Eating Disorders Deterioration Of The Mind - 1117 Words

Eating Disorders: Deterioration of the Mind By: Genevieve Narkiewicz Advance Placement Psychology Mr.Cuetara May 4th, 2015 Abstract Eating disorders are in no way, to be considered â€Å"no big deal†. It affects the lives of many poor unsuspecting human beings and in some cases, fatally takes lives. This topic presents many things that most people don’t know. Such as the fact that bulimia nervosa has similar symptoms to using the drug heroin! Rotten teeth, pale and dry skin, and even failing organs are usually signs that someone may have bulimia. There are always key signs and factors to recognizing an eating disorder. Eating disorders are serious. We all should be aware of the affect it has on an individual, and if anyone knows or sees a person struggling with an eating disorder, outreaching and a simple hand in the right direction can save a life. Eating disorders get in the mind of an individual, then ruin the body, then finally ruin the mind. Eating disorders affect millions of men and women every day. Bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and binge eating disorder are three main types of eating disorders that can have detrimental consequences on the human body. These eating disorders not only deteriorate one’s body, but also eradicate the mind. â€Å"Inherent to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are a plethora of medical complications which correlate with the severity of weight loss or the frequency and mode of purging† (Mehler, 2015). In everyday life,Show MoreRelatedThe For The Perfect Or Ideal Body Image And The Fight Essay1713 Words   |  7 Pagesmany adolescence’s. Thus, following body shaming and social media have twisted and distorted the minds of young individuals causing an increasing rise in distorted eating habits and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. 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Six percent of adolescent social media users in the European UnionRead MoreThe World Of Fashion And Publicity1268 Words   |  6 PagesThe immediate rubric that comes to mind when evaluating the definition of â€Å"beauty† is as follows: tall, slim, captivating, and graceful. The world of fashion and publicity has undeniably been enriched by these seemingly expected traits, but to what ava il? Tyra Banks, host and judge of the popular reality TV show Americas Next Top Model, is regarded as one of the most beautiful -and successful- women of all time. Her claim to fame began at the age of 15, as her picturesque disposition spread acrossRead MoreObsessive Compulsive Disorder ( Ocd )1325 Words   |  6 PagesLandau, who suffers from an anxiety disorder. In particular, obsessive compulsive disorder. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are unnecessary thoughts that tend to be obsessions that lead to repetitive behaviors, also known as compulsions. 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In this era of teenage life we face problems that involve the evolution of social, environment and technological aspects that influence our physical and nutritionalRead MoreExpository Essay1193 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿ Allison Baughtman Healthy Eating and Exercise Expository Essay Effective Essay Writing Instructor: Jon Castle April 12, 2009 Even though a lot of people make too many excuses for not eating healthy, everyone should eat healthy and exercise regularly because healthy eating and exercise keeps your body healthy and helps you live longer and stronger. There are a lot of benefits to eating healthy. There are also a lot of risks to your health if you chose not to eat healthy.Read MoreDifferentiate Between Delirium And Dementia938 Words   |  4 Pagesdepression or anxiety, disinhibition and impulsivity, wandering or restlessness and trouble eating and swallowing, Rochon P.A. 2009. Qsn. 2Describe differences in dementia from Alzheimer’s disease, HIV-1 infection and vascular causes Dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease brain cells are usually surrounded by an uncharacteristic protein and their inner structure is also spoiled. Chemical relations between mind cells are lost and some of these cells die. One experiences problems in finding the rightRead MoreA Brief Analysis of Mental Disorders1069 Words   |  5 Pagesthe history of founders of psychology, to some of the theories that have been developed over the time, to how science and our brain work biologically. When I first started thinking about becoming a psychologist, one of my main questions was how the mind works and how it can force us to choose to do certain actions, especially those that might affect ourselves. 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Disparity Free Essays

Disparity is the state of being unequal or different in some respect. This brings to inequality being lack of equality and also the distance toward the rich and poor. Poverty is when having very little or no money and very few or no material possessions. We will write a custom essay sample on Disparity or any similar topic only for you Order Now As for development is the act of improvement meaning gaining, expanding, or enlarging. Inequality and poverty can cause a country not to develop well, unless you have a good strategy. In this case I will show you a developed country (Spain) and a under developed county (Chad). I will do this by explaining four disparities of the same for both countries. Those disparities are total population, unemployment rate, and condom use. The geographical location of Spain is in south Western Europe boarded by the Liberian peninsula and Mediterranean Sea. This does not influence the countries development because it can cause good trade with other countries which makes good business and a better economy. Their government is parliamentary monarchy and this doesn’t seem to affect their economy in any way due to the fact that the government leader is carried out by a cabinet and its chancellor who is part of legislature. Spain’s health care system seem to be running smoothly since they have a universal healthcare, which is open to everyone even tourists. As for their education system Spain is known as LOE meaning Ley Organcia De Educacion or fundamental law of education this is good for them and keeps their peoples standards highly well. Spain is a MEDC due to their seas of free trade and also tourists give them a better part of living and handling their surrounding well. Spain’s only problem would be their GDP because it has fallen and known to be as global recession this would only be there issue on improving their development. The geographical location of Chad is north central of Africa measuring at 1, 284,000 square kilometers. This seems to influence the countries development due to the fact that Chad isn’t very popular on trading and being the second largest lake in Africa. But more of the problem would be their government which is a republic voted by the people. In my opinion it seems the people do not know who to vote for anyway because of many problems they seem to be facing. One of their problems would be education, Chad does not have great educational skills and wont ever only because they need help from professionals in order to teach and make there country successful. Education might be one major fact of Chad being an LEDC, but the others would be resources and their health care system. Chad might be producing fast and more due to education not teaching them to be protected but also their health is a big problem because they do not have the great foods and proteins they need, which can cause as a result to death. In my opinion if Chad had help to start increasing their educational system then this could soon lead to actually having a good health care system and plan on having resources and good food, but one must begin to take charge soon. The first disparity I will be explaining is on the total population of Chad and Spain. Chad’s total population is 10,758,975, which seems to be high but in this case not so much due to the fact that Spain’s has a total population of 46,754,784. Chad might not have many people because of their way of living. Meaning they do not have the resources, supplies, and food they need. Every hour three people die from Chad due to one of these three economical developments that need to be improved in order for Chad to improve. As for Spain being at 46,754,784, gives them a better rate of living meaning they have good health care, resources, and food to survive with. The reason Spain is better then Chad is because they do not have the necessities that they need in order to survive. Secondly, the disparity would be unemployment rate, and this would be considered a big issue for Chad due to the fact that they do not have any unemployment rate record. The reason for this would be because it is already hard for people living in Chad to find a job and to not be unemployed means that there living status is as great either. As for Spain their unemployment rate would be 20%. So for this case they seem to be fine with the proper ages of working and those who are dependent of the workers. In my opinion to why Chad doesn’t have an unemployment rate is because in order to be unemployed you must have a job and in order to have a good job you must be educated, which Chad does not have. As for Spain though has the process of education, work, and unemployment with the cycles of ages meaning the dependents and workers. Third and final would be the use of condoms which is interesting due to Spain only using 37. 7% and Chad at 14. 3%. Spain was the most surprising because they are educated and don’t use condoms so much. While Chad is uneducated and of course hardly uses them they wouldn’t really seem notice the bad deal to it. In my opinion since Spain is more educated they should have had used the condoms and should consider them more since they know the consequences unlike Chad. In order for Chad to understand more they must make a well educational system and programs about staying protected or it can lead to diseases as well. My MEDC Spain needs to address the fact on developing a global partnership for development because they seem to have everything in order for them that they should help out others like LEDC Chad. They can do this by developing a program with many people and figure out a plan on how to bring Chad as a good country, starting with resources, medical supplies, education, ect. Now as for Chad there most important goal right now would be to achieve universal primary education because the only way to understand about condom used would be through there own basic knowledge. And to have basic knowledge you must at least some portion of knowledge within you. Chad can start to do this by making a program or at least finding some sort of help to start them off in developing into a MEDC. Spain in my opinion can help Chad by going down and making a program to start off their education needs and working skills in making a well developed country. With this it can also reduce their high record of HIV/AIDS and improve on using condoms as well into making a well balanced country. The millennium development goals have helped my LEDC Chad, but the won who started this improvement is Yokohama, Japan. Japan has helped with their economic growth rate, peace building, climate change and environmental concerns. Their theme is called â€Å"towards a vibrant Africa: A continent of hope and opportunity. † All that Japan is helping on is being broken down into a session which is a good idea to explain to all successfully in developing into a MEDC. I do think that millennium development goals are worth while because if Japan can make a difference with Chad then other MEDC’s can help other LEDC’s in becoming a well developed country. All it takes is one person to make a difference into making a new world. My final conclusions would be that Spain is well developed country that can help other LEDC’s into being a developed country. As for Chad I learned that they have many problems but all they need is help in starting to develop one step at a time like Japan is doing. This type of research is important to an IB learner because it shows us the struggles that people are having in life and to be considerate to those that need help and to explore more and learn about your basic countries information that could be interesting. Also maybe to get some ideas on actually helping out those LEDC’s into developing and living a good lifestyle that can give them food everyday and the resources they need. It is possible to reduce disparities in the world and it only takes one or a strong group of people to do it because those who make the differences strive and achieve more in life. How to cite Disparity, Essay examples

Culture of Global Virtual Teams-Free-Samples-Myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Compound Culture of Global Virtual Teams and Evaluates Cultural tensions. Answer: Introduction Global Virtual Teams are virtual teams, which work together as a team, but virtually. These teams communicate through communication technology like emails, fax, video or audio conferences, and telephone calls (Gibbs, 2009). Scientific description of data from a global team of software is used to clarify the structure. Framing differences of culture in terms of non-static tensions offers a fruitful theoretical framework for fostering and understanding association across diverse time, culture and space. This report outlines the analogy of culture, for understanding the compound culture of global virtual teams and evaluates cultural tensions identifying intercultural association in work arrangements virtually (Shachaf, 2008). The focus of this report is to analyse and identify the range of communication problems or issues, team members and managers working in Global Virtual Teams are presumably face, evaluate and discuss policies or strategies that the management can implement to deal with such issues. This report covers the basic definition of Global Virtual Teams with proper introduction, characteristics that differentiate GVT with Face-to-Face Teams (F2F). The report further covers the three different problems arising for Global Virtual Teams such as communication issues, cultural diversity and geographical dispersion and the management strategies to reduce and stop these problems and issues. Global Virtual Teams Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) are groups that are (a) identified by their organizations and group members as being a team; (b) are responsible for making and implementing decisions important to the organizations strategy; (c) use technology-supported communication more than face-to-face communication; and (d) work and live in different countries (Pinjani Palvia, 2013, p. 1). According to Pinjani and Palvia (2013), Global Virtual Teams are virtual teams that are acknowledged by their team members and their organizations as being a particular team with same objectives or goals. These teams make and implement decisions, which are beneficial for the organization and organizations strategy. Global Virtual Teams use technology supported communication such as emails, phone calls, video or audio conferences, fax. They generally do not work or communicate as face-to-face teams. These teams are culturally diversified, or in other words, they live and work in various different countries. Characteristics of Gvt Global Virtual Teams are much different from Face-to-Face Teams. The main characteristics of GVTs are as follows: a) Culturally Diversified: The main characteristic of GVT is that the members of these teams are from all over the world (Dorr Kelly, 2011). These teams are culturally diversified, which means, the members of these teams work and live in various countries throughout the world. b) Virtual Teams: As the name suggests, Global Virtual Teams exist virtually. These teams generally do not come face-to-face (Hambley, ONeill Kline, 2007). This virtual nature helps them work easily without any kind of distance barrier. c) Communication: The third major characteristic of Global Virtual Teams is their communication system (Flammia, Cleary Slattery, 2010). These teams communicate regularly via technology-supported communication such as emails, phone calls, fax, audio or video conferencing. GVTs communicate to collaborate with their team members. Problems Every coin has an opposite side, which means every good thing has a bad or faulty side. Similarly, one of the most important characteristics of Global Virtual Team is their unique cultural diversity. At the same time, this particular characteristic creates a havoc problem for GVTs (Shachaf, 2008). The three major problems for Global Virtual Teams are communication issues, cultural diversity and geographical dispersion. The description of the problems is as follows: Major Problems Communication Problem for Technology Global Virtual Teams have a negative effect on intercultural communication (Daim et at. 2012). This intercultural communication has a significant positive effect or impact on decision-making. The major problem for cultural diversity is the communication problem, or in other words, the language problem (Klitmoller, Schneider Jonsen, 2015). Effective and improvised technologies for intercultural communication included fax, teleconferencing, email, with the combination of team rooms and e-meetings. Communication media is selected by the influence of cultural diversity. Cultural Diversity Cultural diversity is a challenge for such teams. Modern organizations or companies deal many significant or remarkable challenges and threats because of tempestuous and stormy environments with an extreme competitive and conflicting global economy(Klitmoller Lauring, 2013). Through the diversification in culture and wide range of ideas from members all over the world, new ideas and extremely beneficial suggestions come out, which are exceptionally favorable and advantageous for the organizations growth and development (Cagiltay, Bichelmeyer Akilli, 2015). In spite of having huge advantage, cultural diversification sometimes turns out to be a problem for Global Virtual Teams. Geographical Dispersion A particular virtual team, working for the same project in different geographical locations is known as a geographical dispersed team. Geographical dispersion is a common problem in any virtual team. The main problem for geographical dispersion is the difference in time zones (Thomas, Bostrom Gouge, 2007). Different countries have time difference, which creates a major problem in communication. Another problem in geographical dispersion is the attitude towards work. Reasons for the Problems Communication Problem for Technology The main reason for the problem of communication is language or linguistic problem. When a team member of Global Virtual Team is from France, and the other team member is from Australia, there is a high chance that there will be a language or communication problem between those two team members. It may so happen that the member from France does not know English and can only communicate in French. Similarly, the member from Australia does not know French and can only communicate in English. This can lead to a major conflict in those two members, thus affecting the whole Global Virtual Team (Klitmoller Lauring, 2013). The next reason for problem in cultural diversity is the lack of non-verbal communication. This is an extremely common problem in virtual teams. These types of teams generally do not meet face-to-face; so there is no chance of non-verbal communication or body language. Non-verbal communication is an important type of communication for any team, as sometimes team members are unable to convey their words to their fellow team members due to language problem (Lockwood, 2015). Cultural Diversity An important reason for problem of cultural diversity is the diversification of different cultures in a particular team. Different countries have different cultures. This is a major reason for the problem for cultural diversity in any virtual teams (Kayworth Leidner, 2002). The diversification of cultures of two different employees often clash between each other, which further disturbs the whole team. Another reason for problem in cultural diversity is the difference in professional etiquettes. Different cultures have different etiquettes, values, attitudes and behaviors in their workplaces. While these are beneficial and enriching in a cultural dispersed professional environment, such etiquettes can even cause ill feelings or misunderstandings between other team members. An example of such etiquette is a member does not feel appropriate or correct to leave his work place before his manager or boss leaves; at the same time, another member may be used to an eight-hours working schedu le. The first member might find the second member rude, which may create a conflict between them. Difference in working styles is another important reason for problems in cultural diversity (Au Marks, 2012). Different countries and work places have different working styles, which may seem to be wrong and inappropriate for other team members. . The next major reason for conflict in cultural diversity is the attitude towards time. It has been observed that there are two types of cultures in any team. They are monochromic and polychromic culture. Individuals, who belong to polychromic culture, have the tendency to arrive late in meetings and conferences. However, individuals, belonging to monochromic culture, have the tendency to arrive on time in conferences and meetings. This creates a major problem in any team. Geographical Dispersion The world in divided into several time zones. Each country has a different time zone from another country. It sometimes occurs that a team member is trying to communicate with another team member; but the working hour is finished for the day for that member, so he is unable to communicate with his team member. This creates a havoc conflict between those two team members. Body languages play a significant role in such cases. However, this is not possible for Global Virtual Teams as they do not meet or come across with other. Attitude and working styles towards work is sometimes different for various and different countries due to geographical dispersion. Working styles usually reflect compounding differences and cultural values and ethics. Another major reason for geographical dispersion problem is the instrumental and affective communication. Instrumental communication is the sender and goal oriented communication; whereas the affective communication is the receiver and process orien ted communication (Thomas, Bostrom Gouge, 2007). In a recent survey, it is observed that the American team members deduced some of the communication events between the Japanese to be not necessary because they were not instrumental communication. These Americans did not perceive these messages and information contained the to do component. This created misunderstanding and sometimes frustration by the American team members when the Japanese team members followed the managers on their entire organizational hierarchy for a specific and particular message. While the Japanese members emphasized on being process oriented and maintaining the relationships, the Americans felt that this particular act created conflict (Kayworth Leidner, 2002). These are the common reasons for problems in geographical dispersion in GVTs. Who says it is a Problem? Communication breakdown is a major problem in GVT. Often employees cannot communicate in languages, which are unknown to them (Daim et al., 2012). This creates a huge conflict between the employees. According to Au Marks (2012), different countries have different culture, which sometimes create problems within employees. This problem is more serious if it occurs within a virtual team. This type of team has members from all over the world, thus having a cultural diversity. According to Shachaf (2008), monochromic and polychromic culture is a problem in geographical dispersion. Another reason for problem in geographical dispersion is the difference in time zones. Management STrategies Solutions for the Problems . Problems in global virtual teams, can be solved by certain management strategies (Mukherjee et al., 2012). These management strategies help to reduce problems or even sometimes remove the problems from the team and the existing team members. The management strategies that help to reduce the problems are easy to implement and can be utilized by any organization or company for their Global Virtual Teams. The solutions to the above-mentioned problems are as follows: Communication Problem GVTs often undergo communication or language problems in global virtual teams. These types of problems, even if they occur between two particular team members, can affect the whole team, which leads to the breakdown of teams spirit and motivation towards its work and their goals are not achieved. Another major problem for cultural diversity is language problem. This particular problem can be solved by a simple management strategy. Since cultural diversity enlarges and increments the confusion, ambiguity, conflict, and complexity of communication, this diversity sets higher challenges for the team members and leaders. Culturally diverse groups reveal the lower levels of cohesion. They also show the absence of shared mental models preventing the understanding amongst team members. The most genuine characteristics of miscommunication are translation problems, less reliability in communication, and slower speech. Linguistic or language problem can be solved with the help of an interprete r (Stawnicza Kurbel, 2012). When a team member in from France and he does not know any other language except French, it can become a huge problem for other team members, who are from other parts of the world and they do not know French. Interpreters play a significant role in such cases. They translate the unknown language. Every organization should hire a translator for other common languages, so that it does not become a problem for communication for other team members. This translator is more important if the team is a Global Virtual Team, as GVT contains members from all over the world with different language backgrounds. Another important problem for cultural diversity in Global Virtual Team is the lack of non-verbal communication or body language. When a team member is unable to express or convey this words or ideas to his fellow team members due to language problem, body language or non-verbal communication plays a significant role in such cases (Nunamaker, Reining Briggs, 2009). However, Global Virtual Teams are virtual teams; they do not meet generally, so they are unable to communicate with other non-verbally. The solution to this problem is organizing video conferences, so that one team member can see the body languages of other members. Cultural diversity Culture is a multidimensional and complex construct, which is notified on several levels such as organizational, regional, national and international. A huge range of several cultural factors influences each individual such as national, organizational and international. Commonly used definitions of cultural diversity include organizational, racial, national and professional amalgamation (Zander, Zettinig Makela, 2013). Cultural diversity is defined as the amalgamation of various national cultures of team members; a team members national culture is considered that of his or her country of residence. The utilization or use of ICT or Information and Communication Technology, an intercultural workforce, and reforming or changing organizational models, which increase participation of workers have changed and altered the nature of MNC or Multi National Corporations (Vaidyanathan, Sabbaghi Debrot, 2010). This utilization of ICT is an important strategy towards solving the problems in cult ural diversity. Geographical Dispersion The major problem for geographical dispersion in GVT is the difference in time zones. The world has different and several time zones. When a team member is working in his company, it may so happen that the work time is finished for the day for another member. Communication thus becomes a huge problem in this case. The strategy or solution for this particular problem is using emails instead of video or audio conferences (Noll, Beecham Richardson, 2010). Emails can be read even after office hours but video and audio conferences are done during office hours. Therefore, this problem can be solved with the help of emails or fax. Reasons for the solution Communication Problem An interpreter will solve the problem of language in a GVT. He can make understand the employees, who are unable to communicate in a specific language. As soon as the employee will understand the language, he will be able to solve the communication issue with the rest of the teams, so an interpreter is extremely important for any organization (Cagiltay, Bichelmeyer Akilli, 2015). Another solution to the communication problem is showing body language. Video conferences show the body language of the team members, which solves the problem of miscommunication of language. Non-verbal communication is another solution to the communication problem in GVT. Cultural Diversity The main solution to solve the culture diversity problem is the utilization of ICT. This technology helps to communicate with all the team members of a virtual team amongst each other through emails, fax (Zander, Zettinig Makela, 2013). ICT reduces the cultural diversity in a global virtual team as it increases the intercultural participation in the team. The reason for this solution is that ICT even removes the language problem within the team members. Geographical Dispersion The major problem of geographical dispersion is the difference in time zones. The strategy to solve this particular problem is to communicate through emails or fax. Another problem in geographical dispersion is the attitude towards time. It is seen that in almost virtual team, two types of members are present. They are of polychromic culture and monochromic culture. People, who belong to polychromic culture always, have the tendency to arrive late in meetings or conferences; whereas people, who belong to monochromic culture, have the tendency to arrive on time. This diversification creates a problem in the team. This can be solved with perfect managerial strategy. Strict laws should be involved for being late in meetings or conferences and discussions should be there to understand why polychromic members are always late (Gibbs, 2009). These are the probable solutions or managerial strategies to reduce or remove conflicts and problems in cultural diversity in Global Virtual Teams. Who says it is a solution? The attitude or the body language of a team member often creates a confusion in the minds of other team members. This body language or attitude is mainly seen in video conferences. According to Noll, Beecham Richardson (2010), this problem can be solved by using emails, fax, phone calls and audio conferences. According to Zander, Zettinig Makela (2013), ICT can be the solution to the problem of cultural diversity in GVTs. There are always two types of members in a team. They are of monochromic and polychromic culture. Monochromic people are always on time, whereas polychromic people are always late. According to Gibbs (2009), this problem can be solved by implementing strict laws for being late in meetings and conferences and with proper discussions. Conclusion Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that Global Virtual Teams or GVTs are virtual teams that work together for a specific organization to attain same and similar goals. The members of these teams are distributed or dispersed all over the world and they work virtually, which means they do not meet. GVTs have cultural diversity that helps them to explore new ideas and thus having a huge and major success. In spite of having such advantages, the cultural diversity often creates a problem due to the diversification of languages, difference in professional etiquettes, difference in time zones, attitude towards work and many more. However, all these problems in cultural diversity can be solved using proper managerial strategies References Au, Y., Marks, A. (2012). Virtual teams are literally and metaphorically invisible Employee relations, 34(3). 271-287. Cagiltay, K., Bichelmeyer, B., Akilli, G. K. (2015). Working with multicultural virtual teams: critical factors for facilitation, satisfaction and success. Smart Learning Environments, 2(1), 1-16. Daim, T. U., Ha, A., Reutiman, S., Hughes, B., Pathak, U., Bynum, W., Bhatla, A. (2012). Exploring the communication breakdown in global virtual teams. International Journal of Project Management, 30(2), 199212. Dorr, Meena., Kelly, Kip. (2011). Developing Real Skills for Virtual Teams. UNC Executive Development, 1-17. Flammia, M., Cleary, Y., Slattery, D. M. (2010). Leadership roles, socioemotional communication strategies, and technology use of Irish and US students in virtual teams. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 53(2), 89-101. Gibbs, Jennifer L., (2009). Culture as kaleidoscope: navigating cultural tensions in global collaboration. Proceedings 09 International Workshop on intercultural Collaboration, 89-98. Hambley, L. A., ONeill, T. A., Kline, T. J. (2007). Virtual team leadership: The effects of leadership style and communication medium on team interaction styles and outcomes. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 103(1), 1-20. Kayworth, T. R., Leidner, D. E. (2002). Leadership effectiveness in global virtual teams. Journal of management information systems, 18(3), 7-40. Klitmoller, A., Lauring, J. (2013). When global virtual teams share knowledge: Media richness, cultural difference and language commonality. Journal of World Business, 48(3), 398-406. Klitmoller, A., Schneider, S. C., Jonsen, K. (2015). Speaking of global virtual teams: language differences, social categorization and media choice. Personnel Review, 44(2), 270-285. Lockwood, J. (2015). Virtual team management: what is causing communication breakdown?. Language and Intercultural Communication, 15(1), 125-140. Mukherjee, D., Lahiri, S., Mukherjee, D., Billing, T. K. (2012). Leading virtual teams: how do social, cognitive, and behavioral capabilities matter?. Management Decision, 50(2), 273-290. Noll, J., Beecham, S., Richardson, I. (2010). Global software development and collaboration: barriers and solutions. ACM inroads, 1(3), 66-78. Nunamaker, J., Reining, B., Briggs, R. (2009). Principles for effective virtual teamwork. Communications of the ACM, 52(4), 113-117. Pinjani, P., Palvia, P. (2013). Trust and knowledge sharing in diverse global virtual teams. Information and Management, 50(4), 144-153. Shachaf, P. (2008). Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study. Information Management, 45(2), 131-142. Stawnicza, O., Kurbel, K. (2012). How to Prevent before you Must Cure-A Comprehensive Literature Review on Conflict Management Strategies in Global Project Teams. Orlando, Florida. Thomas, D. M., Bostrom, R.P., Gouge, M. (2007). Making knowledge work in virtual teams. Communications of the ACM, 50(11), 85-90. Vaidyanathan, G., Sabbaghi, A., Debrot, C. (2010). Critical success factors in managing virtual teams: frameworks and relationships. Issues in Information Systems, 11(1), 566-570. Zander, L., Zettinig, p., Makela, K. (2013). Leading global virtual teams to success. Organizational Dynamics, 42(3 SI), 228-237.

Media Political Parties free essay sample

History of news media TV coverage of U.S. politics, debates, campaigns, bias, equal access, advertising. The media in the time of the writing of the Constitution was a much smaller and more timid institution. Today, the media has become dominated by the electronic media, and especially by television, which has become powerful in ways not envisioned by the Founding Fathers. Television has become the conduit of choice for political candidates, and this has altered the style of the political debate, leading to the sound-bites and attack ads that have been so criticized in recent years. Television did not set out to shape the political debate and did not intend to cheapen that debate as seems to have occurred. It might be argued that the media lacks power because it does not seem to be in control of the capabilities it wields, but those capabilities are themselves considerable and have had a massive influence on how Americans conduct themselves in elections and between

How to Make Glowing Jell-O

How to Make Glowing Jell-O Its incredibly easy to make Jell-Oâ„ ¢ or other gelatin glow under a black light. Heres how to make it happen: Glowing Jell-O Materials package of Jell-O or other gelatintonic waterblack light Make the Jell-O Follow the directions on the package, except use tonic water instead of water.For a small package, the usual directions would be to heat 1 cup of tonic water to boiling.Mix the boiling tonic water and Jell-O until the powder is completely dissolved.Stir in another cup of tonic water.Pour the liquid into a pan or bowl.Refrigerate the Jell-O until is has set.You can use cookie cutters to make shapes out of the gelatin if desired.Shine a black light on the Jell-O to make it glow. No matter what flavor/color of Jell-O you use, it will glow bright blue under the black light. This is the fluorescence of the quinine in the tonic water. Quinine also gives tonic water a distinctive bitter flavor which you will also taste in the gelatin. If you dont like the taste, you can lessen it by using half tonic water and half tap water in the recipe. Either sugar-free or regular tonic water works fine for this recipe. Some recipes call for using a low percentage of tonic water (5-10%). The glow from this gelatin will be extremely faint, especially if the dessert is colored. You need a decent amount of quinine to get a bright glow.

Turn Your Teacher Weaknesses Into Assets to Get the Job

Turn Your Teacher Weaknesses Into Assets to Get the Job One interview question that can stump even seasoned job-seeking educators is What is your greatest weakness as a teacher? This question may come at you disguised as What would you most like to change/improve about yourself? or What frustrations did you encounter in your last position? This weakness question really tags as an opportunity to Describe your strengths. Your response can tip the interview in your favor or send your resume to the bottom of the pile. Forget Conventional Wisdom In the past conventional wisdom recommended putting a spin on this question by describing an actual strength camouflaged  as a weakness. For example, you might have tried to be clever and offered perfectionism as your weakness, explaining that you refuse to quit until the job gets done right. But in responding to your weaknesses, you should should stay away from any personal qualities. Save your personal qualities such as perfectionism, enthusiasm, creativity, or patience for describing strengths. In responding to a question about a weakness, you should offer more professional traits. For example, you may recall how you noticed your attention to detail, organization, or problem-solving may have needed improvement. Once you have provided the trait, you should provide details on how you purposefully worked to address this weakness. Include any of the steps you have taken or are currently taking to mitigate this weakness. Here are two examples of how you might respond to a question about your greatest weakness. Corrected Weakness: Organization For example, you can state that you have been less excited about the amount of paperwork that comes along with a classroom of students. You may admit that in the past you tended to procrastinate on assessing classwork or homework. You can also admit to having found yourself on more than one occasion scrambling to catch up right before the grading period ended. You might feel like your honesty leaves you vulnerable. But, if you go on to explain that in order to combat this tendency, you set a schedule for yourself this past school year that dedicated time every day to paperwork, you will be viewed as a problem solver. You might include other strategies you used such as self-grading assignments whenever practical, which allowed students to assess their own work as you discussed the answers together in class. As a result, you can acknowledge that you learned to stay on top of your grading and needed a short time at the end of each period to compile the information. For new teachers, examples like this could come from student teaching experiences. Now an interviewer will see you as self-aware and reflective, both highly desirable attributes in a teacher. Corrected Weakness: Seeking advice Teachers are independent, but that can lead to isolation in problem solving, and some problems may necessitate advice from others.This is particularly true in dealing with confrontational situations such as dealing with an irate parent or a teachers aide who arrives late to your class every day. You might admit that you may have tried to solve some problems on your own, but upon reflection, felt it was necessary to seek the advice of others. You can explain how you found the teacher next door to you or an administrator was important in helping you address different kinds of uncomfortable confrontations. If you are an educator looking for first job, you may not have classroom experiences to use as examples. But dealing with confrontations is a life skill and not limited to the school building. In this case, you can provide examples of problem-solving confrontations you may have had at college or at another job. Seeking the advice of others shows that you can identify people or groups that can be resources instead of trying to tackle confrontational problems on your own. Self analysis Employers know job candidates have weaknesses, says Kent McAnally, director of career services at Washburn University. They want to know that we are doing the self-analysis to identify what ours are, he writes for the American Association for Employment in Education. Showing that you are taking steps to improve is essential to making a positive impression, but more importantly, it is essential for developing your personal and professional goals and development plans. And THAT is the real reason for the question. Tips to Master the Interview Be truthful.Do not try to guess what the interviewer wants to hear. Answer questions candidly and present your authentic self.Prepare for the question but do not let your answers sound coached.Remain positive as you explain how your weakness could be seen as a positive in the job.Avoid using negative words like â€Å"weak† and â€Å"failure.†Smile!

Movie Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Movie Assignment - Essay Example ’s son, Michael, is critically ill of heart disease and he has already been taken to hospital (Crisis of Hope Memorial Hospital) by his parents; Michael needed heart transplantation. Unfortunately, Michael’s parents are unable to raise the required money, and they have already exhausted all the possible means to raise the $750, 000 required for Michael’s name to be included in the list of patient’s waiting operation. John Q had to decide on whether to transfer Michael to another hospital (County Hospital) or to use any other possible mean to have his son operated. Michael would most likely die if his parents transferred him to a County Hospital because the County Hospitals would not have been able to operate him. Desperate to see his son treated, John Q decided to use violence so that his son could be treated; John held hostage the stuff and the patients in the Emergency Room hostage so that his son could be treated. Eventually, John’s plan succeede d and his son was operated. In this movie, John had also attempted to commit suicide so that he could donate his heart to his son. Having analysed the situation in which John Q found himself, it is clear that John Q did not act with integrity. This is because integrity demands that one should act in the right way and a manner consistent with the prevailing rules and laws. Although John Q was desperate to have his son treated, and, although his plan of resorting to violence finally worked, John’s action of resort to violence, however, were not in line with the rules and the laws of the hospital. For this reason, therefore, John Q did not act with integrity. John also did not act with integrity by attempting to commit suicide so as to donate his heart to his son. This is because, rather than attempting to commit suicide, John could have let the hospital look for the heart for the transplantation. John’s wife, Denise, also did not act with integrity in the movie. This is because Denise collaborated with John

Information Systems Outsourcing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Information Systems Outsourcing - Essay Example Outsourcing may be defined as the transfer of operational responsibility of either business processes or information system and other infrastructure management of an organization to an external service provider to achieve strategic goals, reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction and provide other efficiency and effectiveness improvements. This field has been in constant focus in last few years due to various social and financial issues involved with it. A number of organizations have sub-contracted all or part of their information systems / information technology function to specialist consultancies / contractors. According to Forbes Over 90% of Fortune 500 companies have outsourced at least one major business function. Encouraged by the projections of phenomenal cost savings, many Fortune 500 firms are jumping on to the "outsourcing bandwagon" (Lacity and Hirschheim 1993b). A survey of U.S. CEOs shows that 42% of communication firms, 40% of computer manufacturers, and 37% of semiconductor companies rely on outsourcing from foreign firms. These same CEOs expect the figures on outsourcing to exceed 50% before the mid-1990s (Bettis et al. 1992). Though the process of outsourcing is often considered as a non core business process it may range from low grade high volume and repetitive mechanical processes to a more sophisticated and high-tech development outsourcing. Outsourcing, in general, can be categorized as business processing outsourcing, platform IT outsourcing, application outsourcing and systems and network infrastructure outsourcing Information System outsourcing and processing services spending were approximately $200 billion in 2004, representing an 8.8% compounded annual growth rate (IDC). Information system outsourcing has been fueled by rapid technological change throughout all industries which results in more expense to upgrade systems, more time to install and increase complexity. For smaller companies which have information system and information technology department for just business support, maintaining and managing a good IT/IS department is not viable option, it is practically impossible to have a best team which can take on the market competition but IT/IS is major factor today that decide the success and failure of an organization. This lead to the outsourcing of major IT/IS outsourcings. Entire IT department or some IT/IS services are outsourced. The emerging pervasive nature of the Internet has effectively helped the communication between different parties involved in outsourcing process and has been the major facilitator of outsourcing in recent years. Easy and immediate access to information enables various parties involved in outsourcing to estimate the success of effort and control the entire process flow. Insufficient labor availability in developed countries, especially for those with IT expertise, has also led many companies in developed countries to outsource their business process and functional needs to the countries where cheap and high skilled human resource is available. Outsourcing decisions, in past, were primarily based on anticipated cost savings without the consideration of technology and security, but in

Price Elasticity or Demand & Marginal Utility Essay Example for Free

Price Elasticity or Demand Marginal Utility Essay Part A   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Based on its definition, the major determinants of price elasticity of demand would be the percentage change of quantity demanded and prices of the goods and services. We can say that a certain good is an elastic or inelastic good based on the above identified determinants of price elasticity of demand (Moffatt 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Like for instance, let us consider the case of bottled water in the market. Since there are a lot of companies that produces bottled water, this product can only be considered as elastic good because even if the prices of bottled water decrease in the market the demand would change significantly since bottled waters are goods that can be classified as normal goods. Moreover, there are a lot of substitutes for bottled water in the market which makes the demand react instantly on slight changes in the current prices of this kind of goods. On the other hand, the price elasticity of toothpaste is also elastic because the percentage change of demand is significant for a percentage unit change on its prices due to the existence of substitute toothpaste in the market. As for the case of Crest it has inelastic demand elasticity since during the 1950’s it is the only toothpaste that has fluoride and there is an absence of substitute product for this kind of toothpaste at that time. Meaning, the demand for Crest toothpaste remains high especially for those people who are health conscious regardless of the price level of the said product. Next product would be Ketchup which also has the same demand elasticity as bottled water and toothpaste- elastic demand. The last but not the least product would be Microsoft Windows operating system. Since majority of computers nowadays uses Windows operating system, the demand for this product is really high and consumers are very much willing to pay even high prices just to have this product. In other words, the percentage change of Windows operating system will not greatly affect the percentage change of demand for this product. Part B No. of Pizza Slices Consumed Total Utility Marginal Utility 1 20 n.a. 2 28 8 3 40 12 4 47 7 5 52 5   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Based on the table above, during the consumption of the first slice of pizza, my friend derived a total utility of 20 units. On the second slice of pizza, he derived 28 units of utility and 40 units during the third slice of pizza. On the fourth slice of pizza he looks as if he is not that much eager to get a slice of pizza and derived only 47 units of utility and 52 on the fifth slice of pizza. Based from this data we can now compute for the marginal utility that my friend was able to derive out of consuming 5 out of 8 slices of pizza. We can see clearly that my friend had an increasing marginal utility on consuming slices of pizza up to the 3rd slice. The fourth slice was not able to satisfy my friend as he approached saturation on consuming slices of pizza. My friend said to me that he experienced the same feeling, feeling of saturation after consuming a number of a single product, when consuming soft drinks and burgers. The more he eats burgers or drink soft drinks, he starts to value less the succeeding pieces of burger or bottle of soft drinks after some point in time. Works Cited Moffatt, Mike â€Å"Price Elasticity of Demand.† 2007. About.com.   24 February 2008 http://economics.about.com/cs/micfrohelp/a/priceelasticity.htm.

Cold War Essay -- essays research papers

The Cold War, 1949-1963 25.1 American Commitment to Cold War: National Security Council Document 68 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How NSC-68 influenced America’s response to Communist North Korea’s invasion of South Korea in June 1950 and to Communist expansion in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. The NSC-68 called for military assistance programs that would meet the requirements of our allies. Since South Korea was an ally, we assisted them in repelling the invasion of another communist nation. This help for South Korea meant that a communist nation would be weakened and therefore possibly cripple a potential ally for the Soviet Union. Also, South Korea would then respond to a call for aid if the Soviet Union ever attacked America. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The implications of NSC-68 for military spending by the United States and its allies. The NSC-68 stated that â€Å"budgetary considerations will need to be subordinated to the stark fact that our very independence as a nation may be at stake.† This meant that no matter how much it cost to build up our military, it would be done in order to protect our nation. Also, the rebuilding of European economies and defenses in order to try and contain Russian expansion without armed conflict, lead to the help of European powers having to return the favor of having their economies rebuilt with helping the United States in the Cold War. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The implications of the call for â€Å"covert actions† in NSC-68. Covert actions in the NSC-68 implies that the United States was not ready for another war so soon after World War II. Also, the Soviet Union had developed atomic weapons, which meant that the Soviet Union could cause mass destruction in the United States. However, America was unwilling to allow the communist nation of the Soviet Union to expand and gain enough power to crush the United States. So the government decided to use covert operations which would hurt their economy and cause unrest in the Soviet Union. 25.2 American Public Opinion and the Korean War, 1950-1952 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What these responses reveal about attitudes toward American involvement in the Korean War. At the beginning, American opinion supported the war in Korea. However, as time went on, the American opinion changed because we no longer had a clear chance of winning the war. People then c... ...tution given rights were ignored as well. The Red Scare was therefore similar to McCarthyism in the 1950s because it was a movement against communism that many people had. The Smith Act was passed which prevented the teaching of overthrowing the government and forced all foreign residents over the age of 14 to register their occupation and political beliefs. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How successful were United States responses to the Soviet Union in the 1950s? Were there alternatives to these responses? Eisenhower did a brilliant job in his responses to the Soviet Union in the 1950s. He kept the Soviet Union from expanding by rebuilding the economies of the war struck countries in Europe. Had technology developed that would allow the United States to spy on other countries armaments and military actions without exposing ourselves to any risk. Entered nine treaties that would make attacking the United States bring down a multitude of other countries attacks. Eisenhower also developed a large amount of nuclear devices that would allow the United States to respond to any attack with powerful force. Eisenhower could not have developed a better strategy to hold back the Russians.

Pushing Paper Can Be Fun Essay

1.Organizational and Personal Outcomes – What performance problems is the captain trying to address? Behavior- Officers not doing paperwork, or when done, is incomplete. Result – Cases being lost, due to poor reporting. The officers lack motivation and perceive filling out reports as boring. 2.Goal Statement – What would be a desirable outcome? A desirable outcome would be that officers perceive their jobs to include paperwork, and that they understand the value and importance of filling reports adequately and correctly in an assigned time frame. 3.What has the Captain already tried doing to solve the problem? To help motivate the officers, team competitions were established. These were based on the excellence of the reports. The competition provided no reward. An idea suggested to the Captain is to include financial rewards as incentives, based on the number of conviction records. These are also related to motivational factors. 4.Using the MARS Model to diagnose the possible causes of the unacceptable behavior and to explain what the Captain should do to resolve the situation. The MARS Model outlines the four major factors in determining individual behavior and results. The four major factors consist of Motivation, Ability, Role Perceptions and Situation Factors. Motivational: The police officers are lacking motivation when it comes to doing paperwork. Their paper work is frequently put off or completed inadequately. They are aware that promotion is not based on how well they complete paperwork; rather it is based by simply staying on the force for a certain number of years. Ability: I would assume that officers do not receive adequate training on proper report making while attending the police academy. Also some officers may have more of an aptitude than others when it comes to writing. Role Perceptions: The officers perceive their job as peace, law and order. They think of paperwork as boring and routine. A possible issue is that they don’t understand the value attached to providing an adequate and correct report. This perception may have been established due to improper training, the rookies are being taught by other officers, who themselves have never been formally trained. The personalities of the officers as well as their personal values play a role in how they perceive their job to be. Situational Factors: The case did not mention any situational factors; however there is one possible factor. There isn’t enough funding for rewards, so little, that layoffs are being considered. This poses a problem in that, if officers are laid off then there is less of them to perform the task, thus making the issue worse, not improving it. Suggestions: First off in order for things to improve, it needs to start with the Captain. He himself claims the work to be routine and boring; this attitude passes down to his fellow officers. Something as simple as changing his perception, would help motivate the officers. Secondly, all officers including the Captain should be retrained. This will insure consistency throughout. Fewer cases will be lost, and establishing future incentive plans will be must easier. Thirdly, The Captain could decrease the hours officers spend out on the streets, and allocate more time for the officers to complete their paper work. Motivation by Punishment: If a case were to lose due to a faulty report, then the officer responsible for filling the form would have to attend a training session. To avoid the officers from falling back into the same habit, he could also punish them with a week of traffic duty. (I believe most cops prefer to be fighting crime, not issuing traffic tickets). Motivation by Incentive: As the case study mentioned, the police station is experiencing a budget crunch. An affordable method could be to provide officers with free perks, for completing their paper work adequately, correctly and on time. Such things as: first pick of the squat car, which area/street they prefer to patrol and being able to choose cases that interest them most.

Organisation and Behaviour Essay

Case Study 1: Dimensions of Organisational Structure Changing the Rules at Bosco Plastics When Jill Thompson took over as chief executive officer at Bosco Plastics, the company was in trouble. Bosco had started out as an innovative company, known for creating a new product just as the popularity of one of the industry’s old standbys was fading, i.e., replacing yo-yo’s with water guns. In two decades, it had become an established maker of plastics for the toy industry. Bosco had grown from a dozen employees to four hundred, and its rules had grown haphazardly with it. Thompson’s predecessor, Wilhelm K. Blatz, had found the company’s procedures chaotic and had instituted a uniform set of rules for all employees. Since then, both research output and manufacturing productivity had steadily declined. When the company’s board of directors hired Thompson, they emphasized the need to evaluate and revise the company’s formal procedures in an attempt to reverse the trends. First, Thompson studied the rules Blatz had implemented. She was impressed to find that the entire procedures manual was only twenty pages long. It began with the reasonable sentence â€Å"All employees of Bosco Plastics shall be governed by the following . . .† Thompson had expected to find evidence that Blatz had been a tyrant who ran the company with an iron fist. But as she read through the manual, she found nothing to indicate this. In fact, some of the rules were rather flexible. Employees could punch in anytime between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. and leave nine hours later, between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. Managers were expected to keep monthly notes on the people working for them and make yearly recommendations to the human resources committee about raises, bonuses, promotions, and firings. Except for their one-hour lunch break, which they could take at any time, employees were expected to be in the building at all times. Puzzled, Thompson went down to the lounge where the research and development people gathered. She was surprised to find a time clock on the wall. Curious, she fed a time card into it and was even more flabbergasted when the machine chattered noisily, then spit it out without registering the time. Apparently R&D was none too pleased with the time clock and had found a way to rig it. When Thompson looked up in astonishment, only two of the twelve employees who had been in the room were still there. They said the others had â€Å"punched back in† when they saw the boss coming. Thompson asked the remaining pair to tell her what was wrong with company rules, and she got an earful. The researchers, mostly chemists and engineers with advanced graduate degrees, resented punching a time clock and having their work evaluated once a month, when they could not reasonably be expected to come up with something new and worth writing about more than twice a year. Before the implementation of the new rules, they had often gotten inspiration from going down to the local dime store and picking up five dollars worth of cheap toys, but now they felt they could make such trips only on their own time. And when a researcher came up with an innovative idea, it often took months for the proposal to work its way up the company hierarchy to the attention of someone who could put it into production. In short, all these sharp minds felt shackled. Concluding that maybe she had overlooked the rigidity of the rules, Thompson walked over to the manufacturing building to talk to the production supervisors. They responded to her questions with one word: anarchy. With employees drifting in between 8:00 and 10:00 and then starting to drift out again by 11:00 for lunch, the supervisors never knew if they had enough people to run a particular operation. Employee turnover was high, but not high enough in some cases; supervisors believed the rules prevented them from firing all but the most incompetent workers before the end of the yearly evaluation period. The rules were so â€Å"humane† that discipline was impossible to enforce. By the time Jill Thompson got back to her office, she had a plan. The following week, she called in all the department managers and asked them to draft formal rules and procedures for their individual areas. She told them she did not intend to lose control of the company, but she wanted to see if they could improve productivity and morale by creating formal procedures for their individual departments. Case Questions (AO 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3): †¢ Do you think Jill Thompson’s proposal to decentralise the rules and procedures of Bosco Plastics will work? If so, why and how? Give reasons. What, in your opinion, are the requirements to make decentralisation effective? †¢ What kinds of rules and procedures do you think the department managers will come up with? Which departments will be more formalised? Why? †¢ What risks will the company face if it establishes different procedures for different areas? Explain your reasons by analysing the merits and demerits of ‘organic’ and ‘mechanistic’ structures with regard to changes proposed by Jill Thompson. Case Study 2: Organizational Structure and Culture Surviving Greenscape’s Hard Times In ten years, Greenscape had grown from a one-person venture into the largest nursery and landscaping business in its area. Its founder, Lita Ong, combined a lifelong interest in plants with a botany degree to provide a unique customer service. Ong had managed the company’s growth so that even with twenty full-time employees working in six to eight crews, the organization culture was still as open, friendly, and personal as it had been when her only â€Å"employees† were friends who would volunteer to help her move a heavy tree. To maintain that atmosphere, Ong involved herself increasingly with people and less with plants as the company grew. With hundreds of customers and scores of jobs at any one time, she could no longer say without hesitation whether she had a dozen arborvitae bushes in stock or when Mrs. McCormack’s estate would need a new load of bark mulch. But she knew when Martina had been up all night with her baby, when Adrian was likely to be late because he had driven to see his sick father over the weekend, and how to deal with Emily when she was depressed because of her boyfriend’s behaviour. She kept track of the birthdays of every employee and even those of their children. She was up every morning by five-thirty arranging schedules so that Johnson could get his son out of daycare at four o’clock and Doris could be back in town for her afternoon high school equivalency classes. Paying all this attention to employees may have led Ong to make a single bad business decision that almost destroyed the company. She provided extensive landscaping to a new mall on credit, and when the mall never opened and its owners went bankrupt, Greenscape found itself in deep trouble. The company had virtually no cash and had to pay off the bills for the mall plants, most of which were not even salvageable. One Friday, Ong called a meeting with her employees and levelled with them: either they would not get paid for a month or Greenscape would fold. The news hit the employees hard. Many counted on the Friday paycheck to buy groceries for the week. The local unemployment rate was low, however, and they knew they could find other jobs. But as they looked around, they wondered whether they could ever find this kind of job. Sure, the pay was not the greatest, but the tears in the eyes of some workers were not over pay or personal hardship; they were for Ong, her dream, and her difficulties. They never thought of her as the boss or called her anything but â€Å"Lita.† And leaving the group would not be just a matter of saying good-bye to fellow employees. If Bernice left, the company softball team would lose its best pitcher, and the Sunday game was the height of everyone’s week. Where else would they find people who spent much of the weekend working on the best puns with which to assail one another on Monday morning? At how many offices would everyone show up twenty minutes before starting time just to catch up with friends on other crews? What other boss would really understand when you simply said, â€Å"I don’t have a doctor’s appointment, I just need the afternoon off†? Ong gave her employees the weekend to think over their decision: whether to take their pay and look for another job or to dig into their savings and go on working. Knowing it would be hard for them to quit, she told them they did not have to face her on Monday; if they did not show up, she would send them their checks. But when she arrived at seven-forty Monday morning, she found the entire group already there, ready to work even harder to pull the company through. They were even trying to top one another with puns about being â€Å"mall-contents.† Case Questions (AO 2.1, 2.2 & 2.3): †¢ How would you describe the organization culture at Greenscape? Under the different types of culture, what type of culture, do you think, operating in Greenscape? Justify your views with evidence. †¢ How large can such a company get before it needs to change its culture and structure? And why it is important to change culture and structure? Discuss briefly the benefits and difficulties that Greenscape have to cope with changing its culture and structure as the company gears for its growth. Case Study 3: Leadership Models and Concepts Right Boss, Wrong Company Brenda Hogan was continuously on top of things. In school, she had always been at the top of her class. When she went to work for her uncle’s shoe business, Fancy Footwear, she had been singled out as the most productive employee and the one with the best attendance. The company was so impressed with her that it sent her to get an M.B.A. to groom her for a top management position. In school again, and with three years of practical experience to draw on, Hogan had gobbled up every idea put in front of her, relating many of them to her work at Fancy Footwear. When Hogan graduated at the top of her class, she returned to Fancy Footwear. To no one’s surprise, when the head of the company’s largest division took advantage of the firm’s early retirement plan, Hogan was given his position. Hogan knew the pitfalls of being suddenly catapulted to a leadership position, and she was determined to avoid them. In business school, she had read cases about family businesses that fell apart when a young family member took over with an iron fist, barking out orders, cutting personnel, and destroying morale. Hogan knew a lot about participative management, and she was not going to be labelled an arrogant know-it-all. Hogan’s predecessor, Max Worthy, had run the division from an office at the top of the building, far above the factory floor. Two or three times a day, Worthy would summon a messenger or a secretary from the offices on the second floor and send a memo out to one or another group of workers. But as Hogan saw it, Worthy was mostly an absentee autocrat, making all the decisions from above and spending most of his time at extended lunches with his friends from the Rotary Club. Hogan’s first move was to change all that. She set up her office on the second floor. From her always-open doorway she could see down onto the factory floor, and as she sat behind her desk she could spot anyone walking by in the hall. She never ate lunch herself but spent the time from 11 to 2 down on the floor, walking around, talking, and organizing groups. The workers, many of whom had twenty years of seniority at the plant, seemed surprised by this new policy and reluctant to volunteer for any groups. But in fairly short order, Hogan established a worker productivity group, a â€Å"Suggestion of the Week† committee, an environmental group, a worker award group, and a management relations group. Each group held two meetings a week, one without and one with Hogan. She encouraged each group to set up goals in its particular focus area and develop plans for reaching those goals. She promised any support that was within her power to give. The group work was agonizingly slow at first. But Hogan had been well trained as a facilitator, and she soon took on that role in their meetings, writing down ideas on a big board, organizing them, and later communicating them in notices to other employees. She got everyone to call her â€Å"Betty† and set herself the task of learning all their names. By the end of the first month, Fancy Footwear was stirred up. But as it turned out, that was the last thing most employees wanted. The truth finally hit Hogan when the entire management relations committee resigned at the start of their fourth meeting. â€Å"I’m sorry, Ms. Hogan,† one of them said. â€Å"We’re good at making shoes, but not at this management stuff. A lot of us are heading toward retirement. We don’t want to be supervisors.† Astonished, Hogan went to talk to the workers with whom she believed she had built good relations. Yes, they reluctantly told her, all these changes did make them uneasy. They liked her, and they didn’t want to complain. But given the choice, they would rather go back to the way Mr. Worthy had run things. They never saw Mr. Worthy much, but he never got in their hair. He did his work, whatever that was, and they did theirs. â€Å"After you’ve been in a place doing one thing for so long,† one worker concluded, â€Å"the last thing you want to do is learn a new way of doing it.† Case Questions (AO 3.1, 3.2 & 3.3): †¢ What factors should have alerted Hogan to the problems that eventually came up at Fancy Footwear? †¢ Could Hogan have instituted her changes without eliciting a negative reaction from the workers? If so, how? Case Study 4: Need-Based Perspectives on Motivation More Than a Pay Cheque Samuel Gibson was a trainer for Britannia Home Manufacturers, a large builder of prefabricated homes. Britannia Home had hired Gibson fresh from graduate school with a master’s degree in English. At first, the company put him to work writing and revising company brochures and helping with the most important correspondence at the senior level. But soon, both Gibson and senior management officials began to notice how well he worked with executives on their writing, how he made them feel more confident about it, and how, after working with an executive on a report, the executive often was much more eager to take on the next writing task. So Britannia Home moved Gibson into its prestigious training department. The company’s trainers worked with thousands of supervisors, managers, and executives, helping them learn everything from new computer languages to time management skills to how to get the most out of the workers on the plant floor, many of whom were unmotivated high school dropouts. Soon Gibson was spending all his time giving short seminars on executive writing as well as coaching his students to perfect their memos and letters. Gibson’s move into training meant a big increase in salary, and when he started working exclusively with the company’s top brass, it seemed as though he got a bonus every month. Gibson’s supervisor, Mirella Carta, knew he was making more than many executives who had been with the company three times as long, and probably twice as much as any of his graduate school classmates who concentrated in English. Yet in her biweekly meetings with him, she could tell that Gibson wasn’t happy. When Carta asked him about it, Gibson replied that he was in a bit of a rut. He had to keep saying the same things over and over in his seminars, and business memos weren’t as interesting as the literature he had been trained on. But then, after trailing off for a moment, he blurted out, â€Å"They don’t need me!† Since the memos filtering down through the company were now flawlessly polished, and the annual report was 20 percent shorter but said everything it needed to, Gibson’s desire to be needed was not fulfilled. The next week, Gibson came to Carta with a proposal: What if he started holding classes for some of the floor workers, many of whom had no future within or outside the company because many could write nothing but their own names? Carta took the idea to her superiors. They told her that they wouldn’t oppose it, but Gibson couldn’t possibly keep drawing such a high salary if he worked with people whose contribution to the company was compensated at minimum wage. Gibson agreed to a reduced salary and began offering English classes on the factory floor, which were billed by management (who hoped to avoid a wage hike that year) as an added benefit of the job. At first only two or three workers showed up—and they, Gibson believed, only wanted an excuse to get away from the nailing guns for a while. But gradually word got around that Gibson was serious about what he was doing and didn’t treat the workers like kids in a remedial class. At the end of the year, Gibson got a bonus from a new source: the vice president in charge of production. Although Gibson’s course took workers off the job for a couple of hours a week, productivity had actually improved since his course began, employee turnover had dropped, and for the first time in over a year, some of the floor workers had begun to apply for supervisory positions. Gibson was pleased with the bonus, but when Carta saw him grinning as he walked around the building, she knew he wasn’t thinking about his bank account.

My evaluation for Grease Essays

My evaluation for Grease Essays My evaluation for Grease Essay My evaluation for Grease Essay My film that I choose was Grease because it contains music, dancing and humor. It is a cross between comedy and teen movies. It is a tribute to the Broadway show of the 1950s. It was directed by Randal Klieser and was released on July 7th 1978. The music and dance scenes are what attracted me to Grease. My favorite characters are John Travolta and Jeff Conaway who play Danny and Kenickie. I like these two because they are your typical high school popular boys who are always looking out for each other, looking good and they are always trying to get the beautiful girls but at the same time acting cool like it doesnt bother them. I had high expectations of Grease and I lived up to each and every single one of them. I learnt about this film through television and newspapers. We used three simple words from everyday media. Firstly narrative is from the Latin word narra, meaning the way a story is told. Many theories have been applied to the creation of stories. Tzvetan Torodovs 5stages of narrative. He said that all plots had 5 major components. These 5 components are equilibrium, disruption, complications, climax and resolutions (also called new equilibrium. The story begins with a situation of normality although not necessarily a positive one. An event changes the story, which involves the struggle of the characters to restore the equilibrium or reach their goal. The story reaches a point where the equilibrium or goal hangs in the balance. Normally the equilibrium is restored or a new equilibrium is established. Grease used this theory because the equilibrium is Rydell high the normal high school, the disruption is when Sandy comes and knows Danny, the complications is that Danny cannot be with Sandy because she is too pure for him and he is the most po pular guy in school, the resolution is that Sandy turns into a bad girl and the climax is when Sandy and Danny end up together. Secondly genre is the French word meaning type. Genres may be approached by way of various critical avenues. In the Aristotelian strain we recognize genres as kinds within a system of classification. These categories beg further definition, so there is a history of, on the one hand, the refinement of divisions and subdivisions, and on the other a Platonic search for the essential qualities of tragedy, comedy, epic poetry, and so forth. By the recognition of genres we begin to find our way in the universe of verbal artifacts with their feigned discourses, and to train our expectations upon the experience that lies in wait for us. Greases genre is a hybrid genre because it is a cross between a comedy, a teen movie and romantic. Lastly representation is the act of representing or the state of being represented. Also it is something that represents an image, an account or statement, an expostulation or a presentation or production. For example the representation of the characters in Grease varies. Sandy is portrayed as a pure and innocent girl but on the other hand Rizzo is portrayed as a bad girl who is always getting into trouble and wont take anything from no one. Also Rizzo is sometimes mean to Sandy but when its to her face she is sweet and kind. This tells me that she is two faced. Also because Sandy is pure and innocent she is not aloud to join the pink ladies (this connotes girly, frilly, happy, lively and/or average girl). Also Danny is portrayed in two different ways. When Danny is with his friends he is a mean typical boy who only cares about himself. But on the other hand Danny completely transforms when he is around Sandy. He becomes a sweet and caring person who Sandy falls in love with. Grease creates suspense because it has so many different storylines and each have a particular ending. For example the will they wont they with Danny and Sandy will end with them getting together. Is Rizo pregnant? Obviously she is not. Also who will win the car race is obvious because they wouldnt create a film that where they lose. So really we expect certain endings in a teen movie. This works because in the time left from the main storyline, it is filled in with other small but prominent storylines which creates many different types of suspense. The bit that are stereotypical are that we know it is going to end like a fairy tale because it will all work out and everyone will live happily ever after. The mis-en-scenes are standard, the shot size varies from a standard to a birds-eye view to an extreme close up etc. the compositions are straight on and the lenses are standard. All of these help to tell the story because it gives it a normal typical high school day and adds effect because if it had abnormal technical analysis then it wouldnt match the genre, because it is a conventional American film. There was nothing really unique about the narrative because it followed all the codes and the technical analysis, so it didnt reinvent certain generic conventions or new narratives. The type of ending closes the film off and also the ending was effective because it was at a funfair, which connotes the idea of fun and happiness and it also denotes a typical end of school party in America. The characters are realistic and are normal people and they are also authentic and believable characters. The mis-en-scenes have al been constructed in a way that tells me that it is an average high school where there are normal students who go through and do everything normal teenagers go through e.g. dates. The locations are an American diner, a drive in, the driving race and the high school, which signifies that these are all the cool spots where the T-birds and The Pink Ladies hang out. There are not a lot of special effects except for when they are in the car chase and the car lifts off the ground and into a puddle when Danny is about to win the race. The women are represented in different ways especially the popular girls aka The Pink Ladies are shown as different people. For example Rizo is shown as a girl who will sleep with anyone; she puts it as getting her kicks while Im still young. Frenchy is a wanabe beauty stylist and ends up dropping out of high school to go to a beauty school, but after failing all her classes she enrolls back into high school, she is opposite to Rizo because she will not sleep with the first boy she sees. There are not a lot of ethnic minorities in Grease, so some could say its a racist film because it only has white people in it and although it is typical of this era there are few people from other countries in it, but they havent got main parts. There were no narratives that were ineffective because its a comedy the hilarity would overwrite any narrative you put with it. The audience would see through it and still think it was funny. The costumes of the characters match the film because back in the 70s they wore big long skirts and people could wear what they wanted without being judged. The men wore leather trousers and the women wore tight tops and big frilly skirts that whilst you were dancing and spinning the skirt would become a circle. The make up has same effect on the characters because not a lot of high school students would wear a lot of make up so they would put make up on but it would look natural. Different characters were shown in different ways. The popular guys and girls were shown always picking on those who were annoying or unpopular but it wasnt shown that much because they were too busy concentrating on themselves, how they looked and how they would solve there problems so it is an average that they didnt care about anyone but themselves and they were effective and had bourgeois (middle class values; they are very normal). The message that these narratives are trying to publicize is that Grease is a film that everyone can enjoy, but like every film it has its problems and also the purpose of the narrative is to make it seem that the film is funny and musical, but it shows teenagers facing problems that all students and people in general face in everyday life. So theres a contrast between the hilarity and the problems that teenagers go through. The genre and narrative connect together in a way that the narrative connotes a mainstream day and the genre connotes the comedy and romance, and this put together makes the film a funny normal film that anyone could enjoy if they wanted to. The soundtrack gave Grease the musical feel that it needed to become the smash hit was. The synchronization of the visual and the sound of Grease are connected in a way that if there were no visual Grease wouldnt be the great film it turned out to be and visa versa, this is a promotional strategy. In conclusion the target audience would have to be everyone because anyone can watch Grease because they will enjoy the storylines and the optimism. The most effective part about Grease is that there are not really any negative bits that cannot be resolved easily, because all round Grease the different storylines have made practically no mistakes in it. The four typicals are settings, tag names, genre, and narrative. The typical settings are the high school and the diners. The typical tag names is a blonde, an exchange student, the grunger, the rebel, the geek, the beautiful girl, the ugly girl, the stupid parents, the teacher and the popular guy. The typical genre is comedy, romance and a teen movie. Finally the typical narrative is Tzvetan Torodovs 5stages of narrative. The main things that I found out bout Grease was that the narrative and the settings were surprisingly good and the best bit of the film is that it is a mix of genre so it suits everybodys needs and the worse thing would have to be settings because all teen movies are always set in America and I personally think that they should set a Grease like film over in England.

Breaking Down the Role of the School Superintendent

Breaking Down the Role of the School Superintendent The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a school district is the school superintendent. The superintendent is essentially the face of the district. They are most responsible for the successes of a district and most assuredly responsible when there are failures. The role of a school superintendent is broad. It can be rewarding, but the decisions they make can also be especially difficult and taxing. It takes an exceptional person with a unique skill set to be an effective school superintendent. Much of what a superintendent does involves working directly with others.  School superintendents must be effective leaders who work well with other people and understand the value of building relationships.  A superintendent must be adept at establishing working relationships with many interest groups inside the school and within the community itself to maximize their effectiveness. Building a strong rapport with the constituents in the district makes fulfilling the required roles of a school superintendent a little easier. Board of Education Liaison One of the primary duties of the board of education is to hire a superintendent for the district. Once the superintendent is in place, then the board of education and the superintendent should become partners. While the superintendent is the CEO of the district, the board of education provides oversight for the superintendent. The best school districts have boards of education and superintendents who work well together. The superintendent is responsible for keeping the board informed of events and happenings in the district and also making recommendations about daily operations for the district. The board of education may ask for more information, but in most cases, a good board will accept the superintendent’s recommendations. The board of education is also directly responsible for evaluating the superintendent and thus, can terminate the superintendent should they believe they are not doing their job. The superintendent is also responsible for preparing the agenda for board meetings. The superintendent does sit in on all board meetings to make recommendations but is not allowed to vote on any of the issues. If the board votes to approve a mandate, then it is the duty of the superintendent to carry out that mandate. District Leader Assistant Superintendents – Large districts have the luxury of hiring assistant superintendents who specialize in one or two specific areas such as transportation or curriculum. These assistant superintendents meet regularly with the superintendent and receive their direct instruction from them, but manage the daily operations of their area. Small districts typically do not have assistants, so all the responsibility would fall on the superintendent.Principals/Assistant Principals – The superintendent is responsible for evaluating and making recommendations to hire/maintain/terminate principals/assistant principals. The superintendent has regular meetings with principals about specifics of the daily operations of their buildings. The superintendent must have principals/assistant principals that they trust fully to do their jobs because having an ineffective principal in a school can be disastrous.Teachers/Coaches – The amount of interaction between a superintenden t and the teachers/coaches in the district typically depend upon the superintendent themselves. This is a duty that primarily falls on the principal/assistant principal, but some superintendents, especially in smaller districts, like to have one on one interaction with their teachers/coaches. The superintendent will be the one who makes a recommendation to hire, maintain, or terminate to the board of education, but most superintendents take the direct recommendation from the building principal in this matter. Support Personnel – The superintendent is almost always directly responsible for hiring, maintaining, terminating support personnel. This is a primary role a superintendent. A strong superintendent will surround themselves with good, trustworthy people. While the superintendent is the head of the district, the support personnel are the backbone of the district. The administrative professionals, custodians, maintenance, security, kitchen staff, etc. play such a large role in the daily operations that it is essential to have people in those positions that are there to do their job right and work well with others. This falls on the superintendent of the district. Manages Finance The primary role of any superintendent is to develop and maintain a healthy school budget. If you are not good with money, then you will likely fail as a school superintendent. School finance is not an exact science. It is a complicated formula that changes from year to year especially in the realm of public education. The economy almost always dictates how much money is going to be available for the school district. Some years are better than others, but a superintendent must always figure out how and where to spend their money. The toughest decisions a school superintendent will face are in those years of deficit. Cutting teachers and/or programs is never an easy decision. Superintendents ultimately have to make those tough decisions to keep their doors open. The truth is that it isn’t easy and making cuts of any kind will have an impact on the quality of education the district provides. If cuts must be made, the superintendent must examine all options thoroughly and ultimately make cuts in the areas where they believe the impact will be the least. Manages Daily Operations Building Improvements/Bond Issues – Over the years the buildings in a district go through normal wear and tear. Also during this time, the overall needs of the district will change. The superintendent must evaluate the needs of the district and make recommendations as to whether to try to build new structures through a bond issue and/or make repairs on existing structures. There is a balance between the two. If the superintendent feels like passing a bond is a necessity, they must first convince the board and then convince the community to back it.District Curriculum – The superintendent is responsible for ensuring that the approved curriculum meets district, state, and national standards. This process typically begins at the individual building site, but the superintendent will have the final say as to whether the district should adopt and use the curriculum.District Improvement – One of the main duties of a superintendent is to be a constant evaluator. Superint endents should always be looking for methods, both large and small, to improve their district. A superintendent who does not have a vision for continuous improvement is not doing their job and does not have the best interest of the district in mind. District Policies – The superintendent is responsible for writing new district policies and revising and/or reviewing old ones. This should be a yearly endeavor. New issues constantly arise, and policies should be developed detailing how these issues will be handled.District Reports – States require superintendents to submit various reports concerning teacher and student data throughout the school year. This can be a particularly tedious part of the job, but it is necessary if you want to keep your doors open. Being proactive throughout the year and keeping up with this data as you move along will make completing these reports easier in the long run.Student Transfers – A superintendent makes the decision whether to accept or deny a transfer to potentially incoming and outgoing students. In order for a student to receive a transfer, both superintendents must agree to the transfer. If the receiving superintendent agrees to the transfer, but the outgoing superintend ent does not, then the transfer is denied. Transportation – Transportation can be an enormous role for a superintendent. The superintendent is responsible for purchasing enough buses, keeping them maintained, hiring bus drivers, and creating routes that maximize efficiency. In addition, they must develop bicycle routes, walking routes, and snow routes. Lobbies for the District Builds Community Relations – A superintendent must build relationships with all members of the community. This includes parents of students, the business community, and those who live in the community without any direct ties to the school such as senior citizen groups. Creating strong ties with these groups will be invaluable when it comes time to try to pass a bond issue.Works with the Media – The superintendent is the face of the district in good times and in times of crisis. Superintendents in large markets will be in the news consistently and must advocate for their district and their students. An outstanding superintendent will seek out opportunities to partner with the media.Builds Relationships with Other Districts – Building relationships with other districts and their superintendents can be valuable. These relationships allow for an exchange of ideas and best practices. They also can be extremely beneficial in difficult times of crisis or tragedy.Builds Relationships with Politicians – A superintendent must lobby on their districts behalf on key political issues that will positively or negatively affect the district. Education has increasingly become more political, and those who neglect this aspect aren’t maximizing their effectiveness.