Individual Critical Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Individual Critical Reflection - Essay Example To the best of our abilities, members of the group adhered to Saunder's (2007) advice regarding primary data collection and sampling procedures. In retrospect, however, and having read much more on data collection, I would have approach the procedure differently. In the first place, in order to ensure the reliability and validity of the primary data, I would have requested permission to audio-record the interviews from the respondents. Not only would this have preserved the respondents' answers as given, rather than their subsequent, possibly biased, reinterpretation from interview notes drawn up by the researchers, but would have evidenced the validity of the data. Further to that, I would also followed Miles and Huberman's (2005) advice concerning the establishment of construct validity. Insofar as the aforementioned necessitates the establishment of a chain of evidence throughout the data collection process, audio-taping the interviews would have been important. It would also have necessitated presenting the respondents with a copy of the study for their review and the verification of information through several sources of information. This process is, needless to say, infinitely more time-consuming than that which we adopted for the purposes of this study and, definitely more complex. Nevertheless, given the extent to which it would have contributed to the validation of the study and allowed for the generalisation of its findings, I would have chosen to adhere to this strategy. Individual Contribution Working as part of a team is complicated and, more often than not, a source of extreme tension. It entails trusting a part of one's grade, one's future, to others and, by no means, is this easy to do. Therefore, even though all the team members did their part and none were left holding the slack of others, I personally prefer doing my work myself. For this reason, I had no objections whatsoever to the workload assigned to me by the group leader, despite the fact that it somewhat exceeded the work load assigned to other team members. As a matter of fact, considering that I wanted to achieve the highest grade possible on the team project, I actively welcomed any work assigned to me, knowing that I will do my best to ensure that it meets with the highest standards possible, at least to the best of my ability. It is, thus, that I took responsibility for critical sections in the literature review; more specifically, I researched and wrote the parts ob coffee shops and Fairtrade products. I also was responsible for designing and completing the time-table, writing the interview permission letters required for the purposes of gaining permission to conduct interviews with employees of fair-trade companies, processing the primary data using SPSS, answering all the objective questions and finalising the work of other team members. As I noted at the outset, I often did more than my share but I did it on a voluntary basis as, quite honestly, the more work I did for the project, the more reassured I was regarding quality. Given that, from my perspective at least, the work submitted by other group members displayed substantial effort and high quality, I have to admit that the problem lies with me. I have not yet learnt to

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Lean Six Sigma

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Lean Six Sigma 1. Introduction While businesses seek for ways to survive and also to remain competitive in a changing global environment, they either choose adopting business excellence models or continuous improvement philosophies to guide them in the journey of organisational excellence. Lean Six Sigma is a new breadth in the area of continuous improvement, which constitutes strengths and key focuses of Lean and Six Sigma approaches. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: section 2 provides an insight on the concepts Lean,Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma. Then relevant examples of Lean Six Sigma in manufacturing and service sector will be presented in section 3.The advantages and disadvantages of Lean Six Sigma will be discussed in section 4. Lastly, an overall recap on the subject is done. 2. Literature review The objective of this section is to provide an insight of the Lean Six Sigma by briefly outlining the concepts behind Lean and Six Sigma, the two ingredients of this blend, along with their strengths and criticisms. 2.1 Lean Approach Lean manufacturing, developed by Toyota Motor Corporation in 1950s, has been adopted and adapted by many companies (Finch,2006). It then extended into a concept of Lean thinking that was introduced by Womack and Jones.The current state of Lean is called Lean enterprise that reaches beyond the shop floor and encompasses various departments within the organisation as a whole (Papadopoulou and Ozbayrak,2005). Dale (2007) defines Lean as a way of thinking, consisting of a set of methods and operating principles to identify and eliminate waste in business processes (Dale,2007,p.565). While for Ferguson (2007) Lean is a change that takes an organisation from where it currently stands and move to a desired state. Briefly, the objective of Lean is to eliminate all types of unnecessary waste by managing resources depending on customers needs and at the lowest possible costs (Andersson et al. 2006). In other words, doing more with less (Thomas,2009). Principles There are 5 principles of Lean; providing right product or service for the right price and time to customer,identification of value stream,smooth flow of processes,only customers demand trigger the action and lastly continuously improve to value stream in pursuit of perfection (Dale,2007). The first step when implementing Lean is to identify value-added and non-value added processes (Pepper and Spedding, 2009) by Value stream mapping(VMS) which is a qualitative analysis tool. Other tools and techniques from the Lean Toolkit such as Single Minute Exchange of Die, 5S, TPM etc. are used in order to achieve above-mentioned principles. Whereas, it should be noted that using these tools and techniques only, does not guarantee a Lean organisation (Bendell,2006). Criticism In the literature, there are many criticism topics on Lean where the most popular ones are about its universality and social aspects. It has long been argued that Lean is not flexible (Andersson et al.,2006) and not applicable to all environments but only to high volume-low variety (HVLV) operations. Authors like Arnheiter and Maleyeff (2005) define this view as one of the key misconceptions whereas Pepper and Spedding (2010) refer it as a limited success of Lean in their work. There is a common misconception caused by the misunderstanding of the concept that Lean means laying-off people (Arnheiter and Maleyeff,2005). However, Flinchbaugh (2001), Arnheiter and Maleyeff (2005) stress that Lean does not mean less people but using people in a smarter way. David Meier (2001) who is a Senior Lean Manufacturing Consultant, argues that Lean creates a stressful, uncomfortable environment due to sense of urgency while ensuring an immediate response to customers. On the other hand, Papadopoulou and Ozbayrak (2005), and Williams et al. (1992) take the opposite view. 2.2 Six Sigma Approach Six Sigma,which is developed by Motorola and popularised after the adoption of General Electric (Finch,2006) aims at value creation and improving the process through variation reduction (Dale et al,2007).Six Sigma inherits principles from TQM (Arnheiter and Maleyeff, 2005) while setting focus on customer satisfaction. In statistical terms, the goal is to achieve a defect rate of 3.4 per million (Pepper and Spedding,2010). This structured,top-down approach has a positive impact on business in monetary terms since it reduces risk and costs (Slack et al., 2006) especially related with scrap and rework. Due to realised benefits, many organisations have adopted Six Sigma today. Principles DMAIC(Design,Measure,Analysis,Improve and Control) is the most commonly used 5-stage methodology which is employed to achieve minimum defects and to reduce the variation throughout the processes in an organisation (Bhuiyan and Baghel,2005). The approach is on project basis and these projects are carried out by trained supervisors called Black belts and Green belts (Bendell,2006). Criticism Six Sigma has long been seen as a statistics-heavy, technical approach to process control (Pepper,Spedding, 2009, p.145). Bendell(2006) supports this view and criticises Six Sigma due to its tendency towards being a complex approach. The training of Black Belts and Green Belts is required in order to be able to use statistical tools and handle the projects effectively. Senapati (2004) mentions that these trainings and solutions to problems can be costly for many businesses. Bendell (2006) states that there is no formal link to policy deployment in Six Sigma. Since Six Sigma projects are chosen depending on their cost-effectiveness, it is possible for this cost-down approach dominates the primary customer driven focus. and may shift it to cost-down possible to be dominated by immediate cost down driver (Bendell,2006). 2.3 Similarities and Differences between Lean and Six Sigma: The point of intersection -overlapping areas(kà ¼me Ã…Å ¸ekli) The intersection point:Similarities-The area of convergence Both approaches have related operating philosophies,performance objectives,work focus,team approach and improvement focus (Watson,2003). Lean Six Sigma Since Lean Sigma or Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a relatively new management trend, there is not much literature available comparing to the information and facts found about Lean and Six Sigma alone. Recently, many companies have started to combine continuous improvement programs together by utilising the best of each initiative to get an extensive and more effective program than individual programs (Bhuiyan and Baghel, 2005). Thus, Lean Six Sigma is evolved as a hybrid methodology that encompasses benefits from both Lean and Six Sigma (Bhuiyan and Baghel, 2005). Watson (2003) defines the merge between Lean and Six Sigma as a marriage of necessity. The objective of this integrated approach is boosting quality and reducing costs through elimination of waste and variation reduction (Kamensky,2008). The origins of Lean and Six Sigma come from different roots however they both have an aim of improving the processes of a business. It has been shown that the benefits achieved with LSS cannot be achieved when applying Lean or Six Sigma solely (Bhuiyan and Baghel, 2005). This data-driven approach enables sustainable competitive advantage if properly applied (Burgess,2009). In the report of John Maleyeff (2007) to IBM Business of Government, LSS is defined as: Lean Six Sigma encompasses many common features of Lean and Six Sigma such as an emphasis on customer satisfaction,a culture of continuous improvement,the search for root causes,and comprehensive employee involvement.In each case,a high degree of training and education takes place,from upper management to shop floor. It is now being realised by many businesses that Lean is more powerful and meaningful when combined with Six Sigma and vice versa (Watson,2003). Many businesses in both manufacturing and service sector including GlaxoSmithKline,Xerox and Dell turned to Lean Six Sigma and achieved significant benefits (Neuhaus and Guarraia,2007). There has to be a careful blend of Lean and Six Sigma that brings two extremes into equilibrium. One end is becoming too Lean thus being very responsive to the market whereas the other end is too much focus on reducing variation beyond the expectations of customers resulting in unnecessary resources being wasted to achieve zero variation (Pepper and Spedding 2010). The optimum point is where market share is maintained by creating sufficient value in the eyes of a customer and the process variation is kept inside acceptable levels to achieve lower costs without over-engineering (Pepper and Spedding 2010). Principles George (2002) states the principles of LSS as the activities that cause the customers critical-to-quality issues and create the longest time delays in any process offer the greatest opportunity for improvement in cost,quality,capital,and lead time. Focus is on customer needs as in Six Sigma and also on speed as in Lean, in order to be responsive to market by shortening lead times. It should be noted that there is no standard framework of LSS that businesses can take it and apply step by step for a specific problem. In other words, there is no one fit for all since it depends on the situation and also the environment within a company. Nevertheless, there have been some attempts regarding different ways of implementing LSS in the literature and industry. Some authors argue that it would be more effective when Lean is used as a first step smoothen the process by eliminating waste and then run the DMAIC cycle. Another view is to implement Lean tools within DMAIC cycle as it can be seen in the work of Kumar et al (2006). Thomas et al. (2009) also proposed a similar framework where basic Lean principles are integrated in each phase of DMAIC method. Criticism Since it is a new breadth in the area of management, LSS has become the target of criticism in the literature. Bendell (2006) suggests a single approach that effectively combines the two philosophies rather than an alleged combination (Pepper and Spedding,2010). Another criticism is about the compatibility of these two approaches. Mika (2006) argues that Six Sigma cannot be embraced by the workers in the shop floor since it requires an effective use of statistical tools and techniques unlike Lean. In contrast, George (2003) outlines several points that Lean compliments Six Sigma and vice versa. Furthermore, since LSS is an integration of two different approaches there is a possibility that one dominates other throughout implementation. Some authors and practitioners see this new continuous improvement initiative as the latest management fad. However, Westwood and Silvester (2007) argue that these approaches such as Six Sigma, Lean or Lean Six Sigma are not fads but they are vital for improving and sustaining competitive advantage. As opposed to views about the negative social aspects of LSS, Burgess (2009) strongly disagrees that it does not support creativity and turns people into robots mainly due to increased workload. It has been argued that the continuous improvement initiatives including LSS are not working well in small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SME) due to lack of critical success factors such as commitment from top management, lack of understanding of tools and techniques and lack of financial capability (Thomas et al. 2009). 3. Findings In this section, an attempt is made to present examples regarding the application of Lean Six Sigma in both manufacturing and service sectors. Manufacturing firms were the early adopters of LSS. Then, it was embraced by the service sector in the 1990s (Kamensky,2008). Halliburton, which is one of the worlds largest oilfield providers, began to implement Lean Six Sigma in 2004, in response to the growth in demand with the purpose of being able to respond customer needs by increasing efficiency and improving customer service (Atkinson,2009). The amount that they used to produce in the manufacturing plants is tripled as a result of reduced cycle times and high utilisation of their equipments. Halliburton also encouraged its supply base to adopt the same strategy so that a synchronisation can be achieved in terms of being more responsive to the market (Atkinson,2009). The main reason to implement LSS approach in Caterpillar Inc. was to gain competitive advantage by breakthrough improvements. As a result of innovative products, their revenues had grown by 80 percent (Byrne et al.2007). Another notable example would be Xerox Corp., which was having problems with its long filing time for patents so first of all the root causes of delays were identified. To eliminate these non-value added steps, Xerox Lean Six Sigma team carried out DMAIC, and came up with a solution which reduced the cycle time of 64 days and saved $400,000 in overall time (Xerox Corp. Brochure,2009). National Grid, who is a client of GE Fleet Services in the UK listened to the voice of its customers and applied Lean Six Sigma to reduce the time spent running (issuing and managing) order prompts (Fraser and Fraser,2008).This project is an example of a well-applied Lean Six Sigma method in a service sector in terms of achieving expected results in a timely fashion (Fraser and Fraser,2008). In the work of Kumar et al. (2006), the implementation of LSS in a die casting manufacturer is resulted in a significant decrease in the number of defects occurred in the final product and an overall savings of around $140 000 per year. Apart from the success stories, National Health Service Modernisation Agency (MA) in UK, is a well-known failure case of LSS. In 2004, Six Sigma together with Lean implemented in NHS to improve processes and quality (Proudlove and Moxham et al., 2008). Whereas, due to lack of well-designed processes, lack of support and unclear link between business strategy, it resulted in failure (Montero,2010). 4. Discussion In light of the findings and review of literature, the advantages and disadvantages of LSS will be discussed in this section. It is believed that this integrated approach will bring better results when the structured and systematic approach of Six Sigma came together with the agility of Lean with a focus of customer in the centre (Antony et al,2003). Despite some views arguing its effectiveness, in theory, by integrating the best of Lean and Six Sigma, the outcome would be satisfactory or even delightful both from the organisations and the customers point of view that creates a win-win situation. According to Arnheiter and Maleyeff (2005), if Lean firms adopt Six Sigma principles, costs incurred by defective products such as rework or scrap costs and the related overhead costs can be reduced. Likewise, when Six Sigma companies adopt Lean principles, faster lead times and deliveries can be achieved. Antony et al. (2003) outlines four major benefits of implementing LSS as; becoming faster and more responsive to customers, striving for Six Sigma capability level, operating at lowest costs of poor quality, achieving greater flexibility throughout the business (Antony et al.,2003,p.41). Companies that have successfully implemented Lean Six Sigma have gained considerable benefits in terms of increased shareholder value and market share. Based on the examples of several companies given in the Findings section, these benefits are provided in dollars. On the other hand, a recent BainCo.survey of 184 companies, shows that 80 percent is dissatisfied with the results they got from their LSS efforts because they have not achieved their goals in both monetary terms and level of improvement (Neuhaus and Guarraia,2007). Because it brought many advantages to leading firms, it does not imply that every attempt will be success or that every firm is ready for this initiative. Basu (2001) outlines the difficulty of sustaining a process improvement program even it may be successful in the beginning. Thus, this situation causes employee layoffs and a decrease in employee morale (Basu,2001). Despite being a powerful engine for businesses, the necessity of high skills to be able to use relevant tools and techniques is seen as one of the weaknesses of LSS (Montero,2010). This factor is seen as a critical prerequisite for the successful implementation of LSS. Though,the training and necessary investment can be costly to some companies. Therefore, this situation may limit its applicability. Unless a necessary change within the business is done including cultural aspects, mindset of employees together with the full commitment of top management, the result will be a failure. 5. Conclusion Many businesses in various sectors have recently started to adopt LSS either as a result of an external pressure or due to inadequate results achieved with their current methodology applied (internal need). Benchmarking plays a significant role in creating a trendy environment in the market where companies follow the giants and trying to adopt the best practice in order not to be obsolete. Although, this integration is seen as a fad by some authors and practitioners The concept was emerged as a response to market requirement. This merge between initiatives Regardless of the continuous improvement strategy that is chosen to follow, there is a common ground that no positive results can be gained without an adequate support, and attention across the business. There are still some uncovered areas of LSS for further research or no one knows what is next.

Immigration Essay -- Illegal Immigrants Essays

Immigration Debate over immigration and immigration policy is not new to the nation's history. For a long time, Congress debated legislation to control the immigration problem. As immigration rises and hatred grows more laws will be carried out trying to release some of the pressure. Immigrants offer cheaper labor to businesses. Immigrants do not get minimum wage, but instead they get paid lower, this gives the business an edge over other competitors. Agriculture industries employ more undocumented workers than any other industry in the country because it cost less. Half of California's 700,000 farm workers are estimated to be undocumented. Thirty years ago 50 percent of farm workers in California were immigrants, and now it’s 92 percent. Agriculture is not the only industry that has under paid immigrants. Published by the Chronicle, a list of businesses fined by the INS in San Francisco includes a car rental company, construction firms, restaurants, clubs, a trucker, a travel agency and even a Protestant church. Everywhere today, you see immigrant workers cleaning rooms in hotels, mowing lawns in the suburbs, pumping gas in service stations, doing all sorts of temporary jobs. These business groups have a lot of interest in immigrants. The immigrant workers provide cheaper labor which cuts costs and get industries ahead in competition. Richard Rogers, district director of the INS in Los Angeles, was quoted as saying: "If we were to increase fines 75 to 80 p...

Hinduism and the Religion’s Worldviews Essay

Hinduism is not merely a religion, it is also a philosophy and the culture in India, and it has already been a marked part of their everyday living. So much so that everything aspect of their daily lives goes back to it; and it has 950 million followers to wit (mostly from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan). Hinduism ranks third as the world’s largest religion after Christianity and Islam, and it is also said to be one of the world’s oldest organized religion along with Judaism (VandeWeghe, 2007). Hinduism and Christianity differ in many ways, and it is rational that there are disagreements and contradictions when two people from different religions involve themselves in a conversation regarding their beliefs. The purpose of this paper is to discover an effective way to build a pleasant relationship with a Hindu in order to be able to share the gospel with them. In order to accomplish this aim, this paper will discuss the origin, beliefs, practices and the views of Hinduism about Christianity and how they differ from the said religion. Hinduism: A Closer Look According to Robinson (2007), besides being called â€Å"Hinduism†, it is also referred to as Sanata Dharma (eternal religion) and Vaidika Dharma (religion of the Vedas). Hinduism has no specific founder and the day that it was born is still unknown; however, there are two theories regarding the origin of the religion. One is the Classical Theory which explains that Hinduism originated at the Indus Valley around 4000BCE to 2200BCE and that its development was due to various foreign invasions particularly of the Indo-Aryan for they are the ones who were said to have brought the religion of Vedism. The other is the Emerging Theory which went against the first theory by proving that there were no foreign invasions along the Indus Valley and that the Vedic religion (Hinduism at 1500BCE to 500BCE) was allowed to flourish by the same group of people who later called themselves Aryan. The Hindu scriptures as well as literatures, which are even older than the Bible’s Old Testament, are the sources of the religion’s beliefs and practices. The most sacred Hindu scriptures are the four Vedas (Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda) which consists of hymns, incantations, rituals and explanations – among which the Rig Veda (1700BCE to 1100BCE) is said to be the oldest. There are also the Upanishads which discussed â€Å"states of consciousness, dreams, meditations, self-realizations and unity†; the Darshanas which consists of six philosophical system and teachings derived from the Vedas; and lastly and the most recent, the Puranas which tells the stories of the most recent gods (Reid & Corduan, 2008). Hinduism also has the two great epics that show the virtues and ideals that are significant to the religion; the first is the Ramayana which is a tale about a prince named Rama and his wife, Sita, and the Mahabarata, a collection of poems which states the duties of a â€Å"religious, law-abiding man† (Mason, 2000). Not only is Hinduism one of the oldest and largest religions, it is also said to be the most complex one (McDowell, 2002). There are various beliefs in Hinduism and one of them is the very popular and highly criticized Caste System which is said to be the cause of inequality and harsh laws in India. There are four main castes; the Brahmin (priest-teachers), kshatriyas (soldier-nobles), vaishyas (merchants) and sudras (servants). In the early periods, it was supposed to be part of the divine order, however, as years passed by, subcastes were developed and there came the outcastes or the untouchables – people who do not belong to any of the four main castes (Perry, 1989). Associated with this system are other beliefs. The belief that each of them have dharma (duty), depending on which caste they were born into; they also believe in karma and samsara (reincarnation) – thus, they believe that if they do their duty properly, they will have good karma and will be reincarnated into a higher class. On the contrary, if they did not, they might be reincarnated to the lower class or even as an animal. Their goal is to achieve moksha (release), which is their concept of salvation. Here they would not be liberated from sin but to life existence itself for they believe that as long as they are in the maya (phenomenal world) suffering would never stop because of karma and samsara. Moksha can be attained in three ways, by â€Å"way of works†, â€Å"way of knowledge† and â€Å"way of devotion† (bhakti) which is the most popular one, in which a person will completely devote himself to a certain god and the latter will take care of everything in his behalf (Reid & Corduan, 2008). In early Hinduism, Jesus Christ has no particular role in the religion and is not even mentioned in their scriptures; however, due to the rise of Christianity, Hindu thinkers thought of a place where they could put Jesus Christ in their religion. According to Reid and Corduan (2008), since Hinduism is a polytheistic religion, the Hindus viewed Jesus Christ as one of the incarnations or avatars of Brahman who, like Rama and Krishna, is a â€Å"divine self-embodiment† in order to preserve Hindu teachings and another way was by saying that Jesus Christ spent his â€Å"silent years† in India to proclaim the teachings of Hinduism. Nevertheless, Hindus’ incorporation of Jesus Christ into their religion does not seem to fit properly. According to McDowell (2002), Hinduism is known to be tolerant towards other religions because of similarities with Hinduism. This is believed to be one of the characteristics of a polytheistic and henotheistic (believing in one god and regarding other gods and goddesses as just manifestations) religions. However, due to rise of a nationalistic political party which took hold of the India’s government, the separation of church and state collapsed and religious tolerance went down as well, increasing anti-Christian violence in the country (Robinson, 2007). Christianity and Hinduism has numerous differences and some of them are the following: Hinduism’s Supreme Being is the Brahman, an indefinable and impersonal deity, while Christianity has a loving, personal and caring Creator. Hinduism looks at man as a materialization of Brahman who has no value and self-worth at all, whereas, Christianity proclaims that man is created in the very image of God that deserves to love and be loved despite their sinful deeds. When it comes to sins, there are no sins that are committed against Brahman, things that were done wrong are taken as results of ignorance that can be redeemed by following the duty of a specific caste to which the person belongs to and the path going to salvation. On the other hand, wrongdoings that are done within Christianity is taken as acts of rebellion against God. Salvation in Hinduism is referred to as moksha and can be attained in three ways which cannot be accomplished in one lifetime, while salvation in the Christian sense is granted by God to those who deserve it after being separated from him. Lastly, even their view of the material world differ – for a Hindu, the material world is an extension of Brahman and just a transitory and secondary importance; on the contrary, Christians see the material world as an objective reality and a something total different from God (McDowell, 2002). However, despite these differences, it is said that Hindus accept Jesus, but not the Christian relgion. In fact, they even refer Christianity to â€Å"Churchianity. † According to Abhedananda (2002), Hindus can tell apart the religion of Jesus Christ from the religion of the Church for the reason that the true religion of Jesus Christ is a religion of the heart. Thus, it has no dogma and no theology, no rituals and ceremonies, and is not based from a book. From their perspective, the religion of the Church is based from a book, is full of creeds and rituals, and even has an organized way of preaching them. When it comes to the Gospels, they see it as full of inconsistencies and discrepancies, and one very doubtful area for the Hindus comes from their awareness that Jesus Christ did not have His own writings and that there are no precise and contemporary accounts of His life inside and outside of the Bible. In order to share the Gospels to the Hindus, Rev. Dharmaraj (2001), gave some advice to approach the Hindus and make them listen to the Gospels. He said that one should determine and understand what type of Hindu community one intends to visit, since there are different sects that belong to Hinduism. Next, he said that one should explain the concepts incorporated in the Gospels in order for them to understand the Gospels for they have their own understanding of God, salvation, sin, among others. Lastly, Christians should deal with the challenges of dogmatism, risks of syncretism and to focus on evangelism. In addition, according to Reid and Corduan (2008), a Christian should connect with the person rather with the person’s religion; Christians should approach them along with humanitarian efforts and outreach projects since Hinduism does not cater to such. Through a combination of these, Hindus have already felt the kind of loving relationships that pay no attention to the caste which have long been abolished but is still being practiced. The salvation of Christianity even reached them in a way, and it even made them accept Jesus Christ more as they felt that they have been freed from the dark aspects of Hinduism. The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the one who comes from heaven [is above all]. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy. For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. (John 3:31-36, NAB) In the given Gospel, in order for a Hindu to understand it, one should clarify that the God in the Gospel is the Creator and that His son is Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind from sins. In addition, it will also be better to give a slight background of what the Gospel is about – say that at this point in the Gospel, the Savior have finally presented Himself in front of the people. The Hindu should also be informed that â€Å"eternal life† is referring to the promised salvation in a Christian context and that it can only be attained by believing in Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the Christian should also point out what â€Å"the wrath of God† means, so that the Hindu could have insights as to the consequences of not obeying their God. And since this pertains to the concept of Hell, it should be also explained again in totality for Hindus do not have this concept in their belief system. Hinduism is a large complex religion that is older than Christianity. If one would be able to understand the essentials of this religion, it would be easy to reach out to the Hindus and make them listen to the Gospel. Christians have their views about Hinduism and Hindus likewise have their own views about Christianity. While they criticize and contradict each other about most of the aspects of their beliefs, setting them aside for awhile in order to learn about one another’s religion makes it possible to establish not just communication but also an open, two-way relationship. To share a Gospel to Hindus, proper understanding of Hinduism is required along with the use of an effective interpersonal approach. References Mason, C. (2000). A short history of Asia – Stone Age to 2000AD. London: Palgrave Macmillan Perry, M. (1989). A history of the world.Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Holy Bible: the new American Bible. (1987). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Abhedananda, S. (2002). Why a Hindu accepts Christ and rejects Churchianity. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from Hinduism website: http://www. hinduism. co. za/jesus. htm Dharmahal, P. (1992). Communicating Christ to the Hindu world. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from Mission Frontiers website: http://www. missionfrontiers. org/1992/0912/sd9211. htm McDowell, J. (2002). A ready defense. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from Jesus Who website: http://www. greatcom. org/resources/areadydefense/ch24/default. htm Reid, P. & Corduan, W. (2008). About Hinduism. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from Christian Answers Network website: http://christiananswers. net/evangelism/beliefs/hinduism. html Robinson, B. A. (2007). Hinduism: the world’s third largest religion. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from Religious Tolerance website: http://www. religioustolerance. org/hinduism. htm VandeWeghe, R. (2007). Prepared to answer. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from Windmill Ministries website: http://www. windmillministries. org/frames/CH30A. htm

Malcom X Summary

Malcolm X’s Prison Education Malcolm X was an African American Muslim minister who, as a teen, spent most of his time hustling people and getting into trouble. This soon landed him in prison. During his prison sentence he became self-educated, which led him to be an articulate speaker, to discover the true history of African American slaves, and to become a strong advocator of human rights. Malcolm X’s â€Å"A Homemade Education†, starts off in a soft and calm tone. X uses a persuasive style narrative from the Autobiography of Malcolm X to share his story.By the end of the essay his tone has changed to a more angry and demanding style. While in prison, X explains how he began writing letters to Mr. Elijah Muhammad, a Muslim leader, but, not being able to write in an articulate manner, X began getting frustrated because he could not express what he wanted to say. He also states that he could not keep a conversation with his prison friend Bimbi or even understand t he books he read because of his lack of knowledge.X says that he got a hold of a dictionary and began to copy word for word everything, learning more words and what they meant. He also says went to the prison library and read books about science, history, and slavery. X was most inspired by Mr. Muhammad’s teachings. X explains that in one of Mr. Muhammad’s teachings, Mr. Muhammad stressed how history had been â€Å"whitened,† in other words, that black history was left out of history books (95). He says he immediately began to search in the library for books that would inform him about black history.He says he read many books about black history and the early struggles for freedom. X states he will never forget how shocked he was when he read about the brutality of slavery or the illustrations of black slave women being tied up and beaten, children being taken away from families, and dogs hunting down slaves. X explains how he read books about the histories of v arious nations and learned that the white men had made all non-white people suffer, especially in India and China.He explains how the British white man controlled much of India and how people of India refused to obey orders and were beaten and killed. X also explains the Opium War in China and that some observers in China have reported that the world had never known such a hate campaign as is now going on in this non-white country (98). Reading about the various histories of the world, X found a common theme; white men were not liked by many civilizations. X states that he never knew that reading in prison would change the course of his life.He says his homemade education has given him more than a college degree could ever give him and that it is worth more than a college education because it is knowledge that no one can take away from him. Malcolm X states he has learned a lot from his reading about black history, he stresses that black men should not only fight for civil rights, b ut they need to think bigger and win their human rights. Works Cited X, Malcolm. â€Å"A Homemade Education. † The Conscious Reader. Ed. Caroline Shrodes, Michael Shugrue, Marc DiPaolo, Christian J. Matuschek. Glenview, IL: Pearson Education, 2011. 92-100. Print.

Free Essays on Nature Of International Law

INTERNATIONAL LAW QUESTION: Is international law â€Å"law†? Definition of Law Law is defined differently by different schools of thoughts. Some attribute more importance to one element of law than the other elements. For example positivists define law as a command of state that is backed by the state's enforcement power. They are in the opinion that without the power of enforcement, no system of rules can be regarded as a system of law. Although different definitions law exist, it in general terms, can be described as the body of rules, whether proceeding from formal enactment or from custom, which a particular state or community recognizes as binding on its members or subjects. Internatioanal law is defined as a set of rules and principles created between states ans instutional subjects of internatioanal law such as the UN, either for their own purposes or as a means of facilitating the functions of organisations of which they are memberes. There are clear differences between international and national law. National law has a supreme authority, and based on principles of command, obedience and enforcement. There are law making, law determining and law enforcement agencies. However, International law lacks a supreme authority. States are legally equals. It is based on consent and reciprocity. There is not any enforcement institution. The nature of international law The creation of public international law relies on negotiation and ratification of formal treaties and conventions, and on the formation of custom. Customary international law arises through the â€Å"general practice† of states’ legally relevant actions resulting in stable expectations, and ultimately in rules widely believed by states to be legal requirements. This is to be contrasted with international law arising from treaties or other formal legal arrangements, which are negotiated by states, and must be signed and ratified in order to be ... Free Essays on Nature Of International Law Free Essays on Nature Of International Law INTERNATIONAL LAW QUESTION: Is international law â€Å"law†? Definition of Law Law is defined differently by different schools of thoughts. Some attribute more importance to one element of law than the other elements. For example positivists define law as a command of state that is backed by the state's enforcement power. They are in the opinion that without the power of enforcement, no system of rules can be regarded as a system of law. Although different definitions law exist, it in general terms, can be described as the body of rules, whether proceeding from formal enactment or from custom, which a particular state or community recognizes as binding on its members or subjects. Internatioanal law is defined as a set of rules and principles created between states ans instutional subjects of internatioanal law such as the UN, either for their own purposes or as a means of facilitating the functions of organisations of which they are memberes. There are clear differences between international and national law. National law has a supreme authority, and based on principles of command, obedience and enforcement. There are law making, law determining and law enforcement agencies. However, International law lacks a supreme authority. States are legally equals. It is based on consent and reciprocity. There is not any enforcement institution. The nature of international law The creation of public international law relies on negotiation and ratification of formal treaties and conventions, and on the formation of custom. Customary international law arises through the â€Å"general practice† of states’ legally relevant actions resulting in stable expectations, and ultimately in rules widely believed by states to be legal requirements. This is to be contrasted with international law arising from treaties or other formal legal arrangements, which are negotiated by states, and must be signed and ratified in order to be ...

Free Essays on Essay On A&P

In John Updike’s â€Å"A&P†, Sammy the main character and narrator creates the emotion and development for the story. Let’s take a look at what Sammy has helped us to learn about his character. Sammy has told us that he is a nineteen year old from a small town near Boston. He works for the local A&P supermarket. The major interpretation about Sammy is how he sees everyone else. Everything we interpret comes from the detailed descriptions of Sammy. He tells us what the store is like, how it looks, and what he hears while he is there. Sammy’s descriptions bring a different type of meaning to the saying â€Å"Grocery Shopping†. For instance on page 271, he talks about a little song you hear from the cash register. â€Å"Hello (bing) there you (gung) happy pee-pul (splat)!† This extensive description brings the store to life. It is almost as if the store where another character. Some of Sammy’s comments about people also show his character. His descriptions of the people shopping in the store give us ideas about him. â€Å"The sheep pushing the carts down the aisle†, â€Å"A few house slaves in pin curlers† and â€Å" The fat one with the tan† show us how critical of people Sammy’s character is. In closing, the way a character is described and how they are related to in the story reveals a lot about the development of the character.... Free Essays on Essay On A&P Free Essays on Essay On A&P In John Updike’s â€Å"A&P†, Sammy the main character and narrator creates the emotion and development for the story. Let’s take a look at what Sammy has helped us to learn about his character. Sammy has told us that he is a nineteen year old from a small town near Boston. He works for the local A&P supermarket. The major interpretation about Sammy is how he sees everyone else. Everything we interpret comes from the detailed descriptions of Sammy. He tells us what the store is like, how it looks, and what he hears while he is there. Sammy’s descriptions bring a different type of meaning to the saying â€Å"Grocery Shopping†. For instance on page 271, he talks about a little song you hear from the cash register. â€Å"Hello (bing) there you (gung) happy pee-pul (splat)!† This extensive description brings the store to life. It is almost as if the store where another character. Some of Sammy’s comments about people also show his character. His descriptions of the people shopping in the store give us ideas about him. â€Å"The sheep pushing the carts down the aisle†, â€Å"A few house slaves in pin curlers† and â€Å" The fat one with the tan† show us how critical of people Sammy’s character is. In closing, the way a character is described and how they are related to in the story reveals a lot about the development of the character....

Definition and Examples of Diachronic Linguistics

Definition and Examples of Diachronic Linguistics Diachronic linguistics is the study of a language through different periods in history. Diachronic linguistics is one of the two main temporal dimensions of language study identified by Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure in his Course in General Linguistics (1916). The other is synchronic linguistics. The terms diachrony  and synchrony  refer, respectively, to an evolutionary phase of language and to a language state.  In reality, says  Thà ©ophile Obenga, diachronic and synchronic linguistics interlock (Genetic Linguistic Connections of Ancient Egypt and the Rest of Africa, 1996). Observations Diachronic literally means across-time, and it describes any work which maps the shifts and fractures and mutations of languages over the centuries. In gross outline, it is similar to evolutionary biology, which maps the shifts and transformations of rocks. Synchronic literally means with-time, though etymology is misleading here, since Saussures term describes an atemporal linguistics, linguistics which proceeds without time, which abstracts away from the effects of the ages and studies language at a given, frozen moment.(Randy Allen Harris, The Linguistic Wars. Oxford University Press, 1993) Diachronic Studies of Language vs. Synchronic Studies - Diachronic linguistics is  the historical study of language, whereas synchronic linguistics is the geographic study of language. Diachronic linguistics refers to the study of how a language evolves over a period of time. Tracing the development of English from the Old English period  to the twentieth century is a diachronic study. A synchronic study of language is a comparison of languages or dialects- various spoken differences of the same language- used within some defined spatial region and during the same period of time. Determining the regions of the United States in which people currently say pop rather than soda and idea rather than idear are examples of the types of inquiries pertinent to a synchronic study.(Colleen Elaine Donnelly,  Linguistics for Writers. State University of New York Press, 1994)-  Most of Saussures successors accepted the synchronic-diachronic distinction, which still survives robustly in twenty-first-century linguistics. In practice, what this means is that it is accounted a violation of principle or linguistic method to include in the same synchronic analysis evidence related to diachronically different states. So, for example, citing Shakespearean forms would be regarded as inadmissible in support of, say, an analysis of the grammar of Dickens. Saussure is particularly severe in his strictures upon linguists who conflate synchronic and diachronic facts.(Roy Harris, Linguists After Saussure. The Routledge Companion to Semiotics and Linguistics, ed. by Paul Cobley. Routledge, 2001) Diachronic Linguistics and Historical Linguistics   Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Language change is one of the subjects of historical linguistics, the subfield of linguistics that studies language in its historical aspects. Sometimes the term  diachronic linguistics is  used instead of historical linguistics, as a way of referring to the study of language (or languages) at various points in time and at various historical stages. (Adrian Akmajian, Richard A. Demer, Ann K. Farmer, and Robert M. Harnish,  Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication, 5th ed. The MIT Press, 2001)     For many scholars who would describe their field as historical linguistics, one legitimate target of research involves a focus not on change(s) over time but on the synchronic grammatical systems of earlier language stages. This practice can be called (not unrevealingly) old-time synchrony, and it has made its mark in the form of numerous studies providing synchronic analyses of particular syntactic constructions, word-formation processes, (morpho)phonological alternations, and the like for individual earlier (pre-modern or at least early modern) stages of languages. . . . Gaining as much synchronic information as possible about an earlier stage of a language must surely be viewed as a necessary prerequisite for doing serious work on the diachronic development of a language . . .. Nonetheless, pursuing the synchrony of earlier language states solely for the sake of (synchronic) theory-building.., as worthy a goal as it may be, does not count as doing historical linguistics in the literally dia-chronic (through-time) sense that we wish to develop here. At least in a technical sense, then, diachronic linguistics and historical linguistics are not synonymous, because only the latter includes research on old-time synchrony for its own sake, without any focus on language change. (Richard D. Janda and Brian D. Joseph, On Language, Change, and Language Change. The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, ed. by B. D. Joseph and R. D. Janda. Blackwell, 2003)

Browser-specific Web Sites. Good or Bad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Browser-specific Web Sites. Good or Bad - Essay Example The development of browser specific websites has come a long way from when Netscape and Internet Explorer who were the major players in the market. During this development, the various browsers developed HTML tags that could only work with a particular browser. The browser specific elements like the HTML tag are specific to individual browsers. For instance, the Netscape blink set of tags specifically apply to Netscape. Other social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google + etcetera are designed to be browser specific sites. Setting up the web sites to be viewed using particular web browsers leads to both merits and demerits. (Negrino & Smith, 2009) According to Manian, (2012), the merits resulting from browser specific sites are as follows. Firstly they are good for companies that employ a standard browser and thus the time and cost incurred in designing the website will be much lower. Secondly, they provide rewards and incentives at different locations. They can also be used to generate badges that people unlock when writing something detailed at a given place. Another merit is that, people who work with recycling can be heard directly by the audience. More so, have the benefits of sharing experiences or opinions about news and events. It personalizes and localizes recycling. One may draft posts and publish them later. It has irregular and spread out updates. Securing the web browser eliminates computer problems which are always caused by spyware being installed without the users’ knowledge to intruders taking control of the computer. In addition, it enhances access to cloud services is properly managed and audited in spite of whether the employees are working within or outside the corporate firewall. Browser specific websites hold up conformity reporting and forensics by giving the option to capture a screen-shot of browser content and create a visual audit trail of interactions with managed applications.

Report on The Rose Theatre Kingston Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Report on The Rose Theatre Kingston - Essay Example Purposes that qualify a Trust to be a registered charity are â€Å"to promote, maintain, improve and advance education, particularly by the encouragement of the arts including the arts of drama, mime, opera, ballet, music, singing, dance, literature, sculpture and painting† (CC, 2010b and 2010c). To achieve this, The Rose plays an important role, which also justifies entering into funding and working partnerships with the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames Council and Kingston University. The Rose is the â€Å"research laboratory† for the University, specifically its postgraduate Masters degree course in Classical Acting. The Rose is likewise the source of economic activity and the social and cultural revitalization of the surrounding communities (Rose, 2010a). According to its latest (2009) financial report, the agreements signed in 2008 with these groups guarantee annual funding of  £900,000 towards a yearly budget of  £2.3 million. Some of the Trustees are likewise from the University and the Council, helping the Trust secure funding from the Arts Council (CC, 2010d). The Rose Theatre’s executives are industry veterans Sir Peter Hall (Director Emeritus) and Stephen Unwin as Artistic Director and CEO. David Jacobs, Life President, is a retired broadcas ter. These three report to the 20-member Board of Trustees, whose task is to guarantee the execution of the charity’s strategies and purposes. Given its purposes, The Rose wants to attract people from surrounding communities of Kingston Upon Thames to watch performances. It also wants tourists from outside Kingston to patronize its shows. Among those in the community, The Rose wants a wide range of customers coming from a broad range of economic capabilities, from low-budget students to middle- and upper-class local and neighbouring residents and tourists. This is the primary

Affirmative action and Diversity policies Assignment

Affirmative action and Diversity policies - Assignment Example Cultural diversity is a notion that acknowledges the existence of differences between people of different cultures and suggests that the treatment of these people with inclusivity. Cultural diversity is a framework of social justice and a facilitator in the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes and skills that are pivotal for societal harmony. It does not only acknowledge race and ethnicity as cultural groups, but also sexual orientation, skills and handicaps, class, gender, national origin, age and even the geographic origin. It goes further to welcome the contributions of one culture, as well as those of others for positive social development.Response to Question 2The reason why diversity is encouraged in the student body rests upon various goals of advocacy for cultural diversity. One of the objectives of cultural diversity is to promote harmony and inclusivity. These are assured by the fact that all the cultural groups will feel they are treated fairly. Thus, they will also feel in cluded in the system. Another goal of cultural diversity is that every culture has certain unique strengths, as well as weaknesses that it cannot effectively address certain societal issues independently. Thus, other cultures are needed to bridge the gaps (Kollehlon and Eule, 2003). In the essence, what one culture lacks is compensated by the strength of the other. Response to Question 3In the context of business and education, the value of diversity is can still be explained based on the objectives of cultural diversity.... In the essence, what one culture lacks is compensated by the strength of the other. Response to Question 3 In the context of business and education, the value of diversity is can still be explained based on the objectives of cultural diversity. As earlier mentioned, one of the goals is that cultural diversity fosters harmony and inclusivity. These are assured by the fact that all the cultural groups will feel they are treated fairly (Sowell, 2004). Thus, they will also feel included in the education system, as well as businesses. In this regard, cultural diversity is a depiction of social responsibility, as well as ethics. Another goal of cultural diversity is that every culture has certain unique strengths, as well as weaknesses that it cannot effectively address certain societal issues independently. Thus, other cultures are needed to bridge the gaps. What one culture lacks is compensated by the strength of the other. Different cultures have different ideas and skills that could be integrated to enable institutions and businesses reach great heights of success such as through innovativeness. Response to Question 4 Affirmative action is aimed at addressing various disparities, including those that touch on social differences, economic development and political representation, with respect to various cultural groups. The disparities have various dimensions such as education achievements and social equality. In some cases, affirmative action can be simple considered to address various elements that are attributed as the legacies of past racism and colonial injustices (Kollehlon Eule, 2003). Response to 4A It is worth noting that affirmative action is founded on the notion that economic, political and social systems are not adequately fair and

The culture( Values & norms) and the artifacts culture of United Essay

The culture( Values & norms) and the artifacts culture of United Nation Environment Program (UNEP ) - Essay Example UNEP documented the "Cultural and Spiritual Values of Diversity" in 1999 in which the organization put forward that biodiversity must be recognized in terms of employee diversity since different people and cultures view and appreciate it exclusively because of their unique experiences and heritages. Every employee in UNEP must put in mind that, for the organization to conserve the natural gifts, he or she must learn more about it and how best to interact with the same environment. In addition, the faith of employees play a major role in promoting responsible behavior, encouraging individual discipline, maintaining high morals, that supersede the need for instant gratification with no self-interest and responsibility in order to achieve comprehensive and long-term benefits for the environment as well as for humanity. Ethical values, solidarity, justice, tolerance, equality, respect for human rights, and protecting the environment are the building blocks for UNEP. Some norms and values give guidance in the daily operations of UNEP. Communication activities must respect the charter of the organization and its core values of professionalism, integrity, and diversified respect. All stakeholder needs such as regionalization must be fully integrated into the whole process of communications delivery and planning, which ought to be service-oriented. In one spirit, UNEP members should support all the strategies and policies laid down and offer cross-divisional support and collaboration towards achieving a conducive environment. Most importantly, UNEP aims at attaining the highest quality of editorial levels, accessibility and relevance for all its members, thus all member states should corporate through having ethical values regarding the surroundings. It is against the policies of UNEP for any staff member or nation to be unresponsive, lack knowledge and information, or fail

Media and its affect on Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Media and its affect on Terrorism - Essay Example The Government uses the media in attempts to limit the harm terrorist inflict to society and in attempts to punish or arrest those responsible for terrorist acts. The Government wants coverage to press forward their agenda and not the terrorists’ agenda. It uses the media to present terrorists as criminals and prevent glamorizing them so as to promote the perspective that blowing up a building, kidnapping a well-known individual, or hijacking an airplane are criminal acts despite the terrorists reasons (Raphael, 1). According to Joseph (1), well-known terrorist groups are adapting strategies and tactically progressing out because of comprehensive, global counterterrorism operations overseas. They are becoming expert at making use of homegrown terrorists, regional operatives, and communication technologies to the fullest, within reach for a long-term terror campaign against the United States. Nowadays, terrorist groups are enlisting, instigating, and guiding international strategies not just through Internet operations but by the use of a well planned, constant blend of propaganda videos as well as call-to-action messages disseminated via social media platforms, for example Face book, blogs, Twitter and YouTube (Joseph, 2). The social media framework of the terrorists is aiming disenfranchised youth with complex, fictional information and forming grassroots terrorists inside the borders of United States. thus, foreign jihadists are amplifying their chances of attacking the United States using a mix, multimedia community participant tactic intended to persuade citizen extremists to violence, organize ideological movements, create opportunities to enlist within the United States from relating world incidents, and promote domestic terrorists to lay down their own objectives and take direct action in the company of open-ended and open-source jihad at home. The tactic of getting together

Faith Based Prisons Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Faith Based Prisons - Research Paper Example Faith-based prisons do not take away the thought of being in prison and paying for a wrongdoing. Just like in traditional prisons, inmates participate in all normal day-to-day prison activities but at weekends and evenings, they undergo extra classes that deeply examine issues like spirituality, good parenting, anger management, the effect of crime on victims, moral expectations of a believer among others. There is evidence of people who after going through a faith-based prison, they have totally changed and are now working towards the development of a morally upright society. An example of this is Cooper Ken, a convicted bank robber who is now an evangelical leader (Goddard, 2003). The term faith-based refers to any idea, plan, program or organization that has been established based on religious beliefs. In this case, a faith-based prison is a type of program that seeks to transform offenders through religious teachings on morality and spirituality. There are no distinctive types of faith-based prisons. However, they can be established by a religious organization like a church, an example of this being the Lawtey Correctional Institution program in Raiford, Florida. Alternatively, they can be incorporated into existing traditional prisons as a faith and character program. In this case, those who choose to enroll for the faith and character program are assigned to a different dormitory where they hold meetings with leaders and clergy to discuss issues of spirituality and morality. Faith-based prisons accommodate inmates that have chosen to participate in faith-based rehabilitation programs regardless of their spiritual beliefs.  Faith-based prison is the re-entry program for the prisoner which aims at helping those individuals returning from the prison re-integrate themselves back into the public.

Media and its affect on Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Media and its affect on Terrorism - Essay Example The Government uses the media in attempts to limit the harm terrorist inflict to society and in attempts to punish or arrest those responsible for terrorist acts. The Government wants coverage to press forward their agenda and not the terrorists’ agenda. It uses the media to present terrorists as criminals and prevent glamorizing them so as to promote the perspective that blowing up a building, kidnapping a well-known individual, or hijacking an airplane are criminal acts despite the terrorists reasons (Raphael, 1). According to Joseph (1), well-known terrorist groups are adapting strategies and tactically progressing out because of comprehensive, global counterterrorism operations overseas. They are becoming expert at making use of homegrown terrorists, regional operatives, and communication technologies to the fullest, within reach for a long-term terror campaign against the United States. Nowadays, terrorist groups are enlisting, instigating, and guiding international strategies not just through Internet operations but by the use of a well planned, constant blend of propaganda videos as well as call-to-action messages disseminated via social media platforms, for example Face book, blogs, Twitter and YouTube (Joseph, 2). The social media framework of the terrorists is aiming disenfranchised youth with complex, fictional information and forming grassroots terrorists inside the borders of United States. thus, foreign jihadists are amplifying their chances of attacking the United States using a mix, multimedia community participant tactic intended to persuade citizen extremists to violence, organize ideological movements, create opportunities to enlist within the United States from relating world incidents, and promote domestic terrorists to lay down their own objectives and take direct action in the company of open-ended and open-source jihad at home. The tactic of getting together

Themes in Popular Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Themes in Popular Culture - Essay Example The themes in Springsteen’s songs are often experienced by most people and this perhaps is one of the reasons why his songs became popular among many Americans and other cultures. Springsteen’s ability to bring to life everyday, ordinary circumstances is excellent so that listeners could easily relate to the songs as they enjoy and patronize his music. Along with Springsteen, another contemporary singer was making a name for himself, Bob Seger. The latter is not simply a contemporary of Springsteen but he also wrote songs with similar themes. To see the similarities on the works of the two popular culture artists, I will discuss Seger’s â€Å"Turn the Page† along with the works of Springsteen. â€Å"Turn the Page† tells the life story of Seger in part as an artist. Just like Springsteen, he writes about every day or ordinary situations that reflect his thoughts and emotions. He wrote the aforementioned song while he was on the road, completing a tour and it basically reflects how he felt about the trip. He starts off with a descriptive phrase â€Å"On a long and lonesome highway† which gives a clear picture of a deserted road. The terms â€Å"highway†, â€Å"road† or â€Å"street† are common terms Springsteen often use in his works. For instance, in his song â€Å"Thunder Road†, the phrases â€Å"For a savior to rise from these streets†, â€Å"To trade in these wings on some wheels†, â€Å"Were riding out tonight† and â€Å"Thunder road† all suggest a path, track or the like. Metaphorically, road is used as a symbol for a person’s choices and way of life, a theme that is quite obvious in Springst een’s lyrics. They suggest that in life, people are always presented with different roads and different roles but one cannot walk two roads at the same time. Therefore, a person has to make a choice. For Seger, the road that he has to take is specified; it is â€Å"east of Omaha†. This does not mean that he will have

The Irrationality Of The Mathematical Constant E Mathematics Essay

The Irrationality Of The Mathematical Constant E Mathematics Essay This dissertation gives an account of the irrationality of the mathematical constant. Starting with a look into the history of irrational numbers of which is a part of, dating back to the Ancient Greeks and through to the theory behind exactly why is irrational. 1. Introduction: In this paper, I aim to look at some of the history and theory behind irrational numbers ( in particular). It will take you through from learning the origins of irrational numbers, to proving the irrationality of itself. The mathematical constant is a very important and remarkable number; it is sometimes referred to as Eulers number. It has many vital applications in calculus, exponential growth/decay and also compound interest. One of the most fascinating things however is taking the derivative of the exponential function; defined. The derivative of is simply, i.e. it is its own rate of change. An irrational number can be defined as any number that cannot be written as a fraction; that means to say any number that cannot be written in the form. 1.1 History of Irrational Numbers: The first proof of the existence of irrational numbers came a few centuries BC, during the time when a prevalent group of mathematicians/philosophers/cultists called Pythagoreans (after their leader and teacher Pythagoras) believed in the purity of expressions granted by numbers. They believed that anything geometric in the Universe could be expressed as whole numbers and their ratios. It is believed a Pythagorean by the name Hippasus of Metapontum discovered irrational numbers while investigating square roots of prime numbers; he found that he could not represent the square root of 2 as a fraction. Bringing his findings to his mentors (Pythagoras) attention brought the death sentence upon himself. As story has it, Pythagoras (who believed in the absoluteness of numbers) had him drowned to death. According to Plato (a prominent Greek philosopher and mathematician; 428/427 BC 348/347 BC), the irrationality of the surds of whole numbers up to 17 was proved by Theodorus of Cyrene. It is understood that Theodorus stopped at the square root of 17 due to the algebra being used failing. It wasnt until Eudoxus (a student of Plato) that a strong mathematical foundation of irrational numbers was produced. His theory on proportion, taking into account irrational and rational ratio featured in Euclids Elements Book V. The sixteenth to nineteenth century saw negative, integral and decimal fractions with the modern notation being used by most mathematicians. The nineteenth century was particularly important in the history of irrational numbers as they had largely been ignored since the time of Euclid. The resurgence in the scientific study of irrationals was brought upon by the need to complete the theory of complex numbers. An important advancement in the logical foundation of calculus was the construction of the real numbers using set theory. The construction of the real numbers represented the joint efforts of many mathematicians; amongst them were Dedekind, Cantor and Weierstrass. Irrational numbers were finally defined in 1872 by H.C.R. Mà ©ray, his definition being basically the same as Cantor suggested in the same year (which made use of convergent sequences of real numbers). Leonhard Euler paid particular attention to continued fractions and in 1737 was able to use them to be the first to prove the irrationality of and. It took another 23 years for the irrationality of to be proved, of which was accredited to Eulers colleague Lambert. The nineteenth century brought about a change in the way mathematicians viewed irrational numbers. In 1844 Joseph Liouville established the existence of transcendental numbers, though it was 7 years later when he gave the first decimal example such as his Liouville constant.Charles Hermite in 1973 was the first person to prove that was a transcendental number. Using Hemites conclusions Ferdinand von Lindemann was able to show the same for in 1882. 1.2 History of the Mathematical Constant: The number first arrived into mathematics in 1618, where a table in an appendix to work published by John Napier and his work on logarithms were found to contain natural logarithms of various numbers. The table did not contain the constant itself only a list of natural logarithms calculated from the constant. Though the table had no name of an author, it is highly assumed to have been the work of an English mathematician, William Oughtred. Surprisingly the discovery of the constant itself came not from studying logarithms but from the study of compound interest. In 1683 Jacob Bernoulli examined continuous compound interest by trying to find the limit of as tends to infinity. Bernoulli managed to show that the limit of the equation had to lie between 2 and 3, and hence could be considered to be the first approximation of. 1690 saw the constant first being used in a correspondence from Gottfried Leibniz to Christiaan Huygens; it was represented at the time by the letter. The notation of using the letter however came about due to Euler and made its first appearance in a letter he wrote to Goldbach in 17318. Euler published all the ideas surrounding in his work Introductio in Analysin infinitorum (1748). Within this work he approximated the value of to 18 decimal places; The latest accurate account of is to 1,000,000,000,000 decimal places and was calculated by Shigeru Kondo Alexander J. Yee in July 2010. 1.3 A few representations of e: can be defined by the limit: (1) By the infinite series: (2) Special case of the Euler formula: (3) Where when, (4) 2. The Proofs: 2.1 Proving the infinite series of e: In proof 2.2.2 we will use the fact that: (5) As this paper dedicated to, it would be useful to know where this equation comes from. The answer lies in the Maclaurin series (Taylor series expansion of a function centred at 0). (6) Let our, and we have that all derivatives of is equal to We now have that. (7) We now let and we have equation (5). 2.2 The irrationality of e and its powers. Continued fractions are closely related to irrational numbers and in 1937 Leonhard Euler used this link and was able to prove the irrationality of and. The most general form of a continued fraction takes the form: (6) Due to the complexity that can arise in using the format in equation (6), mathematicians have adopted a more convenient notation of writing simple continued fractions. We have that can be expressed in the following manner: (7) With the use of continued fractions it is relatively easy to show that the expansion of any rational number is finite. So it is obvious to note that all you would have to do to prove that a given number is irrational, would be to show its regular expansion not be finite. Using this tool we will now show the Eulers expansion for: We have: (8) Equation (8) shows, we now invert the fractional part: (9) Here we have, once again we invert the fractional part: (10) Hence, we continue in the same way to produce: (11) So. (12) So. (13) So. (14) So. (15) So. (16) So. Using the figures above provides the following result: (17) Observing equation (17) allows us to notice pattern and we can show this by re-writing in the following way: (18) Clearly it seems that the sequence will clearly increase and never terminate. Similarly Euler shows this in other examples using. (19) Equation (19) shows an arithmetic increase by 4 each time from the number 6 and onwards. Noticeably equation (18) and (19) do not provide proof that is irrational and are merely just observations. However Euler uses his previous work on infinitesimal calculus, which then proves this sequence is infinite. The proof that Euler uses is very long and complicated as it involves transforming continued fractions into a ratio of power series, which in turns becomes a differential equation of that he can transform into the Ricatti equation he needs. Since Eulers time mathematicians have found far more manageable and direct ways in proving the irrationality of. 2.2.1 Proving the irrationality of e: While Euler was the first to establish a proof of the irrationality of using infinite continued fractions, we will use Fouriers (1815) idea of using infinite series to prove more directly. Proof: Defining the terms: Using the Maclaurin series expansion we have: (20) Now lets define to be a partial sum of: (21) For we first write the inequality: (22) Equation (22) has to be positive as we stated to be the partial sum of, which is the infinite sum. Now well find the upper limit of equation (22): (23) Taking out a factor of: (24) Now as we are looking for an upper limit, we need an equation greater than equation (24): (25) We take note that the terms in the square bracket in equation (25) for the upper limit is a geometric series with. Right hand Side (RHS) of equation (25): (26) (27) (28) (29) We have: (30) Multiply through by: (31) Now lets assume i.e. is rational. Using the substitution implies: (32) Now by expanding the RHS gives us the following result: (33) (34) We note the following: is an integer. , this implies that divides into and hence is an integer. Each term within the square bracket is an integer; we know that can be divided by and upwards to and produce integer values. Therefore as all terms are integers, we have: (35) where is an integer value. Observe that by choosing any we have and furthermore. Using equation (31) we now obtain the following result: (36) (37) Equation (37) implies is not an integer. This is a contradiction to the result obtained in 1) and so therefore is proven to be irrational. 2.2.2 Proving the irrationality of ea: Proof 2.1 successfully shows how is irrational however, the proof is not strong enough to show the irrationality of. Using an example, we have the as a known irrational number, whose square is not. In order to show all integer powers (except zero) of are irrationals, we need a bit more calculus and an idea tracking back to Charles Hermite; where the key is located in the following lemma. Proof: Lemma: For some fixed, let: (38) The function is a polynomial of the form, where the coefficientsare integers. For we have The derivatives and are integers for all Proof: (see appendix) Theorem 2: is irrational for any integer. Proof: Take to be rational, where is a non-zero rational number. Let with non-zero integers and. being rational implies that is rational. This is a contradiction to theorem 2 and hence is irrational. Assume where are integers, and let be large enough that. State , (39) where is the function of the lemma. Note that can also be written in the form of an infinite sum as we see that any higher derivatives where for vanishes. We now want to obtain a first order linear equation using equation (39). We start by differentiating: (40) Now from observation we see that by multiplying equation (39) by and then eliminating the first term we end up with equation (40). (41) Equation (41) takes the form our required first order linear equation, which is solved in the following manner: First re-write in the standard form: (42) Next we find the integrating factor  µ to multiply to both sides of the equation: (43) From equation (43) we now have the following equation: (44) (45) Note the limit runs as stated in of the lemma. We now manipulate equation (45) by multiplying by so that we can apply of the lemma. (46) (47) We have that , so thereforeand hence: (48) As is just a polynomial containing integer values multiplying derivatives of, we can state using of the lemma that is an integer. Part of the lemma states . With this we can now estimate the range that lies within. Firstly we know that is a positive value and hence. For the upper limit we have: (49) Note that to find the upper limit we eliminate the integral and substitute the upper bounds for and. From before we have and also that we took n large enough so that, which can be re-written , which implies the following: (50) (51) Equation (51) states that cannot be an integer and hence contradicts Equation (48). Therefore we have that is proven to be irrational. 3. Further Work: Following on and further proving the irrationality of, would be to prove that is a transcendental number. Irrational numbers can be split into two categories algebraic and transcendental; hence transcendental numbers are numbers that are not algebraic. Algebraic numbers are defined as any number that can be written as the root of an equation of the form. A minimal polynomial is achieved when is the smallest degree possible for a given. The square root of 2 is an example of an irrational number, but also it is an algebraic number of degree 2, of which the minimal polynomial is simply. Euler in the late 18th century was the first person to define transcendental numbers, but the proof of their existence only came around in the papers of Liouvilles in 1844 and 1851. The number was the first important mathematical constant to be proven transcendental and was done so by Charles Hermite in 1873. The techniques Hermite used influenced many future mathematical works including the first proof of being transcendental by Ferdinand von Lindemann; also used in the creation of the Lindemann-Weierstrass theorem. Further work on transcendental numbers involving can be still seen today. Mathematicians knowis a transcendental number, but as of yet have not been able to prove this. 4. Conclusion: Overall, the main objective of this paper was to give an account of the irrationality of. This has been achieved and with it we have been able to see the progress from the first discovery of irrational numbers by the Pythagoreans of Ancient Greek, through to the work covered on Eulers number. References: Webpage Resources: Cook, Z. (2000), Irrational Numbers, The Guide to Life, The Universe and Everything, BBC [Online]. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A455852, [Accessed: 6th January 2011]. OConnor, J.J and Robertson, E.F. (1999), Theodorus of Cyrene [Online]. Available: http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Theodorus.html, [Accessed: 6th January 2011]. OConnor, J.J and Robertson, E.F. (1999), Eudoxus of Cnidus [Online]. Available: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Eudoxus.html, [Accessed: 6th January 2011]. OConnor, J.J and Robertson, E.F. (2001), The number e, Number Theory [Online]. Available: http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/HistTopics/e.html, [Accessed: 6th January 2011]. Russel, D. (2002), Hippasus Expelled!, Irrational Pythagoreans [Online]. Available: http://math.about.com/library/blpyth.htm, [Accessed: 6th January 2011]. Sondow, J and Weisstein, E.W. e. MathWorldA Wolfram Web Resource [Online]. Available: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/e.html, [Accessed: 6th January 2011]. Weisstein, E.W. Irrational Number, MathWorldA Wolfram Web Resource [Online]. Available: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/IrrationalNumber.html, [Accessed: 6th January]. Yee, A.J. (2010), e, Mathematical Constants Billions of Digits [Online]. Available: http://www.numberworld.org/digits/E/, [Accessed 6th January 2011]. Zongju, L. Shuxue Lishi Diangu (Historical Stories in Mathematics), Chiu Chang Publishing Company [Online]. Available: http://db.math.ust.hk/articles/calculus/e_calculus.htm, [Accessed 6th January 2011]. Arithmetic Sequences and Series, Arizona State University [Online]. Available: http://fym.la.asu.edu/~tturner/MAT_117_online/SequenceAndSeries/Geometric_Sequences.htm, [Accessed: 6th January 2011]. Online PDF Resources: Collins, DC. Continued Fractions, [Online]. Available: http://www-math.mit.edu/phase2/UJM/vol1/COLLIN~1.PDF, [Accessed 6th January 2011]. Conrad, K. (2005), Irrationality of, [Online]. Available: http://www.math.uconn.edu/~kconrad/math121/121piande.pdf, [Accessed: 6th January 2011]. Field, B. (2010), Irrational and Transcendental Numbers, page 23 [Online]. Available: http://maths.dur.ac.uk/Ug/projects/library/CM3/0910/CM3_BenField.pdf, [Accessed: 6th January 2011]. Sandifer, E. (2006), Who proved e is irrational?, How Euler Did it [Online]. Available: http://www.maa.org/editorial/euler/How%20Euler%20Did%20It%2028%20e%20is%20irrational.pdf [Accessed: 6th January 2011]. Online Video Resources: Adams, C, Garrity, T and Burger, E. (2006), Pi verses e, The Mathematical Association of America [Online]. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whpAX30vjoE, [Accessed: 6th January 2011] Delaware, R. A Proof e is irrational, Proof, University of Missouri [Online]. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtIL7nGgDNM, [Accessed: 6th January 2011]. Book Resources: Aigner, M and Ziegler, G.M. Proofs from THE BOOK, Third Edition, [Berlin: Springer, 2004]. Dorrie, H and Translated by Antin, D. 100 Great Problems of Elementary Mathematics, THERE HISTORY AND SOLUTION, [New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1965]. Sandifer, C.E. The early mathematics of Leonhard Euler, [USA: The Mathematical Association of America (Incorporated), 2007].

Joyce’s portrayal of thought in Eveline Essay -- James Joyce Dubliners

Joyce’s portrayal of thought in â€Å"Eveline† Among the short stories in the collection Dubliners by James Joyce, â€Å"Eveline† is a story wherein the reader views the world through the eyes of the eponymous heroine. In delineating her contemplations, Joyce mainly uses the third person narrative with traces of free indirect discourse. The narration sequence at first glance appears to be highly disconnected. However, it is through the judicious use of both these devices that Joyce succeeds in portraying – with a great deal of realism – the progression of thought in the human mind. By using this peculiar mode of narration, Joyce makes us realize that, the process of thinking is not crisp and continuous after the fashion of a well-crafted chain of deductive logic. Rather, this reader is presented with a different paradigm – that of staccato bursts mistily but surely connected by the wispy links of key phrases and events. The unmistakable message Joyce leaves us with is that human thought does not proceed in a straight line. â€Å"Eveline† is the story of a young girl – her memories, fears and aspirations. It is no mean feat to convey the naked thoughts of a human being, to paint the dull and the bright shades of feeling with like fidelity and to bring back what has been lost during the translation to words. We can start to appreciate how Joyce does this by considering the distribution of sentences in some of the paragraphs in the story. At first sight, the sentences appear to be rather slapdash in that they do not bear the mark of being part of a continuous sequence of logical thought, as one would expect from a piece of formal writing. The following lines illustrate this point: â€Å"...she heard his footsteps clacking along th... ...e shift from past to present. One could say that it is the pivot about which the frame of reference is rotated from past into present. Of course, this is merely the most explicit example of such temporal shifts that abound in this work. It should be noted however that rarely does such a shift occur in the actual tense of the verbs involved. Rather, Joyce hints at it by using devices such as that discussed above. We can thus see that Joyce succeeds to a great extent in charting the currents of thought in the mind of his protagonist in a most realistic way. The devices used are subtle and ingenious and one might say – considering the period in which he created â€Å"Eveline† – very unconventional. While Joyce’s breaking of conventions is apparent in â€Å"Eveline,† it is his novels, â€Å"Ulysses† and â€Å"Finnegan’s wake† that offer a wider scope for this literary avant-garde.

The National Assemby and Restructuring The French Government :: essays research papers

ON WHAT PINCIPLES DID THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SEEK TO RESTRUCTURE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY IN THE YEARS 1789-91? When the National Assembly established a dominant position in the running of the French state in 1789, they needed to move quickly to reform the old state around them into one that corresponded to the political views held within the new Assembly members. A ‘principle’ or origin from which all remodelling could take form from, and that would justify the actions of the Assembly to the people as they began reconstructing the state into a ‘ uniform, decentralised, representative and humanitarian system’ was needed. The question being asked is for us to define this principle used by the Assembly to remodel French society and government, a question that can only be answered by studying the declarations of the Assembly to discover the point at which they declare the main principles of their new system openly in a bid to justify further actions. When the newly gathered members of the National Assembly met on the royal tennis court on the 20th June 1789, they declared a vow that was to be remembered as the ‘Tennis court oath.’ This vow was to never rest until they ‘provided France with a constitution,’ a basses that the Assembly could remodel France around. However, constitutions were new to this time in history and the constitutional writers needed time to discover the art of preparing such a document considering the lack of knowledge they had in the field. They may have been aided by information from the recent events in America and the benefits from studying their new American Constitution, but the Assembly still needed time to insure success, and this meant they needed a temporary base of principles to work from. The starting point in the history of the Assembly’s actions to change France can be seen in the 4th August ‘ August Decrees.’ The Assembly had drawn up this set of principles after the pressure created by the Great Fear had forced action to be taken for the safety of French society. The assembly had wanted to calm down the peasant rising in the country and at the time this meant abolishing the feudal system, a system that hung around the shoulders of the peasantry mass. This action would provide the country with a freedom from personal servitude along with the removal of the dues that restricted the peasantry from day to day.

Review of Literature of Risk Analysis in Portfolio Management

REVIEW OF LITERATURE * Ananth N Madhavan (2003) once a fairly esoteric subject, risk analysis and measurement have become a critical function for both portfolio managers and traders. Yet accurate measurement and analysis of risk presents many practical challenges, including the choice of risk model, portfolio optimization pitfalls, horizon mismatches, and out-of-sample testing. This detailed overview of recent developments in risk analysis and modeling focuses on practical applications. While risk management tools can provide invaluable insights as to portfolio risk, they must be applied with considerable care. Risk analysis, as it stands today, is as much an art as a science. * Peter Brooke (2009) suggested that  the easiest way to build a very diverse portfolio is via investment funds. The choice of funds is now enormous and nearly every asset class is covered by them. This means it is very easy and inexpensive to put several funds together and have a very broad spread. There are now some very good ‘multi asset' funds which provide exposure to all of these different classes in one professionally managed place. These multi asset managers may also be able to access some funds which are still not available to the retail investor, such as private equity. Peter Brooke is a financial planner to the English speaking expatriate community. This article (Portfolio Construction) was published in the July 2009 edition of Dockwalk magazine * Anita Bhoir, (2011)Portfolio construction& services offered by banks and brokerages to face heat ; MUMBAI : Regulators may put an end to discretionary portfolio management services offered by banks and brokerages after a series of frauds, including high-profile ones at City and Standard Chartered, said a person familiar with the thinking. You can read also Portfolio Management Quizzes RBI, SEBI and a sub-committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council are working on the proposed guidelines for portfolio management, said the person requesting anonymity. â€Å"RBI is likely to ask banks to stop discretionary portfolio management,† said the person. * RaghavanR. S, (2011) -Core and satellite portfolio construction& evaluation a popular investment method ; the seznsex has not been in the pink of health for a week now. The steep fall in the global indices and teetering economies have been weighing on the Indian quity market, which, in turn, has dented the value of equity portfolios. It's in times like these that the benefits of the core and satellite strategy towards investing become obvious. How it works the core and satellite portfolio management is a popular form of investment strategy with money managers and their clients. * ET Bureau, (2011), How to pick a portfolio construction ; evaluation scheme; Equity portfolio management schemes (PMS) are today quite attractive from the perspective of high net worth individuals (HNIs) or ultra HNIs. However, investor and distributor awareness of this product category is quite low and one must understand the benefits of using this mode for investing. Typically, the minimum application size in PMS products is rather high? With the minimum being Rs 10 lakh and some even having ticket sizes running into crore. Most equity PMS products could involve a slightly higher degree of risk as they are offered to investors who desire that extra bit of return.

Listo Systems: Cami Machado, Trainer

Listo Systems: Cami Machado, Trainer Context: Listo Systems is a graphic service agency and is one of the leading companies within the sector. They recently implemented a new black box technology which resulted in a demand for trainings for the employees as well as â€Å"train-the trainer† sessions. Cami Machado is responsible for conducting these sessions and she feels well prepared. She is also the one who represents the company at an annual Computer Graphic Service Trade Show. Key Issues and Problems: Cami Machado has previous experiences and therefore feels confident and eager for the first session of the trainings.However, the general evaluations of the course were poor and most of the trainers had no clue of what was expected from them. Although Cami is not worried, her manager realizes that something needs to be done. The second issue is related to the Graphic Service Trade Show where Cami routinely represents Listo Systems. This year because of the occurring changes, L isto has scheduled a private presentation for key contacts. Cami is assigned to give a flashy, multimedia overview of the clients benefits of the new â€Å"black box system†.However, she is procrastinating and thinks that from sales or marketing would be better suited for this task. Applying concepts: Cami knows that she could do a good job making the â€Å"glamour show†, however she wants to have the presentation reassigned. In this case Cami is able but unwilling and therefore her performance readiness is R3 (at level 3). She prefers to talk to the â€Å"real† people with â€Å"real† questions. As for the trainings that she has been assigned to organize, Cami feels herself able, confident and willing (R4). In the past she has taughtInformation Technology courses at a local university and for that reason she feels well prepared. She has spent two weeks preparing detailed manuals however the professional trainers do not share her enthusiasm and confidence . From their perspective, Cami is an R2, because even though she is very motivated and willing to accomplish this task, the other trainers are not satisfied with her work. She is not very effective in giving precise directions of what should be done and what is expected, and the majority of the trainers are lost and confused.It is important to notice that the concepts of ability and willingness are an â€Å"interacting influence system†. In other words, that they are interconnected and a significant change in one will affect the whole. This is why the amount of knowledge, experience and skills often affect confidence and motivation. Cami feels that she knows what is required for the trainings to be successful because she has had experience at the University. However, it is hard to say whether she has all the skills that are necessary to train-the-trainers.Comments from the trainers also included â€Å"lots of smoke but no fire† and â€Å"talks down to us†. We ca n therefore conclude that the reason why the trainers where not satisfied was not necessarily because of Cami’s technical skills, but maybe her relationship with the employees. Her directive behavior is very high but her relationship and supportive behavior not as much. Looking at the Situational Leadership model, Cam is using S4 leadership style, which includes low relationship and mostly delegating. Alternative Courses of Action:In order to be more successful in leading the others, Cami should use the S2 leadership style, which includes selling and most importantly explaining what she expects from the trainers. Cami considers herself well prepared and experienced however the evaluation of the course was poor because of lack of explanations. Another reason why the employees were not satisfied was because Cami was â€Å"talking down to them†. To avoid this, Cami should be more supportive and use participative leadership style that will allow her to interact with the ot her trainer and to improve her relationship with them.To make everything more certain, Cami should clarify the path by explaining the follower’s – in this case trainers’ work role. Only then she should display her motivations and effort to accomplish the work outcomes. The Chosen course of Action: The combination of all the above-mentioned solutions would work best for Cami’s situation. However, I believe that the biggest issue in this cause was that the trainers where unaware of what was expected from them. And therefore the best solution would be that Cami clarifies the goals of the trainings and only then tries to motivate and encourage the trainers.Action Plan: Although Cami is a very valuable employee, I believe that her manager should be more directive towards her. For example, he shouldn’t let her procrastinate and reassign her tasks. It is obvious that Cami loves her job and making her tasks more certain and a bit stricter would make a posi tive change for everyone. The trainers and employees of the organization are already dedicated and hard-working, therefore no big changes are necessary. However, slight alterations could be beneficial as discussed above. Listo Systems: The New Security System – Buying In Context:Listo Systems is a graphic service agency and is one of the leading companies within the sector. They recently implemented a new black box technology that caused different reactions from the employees. Key Issues and Problems: One of Cami’s team members, Steve, was unsatisfied because he just got used to the â€Å"old† system and doesn’t want to start all over again. He is thinking about transferring to another department within the company that doesn’t involve the use of the black box. The main issue in this case is that the implementation of the new security system can be a potential risk for losing the employees.There might be other employees like Steve, who are not will ing to adapt and who might take to decision to leave. In the long run this could negatively affect the company because the turnover ratio would increase. Applying concepts: Even though Steve was having difficulty adapting to the new system, there are other employees who are willing to do â€Å"whatever is necessary to keep the customers happy and them employed†. The majority of the employees want to keep their current jobs and this is what motivates them to learn and to adjust to the new security system.The company is doing everything that is necessary in order to train the employees, so the main factor that is required for an overall success is the motivation of the employees. It is clear that Steve’s performance readiness was at the very bottom (R1) because he was unable, insecure and unwilling to learn how to work with the black box. He is displaying frustration and has a complaining behavior, which is typical to the level 1 employees. Angie, the second team member, is an R2, because even though the new black box is foreign to her, she is willing and is motivated to learn.The third member, Dorothy, has an extensive experience with the black box, and therefore she is at the highest performance readiness level (R4). She has the right skills and at the same time we can see that she is willing to work with the new system, because she’s encouraging all the other members to support it as well. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, employee’s motivation and performance depend on various factors that need be satisfied at the first place. In this case, we can assume that the physiological, social and safety needs are satisfied. However, as some of the employees don’t feel confident, their esteem nd self-actualization factors are not fully satisfied. This demotivates the members of the company and negatively affects the productivity level. Alternative Courses of Action: As stated in the case, in order to diagnose the perf ormance readiness level, the indicators of ability and willingness should be combined. You have to assess whether the individual is able (presently performing) and whether he is willing or unwilling to perform a certain task. A good way to do that would be by running an emergency survey, right after the implementation of the black box.This would help to find out in which areas the employees need help and guidance, as well to assess the overall satisfaction level. In order to avoid losing more employees, the management should have more individual approach towards its employees. Some people are quick-learner while the other dislike major changes. The results of the survey would show who needs additional help, and the trainers could focus more on this specific group of employees. There is not an appropriate leadership style for this case, because every member needs to be approached in a different way.The S3 level would be the most appropriate because the manager would be able to encour age and help its employees by participating more. The Chosen course of Action: The best solution would first of all be to run a quick survey within the department. After determining the indicators of ability and willingness, it will be much easier to find out the employees’ performance readiness and to decide which leadership style is the most appropriate. Action Plan: Different employees have different opinions and it is hard to keep every single member satisfied.The survey would allow to asses the common weaknesses within the group and to fill the gap by organizing trainings. Listo Systems: Cami Machado – System Conversation Context: Listo Systems is a graphic service agency and is one of the leading companies within the sector. They recently implemented a new black box. Cami, the responsible for the system has taken the black box through all the recommended steps tests and it performed perfectly. The system has also been tested by a former CIA computer specialist an d its was declared to be flawless. Nevertheless, Cami insisted to keep the old system â€Å"just in case†.Key Issues and Problems: Even though everything turned out to work perfectly, Cami confessed that she has never been so nervous in her life. She had asked to keep the old system as well, however she was still very anxious and was sleeping only a few hours at night. Applying concepts: Cami’s performance level in this situation is R3, because even though she was able to make the switch, she was still not confident and very hesitant. However, she had asked to keep the parallel system, so in case if something went wrong, there was an alternative solution. There was no reason for Cami to feel nervous, even if the black box failed.The leadership style that Cami’s manager should use is S3. He should support her in risk-taking and compliment the work. Alternative Courses of Action: The manager should not disempower Cami, because she has done a hard work and deserves appreciation. He should be very supportive and help her to deal with her nervousness. As mentioned above, this would be a S3 leadership style, which would result in building confidence, actively listening and encouraging. The employees should try to adapt to the new system, instead of leaving the department and creating more issues to deal with.They should also be supportive towards Cami, and appreciate her effort. The Chosen course of Action: Cami’s manager should take more participation in the implementation of the black box. He should leave everything on Cami’s shoulders, even though she’s the one responsible for the project. A supportive leadership style would be very effective in this situation and would help Cami to work more productively with less stress and anxiety. Action Plan: With the help of her manager and her employees, Cami should be able to overcome the difficult period at her workplace and gain more confidence in the work that she is doing.The management should help her to increase her performance readiness level to R4, by showing more support and encouragement. Listo Systems: Randy Mack, Trainer, Listo Systems Context: Randy Mack is an experienced trainer for Listo Systems and has worked with the company for a number of years. His evaluations have always been first rate and he has been able to develop a rapport with the people whom he trains. Key Issues and Problems: Recently, Randy is not happy with his job and had received below-par evaluations for the first time. His main concern is the lack of career advancement at Listo Systems.Some of his training have ended in confrontations with the trainees. Applying concepts: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explains clearly why Randy is dissatisfied with his job. Even though he has performed perfectly for so many years, the lack of self-actualization and career advancement demotivates him. With all the new changes occurring with Listo Systems, the management is possibly more focused on profit and the technology rather then promoting its employees. This lack of attention has resulted in demotivation because Randy feels that his work isn’t much appreciated anymore.His performance readiness is at R3, considering that he knows his job very well and his has been number one for a long time. However the lack of career advancement made him unwilling and decreased his productivity. Alternative Courses of Action: The management should use S3 leadership style, in order to improve Randy’s performance readiness level. Considering that he is a valuable employee, it would be a big loss for the company of Randy left. In order to avoid that, the management should try to show more encouragement and offer possible ways of growth within the company.For example, another solution would be motivating him with financial bonuses. The Chosen course of Action: It’s Randy’s experience that makes him a valuable employee, and he cannot be easily replaced . For that reason the managers should compromise by either promoting Randy or suggesting other potentials ways of career advancement. Action Plan: The managers should make a quick decision before it gets any worse. They have to motivate Randy to stay by offering bonuses and showing that they appreciate his work.