Assignment Questions Chapters 5-7 Psychology Essay

1. Most current studies aimed at understanding human memory are conducted within a framework known as information-processing theory. This approach makes use of modern computer science and related fields to provide models that help psychologists understand the processes involved in memory. The general principles of the information processing approach to memory include the notion that memory involves three distinct processes. The first process, encoding, is the process of transforming information into a form that can be stored in memory. The second process, storage, is the process of keeping or maintaining information in memory. The final process, retrieval, is the process of bringing to mind information that has been stored in the memory (p.168). Two influential theorists concerning the information-processing theory are Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin. They characterized memory as three different, interacting memory systems: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memor y. Sensory memory is the memory system that holds information from the senses for a period of time ranging from only a fraction of a second to about 2 seconds. Sensory memory can take in an enormous amount of information, but it can only hold on to it for a very brief period of time (p.169). Short-term memory is the component of the memory system that holds about seven (from five to nine) items for less than 30 seconds without rehearsal; also called the working memory. When short-term memory is filled to capacity, displacement can occur. In displacement, each new incoming item pushes out an existing item, which is then forgotten (p.170). Long-term memory (LTM) is the memory system with a virtually unlimited capacity that contains vast stores of a person’s permanent or relatively permanent memories. There are no known limits to the storage capacity of this memory system, and long-term memories can persist for years, some of them for a lifetime. Information in long-term memory is usually stored in semantic form, although visual images, sounds, and odors can be stored there as well (p.174). 2. The analogy heuristic involves comparing a problem to others you have experienced in the past. The idea is that if a particular strategy worked with similar problems in the past, it will be effective for solving a new one. Another heuristic that is effective for solving some problems is working backward, sometimes called the backward search. This approach starts with the solution, a known condition, and works back through the problem. Once the backward search has revealed the steps to be taken and their order, the problem can be solved (p.207). Another popular heuristic strategy is means-end analysis, in which the current position is compared with a desired goal, and a series of steps are formulated and then taken to close the gap between the two. When you adopt a heuristic strategy, it may or may not lead to a correct solution. By contrast, the algorithm is a problem-solving strategy that always lead to a correct solution if it is applied appropriately (p.208). 3.Research suggests that there are both advantages and disadvantages to learning two languages early in life. One of the pluses is that, among preschool and school-age children, bilingualism, fluency in at least two languages, is associated with better executive control skills on language tasks. Executive control skills enable bilingual children to suppress impulsive responses to verbal tasks and, as a result, think more carefully about them. Thus, executive control skills are important in learning to read and write. On the downside, even in adulthood, bilingualism is sometimes associated with decreased efficiency in memory tasks involving words. However, bilinguals appear to develop compensatory strategies that allow them to make up these inefficiencies. Consequently, they often perform such tasks as accurately as monolinguals, though they may respond more slowly. Researchers have found that there is no age at which it is impossible to learn a new language. While it is true that those who begin earlier reach higher levels of proficiency, age is not the only determining factor (p.214). There is one clear advantage to learning two languages earlier in life, however. People who are younger when they learn a new language are far more likely to be able to speak with an appropriate accent. One reason for this difference between early and late language learners may have to do with slight variations in neural processing in Broca’s area, the area of the brain that controls speech production. Research suggests that bilinguals who learned a second language early rely on the same patch of tissue in Broca’s area for both of the languages they speak. In those who learned a second language at an older age, two different sections of Broca’s are are active while they are performing language tasks (p.215). 4. Charles Spearman observed that people who are bright in one area are usually bright in other areas as well. In other words, they tend to be generally intelligent. Spearman came to believe that intelligence is composed of a general ability that underlies all intellectual functions. Spearman concluded that intelligence tests tap this g factor, or general intelligence, and a number of s factors, or specific intellectual abilities. Spearman’s influence can be seen in those intelligence tests, such as the Stanford-Binet, that yield one IQ score to indicate the level of general intelligence. Howard Gardner also denies the existence of a g factor. Instead, he proposes a theory of multiple intelligences that includes eight important forms of intelligence, or frames of mind. The eight frames of mind are linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. In recent years, he has proposed a ninth type of intelligence, one that he calls existential intelligence, deals with the spiritual realm and enables us to contemplate the meaning of life. He first developed his theory by studying patients with different types of brain damage that affect some forms of intelligence but leaves other intact. The most controversial aspect of Gardner’s theory is his view that all forms of intelligence are of equal importance. In fact, different cultures assign varying degrees of importance to the types of intelligence (p.216-217). 5. I would perform a fixed-ratio (FR) schedule, in which a reinforcer is given after a fixed number of correct, non reinforced responses. So, if my dog knew that after rolling over correctly ten times without getting reinforced meant that she would get a reinforced after those ten times, she would then learn that after rolling over ten times correctly, she would be reinforced (p.147). In fixed-rate schedules response rates are very high, and the higher the ratio, the more resistant to extinction (p.148). 6. Psycholinguistics is the study of how language is acquired, produced, and used and how the sounds and symbols of language are translated into meaning. Psycholinguists use specific terms for each of the five basic components of language. The smaller units of sound in a spoken language-such as b or s in English-are known as phonemes. Three phonemes together form the sound of the word cat: c (which sounds like k), a, and t. Combinations of letters that form particular sounds are also phonemes, such as the th in the and the ch in child. The same phoneme may be represented by different letters in different words; this occurs with the a in stay and the ei in sleigh. And the same letter can serve as different phonemes. This letter a, for example, is sounded as four different phonemes in day, cap, watch, and law. Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language. A few single phonemes serve as morphemes, such as the article a and the personal pronoun I. The ending -s gives a plural meaning to a word and is thus a morpheme in English. Many words in English are single morphemes-book, word, learn, reason, and so on. In addition to root words, morphemes may be prefixes (such as re- in relearn) or suffixes (such as -ed to show past tense, as in learned). The single morpheme reason becomes a dual morpheme in reasonable. The morpheme book (singular) become two morphemes in books (plural). Syntax is the aspect of grammar that specifies the rules for arranging and combining words to form phrases and sentences. The rules of word order, syntax, differ from one language to another. For example, an important rule of syntax in English is that adjectives usually come before nouns. So English speakers refer to the residence of the U.S. president as â€Å"the White House.† In Spanish, in contrast, the noun usually comes before the advective, and Spanish speakers say â€Å"la Casa Blanca,† or â€Å"the House White.† Semantics refers to the meaning derived from morphemes, words, and sentences. The same word can have different meanings depending on how it is used in sentences: â€Å"I don’t mind.† â€Å"Mind your manners.† â€Å"He has lost his mind.† Or consider another example: â€Å"Loving to read, the young girl read three books last week.† Here, the word read is pronounced two different ways, and in one case, is the past tense. Pragmatics, is the term psycholinguists use to refer to aspects of language such as intonation, the rising and falling patterns that are used to express meaning. For example, think about how you would say the single word cookie to express each of the following meanings: â€Å"Do you want a cookie?† or â€Å"What a delicious looking cookie!† or â€Å"That’s a cookie.† The subtle differences reflect your knowledge of the pragmatic rules of English (P.210-211). 7. An intelligence test is a measure of general intellectual ability. An individual’s score is determined by how his responses compare to others of his or her age. Thus, intelligence tests are norm-referenced. All psychological tests, including all the various types of tests that measure cognitive ability, are judged according to the same criteria.They must provide consistent results. An intelligence test must have reliability; the test must consistently yield nearly the same score when the same person is tested and then retested on the same test or an alternative form of the test. The higher the correlation between the two scores, the more reliable the test. Tests can be highly reliable but worthless if they are not valid. Validity is the ability or power of a test to measure what it is intended to measure. Once a test is proven to be valid or reliable, the next requirement is norm-referenced standardization. There must be standard procedures for administering and scoring the test. Exactly the same directions must be given, whether written or oral, and the same amount of time must be allowed for every test taker. But even more important, standardization means establishing norms, age-based averages, by which all scores are interpreted. A test is standardized by administering it to a large sample of people who are representative of those who will be taking the test in the future. The group’s score are analyzed, and then the average score, standard deviation, percentile rankings, and other measures are computed. These comparative scores become the norms used as the standard against which all other scores on that test are measured. Reliability, validity, and standardization are especially important with regard to intelligence tests because the kinds of decisions that are sometimes based on intelligence test scores can have grave consequences. For example, a few years ago the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that is unconstitutional to execute individuals who have mental retardation. Thus, a psychologist who is charged with the responsibility of administering an intelligence test to a person who will or will not be subject to the death penalty at least partly on the basis of his or her intelligence test score must ensure that the test given is reliable and valid and has been properly standardized. Likewise, children’s scores on these tests are often used to place them in special school programs that, in a very real sense, change the course of their lives for years to come. In fact, such a goal was the impetus for the development of the first standardized intelligence test (p.219). 8. In memory loss there are two broad categories that involves this kind of memory loss, amnesia and dementia. Amnesia is a partial or complete loss of memory due to loss of consciousness, brain damage, or some psychological cause. Unlike the memory disorders that are experienced by some older adults, amnesia can be experienced at any age. In some cases, amnesia takes the form of an inability to store new information. This kind of amnesia is known as anterograde amnesia. Anterograde amnesia is the inability to form long-term memories of events occurring after a brain injury or brain surgery, although memories formed before the trauma are usually intact and short-term memory is unaffected. Some individuals with amnesia can form new memories, but they cannot remember the past, a disorder known as retrograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia is a loss of memory for experiences that occurred shortly before a loss of consciousness. These people often lack knowledge of themselves and/or the events surrounding the development of their memory loss. It is not unusual for a person to have both retrograde and anterograde amnesia with regard to the events that immediately preceded and followed a serious car crash or other traumatic event (p. 189). Another form of memory loss is dementia. Dementia is a state of mental deterioration characterized by impaired memory and intellect and by altered personality and behavior. Dementia can result from such conditions as cerebral arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries in the brain), chronic alcoholism, and irreversible damage by a small series of strokes. Dementia is most common among older adults. However, diseases such as HIV/AIDS can cause dementia to develop in a younger person as well. About 50 to 60% of all cases of dementia result from Alzheimer’s disease. This is a progressive deterioration of intellect and personality that results from widespread degeneration of brain cells (p.190). 9. People reconstruct memories, piecing them together using schemas to organize fragments of information, a process that has both advantages and disadvantages. Information that fits with preexisting schemas can be efficiently remembered, but schemas can also introduce distortions into memory. Sir Frederick Bartlett’s research demonstrated how reconstructive processing changes memory over time (p.178). Most memories do not include source information, so memories for sources must be reconstructed. Source monitoring results in encoding of source memories. Flashbulb memories are different from others in that they always include source information, although the source information is subject to reconstruction changes over time (p.179). Autobiographical memories are reconstructed memories that include factual, emotional, and interpretive elements. They are subject to positive bias (p.180). 10. Bandura suspected that aggression and violence on television programs, including cartoons, tend to increase aggressive behavior in children. In several classic experiments, Bandura demonstrated how children are influenced by exposure to aggressive models. One study involved three groups of preschoolers. Children in one group individually observed an adult model punching, kicking, and hitting a 5-foot, inflated plastic â€Å"Bobo Doll† with a mallet, while uttering aggressive phrases. Children in the second group observed a nonaggressive model who ignored the Bobo Doll and sat quietly assembling Tinker Toys. The children in the control group were placed in the same setting with no adult present. Later, each child was observed through a one-way mirror. Those children exposed to the aggressive model imitated much of the aggression and also engaged in significantly more nonimitative aggression than did children in either of the other groups. The group that observed the nonaggressive model showed less aggressive behavior than the control group. The researchers concluded that â€Å"of the three experimental conditions, exposure to humans on film portraying aggression was the most influential in eliciting and shaping aggressive behavior (p. 158-159). 11. Experiencing hunger pangs when you smell your favorite food is an example of classic conditioning.Your stomach rumbles when you smell your favorite food because smell and taste are so closely linked that food odors, functioning as conditioned stimuli, can actually make you think you are hungry even if you have just finished a large meal. The conditioned stimulus (CS) would be the presence of the smell of your favorite food which brings about the unconditioned stimulus (US) hunger pangs. Because humans do not need to be taught to be hungry for food, the act of feeling hungry would be the unconditioned response (UR). The conditioned response (CR) would be knowing that you will get hungry when you smell your favorite food (p.143). 12. Critics argue that therapists using hypnosis and guided imagery to help their patients recover repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse are actually implanting false memories in those patients. They are especially critical of claims of recovered memories in the first three years of life, because the hippocampus and areas of the cortex are not well developed enough to store long-term memories. Therapists who use these techniques believe that a number of psychological problems can be treated successfully by helping patients recover repressed memories of sexual abuse. These therapists believe that a process called repression, a form of motivated forgetting, can cause traumatic memories to be so deeply buried in an individual’s unconscious mind that he or she has lost all awareness of them (p.192-193). 13. Writing notes, making lists, writing on a calendar, or keeping an appointment book is often more reliable and accurate than trusting to memory. But if you need information at some unpredictable moment when you don’t have aids handy, several mnemonics, or memory devices, and study strategies have developed over the years to aid memory. Mnemonics, or rhymes are a common aid to remembering material that otherwise might be difficult to recall. As a child, learning to recite â€Å"i over e except after c† when you were trying to spell a word containing that vowel combination is an example of a mnemonic. The method of loci is a mnemonic device that be used to when you want to remember a list of items such as a grocery list. Select a familiar place – your home, for example – and simply associate the items to be remembered with locations there. For example, visualize the first item you want to remember in its place on the driveway, the second in the garage, and the third at the front door, and so on until you have associated the item you want to remember with a specific location. Overlearning is another method of improving memory. Overlearning is practicing or studying material beyond the point where it can be repeated once without error. It makes material more resistant to forgetting (p.173). 14. Bandura proposed that four processed determine whether observational learning will occur: Attention: The observer must attend to the model. Retention: The observer must store information about the model’s behavior in memory. Reproduction: The observer must be physically and cognitively capable of performing the behavior to learn it. In other words, no matter how much time you devote to watching Serena Williams play tennis or listening to Beyonce sing, you won’t be able to acquire skills like these unless you possess talents that are equal to theirs. Reinforcement: Ultimately, to exhibit a behavior learned through observation, an observer must be motivated to practice and perform the behavior on his own (p.156). 15. In some cases, we are hampered in our efforts to solve problems in daily life because of functional fixedness, the failure to use familiar objects in novel ways to solve problems. Objects you use everyday such as, tools, utensils, and other equipment are what help you perform certain functions. Although, you probably do not think to use the normal functions of such objects in new and creative ways. Suppose you wanted a cup of coffee, but the glass pot for you coffeemaker was broken. If you suffered from functional fixedness, you might come to the conclusion that there was nothing you could do to solve the problem at that moment. But, rather than thinking about the object you don’t have, think about the function that it needs to perform. Another impediment to problem solving is mental set, the tendency to continue to use the same old method even though another approach might be better. Perhaps you hit on a way to solve a problem once in the past and continue to use the same technique in similar situations, even though it it not highly effective of efficient. The cognitive process that underlies both functional fixedness and mental set is confirmation bias, the tendency to selectively pay attention to information that concerns preexisting beliefs and ignore data that contradict them. For example, when faced with an operating system â€Å"crash,† most computer users know that the first line of defense is to reboot. Every time rebooting solve the problem, confirmation bias in favor of rebooting as a solution for computer problems becomes stronger. As a result, when a problem arises that proves resistant to rebooting, most of us try rebooting a few more times before we confront the reality that rebooting isn’t going to solve the problem (p.209).

Marx Theory of Alienation

ive, rich people use the poor as commodities. He also explained that the profit that owners earn is not justly distributed to the nation as a whole. Marx’s Estranged Labor and Private Property and Communism explain the alienation of the laborer caused by private property and how it will bring the downfall of capitalism. Marx believed in communism which is a perfect life for all the individuals.In ancient times, people would live in caves and depended on nature to survive and fulfill their everyday needs. However, with time world modernized, people moved on and money became the main aspect of everyone’s life. In order to stay in power, money is very important. People give more value to money than themselves because money is what makes a person’s value. Money can buy happiness even though people spend most of their lives working for others.People’s need changed overtime, they found happiness in new things as the world modernized, unlike before their needs we re satisfied by nature. In Marx’s work he briefly pointed out what a man should really be by differentiating between animals and human beings. What makes human beings different from animals is that animals can’t think like humans as Marx said, for it â€Å"produces only what it immediately needs for itself and its young† (Estranged Labor, pg. 275).Unlike animals, humans have conscious and ability to produce many things by themselves as Marx explained, â€Å"he makes his life activity itself the object of his will and of his consciousness† (Estranged Labor, pg. 276). Humans are creative. Therefore, human life has a purpose for man and in this intellect he is free and universal. Marx argued that human nature is nor good nor evil but dialectical because humans external objects which were plant, animal and air became into food, clothes and heating.Marx illustrated that alienated man is the opposite of the productive man because a man's soul is to produce and create. Therefore, an alienated man is the man whose soul and existence are split, which describes that he works not for producing but for money and others. Money is a very important aspect in both the worker and the capitalist’s life. According to Marx, the real foundation of alienation is private property. The affiliation between the worker and the capitalist is defined in the capitalist society. A worker has not

Does God Exist Essay

In this busy world where almost everything is explained by Science and evidence, no one seems to bother questioning the existence of God. They are either apathetic or simply decided to be atheists or agnostics. Many people, especially the youth, are apathetic. They would rather preoccupy themselves with the newest game of Playstation 3, Hollywood blockbuster movies, sexy music videos of Paris Hilton, sports car, and other more exciting things. Topics of religion and faith are none of their businesses for these are the problems of the priests, pastors, and other faith defenders. They believe that they are too young to care and the important thing is that they do belong to a certain religion, attend some religious obligations, and those would be enough and will serve as â€Å"tickets† to their salvation. But do they understand what they are doing? Do they know what God they are worshipping to? Do they really reflect if they really want the religion they’re into, or they just go with the flow? Others would simply negate that there is a God. These are the atheists. They do not believe in a Supreme Being who creates and controls everything simply because they do not want to. Then, there are those who play safe, the agnostics. They do not confirm nor deny the existence of God just because no one can prove both arguments. Another belief is that of Scientology. Their stand is the only things that are true in this world are those, which can be explained by Science and supported by evidences. Obviously, they do not have a God. The question now is what do we get with these different views. What happens if we believe in God or not? Are we free from the sufferings of this world if we chose to believe in Him? The answer is no. Mr.  Tom Cruise, who is in Scientology, seems to get all the luck in the world even if he does not believe in God. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who devoted her life caring for the unfortunate, suffered and died as a poor nun. Has she changed the lives of the poor she took cared of? No. The Philippines, a Catholic country, belongs to the Third World where people die of hunger, experience heinous crimes, and suffer from poverty. On the other hand, parts of Europe and United States, where religion and faith seem to be buried under material aspirations, are among the 1st World countries. Ironically, those who have deep faith are the ones who bear all the cruelties in this world, while those who do not have been quite lucky. How unfair life is, isn’t it? But our religious leaders are ready for their standard answers – â€Å"Better suffer here on earth! The more you suffer, the greater the reward awaiting for you in your after life! † So, let’s all suffer despite our goodness. Isn’t it logical? One day a child asked me if there’s a God and I said yes. Then, she asked again why could not she see Him? I couldn’t simply tell her to close her eyes, just have faith, and believe for this won’t answer her question. I couldn’t just tell her that I have Master Yoda’s â€Å"Force† with me and she should believe it. I have to show it to her and let her feel it. I have to give her something that she would understand. It was not the atheists or agnostics, who are closed to the fact that God exists I had to convince, it was a curious girl wanting to know God’s existence. I have to give her a logical explanation for all of these. St. Thomas Aquinas offered 5 reasonable ways to prove God’s existence. First, he believes that there has to be an â€Å"Unmoved Mover. † At this point, I picked up a stone and threw it away. Then, I asked the girl if who made the stone moved. She eagerly replied, â€Å"You! † I said she was very smart. Then I asked her again who moved me to pick up the stone and threw it. She replied, â€Å"God? † The first argument of St. Thomas has 3 basic facts – one, that nothing can move itself; two, if an object is dependent on another in order for it to move, then the first object in motion also needed a mover; and three, the first mover should be unmoved, and this could be God. Tired of walking, we sat on a wooden bench. I asked the girl if she knew the maker of that beautiful bench, the replied she made was it’s the carpenter. I then asked her if she had an idea who made the carpenter. She frowned and whispered, â€Å"his parents? † Again, I asked her who made the carpenter’s parents’ ancestors? Isn’t it God? St. Aquinas’ second way is the causation of existence. He believes that there must have been an â€Å"Uncaused First Cause† who created everything and began the chain of existence. Related to this is St. Aquinas’ 3rd way or the â€Å"contingent and necessary beings. A bench is a contingent being made by wood that came from a tree; man planted that, and who was created by whom? There must be something/someone at the end who created all contingents. St. Thomas Aquinas believes that every contingent being should be dependent form a necessary being for them to exist and that there must exist a being which is necessary to cause contingent beings – this could be God. The small girl looked perplexed with all of the explanations I was giving her. I diverted her attention by asking him to compare Mr. Brad Pitt and Mr. Tom Cruise, of which of the two were more handsome. She immediately replied, â€Å"Brad Pitt! † I then told her that even if Mr. Pitt has a slight edge over Mr. Cruise, there has to be someone more handsome than Pitt or this may even be the most handsome of all handsome. This is the gradient of beauty or perfection. One has to be compared to another that may have more or less. And this is the 4th way of St. Thomas, the â€Å"argument from degrees of perfection. † He believes that there are grades or degrees of perfection and that there must be a perfect standard by which all qualities are measured and compared with, this could be God. While resting, I asked her if she has been taught in her school about the different human systems, i. e. circulatory, nervous, digestive, and others. She said no. I asked then how about symbiotic relationships, photosynthesis, and formation of clouds, which she again had no knowledge in. But she said that she knew where the food goes after it was eaten. Then, I asked her if she was not perplexed by how systematic nature works. It is easier to accept that there must be an â€Å"Intelligent Engineer† who planned all of these rather than these were all products of a big explosion. St. Thomas last way talks about an â€Å"Intelligent Designer†, someone or something must have done these, and this could be God. I am not sure if all of my explanations were enough for the girl to believe in God, but what I have presented, based on St. Aquinas’ 5 Ways, were all basics in life. We experience them daily. These are evidences just enough to convince ourselves that someone or something must be in control, caused things, and moved things. This someone may be the creator of everything, including love, happiness, pain, and suffering. These logical evidences may be still absorbed by a child, but not for atheists. Non-believers would argue that, granting there is a God, who is all-powerful, all good, and all knowing, why does he let certain things happen. Why does he let the plane with a suicide bomber inside to land in the World Trade Center killing a lot of innocent people? If Superman, a fictional character, can stop a plane from crashing, so why cannot this Someone who is omnipotent? If this Someone is all good, why can he let this happen? If he’s all-knowing, then he knew that it was bound to happen and he didn’t do anything to prevent it. I cannot personally provide an answer to all of these doubts that are sufficient for them to believe. But what I do believe is that maybe, crimes like this, were part of the â€Å"master plan† of the Intelligent Designer. † Maybe, what is â€Å"perfect† for him is different from our own concept here on earth. Every abstract painting must look chaotic and one cannot figure it out easily. But when you see its meaning, you begin to appreciate and treat it as an art. Maybe, this is really what life should be. Probably, the beauty of life includes sufferings, cruelties, chaos, and other unacceptable facts. Relative to why God allowed such crime to happen, I believe that He is just respecting the law of nature. He created man to be intelligent and free, thus, he has all the freedom to do whatever he wants to. But of course, in every action there is a consequence, and man should face that. If he decided to eat more then he’ll have himself full and a possibility of stomach ache. The same goes with killing. If one wants to take others lives into his own hands then he can. But this act does not differentiate man from animals or other lower beings. An additional feature was given by the Intelligent Designer exclusive to man, which is conscience. After we knew the rightness or wrongness of an act, we have this conscience if we feel we have done something wrong. That’s the way it is, that’s human nature. And God respects it. God does not want the plane to crash, the suicide bomber wanted it. God, maybe, allowed it for He has a greater plan and there’s something good coming from that crime. The crash was terrible, people died, but it made Americans pray hard at least for a day. It caused them to unite to fight against terrorism. It caused them their humility that they do not control their lives even though their powerful. Proving God’s existence is almost impossible if you’re convincing an atheist or an agnostic. But it is not our duties to force others to believe in each of our own faiths. There are so much complexities in a religion, whether its Catholic, Moslem, Scientology, or even Atheists. Perpetual debates are heard daily claiming that their religion is the legitimate one, often times causing a fight between its pastors. But we tend to forget the basic and primal fact of being a human, which is to cause harmony to all mankind. Being human is to show love, respect, and service to everyone. I think in the end, when we face our Creator, religion would not be our only pass to salvation, but on how many lives we inspired and changed for the betterment of the world. Aren’t we tired of proving God’s existence? People spend a lot of time and resources looking for evidences of His existence just to correlate Science and Faith. Yes, there are unexplainable things such as violence, crimes, cruelties, and other unfairness of this world, that cast doubts to His existence, but we still manage to live. There is still air to breathe, food to eat, and water to drink. We don’t need a grand miracle of dead people rising to life and water turning into wine. Miracles happen daily from the moment we wake up and live for another day. It is not God who should prove His existence to us because it is obvious thru the wonders of this world. It is we, man, who should prove our existence to Him. Let us prove to Him that despite the materialistic and busy world we live in, human goodness still exists.

Financial Management (Determine the year-to-year percentage annual Essay

Financial Management (Determine the year-to-year percentage annual growth in total net sales) - Essay Example From analysing the sales performance trends over the past five years, it is likely that the company will achieve its target of 10% sales growth for the year 2005. From year 2001 to 2003 the company has experienced a total negative growth of 48% , which has been reversed in 2004 with a growth of 36%. This is possibly with the recapturing of lost market shares or customers. The growth of 10% for 2005 will be a sales increase of only $ 834.00, which will take the overall sales of the company to US$ 9,168.00. It is still less than what the company were achieving in 2001 and therefore, the company is likely to recapture its lost sales and reach the 2005 targets. Use the Percentage Sales Method and a 20% increase in sales to forecast Micro Chip's Consolidated Statement of Operations for the period September 26, 2004 through September 25, 2005. Assume a 15% tax rate and restructuring costs of 2% of the new sales figure.

Occupational health and safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Occupational health and safety - Essay Example OSH increases workplace productivity. This is because OSH stipulates that all organizations have the duty of care of ensuring that employees and other parties who may be affected by organizations undertaking are safe at all times. Moral obligations in this case involve the protection of the lives and health of employees. Because of measures that are put in place in respect to moral obligations, employees become less susceptible to injuries and harm and thereby making the realization of a more secure, sustainable and healthier workforce. This in turn leads to abated levels of absenteeism, heightened motivation and ultimately, improved productivity. It is against this backdrop for instance that the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EASHW) established the finding that for every Euro that is invested in OSH, the Return on Investment (ROI) that is realized falls between 3 and 5 Euros, due to reduced costs that stem from reduction in absenteeism. In the US, the issue of absent eeism is underscored by the data that released to the same effect. Specifically, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics established that machine-related accidents and injuries alone claimed 64,170 cases that required long sick-offs, in 2008 alone. Similarly, more than a fourth of these injury cases required more than 30 days being spent away from work (Reese, 2008). The fact that following OSH stipulations entails the installation of workplace risk prevention and the enhancement of proper health and safety management means that cases dealing with serious harm and injuries on employees are assuaged. Cases where these injuries are commonly recurrent are concomitant with high employee turnover, as organizations are compelled to look for another source of manpower or skilled labor. Adhering to OSH in turn alleviates cases of terminal injuries and thereby reducing the chances of high employee turnover that would be incurred as an organization tries to replenish the size of its work force. In a closely related wavelength, adhering to the standards and stipulations set by OSH gives organizational productivity the quality of continuity and stability. With the aforementioned abated cases of injuries and harm on employees, a corporate entity is succored from the task of having to retrain and nurture fledgeling personnel to acquire the necessary skills and experiences that an injured team possessed. This is significant, since training and nurturing organizational workforce entails numerous workshop drives and training programs. Reese (2008) points out that an organization also benefits directly when it adheres to OSH regulations and standards. This benefit takes the form of increased security from the ravages of workplace accidents, malfunction and human error. This is because; OSH is broad enough to include interactions with other subject areas such as safety engineering, chemistry and industrial engineering. This is especially more pronounced in industries that ha ve inherently high proclivity to accidents such as mining, construction and crisis management which have over time developed safety procedures and methods as a way of managing physical danger at the workplace. For instance, since 1992, engineering workshops specializing in welding of components are to adhere to the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) regulations, and thereby curtailing high chances for

Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Objectives of Accounting and Firms Assignment

Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Objectives of Accounting and Firms - Assignment Example Contra Asset accounts are accounts that are offsetting accounts for certain asset accounts which are often called valuation allowances. Credits increase contra asset accounts, and debits decrease these accounts. Accounts such as doubtful accounts, and accumulated depreciation. Liability accounts are accounts that increase credits and decrease with debits. The examples of the liability accounts are accounts payable, long-term debt (loan), taxes payable and wages payable. Contra liability accounts are accounts that are offsetting accounts for certain liability accounts which are often called valuation allowances. Debits increase contra liability accounts, and credits decrease these accounts. The short-term portion of the mortgage payable is an example of a contra liability account. The accounts in the income statement are closed out every ending period and transferred to Retained Earnings and entered into the Income Statement. The two types of accounts used in the Income Statement are called Revenue and Expense accounts. Assumption: Cash would increase thus increasing the Cash account in the Balance Sheet, and Equity would increase thus increasing the Equity account in the Balance Sheet. Both sides of the Balance Sheet increase by $5000. The primary objectives of accounting are to fairly present the financial information in the financial statements with necessary disclosures in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) so that users of the financial statements can use them to make informative decisions. This fulfills one of the main objectives which is to give assurance to the public about financial statements. The main objective of the firm producing financial statements is to monitor business performance throughout the year and possibly compare with past results. When comparative financial statements are compiled, a better understanding of the level of consistency can be obtained.

In Defense of Masks by Kenneth Gergen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

In Defense of Masks by Kenneth Gergen - Essay Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that  it is impossible to live through life without putting on or developing masks. Masks are a vital part of human society. Masks act as a source of fostering relationships and understandability between various groups in society.  People portray different forms of their real selves. They adorn masks to masks to achieve various objectives in their lives, but it is a fake characterization of their true beliefs and attitudes of a person. Everybody has a motivation towards hiding their identities. Whether it is to get accepted, loved, ignored, inflict fear or hide from shame. This urge to wear masks is true to human form. The urge for survival in a tough and competitive world makes people act in a manner that is not true to self. For example, it is common for an employee to appear subtle in front of his/her boss just to appease them and look well-mannered or cultured. The employee may in the actual sense not be cultured or well-mannered. He or she may be a loudmouth or someone that ridicules fellow coworkers at the workplace. But because the employee is in the presence of their boss and he or she hopes to get noticed for a promotion or favor, they hide their true identity in front of the boss. The boss would thus pick up a fake attitude or behavior from the employee. The motivation to get promoted or noticed makes the employee wear a mask that hides their real identity.  Society has also forced human beings to wear masks. Societal pressures make people act in ways that are not true to their selves. In a world that is full of standards and demands, people act to please others and not themselves (Gergen 138). Friends, enemies, and relatives may force individuals to behave in certain ways.  

Noble Energy Inc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Noble Energy Inc - Essay Example Throughout the years of its existence, the company has managed to overcome a lot of economic challenges which have encouraged and promoted them to have a strong financial cash flow system. Some of the operations that have enhanced their financial status include: their on-shore and off-shore operations that are located in different parts of the world. The company has been planning to expand its operations strategically by promoting partnerships that will allow it to save on costs and leverage on the expertise of the company. As a result, the company has ventured into fulfilling partnerships with several energy companies worldwide. It is without doubt that strategic partnerships and alliances always ensure that a company has a strong business foundation for years to come. The company’s oil drilling technology is up to par with the current standards. With that, they have an added advantage over energy companies that have not yet acquired the latest drilling technologies. In addition to that, their leadership and management can be termed as solemn since they have driven the company to the level that they are in currently. The market that is available is open for more energy options to be realized by the different energy companies. It is without doubt that if the company invests in natural gas plants they will have a variety of energy solutions to offer to their customers.

Working with and leading people Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Working with and leading people - Essay Example Hiring the right person, for the right position, and at the right time is important as far as the success of an organization is concerned. Making mistakes during the recruitment and selection process might be extremely costly for the organization i.e. might destroy its reputation. Selection and recruitment documentation During the selection and recruitment of an employee, an organization must prepare some documentation and follow some procedures. The first step would involve preparation of a timetable. This entails allocating reasonable time to activities within the recruitment process i.e. advertisement for the position, short listing, and interviews among other activities. The second step would involve putting together the applicant’s park with some documents including a copy of the job description, the person’s specifications copy, an application form, as well as, the monitoring form. The third step would involve ensuring that the internal preparations are in place. For example, the recruiting personnel must ensure that there is a trained panel, as well as, making sure that there is an effective system for the short listing activity. The third step would involve advertising the post. The advertisement document must be effective in terms of attracting the best talents in the labor market to apply for the position. After the advertisement, the recruitment team should shortlist the qualified candidates. After short listing, the recruitment team should conduct the interviews and then select the best candidate for the position (Arthur, 2005). Legal, ethical, and regulatory implications in the recruitment and selection process In the recruitment and selection process, there are both legal and ethical implications that the recruitment team must put into consideration. Failure to comply with the legal requirements could be too costly for an organization, for example, it might result to litigations. Unethical practices, on the other hand, entails action s or activities that are morally wrong during the recruitment process. The recruitment team must implement key laws to ensure that the recruitment and selection process is equal and fair, absence of discrimination based on sex, age and ethnicity, and every applicant has the right to work in the country. For example, when the recruitment team is placing job adverts, it must ensure that it does not discriminate any applicant based on color or sex. There are sex discrimination laws, as well as, race relations laws. Other key laws include disability discrimination laws. On the other hand, there are unethical practices during the recruitment and selection process. For example, child labor is not only illegal, but also unethical. Some organizations utilize child labor because of the fact that it is less costly. This may hurt the organization i.e. destroying the reputation and legal penalties (Martin, 2010). The selection process The selection process entails choosing the best candidate fr om a pool of applicants. An effective selection process helps in the selection of the most suitable individual from the applicants’ list. The recruitment team must comply with all legal, as well as, ethical requirements. Screening during the selection process is critical as far as identifying the best applicants based on the job requirements. During the screening process, the recruitment team goes through the applicant’s documents i.e. the curriculum vitae to identify the academic and working history of a specific individual. If the recruitment team is convinced that a candidate is qualified it shortlists him or her for the assessment tests or for the oral interviews. At the assessment centers,

Establishing a Teen Court Program Essay Example for Free

Establishing a Teen Court Program Essay Inspired on discussions with the parents-teachers associations, the Teen Court Program has been established to allow the young to deal with issues that bother them. With this program, the school initiates an establishment of a court where teenagers are the judges, prosecutors, and defendants handling cases of fellow teenagers. This court shall handle minor offenses, usually those which are done inside the school premises. Thus, the teen court will affect the school as a whole. The students who are taking part and those for which the teen court will be imposed upon as well as the officials and parents of the students will be involved in the program. The Teen Court Program will be established with the student council. The participants will be required to attend a one-day seminar with the Juvenile Division Parole and Probation Center to familiarize themselves with court procedures. After the seminar, a selection will be done as to who shall be jurors, court clerks and bailiffs. Others will be given assignments as attorneys from which cases can be ascribed and consulted with. They will be manning case proceedings in such a way that adults do them. The only difference here is the age. The Teen Court Program will take of next year, beginning with the seminar slated at the Juvenile Division Parole and Probation Center on January 15, 2008. It will be followed by a series of qualifying tests and interviews to divide responsibilities among the members of the group. Primarily, the members of the teen court will come from the student council. However, non-members of the student council can likewise serve as volunteers. Should they aspire for positions, they will be asked to attend a pre-set seminar and go through he same tests and interviews. If they are volunteering as support assistants, all they need to do is be a bona fide student of the institution to be able to apply and qualify. Adults such as parents may also volunteer for administrative functions such as billing, management, and planning. The Teen Court Program is expected to improve the juvenile justice system in the school. It will also upgrade the treatment on minor offenders in the community. With it, minors are arrested and tried on the court in front of a teenage representation. Ultimately, it allows minors to be the leaders and defendants of justice in their own right. The school decided to create the Teen Court Program to allow teenagers to deal with their own issues. Believing that adults may lack or have no understanding of the issues surrounding teenagers given the difference in age and activities, the school has taken this step. It also creates leaders, and allows teenagers to take part in such important activities. The juvenile court program will proceed on offenses that are considered minor to be taken to the non-juvenile courts. These offenses include minor fights where there are no casualties, stealing, all forms of cheating, and other misbehaviors. The program is beneficial at that it allows offenders to be tried according to a due process instead of being confined with the judgments of the local school board (made up of adults); the peers of offenders will be able to testify and give their sides, and learn lessons as well. School officials will also be less burdened by these minor offenses, and in general the community benefits because the minors being tried in these juvenile courts are handled accordingly and receives no exposure to real criminals. It has also been found that juvenile courts are cheaper to operate.

Childs future life chances

Childs future life chances Your life chances and opportunities depend on the social circumstances of the family you were born into. discuss drawing upon academic literature and research examples The likelihood of a child succeeding in life is still largely determined by their familys income and social position. This essay will begin by introducing the debates which centre around this topic. It will then go on to examine four key domains which affect a Childs future life chances: family income, education, class status and family background. The concept of life chances was originally introduced by Max Weber who believed that factors such as low, economic position, status and power were interlinked and together presented the problem of poorer life chances in the future. In current literature life chances signifies the opportunities which are available for people to improve there quality of life in the future for example access to quality education. Some of these influences are likely to be affected by the social circumstances of the family to which they are born into. This could be directly: well educated parents, all things being equal, will probably provide a more intellectually stimulating home-life than those parents who left school early. Other influences will be indirect: better-educated parents may have higher than average incomes and hence be able to finance educational excursions, or in other ways to provide life enhancing experiences for their offspring. some of these additional opportunities will be cumulative, reinforcing other positive characteristics, while others may serve to compensate for some forms of disadvantage. Some people believe that it is strictly genes that affect our opportunities in life. Research focusing on the causal relationship between genes and subsequent IQ, range from 0 to 80% this provides inconsistent results. Recent research, has suggested that genetic and environmental factors are not distinct determinants of intelligence and life chances. Instead it is the interaction between these two factors which gives rise to a childs intelligence levels. The role that nurture has to play in developing intelligence is clearly demonstrated from data published by Inequality in the early cognitive development of British children. The data suggested that the social circumstances of the family influenced future educational attainment. Those children brought up in families with low Socio-economic Status (SES) with attainment levels ranked as low, at 22 months, were also prone to have low attainment at age ten. On the other hand those children from a high SES background were as likely to sho w high attainment at age ten, even if their attainment was ranked low at 22 months. This data suggests that it is nurture and the social circumstances of the family which influences the future chances of these children and not their initial genetic abilities. Mayer notes that children who are born into low income parents also seem to have less success than those parents who have more money. Children from low income families also tend to score lower on measurers of cognitive ability, more likely to drop put of school, to have behavioural problems and essentially earn less in later life. This is drastically demonstrated in a 1970 British cohort survey showing that at age 26 young adults experience an earnings penalty of 9% if they were brought up in a household with an income below half the average (after controlling for educational attainment) therefore this suggests that young people from poor backgrounds are disproportionately observed at the lower end of the earnings distribution when they are in work. Further research in the US by Isaac (2007) which focused on the intergenerational aspect of income focusing on families economic position and how this is influenced by that of there parents: He found that 42 percent of children born to pa rents in the bottom fifth of the economic distribution remain in this section as adults with only 23 percent rising to the second fifth, meanwhile 39 percent of children born to parents at the top of the income distribution remain at the top, with only 23 percent moving downwards to the second fifth. From this research alone it is clear to see that a parents income is influencing there childrens future income opportunities. One possible reason for this difference is that of social class. The role of SES is well-documented in the literature concerning life chances. Using the National Child Development Stufies and the British Cohort study, Carneiro et al (2007) and Blanden et al (2006) illustrated that there is clearly a strong relationship between a childs social and cognitive abilities and their parents SES. This has been demonstrated by Fienstein (2003) who found that those children who were originally brought up in low socio economic status background who scored poorly on cognitive tests at an early age were more likely to remain with low scores as they grew through the life course, however those children from a higher socio economic status with lowe scores were much more likely to catch up. These results from the NCDS and the BCS do allow for informative feedback However in order to test the validity of these findings it is very important that these relationships are tested throughout generations. This recent research has been carried out by Sylva et al (2007) who analysed data from a recent programme the Effective Pre-School and Primary Education (EPPE) programme which aimed to test childrens cognitive attainment (reading and mathematics) from that age of three to the end of Key Stage 2.

The American Constitution and Drug War Essay -- American Government, L

The consensus with regards to drug laws favors more stringent and draconian laws, with the attempt to stifle use and punish crime. There are many claims used against drug legalization, such as, moral degradation, crime, the destruction of inner cities; along with families, diseases, such as AIDS, and the corrupting of law enforcement. When one examines the effects of prohibition, one has to inquire: has the cost been worth it? Certainly, an argument for the abolition of prohibition doesn’t include the favoring of drug use, but merely recognizes the vain and utopian attempt to control individual choices. Along these lines, the unintended consequences of these attempts may preclude any benefits. Further, one has to wonder: are these laws—at the federal level—constitutional or not? This paper will examine the issue of drug prohibition from a constitutional standpoint, an economic perspective, and the societal effects these laws have. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land. While this statement seems axiomatic, it’s essential to discern the explication and implication of this with regard to the drug war. It’s been assumed that whatever the federal government passes is by the fact itself constitutional, notwithstanding the Supreme Court. However, to the dismay of some, this statement is blatantly false. The Constitution was ratified on the condition that only the powers the federal government would possess were the ones specifically delegated to it by the states. This is reinforced by the 10th amendment (Mount, 2010). This view stipulates that the federal government is limited and defined; and, for the government to garner new powers, the correct approach would be through Article V’s amendment process. ... ...this construction of the words â€Å"necessary and proper,† is not only consonant with that which prevailed during the discussions and ratification of the constitution, but is absolutely necessary to maintain their consistency with the peculiar character of the government, as possessed of particular and defined powers, only; not of the general and indefinite powers vested in ordinary governments. (Tucker, 2010) To take a step beyond these powers would cripple the constitution and thus cripple our democratic principles and process. In order for changes to be made—which there have been—the proper arrangement would be the amendment process. If it took the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 to outlaw alcohol, it would seem logical and constitutional to outlaw drugs (Vick, 2010). In sum, any laws at the federal level that outlaw drugs, based on these facts, are unconstitutional.

Teaching Philosophy :: Education Teachers School Essays

Teaching Philosophy I feel that education is not only based on the basics, but built on them. To me, creative expression revolves somewhat around those basics that are taught and also around the areas in life that are unseen, or thought. Creativity opens a person’s mind, to not just focus on what has been taught to us, which is information stored in the left side of the brain, but also to utilize our own ideas and imagination to express ourselves, which utilizes the right side of the brain (which is rarely used in the average individual). By doing creative things that use the imagination, it helps to strengthen that part of the brain which has been weakened with time. As children we feed that part of the brain, all is growing at once. But once formal education is introduced, that vision is narrowed to the point that it becomes lost and usually never recovered. What we are taught contradicts vision in art and destroys the vision of an artist unless given the proper instruction an d guidance on how to combine the known knowledge acquired and what is seen in actuality. A class that offers this guidance but to have freedom in a pressure-free environment that allows for creativity is what I desire from my class because for me, the art program when I was a child lacked. Art was mostly for holidays, something to take home to your mom for a certain special occasion, not for individual expression. I think out of all the philosophies that would best suit my desires in an art class would be the existentialist approach. Existentialism rejects the existence of any source of objective, authoritative truth other than the individual themselves, in which that individual determines for themselves what is right / wrong, true / false, and beautiful / ugly. Existentialism fits perfectly for an art program in that it gives the student a chance to have freedom of thought to be as creative as they like without something/ someone controlling what they do. In the existentialist class, students are allowed to choose their own medium, like prose, poetry, art, or music, and evaluate their own performance and sometimes each others performance.

THE CULTURE AND COMMERCE OF THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY :: essays papers

THE CULTURE AND COMMERCE OF THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY "The writer is the Faust of modern society, the only surviving individualist in a mass age."Boris Pasternak "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."Samuel Johnson Andrew Levy's book is an immensely enjoyable read, one which presents the reader with an exhaustive historical treatment of that particularly American literary invention, the mass-marketed short story magazine.However, your final reaction to this book is likely to depend on who you agree with, Pasternak or Johnson, and thus whether you see writers as alienated individualists or clubby entrepreneurs. Levy begins at the same place everything about the American short story begins, with Edgar Allan Poe.While it is generally accepted that Poe's review of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales (1842) established both a definition of and an attitude toward the American short story, Levy believes that Poe might better be considered the inventor of the American short story magazine.Levy quotes Poe's letters and journals at length, demonstrating that Poe's ultimate aim was to "found a magazine of my own."Poe dreamed of creating a magazine which would offer "high" culture to an expanding middle class, a population drawn to the magazine precisely because it represented their social aspirations rather than their social realities.Levy points out that the truly lasting American magazines have in fact followed Poe's plan, The New Yorker being perhaps the most obvious example. Levy describes his book as primarily a study of the commerce of the short story, of "...what Poe thought about his checkbook, and how his checkbook became the short story."Yet his most interesting assertion has less to do with sales than national character.He argues (in "The Land of Definition") that the American magazine stands in a metonymic relationship to the American story, in that the paradoxical assertion to both disposability and lasting value of the magazine represents perfectly the most persistent criticism and praise made of the short story.One would like to see an entire book devoted to a study of this relationship. Furthermore, if the economic foundations for the short story's development is the heart of his book, then we cannot dismiss what Levy thinks of the modern writing workshop, which has in effect created today's Writing Industry: The most striking aspect of the modern workshop system, for instance, is the extent to which its ensures the continued health of the short story ... The workshop system .

Enola Gay Essay

August 6, 1945 by Alison Fell In the Enola Gay five minutes before impact he whistles a dry tune Later he will say that the whole blooming sky went up like an apricot ice. Later he will laugh and tremble at such a surrender, for the eye of his belly saw Marilyn’s skirts fly over her head for ever On the river bank, bees drizzle over hot white rhododendrons Later she will walk the dust, a scarlet girl with her whole stripped skin at her heel, stuck like an old shoe sole or mermaid’s tail Later she will lie down in the flecked black ash where the people are become as lizards or salamanders and, blinded, she will complain Mother you are late. So late Later in dreams he will look down shrieking and see ladybirds ladybirds Bombing Repetition Simile Female View Personification Alliteraion Male View Pronouns GLOSSARY ‘Enola Gay’: this was the name given to (and painted on) the plane which carried the bomb to Hiroshima. The pilot’s mother was called Enola Gay. ‘Marilyn’s skirts’: there is a famous film clip/still photograph of the American movie star Marilyn Monroe, in which she walks over a pavement air vent and the warm air from it blows the full skirt of her light-coloured dress upwards over her head. ‘drizzle’: this means ‘rain lightly’, but here is used to evoke the way the bees descend, buzzing, on to the flowers. ‘salamanders’: a salamander is a lizard-like amphibian with a smooth skin. In ancient legend salamanders were supposed to be able to live in fire. ‘ladybirds’: there are numerous versions (not all in English) of the nursery rhyme which begins, ‘Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home, Your house is on fire and your children are gone’. There are numerous explanations for it, too. Ladybirds are quite difficult to dislodge, and the rhyme, when recited, was traditionally supposed to induce them to fly off of their own accord.

Euthanasia: Morally Right or Ethically Wrong

Euthanasia has gained a bad reputation within the public eye due to negative media encircling assisted suicide; euthanasia has a purpose and a goal, it should be seen as humanely releasing the soul of a human being from an emptiness created occasionally by our merciless society. This paper will delineate whether Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide are morally right or ethically wrong. Euthanasia is often confused with and linked to assisted suicide, definitions of the two are vital. Two viewpoints are located within the body of this paper.The first viewpoint will support euthanasia or the â€Å"right to ii,† the second viewpoint will support anti-euthanasia or the â€Å"right to live†. Each perspective shall attempt to clarify the legal, moral and ethical ramifications of euthanasia and assisted suicide as well as include a personal example of each to detail the ending results.The term euthanasia has many definitions. The Pro-Life Alliance defines euthanasia as ‘Any a ction or omission intended to end the life of a patient on the grounds that his or her life is not worth living. The Voluntary Euthanasia Society refers to the word's Greek origins – ‘e' and ‘thanks'-, which together mean ‘a good death. An updated and loosely modern definition is ‘A good death brought on by a doctor providing methods or an injection to bring a peaceful end to the ultimate process of passing on. There are three different sub-classifications of euthanasia passive euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide and active euthanasia although not all groups would acknowledge them as valid terms (BBC News, 1999).There are two main types of patients that euthanasia may aid specifically, (1 ) patients that are in a persistent vegetative state, that are awake but are not aware of one's self or of their surroundings. Such patients eave no higher brain activity and are maintained by artificial life support: respirators, heart-lung machine, and intra-veno us nutrition.These types of methods do nothing more than prolong the inevitable and sustain a person in a never-ending life that will never go anywhere beyond these machines. 2) Patients in which are bound by a terminal illness that causes them a lot of pain, psychological suffering and loss of their dignity. This patient may or may not be on life-support depending on the severity of their illness. However, there are many different types of Euthanasia that can be examined when it moms to helping someone rid him or herself of a life of unnecessary pain. Here are the different types and their definitions among society: Euthanasia generally refers to an easy or painless death, in other words merciful.Voluntary Euthanasia includes a request by the dying patient or that person's legal representative, proving their approval to continue. Passive or Negative Euthanasia involves not doing something to prevent the patience requested death, which is, allowing someone to die. Assisted suicide, a distant cousin of euthanasia, is when a person wishes to commit suicide but feels unable to execute the act alone because of a physical disability or lack of knowledge on what would be the most effective means in doing so.An individual, who assists in an assisted suicide and helps the suicide victim in accomplishing their goal, may or may not be an accessory or be held responsible for the death, depending on local laws. Without a doubt, today's dying methods has become fearsome. Physicians are now in possession of the technologies and the skills needed to avert natural death almost indefinitely. More often then not, the terminally ill suffer unnecessary pain and are kept alive without any ell hope or expectations of surviving, as families stand watch waiting for the inevitable while still holding hope at the same time.U. S. District Judge Barbara Rottenest wrote is no more profoundly personal decision, nor one which is closer to the heart of personal liberty, than the choice which a terminally ill person makes to end his or her own suffering Shilling, '94). The pro-euthanasia or â€Å"right to die† movement has received extensive support with the passage of laws in 40 states by 1990; this has allowed competent patience the legal privilege of making a â€Å"living will. These living wills give doctors the authority to withhold life-support, should the patient request it if the individual becomes terminally ill.Having choices, including having the legal right for help to die is a pinnacle of hope within itself. This allows people to take control Of their lives and accomplish things on their terms; this is a very important part of being human and of living. The issue of euthanasia is, by its very nature, a very difficult and private choice. Therefore, euthanasia should remain exactly that, a choice and a private one at that. It is a choice that should not be legislated or restricted by opposing forces or opinions.Euthanasia is a matter that should stay between the patient, the family, the doctor and God. Life is a precious gift received from the Creator with gratefulness and appreciation; individuals should cherish, preserve, and enhance life in every way possible. However, when the possibility for a meaningful, joyful, desirable life has been thoroughly depleted and every effort has been made to avoid the inevitable, then the United States should make it legal for the merciful to show mercy to the dying ho request help and understanding to end their torment.My father on my husband's side, who had cancer, received euthanasia 6 years ago. He had chemotherapy radiation; the side effects that he endured were loss of appetite, becoming lethargic, fatigue, loss of color in skin, fever, chills, weight loss, night sweats and extreme pain. They told him that it was not going into remission and that it had spread throughout his body. According to the doctors, my father in law had maybe a year at most and even then, he would have to be hosp italized due to the pain and having chemotherapy done.After achieving this information, my father opted for euthanasia instead of having to endure a year of pain and suffering with his family watching him deteriorate. So he said his goodbyes, took care of necessary business and arranged things financially for his family before the process was performed. He then had his wife and children in with him during the procedure as he received a huge dose of painkillers and then a drug, that I am not familiar with, that led him to his death painlessly.Having the opportunity to have this type of say and control over his death, think, made the process a little mother and easier to endure. He got to accomplish what many do not get the chance to accomplish, he was able to set his finances straight, make sure his loved ones were taken care of and say his goodbyes to the ones he loved. To me this was a huge relief in knowing that he was allowed to have this type of help and closure before he left t his world.I also believe that this method not only helped my father in-law but it also helped his immediate and non immediate family except the inevitable and have time to process it, so as to handle the grieving process. To some, Euthanasia is nothing less than cold- blooded killing; others would consider it premeditated murder and consider those assisting in it an accessory to murder. In addition, they believe Euthanasia steals away the one thing that gives us a reason for existence, a life in which we choose to live. It also depreciates life, much like the enormous issue of abortion.People against Euthanasia, deem it as morally and ethically wrong and think the government should outlaw it in these United States. It is true that modern medicine has evolved excessively throughout the enervation, so much so that abolitionists' believe that euthanasia in itself resets these medical advances back by years. Our Surgical Physicians alone are known as Administrators of Death; this is a s ide effect of the outcome of euthanasia. Some believe that euthanasia is unacceptable within our society because of a multitude of reasons.Many who are against euthanasia being legalized are apprehensive because they dread that if it is then there will be many who die for needless reasons and they believe that there will be a rampage of â€Å"mercy killings† going on as an excuse for murder. Others believe that it is and always will be an immoral thing to take one's life from them when we were not the ones to give it to them. Also many medical physicians also oppose euthanasia because they say that in assisting one in suicide is violating our dignity and ‘litotes one's will to survive.When it comes to doctors, there is also The Hippocratic Oath in which they need to take into consideration. The Oath of Hippocrates is believed to have originated in approximately the fifth century B. C. And, even then, it incorporated a specific ledge against physician-assisted suicide wh en it said, â€Å"l will give no deadly medicine to anyone, even if asked. † It is recommended that a person suffering from an incurable or terminal illness is not completely in command of their mental capabilities and thereby incapable of such an extraordinary decision.In addition, a degraded mental capacity within a patient rules out any realistic thinking concerning survivors. Euthanasia is a very contentious topic. People dispute whether a person who is terminally ill, or handicap, should have the right or not to ask their doctor, or relatives to die by euthanasia. People say that dying by euthanasia is to die with self-respect, instead of living an artificial life by prolonging death on respirators and other life support machines. My personal outlook on this matter is one of minority.I believe that if a person is diagnosed terminally ill, and finds that there is nothing anyone can do for them, then why they should have to suffer and endure days, weeks, months or maybe ev en years in pain and agony is beyond me. Not only do they suffer but their family suffers alongside them also. They watch as their condition gets worse and continues to deteriorate, ND then they have to live with the vision of a person lying there helpless, not able to feed themselves, get out of bed, or talk to them for the rest of their lives.When instead they could have lived remembering their loved one as they were before they were diagnosed as terminally ill and began to die slowly. Recently, my grandmother, who was suffering from Alchemist's disease (AD), died in my Aunts guest bedroom where she had been staying and taken care of by my aunt and uncle for the last four years of her life. My grandmother lived in England, where she was born, raised and died, she did tot have the option of euthanasia nor did my aunt or uncle who struggled with her through the end.My aunt and uncle went through the pain emotionally before it ever affects my grandmother physically. They took care of a shell for four years that use to house their mother; we lost my grandmother in 2007 spiritually however her physical body was still active and with us but empty. My grandmother could not remember any of her children or her grandchildren, nor could she remember family and friends in general. She would fight my aunt and uncle all the time thinking that they had detained her because she had no idea who they were or where she was.She had caused harm to herself as well as family members that tried to help her or care for her. She eventually forgot how to do simple things that are second nature to us all, such as showering, brushing her teeth, combing her hair and dressing herself. She continued to deteriorate more and more over the years, to the point where she had forgotten how to do vital things such as walk, eat, drink, go to the bathroom and even communicate. She was not physically in pain until the point of forgetting the vital actions, then she began o dehydrate and starve, her body began to shut down due to this.She was then attached to a feeding tube and life support, as by that point she had also just stop breathing occasionally and needed help in doing so. She stayed on life support for 6 months, until the decision was made to take her off and then she lasted for a week as her body withered away due to lack of water and food. We were reassured that she died with no pain but the look on her face showed differently and I could only imagine what she might have gone through and what We could have possibly spared her had We had the option f euthanasia.With every example given of euthanasia, there are some people who agree, and some who are dead set against it. There are comprehensible and logical reasons why some people are against euthanasia. Most people want their loved ones with them until their day has actually come for them to die. It might give people an understanding that it is all right to kill oneself. While the patient is lying in bed, some clinic , or scientist, might find a cure for the very disease that said patient is dying from and be able to cure them.For medical reasons they may be able to find out more about a retain disease to be able to further the search for the cure while someone has it. As many times, as you consider the idea of euthanasia you will find just as many pros as cons. Maybe we have to Start thinking like the people in the hospital beds, who are unable to walk, talk, feed themselves, think for themselves, or even breathe for themselves. On the other hand, even from the perspective of the family members who have to watch their own flesh and blood suffer and dwindle into nothing right before their eyes?

Understand the Relationship Between Organizational Structure and Culture.

Task 1: Understand the relationship between organizational structure and culture. P1. 1: Compare and contrast different organisational structure and culture. According to Buchanan and Huczynski, an organisation is a ‘social arrangement for the controlled performance of collective goals’. Chester Barnard described an organisation as ‘a system of co-operative human activities’. Organisation are can be define as; ‘A deliberately formed group of human being with known boundaries and common goal’. Or, a group of people working together to achieved a common goal. There are 2 types of organisation: i. formal organization and ii. Informal organisation. A formal organization is one which is deliberately constructed to fulfil specific goals’. It is characterized by planned division of responsibility and a well-defined structure of authority and communication. ‘An informal organization is one which loosely structured, flexible and spontaneous, fluctuating with its individual membership’. Examples of an informal organization are colleagues who tend to lunch together. Organizational structure: There are many types of organisational structures exist. Following are the common types that include their advantages and disadvantages: A. Geographical organisation: In a structure of geographical, regional or territorial departmentation, some authority is retaining at head office, but day to day operations are handled on a territorial basis. Example: northern region, western region. Advantage: i. There is local decision-making. ii. It may be cheaper to establish local factories or office. Disadvantage: i. Duplication and possible loss of economies of scale might arise. ii. Inconsistency in stander may develop from one area to another. B. Functional organization: functional organization involves grouping together people who perform similar tasks or use similar technology or materials. Primary functions in a manufacturing company might be production, sales, finance marketing and general administration. Advantage: i. Expertise is pooled and related technology/equipment or materials accessed more efficiently. ii. It avoids duplication and offers economies of scale. iii. It makes easier the recruitment, training and motivation of professional specialists. Disadvantage: i. It is organization by inputs and internal processes, rather than by output and customers demand. i. Communication problems may arise between different specialism, with their own culture and language. iii. Poor co-ordination may result, especially in a tall organization structure. C. Product-based organization: Some organizations group activities on the basis of product or product line. Some functional departmentation remains but a divisional manager is g iven responsibility for the product or product line. Example: manufacturing, distribution, marketing and sales. Advantage: i. Accountability. ii. Specialization. iii. Co-ordination. Disadvantage: i. It increased the overhead costs and managerial complexity of the organization. ii. Different product divisions may fail to share resources and customers. D. Matrix organization: Matrix organization crosses functional and product, customer and project organization. Advantages of the matrix organization: i. It attempts to retain the benefits of both structures ( functional organization and project team structure ). ii. Coordinates resources in a way that applies them effectively to different projects. iii. Staff can retain membership on teams and their functional department colleagues. Disadvantages of the matrix organization: i. Potential for conflict between functional vs. project groups. ii. Greater administrative overhead. iii. Increase in managerial overhead E. Centralization and decentralization organization: In a centralised organisation head office (or a few senior managers) will retain the major responsibilities and powers. Conversely decentralised organisations will spread responsibility for specific decisions across various outlets and lower level managers, including branches or units located away from head office/head quarters. An example of a decentralised structure is Tesco the supermarket chain. Each store of Tesco has a store manager who can make certain decisions concerning their store. The store manager is responsible to a regional manager. F. Multi-functional and Multi divisional organization: In a functional structure jobs become differentiated around areas of specialty. For example, accounting and human resource specialists are hired to handle these specialized tasks. These specialists (functional line managers) report to the CEO, but usually have autonomy for day-to-day decision-making, e. . , hiring and firing personnel. The multidivisional structure centres on the use of separate businesses or profit centres. The M-Form is used by many organizations that compete in the global economy. General Electric is an example of a company that uses this structure. Each unit is operated as a separate business with its own corporate staff including President. Some parent companies do little more than provide capital and guide units to an organizational-wide strategy. The overall goal is to maximize the overall organization’s performance. In order to accomplish this, managers at the â€Å"parent† use a combination of strategic and financial controls. G. Internal and external network structure: ‘A behavioral view is that a network is a pattern of social relations over a set of persons, positions, groups, or organizations’. ’ Network organizations are defined by elements of structure, process, and purpose’. A network organization maintains permeable boundaries either internally among business units or externally with other firms. H. Organizational charts: Organization charts, such as those used to traditional way of setting out in diagrammatic form: i. The units (department etc. ) into the organization are divided and how they relate to each other. ii. The formal communication and reporting Chanels of the organization. iii. The structure of authority, responsibility and delegation in the organization including. iv. Any problems in the above: insufficient delegation, long lines communication or unclear authority relationships. I. Span of control: The span of control refers to the number of subordinate immediately reporting to a superior official. The right Span of control is depended are those things: i. A manager’s capabilities limit the span of control. i. The nature of the manager’s work load. iii. Subordinates work. iv. The interaction between subordinates. J. Flexible working: A useful definition of flexible working relates to when, where, how and what work is done: Flexible time:Work is performed at times that better suit the employer and/or employee Flexible place:Work is carried out wherever is most appropriate and effective for the employer and/or employee. Flexible contract:Workers are employed and/or rewarded in non-standard ways. Flexible tasks:Multi-skilled workers are able to undertake a variety of tasks according to need. Organizational culture: Organizational culture (in the sense organizational climate) is the collective’s self-image and style of the organization; its shared values and beliefs, norms and symbols. In the bellow we discuss about various organizational culture: Power culture: This is also known as web structure. This is usually associated with the small organizations. This is where the central character, usually the founder has all authority and is typically surrounded by people they get on with and usually seen with empowerment since there is lot of trust between the webs. There is a central power source and the rays of influence spread out from that central figure. In this type of organization individuals rather than a group make all the decisions. The danger of this sort of culture is that, because it is autocratic, there can be a feeling of suppression and lack of challenge in the workforce. Since this is associated with small organizations there are not many theories associated with it and are only seen in smaller companies, which shows it, will only work on small scale. Role culture: The role culture is typical of bureaucracies. In the role culture, the jobs that people do- their roles – are more important than the people themselves. Managers have power and influence due to their status within the organization and not because of personal influence or expertise. Business would be divided into various functions (e. g. finance, marketing, production etc. ). These would then have a hierarchical ordering of offices (e. g. Finance director, Production manager, Supervisors, operators etc. ). Role cultures can only be successful where the environment in which the business is operating remains stable. Where a business faces rapid change, the role culture is likely to collapse. The large organizations, which can be difficult to control often, have a role culture. Task culture: Task cultures have become very important in business in the first decade of twenty first century. The task culture focuses on getting the job done. Groups or teams within this culture are not fixed but are made up of individuals brought together to achieve a specific task. In the task culture there is a strong emphasis on building the team. Team members will need to share values and aspirations. They will also need to feel valued by the organization they work for. In task culture, teams will often have considerable input in determining how a particular job will be done. Their views and opinions will be listed. Person culture: In a person culture, individuals are central. Person culture is also known as cluster structure. This is very rare and is only associated to small organizations with very short structures and an extremely wide base. This is because they are usually conjoined with the organizations that are specialist in many different areas (universities, many lawyers and scientific researching) there is no real rules, only law associated with the types of experimenting and research. Organizational cultures values and beliefs: i. It affects the motivation and satisfaction of employees. ii. It can aid the adaptability of the organization, by encouraging innovation, risk taking, sensitivity to the environment, customer care, willingness to embrace new methods and technologies. iii. It affects the image of the organization. Development of organizational culture: There are many factors which influence the organizational culture, including the following: i. Economic condition. ii. The nature of the business and its tasks. iii. Leadership style. iv. Policies and practices. v. Structure. vi. Characteristics of the work force. P1. 2: Explain how the relationship between an organizations structure and culture can impact on the performance of the business. Broadly, we can say that a behavioural problem is anything in the behaviour of people-individual, interpersonal and group. At first we discuss about various type of diagnosing and interpersonal behavioural problems; Diagnosing behaviour problem: Diagnosis is the thorough analysis of facts or problem in order to gain understanding. Principles of diagnosis: i. Distinguish the symptom from the problem. ii. Look at the facts. iii. Don’t be simplistic about causes. iv. Focus on the problem, not the person. v. Don’t impose your own judgments. vi. Respect privacy and confidentiality. Methodology of diagnosis: i. Observation. ii. Interview. iii. Questionnaires. iv. Reports. Perception: Perception is the psychological process by which stimuli or in-coming sensory data are selected and organized into patterns which are meaningful to the individual. Perceptual selection: Perceptual selection as determined by any or all of the following: i. The context. ii. The nature of the stimuli. iii. Internal factors. iv. Fear or trauma. Perception and work behavior: Perception and work behavior do are following way: i. Consider whether you might be misinterpreting the situation. ii. Consider whether others might be misinterpreting the situation or interpreting it differently from you. iii. When tacking a task or a problem, get the people involved to define the situation. iv. Be aware of the most common clashes of perception at work. Such as, manager and staff, work culture, race and gender. Attitudes: An attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related. Ability and aptitude: there have been many attempts to make a useful distinction between: i. Abilities-thins that people can do or are at- largely believed to be inherited. ii. Aptitudes-the capacity to learn and develop abilities or skill. Intelligence: Intelligence is a wide and complex concept. There are many forms of intelligence: i. Analytic intelligence. ii. Spatial intelligence. ii. Musical intelligence. iv. Physical intelligence. v. Practical intelligence. vi. Intra-personal intelligence. vii. Inter-personal intelligence. P1. 3: Discuss the factors which influence individual behaviour at work: In the bellow we discuss about various type of individual’s behavior: Personality: personality is the total pattern of characteristic ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that constitute the individuals distinctive method of relating to the environment. Traits and types: Traits are consistently observable properties or the tendency for a person in a particular way. Self and self-image: Self: self has a two component: A. T- the unique, active, impulsive part of the individual, which rises above conformity. And B. Me- the mental process which reflects objectively on the self and measures it against the social norms, values and expectation. Self-image: People have a subjective picture of what their own self is like, this called a self-image. Personality and work behavior: Obviously personalities are complex and individual. Personality and work behavior conflicted in organization; manager will have to consider the following aspect: i. The compatibility of an individual’s personality with the task. ii. The compatibility of an individual’s personality with the systems and management culture of the organization. iii. The compatibility of the individual’s personality with that of others in the team. Where incompatibilities occur, the manager will have to: . Restore compatibility. ii. Achieve compromise. iii. Remove the incompatible personality. Organizational structure and Culture of Sainsbury and Tesco: Sainsbury’s organization structure: The organizational structure of Sainsbury’s is hierarchical because there is series of levels of people and the level above controls each level. Each lev el is the responsibility of the level above. For example senior managers are responsible for the line managers and line managers are responsible for sales assistants. The diagram below shows the downward flow of communication in Sainsbury’s. I think Sainsbury’s structure is between hierarchical and tall structure. Tall structure has many layers but not as many layers as matrix structure and as less as flat structure and this means the information is not a s fast in flat structure and not as slow as in matrix structure. Due to fast flow of communication it is easier and clear between each layer. This when decisions are made they will be specific to order instructions. Strengths of Sainsbury’s structure: i. It gives them a greater sense of unity and purpose as they can see themselves as members of a team. i. It is easier to get help, as they can ask experienced colleagues or take more difficult problems to boss. iii. It makes easier to carry out joint projects as everyone involved is working together. iv. There are economies of scale as specialist staff can do more work efficiently. v. Communications from top to bottom are better, as there are definite channels through which orders can flow. Weakness of this structure: i. Hierarchies usually have tall organizational structures with seven or eight levels of authority. This means that there is long chain of command. i. Each employee is concerned mainly with his or her own function, or specialized work, and often has only employees in other departments. iii. There is natural tendency for managers to protect the interest of their own department. This may make them more concerned with office politics than with the interests of the whole firm. iv. The hierarchical system emphasizes status. This creates divisions in the firm, which are reflected in separate car-parking spaces for managers, longer holidays for white-collar workers and separate canteen for blue-collar workers. Tesco organization structure: Tesco has a hierarchical/pyramid structure. In Tesco organisational chart they have more levels and they have more employees at down level. In hierarchical structure each functional area has many staff to do a particular task they are specialised in the job. Each person has a job role and there will be a specific salary for the job. In a hierarchical structure the communication can be distorted because their chains of command are long. When messages pass from top level to the bottom level they receive a message slightly different message than the one they intended to receive. In hierarchical structure the staffs at the bottom level feels that the manager at the top has no idea what they think or do. In a hierarchical structure many people have to be consulted before a decision is made. This means that the company is slow in responding to changes. The span of control is less in Tesco because they have many levels and the span of control explains the person who is responsible for you. For example if a store manager has 4 sections manager then his span of control are four. In hierarchical there is a good promotion prospectus because of many levels. Sainsbury’s organizational culture: Sainsbury is a varied company and I don’t feel it can safely be placed into any of these categories, but I will say it’s a mixture between Role culture and Task culture. Since Sainsbury is a big organization there can be many things at once, I feel Sainsbury has taken the best attributes of the two and made their own Sainsbury’s culture. This includes: – i. Very tall and board structure but with many web links. ii. Strict communication channels low down. iii. Jobs, not people lowdown (but they do get their say when needed). iv. Jobs suited to the task in the central range. . Communication between departments by knowledgeable workers (not manual laborers). vi. Formal communication going up the hierarchy. All these are associated with the two cultures and so Sainsbury can’t be defined to one group. Since Human culture is a mixture of hundreds of separate culture trying to produce the best of all words. In my opinion Sainsbury’s would more suite the Role culture since the formal structure also emphasizes this by adding a rigid structure you add a formality quality or a freedom associated with the person, thus the job is more than the employee, which is the role culture. These two also dictate the management style because Role culture has important job. There is communication with the job not the person, this is autocratic because the person has no say. The structure means there is a formality also so Sainsbury is a formal business and this means all jobs are done in formal and this should increase production by having quick workers who don’t have to think. All the difference influences each other because they all have an effect on certain aspects of the company. They all knock on to each other and manipulate the finer points of each. Tesco organizational culture: Tesco’s corporate culture can be determined from its corporate responsibility statements, which describe its core values and core ideologies as well as some aspects of cultural artifacts. Tesco’s stated core priorities include: i. Ensuring community, corporate responsibility and sustainability are at the heart of our business. ii. Being a good neighbor and being responsible, fair and honest. iii. Considering our social, economic and environmental impact as we make our decisions. (Tesco, 2008) These values have had a significant impact on the way in which Tesco does business, as well as its inancial performance. For example, its expansion into California was designed to be not only profitable, but also socially responsible. As in the United Kingdom, American inner cities have a food supply problem wherein there are few large supermarkets and the smaller supermarkets do not have an adequate supply of fresh foods, including fruits, vegetables and proteins. How the relationships structure and culture can impact Sainsbury and Tesco’s performance: Tesco’s organisational structure is a hierarchical structure. In a hierarchical structure the communication can be distorted as messages pass from one level to another means that the staff at the bottom level receive a slightly a different message than the message they intent to receive it. Many people’s have to be consulted before a decision is made so the company is slow in responding to changes and challenges. This means they cannot provides quick services to their customers and it is going to affect in terms of sales and profit but there is an advantage that if everybody is consulted they will come out with the best results. In hierarchical structure there are specific functional areas and job roles. The employees can be easily identified and given training so they can provide good services to their customers. Hierarchical structure has good delegations because they are many people’s with specialised skills are working here so they can easily assign their subordinates for a particular task. The span of control is less than the flat structures. In hierarchical structures they have good promotion prospectus so the staff are motivated and they provides good services to their customers. I think that the impact of the organizational structure has an excellent impact on Sainsbury due to the staff of Sainsbury working hard and being highly motivated in the work that they do, and the customer service that they provide for the customers that shop at Sainsbury. This is due to the human resources function of Sainsbury recruiting staff that they feel is suitable to work at Sainsbury, this could be due to the experience, qualifications, and availability of the member of staff working at Sainsbury. The finance function helps Sainsbury by the accountants keeping accounts up to date, this is an advantage because this has an impact on Sainsbury by enabling it to see if the financial factors of Sainsbury are improving or declining, and if new targets should be set, and if new objectives should be made. The marketing function has an impact on Sainsbury by the way that it helps the supermarket grow bigger by the advertisement campaigns it launches to make potential customers of Sainsbury notice what Sainsbury has to offer them. Task2: Understand different approaches to management and leadership. P2. : Compare the effectiveness of different leadership style in different organizations. In the below we discuss about various type of management style: Scientific management: According to Fredrick Winslow Taylor, â€Å"Scientific management means knowing exactly what you want men to do and seeing that they do it in the best and the cheapest way. † Classical administration: Henri Fayo l was a French industrialist, according to him, the idea that all organizations could be structured managed according to certain rational principle. Bureaucracy: An organization structured on classical lines is often identified as a bureaucracy. Human relations approach: The human relations approach emphasised the importance of human attitudes, values and relationships for the efficient and effective functioning of work organizations. Systems approach: Systems approach described as which consists of interdependent parts. Every system has a boundary which defines what it is ‘inside’ what is ‘outside’ the system. Contingency approach: The contingency approach to organization developed as a reaction to the idea that there are universal principles for designing organization, motivating staff and others. In the below we discuss about some function of management: Planning: This essentially means looking to the future. It involves selecting the ends which the organization wishes to achieve. Organizing: The work to be done must be divided and structured into task and jobs. Commanding: Fayol called this maintaining activity among the personal. Co-ordination: this is the task of harmonizing the activities of individuals and groups within the organization. Controlling: This is the task of monitoring the activities of individual and groups. P2. : Explain how organizational theory underpins the practice of management In the below we discuss about various managerial role: Interpersonal Roles: Interpersonal roles process and outlined three basic roles. Those are: i. Figurehead. ii. Leader. iii. Liaison. Informational role: A manager is likely to have a wider network of contacts within and outside the organization than his subordinates. So he is the best parson to gather and spread information. Decisional roles: The manager’s formal authority and access to information put him in a strong position to take decisions. In the below we discuss about nature of managerial authority: Power: Power is the ability to do something or get others to do it. Authority: Authority is the right to do something or to get others to do it. Responsibility: Responsibility is the liability of a person to be called to account for the way he was exercised the authority given to him. Delegation: Delegation is the process whereby superior A gives subordinate B authority over a defined area which falls within the scope of A’s own authority. P2. 3: Evaluate the different approaches to management used by different organizations. Opportunist: The opportunist action-logic is aimed at controlling their environment in order to survive. Typically development has been blocked by a legacy of mistrust, egocentrism and manipulativeness. The title for this action-logic denotes a tendency to focus on personal wins and to see relationships as opportunities to be exploited. From the opportunist action-logic, the world is highly competitive. Only the fittest individuals survive and, since the opportunist assumes everybody else is also operating from this frame of reference, competition rather than collaboration is the only viable course of action. Diplomat: Moving away from the â€Å"anything-goes-that-serves-me† framework of the Opportunist, Diplomats are aware of group strength over individual power. Thus, they seek to belong to established groups which may be based on kinship, club, church or profession. Since power comes from affiliation with others, rules and social norms are followed to seek approval and safeguard status as a group member. Achiever: Leaders who have developed this action-logic can be both challenging and supportive, creating a positive atmosphere both inside the team and external to the team. They represent approximately 30% of the general managerial population and are tightly focused on deliverables. People whose developmental focus is on the Achiever action-logic have a more complex and integrated understanding of the world than do managers who display the previous three action logics. Strategist: At 4% of leaders, people who have developed to this action-logic are likely to be found in less conventional settings. If they have survived life in the Public service, they are likely to have developed a reputation as transformational leaders. They distinguish themselves from Individualists through their focus on organizational constraints and perceptions, which they treat as discussible and transformable. Transformational: Transformational leadership occurs when the leader and the follower elevates one another to higher levels of motivation and morality. Carlson (1996) points out that Burns felt that leadership theories developed up to the mid-seventies were lacking ethical/moral dimensions so he elaborated on his exchange theory which maintains that followers play a crucial role in the definition of leadership. This theory is made up of power relations and entails bargaining, trading and compromise among leaders and followers. Management styles and leadership used in Tesco’s: Tesco’s tend to use autocratic because the company needs too or the e tasks won’t be carried out within the business, also decisions need to be made quickly or they won’t be done for example a task that is set for a shelf filler to put the milk out but hasn’t been told to put the milk out because the management are still deciding who’s going to put what out, so the milk would be still sat in the storage room and the customers cant buy it. So if the management didn’t use autocratic then Tesco’s wouldn’t be run sufficiently. Tesco also uses management by objectives. They use this because they state to each employee in their appraisals what their objectives are for a certain period. Also each manager is set objectives by their line manager for their team for example the sales team’s objective that has been set is to increase the amount of customers using Tesco by 25%. The way in which Tesco is structured and managed. (Management at Tesco. † 123HelpMe. com. 05 Jan 2012 . ) Management styles and leadership used in Sainsbury’s: If a company adopts the consultative style, then the person may well set the objectives and this would mean a lesser extent of pushing to achieve objectives. In my opinion Sainsbury uses a mixture of two types of management style. First being autocratic means the objectives would be set up and to a good standard; they will want the most work out of their subordinates, to gain maximum value. For the key areas of operations: Sainsbury is using autocratic management style, for setting its objectives, policies at top management level. They also use democratic management style. These would be set to gain maximum revenue they would want this and strive to get this because this style is associated with the managerial levels and will mean they get bonuses. For overall working of the organization at middle management levels and lower management levels, the style of Sainsbury is democratic, because the area of operations is widely decentralized and for the implementation of policies in three different segments, policies should be consulted with the local personal, which are specially appointed for this purpose. As they know the inner constraints, strengths of that particular segment. Task3: Understand ways of using motivational theories in organization. P3. 1: Discuss the impact that different leadership styles may have on motivation in organizations in periods of change. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs: The basis of Maslow's theory of motivation is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be addressed. Per the teachings of Abraham Maslow, there are general needs (physiological, safety, love, and esteem) which have to be fulfilled before a person is able to act unselfishly. These needs were dubbed â€Å"deficiency needs. † While a person is motivated to fulfill these basal desires, they continue to move toward growth, and eventually self-actualization. The satisfaction of these needs is quite healthy. While preventing their gratification makes us ill or act evilly. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Chart As a result, for adequate workplace motivation, it is important that leadership understands which needs are active for individual employee motivation. In this regard, Abraham Maslow's model indicates that basic, low-level needs such as physiological requirements and safety must be atisfied before higher-level needs such as self-fulfillment are pursued. As depicted in this hierarchical diagram, sometimes called ‘Maslow's Needs Pyramid' or ‘Maslow's Needs Triangle', when a need is satisfied it no longer motivates and the next higher need takes its place. Herzberg’s theory: Hygiene Factors Hygiene factors are based on the need to for a business to avoid unpleasantness at work. If these factors are considered inadequate by employees, then they can cause dissatisfaction with work. Hygiene factors include: – Company policy and administration Wages, salaries and other financial remuneration – Quality of supervision – Quality of inter-personal relations – Working conditions – Feelings of job security Motivator Factors Motivator factors are based on an individual's need for personal growth. When they exist, motivator factors actively create job satisfaction. If they are effective, then they can motivate an individual to achieve above-average performance and effort. Motivator factors include: – Status – Opportunity for advancement – Gaining recognition – Responsibility – Challenging / stimulating work Sense of personal achievement & personal growth in a job McGregor’s theory X and Y: Theory X Theory X assumes that the average person: †¢Disl ikes work and attempts to avoid it. †¢Has no ambition, wants no responsibility, and would rather follow than lead. †¢Is self-centered and therefore does not care about organizational goals. †¢Resists change. †¢Is gullible and not particularly intelligent. Essentially, Theory X assumes that people work only for money and security. Theory Y The higher-level needs of esteem and self-actualization are continuing needs in that they are never completely satisfied. As such, it is these higher-level needs through which employees can best be motivated. Theory Y makes the following general assumptions: †¢Work can be as natural as play and rest. †¢People will be self-directed to meet their work objectives if they are committed to them. †¢People will be committed to their objectives if rewards are in place that address higher needs such as self-fulfillment. †¢Under these conditions, people will seek responsibility. †¢Most people can handle responsibility because creativity and ingenuity are common in the population. Vroom and Expectancy theories: Essentially, expectancy theory states that the strength of an individual’s motivation to do something will depend on the extent to which he expects the result of his efforts, if successfully achieved, to contribute towards his personal needs or goals. Maccoby, Mccrac and costa: There is relative consensus on a five-factor structure of personality, based on a bipolar taxonomy of underlying traits, which is supported by factor analyses of extensive lists of trait adjectives. The five broad personality dimensions are commonly labeled extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, and openness. It should be noted that these dimensions are not types, meaning that personality is made up of scores on the five dimensions. Motivation and performance: Motivation, as it most nearly concerns the manager, is the controlling of the work environment and the offering of rewards in such a way as to encourage extra performance from employees. Rewards and incentives: A reward is a token (monetary or otherwise) given to an individual or team in recognition of some contribution or success. An incentive is the offer or promise of a reward for contribution or success, designed to motivate the individual or team to behave in such a way as to earn it. Motivation and manager: Managers are constantly searching for ways to create a motivational environment where associates (employees) to work at their optimal levels to accomplish company objectives. Workplace motivators include both monetary and non-monetary incentives. Monetary and Non-monetary rewards: The purpose of monetary incentives is to reward associates for excellent job performance through money. Monetary incentives include profit sharing, project bonuses, stock options and warrants, scheduled bonuses (e. g. , Christmas and performance-linked), and additional paid vacation time. Traditionally, these have helped maintain a positive motivational environment for associate. The purpose of non-monetary incentives is to reward associates for excellent job performance through opportunities. Non-monetary incentives include flexible work hours, training, pleasant work environment, and sabbaticals. P3. 2: Compare the application of different motivational theories within the work place. Leadership in organization: This definition is similar to Northouse's (2007, p3) definition — Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Managers and leaders: Influence is the process by which an individual or group exercises power to determine or modify the behavior of others. Leadership traits: People who believe that leaders are born are likely to buy into the Traits Theory. This theory basically centers itself on the leader. What are the qualities of a leader? Now if you look at the different leaders of the world, companies or armies they all carry certain traits. It is believed that if one carries these characteristics then one is likely to become a leader. So, this theory defines what are the qualities that a leader should posses rather than leadership. If one is a leader then these leadership traits should be present. Management style: Managers have to perform many roles in an organization and how they handle various situations will depend on their style of management. There are two sharply contrasting styles that will be broken down into smaller subsets later: oAutocratic oPermissive Each style has its own characteristics: Autocratic: Leader makes all decisions unilaterally. Permissive: Leader permits subordinates to take part in decision making and also gives them a considerable degree of autonomy in completing routine work activities. Contingency approach: The Contingency Theory takes in consideration the weaknesses of the previous theories. Since leadership functions in a dynamic situation, it is only logical that different styles and traits will work in different situations. The Contingency Theory takes into consideration the context where leadership is exercised. P3. 3: Evaluate the usefulness of a Motivation theory for managers. Leadership and successful change in organizations: Pluralistic: inclusive enough consistent with the needs of pluralistic leadership. Such organizations emphasize hierarchy, authority and structure over participation and inclusiveness. Pluralistic leadership results in diversity and diversity results in pluralistic leadership (Bass, 1990; Millman and Kanter, 1986). Pluralistic leadership is very consistent with notions of participation of all in the leadership decisions and the understanding of multiple perspectives within the organization and outside it (Kezar, 2000). Transformational: It depends on two main points of view: – The theoretical, and – The applied Theoretical definitions come from those that study leadership, who have the formal qualifications to write long dissertations on the subject. This body of knowledge is fantastic for grounding in the subject and to get into the depth of the potential implications, especially when it comes to the morals and ethics department. The applied is the interpretation, and then applied action in a specific field of endeavor. We’ll use the personal, organizational, and global contexts for this purpose. You will have your own applied experience, or not, depending on where you are on your own personal Transformational Leadership journey. Communications: The closest definition of a communication leader is Gramsci’s definition of the organic intellectual – which Gramsci essentially sees as a leader. Gramsci sees in the intellectual not only as a leader but also as a poet, thinker, reader and activist. Sainsbury’s motivational theories: Sainsbury agree that employees are their most important assets and need to be treated fairly. The good performance of employee’s management s has an effect on the organization's success, in terms of profitability. Sainsbury give out financial rewords to most people who complete the training programme. Training is designed to keep employees motivated and is convinced to complete their training by rewarding them with financial gain. Motivation comprises of the need for employees and controls their action. Using motivation techniques can improve productivity and customer service. Also employee satisfaction leads to good service that leads to customer satisfaction. Maslows- Hierarchy of needs This theory is based on meeting staff needs with in the workplace and suggests that meeting their needs can lead to be fill are: – Self- fulfillment- researching your full potential Self-esteem needs- status and recognition, achievement and independence Social needs- love, friendship, a sense of belonging part of a team Safety needs- protection against danger, fair treatment, job security Physiological needs- food, rest and shelter Mc Gregor- Theory x and theory y They are two types of main types of managers. Theory x managers tend to have the point of view that the average dislikes and will try to avoid it. Therefore the managers must control direct and punish them to get them to work towards business objectives. Theory y suggests that the ordinary person does not dislike work; it all depends on the conditions in which the work takes place. If people are committed to objectives, they will be motivated towards achieving them the biggest motivation factor is the personal satisfaction of completing the job. (â€Å"A Report on Sainsbury's Resource Management. † 123HelpMe. com. 5 Jan 2012 . Tesco motivational theories: Tesco is Britain’s largest retailer. It now has over 2,200 stores. As well as food, it also sells other products such as insurance and banking. To support growth, Tesco needs staffs who are motivated. It achieves this by increasing their knowledge, skills and job satisfaction through training and reward systems. Needs: Self-fulfill: Tesco offers Personal Developme nt Plans, recognition of skills and talents, opportunity for promotion and career progression programmed. Career discussions feed into Tesco’s Talent Planning meetings. The Options fast-track management programmed provides a route for capable staff to reach higher levels. Self-esteem: Tesco values emphasize self-respect and respect for others and praise for hard work, its self assessment, 360 degree feedback and appraisal system help to recognize individuals’ contributions and importance and celebrate achievement. Social needs: Tesco promotes team and group working at various levels; The Company ‘Steering Wheel’ assesses individual and group work and enables store staff to work as a team. Working conditions and a home-from-home ethos encourages long service. Basic/physical needs Security needs: Tesco provides the security of formal contracts of employment as well as pension and sickness schemes and the option to join a union to give people a sense of belonging. It ensures health and safety in the workplace. Basic/physical needs: This would include a place of work, regular monthly pay and essential facilities such as a restaurant or lockers for personal belongings. Tesco provides motivation for its staff through many different routes. Reviews and personal development plans ensure that employees are able to develop and grow. This benefits both staff and the business. (The Times 100 Edition 15 | www. hetimes100. co. uk) EDITION Task 4: Understand mechanisms for developing effective teamwork in organizations. P4. 1: Explain the nature of groups and group behavior within organizations. Groups: Groups in business organizations are, in effect, sub-organizations and they require management for controlled performance of collective goals, not only their own collective goals, but those of the business organization as a whole. Definition of group is ‘A group is any collection of people who perceive them to be a group’. Informal group and formal group: Informal groups will invariably be present in any organization. Informal groups include workplace cliques and networks of people who regularly get together to exchange information, groups of mates who socialize outside work and so on. Formal groups, put together by the organization, will have formal structure and a function for which they are held responsible, they are task oriented and become teams. Team: A team is a formal group established to achieve particular objectives. Purpose of teams: i. Team allows the performance of tasks. ii. Team encourages exchange of knowledge and ideas or creation of new ideas. iii. The power of the team over individual behavior can be both: control and motivator. Selecting team members: A manager is able to select team members, he or she shuld aim to match some requirement: i. Specialist skills and knowledge. ii. Experience. iii. Political power in the organization. iv. Access to resources, v. Competence. Team roles: RM Bellbin researched business-game teams at the Carnegie Institute of technology. He developed a picture of the character-mix in team, which many people fine a useful guide to team selection and management. Bellbin suggests effective team is made following eight roles: i. The Co-coordinator. ii. The shaper. iii. The plant. iv The monitor and evaluator. . The resource investigator. vi. The implementer. vii. The team worker. Viii. The finisher. Multi-disciplinary teams: Multi-disciplinary teams bring together individuals with different skills and specialism’s, so that their skills, experience and knowledge can be pooled or exchanged. Teambuilding: The team building goal in this learning journey is to help participants devel op increased awareness of team dynamics, practical skills for maximizing team performance, and developing a belief in the power of teamwork. Team building assists participants in planning specific improvements in the way the team operates. Participants will gain an integrated set of skills that can be applied anytime and anywhere, while enhancing their team performance, leadership abilities, and team unity. The result of applying these skills will be serious TEAMWORK – not teamwork in the ordinary sense, but something stronger, more committed, more productive, and more personal. Team identity: A manager may be able to increase his work groups sense of itself as a team by any or all the following means: i. Giving the team a name. ii. Giving team a badge or uniform. iii. Expressing the team’s self-image. iv. Building a team mythology. Commitment to shared belief: All team members must agree on what the team is trying to accomplish. Teams work much harder if members have a say in team goals and focus. Having team members discuss and decide on team goals would foster this sense of team commitment. P4. 2: Discuss factors that may promote or inhabit the development of effective teamwork in organizations. Group norms: The rules of behavior that are part of the ideology of the group. Norms tend to reflect the values of the group and specify those actions that are proper and those that are inappropriate, as well as rewards for adherence and the punishment for conformity. Group decision-making behavior: As we noted, empowerment involves groups in decision-making. This can be having benefited where: i. Pooling skills, information and ideas. ii. Participation in the decision-making process makes the discussion acceptable of the group. Dysfunctional team: Dysfunctional is defined as â€Å"abnormal or unhealthy interpersonal behavior or interaction within a group†. Most definitions state that a team is dysfunctional when individuals strive to conform to the prevailing thought processes or decisions within the group, at the expense of feelings of individual responsibility or personal views. Cohesiveness: Cohesiveness is generally defined as â€Å"the resultant of all forces acting on all the members to remain in the group† (Cartwright, 1968, p. 91). Group cohesiveness is one of the essential concepts for understanding group dynamics (Zander, 1979) studied for its conceptual similarity with teamwork. P4. 3: Evaluate the impact of technology on team functioning within a given organization. Technology: Technology teams share a common goal: all members are dedicated to helping writing project site leadership meet local needs and priorities through the wise integration and implementation of technology. But while these tech teams generally have a similar purpose, the ways in which writing project sites have gone about establishing and using their technology teams are as nuanced as the sites themselves. Communication: One way to start developing a communications strategy is to look at the nature of the different kinds of work the team will be doing and what kind of communication is needed to support that work. There is a continuum which describes how individuals (or sub-groups) on the team are working from autonomously to interdependently. For example, there may be some tasks unique to a specific country which team members can do on their own without interacting with anyone else on the team. Other product-related projects may require more collaboration among team members in different parts of the region. Change: All these changes in organizations have changed how teams are formed and how they operate. Teams have changed: From fixed team membership all team members drawn from within the organization team members are dedicated 100% to the team team members are co-located organizationally and geographically teams have a fixed starting and ending point eams are managed by a single manager To shifting team membership team members can include people from outside the organization (clients, collaborators) most people are members of multiple teams team members are distributed organizationally and geographically teams form and reform continuously teams have multiple reporting relationships with different parts of the organizatio n at different times Network and virtual teams: The nature of teams has changed significantly because of changes in organizations and the nature of the work they do. Organizations have become more distributed across geography and across industries. Relationships between people inside an organization and those previously considered outside (customers, suppliers, managers of collaborating organizations, other stakeholders) are becoming more important. Organizations have discovered the value of collaborative work. There is a new emphasis on knowledge management – harvesting the learning of the experience of members of the organization so that it is available to the whole organization. Global and cross-culture teams: Cross-cultural training usually occurs as an integral component of training that's designed primarily to attain a broader objective. Two of GROVEWELL's Global Leadership Programs provide examples. †¢Influencing Colleagues across Organizational Units & Mindsets is primarily about influencing colleagues within global organizations, but is infused with the intercultural perspective. †¢Working Effectively on International Projects is primarily for the managers and staff of global projects; it, too, is infused with the intercultural perspective. Effective teamwork in Sainsbury: General theories of work design suggest that groups can humanize work with group tasks designed to create meaningful work. Team working is associated with higher job satisfaction according to job characteristics and participative management theories. The variety of tasks in teams encourages workers to learn and use different skills and rotate between jobs to reduce the boredom of repetitive work. This enables team members to share a sense of collective responsibility for work in their area and to develop the mix of skills necessary for effective work teams who share both identification with a common task and mutual beliefs. Teams also make possible employee participation in goal setting, thereby enhancing intrinsic motivation for team members. www. sainsburys. co. uk J Sainsbury plc Annual Report and Financial Statements 2005 accessed through www. sainsburys. co. uk) Effective teamwork in Tesco: We treat people how we like to be treated. We want our people to enjoy working at Tesco. Our people do a great job each and every day by giving our customers the best possible shopping trip. By creating an open e nvironment of trust and respect, our people feel supported, they share their knowledge and experience and work hard to give our customers great service. We support our people, trusting in their ability to deliver while helping them to reach their full potential. We encourage our people to learn on the job and take responsibility from day one. Giving our people an opportunity to get on in their careers is very important. With the increasing breadth of the Tesco business, our people have a great opportunity to develop their skills and experience across new product areas, services and countries. Every year, we build our plans for the year around our People Promises. We want all of our people across all of our markets to: †¢ be treated with respect; †¢ have an opportunity to get on; †¢ have a manager who helps them; and †¢ have an interesting job. It’s through our People Promises and our benefits package that we are proud to say that our people stay with us for a long time. Around half of our Director population has at least 12 years’ service. Effective teamwork in Asda: Asda changes Norman outlines – in the way people work together and communicate with each other – are more complex. The company's goal is to become a genuine leader in fresh foods and clothing – making the George brand a ‘real brand', second in the UK to Marks & Spencer's St Michael – and also to create an ‘organization which is the preferred place to work', offering customer service ‘with a personality derived from the heart of the company'. One change has, accordingly, been in the approach to recruitment, which now aims to seek out people for the stores who really do want to serve the customers and who genuinely like selling. There is no point, he remarks, in employing people who won't like the ‘Asda Way of Working'. This is the name given to the new approach, intended to transform the old culture, which had grown autocratic and slow-moving, to one where all members of Asda feel involved in improving the business – the equivalent, within the context of a corporation, of market-stallholders, who run their own show, and who engage actively with their customers. (http://www. managementtoday. co. uk/news/410110/UK-ASDAS-OPEN-PLAN Bibliography: Reference: 1. HNC, HND BTEC Business Course Book, Organization behavior, Unit-3, first edition September 2000, publishing BPP, ISBN 0 7517 70337.