SALAT

Prayer has always been an integral part of Islamic faith and is accorded a central place in the religious practices. Salat is the ritualized form of prayer laid out and codified in the Quran. Though Islam has formalized many practices in detail, salat has not been codified in detail in the Quran. The practices of Prophet Muhammed served as worthy of emulation and has been carried over into the religious practice in the form of oral reports called hadiths. In the early stages Islam and its rituals were in a state of constant change and hence scholars and jurists spent considerable effort in expounding the religious practices of Muslims. The Quran places great emphasis on prayer and the prayer finds expression in various forms like supplication, remembrance, repentance, glorification, litany and ritual (p. 8054). Salat is the ritual part of the prayer and needs to be understood in this overall context. Keeping up with the schism in early Islam and subsequent formation of Sunni and Shia sects, salat has incorporated the influences of these sects. Prayer is of such a paramount importance to the faith, it is also included in the Islamic jurisprudence and salat is one of the Five Pillars of Islam as defined in Islamic law ‘Shariah’. Salat can either be mandatory or voluntary. It is voluntary when one has reached the age of reason and obligatory when one has reached puberty (p. 8055). There are exact and stringent specifications for conducting salat and Islamic laws describe them in detail. Though men and women performed the prayers together in Muhammad’s time, the later hadiths have excluded or severely limited presence of women in the communal salat performed in the mosques. Islam stresses communal prayer and hence the mosque forms the central locus for salat. It is permitted to conduct salat on the street or elsewhere, if no mosque is available. In the early days of Islam salat was performed three times in a day, but later hadiths took reference to Muhammad’s night journey and increased the number of mandatory salats to five in a day. Muslims are called to prayer by muezzin fifteen minutes before the salat time and the muezzin calls out by glorifying God and his messenger Muhammad. Before the salat begins the followers of the faith should make themselves clean for the ritual by cleansing themselves with water. Shariah specifies both major impurities, which require a complete bath and minor impurities that require ablution at the mosque itself. Apart from the physical purity, one also has to purify himself mentally by declaring the intention to pray. Various schools of thought differ on this aspect i. e. some schools say that intention should be pronounced audibly and some say it should be silent. The very act of performing the salat is pretty simple and brief. According to Shariah â€Å"each salat consists of two or four cycles of bowing, called rak’ah† (p. 8057). It also specifies that at least seventeen cycles should be completed in a day during the five salats. Salat is performed by a series of steps accompanied by specified incantations. For example, salat begins with the incantation â€Å"God is great† followed by certain bodily movements. The Sunnis and Shias have different interpretations here as well. This is then followed by extolling the glory of God and finally the follower performs various other actions like asking for forgiveness or offers petitions to the God. Salat needs to be understood not only as a pure ritual form but also needs to be located in the historical context. Salat has played a fundamental role in forging a Muslim identity. It has also been interpreted as a path to spiritual encounter with God or merely as ritual observance and submission to God’s law (p. 8058). For the followers however salat denotes purification of mind and body and union with the God.

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky is a short story by Stephen Crane which was written in the late 1890s. The plot is simple, the story brief, and the characters complex. Crane articulately explores the slow disappearance of the American Frontier. The American West, in legend and in truth, played an essential role in chiseling the character of the American spirit and nationalism.The American West created the first truly free man. The European Frontier was nothing more than people recreating â€Å"Old World values and deferring to authority†. (Burns 37) The frontier in America had no law, no authority, and men lived by their wits.America thinks of it’s frontier as being within the country not at the edge. There is no line which separates the frontier from settled land. America’s frontier was transient and terrestrial. As Crane explores in â€Å"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky†, the American West could not stay â€Å"wild† forever. As the West became a place where adventurous individuals wanted to be, it became a place of less adventure – modernized by the East. While the short story can have many of the major characteristics of a traditional western, the plot, environment, and the narration are strikingly different.Crane, in â€Å"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky†employs the setting, character development, names and narration to represent a time of change in the â€Å"West†. The plot events center around the Yellow Sky's The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky† is a short story by Stephen Crane which was written in the late 1890s. The plot is simple, the story brief, and the characters complex. Crane articulately explores the slow disappearance of the American Frontier. The American West, in legend and in truth, played an essential role in chiseling the character of the American spirit and nationalism.The American West created the first truly free man. The European Frontier was nothing more than people recreating â€Å" Old World values and deferring to authority†. (Burns 37) The frontier in America had no law, no authority, and men lived by their wits. America thinks of it’s frontier as being within the country not at the edge. There is no line which separates the frontier from settled land. America’s frontier was transient and terrestrial. As Crane explores in â€Å"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky†, the American West could not stay â€Å"wild† forever.As the West became a place where adventurous individuals wanted to be, it became a place of less adventure – modernized by the East. While the short story can have many of the major characteristics of a traditional western, the plot, environment, and the narration are strikingly different. Crane, in â€Å"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky†employs the setting, character development, names and narration to represent a time of change in the â€Å"West†. The plot events center around the Yellow Sky's The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky† is a short story by Stephen Crane which was written in the late 1890s.The plot is simple, the story brief, and the characters complex. Crane articulately explores the slow disappearance of the American Frontier. The American West, in legend and in truth, played an essential role in chiseling the character of the American spirit and nationalism. The American West created the first truly free man. The European Frontier was nothing more than people recreating â€Å"Old World values and deferring to authority†. (Burns 37) The frontier in America had no law, no authority, and men lived by their wits.America thinks of it’s frontier as being within the country not at the edge. There is no line which separates the frontier from settled land. America’s frontier was transient and terrestrial. As Crane explores in â€Å"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky†, the American West could not stay â€Å"wild† forever. As the West became a p lace where adventurous individuals wanted to be, it became a place of less adventure – modernized by the East. While the short story can have many of the major characteristics of a traditional western, the plot, environment, and the narration are strikingly different.Crane, in â€Å"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky†employs the setting, character development, names and narration to represent a time of change in the â€Å"West†. The plot events center around the Yellow Sky's became a place of less adventure – modernized by the East. While the short story can have many of the major characteristics of a traditional western, the plot, environment, and the narration are strikingly different. Crane, in â€Å"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky†employs the setting, character development, names and narration to represent a time of change in the â€Å"West†. The plot events center around the Yellow Sky's town Marshal, Jack Potter.He is a quiet man in his early fifties who has been a lawman for several years. He travels to San Antonio, unbeknown to his fellow citizens to get married to woman his own age. In his absence the town drunk, Scratchy Wilson, show up in town looking for a fight and when the Marshall is no where to be found, he takes his boredom out on the town. The general impression of Wilson is that he is not necessary a threat but more of a pest, who is usually handled by Marshall Potter (Burns 36). The Marshall and his new wife travel home, by train, and when they arrive in Yellow Sky they are unexpectedly met by Wilson.Wilson immediately demands a duel and waits for Marshall Potter to draw his weapon. To Wilson's surprise, Potter has no weapon and insists that his â€Å"games† must cease. An often overlooked aspect of Crane's writing his unique uses of names and labels as applied in his stories. â€Å"The Brides Comes to Yellow Sky† is no home, by train, and when they arrive in Yellow Sky they are unexpectedly met by Wilson. Wilson immediately demands a duel and waits for Marshall Potter to draw his weapon. To Wilson's surprise, Potter has no weapon and insists that his â€Å"games† must cease.An often overlooked aspect of Crane's writing his unique uses of names and labels as applied in his stories. â€Å"The Brides Comes to Yellow Sky† is no exception. A close examination of the names in this short story reveal humor, symbolism, and commentary on the destruction of the American Frontier. While Crane utilizes characters names to perpetuate his representation of the easternization of the West, it is also typical of Crane's parody on the â€Å"western†. The Marshall is given the name of Jack Potter which comparatively different from the real life legendary Marshals of the West – Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill (Tietz 94).Crane's choses this name to make a statement about the kind of man Jack Potter is. He is not unique or charismatic as the Marshals of years past, whos e personality was just as wild and unforgiving as the Frontier once was. Jack Potter is a generic name, like his new bride who was never given a name. The name Potter evokes the idea of a Potter's Field, where the nameless and poor are buried. Yet, Crane, in writing this parody, describes Potter as â€Å"a man known, liked, and feared in his corner, a prominent person† (92).Marshal Jack Potter's foil, Scratchy Wilson, is also equipped with a name which parody's the western as well as comments on the migration of the eastern culture into the west. Scratchy is seen wearing red, with boots, red face â€Å"flamed in a rage begot of whisky† (94). Crane has designed the Scratchy character to appear as the devil. Satan, in old texts, are often referred to as Scratch (Tietz 90). However, Crane chooses not to call him Scratch but Scratchy. This simple name change shifts the evil outlaw to a kid-like character.

Behavioral Perspective of Psychology

When it comes to psychology or psychologists, most people imagine a person lying on a couch and talking to someone about their problems. Maybe even rats, and monkeys running around being studied by humans. However, psychology has changed dramatically since the beginning of its time. Constantly expanding on new approaches, from structural, functional, psychoanalytic, to the most modern seven major psychology perspectives, one of which I am going to touch on in the contrast of this paper. In the early 1900’s John B. Watson introduced the behavioral approach into the world of psychology. He is now known as the founder of behaviorism. Watson was influenced by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov believed that, behavior results from within one’s environment. Well known behaviorist B. F. Skinner believed that we should use the behavioral approach to shape human behavior. Those who believed in the behavioral approach, viewed people and animals behavior and mental processes as being a direct impact or affect of their environment. They specifically believed, that we are a result of what we have learned from our environment. Behaviorism, mainly focuses on, how stimuli ( environment ) affects observable responses. Behaviorism is unique because, behaviorists believe in scientific methodology. They also believe that only observable behavior should be studied, being that it could be objectively measured. In the psychoanalytic approach, it is believed that in an unconscious state, there are thoughts, memories, and desires that people lack awareness of, yet these thoughts, memories, and desires have a great impact on one’s behavior. Sigmund Freud ( founder of the psychoanalytic perspective ) believed that events in our childhood can have a direct impact on our behavior as adults. When it comes to childhood, this could mean your neighborhood, ( environment ), family, peers, teachers, and so on. That’s why it is very important to watch what is said and done in the presence of young, and impressionable children. Thus in turn gives the two perspectives a common ground. In my opinion, I chose to elaborate on the behavioral perspective because, I, from my own personal experiences in my own life, and the observation of others and their life experiences, have found that, people tend to hold on to things that have happened to them in their past. Thus in turn, causes one to become very depressed, angry, afraid, and so on. I too, was once, one of those individuals, who held on to every trauma or shall I say bad experience that I have been faced with in my life. Through soul searching, and desperate desire of change in my life and way of thinking, began to de-root my issues from within. Noticing that holding on to my pain and fears was more traumatizing than just letting go. I then began facing my fears, and forgiving my pain. By doing so, I’ve noticed that I have become more of a happier person, able to communicate better, and more open minded to trusting again. I like this approach a little better than the others because to me, this approach is more of a realistic approach. I believe this approach is particularly of importance, because my belief is, the way to recovery is first admitting, addressing, and finding a solution to overcoming the obstacle, or obstacles holding you back. Critiquing this perspective, I would have to say that the strengths are, and I don’t mean to sound repetitive, however digging down to the root of a situation, and resolving the issues affiliated with the situation, is a great way to recover from the pain, memories, and various other obstacles that may be holding you back. In closing, though I am a huge fan of the behavioral approach, do not believe it would be a good idea for psychologists to focus only on the behavioral perspective. I believe there will be patients who do not, cannot, and will not want to talk about their underlying problems, fears, emotions, and so on. Another reason I do not think it would be a good idea for psychologists to focus only on the behavioral perspective is because all animals, human and no-human are unique in their own way. Not one animal, human or non-human, are exactly the same. The biopsychosocial model in psychology and medicine is essentially the idea that illness arises not just from a biological pathogen (as in the traditional biomedical model). However from a complex interaction of biological processes, such as genetics, brain functions, neurotransmitters, and evolution. Psychological factors, such as learning, thinking, emotion, personality, and motivation. And social forces, such as, family, culture, ethnicity, social class or social location, and politics. It suits many psychiatric illnesses particularly well. The interrelated influences interact with all of the seven major perspectives in modern day psychology. As far as conducting research, the biopsychosocial perspective may allow one to generate a more complex hypothesis and therefore have more complex findings at the end of the study. With that being said, there will be different problems, which need different approaches, to find different diagnosis, in order to give proper treatments. So again, though I deeply like the behavioral approach for my own personal reasons, believe that the biopsychosocial model approach, is the best approach to use in modern day psychology. My reasoning for this is because, the biopsychosocial approach, deals with more content. Thus for enabling better individual diagnosis’ and treatments for patients.

Comparisong between the Bell-LaPadula model and the Biba model Essay

Comparisong between the Bell-LaPadula model and the Biba model - Essay Example The Biba model does not reflect â€Å"write-up† or â€Å"write-down†, however, if a highly confidential or top secret information access is granted, the privileged user cannot read highly confidential information and cannot write to any authorized level other than the assigned authorized level. This restriction prevents the integrity of highly confidential information from low important information to be intermixed. Another explanation of the Biba model would incorporate integrity as its main focus i.e. gauging integrity in a scenario where a highly sensitive data placed in a way that it intermixes with low sensitive data by retrieving the data from a low level application or program, the integrity of that information can be demoted. For example, if an employee in an organization is utilizing an insecure application or program to view highly sensitive or top secret information, the application may corrupt that information or make temporary files that can be viewed by so meone else later. A scenario is selected incorporating Clark Wilson deployment in the UNIX operating system environment. Phantoms users are used in this scenario, as they resemble to locked accounts and their identity cannot be visible to users (Bishop 2003). In a selected scenario where, a triple user is donated by ‘TP’ and every TP is configured to be an owner of the phantom user (Bishop 2003). We will allocate the phantom user in groups that preserves every CDI allocated in the CDI sets. Now we will allocate all users ‘execute’ rights for executing TP located on the CDI’s allocated on the CDI set that is available in the ‘group owner’ of that specific TP. One of the examples of this scenario incorporates access to each specific CDI is limited to users only i.e. in the triple, TP is assumed to be any one of the TP

Reflective journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reflective journal - Essay Example Students in this model are required to make sure that the company expands its operations as well as increase its revenue output. Before the process started, the teacher divided the class into different groups which were to compete with each other in business modeling. It was during these groups that I learnt effective decision making processes among other skills as discussed in this paper. How I performed as a member of my team As a member of my team, I performed well and was fully involved in the decision making process. Although it was I was not mandated to perform all the tasks involved in the process, I was engaged in other activities such as conducting research on different topics and issues. The expertise and knowledge of our team leader helped us avoid role conflict among the different team members. Since everybody has different capabilities and abilities, he assigned roles according to our natural talents and interests. He knew the strengths and weaknesses of every member of our team. This skill helped him in allocation of tasks and roles that different people would perform. Not everybody has equal capabilities as we are all naturally different. Therefore, those who were slow were offered support. This helped us in making swift and effective decisions that did not negatively affect our performance. I conducted thorough research for the benefit of the team and as a way of showing my active participation. To be successful, all members of a team should handle their duties cautiously and with seriousness. As such, they should show concern and be fully involved in all the teams’ activities. Different people have different performance levels. While working as a team, it is imperative to understand that all people have different capabilities and have different performance abilities. What I learnt from working in the team Teams are an essential tool for learning from peers as they offer engaged students with different knowledge and skills. Students get a chance to learn from other fellow students. Students also have the opportunity to practice different skills such as communication skills and public relations skills. For a team to be successful there must be the existence of good communication skills and members (Hayes & Hayes 2002, p., 112). Again, they should be able to work together and understand the need for them to be involved in the group. In the whole modeling process, I learnt about teamwork and its importance to people working for a single course and aiming at a common goal. Our goal was emerging the best team after the whole process. We planned to grow the share capital of our company and grow our market share. I learnt that in a team, arriving at a decision took a longer time than when working individually. In a team, there are various options available for the team to exploit in reaching a particular agreement (Adair 2010,  13). Personally, I developed good decision making skills that I find useful all the time. Area s I can improve on in my teamwork For a team to carry out its mandate successfully, it requires a number of factors to work in its favor. First, the team members must agree to pursue a common goal and move towards a similar direction. Our team was able to settle on our strategy and decide on the ways to use so that we could achieve our goal (Bell & Smith 2011,

Cross cultural management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Cross cultural management - Essay Example The key messages that the author has tried to suggest in this article are that cross-cultural perception between supposedly similar groups in terms of similarity of national culture varies on the basis of the context in which the cooperation occurs between the groups (Heijes, 2011). The author asserts that power dynamics between different ethnic groups is one of the most fundamental drivers of the cross-cultural perception. Research along this line is a valuable aid that extends the understanding of the significant interrelationship between the culture and dynamics of power within organizations. The distinctive content of the article is that the author has achieved his objectives by compiling a comparative evaluation of the cross-cultural perception between two different ethnic groups. In the recent years, the number of cross-national studies has considerably increased, of which this research forms a part. The organizational research’s domain is getting increasingly internatio nal, thus raising concerns about the transportability of the models of social science across societies.The ethnic groups selected for the study were African Curacaoans and European Dutch. These groups were chosen in two organizations that operated in two different countries and the power dynamics of the selected organizations in their respective environments differed from each other. The author has used empirical evidence to demonstrate the way cross-cultural perception is influenced by differences of power. Â  ... Research along this line is a valuable aid that extends the understanding of the significant interrelationship between the culture and dynamics of power within organizations. The distinctive content of the article is that the author has achieved his objectives by compiling a comparative evaluation of the cross-cultural perception between two different ethnic groups. In the recent years, the number of cross-national studies has considerably increased (Renn and Rohrmann, 2000, p. 20), of which this research forms a part. The organizational research’s domain is getting increasingly international, thus raising concerns about the transportability of the models of social science across societies (Tsui, 2004). The ethnic groups selected for the study were African Curacaoans and European Dutch. These groups were chosen in two organizations that operated in two different countries and the power dynamics of the selected organizations in their respective environments differed from each o ther. The author has used empirical evidence to demonstrate the way cross-cultural perception is influenced by differences of power. Perception has been studied along two altering axes; the first of which was the external national context and the second was the internal organizational context. The author has studied the cross-cultural perceptions in Curacaoans and Dutch as well as in two organizations that were made part of the research; the police and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The author used these comparative case studies to offer a comprehensive account of the real-life cross-cultural perceptions between the selected ethnic groups so as to comprehend

Utilitarianism, business ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Utilitarianism, business ethics - Essay Example So every aspect must be examined to evaluate potential good and bad outcomes; if the goods outweigh the bads, then morally, the action can be deemed right. If there are more bad consequences predicted, then the opposite applies. As with all ethical and philosophical theories, there are more issues to be considered, nothing is quite so simple. Different forms of utilitarianism have been described over the centuries, like Bentham's pain - pleasure as bad and good consequences. (Ethics, 8), but all seemed to attempt to measure and define what 'utility' actually means. If utilitarians consider morality to be all about consequences, then how are consequences measured, which calls into question how utility can be measured and how much of it is the ideal level to aim for Hinman states: "utilitarians must answer the question of whom these are consequences for" (137). This question is highly relevant when applied to using utilitarian ethics in business, and in particular, within the context o f the Ford Pinto case, to be discussed later. There are many different versions of the theory, all trying to define what consequences are applied to and how they may be applied. One version, rule-utilitarianism, considers that a rule or code of behaviour is morally right if, by its application, the consequences are more favourable that unfavourable to everyone. The actions driven by the rule would result in benefits, or goods for all of society. One example might be a Council's Urban Regeneration Programme, funded by Council Tax. The rule is that everyone must pay, and in doing so, produce an outcome that creates a better environment for the majority living in the urban area. The flaw is that those in the suburbs, who contribute the greatest amount, will not receive as much favourable consequences, on the premise that they already have plenty of utilities. So simply following a rule would not always be equally favourable. On the other hand, act-utilitarianism, the most common form used in many circumstances, looks at the consequences of every case individually and works out the benefits before taking a morally right action. Leggett (13) in commenting on Ford's use of utilitarian ethics, says: "The utilitarian approach evaluates each action separately and the consequences that arise from it. This analysis would include any 'harms' or 'benefits' incurred by any people involved in the case." Business Ethics: In applying utilitarian principles to business ethics, the cost-benefit analysis is most often used - it is a good decision making tool. Companies will attempt to work out how much something is going to cost them before taking action that should, ideally, result in consequences favourable to everyone. That would mean the company could make a profit, while the consumer benefited from their product. Hopefully, products are fit for purpose, safe, and give value for money. No business would attempt a project without evaluation of all relevant factors first, as well as taking other issues or risks into account that might jeopardise success. Ethical business practice, using

Paul is an Artist of International Fame Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

Paul is an Artist of International Fame - Essay Example He will be with us in Houston, for two days. The conference venue is at Richmond.† On the conclusion of the first day of the seminar, at my insistence, Paul uncle gives a brief introduction about his art. â€Å"The sponsoring UNO agency has made all the arrangements for my boarding and lodging. I dislike the ambiance of staying in a 5 Star hotel. I eat simple home food. I live with my three children and we have an ancestral house in a two-acre plot in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince.† â€Å"My children are married, and we live as a joint family. My two sons are not interested in this vocation and the eldest one takes a limited interest in this art which is full of intricacies.† But in general, Paul gives lots of information on the copper-art and the present condition of art in Haiti. â€Å"Many traditional art-forms of Haiti are dying a slow death with no appreciation of genuine art and lack-luster approach of the Government authorities. Materialistic civilization has impacted life in all the segments of life. People have lost love for art. By pursuing this as art as a vocation, it is difficult to eke out a living†¦.my children are right perhaps to pursue alternative careers, where there is money. My second son has already migrated to Australia. † I visit him after 5 years. His house is on a hillock in the distant suburbs of Haiti. He has problems in recognizing me but with the mention of â€Å"Houston,† he embraces me. We speak a lot about Haiti art and his copper plates and pitchers in particular. He shows some of his centuries-old family collections of pitchers. When I tell him that â€Å"Traditional Art of Haiti† is one of the subjects that I teach at the college level, he is greatly fascinated.   

National Brands vs. Private Labels Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

National Brands vs. Private Labels - Term Paper Example Private brands, however, have a great economic value for both the retailer and the customer. They do create customer loyalty that eventually contributes to referrals and effective word of mouth to other customers and thus higher sales for the retailer. In addition, private labels give retailers sole ownership of the product. The retailer will come up with innovative ideas related to pricing and quantity and thus suiting the preferences of the customer (Horowitz, 2000). The main disadvantage of nation-manufacturer brand emanates from the high cost that may discourage some consumers and limit profitability while low unit profit margin that may compromise quality to consumers and motivation among retailers is the major disadvantage of private-label brands. It is quite difficult to determine whether the own-labeled brands are equal in pricing and quantity to national labeled brands. Hence, the customers may be exploited without their knowledge. Unlike the store brands, national brands spend exorbitant amounts of resources in advertising across a wider region and the burden of the cost falls on the customer because of the expenses incurred (Aaker, 1991; Horowitz,

A sociological investigation into cohabitation in Britain today Essay Example for Free

A sociological investigation into cohabitation in Britain today Essay In my coursework I shall conduct a sociological investigation into cohabitation in Britain today. This is expanded from my previous coursework, which updated past research into the stigmas attached to cohabitation. It interests me to investigate whether facts and opinions of cohabitation have changed over time. To achieve this aim I shall look at the following questions throughout my research: 1. Why has cohabitation increased? 2. Does cohabitation have an effect on children? 3. What advantages and disadvantages are there to cohabitation? 4. Is there still a stigma attached to cohabitation? 5. Do cohabiting couples ever wish to marry or is it a permanent status? I believe that cohabitation is increasingly replacing marriage. I intend to research cohabitation using a questionnaire, which will be given to both cohabiting and married couples to complete. 133 Words Context Cohabitation has doubled since 1981 to around 25% and is greatly increasing. It is defined as when two people live together in a relationship without being married. This can be either a short-term arrangement or a permanent status in which the couple do not see the need to be legally married. Sociologists have researched into many areas of cohabitation and the family. However, more recently the main focus has been on the increase in cohabitation. It is argued that marriage is becoming less popular and so people are developing alternatives to conventional married life. Also, there are increasing numbers of marital breakdown, which are reflected in rises in the divorce rates. The General Household Survey from Social Trends (2000) found that in Great Britain between 1998 and 1999, 26% of males and 25% of females, between the ages of 16 and 59, were in a cohabiting relationship. This is relevant as it show evidence of the large numbers of cohabiting couples in society today. Chester (1980) has argued that cohabitation is only a temporary situation that often leads to marriage. Chester said that in many cases it is not possible for a couple to marry, due to one or both partners being married. Also, many couples see cohabitation as a trial period, which often determines whether they choose to marry. Chester concluded that around 2% of single women aged 18-49 are living and bearing children in constitutional unions which may be permanent. However, Chandler argues against this theory, seeing the increase in cohabitation as more significant. Chandler says that couples appear to be spending lengthening amounts of time cohabiting and seem to be choosing cohabitation as a permanent replacement for marriage. Chandler (1993) supports this by noting that 28% of children were born to unmarried mothers, 70% of which were registered by both parents. These arguments show the conflicting opinions, between sociologists, regarding the status that cohabitation appears to now have. Approximately 15% of one-parent families are created through the break-up of cohabiting unions, showing that cohabitations with children are even more likely to break-up than childless ones. Today, more than 20% of children are born to cohabiting couples, although around only a third of these children will remain with both parents throughout their childhood. This means that children born to cohabiting parents are more likely to experience a series of disruptions in their family life, which can have negative consequences for their emotional and educational development. Berthoud and Gershuny found, in seven years in the lives of British families, that 70% of children born to married parents are likely to live their entire childhood with both parents whereas only 36% of children born to cohabiting parents remain with both parents. It has also been shown that children living in cohabiting stepfamilies are at a significantly higher risk of child abuse, showing that these informal cohabiting families are the most unsafe environments for children. This is interesting as it shows an insight into the effects that cohabitation can have on children. There have been many theories as to why cohabitation has increased, alongside the simple and more obvious explanations. Marriage is seen as a more risky choice in a relationship due to the divorce rates and expense of marriage, along with the decline in religious influence and growing economic and employment insecurity worries. Single parenthood has been a partial explanation as to why cohabitation has increased as many women choose to cohabit in a relationship, rather than having the irresponsibility of raising a child outside of a stable relationship. Cohabitation has greatly occurred from the great rise in divorce rates, which may also have the effect if children, from divorced parents, being wary of marriage. However, the decline in childbirth and the conscious decision to not have children may have made it less necessary for couples to marry. Past research conducted into sociology appears to indicate that the once prominent stigma attached to cohabitation has greatly declined in society. Th decline in the negative view to cohabitation, in society, has been shown in the Social Trends Survey (1996). The results from people who feel cohabitation is wrong: by gender, 1994 show that between 1960 and 1978, 7% of males and 6% of females felt that cohabitation is wrong. This has greatly decreased from 40% of males and 37% of females in 1930. These statistics could also imply that these numbers are still decreasing in society today. Ronald Fletchers (1988) theory shows an inclination as to why this social stigma has decreased. He suggests that cohabitation is a form of marriage, which is similar to that of a nuclear family, rather than a different relationship form altogether. He argued that cohabiting couples are concealed nuclear families that are not legalised through marriage. This theory not only suggests reasons for cohabitation but also indicates that it could continue to increase in society. 810 Words Methodology feelings towards discussing such information. Using a questionnaire will allow me to get results in a short period of time, which will be easy for both me and my participants as it will take into account any individual variables, such as the participant being in a rush etc. Questionnaires will be the best method of data collection for my study as I can then easily quantify and analyse the results in relation to my rationale. I shall conduct my study by In sociology, structionalists and interactionists have each used different methods of attempting to research areas of sociology. Structuralists are positivists and so use scientific, quantitative methods if collecting data. Common methods used by structuralists are laboratory experiments, which isolate the variables to find a relationship between them and field experiments, which, attempt to control variables in a natural situation. Also used by structuralists are questionnaires, structural interviews and the analysis of official statistics. Interactionists, however, are anti-positivists and reject scientific research methods, using qualitative methods of collecting data. Common methods used by interactionists are informal/unstructured interviews, where the subject directs the interview, and participant observation, where the participants are observed during their daily activities. For my research I shall be using the quantitative research methods of questionnaires. I considered using formal interviews to collect my data as I would have been able to get more in-depth and personal results, but decided that this would be more difficult to conduct and a suitable sized sample may be harder to find for reasons such as time difficulties and personal handling out questionnaires to randomly aged cohabiting, married and non-cohabiting couples. I shall use 25 questionnaires to complete my study as I feel that this is a relatively suitable sized sample to gain reliable results with. I have chosen this sample in the hope that I will gain a wide variety of couples and ages, without attempting to manipulate who participates. The gender of my participants shall also be randomly selected, rather than pre-determined. I shall also distribute my questionnaires in a variety of places sixth form college, workplace, public areas) to aid my aim of getting a varied sample and ensure that my results are representative. I shall ensure that I am ethical in my approach of this by gaining their consent before handing them the questionnaire. The questionnaires shall also have details of the nature of the study written above the questions and they shall be verbally informed that it is not required of them to answer any questions that they do not wish to. The questionnaires shall also be confidential and so will not require a name or contact details from the participant, which may increase the validity of my results as they may be less likely to lie or refuse to disclose information. When constructing my questionnaire I ensured that I considered all of my aims, stated in my rationale. I included questions which required both written answers and a choice of pre-selected answers, depending on the nature of the question. For two of my questions, the answer choices were given in ranges, rather than individual answers (e. g. are you, 26-35 etc). I did this with ages to male the question less personal as the participant may be uncomfortable disclosing their exact age. It has also been done when asking how many cohabiting couples they know of, as it is unlikely that they would consider the exact amount accurately. I constructed the questionnaire in a form that is suitable for both married and cohabiting/non cohabiting couples to complete, and based all of my questions on a more personal form of my aims, which will hopefully result in valid results. Before conducting my final study, I completed a pilot study of four questionnaires to find any area of improvement which could better my final study. I conducted and distributed these questionnaires in exactly the same way as planned for the final study. I feel that my pilot study was successful and without any major problems. I shall, however, change some minor aspects of the questionnaire. I found that the question regarding benefits of cohabiting couples may have been misinterpreted as financial benefits only, and so I shall change the structure of that question. I also found that people were writing more, for their answers, than the allocated space and so I shall add more lines per question on my final questionnaires. The remainder of my questionnaire shall stay the same. 741 Words Evidence To present the results of my questionnaire I shall display and discuss each question individually, in the order which they appear in on the questionnaire itself. 1. Are you: Male Female I decided to first gain some knowledge of the participant so that any relations could be made between the results and their personal details, if necessary. For my research, however, I am looking at the overall current opinions of the public and so am not looking for any direct relationships related to gender. Due to my random sample it was not expected that an equal number of males and females would be used, and this is shown in the above table.

Impact Of Od Interventions On Employee Engagement Management Essay

Impact Of Od Interventions On Employee Engagement Management Essay Organizations are now experiencing profound and wide reaching change. In the context of globalization, the need to respond to the numerous challenges emerging from the dynamic and ever-changing business environment is a daunting task. Indeed the changes that organizations are facing are more multifaceted than ever. Engaging workforce to a clearly articulated strategy by means of the change management process is therefore a real challenge for local and international organizations. In todays economy, motivated and committed employees is fundamental key to the success of an organization. Organizing and routing employee competencies and energy is not only an essential requirement for successfully achieving corporate success and enabling change, it is also directly linked with employee satisfaction. Thus, the need to align and integrate Culture, processes, systems, Technology, strategy should with peoples KSAs to energize their talents in the pursuit of their own self-interest and making the quality of work more satisfying. This paper is based on action research. The focus is on evaluating whether OD interventions is a reality and applied science in the Mauritian organization and the end result of OD interventions in the Mauritian context and and to assess the extent to which it has affected commitment of employees. Research Objectives and questions Since the main objective is to evaluate the impact of OD interventions on employee engagement, to obtain appropriate results various objectives can be set. To further be able to reach the objectives, some questions can be set appropriately. The objectives and questions are: To highlight if company X promotes OD. Is there any OD consultant at the company? What are his duties and competencies? What were the discomforts felt by the company, which brought about the practice of OD? To determine the OD interventions used at Company X. What are the different diagnosis tools of OD, which have been used at the company? What is the basis of using these specific tools? What is the role of top management in the implementation? To investigate how the interventions affected employee engagement. What have been the drivers of engagement at the company? What are the variables of measurement of engagement at company X? To evaluate effectiveness of the interventions. Are there any past data for comparison purpose? What are the findings and outcomes of the intervention on engagement? What can be proposed from the analysis? Conceptual background Organization development is a process of planned change for the purpose of enhancing individual development and improving organizational performance. It is a long term effort led and supported by top management , to improve an organizations visioning, empowerment learning, and problem solving processes, through an on-going, collaborative management of organizational structure-with special emphasis of the culture of intact work and teams and other team configurations-using the consultant-facilitator role and the theory and technology of applied behavioral science , including action research. (Wendell L.French et al.1999) The definition provided above implies a number of elements which are considered essential for the practical application of the science in the organization. Characteristics of OD OD emphases on culture and processes Specifically, OD encourages collaboration between organization leaders and members in the managing culture and processes. Teams are all kinds are particularly important for accomplishing tasks and are targets for OD activities. Participation and involvement in problem solving and decision making by all levels of the organizations are hallmarks of OD. OD recognizes the importance of top management commitment, support and involvement. It also affirms a bottom approach when the culture of the organizations supports such efforts to improve an organization. The key emphasis of OD is on the total system and its inter-reliant parts. OD practionners are facilitators, collaborators and co-learners with client system. It is a development-based program aimed to develop values, attitudes, norms and management practices that would result in a healthy organization.. It involves planned interventions and improvements in an organizations processes and structures which rely on action research. OD takes a developmental view that seeks the betterment of both individuals and the organization. Attempting to create win-win solutions is standard practice in OD programs. OD Interventions OD interventions address a wide range of specific problems and opportunities. The intervention strategy integrates the problem or opportunity to be addressed, the desired outcomes and the sequencing and timing of various interventions. As such, OD interventions are sets of structures activities in which selected organizational units (targets groups or individuals) engage in a task or a sequence of tasks with the goals of organizational improvement and individual development. The classification of OD interventions is quite extensive; Burk and Horstein (1972) listed only six categories: Team building Managing conflict Survey Feedback Techno-structural Training All purpose miscellaneous French and Bell (1999) developed the typology of OD target groups and designed interventions to improve effectiveness. The target group comprises of individuals, Dyads, teams and groups, intergroup relations and the overall organization. Significance of OD interventions In Mauritius as in other countries, the significance of Organizational Development has been of such importance to respond to the internal and external changes occurring in our business environment as a result of globalization. Anderson and Anderson (2001a, p.1) note that in todays market place, change is a requirement for continued success, and competent change leadership is the most coveted executive skills. The underlying principle for change will be the transformation of the organization for the benefit of all. OD interventions enable the optimization of the system by ensuring that systems elements are harmonious and congruent. Employee Engagement In todays World, Key elements to business success are engaged employees who are aligned with organizational culture and goals. The commitment and the involvement of the workforce is crucial due to the emergence of human capital as a competitive advantage. The main characteristics of an engaged employees are as follows: Believes in the organization Is positive about the job and the organization Works actively to make things better Treats others with respect, and help colleagues to perform more effectively Can be relied upon and goes beyond the requirements of the job Identifies with the organization Keep up to date with developments in his/her field Sees the bigger picture even at personal cost OD and Employee Engagement The practical tool of an OD practionners a possess high-engagement change process in consideration with collaboration flow and effective problem solving under the employee involvement. Konrad (2006) supports the notion that employee involvement is key to employee involvement by stating employees who conceive design and implement workforce and process changes are engaged employees The increasing of employee engagement is a difficult process as it is rather a psychological contract than a physical one. Saks (2006) also stresses the point that engagement is a broad organizational and cultural strategy that involves all levels of the organization. Employee engagement as such is considered as a primary requirement to implement organizational change thus contributing to bring about organizational development. Methodology For the purpose of the study, both qualitative and quantitative research will be done. As mentioned in the previous section, the aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of employee engagement by indentifying the variables that would enable to identify the correlation and impact of OD interventions. Collection of data For collecting data, different sources are envisaged, mainly: Primary data Secondary data Primary data Both qualitative and quantitative research will be used to gather an in-depth understanding of the application of interventions and eventually study how these interventions impact on employee engagement defined in the objectives. This approach will explore the how and why of interventions and not just the what, where and when relating to the behavioral aspect of workforce engagement. A survey using questionnaire will be implemented complemented with interviews to capture both qualitative and quantitative intent of the study. Secondary data To achieve the aim of the study fully, the availability of past data records of previous years for comparison, in the published or non-published form can be useful. This secondary data is for interpretation purposes so as to be able to compare values and relate the effectiveness of OD interventions on employee engagement. Survey Unstructured and Structured questions will be asked to top management and employees to record their feedback and opinions. Questionnnaire The use of the questionnaire is to provide in-depth explanation to the questions. To begin with, to be able to respond to the first two Objectives, a preliminary questionnaire will be addressed to OD consultant or HR of the company to set the study into the context of the company and to gather background and fundamental data. Afterwards, a second questionnaire will be addressed to the employees addressing their engagement that is to evaluate their involvement and attachment to the company, but also to define the determinants of employee at the company. Population of relevance The population of relevance shall be the employees of the company, and top management

Hamlet: Masks We Wear Essays -- essays research papers

Masks A mask is a covering worn on the face or something that disguises or conceals oneself. All the characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet hide behind masks to cover up who they really are, which contridictes a main idea, expressed by the fool, Old Polonius, "To thine ownself be true" (Polonius - 1.3.84). All the characters share strengths and triumphs, flaws and downfalls. Instead of revealing their vulnerabilities, each of them wears a mask that conceals who they are and there true convictions. The masks brought about feelings such as fear, hatred, insanity, indecisiveness, ambitiousness, and vengeance all of which contribute to the tragic ending of the play. Shakespeare reveals the idea of the masks in the first lines of the play, "Who's there" (Barnardo - 1.1.1). "Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself" (Fransisco - 1.1.2). These masks are upon each character, placed there by either society, self-ignorance, or guilt. Ophelia, Polonius' daughter and Hamlet's lover, hid behind a mask, just like Queen Gertrude's. It was, according to the society and the culture of the time, in the best interest of the woman to display a passive behavior for their personal preservation, which served as Gertrude's mask. Gertrude was brought up to believe that when a woman protests her innocence, in any matter, too much then people will begin to think otherwise. Gertrude revealed the idea of her mask, when responding to Hamlet inquiry of her likes to the play, her response was a bold reply, "The lady doth protest too much methinks" (Gertrude - 3.2.254), while viewing "The Murder of Ganzago." Hamlet's disgust with his mother's lack of strength, in regards to Claudius' sexual temptations, was evident in his soliloquy, after Gertrude begged him to stay with her and Claudius in Elsinore. "And yet, wi th a month let me not think on 't; fratility, thy name is woman." (Hamlet - 1.2.149-50) Gertrude's submissiveness is also evident in her refusal to face the pain of the true nature of her husband's murder. Gertrude begs "O Hamlet, speak no more! / Thou turn'st my eyes into my very soul, / And there I see such black and grained spots / As will not leave their tinct" (Gertrude - 3.4.99-103). In relation to Gertrude, Ophelia is even weaker and more passive. ... ...e murder of his father, Hamlet Sr. After Hamlet killed Polonius, and stored his body, when first asked of him the location of Polonius' body, and Hamlet replied with a riddle; "The body is with the King, but the King is not / with the body. The King is a thing-" (Hamlet - 4.2.27-28). This riddle strange in itself was evidence to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of Hamlet's insanity. Once the King banished him to his death in England, Hamlet replied with "Farewell, dear mother." (Hamlet - 4.4.58). Shocking to the King, being his father and or uncle, and Hamlet forgave an explanation to the King of why he called him his mother; "My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, / Man and wife is one flesh, and so, my mother" (Hamlet - 4.4.60-61). Hamlet's mask of insanity had fooled the King, the Queen, Ophelia, Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Though he had fooled these people he always kept a full grasp of reality and his true convictions. "To thine own self be true," (Polonius - 1.3.84) the words of a fool followed only by the tragic hero, Hamlet. The masks of the characters were what lead each to their tragedy.

The Little Girl Who Changed My Life Essay -- Community Service, Servic

When I was a child, my grandparents always told me that children are the future of our world. A child needs to be shown how much they are able to achieve. A child not shown that will never blossom into the beautiful flower which they are meant to be. That is why I chose to volunteer at my community elementary school. I wanted to live the words that my grandparents told me, the words that would make a difference in my future. I was handpicked by the principal and the teacher to be the friend of a child who needed me. My journey began with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl named Mary. Now, Mary isn’t your normal four-year-old who always wants to tell you what happened from the moment she wakes up. She never said one word to me from the moment I met her. I didn’t say much to her, either. All I kept telling her was we are going to have so much fun this year. When I went home that day, all I could think of was that I was picked for this child for a reason, and that while I was with her, I would make the best effort I could to change her outlook on the worl...

Perpetuation of Native American Stereotypes in Childrens Literature Es

Perpetuation of Native American Stereotypes in Children's Literature Caution should be used when selecting books including Native Americans, due to the lasting images that books and pictures provide to children. This paper will examine the portrayal of Native Americans in children's literature. I will discuss specific stereotypes that are present and should be avoided, as well as positive examples. I will also highlight evaluative criteria that will be useful in selecting appropriate materials for children and provide examples of good and bad books. Children will read many books as they grow up. They take from these books visual images and these images are their perceptions, which can last a lifetime. There are too many books featuring painted, whooping Indians wearing feathers and attacking forts, or maliciously scalping peaceful settlers. There are also too many books in which white benevolence is the only thing that saves the day for the incompetent childlike Indian. Teachers, librarians, parents, baby-sitters, relatives, and anyone else who buys a child a book must be aware of the perceptions each book will provide a child. In her book Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience for Children, Doris Seale states, "It is no longer acceptable for children both Native and non-Native to be hurt racist ideologies which justify and perpetuate oppression." There are many books in children's libraries today that perpetuate the stereotypical Native American. By definition, a stereotype is a "fixed image, idea, trait, or convention, lacking originality or individuality, most often negative, which robs individuals and their cultures of human qualities and promotes no real understanding of social rea... ...ay as to be needlessly offensive, insensitive, or inappropriate? 10. Does the material contain much of value but require additional information to make it more relevant or useful? (Library Services Institute for Minnesota Indians, 1970, pp. iv-v) Works Cited Berkhoffer, Robert F. 'The White Man's Indian. Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, New York: 1978. Dowd, Frances Smardo. "Evaluating Children's Portraying Native American and Asian Cultures". Childhood Education; (68 Summer 92), pp. 219-224. Library Services Institutefor Minnesota Indians. Guidelines for Evaluating Multicultural Literature: 1970, pp. iv-v. Norton, Donna. 'Through the Eyes of a Child. Prentice Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffes, New Jersey: 1995. Seale, Doris. Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children. New Society Publisher, Philadelphia, PA: 1992.

Lead and Manage a Team Within a Health and Social Care Setting

The features of effective team performance are set out in Brian Tuckman’s phases of team development theory, ‘Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing. ’ This outlines the phases that a team will go through in order to become effective and reach maturity. At the ‘Forming’ stage of team development individual roles and responsibilities are unclear and each member of the team is concerned to avoid conflict with each other. From this point the team will go through the ‘Storming’ phase which is when they start to conflict as individuals put forward ideas which will be challenged by others in a bid to gain power and position over others. After this the ‘Norming’ phase follows and it is at this point that individual roles are defined and accepted and ground rules and conduct are agreed. After each of these stages the team then reaches the ‘Performing’ stage which is where they are all working towards the same shared goal. This theory shows that for all teams to be effective each individual needs to be clear on their role, responsibilities and shared end goal. This is achieved through positive leadership, utilising the skills of the team and addressing weaknesses to make the team more effective. The challenges experienced by developing teams are often due to organisational change. Staff may be resistant to change such as moving to join a new team or working with people they do not know. A health and social care organisation needs to identify the skills and knowledge that are required for the service plan and recruit staff according to this to ensure that the diversity and skill mix needed is met to fulfil the service outcome. Newly appointed staff should complete an induction that ensures they understand and comply with the organisations values and objectives and their role and support systems should be clarified as quickly as possible to ensure they can contribute as quickly and effectively as possible to the team. An established team experiences different challenges to a developing team. They may have more difficulty maintaining staff enthusiasm and momentum. To overcome these challenges the organisation needs to be aware of changes to workload and conflict between individuals to resolve issues quickly before they impact on other staff and then service users. Also feedback should be given to staff in order for them to maintain or improve performance levels and recognition should be expressed for good work to maintain a high level of staff morale. Once momentum is built then it is easier to maintain and helps staff to remain enthusiastic and continue o communicate and trust their colleagues and manage their time efficiently and keeps them orientated to the important work tasks. Challenges to effective team performance can be overcome by the organisation being clear about the values and objectives in relation to staff and service users and communicating these and the time frame in which these are expected to be achieved. Support should be given to those who are capable of sharing the organisations objectives so they can become committed to ensuring that the service outcomes are met. If this is not done then it can be difficult to maintain effective team working. Dawes and Handscomb performed a review on team leadership in 2005 and suggested that these difficulties stemmed from competing professional interests. In different settings they reviewed the relationship between team working and care outcomes and it was found that within a long term care setting the care outcomes required effective team working to be met. It is considered that management styles can be divided into three categories. * Autocratic- characterised by individual control over all decisions and little input from group members. Paternalistic- a type of fatherly managerial style typically employed by dominant males where their organizational power is used to control and protect subordinate staff that are expected to be loyal and obedient. * Democratic- a style in which members of the group take a more participative role in the decision making process. A leader can be anyone who has the ability to influence other members of a team. It is considered that a manager and a leader are different but they are complementary to tasks being carried out. Management styles will change to reflect the stage of development the workforce’s stage of development. When starting a new team a manager will have to be clear about setting goals, establishing rules and assigning responsibility and then taking on the more troublesome tasks of organising resources, motivating and creating a cooperative team. As the team develops then roles can be delegated and appropriate support provided. Doing this enables the team to become more confident and the style of management and leadership changes so team members begin to take on more leadership functions. The primary focus of a leader is to develop and maintain trust between the service user and the staff. The service user will look at the staff to establish with them character and competence. If these two characteristics are met then this develops trust with the service user. Character relates to motive and intent, whether the staff are working towards the same objectives. Competence relates to skills and results, whether the staff are able to care for the service user and meet the objective set by the organisation. Staff that are registered with professional bodies have accountability and are answerable for their actions. They are accountable by law for meeting the standards and objectives that are set out for them. Even when staff are working towards a common goal, conflict can still arise. This can be due to different personalities, communication styles, sense of priorities and changes to workload. Trying to prevent conflict is best practice so a manager should try to build an environment that is supportive, positive and stable to try and reduce the likelihood of conflict developing. If conflict does develop then a manager should try to: * Address it at the earliest opportunity. * Keep the discussions positive. Look at what can be done to resolve the conflict. * Encourage the team to focus on the problem, not the person. Encourage honest dialogue between the team, welcoming different points of view that do not create blame. Each individual should be allowed to voice their point of view and also listen to and respect each other’s views. * Ask each individual to accept ownership of their part of the problem. * Discuss a variety of options before settling on an agreement that is based on o bjective criteria that will resolve the conflict. Conflict does not always necessarily have to be a bad thing, as if it is dealt with constructively, can lead to increased productivity, development of new ideas and personal development of team members.

Measuring Reliability

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most popular personality tests in the world today.   However, data reviewed from more than twenty MBTI research studies has indicated that the test has inadequate validity.   In other words, MBTI does not adequately measure what it is meant to measure.   Moreover, MBTI has reported reliability coefficients for its four scales on general population samples in the ranges from 0.61 to 0.87.   Experts on psychometric testing reveal that reliability coefficients for short personality tests should actually be in the range of 0.7 to 0.8 (Psychometric Success). Does this mean that MBTI is unreliable? – No.   While this important personality test sometimes reveals a lower reliability coefficient than the other personality tests, even when its reliability coefficient is close to 0.61, the test is said to give us a dependable measure of the constructs it measures at least 61% of the time.   To put it another way, at least 61% of the people who use the MBTI once would see that their scores on the different constructs of the test would not change on a second testing session and all subsequent testing sessions. Reliability is also known as â€Å"repeatability† or â€Å"consistency.†Ã‚   A test with perfect reliability has a coefficient of 1.0.   A test with no reliability whatsoever has a coefficient of 0.   A test with perfect reliability is one which gives us absolutely consistent results with the same sample.   The higher the reliability, the better is a test, scientifically, given that we can trust the results of this test with confidence, knowing that they will not change drastically through retesting (Trochim, 2006). With MBTI, we can be confident that the test would show us a true picture of an individual’s personality at least 61% of the time.   Although this value is better than 50%, MBTI would have  given us greater confidence in terms of its measurement if its reliability coefficient always fell in the range of 0.8 to 0.9.   This would have led us to believe that MBTI is most definitely a trustworthy measure of an individual’s personality type. References 1.Psychometric Success. â€Å"Myers-Briggs Widely Used But Still Controversial.† Available at http://www.psychometric-success.com/index.htm. (31 January 2007).    2. Trochim, William. (2006). â€Å"Theory of Reliability.† Research Methods Knowledge Base. Available at http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/reliablt.php. (31 January 2007).         

Doll House

Act I Example 1: (p1600) Helmer: â€Å"That is like a woman! But seriously, Nora, you know how I feel about that. No debt, no borrowing† Torvald thinks that every woman is the same and woman is debt and owe from man but he did not accept that his life depend on borrowing. Example 2: (p. 1605) Nora: â€Å"Tell me, is it really true that you did not love your husband? Why did you marry him? †/ Mrs.Linde: â€Å"My mother was alive then, and was bedridden and helpless, and I had to provide for my two younger brothers; so I didn’t think I had any right to turn him down. † Almost women at that time always think that married a rich man is the only way to be better (about finance). Example 3: (p. 1607) Nora: â€Å"Besides, how painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his masculine pride, to know that he owed me anything! â€Å". Act II Example 1: (p1624) Helmer: â€Å"They already know at the Bank that I’m going to fire Krogstad.Do you think I’m going to let them all say that the new manager has changed his mind because his wife said to† He could not accept that a man listen to his wife. That is an affront. Example 2: (p. 1629) Nora (jumping up and going to him). â€Å"Oh, dear, sweet Doctor Rank, I didn’t mean that way. But surely you can understand that being with Torvald is a little like being with papa† In Nora mind, she is always under pressure of man, even her husband, she respect him, idolize him as her father Act IIIExample 1: (p1637) Mrs. Linde:†Nils, when a woman has sold herself for someone else’s sake, she doesn’t do it a second time. † Woman must to worship her husband and never remarried or adultery. It is the quality, the standard of woman. Example 2: (p1640) Helmer: â€Å"What? You’re serious, Nora! You won’t? You won’t I’m your husband† Husbands think that He owns his wife (either her soul or her body). She cannot d eny every request from him. .

The Value Wastelands

Critique â€Å"The†Values† Wasteland† Charles Skyes’ work has been in seen in many prosperous newspapers throughout time, to name a few New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Most of what Skyes writes is educational issues. Skyes has also written a number of books, ProfScam: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education (1988), The Hollow Man: Politics and Corruption in Higher Education (1990) and 50 Rules Kids Won’t Learn In School (2007).Skyes is involved in many other things for example he is a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and he hosts a radio show in Milwaukee that is popular. Skyes addresses mostly topics that he sees as breakdown in the American culture. The following critique is from an excerpt from Skyes book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why America’s Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write or Add. Skyes addresses numerous controversial moral issues within American children today, giv ing statistics from many different surveys claiming that American children are not so intune as they once were.Skyes also quotes a few different people that have done various studies and or surveys along with his own opinions on these same issues. Skyes conclusion is that we have given our children array of irrational morals and that we need to look at the ones who provide them to these children. Skyes includes all that is negative and has no mind for any of the positive with our children today. A weakness of this article, Skyes has put down children and their morals and then takes his readers with points that it is the parents, communities, the media and even the churches that society need to take a look at and settle the blame there.Charles Skyes excerpt â€Å"The†Values† Wasteland† gives an example of a teenager who was accused of rape and the repercussions afterwards. Skyes introduces his readers with statistics and research on issues such as â€Å"it was acc eptable for a man to force sex on a woman† (199). Skyes’ statistics have his readers believing that this is all teens. Skyes credibility is for his self-gain, only showing his view point. He does not tell his readers where in Rhode Island the statistics were gathered from. Were the statistics taken from only urban areas, or rural areas?Skyes inferences are based solely on one group of students giving a sense of incomplete comparison. The article explicitly and deliberately distracts the readers to other issues that Skyes thinks will hit more at home about morals. â€Å"A write in survey of 126,000 teenagers found that 25 to 40 percent of teens see nothing wrong with cheating on exams, stealing from employers, or keeping money that wasn’t theirs†(199). Grabbing the attention of the readers with a â€Å"red herring† knowing that this issue would cause the reader to identify.Skyes only includes from the survey that one point. Skyes hasty generalization gives his readers insufficient statistics and what the survey was based on while playing on his readers emotions. Skyes purpose for this book clearly shows how he perceives American children. He gives factual statistics on the negative influences on American children to sway his readers into believing that today’s they are need of a huge change and reform. Skyes has written continuously about the educational issues in America.Taking a look back at his other work and what he is involved in now, TV, Radio, books, it is all about the same things: educational issues with children and how we need to act on changing it or forever be doomed. Skyes effectively gave all negative statistics, doing his research thoroughly although it was quite biased, skipping over anything that had anything to do with the positive. â€Å"More than 60 percent of high school students said they had cheated at least once on an exam†(199).Showing the large amount of students that admitted to cheatin g yet there is nothing to support this statistic as the actual question and how it was worded and how Skyes actually came to have that 60 percent of students. Did it come from one school or many schools? Skyes needed to give more information about the statistics he acquired and focus less on the negative. Skyes uses the phrase â€Å"IDI’s† (I-Deserve-Its) saying that today’s kids are all about entitlement and are completely surrounded by â€Å"personal needs wants and don’t wants and rights. (199) Again where is Skyes getting all his information? In the poverty stricken areas or middle class? It really does make a difference where Skyes got his information. Then he could have added in the different neighborhoods that people need to really take a look at and change. As the reader, I don’t know. Perhaps it is an all-around assement maybe not but, Skyes is not very clear on the where’s, or how’s. His argument is valid to a point but doe s not give any information for the readers to make a decision.Skyes leaves this wide open for the reader to think that it is all American kids that are IDI’s. Skyes compares American children to Asian children who are not given a choice in what they are allowed to read. â€Å"Asian children continue to read about stories of perseverance, hard work, loyalty, duty, prudence, heroism, and honesty†(200). The examples that Skyes gives that American students used to study are all white and dead; Benjamin Franklin, Florence Nightingale and Thomas Edison.Skyes boosts that they taught lessons of â€Å"inventiveness, character, compassion, curiosity, and truthfulness†(200). I agree that all of those mentioned are very noble historical people but we do have in today’s living that carry the same lessons that children can relate with more than a bunch of dead white people. This was a very racist comment made by Skyes and his credibility went right out the window. Skye s has given a lot of statistics of negative morals with our American children of today.He does not allow the reader to make his or her own educated decision without giving anything to go on except the negative statistics that Skyes has provided. Skyes tries to convince the readers that it is not just the schools but parents, media, and church that are to blame for the way American kids are. In addition he has proven his racism with comments he has slipped in trying to sway the reader to think that other children are better than the American child. This excerpt makes me exceptionally angry with Skyes who makes me think that he is all holier than thou.Skyes knocks down the very country he lives in. He makes some very interesting points about the way children â€Å"may† think, but I do not agree with him. I feel that the American children are right where they are supposed to be. These issues have always been. If he really wants a change, Skyes needs to include all the good that could be going on and not leaving teachers, parent, and clergy members feeling helpless. This excerpt was poorly thought out and Skyes really needs to reevaluate his own morals and social issues.

The Law of Agency and the Power of Attorney Case Study

The Law of Agency and the Power of Attorney - Case Study Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that in the case of Francis Gagnon, Joan her daughter and Frank Gagnon the son, it is clear that Joan had the right and authority for the transfer of Shelburne property under her creation and control. First, once the power of Attorney has been signed, it holds and in the event of revocation, then the agent must be served with a copy of the signed revocation documents. In the case stated, it is evident that Francis Gagnon’s revocation was never told to Joan explicitly, and, therefore, the power of Attorney still holds. Secondly, according to the power of Attorney, any decision that an agent makes on behalf of the principle stands. Additionally, Frank Gagnon never incapacitated for any reason, to revoke the already signed power of Attorney. Based on such a perspective, it is sufficiently clear that the revocation of the power of attorney was unlawful. Since an agent should always act in place of the principle, the property had, therefore , be transferred to the trust, and, therefore, was the trust’s property.

Module 1 Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Module 1 Case - Essay Example The analysis phase comes first, and it is chiefly concerned with requirement gathering, and that is directly related to business opportunities and needs. It provides the direction for the systems design to follow in achieving the goal of the business. Design, on the other hand, has its primary concern in the construction of the system physically.Its phases and tasks are focused on the aspect of a business model (Abramovici & Stark, 2013). With respect to information technology, a business analyst is usually dealing with issues concerning the development of software or enhancement issue. He does this to resolve various problems that are associated with processes and also functions that exist within an organization. Software development is one of the fields that continue to grow rapidly despite the fact that economic development is slowing down. The Business Analyst may that find his or her profession is in very high demand, as the firms incorporate various functions in order to employ adequate technology to cut down cost (Hoffman, Frederick & Schwartz, 2013). There are some cases in the system development life-cycle (SDLC) may be needed. The role of the business analyst is imperative, therefore, user acceptance testing (UAT) methodologies are essential tools on that are on the road to ensure that there is project completion. The most important key to the success of a business analyst is the ability to treat internal departments, stakeholders and vendors as equity partners that are in a team with the main focus being on ensuring that the project on information technology is completed. One should have a vision of the present situation that a project is primarily designed to solve and the outcomes that the stakeholders are expecting. The major challenge for the business analyst is to try and resolve the problem that exists between the current status quo and also the outcome that is expected. This is seen as the main area

Globalization and Its Main Characteristics Essay

Globalization and Its Main Characteristics - Essay Example Reich (1998) defined globalization as â€Å"a process through which events, decisions and activities in one part of the world can come to have a significant consequence for individuals and communities in quite distant parts of the globe (Reich, 1998, p.5). It is the process through which economies, societies, and cultures are exchanging their resources for mutual benefits. Moreover it is the process which integrate global network of political, technological, economical and cultural ideas through communication, transportation, and trade. In short, globalization is an effort to bring all the people in this world under one umbrella. This paper analyses the different characteristics of globalization. Globalization succeeded in bringing many social, political and economical changes in the world. It is intended for decreasing the gap between; rich and poor, different religious beliefs, different political and social ideologies etc. Poor countries may have many resources, but they may not have the infrastructure or technological expertise to exploit it. Globalization can help such poor countries to mobilize their resources more effectively with the cooperation from rich countries. For example, it is quite possible that oil resources are available in many of the poor countries. However these countries may not have the technological expertise or financial abilities to explore oil in their coastal regions. Rich countries can help such poor countries in exploring oil resources in their territory as a result of globalization. Thus, both the countries will be benefitted from their mutual cooperation. It is illogical for a poor country to keep their valuable natural resources untouched wh ile striving for progress. According to Lauder et al (2006), many people tempted to think globalization as the â€Å"process of transportation of jobs, ethnic and cultural composition of nations etc from one country to another† (Lauder et al, 2006, p.32).

Total SA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Total SA - Essay Example The investors generate dividends from their investments. Investors receive dividends based on the prior year’s net income performance. With higher net income, the investors will automatically receive higher dividends (Warren, 2009). Further, the investors can also generate gains from the selling of their TOTAL SA investments (Crosson, 2011). If the investors are able to sell their investments at a bid price that is higher than the investors’ cost of investing in the TOTAL SA stocks, the investors generate gains. When economic depression or unfavorable economic constraints crop up, the investors may be persuaded to sell their investments in TOTAL SA investments at prices at an amount that is lower than the investment price. When this occurs, the investors generate stock exchange losses (DuBrin, 2009). TOTAL SA Company’s structure in relation the organisation’s goals, aims and objectives. The TOTAL SA organisation structure fittingly enhances the accomplishm ent of organizational s goal, aims and objectives (Daft, 2011). With more investors, the amount of investment is higher. The investors’ money plus TOTAL SA Company’s use of long term loans increase the amount of assets. The TOTAL SA Company maximizes the total assets to generate revenues (Weetman, 2006). Further, the stockholders’ investments and loans ensure accomplishment of the company’s goal, aims and objectives (Ferrrell, 2010). The company is able to establish oil and natural gas exploration development contracts in different strategic locations around the world. The cash inflows from loans and stockholders’ investments are successfully used to refine petrochemicals. The same finance amounts are used to manufacture the chemical product needs of the TOTAL SA Company’s current and future customers (Nutt, 2010). Specifically, the TOTAL SA Company specicalises in selling elastomer-based products (Total, 2012). The company also sells adhesi ve products. Another major product of TOTAL SA Company is classified as electroplating items. The bulk of the company’s profitable products falls under the petroleum market segment. The investments are used to foster company’s trading and shipping of petroleum chemical finished goods (products). Moreover, the investments and loan amounts are used to sell the finished goods (Baumol, 2009). The raw petroleum extracts are processed into finished goods. The TOTAL SA Company finished goods include the top selling Liquefied Petroleum Gas products. Another finished product is home heating gas. A third finished product is asphalt petroleum products. The fourth finished good type, asphalt, is used in the paving of the highways and smaller roads. The fifth finished good classification, lubricants, is a very popular lubricating product group (Total, 2012). Further, the investments and loans are used to generate a big share of the global energy market segment. The funds are used t o realize generating an increase of 2.5 percent production output every year (Total, 2012). The funds are used to maximize the company’s scarce asset resources. The scarce resources are used to expand the oil production facilities (Fabozzi, 2011). The company continues to set up new oil production facilities in new oil fields. The investments and loans are used to quickly set into motion cost reduction activities. With cost reduction, the

Why Business Law is significant and how it impacts our lives Essay

Why Business Law is significant and how it impacts our lives - Essay Example Laws are mainly formulated by the governments and also as a result of court decisions. That is, when a particular form of human activity is carried out by a group of people, there will be inconsistencies as well as violations, which could negatively affect the group themselves as well as other stakeholders including other groups or individuals. To prevent those issues, governments has come up with certain standard rules and regulations in the form of laws on how to carry out the human activity positively without negative impacts on the people. This is quite applicable to the key human activity of businesses because its survival and success mainly depends on how it treats or manages or entices its consumer. So, business laws relating to consumer care are the main laws, which maximally impact our lives. Each business law will stipulate the organizations on how to manufacture the products, on how to pack it, on how to market it or sell it, etc, etc. Although, each organization will have unique and different manufacturing processes, the basic point, is they need to follow certain laws as well as standards stipulated by the laws to ensure that the manufactured goods or offered service is of optimum quality and without any risks to the consumer. However, if there are any faults in the product or service after it reaches the consumer, due to faults or deficiency in any aspect of the organizational functioning, then also those business laws can be used by the affected consumer in the court of law. The laws can be used to get a simple apology to getting apt replacement for the deficient product or even financial compensation. Thus, it is clear that business laws maximally impacts our lives in a positive and helpful manner. Actually, the governments and other authorities will come up with laws including business laws based on common good, and it will be available to us all the time.

Consolidating U.S. and Foreign subsidiary financial statements Research Paper

Consolidating U.S. and Foreign subsidiary financial statements - Research Paper Example Is Consolidating U.S. and Foreign-based Financial Statements Hides Useful Information? The author makes a conclusion that consolidating U.S. and foreign-based financial statements withholds some information to both the public and their foreign counterparts. This is evident in many situations within their many business transactions and statements. The first case where crucial information about financial statements is masked is while translating foreign currency. According to the author, the literature that shows foreign currency translation is usually categorized into four groups. The first group shows surveys issues related to the many changes that occur in the management behavior. The second, on the other hand researches on effects that come after using alternative methods of translating financial statements. The third literature is one which studies the market and the many emerging behaviors related to market patterns, and the final study reveals different preferences that are used as translating methods, this is done by making early adoption and embracing SFAS. However, studies that are made in the first category, a study were conducted on almost 70 Multinational Companies from different parts of USA. It was found out that that most management of these companies were not speculative and were very defensive as far as rate variations were concerned and were not willing to give comprehensive reports about their translational losses. It seems like these managements felt more insecure by giving out real financial statements about their standing financial status (Rodriguez 70). In respect to this, they were ready to pay big costs which would be much higher than the existing average exchange depreciation. Houston in a different report states that managements of MNCs tend to decrease their financial exposure as they adopt SFAS # 52 (Houston 52). They have been very unpleased with the newly passed translational rules as they advocate for financial openness and transp arency (Choi 54). This is a clear indication that most Multinational Companies to a greater extent hide some important financial information that relates to their current financial status. Example 2: If there exists a foreign debt to equity ratio of 5 in the US and the parent company’s ratio is 1.25, the two of them shows different market positions at different time. Though the ratios seem vastly different from one another, it may be said that they are healthy. This is always in reference to the environment at that particular period of time. This consolidated ratio however, is given to be 2. Practically, this number is too low for a good financial environment and it can be said to be extremely high in USA. Thus, the consolidated debt in elation to prevailing equity ratio does not give us the reality in the two environments. It is clear that it contains very little and insignificant knowledge, which in fact, might be misleading. The only best way that can be employed to clearl y interpreted and analyze this debt to equity ratio is through disaggregate, which means, consolidating, and later interpreting separate numbers in respect to particular environments (Rodriguez 92). In a nutshell, consolidating US and foreign financial statements masks some of its important information. This has been proved to be true by the many cases where transparent in as far as release of

Case study for Strategic Management Research Paper

Case study for Strategic Management - Research Paper Example The business that HP has generated in the highly competitive market of information technology is remarkable. There are many competitors globally but HP has performed better in 2006. HP is known for its innovative products. As a global company, HP evolved with their innovative product development. HP has its own organizational structure based upon the business segment. There has been a continuous growth of sales, EPS (earning per share) and net revenue. The channel of distribution emphasizes upon the collaboration of various business partners. The objective of sales and marketing policies are through programs that perk up profit margins. In the segment of technology, there is a huge competition as there are many competitors. Dell Inc, Mac, IBM, Canon, and many other players are present to compete in the global market. HP and many other corporations were competing in the market; and among all DELL was the strong competitor. China has shown the largest consumption pattern in the computer segment. The focus should be towards the Chinese market. Toshiba has been able to create a market in China. HP should also compete with Toshiba in the computer section. The technology merchandise PLC (product life cycle) are of shorter span of time. Consumers expect more out of technology and unique products with different features. There are brands that provide the new concept of technical merchandises. But HP has been successful in providing unique products that have been developed through their efforts in R&D and innovative thinking. The market for the technical devices is not restricted to single or several segment of market. This enters at all the segments and with better policy, the higher market share can be obtained. In technological market, there are many choices of products in different segment operating nationally or internationally. The product features and the brand create the difference and there lies the

God and Mephistopheles Essay Example for Free

God and Mephistopheles Essay In the prologue of Faust, Mephisto entered into agreement with the Lord. What are the terms of the agreement, and how does he go about attempting to win? What exactly does achieve in the process? In the beginning of the tragedy there is a dialogue between God and Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles says that people can’t use their mind in the right way. God argues and gives an example of Faust’s serving to Him and to people. Then Mephistopheles asks permission to put Faust on any trial because he wants to prove that Faust will fail. He obtains such permission but God is sure that Faust will feel the right way and that he will be saved. So, the struggle for Faust’s soul begins. As Faust is anxious about finding the highest sense of life, Mephistopheles wants to show the delights to Faust. They deal that if the scientist wants a moment to stay forever, he will be Mephistopheles’ servant. He tries to tempt him with the help of beautiful women Margaret and then Helen, but Faust can’t get a full happiness with them. The author reveals this idea by Helen’s words while her disappearing: â€Å"Alas, the ancient word proves true for me, as well: That joy and beauty never lastingly unite. † Mephistopheles also tries to arouse Faust’s desire to glory and worship but these attempts have no success. Finally Faust wishes the moment to stay forever, but Mephistopheles doesn’t win. It happens when he is building dam in order to help the people who suffer from floods. This wish is altruistic and that’s why Faust is saved. He finds the highest sense of life in common action that is necessary for everybody and that is realized by everybody. Outline some of the themes in Faust, and explain one briefly. In my opinion, it is possible to outline such themes of the tragedy as struggle between good and evil that occurs at global and private levels, the failure of the human ambitions to control and to change the nature and the natural phenomenon, the eternal search of the highest sense of life. The last theme is the main one of the tragedy, because Faust is anxious about getting absolute happiness. The temptations that Mephistopheles proposed to Faust couldn’t bring real and lasting joy. It means that people can hardly be happy when they rely on the things that pass soon as feeling in love and using the power upon people and glory. Feeling in love is wonderful, but it doesn’t guarantee the happiness. People are selfish and they do harm to their nearest very often. The example of the relationships between Faust and Margaret confirms this thought, because the main character’s selfish desire was a reason of Margaret death and the murders of her mother, child and brother. So, the idea of serving to people is contrasted to the selfish wishes of people. Faust was saved because his final deed was philanthropic. By the example of Faust Goethe shows us that a person always feel deep inside what is right and what is wrong but unfortunately it doesn’t mean that everybody finds the true sense of life. Compare and contrast the uses and/or criticism of religion in Hamlet and Faust. The Hamlet’s problem contains more philosophic and social aspects than religious ones. He struggles with the time he lives in and tries to improve it but he fails. Unsuccessful attempts of changing the world that doesn’t fit with Hamlet’s ideals results his fatalism and the final events of the tragedy. Hamlet doubts in the right of the events of global concern and that’s why his attitude towards religion is also doubtful. In his main monologue Hamlet supposes that death is a means of solving the problems of life. This thought doesn’t fit to the Christian ideas which had to be close for him. To my mind, the ideas of â€Å"Faust† are opposite to the ones of â€Å"Hamlet†. Goethe develops the plot of the tragedy with the help of such characters as God and Mephistopheles that demonstrates the authors’ persuasion that people are ruled by the supernatural essences. The fact that Faust is working on New Testament’s translation also reveals the idea of constant interaction between people and God. Goethe thinks that serving to people and serving to God are equal virtues. The fact that Mephistopheles couldn’t win the agreement also confirms the religious idea of constant victory of good. The main characters of the world literature’s masterpieces Hamlet and Faust are compared with each other frequently. Their personalities are alike because both of them try to struggle with the world order and challenge the destiny. Faust is going to know all the secrets of nature and his way to improve his own life and the whole world is scientific. What about Hamlet, he broadens the tragedy of his family to a global scale that’s why his thoughts about injustice concern not only his uncle but the human’s life. The first of act of Hamlet reveals that the ghost of his father assigns Hamlet an ambiguous duty. What are these duties, and using the text effectively, explain the one you think Hamlets satisfied? In the first act Hamlet knows from the Ghost of his father that he was killed and the Ghost asks him to revenge to Hamlet’s uncle for this murder. Though, the most important thing while revenging is to keep the soul innocent: â€Å"But, howsoever thou pursuest this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught†¦Ã¢â‚¬  To my mind, Hamlet couldn’t execute such necessary conditions. Finally he revenges to Claudius, but as a result not only Hamlet’s mother died. Ophelia, Laertes, Polonius also became victims of the revenge. In the beginning the Hamlet’s soul doubted about the ways of the vengeance and he suffered a lot from these doubts, but the view of warriors has a great influence on him. The warriors are going to fight because of the land that their ruler doesn’t want to rent. The fact that twenty thousands of people are going to die because the honor of the king is wounded makes him decide that his thoughts and actions should be bloody and ruthless. He can’t keep his soul clear because, to my mind, his fault for the deaths of people that are close to him finally destroys his conscience.