Essay on Gender Inequality in the Song of Songs - 5212 Words

Gender Inequality in the Song of Songs INTRODUCTION Postcolonial Feminist Theory has taught us to look beyond the confines of narrow cultural lenses as we seek to understand the diversity of gendered experience. I believe it is even more empowering to go one step further and to look not only cross-culturally but also cross-temporally. In America, when the general population tries to articulate what traditional female gender roles were, it seems they often describe those prescriptions for being lady-like from the Victorian Era, 1950s post-war America, or maybe limited snapshots of the Middle Ages, like chivalry codes and chastity belts. Accordingly women were, supposedly and stereotypically, traditionally passive and acquiescent.†¦show more content†¦The Song of Songs is a work of unknown origins, perhaps written by women, which somehow landed in the Hebrew Bible. It is an egalitarian Near Eastern love poem that challenges virtually every description of traditional gender roles in romantic relationships, if one looks to stereo types of womanhood in Medieval Europe, the Victorian Era, or the 1950s, for example, to define traditional. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND If we are to look at the Song of Songs as a document or documents that hold/s cultural or gender cues, it is useful to approach the work with some historical understanding about it. This is especially true because there has been and still is so much disagreement about the Songs origin, authorship, purpose--and even genre. Seeing that there is no clear consensus among the experts can liberate and empower the lay reader to feel that his or her own ideas are valid. Traditionally, the Song of Songs was said to be allegorical. The only love poetry in the Bible, and certainly the only pro-woman erotica, it was justified as being representative of Gods love for Israel. Many have speculated that its origins are older than the rest of the Bible, and lie in pagan fertility rites of the region: Was it a liturgy to Ishtar, or associated with the Adonis-Tammuz cult of ancient Palestine? Could it have been liturgy for the spring festival of the Canaanites, celebrating Astarte and Baal as the lovers? Most contemporary scholars nowShow MoreRelatedWe Didn t Start The Fire, By Billy Joel888 Words   |  4 Pages music has inevitably found ways to challenge power and power structures around the world. Music has found a way to use not only lyrics, but also the gender of musicians and genres of music to oppose powerful entities. Throughout music s long lived history, lyrics have been the most obvious example of musical oppositions to power. 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There are still doubts that women are not equal to men; even though people try to convince themselves otherwise, we are faced with day to day situations that prove that women are not equal to men. For example: working in a men’s environment, doing as you please with your sexuality and segregation by nature. Though most men have full respect for women, there is still a lot of conflict in the male perception

American Legends The Life Of Aaron Burr - 1895 Words

Bradley Staudt 08/25/15 American Civilization I Book chosen: American Legends: The Life of Aaron Burr By: Charles River Editors About the Author(s): Charles River Editors is an independent team comprised of college alumni from schools such as Harvard, and MIT, with all different degrees, located in Massachusetts and founded in 2010. This team publishes, edits, and creates books. They also have expertise in republishing books as well. College degrees that the team members have achieved include law, finance, medicine, and technology (Charles, 2013, p. 2). A biography of Aaron Burr When one thinks about the founding fathers of America, one thinks of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, etc. These men contributed to the creation of the America we know today. One also thinks about Paul Revere, and his famous saying: â€Å"The British are coming!† However, one man is forgotten by many young people who are required study the American Revolution. This man is known as Aaron Burr. His subject brings up a rather negative and obscure argument. People think of him as a traitor, murderer and double crosser. This is because when Aaron Burr is brought up in conversation, his most significant action is discussed: the duel with Alexander Hamilton. Where Burr shot and killed him. However, Burr had an interesting life and contributed greatly to the American revolution. And although Burr murdered one of his fellow Americans, which was an unforgivable crime,Show MoreRelatedFounding Brothers9626 Words   |  39 PagesPreface: The Generation Some people thought that American independence was Manifest Destiny, Tom Paine, for example, claimed that it was simply a matter of common sense that an island could not rule a continent. But for the most part, triumph of the American revolution was improbable, and therefore it is a remarkable event in history. No one expected that Britain, the strongest country in the world would be defeated by the colonies, and that Americas Republic, a government uncommon inRead MoreProject Mgmt296381 Words   |  1186 Pagesof Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Concepts to Text Topics Chapter 1 Modern Project Management Chapter 8 Scheduling resources and cost 1.2 Project defined 1.3 Project management defined 1.4 Projects and programs (.2) 2.1 The project life cycle (.2.3) App. G.1 The project manager App. G.7 Political and social environments F.1 Integration of project management processes [3.1] 6.5.2 Setting a schedule baseline [8.1.4] 6.5.3.1 Setting a resource schedule 6.5.2.4 Resource leveling 7.2 SettingRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesGlobalization 16 †¢ Managing Workforce Diversity 18 †¢ Improving Customer Service 18 †¢ Improving People Skills 19 †¢ Stimulating Innovation and Change 20 †¢ Coping with â€Å"Temporariness† 20 †¢ Working in Networked Organizations 20 †¢ Helping Employees Balance Work–Life Conflicts 21 †¢ Creating a Positive Work Environment 22 †¢ Improving Ethical Behavior 22 Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model 23 An Overview 23 †¢ Inp uts 24 †¢ Processes 25 †¢ Outcomes 25 Summary and Implications for Managers 30 S A L Self-Assessment

Research Proposal on Consumer Behavior towards Online Purchasing

Question: Discuss about the Research Proposal on Consumer Behaviour Towards Online Purchasing. Answer: Aim and Motivation The growth of the internet has created e-Marketing and online shopping opportunities for the customers around the globe. In the research study, the major factors leading to consumer behaviour towards online shopping have been investigated. By identifying a different class of the demographics, social status, income standards, age, and culture of the different population, the most essential factors influencing online purchasing can be delivered. The primary consumer behavioural study towards the online market can be effectively utilised by the e-commerce businesses operating in the online retail industry in any target market (Soopramanien, 2010). Furthermore, the outcome of the research will be significantly helpful for online marketers to penetrate several target markets according to the online purchasing behaviours of the target demographics. In the contemporary business scenario, the shopping style of the consumers has been changed since the development of the internet. Through the expansion of globalisation, electronic marketing has become an integral part of the consumers (Ozdemir, 2008). Due to the improvement in technology, modern business organisations and retail marketers have created significant strategies at the online platform to convince maximum buyers. Therefore, the study of consumer behaviour towards online shopping can be supportive for the marketers to identify the most influential factors leading to online product purchasing. Research Objectives The primary objective of the research is to conduct an analysis on consumer behaviour towards online purchasing. The study aims to conduct a qualitative research on consumer behaviour to known how consumers react on online purchasing. The study presents different views of consumers towards online purchasing by using different theories on consumer behaviour. On the other hand, it presents the factors that influence the choice of consumers while purchasing products over e-commerce portals (Buchanan, 2011). Hence, the research aims to develop better marketing model for e-commerce businesses to influence customers and attract them towards their products. Hence, a qualitative research method will be used in the study to conduct individual interviews to seek reliable outcomes from the research. Background and Literature Review In the past decade or so, the internet shopping has become one of the trends of retail marketing for the consumers belonged to the high-class society. Akroush and Al-Debei (2015) reviewed the affecting factors leading to online shopping to determine how the consumer attitude directs a customer to purchase a particular product. Al-Debei, Akroush and Ashouri (2015) identified the perceived benefits of online purchasing prompting a consumer to shop using the internet platform. In another review, Chung and Austria (2012) provided the influence of social media messages in online purchasing. The purchasers are guided towards the products promoted at the social media platforms. Conversely, Huang, Schrank and Dubinsky (2014) investigated the effect of brand identity in online product shopping. Decisively, the online shoppers are attracted towards the brand products when purchasing online. Another research of Machleit and Eroglu (2010) described the emotional standpoint at the time of online product purchasing. Basically, the design of a website, product diversification, layout and user efficiency of the website have led to an increased online purchasing to a particular site. Understandably, latest website designs and layouts are leading the online shoppers to buy a product from that side by creating a change in purchasing behaviour. Herein, Mohammed (2014) reviewed the purchasing intentions of the young and adult consumers to identify the factors influencing their shopping tactics. Decisively, the young-adult consumers are largely directed by the information, pricing and product diversification offered by a website. If there are quality products at a reasonable pricing with an effective discount, the young consumers are eagerly purchasing the product verifying the given description. The critical analysis of complex buying behaviour of the purchasers has shown that the online security in the transaction, promotion of the website through social media, references from the locality and affordability of products have impacted the online purchasing behaviour of consumers (Panitapu, 2015). Moreover, Wu (2013) reviewed the exceptional relationship pattern betwee n consumer characteristics and consumer attitude in case of online purchasing. In the review, it is significantly clear that the online marketing ideas, presentation and branding of the business have made a massive influence on the purchasers buying online. In the previous research, it can be seen that the online marketers and retail e-commerce sites utilised significant theories to identify the online purchasing behaviour of the consumers. The study of consumers attitude can be improved through the implementation of Consumer Buying Behaviour Process model so that in online sellers can take certain decisions based on consumers behaviour at the e-commerce platform (Ajzen, 2011). The theoretical model identifies the perception of need and value of a product towards the target demographics to influence the purchasing decision of the online shoppers. Convincingly, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) can be improvised to understand that customers procurement actions are guided by three major considerations i.e. behavioural beliefs, control beliefs and normative beliefs (Madden, Ellen and Ajzen, 2012). Behavioural beliefs lead to the final decision making of the purchasers whereas the other two reflects the attitude of the purchasers in the selection of a product at the online stage (Godin, 2013). Research Gap The online shopping platform is massively driven by the consumer behaviour and customer perception. Hence, the previous research studies focused on the primary shopping behaviours of the online purchasers while buying a product using the online platform. On this note, the contemporary issues and changing purchasing behavioural approach of the modern buyers are seemed to be missing in the previous literature. Also, the impact of latest web-based technologies on the online purchasing has to be determined through the study that has not included in the past research. Typically, the growth of e-commerce platform has seen to be uneven according to the previous research studies (Akroush and Al-Debei, 2015). Hence, a clear standing of the e-commerce market must be identified to ensure the effectiveness of online business. Justifiably, the previous research studies also failed to show the purchasing behaviour of the consumers at the larger perspective. Therefore, an elaborate research will be mandatory to fulfil the missing links. Research Question The primary purpose of the study is to identify the potential factors that influence the buying behaviour of the consumers while purchasing products through online portals. Along with that, it is important to know who the potential online customers in a demography boundary are. Furthermore, it is also important to known how the service and outlook of the portals impacts the choice of the consumers while buying any product from online stores (Cai and Krishnamoorthy, 2015). Along with that, the research aims to know what consumers think about online marketing and analyse the future prospect of the modern marketing model. Hence, the primary research question that will be used to conduct the study is as follows: What are the factors that influence the purchasing of a consumer through online stores? Along with the primary question, there are several secondary questions that must be answered while conducting the study. The secondary research questions are presented herein below: How are the potential online customers in a demographic boundary? What do the consumers currently think about online marketing? What is the future prospect for online marketing? How can digital marketing used in order to influence customers to buy products through online store? Research Design and Methodology Research Design The research design is the blueprint of the study that helps to present the methodology that will be used to conduct the analysis. A descriptive research design has been chosen to conduct the study (Buchanan, 2011). An exploratory approach will be used to analyse the problems and answer the research questions in a thematic manner. Data Sampling It is difficult to consider a huge population due to the limitations of the study. Hence, random sampling method will be used to conduct the interviews. Every one person out of the five will be chosen to present their views on online purchasing (Cai and Krishnamoorthy, 2015). On the other hand, a purposive sampling technique will be used to choose the literatures according that are developed on consumer behaviour to conduct the literature review. Data Collection Collection of data is one of the difficult and lengthy processes of a research study. In this study, the primary data will be collected by conducting individual interviews to observe the current thoughts of the consumers. On the other hand, the secondary data will be collected from the secondary sources such as books, articles, journals, government reports that are published in printed version or are available over the internet (Crawford, 2012). Hence, both of the data collection method will be used in the study to conduct the research. Data Analysis Method A qualitative data analysis method will be used that is mainly exploratory research. The qualitative analysis will be used to gain proper understanding of the problems, its reasons, opinions and motivations. The qualitative analysis will be used to answer the research questions in a thematic manner and draw the findings using prior literatures. The qualitative research will help to observe the trends in opinions and thoughts of the consumers that are quite essential for explaining the findings of the study (Fallman, 2008). Hence, the findings will be presented in a descriptive manner to make it easier for the readers to understand. On the other hand, the findings and results will be supported with the primary data collected from the real life consumers to increase the reliability of the study. Expected Outcome The expected research will primarily identify the booming e-commerce business and its impact on the consumers in the developed as well as emerging markets. Through the analysis and review of the previous literature, a brief understanding of the process can be evaluated to improve the same for future. Meanwhile, from the research study, it will be largely clear that brand identity is an integral part of online shopping. Preferably, the online purchasers including young adults are seemed to purchase brand products on a regular basis using the internet platform. Conversely, the popularity and marketing efficiency of a website have contributed immensely to motivate the customers to the online shopping (Huang, Schrank and Dubinsky, 2014). Other than the branding and site popularity, security and features of an e-commerce website have led to online product purchasing improving the consumers attitude towards a particular site. Invariably, modern buyers consider the retail price and online p roduct pricing on a regular basis before ordering a product online. Hence, the research will identify how the online marketers can manage the pricing to motivate online purchasing. Contribution of the Research The focal point of the research is the factors that influence the online purchasing of the consumers. The research will explain the readers, different influencing factors that affect the purchasing choice of the consumers. The findings of the research will help to develop better online marketing models for the e-commerce marketers to attract consumers to buy products online (Glanville, 2009). Hence, the research contributes to the field of consumer behaviour to develop online marketing models and digital marketing tactics to influence consumers purchasing. Conclusion The purchasing behaviour of the consumer is influenced by different factors while buying products over online portals. Some of the major factors are the discount coupons, the service rendered by the company, the reputation of the firm, the use of internet media and many more. Hence, the research focuses on understanding the factors that influence online purchasing and recommend effective online models for the improvement of e-commerce businesses. Gantt Chart It is important to note that every research has certain limitations. The time constraint is the primary limitation of a research. Hence, it is important to plan the schedule of the primary activities of a research to avoid any sort of uncertainties. The Gantt chart is presented below for further consideration: Gantt Chart Main Activities/ Stages Weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Topic Selection Secondary Data Evaluation Preparation of Research Proposal Research Proposal Submission Preparation of literature review Development of research methodology Preparation of interview process Collection of primary data Data Analysis Contrasting findings Drawing discussion Recommendations and Conclusions Final Paper Submission References Ajzen, I. (2011). The theory of planned behavior.Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), pp.179-211. Akroush, M. and Al-Debei, M. (2015). An integrated model of factors affecting consumer attitudes towards online shopping.Business Process Management Journal, 21(6), pp.1353-1376. Al-Debei, M., Akroush, M. and Ashouri, M. (2015). Consumer attitudes towards online shopping.Internet Research, 25(5), pp.707-733. Buchanan, M. (2011). Methods of data collection.AORN Journal, 33(1), pp.137-149. Cai, Y. and Krishnamoorthy, K. (2015). A simple improved inferential method for some discrete distributions.Computational Statistics Data Analysis, 48(3), pp.605-621. Chung, C. and Austria, K. (2012). Attitudes Toward Product Messages on Social Media.International Journal of E-Services and Mobile Applications, 4(4), pp.1-14. Crawford, S. (2012). Evaluation of Web Survey Data Collection Systems.Field Methods, 14(3), pp.307-321. Fallman, D. (2008). The Interaction Design Research Triangle of Design Practice, Design Studies, and Design Exploration.Design Issues, 24(3), pp.4-18. Glanville, R. (2009). Researching Design and Designing Research.Design Issues, 15(2), p.80. Godin, G. (2013). The theories of reasoned action and planned behavior: Overview of findings, emerging research problems and usefulness for exercise promotion.Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 5(2), pp.141-157. Huang, W., Schrank, H. and Dubinsky, A. (2014). Effect of brand name on consumers' risk perceptions of online shopping.Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 4(1), pp.40-50. Machleit, K. and Eroglu, S. (2010). Describing and Measuring Emotional Response to Shopping Experience.Journal of Business Research, 49(2), pp.101-111. Madden, T., Ellen, P. and Ajzen, I. (2012). A Comparison of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Theory of Reasoned Action.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18(1), pp.3-9. Mohammed, A. (2014). Deteminants of young consumers' online shopping intention.International Journal of Academic Research, 6(1), pp.475-482. Ozdemir, A. (2008). Shopping Malls: Measuring Interpersonal Distance under Changing Conditions and across Cultures.Field Methods, 20(3), pp.226-248. Panitapu, M. (2015). Consumer Complex Buying Behavior.SSRN Electronic Journal. Soopramanien, D. (2010). Conflicting attitudes and scepticism towards online shopping: the role of experience.International Journal of Consumer Studies, 35(3), pp.338-347. Wu, S. (2013). The relationship between consumer characteristics and attitude toward online shopping.Marketing Intelligence Planning, 21(1), pp.37-44.

Igds particular free essay sample

In particular you should include comments on: a) The teams Beeline profiles. B) The team lifestyle. C) Decision making procedures. D) Conflict within the team. E) Team leadership. Q. Critically evaluate the project management of a recent or current project you are familiar with. Identify where improvements could be made. Support your suggestions by reference to established good practice. Q. Critically evaluate the methods used in your organization to assess project progress and to control project costs. Or What are the characteristics of an effective project monitoring and control process? What tools are available to the project management team to help monitor and control projects? Briefly discuss the potential difficulties there might be in using an earned value management system. Q. How could the current practices in your organization for project risk management be impair After completing your Masters Degree you are appointed to a major company and tasked with introducing project risk management into the company. We will write a custom essay sample on Igds particular or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Develop a plan for this and explain how you would go about this. What are the critical issues to try and ensure the success of such a project?

Karl Marx, Max Weber and Talcott Parsons Contributions in Sociology

George W. Bush During Afghanistan’s War on Terror Political Analysis Based on Donna H. Kerr Essay Example

George W. Bush During Afghanistan’s War on Terror Political Analysis Based on Donna H. Kerr Essay Example George W. Bush During Afghanistan’s War on Terror Political Analysis Based on Donna H. Kerr Essay George W. Bush During Afghanistan’s War on Terror Political Analysis Based on Donna H. Kerr Essay ALFONSO OTERO MIRELES 938394 FOREING POLICY George W. Bush during Afghanistan’s War on Terror POLITICAL ANALYSIS BASED ON DONNA H. KERR The term War on Terror refers to an ongoing, worldwide campaign against terrorism led by the United States and supported by several other countries, most notoriously England and members of NATO. The term was first used under George W. Bush’s administration following the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, where 2996 people lost their lives and more than 6000 others were injured. Within months after the 9/11 attacks, the US sent troops to Afghanistan because this was believed to be the operational base for Al-Qaeda, at the same time the US looked to dethrone the Taliban regime and ‘’Bring Democracy’’ to this middle eastern country. Two years after the occupation, and without yet finding Bin Laden, the US embarks in yet another military invasion, this time against Iraq. This War on Terror has been worldwide known as the Bush War, due to his effusive support and controversy. The implementing agent during Afghanistan’s war is without a doubt the Bush administration, they are the ones who started it, developed it and spent the most money on implementing the war. The authorizing agent in this situation would arguably be the United Nations because According to the UN’s rules, The US had to get approval from the UN’s Security Council in order to go ahead with the wars. In the case of Afghanistan, the UN accepted the occupancy, backing up their decision with the consent of most members plus an official report that stated that around 70% of deaths in this country were caused by the Taliban regime. : The Conditional Imperative was the danger that Middle-Eastern Terrorist groups represent for the United States and the world and how nobody, not even the United States was safe from another possible attack. The recurring conditions of post-traumatic fear and terrorism fobia became a part of the everyday life of the average North American; the constant news reports on violence in some Middle Eastern countries was also a condition that needed to be ‘’fixed’’ by the US’s democracy Since its start the United States has maintained itself stable in ll of his policies regarding Afghanistan, they have indeed substituted policies in Iraq (after leaving the country) but as to Afghanistan they have only talked and promised to change it, but up until this day there has been not a notorious substitution of policies. All important declaration were made publicly, virtually everyone in the world was aware of the US’s decision of invading Afghanistan, and most of Bush’s declarations towards the topic. Of course the relevant public in this case would be the US’s government and population, the UK’s government and population and any other country that supported or was against the war, also the United Nations council and of course and Afghanistan’s entire population and ruling powers. GEORGE W. BUSH PERFORMANCE DURING IRAQ’s WAR Bush’s administration decided to go ahead and send troops to Iraq in 2003. With a similar approach as in Afghanistan, the occupation was led by George W. Bush and supported mainly by the UK. The main reasons where the belief that the Iraqi government was harboring weapons of mass destruction and some claims that linked Iraqi officials with terrorist group A-Qaeda. The lack of evidence of this weapons and the high costs of the two wars during times of economic instabilities led to an avalanche of national and international criticism and lack of support for the Bush administration, even though no consistent proof was (or has up to this day) been presented, George W. Bush won the following reelections and the North American troops remained officially in Iraq’s soil until December 2011. The military prescience of the US still remains in Afghanistan up-until this day. Bush’s administration main goals and objectives was primarily finding this infamous Weapons of Mass destruction, hunt down and get rid of all officials linked to Al-Qaeda, this included the nation’s leader Sadaam Hussein, who aside from being accused of crimes against humanity he was also believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda an of course to ‘’Bring Democracy’’ to this country. The UN gave Iraq one last opportunity through the resolution 1441 to come clean about the weapons of mass destruction. Iraq allowed inspectors to go and search for them. The United States blamed Iraq’s government of not being cooperative, and went ahead and used the force even though the resolution didn’t authorize the use of force even if they had been found. This is when he first option for Bush comes, he could’ve easily gone the other way and simply acccept the fact that there may not have been any secret weapons in the first place and not does anything relevant in Iraq, including not removing Sadam Hussein from power. A second option could have been accepting the UN’s statement of not using the force, admitting that there isn’t enough proof of the harboring of weapons but still destitute Hussein from power, and install a US hosted presidency. The third option would be also to dethrone Hussein, stop looking for weapons but stop not installing a US government overseas and simply let the Iraqi people decide for themselves. If Bush simply retracted from all accusations against Iraq, sent the troops back and not do anything against Hussein, there would’ve been an initial reaction of public opinion concerning mainly on Bush’s indecision and lack of consistent information. It would be hard to simply accept they were wrong and just leave. Moneywise, the costs of sending troops would still affect the economy but not as much as it did in reality, of course depending on when the decision would’ve been made. Supposing that Bush had accepted its wrongful information referring weapons of mass destruction, decided to leave the country, but not without restituting Hussein, I guess public opinion would judge this decision harsh, he would still increase public debt paying for the time of the troops in Iraq, but would maintain a high influence on this country by imposing its US funded government. I think in a utopian world, Bush should have gone with decision number 3, which meant the same as option two but without imposing its own ‘’democratic’’ government, this would appear as if the country was acting upon mere sympathy, a situation not common at all when it involves the US and wars. The Iraqi people could choose whatever form of government they wanted, which for me I think it sounds fair, it shouldn’t be up to the superpowers decide who will rule over weaker countries, but on the other hand I would suppose violence would increase, division and the local hunt for power could bring a mess of a consequence. Other countries and organizations including peace corps and the UN could also help out control the mayhem. Many theories surrounding the veracity of this accusations and the lack of overall evidence that backed up the US’s actions led to questioning over the real goals for George W. Bush in Iraq. Public opposition claimed that Bush was looking only in Iraq for oil and more power. Accoring to author John Harold Chapman of UK’s newspaper, the whole purpose behind the war was the hunt for oil and that the economic situation upon which the United States was going through justifies this answer. In his own words: Control over Iraqi oil should improve security of supplies to the US, and possibly the UK, with the development and exploration contracts between Saddam and China, France, India, Indonesia and Russia being set aside in favour of US and possibly British companies. And a US military presence in Iraq is an insurance policy against any extremists in Iran and Saudi Arabia. The prisoners dilemma represent BUSH on one hand with two options, whether to admit the lack of proof refereeing to weapons of mass destructions in Iraq, and on the other hand the percentage of his political party that supports him. Which in a way are pretending not to know about the lack of evidence and in a way ‘’hope for the other prisoner to be quiet. All assumptions are based on the hypothetically situation in which both know the weapons are a lie. 1)In one paragraph, describe and analyze the leader’s use of â€Å"cognitive shortcuts† and experience with â€Å"cognitive dissonance. † For example, the policy and culture of the Bush administration was one of war expansion, regardless of fact. They sought war and when confronted with conflicting evidence and faulty intelligence on Saddam Hussein, they went ahead and invaded anyway. Minimum paragraphs: 1 Minimum sources: 1 (excluding Neack) As to cognitive dissonance and Bush, I would say it’s a trick that he has played to the US government, he can go and invade a foreign country, in the case of Iraq, knowing that there isn’t enough proof to go and invade, both a big number or Iraqui civilians and US soldiers will lose their lives, public debt will increase, the already unstable economy will get directly affected but at the end, he uses this psychological tool to exclude and not metion the downside of going to war and just promising democracy for the needy, a ‘’greater good’’. Hurrican Katrin is also a good example of the hand-picking selection of information provided to the public regarding the delay of the help post-hurricane. Both appointments occurred under President Bush, who in 2001 also appointed two other civilians, James Roche (General Motors) and Thomas E. White (Enron), to head the Air Force and Army. William D. Hartung, Head of the Arms Trade Resource Center, challenged the appointments because he felt it was unethical to appoint businessmenwhose former companies would be the prime beneficiaries of increases in defense spending. Hartung further noted that at no time in recent history had military appointments been made from the civilian sector. With the use of cognitive shortcuts, Bush’s administration has been dealing with the big percentage of public discontent, providing only certain information that could be relevant in some cases, for example during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, he never gave a real reason why there was a significant delay of help provided by the government, but instead he only focused on informing how much the delayed help forces helped once they arrived there. Iraq would still be the best example, by the big amoung of congnotive shortcuts used to cover the lack of information regarding Al-Qaeda’s connection to Iraq and evidently about the weapons. Comments: Good job, but you missed the Bureaucratic Model section! Some of your bibliography formatting was not correct. Grade: B+ Kerr, D. (1976). The logic of policy and successful policies. Policy Sciences, 7(3), 351-363. Neack, L. (2008). The new foreign policy: Power seeking in a globalized era. (Second ed. . Lanham, MD: Rowman Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Breuning, M. (2007). Foreign policy analysis: A comparative introduction. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. ARTICLE UN – TALIBAN 70% DEATHS http://articles. cnn. com/2011-12-15/middleeast/world_meast_iraq-us-ceremony_1_iraq-war-iraq-body-count-iraqis-struggle? _s=PM:MIDDLEEAST UN RESOLUTION 1441 undemocracy. com/securitycouncil/meeting_4644#pg010-bk01 JOHN HARROLD CHAPMAN, guardian. co. uk/world/2004/jul/28/iraq. usa

A contract to enter into a contract is not enforceable. when contract Essay

A contract to enter into a contract is not enforceable. when contract is subject to Negotiation, it is too uncertain to have a binding force - Essay Example ses the Courts have generally demonstrated a tendency to render a decision on the basis of interpretation of such agreements, taking into account all the circumstances of the case. In the case of contracts where the price for a service or transaction is to be determined, this element of uncertainty has become even more relevant. The extent to which Courts have allowed recoveries in some cases has been determined by the extent to which damages may be suffered by one party, but when there is uncertainty introduced into the contract or pre-contractual agreement, such recoveries may be difficult. In the case of Courtney and Fairbairn Ltd v Tolaini Bros(Hotels) Ltd2 the appellants were property developers and had secured finances for the defendants to develop a hotel. Prior to the appellants securing the monies, they had entered into negotiations with the defendants; there was a written agreement between them that the defendants would negotiate to use the services of the appellant to develop the hotel property. However, when the appellant actually secured the finances, the defendants went ahead and hired different property developers rather than using the services of the appellants. This led to the legal action. Lord Denning, in providing the judgment on the case, pointed out that there had been some preliminary steps taken by both parties as an act of good faith in pursuance of their negotiations. Mr. Courtney of the appellants found a person willing to finance the property development, while the defendant Mr. Toliani appointed a quantity surveyor with a view to negotiating the price with Mr. Courtney. There was a written agreement between them; however Lord Denning did not equate this to a contract. He held that there was no actionable contract between the two parties because the agreement between them was only an agreement â€Å"to negotiate fair and reasonable contract sums†, and no agreement could be found â€Å"on the price or on any method by which the price was to

The perception of branded hotel in global world Essay

The perception of branded hotel in global world - Essay Example In this paper an attempt has been made by the researcher to describe and explain the research method which will be used in order to accomplish the aims and objectives of the particular research project. The main aim of this chapter is to present and justify the different research philosophy and methods which are used by the researcher in order to find answers to the research questions. It is beneficial for the researcher to describe and define the research methodology and design in effective manner as this research design and methodology act as a guiding map for the researcher during the whole research process, and the researcher is able to find comprehensive and relevant answers to the research questions under investigation. The research design helps the researcher in collecting, analysing, and explaining the data. The research design presented in this chapter will facilitate the researcher in the search of the appropriate and thorough answers to the research questions under study a nd to accomplish the aims and objectives of the research study being conducted. The research purpose of this particular research study is to identify, investigate, and explain the concept of the branded them hotels within United Kingdom. Apart from this the research study is looking forward to explore the different factors which will directly influence the consumer behaviour in the selection of the branded theme hotels. Hence it can be said that the research purpose of this research study is ‘descripto-explanatory’.... Apart from this the research study is looking forward to explore the different factors which will directly influence the consumer behaviour in the selection of the branded theme hotels. Hence it can be said that the research purpose of this research study is ‘descripto-explanatory’ (Saunders, Thornhill, & Lewis, 2009, p.140). This concept of descripto-explanatory research has been generated from the combination of the exploratory research and descriptive research. In the descriptive research the researcher tends to present and explain the overall prevalent situation which is being investigated in order to get a clear idea of the overall condition (Aanstoos, 1983). In reference to this research study, the researcher has gone for the descriptive study in order to explore and describe the current situation in the hospitality industry of United Kingdom with high focus on the trends and patterns related to the concept of the branded theme hotels. On the contrary to this, the explorative research is used by the researcher in order to explore and create a proper causal relationship i.e. cause and effect relationship between the important variable and factors being investigated or studied (Patton, 2002). In reference to this research study the researcher has implemented the explorative research in order to investigate that the relationship between the different consumer behaviour variables and the growth of the branded theme hotels sector. This specific strategy or approach of integrating the both research purposes i.e. descriptive research and explorative research will in turn facilitate the researchers to come up with better and more thorough answers to the research questions being investigated. Research Approach: In order

Subprime Mortgage Crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Subprime Mortgage Crisis - Essay Example When home prices started falling and those loans started to go bad, Bear’s creditors got scared and pulled their money out of the investment bank. The U.S.  subprime mortgage crisis  was an unfolding of events and that were significant aspects of a financial recession and subsequent crisis that was manifested significantly in 2008. It was characterized by an upsurge in  subprime  mortgage and foreclosures, and the resultant drop of securities was backed up by the mortgages. These  mortgage-backed securities  (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations  (CDO) usually offered attractive return rates due to the high rates of interest on the mortgages but the lower quality of credit ultimately caused huge defaults. In as much as the crisis elements became more clear in 2007, most major financial institutions collapsed in September of 2008, with distinguishable disruption in the credit flow to businesses and consumers during the onset of the most severe worldwide recession. This subprime mortgage crisis was accompanied by fraud issues concerning relating to the Bear Stearns Company. Bear Stearns, had been on Wall Street feature from 1923 and had survived the 1929 crash without laying off any employees. But in 2008, its customers and creditors were worried that the billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities on its books weren’t worth what the company claimed. Therefore, they stopped doing business with Bear Stearns. Within a few days; Bear was digested into JPMorgan Chase & Co. via the help of the Federal Reserve for an approximate value of a new Madison Avenue office tower. Bear Stearns failure was attributed largely to gorging on subprime mortgages in the previous years in what was termed as a continually-rising housing market.  

Effective Leadership Is A Tool To Organisational Performance Management Essay

Effective Leadership Is A Tool To Organisational Performance Management Essay Leading people in the course of accomplishing certain goals and objectives needs certain skills; amid them is the leadership skill. Leadership is a process by which a group of people are inspired and influenced to achieve organizational objectives and long-term goals. This essay is aimed at examining critically, some of the main theories of Leadership and will be structured into two parts. The first part will focus on leadership and evaluation of the leadership theories. The second part will be linking leadership to performance and giving examples of some organisations that have succeeded through good leadership practices. The concept of Leadership has no universal definition. It is imperative to understand the meaning of leadership before going into the different theories of leadership. Leadership has been defined as the relationship that exists among leaders and their followers in expressions of power relationship, here leaders through their power effects change in others, the skills and knowledge a leader possess to effect this change through others makes effective leadership possible (Northouse, 2004). Although leadership, has been defined to mean different things to various authors. It is thought to be unknown and mysterious (Adair, 2006), but to have a general conclusion, it is seen as an important ingredient to achieve effective management and mainly about the ability to influence people, driving them towards achieving organizational goals, objectives and aims. Roger (1997) suggests that leadership is not necessarily the same as management, that although managers have authority, they may not have power. Hackman (2002) argues that leaders can also control personnel resources by creating a situation for team effectiveness, enabling structure. Enabling structure which can be formed through the manner within which work is considered, the encouragement of core norms of conduct and team work is organised. Bernard (1926) posits that anybody who is ordinarily efficient in delivery psychological stimuli to others and hence effective in cultivating cooperative responses can be called a le ader. This means that a leader must have prestige, know which stimuli that is adequate to response to the purposes and device a procedure for presenting the stimuli. Despite the diverse ways by which leadership has been conceptualized, there are central components that can be identified as fundamental to its phenomenon. Key Elements in leadership definition Just as there are many definition of leadership, there are also approaches to leadership that has help to in-depth understanding of leadership. Trait Approach Trait theory asserts that certain qualities of being an effective leader may possibly be inherited; these traits can be intelligence, social status, physical traits like weight and strength, or personality traits like self-honesty, self confidence, and creativity (Mullins, 2005; Northouse, 2004; Rogger, 1997). Most Scholars that take the trait approach attempt to categorize physiological, demographic, personality, self-confidence, and assertiveness, task-related and social characteristics with leader effectiveness. Whitener (2007) suggests that these lists of traits are what potential leaders should aspire to have in other to be seen as an effective leader. Trait approach has been seen to be incoherent, as there are no traits that differentiated leaders from non- leaders in that a leader in one situation may not necessarily be a leader in another position, instead of the qualities that individual have, leadership was reconceptualised as a relationship among people in a social situat ion (Stogdill, 1948). Trait explanation of effective leadership has been regarded with little esteem by leadership researchers, although some steady relationship were found, the discovery suggest that leadership is not just a sheer possession of mixture of traits, situation specific analysis took over if not dominating( Zaccaro et al, 1991; Stogdill, 1948; Bass, 1990). Conger et al (1998) saw trait approach as being too simplistic, House et al (1997) concluded that there were few, if any common trait is linked to leadership effectiveness. Trait approach gave rise to the question whether leaders are born or made and whether is an art or science. Even if they are born it still needs to be developed through training and encouraged and if it is an art, it still requires the application of certain special skills or techniques (Mullins, 2005). Furthermore, researchers have found that there is no one and only trait or leadership style to lead effectively and that it all depends on organizational culture, employee behaviour, readiness to achieve and tasks to be performed or aspects of the situation. This is in conformity with the situational leadership model according to Hersey Blanchard (1969) which basically suggest that the knowledge of employees is vital in effective leadership. Although trait approach have a century of research to back it up and has given us a benchmark on what to look out for if we want to be a leader, it failed to define ultimate list of leadership traits, take situation into consideration and has resulted in highly subjective determinations of the most important trait (Northouse, 2004). Behavioural Approach The Behavioural approach believes that leaders are made and not born and to be a leader needs to be learnt and develop through observation and creativity. This school of thought concentrates on the kind of behaviour of people in leadership situations, how they treat their subordinates and its result on performance (Mullins, 2005; Antonakis et al, 2003). The Michigan University and Ohio State was used in the study of this approach, the survey acknowledged two scope of leadership referred to as consideration which is employee oriented leadership and structure which is production oriented leadership (Antonakis et al, 2003). McGregor recommended that a leaders behaviours depend on his assumptions about people and the human nature. For instance, if a person is appointed a manager and he see people as being naturally lazy, reluctant to take responsibility, resistant to change the theory -X employees the leader may adopt autocratic style of leadership and if he see employees who works hard, quick to change and seek responsibility rather than avoid it the theory- Y employees he will adopt a participative leadership style (Roger, 1997). This approach to leadership is contradictory because the type of behaviour a leader enacted depends on the situation. The Leadership styles The leadership styles can be attributed essentially to the philosophy of the leaders. Mullins, (2005) suggest that leadership style is the way within which the functions of leadership are carried out and the way managers typically behaves towards their subordinate. In this regards three styles can be distinguished via: autocratic, participative, and laissez-faire. The autocratic style also known as authoritarian style of leadership can be termed tellers. They feel that they know best what they want and tend to express those wants as direct orders to their associate. This style according to Roger (1997) can be dictatorial or paternalistic. Dictatorial in the sense that the leader tells the followers what to do without comment. Reward and penalty for poor performance becomes the order of the day. While the paternalistic style, imposes close supervision and control. Although this type of leadership is looked upon as negative, many autocratic leaders have been successful in accomplishing goals. Its strength can be seen when employees are submissive and prefer not to be responsible for participating in planning and decision making, autocratic leaders are effective since they keep decisions and control to themselves. However autocratic leadership style has number of disadvantages. Here employee ideas are not fully applied, it suppresses workers idea, and staff cannot be developed to their maximum potential Roger (1997). The participative leadership style encourages the feeling of involvement, being relevant, valued, team work and part of the decision making process. It involves the employees in the whole process towards implementation and effecting change. Here workers like to feel that their ideas are important and feel more committed, they also tend to develop greater feelings of esteem and are therefore better motivated, there is also high quality decision and productivity, it also encourages team work and interpersonal exchange and finally eliminates feelings of hostility Roger (1997). This style can also be disadvantageous in that decision making can be slow because of the time taken to consult the employees, it also works on the principles of consensus and lack of positive direction, may prevent the achievement of the objectives and employee participation in minor operation rather than the major decisions which may lead to resentment. The laissez-faire also called the free rein. Here the leader observes that the members of the group can work well on their own. With the goal of the organisation in view, the leader presents task to the group members who then work out their best own techniques for accomplishing those goals within the frame work of the organizational objectives and policy, this is to allow them freedom of action to think best but ever ready to help when the need arises. Although there is freedom of action, it can degenerate into chaos, decision making is performed by the dominant peers in the group, work generally is sloppy and productivity low Roger (1997). The Situational Contingency Approach The situational and Contingency emphasises that in leadership study in organization, certain variables and situations should be put into consideration as there could be unforeseen situation which can emerge anytime. That flexibility and dynamic styles should be used in different situations. This approach emphasises that situation is the dominant feature for determining an effective leadership as situation is one of the main forces influencing managerial behaviour and the contingency model assumes that there is no one best way or style of leadership(Mullins, 2005). Although this approach is appealing there are some managers who have the knowledge and skill and appear to be the most appropriate leader in given situation but do not appear as effective leaders (Mullins, 2005). The Functional Approach The functional approach concentrates on the roles, functions and responsibility of an effective leadership, what the leader do and the character of the group (Mullins, 2005). This approach sees leadership as distributed function. The most important ingredient of this leadership approach is its attention on how rather than who (shead, 2010). John Adairs three circles in his action centred leadership deeply influenced the functional leadership approach. These three circles symbolize the areas where leadership functions take place. Those areas are: task, team, individual. This approach believes that the skills of leadership can be learnt, developed, and perfected through training and development (Mullins, 2005). In recent times most organization does not wait for leaders to look for them but search for those who have leadership potential to develop them and expose them to their careers (Mullins, 2005). This model encourages team work, considers the changing role of leaders and followers in organization and can help in selecting team leaders. Although it encourages team work it does not offer a specific situation for team leader and the direction for leadership training is unclear, compound and demoralizing (Northouse, 2004). Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership is quite appealing and emphasizes on the most effective way to use human resources to achieve result, which has led management concentration on how leaders transform organization (Mullins, 2005). Leadership should not just be about an elite few that distributive leadership should be among the key factors to effective organisational success (CIPD, 2010a). Burns in his writing upon transforming leadership Posits that the transforming leader shapes, alters, and elevates the motives, values and goals of subordinates attaining considerable change in the process. Transformational leaders may; develop a followers needs, change a followers self-interest, enhance the confidence of followers, promote followers prospect, enhance the value of the leaders intended outcomes for the follower promote behavioural change, motivate others to higher levels of personal success Bass (1990). Tichy Devanna (1986) in Bolden et al. (2003) propose that transformational leadership cannot just be attributed to charisma but also as a behavioural process. All this can be achieved through employee involvement, motivation and engagement because a charismatic leader is the one who inspires their followers with the idea that they can accomplish great task through extra exertion. Transformational leadership has seen to be effective in most of the organisation that has succeeded through effective leaders. This leadership approach is individually considerate in that it considers the difference among their employee and acts as mentors to the employee who need help the leaders also through stimulation shows their followers new ways of tackling problems by making them understand difficulties as problem solved Bass (1998). An illustration of this leader is Lorenze Iversen, a former president of Mestas Machine Company, who said to the employees, we got this job because u re the best mechanics in the world. This president believes in walking around inspiring his employees and he is known for instilling pride and commitment. Although Transformational leadership has intuitive appeal, treats leadership as a process that occurs between followers and leaders, lays emphasis on followers needs, values, and morals and as effective form of leadership, its functions connect with each other and it is elitist and antidemocratic (Avolio, 1999; Bass Avolio, 1993). Yukl, (1999) in Northouse, 2004 argues t hat transformational leadership suffers from heroic leadership and also likely to be abused. Evidence that effective leadership is a tool to organisational performance It will be important to define what we mean by organisational performance and success before delving into the way it is affected by leadership practices. Richard et al (2009) posits that organisational performance consists of three main areas of firms outcomes which includes; financial performance involving (profit, return on assets, and return on investment etc.), shareholder return (total shareholder return, economic value added etc.) and product market performance (sales, market share etc.). Richard went further to explain that many organisation have tried to manage performance using the balance scorecard method in which performance is tracked and measured in multiple ways such as; financial performance, customer service, social responsibility (corporate citizenship and community outreach) and employee stewardship. Organisational success differs from one sector of business to another. Nevertheless organisations use key performance indicators (KPI) to determine their level of success. For instance key performance indicator (KPI) for a sales or retail sector could be profit, customers loyalty. Also for service sectors their success could be measured by key performance indicators (KPI) such as employee satisfaction, customers satisfaction and achieving the goals and objectives set by management (Forsaith Hall 2000). However, when we talk about high performance it is not enough to say that an organisation is performing high during the short-term or during economic progression periods, organisation that can be recorded as a high performing organisation is the one that can face both of the internal and external challenges (CIPD, 2010b). Darwin E. Smith who was appointed the CEO of Kimberly Clark a paper company whose stock had fallen from 36% is a typical example of a leader who can thrive in economic challenges and progression. Smith created a transformation at Kimberly Clark turning it into the leading consumer paper products company in the world and beating its rivals Scott paper and Procter Gamble. In so doing he generated a cumulative stock return of 4.1 times greater than those of the general market outpouring companies such as Hewlett-Packard, 3m, Coca-Cola and General electric (Collins, 2001a). Effective leaders, understands that high performance in organisation is not all about instant su ccess but long-term feasibility and they tend to also focus on training and development programmes that is linked to high performance. They tend to concentrate more on on-the-job training (Ashtons, 2002). Leadership has been seen to be central to individual, team and organisational performance. Many factors both internal and external have a posture on sustainable performance and employee engagement lies at the heart of organisational performance, leadership can be said to be inexplicably influential in terms of its impact on employee engagement and performance(Collins, 2001a). To lead effectively, leaders ought to know that it takes the inspiration, commitment and engagement of their employees and they should know how to influence them towards achieving organizational objectives. Engaging employees is quite vital as leadership is very much about it (CIPD, 2008). Engagement could be said to be the sum of effort an employee is willing to apply in their work. This can be influenced if the engaging leadership scheme is assumed and this is can be illustrated using its model: Figure 1: The Structure of the Engaging Transformational Leadership Questionnaire Engaging Individuals Showing genuine concern Enabling Being Accessible Encouraging questioning Personal qualities and core values Acting with integrity Being honest and consistent Engaging the organization Inspiring others Focusing team effort Being decisive Supporting a developmental culture Moving forward together Networking Building shared vision Resolving complex issues Facilitating change sensitivity Adapted from www.cipd.co.uk/shapingthefuture This chart shows that engaging leadership has a key role on employee motivation, job satisfaction and commitment and can reduced work-related stress which will in turn lead to high performance in organisation. Therefore, in other for organisation to compete effectively and achieve competitive edge that will ensure long-term success and survival of business, there is a need to foster a leadership that takes into consideration human relations, and its responsive to the dynamics of the business environment McGunagle (2010). Various authors have proposed several forms of leadership that will enhance performance in organisation. These forms of leadership range from Transformational, charismatic and participative leadership styles. Transformational could be said to be linked with adaptive behaviours which has to do with getting the employees to think creatively and learn new skills, it also takes into consideration the need and ability to manage and control challenging situations while accommodating different social factors (Han Williams, 2008; Pulakos et al, 2000; Rosen et al, IN PRESS), (Moss, Dowling Callanan, 2009). Transformational leadership is seen to be effective because it presents a leader who focuses on challenging visions as such input commitment into the employees, this kind of leadership favours and empowers teams in achieving organisational goals (Shin Zhoug, 2003). Several authors have identified transformational leadership to function at both team and individual level (Kirkman, Chen, Farh, Chen, Lowe, 2009; Liao Chuang, Zohar Tenne-gezit, 2007). Very importantly at the individual level transformational leadership assumes the position of discretionary stimuli that arises as a result of different relationship between the leader and the lead (Wang et al., 2005). While at the team level transformational leadership creates an atmosphere where team members are creative and they willingly share ideas capable of transforming the organisation (Chen Bliese, 2002). Bass Avolio (1994) posit that transformational leaders engage more with their colleagues. They behave in different ways to a ttain superior result using the Four Is which is idealised influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation individualised consideration (Avolio, Waldman Yammarino, 1991). However in achieving effective organizational success, leaders who adopts bottom-up strategy rather than top-down system seems to be more effective. The top-down system is rule from above, with little or no involvement of those at the bottom, who are highly needed for the execution of tasks. It blocks flow of information in an organisation which will lead to misinformation to the employees. Bottom-up strategy promotes employee involvement, help free flow of information and feedback, ideas and suggestions from the employees (Wright Taylor, 1994). Good to great leaders do not start from vision and strategy rather they start from people first and then strategy second. They get the right people on the bus and move the wrong people off the bus, then ushers the right people on the seats and then figure out where to drive it (Collins, 2001a). Collins, (2001b) also identified some factors of moving from a good to a great leader. The prime is the level 5 leadership which emphasises that leaders should be an epitome of humility to be able to do whats best for their organizations by accomplishing advantageous outcomes. Examples of leaders in this class are Yun Jong-Yong of Samsung Electronics, Japan, Makesh Ambani of reliance Industries in India etc. Jong Yong Yun, Samsung Electronics chief executive officer since December 1996, has restructured Samsung by challenging traditional Korean corporate culture of hierarchy and lifetime employment. Yun inculcated a sense of perpetual crisis among his employees and encouraged them to come up with innovative products that according to him, were essential for Samsungs survival. His emphasis was on quality products with unique designs and effective brand promotions. In 2004, Samsung surpassed Sony to earn profits of $9.4 billion over revenues of $72 billion 34. Roopa Chaudhuri (2005) in 2003-2010 IBS Case Development Centre Effective leaders understand the importance of employee empowerment which in turn leads to organisational success. This can be made evident in the case of Sao Paulo in Brazil. When Ricardo Semler, became the Chief Executive Officer, Semco expanded into other businesses like banking, environmental services and e-business. Ricardo preferred to change Semco into a democratic organisation for which he adopted the philosophy of employee empowerment. Ricardo was against the autocratic style of management, and was for participative management. Under Ricardo, Semcos revenues rose from $35 million in 1990 to $160 million in 2003. Semco soon came to be known as the unusual kind of workplace 25. Kiran, B. Chaudhuri , (2009) in 2003-2010 IBS Case Development Centre. However, many organisations have succeeded through good leaders who understand the need to invest in their people. An example of this can be seen from Vineet Nayar, CEO of Indian IT service giant HCL Company who likes to rock the boat. When Vineet was asked his greatest legacy, he responded without missing word That I have destroyed the office of the CEO his company has 55,000 employees and a market cap of $24 billion which is growing faster than Indians red-hot economy. He also led the charge that gave rise to the companys motto, Employee first, customer second an idea that gave many managers hives (Cappelli et al., 2010). In an interview with the senior executive of the Indian companys like the Tata, Mahindra Mahindra, and Infosys etc. on how they derive their organisation to high performance none of these leaders said that they succeeded because of their own cleverness at strategy or top team effort. These leaders said that their source of competitive advantage lies deeply in their companies, in their people (Cappelli et al., 2010). This entails that when employees are made the epitome of performance in an organisation they will be willing to contribute effectively to the organisational success that is to say good leadership cannot be separated from organisational success. A leader that takes the loyalty of their employees for granted jeopardises the collective foundation of that organisation, while this leaders go in one direction, the rest of the organisation will be trapped in another way. The High Commitment High Performance leaders (HCHP) such as Tim Solso of Cummins, Jorma Ollila of Nokia, Russ Fradin of Hewitt Associates, Allan Leighton etc. focuses attention on involvement with their people and operations; they try to create a link between the people who do the job and the performance they deliver (Russell et al. 2008). These leaders were able to achieve a greater height by combining four strategies such as earning the trust of their organisation through their openness to the unadorned truth, they were greatly engaged with their employee, were also able to assemble their people around a determined agenda and finally they realised that they can only succeed as part of a committed team and endeavoured to make their firms collective leadership cap abilities (Russell et al 2008). Allan Leighton practiced management by working around; before he became the CEO of Royal mail they were losing  £1.2m. Mr Leighton has already had some success in turning the company around. In May, the company posted its first improvement in trading performance for five years. By then, it said, it was losing just  £750,000 a day, down from an average of  £1.2m a day the previous year (Russell et al., 2008).). These HCHP leaders believes that investing in people is a means to achieving their goal because achieving a greater organisational height depends highly on how an employee is happy enough and feels committed to contribute effectively to attain high performance (Russell et al, 2008). Leaders in High performance organisation are inspiring and accessible; they do this through effective communication, high employee involvement and engagement, training and development. In fact they believe in their people, this can be made evidence through Stella David of Bacardi-Martini UK, she not only shaped various phase of the Bacardi-Martini work practices and performance systems, but was also known by all employees at Bacardi-Martini as inspiring and accessible. To the employees, she is highly discernible with the day-day operations of the business. Through her leadership style the company had  £400m turnover with 550 employee each earning  £35,000 p.a.; 19% (Ashton, 2008). Also Chris Galanty the managing director of Flight Centre UK said their company have built up a reputation as a people-focused business and their culture is about cultivating personal and career development, which gives their employees a strong degree of empowerment (2010 Flight Centre (UK) Limited). This company has a Turnover rate of  £19.4m with 550 employees earning  £35,000 p.a.; their business strategy is Shared high performance and profit one big global family and One Best Way (Ashton, 2008) In achieving sustainable organisational success one can see that distributive leadership plays an important role because it encourages line managers and employee empowerment which results to positive effect on performance. Caroline Sharp the director of HR and Workforce Strategy at Dumfries and Galloway NHS Board in her interview on distributed leadership pointed out that the traditional hierarchical form of leadership was not working well for their organisation in terms of making their teams changeable to enhance performance and the need for distributive leadership aroused which made them to deliver a leadership programme called Delivering Dynamic Improvement, this programme was a success because it helped the organisation to restructure their general management team (CIPD, 2010a). In summary successful leaders concentrate on the factors that derive profitability which revolves around investment in people, technology that supports frontline workers, serious recruitment and training and compensation which is related to performance for employees (Heskett et al, 2008). From the above explanation and examples one can see that effective leadership cannot be separated from high performance in the organisation, the both term are linked together and for organisation to attain a greater height there is need for distributive leadership and employee satisfaction (CIPD, 2010a).

Norma Fox Mazer :: Biography Biographies Essays

Norma Fox Mazer      Ã‚  Ã‚   There are, and have been, many great authors. One of my favorite authors is Norma Fox Mazer. I have had a few teachers recommend this author to me, so I decided to read her books. They are entertaining. I like Norma's books because she writes about things that happen in people's lives, such as divorce and boy/girl problems. Her books are exciting, and make you want to keep reading. I have read a couple of books by Norma, including Good Night, Maman. It is historical fiction, and about a Jewish girl who is taken from her mother, and travels to Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York. It is an excellent book because it is fun to read about Oswego's past. Another book I am reading is A, My Name is Ami, which is enjoyable so far. Norma is a great author, and writes about realistic, but exciting subjects.      Ã‚  Ã‚   Norma Fox Mazer is an interesting person. She was born on May 15, 1931 in New York City. Her family was Jewish, but as an adult she does not follow the Jewish religion. Norma grew up in Glen Falls, New York, and lived at the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. Norma had a good childhood; she went to school, loved to read, and played the violin, then the bass fiddle, and finally the clarinet. She also had a very vivid imagination.      Ã‚  Ã‚   Norma's family life was supportive. She had a mother, Jean (Garlen) Fox, a father, Michael Fox, and three sisters. Norma was the middle child. Norma's dad was a route deliverer, delivering milk, bread, and other household items. Her mom was a saleslady. Farther up the family tree were Norma's grandparents. They were Jewish immigrants from Poland, and owned a bakery. Norma remembers doing many things with her family, such as going to the candy store, the family listening to their mother tell stories, the rhubarb that the family grew outside, and the cold winters with King of the Hill and skating. Norma's family lived in many different apartments, but all the moving did not ruin her education.      Ã‚  Ã‚   Norma Fox, which was her maiden name, had a good education. As a child, she went to elementary school.

Artificial Intelligence and Learning Computers

Artificial Intelligence & Learning Computers Presented by: S. DEEPAKKUMAR Abstract The term artificial intelligence is used to describe a property of machines or programs: the intelligence that the system demonstrates. Among the traits that researchers hope machines will exhibit are reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, communication, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. Constructing robots that perform intelligent tasks has always been a highly motivating factor for the science and technology of information processing.Unlike philosophy and psychology, which are also concerned with intelligence, AI strives to build intelligent entities such as robots as well as understand them. Although no one can predict the future in detail, it is clear that computers with human-level intelligence (or better) would have a huge impact on our everyday lives and on the future course of civilization Neural Networks have been proposed as an alternative to Symbolic Artificial In telligence in constructing intelligent systems. They are motivated by computation in the brain.Small Threshold computing elements when put together produce powerful information processing machines. In this paper, we put forth the foundational ideas in artificial intelligence and important concepts in Search Techniques, Knowledge Representation, Language Understanding, Machine Learning, Neural Computing and such other disciplines. Artificial Intelligence Starting from a modest but an over ambitious effort in the late 50’s, AI has grown through its share of joys, disappointments and self-realizations. AI deals in science, which deals with creation of machines, which can think like humans and behave rationally.AI has a goal to automate every machine. AI is a very vast field, which spans:  ·Many application domains like Language Processing, Image Processing, Resource Scheduling, Prediction, Diagnosis etc.  ·Many types of technologies like Heuristic Search, Neural Networks, an d Fuzzy Logic etc.  ·Perspectives like solving complex problems and understanding human cognitive processes.  ·Disciplines like Computer Science, Statistics, Psychology, etc. DEFINITION OF INTELLIGENCE & TURING TEST The Turing Test, proposed by Alan Turing (1950), was designed to provide a satisfactory definition of intelligence.Turing defined intelligent behavior as the ability to achieve human-level performance in all cognitive tasks, sufficient to fool an interrogator. Roughly speaking, the test he proposed is that the computer should be interrogated by a human via a teletype, and passes the test if the interrogator cannot tell if there is a computer or a human at the other end. His theorem (the Church-Turing thesis) states that â€Å"Any effective procedure (or algorithm) can be implemented through a Turing machine. â€Å" Turing machines are abstract mathematical entities that are composed of a tape, a read-write head, and a finite-state machine.The head can either read o r write symbols onto the tape, basically an input-output device. The head can change its position, by either moving left or right. The finite state machine is a memory/central processor that keeps track of which of finitely many states it is currently in. By knowing which state it is currently in, the finite state machine can determine which state to change to next, what symbol to write onto the tape, and which direction the head should move. Requirement of an Artificial Intelligence system No AI system can be called intelligent unless it learns & reasons like a human.Reasoning derives new information from given ones. Areas of Artificial Intelligence Knowledge Representation Importance of knowledge representation was realized during machine translation effort in early 1950’s. Dictionary look up and word replacement was a tedious job. There was ambiguity and ellipsis problem i. e. many words have different meanings. Therefore having a dictionary used for translation was not en ough. One of the major challenges in this field is that a word can have more than one meaning and this can result in ambiguity. E. g. : Consider the following sentence Spirit is strong but flesh is weak.When an AI system was made to convert this sentence into Russian & then back to English, following output was observed. Wine is strong but meat is rotten. Thus we come across two main obstacles. First, it is not easy to take informal knowledge and state it in the formal terms required by logical notation, particularly when the knowledge is less than 100% certain. Second, there is a big difference between being able to solve a problem â€Å"in principle† and doing so in practice. Even problems with just a few dozen facts can exhaust the computational resources of any computer unless it has some guidance as to which reasoning steps to try first.A problem may or may not have a solution. This is why debugging is one of the most challenging jobs faced by programmers today. As the r ule goes, it is impossible to create a program which can predict whether a given program is going to terminate ultimately or not. Development in this part was that algorithms were written using foundational development of vocabulary and dictionary entries. Limitations of the algorithm were found out. Later Formal Systems were developed which contained axioms, rules, theorems and an orderly form of representation was developed. For example, Chess is a formal system.We use rules in our everyday lives and these rules accompany facts. Rules are used to construct an efficient expert system having artificial intelligence. Important components of a Formal System are – Backward Chaining i. e. trying to figure out the content by reading the sentence backward and link each word to another, Explanation Generation i. e. generating an explanation of whatever the system has understood, Inference Engine i. e. submitting an inference or replying to the problem. Reasoning It is to use the sto red information to answer questions and to draw new conclusions.Reasoning means, drawing of conclusion from observations. Reasoning in AI systems work on three principles namely: DEDUCTION: Given 2 events ‘P’ & ‘Q’, if ‘P’ is true then ‘Q’ is also true. E. g. : If it rains, we can’t go for a picnic. INDUCTION: Induction is a process where in , after studying certain facts , we reach to a conclusion. E. g. : Socrates is a man; all men are mortal; therefore Socrates is mortal. ABDUCTION: ‘P’ implies ‘Q’, but ‘Q’ may not always depend on ‘P’. E. g. : If it rains , we can’t go for a picnic. The fact that we are not in a position to go for a picnic does not mean that it is training.There can be other reasons as well. Learning The most important requirement for an AI system is that it should learn from its mistakes. The best way of teaching an AI system is by training & te sting. Training involves teaching of basic principles involved in doing a job. Testing process is the real test of the knowledge acquired by the system wherein we give certain examples & test the intelligence of the system. Examples can be positive or negative. Negative examples are those which are ‘near miss’ of the positive examples. Natural Language Processing (NLP) NLP can be defined as: ? Processing of data in the form of natural language on the computer. I. e. making the computer understand the language a normal human being speaks.  ·It deals with under structured / semi structured data formats and converting them into complete understandable data form. The reasons to process natural language are; Generally – because it is exciting and interesting, Commercially – because of sheer volume of data available online, Technically – because it eases out Computer-Human interaction. NLP helps us in  ·Searching for information in a vast NL (natural language) database. Analysis i. e. extracting structural data from natural language.  ·Generation of structured data.  ·Translation of text from one natural language to other. Example: English to Hindi. Application Spectrum of NLP  ·It provides writing and translational aids.  ·Helps humans to generate Natural Language with proper spelling, grammar, style etc.  ·It allows text mining i. e. information retrieval, search engines text categorization, information extraction.  ·NL interface to database, web software system, and question answer explanation in an expert system.There are four procuring levels in NLP: 1. Lexical – at word level it involves pronunciation errors. 2. Syntactical – at the structure level acquiring knowledge about the grammar and structure of words and sentences. Effective representation and implementation of this allows effective manipulation of language in respect to grammar. This is usually implemented through a parser. 3. Semantic â €“ at the meaning level. 4. Pragmatic – at the context level. Hurdles There are various hurdles in the field of NLP, especially speech processing which result in increase in complexity of the system.We know that, no two people on earth can have similar accent and pronunciations. This difference in style of communicating results in ambiguity. Another major problem in speech processing understands of speech due to word boundary. This can be clearly understood from the following example: I got a plate. / I got up late. Universal Networking Language This is a part of natural language processing. The key feature of a machine having artificial intelligence is its ability to communicate and interact with a human. The only means for communication and interaction is through language.The language being used by the machine should be understood by all humans. Example of such a language is ENGLISH. UNL is an artificially developed language consisting universal word library, universal concepts, universal rules and universal attributes. Necessity of UNL is that a computer needs capability to process knowledge and content recognition. Thus UNL becomes a platform for the computer to communicate and interact. Vision (Visibility Based Robot Path Planning) Consider a moving robot. There are two things, robots have to think and perform while moving from one place to another: . Avoid collision with stationary and moving objects. 2. Find the shortest distance from source to destination. One of the major problems is to find a collision free path amidst obstacles for a robot from its starting position to its destination. To avoid collision two things can be done viz 1) Reduce the object to be moved to a point form. 2) Give the obstacles some extra space. This method is called Mikownski method of path planning. Recognizing the object and matching it with the contents of the image library is another method.It included corresponding matching and depth understanding, edge detec tion using idea of zero crossing and stereo matching for distance estimation. For analysis, it also considers robot as a point body. Second major problem of path planning is to find the shortest path. The robot has to calculate the Euclidean distance between the starting and the ending points. Then it has to form algorithms for computing visibility graphs. These algorithms have certain rules associated with. OJoin lesser number of vertices to reduce complexity. ODivide each object into triangles.OPut a node in each triangle and join all of them. OReduce the unnecessary areas because they might not contribute to the shortest path. OCompute minimum link path and proceed. This problem of deciding shortest path prevails. Robot might be a bulky and a huge object so can’t be realized as a point. Secondly a robot is a mechanical body which can’t turn instantly so it has to follow the procedure of wait-walk-wait-turn-wait-walk—- which is very time-consuming and so not f easible. Therefore shortest distance should have minimum number of turns associated with it.For path planning the robot has to take a snap shot of the area it is going to cover. This snap shot is processed in the above mentioned ways and then the robot moves. But then the view changes with every step taken. So it has to do the calculation at every step it takes which is very time consuming and tedious. Experts decided to make the robot take the snap shot of the viewable distance and decide the path. But this again becomes a problem because the device used for viewing will have certain limitation of distance. Then these experts came to a conclusion that the robot be given a fixed parameter i. . take to take the snap shot of a fixed distance say 10 meters, analyze it and decide the shortest path. Neural-networks Neural networks are computational consisting of simple nodes, called units or processing elements which are linked by weighted connections. A neural network maps input to outp ut data in terms of its own internal connectivity. The term neural network derives from the obvious nervous system analogy of the human brain with processing elements serving as neurons and connection weights equivalent to the variable synaptic strengths.Synapses are connections between neurons – they are not physical connections, but miniscule gaps that allow electric signals to jump across from neuron to neuron. Dendrites carry the signals out to the various synapses, and the cycle repeats. Let us take an example of a neuron: It uses a simple computational technique which can be defined as follows y= 0 if ? Wi Xi ? Where ? is threshold value Wi is weight Xi is input Now this neuron can be trained to perform a particular logical operation like AND. The equivalent neural network simulation for AND function is given on the left and its equation format on the right.Perceptron training convergence theorem Whatever be the initial choice of the weights, the PTA will eventually con verge by finding the correct weight values provided the function being trained is linearly separable. This implies Perceptron Training Algorithm will absorb the threshold with negative weight. ? Wi Xi + (-1) ? ? 0 A B Y 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 W1 + 0 W2 =0 (< ? ) 0 W1 +1 W2 =0 (< ? ) 1 W1 +0 W2 =0 (< ? ) 1 W1 +1 W2 =1 (>? ) 0 W1 + 0 W2 =0 < ? 0 W1 +1 W2 =1 > ? 1 W1 +0 W2 =1 > ? 1 W1 +1 W2 =0 < ?Conclusion AI combined with various techniques in neural networks, fuzzy logic and natural language processing will be able to revolutionize the future of machines and it will transform the mechanical devices helping humans into intelligent rational robots having emotions. Expert systems like Mycin can help doctors in diagnosing patients. AI systems can also help us in making airline enquiries and bookings using speech rather than menus. Unmanned cars moving about in the city would be reality with further advancements in AI systems.Also with the advent of VLSI techniques, FPGA chips are bei ng used in neural networks. The future of AI in making intelligent machines looks incredible but some kind of spiritual understanding will have to be inculcated into the machines so that their decision making is governed by some principles and boundaries. References 1. Department of Computer Science & Engineering – Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay 2. AI – Rich & Knight 3. Principles of AI – N J Nelson 4. Neural Systems for Robotics – Omid Omidvar 5. http://www. elsevier. nl/locate/artint 6. http://library. thinkquest. org/18242/essays. shtml

Boiling Water, Condensation and Dissolving. Essay Example

Boiling Water, Condensation and Dissolving. Essay Example Boiling Water, Condensation and Dissolving. Paper Boiling Water, Condensation and Dissolving. Paper The purpose of teachers questions should be to promote childrens activity and reasoning (up 41 ) which Is why It Is up to the teachers of today to establish an understanding of the different sorts of questions that can be used to get different sorts of responses from the children that would Initiate participation In science activities on everyday things that seem natural to us. (Bonbon, A. Emblem, C. 2002). The focus of this essay is to explain the existing matter in solids, liquid and gaseous states applied to the concept cartoons which are then compared to a childs conception of the following scientific investigations; sugar added to a cup of tea, when water is boiling, and the reasons behind condensation on the outside of a glass filled with water and ice cubes. I am then to compared the correct answers to my childs answers and explore where the child is coming from and why they believe their answer Is correct. The child I Interviewed Is 10 year old Amy. She Is currently In year 5. She Isnt Like cost kids, as she attended a Korean public school In South Korea from years 1 to 3. Her background made It difficult for her to understand most of the clientele words as she probably hasnt heard them before. She had to learn how to read and write English at the age of 9 while everyone else in her class was far ahead of her. The particle theory of matter is the answer to many questions about our everyday life that everyday people barely ever think of questioning. It explains a whole range of phenomena that you encounter in your daily life (James, M. L 8). Matter is made up of many small particles. These particles differ in size depending on the substance and their speed varies on the temperature of the substance. Boiling water Water bobbling Is the cause of particles moving around each other rapidly as the liquid heats up which enables the particles near the surface to escape into the air creating gaseous air bubbles. The child I interviewed, Amy, said l think they are b ubbles of water turned into gas because the other childrens answers dont make sense because they dont sound right. If they are bubbles of air or oxygen they would float or fly away like when we blow bubbles with detergent. I understood where she was coming from as blowing bubbles with water and detergent is a common thing for a child to do and is the only safe thing a child her age could relate the bubbles in boiling water too. When I asked her about the bubbles of oxygen and hydrogen, Amy had to answer me with the question What Is hydrogen? So after explaining the meaning of hydrogen she still kept with her own answer. Dissolving sugar In tea When a solid dissolves in liquid, the particles move around and separate. When sugar Is AAA to a not cup AT tea ten solo particles are separated Ana move amongst the liquid particles. (Gallagher, R. Ingram, P. Polo-11)The sugar in the cup of tea isnt as heavy as it is separately, but it hasnt disappeared into thin air either. For this science experiment Amy said the sugar in the tea will be same weight as tea without sugar because if the sugar is in water it doesnt weigh much. Like when we carry each other in a swimming pool they are really light. She didnt really understand this one as well as the previous experiment, but I noticed she relates the experiments to what she has learnt from previous experiments in every day life. Condensation The condensation on the outside of a glass occurs when solid water (ice) and cold water have been introduced to a room temperature glass. The condensation is the solid water melting, cooling down the glass. Amy had to ask me what water vapor meant, and ended up with the conclusion that, the water vapor in the air has earned into drops of water on the glass because the air around us is trying to keep everything at the same temperature so it tries to warm it up. Again she went through the other answers first, and mentioned they didnt make sense. I believe she made up the reason behind her answer because she isnt very knowledgeable with her science concepts. Vive discovered each child has a different learning rate and that there are different intelligence levels of one age group. There is the generalized 10 year old, but whos o say they havent been living overseas in Asia for the past 4 years and have an understanding of only the basic science concepts. In conclusion, I have discovered that not all children are amongst the same intelligence level as the rest of their age group, as each child has its different backgrounds and beliefs which can vary their progress in learning. I found it interesting that Amy related most of her answers to examples in her everyday life that she could relate too. This made my Job of understanding where her answers had come from a lot easier.