevant within an organization where service delivery is highly important for ensuring business profitability. This people-oriented leader would begin emphasizing training importance and working as a coach to help individuals in the organization become self-actualized, the achievement of their maximum potential. It is about building a positiv e organizational culture where focus is placed on building self-confidence, better inter-organizational relationships, and where social belonging is an important part of building a team necessary to carry out positive customer service models. To develop this type of culture, the manager must be visible throughout the organization, role model positive behaviors related to service delivery, and open effective and regular lines of communication for shared decision-making (Fairholm 26). Task-oriented leadership is also found outside of the workplace, such as in academics when students are granted opportunities to coordinate and lead a team of study or in special academic projects. Many universities establish strict deadlines by which a team is expected to return a positive end result after collaborating with one another. A task-oriented leader would develop specific job roles required to achieve a group project, such as delegating research efforts, conducting market research, and the ac tual writing of the project to different members. It would then become a step-by-step process with clearly defined roles and then establishing a system by which to monitor and control activities to ensure maximum productivity. People-oriented leadership is also relevant outside of the workplace and an appropriate example of this would be when working as a grief counselor at the local charity. Individual staff members

Many forms of Grief or your suggestion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Many forms of Grief or your suggestion - Essay Example Then his servants and finally his own family that his own son and daughters were not spared until finally Job was left nothing. The devil was ecstatic thinking that Job will break with the grief and suffering he is left with nothing because he will think that God has forsaken him. Indeed he felt pain and suffering and was at first angry asking why this happened to him. But eventually, he came to accept that everything has a reason and whatever happened to him is God’s will. His faith however was still intact despite of the trials he had been and still continued to love God. The devil was perplexed how can Job still love God despite what he had been through. Thereupon, God restored what was lost to Job for He saw that Job was a faithful servant of the Lord despite the trials he had been (Job’s Grief, nd). What Job went through can be likened to the Kubler-Ross five stage process of grief. First, he was in denial that all of his possession was taken from him because he wa s a faithful servant of the Lord. He was under the belief that he was under the protection of the Lord that no evil will come upon him. But evil did come and took away from him sparing him only his life. He went through the process of questioning why it happened to him and was upset albeit it was subtly expressed in the Bible. This stage was the anger stage of Elisabeth Kulber-ross whereby she posited that people experience anger after denial and this anger can come in many forms – either anger to oneself, others or anger with the situation (Axelrod, 2006). The third stage of Kulber-ross stage of grief may have been absent in the case of Jobs. He knew that he is dealing with mighty entities like God and therefore, he is not in a position to bargain or ask for concession and neither will God allow him to bargain as equal him only a mortal and a creation. The closest act that Job has done in this stage was to question why God allowed all those bad things to happen to him despit e him being a faithful servant. What Job went through the process in Kulber-ross stage of grief which is prominent in the Biblical account is the depression stage. This understandable because Job, despite his righteousness is still a man and therefore, vulnerable to pain especially when he lost his children and was left with nothing. It would be abnormal if Job did not feel depression when he lost his children just because he loved God. In the end, Job accepted his fate as the will of God and did not lose his faith. This stage is Kulber-ross acceptance stage whereby the grief process has been gone through and now accepting whatever caused the grief (Elizabeth Kubler Ross Grief Cycle model,nd ). This stage is providential to Job when he accepted his fate from God because he proved his faith and all that he lost was given back to him. My process of grieving almost followed Kulber-ross stage of grief with some stage more prominent than the other stage. But there is one thing that was n ot included in Kulber-ross process of grieving, that is my tendency to shut myself out when I do not feel good. I am not necessarily angry just like his stage of anger but would just like to spend time alone to think things over and to get over depression. Sometimes, I want to talk it to with friends just to unburden it off my chest. This stage is not in Kulber-ross but a lot of young people I know do this to deal with grief.

Chinese civilization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Chinese civilization - Essay Example ted a lasting foundation for the development of a lasting authority at the Yellow River Basin considered as the cradle of civilization in China (Keightley, 4). The Yellow River Basin gave the earliest hint of civilization that later spread to other areas. The family unit of the ancestors of the current Chinese people in the Yellow River basin allowed for the passing on of culture from the Xia through to the Shang dynasty within which civilization began. The height of the bronze culture began during the Shang Dynasty due to the start of smart casting and smelting for the generation of beautiful wares (Keightley, 12). There was also a development of pottery making, silk weaving, and sericulture, caving in jade and ivory during the same period facilitated by the family unit and the ancestors spurring civilization. The other development that has been documented of the Shang dynasty is Chinese writing for oracular purposes on the shoulder blades of pigs owing to the family unit to which the dynasties formed their basis. This development continued to the 15th Century when China was the most powerful country in the world, and it occupied the position of the most productive and technology advanced country. There were a number of advances tha t were made that all came from the family and ancestors, who together gave the seeds for civilization including developed agriculture, independent medicine, botanical knowledge, and developed irrigation. The family and the ancestors in China also were the main factors for civilization because they were able to make cast iron in industrial scale leading to the civilization in

Emotional Intelligence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Emotional Intelligence - Essay Example From the traits, it is evident that emotional intelligence is vital for success in an organization. Businesses are changing daily and high competition is played to be on top of the business, which requires a manager who would use emotional intelligence to understand the workers for successful achievements of set goals. According to Lazovic, the business can achieve better results if they are close enough to identify and solve issues relating to emotional responses in the work place. Leadership skills can be enhanced by emotional intelligence, which can lead to achievements of reasonable production in the firm if the management practices best emotional intelligence by relating well to the workers in the firm and understanding their emotions and using them to manage conflicts arising. In addition, communication between the employer and employees is improved because the heads of the company would be able to understand emotions undergone by employees. The employers will have faith in the ir managers and hence increase teamwork between the managers and the lower ranked workers in the company. Additionally, teamwork achieved from trust between managers and employees will increase and improve innovation because of the combination of more work forces with different intelligence. Emotionally intelligent employees who are in charge in an organization will maintain good working relationships with each other on sharing ideas, being responsible and working together. They would also be able to create teams who are aware of emotional intelligence. ... Businesses are changing daily and high competition is played to be on top of the business, which requires a manager who would use emotional intelligence to understand the workers for successful achievements of set goals. According to Lazovic (798), the business can achieve better results if they are close enough to identify and solvs issues relating to emotional responses in the work place. Leadership skills can be enhanced by emotional intelligences, which can lead to achievements of reasonable production in the firm if the manager practices best emotional intelligence by relating well with the workers in the firm and understanding their emotions and using them to manage conflicts arising. In addition, communication between the employer and employees is improved because the heads of the company would be able to understand emotions undergone by employees. The employers will have faith in their managers and hence increase teamwork between the managers and the lower ranked workers in t he company. Additionally, teamwork achieved from trust between managers and employees will increase and improve innovation because of the combination of more work forces with different intelligence. Emotionally intelligent employees who are in charge in an organization will maintain good working relationships with each other on sharing ideas, being responsible and working together. They would also be able to create teams who are aware of emotional intelligence. Team members in organization who are emotionally intelligent would be able to apply the attributes of emotional intelligent. For example, they would possess self-awareness traits, which is recognition of self-emotions and the way such emotions can have an impact on us. With regard to this, members will

Odysseus analysis Essay Example for Free

Odysseus analysis Essay Odysseus himself, Pheidon said, had gone to Dodona to find out the will of Zeus from the great oak-tree that is sacred to the god, how he should approach his own native land after so long an absence, openly or in disguise. So he is safe and will soon be back. Indeed, he is very close. His exile from his friends and country will be ended soon; and you shall have my oath as well. I swear first by Zeus, the best and greatest of the gods, and then by the great Odysseus hearth which I have come to, that everything will happen as I foretell. This very month Odysseus will be here, between the warning of the old moon and the waxing of the new. Through Pheidons point of view, this passage illustrates Odysseus return to his homeland of Ithaca, which is near the end of his journey in Homers book of The Odyssey. Also, this passage shows the relation Odysseus had with the Greek gods, notably the almighty Zeus. In those days, to seek advice from the goods only few had the privilege of doing. This shows that Odysseus was heroic and important in those days. The next passage which exemplifies Odysseus journey is when he first reveals himself to his loyal supporters, Philoetius, and Eumaeus in his home country after 20 years: (Book 21, page 282, lines 200-206) Father Zeus, the cowman said, hear my prayer. May some power lead him home! Youd soon know my strength and the power of my right arm. And Eumaeus added a prayer to all the gods that the wise Odysseus might see him home again. Odysseus, thus assured of their genuine feelings, said: Well, here I am! Yes, I myself, home again in my own country in the twentieth year after much suffering. This passage is significant in Odysseus journey, because this is the first time he is revealing his heroic identity. Odysseus was looking for companions to fight alongside him against the suitors, but he first had to find his loyalists. After Philoetius and Eumaeus genuinely showed their gratitude for Odysseus, he finally reveals himself after 20 years. The next passage takes place during a conversation between Penelope and Odysseus. After a period of 20 years separated from each other, the two finally have time to converse. Odysseus starts with his heroic victory over the Cicones: (Book 23, page 308, line 310-313) He began with his victory over the Cicones and his visit to the fertile land where the Lotus-eaters live. He spoke of what the Cyclops did, and the price he had made him pay for the fine men he ruthlessly devoured. In this passage, Odysseus describes his heroic journey to the fertile land where the Cyclops lived. He then explains about how he made the man-eating Cyclops pay for what they had done. This passage really sheds light upon Odysseus heroic side, because he acted for the good of men on that journey. Part 2. Risk taking: Odysseus is first to act when hunting a pack of savage boars. (When he obtained his infamous scar on his leg. (Book 19, page 261, lines 446-450) . Odysseus was the first to act. Poising his long spear in his great hand, he rushed the forward, eager to strike. But the boar was too quick and caught him above the knee, where he gave him a long flesh-wound with a cross lunge of his tusk, but failed to reach the bone. Trusting: Odysseus out Philoetius in charge of his estates cattle, which proves that he put trust into his true friends. (Book 20, page 271, lines 209-211) . Odysseus, that marvellous man who put me in charge of his cattle in the Cephallenian country when I was only a youth. Courageous: When Odysseus had travelled to Telepylus, the Laestrygonians had destroyed his fleet, and all his fighting men. Odysseus then had to escape alone on the black ship. . Next he told how he came to Telepylus, where the Laestrygonians destroyed his fleet and all his fighting men, the black ship that carried him being the only one to get away

Performance Measurement System Of Tm Berhad

Performance Measurement System Of Tm Berhad Performance measurement system is defined as a set of measurable criteria and methodology to enable performance to be measured objectively. It comprises of financial and non-financial manners to establish and monitor the progress of organization towards its vision. In the past, organization used the financial measures to assess the performance of senior managements while non-financial measures were used to evaluate the performance of lower level of management. It is inappropriate to use the financial measure to examine the outcomes and not well-suited for predicting future prospect as the outcomes are the consequences of past performance. Thus, performance measurement systems were developed to merge the financial and non-financial measures at all level of the organization in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the management. The best known performance measurement framework is balanced scorecard introduced by Kaplan and Norton in early 1990s. The balanced scorecard approach retained measures of financial performance on past performance and supplemented them with the assessment on the strategic planning in order to drive the organization towards its vision. It maps an organizations strategic objectives into performance metrics in four perspectives: financial, internal processes, customers, and learning and growth. The term balanced signifies that the system is balanced between internal measures of business processes, innovation and learning and growth and external performance perspectives measures for customers and shareholders. It is then followed by the term scorecard which signifies quantified performance measures. In a nutshell, balanced scorecard contains four main processes. The process of balanced scorecard is begin with clarify and translate the organizations vision into strategy. Then, the strategic management will communicate and link strategic objectives and measures. Next process is planning, setting targets and aligning strategic initiatives. Lastly, balanced scorecard enhances strategic feedback and learning. Organization quantifies its current performance to identify where it is on its strategic capability building journey and predict possible changing business environment in future. This information provides relevant feedback as to how well the strategic plan is executing so that adjustments can be made as necessary. This article is primarily discussed on the growing importance of balanced scorecard performance systems and exploring the issues faced by the organization in building and implementing balance scorecard systems. b. Challenges in Performance Measurement System The used of balanced scorecard is very helpful in monitoring the management of the organization but it is very challenging as the implementation is very costly. It requires some cost in setting up this system such as software licenses expense and installation cost. This will results in large sum of money being expense before profit is generated. Besides, the needs of expertise to implement a comprehensive and proper system will consequently increases the cost of management as well. Different business unit using the different balanced scorecard measures to achieve its goal. In general, balanced scorecard consists of two types of measure. There are common measure (measures across all subsidiaries or units) and unique measure (measure each business unit). The use of unique measures in order to carry out the system is tough because unique measures are significant in capturing the units business strategy. If the manager does not actively participating in evaluating one units performance, thus significance of the unique measures may not be appreciated. The four perspectives in a well-designed balanced scorecard form a chain of cause-and-effect relationships that determine the effectiveness of the strategy implementation. Proper implementation will results in excellent performance. However, it is not easy to identify and establish the cause and effect relationship. Inappropriate measure will result in negative outcomes. Managers realize and understand that there are strong linkages between customer satisfactions, employees satisfactions, financial performance, internal business process and companys learning and growth activities. Nevertheless, the balanced scorecard system does not provide the detail guidelines on to how to improve performance to achieve organizations goals. In addition, balanced scorecard system need to be updated constantly. This update is useful as it requires repositioning with changing of strategies or company structure in order to keep in pace with the complex business environment. However, constant updating of balance scorecard may be tedious and time consuming. Lastly, lack of integration and communication of the objectives of the organization at difference level of management would cause the lower level of employees cant see the big picture of the system. Implementation of the balanced scorecard requires commitment from all management levels, especially companys top organizational structure. Most of them refuse to coordinate in the system because they may view the system as a threat that implies they have underperformed in the past. c. Advantages of Performance Measurement System First of all, balance scorecard is very reliable as it clearly defines financial and nonfinancial information to all parts of the organization. The traditional financial statements has failed to confine accurately the type of measurements those companies need around a profit sector. This is proven when all the intangible assets such as quality of services and skilful employees do not show on balance sheet compared with the balance scorecard that shows all those intangible assets in the balance sheet. The value of a company will be invisible to the workers, shareholders, customers and the society due to the unwritten intangible assets in the balance sheet. Secondly, balanced scorecard is useful in evaluating and planning for long-term strategy. In a traditional method, organizations only focus on short-term financial measures while balanced scorecard include customer, internal processes and the growth in societys needs. It is useful in a longer term strategic dimension as managers can measure performance in building key capabilities and examining on the overall strategic workability. Thirdly, balance scorecard enhances strategic feedback and learning. In this process of monitoring the system, the management evaluates the present performance of the company, how the strategies are going on in the company and identify the potential changes in the unpredictable surroundings. This information is useful for the purpose of decision making to ensure the organization is achieving towards its goal. Fourthly, balanced scorecard could be used as a measure of employees reward performance. When the individual exceeds the particular threshold levels, they will be rewarded for the excellent financial performance. It is proven that balanced scorecard makes some improvements if compared with the past performance measurements systems that did not often measure the employees performance which link to corporate strategy. Lastly, the balanced scorecard attempts to evaluate both the internal and external aspects of the organization. It is important to focus on the customers views and the contacts that have been established in the market-place on order to build long-term relationship with the potential customers. The learning and growth perspective encourage creativity and advance in information system in order to response quickly to the rapid changing in the global market. d. Central issue of the articles The first issue is the implementation of balanced scorecard in an organization. Each company should have its own version of the scorecard as different companies require different measurements, which are essential in achieving the company strategy. The most commonly used measurement categories are financial goals, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, productivity, and growth and innovation. A well-defined balanced scorecard should result in improved internal management system, greater customers satisfaction, educated employees and increased in financial usage. Identification, definition and integration of organizations capabilities with its objectives in all levels of the organization from top to down are essential to sustain long-term superior return in the competitive environment. Interaction within the organization is important to avoid optimizing the results of one business unit at the expense of others. In this stage of planning, setting targets and aligning strategic in itiatives, management will set ambitious but achievable targets for each perspective and initiatives are developed to align efforts to reach the targets. Lastly, the executives receive feedback on whether the strategy implementation is proceeding according to plan and evaluate whether the strategy itself is successful or control and corrective action is necessary to reflect real time learning. These four functions have made the Balanced Scorecard an effective management system for the implementation of short-term and long-term strategic planning. Besides, the four perspectives in the balanced scorecard are inter-dependent. It is not just a balance of measures in essential areas of the business, but also a balance of goals versus accountability. The reluctant of the people in the organization to accept accountability for achievement of the balanced measures and goals of the balanced scorecard will result in failure in balanced scorecard system. In the case study of Big W, has not only built competencies into each step of its performance management system but has now incorporated competencies in all position descriptions for store managers and buyers to extend their experience in areas other than that in which they are presently employed. Therefore, the human capital of the organization is the key to the success of the balanced scorecard system. The second issue is balanced scorecard will evolve as the culture change. Once the balanced scorecard is developed, it should immediately implement into the organizational system. It assists to link groups and individuals to the strategy by understanding the linkage of cause-and-effect relationship. This linkage enables them to understand the overall performance of the organization. For example, advanced in information system will leads to efficiency in information management and eventually save the cost of handling bulky information. Thus, the organizational culture is a one of the key factors of success or failure of implementation of balanced scorecard. Besides, organizational culture has also interceded entity learning. Entity learning is a driving force behind the successful implementation of balanced scorecard. The article mentions that there must be an understanding, commitment and support from the top levels of the company down to the lowest ranks. If there is any change in culture in any level of the organization, balanced scorecard performance will be affected. Therefore, new approach, new tings and new goals have to be developed and be adopted to make the balanced scorecard more balanced and effective. Management need to be alert with the changes in organization culture so that balanced scorecard system is designed in accordance with the culture. The next issue is customers play a significant role in determining the prospect of an organization. The customer perspectives in the balanced scorecard measure on how should the organization present itself to its customers in order to achieve its vision. The four perspectives that introduced by the balanced scorecard are useful to evaluate the overall performance of the business. In conjunction with this, customers are able to see the time dimension of the business that going from the bottom to top and the profitability of the past, present and future. Moreover, balanced scorecard includes the measurement of customers perspective aim to increase customer satisfaction to ensure the ultimate wants of customers are fulfilled. Thus, the objective of the organization must be always being designed according to the current market demand. Conclusion As we embark on the twenty-first century, managers are challenged by sweeping changes in the global arena. The implementation of balanced scorecard is essential to assists in the execution of corporate strategy in order to sustain in the competitive environment. Balanced scorecard encourages employees to act in accordance with desired goals of the company by reward them accordingly to their performance. Management has to be aware of the potential limitations of balanced scorecard and overcome the problems by designing the system that well-suited the organization. In a nutshell, balanced scorecard should be tailored for each part of the organization driven by the objective of the organization to make the balanced scorecard even more balanced and effective in supporting a living, growing, feasible organization in the competitive environment. 2. a. Introduction Telekom Malaysia is the largest integrated communications solutions provider in Malaysia and one of Asias leading Communications companies. Telekom Malaysia has officially changed its global brand from Telekom Malaysia to TM in 2005. The vision is to become Malaysias leading new generation communications by providing customers with innovative and excellent service environment. TM has a monopoly on the fixed line network, data, mobile, internet and multimedia. It combines satellite, terrestrial and submarine fibred-optic cable systems to facilitate the regional and international telecommunications. TMs core businesses are focused in Retail, Wholesale and Global Business. Besides, TM acquired Celcom and TMTouch to raise industry standards, provided product and service benchmarks in the country. Apart from that, TM Net is now the sole DSL broadband provider in the country. It offers a comprehensive range of services and solutions in broadband, data and fixed line. In addition, TMs investment philosophy is to play an active role in its international operations as well as to provide opportunities for wealth creation among the local population for social welfares purposes. b. Discussion of the Performance Measurement System used in the company. TM is using BSC to translate their visions and companys strategies into a set of measureable objectives that can be interpreted into some meaningful form as a check list to monitor the performance of the company. Basically, the BSC used by TM is an e-BSC where it uses an online system called MAPS (appendix) to allow employees to key in their performance according to different areas concerned in the scorecard and monitor by each division managers. The main concern of financial perspective will be to grow revenue profitably and to manage cost effectively, customer perspective is to delight the customers while creating the synergy with partners, internal business process is on execution of projects and plans on whether they are done effectively and the organizational learning and growth is to boost human capital execution capacity. The implementation of BSC in TM consists of three stages, which are business planning, performance cycle and then finally lead to a performance-based rewards system. In business planning, BSC and individual Key Performance Indicator (KPI) are developed in this stage where the KPI is used to measure the key performance in a specific division of the company. BSC is developed through a process of six steps which include: Firstly is to understand and develop the business strategic direction of TM and for example the vision of TM is to be Malaysias leading new generation communications provider, embracing customer needs through innovation and execution excellence and the mission is to strive towards customer service excellence, enrich consumer lifestyle and experience, deliver value to stakeholders and improve the performance of our business customers. From these two statements it is clear that TM is stressing highly on customers satisfaction and so its direction is clearly stated in its vision and mission statement (TM Annual Report, 2008). Next is to decompose those TMs visions and missions into smaller components called objectives that can drive the performance and measurable. With those components, TM Group top management now will be able to create a strategy map using cause-effect linkages for example, how an objective is dependent on another objective. A strategy map (appendix) is important in BSC as it is the fundamental part of it to achieve towards the objectives of the company and drive it towards the vision. In step 5 is to develop KPI (appendix) to measure and target to track strategic and operational progress of the company to see if it has achieved the desired outcomes of the objectives. Lastly is to identify the key strategic initiatives as a way to ensure the achievement of strategic objectives for example funding of resource and implementation mechanisms. In MAPS System, an individual employee will log into the system and key in their personal information and then the division scorecard will be displayed. This is the part where employees are required to submit their performance into the online system MAPS for the company to track their performance into a KPI template (appendix) provided in the system. Then, employees are required to choose the areas that are relevant to his/her field for each perspective. In the individual scorecard, the employee has to key in the target that is challenging but achievable. In performance cycle phase, he/she will then be required to key in the actual result and comment on the target. This performance scorecard will then linked to the reward system to reward the employees accordingly. c. Issues, Challenges and Advantages of BSC Issues The e-BSC used by TM is emphasizing a lot on the performance of its employees driving towards the vision and missions of the company which are mainly customers satisfaction and growth of the business. The biggest issue of BSC in TM is that it emphasizes too much on the internal business and performance rather than the quality of services provided to the customers. Each of the perspective emphasized by the BSC is not really focusing on the quality services. This is very important particularly for a service company like TM who provides telecommunication services to the public. For example does BSC implement by TM actually concern on the quality of its networks for the broadband services of TM Net, a division of TM? Measuring the quality of the services of TMs products is significantly important to be able to achieve the objectives of the company. Challenges A challenge faced by the BSC is where it could not answer some of the important question that a telecommunication company needs to know. For example, a manager can developed a set of measures for the scorecard, but it can never answer the question of what the competitors are doing out there (Andy Neely, 1995). This means that BSC has missed out one of the most important perspective which is the competitor perspective. In Malaysia, telecommunication industry is very competitive and TM is no longer the monopoly in the industry since the presence of other telecommunication companies such as Maxis and Digi. Thus, TM might risk itself if depend solely on the scorecard of not knowing what is happening with other competitors and might lose their market shares to them due to this reason. Advantages The BSC of TM has successfully provide a complete measurement on the four perspective which comprises of financial, customers, internal business control and organization and learning growth. Through the implementation using MAPS system, BSC in TM is done over the online system and electronically (e-BSC). The MAPS system provides a good way for the employees to set their own target, track their performance and finally evaluate their performance and give comments on whether is it hard to achieve the target. This is an advantage to TM as the managers from each division will be able to get direct feedback from the employees on their performance and able to report them to the top management to evaluate further on what can be done to improve and identify problems. This also enables long-term organizational learning at the same time to achieve continuous improvement on performance of the company. d. Recommendation Since the issue faced by TM is the quality of service, Total Quality Management (TQM) is able complement the shortcoming of BSC. A quality service is vital for a telecommunication company especially in such a competitive market in Malaysia. TQM is a type of performance system that is used as a long-term measure to reduce errors in a service or manufacturing process and focusing on customers satisfaction by ensuring workers have the highest level of training and modernization of equipment and limit errors to 1 per 1 million units produced. ISO 9000, the international standard defined that TQM as a management approach of an organization that centered on quality with participation of all members aiming at long term success through customers satisfaction and benefits to the members of the organization and society (Subburaj, 2005). TQM definitely benefits TM in many ways. It can apply this to the engineering of its telecommunication networks such as its fixed line division, cellular services division as well as the broadband division to improve the quality of services. Say for example, an uninterrupted broadband service for the customers that only allows 0.0001% of down time, same applies to the cellular networks and fixed line services. This definitely provides benefits and robust solutions to the company to enhance customers satisfactions on quality services. To achieve the TQM, TM must always from time to time send its engineers and other employees for training and make sure that they are experts in their field. Also, TM must spend more resources on its RD division, known as TMRND, to provide the latest equipment for the engineers to ensure that they have the best equipment to maintain the network to provide uninterrupted services. This is a long-term implementation for TM and it requires continuous improvement over time not only by the top management but also all the members of the organization working together. Also, TM will be benefited in the long run and enhanced its branding through attaining the TQM certification of ISO 9000. Conclusion In order for TM to remain dynamic in the globalization market, should always review its performance measurement system and constantly seek for improvement to better achieve its objectives and remain competitive. Performing well financially, increase in customers satisfaction, constantly improving the internal business process and improve in organizational learning and growth are equally important and TM has been doing well with its e-BSC and MAPS system. TM is also an innovative player in introducing new products and services such as the latest on the news, Unifi, a fiber optic solution for home and business which provide 5 to 20 Mbps of internet speed to the consumers and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) (TheStar Online, 2010). However, innovative products and services are nothing if the service quality is not good enough. Now is the time for TM to embark on a new challenge in providing quality service through the implementation of TQM in its organization to achieve long-term success and customers satisfaction.

Trust Inference Model Proposal

Trust Inference Model Proposal (step1-13 in Alg. 4) in the continu-ous case. For advogato data set, we directly report the results on all the six snapshots (i.e., advogato-1, . . . , advogato-6). For PGP, we use its subsets to study the scalability. The result is shown in Fig. 6, which is consistent with the complex-ity analysis in Section 4.3. As we can see from the figure, MATRI scales linearly wrt to both n and |K|, indicating that it is suitable for large-scale applications. The scalability result for the binary case is similar, and we omit the figures for brevity. (b) (c) (d) Fig. 3. Scalability of the proposed MATRI for continuous case. MATRI scales linearly wrt the data size (n and |K|). (a) Wall-clock time vs. n on advogato. (b) Wall-clock time vs. |K| on advogato. (c) Wall-clock time vs. n on PGP. (d) Wall-clock time vs. |K| on PGP. Fig. 4. Comparisons of alternative solutions of MATRI. Compared to MATRI-AA, MATRI-SS and MATRI-AS are more than 10x faster while preserving more than 90% accuracy on both data sets. (a) advogato data set. (b) PGP data set. (C) Comparisons of the Alternatives of MATRI. As men-tioned before, the stochastic gradient descent method (SGD) could also be used for the continuous trust inference prob-lem in computing propagation vector and solving Eq. (5). We now experimentally evaluate the efficiency of all the four alternatives of MATRI. We use MATRI-AA to denote the original MATRI, MATRI-SA to denote the case when we use SGD in the propagation step, MATRI-AS. VI RELATED WORK In this section, we briefly review related work, includ-ing trust propagation models, multi-aspect trust inference models, etc. Trust Propagation Models. To date, a large body of trust inference models are based on trust propagation where trust is propagated along connected users in the trust net-work, i.e., the web of locally-generated trust ratings. Based on the interpretation of trust propagation, we further cate-gorize these models into two classes: path interpretation and component interpretation.The proposed MATRI integrates the trust propagation with two other important properties, i.e., the multi-aspect of trust and trust bias. In addition, our multi-aspect model offers a natural way to speed up on-line query response; as well as to mitigate the sparsity or coverage problem in trust inference where some trustor and trustee might not be connected with each other both are known limitations with the current trust propagation models [10]. Multi-Aspect Trust Inference Models. Social scientists have explored the multi-aspect property of trust for several years [8]. In computer science, there also exist a few trust inference models that explicitly explores the trust propagation. Trust Bias in Trust Inference. In sociology, it was dis-covered a long time ago that trust bias is an integral part in the final trust decision [9]. Nonetheless, this important aspect has been largely ignored in most of the existing trust inference models. One exception is from Nguyen et al. [13], which learns the importance of several trust bias related features derived from a social trust framework. Recently, Mishra et al. [25] propose an iterative algorithm to compute trust bias. Different from these existing works, our focus is to incorporate various types of trust bias as specified factors/aspects to increase the accuracy of trust inference. VII CONCLUSION In this paper, we have proposed a trust inference model, as well as a family of algorithms to apply the model to both continuous and binary inference scenarios. The basic idea of the proposed MATRI is to leverage the multi-aspect property of trust by characterizing several aspects/factors for each trustor and trustee based on the existing trust relationships. In addition, MATRI incorporates the trust propagation and trust bias; and further learns their rela-tive weights. By integrating all these important properties, our experimental evaluations on real benchmark data sets show that MATRI leads to significant improvement over several benchmark approaches in prediction accuracy, for both quantifying numerical trustworthiness scores and pre-dicting binary trust/distrust signs. The proposed MATRI is also nimble it is up to 7 orders of magnitude faster than the existing trust propagation methods in the on-line query response, and in the meanwhile it enjoys the linear scalabil-ity for th e pre-computational stage in both time and space. Future work includes investigating the capability of MATRI to address the trust dynamics. REFERENCES C. Ziegler and G. Lausen, â€Å"Propagation models for trust and distrust in social networks,† Inform. Syst. Front., vol. 7, no. 4, pp.337–358, 2005. A. Jà ¸sang and R. Ismail, â€Å"The Beta reputation system,† in Proc. 15th Bled Electron. Comm. Conf., vol. 160. Bled, Slovenia, Jun. 2002. S. D. Kamvar, M. T. Schlosser, and H. 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Early Medieval Wales :: British History

Early Medieval Wales Towards the end of the 6th century the Angles and Saxons in eastern Britain began to entertain designs on the western lands. The inability of the independent western peoples to unify against this threat left the most powerful kingdom, Gwynedd, as the center of cultural and political resistance, a position it has retained until today. The weaker groups were unable to hold the invaders and after the Battle of Dyrham, near Gloucester in 577, the Britons in Cornwall were separated from those in Wales who became similarly cut off from their northern kin in Cumbria after the Battle of Chester in 616. Though still geographically in a state of change, Wales could now be said to exist. At this point, the racial mix in Wales was probably little different from that to the east, where Saxon numbers were small, but Wales was held together by the people's resistance to the Saxons. The Welsh started to refer to themselves as Cymry (fellow countrymen), not by the Saxon term used by English-speakers today, which is generally thought to mean either foreigners or Romanized people. Wales, like England in the Dark Ages, was a land of multiple kingships. The rugged terrain, with impenetrable mountain massifs and inhospitable upland ranges, broken by river valleys, did not make for a unified control or a unified development. The boundary with England was not marked by natural defences, and productive lowland areas as well as profitable upland pastures were open to frequent attacks. Not until Offa of Mercia built his dyke in the second half of the 8th century was there a definable frontier, and that was designed mainly to deter Welsh attacks and control trade across the new border. It was much the longest as well as the most striking man-made boundary in the whole of western medieval Europe, and clearly came to play an important role in shaping the perception of the extent and identity of Wales. Small local communities acknowledged a ruler whose principal function might seem at times to wage war on his neighbors and to plunder their lands. In general, war made them defensive. The principal divisions of Wales (right) were the four major kingdoms or principalities. Gwynedd was based on the Snowdonia massif and on Anglesey. Powys stretched from the borders of Mercia into central Wales. Dyfed, in the south-west, has been thought to represent the survival of very early traditions, some pre-Roman, some linked with the settlement of those who spoke the Goedelic form of Celtic.

Political Economy Essay -- UK Economy, Politics

The UK economy has undergone structural, financial, and political change over the last thirty years. Different ideologies and policies have served to shape the relationship between government and economy in varying directions. Some elements, such as state intervention, have remained as a point of debate. Other factors, like globalization, have just recently developed. The policy of UK governments as a whole has been shaped quite heavily by major economic events during this period, and the legacy left by the Conservative and Labour governments can still be seen today. Using a range of sources and my own knowledge, I shall asses the critical elements of the relationship between government and economies over the last 30 years, and their relative importance. The context of this relationship is concerned with the theory of political economy. This is the idea of rationality and growth of the ‘free market’ (a market in which there is no economic intervention and regulation by the state, except to enforce private contracts and the ownership of property). First, it is key to outline the characteristics of the relationship the government and the economy share. Clearly, a government influences the way an economy works via it’s policies. The government uses two branches of policy, fiscal and monetary. Fiscal policy entails government spending whereas monetary policy involves manipulation interest rates. Both policy instruments are designed to achieve growth. The attempts of a government to influence economic activity in the national economy are defined as macro-economic measures. Macroeconomics can be described as ‘the study of national economics’ (Morrison 2002, p.60). Even the government itself is run as a typ ical business in a free ma... ...ound will ever be successful. Monopolies were the created of privatization, but deregulation was a creator of nationalization. This has seen a fine line having to be struck between the government’s roles in the economy. Globalization has seen individual firms within an economy boost their status and influence, in turn, shutting out government power in their respective economies. Different parties have brought their respective philosophies into power in the UK. Enterprise, freedom of choice and increased competition in individual markets has been the driving force in most action taken by government during this period. In my opinion, it is fair to say, that the UK economy and the UK government have undergone structural, political and geographical change, which has led to Britain maintaining a stranglehold in the battle of the developed and developing economies.

Explore the significance of the character Mercutio in the play Romeo and Juliet

Although Shakespeare's play ‘Romeo and Juliet' does not focus on Mercutio, he is one of the most unique characters of the play. He manages to manipulate other characters of the play through his imaginative and powerful language. He usually takes the lead in conversations and his friends generally go by what he says. Mercutio is neither Capulet nor Montague but his strong bond with Romeo associates him with the Montagues. In the play, Mercutio tends to stand out compared to the other characters; this is mainly because of his energetic and outrageous personality. His comical character lightens the mood of the tragic love story and helps to increase the sympathy of the audience when he later dies. Mercutio is a catalyst, meaning that he has the ability to change what people think or do. An example of this is in Act 1 Scene 4, where Romeo is sad and doesn't want to go to the Capulet's ball but Mercutio lightens the mood with puns and word play; â€Å"You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings† An Elizabethan audience would have found this funny because cupid was and still is very well known as being the god of love. Mercutio is comedian, always making jokes at every chance he gets. He lives life on the edge and is always looking for something new and exiting to do. This could also make him an antagonist and troublemaker, especially when the Capulet's are involved. His inevitable death and the death of several others are caused by Mercutio living life on the edge. Read this – Puns in the Importance Mercutio puts on a front which tells the audience that he does not respect women, such as the way he often uses animal features to describe women, â€Å"spiders†¦gallops†¦pig's tail† perhaps suggesting that women are less superior to men. However, when you look closer into his language you can see that his feelings go deeper, for example, in Act 1 Scene 4, Mercutio speaks about women being like Queen Mab; â€Å"Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders' legs, The cover of the wings of grasshoppers† During the queen Mab speech in particular, he uses sibilance, sibilance it the repetition of the ‘S' sound which makes this speech sound soft and I think that it shows his true passion for women. In contrast, when he is talking to Romeo and giving him advice, he says to Romeo; â€Å"Be rough with love; Prick love for pricking, And you beat love down.† This could show that he may have had a past relationship that may not have turned out so well. He may also be telling this to Romeo because he doesn't want the same thing to happen to him. In Act 1 Scene 4, Mercutio's imagination runs wild as he is describing women as Queen Mab. This will begin to show the audience Mercutio's true feelings for women. He uses passionate language such as; â€Å"Tickling a parson's nose as a' lies asleep, Then dreams, he of another benefice† On the other hand, Romeo has a different view to that of Mercutio's towards women. Romeo, who is quite naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve towards love, shows the audience how much he loves everyone and everything. He is always talking about how fabulous love is and that it is the only thing that matters in the world. â€Å"O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art As glorious to this night, being o'er my head† This can show that Romeo may not have been in a real relationship, but only fantasising about it. Mercutio and Romeo have a strong friendship; they are both extremely loyal to each other and tend to help each other out; â€Å"Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.† They both have a strong influence on each other, which from Mercutio's side tends to be positive but can sometimes turn out negative but this does not happen all the time. In the death scene of Mercutio he blames Romeo for his death even though Romeo was only tried to stop it. In Act 2, Scene 1, after the ball Mercutio and Benvolio are looking for Romeo; they still believe that he is in love with Rosaline. Mercutio then begins to shout out for Romeo, by way of chanting a spell; â€Å"Nay, I'll conjure too. Romeo! Humours! Madman! Passion! Lover! Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh† The shortness of his sentences and the use of exclamation marks emphasises his humour in his speech, suggesting a light hearted tone, this would have created a more amusing scene for an Elizabethan audience. During this scene the actor playing Mercutio would probably be dancing around with imaginary props, pretending to brew up a potion. He then continues to talk about Rosaline; he speaks about her in a manor that is rude and obnoxious, he mocks Romeo as he believes he is superficial and that he is only in love with Rosaline's beauty; â€Å"By her high forehead and her scarlet lip, By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh† Here Mercutio is saying that Rosaline is a prostitute and Benvolio believes that this would anger Romeo. Mercutio replies; â€Å"This cannot anger him ‘twould anger him To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle† In this sentence Mercutio begins to use sexual references; he says it would only anger Romeo if someone else was to sleep with Rosaline. During this scene Mercutio is loud and energetic. A modern audience would think this funny and witty but an Elizabethan audience may have been more shocked at what he was saying. During Act 2 Scene 4, Mercutio and the Nurse meet. In much the same way as with Rosaline, Mercutio is again vulgar about the nurse; â€Å"Good Peter, to hide her face; for her fan's the fairer face.† The repetition of the letter ‘F' emphasizes a harsh tone and suggests to the audience a feeling of disgust towards the nurse. Mercutio is saying that the nurse is unattractive, but she does not let this pass as she is aggressive and says; â€Å"Out upon you! What a man are you!† This shows the Nurses mutual disliking for Mercutio as well. In Act 2, Scene 4, Mercutio compliments Tybalt's skills as a fighter; he calls him â€Å"Prince of Cats†. This is because Mercutio thinks that Tybalt is quick on his feet and a fast swordsman, Tybalt wins all of his duels, Mercutio says that he has â€Å"nine lives† for this reason. â€Å"Don't think he's just the Prince of Cats! Oh no – he's way more than that.† Although Mercutio is saying how much of a good swordsman Tybalt is, he still ends up fighting him and ironically Mercutio loses, he does this because he is a show off and he thinks he is best. When Mercutio challenges Tybalt to a duel, Tybalt asks â€Å"What wouldst thou have with me?† Mercutio replies; â€Å"Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives† This shows that Mercutio is still using references to Tybalt being â€Å"the Prince of Cats†. Also even when he has been stabbed by Tybalt, Mercutio says that the wound is only; â€Å"A scratch, a scratch† In Act 3, Scene 1, where Mercutio is nearing his death, he suddenly becomes a lot more serious, but because of his ego he still manages to make witty remarks and keeping the comedy going; â€Å"Ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.† I believe that because of Mercutio's personality, and always making things worse, he brought upon his own death even though in his mind he would have thought it was a good thing to do. Shakespeare probably killed Mercutio off here because it builds up a climax and creates a dramatic effect. In my opinion Mercutio has brought his death on himself by his antagonistic personality, and always provoking others. He finally meets his match, Tybalt. Although, I don't think the play would be what it is without Mercutio, as a comic character is needed, for example; to help lighten moods of scenes when needed. Without Mercutio in the play, Romeo and other characters would have died a lot sooner, suggesting to the audience that Mercutio is a hero in some way. On the other hand, everyone may have survived as it was generally Mercutio that pushed things on, often making things worse.

Gender Differences in Religious Belief Essay

Critically examine the relationship between gender, religious participation and religious organisation Studies of religious belief verify consistently that the female gender shows greater participation to religion than that of males. This greater commitment to religion described by sociologists such as Bensen applies throughout the course of the woman’s life, and as noted by Glock and Stark, their greater pledge to religion is consistent regardless of the religious organization, whether it be New Religious movements, New Age spirituality, or traditional faiths. Beit-hallahmy and Argyle state that whether it is a matter of private churchgoing or private prayer and regardless of religious belief women appear more religious than men. Religions universally have been found to be deeply oppressive to women, born from ancient teachings indicating their inferiority to men. Writers like de Beauvoir and Sadwai see religion and religious ideology as playing a part in maintaining male domination that is found in many aspects of contemporary social life. In religious scriptures women take the lesser position; De Beauvoir highlights how scriptures in most religions suggest that â€Å"man is master by divine right† and Aldridge explains how in the Qu’ran women are legally inferior to men. Why, then, do women pursue a faith which encourages their oppression, more so than the gender with the power to dominate it? Biological factors begin with Miller and Hoffman’s explanation that women take fewer risks than men and as a result seek to conform to a group’s religious identity rather than undertake the challenge of authority and autonomy. Men more often reject the religious beliefs of the mainstream and engage in risk-taking behaviors. According to Stark this risk taking inclination in a man to not â€Å"think ahead† means that men are less religious because they are willing to take a gamble on there not being an afterlife. However sociologists like Freese and Montgomery debate this argument works on an assumption that everyone makes the same risk assessment when in fact men are just more prepared to take that risk. Roth produced a study which showed there to be a smaller gap between genders in the percentage who believe in an afterlife but a large gap in those who give attendance and prayer to religion, suggesting women just participate actively more than men. Armstrong states that biological differences between men and women gave way to male domination; patriarchal montheism has replaced polysthetic beliefs which promoted the role of the female in society, for which evidence was found by archeologists in the form of old statues of goddesses. He argues that natural male aggression was the tool used to manipulate religion into a patriarchal institution. The socializations built upon this biology, are of men to be strong and domineering, and of women to be passive, obedient, and nurturing, which according to Mol, are the qualities associated with religiosity. Miller and Hoffman establish that gender socialisation makes women more cooperative and caring, and this can leads to many explanations for their greater participation in religion. One is their role of guardians in family life. Bruce states that women’s child bearing and rearing experiences for instance develop their traits as nurturers as opposed to confrontational and goal seeking. Luckmann further explains that women have a greater responsibility for rearing children and participate to a lesser degree in the labor force, leaving them with more time for church-related activities and a greater need for a source of personal identity and commitment. Women are more likely to take on the task of the moral development of their child along with the rest of their duties in socializing a child. There is an expectation for women to be defenders of tradition and Halman and Draulans note that these roles give women a greater focus on the family. Luckmann also highlights how women’s role as a housewife gives them lesser participation in the labor force, leaving them with more time for church-related activities and a greater need for a source of personal identity and commitment. They are more likely to experience status frustration, born from the constraints of housework and childcare or the unsatisfying lower middle class jobs which are mainly done by women. Religious participation can reinstate identity and give women focus, because where men gain individuality through work, women revive their low sense of worth through religion. Religious faith and practice can enhance psychological well-being by being a source of comfort to women in times of distress and by enhancing their social interaction with others in places of worship. More responsive and sensitive personality traits in a woman mean they are more likely to contemplate emotional wellbeing and not only seek solace in religion bit find meaning and purpose in life. Personality was be attested as a key factor by Thompson, who found that men who possess those qualities more commonly found in women, such as sensitivity , were similarly more likely to be religious. Reasons other than oppression that lead a higher percentage of women to respond to their environment and pursue happiness through religion are the increased levels of poverty they experience. Official figures show women are 14% more likely than men to live in households with incomes that are 60% below the national average. More frequently diagnosed mental illness and depression in women can explain their higher contribution to religion, as cults, sects as a social network and comfort for women outside the isolation of the home or of their minds. Women’s tend to be more open about sharing personal problems and are more relational than men which is encouraged in the close knit community of a sect. The intimacy of the private sphere can also replicate women’s â€Å"sphere of the home† whilst theodicies explaining their feelings and offering solutions justify their role as a woman. New Religious Movements such as cults are also generally more popular with women because of cult focus on self-discovery and fulfilment, which correlates with the female inclination towards self-criticism and self-improvement, due to their suffering higher levels of marginalisation and lack of self-confidence. Some evidence contradicts the male role as non-spiritual however, as Davie found there is an equal spiritual confidence in the existence of ghosts between genders. A key to understanding modern women’s higher participation in religion is the shifts in demographic trends. Brierly’s study found that in 1979 the proportion of male church goers were 45% but in 1989 it had dropped to 42%. The ratio of live females to live males rises steadily and correspondingly a disproportionate number of elderly women seek refuge in the church in response to loneliness or consoling philosophy nearing the end of their lives. Davie explains how women are more actively responsive to religion because males and females have differing visions of God; males associate him with power and status whereas women associate with his traits of love, comfort and forgiveness which explains their greater involvement in community religions. They are more concerned with people orientation than control. Female differences in nature also explains the particular appeal of New Age ideas revolved around well-being and stress relief. Concepts such as herbalism, yoga and meditation, homeopathy, aromatherapy and massage, horoscopes, astrology, fortune-telling are strongly associated with females, according to Glendinning and Bruce. This recent marketization of religion often promotes earthly concepts which are more linked to femininity and female empowerment than the tradition of male domination. Mother Gaia, the theory of Mother Earth as a living entity, is more appealable to women for instance. Women’s heightened spirituality can be attributed to their greater role in biological life processes. Walter and Davie see women as more emotionally exposed to the â€Å"ups and downs† of life because of childbirth, and their nurturing role as teachers, care assistants, social workers, and so on, and also the expectation that they be unpaid carers for vulnerable family members. This heightens their sensitivity and attunes the spiritual dimension of human existence, because as Davie argues, these factors give women a closer association with birth and death which are generally central concepts of religion. As females live longer than men some studies have shown that many widowed women may turn to religion for the comfort of reassuring philosophies and social networks. It is possible that some women take refuge from some of the theoretical oppressions bore by religion. Swatos talks of the fulfilment that can be had from being a second class citizenship. Feminist writers like Walby and be Beauvoir suggest that the doctrine of many of the world’s religions contain an ideology of the family which emphasises women’s traditional roles as wives and mothers in the family. Some women, however, are happy to take on this role. Barrett and Pryce, for instance, highlight how Rastafarianism assumes the woman’s position as a housewife and mother as a protection from sexual and racial abuse in the outside world. On one hand this gives ultimate power to men by denying female participation to society in the name of protection, but some more introverted Rastafarian women may enjoy this safety within the sphere of the home. A similar contradiction of female subjugation is the veil; whilst Aldridge notes the hijab in Islamic cultures as a symbol of patriarchy, degrading women to a state of invisibility and keeping them devoid of identity, some women find anonymity to be protective from the judgement and sexual degradation of men. A growing number of Western Muslims have taken to wearing the veil to in fact reinstate a female identity separate from their face; writers like Ahmed and Watson argue that the veiling of one’s face can be a way to resist the patriarchy and sexual objectification of Western culture which views women as visual objects. Faiths as a majority oppose the admission of women to leadership in religious organisations. A pun of the â€Å"stained glass ceiling† is used as a pun by sociologists to explain how women are maintained at the bottom of the career ladder to authority within the church, and barred completely from the priesthood in Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Judaism, which is seemingly discriminatory, but perhaps female role models within religious doctrines presented as meek and nurturing figures have had such an influence on the identity of a religious women that they feel more comfortable in a non-domineering role. Examples can be taken from any religion proving the sub-ordinance of women taught by most faith systems. The socialisation of women to be obedient and take on the follower role means they are further likely to be a willing follower of religion. Overall social, psychological, and biological factors interlink to form explanations for greater female participation in religion and religious organisation. The gravity of female relation to religion as an explanation, compensator, duty, and social outlet mean that their commitment is likely to persist regardless of the injustices and subjugations it bears upon the gender.