International Organisational Behaviour

Introduction This assignment will analyse the organisation behaviour of two mining companies: WMC Resources and BHP Billiton. It will discuss issues such as: motivating in the short term, resistance to change, internal and external forces that favour change, characteristics of an effective team, factors of team effectiveness, and how to use punishment strategies successfully. Summary Clear understanding of the relationship between performance and outcomes – e. g. he rules of the reward ‘game’ Trust in the people who will take the decisions on who gets what outcome (BHP) Transparency of the process that decides who gets what outcome The people who will make the decisions (BHP) have stated â€Å"we continue to grow and expand our business quite significantly, and that always requires first-class people† So this again should be used to motivate the employees into realising that, good performance leads to your desired outcome (keeping their job). Evidence to justify this is the following example; there are three sales representatives who are candidates for promotion to one sales manager’s job. Bill has had a very good sales year and always gets good performance evaluations. However, he isn’t sure that he wants the job because it involves a great deal of travel, long working hours, and much stress and pressure. Paul wants the job badly but doesn’t think he had much chance of getting it. He has had a terrible sales year and gets only mediocre performance evaluations from his present boss. Susan wants the job as much as Paul, and she thinks that she has a pretty good shot at it. Her sales have improved significantly this past year, and her evaluations are the best in the company. Expectancy theory would predict that Bill and Paul are not very motivated to seek the promotion. Bill doesn’t really want it, and Paul doesn’t think he has much of a chance of getting it. Susan, however, is very motivated to seek the promotion because she wants it and thinks that she can get it. (Pride, 2009) b) There are three reasons the WMC employees are resistant to change; Fear of the unknown, need for security, and not feeling the need to change. Employees resist change because they have to learn something new. In many cases there is not a disagreement with the benefits of the new process, but rather a fear of the unknown future and about their ability to adapt to it. De Jager (2001, p. 24) argues, ‘Most people are reluctant to leave the familiar behind. We are all suspicious about the unfamiliar; we are naturally concerned about how we will get from the old to the new, especially if it involves learning something new and risking failure†. The WMC employees are facing this problem right now with the takeover that is about to go through. The employees are unsure about the future of the company and won’t know whether BHP will change things such as: daily duties, company protocol/processes, and even add new tasks. To help minimize resistance to change, the manager should try to offer information to the employees about what might change in the future. This will remove the element of the unknown and help them to deal with the changes early on. Also they should try to encourage staff and make them believe that they have the ability to adjust, therefore removing the anxiety of the takeover. If employees don’t see the need to change, they may become very stubborn and difficult to work with. Sometimes when there is a change in the workplace, employees don’t agree with it and feel they are doing jobs well enough and the organisation is running smoothly already. Even if this is true, there is always room for improvement and this should be expressed to the employees. WMC has a great opportunity to become involved in a bigger corporation and with some employees having a chance to keep their jobs, it should be highlighted to them that perhaps this will lead to a pay rise or even promotion. To minimize the resistance they should: provide support to the staff by actively listening to the problems and complaints they have, provide training to help the staff blend in with the new way of doing things, and help to overcome the performance pressures. Maybe then, the WMC employees will see that this change will lead to an improvement of the company and work efficiently and peacefully once again. c) Organizational change can be caused by external forces and internal forces. External forces commence outside of the organization and not only do they affect a company, but they also cause global affects. There are three components that play a crucial role in change of an organization from an external forces view. These three key factors allow a company to undergo change and reconstruct its organization to improve its production and services. Economic factors greatly affect WMC. This includes the nature and direction of the national economy in which a company does business. For international entities, it includes the global economy. We know that consumption is affected by the wealth of the population, and business people must plan accordingly. Some major considerations include the availability of credit and the amount of disposable income in a given market. Both inflation and interest rates and a given country's GDP are other economic factors that can help or hinder a company’s marketing efforts. The current economy has left smaller companies vulnerable to bankruptcy. Merging with a larger company like BHP will allow WMC to compete effectively in the world market. Internal forces for change come from inside the organization. These forces may be subtle, such as low morale, or can manifest in outward signs, such as low productivity and conflict. Internal forces for change come from both human resource problems and managerial behaviour/decisions. Human Resource Problems is a major internal force for change. These problems stem from employee perceptions about how they are treated at work and the match between individual and organization needs. Dissatisfaction comes from an underlying employee problem that should be addressed. Unusual or high levels of absenteeism and turnover also represent forces for change. WMC might respond to these problems by reducing employees' role conflict, overload, and ambiguity, and by removing the different stressors. Prospects for positive change stem from employee participation and suggestions. Managerial Behaviour/Decisions are an essential reason for organisational change. Excessive interpersonal conflict between managers and their subordinates is a sign that change is needed. Both the manager and the employee may need interpersonal skills training, or the two individuals may simply need to be separated. For example, one of the parties might be transferred to a new department. Inappropriate leader behaviours such as inadequate direction or support may result in human resource problems requiring change. Leadership training is one potential solution for this problem. Inequitable reward systems are additional forces for change. Clear Purpose – The vision, mission, goal or task of the team must be defined and accepted by everyone. In the case of BHP-WMC, there will be many changes when the two merge, so all the staff will have to be notified of the new action plan. This will make the team focused on the goal. Informality – A good team should be informal, comfortable and relaxed. There shouldn’t be any obvious tensions or signs of boredom. This may be tough for BHP-WMC because of the merger, there may be some resentment towards the other company’s staff for having to merge with them. Also cliques will have formed which may cause some problems with the group working together. If they can work together effortlessly they will perform to a higher standard. Participation – There should be much discussion and everyone should be encouraged to participate. This is also great for getting all the new staff members to bond with the BHP staff and to make them feel they are important to the company. Listening – The members should use effective listening techniques such as questioning, paraphrasing and summarizing to get out ideas. Therefore benefiting the company with possible innovative ideas. Civilized Disagreement – If there is disagreement, the team must be comfortable with this and show no signs of avoiding, smoothing over or suppressing conflict. This is likely to happen with the two companies’s having their own previous ways of doing things, but to create an effective team, they must all constructively discuss and find a middle ground. Consensus Decisions – For important decisions, the goal is substantial but not necessarily unanimous agreement through open discussion of everyone's ideas, avoidance of formal voting or easy compromises. This way the group should get the most suitable outcome without upsetting any of the group members or giving in to a poor idea due to peer pressure. Open Communication – Team members should feel free to express their feelings on the tasks as well as on the group's operation. There should be few hidden agendas. Communication takes place outside of meetings. This way nobody is hiding any feelings and is comfortable with the ongoing operations. Shared Leadership – While a team has a formal leader, leadership functions shift from time to time depending on the circumstances, the needs of the group and the skills of the members. The formal leader should models the appropriate behaviour and helps establish positive norms. This will give everyone a chance to feel important to the company and a chance to improve their leadership skills. External Relations – The team should spend time developing key outside relationships and mobilizing resources, then building credibility with important players in other parts of the organization. This will be handy for when they need help from other departments, especially in a fast growing company like BHP. Style Diversity – The team should have a broad spectrum of team-player types, including members who emphasize attention to task, goal setting, focus on process and questions about how the team is functioning. This gives diversity and strength is every area. Self-Assessment – Periodically, the team should stops to examine how well it is functioning and what may be interfering with its effectiveness. This is essential for any team, especially a newly created one like BHP-WMC. b) In creating effective teams, managers should act as facilitators and accept mutual accountability. do not monopolize team projects do not control daily activities. BHP-WMC could adopt these two theories quite easily. The managers could act as facilitators to the team so that it became more effective. They need to have a shared understanding and share responsibilities so that they can understand each other and work together as a well functioning machine. Mutual influence and task autonomy is also necessary to make BHP-WMC more effective than they currently are. Mutual accountability will improve BP-WMC effectiveness because it means the responsibility doesn’t land all on one person, which means it’s more likely to improve your chances of achieving your objective if the responsibility is shared across the team. To increase an employee’s behaviour, a positive re-enforcer is used immediately after the behaviour is presented, the premise being that if the employee does something and is rewarded, then they are more likely to repeat the act. Constant reinforcement must be used to help new behaviours become established. To maintain the desired behaviour once it is established, an intermittent re-enforcer, one that is used only occasionally, should be sufficient to use. Negative reinforcement is similar to the concept of a reward. Essentially, this is when something negative is removed from a person’s experience as a way to increase the likelihood of good behaviour happening again. For example, if a child studies hard for a test and the parent rewards the child by not making him do chores, it is likely that this good studying behaviour will recur. Extinction is the stopping of positive reinforcers that have been maintaining an inappropriate behaviour. This relies on the theory that behaviours which are not reinforced will soon disappear. Both positive and negative reinforcement result in learning. They strengthen a response and increase the possibility of repetition. Both punishment and extinction, however, weaken behaviour and tend to decrease its subsequent frequency. b) Punishment should be used as a last resort only. With the employees already low on morale due to the uncertainty of their jobs, it wouldn’t take much to push them over the edge and start acting inappropriately, or even worse, quitting. Ways of using punishment as a reinforcement strategy are as follows: The behaviour plan is congruent must be within regulations and company policies. The use of punishment procedures to manage employee behaviours is an issue of growing debate. Employees should take care that all elements of a behaviour plan, including punishment procedures, fall within disciplinary guidelines both of the company policies and within the law. Reference List Dick, P. & Ellis, S. (2006), Introduction to Organizational Behaviour 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill Education, Berkshire, UK Mosley, D. C. , Megginson, L. C. , & Pietri, P. H. (2001) Supervisory Management: The Art of Empowering and Developing People, South-Western College Publishing, Ohio, U. S. A Ehlen, D. (1994), Supporting high performance teams, Manage, 46(2), pp. 32-34. Organizations, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, U. S. A

Physiological Change Essay

What is a drug addiction? Why don’t people just simply quit doing drugs? Well here is a news flash, an addiction to drugs is a disease! Why is it when someone is diagnosed with cancer other people are concerned and feel horrible, however, when someone is diagnosed with an addiction to drugs they are faced with ridicule, and alienation? It seems that it may be this way since cancer has been researched for many years while drug addiction has not. People who abuse drugs are affected by physiological changes that occur in the brain, unfortunately these changes are what leads to addiction and should be treated as the disease it is and not as if it is a choice. The disease that addictions cause makes many physical changes to the human body but addiction is more than just a behavioral disorder, another thing that it can cause is emotional changes. The disease physically alters the way the user thinks. Over time consecutive use of the drug could make the users body immune to that dosage, therefore it makes them feel they need more to achieve their â€Å"High†, and here lies the start of an addiction. Many uninformed individuals would say if its bad quitÍ ¾ however, this problem isn’t that simple. Along with altering the way the user thinks, the disease also alters cells in the body.

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

Taxation - 1 - Assignment Example   Consumptive taxes are levies on sales of commodities that are subject to use by a business or an individual. While some people understand that a small fee is added on to the buying of commodities in stores, many overlook additional taxes. An example of a consumptive tax is hunting or fishing. Travel fees and toll road levies are also part of consumptive taxes. The IRS carries out three different types of audits: fields audit, office audits, and correspondence audits. If one is audited, the IRS notifies them in writing indicating the type of audit they are conducting. In an office audit, a taxpayer physically takes their documentation to an IRS branch office where IRS examiners review the details of the taxpayer’s documentation. Instances of IRS office audits include circumstances where a taxpayer claims abnormally high deductions and the IRS wants to see the conforming support documents to verify that the information is accurate. A correspondence audit is the mildest audit and normally occurs due to minor mistakes on a taxpayer’s tax returns. Usually, a taxpayer mails the relevant forms and documentations to IRS to complete correspondence audit. The IRS then reviews the full information send by the Customer and closes the audit after addressing all issues. Under Field audit, IRS auditors visit the office or home of the taxpayer to verify that the tax returns were accurate. The main dissimilarity between a field audit and an office audit is that a field audit happens on the premise of the taxpayer while an office audit happens in the IRS branch office. Individuals may request the IRS to perform the field audit at the premise of the taxpayer’s accountant. The main aim of audits from a government’s point of view is to ensure that every taxpayer adheres to the same tax laws and that the taxpayers are reporting and paying taxes correctly. IRS Tax Audits

International Consumer Behaviour Analysis Assignment

International Consumer Behaviour Analysis - Assignment Example This is because; people have different preferences and tastes that change from one place to another and across generations. Mobile technology has been experiencing various changes in terms of development; technology has been the cornerstone for the changes that continue to characterize the industry. The smartphone, which is the current technology in use in the manufacture of mobile phones in several companies, describes a phone that has advanced features to enhance its computing ability. In general, smartphones have features that have many similarities with computers and those of other consumer devices that are common in the business and social world, for instance PDA (personal digital assistants), digital cameras as well as navigation units with the GPS technology. The smartphone industry in the United States has been fast growing, with many companies fighting to have and increase their market share. In this regard, many companies have been developing and launching various smartphones and related technologies that meet the various needs of people in their corporate, individual and social needs. Statistics that have been collected about the use of smartphones and their respective brand preference by consumers in the United States has shown different results. Currently, android tops the list on the smartphone platform, commanding a 52.1 percent of the market share, while Apple comes second with 41.9 percent. Other companies in that order include, Microsoft at 3.4 percent, blackberry and Symbian at 2.3 and 0.1 percent respectively as shown. The smartphone industry has been enjoying an increasing demand from its consumers worldwide; these have been attributed to various factors that are characteristic of consumers in the market. One of the factors that has played a huge role towards this development is the ever-increasing advancements in information and

Disccuss Mary Cassatt's The CHild's Bath 1893 in terms of one or two Essay

Disccuss Mary Cassatt's The CHild's Bath 1893 in terms of one or two ideas - Essay Example Also, Cassett shows her interest in Japanese woodblock print which is evident in this picture. The painting of a Child Bath is based on a mother cleaning a little child's feet in a tub of water (Art Institute of Chicago). The walls behind this cozy scene are covered in a wall paper decorated with a flowery pattern. The floor appears to be a carpet of some sort: designed intricately with flowers placed inside boxes. A jug is placed to the right side of the painting. The mother is fully dressed in a long gown and has a child placed on her knee. The child is looking down and is clothed with a single white cloth. The artist has used very vibrant colors in this painting. There are no shadows and there is a very bold brushwork used by the artist. She uses an asymmetrical style (Art Access).The shape of the woman and child's head, the basin and the pitcher are circular. The image also has a symmetrical striped pattern. Thus, the entire painting is in perfect asymmetrical form. This, along with Cassatt's decision to paint from an unusual position: above. Adler speaks of how to think about art in his book. In an interview with Luckman he claims art to be a technique which uses skill or expert to produce a piece. This is exactly what Cassatt uses in her work, technique to produce a perfect painting. While this painting is n

The Enduring Wisdom of the Spiritual Master Essay

The Enduring Wisdom of the Spiritual Master - Essay Example She attributed her recovery to St. Joseph, to which she remained devoted. However, her life changed after she experienced â€Å"the sorely wounded Christ’s† vision. After experiencing the vision, Teresa encountered a number of ecstatic experiences that influenced her into focusing more on the passion of Christ. The visions acted as her impetuous that influenced her into setting herself to the reorganization of her order. She began this reformation by attempting to master herself, as well as adhere to her rule. She tried to create a primitive Carmelite by gathering some of her Sisters in Carmel to concretize her idea of a monastery. She received support from St. Peter of Alcantara, her confessor and a number of learned individuals as she started to work towards the achievement idea. This idea materialized in 1562 after the clothing of the four novices and the opening of St. Joseph Monastery. Teresa’s external activities were adjunct to her internal spiritual graces (Cannata 2). The realization of her idea made her happy, after which she tenaciously resisted several revelations for about two years. Subsequently, she experienced the initial intellectual and non-intellectual visions depicting Christ’s humanity. This humanity became the heart of her loving attention, as well as the source of the intimate graces she was able to enjoy for several years. Her possession of the love of God created in her an enormous desire to see God and to die so that she could see Him. These graces were necessary for sustaining her as she was trying to actualize and reinforce her reformation work. Teresa received confirmation for the will to work courageously for God’s glory since her intention was to save the many souls that were being lost. Upon visiting Avila, John Baptist Rossi authorized Teresa to establish other monasteries of nuns. This authorization led her to institute several monasteries

Marine management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marine management - Essay Example Issues such as reduced productivity and heightened risks to injury in the work environment can all result from the aforementioned issues, dealing with them and preventing the engagement of employees to them is imperative. The rate at which companies lose money through countless health benefits to stressful and fatigued staff is alarming. Healthy employees need less health benefits and are very productive. Managers and heads of companies alike need to figure out how to curb this menace. Work related injuries are on the increase and are always recorded high when most workers work overtime and have less break to reduce the fatigue or engage in activities that can reduce the levels of stress. My company, as this paper discusses below, has already developed countermeasures to the above problems. The changes we have realized can not only be told through the fulfillment of all participants in the company but also through the profits we have accrued in the recent past. There are several causes of both fatigue and stress as listed below. Fatigue itself is caused by extended periods of physical or even mental exertion with less time to recover through rest. Normally, a certain level of fatigue is normal, however, when the levels are too high, there can only be too much disadvantages. These levels of fatigue can be as a result of the following: High levels of fatigue and stress normally leads to reduced productivity. This is generally the biggest problem with the two. Also, since stress and fatigue may impair a person’s sense, including that of danger, employees run risks of accidents and injuries in the work environment. Studies show that staying awake for over 17 hours has as much negative effects on the overall performance of an individual’s performance as having about 0.05% alcohol content in blood. An extra four hours doubles the alcohol content figure to 0.1% (Williamson et al. 320). It is crucial to point out that both employees and

APA Forms and Format Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

APA Forms and Format - Essay Example It is also apparent that many families cannot afford health care and proper housing, thus leading to many unresolved cases of health and illnesses in many communities. Obesity is a critical health and therapeutic problem in both the developing and developed countries. It has significantly increased during the last two decades (El-Helaly, Kamel, Abd-Elaziz, Elwan & Nabih, 2009; Alsayed, Gad & Azab, 2007). According to Alsayed et al. (2007), obesity subjects individuals to metabolic and endocrine disorders. Such complications can pose significant risks to children’s health and general life performance. Additionally, it can lead to an increase in many complications and illnesses which further results in obstruction of a country’s economic progress and the development of an entire health care system (Parikh, Edelman, Uwaifo, Freedman, Semega-Janneh, Reynolds, & Yanovski, 2004; Wang & Dietz, 2002; Afridi, Khattak, Safdar & Khan, 2003). In conclusion, overweight children are at risk of vitamin D deficiency and secondary hyperthyroidism. It is clear that BMI may be a significant risk factor for vitamin D deficiency obese and non-obese children and adolescents. Considering the above cases, it is recommended that obese children, especially those with high body mass index, take routinely vitamin D supplementary treatment. Additionally, they should go for routine screening with regard to vitamin D

Budgeting and management of organization-reflective review Essay

Budgeting and management of organization-reflective review - Essay Example The research covers a great deal of advantages of budgeting and how it helps an organization to increase its effectiveness and efficiency using budgeting. This research provides knowledge and the importance of budgeting in practical life. The disadvantages of budgeting are also covered in detail providing the drawbacks and flaws in budgeting. This research provides information and scenarios when budgeting should be used and when it should be ignored under the given situation. According to my view, the part that the research failed to address well was the other management tools and techniques that could be used by the company instead of budgeting. Too much emphasizes is laid on budgets whereas, companies are shifting from budgeting to other tools to monitor performance and accomplishment of goals and objectives such as balance scorecard and beyond budgeting. Other tools are not described in detail making budgets look superior over other tools. This research provides an extensive knowl edge of budgeting but this research somehow is overlooking the disadvantages of budgeting. The substitute management tools of budgets are limited making the research vague. Forecasting, balance scorecards and beyond budgeting are some of the most used techniques around the world but this research failed to cover the importance of these tools. ... For literature review, I had to surf the internet for articles and previous researches to begin my work with. This was an easy task as all the relevant information that I needed was already available on the internet from different sources. I just had to pick information from authentic sources. Finding articles regarding the topic was also an easy task as there was much about it on the internet. The difficulty that I faced was in the literature review process, it was consuming too much time. The information on budgets was vast and I had to choose only information that was relevant to my research. Reading the articles was the best part. Articles regarding the method and importance of budgeting in companies provided me with a lot of exposure. After reading those articles I learned the importance of budgeting in real life. To understand more about the concept of budgeting, I had to borrow some books from the library and went through them to provide me with additional and up-to-date infor mation. What I basically wanted to know through this research was that how could budgets help companies to improve their performance and the methods used by the companies to do so. The process of literature review took the most of my time as information regarding the topic had to be covered in detail to provide the importance of budgets in the company. The experience related to data collection and data analysis was tiring and more difficult than I assumed. The data was collected from secondary sources that included articles and previous researches that were conducted on budgeting. The primary data was collected through interviews from managers of different departments of the organization. It was difficult to gather information from the managers of different

Experiential Learning Essay Example for Free

Experiential Learning Essay Growing up in a southern state with traditional family and religious values has made transitioning into college life a bit difficult. Questioning myself and my own bias from my experiences in life is an ongoing process, as I wonder â€Å"is it me? † or its possible that I feel strongly about issues because my values and ethics overshadow all. I feel as if I move from a state of passive to aggressive in my actions just as I do my own state of internal feeling of who I am. Sometimes I feel like I have been treated unfairly both as a child and now, simply for being female. In my actions I sometimes pretend that this does not bother me and that a woman’s place is in the home, being a good mother and wife, bit other times I lash out when this is expected of me from my church, family, and some facets of society. I struggle in this passive aggressive way in my own religion too. As a Baptist, sometimes I feel like the teachings are true and correct and that social issues, such as homosexuality are undesirable and need to be â€Å"fixed†. Other times, however, I feel like homosexuality and other so-called social issues brought up in the church should not be treated like diseases and we have no business trying to â€Å"cure† others. Growing up white, female, and very religious, I was taught ideals that seemed to contradict themselves. The most notable cases were of people in poverty. We were not a poor family, but I would see a great majority of people in my state of Tennessee living in very unpleasant conditions. From teachings of the church and my family, I was taught to help those, who cannot help themselves. But, the irony was that most conservative people around believed that everyone could help themselves and that their state of poverty was simply due to laziness. I remember thinking that I was just a kid and had no control over my home life and that these other impoverished kids I would see could not help their situation any more that I could. So it was confusing that no one seemed to go out of their way (with a few exceptions) to help poor people back home. We were, also, expected to treat people equally and not have any â€Å"hate in our hearts† for anyone for any reason. It wasn’t obvious to my friends and I that our parents were in any way bigoted toward minorities, because they didn’t use racial slurs or openly discuss their dislike for other races. But, when my friends and I started becoming older and noticing boys, our parents wouldn’t hide their shock when we said that we had an attraction for a boy of another race. Then I realized that my parents did not believe in interracial relationships and for awhile I thought that it was not racist, but now I see that my upbringing was all twisted together with racism, sexism, and contempt for the poor and homosexuality. Like many southern girls, I was supposed to find a nice man to marry and going to college was the way to find this man. My family and the society I grew up in had all these expectations of me, hidden agendas, and covert prejudices that I am still trying to understand fully. I want to be treated like an intelligent woman, whose ideas have merit. I get so angry and feel aggressive when people believe that college is just a â€Å"hobby† and that I am here just to find â€Å"Mr. Right†, I am tired of all the years of playing the passive role of the quiet and complacent â€Å"southern belle†. I, also, want to widen my base of friends to include people who do not let religion become a barrier to their lives. Many times from what I have seen in the church, people mindlessly believe what the preacher says and don’t take time to understand that everyone is human and should be treated fairly. I wish I had the courage to go to speak to people, who are homosexual, but I still can’t. This is one of the goals I am working on now.

Economic Growth Essay

Economic Growth Essay 1.Executive Summary Economic growth is what every economy tries to achieve for the good of everyone as a whole. Developing, producing more, increased wages, higher levels of education, better and better technologies is what we strive for. But doing all that, does that mean that we are living a better life? Or is it just the ideal of doing better, not really the result that keeps us following the dream of a perfect world. The effects of economic growth are full of positives points such as boost in infrastructures, urban development, higher education, globalisation, creates employment, higher wages for workers, better living standards for the population, and the list can go on and on. But aren’t there any externalities to all of this? There are some of the negative externalities of growing above what the economy can take, reaching the limits where growing is counter-productive. Some of those disadvantages of growth are outlined in this report, such as health problems arising, environmental issues, education issues as well, and how standard of living doesn’t always mean better is getting more. 2.Introduction â€Å"A useful metaphor for production in an economy comes from the kitchen. To create valuable final products, we mix inexpensive ingredients together according to a recipe. The cooking one can do is limited by the supply of ingredients, and most cooking in the economy produces undesirable side effects. If economic growth could be achieved only by doing more and more of the same kind of cooking, we could eventually run out of raw materials and suffer from unacceptable levels of pollution and nuisance. Human history teaches us, however, that economic growth springs from better recipes, not just from more cooking. New recipes generally produce fewer unpleasant effects and generate more economic value per unit of raw material.† (Henderson, D. 2007) This little introduction is a way to say that the more diversified an economy is the fewer side effects it will have to bare. A more sustainable and spread out use of the resources available in the economy. Back in the days countries tend to produce only the essentials for ‘survival’, most part of the economies were set to produce things like food, clothing, and houses. But nowadays, only small parts of economies are used to produce the so called essentials. The reason behind this change is the industrial revolution in the â€Å"late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing and transportation had a profound effect on the socio-economic and cultural conditions in Britain. The changes subsequently spread throughout Europe and North America and eventually the World, a process that continues as industrialisation. The onset of the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in human social history, comparable to the invention of farming or the rise of the first city states; almost every aspect of daily life and human society was eventually influenced in some way.† (Wikipedia.com, 22 April 2008) The growth has been so fast that some economies are almost reaching a stall, reaching the maximum. â€Å"On the one hand if we look at specific examples of natural resources (fresh water, ocean fisheries, atmosphere, ecosystem), there is strong evidence that the rates at which we are currently utilizing them are unsustainable.† (Dasgupta, P. 2008) But a major factor can prevent this to happen but it doesn’t mean it’s a good thing; this factor is ecological damages caused by growth. Global warming is one of those constraints that in sooner rather than later will effect on our everyday life and on how we should be monitoring growth. Damages to our environment is not the only problem caused by economic growth, one of the other concerns of every society is whether or not we have reached the limits of human needs as well. What more could we possibly need? Do we have to keep improving on technology; is it for our basic needs or just for pure luxury? People earn more today but doesn’t that mean that we should be better off than 40-50 years ago? Spending on education has become insanely high but are our children learning more today? Husbands and wives both are working full time jobs now to run their families, but 40-50 years ago when usually only the husband was working, weren’t families having a good life? Is growth helping or hurting society as a whole, and thus answering the question is economic growth becoming counter-productive? 3.Economic Growth and Unemployment Economic growth is believed by people to be a good thing because of the jobs it creates and how it helps increase per capita Gross Domestic Product and consumption of society as a whole. But studies in the United States showed, by using the â€Å"Daly-Cobb Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (taking Gross National Product – environmental costs- extra spending on healthcare, education, commuting and urbanization needed to support growth) concluded that economic wellbeing in the US increased substantially during the 50’s and 60’s, but levelled off at the end of the 70’s and has been in decline since the 80’s.† (Siegel, C. 2006) And also according to ‘Okun’s Law’, for every one percent by which the actual unemployment rate exceeds the normal unemployment rate, real Gross Domestic Product is reduced by 2-3%. The Law outlines the negative relationship between the GDP growth and unemployment. Growth doesn’t always bring along what people usually expect: more work. The ideal growth in order to stop unemployment from rising is a 3% annual growth. (Siegel, C. 2006) So growth as well can be considered counter-productive, in terms of employment for an economy, if it is not properly managed. Unemployment rate won’t just stop because the economy created more jobs and making more money, as outlined by ‘Okun’s Law’. And the economy should have an ideal annual growth of 3% to maintain efficiency. 4.Economic Growth and Standard of Living â€Å"Economic development is sustainable if, relative to its population, a society’s productive base does not shrink.† (Dasgupta, P. 2008) The more you earn in terms of wages, the more you tend to buy. Wages are higher, so consumption tends to be higher as well. Going from bare essentials population tend to buy luxuries than they think they deserve for all the effort they put in at work. This is when the economy becomes more productive, when they are enjoying prosperity. However, ‘prosperity in an economy is not static, over time countries tend to become more or less prosperous. An economic boom may bring a temporary prosperous environment to a country and much greater wealth (in terms of higher wages, products quality, quantity, etc†¦) to its population. Same if there is a depression, the hard work done to improve standard of living may be brushed away’. (Sparknotes.com). A major enhancement of living standards is technology, the better the technology the more growth a country can experience. Technology is directly related to economic growth. To produce more we need more equipment, better quality, which can produce more at lower costs and in smaller time span. Also when a country is growing it tends to use more and more advanced material than it previously used to because of the greater productivity they will help them achieve in order to maintain the growth. Technology hence improves labour production. (That is how the inverse relationship between growth and unemployment rate is created; when economy is growing, unemployment tends to rise as well because now the economy needs fewer workers to perform same job) As far as health is concerned fast-foods and restaurants have become a common everyday routine for people. Cooking at home could be cheaper but why going cheaper when you can afford quicker and simpler, and when you can’t find the time to cook. Thus, to the ‘rescue’ are the restaurants and fast-foods, quicker and sometimes offer more variety as well. But the growth of fast foods and restaurants (but mainly fast-foods) consumption have somewhat caused a fall in health level of society as a whole. Not only food patterns caused this change in health condition but when we add to that the high consumption of cigarettes and the fact that besides work, eat, sleep people don’t have much time of their own, or just don’t want to find time (laziness) to do exercise, societies became less active physically and more obese. For that matter people seemed to think that spending more on health care would help them live longer and better. But now more and more people are realising that exercises and a healthy diet are the keys to a better life. The more spending we make on health care will somehow result in finding cures (hopefully sometimes sooner rather than later) for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart problems, aids, etc†¦ but the concern about this is that they are maybe the reverse effect of economic growth. If we think about it (as mentioned above) people are less concerned about their health, what they could prevent now at the beginning is instead ‘postponed’ to later when the need to try and find a solution to fight a health problem is here. Example of that would be obesity- our children are eating more fast foods than it was a case decades ago, they also are doing less exercises. Education of ‘our future’ is important to counter the negative effects of economic growth. ‘A point has been reached where the amount spent on health care is much less important than exercise, diet and other individual actions to improve health’ (Siegel, C. 2006). 5.Economic Growth and Education Education plays an important role on the road to economic growth of an economy. It could vary from education of employees to new technologies to education of the children, the future generation. Literacy is important nowadays anywhere, because it helps communicate easily and if needs be in different languages. And also the sooner the children learn the easier it makes it for them to undertake subsequent learning â€Å"results, obtained after examining information on Dutch school children (in the Netherlands, parents can enroll their children in school from age four), find that increasing enrolment by one month increases the math and language test scores of children from a low socio-economic background or ethnic minorities by .06 standard deviation, while those non-disadvantaged student’s scores remained the same† (Bredt, J., Cycz, C. 2007) The education of the population as a whole is vital for an economy to be prosperous, so providing children with the ‘tools’ to build a better tomorrow is the key for further successes. But that’s the good part of growth, it helps us educate our population but economic growth can also be viewed as detrimental to education, when it comes to children. Growth has created more work for a larger pool of labour, including women and men, mothers and fathers, thus reducing the quality of a traditional family life by much. Parents nowadays have each a job (mainly full-time) resulting in less time devoted to growing children, who most of the times find themselves in day-cares. This lack of family presence affect the children â€Å"emotionally, some of them end up using drugs, become delinquent, suffer from anxiety, depression, and some end up being unsuccessful in school.† (Siegel, C. 2006). Another side effect of growth on education is that now children at school want more than just learning, they want to be entertained to learn. They want teachers to get them hooked on the subject, not just teach them, they don’t want to make that extra effort to learn how to solve a difficulty on their own. They think it is like television or internet, everything is laid in from of them and they just have to sit back and watch. This phenomenon is outlined in a research paper ‘The End of Economic Growth’ by Charles Siegel in 2006. 6.Economic Growth and the Environment For the relationship between growth and environment I am using the example of newly industrialized Eastern-Asian countries. Countries such as Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, for example, have been experiencing enormous growth over the past 20-30 years, lowering the population living under their poverty line by more than 50% and making good economic progresses. But the reverse of the medal is that this region is also among the most highly polluted part of the world with 9 cities in the world’s 15 most polluted cities. Other problems faced by those countries are soil degradation, erosion, coastlines and marine degradation, one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. In this region we can witness the damaging effects of rapid on the local environment. Environment was neglected because growth was viewed as the next essential step to evolution for the region, and now they are trying to â€Å"control pollution rates, make proper use of their forest s, take proper actions, such as tax and standards on further development, improving their methods and recycling.† (Thomas, V., Belt, T. 1997). The developed countries have the same problems and we would tend to think that the developing countries would be more careful when growing, but the ‘temptation’ of getting big and quick just overrides the fulfilment of a healthy environment. The questions here that appeal to us would be; do the other developing nations care enough about the environment, and will they instead of growing big at a faster rate, just slowly (taking into considerations the environment) grow their economies, or will they make the same mistakes? And also there was another point brought forward by Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish statistician, in 2003 which defies economic growth and its effects on the environment. He argues that instead of â€Å"restricting growth, environment decline is best cured by accelerating it†. He pointed out that pollution i n industrialised countries have been cleaned up and air pollution in big cities are better than it was 30 years ago. In a way he is saying that reducing environmental damages is going against economic growth, and that countries will get used to it, and that it is greater at the early stages of industrialisation. Those arguments made by Lomborg in his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, brought a lot of controversies from world’s leading environmental scientists. So, we can see that ideologies differ from people, and it can also be the case for countries seeking growth. They can accept that environmental damages are the price to pay for a better growth. (Hamilton, C. 2003) 7.Recommendations Economic growth is more enjoyable when it comes with fewer negatives sides as possible, and there are ways to fully benefit from a growth without really impacting on other parts of the country, or even on the population. Some examples would be: Spending less on health services but instead focuses on a healthier way of living, with exercises, healthy diets, proper management of time. People could choose to work fewer hours, giving the chance to raise employment in the economy. Resulting in unemployed population getting a part time job. The whole economy will be able to work more as well, more people to work. Because â€Å"the economy can only grow if people work more or better.† (Mitchell, D. 1996) More people working at fewer hours. By choosing to work less, families also allow themselves more time to spend with their children and giving them a better family life resulting in better educated future. Imposing tax on development, putting severe penalties on pollution that may arise can be another way to put a ‘brake’ to harmful development and a way to promote sustainable development of the economy 8.Conclusion Counter-productivity is the problem that will sooner or later hit every economy, to reduce the impacts it can have some measures need to be taken. Sustainability of the development, which is always bearing in mind that every action can cause a reaction, and efficient use of resources would be a beneficial for future generations. We don’t have the right to be individualistic. Before people didn’t really realize that they could run out of resources at some point, they thought it would be here indefinitely, and we have reached a point now where everything is becoming scarce. Now, we know that our actions will have some effects on future generation; we have this knowledge and need to make the most of it. Protection of the environment we live in, protection of our people, and sustainability of our development.

Symbols and Symbolism in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter Essa

Symbolism   in The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne isn't noted for perfecting any famous literary style, for writing multiple best sellers, or even for contributing largely to classic American literature.   His only real claim to fame is The Scarlet Letter: a novel that was originally only meant to be yet another Hawthorne short story.   Because of this, it actually possesses many short story characteristics.   "It is simpler and more complete than his other novels." (James 285)   It also has an excellent plot backed by an expert use of literary techniques.   One technique Hawthorne used was borrowed solely from drama: the use of the aside.   Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale delivers an aside in the midst of the action in chapter three, incorporating the reader into his personal thoughts and feelings directly.   Many other things in The Scarlet Letter weren't so direct, though.   Typically, Hawthorne left the reader implying events by being vague and not answering posed questions.   An example of this technique is through the women's discussion about Hester Prynne in chapter one.   But, among all of his techniques used in The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne truly mastered only one.   He refined the art of symbolism.   Symbolism is found throughout all of The Scarlet Letter.   Nearly every person or object is symbolic of some other thing or idea.   The scarlet letter, the black glove Dimmesdale leaves on the scaffold, and the scaffold itself all have deeper significance.   This makes the theme of The Scarlet Letter even more ever-present.   It aids in illustrating the true intolerance and hypocrisy of Puritan customs. At first reading, one might safely say that the scarlet letter means "Adulteress."   Although this is partially correct, it lacks in-... ...tely mastered. Works Cited Bruckner, Sally.   "The Scarlet Letter."   Masterplots.   Vol. 10 Ed. Frank N. Magill. Pasadena, California: Salem, Press, 1996.   5849-51. Feidelson, Jr., Charles.   "Hawthorne as Symbolist."   Hawthorne.   Ed. A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:   Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1996.   64-71. James, Henry.   "Densely Dark, with a Spot of Vivid Color."   The Scarlet Letter.   Ed. Norton Critical.   1978.   287-91. Van Doren, Mark.   "The Scarlet Letter."   Hawthorne.   Ed. A.N. Kaul.   Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.   129-40. Winters, Yvor.   "Maule's Curse, or Hawthorne and the Problem of Allegory."   Hawthorne. Ed. A.N. Kaul.   Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. 11-24. Ziff, Larzer.   "The Ethical Dimension of 'The Custom House.'"   Hawthorne.   Ed. A.N. Kaul.   Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: P2 Symbols and Symbolism in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter Essa Symbolism   in The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne isn't noted for perfecting any famous literary style, for writing multiple best sellers, or even for contributing largely to classic American literature.   His only real claim to fame is The Scarlet Letter: a novel that was originally only meant to be yet another Hawthorne short story.   Because of this, it actually possesses many short story characteristics.   "It is simpler and more complete than his other novels." (James 285)   It also has an excellent plot backed by an expert use of literary techniques.   One technique Hawthorne used was borrowed solely from drama: the use of the aside.   Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale delivers an aside in the midst of the action in chapter three, incorporating the reader into his personal thoughts and feelings directly.   Many other things in The Scarlet Letter weren't so direct, though.   Typically, Hawthorne left the reader implying events by being vague and not answering posed questions.   An example of this technique is through the women's discussion about Hester Prynne in chapter one.   But, among all of his techniques used in The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne truly mastered only one.   He refined the art of symbolism.   Symbolism is found throughout all of The Scarlet Letter.   Nearly every person or object is symbolic of some other thing or idea.   The scarlet letter, the black glove Dimmesdale leaves on the scaffold, and the scaffold itself all have deeper significance.   This makes the theme of The Scarlet Letter even more ever-present.   It aids in illustrating the true intolerance and hypocrisy of Puritan customs. At first reading, one might safely say that the scarlet letter means "Adulteress."   Although this is partially correct, it lacks in-... ...tely mastered. Works Cited Bruckner, Sally.   "The Scarlet Letter."   Masterplots.   Vol. 10 Ed. Frank N. Magill. Pasadena, California: Salem, Press, 1996.   5849-51. Feidelson, Jr., Charles.   "Hawthorne as Symbolist."   Hawthorne.   Ed. A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:   Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1996.   64-71. James, Henry.   "Densely Dark, with a Spot of Vivid Color."   The Scarlet Letter.   Ed. Norton Critical.   1978.   287-91. Van Doren, Mark.   "The Scarlet Letter."   Hawthorne.   Ed. A.N. Kaul.   Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.   129-40. Winters, Yvor.   "Maule's Curse, or Hawthorne and the Problem of Allegory."   Hawthorne. Ed. A.N. Kaul.   Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. 11-24. Ziff, Larzer.   "The Ethical Dimension of 'The Custom House.'"   Hawthorne.   Ed. A.N. Kaul.   Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: P2

Capitalism and Feudalism: The Lowell System Essay -- Economics Norma R

Capitalism and Feudalism: The Lowell System During the mid-nineteenth century, as the industrial revolution was taking shape, so too, was an economic system in Lowell, Massachusetts. The system involved a series of textile mills, which hired mostly women from rural towns, which were slowly giving way to the large cities as a result of industrialization. The textile mills hired the women to work long hours in brutal, often dangerous conditions, and many paid high rent to company boardinghouses. This may sound like feudalism, but it was, in fact, an example of oligarchical capitalism. However, it shares features with the conditions in "Norma Rae" and "Matewan". In the Lowell System, power was concentrated within the textile companies, creating an oligarchy. The situation is best described by Thomas Dublin, in his book Women at Work when he writes that 'the textile corporations in Lowell...adopted a unified set of policies from the outset. They shared waterpower rights, technological developments, labor policies, and marketing strategies.' (Thomas Dublin, Women at Work. p. 10) The logic behind the co-operation of the different companies was that the 'textile firms in this period were owned and directed by a narrow circle of capitalists, known collectively as the Boston Associates'. (Thomas Dublin, Women at Work, p. 10) This created an oligarchical situation because there was collective control by the companies. The oligarchy existed within a capitalist system, however, because the workers had a choice of which company to work for and the textile mills were not the only places to work. The textile industry was a major industry at the time. Ho wever, one could still lead a normal life without working in the textile mill. Furth... ...ning company to yield to their demands for better working conditions. The Lowell System shows features similar to both "Matewan" and "Norma Rae" because it occurred in a period in American history when the economy was in transition from feudalism to capitalism, allowing it to retain some features of feudalism while manifesting the early stages of modern capitalism. This is the reason why the Lowell System shares features with both "Norma Rae" and "Matewan". It also accounts for the fact that the system was an oligopoly. The companies did not have a complete monopoly over the labor force, however they had concentrated power. As the economy of the United States evolved, the Lowell System became less feudal and more capitalist, and evolved into situations similar to "Norma Rae". 1. Dublin, Thomas. Women at Work. 1979, Columbia University Press, New York. p. 87

English as the Spoken Language in America Essay -- English Language Co

English as the Spoken Language in America In the beginning, this country was a melting pot. Many different people, from many different countries and ethnic groups, speaking in many different tongues came to America. English arose as the predominant language of the United States. Over time, people realized the importance of staying in touch with their cultural backgrounds, including the language of their native countries. The main problem presented now lies in communication and interaction with each other. It is obvious that miscommunication causes problems. An â€Å"English Only† law will unite Americans and give them all a common ground on which to communicate. It will diminish racial conflicts, as well as encourage immigrants to become involved in the U.S. society and become successful. It will also improve the efficiency of government operations. Declaring English as the official language of the United States will resolve current issues and prevent problems in the future. The biggest and most obvious problem with s peaking many different languages in one united country is communication. Many immigrants do not learn English at all. In fact, 213 different languages are spoken in the United States, and approximately 10 million U.S. residents do not speak fluent English (â€Å"English Only† 3). Some immigrants gradually pick up the language, but do not learn enough to bridge the communication gaps between themselves and the government. Even everyday communication creates tension. For example, when I go to my college library and ask for help finding information, some of the library aides speak broken English that is difficult to decipher. The hired library aides have trouble understanding what I am trying to find and I have trouble understanding them when they try to help me out. It is a very frustrating situation for both the aides and me. Along with communication difficulties, the language barrier among immigrants contributes to racial tension and segregation. One look at the city of Chica go is a prime example of this situation. Many different cultures are isolated within the city because they cannot communicate with each other. Not having an official language encourages these concentrations of ethnic groups to stick together and not integrate themselves into society. Miscommunication among the groups generates animosity and competition for resources. This in turn a... ...res operate more smoothly, and in order to help immigrants feel as though they too are an integral part of this society, we must declare English the official language of the United States of America. Bibliography Alter, Jonathan. â€Å"English Spoken Here, Please.† Newsweek 9 January 1984: 24-25. Debate Over English Only, The. March 1996. http://www.nea.org/ society.engonly.html (29 April 1999). â€Å"English Only.† ACLU Briefing Paper. 1996. http://www.aclu. org/library/pbp6.html (29 April 1999). â€Å"Issue of Quebec’s Independence.† The American Geographical Society Fall 1997:37. King, Robert D. â€Å"English as the Official Language:The Problem of Multiple Cultures.† Current (Washington D.C.) July/August 1997:3-8. Mc Bee, Susanna. â€Å"A War Over Words.† U.S. News and World Report 6 October 1986:64. â€Å"Reagan Information Interchange, The.† Congress Acts to Make English our Official Language. 1999.http://www.reagan.com/HotTopics.main/HotMike/document- 8.5.1996.3.html (6 May 1999). Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M. The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society. New York: W.W. Norton, 1992. â€Å"U.S. English, Inc.† 26 April 1999. http://www.usenglish.org/incindex.html (6 May 1999).

Ethiopian Culture and History

Ethiopia – The Oldest Civilization The Great Blacks in Wax Museum The culture I decided to experience was the ancient culture of Ethiopia. The Great Blacks in Wax Museum introduced me to this most ancient but formally organized culture that still influences governing systems today. An intriguing fact about Ethiopia is that it is world’s oldest civilization and the founder of Egypt another old and great civilization. Ethiopian, also originally known as Sheba, history begins its existence around 10th century B. C. y Solomon’s first son, Melenik I, who the Queen of Sheba was the supposed to have mothered. Its documented history begins in the ancient city of Askum in about 2nd century AD, thus making it one of oldest independent African nations and one of the most ancient cultures in the entire world. The exhibit provided an excellent array of facts about Ethiopian life, history, culture, tradition and government. The display also showed a number of ancient Ethiopian artifacts as well as lifelike wax figures of some of Ethiopian rulers and leaders.The Ethiopian exhibit at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum displayed how this country and its culture is the world’s oldest civilization and it is responsible for many systems and values that are still continued throughout the world today. The artifacts in this exhibit were interesting and varied greatly in purpose and practical use. There were no artist or artisans noted in the exhibit. All the artifacts date back to the age of the history of the Ethiopians around 10th century B. C. Understanding the ancient history helps explained some of the artifacts in the exhibit.The spear was shown in many different areas of the display. The spear was an essential part of the history from the earliest historical days especially since there were many tribal wars within and from external opposition. It was used for a variety of uses including as a weapon in wartime as well as a tool to kill animals for consum ption. It was individually handcrafted of a two-part tool/weapon with a spear head (arrow-like from sharpen rock) and a shaft kept together with a sturdy vine to hold the parts together. It often had etchings, paint from berry dyes, or adornment of some kind.The spear is often shown and was used by the males in the villages and was proudly displayed in rituals including war dance, tribal dances to denote power and virility. It was a daily part of the Ethiopian life. Another artifact that was prevalent in the display was masks of a variety of materials, expressions, and sizes. The mask was an important part of the Ethiopian traditional and cultural rites and rituals. The masks were often used during celebrations including religious ones and part of medical rituals. The masks were handcrafted from fine wood and painted with paints made from dyes of berries and fruits.The masks were also used in wartime in confrontation with enemy warriors. The masks were used to celebrate joyous event s also. The masks is still crafted and used in traditional celebrations in Ethiopia today. There were many ancient instruments displayed in the exhibit. The instruments include an ancient guitar like instrument made form handcrafted wood, animal with vines for strumming. There were many different types of drums and bongo type instruments. These drums were made from handcrafted fine wood with animal skins pulled across the open wood tube and tied with vine or rope.These drums were used for a variety of uses included celebratory traditions, communicating across distance of danger, need, or information. Music and ceremonial dance were an everyday part of ancient Ethiopian and this musical tradition is still greatly part of Ethiopian culture. The Ethiopian cultures appreciation for intricate color, design and hand-dyed fabrics is prevalent in their ancient culture and their instruments were decorated and adorned as well. The original cultural attire today differ not much from their anci ent ancestors and may still be seen in Ethiopia’s heritage rich attire today.The Ethiopian exhibit provided an eye-opening insight into how its ancient systems, values, traditions, rituals and dress have shaped the current Ethiopia and many other world cultures. Egypt was a city founded by Askum (ancient Ethiopia). These ancient and great civilizations laid the cornerstone of many other past and current governments. The ancient Kemet, now Egypt was ruled by the Queen of Sheba. Her prosperity and governing were the foundation of the Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Phoenician and Indian civilization.One of Ethiopia’s most important contributions was that it had a systematic form of government and rule. Another famous woman ruler of the culture was Egypt’s Cleopatra. Though there was a period of Roman history were few women ruled with any true power, the strong Ethiopian women rulers help to set a pattern of women in government that has return to culture today. Ethiopian cul ture was responsible for many advancements in communication, commercial and architectural contributions that have affected all cultures throughout history.They were responsible for communication achievements such as being credited with the first alphabet system, the first use of chronology and history recording, and a development of a language that was more widely used than the Semitic and Aryan languages of ancient times. The ancient Ethiopians were commerce and industry masters in the art of navigation, the world’s first and most vast commercial trading system that did business with India, Persia, Arabia and Chaldea. It has been evidenced that Ethiopians sailors explores the Americas 2,000 years before Columbus. There artisans and developers of textile trade and smelting iron.They were early miners of silver, copper, gold and other raw minerals. The architectural achievements are legendary which include expert use of sandstone, limestone and granite in building construction . They are credited with the method of carving buildings and pyramids out of solid rock. They forged extensions over mountains and made the first arches, aqueducts and bridges long before the founding and rise of Rome or Greece. A wax figure of Imhotep, ca 2980 B. C. , a revolutionary architect, was the noted designer of the great step pyramid of Egypt was part of this exhibit.The advancements of this society in these areas are very much still part of Ethiopia’s history and culture but even more astounding critical to the development of multi-cultures and cross-cultures all over the world throughout mankind’s history and development. The ancient Ethiopian culture made some significant values and ideas in the area of philosophy and religion. The ancient Ethiopian culture was one of the foremost cultures that worshipped a Supreme being. They were mentioned in the Bible because they provided a place of refuge for Moses and Jesus Christ.Ethiopian (Askum) was one of the fir st African nations to adopt the then new religion of Christianity. This adoption of Christianity was significant in Christianity’s early history and a source of war confrontations with neighboring Islamic nations. In its history, Ethiopia is also noted for their protection of Christianity during the African invasion of Islamic Arabia. The wide spread popularity and acceptance of Christianity crosses multi-cultural lines and significantly affects the religious belief and lifestyle of millions of Christians even today.The Ethiopian exhibit at the Great Blacks in Wax museum was just a starting point of a long continuing rich and thriving history of African culture. The other exhibits were a direct link to this most ancient of civilizations. By observing the history of African and Black American culture and history, I reviewed many other cultures as well. Reviewing Ethiopia’s history and observing its artifacts made the rest of the museum experience more understandable. Th e ties of the Ethiopian culture – life, traditions, costumes, dress, government, architecture, commerce and industry are seen in most cultures history and present day life.The museum went on to show exhibits in the following areas of African-American and Black History: †¢ SlaveryEmancipationSlave Revolts †¢ The Underground RailroadJourney to freedomSharecropping Life †¢ Western FrontierCivil War ContributionsAbolition & Women’s Rights †¢ Black ReconstructionEducators, ScientistArtic Exploration †¢ Black Labor MovementMilitary LeadersFather of Black Nationalism †¢ Black Renaissance ManAfrican Freedom FightersRastafarians †¢ Modern Civil Rights Jim Crow EraSegregation LynchingBlack Women LegendsAthletes †¢ Space ExplorationBlvd. of Broken DreamsWriters and Poets Having observed all the exhibits the affects of the ancient Ethiopian value system, traditions were very evident in the development of multi-cultures especially in Africa, European and American history. The exhibits often made my heart heavy and even bought tears to my eyes, but I noted, that though struggle has always been part of Ethiopian and its ancestral history and urrent minority life and all cultural life; there is always hope and significant contributions throughout every culture. Through the exhibits, I observed that though much of man’s culture and history is hard to view and acknowledge, that there is a determination and drive to survive from that most ancient civilization that has carried through to this today in every culture.Struggle brings about significant change and adaptation in all cultures. It showed me that every culture is co-linked through history and shares many significant cultural anthropologic relationships despite what appears to be insurmountable differences when it is all said and done we are all the same and want what is good and right for our survival just as ancient Ethiopia wanted. ———â₠¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€œ [pic] Page 2 Page 3

Charles’ Law and Absolute Zero

Date of experiment: November 4, 2010 Date submitted: November 11, 2010 Introduction: As per Charles’ Law, there is a linear relationship between the temperature and volume of a gas. Charles discovered that -273Â °C is the point at which a gas has no volume. Since that's as cold as he thought things could ever get, that originated the idea of absolute zero. In this experiment, Charles’ Law was applied and made into data to determine an experimental value for Absolute Zero. To do so, a fixed amount of gas was confined in a small, uniform sample tube.The temperature of the gas was changed, by being placed in water. The expected result is that as the temperature of the gas gets cooler (decreases), the volume of gas will decrease. Procedure: A 400mL beaker was filled with tap water and place on a hot plate until the thermometer read 55Â °C. Then a sample tube filled with two mercury plugs was obtained from the instructor. With a ruler, the distance between the two mercury plugs was recorded. Using small rubber bands, the sample tube was strapped to the ruler, which was then attached to the bottom of thermometer.A cork was attached onto the top of the thermometer, and then clamped in the beaker of pre-heated water. The initial temperature and distance between each plug in the pre-heated water were then recorded. Ice was added and stirred every so often to cool the temperature of the water. When the beaker was going to overflow, small amounts of the water were removed by a pipet. The temperature and distance between each plug were then recorded every two minutes. Eight sets of temperatures were recorded when the goal temperature of 0. Â °C was achieved. Data: 1) Temperature and Distance Between Mercury Plugs Every 2mins Time (minutes)| Temperature of water (Â °C)| Distance between plugs (mm)| 0 (Plugs out of water)| 49. 8| 60. 2 (in room temp)| 2 (Plugs in water)| 46. 3| 63. 8| 4| 42. 2| 63. 3| 6| 39. 3| 62. 2| 8| 24. 9| 60. 0| 10| 19. 1| 58. 6| 12| 7. 8| 56. 6| 14| 1. 9| 55. 1| 16| 0. 1| 54. 4| 18| 0. 1| 54. 4| Calculations: 1) Line of best fit: y=0. 1981x+54. 752 Slope (m): 0. 198 mm/C Y-Intercept (b): 54. 8 mm 2) Absolute zero (V=0): -276. 8Â °C 3) % Error:Excepted value: -273Â °C Discussion: My results show that as the temperature of the water decreased, the distance between the two mercury plugs decreased. This supports Charles’ Law which states . When creating my graph, I did not include the first initial temperature and length recordings. The plot was not anywhere near the others, and would have thrown off the slope. My value for absolute zero was fairly close to the excepted -273Â °C. There was a small difference of 3. 8Â °C between the two values, with a percent error or 1. 4%.My results were expected because I was obviously not going to get the perfect -273Â °C absolute zero value, due to experimental error. Sources of experimental error that could occur are if the initial temperature of the water was over 55Â °C and if the mercury plugs were not fully submerged in the water. If the water was over 55Â °C, then the ruler would have deformed from melting. This would make the ruler’s readings unreliable. If the mercury plugs were not fully submerged in the water then they would not get the full effect of temperature change.

Functionalist and Symbolic Interactionist

Functionalist and Symbolic Interactionist Functionalist and Symbolic Interactionist SO1050 Sociology Functionalist, also known as structural functionalism because of its views on the ways social structures accompanies social needs. In perspective, functionalism structures social influences by what is visible and in demand now. (Boundless. com/Sociology)Functionalism has been criticized for downplaying the role of individual action, and for being unable to account for social change. In the functionalist perspective, society and its institutions are the primary units of analysis.Individuals are significant only in terms of their places within social systems (i. e. , social status and position in patterns of social relations). Functionalists have been disputed because of its terms of how socialism is accounted, because of how it lacks the support and accredited ability of one’s actions and how socialization transforms during its process. Functionalist is the oldest theory but the most popular one used to determine groups because of its basic terms toward how social groups react and functions of how the mind and body works.The structure of how people interact with others and the ability to fit in certain groups are determined by the mind state of acceptability. When evaluating functionalism it is more of a hypothesis that could be proven right or wrong in its factor of determining how society works when it comes to grouping and organizations of people by characteristics. (Boundless. com/Sociology)Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.Symbolic Interactionist, known also as symbolic interaction perspective, is a form of social grouping based on how people are forcefully placed into groups, events and social organizations. Unlike functionalism, Symbolic Interactionist believes that peer pressure and environmental ex posure has much effect over socialization and its developments. People adapt and form social lifestyles by what they are exposed to, such as cigarette smoking, drinking, dating, etc. When ressured into doing something for the first time just to have some forms of acceptance, people tend to try things and develop habitual behaviors that are introduced by peers. (Anderson, M. L. and Taylor, H. F. , 2009). Critics of this theory claim that symbolic interactionism neglects the macro level of social interpretation—the â€Å"big picture. † In other words, symbolic Interactionist may miss the larger issues of society by focusing too closely on the â€Å"trees† rather than the â€Å"forest†.The perspective also receives criticism for slighting the influence of social forces and institutions on individual interactions. The theory of Symbolic Interactionalist has been criticized because critics believe that it focused too much on individuals and how they react to p ersonal ways of how people react to wanting to be a part of a group and/or organization, that it lacked the focus of how groups and organizations are developed based on its biological influences.I believe that the symbolic theory has a better and clearer perspective of all theories because it focuses on how peer pressures and environmental behaviors has its influences on people as individuals, which eventually becomes a group or organization of socialization when manipulated by the growth of numbers. Functionalists do make a great point about how everything works together as one unit when it comes to social groups and the coordination of how socialism is formed.I do not agree with the full aspect of functionalists but the co-ordinance of its concept does make some sense. Symbolic Interactionalist forms its theory by reviewing probable causes using surroundings and its peers as a way of understanding social formations. I choose the Symbolic Theory because of its somewhat accuracy of how groups and organizations are formed and past down from generation to generation.I do believe peers and a person’s environmental surroundings have much to do with social connections and how its functions are developed. Reference Boundless. com- https://www. boundless. com/sociology/understanding-sociology/theoretical-perspectives-in-sociology/functionalist-perspective/ Copyright  © 2011-2012, Boundless Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Anderson, M. L. and Taylor,

Commentaire †Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy Essay

Thomas Hardy described the novel in his preface as dramatizing â€Å"a deadly war between flesh and spirit†. This quasi reference to St Paul’s conception of human dualism goes far towards explaining the nature of Jude’s tragedy. This dualism appears also in the book. Jude The Obscure is the last of Thomas Hardy’s novels published in 1895: its critical reception was so negative that Hardy resolved never to write another novel. The passage under analysis is situated towards the beginning of the novel, at the arrival of Jude at Christminster (the fictional name of Oxford). He found a job at a stonesman’s to make a living while studying by himself to try and achieve his dream. Indeed, Jude’s first concern is a job, though his working is to be done only as a way of supporting himself until he can enter the university. Our commentary will fall into two parts. First we will study the isolation of Jude, and the opposition between Jude’s world and the world of his enthusiasm that is to say the world of Oxford students. Then, we will study the omnipresence of spirituality that contrasts with the materiality in the text. As we have said before, this novel is the last novel of Thomas Hardy. This novel recounts the painful process of his disillusionment and his final destruction at the hands of an oppressive society, which refuses to acknowledge his desire. Even if this extract does not seem so sombre, and presents a real hope, we can notice that the theme of the contrast or the opposition exists all the text long. Thus it is interesting to underline that play of opposition which appears quite characteristic of the novel as it is implied by the sentence of Thomas Hardy that we have quoted in the introduction where he describes his book as â€Å"a deadly war between flesh and spirit†. In a strikingly similar vein, Hardy tells also that the † ‘grimy’ features of the story go to show the contrast between the ideal life a man wished to lead, and the squalid real life he was fated to lead.† There is a play of opposition and parallelism that exists in this extract that presents contrast also. The first opposition that can be noted is the opposition between Jude and the others. Indeed, there is a real separation  between Jude and what he calls â€Å"his inmates† on line 11 or his â€Å"happy young contemporaries†. That is also obvious with the use of the pronoun. All the text long, and mostly in the first part of the text – when the narrator describes Christminster and the students – we can see appearing two different groups as clearly underlined on line 25: â€Å"Whatever they were to him, he to them was not on the spot at all; and yet he had fancied he would be close to their lives by coming there†. This sentence permits really distinguish the opposition between those to entity. This idea of separation exists in all the text, with different symbol of separation. Thus we can say that even if the â€Å"Christminster ‘sentiment’ (†¦) ate further and further into him†, Jude is clearly not in the Christminster ‘way of life’. This situation of exclusion is described implicitly, by the narrator, as quite unfair, when he underlines for instance that â€Å"he probably knew more about those buildings materially, artistically and historically, than any one of their inmates. We could perceive this remark and all the text as an implicit criticism of the fixed class boundaries that exist in the Victorian society. Indeed, we know that Jude has a real willpower of being â€Å"someone†. He left his life in the country town to come into the big city in the hope of succeeding in life. But that society seems quite close as described by Hardy. That is probably why the narrator and Hardy himself insist on the separation of Jude, his isolation and even a sort of imprisonment. He is all alone, in a big city, living apar t and a lot of elements in the text can induce this idea. Firstly let’s notice the â€Å"echoes of his own footsteps†. Echoe occurs most of the time in big and empty spaces, thus using the world ‘echoe’ the narrator wanted to show the isolation of Jude. The adjectives â€Å"impish† and the comparison with â€Å"blows of mallet† are also relevant is that respect. The character appears then, at first sight, isolated, alone with some kind of harsh condition. The evocation of the â€Å"wall† is stronger in that respect. The wall is the symbol of separation, division and exclusion; and here this symbol is used several time as on line 10 â€Å"Only a wall divided him from those happy young contemporaries† or on line 14 â€Å"Only a wall – but what a wall!† showing us the real feeling of exclusion of Jude. This image is reinforced by the metaphor of the â€Å"gates† saying that: â€Å"For the present he was outside the gates of everything, colleges included†. Otherwise the gates can refer to heaven, as we will see later. This division appears also in the  room itself, showing that it exists two worlds: â€Å"rigged up a curtains on a rope across the middle, to make a double chamber out of one†. As we have said, there is a gap between Jude and the rest of Christminster; it is also suggested with the world ‘antipodes’ used on line 21. Nevertheless, it seems that Jude look like ‘their inmates’. The narrator on line 11 underlines it when he says ‘he shared a common mental life’ or on line 20 â€Å"they seemed oftentimes (†¦) to be particularly akin to his own thoughts†. The difference is then more a difference of wages, and not of cleverness or aspirations, we can thus see an implicit criticism of the system by Hardy: they are equal but separate, and they don’t have the same chance to succeed in life, and this opposition drawn by Hardy permits to understand that. The picture painted of the education system is very bleak for the common man, who can study day and night, but will never walk through those great doors of learning. There is a dichotomy between manual work and intellectual work: the young workman in a white blouse vs. the young students. Jude seems to want to realize a synthesis of those two worlds as underlined on line 38: â€Å"He was young and strong, or he never could have executed with such zest the undertakings to which he now applied himself, since they involved reading most of the time after working all the day†. Indeed this text not only presents this division between two worlds but also sort of hope concerning the future. The way of writing of Hardy permits us to understand Jude’s enthusiasm and his faith in future, and permits then to comprehend the mind of Jude: the landscapes of this extract is both Christminster and Jude’s mind: Christminster changes and evolves in Jude eye’s. . Even if Jude The obscure is Hardy’s most sombre novel, here, it is the beginning of the novel and faith and hope are still allowed. This hope appears on line 28 â€Å"But the future lay ahead after all (†¦)†. Desire and enthusiasm are perceptible in the text and particularly in the last paragraph. However the last sentence permits to understand that the future will be more difficult than he probably thinks: â€Å"His desire absorbed him and left no part of him to weigh its practicability†. And Christminster will not be probably the city he was expected. Indeed, this text is situated toward the beginning of the novel when Jude has just arrived at Christminster. In  that respect, he is still full of hope, and enthusiasm even if we can see that he realises â€Å"how far from the object of that enthusiasm he really was†. But it is more a dream than anything else: indeed, Christminster’s phantasmal allure, glimpsed by Jude from the top of his ladder, becomes after his arrival in the city the sinister phantasm of feeling himself disembodied and different. This idea could be illustrated by the description of the Cathedral in the text with the insistence of the size (grandeur ) of it on line 59 : â€Å"Tall tower, tall belfry windows and tall pinnacles†. The anaphora permits to show the discrepancy between Jude, alone and the big city, bigger than his country town where everything is closed for the moment. But as we have said, there is still hope, and the reference to the Cathedral permits to underline another aspect of this extract, which is faith and spirituality as implied by the use of the word â€Å"faith† on line 61. In Hardy’s book, Bible is omnipresent. The text is full of biblical allusion, so much that The Ecclesiasts are a privileged intertext. We can say that God is everywhere, and this extract presents us a lot of references to spirituality that contrasts with materiality of his life conditions. The use of Biblical analogy separates it from all the others novels of Hardy. In it Hardy traces the odyssey of Jude, showing that at important turning points in his life Biblical references serve as guideposts marking his direction. Christminster is tinted with spirituality and so does the extract under study. Firstly, we can point out the name of the city because even if Hardy refers to Oxford, he gives to the city a fictional name that is â€Å"Christminster†, mixing Christ, which is the title, also treated as a name, given to Jesus of Nazareth and â€Å"minster† which is a large or important church, typically one of cathedral status in the north of England that was built as part of a monastery. So, it is a double reference to religion and spirituality. Then there are a lot of references in the text itself, and the place of Christminster seems impregnate with religion and spirituality, which are two notions not exactly similar. Indeed, religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, spirit; and spirituality is relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or  physical things. In those definitions, we can then clearly see that spirituality is opposed to materiality, which seems also the case on that extract. Spirituality or religion appears first throughout the abundant lexical field: â€Å"haunted† on line 1, â€Å"cloisters† (l.1), â€Å"God†, â€Å"Cathedral†, â€Å"Belfry†, etc. More of that, Hardy plays with the meaning of some words; firstly, with the meaning of the world enthusiasm. As we have said before, Jude’s enthusiasm is one of the major stakes of the extract. It could be understand as the intense and eager enjoyment or interest, which is probably the case. But not only, enthusiasm has also an archaic and religious meaning: indeed, enthusiasm is a religious fervour supposedly resulting directly from divine inspiration, typically involving speaking in tongues and wild, uncoordinated movements of the body. This religious could also cast a different light of the expression â€Å"Christminster ‘sentiment’†. This sentiment could also be a religious feeling, a spiritual fervour that pervades Jude. God is thus present in the text, and Jude is not an atheist as underlined on line 30: â€Å"So he thanked God for his health and strength, and took courage†. The world courage is also relevant in that respect. Courage is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. But In both Catholicism and Anglicanism, courage is also one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. With the gift of fortitude/courage, we overcome our fear and are willing to take risks as a follower of Jesus Christ. A person with courage is willing to stand up for what is right in the sight of God, even if it means accepting rejection, verbal abuse, or physical harm. The gift of courage allows people the firmness of mind that is required both in doing good and in enduring evil. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are thus wisdom, understanding, wonder and awe, right judgement, knowledge, courage, and reverence. And it seems that Jude possesses some of them, just like â€Å"knowledge, wisdom or understanding† as implied in the text, or at least that is what let us hear Thomas Hardy in some sentences as on line 29 â€Å"If he could only be so fortunate as to get into employment he would put with the inevitable† which shows the â€Å"understanding† of Jude for instance. It is also obvious on the end of the extract with the quotation of The Ecclesiasts â€Å"For wisdom is a defence and money is a defence; but the Excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it†. We can see that God, spirituality and religion are everywhere in Jude’s life  and in this extract. But this quotation of the Ecclesiast permits also to cast a light on a major opposition in the text between that spirituality and the materiality. Indeed, Jude seems in a state of imprisonment also because of his lack of money. He is met with obstacles time after time, mainly due to his social station as a common stonemason. This lack of money is thus a real obstacle as underlined one line 49 â€Å"Having been deeply encumbered by marrying, getting a cottage and buying the furniture†. That sentence permits to see that those things of life are limited the freedom and the development of his mind. That is why there is real opposition between spirituality and materiality. In the same way poverty seems contradictory to wealth of mind: â€Å"After buying a book or two he could not even afford himself a fire†. Thomas Hardy gives details about the price of the lamp, in order to insist on this problem of money. Money problem seems to be an obstacle to think well as implied on the beginning of the text when the narrator says â€Å"men who had nothing to do from morning till night but to read, mark, learn and inwardly diges t†. The real difference between Jude and his inmates is that, they don’t have to preoccupy about money, they are totally free of materialist preoccupations and thus, they only have to think, learn and understand. Their mind is not hobbled by money questions. Throughout this opposition, we can maybe perceive the denunciation of the author. Jude’s cousin Sue Bridehead describes his situation very succinctly few chapters later: â€Å"You are one of the very men Christminster was intended for when the colleges were founded; a man with a passion for learning, but no money, or opportunities, or friends. But you were elbowed off the pavement by the millionaires’ sons.† The image of the ogee dome can also be relevant in that respect. Indeed, the ogee dome is the dome of Tom Tower in Christ Church, and it was at one time the signal for all the Oxford College to lock their gates. We find back the image of the gates that could also by a symbol of the Gates of Heaven. But here again, they are closes, and locked showing how vain and difficult it is to try to penetrate in it. Thomas Hardy touches on several socially relevant and subversive themes in Jude The Obscure: education, social ranks, and religion. Those themes appear  in the extract under analysis. This one is particularly interesting because of Hardy’s craftsmanship. He uses a subtle play of opposition and parallelism that convey a peculiar atmosphere and permits to understand Jude’s feelings and situation. He seems thus alone torn between his desire of knowledge and his social condition, but also between spirituality and some kind of materiality inherent to his condition.

By using ''The Three Ecologies'' by Felix Guattari and '' Essay

By using ''The Three Ecologies'' by Felix Guattari and '' Frankenstein'' to use evidence. find a subject in which the Three ecol - Essay Example As a result, the global world will experience increasing homogenization from the sponsorship of control forces, which he names Integrated World Capitalism. It is under the three relation types (subjective, social and environmental), which constitute the three ecologies under the Guattari’s book title (Ricke, 2012). This article will discuss the environmental impacts of a meat industry. In addition, the essay will focus on the measures that people can take to reduce the environmental disasters and why people fail to act as a group. Guattari indicates that people should think in unison about the three crucial ecologies based on a worldwide scale under the ethico-political point of view as he labels it ecosophy (p. 28). According to Guattari, it is unheard of for people to separate the three ecologies especially because he argues that the divide in culture/nature has fallen down due to technical developments (Ricke, 2012). Extending the meaning of ecology in order to take into co nsideration the human subjectivity, environmental concerns and social relations, â€Å"The Three Ecologies† indicates that all the ecological Earth crisis threatening the planet originates from capitalism's expansion. Therefore, Guattari suggests that people should develop new ecosophical strategies that will respect the distinctions between a living system and another. On this note, it is essential to discuss the environmental impacts of meat production and consumption. Environmental impacts of meat industries By March 2010, the global production of meat tripled, and the trend had been so for three continuous decades. Consequently, by 2020, the meat productions all over the world will double the amount currently (Dosse, 2011). The increasing livestock evolution exerts several impacts not only to the environment, but also to the social life such as environmental destruction, worldwide economy, and impacts on human health. Brief Background Statistics show a shocking aspect by indicating that when a person consumes one pound in meat form, it is equal as leveling fifty-five square feet in terms of rainforest. The production of meat is the leading contributing aspect causing environmental issues in the world such as water crisis, pollution, climate change, rainforest destruction and the diminishing arable farmland (Miller & Spoolman, 2008). In as much as people might gather health advantages of consuming meat, the same not only puts their health at risk, but also indicates a significant danger to the environment in the future. More so, it is crucial to outline some of the key results in the report. Over 1.7 billion livestock in the world constitutes the livestock production, which occupy over a quarter of the entire land on Earth. The production and distribution of animal staple feed takes around a third of the entire arable land. At least forty percent of the worldwide agricultural product from the domestic sources comes from livestock production (Guattari , 2005). The sector of livestock production inclusive of transport and feed production emits at least eighteen percent of the entire greenhouse air pollution through gas emissions in the world (Ricke, 2012). Around 800 million citizens in the US could consume the entire grain that livestock feed. The industries feed their farm animals using at least 70 percent of the grain. Industries consume over a half of the total water consumption in the US for livestock product

Changing organizations is as messy as it is exhilarating, as Essay - 1

Changing organizations is as messy as it is exhilarating, as frustrating as it is satisfying, as muddling-through and creative a process as it is a rational one - Essay Example It is complex in its paradigm and encompasses myriad issues which directly or indirectly impact organizational performance. Palmer et al., (2009) argue that changing organization is ‘as messy as it is exhilarating, as frustrating as it is satisfying and as creative a process as it is a rational one’ which actually sums up the challenges of meeting them successfully. The paper would be analysing the statement from myriad perspectives and would look at the change per se because they bring with them the paradoxes that are confusing but pose challenge for the managerial leadership to identify new opportunities in them (McMillan, 2008; Osborne & Brown, 2005). Indeed, they are exhilarating experience for the leadership as they would like it to change into facilitators of success. Thus, businesses make efforts to identify drivers of change to anticipate them and exploit them for not only competitive advantage but also for survival. Changes become important factors that serve as motivation for management to introduce new ways to improve and improvise performance. Organizations need to change mainly because of pressures from external and internal factors that significantly impact organizational performance and credibility (Morgan, 2006). The major drivers of change are described as below: Scholars have defined globalization as ‘the diffusion of goods, services, capital, technology, and people (workers) across national borders’ (Sirgy et al., 2004: 253). The movement of people across geographical borders has been important paradigm that has redefined social structure and considerably influenced business dynamics in terms of inter-dependency of resources. People have become key elements of business necessitating understanding of human psychology in a multicultural society. Diversity has become a reality and business needs to utilize their competencies for improved outcome. At the same time, globalization has considerably expanded the scope of business with