Monday, December 23, 2019

Racial Inequality And Discrimination Is A Major Factor

Racial inequality and discrimination is a major factor that is still present in America’s society today. Considering the fact that America’s history of racial complications is still an issue in today’s society. Minorities (African American, Asian Americans, Hispanics/Latinos) which is accounted for almost half of the population if combined, are the ones that face discrimination the most, typically everywhere they go and especially in the workforce. They are not treated as equally as everyone else and for that, it is a problem that should never be overlooked. From a societal standpoint, these stereotypes that would identify and categorize others is one of the contributing factors that make society judge and discriminate others. To name a†¦show more content†¦The article â€Å"Workplace Racial Discrimination and Middle Class Vulnerability† by Vincent J. Roscigno and his group, conducted a research study based on minority vulnerability pertaining to employment and examining patterns of discrimination against middle class African Americans specifically. The minority vulnerability thesis suggests that â€Å"segregation, job networks, and ostensibly race neutral employer decision making continue to put minority workers in situations of vulnerability when it comes to hiring, mobility, and firing† (Roscigno). An example of this would be that if employers were to choose between whites and blacks with both criminal and no criminal records, then they will most likely to pick whites with a criminal record over blacks without a criminal record. Based on the results, they concluded that African Americans have long experienced work place discriminations. The status, work skills, and job context could somehow offer some protection, but from the results of the research suggest (to be on the safe side) that African Americans should be cautious on policies as they are more likely to lose their job through â€Å"discriminating firing† (Roscigno). A study by Marianne Betrand and Sendhil Mullainathan explains how much racial discrimination there are in the United States labor market. Researchers would start to randomly assign resumesShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Islamophobia On The Past And Present1326 Words   |  6 PagesTo begin, social inequality in the past or present lead to chaotic consequences. Individual freedom of begin equal among started to vanish. Islamophobia began when the 9/11 terrorist attack occurred. After the 9/11 attack the development of the fear of Islamophobia began. In September 11, 2001, there was a terrorist attack and that took down the Twin Towers (Holman Silver, 2011, p. 483). Thus, this is a point of significant because this was the beginning of the major crisis of Islamophobia inRead MoreRacial Inequality797 Words   |  4 PagesRacial inequality is regrettably imbedded in the history of the United States. Americans like to think of the American colonies as the start or founding of the quest for freedom, initially, the ending of religious oppression and later political and economic liberty. Yet, from the start, the fabric of American society was equally founded on brutal forms of supremacy, inequality and oppression which involved the absolute denial of freedom for slaves. This is one of the great paradoxes of American historyRead MoreA Brief Note On Racial And Ethnic Inequality1656 Words   |  7 PagesElizabeth Rubio Professor Alvarez Sociology 180 March 16, 2016 Racial and Ethnic Inequality What is racial and ethnic inequality? To understand racial and ethnic inequality you must understand what is considered race and what is considered ethnicity. According to our textbook, â€Å"Race can be defined as a group or population that shares a set of genetic characteristics and physical features† meanwhile ethnic groups â€Å"are set off to some degree from other groups by displaying a unique set of culturalRead MoreRace Relations And Social Inequality1610 Words   |  7 Pagesdiscuss social inequality related to race relations. By comparing two articles â€Å"Ethno-Racial Attitudes and Social Inequality† and â€Å"What happens before? A field experiment exploring how pay and representation differentially shape bias on the pathway into organizations† this paper will explore racial social injustices with the intent to showcase the thinking about race relations and social inequality. Points of Interest Racial inequality is a volatile andRead MoreIs America A Post Racial Society?1431 Words   |  6 Pages Many individuals have argued that America is a post-racial society. However, as a nation that as yet to be achieved. Even though, we have a biracial president does not mean that we have yet to achieve the status of all races being equal. We still live in a system that contains one superior group while other racial groups remain inferior. The United states have yet to understand why we have two nations in America. In addition, examining how to combat and prevent those issues that are place by barriersRead MoreDiscuss How Race and Ethnicity Perpetuate Inequality in Australia1192 Words   |  5 Pagestolerance and integration. Proud of a society where one can reap in financial or social status rewards through sheer hard work Ââ€" where the nature of ones race or ethnicity is not a factor. Bessant (2002) said racist attitudes are alive and well today. The concepts of ‘race and ‘ethnicity perpetuate inequality for people who are considered different from the dominant group. This essay will show how race and ethnicity are at a disadvantage to equally accessing resources in Australia, such asRead MoreHealth Disparities And Health Care For Minorities917 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction Racial bias in medicine leads to worse care for minorities is an article from U.S News world report on the website http://health.usnews.com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2016-02-11/racial-bias-in-medicine-leads-to-worse-care-for-minorities. In this article, the experience of a medical doctor is used to shed light on the subject of racial bias/ discrimination in health care and how it is affecting health outcome of racial and ethnic minority. â€Å"Race or ethnic group is a major socialRead MoreEssay Ethnic Inequality in Health Care1723 Words   |  7 Pagesof this essay is to firstly give an overview of the existence of inequalities of health related to ethnicity, by providing some evidence that ethnic inequality in health is a reality in the society and include definitions of keywords. Secondly, I will bring forward arguments for and against on the major sociological explanations (racial discrimination, arefact, access to and quality of care) for the existence of health inequalities related to ethnicity. Thirdly, I would also like to take the knowledgeRead MoreRacial Inequality : Not Much Has Changed1403 Words   |  6 PagesRacial Inequality in America; Not Much Has Changed There are approximately 7 billion people in this world. Each person has a unique combination of traits such as skin tone, face shape, body type, eye color, hair color, and other characteristics. These traits vary due to genetics, environmental factors, and much more. An individual s race is defined by their physical characteristics and how they differ among others. Race is not defined by the way an individual behaves or portrays themselfes; itRead MoreSegregation And Effects On African American Communities1523 Words   |  7 PagesAgassi, â€Å"blacks are not created equal†, and he claims that they’re not fit to live in the same society as whites. This research essay attempts to inform readers on some major systemic issues that are prevalent today. Segregation is the reason why there is so much inequality among black and white communities. Segregation causes inequality for minorities and blacks in particular, they are deprived of important goods and services that are not offered and distributed fairly (Anderson). The areas of these

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Nursing Theorist Grid Free Essays

Nursing Theorist Grid Use grid below to complete the Week 4-Nursing Theorists assignment. Please see the â€Å"Nursing Theorists’ Grading Criteria† document, located on the Materials page of the student Web site. Name: Thomas Miller Theorist Selected: Ida Orlando Description of Theory: â€Å"Orlando’s theory is a reflective practice that is based on discovering and resolving problematic situations† (Alligood, 2010, p. We will write a custom essay sample on Nursing Theorist Grid or any similar topic only for you Order Now 339). This theory is focused on defining the nurse-patient relationship. According to Orlando, the main function of nursing is to determine the needs of the patient and ensure that these needs are met, whether by the nurse or by others. The patient will have verbal and nonverbal behaviors that clue the nurse into the nature of his or her problems. The nurse must explore these behaviors with the patient to determine the needs that must be met to resolve the problematic situation that the patient presents with. The nurse must also be aware of his or her reactions to the cues the patient presents and must validate these reactions with the patient. It is always possible for the nurse to misinterpret the behaviors of a patient, and form incorrect ideas about what the patient needs. Validating the behaviors with the patient ensures that the nurse can fulfill the function of nursing, which is to find and meet the patient’s immediate need for help in the immediate situation which results in improvement (Alligood, 2010). The success of the help provided can be evaluated by observing for improvement in the patient’s verbal and nonverbal behavior. These behaviors must also be validated with the patient. This makes this theory dynamic and collaborative. Theory’s Historical background: Orlando developed her theory in the 1950s after receiving grants for studies integrating mental health concepts into nursing education. This was the first inductively developed nursing theory. Orlando recorded nurse patient interactions over three years and categorized her records as â€Å"good† or â€Å"bad† nursing (Alligood, 2010). Orlando conducted a second study where she â€Å"assessed the relevance of earlier formulations, educated and evaluated nurses in the use of her formulations, and tested the validity of the theory formulations† (Alligood, 2010, p. 338). This helped her validate her original observations and to extend â€Å"her theory to include the entire nursing practice system† (Alligood, 2010, p. 338). Major theory assumptions related to: Define according to theorist:| How does this concept relate to nursing practice? | How does this concept relate to nursing education? | PersonTo Orlando, a person is a unique individual with his or her own behaviors and perceptions that are related to the context in which those behaviors and perceptions occur. Each person has his or her own needs that must be met and these needs change depending on the context and perceptions of that person. Each person is also the only one able verify if his or her behavior means what it appears to mean. In the context of the nurse-patient relationship, a person is an individual who needs help in order to have his or her needs met. The unique patient behavior provides cues to indicate the needs that must be met. | â€Å"Improvement, according to Orlando (1990), is the goal of the nursing process† (Faust, 2002, p. 15). Because the individual is unique, each patient must be approached for validation of his or her behaviors separately. The nurse cannot make assumptions of one person’s behaviors based on what they learned from another patient with the same behaviors. It also means that â€Å"patient behavior requires assessment at the time it occurs† (Faust, 2002, p. 15). It is possible that the same behavior occurring at different times means different things. The nurse must always validate the meaning of behaviors with the patient before attempting to meet the needs of the patient to ensure the correct needs are being met. | This is an important concept for nursing education. Nurses are educated on how to plan for the care of a patient. The goal of nursing is patient improvement by meeting the needs of the patient. It is impossible to meet the needs of the patient if the nurse does not know the needs of the patient. Nurses must be educated to validate patient behaviors with the patient. Nurses must also be educated to be aware of their own feelings about patient behaviors and how to avoid making assumption about the needs of the patient. Nurses must learn to recognize the uniqueness of every individual and how behaviors can mean different things in different contexts. | HealthOrlando did not clearly define health. It is possible to infer what Orlando considered health to be from her writings. According to Faust (2002, p. 15), â€Å"health is the result of a patient’s needs being met. † This means that for a person to be healthy, they must be in a state where all their needs are met or are capable of being met. If their needs are not met, they are in a problematic situation and have an immediate need for help from the nurse. Improvement of this problematic situation results in the patient being restored to a state of health. This is the goal of the nurse-patient relationship. | Improving the patient’s problematic situation and restoring the patient to a state of health is the goal of nursing. This can only be done by finding and meeting the patient’s immediate needs. â€Å"It is the nurse’s responsibility to meet the patient’s need for help either by supplying it directly or by calling on the services of others† (Schmieding, 1987, p. 432). The important thing about this for the nursing process is to take this in a systematic approach. The nurse must first determine what needs the patient has before planning how to meet those needs. The nurse plans the appropriate activities to help the patient and return him or her to a state of health. This concept of health means that nurses must be educated to focus on the needs of the patient and validating these needs with the patient. Nurse education for restoring a state of health should not be focused on tasks to perform, but on forming relationships to discover what the patient needs to maintain his or her health or to return to a healthy state. Although the tasks are important, nursing education must focus on how nurses choose the correct tasks to help the patient. Nurses must also be educated on how to recognize whether he patient has an immediate need for help or not. Nursing â€Å"Nursing is an interaction with people who have an immediate need for help – the subsequent relief of distress. Stress relief provides improvement, leading to a sense of well-being† (Faust, 2002, p. 16). The goal of nursing is to discover and meet the patient’s immediate needs for help. Nursing is â€Å"†¦concerned with providing direct assistance to individuals in whatever setting they are found, for the purpose of avoiding, relieving, diminishing, or curing the individual’s sense of helplessness† (Alligood, 2010, p. 339). Nursing is a process in which the nurse determines if the patient has an immediate need, what that need truly is, and plans actions to meet that need. | The nurse must develop a therapeutic relationship with the patient by validating the patient’s behaviors and not making assumptions about the behaviors. â€Å"In Orlando’s theory, nurse–patient interaction involvesreciprocity; making the relationship dynamic and collaborative† (Sheldon Ellington, 2008, p. 390). This means the nurse must evaluate constantly and validate patient behaviors. It is imperative for the nurse to determine what the patient actually needs in order to plan interventions to meet the needs. The nurse must also be aware that each behavior is unique within the context in which it occurs. This means that each behavior must be assessed and validated when it happens to avoid making assumptions about the patient’s needs. | Learning to perform this process correctly should start early in the education process. It takes practice to do this correctly. â€Å"Finding out and meeting the patient’s immediate needs for help becomes an acquiredway of thinking† (Schmieding, 1987, p. 32). This process needs to become automatic for the nurse. He or she must be able to recognize their own internal feelings and overcome them to avoid making assumptions. Nursing education needs to take this into account and help student nurses practice this concept early and often. Nursing education must also teach proper communication techniques so that nurses w ill be comfortable and able to validate patient behaviors with the patient. | EnvironmentThe environment is the context in which the patient’s problem exists and his or her behavior manifests. Orlando does not clearly define environment, but relates it to the immediate situation. â€Å"A disruption in the environment creates a problematic situation. At that moment the person experiences an organic response† (Schmieding, 1987, p. 434). Orlando calls this an immediate reaction. This immediate reaction to the environment causes the problematic situation that the patient needs help with. The patient may have needs based on his or her environment that is not being met that result in the problematic situation. This results in the patient seeking help. â€Å"Environment is part of any nurse-patient interaction, because it is involved in all nursing situations. To help a patient, it may be necessary to take action related to the environment† (Faust, 2002, p. 16). The nurse may have to educate the patient to avoid things in his or her environment. This has implications for Orlando’s theory because this will involve fully assessing the patient’s needs and validating his or her behaviors relating to their environment. The nurse must determine if the environment is interfering with meeting the patient’s needs. If this is the case, the nurse must act to deal with the environmental problem. This may involve educating the patient or enlisting the aid of others to help the patient overcome his or her environmental barriers. | This is another case in which nurses need early and frequent practice. Nurses do not often consider the patient’s environment when planning care. Many patients do not consider their environment as a cause of their problems, either. It is the responsibility of the nurse to determine if this is a problem. Nurses must learn how to validate patient behaviors appropriately and assess the needs of the patient. Nurses must learn how to interact with patients to draw this information out. This takes practice and should be done early in an educational setting. Practicing this skill is important so that it will become a habit for the nurse. | References Alligood, M. R. (2010). Nursing theory: Utilization ; application  (4th ed. ). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database Faust, C. (2002). Orlando’s deliberative nursing process theory: A practice application in an extended care facility. Journal of Gerontological Nursing,  28(7), 14-18. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/204155222? accountid=35812; http://linksource. ebsco. om/linking. aspx? genre=articleissn=00989134volume=28issue=7date=2002-07-01spage=14title=Journal+of+Gerontological+Nursingatitle=Orlando%27s+deliberative+nursing+process+t Schmieding, N. (1987). Problematic situations in nursing: analysis of Orlando’s theory based on Dewey’s theory of inquiry. Journal Of Advanced Nursing,  12(4), 431-440. doi:10. 1111/1365-2648. ep13107529 Sheldon, L. , Ellington, L. (2008). Application of a model of social information processing to nursing theory: how nurses respond to patients. Journal Of Advanced Nursing,  64(4), How to cite Nursing Theorist Grid, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Teaching Reflection Paper free essay sample

Teaching is a unique profession in today’s workplace. It is an occupation that will not give you a promotion very easily based on performance. It is also an occupation that can be seen as something that is not highly enough reimbursed for the impact it has on the lives of young people. A teacher needs an incredible passion for children/adolescents in order to be an effective educator. The way a teacher runs their classroom has the potential to be a huge part of a student’s life and an even greater part in the effect the student has on the kids. There are distinct advantages and disadvantages to the teaching profession. Advantages include working with the children that educators are so passionate about every day and having the chance to meet an incredible amount of new people year after year. Some of the disadvantages are, most obviously to the public eye, salary as well as certain students who are apathetic toward learning or participating. These pros and cons are similar to those that go along with every profession in this country and they require you to strive for the good times and work through the bad ones. Working with children every day can be an incredible experience. Most evidently in elementary schools, kids have such a passion for learning. They love their teacher, they love school, and they love learning new things so they can go home and tell their parents they learned to multiply today. As the students get older, although it is harder to recognize the passion for learning, the ‘aha’ moments are that much more rewarding. There must be no feeling like working through a rough time with a student while they try and try to work through the conflict and seeing it through until the end. The reward a teacher gets from that moment when you see them completely through the problem they were having is unlike anything most people ever experience in their lives. Most people see it in their children but only teachers have the ability to have that same effect on hundreds or thousands of kids over their careers. Salary is certainly an issue in the education profession. It is not fair that people who spend their time shaping students in to the human being they will grow up to be get paid lower than almost all other positions in the country. Outside of people directly affected by these educators, nobody can understand what importance they actually have on the student’s futures. They can make or break their morals, understanding of respect, and even their future grasp on knowledge in general. Without teachers our society would be in an incredible amount of turmoil and it would be in a hole so big it may be irreversible. Working with so many different students can be a life changing experience for not only the students who receive the blessings from the teacher but for the teachers who get so many of their own blessings from their students who unknowingly give and give and give. Meeting new people every year is a great experience. A teacher has the opportunity to meet over one-hundred new people each year. That is not to mention all the kids parents at conferences or any new faces they see in the workplace. Meeting so many people and having an opportunity to impact that many lives is an impossibly awesome situation for educators. Teachers are in a position to drastically improve society of the future and the teachers who actually are extremely passionate toward the kids will certainly be taking steps in the right direction. Student apathy has been an issue for as long as there have been people trying to teach other people. It goes with the job and it is something every educator needs to figure out how to work with and get past. It is an unfortunate part of the profession, but can be seen as an opportunity to work through conflicts and give the students the same respect they need throughout the process. Working through the students who do not want to learn, participate, or even be in the classroom, is a challenge and a blessing. It makes teachers realize how lucky they have been that not every student is like that, or that they still get to have those students who are as passionate about learning as the teacher is about teaching. Although a disadvantage of teaching, student apathy can also put things into perspective in a good way for educators. As teaching becomes a more recognized profession, maybe it will also become more glorious. Even with all the positives to the profession there are certainly enough disadvantages that need to be worked on. The bottom line is it is not a job that someone should just get into because he or she needs a job. It is an occupation that requires patience, understanding, and most importantly passion. It is not a job for everybody but for those who do enjoy the impact they have on the lives of these students it can be the most rewarding experience on the planet.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Pronouns Revisited

Many writers have trouble selecting the right pronouns when they are writing about a specific group or individual members of that group. You should always use singular pronouns for singular nouns. Really. A breed of dog is singular, as is a company. If you are writing about a pet monkey, the pet monkey can be referred to as â€Å"he† or â€Å"she† . . . or even â€Å"it†. The monkey won’t mind. But your editor (who may or may not be a monkey) will mind if you refer to the monkey as â€Å"they.† Correct: A pet monkey can be very high maintanence. It will live a long time. Pet monkeys can be very high-maintanence creatures. They also live a long time. Incorrect: A pet monkey can be very high maintenance. They can live a long time. Another faux-pas in the writing world is using the pronoun â€Å"one,† when you should be using â€Å"he† or â€Å"she.† Using â€Å"one† is old fashioned and stuffy sounding, as in: When one is out calling, one must leave calling cards. Use â€Å"he† or â€Å"she† â€Å"he/she† can be cumbersome; the reader will forgive you for choosing one or the other in order to sound up-to-date on writing trends. (â€Å"They† is becoming more accepted, but it still rankles to prescriptivists.) If you’re addressing the audience, it’s also perfectly acceptable to refer to your reader as â€Å"you.† This sounds personable and makes your article accessible to the reader. Examples: A quilter will want to make sure she chooses a pattern before selecting fabrics. The favorite political candidate may not always win. He may have to wait until next term to run for office again. Your poodle will need proper grooming. Have a sweater handy if she must go outside in cold weather. (Or, to revisit the idea in the first part of this post: A snake is a popular pet. It will not keep you warm at night, but it it will amaze you with its ability to swallow live rats whole.) What do you do in the event of a food shortage? Do you stockpile food, grow your own vegetables, or take to the streets and join your community in a riot? If you have any questions about using pronouns, please ask in the forum, and our friendly community of writers and editors will answer them or point you in the direction of resources that will help you with your own writing. Interested in more tips like this? Check out the Content Writer’s Guide to Grammar, Punctuation and Structure.

Monday, November 25, 2019

The eNotes Blog A Writers Haven 5 Authors Writing SpacesReimagined

A Writers Haven 5 Authors Writing SpacesReimagined As bibliophiles can attest, we  are all  intrigued by the private lives of our favorite authors, often wondering  about the ways that they worked creatively, and especially  where  they chose to write. For many, the choice was obvious, their office or bedroom a personal space for reflection and inspiration. At , we are really interested in embracing creativity and developing tips for success in school and work spaces. Time and time again we encounter articles noting the importance of having an organized, inspiring space to get to work. As we meditate on how to improve our own spaces, weve found ourselves wondering  how our favorite authors might  decorate their offices today. With this in mind, we  created todays blog post: A Writers Haven. Weve gone through and selected five  famous authors from various time periods and have translated their individual preferences into modern takes on their offices. We had a lot of fun putting these together, and we hope you enjoy checking them out and finding inspiration for your own space. Check em out below! Jane Austen: For Janes office we imagined a light and airy space with lots of natural light and creature comforts. We acknowledged her English roots and incorporate a tea pot, because we think that if any of our favorite authors would have had a tea pot in their office, it would have been her. We like to imagine that if Jane were here today, she would be a bit of an introvert, anxious to re-read the great number of books in her built-in bookcase. Want to learn more about Jane Austen and her writing? Check out this link:  /topics/jane-austen F. Scott Fitzgerald: We think that good ol Fitz would stay true to his Art Deco roots and draw inspiration from Gatsby, so we added lots of pieces with classic deco influences, and incorporated some rather regal accessories to reflect the Jazz Age in which he lived. (Check the desk clock and chandelier, jadore!) If you want to learn more about F. Scott Fitzgerald, check out this link to his biography:  /topics/f-scott-fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway: Hemingway was a world traveler, but he also enjoyed his alone time and the time he spent in the country, because of this, we felt it was important to incorporate both these things when re-imagining his office. By including a map, a travel trunk, and a painting of a ship we think we were properly able to effectively capture his wanderlust. For more information on Ernest Hemingway and his life, check out this link:  /topics/ernest-hemingway Edgar Allan Poe: We think that Poe would be a miserable hipster today, living in a seemingly effortlessly cool loft featuring some rather bizarre and morbid art. He would definitely be the guy that carries around an old typewriter, claiming that it makes his writing more authentic (we would call him more pretentious than authentic). For more information on Edgar Allan Poe and his writing, check out this link:  /topics/edgar-allan-poe Susan Sontag: Susan Sontag, Queen of the Bohemians! This space pays homage to her appreciation for the surreal and eclectic things in life. Sontag was one of the most devoted intellectuals of her time. Her office features a portrait taken by   Annie Leibovitz, her long time partner and friend. For more information on Susan Sontag and her work, check out this link:  /topics/susan-sontag Now that youve had a peek into our imaginings of these spaces, drop us a line letting us know what you think, and tell us about your space, and what inspires you! All these collages were done using Polyvore. For product information follow this link and click on the collage you are curious about!  http://kttrounds.polyvore.com/

Friday, November 22, 2019

An Analysis Into The Uk Food Retail Industry Marketing Essay

An Analysis Into The Uk Food Retail Industry Marketing Essay The analysis will begin with a presentation of the food retail industry and a highlight of its significant features. Furthermore, to assess the remote environment of the industry a PEST analysis will be conducted, analysing the political, economical, social and technological factors that affect the industry. Furthermore, a Porter’s 5 forces analysis will be used to evaluate the operating environment and the nature of competition. Moreover the major competitors and their competition strategies will be identified. Additionally, the effect of the remote and operating environment on the players of the industry will be highlighted. Also, a critical analysis of the industry’s strength and its future will be presented. Finally, a critical evaluation on the used business analysis techniques will be illustrated. 2 .Industry profile The UK food retail industry is an established sector of the UK economy. During the last thirty years the food retail corporations expanded their act ivities to serve various consumer needs. The products that are provided to the public include food and its sub-products, but also alcohol, tobacco, health and beauty products, clothing, electrical products, homeware, fuel and financial services. However, according to the Mintel report 2009, more than half of the total sales in 2008 were assigned to food. Furthermore, concerning the size of the industry an increasing trend of sales can be observed of about 4% per year from 2004 to 2008 and a total amount of 108.1 billion pounds in 2008 (National Statistics – Mintel report 2009). The food retail industry is mainly controlled by large supermarket chains that possess the overwhelming majority of the industry’s market share, as it will be analysed further in the report. Concerning the size diversification of the retail stores, the majority are large units like hypermarkets, supermarkets and discounters with a percentage of 62% of the total number of stores. Furthermore, sma ll units as convenience stores and gas stations represent the 21.2% and food and drink specialists the 11.3%. The minority are drug stores, warehouses and cash and carry stores (Datamonitor 2009). 3. PEST analysis Macro-environment To analyse the macro-environment or otherwise known remote environment of the food retail industry, a PEST analysis will be used to specify how Political and legal, Economical, Social and Technological issues affect the industry. 3.1 Political There are many political and legal factors that affect the food retail industry. Future political decisions concerning taxation or the retail industry legislation will definitely have an impact in the industry competitors’ policies and strategies. The current legislation and regulation concern competition, employment, environmental, food and grocery safety, financial services and health issues. Specifically, the UK food retailers are obliged to follow food hygiene legislation set by the Food Standards Agency and the equivalent European Union regulation such as the General Food Law Regulation. In the UK the food safety act of 1990 was enacted to set the food safety requirements for food intended for human consumption. The Food Standards Agency was created in 2000 after the food standards act of 1999, which was enacted to further secure the public health related to food safety (Office of Public Sector Information, 1999). The UK food retailers are obliged to follow the above regulations in conjunction with the General Food Regulations 2004 that set the rules about the transportation, distribution, quality, hygiene, maintenance, advertising and selling of food and its substances.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Introduction to decision making slp Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Introduction to decision making slp - Assignment Example My direct manager is a low level manager who is in charge of the employees and manages them. He makes operational decisions in the company which are small and deal with the day to day running of the low level affairs in the company. His main role is to report the needs and requirements of the employees to his manager. He is also in charge of the office supplies and his duty is to ensure that the supplies are enough in the office, well distributed, and that each employee maintains (Nutt & Wilson, 2010). His direct manager makes tactical decision and acts as a bridge between my manager and the senior level manager. He handles policy proposals on new products, new technology or new marketing tools. He then hands over the proposals and products to the senior level managers who then make the implementation. He sometimes acts as the human resource manager handling the problems of employees that are minute and do not require the attention of the senior managers. At the very top are senior managers who make strategic decisions which change the direction of affairs within the company and outside. Their decisions are influenced by both internal and external environment. They also work hand in hand with tactical manager to implement the product and project proposals, test new theories and technologies as well as liaise with other companies and the media in case announcements need to be made. The strategic managers are the face of the company as they are the known parties. 2. Give some specific examples of both programmed and non-programmed decisions that you have observed. Give at least one example of each type of decision, and explain why you think this decision falls into this category with references to the background materials. Programmed decisions are those that have been made severally until there is a clear guideline on what steps to take in order to make the decisions. These decisions can be passed down from one

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Politics of the Free Soil Party Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Politics of the Free Soil Party - Essay Example Thus, the parties are in a position of changing the voting patterns in the country since they express the sentiments shared by a particular proportion of the country’s population. On the other hand, most of these third parties do not last for a long period of time since their agenda might be adopted or fail to stand the test of time. One such short-lived party is the Free Soil Party active in the 1848 and 1952 presidential elections of the United States.1 William Leggett, George Henry Evans, and Thomas Morris, part of the group known as â€Å"Dissident Democrats,† were instrumental in the party’s formation by contributing certain arguments crucial in shaping the party’s ideologies. This expose elucidates the role each man played in the formation of the party and effectively identifies the man who greatly influenced the formation of the party and the role he played. Since the formation of the Free Soil Party is synonymous with the Dissident Democrats, it is important to understand the origin of this group. Andrew Jackson is one of the greatest presidents in the history of this country. During his era, commonly referred as the Jacksonian era, Americans felt that there were equal economic opportunities to all citizens. However, prior to his 1837 farewell speech, the president expressed his dissatisfaction with the Bank of the United States saying that it was mainly for the rich people in the country and foreign governments instead of focusing on every citizen of the country.2 Towards the end of his career, support for the outgoing president was high and consequently too was support for his handpicked successor illustrating a scenario that Democrats were one united front. However, discontent simmered across a section of Democrats with some questions some policies by Jackson. Nevertheless, the most surprising disquiet was the loud objection of a few Democrats on the party’s position towards slavery.3 The discontent arose from the p arties policies meant to curtail debate on abolitionism effectively robbing the crusaders of antislavery and its expansion of the most fundamental freedom of expression. While a section of the Democratic leadership lauded the mobs attacking abolitionists in their meetings and in newspapers, general disquiet simmered and effectively solidified support to counter the expansion of slavery.4 In effect, the counter movement to expansion of slavery has been crucial to the history of this country since their efforts led to the current American society that accepts and appreciates diversity. Three antislavery Democrats who broke away from their party in the 1930s were crucial to the formation of the Free Party, a splinter party of the Democratic Party. In this regard, these dissidents provided lines of arguments towards which the party would galvanize its ideals and use them to defend its stance. Of all the Jacksonian politicians, William Leggett was the most eloquent in arguing coherently against the centralized authority embodied by the monopolies, the Money Power, and the fanatical reformers.5 In this case, Leggett focused on arguing against concentrated power that was against the concepts that guide natural law and liberty. Thus, Leggett became the champion and hero to the class of producers that was against capitalism. Effectively, he applied this same ideal in his support for abolitionism after undergoing some form of conversion from being a supporter of abolition, to a firm and committed

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Fedex and UPS Essay Example for Free

Fedex and UPS Essay 1. Accounting Treatments Capital Lease -Lessee Initially, the lessee recognizes the asset under his property, plant and equipment. The amount that should be debited is the Lower of asset’s fair value and present value of minimum lease payments. The present value is determined by discounting minimum lease payments using interest rates implicit in the lease. Also, initial direct cost that the lessee incurs in relation to the lease is added to the cost of recognized asset. On the credit side of the entry should be lease liabilities, which is in fact, some kind of a loan. The lease liabilities should be split into current and noncurrent liabilities as some payments are made within 12 months while others are made after 12 month of the reporting date. Subsequently, there are two things we must take care of. First, we must depreciate the lease asset over the economic life, not over the lease term because that doesn’t necessarily need to be the same. The entry is to debit depreciation expense in profit or loss and credit the accumulated depreciation account. Secondly, we need to allocate the lease liability or minimum lease payments paid to the lessor into two parts; reduction of lease liability and finance charge or interest. IAS 17 requires the finance charge to be allocated so as to produce a constant periodic rate of interest (interest rate implicit in the lease) on the remaining balance sheet liability. (Refer to appendix A for journal entries Capital lease-Lessor The lessor is a finance provider, and therefore records lease receivables as the debit side of the entry. The lease receivable is the net investment in the lease, which is the total of minimum lease payments and unguaranteed residual value. Total of these two figures is gross investment in the lease and we need to discount it to present value using discount rate implicit in the lease and all this must be equal to fair value of the asset plus initial direct cost. The credit side to this entry is simply cash given out by the lessor. Subsequently, we have to split minimum lease payments received from the lessee between reduction of finance lease receivable and finance income similar to what the lessee would do. (Finance income should reflect a constant periodic rate of return on the lessor’s net  investment in the lease.) (Refer to appendix A for journal entries) Operating Lease-Lessee In an operating lease, the lessee does not recognize any asset. The lease payments are recognized as rent expense in profit or loss on a straight-line basis. The journal entries would include a debit to rent expense and credit to cash or accounts payable. (Refer to appendix A for journal entries) Operating -lessor Lease payments received from the lessee are recognized as revenue in profit or loss on a straight-line basis. The lessor keeps the asset on his financial statement and depreciates it in line with its fixed asset accounting policy. (Refer to appendix A for journal entries) Advantages of Operating Lease In an operating lease, the lessee is considered to be renting the equipment and thus the lease payment is recorded as rental expense. No assets or liabilities are recorded on the balance sheet (Off-balance sheet financing). This is beneficial for companies because it will result in a lower asset base, therefore creating a higher ROA. Operating lease will also display more desirable solvency ratios such as lower debt to equity. This off balance sheet method of recording will also produce better debt covenant ratios for the company to show its debt lenders. Moreover, some companies associate management bonuses to certain ratios such as return on capital, which would be more optimal looking if recorded under operating lease. Another major benefit of operating leases is the potential tax benefits. An operating lease may allow the company to deduct payments as operating expenses during the period in which they are paid. If the company purchases equipment, they may be able to deduct the in terest, as well as the cost of the depreciation. 2. Under current Financial Accounting Standards Board regulations, what business arrangements might FedEx have made in order to account for leases as operating leases rather than capital leases? An operating lease is usually coined as anything that is not classified as a finance lease.  Factors that an operating lease may include are: 1. If a lease does not significantly transfer all the risks and rewards, associated with ownership of an asset the lease 2. If the ownership of the asset is more likely to go back to lessor at the end of the term 3. The lessee does not have the option to buy the asset at a cost significantly below the fair value of the asset → ie. a bargain price. The term of the lease is not a major part of the economic life of the lease item. IAS 17 does not explicitly say how much is a major portion however ASPE states that 75% and above is a major portion. 5. If there is little or no risk to the lessee; all major risks are borne by the lessor. An example wo uld be cancellation costs. 6. The leased asset is of common nature; not specialized and can only be used by the lessee. 7. The present value of the total amount of minimum lease payments do not equal or is close to the fair value of the asset leased. Other Additional Criteria can be: 8. Whether fluctuation in fair value at the end of the lease accrue to the lessor 9. If the lessee does not have the option to extend the lease for a secondary period at a â€Å"below the market† price Arrangements FedEx would have to make to disclose the operating lease would include disclosures about: the outstanding payments left for non-cancellable operating leases for the time periods: within one year within two to five years after more than five years the total future minimum sublease income for non-cancellable subleases the lease and sublease payments recognised in income for the period the contingent rent recognised as an expense  the general description of significant leasing arrangements, including contingent rent provisions, renewal or purchase options, and restrictions imposed on dividends, borrowings, or further leasing For operating leases, IAS 17 states that the total lease payments should be incurred as an expense and would appear on the income statement regularly with the amount on a straight-line basis over the entire lease term. Any enticements that the lessee may have received from the lessor to enter into the lease arrangement, must also be divided on a straight line basis to offset the  rental expense. 4. Lease Capitalization on Financial Variable and Ratios Unrecorded Lease Liability and Debt-to-Equity Ratio Based on the ratios and calculations performed there are many incentives for companies to report leases as operating leases rather than capitalize them. It can be concluded that the impact of lease capitalization on the financial statements is far greater for FedEx than UPS, however both companies are reaping benefits from reporting leases as operating leases. Capitalizing leases requires that leases are recorded as assets and liabilities on the balance sheet. The Unrecorded Lease Liability is 98.41% of existing liabilities for FedEx and 8.27% for UPS. Thus, by not capitalizing leases, firms are able to decrease their liabilities and present a more lower debt/equity ratio.The Debt/Equity ratio gives stakeholders an indication of the capital structure of the firm. The ratio for FedEx moves from 0.97 to 2.70, which indicates a more leveraged capital structure. UPS ratio moves from 0.87 to 1.28. The capitalization of leases would not a llow FedEx to maintain a debt-equity ratio below 1, which would change shareholder’s view on the financial flexibility of the firm. If FedEx wishes to maintain a relatively low debt-to-equity ratio on their financial statements it would be unfavourable to capitalize leases. Return on Asset The Return on Assets (ROA) is another key ratio that is affected when leases are capitalized due to the increase in assets that the company owns. When leases are capitalized there is a decrease in ROA for both FedEx and UPS by 1.69% and 0.32%, respectively. This is a relatively significant drop in efficiency and further motivates firms to record leases as operating leases. Interest Coverage Ratio The interest coverage ratio informs stakeholders of a company’s ability to pay back their interest. There is a significant drop of 17.26 in FedEx’s interest-coverage ratio and a drop of 9.2 in UPS’s interest coverage ratio. This means that a certain amount of profit is attributed to the fact that leases are not capitalized. In conclusion, it is clear from the variables and the ratios analyzed why companies prefer to record leases as operating leases rather than capitalize them. Operating leases are kept off the balance sheet and their main impact on the income statement is rent expense since the risks of ownership are not assumed. On the other hand, when leases are capitalized, the present value of payments including interest expense,  is treated as a liability on the balance sheet. These two accounting methods result in ratios to be more favourable for the firm when leases are recorded as operating leases rather than financial leases. 5. New Exposure Draft: A Contract-Based Approach Development of Contract-Based Approach Leasing is a critical activity in business as it is a means of gaining access to assets, obtaining finance and reducing an entity’s exposure to the risks of asset ownership. Some key advantages of leasing assets rather than purchasing assets are 100% financing, flexibility and the tax advantages. Therefore it is crucial that leases are appropriately accounted for and nature and duration of the lease agreement is considered. Current models require lessees and lessors to account for leases as either finance leases or operating leases. A recurring criticism of this approach is that lessees are not required to recognize assets and liabilities arising from operating leases. We can see the benefits of this in the financial statements and ratios of FedEx and UPS, as discussed above. In our opinion capitalizing leases provides stakeholders of a less aggressive view of a company’s financial statements. The contract based approach ensures th at companies recognise the right to use an asset along with the contractual liability on its balance sheet. Recognition and Measurement (Lessee) IASB and FASB are proposing a new approach to lease accounting that ensures entities record assets and liabilities arising from a lease. With this new approach, a lessee would recognize assets and liabilities for leases with a maximum possible term of more than 12 months. Under this contract-based approach, the asset is taken on by the lessee as the right to use to asset and not the asset itself. This a key difference between the contract-based approach and finance leases. When the lease is acquired, the lessee would recognise a lease liability. This would refer to the obligation of the lessee to make recurring lease payments. Additionally, the lessee would recognize a right-of-use asset representing a lessee’s right to use the underlying asset for the lease term. The right-of-use asset would include the initial measurement of the lease liability, any lease payments made at or before commencement date and any initial direct costs incurred by the lessee. The proposal further categorizes the leases into Type A and Type B leases. Type A Lease Recognition Leased assets other  than property (such as equipment and vehicles) would be classified as a Type A lease. However, if the following two conditions are met, the lease would be classified as a Type B: if the lease term is an insignificant portion of the asset’s economic life and if the present value of the lease payments is insignificant relative to their fair value. Initial measurements for a Type A lease would include a right-of-use asset and a lease liability. The lease liability would be measured at the present value of the lease payments, measured at the rate charged by the lessor. If that rate cannot be immediately determined, the lessee uses the incremental borrowing rate. Subsequent measurements would recognize interest expense and the amortization of the right-of-use asset separately on the income statement and balance sheet. This would be accounted for separately from the amortization of the asset. Type B Lease Recognition Leased assets of property (such as land or a building) would be classified as Type B leases. Initial measurements would be parallel to the initial measurements of Type A assets. However, subsequent measurements would recognize a single lease cost. This cost would be a measurement of the interest expense as well as the amortization of the asset. This combined figure would be calculated on a straight-line basis. Effect on Existing Operating Lease Existing operating leases must be appropriately treated based on the a ccounting standards for leases. Leases that were previously reported as operating leases by lessees should be recognised using the new approach at the beginning of the earliest comparative period. The lessee should recognize the lease liability, which is the present value of the remaining lease payments. For Type A leases, a right-of-use asset is measured as a proportion of the lease liability. The proportion is based on the remaining lease term at the time of the earliest comparative period. Additionally, the right-of-use asset recorded should be adjusted for any previously recognised prepaid or accrued lease payments. On the other hand, for Type B leases, a right-of-use asset is measured at an amount that equals the lease liability. The asset is then adjusted for previously recognised prepaid or accrued lease payments.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

George Orwells Writing techniques in Animal Farm :: Animal Farm Essays

George Orwell’s Techniques Discuss the ways in which Orwell effectively shows some of the aspects of communism and the events surrounding the Russian Revolution This essay will focus on the ways and techniques that George Orwell uses, to show the parallels between Russian Communism, and Animal Farm. It will explain the importance of the single techniques, and the overall aim of the writer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Book, Animal Farm, was written by George Orwell and was first published in 1945. As Orwell always wants to draw attention to a lie or faults in the system with his books, he concentrated on Russian Communism with this one, and although it sounds like a childish story at first, it is very serious from its bases to the finished story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  By creating a smaller, compressed version of the USSR within a farm in England, Orwell shows how easily someone can grasp power by abusing the communist principles and shaping them to his liking and benefit. He also associated the animal characters within the story, with communist party members, peasants, workers and army. Everyone gets a job, that he or she has to do and everyone is everyone’s â€Å"comrade†. There are Stalin and Trotsky, represented by the two pigs Napoleon and Snowball, the politburo is represented by the pigs in genera,l the peasants are sheep that follow without their own opinion about things, and the pigeons for example are messengers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  He uses extremely simple language, because he wanted to state his message about communism as clearly as possible and with no chance of misunderstanding the text. For example: The seven animal commandments are extremely simple language and easy to understand for everyone (animal and man or reader).â€Å"1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal shall wear clothes†¦ etc†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  He also uses this simple language, because he wants to make a clear statement that no one can manipulate. The normal reader would also understand it, if it were a bit harder, but the press could then change it to their own liking and that’s exactly what he didn’t want. Only because the book is written in simple language, it doesn’t mean it’s a children’s book. It’s the same as with the little prince. Children can read it, and understand the funny story about animals, and adults can read it and understand the serious and horrible core of the story where no one has their own rights anymore, because everyone is equal.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Religion and Environmental Ethics

RELS5149 Religion and Envirnomental Ethics Student#1155012742 – Li Wai Tat, Victor Does Christianity have a â€Å"Burden of Guilt† in our Ecological Crisis? Introduction and Methods In 1967, Lynn White Jr. , published a paper in Science (Vol 155, 1967, pp 1203-1207) â€Å"The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis†, which was to become a seminal work on the relationship of Ecology and Christianity and had since then provoked enumerous debates on the topic.In the paper he wrote â€Å"Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt† and concludes that â€Å"Hence we shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man. † White depicted Western Christianity as seeing the world existing primarily for the benefit of man, and man, bearing God's image and sharing in great measure God's transcendence of nature, exploit nature for his proper ends according to God's will. This thesis of White shall be referred to as â€Å"Dominion Hypothesis† for ease of identification in this paper. But are the claims in his Dominion Hypothesis valid? Does Christianity bear a burden of guilt for the ecological crisis of the world? The purpose of this paper is to assess the strength of his thesis by firstly analysing what the biblical scriptures and theologians have to say with regard to the relationship of God, man and the environment.Next the symptoms and origins of our ecological crisis are examined, after which their ties with Western Christianity are assessed to determine whether the later has causal relationship with the former. Finally, after arriving at the conclusion, some recommendations are presented. 1 White's Thesis White's thesis can briefly be summarized as: â€Å"All forms of life modify their contexts, and the human race has in one sense simply done this more than others. However, the human impact on the environment, whilst frequently detrime ntal in the past, was given an added impetus by Christianity in its Westernized form.Western society, as a product of Westernized Christianity, inherits an exploitative attitude to the natural world which is the key to our present ecological crisis. † (Richardson, 1998) . White depicted Western Christianity as seeing the world existing primarily for the benefit of man, and it is according to God's will that man exploit nature for his proper ends. Biblical verses that align to the Dominion Hypothesis Arguably the following passages from the Bible are aligned to the Dominion Hypothesis and are most frequently cited by ecology critics of the Bible. Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of trhe air, and over the the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thinng that creeps upon the earth' So god created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. ‘ † (Gen. 1:26-29) â€Å"Yet thou has made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thous hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thous hast put all things under his feet; all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea. † (Ps. 8:5-8) 2 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. † (Gen. 9:1-3) â€Å"You have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth† (Rev. 5:10).According to exegeses by theology scholar (Hiebert, 1996), â€Å"the term ‘dominion,' from the Hebrew verb â€Å"radah†, implies that it grants humans the right and responsibility to rule, to govern the rest of creation. It connotes a hierarchy of power and authority in which the human race is positioned above the rest of the natural world, although the verb radah does not itself define how this dominion is to be exercised, whether benevolently or malevolently. The laws of Leviticus, when they stipulate that household servants are not to be *ruled* harshly (Lev. 25:43, 46, 53), imply t hat this kind of dominion may be kind and humane.Yet the use of radah in the context of international relations, where it is more commonly employed, carries a decidedly more antagonistic tinge, since it signifies rule over one*s enemies. It occurs frequently in descriptions of military conquest, where it is paired with such verbs as *destroy* (Num. 24:19) and *strike down* (Lev. 26:17; Isa. 14:6). When used of the Israelite king, radah always refers to dominion over his enemies, not to rule over his own Israelite subjects, for which the verb malak, *reign,* is the usual term. Similar conclusions may be drawn about the phrase *subdue the earth* in Gen. :28. The verb *subdue,* from the Hebrew kavash, depicts a hierarchical relationship in which humans are positioned above the earth and are granted power and control over it. The verb kavash is even more forceful than radah, describing the actual act of subjugation, of forcing another into a subordinate position. It is used for military conquest, where the same phrase used in Gen. 1:28, *subdue the earth/land,* can be employed to depict the destruction and occupation of conquered territory (Num. 32:22, 29). It is also used of the king*s forcing his people into slavery against God*s wishes (Jer. 4:11, 16), and of rape (Esther 7:8; Neh. 5:5). In many of these cases, the abuse {19} of power is patently obvious. † 3 Biblical verses that align to the Eco-Friendly perspective On the other hand, the following verses can be interpreted as being aligned to an EcoFriendly view:†Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness. (Psalm 96:11-13) â€Å"Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise hi m, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away. a Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds! Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and maidens together, old men and children! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven. † (Psalm 148:1-13) *When you besiege a city a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them ; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down.For is the tree of the field a man, that it should [m]be besieged by you? Only the trees which you known are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls. † (Deuteronomy 20:19-20) *When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, regard its fruit as forbidden. For three years you are to consider it forbidden; it must not be eaten. In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit.In this way your harvest will be increased. I am the Lord your God. † (Leviticus 19:2325) â€Å"You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall there come upon you a garment of cloth made of two kinds of stuff. † (Leviticus 19:19) â€Å"For six years you shall sow your land an d gather in its yield; but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild beasts may eat. † (Exodus 23: 10-11) 5 â€Å"The nations were angry, and your wrath has come.The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small * and for destroying those who destroy the earth. * (Rev 11:18) â€Å"For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. † (Rev 19:2) â€Å"They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9) â€Å"The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destro y on all my holy mountain,† says the LORD. † (Isaiah 65:25) Theology scholars commenting on this view of nature of the Old Testament wrote : â€Å"†¦ It is therefore fair to conclude that nature is far from ‘de-animated' in Biblical thought. † (Wybrow, 1990), â€Å"The natural world may not be seen as sacred or divine in the Bible, but it is certainly not dead, lifeless, and outside the divine moral framework†¦ here are no scriptures suggesting that nature was viewed as dead matter to be manipulated by man.. † (Kinsley, 1995). Referring to the theme of the kingdom of God running through the New Testament, Zerbe (1992) argues that the New Testament has significant ecological implications, he explained: â€Å"Isaiah*s vision of restored humanity and nature climaxes with the statement that there will no longer be any hurt or destruction in creation (Isa. 11:9; 65:25). And John*s vision of judgment states that those who destroy the earth will t hemselves be destroyed (Rev. 11:18; 19:2).It is noteworthy that the prophetic critique of Rome in Rev. 17:1-19:4 closely connects greed and the earth*s destruction: the insatiable desire for consumption and wealth is what results in the destruction of people and the earth. † The corresponding passages are as quoted above. 6 Alternative view: Dominion Theology in Genesis 1 vs. Dependence Theology in Genesis 2 And lastly, but most importantly, consider the following two verses, both from Genesis 2:†Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7) â€Å"The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. † (Genesis 2:15) What is very important to the discussion in this paper is that according to Hiebert (1996), as evident in the above verses, Genesis 2 presents an alternative to the dominion theology of Genesis 1, which he calls dependence theology. His thesis being that the first human is made of the same arable soil as are all of other forms of life; and the divine breath into which his nostrils blown is the same with which all the animals live and breathe (Gen. :7; 7:22). The role of the human in the earth described is not that of mastery but of servanthood. In this account of creation, the theology of the human place in creation is not a theology of dominion but a theology of dependence (Hiebert, 1996). This theology is evident in other parts of Scripture, examples including Psalm 104 and the Book of Job (McKibben,1994). According to Hiebert: â€Å"†¦ In this tradition (Genesis 2), the human being is positioned very differently within the world of nature.Here the archetypal human is made not in the image of God but out of topsoil, out of the arable land that was cultivated by Israelite farmers (Gen. 2:7). As a result of this kind of creation, humans hold no distinctive position among liv ing beings, since plants and animals also were produced from this same arable soil (2:9, 19). Moreover, the role assigned humans within creation in this story is not to rule (radah) and to subdue (kavash) but rather to {23} *serve* (avad; Gen. 2:15; 3:23). The Hebrew term avad is properly translated *till* in these verses (NRSV), since it clearly refers to the cultivation of arable land.But avad is in fact the ordinary Hebrew verb *serve,* used of slaves serving masters and of humans serving God (Gen. 12:16; Exod. 4:23). â€Å", the conflicts of Genesis I and Genesis 2 notwithstanding, there are lots of thesis arguing that there is no inconsistency between the two chapters and the ouvert differences are due to different ways in recapitulation only . (Young, 1960),(Archer, 1964),(Kitchen,1966) On another plane of our discussion, we shall now turn to a brief discussion of the historical origins of our ecological crisis. 7 The Historical Origins of our Ecological CrisisThere is genera l consensus that the planet earth is heading towards environmental catastrophe due to alarming development at different fronts: the green house effect, acid rain, damage to ozone layer, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, chemical pollution, freshwater shortage, etc. , amongst others. (Magdoff & Foster, 2011).. But how did all these pollutions started? according to Thorsheim (2006), in his book â€Å"The Invention of Pollution†, it all started with the use of fossil energy, which was conducive to the Industrial Revolution.The first largescale commercial use of fossil energy was coal in Britain in the 1800's, which he referred to as a â€Å"Faustian bargain† for Britain, since on the one hand it helped to bring tremendous wealth, advance and power to the country, whilst on the other coal also filled the air with immense smoke and acidic vapors, which was one of the origins of what we now call the â€Å"green house effect† and â€Å"acid rain†. Fossil oil as energy had also been popularized ever since Edwin L. Drake drilled the first oil well in 1853, but the impact on the environment is equally as detrimental as Coal, if not more so.The fossil energy application was conducive to the Industrial Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution had led to the advance in comfort, convenience and enjoyment, from dwelling comfort to transport convenience to material needs, leading to the abundance and later overabundance in supply of products. Consumerism in the past decades had eventually been invented in order to â€Å"help† us to recognize our needs, and due to the needs for growth of enterprises, some products have also began to be designed with â€Å"built-in obsolescence†.All these initiatives had contributed to the generation of ever more wastes than in the centuries before the industrial revolution, much more than can be â€Å"sinked† by the earth, which contributed to the chemical pollution of soil, water, which has also altered the bio-diversity of the Earth. 8 Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the consumption of energy has experienced exponential growth (see figure 1. 1). Concomitantly, different kind of detrimental impacts had been inflicted upon the ecology of the earth (see figure 1. 2).As an in-depth analysis of our ecological crisis is out of the scope of this paper, focus is now centred on the â€Å"origin† of the crisis, viz. the advent of fossil energy application, which shall be discussed below. Some key developments relating to fossil energy application:1665 Invention of the first modern industrial steam engine by English inventor Edward Somerset which can use wood or coal as fuel 1794 First produce of Coal Gas by William Murdoch 1853 First refinement of Kerosene by Abraham Gesner 1859 Drilling of first Oil Well by Edwin Drake 1859 Building of the first practical self-combustion engine by Etienne Lenoir Religious Background of the Inventors / Innovators Astonishingly, wh at the above key developments have in common, according to research by the author, is that all the inventors / innovators were Judeao-Christian in religious belief, as can be listed below according to extant data. Inventor/Innovator Place of Birth Religion Edward Somerset (1601-67) Monmouthshire, Britain Roman Catholic William Murdoch (1754 – 1839) Cumnock, Scotland Roman Catholic Abraham Gesner (1797-1864) Nova Scotia, Canada Protestant Christian Edwin Drake (1819-1880) New York, U. S. A. Jewish Jean-Joseph-Etienne Lenoir (1822-1900)Mussy-la-Ville, Belgium Roman Catholic However, just as one cannot say that the inventions or innovations in fossil energy application has been due to Western Christianity, as otherwise one will fall into the â€Å"post-hoc ergo procter hoc† fallacy, it is likewise not valid to attribute the ecological crisis directly to Western Christianity. However, If we put the question conversely by asking that if the inventors/innovators were panthei stic, believing that the nature is sacred in itself and should be reverred, then it is highly unlikely that the inventions/innnovations had been conjured and accomplished by them.Science and Christianity It has been argued that science and christianity are coherent to each other, A British Scientist, Robert Clark, once said â€Å"†¦ we may interpret the fact scientific development has only occurred in a Christian culture. The ancients had brains as good as ours. In all civilizations, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, India, Rome, Persia, China and so on, science developed to a certain point and then stopped. It is easy to argue speculatively that science might have been able to develop in the absence of Christianity, but in fact, it never did. And no wonder.For the non*Christian world felt there was something ethically wrong about science. In Greece, this conviction was enshrined in the legend of Prometheus, the fire*bearer and prototype scientist who stole fire from heaven thus incur ring the wrath of the Gods. † 10 Consider also these statements from renowned scientists; William Thomson: â€Å"Do not be afraid to be free thinkers. If you think strongly enough, you will be forced by science to the belief in God. † Isaac Newton: â€Å"This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being†¦ , Stephen Hawking:†In fact, if one considers the possible constants and laws that could have emerged, the odds against a universe that produced life like ours are immense. † Conclusion This paper has attempted to examine the hypothesis of Lynn White's that Christianity bears significant responsibility for the earth's ecological crisis. The author has attempted to typologize and quote verses from the scriptures, exegeses and writings of theologians on the Biblical scriptures depicting the relationship of God, man and nature.Whilst according to the Dominion the ological perspective as discussed above, the hierarchal relationship of God->Man->Nature (see figure 1. 3) is apparent, in the Dependence theological perspective, the hierarchal relationship of God->Man ; God -> Nature (see figure 1. 4) is also evident. God God Man Man Nature Nature Figure 1. 3 The Dominion Perspective Figure 1. 4 The Dependence Perspective Other verses as listed under the section â€Å"Passages that echo Eco-Friendly† also act as a counter-argument for the Dominion hypothesis.It would seem therefore that White's hypothesis that â€Å"†¦ Western Christianity sees the world existing primarily for the benefit of man† and therefore â€Å"Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt† is not grounded solidly, because as mentioned above, there are many verses which encourage man to be benign to our environment, and conversely, there is no single passage asking man to abuse nature for his primarily benefit only. However, if White argued that â€Å"C hristians bears a burden of guilt†, then it is less reputable, as explained in the next paragraph. 11If one concurs that scientific thinking is coherent to Christian belief, as discussed above, and like White argues in his paper, Western Christianity has been contributory in promoting modern science and technological advance, and from the standpoint of the analysing of advent of fossil energy as the origin of our ecological crisis, which does have tremendous detrimental impacts to our environment, it seems evident that Christians do have a direct linkage to the inventions and innovations leading to the mass scale use of fossil energy, the detrimental origin to our ecological system. RecommendationsIt can be said that with subtlety in the Biblical scriptures, interpretations are often contingent upon the context and the wisdom of the readers, as inspired at different times. What can be said is that given the state of development before the advent of sciences, man had been under the perpetual threats of nature, from attacks by animals, storms, sickness to famines and other disasters. The Dominion theological perspective no doubt inspired man to develop creative thinking about mastering the nature for the betterment of his lifelihood and survival, lacking which man might still be living rather primitively.The advent of sciences and most notably the Industrial Revolution can be depicted as the epitome of this mentality. As our civilization, technology and wisdom progresses, we should now be in a position to recognize that a Dominion mentality to the nature is detrimental to our environment and it is time that we revisit the scriptures to investigate whether we have overlooked an alternative theology in the Bible for seeing our relationship with nature-the Dependence approach, treating the nature as equals of ours, in which we serve god to ensure its goodness, and ensuring its long term sustainability to prepare for the â€Å"Kingdom of God†. 2 Bibliog raphy Lynne White Jr (1967), ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis', reproduced in John Barr (ed), The Environmental Handbook (London: Ballantine/Friends of the Earth, 1971) pp 3-16. David Kinsley, Ecology and Religion: Ecological Spirituality in Cross-Cultural Perspective (Englewood Cliffs, N. J. : Prentice Hall, 1995) Richard Cameron Wybrow â€Å"The Bible, Baconism, and Mastery over Nature: The Old Testament and Its Moderrn Misreading† (Ph.D disserrtation, McMaster University, Hamillton Ont. Canada, 1990) p. 206 Theodore Hiebert, Professor of Old Testament at McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois. , Direction (Winnipeg, MB), 1996 Gordon Zerbe, Assistant Professor of New Testament at Canadian Mennonite Bible College, Winnipeg, Manitoba. , Direction (Winnipeg, MB), 1992 Howard Snyder, Liberating the Church: The Ecology of Church and Kingdom (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1983) 45-51.Young, Edward J. (1960) An Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co. ). Archer, Gleason (1964), A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Chicago: Moody Press). Kitchen, Kenneth (1966), Ancient Orient and Old Testament (London: Tyndale Press). Thorsheim, Peter (2006), Inventing Pollution: Coal, Smoke and Culture in Britain since 1800 13

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Psychological Analysis of Fight Club Essay

Fight Club is a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk which was eventually made into a movie. The novel is different from usual stories in so many ways because it’s first and foremost, geared into the lives of young men. There have been a lot of books that revolved around the stories of young women that is why, I believe, Chuck Palahniuk was hugely successful in writing this novel. It’s focused on a life a man, the Narrator, whose name was never blatantly revealed but as the story progressed implies that his name was Jack. He symbolizes an ordinary working class man who, like everyone else, is looking for fulfillment in his life however he tries to accomplish this in odd ways. Jack is noticeably a disturbed person who is suffering from insomnia. The first obsession we would notice is his unusual collection: furniture. It’s soon begins to become a little bit more strange when he starts attending random group therapy sessions on medical concerns which he doesn’t even have. Attending these support groups has helped sleep at night but still he ends up crying to relieve stress from his dull, ordinary life. Eventually, when he still felt unfulfilled, he moves on to creating his underground â€Å"Fight Club† with a certain Tyler Durden. He then becomes more and more absurd, his obsessions become unhealthy. By the end of the movie, we learn that Jack suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder and that Tyler is actually his alter ego. Upon watching the film for the first time the revelation at the end would come off as a shocker but once you really analyze it, the juxtaposition of the events leading up to the ending and the probable reality is not very far. He shares his obsession with furniture collections with common homeowners today. People usually find comfort in having a properly furnished home; they feel a sense of accomplishment and think that it’s a reflection of their successes work-wise. Even with this, though, Jack still felt void and that his life is still meaningless. He starts going to a support therapy group as advised by his doctor. He does this to find acceptance and love from other people, which is also a common desire of human beings. Although he doesn’t really have that certain condition he’s attending support groups for, it was deemed successful until he met Marla Singer who, like typical ovies where girls tend to â€Å"ruin everything†, seems to have flushed all his efforts down the drain. Marla turns out to be, like Jack, a faker. She started attending the support groups like Jack does which eventually turned into a reflection of what he’s been doing. Moreover, he then turns to like her, to make things worse. Jack then finds himself immensely unhappy so out of his frustration he tries to come up of a resolution, hence, Tyler and Fight Club. Tyler is introduced as someone Jack meets on a plane ride; Tyler eventually becomes a huge influence in his life, who then becomes his co-founder of Fight Club. The first fight was between Jack and Tyler, which is in fact just Jack against himself. Other men begins to join their club, their members are mostly the ones that grew up without their fathers. Throughout the movie Fight Club soon escaladed into Project Mayhem where they blow up buildings owned by major credit card companies and setting everyone’s debt back to zero. When Jack realizes what he’s doing, he finds that Tyler is actually him and tries to commit suicide by putting a gun in his mouth. He still lives, but Tyler was gone. He wakes up in a mental hospital and the movie ends with the fight club members still trying to pursue the initial plan, stating that Tyler will be back. Fight Club is a fictitious story and also very far from reality but there were a lot of psychological truths presented, such as gender identity, Freud’s Id, Ego and Superego; and Maslow’s idea of self-actualization. These components make this movie absolutely interesting to watch and it leaves you with so much more to think about afterwards.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

History Thesis

History Thesis History Thesis History ThesisYou are at your graduate school learning history and researching the topic you have been assigned in the course of your studying. If you have to write a history thesis, it means that you have already accomplished three or four years of your studying and the final step is to be done.History thesis is not easy, especially if you have to time and no desire to work on it. Nevertheless, if you are looking for successful graduation, you must complete a thesis writing project, despite of your desires, wants, and lack of time.History Thesis TopicsThere are many possible history thesis topics and they are not limited to current events or social movements, to elections of Barack Obama or gay rights. History thesis be wide enough to allow proper secondary research and yet leave some space for primary investigation, unless you are writing a history thesis about the Roman Empire and there are not witnesses of that time left.You may develop your history thesis topic by focusing on g eographical area (African history, American history, Asian history)You may focus your history thesis topic on certain period (Medieval History, Modern History, Renaissance History)You may write about difference civilizations (Western Civilization History, Indian Civilization, Aztec Civilization)You may explore the specific field of history (Art History, Oral History, Forgotten History)You may trace the relationship between history and other academic disciplines (History of Eastern Philosophy).Professional History Thesis WritingWe know that history thesis writing is not easy, especially if you have no time to write it. Well-written thesis must be based on sufficient research. It means that you should spend many hours in the library trying to find supporting information. Do you have enough time to devote to thesis writing?The majority of students are too busy to have enough time for all academic assignments. Consequently, many of students recall having a history thesis due on ly when the deadline is tomorrow morning. What should you do in such a situation? There is an effective solution: professional history thesis writing service from scratch!If you have written your history thesis partially and want someone to finish it, if you seek professional editing service online, you may also turn to us and get your history thesis written or edited by experts in academic assignments!

Monday, November 4, 2019

How did Technology connected our modern society together (such as Research Paper

How did Technology connected our modern society together (such as Iphone) - Research Paper Example This paper casts light upon the fact that IT has removed the distance barriers and the world is converging to a common culture. This is mainly the culture introduced by IT products which are used all over the world. It is interesting to mention that many of these products are outcome of combined efforts of experts from various countries of the world. An example is iPhone. It is the superb invention of the modern age which has connected the entire world in a unique way. iPhone is the invention of Apple Computers, a well known brand in the field of computer technologies. It is a smart phone which contains uncountable features in it. iPhone is based on advanced technology. The idea was conceived by Steve Jobs (Imbimbo 6); it was materialised by Apple Computers, which is located in California, USA. Apple Computers required certain other gadgets for its production, like the mini size camera, handsets, display screen, sound system, special software and many other things. Apple Computers invited the participation of many other business entities to design this wonderful product. Finally, the display screen was imported by Japan or Korea. The final product was assembled in China and was launched for sale in the global market. The credit for inventing this beautiful product is given to Apple Computers for conceiving its idea, but they also have given due credit to all the countries and companies from which they imported the material. It is because the idea of iPhone was materialised with the help of the gadgets imported from the various domains. iPhone is an amazing product which has captured huge market all over the world. It attracted youngsters as well as businessmen. This product is unique in the sense that its target market encompasses various groups and people of many professions. It is not the need yet it is felt no less important than the basic tool nowadays.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Corporate Governance and Ethical Responsibility Research Paper

Corporate Governance and Ethical Responsibility - Research Paper Example 46; Wolper, 2004, pp. 164). Based on their relationship to the organization, external stakeholders may be categorized as input providers, competitors, and special interest group (Wolper, 2004, pp. 161-163). Following the above definitions, three internal and external stakeholders that Dr. DoRight might have to deal daily at the Universal Human Care Hospital are its doctors and nurses, its patients and the pharmaceutical companies. The doctors and nurses, being employees of the hospital, bound by its VMG and policies are expected to provide satisfactory healthcare; thus, they are considered internal stakeholders. The patients, being one of the hospital’s input providers based on their interest to get proper medication at a reasonable rate, and the pharmaceutical companies, being one of the hospital’s suppliers, which are expected to supply safe and effective drugs and other medical paraphernalia, are both considered external stakeholders. As the hired hospital president tasked to supervise and monitor the hospital’s 5,000 workforces to address the hospital’s various stakeholders, Dr. DoRight’s duty of loyalty to doctors and nurses is to ensure that they do their jobs responsibly. As such their illegal activities and negligence must be stopped, because failure to do so would jeopardize the integrity of the hospital that would consequently harm the corporation’s interest. As defined in the American corporate law tradition, â€Å"the duty of loyalty is the obligation to act in good faith to advance the best interests of the corporation† (Strine, Hamermesh, Balotti & Gorris, 2009, p. ii). In short, whatever Dr. DoRight does should be for the best interest of the hospital provided it does not violate the constitution and federal and universal laws (Palmiter, 2010). To hospital patients, Dr. DoRight’s duty of loyalty is to ensure that they get safe and sound healthcare. Such is in the best interest of the corpora tion, because by providing effective and safe healthcare, the hospital is not only living to its sworn VMG but could also increase patient patronage that could mean greater profit. To pharmaceutical companies, Dr. DoRight’s duty of loyalty is to act in good faith by transacting with these companies only as authorized by the hospital’s Board of Directors and only in pursuit for the best interest of the hospital. For example, Dr. DoRight should not endorse pharmaceutical products that are not needed by the hospital, that are unsafe or overpriced; even if his endorsement would earn him a considerable commission. Thus Dr. DoRight should put the interest of the hospital above his own personal interest. 2. Potential Conflicts of Interest between Internal and External Stakeholders Stakeholders’ interests may not always conform to each other, primarily due to the different roles each play in the organization. Thus Dr. DoRight may confront an in-role conflict between his duties of loyalty to doctors and nurses and to patients in Universal Human Care Hospital. As the investigation of the illegal procedures and negligence of the hospital’s doctors and nurses drags on for two years, patients remain untreated effectively causing their deaths. Dr. DoRight, knowing that both parties have fundamental rights – the right of doctors and nurses to fair investigation and the rights of patients to safe and effective

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Nutrition 1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nutrition 1 - Assignment Example Magnesium also gives excitement to the nerves and muscles and it is needed by every enzymatic reaction which is involved in the storage of energy molecule. Vitamin B1 thiamin can be founded in eggs, fish, peas, green vegetables, whole grain bread and it is needed as 1mg for men and 0.8 mg for women per day. Vitamin B2 can be founded in milk, rice, eggs and 1.1mg is needed for women and 1.3mg is needed by men per day. Nicotinic acid (B3) is included in meat, wheat flour, eggs, milk and fish and 13 mg is needed for women and 17 mg is needed for men per day. Pantothenic acid contains in chicken, potatoes, beef, tomatoes, kidney, broccoli, eggs and brown rice. It cannot be stored in the body thus we need to have it every day in our diet. Vitamin B6 can be founded in Chicken, bread, fish, pork, eggs, rice, oatmeal, peanuts, soya beans and milk. 1.2 mg of vitamin B6 is needed for women and 1.4 mg is essential for men per day. Folic acid includes in liver, spinach, peas, brown rice and it is needed by 0.2 mg per day and as it cannot be stored in the body thus it is needed every day in our diet. Vitamin B12 is involved in meat, cod, cheese, mi lk, salmon, eggs. Dairy foods, fish and meat are enough to supply everyday need for vitamin B12. The good sources of vitamin C are oranges, potatoes, lemon and it should be taken every day. Adults need 40mg of vitamin C per day. Calcium can be founded in milk and other dairy products, soya beans, nuts and adults must intake 700 mg of Calcium per day. Magnesium is included in fish, meat, dairy foods, nuts and 270 mg is needed for women and 300 mg is needed for men per day. Phosphorus is included in fish, red meat, bread, oats and adults must intake 550 mg of it per day. Thus we need to have these foods in our diet chart (NHS, No Date). Athletes take various vitamin supplements and sometimes in higher dosages. Theory has shown that use of every vitamin is related to the metabolic function in

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

American History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

American History - Essay Example atural resources to initiate industrial revolution, the entire process did not receive much success mainly due to problems of transportation, in the second half, diversification among laborers, their respective demands, socio-cultural factors of their existence and presence of abundant population, willing to give labor, did not provide sufficient scope to labor movements and evolve of socialism in the American context. Stanley L. Engerman and Robert E. Gallman while genealogically discussing the history of industrialization in the United States has attempted to reflect upon the reasons that prevented industrial revolution from taking a flourish in the early 19th century: â€Å"The future of the American economy in the years of the revolutionary war and the achievement of independence was †¦ uncertain †¦.There was some reasonable degree of prosperity in most states, and if transportation problems could be overcome †¦ the economy had possibilities for growth and development. The economy of 1800 was †¦ primarily agricultural, dependent upon the British economy for many manufactured goods, and affected negatively by the British Navigation Act† (Engerman and Gallman 127). This observation becomes important in the context of the discussion because within this scope it discusses the constraints of commencing industrial revolution and the aspiration to initiate the same in an organized way so that dependence on the British can be reduced, consequently leading to strengthening the American economy. However, till 1860, despite certain shifts from the agricultural dependency to industrialization, no radical changes were observed in the total labor force of the nation and by 1960 only one-sixth of the entire U.S labor force opted for industrialization (Engerman and Gallman 127-28). Since 1860 onwards, the situation gradually started undergoing a transformation as it was becoming evident that individualize measured output in the manufacturing and service sector is

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Change Management And Systems Implementation

Change Management And Systems Implementation Introduction This essay is about the importance of change management in information systems development and discusses about the issues that will be the result of change in an organization and also the relationship between change management and system implementation. This essay will explain the theories with related examples that were the implications of change in an organization and will critically evaluate and discusses some ideas from my personal point of view. This essay will reflect upon my understanding of change management that I have learned from this module. Change and Change Management Change management is important in any kind of organisations and especially in information system development. It is a structured way to manage change. According to Disraeli as quoted in (Gilley, 2005) Change is constant. Change is present everywhere. The change can be in an individual, in a group or in an organization. When an individual is motivated to do something different, the change that happens in an individual is the main reason for the whole word to change. Since the individual is associated with groups, and groups are related to other groups to form an organisation, the important process in part of change depends on all individuals, groups or teams, and organisations and leaders also have an important responsibility in the process of change. (Cameron Green, 2009). Technology, globalization, society and evolving legislation forces many organisations to change constantly. The organisations ability to effectively implement change decides the success of the change process which completely depends of the person involved in managing the change. Change is necessary for an organisation nowadays because of competetive pressures and to meet the current customer needs. According to (Gilley, 2005), every four or five years, organisations findings planning to undertake major organisational changes and atleast once a year to undertake moderate organisational change. So change management is inevitable in every organisations to successfully manage the process of change. The induction of this module started with the justification for the need of IT professionals to know change management. Most of the projects related to Information Technology failed due to various reasons in which one would be due to poor change management. According to (Burnes, 2009) Brindle study states that UK government had to admit the failure of its 170 million pounds programme to change the old computer systems that holds the whole countrys National insurance records was a chaos that collapsed the system and leaving the social security number into agitation. According to (Burnes,2009) Done and Willman stated that the main reason for the BAs Terminal 5 debacle was the failure of its cutting-edge computerized baggage handling system. According to (CMSI Lectures, 2010, Week 1, Slide 11), the role of the IT professionals would be working in a team with other professionals, designing the system which other people will use, expecting how they will use the system and explaining the u sers how to use the system to their maximum potential. A change management process involves all the above mentioned roles of an IT professional. These points provided me a complete justification and understanding of the need of change management for a person like me who is an IT professional. The following week I learned about different type of systems and different types of implementations involved in an IT project, other considerations for an implementation, the reason for the implementation and the process of implementation. The different kinds of systems are software such as applications and desktop, hardware system and infrastructure systems such as buildings and network. The facts that should be consider while implementing a system are the level of knowledge in the system, technology, the level of importance with the system and people, whether it is in sourced/outsourced and using the maturity models. According to (Okrent Vokurka, 2004), there are three types of implementation 1) Pilot implementation in which the prioritized functional area which gives the most benefits is implemented first 2) Parallel implementation in which the change is tested in both old and new systems parallel and 3) Big bang implementation in which the data is migrated from old system to the new system all at once which is the most risky implementation. The big bang implementation is considered as most risky implementation since most of the projects implemented this way fails. For example, Heathrow Terminal 5 project was implemented using Big bang implementation. The cutting-edge computerized baggage handler system was considered to be one of the hardest-working IT systems as said by BAA and British Airways(BA) before its launch of the system and it didnt work when it was to work. (Swabey, 2008). There are different types of change such as reactive and proactive change, incremental and All at once change, planned and emergent change. According to (Orlikowski Hofman, 1997) the different types of change are planned(anticipated), emergent and opportunity-based change. Planned change is the change that is well planned and it happenes as we planned. Emergent change is the change which occurs spontaneously out of some experimentation which is not planned. The opportunity-based change is the change that is not planned but introduced purposefully to meet the opportunities that were not expected. Some various issues and aspects of change management can be illustrated with a case study: GK Printers Limited Background: GK Printers Limited is a small printing business established after the Second World War.It is a family business in which the current managing directors father established the business. The company was involved in printing jobs along with producing publicity catlogues for local companies, business cards and stationeries. The business went down due to various reasons such as recession, no computerised printing techniques and no graphics designed printing. This made the managing director to form some strategy along with the printing manager in which the first phase was to subcontract the printing works with graphical design instead of investing more money in new equipments. The company grew very well and they had a good profit and bought new equipments. In 1989, due to its growth in business, it was complicated to manage printing, designing and managing the subcontracting activities all together. The second phase of planned change was to manage companys costing system, controlling paper work and production scheduling. After many discussion, the company planned to install Computer Based System(CBS) and it took two years completely to install the working system after purchasing hardwares and refining the softwares according to the companys requirement. Training were provided to the users and also some managers to use the system effectively. The company had a growth again with their successful installation of CBS and they managed the changes that happened in their organisation. All the changes were in organisation and there were no change in the managerial behaviour of the organisation. The problem again aroused since the customers wants the company to reduce the cost of printing due to recession and they were giving smaller orders. This made GK to think about their survival. Since they were getting only smaller orders, their production cost remained the same and if they want to reduce the price to retain the customers, they will not have any profits. To find a soluti on, the managing director approached the marketing and design manager to come up with the problems and solutions. The manager came up with the problems and suggested to increase the design business by employing more design staffs. The senior staffs didnt agree and there were no decisions taken after the meeting. This made the managing director to consider and he approached a team builder to organise the teams inside the company. The team builder came up with a report that all the managers in the company are working and fully committed for the companys success and the negative point was the way the managing director approach for solutions. He made decisions himself or to consult only with one manager to make up with the decisions. The managing director was upset with this shock and he said he always wanted a team work in the company and henceforth all the decisions will be taken by consulting everyone in the management. This made the managers happy and they were asked to come up with solutions, and after six months, GK met all their customer requirements with the solutions the team came up with and there was a considerable growth in the business. The company also developed the business of designing and developing the websites for its customers in which this business was an accidental development and the managing director created a separate department for this business which become the most profitable and fastest growing part of GK. (Burnes, 2009:383-395) According to my personal point of view on the above discussed case study, the organisation had three phase of change which means this is a phased implementation. Even though the strategies were not planned and it emerged due to the problems, the approach to the change was planned rather than emergent approach. In the first two phase of changes, the company had changes in the organisation but not in the behavioural which led to some failures such as poor coordination and cooperation between the teams and managers and also the fighting for the position between managers. These led the company for the third phase of change which was the behavioural change in which all the members of the organisation understood and cooperated to work together and also the managin director decided to take decisions after discussing with the appropiate teams. The human implications of the change process can be noted in the above case study. When GK want to change their manual system to computerized system, the workers themselves suggested some companies to GK to discuss about the CBS system. The managing director gave the responsiblities of CBS system to the group of people who were the students analysing GKs requirements to install the systems and write softwares for the system. All the organisation changes that were made in the first two phases and the behavioural change that were made in the third phase were accepted by the individuals in the organisation. According to (Burnes, 2004) Lewin was interested to analyze the origins for change and he wants to understand why people dislike change. Lewins theories includes about the planned change embarked by the organization and unintended change that happens suddenly due to some contingencies, the three stage model (Unfreeze-movement-refreeze) and models of changes. But in this case study, t he organisation has no individuals who resisted change. According to (CMSI Lectures, 2010, Week 4, Slide 16) Mintzbergs definition of strategy as five P s can be applied on this case study as a prescriptive stream since the strategy preceds change and implementation flows from the strategic plan. Some of the plans involved in the GKs strategy was to make the manual systems computerized, meet the customer requirements and build a good team in the organisation. Some of the ploys involved were to provide customers with graphical design service and to satisfy all kind of customer needs.The position of GKs place in the market is high and they are one of the best among in providing creative website development for the customers. In contrast to the planned approach, the example of Volvos approach which is one the leading Swedish motor vehicle manufacturer to reorganising vehicle production from the traditional methods of car assembly can be taken as an approach to change as emergent. The decisions are based from the workers of the company and it is completely based on the group work in which Volvos approach to change is unique in its way in which it considers human-centered approach to work. A consultant is a person who is having skills that are different or unique and they have different perspective on an issue. The reasons for using this consultancy approach includes requirement of extra staff resources, on a temporary basis, need for expert help and knowledge to deal some situations, look differently about a particular situation and for outside opinion and disinterested information. (Nachimuthu, 23 November 2010). In the above case study, since no one in the organisation were aware of the changes to be brought, the managing director approached a lecturer at a polytechnic who is the friend of printing manager, in which the lecture suggested one of his student studying business can act as a consultant for the companys improvements. The student worked as a consultant, studied the company for two months and produced a report of the organisationss finding to the managing director and the printing manager which was the basis for the change in the organisation. Management involves doing things right whereas leadership involves doing the right things. Management is about maintaining stability and leadership is about bringing the change. Management processes focus on the present and leadership processes focus on the future. Management processes involves implementing policies and procedures whereas leadership processes involves creating a culture based on shared values. Management processes uses the power of their position and leadership processes uses the personal power. Leadership roles get strengths with different personality types. (CMSI Lectures, 2010, Week 7, Slide 21). For example, the case study that I was using in the seminar about the Shell Company fostering its new level of individual power can be taken. The leadership skills and personality types of Chris Knight were discussed. The case study explains the strategies followed by Knight. Chris knight was a good leader with skills such as motivation, knowledge of the business and abil ity to manage the change and system implementations that turn around the growth of Shell. (CMSI Seminars, 2010, Week 7) Whether if it is planned or emergent approach to change, if it is at individual, group or organisation level change, or incremental or continuos change, there should be one person to manage the change and take responsibility of the change. Change agent is the one who takes that responsibility who can be a managers, internal or external consultants or it can be a team. (Burnes, 2004) states that Expect the unexpected might be the motto of most change agents since the change agents should be capable of dealing with the unexpected.If I was an agent of change in the Heathrow Terminal 5 project, I would have tested the computerized baggage system with more load and would have given training to all staffs in how to get to the parking area and especially how to handle the baggage system. I would have not compromised on testing as the chief executive of BA did on the Terminal 5 project. (Massey, 2008). Conclusion It can be concluded from the above discussion on various issues of change, its implication on human as an individual and groups within an organisation, the different types of approaches to change, the need of consultants and importance of leadership that the knowledge of change management is inevitable in any organisation for a successful system implementation in which the GK case study is an example. The need of change management, its relationship with systems implementation and its importance in Information Technology is justified from the above discussions. [Word Count: 2508]