Promote Communication Essay

1. Understand why effective communication is important in the work setting 1.1 Identify the different reasons people communicate The communication is part of the human life, most of the people are communicate with others all the time in a conscious way or without intention to build a kind of relationship, basically in two forms verbal where we use words to present ideas or non-verbal expressing ideas and opinions without talking using our body language, facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice, touch or contact, signs, symbols, pictures, etc. Read more:  Identify the different reasons why people communicate  essay The people communicate one each other for many different reasons depending the personal relation between the people such as family/friend, workplace, commercial place, etc Those reasons can be: To express our needs and wishes To create/build a relationship with others To share information To explain different aspect of the life To help or receive help To show and express our feelings In particular, in our work environment exist some specific different groups of people that we need to communicate for different reasons The children and young people The communication with them is constant and fluid, we know their needs, problems, like and dislike, conflict with other peers, we share and explain the daily activities, we discuss the place setting rules, etc. The communication is general informal, and the verbal and non-verbal language should be according with the ages of the children. The practitioners With the colleagues we interact day by day, most of the time in an informal way share ideas and thoughts, relevant information about the children, the setting planning, activities, different situation that can affect the normal day in the work place as well as depended of the kind of relationship with the colleagues, it is possible share personal information and aspect of our life which do not have direct influence in the job. The manager / director The communication is similar than the colleagues, but it is express in a more formal way according of the kind of information that we need to communicate, sometime may include written communication by filling accident / incident form, meeting notes, discuss policies revision, etc . Parents/ carers The communication in this case can be informal and formal depending of the relationship between the people and the level of important of the information. We need to listen their concern about the children, setting activities, etc and for ours side giving to them feedback about the children progress, newsletter, any type of important information, etc. 1.2 Explain how communication affects relationships in the work setting The communication is once of the more important interpersonal skills in ours work-setting, and it can affect in a positive or negative way on the day to day interaction with the different groups described above . Exist some possible barrier which can interfere in the communication, which can affect directly the relation between you and the people in the work place in a negative form like: Different language or different non-verbal communication interpretation. Speak with a lot of technical or slang language can create misunderstand or wrong message Ã… ¸Cultural and background differences can make that the same thing means different thing between the people, it can difficult the communication. Ã… ¸Personal and emotional situation like distress, upset, etc may make that someone not listen properly therefore misinterpret or do not understand what is being said Ã… ¸People with any kind of special needs to speak, listen, move, hard to concentrate, etc. However, There are many communication skills that we may consider to make that relationship in the setting affect in a positive way such as In verbal communication: Speak calm and clear Using listening skills to check understanding Understanding the communication cycle Knowing how to ask questions effectively Adapt the way of the communication so that the child or adult is able to understand. Understand and respect confidentiality In non-verbal communication: Understand body language messages Use a welcome body language and a positive attitude to communicate Have good empathic skills Show a calm posture If we can have a positive communication with all the people who is part of the work place community, we can build a good teamwork, share information effetely, establishing new relationships, helping children and young people with their problems and conflicts, etc.

Merger of Bank of Rajasthan with Icici Bank

MERGER OF THE BANK OF RAJASTHAN LIMITED WITH ICICI BANK The Bank of Rajasthan Limited (Bank of Rajasthan), a banking company incorporated within the meaning of Companies Act, 1956 and licensed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 was amalgamated with ICICI Bank Limited (ICICI Bank/the Bank) with effect from close of business on August 12, 2010 in terms of the Scheme of Amalgamation (the Scheme) approved by RBI vide its order DBOD No. PSBD 2599/16. 01. 056/2010-11 dated August 12, 2010 under sub section (4) of section 44A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.The consideration for the amalgamation was 25 equity shares of ICICI Bank of the face value of Rs. 10 each fully paid-up for every 118 equity shares of Rs. 10 each of Bank of Rajasthan. Accordingly, ICICI Bank allotted 31,323,951 equity shares to the shareholders of Bank of Rajasthan on August 26, 2010 and 2,860,170 equity shares, which were earlier kept in abeyance pending civil appeal, on November 25, 2010. During the year, we acquired The Bank of Rajasthan which substantially enhanced our branch network and strengthened our presence in northern and western India.The merger of Bank of Rajasthan added over 450 branches to our network. Including these, our branch network has increased from 1,707 branches at March 31, 2010 to 2,529 branches at March 31, 2011. We also increased our ATM network from 5,219 ATMs at March 31, 2010 to 6,055 ATMs at March 31, 2011. During the year, the integration of Bank of Rajasthan into the Bank was a major exercise which was successfully completed. The integration process focused both on business as well as cultural integration.The people and cultural integration was achieved through well-planned communication of the Bank's values and culture. The Bank reached out to all employees of Bank of Rajasthan and addressed their expectations and concerns. This was achieved through communication from the top management of the Bank, open house sessions join tly conducted by senior managers from Bank of Rajasthan and ICICI Bank and one-on-one sessions wherever required. Further, to align the skill sets of Bank of Rajasthan employees, special training programs were designed and conducted by the Bank.Pursuant to the merger of the Bank of Rajasthan, we also enabled seamless transactions for the customers of Bank of Rajasthan in a short timeframe and combined the ATM and branch networks and technology infrastructure. To enable better customer service, our branch staff has been equipped with a comprehensive and single view of customer relationships. We have also enhanced our Interactive Voice Response system at our call centres to support regional Indian languages. Amalgamation of The Bank of RajasthanOn May 23, 2010, the Board of Directors of ICICI Bank and the Board of Directors of The Bank of Rajasthan Limited (Bank of Rajasthan), an old private sector bank, at their respective meetings approved an all-stock amalgamation of Bank of Rajast han with ICICI Bank at a share exchange ratio of 25 shares of ICICI Bank for 118 shares of Bank of Rajasthan. The shareholders of ICICI Bank and Bank of Rajasthan approved the scheme of amalgamation at their respective extra-ordinary general meetings.RBI approved the scheme of amalgamation with effect from close of business on August 12, 2010. We have issued 31. 3 million shares in August 2010 and 2. 9 million shares in November 2010 to shareholders of Bank of Rajasthan. The total assets of Bank of Rajasthan represented 4. 0% of total assets of ICICI Bank at August 12, 2010. At August 12, 2010, Bank of Rajasthan had total assets of Rs. 155. 96 billion, deposits of Rs. 134. 83 billion, loans of Rs. 65. 28 billion and investments of Rs. 70. 96 billion. It incurred a loss of Rs. 1. 02 billion in fiscal 2010.The results for fiscal 2011 include results of Bank of Rajasthan for the period from August 13, 2010 to March 31, 2011. The assets and liabilities of Bank of Rajasthan have been acc ounted at the values at which they were appearing in the books of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010 and provisions were made for the difference between the book values appearing in the books of Bank of Rajasthan and the fair value as determined by ICICI Bank. The amalgamation was part of our strategy to expand our branch network with a view to growing our deposit base.We believe that the combination of Bank of Rajasthan's branch franchise with our strong capital base would enhance the ability of the combined entity to capitalise on the growth opportunities in the Indian economy. Total assets increased by 11. 8% from Rs. 3,634. 00 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 4,062. 34 billion at March 31, 2011. Total deposits increased by 11. 7% from Rs. 2,020. 17 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 2,256. 02 billion at March 31, 2011. Current and savings account (CASA) deposits increased by 20. 7% from Rs. 842. 6 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 1,016. 47 billion at March 31, 2011 while term de posits increased marginally from Rs. 1,178. 01 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 1,239. 55 billion at March 31, 2011. The ratio of CASA deposits to total deposits increased from 41. 7% at March 31, 2010 to 45. 1% at March 31, 2011. Total advances increased by 19. 4% from Rs. 1,812. 06 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 2,163. 66 billion at March 31, 2011 primarily due to an increase in domestic corporate loans, overseas corporate loans and loans taken over from Bank of Rajasthan.Net non- performing assets decreased by 37. 0% from Rs. 39. 01 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 24. 58 billion at March 31, 2011 and the net non-performing asset ratio decreased from 1. 9% at March 31, 2010 to 0. 9% at March 31, 2011. We continued to expand our branch network in India. Our branch network in India increased from 1,707 branches and extension counters at March 31, 2010 to 2,529 branches and extension counters at March 31, 2011. We also increased our ATM network from 5,219 ATMs at March 31, 2010 to 6,104 ATMs at March 31, 2011.These include branches and ATMs of Bank of Rajasthan. The total capital adequacy ratio of ICICI Bank on a standalone basis at March 31, 2011 in accordance with the RBI guidelines on Basel II was 19. 5% with a tier I capital adequacy ratio of 13. 2% compared to a total capital adequacy of 19. 4% and tier I capital adequacy of 14. 0% at March 31, 2010 Average advances increased marginally from Rs. 1,915. 39 billion in fiscal 2010 to Rs. 1,926. 52 billion in fiscal 2011 which includes advances taken over from Bank of Rajasthan. Retail advances increased by 5. % from Rs. 790. 62 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 836. 75 billion at March 31, 2011. In US dollar terms, the net advances of overseas branches increased by 22. 8% from US$ 10. 1 billion at March 31, 2010 to US$ 12. 4 billion at March 31, 2011. In rupee terms, the net advances of overseas branches increased by 22. 1% from Rs. 451. 37 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 550. 97 billion at March 31, 2011. Payments to and provisions for employees Employee expenses increased by 46. 3% from Rs. 19. 26 billion in fiscal 2010 to Rs. 28. 17 billion in fiscal 2011.Employee expenses increased primarily due to addition of employees of Bank of Rajasthan, annual increase in salaries and provision for payment of performance bonus and performance- linked retention pay during the period and increase in the employee base, including sales executives, employees on fixed term contracts and interns, from 41,068 employees at March 31, 2010 to 56,969 employees at March 31, 2011 (including employees of Bank of Rajasthan). Tax expense The income tax expense (including wealth tax) increased by 22. 0% from Rs. 13. 20 billion in fiscal 2010 to Rs. 16. 10 billion in fiscal 2011.The effective tax rate of 23. 8% in fiscal 2011 was lower compared to the effective tax rate of 24. 7% in fiscal 2010 primarily due to change in mix of taxable profits with a higher component of exempt income in the current fiscal year and tax benefits from the amalgamation of Bank of Rajasthan. The total assets increased by 11. 8% from Rs. 3,634. 00 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 4,062. 34 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 155. 96 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010), primarily due to increase in investments and advances. Investments increased by 11. 4% from Rs. 1,208. 3 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 1,346. 86 billion at March 31, 2011. The net advances increased by 19. 4% from Rs. 1,812. 06 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 2,163. 66 billion at March 31, 2011. Investments Total investments increased by 11. 4% from Rs. 1,208. 93 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 1,346. 86 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 70. 96 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010), primarily due to an increase in investment in corporate bonds and debentures by Rs. 125. 1 1 billion, RIDF and other related investments in lieu of shortfall in directed lending requirements by Rs. 49. 0 billion (including Rs. 21. 34 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010) and investments in commercial paper and certificate of deposits by Rs. 31. 21 billion. The investment in pass- through certificates decreased by Rs. 15. 93 billion at March 31, 2011 compared to March 31, 2010. At March 31, 2011, we had an outstanding net investment of Rs. 28. 31 billion in security receipts issued by asset reconstruction companies in relation to sale of non-performing assets compared to Rs. 33. 94 billion at March 31, 2010. At March 31, 2011, we had a gross portfolio of funded credit derivatives of Rs. 0. 60 billion and non-funded credit derivatives of Rs. 28. 17 billion, which includes Rs. 0. 22 billion as protection bought by us. Advances Net advances increased by 19. 4% from Rs. 1,812. 06 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 2,163. 66 billion at March 31, 2011 primarily due to increase in domestic corporate loans, overseas corporate loans and loans taken over from Bank of Rajasthan amounting to Rs. 65. 28 billi on at August 12, 2010. Net retail advances increased by 5. 8% from Rs. 790. 62 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 836. 75 billion at March 31, 2011.In rupee terms, net advances of overseas branches (including offshore banking unit) increased by 22. 1% from Rs. 451. 37 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 550. 97 billion at March 31, 2011. Fixed and other assets Fixed assets increased by 47. 7% from Rs. 32. 13 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 47. 44 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 5. 15 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010) primarily due to part capitalisation of the Bank's new building in Hyderabad and increase in the branch network and other offices. Other assets decreased by 14. 9% from Rs. 192. 15 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 163. 8 billion at March 31, 2011. Total liabilities (including capital and reserves) increased by 11. 8% from Rs. 3,634. 00 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 4,062. 34 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 155. 96 billion of Bank of Rajas than at August 12, 2010), primarily due to an increase in deposits and borrowings. Deposits increased from Rs. 2,020. 17 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 2,256. 02 billion at March 31, 2011. Deposits Deposits increased by 11. 7% from Rs. 2,020. 17 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 2,256. 02 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 134. 83 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010).Term deposits increased from Rs. 1,178. 01 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 1,239. 55 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 88. 02 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010), while savings deposits increased from Rs. 532. 18 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 668. 69 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 34. 48 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010) and current deposits increased from Rs. 309. 98 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 347. 78 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 12. 32 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010). Total deposits at March 31, 2011 formed 67. % of the funding (i. e. deposits and borrowings, other than preference share capital). During fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2011, we focussed on our strategy of increasing the share of current and savings account deposits in total deposits and re-balancing our funding mix. The current and savings account deposits increased from Rs. 842. 16 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 1,016. 47 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 46. 80 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010) and the ratio of current and savings account deposits to total deposits increased from 41. 7% at March 31, 2010 to 45. % at March 31, 2011. Total liabilities (including capital and reserves) increased by 11. 8% from Rs. 3,634. 00 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 4,062. 34 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 155. 96 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010), primarily due to an increase in deposits and borrowings. Deposits increased from Rs. 2,020. 17 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 2,256. 02 billion at March 31, 2011. Deposits Deposits increased by 11. 7% from Rs. 2,020. 17 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 2,256. 02 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 134. 83 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010).Term deposits increased from Rs. 1,178. 01 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 1,239. 55 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 88. 02 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010), while savings deposits increased from Rs. 532. 18 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 668. 69 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 34. 48 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010) and current deposits increased from Rs. 309. 98 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 347. 78 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 12. 32 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010). Total deposits at March 31, 2011 formed 67. % of the funding (i. e. deposits and borrowings, other than preference share capital). During fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2011, we focussed on our strategy of increasing the share of current and savings account deposits in total deposits and re-balancing our funding mix. The current and savings account deposits increased from Rs. 842. 16 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 1,016. 47 billion at March 31, 2011 (including Rs. 46. 80 billion of Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010) and the ratio of current and savings account deposits to total deposits increased from 41. 7% at March 31, 2010 to 45. 1% at March 31, 2011.Equity share capital and reserves Equity share capital and reserves increased from Rs. 516. 18 billion at March 31, 2010 to Rs. 550. 91 billion at March 31, 2011 (including statutory reserve of Rs. 2. 00 billion taken over from Bank of Rajasthan at August 12, 2010) primarily due to allotment of shares to the shareholders of Bank of Rajasthan and annual accretion to reserves out of profit. Excess of paid-up value of equity shares issued over the fair value of the net assets acquired in the amalgamation and amalgamation expenses, amounting to Rs. 2. 10 billion hav e been adjusted against the securities premium account.

Geography and history of canada

Relationship between the Geography of Canada and Its History Veronica Guerrero FarJat CDNS 101 Royal Roads University Ms. Michelle Hardy November 20, 2013 What is the relationship between Canada's geography and its history? According to M. Hardy, (personal communication, March 27, 2012) my course material (2013) establishes that Canada is a North American country with 10 provinces and 3 territories; worldwide appointed as the 2nd largest country in the world Canada, is well known by its diverse but fascinating history! Canada fought over by the French and the British, the British won and end colonizing this one.This essay analyses the diversity of Canada's early history of settlement related to its geography. In order to see the connection we comprehend how the aboriginal people first came to Canada by following the wildlife; then the Europeans came to Canada because the vast of natural resources; and finally allowing the French people to settle in Quebec province. This paper argues that historical settlement of Canada was transformed by its geography. Canada used to be named â€Å"Kanata†: Huron- Iroquois word for village or settlement. In order to survive, as human beings we do many things such as feed, socialize, we procreate, we follow†¦ t mostly we stay together and we fight to survive. On this paragraph I will explain in detail how Aboriginal people first settle in Canada by following the wild life: Firstly, the earth warmed up, the ice masses melted and receded; which it means: open migrations routes (corridors). Following this fact, animals were capable to cross land bridges of the Alaska-Bering. Secondly,Aboriginal people appear in Canada's history by spreading out into the in abi n table areas ot north-western America, everything for huge reason: FOOD! They had to acquire certain skills such as hunting, fishing, etc. n order to survive. But animals; were their ain reason of settlement so then they stay and spread across the land. To conclu de I would like to point that as the climate and land conditions changed the land start to became rich and productive; natives were able to stay and that is one of the most important reasons how those first peoples are crucial for Canada's history; they represent thousand years of culture and wherever people nowadays agree or not they are Canada's first peoples. When two worlds meet, amazing things happen.According to my course material (2013) 1500-1791 was the time when Aboriginal people and Europeans were in contact. When Europeans first came to Canada, they ere amazed on this area because of the vast of natural resources; for example, wood/lumber that they could use in Europe so it can help with the development of their country. Firstly, Henry the VII financed an exploration to North America headed for the Italian explorer John Cabot in 1497. But it wasn't until 1610 when the English settlement begun. As tension set between France and England in Europe, competition leaded in the Americas.Subsequently, Henry IV of France assigned Samuel de Champlain to explore the new lands in the Americas; Champlain is an important figure in Canada's history because he opened up the St Lawrence River nd stretched French influence through the great lakes basin. As well, Champlain was involved with a group who were interested in the fur trade; the French and Aboriginal people collaborated in the vast fur trade economy. The fur trade was a trade between the French and first nation people for the exchange on items such as tool (beaver) and weapons. The short hairs of the beaver were used for making fashion hats and those were sended to Europe.In conclusion, the Fur trade had formed an important part of the early economies of both the English and French colonies and is very significant for Canada's early history because it's Canada's first conomy developed because of the beaver; which is a natural resource, this one and the wood/lumber are the two greatest examples why Europeans were so interested in this land so they are part of Canada's early history and we see the connection based on their decision after all happened deciding to settle here and so they end colonizing this country.On the early years of Jacques Cartier's France had been building up a colony along the ST Lawrence River. Conflict between France and England had been building up since then; European confrontations spilt over into the new world and in 1629 Kirke of England ended the French colony of Port Royal. This set the stage for opposition between the English and The French not only in the America's but also across the world. As I point in the beginning, Canada's is the 2nd largest country in the world.So now knowing that Canada is such a big country people is required for its development so after all the British conquered the former French colonies, absorbing them into their North American territories. Nevertheless, the French settled primarily in what is today known as Quebec and Nova S cotia. Britain allowed the French to stay because they needed them to settle this country; s well, Britain supported Canada with immigrants and money. Finally, once Canada had become a country, the goal was to unify, define, and built a state.This does not mean that the French Canadian renounce their mindset as Canadian or that they torgot their traditions and heritage. French was made the 2nd official language ot government in order to maintain French political support. I would like to emphasize that having all those facts and Canada being such a big country is essentially linked to its history bringing immigrants and the Europeans settling in this country. A omparison of Canada's history and geography; Mexico is diverse and it has 3 thousand years of history.According to world history project (2007) The Republic of Mexico is huge, comprising nearly two million square miles of coastline, desert, rain forest, mountains, and fertile plains. As Canada, Mexico is named as the 4th large st country in the western hemisphere and is rich in natural resources such as oil and natural gas. From the American borderlands of the extensive, agriculturally rich north, the country narrows gently as it sweeps south and east. As well as Canada, is bordered by the United States.In Canada's history we understand in some point the need of people while in Mexico there is a City (Mexico City) that is considered one of the most populous cities in the world. The population in Mexico is around 120. 8 million peoples. Although Mexico and Canada are very different countries, they have somehow things in common such as history of colonization. Canada was colonized by the British in the other hand, Mexico was colonized by Spain. Both, British and Spain were amazed by Canada's and Mexico's landscape, their beauty and its natural resources.Finally, Canada and Mexico are two greatest countries and somehow their istory and wealth on natural resources motivated other countries such as Britain and Spain to gain interest on them and that's how their history is similar. In conclusion, Canada is a land of diversity, creativity and liberal attitudes. The Canadian people are a mosaic of ethnicities; it means that as well it's formed by other nationalities which together they form a great home.We understand the connection by first, historical settlement of aboriginal people in Canada by following wildlife. Secondly, Europeans came and settle because of Canada's vast of natural resources nvolving the fur trade as a firs economy developed and finally, settlement of French people over Quebec province because of Canada's size and need of people. To conclude I would like to quote something that Lorraine Monk an editor of â€Å"Canada the Things We Hold Dear†: An Album of Photographic Memories (1999) said: â€Å"The search for Canada is a personal Journey.The search for a national identity is a Journey without an end. It began a long, long time ago. It will continue into the far distant future.

Organizational Culture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organizational Culture - Research Paper Example An organization that sticks to its organizational culture builds a good reputation with both its internal and external environments. On the other hand, organizational commitment refers to the psychological attachment and willingness for an employee to continue working in an organization. This paper seeks to expound on organizational culture and organizational commitment of employees according to a survey carried out on primary school teachers in Turkey. Clearly in the book, in any organization, culture establishes norms in the structure of the organization developing a social organism with specific beliefs, values, and behaviors1. Therefore, just as depicted the article, the book confirms the fact that the employees learn and focus on the organizational expectations on the values and behaviors in line with the organizational culture2. In addition, organizational culture guides the framework for leadership styles, work environment, and work strategies. Research shows that there exist a direct connection between organizational culture and performance. Positive and supportive organizational culture promotes performance as well as creativity and innovations. There is a clear interaction among organizational culture, vision and mission, leadership and management, interpersonal relationships and organizational images. A research conducted among teachers indicates that personal attributes contribute to organizational culture. It shows that beginner teachers have no interest in their new schools hence they do not take organizational culture with seriousness. They only embrace competition culture since they want to secure attention and recognition. Another study conducted among secondary school teachers shows that school principals embrace more positive and stronger organizational culture than their subordinates. This means that top management is more interested in organizational culture than the middle and line managers are. Generally, top management is associated with strategy formulation and disciplinary responsibility, therefore, calling for commitment to the organizational culture. The research in both the publications further indicates that, not all female teachers and beginners trust their colleagues. This is because new teachers have not understood and fitted in well with the organizational culture. However, female teachers do not trust male dominated organization for the fear of intimidation and dishonest. This lies under the masculinity verses femininity grouping that reflects on gender dominance in an organization. Gender dominance translates to gender roles, cultural values, and power relations. In conflict management, different aspects of culture are emulated as depicted in the publications. For instant, the force is resorted in individual cultures whereas in collective culture, compromising, withdrawing and problem solving are embraced. In conflict management, both male and female embrace different strategies. For example, male emplo yees use force to solve their individual conflict while the female prefers compromising in conflict management. This emerges due to disharmony between personal and collective goals. Collective culture focuses on the emotional dependence of the whole organization while individualism focuses on individual goal3. Organizational cult

The Rule of Six of Film Editing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Rule of Six of Film Editing - Essay Example I believe that what Murch quintessentially intends to say in The Rule of Six is that while working in the cutting room, and editor ought to pay heed to one’s heart and intuition and opt for a cut that one finds most compelling. Many times while being in the cutting room, an editor may come across situations where one may need to execute a compromise between emotion and continuity. Technicalities and continuity do matter; yet, the mastery of an editor’s skill actually depends on one’s ability to opt for a cut that accentuates the emotive content and force of a particular scene. For in the end what the audience tend to remember is the emotional force that a particular scene had over them, the extent to which a scene succeeded in playing with their sense of fear and hope, and the power with which it kept them engaged and riveted. If a cut succeeds in honoring these expectations, it is perfect even if it slips a little on the continuity scale. Considering the fact that young editors do come across situations when they feel that their inner conviction invokes them to compromise some fundamental aspects of editing, Murch has been benign to lay down the criteria for dealing with such dilemmas. He has given a sequential list of criteria in a decreasing order of importance and the sequence in which they could be compromised to come out with an emotionally and rhythmically correct cut. Coming out with a seamless edit is no doubt an art. However, the primary function of editing is to respect the importance of emotion, story and rhythm, which are the essence of a scene. Continuity is really important, but, it stands subservient to the actual emotional flavor of a  scene.     Ã‚  Ã‚  

Should Wells Fargo lose the latest DOJ lawsuit, Were they ethical in Research Paper

Should Wells Fargo lose the latest DOJ lawsuit, Were they ethical in there practices with the Mortgages - Research Paper Example Recently, the company has been facing a lawsuit that requires them to pay for damages, because of acting unethically toward offering substandard mortgage loans, which might have powered the financial crisis in the region (Raindi & Timiraos, 2012). This paper will examine the lawsuit, and if the company is justified in claiming they acted within their financial ethical boundaries. In October 2012, the Department of Justice was at the forefront in trying to prove that Wells Fargo & Co. acted unethically by providing shoddy mortgage deals to insurance programs in the U.S., hence; creating a loss of millions of dollars. An Act enacted in 1989 allows the government to sue any financial institution if the affected party is insured by the federal government. The Department of Housing and Urban Development in US is accusing Wells Fargo & Co. of offering shoddy loans to first-time buyers (Raindi & Timiraos, 2012). According to the Department of Housing, this was done with complete disregard a s to whether the parties being given loans had the ability to pay or not. The probability of Wells Fargo losing the lawsuit There is a likelihood that Wells Fargo & Co. might lose the lawsuit. This is because under the various laws that govern the operations and functions of financial institutions, the company may have gone against the law in their undertakings. The law of restrictions under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), is still a factor to consider, where the company is still liable for prosecution by the state even after the period that has elapsed. The company can also be prosecuted under the federal False Claims Act. The refusal of the banking institution to report the defective loans has played a vital role in the escalation of the financial crisis (Raindi & Timiraos, 2012), which still rocks the U.S. and countless other regions to this day. The company claims that since it was the only institution affected by its actions, there is n o possible reason why it should be prosecuted for unethical practices within the organization. This claim was thrown out of court as the judge presiding over the case indicated that even if the only party affected by such actions was the one under prosecution, it still had to face the charges leveled against it. It is the belief of countless individuals that the simple act of choosing not to report these defective loans meant that the company knew about the issues they faced, but did not bring them to the HUD’s attention. This is tantamount to fraud, according to the court, and that is probably why the company may lose the suit by the U.S. Department of Justice. It is unethical for any financial institution to hold out on information (Jennings, 2011), which may be done to save money and disregard the integrity of the organization they serve. The ethical nature of the company’s lending practices There were some unethical undertakings by the company during the lending of loans to people. It is the task and duty of a financial institution to properly vet the people it is meant to serve, especially when dealing with loans. This is so as to see the chances of the loans being paid by the parties offered loans. In the company’s case, they were sure that any failure by the parties to pay would be bailed out by the Federal Housing Administration, which often bailed out first time buyers (Raindi & Timira

Changing an organization's culture requires that every employee Research Paper

Changing an organization's culture requires that every employee embrace change - Research Paper Example To this end, the current CEO was installed to spearhead the reform needed to address the problems and institute changes. This department has been selected to lead the reform initiative. A survey will, hence, be designed as a preliminary step to this measure. In the context of the change intervention being planned by the Human Resources, this survey will identify the potential challenges within the department from the perspective of the employees so that they can be addressed and prevented in the future. In a way, this survey will serve as an evaluation of the organizational climate for various problematic issues. This follows the principle that employees serve as the sounding board for problems and that taking time to know what they think and feel will lead to the identification of â€Å"red flags† or warning signs that include workplace safety, ethics, corporate culture, and other organizational vulnerabilities. Surveys like this tend to reveal the reality of how and whether policies and procedures are effective and beneficial. (Burke and Cooper 2004, p. 246) The feedback obtained will collectively make up the basis of the changes to be implemented and the approaches to achieve this objective. II. Complete Survey Layout The employee survey will be divided into six sections. All of these would answer the specific objectives of the survey: employee profile; the corporate culture; perception about CF&F; Quality of Benefits, services, and support; and, Open questions. The format is a typical five-level Likert scale except in the open question section, wherein respondents are free to express their thoughts. It is expected that the data that will be collected will reveal patterns that would allow the effective and successful creation and implementation of reforms. Section I: Employee Profile Important personal information that could correlate with answers and perceptions such as gender, age, educational attainment, job position, tenure, job description, and s o forth. Section II: Corporate Culture Self-description of organizational values, initiatives and policies. The following are sample questions: I identify with CF&F’s core values. Strongly Agree Disagree Agree Strongly Disagree Neither Agree or Disagree My colleagues treat me with respect. Strongly Agree Disagree Agree Strongly Disagree Neither Agree or Disagree I am willing to offer an extra amount of time and effort in order for the organization to be successful. Strongly Agree Disagree Agree Strongly Disagree Neither Agree or Disagree I am satisfied with the career path and opportunities offered to you at CF&F. Strongly Agree Disagree Agree Strongly Disagree Neither Agree or Disagree Section: III: Organizational Perception This section will contain employee knowledge of organizational policies and initiatives; the employees’ perception, among others. For example: Organizational policies positively affect my work performance. Strongly Agree Disa gree Agree Strongly Disagree Neither Agree or Disagree Organizational policies and strategies are clearly communicated. Strongly Agree Disagree Agree Strongly Disagree Neither Agree or Disagree Senior management takes time to listen to me. Strongly Agree Disagree Agree Strongly Disagree Neither Agree or Disagree Section IV: Support, Benefits, Training. The existence as well as the quality of support and services available to employees, including employee benefits,

Animal Experimentation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Animal Experimentation - Essay Example Others say that animal testing has been proved worthwhile and therefore should continue, but that new laws should be made in order to prevent cruelty to laboratory animals. This debate about the pros and cons of animal testing is one that elicits strong feelings often resulting in violence, threats, and hunger strikes. I personally believe that animal testing is wrong and that alternate ways should be devised for experimentation. (Mattingly, 1990) No doubt animals have played a vital role in almost all advancements in medicine. Treatments for heart diseases are one example, including open-heart surgery. Perfection of kidney dialysis also occurred through animal experimentation. Recently, animals are being used to determine treatments for major diseases like Alzheimer's disease and AIDS; and if a cure were found, it would be a milestone in medical history. But there is a limit to everything, and there should be a limit to this. Several medical historians claim that clinical research, examination, and human autopsy were the main components in the chief discoveries of heart pathology, cancer, immunology, and psychology. We cannot say assuredly as to what really lead to treatments for the above-mentioned diseases. But we have proof that laboratory animals are treated in an extremely cruel way with having to undergo excruciating pain. It high time people consider them as living beings too. (Anderegg, 2006), (King, 2007) Regarding the credibility of animal testing, it has not always shown promise in every aspect, often leading to a series of unfortunate events. For example, in 1963, a relation had been formed between lung cancer and cigarette smoking, but every method to cause lung cancer in animals had failed. Due to the long span of fifty years spent on this research, the lung cancer-smoking theory lost its validity and health warnings on cigarette packs appeared much later than they should have been, causing a lot of deaths by lung cancer. Another example is the relation of asbestos with cancer, and yet another one is the relation of alcohol with cirrhosis. Many other advancements were prolonged due to misleading information from animal testing. An extremely important one is the vaccine for polio, which was developed wrongly in a monkey cell culture and then later corrected in human cell culture. (Anderegg, 2006) Furthermore, due to differences in animal and human models, experts only tested parts that resembled those of humans without paying any heed to the overall anatomical, physiological and pathological variations. Because diseases usually have body-wide effects, these tests did not always appear to be reliable. (Anderegg, 2006) In addition, animal experimentation has uncovered a large range of lethal nonhuman viruses, which have caused several deaths in the laboratory along with a few outbreaks. Moreover, gene therapy in animals to produce human proteins, and their transfer into humans exposes them to dangerous pathogens. (Anderegg, 2006) Taking an ethical view of this subject, I consider animal testing immoral, cruel, and unnecessary. Animals are no lesser creatures when it comes to emotions, especially suffering pain. Hence, even the idea of subjecting helpless animals to extreme pain and unnecessary death is inappropriate. (King, 2007). The reason that

Are alternative energy sources the answer to ending human dependence Assignment

Are alternative energy sources the answer to ending human dependence on oil - Assignment Example There are numerous forms of energy such as geothermal, solar, fossil fuels, biomass, nuclear, and wind energy among others. Of all the forms of energy, human beings have tended to depend mostly on oil for their energy uses. Enerdata (2011) notes, oil is the most popular and dominant form of energy in recent times constituting over 60% when combined with coal. With the increasing energy consumption, dependency on oil increases. It is this increase that has raised concerns among environmental activists and other persons and institutions who are concerned with sustainable environment. Their concerns are informed by the fact that oil as a source of energy has limited capacity and cannot be relied upon to sustain the energy needs of the present and future generations. The other major concern is the fact that oil energy has adverse effects to the environment and has greatly contributed to the global warming phenomenon which is undermining the very existence of human life (Boyle, 2004). It is against this background that the need for alternative energy sources has heightened. Alternative energy sources are necessary in order to substitute oil energy as the major source of energy hence reducing dependency on it. Alternative energy sources will provide large amount of power which will be essential in meeting the energy needs of the world’s growing population. Alternative energy sources are the answer to ending human dependence on oil. Indeed, oil is the dominant energy source across the world presently. It is a non- renewable source of energy. It is a natural resource present in some parts of the world and has numerous applications. Despite having negative effects to the environment, oil is considered as one of the most efficient source of energy. However, due to immense consumption the resource is getting scarce. According to World Energy Outlook (2010), oil energy dominance as a source of energy cannot be disputed and has many uses in industries, automobiles, p lanes, and homes. Production of electricity in most instances relies on oil to run stream turbines. Cars, tractors, buses, and industrial machineries all depend on oil. Also, production of industrial products that are consumed by people is facilitated in great part by oil energy. In a nutshell, oil energy is intertwined to survival of the human race. However, this does not mean that oil energy has no substitutes (Tester et al, 2005). In order to understand oil energy and the importance of alternative to reduce dependency on it, it is important to understand the types of oil energy. They include; petrol, ethane, diesel, gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas, fuel oil, gasoline, kerosene, and fuel oil. Vital lubricants used in machineries and automobiles are also considered as oil products. All these types of oil and oil products play crucial role in making human life better and easier through increasing efficiency of machines and equipments. Despite the usefulness and many applications o f oil energy in the world, it is agreeable especially among ‘environmental conscious’ persons that oil energy have immense adverse effects to the environment and there is need to substitute it with alternative energy sources in order to reduce dependency on it. Turk and Bensel (2011) argue that oil energy is contributing to environmental degradation in numerous ways.

English class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

English class - Essay Example Assassinations regularly feature in the game. Fire fighting and flying helicopters are simulated. In the later releases, especially after the grand theft auto 2, players are forced to overcome extreme and unfortunate events like being left for the dead and betrayal. This becomes a motivation for advancing through the criminal ladder in the game leading to the triumph of the character by the end of the story line (Bogenn 79). The game also involves driving taxis and carjacking. The grand theft auto III makes violence to be more realistic and practical to children. The players have opportunities to pay for prostitution services with the aim of recovering health. Then the players can kill to recover the money. The game is seen to be moving from the traditional heroic roles offered by the games to illegal activities. The players are forced to commit a wide variety of crimes (Kutner and Olson 41). The grand theft auto displays a notion where the player only faces short term consequences. In the game, the players end up killing policemen and soldiers. Grand theft auto is said to have controversial content especially with regard to children. The episodes of the game are said to have a grave impact of the children’s behavior. The video game is linked to aggression and addiction to vices and violence. A study in 2001 showed that contents of grand theft auto and similar games lead to increased aggression less pro-social behavior among children (Bogenn 79). The violence practiced in the games makes children be comfortable with antisocial behavior like ignoring the rights of others. Grand theft auto is also said to have positive impacts on children. It’s been argued that it trains children to be team players, competitive and that the video characters are not reflected in the real life situation. Grand theft auto leads to both long term and short term aggressive and violent behavior (Kutner and Olson 41). The video game depicts women as sex objects

Global Business Strategy 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Global Business Strategy 2 - Essay Example As such, this provided Dr Reddy Labs with an obvious cost advantage with the development and innovation of new drugs as well as setting up the infrastructure that would be able to compete on a global scale and provide pharmaceutical markets around the world with high qualities and high quantities of generic drugs. As a means of analyzing the overall strength, strategic position, fundamental tools at the disposal of the firm, strategy, outlook, history, and outlook for the firm in question, this analysis will seek to provide a commentary on each of these points. By means of beginning its industrial start as a primary supplier of Indian and Russian pharmaceutical industry, Dr Reddy Labs was able to save a massive amount of money that would otherwise be required to make the labs qualify under FDA regulations. In this way, the firm was able to begin generating a steady stream of revenue while seeking to focus supplying existing markets and consumers while minimizing the needs to jump directly into the more nuanced US and/or European markets. For this reason, few firms readily enter the pharmaceutical market due to the obscenely high cost of entry associated with all of the standards that such firms seek to meet within the beginning phases of company operation (Hopper 2003). Once a solid footing was established within Indian and international markets for both generic drugs, Dr. Reddy Labs shifted to seeking to penetrate the market for over the counter drugs in both Europe and the United States. This would serve as the first foray into the US ma rket; a market which according to the study that has been utilized to inform this piece accounts for over 50% of the entire world pharmaceutical market. This gradual approach to entry into the US market meant that the firm was able to continue to generate a high number of sales from the key markets that contributed mainly to their

Debut Albums and Dear Friends Essay Example for Free

Debut Albums and Dear Friends Essay Honorable Chief Guest of the day, distinguished guests for the occasion, teachers, parents and all my dear friends, this day 15th August of every year is a golden day engraved in the history of the world. We got freedom on this date and it is a day worth a celebration. When we celebrate it hoisting the flag, playing our National Anthem with enthusiasm, distributing sweets, we need to sail back into the past to remember and pay homage to the builders of our nation. My dear friends, we were the privileged lot to have been born in free India. We were able to breathe the fresh free air since our birth. If at all we want to know the pangs of agony of being slaves under a foreign rule, we must ask our elders born before 1947. It was indeed a Himalayan task for every Indian those days to fight against those powerful giants – the British rulers. We must not allow those hard times and struggles fade away from our memories. Hence it is befitting for us to celebrate such National festivals and recall those heroic deeds of our National heroes. We remember them today. Right from Mahatma Gandhi to the local patriotic leaders we owe our gratitude. When we regard those martyrs who laid their precious lives for our sake, we must not ignore the common people who sacrificed their lot for the good cause. There were farmers, land lords, businessmen, teachers, writers, poets and students who helped the land achieve the long cherished freedom.

Traditional Costing Method vs ABC

Traditional Costing Method vs ABC Introduction In this essay we will discuss the traditional costing method and consider the alternative method offered by Activity Based Costing (ABC) technique. We will discuss how the two methods differ from each other and also from the direct costing systems. The essay will also evaluate the value added by each costing system within a company’s decision making process, in terms of the accuracy of information they provide. Cost systems differ in terms of which costs are allocated to the cost objects i.e. product, service etc and also in terms of their levels of allocation ingenuity. There are three main cost systems in existence, namely, the direct costing system, the traditional absorption costing system and the activity based costing system. The direct costing system as suggested by its name, only allocates direct costs to the products or services; it does not attempt to allocate indirect costs. Therefore, it reports only the contribution attributable from the product or service towards indirect costs incurred by the business. It is often referred to as a partial costing system. The direct costing method is only pertinent for decision making process where the indirect costs are small part of the overall organisational costs or does not fluctuate greatly to changes in demand. Both the traditional and ABC system assign indirect costs to the product or service to give full costing information to the organisation in its decision making process. As illustrated in figure 1.0 above, there are two systems of assigning indirect costs to cost objects, namely, traditional costing system and ABC system. The traditional costing system has been in use since early 1900 and is still being used today. The traditional costing method relies to a large extent on the use of arbitrary cost allocation, commonly the use of either labour or material absorption rate. Decision Making In order for companies to make viable decisions, they require accurate product costs. Without sufficient allocation of indirect costs it would be difficult for companies to differentiate between profitable and loss-making products and services. Therefore cost systems needs to accurately reflect the consumption of resources by products, otherwise, product costs will be distorted and profitable products will be discontinued or rejected by the company and loss-making ones will be continued. Traditional costing system varies greatly in the level of sophistication to that of ABC in allocating indirect costs to the cost object. There is a general consensus that the traditional system is simplistic whereas ABC is more complex in its allocation technique. Therefore, traditional cost systems are inexpensive to operate, as it extensively uses an arbitrary cost allocation and results in low levels of accuracy. This in turn leads to higher cost of errors in product decisions being undertaken by organisations. ABC on the other hand, is more expensive to operate as it makes extensive use of cause and effect cost allocations (use of cost drivers), but results in greater levels of accuracy and leads to less errors in decision making process. Traditional vs. ABC The ABC system devises a number of activity based cost centres, whereas with traditional systems, overheads tend to be pooled by departments (cost centres). Traditional costing method like ABC system use a two-stage process to allocate indirect costs, with the first stage comprising of overhead being allocated to departments both production and service, the service departmental costs are subsequently reallocated to production departments. ABC, however, assigns overheads to individual activity instead of departments. The second stage of the allocation process involves allocating costs from individual departments under traditional method and activity cost centres under the ABC system, into the cost objects. The traditional system uses only a small number of second stage allocation bases, which are linked to volume produced. ABC system on the other hand uses a large number of second stage cost drivers; including non-volume based drivers i.e. number of production runs, number of purchase orders etc. In summary, the major distinguishing features of ABC system to that of the traditional method is that, a greater number of cost centres together with a variety of second stage cost drivers exist. This result in the ABC system delivering more accurate measurement of resources being consumed by a cost object, ensuring that management undertakes correct decisions. Conclusion ABC came to prominent during the 80s as a result of the limitations of traditional costing method and its value to decision making process of large blue chip organisations. In todays volatile market place where blue chip organisations are involved in the production and delivery of complex products and services, the traditional costing system and its use of volume based cost drivers like direct labour hours represent only a small fraction of total object costs. Volume based cost drivers assume that product’s consumption of overhead resources is directly connected to units produced. The use of volume based drivers to allocate indirect costs, which are considerably larger, results in inaccurate product costs and provides management with information which is of minute or no value. In fact the organisation runs the risk of making incorrect decisions about its profitable and unprofitable products and services which could result in financial ruin for the organisation and threaten its long term survival. Therefore, unsophisticated volume based overhead allocations using a declining direct labour cannot be warranted, principally when information processing costs are no longer a barrier to introducing more sophisticated cost systems like ABC. Furthermore, the intense global competitiveness within the market place had made decision errors due to poor cost information more probable and more costly. Therefore, with use of traditional costing system, misleading information is reported. However, ABC system recognises that overheads are caused by other factors, beside volume, and it allocates overheads based on cause and effects, resulting in more accuracy in organisational decision making. However, surveys of management accounting practices continue to present evidence of organisation’s still using traditional costing. Hughes, S.B. and Paulson Gjerde, K.A. (2003) carried out a survey of US manufacturing companies and reported 35 per cent of respondent using traditional costing and a further 30 per cent using a combination of traditional with ABC. Therefore, it is evident that traditional costing still provides information which is useful for blue chip Company’s decision making process, but they must use the information only with the knowledge of its drawbacks. Word Count = 1,072 References Bibliography Drury, C. (2005) Management Accounting for Business – 3rd Edition, Thomson Drury, C. (2008) Management and Cost Accounting – 7th Edition, South-Western Gowthorpe, C. (2008) Management Accounting, South-Western Hughes, S.B. and Paulson Gjerde, K.A. (2003) ‘Do different cost system make a difference?’, Management Accounting Quarterly, Fall, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp.22-30

The conceptual framework of feminism

The conceptual framework of feminism The conceptual framework of feminism, as a reactionary ideology, basically consists of power, woman, rights, and equality. The same can be said of African feminism, which has on its priority list such goals as self-determination, which have economic overtones sewn on a materialistic metaphysic. African womanism, despite its pretensions to seeking co-operation or its advocacy for interdependency between men and women, uses a model of conscientisation of women that is foreign to Africa, and runs the risks of obscurantism, vulgarism, inauthenticity, and irrelevance. To put it cryptically, African womanism cant want and cant not want men at the same time. Although gender has made tremendous strides in conscientising women about their plight vis-Ã  -vis male-dominance, its future in Africa demands that it re-position itself appropriately. At least it must re-think three theories, that is, the labour theory, economic theory, and social theory. Africas contemporary socio-political scene depicts theoretical and practical confusion of gender with feminism or, for that matter, gender with broad emancipatory movements, such as African womanism, which nonetheless use gender theory as an intellectual tool for critical analysis for the supposedly discriminatory social, religious and political organisational structures. Feminist thinkers loathe these structures because they see in them deliberate mechanisms for oppressing or marginalising women. This oppression of women characterises the present economic inegalitarianism in a male-dominated status quo. Consequently, it is argued that these male-founded and male-dominated structures can only be changed so as to render them balanced or equitable if and only if revolutionary measures are employed. The usual elements of such arguers form a class of people called feminist ideologues. Feminist ideologues are those people, male and female, minority or majority in one country, who share th e ideas or beliefs or attitudes of male-dominance over women. They tend to look at society in one way; they are certainly unhappy, dissatisfied and critical of what they see around them as compared to what they would like to see. The rational justification of their discontent and critical attitude is quite another thing. Insofar as feminism comprises people, who share one set of ideas or Where is the Foundation of African Gender? beliefs or attitudes as a group or community and who are (radically) organised, feminism is an ideology,1 which is posited to displace the prevailing male-dominated ideology. It is the core of an ideology or the ideological core, which is the most difficult part to change because it is the worldview of the people. The ideological core consists of the core ideas, core beliefs, or core attitudes of a people. By implication, if the core ideas, beliefs, or attitudes are purged out then the peoples practical reality is annihilated. The revolutionary spirit is germane to any feminist ideologue because he or she believes that lasting and effective change must be moral and intellectual. These detested moral and intellectual values are in-built in society so that their removal or reduction calls for a drastic revolutionary overhaul of the whole social fabric. This drastic revolutionary overhaul of society must be no less than a critique of the prevailing ideology because it purports to subjec t to intellectual scrutiny, and eventually refute or reject prevailing ideas, beliefs, or attitudes, which are rationally unjustified or prejudicial to the position of women in society. And then feminist ideology purports to create its own better ideas, beliefs, or attitudes. In other words, feminist ideology creates its own counter-consciousness, and eventually its own counterculture. This counterculture comprises a new set of beliefs and a new style of life that is intended or hoped to challenge and eventually expose the inadequacy of the prevailing culture. Only when the ideological core of the prevailing culture is removed and replaced by a new ideological core can lasting and effective change occur. Any change less than that involving the ideological core is superficial or transitory. In a nutshell, feminism challenges the prevailing status quo and develops a counter-ideology that questions the prevailing status quo and then attempts to modify it. Feminism advocates change rather than order. It criticises the regime in power and existing social and economic arrangements. It advances schemes for restructuring and reordering society. It generates political movements in the form of womens movements in order to gain enough power and influence to effect the changes it advocates. Feminism is an ideology of action for it motivates people to demand changes in their lifestyles and to modify the existing social, religious, political, and economic relations. It also mobilises its followers and adherents to preserve what they value.2 Ultimately, feminism is political and revolutionary. The revolutionary tinge of feminism has historically at times sanctioned the use of violence,3 which has not precluded bloodshed. Gender thinking adopts this feminist stance, with little or no modification or retouching and with few or no disclaimers, so that it is conventional gender thinking to posit men as the perpetrators of female-oppression and discrimination in a society which is viewed as male-dominated, a society in which this sad scenario is ingrained in the fabric of the prevailing political regimes, and where the social, religious, political and economic relations and structures are arranged so as to embrace and promote inequality between men and women. The result is that the gender paradigm centrally addresses the problems of equality and liberty rights, more or less zeroing on a variant of welfare-state ideology. Gender thinkers see no need to take caution in distinguishing gender-ism from feminism. Feminism is taken for granted as the appropriate seed and vehicle of gender. In contemporary literary circles, the philosophical presuppositions of gender thinking and practice are not put to a litmus test because testing gender implies testing feminism, which, in any case, has withstood many a crucial test as evidenced by its record of persistence and triumph especially in Europe, Great Britain, America, Canada, and Australia. This being the case, the cogency of popular gender-isms can only be tested, or critiqued, against cross-cultural objectivity. This paper argues that the lack of demarcation between gender and feminism leads to confusion of western feminism with gender. By grounding itself in feminist ideology, gender inherits most of the weaknesses and shortfalls of western feminism. Gender finds its impetus and modes of expression in western feminism. Therefore, Africa needs to rethink a specific gender, which is appropriate to the African situation in this new millennium. Conceptual analysis of gender and feminism becomes a problem for a start because there is a plethora of such offers on the contemporary intellectual and political scenes. Below, only extant literature is reviewed on the question of gender and feminism in Malawi and elsewhere in Africa. In the case of Malawi, only a few representative papers are considered. Any other contributions outside these papers are nonetheless worthwhile but very likely to be implicitly implicated and/or critiqued in one or more of the representative papers. The choice of the papers is free and deliberate: social philosophy, education, religion, and environment, i.e., unarguably, some of the hottest beds of gender debates and activism. At this juncture, it should be appreciated that African intellectuals have for some time tried to conceptualise gender and feminism in their own situation. As far as philosophical writing is concerned in Malawi, Hermes Chidammodzi was 116 Where is the Foundation of African Gender? the first to notice and then critique this confusion between gender and feminism in the mid-nineties. Feminism is a consecration of the moral and intellectual and hence universal values of equality purportedly denied of women by the dominance of males over women and the sacrosanct ideologies developed in society to legitimatise and perpetuate male-dominance. Thus conceived, feminism as a western reactionary and sacrosanct ideology is not African in origin and development so that the contemporary gender idiom is not a full theoretical framework and expression of the paradigm of African gender. This construing of gender invokes three important thoughts: (1) Gender does not mean and is not women. (2) Gender emerges in a specific situation depicting inegalitarianism embedded in social structures where one sex (male or female) is on the losing side. (3) Gender is a social construct of sets of behaviours, dispositions, ideas, beliefs, values, and attitudes of man and woman. (4) Gender has a strong materialistic tendency, for it grounds womens qualities or modes of action in womens daily li ves in a spatio-temporal-specific resource base presumably conditioned by a sexual division of labour. Insofar as it is situationally embedded in the societys power relations, gender is a reaction to constructed, i.e. real or imagined, male- dominance and female subordination. Gender thus conceived becomes an outgrowth from feminism. 28 The history of feminism is marked by two goals: equality and rights. Pioneer American feminists like Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton had to battle it out with men for their right to vote as equals with men by dint of creation. In the days of old, liberalism provided the initial momentum toward the release of women from social bondage. To womens disappointment, many a revolution (like the American Revolution in 1776 and the French Revolution in 1789) and nationalism did not specifically rescue them from subjugation by men. Social inequalities continued to prevail in the new and independent states. Britain, America and the Continent of Europe clearly illustrate the sluggish pace of women liberation progress; Switzerland is the last European democracy to grant women suffrage in 1971. Despite the universality of female subordination and male domination, the African womans situation is bound to make her suspicious of western feminist discourse, which is mostly the experience of the twentieth century middle-class woman in an industrial sexual division of labour. For the western woman of that era it was only natural for her to cry for balance of power. The feminist fight was a fight for power. She made lots of gains; her emancipatory efforts bore her more equality with men, more rights, and easier access to resources, increase in opportunities or incentives, especially in the public sphere. The yardstick was always her more privileged male counterpart in the already privileged middle-class. In labour, this historicity of western feminism has led to the misconception that women were solely fighting for the soft or top jobs such as company executive, manager, prime minister, parliamentarian, physician, news editor, professor, pilot; surprisingly, the women never zealously fought for rough jobs such as undertaker, trench-digger, dockyard worker, heavy industrial worker, soldier,30 or night-guards. In its counter-critique, western feminism penetrated the rough jobs; eventually, the west saw more women engineers, women soldiers, and policewomen, thus virtually transforming western society into a unisex club. In the inter-war period, and much more vehemently after W.W.II, feminist thinkers zeroed on marriage as the champion of female subordination, and so they strongly argued that the demolition of the marriage institution would automatically lead to total women liberation. It was then a normal spectacle for a woman feminist to be decidedly non-married, although she could be attached and have children. Domesticity, child rearing, or whatever family life stands for, was looked upon as an impediment to women involvement and participation in public life, especially to public employment. The feminist propaganda so narrowly construed was reduced to a feminist fight for space and time in the public spheres of life especially the workplace, which was supposed as a predominantly male ter ritory. Two concepts dominated and still dominate the western conceptual framework. Western gender categories dismally fail to provide a gender conceptual framework for the African woman. For instance, the category of power cannot be used to conceptualise gender in Africa. To argue that a certain normative concept like power has a gender meaning is to claim that its social usage, at least in part, is not what it ought to be for reasons that have to do with gender To claim further that the usage does not command universality and objectivity, due to considerations of differing hermeneutics, i.e. interpretation as grounded in historicity and context is not to advocate gender scepticism. Although the empirical realities of women world-wide are different, this paper argues for the abandonment of gender exclusivity in the face of equally competing, urgent and appealing discourses of, say, ethnicity, racism, and class. In western traditional masculinist literature, power is viewed as repressive, poured from a leviathan above to his subjects below. The subjects are said to need the powerful leviathan because without him, they lack security, peace and well-being. In that western literary world, power is evidently and firmly associated with the male and masculinity, like virility, thus evoking the physicality of power. The correlate of man, woman, is therefore powerless. So when feminists wrote about power over our bodies and power of our lives they were using the very same concept of power, which pervaded traditional masculinist discourses on power. They affirmed the male conceptualisation of power rather than providing an alternative. It comes to us as no surprise that contemporary gender thinkers mimic the same masculinist notion of power in theorising gender. They are not wary of historical, social and political situation of knowledge-claims.32 Trapped in their own ideological cocoon, the western feminist women still think that western rationality is the only rationality; that western science is superior to other forms of rationality (if any), so that in regard to, say, family planning strategy, African women have to be helped by their more scientific counterparts from the west. African women, so claim the western women, need to be conscientised because it is feared that the African women have internalised the oppression or suffering and therefore are in desperate need of awareness campaigns by women animators from the west. The western feminists already fall prey to the yet another ideology of dominance they vehemently fight in their own backyard. Western feminists are totally oblivious to the reality of subject-object relations in research; the reality the helper and the helped are equals as they each experience the other from the viewpoint of their own situations and background knowledge and cultures. Each one (the helper and the helped) is the object of experience of the other so that objectivity is somehow tainted with subjectivity. 31 Oshadi Mangena argues likewise that if one is attentive to differences of ethnic origin, sexual orientation and class, the notion of gender disintegrates into fragments and cannot anymore be employed as a useful category. See K. Lennon and M. Witford, Knowing the difference: feminist perspectives in epistemology, London: Routeldge and Kegan Paul, 1994, pp. 275-282. 32 Annette Fitzsimons and Susan Strickland, Ibid. pp. 124; 265. 129 Nordic Journal of African Studies That the helper enjoys the exclusive right to the objectification of knowledge of the Other is an ingrained feature of western cross-cultural research, after all the helper has scientific skills or rational advantage over the helped, and this ontological arrangement make the helped redundant in the objectification of knowledge of the Other. The only danger though is that the consequent helpers knowledge is partial or fragmentary. The implication is that western feminists cannot emancipate the supposedly un-conscientised African women. 2.2.2 Woman Just as the concept of human, as narrowly presented in western literature, fails to command objectivity, the same literature fails to define woman. Woman is amenable to many different things; it is shrouded by ambiguities about its ontological status. It can evoke intrinsic characteristics, like caring and love, but this smacks of essentialism, which does not have many adherents in gender mainstreams. It can also evoke familial relationships as the non-male member. Both of these evocations partially conceive woman for they are normative since they are descriptive of a set of social facts or relations. As such, woman has no characterizable content and hence the challenge from postmodernist thought that woman is not descriptively adequate since, it is observed, woman is cross-culturally different. According to postmodernists, woman imposes unity over empirical reality.33 Postmodernism rejects the Enlightenment and the humanist presumptions of wonders of reason. The Enlightenment is rejected because of its veneration of masculine reason at the expense of sensuality; humanism is rejected because of its appeals to universal subjectivity or the human condition. Instead of seeking sameness postmodernism celebrates difference, partiality and multiplicity. It detests the search for coherence and hankering after the right (or Platonic or Kantian) solution. Postmodernist feminism equally opposes a hermeneutic parochialism of the present over the past or vice versaof searching for a single given goal, a single representation of reality. This new brand of feminism transcends the historicist recognition of the inevitable peculiarity and contextuality of human thought and practice and hence it advocates the continuity of dialogue between interlocutors, between text and interpreter, and between subject and object, with no advantage, marked goal or reality. This postmodernist re-orientation of feminism is a deliberate step away from essentialism and universalism: marginalisation and exclusion of the Other.34 It puts emphasis on particularity and multiplicity with due attention to difference, diversity and locale. But postmodernists also impose a tough demand on gender thinkers: why should the absence of facts for 33 See Alessandra Tanesini, Ibid. pp. 211-212. 34 See Susan Strickland, Ibid. pp. 266-7. 130 Where is the Foundation of African Gender? description of woman precludes the claim for the notion of woman, even where the possession of the notion may not warrant the description or analysis of the same? Even the points of convergence of feminism and postmodernism are not adequate grounds for their formulation of their purported common aims because their concept-lingualities are different. For example, their meanings of a concept like difference are different. In postmodernism, difference is acknowledged as typical of human experience worldwide; it is at the same time evaded as a threat to dominant perspectives of understanding or interpreting reality. It is consistent within postmodernism to demonstrate that woman was all along acknowledged as different but was included in universal humanity in name only by the dominating men. Feminists believe that the dominant ideology in world history is the root cause of the subjection of women by men. In Rousseaus language of right, the emancipation of western woman, albeit noticeably incomplete as we enter the third millennium, began as late as mid nineteenth century. However, feminism does not argue for the mere acknowledgement of difference; womens experience and perspectives should be noticed and heard along with dominant male experience and perspectives. Feminists complain bitterly that that the dominant perspectives are exclusive of women because they are ideological and hence false, since they are interested and distorted. Feminists are not content with their inclusion in or numerical addition to universal humanity as read in liberal or Marxist theories. Whereas postmodernism stops at the recognition of difference, feminism posits difference as a challenge, a paradigm of its critical dialogue with its situation, past, present and future. The concept woman is thrown into serious doubt because the notion of gender itself is slowly moulding due to its exclusiveness. What is being advocated instead of gender is a multiplicity of identities; for instance, if one widens ones horizon, one cannot fail to realise that differences of ethnic origin and class, sexual orientation (gays and lesbians), should be priority items on the liberation agenda. In spite of its usefulness in certain emancipatory projects, woman as a gender category stands to question now because it has dawned on contemporary gender thinkers that woman is essentially embedded in misogynist literature and that it is conducive to, and promotes, exclusionary practices. In short, a feminist survey of western languages shows that the meaning of some words, such as power, woman, human, reason, depicts gender bias against women; the words are not universal. The concept-lingual sources of western rightist discourses, like feminism, are liberalism or Marxism in their vicious attack of their respective archrivals, authoritarianism, and capitalism. Ironically, Karl Marx did not directly address the specific situation of women. He presumed that his communism would provide liberation for women just as it would for all the exploited masses and underprivileged minorities, male and female. 131 Nordic Journal of African Studies Friedrich Engels (Marxs lifetime friend, economic guardian, co-author, and Marxs editor) also narrowly attributed women subjugation to property relationships of the conjugal family only in capitalist societies; he remained mute on the reality of their enslavement in non-capitalist societies including communism and matriarchal societies. Marxism and capitalism cannot be plausible concept-lingual sources for the gender movement in the new millennium since both of them are ideologies of conflict: they pit man against man; the state exploits the proletariat-worker in the former, whereas the capitalist boss exploits the labourer in the latter. The importance of authentic concepts of gender needs to be stressed. More importantly, the crucial concept of power needs to be unambiguously stipulated in contemporary gender thought and practice. The feminism of the 1970s and 1980s correctly revealed that the concepts that are presented to us as universal and trans-historically valid actually embody male biases. For example, normative concepts such as reason, science and knowledge fail to pass the gender universalisation test, so to say. Even if these normative concepts embody ideals and express values, they nonetheless prescribe and evaluate behaviour in male-perspectives and so the values they express and ideals they embody are far from universal. Normative concepts function as descriptions of the endorsements of a specific society, and are faithful to past usage. Hence the complaint that feminism has taken the experience, i.e. marginalisation, of white middle class women to be representative of all women. The glaring weakness of these normative concepts is that they leave little or no room for disagreement or difference within a situation like a community. Conformity is the order of the day since they are treated as truth-conditions, instead of being emendations of current thought and action. These contemporary feminists fear that these values and ideals are codifications of norms regulating masculinity, where the womans normal is locus of the domesticity of the family, i.e. the private sphere of life. What current gender thought needs is the evolution of ongoing social practice. It should engage in evaluation of these concepts and influence the evolution of social practice in regard to concept-usage. 3. GENDER AND FEMINISM: THE AFRICAN SCENARIO The argument that African women cannot identify with doctrinaire western feminism comes with cogent force because the knowledge and experience of African women have been ignored or marginalised by a feminism that reflects only the perspectives of white western middle-class women; that it indulges in false universalism and lacks critical awareness of its situation are simple inferences drawn from the argument. Its conception of woman remains problematic and therefore vacuous because its woman is intended to deny self-evident differences between woman and woman in situation and experience, 132 Where is the Foundation of African Gender? privilege and power. It is apologetic of the peculiarities of woman since it misconceives them as functional and not as formal differences (from man). As a result, its content and purpose are not based on actual commonalties between women but on the experience and interests of some women who have the position and ability to impose upon other women their own idiosyncrasies, terms and definitions, i.e. what they mean for themselves and others. For instance, when western feminism seeks to balance or reverse the social scales, it employs conceptual polarities such as nature-culture, strong-weak, reason-intuition, public-private, male-female-neuter sexual division of labour. To explain the position of women, it says women are closer to nature; they are more intuitive; they are more private or secretive, etc, not knowing that it simply endorses masculinist (and hence exploitable) viewpoints about woman. Indeed feminism lacks a critical awareness of its situation. Feminism is not in dialogue with its context, past and present, and therefore cannot be used to forge emendations to any society, which cries for transformation of social relations. Feminism is engaged in a monologue, which mistakes its own ventriloquism for effectiveness since it is falsely generalising and insufficiently attentive to historical and cultural diversity. Another unwelcome feature of western feminism is that, although it borrows critical tools from other emancipatory theories like Reformation, liberalism and Marxism, it does not put itself forward to challenging other forms of subordination like slavery, colonialism, racism, and their accompanying prejudices and complexes, which affect women as well. Its exclusiveness to the western middle-class womans experience undermines its universality and objectivity, and therefore puts to serious doubt its relevance to the African woman of the same era.35 Worse still, its silence could easily be interpreted as its assent to slavery, colonialism and racism, experiences that western middle-class men caused on both African women and men. Though not unique, the situation of the African feminist and that of the Western feminist would not replicate. An African woman generally finds herself in a social setting where power might not be the paradigm of interpersonal life. Jobs are just as hard to get for a female as they are for her male counterpart. In a marital situation, for example, she may dispense with the battle of balancing it out with her allegedly dominant male partner in terms of sexual division of labour, involving child-care and domestic chores due to the scenario of dependency, a creation of the extended family. Dependants fill in as auxiliary or surrogate mothers or fathers and as unofficial maids or cooks, etc. Even if dependants were not around, hiring domestic staff would be more affordable in her society than it would be in the west. As is well known, in the west, it is almost impossible to hire domestic staff. 3.1 TRADITION VERSUS MODERNITY: SOCIO-POLITICS IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICA Transformation is a rare occurrence in Africa. Perhaps devolution, rather than evolution or revolution, is the modus operandi for social transformation in Africa. The interface of the past and the present may not be conducive to the development of radical gender even among urban or elite women. Past attitudes and values tend to phase out far too slowly under the weight of new attitudes and values. The usual conceptualisation of woman both among the rural and urban folk might have more conservative undertones than radical gender theorists wish. In Malawi, for instance, even after the legal repeal of the indecent dress code, the woman in trousers or mini-skirt risks categorisation as a champion or promoter of moral turpitude. The continuing scenario of stripping off mini-skirted city women by vendors is testimonial enough of these slow-dying conservative undertones even in the urban or modernised areas of Malawi. Radical gender might be undaunted by this current negative public recepti on of trousers and mini-skirts in Malawi, dismissing it as a primary reaction of a bunch of male savages. Time alone will heal this negative attitude; gender activists console themselves. At this stage though, these attitudes should be of great concern because it is not unusual for radical gender women lobbyists to experience opposition and disapproval from fellow women. Another reality that might prevent replication of western gender in Africa is the social history of Africa. It is difficult to identify the dominant ideology for African societies outside Africas recent experience of slave trade, colonialism, and nationalism. However, anthropology and archaeology, which pretend to dig deeper into Africas past, and re-construct the Antique Africa antedating the three recent experiences of Africa, reveal to us that there are matrilineal and patrilineal societies in Africa. In the patrilineal societies, for example, Ngoni, Tumbuka, Sena, Ngonde in Malawi, males are dominant. However, broadly speaking, in matrilineal societies women are more powerful than men, an issue that is accentuated by the husbands settling in their wives villages upon marriage. One would expect that in a setting where land is the most valuable property, due to reliance on agriculture, a landowner would command a lot of power and influence. Husbands, as co-opted landowners, will in principle and practice have less power and influence than their wives. Therefore, if the western genders power paradigm is anything to go by, the matrilineal society depicts a reversal of the western gender model. In Malawi, Chewa, Yao, Manganja and Lomwe societies are largely matrilineal in principle. The Tonga of the northern shore of Lake Malawi can be included in gender-wise peculiar ethnic groups although the Tonga are bi-lineal. In these ethnic groups, one must distinguish the formal from informal power structures and modes of social organisation; in the formal power setting, that is the traditional chieftaincy, chiefs hold only symbolic power since what they execute in public is largely the consensus, or the communis sensus, of the ruling 134 Where is the Foundation of African Gender? Unlike feminist scholarship in the West, feminist theory and scholarship in Africa have formed neither a neatly delineated field, nor one firmly rooted in theoretically-inflected politics. With the consolidation of Western feminisms between 1960 and the early 1980s and the growth of the so-called second wave, clear political and intellectual traditions were formed around radical, liberal and Marxist/socialist feminisms. Subsequent feminisms drew on or deviated from these positions to engage increasingly with theories and politics emerging in the nineties. African theories and womens movements have taken very different paths. In certain ways, African theories and womens movements have been closely linked to politics, although this politic

HP CD Burner Lawsuit :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

HP CD Burner Lawsuit Hewlett-Packard Hits Legal Snag Over Its CD Burners in Germany Compact Disk burners have been a controversial product for the last several years because of there ability for making â€Å"pirating† of computer software and music CD’s a very easy operation. The Hewlett-Packard Corporation has become the first major company to be attacked by the German Law which requires firms to pay fee’s for making CD burners which in turn can be used for pirating music CD’s from music illegally downloaded from the internet. The music Industry estimated that approximately five billion dollars in sales revenue was lost last year due to the pirating of music CD’s. Many other European countries have laws similar to Germany’s that are meant to protect the authors and musicians legal ownership of their work by punishing the people who create the equipment used to carry out pirating activities. Although a problem is that these laws were created quite sometime ago and were aimed at such things as tape recorders and video players. Germany’s lawsuit against HP is the first time we have seen these older laws being put against modern day technology. What needs to be examined in this case is the distinct difference that this new pirating has. Unlike the past the majority of the pirated CD’s are created for personal use and not sold on the black market. People are downloading music from such programs as the infamous Napster and creating their own CD’s, which results in a zero profit for the music industry. HP was ordered by the German government to pay a fee of 30 marks or $12.

The Twenties :: essays research papers

Area One-Politics and Government-The Harding Scandals and the Bonus Bill veto   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The presidency of Harding was filled with continuous scandal. Many compare the Harding to Grant has both being postwar presidents marked by scandals and corruption. Having appointed several excellent officials, Harding also appointed a number of incompetent and dishonest men to fill important positions, including the Secretary of Interior, Albert B. Fall and Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Secretary of Interior, Albert B. Fall, in 1921, secured the transfer of several naval oil reserves to his jurisdiction. In 1922, Fall secretly leased reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming to Harry F. Sinclair of Monmouth Oil and at Elk Hills in California to Edward Doheny of Pan-American Petroleum. A Senate investigation later revealed that Sinclair had given Fall $305,000 in cash and bonds and a herd of cattle, while Doheny had given him a $100,000 unsecured loans. Sinclair and Doheny were acquitted in 1927 of charges of defrauding the government, but in 1929 Fall was convicted, fined, and imprisoned for bribery.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another scandal involved Charles R. Forbes, appointed by Harding to head the new Veteran’s Bureau. He seemed energetic and efficient in operating the new hospitals and services for veterans. It was later estimated that he had stolen or squandered about $250 million in Bureau funds.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scandal also tainted Attorney General Daugherty who, through his intimate friend Jessie Smith, took bribes from bootleggers, income tax evaders, and others in return for protection from prosecution. When the scandal became to come to light, Smith committed suicide in Daugherty’s Washington apartment in May 1923. There was also evidence that Daugherty received money for using his influence in returning the American Metal Company, seized by the government during the war, to its German owners. Area Two-Economics-Prosperity and Innovation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Though overall the economy was strong between 1922 and 1929, certain segments of the economy, especially agriculture, did not share in the nation’s general prosperity. Improved industrial efficiency, which resulted in lower prices for goods, was primarily responsible. Manufacturing output increased about 65%, and productivity, or output per hour increased by about 45%. The numbers of industrial workers actually decreased from 9 million to 8.8 million during the decade. The increased productivity resulted from improved machinery, which in turn came about for several reasons. Industry changed from steam to electric power, allowing the design of more intricate machines and replaced the work of human hands. By 1929, 70% of industrial power came from electricity.

Invisible Man Essay: Invisible Man and the Pre-Made Identity

Invisible Man and the Pre-Made Identity    Society forms definitions, or stereotypes, of people according to the color of their skin, their economic status, or where they live. Stereotypes define how society believes these people should act and how they should be treated. These stereotypes are, in effect, a pre-made identity. There are three options an individual must face when presented with this pre-made identity. The individual can accept this identity as his/her own. This would maximize the individuals acceptance into society, but at a considerable price. The individual would lose power, become exploitable, suppress and consequently lose his/her own "true identity," and then would become one of many faces in the crowd. The "true identity" would be stifled and strangled under the one imposed by society. Anger, frustration , and confusion would occupy the mind of the individual. The individual could reject this identity outright and could circumvent the accumulation of this anger and confusion, but not without consequences. This person may be branded a heretic and be rejected by society. They would lose their agency and legitimacy in the society and would lose any hopes of bringing about any change. The third option entails living a lie. On the surface the individual would embrace society's identity, bu t keep their true self hidden within. This option would allow the person to retain their agency in the society and their individuality. However, like the other two options, there exists a downside. The person would constantly have to put on the mask a particular community wants him/her to wear in order to conform to that community's ideals. It then becomes almost impossible for anyone to get to know the real person, hid... ...come invisible.      Works Cited and Consulted Bellow, Saul. "Man Underground" Review of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Commentary. June 1952. 1st December 2001 Available: http://www.english.upeen.edu/~afilreis /50s/bellow-on-ellison.html Ellison, Ralph. Going to the Territory. New York: Random House, 1986. Fabre, Michel. "In Ralph Ellison's Precious Words." Unpublished Manuscript. 1996. 30 November. <http://www.igc.org/dissent/archive/ Ellison/early.html Howe, Irving. "Review of: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man" Pub. The Nation. 10 May 1952. 30 November 1999. <http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/howe-on-ellison.html. O'Meally, Robert. The Craft of Ralph Ellison. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980. O'Meally, Robert, ed. New Essays on Invisible Man. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Opportunity Recognition Essay

Mr Kurian was born in December, 13th 1961 and had graduated in Diploma in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in the year 1983. Mr Kurian has been in the engineering industry for almost 30 years, in which he has worked under different companies during the first 17 years. Mr Kurian had begun his career as entrepreneur in the year 2000, where he established his own engineering firm alongside with his 2 partners. Mr Kurian took full advantage of his experience working under different engineering firms for 17 years, and applied engineering and management skills that he had learnt to start his own business. Currently, Mr Kurian Zachariah is the Managing Director of Frezawa Engineering Sdn Bhd. This literature review concentrates on the topic of opportunity recognition for entrepreneurs. In order to start-up business, entrepreneurs have to identify the idea or core value of the business. Generally, entrepreneurs would go for opportunity or business which would promise greater success in the market. 2. 0 Literature Review Opportunity Recognition A stream of research shows that opportunity recognition is highly associated with entrepreneur’s alertness in the market, prior knowledge on a particular field, mental stimulation, social capital, and behavioral and cognitive skills. According to research done by Gregoire, Barr and Shepherd (2010, 29), cognitive skills are crucial for entrepreneurs to identify opportunities. Entrepreneurs used their prior knowledge and creativity skills in order to search for â€Å"open window† in the market. D’Souza, Rodney, and Schenkel (2011, 46) stated that greater prior knowledge breadth provide entrepreneurs with higher chances of identifying innovative opportunities. Research shows that 46% of the studied entrepreneurs agreed with crucial roles of knowledge in identifying the best opportunity. With knowledge, entrepreneurs know how and where to look for opportunities. Butler, Doktor and Lins (2012, 23)viewed alertness and social interaction as the major driving forces for entrepreneurs. St-Jean and Tremblay (2011, 42) stated in his research that entrepreneurs are alert to the environmental factors such as economy, political and social to create opportunities. Moreover, it is observed from the literature review that entrepreneurs applied different types of strategies and techniques throughout the opportunity recognition process. Studies done by Butler, Doktor and Lins (2012, 32) shows that entrepreneurs involved the technique of active searching and experiential learning throughout the recognition process. In other hand, Gregoire, Barr and Shepherd (2010, 63)concluded in his research that entrepreneur opportunities occurred based on timing and luck; thus waited for opportunities to occur instead of taking crucial steps searching for opportunities. Chitakornkijsil (2011, 53) noted that different individuals discovered different opportunities, according to their particular way of gathering and processing information. Based on the study done by Butler, Doktor and Lins (2012, 98), entrepreneurs have different sources of opportunities. First, Butler, Doktor and Lins viewed that entrepreneurs focused on innovation as a source of opportunity. Entrepreneurs focused on innovation of technology to create a â€Å"door† to the market. D’Souza, Rodney, and Schenkel (2011, 94)also stated that entrepreneurs used innovation to create new products and market for customers. For example, the introduction of smart phones and tablets to the market. Furthermore, entrepreneurs also considered society’s knowledge and awareness as one of the sources. The development of new knowledge would enhance awareness in the society. Therefore, entrepreneur used society’s awareness and created solution to the problems. Research conducted on sample group of Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics concluded that 53% of entrepreneur respondents would take great advantage from introduction of new knowledge to the market. Butler, Doktor and Lins (2012, 54) stated entrepreneurs likely taken opportunity regarding health and environmental awareness such as pollution and disease. In addition, entrepreneurs also depend on market trends and structure as a source of opportunity. Entrepreneurs studied growing trends in the market and implied related strategy to enter the market. Entrepreneurs focused on trends and demands to ensure profits and success. However, showed different view compared to other research reports. St-Jean and Tremblay (2011, 67) was less focused on these sources but emphasized on facts that entrepreneurs depends on external environmental factors such as politic, economy, and social environment as the major source of opportunity. D’Souza, Rodney, and Schenkel (2011, 85) implied that entrepreneurs take advantage of the current environmental crisis such as economy downfall, riot, and social crisis to create business opportunities. A stream of research showed that entrepreneurs search for business opportunities by implementing strategic methods which depends on active searching, social networking, past experience learning, and deep knowledge. Research by Pech and Cameron (2006, 142)showed that entrepreneurs used active searching for information in order to locate â€Å"new window† in the market. Plus, Nixdorff (2008, 44) stated that the potential of success for entrepreneurs depends on the social network ties of the individual. According to Chitakornkijsil (2011, 75), the bigger the size of entrepreneur’s social network in the market, the higher entrepreneur’s chances of gaining potential information. Social interaction also helped entrepreneurs in providing network chain of opportunities. Furthermore, most of the research project studied mutually agreed with the statement of entrepreneurs mostly depend on past experience in order to create new opportunity. Entrepreneurs used past experience learning method to create innovation to the previous idea such as features or design modification. Entrepreneurs with past experience have higher knowledge on what the future successful product should be. Survey conducted by Pech and Cameron (2006, 118)on sample group of successful entrepreneurs shows that almost 55% of the entrepreneurs managed to locate high potential opportunities through past experience learning. In other hand Ozgen (2011, 58) and Kolb (2010, 86) have the opposite views. Ozgen and Kolb denied social network and experience to be the best way for entrepreneurs in identifying opportunity. However, both of the research agreed that entrepreneurs move together with the demands of market and availability of technology in market. This means that entrepreneurs followed the trends and high demands in market, but produced only at limited innovation. Based on the literature review done on several research projects, different conflicting ideas were studied on the characteristics of a potential opportunity. Through comparison, most research projects agreed with characteristics of a high potential opportunity to be rare, exclusive, hard to copy and not readily substituted opportunity. In other words, the opportunity would require an introduction of new market. However, Ozgen (2011, 47) denied the idea of rare and exclusive opportunities to be majorly focused by entrepreneurs, as according to Ozgen, this type of opportunity would be cost expensive, compared to normal market opportunity. The research done in developing countries shows that 62% of the studied entrepreneurs went for low cost opportunity as they defined exclusive products to be less promising to succeed in the country. Nixdorff 2008, 62) Therefore, Nixdorff stated entrepreneurs considered low cost opportunity to be high potential opportunity in the market as it is more attractive and promise fewer loss. However, some entrepreneurs avoided low cost venture opportunity as it is a long-term profit venture. In other hand, entrepreneurs went for new markets as there would be fewer competitors in the market and are more attractive to society. Empirical research done by Gregoire, Barr and Shepherd (2010, 134) shows on average only 2 out of 5 entrepreneurs would gain greatest share in ighly competitive market. Therefore, it would be legit to decide opportunity with fewer competitors would offer greater potential of success for entrepreneurs. According to research projects studied, most of researchers mutually stated that the major challenges faced by entrepreneurs in identifying opportunity occurred from self and external environment. From the self view, entrepreneurs faced challenges in identifying potential opportunity due to anti-social lifestyle, uncertainty avoidance attitude, lack of creativity and imagination, poor knowledge, and refusal behavior. These factors studied to results in entrepreneurs having less network ties in the market, low confidence in taking risks, lack of alternative and innovative idea, and loss of opportunity. Based on study conducted by Kolb (2010, 131) on entrepreneurs of Institute of Wyoming, 44% out of 100 respondents agreed that the major challenge which could constraint them from identifying potential opportunities is entrepreneur’s own attitude and behavior. Furthermore, entrepreneurs also faced obstacles in opportunity recognition due to environmental factors such as lack of technology innovation and legal constraint idea. Research studied by Chitakornkijsil (2011, 113), proved that the rate of opportunity development in developed countries to be approximately 32% greater than developing countries. This shows that entrepreneurs in developing countries such as Malaysia, China, and etc, are facing obstacles due to level of technology enhancement and legal constraints idea, where entrepreneur’s idea have to be filtered by the ethical perspective of the society. This can be seen from development of smart phones in developed countries, but only few developers in developing countries. . 0 Conclusion As conclusion, entrepreneurs can be defined as innovators who, despite constraints, actively focus on searching and identifying potential opportunities in the market for the sake of the business establishment, survival and growth. Based on the literature review conducted, it is studied that entrepreneurs implemented cognitive and creativity skills in identifying the highest potential opportunities in the m arket. It is important for entrepreneurs to be alert and aware of market opportunity. With the presence of the required skills, entrepreneurs would still be required to implement strategic techniques and strategies such as active searching and social interaction to identify promising â€Å"window† in the market. Furthermore, it is studied that the strength or competitive advantage of entrepreneurs in the market depends on the entrepreneur’s network ties and prior knowledge on the field. The best way for entrepreneurs to increase the possibility of identifying potential opportunities is to increase size of network, which would increase sources of information.