Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critique - Essay Example In essence, justified theft can be committed in Buddhist tradition, in a specified circumstance. Justified theft in Buddhist tradition is committed with the objective of countering dishonesty. For example, I have witnessed Sakka commit a justified theft by stealing a stolen relic from Brahmin Dona, which would have resulted to a dishonor of Buddha’s relic. Additionally, the article depicts that, in Sri Lanka, there is a belief that a relic would disappear if it were not properly venerated. Essentially, the article demonstrates that a relic has the power to consent its own theft, and this is better understood as a theft not being a theft (Trainor, 1992: p7). 2. What did you find difficult to understand from the article? I found difficulty in understanding why conflict would arise among the eight territorial clans because they all want to own part of the relic. I also do not understand the reason why the clans, would not settle on establishing a single location in which the whol e of the relic would have been put for to ensure easier veneration. Instead, they settled on dividing the relics among themselves, which resulted in some individuals stealing the relic while other clans became unsatisfied. Moreover, I come short of understanding why the followers of Buddhist tradition would resolve to violate the traditions principles just to own the relic of the traditions founder (Trainor, 1992: p12). 3. What did the author do well, either in her argument or in presentation? The author did well, in the article, by providing a presentation that had an introduction of how the Buddhist tradition came to have a number of venerated relics. He also depicted how the concept of â€Å"theft not a theft† is established by providing various examples in Buddhist tradition and texts. Furthermore, his arguments are based on authoritative scriptural warrants, and thus, his article has arguments that are factual in nature. The presentation is chronological in the sense tha t it entails events that preceded the immediate death of Buddha. The article also enjoys a deep understanding of the Buddhist tradition and relics. Evidently, the author satisfactorily discussed how, in Buddhist tradition, a theft that is not a theft is committed. He shows this by discussing that a relic is powerful in that it can only be stolen from a place where it is not properly venerated. Lastly, the author did well by pointing out problematic areas in Buddhist tradition; firstly, the act of stealing is forbidden in Buddhist tradition, but acts of stealing relics exist. Secondly, the act of being attached to a relic is against the Buddhist teaching of being attached to objects, which can be put under human possession and manipulation (Trainor, 1992: p20). 4. What do you think the author could have done better? The author could have done better by giving the discussion on relics a different approach apart from the concept of â€Å"theft not a theft†. The concept could hav e entailed something like â€Å"honoring a dishonored cause†. This would eliminate the negativity that has been associated with a tradition whose founder had attained a high degree of enlightenment. Additionally, the author would have justified the above premise by providing scriptural warrants from Buddhist tradition and text. This would have resulted in a positive depiction of Buddhist tradition and the idea of veneration (Trainor, 1992: p3). 5. What personal reflections came to mind while reading the

Three major causes of the French Revolution Essay Example for Free

Three major causes of the French Revolution Essay The French Revolution had many causes. Some of the causes were dealt with political, social, and economical reasons. Out of the three estates, the third was the most dissatisfied with the conditions. The ideas of the Enlightenment lead to new views of the government and society. In this essay three causes of the French revolution will be discussed. One of the major cause of the French Revolution was the clashes between the diverse types of social classes in French society, first, second, and thirds estate. The third estate demanded changes from the French government. As stated in document 3, three changes were to reform the abuses and tyranny of letter de cachet, the tax on land should be equally paid by all classes, votes of the third estate should be taken by head. The largest group of the third estates was the rural peasants. Some were prosperous landowners who hired laborers to work for them. The bourgeoisie sat at the top of the middle class. They consisted of prosperous bankers, merchants, and manufacturers. It also included the officials who staffed the royal bureaucracy, as well as lawyers, doctors, journalists, professors, and skilled artisans. The poor people of the estates were extremely poor indeed as told in document 1. There is an inequality in taxes the each group must pay. Lands owned by the nobility are taxed lower than the lands owned by commoners. The price of bread had risen too high for the poor people to pay. In the third estate the urban workers were the poorest. They earned miserable wage. The slightest rise in food could lead to hunger or starvation. Peasants were forbidden to kill rabbits that ate their crops, but the nobles could. Peasants were angry when nobles hurt by rising prices tried to reinstate old manor dues. The middle class had knowledge of the ideas of the enlightenment. This caused them to want reforms. As quoted from document 4, which is an excerpt from The French Revolution, by Albert Mathiez, The Revolution came from them the middle class. The middle class asked for a lot and they wanted equality. Due to the pressure for reforms, the king summoned an Estates General. Louis XVI had all three estates prepare cahiers listing their grievances. This way the estates got to put down in righting what the wanted  changed or revised. Many cahiers called for reforms such as fairer taxes, freedom of the press, or regular meetings of the Estates General. The third estate had probably made most of these reforms. As seen above the middle class had a lot to do with the French revolution. Some were extremely poor and some were wealthy but they were all treated the same. This applied to all the estates. Clashes between the diverse types of social classes in French society, the poor people of the estates being extremely poor, and the middle class knowledge of the ideas of the enlightenment, were all causes of the French Revolution.

Fork Of A Road :: essays research papers

Fork in a Road "When you arrive at a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra. Everyday we are met with circumstances and with the circumstances come the decisions we make in order to fulfill our lives and make them meaningful. However, once we make a decision, after we pass that "fork in the road", we need to move on, accepting what we have done, because what has happened has happened and there is nothing we can do to change the past. Such is a case in Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken';, and Alistair MacLeod’s short story “The Lost Salt Gift of Blood';. While the persona in Frost’s poem has knowingly come to a dilemma, in contrast, the narrator in MacLeod’s story makes a decision without glancing to the future. Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey, life. Robert Frost puts his persona in front of a road diverging, and he must make a decision on which to take. The two roads are almost identical, but one is less traveled by. He looks ahead, but can’t see far, due to “where it bent in the undergrowth';. Alistair MacLeod does it differently; the narrator has come to a fork in the road, but without hesitation he takes the more traveled by. This is the first contrast between the two literatures. "And both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black." the leaves had covered the ground and since the time they had fallen no one had yet to pass by on this road. Perhaps Frost does this because each time a person comes to the point where they have to make a choice, it is new to them, somewhere they have never been and they tend to feel as though no one else had ever been there either. The persona took the road less traveled by. The road he chooses makes him the man he is. MacLeod makes his narrator t ake the other road; he brings the glass of water to John’s mother without thinking of what lies ahead. To Jenny this had great meaning it represents engagement. Like most young males he takes the easy way and gets what he wants, or does he. He gets a son, loses his relationship with Jenny, and carries the guilt of not taking the right road before.

Numerical Problems

Managerial Economics Numerical Problems DEMAND AND ELASTICITY OF DEMAND Problem 1 The following are demand and supply equations of a pen manufacturer. Qd = 5,00,000 – 50, 000 P Qs = -1,00,000 + 1,00,000 P Find 1. At what average price, level of demand is equal to zero. 2. At what average price, level of supply is equal to zero. 3. Calculate the equilibrium price and quantity. Problem 2 Yashika Limited manufactures an automatic camera that currently sells at uS$90. Sales volume is about 2,000 cameras per month in a city. A close competitor, Minolta, has cut the price of a similar camera it makes from US$ 100 to US$80. Yashika’s economist has estimated the arc cross elasticity of demand between the two rival firms’ products at about 0. 4, given current incomes and price levels. What impact, if any, will the action by Minolta have on the total revenue generated by Yahika, if it leaves its current price unchanged? YASHIKA |MINOLTA | |P1y = 90 |P1m = 100 | |Q1y = 2,000 |P2m = 80 | |Q2y = to be determined |Cross elasticity of demand = 0. 4 | Problem 3 Bajaj Appliances Ltd. manufactures a line of microwave ovens costing US$500 each. Its sales have averaged about 6,000 units per month during 2001. In June 2002, Bajaj’s closest competitor LG had cut its oven’s price from US$600 to US$450. Bajaj noticed that its sales volume declined to 4,500 units per month after the price cut by its rival LG. 1. What is the arc cross price elasticity of demand between the two? 2. Would you say that these two firms are very close competitors? 3. If Bajaj knows that the arc price elasticity of demand for its ovens is –3. 0, what price it would have charged to sell same number of units it did before its rival LG resorted to a price cut? Problem 4 Demand for mobile phone handsets by a popular company in Bangalore city is estimated to be Qd = 2,50,000- 35P. If this relationship is approximately valid for next year also, 1. How many mobile phones would be demanded at a price of Rs. 2,000, 4,000, and 6,000 a set? 2. Compute the arc price elasticity between 2,000 and 4,000; 4,000 and 6,000. 3. Calculate point elasticity at 2,000, 4,000 and 6,000. 4. If last year 25,000 units were sold, what would have been the average price? 5. What is the highest theoretical price for the mobile handset in Bangalore for this seller? Problem 5 The demand function for wall clocks in a city has been estimated to be Q= 2000 +15Y-5. 5P Where Y is income in thousand rupees, Q is quantity in units, and P is unit price. When P=150, y =15, find 1. Price elasticity of demand 2. Income elasticity of demand Problem 6 Two goods have a cross elasticity of +1. 2 1. Would describe them as substitutes or compliments? Give examples for supporting the category that you chose. 2. If price of one of the two rises by 5%, ceteris paribus, what happens to the Qd of the other? Problem 7 The demand for lunches in an institute canteen was estimated to be Q= 16,415. 21-262. 743P, where Q= lunches served, P= price in rupees. 1. Compute the price elasticity of demand at a price of Rs. 40, Rs. 50 per lunch 2. What is the arc price elasticity of demand between the prices 40 and 50? Problem 8 Pepsodent sells a toothbrush for Rs. 25. Its sales have averaged 8,000 units per month over the last year. Recently, its close competitor, Colgate, reduced the price of its product from Rs. 35 to Rs. 30 per toothbrush. As a result, Pepsodent’s sales declined by 1,500 units per month. . What is their cross elasticity? What relationship it indicates? 2. If Pepsodent knows that it has a cross elasticity of –1. 5 with Colgate, how much it should now charge to restore previous sales after the price cut by Colgate? (Assume Colgate retains its price at Rs. 30 itself and does not retaliate). 3. What is the total monthly revenue of Pepsodent before and after the price change in (2 ) above? 4. Is the result in part (3) above necessarily desirable? What other factors would have to be taken into consideration?

Toothpaste and Colgate- Palmolive

1. 0 Introduction Colgate- Palmolive is one of the leading consumer product organizations that have been dealing its products in worldwide. Colgate- Palmolive is an America based company and has many branches all over the world. One of the branches is located in Malaysia. Colgate- Palmolive (M) Sdn Bhd focusing their product segment on toothpaste and toothbrush. Both products are very competitive presently in Malaysia market. At the present, Colgate is implementing Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method.ABC is a system had been practices in many organizations for being a tool to measures the cost and performance of the activities and the cost objects. Hence, the management should look into ABC system which uses to provide more accurate information for decision making in determining costs by cost object such as product, customer, and location and the cost pool of the company. 2. 0 Keys Areas for Improvement According to Reuben Mark (2003), Colgate Palmolive has highlighted its strategy o f developing and launching innovative new products globally continues to strengthen the company’s market leadership positions around the world.Hence, it does apply to Colgate Palmolive Malaysia. Indeed the implementation of activity based costing by Colgate Palmolive (M) provide information for achieving its plans since the ABC is costing technology that traces cost to products according to activities perform on them. Accurate cost information is produced as to such purposes; focusing company strategy, designing products to increase customer value, and continuously improving activities on the operation throughout the company (Peter, 1989).In general, the ABC system cover such following area of activities including product design and processes, storage of raw materials, set up of machinery to ensure a smooth flow in the production line, machine operating time as well as cleaning of machine after each production. Product design is crucially for Colgate Palmolive (M) to survive in the market and leading the position. Innovation allows the company to continue doing business and thus create the competitive advantage as to product differentiation. The research and development indeed plays role for this rocess such example where Colgate Palmolive worked on improving soap packaging through quality engineering (Boehmer, 2008). Meanwhile, storage of raw materials ensures the effectiveness of the company on handling its inventory. Chilshom (2000) stated that the potential areas for optimization in production is through shortening of product lead times in which leads the Colgate Palmolive (M) to an increase in machine capacity, a reduction of inventories, shorter, and a higher customer satisfaction thus also leads to increased revenues in a demand driven-market.Besides, by improving unit costs where a reduction of the units costs can be achieved by a high degree of machine capacity utilization. Having accurate cost data will allow Colgate Palmolive to identify acti vities which are not efficient and important, eliminate waste and reduce costs while improving the quality of the products. 3. 0 Steps for Each Activity There are arguments stated that traditional costing (TC) method can misrepresent a cost of the product where it might have deceive the management doing the resolution relating products (Briers, M. , Luckett, P. and Chee, C. 1997). According to Mansur, N. N. , Tayles, M. and Pike, R. (2012), the TC method apportion the indirect costs based on a single element when the deciding a product cost. The element such as number of direct labour hour or number of machine hour was used to apportion the indirect costs. This has created unfairness in costs apportionment into product as different activity provides different incurrence of cost. Furthermore, different product consumed different level of costs in different activities. Therefore, ABC method is formed to solve the traditional costing flaw.ABC method emphasizes on each of the activity c onsumption that needed for producing a product. For the overhead costs to be incurred into the products, the resources, activities, costs and quantities are to be identified (Mansur, N. N. , Tayles, M. and Pike, R. , 2012). The allocations vary to products consumption in different activities. Therefore, management can makes decisions accurately. 3. 1 Cost Object Cost object can be customer, product, service or any other work unit for which a separate cost measurement is desired. The ideal cost object is â€Å"products† which are individual items that are sold to customers.Linking the cost of activities directly to the products that consume the activities is the basis for product costing using the ABC system. To operate effectively, cost drivers should be selected with specific product. Besides that, the customer costing which is the calculation of the total of the total cost of serving a customer makes it possible to assess the profitability of possible either individual or g roup of customers. Hence, the cost object is different for different companies but there are similarity cost object within the industry which is products and customers. (Gunasekaran, A. , 1999) 3. 2 Cost DriverBefore a cost driver is selected, the management needs to gather up the activities in the manufacturing process which then needs to report the cost of each activity and later choose the suitable driver for the activity (No, J. J. and Kleiner, B. H. , 1997). *A cost driver is a factor that has direct influence on the cost and performance of the activities. The cost drivers provide the best explanation of why the costs in an activity cost pool change over time. The activity cost pool is the total cost associated with an activity. Cost driver is a variable used as denominator in the rates used to apply activity costs to product or cost objects.In practice, it is possible that the number of cost drivers exists for the same cost pool. For example, purchasing activity’s cost pool has different cost drivers such as the numbers of orders, number of suppliers and number of parts ordered. (Gunasekaran, A. , 1999) 3. 3 Calculation of Total Cost and Cost Drivers Colgate-Palmolive has numerous products with numerous activities and different cost drivers and taken toothpaste and toothbrush as an example for ABC calculation. Assume the following was the information of toothpaste and toothbrush production.                                     |                                                               |Toothpaste                      |Toothbrush                      |                           | |Number of units produced                                                                |30000                            |20000                               |                           | |Direct Materials                                                                            |450000                            |350000                            |                           | |Direct Labours                                                                               |350000                            |50000                               |                           | |Activity                      |Cost Driver                                              |Cost Driver Volume                                                 |Total                   | |Setup                            |Number of setups                                        |150                               |50                                  |200                      | |Making                         |Machine Hours                                           |3000                               |2000                               |5000                      | |Inspection                   |Number of inspection                                  |100                               |100                                  |200                      | Table 3. 1 Information of relating toothpaste and toothbrush Activity                                                                                                          |Overhead Costs                                                                   | |Setup                                                                                                             |150000                                                                               | |Making                                                                                                             |750000                                                                               | |inspection                                                                                                       |100000          à ‚                                                                     | |Total Overhead Costs                                                                                        |1000000                                                                            | Table 3. 2 Overhead costs for toothpaste and toothbrush If calculate the unit cost by assuming using machine hours as the element. |overhead costs/ machine hour                                                                         |=          |1000000                                                                | |                                                                                                                     |             |5000                                                                   | |                                                                                                                     |=          |200 / machine hour                                              |                                                                            |Toothpaste                                                       |Toothbrush                                           | |Direct Materials                                                    |450000                                                       à ‚      |350000                                                 | |Direct Labours                                                       |350000                                                             |50000                                                 | |Overhead costs                                                       |600000                                                             |400000                                                 | |Total Costs                                                             |1400000                                                          |800000                                        à ‚         | |Number of units produced                                        |300000                                                             |200000                                                 | |Unit Cost                                                                |4. 67                                                                |4                                                       | Table 3. Statement showing calculation of unit cost using traditional method Below show the calculation of unit cost using ABC method. |Activity                            |Cost per driver                                                                                                                                              | |Setup                               |750 per setup (150000/200 setups)                                                                                                                   | |Making                               |150 per machine hour (750000/5000 machine hours)                                                                                              | |Inspection                         |500 per inspection (100000/200 inspections) | Table 3. 3 Calculation of driver for each activity.                                                                                           |Toothpaste                                           |Toothbrush                                        | |Direct Materials                                                                   |                           |450000                      |                           |350000                   | |Direct Labours                                                                      |                           |350000                      |                           |50000                   | |Overhead Costs                                                                      |                           |                              |                           |                           | |Setup (750 per setup)                                                          |112500                |                              |37500                   |                           | |Making (150 per machine hour)                                              |450000                |                              |300000                   |                           | |Inspection (500 per inspection)                                           |50000                   |                              |50000                   |                           | |Total Overhead Costs                                                             |                           |612500                      |                           |387500                   | |Total Costs                                                                         |                           |1412500                   |                           |787500                   | |Number of units produced                                                       |                           |300000                      |                           |200000                   | |Unit cost                                                                            |                           |4. 7083                      |                           |3. 9375                   | Table 3. Statement showing calculation of unit cost of toothpaste and toothbrush using ABC method. |Particular                                                    |Toothpaste                                                    |Toothbrush                                                    | |Traditional Method                                        |4. 67                                                             |4                                                                   | |ABC Methods                                                    |4. 7083                                                          |3. 9375                                                          | Based on the calculation shown in the table above, product toothbrush price is under traditional method and the product of toothpaste is underpriced in using the traditional method.Even though, the price between both products are not much in difference but it can be claimed that ABC system more accurately measurements the resources consumed for both products. 4. 0 Increased on National Market Share in Context of Cost Leadership and Product Differentiation Bhimana, A. , Horngren, C. T. , Datar, S. M. , Forster, G (2008) state that the cost leadership is one of strategy in a business offer the average product at lower costs for a broadest possible market. Product differentiation is the strategy to focus offers the unique product by creating new products (innovation). Therefore, Colgate Palmolive is considering and focusing to these challenges through two basic of strategies: differentiating its product a nd achieving the cost leadership.It can see that Malaysia had chosen by Colgate Palmolive because has higher market share of tooth brush and tooth paste. In fact, Colgate was selling more than 30 kinds different products of tooth paste and it’s most popular brands’ name in Oral care. By differentiating the products, this company creates the different new product form the other competitors such as focusing on the design and packaging of the tooth brush should be innovative, colourful and unique then make customer interested and touched to those products. The cost of tooth brush and tooth paste usually based on the quality of products, and it may allow Colgate to charge a higher price.Here, the solution is to reduce the costs and designing the new brand of product and technologies. Obviously, Malaysia has successful cost leadership could generally increase Colgate Palmolive Sdn Bhd’s market share and make this company to grow up. 5. 0 Advantages of ABC System One of the advantages of ABC is that this system gives more accurate costing. ABC system is the method which is useful for all types of business (Hansen, D. R. and Mowen, M. M, 2007). For instance, Colgate Palmolive uses the ABC software that can evaluate the cost of its activity and cost object. The reason of Colgate Palmolive adopted the ABC system is to provide the more accurate revelation of the cost of program and services.Moreover, Colgate Palmolive implemented the ABC system which helps the manager easily understand the impact of products and customers variety on profit margin. After that, this ABC system took the difference in how this company entered orders from its customers, how the packaged orders, how delivered orders, and spent time to deliver it to each customers location. This ABC system has helped Colgate Palmolive acquire the large national customer because it has identified ‘the specific manufacturing, distribution, and handling costs related with serving this c ustomer†. Furthermore, ABC provide support on performance measurement whereby the information provided on cost drivers and cost driver rates shows great influential power on staff behaviour and used as performance measurement.Cost drivers provide volume measures on different aspects of operational performance which reflect the effectiveness of the activity concerned. When linked to costs, the cost drivers can help in assessing the efficiency with which activities are carried out. Colgate- Palmolive can In addition, the detailed information by ABC system assists management in making decisions about product profitability. This is because ABC using unit cost rather than the total cost on making decision. Management can evaluate how the current product and process designs affect activities and costs as a way of identifying new designs to reduce costs. Colgate can do investigation based on the current product costs to do adjustment on the new products that going to be launch. 6. 0 ConclusionThe activity based costing is one of the tools of strategic management accounting which allow the Colgate Palmolive (M) to measure the cost and performance of the activities and the cost objects. It does provide more accurate information for decision making in determining costs by various cost object. The implementation of ABC system by Colgate Palmolive (M) is closely in line with the objective of the company to leads in the market of oral, health and care industry in Malaysia. Innovation in its products and having a lower cost in the market with a good quality always get into the attention of the company as these product differentiation and cost leadership are the key for the competitive advantage.

Introduction To The Visual Arts Essays - Byzantine Art, Mosaic

Introduction To The Visual Arts Essays - Byzantine Art, Mosaic Introduction to the Visual Arts Throughout history art has played an intricate role in society's perception of life. Art is used as form of expressionism be it physical or emotional, religious or the mockery of religion. The birth of new artistic eras were due to the technological advancements of the world. Below are a few examples of works of art that from different era in our humanity. Francisco de Stefano's, named Pesellino during the renaissance, A Miracle of Saint Silvester is a scene representative of an episode of Saint Silvester's life who was pope during the reign of Constantine the Great. Originally this work forms the lower portion of an altarpiece. The scene may be recognized as showing the miracle by which the Pope Saint Silvester convinced Helen, the mother of the emperor Constantine, that her son's conversion to Christianity was justifiable. Saint Silvester is shown bringing back to life a bull that had been killed by a Jewish Doctor, who had argued for his faith. Witnessing this godly act all present at this scene were converted to Christianity. Helen is seen enthroned under the right hand loggia, the Emperor under the left hand, while the Jewish pagans witness the miracle. Pesellino uses rich colors that entice the spectators' attention, which was common during the Renaissance. The use of orange, blue, and gold allows the artist to draw the spectators attention to what he feels is imperative within the work. Pesellino composes with an extremely finished style which is apparent with the detail used in the facial features as well as the gold trim that is which is shown on all present within the work. This style of painting opened the door for many artists who followed. Andrea Del Sarto's Saint John the Baptist only one of few paintings in America composed by Del Sarto. He composed this work of the patron saint of Florence at the height of his artistic career. The harmonious balance composition, delicate modeling, and glowing tonalities are hallmarks of his artistic style. The graceful design and blending of rich colors reflect the idealized style of the High Renaissance. He also uses Christian and classical traditions such as the portrayal of a coarse hair shirt, pointing hand, and reed cross are representative of Jesus Christ. The use of light on the right arm and pointing hand draws the spectator to focus attention to the cross symbolizing Christ. The use of analogous colors, red and green gives the spectator a genuine portrayal of human skin and stimulates our eyes. The use of golden halo and ivy reef alludes to Bacchus, who was considered a pagan antetype of both Christ and the Baptist during the Renaissance. The late Roman Hunting Scene is mosaic that was escavated from Antioch in three pieces of pavement. The sheer size of this work is breath taking, 20 ft. 6.25 inches X 23 ft. 9.75 inches. The mosaic depicts the hunting of dangerous game, an aristocratic pastime which is represented throughout Roman work. At first glance from a distance one may mistake the pavement to be a carpet. At the center position is a hunter surrounded by animals in a pattern that doesn't clutter the mosaic. The animals are portrayed more naturalistic than the humans and were used to fill the voids in the mosaic. The tiles are arranged in an arching motion, which gives the illusion of movement to the spectator. Hunters on foot and horseback attack a variety of animals that are highly placed with in the animal kingdom. There is a sense of grotesqueness due to the portrayal of blood with in the mosaic. The hunters seem to consider their conquests as sporty due to their facial expressions. The hunters dress in a He llenistic style. Mosaics were produced by workshops consisting of mastercraftsmen and apprentices. Mosaicists painted or scored the basic designs ad figures into the wet surface. Tesserae were then laid onto a thin bed of sort mortar. Once the entire floor was finished, the surface was polished with an abrasive stone and fine sand. An excellent piece of architecture is the Chapter House from west central France. It served the purpose of prayer, study, and reflection. The gothic style of the arches, which support the

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Perfectionism Case Study

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Perfectionism Case Study Free Online Research Papers In this paper, I will attempt to summarize the article written by Sarah J. Egan and Paula Hine of the Curtin University of Technology, Australia. This study focused on the value that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has in treating perfectionism in 4 adults diagnosed with an anxiety disorder or depression. According to the case study, perfectionism can obstruct the treatment of psychological disorders (Shafron Masell, 2001). CBT is used to examine and cure numerous psychological disorders, however, perfectionism has never been immensely explored and few studies of CBT have been of a controlled design nature. The conductors of this case study chose the A-B single case experimental design series to conduct this study. This particular study measures the degree of the behavior targeted for change through repetitive observations across two phases of study: A=baseline and B=treatment. The subjects are also observed before and after the manipulation of the independent variable (Comer, 2008). The independent variable in this study is the therapy. The four participants chosen for the study were selected from a Clinic waitlist. Seventeen of the 45 adults on the waitlist, who received dispersed information about the study, completed the Beck Depression Inventory, which evaluates depressive symptoms and the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale which measures perfectionism with the implementation of subscales: Concern over mistakes (CM), Personal Standards (PS), Parental Expectations (PE), Parental Criticism (PC), Doubts about Actions (DA), and Organization (O). An assessment interview was conducted, devising CB maintaining mechanisms and administering the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview to establish the DSM-IV diagnosis. From this diagnosis is how the subjects were chosen. The participants as follows: Participant A. A 60 year old married female diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder who was scared of saying anything incorrect and that catastrophic events were more likely to occur if she thought certain thoughts. Participant B. A 59 year old divorced female diagnosed with panic disorder with agoraphobia and bipolar I in remission. Participant C. a 39 year old married male with diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and secondary diagnosis of panic disorder with agoraphobia. Participant D. A 62 year old divorced female diagnosed with major depressive episodes and panic disorder with agoraphobia. Treatment was conducted by a clinical psychologist trainee under the supervision of an experienced clinical psychologist. Treatments were arranged into 1 hour sessions, once per week for 8 weeks and a follow up session after 2 weeks. Sessions were videotaped and 2 were indiscriminately selected for adherence rating by an independent psychologist who determined if the study stayed focused on the topic at hand. Treatments were comprised of cognitive behavioral techniques such as dichotomous thinking (Shafran et al., 2002; Egan, Piek, Dyck, Rees, 2007), rigid, achievement-oriented goals (Burns, 1980, Shafran et al.), hyper vigilant and biased monitoring of performance (Shafran, et al.) and a plan for assessment of self worth (DiBartolo, Frost, Chang, LaSota, Grills, 2004; Shafran et al.). The clinical psychologists also implemented different strategies such as behavioral experiments to test negative cognitions and thought records to challenge selective attention and self criticism. Once all treatments and follow-ups were completed, only two out of four participants had significant clinical reduction scores for total perfectionism. There were no significant reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms. The area CBT for perfectionism needs further study to determine its effectiveness and benefit as treatment for perfectionism, depression and anxiety disorders. This article proved to be a great example of the use of the cognitive model of therapy. The clinical psychologists zoned in on the mind of the participants in an attempt to â€Å"reprogram† their thinking about themselves. One â€Å"flaw† I noticed was the selection of candidates for this study. I didn’t feel the variation was large enough. All participants were of the same age group. Perhaps a person from each of the decadal age groups after 20 years old would have offered better exposure. Another issue I found with the CBT treatment for perfectionism is that it doesn’t affect the depressive and anxiety disorders, thus requiring further treatments for patients. Treatments may have to be broken out in to CBT for Perfectionism and then another session for CBT for Anxiety and Depressive Disorders, possibly causing the patient to become â€Å"bored† and abandon the treatments. An all inclusive treatment will have to be established to avoid this. References Burns, D.D. (1980). Feeling good: The new mood therapy. New York: New American Library. Comer, R.J. (2008). Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology. DiBartolo, P.M., Frost, R.O., Chang, P., LaSota, M., Grills, A.E. (2004). Shedding light on the relationship between personal standards and psychopathology: The case for conditional self-worth. Journal of Rational–Emotive and Cognitive–Behavior Therapy, 22, 241–254. Egan, S.J., Piek, J.P., Dyck, M.J., Rees, C.S. (2007). The role of dichotomous thinking and rigidity in perfectionism. Behavior Research and Therapy, 45, 1813–1822. Shafran, R., Mansell, W. (2001). Perfectionism and psychopathology: A review of research and treatment. Clinical Psychology Review, 21, 879–906. Research Papers on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Perfectionism Case StudyResearch Process Part OneEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseThree Concepts of PsychodynamicInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)Riordan Manufacturing Production PlanIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalCapital PunishmentPersonal Experience with Teen Pregnancy

WWII Death Marches From Concentration Camps

WWII Death Marches From Concentration Camps Late in the war, the tide had turned against the Germans. The Soviet Red Army was reclaiming territory as they pushed the Germans back. As the Red Army was heading for Poland, the Nazis needed to hide their crimes. Mass graves were dug up and the bodies burned. The camps were evacuated. Documents destroyed. The prisoners that were taken from the camps were sent on what became known as Death Marches (Todesmrsche). Some of these groups were marched hundreds of miles. The prisoners were given little to no food and little to no shelter. Any prisoner who lagged behind or who tried to escape was shot. Evacuation By July 1944, Soviet troops had reached the border of Poland. Although the Nazis had attempted to destroy evidence, in Majdanek (a concentration and extermination camp just outside of Lublin on the Polish border), the Soviet Army captured the camp nearly intact. Almost immediately, a Polish-Soviet Nazi Crimes Investigation Commission was established. The Red Army continued to move through Poland. The Nazis started to evacuate and destroy their concentration camps from east to west. The first major death march was the evacuation of approximately 3,600 prisoners from a camp on Gesia Street in Warsaw (a satellite of the Majdanek camp). These prisoners were forced to march over 80 miles in order to reach Kutno. About 2,600 survived to see Kutno. The prisoners that were still alive were packed onto trains, where several hundred more died. Out of the 3,600 original marchers, less than 2,000 reached Dachau 12 days later.1 On the Road When the prisoners were evacuated they werent told where they were going. Many wondered whether they going out to a field to be shot? Would it be better to try to escape now? How far would they be marching? The SS organized the prisoners into rows usually five across and into a large column. The guards were on the outside of the long column, with some in the lead, some on the sides, and a few in the rear. The column was forced to march - often at a run. For prisoners who were already starved, weak, and ill, the march was an incredible burden. An hour would go by. They kept on marching. Another hour would go by. The marching continued. As some prisoners could no longer march, they would fall behind. The SS guards in the rear of the column would shoot anyone who stopped to rest or collapsed. Elie Wiesel Recounts I was putting one foot in front of the other mechanically. I was dragging with me this skeletal body which weighed so much. If only I could have got rid of it! In spite of my efforts not to think about it, I could feel myself as two entities - my body and me. I hated it. (Elie Wiesel) The marches took prisoners on back roads and through towns. Isabella Leitner Remembers I have a curious, unreal feeling. One of almost being part of the grayish dusk of the town. But again, of course, you will not find a single German who lived in Prauschnitz who ever saw a single one of us. Still, we were there, hungry, in rags, our eyes screaming for food. And no one heard us. We ate the smell of smoked meats reaching our nostrils, blowing our way from the various shops. Please, our eyes screamed, give us the bone your dog has finished gnawing. Help us live. You wear coats and gloves just like human beings do. Arent you human beings? What is underneath your coats? (Isabella Leitner) Surviving the Holocaust Many of the evacuations occurred during the winter. From Auschwitz, 66,000 prisoners were evacuated on January 18, 1945. At the end of January 1945, 45,000 prisoners were evacuated from Stutthof and its satellite camps. In the cold and snow, these prisoners were forced to march. In some cases, the prisoners marched for a long duration and were then loaded onto trains or boats. Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor We were given no food. We lived on snow; it took the place of bread. The days were like nights, and the nights left the dregs of their darkness in our souls. The train was traveling slowly, often stopping for several hours and then setting off again. It never ceased snowing. All through these days and nights we stayed crouching, one on top of the other, never speaking a word. We were no more than frozen bodies. Our eyes closed, we waited merely for the next stop, so that we could unload our dead. (Elie Wiesel)

Criminal justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 16

Criminal justice - Essay Example The judge was hearing two criminal cases when he was accused of bias or prejudice. The functionality of the criminal justice system is subject to the direction of legal provisions and codes of conduct. During the hearing of two criminal cases, the judge made a personal move to investigate some facts in relation to the cases (Judicial Discipline & Disability Commission 1-4). However, both the state and the defense did not ask the judge to do so. As a result, the judge was accused of violating the code of judicial conduct. One of the attorneys in the cases, Beau Allen, also had a complaint against the judge. The complaint was filed before the Judicial Commission in Arkansas. In response, the judge engaged in a retaliatory behavior following the attorney’s complaint. Both the bias/prejudice and retaliation against the attorney warranted disciplinary actions against the judge. The Circuit Court Judge was reprimanded censured (Judicial Discipline & Disability Commission 8). Judges, attorneys, and prosecutors play an important role in the administration of justice. When such people engage in unethical practices or behavior, they jeopardize the essence of a functional, effective, and efficient judicial system. Subsequently, the public is highly likely to lose confidence and trust for the justice framework. In response to unethical behavior in the courtroom, it is important to punish court officers for the violation of judicial codes of conduct. In the context of Judge Gerald Kent Crow, being reprimanded and censured was a good start. However, harsher penalties or punishments need to be instituted because these people understand the law and legal frameworks more than the ordinary civilian does. Whenever a court officer perpetrates unethical behavior, it appears as if the system is failing from within. In this respect, such officers should be relieved off their duties. Performance evaluation is also necessary. It is

Good Will Hunting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Good Will Hunting - Essay Example The social penetration theory establishes the fact that as relationships develop, the parties’ communication moves from relatively shallow, non-intimate levels to deeper, and levels that are more personal. The theory applies in interpersonal communication and aims at reaching the core personality or sense of self among the communicators (Griffin 10 -18). A cyclical and dialectical approach suggests closeness occurs through a gradual process of  self-disclosure if the participants proceed in a gradual and orderly fashion. The theory is thus not subjective to personal feelings or bias but solely relies on facts instead of opinions. This paper will draw the relationship of the social penetration theory to the relationships portrayed in the film. It will also confirm if relationships move through and how the characters self-disclose. It will also explain if any over-discloses too quickly and whether the lack of disclosure harms any of relationship. To achieve this, the paper wil l consider the Will Hunting relationships with a mathematics professor at MIT, Gerald Lamdeau (Stellan Skarsgard) and that with Sean McGuire (Mr. Williams), a therapist. Relationship of the social penetration theory to the relationships portrayed in the film The most significant relationship in the film Good Will Hunting is the relationship between Will Hunting and Sean McGuire (Mr. Williams), the therapist. This relationship relates to the social penetration theory in many ways. This relationship emanates from an earlier relationship between Will and Lamdeau. Initially, Will would solve mathematical problems and go his way without waiting for recognition. However, after the professor realized his talent, he decided to search for him. Indeed, when Lamdeau found him at work Will Hunting run away but Lamdeau tracks him down in a jail for assaulting a police offer. Here they advanced their shallow communication to a deeper level when Lamdeau bails him out with a condition that Will Hun ting will agree to spend one day a week meeting with a therapist. This leads to the relationship between Will Hunting and Sean, the therapist. They initially had shallow communication. However, subject to the fact that Sean is the survivor of a tough Southie upbringing like Will Hunting, there communication developed deeper as Sean would help him in appreciating his talents. Additionally, Will had intimate relationship with Skylar. Together, Skylar and Sean took the communication with Will to a more personal level where they taught to remove barriers in his life and advance his talents. This was a clear demonstration of the communication theory, social penetration theory. If the relationships moves through and how the characters self-disclose Both relationships move through from relatively shallow communication levels, non-intimate, to more deeper and personal communications. Indeed, were beneficial to all parties as they share their knowledge, experiences, and concern to help one a nother. Actually, out of concern, the professor sought to help Will come to his right senses and went ahead to involve his therapist friend, Sean to help in the mission. The relationships were relevantly relying on facts from education and life experiences. Where Sean was quick to self, disclose to Will, Will pass through many therapists before

Hedge Funds Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Hedge Funds - Coursework Example Trend forecast signal is used and will generate up and down signals when buying or selling pressure builds up in a stock, currency, index or future. The forecasts are only a signal to watch for further strength above or below signal bars. The forecasts can mean buying or selling pressure has built up so much a new high or low price will happen soon forming a continuation of the trend OR the price is overdone, and a close of a bar moving in the opposite direction to the last forecast bar could signal a trend failure or reversal point. A hedge fund that can take both long and short positions, buy and sell undervalued securities, trade options or bonds and invest in almost any opportunity in any market where it foresees impressive rates at reduced risks (Friedland, 2011). These features results to hedge fund being able to offer exposure to risk factors those traditional long-only strategies cannot (Agarwal and Narayan, 2002). Exposure to systemic factors, example, small-cap, value companies and emerging markets normally entails higher returns but also higher risks. Norges Bank Investment Management (2011) further emphasizes the importance of continuously measuring the fund’s exposure to such factors and the importance to gain a static and dynamic overview to manage systematic exposure to one or more risk factors. This ability of hedge fund to take both long and short positions, makes it difficult to evaluate its performance, example, in the case where the manager can invest in any asset class, trade in deriv atives and follow a myriad of dynamic trading strategies (Agarwal and Narayan, 2000). Despite this, investors who have moved into active investment from passive strategies start their own hedge fund and its interest is gathering pace (Amenc, Susan and Lionel, 2004). For instance if there has been 2 up forecast bars in a row but the price is failing to break onto a new high, then also watch for a reversal in the price to break below the

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 64

Assignment Example (2010) studied the organizational culture of college universities that were being relatively newly established in Malaysia compared to universities. MacIntosh and Doherty (2007) selected a random sample of clients as participants in the research at five clubs across four different cities located in the province of Ontario, and asked them to complete a survey. Clients were at least 18 years old. Client’s perceptions were measured by focusing on the focal organization’s core values. Core values and many items were retrieved from the original survey conducted by MacIntosh and Doherty (2005). The study used a total of 42 items representing nine corporate values. Data was collected using 113 surveys from participants 59% of whom were women whereas 41% were men. On the other hand, in Ramachandran et al’s (2010) research, HEI is the unit of analysis divided into public and private strata. College universities were chosen because of their evolving OC. Data was gathered f rom a total of 594 faculty members of which 33.9% were from public HEIs whereas 52.8% taught in the private HEIs. Data was collected with the CVF. Ramachandran et al. (2010) stated that no definition of OC is widely accepted as the term has been defined differently by different scholars and authors. Organizational behaviour is affected by different regional and national cultural groupings. The different types of OCs can be classified by different parameters. Artefacts of an organization can be understood by studying the organization’s espoused values. Every organization is based on certain assumptions that are not challenged and are taken for granted by the employees. Values of an organization are more accessible than its artefacts or assumptions. The theoretical underpinning of this study is based on Cameron and Quinn’s (1999) operational definition. Denison’s (1990) four hypotheses i.e. the consistency hypothesis, the mission

FEMA Incident Command Systems and National Incident Management Systems Research Paper

FEMA Incident Command Systems and National Incident Management Systems Related to Law Enforcement Personnel - Research Paper Example As a law enforcement officer involved in special operations you have to be able to effectively respond to such operations using certain established guidelines and principles to protect property, live and the environment and restore normalcy. The Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA) is one such body under the US Department of Homeland Security tasked with handling emergency situations. Given that emergencies are unpredictable events that require cross functional approaches, as more than one agency may be involved, hence the need for a standardized approach and guidelines that are not specific to one agency. The FEMA has a system called the Incident Command System (ICS) that employs methods and standards that have been verified for efficiency and success in the business world and applied to emergency situations using a standard command, control and coordination system to achieve the aims of emergency responses and management. The ICS system enables proper cooperation and coord ination among different agencies since there are emergency occasions when as a special operations officer you may come under the command of someone from a different agency such as fire fighting whose methods and command structures could be different from special operations. This paper will therefore examine the beginnings of ICS, the development of new rules and guidelines with emphasis to the presidential order to the Department for Homeland Security in response to the September 11th terrorist attacks and then look at the guidelines from various sources, discuss them and draw conclusions. ICS can be traced to the 1970s when wildfires became a big problem in California when the state, federal, county and local fire departments, recognizing that no one agency can handle a fire emergency all alone, joined together to form a platform called the Firefighting Resources of California Organized for Potential Emergencies (FIRESCOPE) that pinpointed certain problems common to emergencies and hindering inter agency cooperation, including non uniform terms and commands, non-aligned communication, a missing scope for increasing or reducing the size of the joint response team depending on the situation, deficient combined plans of action plans and a lack of a command system to oversee inter agency operations (Haddow, Bullock & Coppola, 2011). The ICS is a model tactic built on best practice standards for managing emergencies and incidents that allow for a synchronized response from different agencies that creates a shared approach to scheduling and managing resources and enhances the incorporation of equipment, facilities, staff, systems within a unified organizational framework (â€Å"Introduction to the ICS†, 2009). The ICS has however evolved into an all inclusive emergency response and coordination approach for emergencies that utilizes a unified structure of organization and management system. The ICS is based on five main premises: Command, Logistics, Operatio ns, Planning, Finance/Administration (â€Å"What is the ICS?† 2010) During an emergency the law enforcement agencies leadership is organized into the above units with each having a jurisdiction over all the different agencies involved in the emergency. After the September 11t

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 64

Assignment Example (2010) studied the organizational culture of college universities that were being relatively newly established in Malaysia compared to universities. MacIntosh and Doherty (2007) selected a random sample of clients as participants in the research at five clubs across four different cities located in the province of Ontario, and asked them to complete a survey. Clients were at least 18 years old. Client’s perceptions were measured by focusing on the focal organization’s core values. Core values and many items were retrieved from the original survey conducted by MacIntosh and Doherty (2005). The study used a total of 42 items representing nine corporate values. Data was collected using 113 surveys from participants 59% of whom were women whereas 41% were men. On the other hand, in Ramachandran et al’s (2010) research, HEI is the unit of analysis divided into public and private strata. College universities were chosen because of their evolving OC. Data was gathered f rom a total of 594 faculty members of which 33.9% were from public HEIs whereas 52.8% taught in the private HEIs. Data was collected with the CVF. Ramachandran et al. (2010) stated that no definition of OC is widely accepted as the term has been defined differently by different scholars and authors. Organizational behaviour is affected by different regional and national cultural groupings. The different types of OCs can be classified by different parameters. Artefacts of an organization can be understood by studying the organization’s espoused values. Every organization is based on certain assumptions that are not challenged and are taken for granted by the employees. Values of an organization are more accessible than its artefacts or assumptions. The theoretical underpinning of this study is based on Cameron and Quinn’s (1999) operational definition. Denison’s (1990) four hypotheses i.e. the consistency hypothesis, the mission

What has happened to careers To what extent can and should HRM be a Dissertation

What has happened to careers To what extent can and should HRM be a part of career management - Dissertation Example Since the world is changing at a rapid pace, the economic, cultural, political and technological changes have an immense impact upon the world of work. Moreover, due to uncertainties that accompany with them, these changes can have an adverse effect on the career and lives of the people.In the present competitive era, careers have become too challenging than they used to be. This means that an attempt has to be made to manage the careers. The term career can be defined as the sequence of the job related roles and positions, activities and experiences that are encountered by the person (Anderson & Et. Al., 2002). The major objective of the proposed study is related to the career management. The study will try to focus on the research questions which would look to address the existing scenario regarding careers along with to what extent HRM (Human Resource Management) can or should be a part of career management. Through this proposed research paper it is intended to identify the role of the HRM in career management. Various steps of career management process involve career exploration, development of the career goals and the use of various strategies in order to achieve the career goals. The question that now arises is whether the career management is related to the employee’s development and the performance. For this purpose the relationship that exists among the different aspects of the career management steps as well as the development behaviour of the employee need to be gauged. In this regards, the employees can provide information by considering their personal characteristics, career management strategies, the support of their managers for the career development and their willingness to participate in the development activities. On the other hand, the managers can appraise the performance of the employees and the development behaviour. In this regard, it can be identified that the managers support development. Distance from career goals brings about significant differences in the willingness of the employees to participate in the development activities along with development behaviour (Noe, 1996). It has been argued by the authors and the researchers that the career management programs in formal organisations are part of the firms’ overall human resource strategies. The career management programs are adopted by the organisation in a belief that the performance of the individuals will be enhanced and it will increase the employee’s commitment. If the career management systems are implemented without enough preparation of the organisation, then it might result to ineffective and misleading programs. If the organisation is involved in the individual’s career planning activities, then it might help to reduce the uncertainty that the employees face. It will also assist them in planning and help them in yielding positive results for the organisations (Portwood, 1987). With regards to the question about the exist ing scenario regarding careers, it can be denoted that there has been little changes in the world of work and the career of the people. Support for changing the focus upon the career stems from the psychologically grounded ideas about people as sculptors of their own careers. It also comes from the fact that the person themselves are the creator of the personal meaning in their lives (Arthur & Et. Al., 1999). The HRM systems of the organisation that would include the workforce planning and staffing procedures, career management and the training and development efforts have to be consistent with the strategic plans of the firms. If the objective of the company is to downsize and shed the business, then in that case the HRM system and the related career programs will be concerned

The Role of Conflict Essay Example for Free

The Role of Conflict Essay In the establishment of leader-follower relationships, harmony is required in order to achieve the best possible results within an organization. But in the real world, perfect harmony is not likely to happen. Leaders and followers have varying degrees of intellect, perception, and principles – and these are the very things that contribute to conflicts in an organization. While conflict can easily be assumed to have a negative effect on a leader-follower relationship, it plays a special role within the community – a role that is as equally important as harmony. The main function of conflicts is to bring out the best in every plan, policy, and method that is implemented by the leader or the group as a whole. Conflicts cause members to voice out their views and opinions to their leaders or other members with the aim of correcting what they think or feel are not right about it. Consequently, this ensures that every step that the group makes passes the strict scrutiny and evaluation of its own members and leaders (Cuban 29). Conflicts challenge the actions of leaders or other group members. People who stimulate conflicts are not necessarily bad for the organization. In fact, conflict indicates that the group is composed of people who are morally involved and committed to all the pursuits that their organization are willing to take. The actual people who seemingly create conflict are there to ensure that all steps taken by the group conforms well within social norms and ideology of the organization they belong to. They are there to protect the interests of the group and make certain that everything is done for its greater glory. They are actually more involved, although in a negative way, than those members who choose not to air out their views, no matter how right they think they are. In essence, conflicts makers benefit the organization more than the member or the leader who is indifferent to what transpires around them (Harolds Wood 203). Conflicts also bring about the best in a leader. Conflicts, whether it is aimed to make the organization good or worse, is an issue that a leader needs to deal with. A capable leader can be evaluated in terms of performance and skills by to his ability to handle conflicts. His ability to remain as a leader can be assessed through the techniques he or she uses to address the problem and the actual solutions he was able to implement (Korabik, et al 409). Works Cited Cuban, Larry. â€Å"Conflict and Leadership in the Superintendency.† Phi Delta Kappan 67.1 (1985): 28-30. Harolds, J Wood, BP. â€Å"Conflict Management and Resolution† J Am Coll Radiol 3.3 (2006): 200-2006. Korabik, Karen, Baril, Galen L, Watson Carol. â€Å"Managers Conflict Management Style And Leadership Effectiveness: The Moderating Effects Of Gender† Sex Roles 29.5-6 (1993):405-420.

Peter Druckers Contribution To Management Management Essay

Peter Druckers Contribution To Management Management Essay Peter Drucker is the finest modern management thinker in terms of his groundbreaking ideas on management and business disciplines. This paper will discuss his major contributions to management theory and practice and critically appraise his ideas about marketing, performance management, knowledge economy, managing change and post industrialisation. One of the contributions of Peter Drucker is the theory called Management by Objectives.MBO or Management by Objective emphasize the importance of identifying specific goals for each employee. Afterwards, the organization will then compare and direct their performance against established goals. MBOs main intention is to improve organizational performance through aligning goals and subordinate objective across the organization. Employee often improves their input through identification of goals and setting reasonable time lines. Management by Objectives includes continuous monitoring and feedbacks during the process of reaching goals (Value Based Management 2010). Peter Drucker first created the concept of MBO in 1954 in his book The Practice of Management. As suggested by Drucker, managers must prevent activity trap or being engaged in their daily activities that they often ignore their primary purpose. To improve the effectiveness of a business strategic plan, MBO theories suggested that all managers (not some or few) must engage in the strategic planning process. Another aspect of MBO states that managers must establish various performance systems created to support the firm to remain on the right track. MBO Principles includes cascading objectives and goals of the organization, providing specific goals for every member, encourage participative decision making, established reasonable time line and evaluate performance and give feedbacks (Value Based Management 2010). MBO also introduced the SMART approach for assessing the validity of Objectives that must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Related (Value Based Management 2010). Specific means setting expected results that are more specific; for instance, rather than stating better customer satisfaction, the goal should increase customer satisfaction score by 12 points employing the customer service survey. Objectives should also be measurable. This may mean that the organization should include their objectives in the review process. They should create measure to determine clearly whether a member has satisfied its objectives or not; for example, please rate the cleanliness of the store ranging from excellent, good, fair and poor (Bogue 2005). Achievable is the next crucial factor in establishing goals. For example, achieving 10 to 20 percent improve customer service is considered achievable while the goals of improving customer service by around 100 to 200 percent is considered unachievable. Being realistic signifies considering uncontrollable circumstances. Realistic objectives should be challenging but not too challenging that the chances of achieving such goal is minimal. Time-based signifies that the organization should set specific time period when the objective should be reached. In other words, objectives should not involve, should increase customer satisfaction by 20 percents but rather it must be should increase customer satisfaction by 20 percent within the next 14 months (Bogue 2005). Peter Drucker also served as the leading authority of entrepreneurship and innovation. According to Drucker (cited in Iowa State University 2010), Innovation consists of finding a new and more effective way of performing tasks. He believes that the organization has seven sources or places to search for innovative opportunities that must be recognized by those people who are interested in venturing entrepreneurship. The first one is the unexpected. Signs of unique opportunity could be unexpected incident, unexpected failure or unexpected success. Any discrepancy regarding reality and what reality should be can also serve as an opportunity to innovate. Innovation can also arise from the process need. If a specific process has a weak link, but individuals involved are used to it rather than solving the issue, this presents an opportunity (Iowa State University 2010). Opportunity for innovation might also emerge in changes in market structure and the industry as well as in the changes in population size, age structure, and employment, level of education and income of a society. Improvements in both scientific and non-scientific information can generate new products and new markets. Furthermore, apart from opportunities, Drucker also presented five principles of innovation so that interested people would be able to exploit what they have realized. The first one is they should start evaluation of the existing opportunity (Iowa State University 2010). Next, they should assess if the target market would be interested with the said innovation. An innovation will also become more effective if it is simple and clearly emphasizes a specific need. Successful innovation often starts small. Entrepreneurs could target a small market niche and as the market grows, the organization would have the time to improve its processes to accommodate the demands of the expanding market. They should also focus on market leadership. Otherwise, the idea would not be innovative enough to become successful (Iowa State University 2010). Drucker also stated that marketing and innovation serve as the two basic functions since the main purpose of entrepreneurship is to create a customer. The remaining functions are considered as costs. If marketers perform their job correctly, which signifies effectively focusing on customer and innovate, and then other business elements will fall into place. He also argued that the main focus of marketing should be ways to sell superfluously-meaning understand the customers that the service and product will become appealing. Therefore, marketing should make customers ready to purchase a specific service or product (Gonzalez n.d.). Subject matters related to management and leadership also serves as another important contribution from Peter Drucker. In fact, he created his own definition of leadership. For Drucker, leadership and management only have few differences in terms of definition. He believes that leadership is not purely about specific characteristics since no leaders will show exactly similar characteristics. Leadership is not also about having a charisma and king-like features (will be discussed later). Leadership is about how people perform their responsibility being a leader-similar to management (Business Listening 2005). One of the foundations of effective leadership is considering the organizations mission and identifying it. Organization should clearly establish that mission. It would be the responsibility of the leaders to establish those goals and priorities with clarity. Similarly, it would be up to the leader to describe and sustain those standards. Another foundation for effective leadership is the leadership responsibility. Successful leaders do not blame others since they are aware that they will take responsibility of any actions made by his/her subordinate. Effective leaders are also not anxious of independent thinking subordinates and they often persuade their team to become more effective members. The leaders responsibility is to share their visions among the group and create a working atmosphere where team members may flourish (Winston-Churchill Leadership 2007). Effective leadership also requires trust; otherwise, leaders will not gain effective followers. Trust can be earned but not through being loved. It does not also signify that subordinates and leaders should have the same opinion. Rather, anything what the leaders say should also reflect on their actions-integrity. If leaders have integrity, then they can be trusted (Winston-Churchill Leadership 2007). Drucker also discussed the dangers of charisma. Examples of those charismatic leaders who are not effective leaders include Mao, Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler. In other words, people should not choose leaders on the basis of charisma. Harry Truman does not have any charisma but everyone became loyal to him since he is an effective and trusted leader. If Truman said yes, he truly means yes. He does not say no to other one, and then yes to the other person concerning the same issue. Another effective leadership without an ounce of charisma is Ronald Reagan since he is very aware what he is capable of and not capable of (Karlgaard 2004). Furthermore, he created a five-part effectiveness model regarding management based on listening skills specifically steps one, two and five. The first step suggests that selecting ways to spend and not to spend time necessitates insistent delegation to avoid spending time on nonessential matters. Even though Drucker did not state it directly, it is clearly the Druckers concept of delegation is about coaching management style, wherein it involves timely listening with their subordinate regarding planning and progress. Direct control management style would discourage effective delegation of duties (Business Listening 2005). The next step is the executive should ask their subordinates what they contribute for the company today and for the future. As Drucker suggested, regardless whether subordinates view is similar is similar to the managers perspectives or not, emphasizing and realizing the value of everybodys roles being a contributor is necessary to the companys overall effectiveness. This is similar to the principles covered by Covey and Goleman regarding self-awareness, listening to one-self and having awareness towards others (e.g. listening to subordinates) (Business Listening 2005). In the fifth step, Drucker focused on the significance of actively searching for competing opinions and requesting regarding the basis for those opinions before selecting courses of action instead of acting based on pre-arranged or implicit consensus. This will need persistent listening with real curiosity to promote development of various opinions and assisting rationales, instead of simply establishing proposal and building consensus around them (Business Listening 2005). Drucker encourages coaching management style since he believes that the next society will become a knowledge economy. Knowledge will serve as an important resource and knowledge workers will become dominant workforce. The three characteristics of knowledge includes borderlessness, upwards mobility and its potential for success and failure. Knowledge is borderless since it can be transferred to another effortlessly. Upward mobility signifies knowledge is readily available through formal education. However, having that knowledge does not signify success since it can also become a failure depending on how people execute that knowledge. Drucker also noted that knowledge economy will heavily rely on knowledge workers (Drucker 2001). Therefore, it would be prudent for leaders to create an atmosphere would help reached knowledge workers to reach their own potential (Business Listening 2005). Critical Appraisal Druckers Ideas However, the question remains whether the principles presented by Drucker are still applicable to the modern management. The most plausible answer is that in general they are still applicable to the modern management. However, all principles whether they are created by Drucker or by other scholars have their own limitations and strengths as well as. One good example is the Management by Objectives. While Management by Objectives presented a foundation for organizations how to achieve goals, it might not be always applicable to all organizations. For instance, MBO is appropriate for knowledge-based enterprises that consist of competent staff. This is also suitable in situations that require tapping the creativity of their employees as well as their self-leadership skills. Management by Objectives is often used by CEOs in multinational corporations for their general managers overseas (Kotelnikov 2001). Another limitation of MBO is that it did not emphasize the significance of the environment as well as other aspects that would affect that satisfaction of goals. These aspects include quality and availability of resources and the influence of stakeholders over the objective (e.g. investors decisions). It did not also emphasize the importance of effectively responding to barriers and issues that are necessary to reach the objective. MBO did not emphasize the effect of the following concepts: limitations of planning, methodology and resources, expanding barriers related managing the information organization as well as the influence of changing environment which could change the business atmosphere and make planned actions inappropriate for the present situation (A Management by Objectives, History and Evolution n.d.). MBO did not emphasize the human nature concern. People across the world establish goals each year but do not follow them until they reach that goals. Objectives should also reflect on behaviour. On the other hand, goal setting often represents best intentions on that moment, aspirations or good ideas. Objectives does not always associate to the degree of execution that is necessary for achieving objectives (A Management by Objectives, History and Evolution n.d.). Another concept that will be assessed is Druckers perception of Effective Leadership. Drucker often emphasize either coaching management style or the delegating leader. However, he may have overlooked that effective leaders does not only delegate tasks or coach their teams. Leaders often made actions based on the situation, also known as situational leadership. The Situational Leadership Theory is not created by Peter Drucker but by Hersey and Blanchard. However, Hersey and Blanchard included delegating style as a part of Situational Leadership. Therefore, it does not necessarily signify that Druckers notions about leadership are wrong, but he only perceive an effective leadership in a limited scope-that is, his principles are only applicable in multinational corporations and other large scale businesses, not for small business management (Innovation and Entrepreneurship n.d.). Unlike the leadership principles presented by Drucker, Hersey and Blanchard believe that an effective leader adjusts their leadership styles. Leaders that employ situational leadership structure change their focus on task and interaction behaviour in order to deal with various levels of follower maturity. Based on the aforementioned information, it seems Drucker did not emphasize the fact that followers have different levels of maturity and some of them are not creative as leaders might expect to their subordinates. Furthermore, Hersey and Blanchard enumerated four possible leadership styles that a leader should employ: delegating, participating, selling and telling styles (Wiley 2006). Managers who employ situational leadership should be able to establish an alternative leadership styles as necessary. In order to do so, leaders should need to understand the maturity of follower in terms of readiness of tasks and employ the best leadership style that would be suitable to the working environment. If the follower maturity is high, then leaders should implement delegating style since this offer limited leadership intervention. If the situation is otherwise, then leaders should employ telling styles that focuses on task directed behaviours (Wiley 2006). Delegating style is not effective for those staff that has low readiness and has insufficient capability to perform tasks. Instead, the coaching management style might suffice in this situation. Other leadership styles that do not fall on the aforementioned categories include participating style and selling style. Therefore, Drucker should have explained when to use and when not to use coach management style and delegating style. Drucker also failed to recognize that an effective leader should be flexible enough to change his leadership style since followers, situations and environmental factors changed over time (Wiley 2006). Drucker believes that leadership is not purely about specific characteristics since no leaders will show exactly similar behaviours (Business Listening 2005). However, he did not consider that effective leaders have common qualities. One of these is the capability of listening, which is ironically speaking, this was acknowledged by Drucker but he did not consider as common features of effective leader. Effective leaders often accept and provide constructive suggestions, provide clear directions, establish and satisfy deadlines and capable of providing formal and informal presentation. Effective leaders often sets as a good role model, assist members in identifying and solving problems, elicits appreciations of members contributions and effectively handle dispute resolution. Other behaviours of an effective leader that was acknowledged by Drucker include delegation of responsibility, capable of developing productive atmosphere and asking questions to team members (The Government of Al berta 2001). While Druckers notion about the importance of innovation holds true in general, innovation itself has own risks and challenges. Because Drucker only provided limited information about taking advantage of innovation opportunities successfully, people often fall on innovation traps. For instance, leaders might always think that they are always ready to consider innovation. While thinking helps entrepreneurs to understand the tools and techniques that they should use to implement innovation, fallacies can disrupt reaching such objectives (Glor n.d). Innovators should have a clear thinking and not a wishful thinking. Another innovation trap is there is only one effective approach to examine innovation, which can be contrary to Druckers five principles of innovation. In other words, Drucker did not focus on the possible barriers that innovators might encounter during planning and implementation process. Successful innovators effectively ignore such barriers. Nevertheless, innovators should also anticipate specific threats and develop actions in order to overcome such problems (Glor n.d). Conclusion Peter Drucker is the finest modern management thinker in terms of his groundbreaking ideas on management and business disciplines. One of the contributions of Peter Drucker is the theory called Management by Objectives.MBO or Management by Objective emphasize the importance of identifying specific goals for each employee. Afterwards, the organization will then compare and direct their performance against established goals. MBOs main intention is to improve organizational performance through aligning goals and subordinate objective across the organization. While Management by Objectives presented a foundation for organizations how to achieve goals, it might not be always applicable to all organizations. For instance, MBO is appropriate for knowledge-based enterprises that consist of competent staff. This is also suitable in situations that require tapping the creativity of their employees as well as their self-leadership skills. Another limitation of MBO is that it did not emphasize the significance of the environment as well as other aspects that would affect that satisfaction of goals. These aspects include quality and availability of resources and the influence of stakeholders over the objective. It did not also emphasize the importance of effectively responding to barriers and issues that are necessary to reach the objective. MBO did not focused on the effect of the following concepts: limitations of planning, methodology and resources, expanding barriers related managing the information organization as well as the influence of changing environment which could change the business atmosphere and make planned actions inappropriate for the present situation. Drucker also stated that marketing and innovation serve as the two basic functions since the main purpose of entrepreneurship is to create a customer. If marketers perform their job correctly, which signifies effectively focusing on customer and innovate, and then other business elements will fall into place. He also argued that the main focus of marketing should be ways to sell superfluously-meaning understand the customers that the service and product will become appealing. Therefore, marketing should make customer ready to purchase a specific service or product. While Druckers notion about the importance of innovation holds true in general, innovation itself has own risks and challenges. Because Drucker only provided limited information about taking advantage of innovation opportunities successfully, people often fall on innovation traps. In other words, Drucker did not focus on the possible barriers that innovators might encounter during planning implementation process. Successful innovators effectively ignore such barriers but innovators should also anticipate specific threats and develop actions in order to overcome such problems. There are no questions regarding Druckers capability, wisdom and intelligence about the management, leadership and entrepreneurship. However, similar to other principles created by scholars, they have their own advantages and disadvantages. In the case of Druckers, it seems that he overlooked stakeholders and environmental factors that influence the success of achieving objectives as well as other barriers that entrepreneurs and innovators might ignore.

The Hundred Years War? Essay -- War England France Papers

The Hundred Years' War The start of hostilities in 1337 sees the balance of power stacked distinctly in the favor of France. Its population is large, its lands fertile, and its cities prosperous. A population of over 10 million make it one of, if not the strongest population base in Western Europe, with Paris laying claim to title as perhaps the sole great city in Latin Christendom . In contrast, the population of England totals only a third or a fourth of its adversary, with lands less developed and people less prosperous. Additionally, England still faces challenges from Scotland to the north, and though slightly less perilous in nature, revolts of the Welsh and Irish to the west. The marked difference in resource base allows French kings to continually field larger armies for the entire duration of the conflict. The defensive nature of the war for France also conveys considerable inherent advantages. Siege weapons have yet to catch up to the fortifications of the day, and larger walled cities and strongholds are often considered impregnable , requiring attacking armies to resort to the lengthy process of starving out a garrison before the city could be relieved. "The worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities. " Such a process, as in the case of Calais, could take months on end, with a high cost in men and resources which imposed a severe limitation on how much territory could be assaulted, broken, and held in any given amount of time. An army invading a territory as vast as the lands of France, whose landscape is dotted with fortified towns and castles, would be hard pressed to make any permanent inroads without the most tenacious and lengthy of operations. Defending a consolidated position of home territories al... ...t had enjoyed for so long not only vanish, but take root in the minds of their adversary, turning the balance of power so far from their favor as to make the continued struggle in the last years of the war entirely hopeless, carried on only due to the stubborn national pride of an island never willing to concede defeat. Bibliography Burne, Lt-Col. Alfred H. The Crecy War. Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1955. Burne, Lt-Col. Alfred H. The Agincourt War. Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1956. Giles, Lionel (translator). The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Hodder and Stoughton, 1981. Oman, Sir Charles. A History of The Art of War in the Middle Ages, Volume II. Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1924. Perroy, Edouard. The Hundred Years War. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1959. Thompson, Peter E. (translator). Contemporary Chronicles of the Hundred Years' War. The Folio Society Ltd, 1966.

Psychology of Racism Essay

In 1892, a shoe maker named Homer Plessy from New Orleans Louisiana was arrested for refusing to transfer to a railroad car designated for the dark-colored population in the East Louisiana Railroad after he sat in a first class railroad car meant for the white-skinned constituents of the state. Plessy appealed that he should be considered white since only 1/8 of him was African American as it was substantiated in his heritage. According to him, by forcing him to transfer to a different car, the authorities were violating the 13th and 14th Amendments of the United States Constitution which impedes slavery and segregation. From local custody to Supreme Court, Plessy was tried and accused of civil disobedience (Elliot, 2009). The arbiters of the court exhibited linear cognition which disregarded Plessy’s plea of violation of rights and obstinately favored Luoisiana’s claim that they did not violate such Amendment of the United States Constitution since they have the right to imply regulations and policies in railroad stations that are within their state. The case was denied of opportunities to be studied sufficiently as the justices esteemed and acknowledged that the act of separating the races under impartial rights should be abided, setting aside the sentiments of the colored inhabitants. II In South Campton County Virginia, a group of African American slaves initiated a rebellion that killed about 57 white men, women and children before the military forces and a number of armed civilians were able to arrive and take control. Angered by the murder of almost more than 50 innocent lives, vigilantes eradicated dozens of slaves who were not involved in the insurrection and exiled hundreds of free colored people from their land. The leader of the insurrection was a literate African American slave named Nat Turner who claimed he saw visions of God telling him to commit this act of violence, and with his extraordinary power of persuasion, he was able to compel other slaves to join him. After Turner’s surrender on October 30, 1831, he and his men were executed. (Bernier, 2010) Following the death of Nat Turner, a year of debate relating to the status of the African American slaves congested the Virginia General Assembly. Although it was considered that they should be relieved from their abject duties as slaves, a systematic arrangement for their freedom was never formed. Nat Turner’s act of rebellion caused that an anti-literacy law be passed which diminished the African American slaves’ freedom to communicate and have the opportunity to be educated, thus, almost completely mutilating their already restricted rights. From that historical event which became known as Nat Turner’s Rebellion or South Campton Insurrection, it can be analyzed that it might not only be a visionary or a delusioned man’s whim that caused such barbaric deeds but possibly an act or cry for liberation. Unequal treatment, enslavement for the rest of a man’s life and forced labor for very minimal or no wage at all, these are acceptable factors that can be considered as parts of a motive for the rebellion in South Campton. III In 1803, a British convict settlement was established in a Tasmanian aborigini inhabited island called Van Diemen’s Land. A total of of 65,000 convicted men and women were settled in the island of which most of them were cruelly traumatized and extremely violent. Due to the incompetent procedure of punishment, convicts were able to take flight into the Tasmanian hinterland where they exerted the fullness of their brutality and thirst of blood upon the aboriginis of the island (Turnbull, 1948) Symbolically and appropriately, this event in history can be described as a case of rape as the innocent aborigines were violated of their rights and freedom to live accordingly. Not only were they conquered and treated as slaves in their own land but they were exterminated and murdered like animals. They were robbed of their privilege as humans and left their race at the brink of their extinction. References Bernier, C. M. (2010) Slave Heroism in the Transatlantic Imagination. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Elliot, M. (2009) Color Blind Justice: Albion Tourgee and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. Turnbull, C. (1948) Black War : The Extermination of the Tasmanian Aborigines. Melbourne: