Managing in an IS Environment Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Managing in an IS Environment - Case Study Example Alex has also engaged in monitoring the daily routine work so as to make sure that all things are done in a standardised way. Alex is also involved in interaction with people in form of scheduled meetings to discuss the daily issues with the regional manager. Alex also communicates through telephone conversations usually with suppliers about orders and deliveries. The unscheduled meetings are mainly either brief exchanges with customers as they pay their bill or they are interruptions from staff - requests for information or assistance. Alex doesn't perform any type of decisional role in his job. Because his job is predominantly one of routine paperwork and helping out' to the staff members. Rose who is a manager of domestic service unit is responsible for the cleaning and housekeeping of a large National Health hospital plays various managerial roles while on job. Rose is involved in a little bit of office paper work to manage the hospitals legal documents and other important documents. She is involved in lot of external work for the hospital. She spends a significant amount of her time out of the office, either at meetings or touring the hospital, speaking to domestics, nurses or administrative staff and checking the progress and quality of work. She also plays her informational role while monitoring the day to day activities of her staff members that all the work is done accordingly and the quality is maintainted well. She also helds scheduled meetings like committee meetings, policy meetings or negotiations, involving a wide variety of people, and unscheduled meetings or conversations - with domestic, nursing and administrative staff. As a decisional role she is eng aged in negotiations with the different authority levels of the hospital and is involved in seeking out people to obtain or give information, to deal with problems and to request or give assistance. Stewart's Demands, Constraints and Choices' Model: ALEX Alex is bounded by certain demands that he has to fulfil while on job that includes Ordering and controlling materials, Controlling money, Monitoring operational performance, Maintaining company quality standards, Planning and maintaining staff levels. These are some of the most important demands of Alex job. Along with it he has certain contraints given the number of rules and procedures within which alex has to work like standard menus and prices, methods of food preparation and presentation and etc. That's why he make choices according to situation and does spend much of his time in office doing paper work. ROSE Rose is bounded my certain important tasks that she has to do which includes Planning and ensuring staff level, Good industrial relations, Standard of cleanliness, Cost of domestic service function and etc. Although there are many constraints that she faces in day to day activities like Atmospheric crisis and uncertainity, restructuring issues is what must peoccupy her she has many restictions from within the organizations from different factors. But although she makes considerable choices about how she handles it. She chooses to make the job people-oriented and political', trying to reconcile competing interests, ameliorating the impact of change on domestic staff. The Internal Environment ALEX Alex is influenced by many factors of the organizations internal

Right and choices for individuals with dementia Essay Example for Free

Right and choices for individuals with dementia Essay Human Rights Act 1998 Under this act residents of the United Kingdom are entitled to seek help from the UK courts if they believe that their human rights have been infringed. The human rights act guarantees: †¢The Right to life †¢The right to freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading punishment †¢The right to freedom from slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour †¢The right to liberty and security of person †¢The right to a fair and public trial within a reasonable time †¢The right to freedom from retrospective criminal law and no punishment without law †¢The right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence †¢The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion †¢The right to freedom of expression †¢The right to freedom of assembly and association †¢The right to marry and found a family †¢The prohibition of discrimination in the enjoyment of convention rights †¢The right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions and protection of property †¢The right to access to an education †¢The right to free elections †¢The right not to be subjected to the death penalty see more:describe how a conflict of interest can be addressed between carer and individual with dementia Because of the introduction of the Human Rights Act, the Government had to show commitment to protecting the most vulnerable adults as well as children so now that everyone can access their rights. In the Health care sector lots of organisations are covered by the Human Rights Act. Anyone working in health and care will be working within the requirements of the legislation on a daily basis. The act is about respecting and promoting the rights of individual people. Within social care making sure peoples’ rights are protected is a key part of your professional role. Just because an individual has dementia does not mean they don’t have the same human rights  as anyone else. Their rights are not any less important just because they are unable to defend them. The act clarifies exactly how public services should be delivered and interpreted and ensures that the people delivering the service know what their responsibilities are. The legislation states that all public bodies ensure that human rights are at the core of their day to day work. Equality Act 2010 The Equality Act sets out the different ways in which it is unlawful to treat someone, such as direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, victimisation and failing to make a reasonable adjustment for a disabled person. This act replaces many other previous acts and protects different kinds of people under just one act. †¢Age †¢disability †¢gender reassignment †¢marriage and civil partnership †¢pregnancy and maternity †¢race †¢religion or belief †¢sex †¢sexual orientation The equality act helps protect people with dementia by ensuring they can maintain their independence by enabling them to continue to work for as long as possible. The Act ensures that employers must make reasonable adjustments to enable and individual to do their job and ensure that they cannot be discriminated against because of their condition. Mental Capacity Act 2005 The primary purpose of the MCA is to promote and safeguard decision-making within a legal framework. By empowering people to make decisions for themselves wherever possible and by protecting people who lack capacity by providing a flexible framework that places individuals at the heart of the decision making process By allowing people to plan ahead for a time in the future when they might lack the capacity for any number of reasons This Act is very important for people with dementia. Because of the MCA people must  now have the opportunity to consider and make decisions for themselves wherever possible. Just because an individual has dementia it should not be assumed that they cannot make decisions. It is not the outcome of the decision that a person makes that is looked at but the persons ability to go through the process of making the decisions. Deprivation of Liverty Safeguards (Dols) These safeguards are in place to ensure that assessments are carried out before anyone can be detained in hospital, residential care or any other facility ensuring that someone who is unable to give or refuse consent cannot be detained. People that do have their liberty restricted must have a Relevant Person Representative. This is usually a family member or friend. Their role is to ensure that the persons rights are respected and that they understand as much as they possibly can why their liberty is being restricted. Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 The SVG act is intended to prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable people and to reform current vetting and barring practices. Mental Health Act 2007  This act protects the rights of people in England and Wales who are assessed as having a mental disorder including dementia. If an individual is considered to be in danger or harming themselves or others then they can be detained or sectioned under the mental health act. The act also allows individuals to appoint someone as their guardian to make decisions on their behalf. Previously this would have been the nearest relative, now an individual can request someone they want. 1.2 Here at Omega Oak Barn and in any other organisation that you might work in there will be policies and procedures in place to ensure that peoples right are protected and that you are working within the law and national guidelines. This is called a Duty of Care and it is there to ensure that people can make their own choices and decisions about how they want to live, it does not mean taking their rights away and wrapping them up in cotton wool. As a duty of care you should ensure an individual has their needs met whilst if they have capacity they have the right to refuse help if they wish  too even if you don’t agree with their choice. Within the social care field in the UK we have what is called Codes of Practice for both employers and the workforce/carers. For employees these are a list of statements set out to ensure that the best practice and professional standards are achieved by care works as they go about their duty. They Codes of Practice for employers sets out the responsibilities they have in the regulation of social care workers. Employers must follow the standards set out in the codes and help employees to follow there codes. If employees are not meeting the codes and standards then employers must take action. I think that the codes of practice are a good idea. It sets out for everyone just exactly what they should be doing. Explaining what is expected of them. This helps to ensure that all service users receive the same treatment and a higher standard of care. If it wasn’t in place employers and employees would treat people how they thought was correct rather than letting them have their own opinions. Rights covered by code of practice: Confidentiality Diversity and respect for differences Right take risks Equality in care practice Anti-discriminatory practice Control over own life, choice and independence Dignity and privacy Effective communication In the UK we also have what is known as National Minimum Standards. In England we have the Care Quality Commission. They are responsible for inspecting all social care facilities to make sure they comply with the standards. There are different types of standards for different types of services. The standards set out the minimum quality of care that an individual can expect to receive for an organisation and also sets out that they have to provide information there services that is easy to understand so that service users know the level of care they should expect to receive. This is important as it ensures that people know the minimum standards. If they know what they are expected to receive then they know if the service is failing them or not meeting the proper requirements so then they can make a  complaint. The national minimum standards also help care workers as they set out what should be delivered to the service user in your work setting. Here at Omega Oak Barn we also have policies and procedures in place to ensure the rights and choices of individuals that we care for. Moving and Handling – this sets out how people should be moved and handled, using aids such as hoists or slide sheets where needed ensuring that the service user and ourselves are not injured in anyway. All staff must receive training in moving and handling before they attempt to assist somebody. This is an important policy as it ensures that no one gets hurt. If it wasn’t in place carers could seriously injure themselves or someone else by pulling them about or not know correct techniques. Policy and guidelines for medication – This is an extremely important policy as it sets out how medication should be stored, how it should be administered and who can administer it, how it should be recorded on MAR sheets and how it should be disposed of. It also explains how individuals have a right to refuse medication. If this policy didn’t exist medication could fall into the wrong hands, the wrong individual could end up taking it or an individual may administer something when they are not trained to do so. Confidentiality – this sets out how an individuals’ confidentiality can be protected Whistleblowing – this is another important policy. It explains what you can do if you are concerned about an individual. Such as about how they are being cared for or perhaps if you suspect abuse. It explains what procedures to go through and who you can talk to about it. This is of great importance. It ensures that everyone knows the correct procedure, ensuring that everybodys welfare is protected. There are many other policies and procedures and they are all extremely important and ensure that the care received is of a high standard. They are available for staff to read at all times. If a member of staff is unsure of something they can refer to them when needed. 1.3 Caldicott Standards The Caldicott Standards are based on the Data Protection Act 1998 and are set out in the form of Principles. Caldicott Principles 1) Justify the purpose for which the information is needed. 2) Only use personally identifiable information when absolutely necessary. 3) Use the  minimum personal identifiable information possible – if possible use an identifier number rather than a name. 4) Access to the information should be on a strict need to know basis. 5) Everyone should be aware of his/her responsibilities to respect clients confidentiality. 6) Understand and comply with the law. The most relevant legislation is the Data protection Act 1998, the Police Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and the Human Rights Act 1998. Data Protection Act 1998 The Act sets out in principles, how personal information must be handled and gives clear rules on how any processing of that information should be carried out. the information should only be used for the purposes explained when it was collected the information should not be disclosed to anyone who has no right to see it the information collected should be relevant and contain no more than is necessary for its purpose the information should be accurate when collected and where necessary kept up to date individuals should have access to the data held about them  appropriate security measures should be taken to prevent unauthorised access to data. All information given by an individual or on behalf of an individual is confidential and should and cannot be disclosed to anyone without their consent. It is important that the people you support especially if they have dementia understand that there will be records and reports about them and that confidentiality affects them. With an individual with dementia you may need to tell them often that the information they share is confidential as they may forget or explain in a different way so that they can understand you. If you need to share information with other professionals you must always seek agreement from the person concerned even if relates to their health. It is good practice to ask an individual if you can let other people know about their situation. Unless they say it is acceptable to do so then everything should remain confidential. In some circumstances information can be passed on to others on a need to know basis. This could be for example to others involved in caring for or supporting the individual, such as other colleagues, manager or other professionals working  with the person. Even then consent should always be given and it should be explained to the individual that relevant information will be passed on. When information is passed on to others it is also on the understanding that it remains confidential. It is important that you check who you are giving information too such as checking proof of identity so that information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. In some circumstances you may find that you have to pass on information because keeping it to yourself could result in harm to the individual you are supporting or someone else or even yourself. This is always difficult when dealing with people who have dementia. Because of the illness a persons capacity needs to be continually re-assessed as to whether they can make their own decisions and review risks taken when they make them. The well-being of the person should help you to decide whether or not to pass information. 2.3 Individuals with dementia may need support to make decisions but this does not mean they are unable to make them. They may be able to make decisions on a day to day basis about what they want to eat and drink, or what they want to wear or watch on the television but may have difficulty with sorting their finances or paying bills. Just because an individual lacks capacity in one area does not mean they lack capacity to make all decisions. This is set out as one of the principles in the Mental Capacity Act 2005. It also states that unless proven otherwise then it should be assumed that everyone has capacity to make their own decisions. If an individual has communication problems and has trouble explaining what they want then all necessary support should be provided such as using alternative measure like flash cards or pictures. It is important even with individuals that suffer from dementia that they feel in control of their own lives. It is part of our human rights to be able to make our own choices. It is also good for self esteem and overall well-being. Individuals with dementia can also make advance decisions. These are recorded and usually called an advance care plan. These are often done before dementia progresses and while they are still able to make decisions for themselves. Advance care plans can be about any decisions the individual wants to make in advance. Such as where they want to live, what future care they wish to receive, medications they want to take and even how they wish end of life care to be given. All this  can be referred to and looked back on by professionals when needed. It also helps the individual to feel involved in all decisions being made and takes into account their wishes. 2.4 Individuals with dementia often have a fluctuating ability to make decisions. They have good days and bad days or even change their moods within the same day which can result in them not being able to make a constant decision. Because of this they may be able to make a decision about something one moment but not even remember it an hour later. Physical factors can also be accountable for an individual with dementia fluctuating with decisions. It could be that there not feeling well or are in pain. Being tired also affects people with dementia. They are often more unsettled on an evening so less able to make decisions that they could of made earlier in the day. Also emotions can affect how a person with dementia understands the information given in order to make a decision. If they are feeling anxious, depressed, frustrated or angry they may find it hard to retain information. 3.2 Conflicts between carers and a person with dementia often occur. This could be because the individual with dementia may want to be involved in activities, do things that give them independence and make their own decisions resulting in exposing themselves to risk or harm. The individuals family/carers may disagree with them doing these things and want to protect them and not want them to any risks so try to stop them. This is a conflict of interests. Even when working with individuals with dementia it is there right to make their own decisions if they have the capacity to do so. It is your duty to support he individual with dementia but at the same time you have a duty to the persons carers/family to try and resolve the situation. A capacity assessment can be carried out although it still may not be easy for a family to accept the outcome if the decision goes against them or seems foolish to them. 3.3 All service providers or organisations have complaints procedures. There is always clear imformation about how to complain and who too and the timescale for the matter to be dealt with. Organisations learn from complaints they  can be used as a way to improve the services offered. If nobody complained then organisations wouldn’t know they are offering poor service. Complaints procedures should be made available for people to use. As a carer it is important that you make service users and their families aware of complaint procedures or even support them to make a complaint. Individuals and carers/families may find that decisions are being made on their behalf even though people with dementia should be in charge of their own decisions. People may find it hard to challenge a decision or complain. They fell intimidated by professionals or not realise that they have a right to complain. They may not know how to go about it or just simply lack confidence to do so. You should offer practical help and advice and encourage and support individuals with dementia and their carers to speak out and exercise their rights. Everyone has the right to complain about poor service. It should be made clear that to operate to high standards complaints are used as a process to monitor and improve services. At Omega Oak Barn we have our own complaints procedure and this is readily available to anyone who wishes to use it. 4.1 If an individual needs help with personal care it is important that they maintain privacy and dignity. You should ensure that you knock on the door before entering their room an do not assume it is ok to just walk in. Before carrying out any form of personal care it is important that you ask permission and explain exactly what you intend to do. Do not just take over and do everything for them. Support them with the things they are able to do for themselves and assist where needed. Perhaps they just need prompting to have a wash rather than having it done for them. If someone does need maximum support with personal care privacy can still be maintained. Towels and sheets can be used to cover them as much as possible so that they aren’t totally naked an embarrassed. Also make sure that the door is shut and that you are uninterrupted. If they are using the toilet shut the door and let them have privacy, give them a buzzer to ring when they need assistance or explain that you will come back in a couple of minutes don’t just stand and watch.

Atheism :: essays research papers

Atheism, from the Greek a ("without") and theos ("deity"), commonly and loosely refers to the theoretical or practical denial of the existence of a deity. The concrete meaning of atheism has varied considerably in history: even the earliest Christians were labeled "atheists" because they denied the existence of the Roman deities. In Western culture, where monotheism has been the dominant mode of religious belief, atheism has generally referred to the denial of the existence of a transcendent, perfect, personal creator of the universe. To be an atheist need not mean that one is nonreligious, for there are "high" religions, such as Buddhism and Taoism, that do not postulate the existence of a supernatural being. Monotheism has been so basic to and compounded with Western moral and philosophical beliefs as well as political institutions that until recently atheism has been widely believed to be both immoral and dangerous to society. Plato not only viewed atheism as irrational but argued that certain atheists deserved the death penalty. When Christianity finally became the dominant religion in the West, atheism and heresy were thought to be worthy of exile or death because, as Thomas Aquinas argued, it was a much more serious matter to corrupt the soul than to damage the body. Atheism was also dangerous to the political authority of Western monarchies that claimed to rest upon divine right. Even during the Enlightenment when the divine right of kings was challenged and religious toleration defended, John Locke, a staunch advocate of toleration, denied free speech to atheists on the grounds that they undermined and destroyed religion. The believability of atheism seems directly proportionate to the growth of the sciences and the emergence of humanism since the Renaissance. In the 19th century the biological sciences seemed to make theological explanations of the origins of the universe and of the emergence of humankind unnecessary. Particularly important were the writings of David Hume and Immanuel Kant, which established that attempts to prove the existence of God from the world order were invalid. In the mid-19th century, explicitly atheistic and humanistic systems of philosophy appeared. Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche were not only atheists but also militant critics of religion generally and of Christianity particularly. Modern philosophical atheism is based on both theoretical and practical reasons.

Financial Market Development

In many of the developing countries it has been hitherto believed that the financial market reform has to be gyrating around the commercial banking system. It is true that the commercial banking sector’s contribution to growth in economy in these developing countries such as Chile and Mexico has over time grown inextricably connected to the development and growth of the other related capital market areas such as equity, government debts and the corporate securities.Therefore, reform in the capital market has hitherto emphasized the use of strategies with the potential of not only strengthening but also deepening the capital markets i.e. both the debt and equity markets. This paper seeks to highlight the general issues in the development in the capital markets such as GDP, interest rate spreads not only in the global context but also in the developing countries thereby showing how the global trends have affected developing countries and these countries’ policy response s o as attract, emulate and manage reform and development in domestic capital markets. The paper finally highlights the comparative trends in domestic capital market with specific focus to country experience: Chile and Mexico in regards to their participation in international capital market.Development of a country is measured by the GDP. However there are other factors which the UN has identified as measure for development such as life expectancy, rate of literacy etc. The UN has on the other developed a compound indicator called HDI which is a combination of the above named measures and is used to measure level of development. The global economy generally impacts on the economy, especially on the capital market of the developing countries. This means that governments cannot borrow because the states that lend are also engrossed in economic woes of recession. Further, if the lending states manage to lend, the interest rates are higher than recommended thus pushing thus tradi0ng a big blow to the development of the developing countries (BoÃ… ¼yk, 2006).In countering the global; economic trend especially that of recession, the developing countries have resolved to internal borrowing through the use of corporate securities and bonds in the state owned corporations so as to raise the money required to run these governments and initiate industrialization and other forms of development. Secondly, the governments in the developing countries have resolved to IPOs thus relinquishing their right in state owned organizations to the public to raise the much required funds. The practice in developing countries implies that financial integration facilitates growth of capital markets but it may negatively affect the volatility of share prices and efficiency of stock market especially when the capital market reforms are not suitable (Sheffrin, 2003).The main questions that remain are how the developing countries can develop without depending on the already developed countries for assistance, can GDP alone be used to measure development in the developing countries? How can the developing countries manage to insulate their economies from being affected and greatly influenced by the global economic trends such as recession through their capital markets without necessarily adversely affecting the volatility of the stock market and share prices?Actually, the countries that qualify to categorize as developing can invest heavily in the capital market thereby using the funds raised from these investments in industrialization and other forms of sustaining developments. For instance, the countries such as Chile and Mexico have invested in the capital market top help catapult the development needed .but it has proven such a step if not carefully managed may lead to the total crashing of the capital; markets. The two countries are simply a tale of capital market crises.The 1994 Mexican peso crisis demonstrates a typical capital market crisis which sent shock waves t hrough the global economy. In the 1980s, Chile suffered a similar crisis as Mexico because of the 1970s structural reforms characterized by a radical opportunity in the economy; rampant privatization, and deregu- lation effort in a bid to realize a modern financial sector. Â  In a bid to save themselves from the capital market crises, the countries’ use of predetermined exchange rates aimed to get rid of inflation collaborated with the resultant huge capital inflows intermediated by a fragile banking system to bring forth an exchange- rate overvaluation, a susceptible financial sector and the eventual crumpling of the currency

Stalin did more harm than good to Russia

The role of Joseph Stalin in the history of post-revolutionary Russia is remarkable as well as the history of the USSR itself. Stalin is associated with great purges, repressions, victory over the bloodiest regime in the WWII, mass deportations and the executions. Stalin’s name is also associated with the huge industrial raise of the USSR at the pre-WWII period, forcible collectivization of peasants and relocation of hundreds of thousands of people. He is also responsible for the bloodiest repression system known as Gulag and suppression of any manifestations of oppositions.The roots of â€Å"the red terror† in Russia go back to the attempt of assassination of Lenin in 1918. The thesis of â€Å"class struggle† became the dominating one and the ideology of the newly established state was programmed for the violence. This thesis correlated with the general course of the Bolshevik’s propaganda of the â€Å"global revolution† and establishing the Commun ist rule globally as the final aim. Joseph Stalin, a student of the Orthodox seminary in Georgia was grasped with the ideas of Karl Marx and joined the students in their protests against tsar.Stalin joined the radical organizations attempting to protest against authorities, was arrested by police and exiled to Siberia. Stalin escaped in Siberia several times, made friends with Lenin and became growing in the hierarchy of the Communist Party. After the revolution of 1917 he took the leading posts in the Communist Party. He took on the roles of political commissar for the Red Army during the civil war, and was the editor of Pravda translated as â€Å"truth,† In these capacities, Stalin was able to become a powerful figure within the party, but he did make enemies.One of them was another key revolutionary figure, a man named Leon Trotsky. By 1922, Stalin was powerful enough to take on the role of General Secretary of the Communist Party. 1 After the end of the Civil War the Bols heviks started to re-evaluate the political course. There were several groups advocating various ways of the future development. Before his death in 1924 Lenin warned his colleagues on the rudeness of Stalin and Stalin opponents tried to get the chance to back him from the power.Stalin presented an argument that Lenin before his death was sick and all his warnings should not have been taken seriously. Ideologically Stalin in contrast to Trotsky advocated an idea of building the socialism in the particular taken country. It contradicted the idea of the global proletarian revolution supported by Trotsky and his followers. Before his death Lenin introduced NEP, the new economic policy based on the partial liberalization of economy, turning it partially to the private sector. This measure was considered to be temporal and brought certain results.Before the revolution Russia was one of the main exporters of grain. After getting power Stalin took certain steps to renew the image of Russia as the main grain exporter. The former economic relations had been destroyed and the new ones were not built. The first wave of repression known as collectivization began. Peasants were forced to enter the collective farms, more or less well-to-do peasants were exiled and their property was confiscated. The military units collected the harvest by force and sent the products to cities.The repression machine started working and people were prosecuted and sent to prison even for to gleaning. One of the most striking phenomena of the 30’s Soviet Union was famine which burst out even in the rural regions of Ukraine famous for its fertile soil. The agricultural products were forcibly collected and sent to the cities. Of course, Stalin was responsible for this. Meanwhile the inner ideological struggle between the Communist Party leaders was going on. Stalin tried to eliminate any influence of the exiled Trotsky.The advocates of the Stalin’s rule stated that the situation of the USSR was difficult, it was surrounded by the countries with the hostile according to Lenin ideologies and the country needed the strong leader to renew the industry and provide the economic growth. Having nothing but the repressive machine Stalin started the great renewal of the industry. The huge repressive machine started its operations in 1936 after the assassination of Kirov in 1934. Huge formation described by Alexander Solzhenitsyn as â€Å"Archipelago Gulag† was established.GULAG is the abbreviation from Russian of Main Department of Prisons. NKVD (secret police) tried to unmask imaginary anti-Stalin conspiracies throughout the country. One of the most tragic consequences of the Stalin’s repression was the elimination of the Soviet military elite before the WWII. Almost all outstanding military leaders were repressed and executed. At the same time all remarkable pre-WWII industrial achievements were associated with Stalin and mass repressions. Article 58 of the criminal code presupposed severe repressions for being â€Å"the people’s enemy†.The interpretation of the code was very broad. The representatives of intelligentsia, science, and army were imprisoned according to this article. This article could be applied to anyone and condemned had to work hard building the hydropower stations, plants, roads and channels. The cheap labor of Gulag was the main reason of the industrial achievements of the 30’s. At the same time the cult of the Stalin’s personality was steadily growing. A number of songs, poems and films were devoted to â€Å"the Father of Peoples†.The adoration was reaching absurd forms very often and it was nothing more but fear to be repressed moved the Stalin’s admirers. This is one of the examples of widely used odes to Stalin: O great Stalin, O leader of the peoples, Thou who broughtest man to birth. Thou who fructifies the earth, Thou who restorest to centuries, Thou who makest bl oom the spring, Thou who makest vibrate the musical chords†¦ Thou, splendour of my spring, O thou, Sun reflected by millions of hearts. 2 The USSR was completely unprepared to the WWII known as the Great Patriotic War in the history of the Soviet Union.It is very complicated issue to discuss the reasons of the war but the role of Stalin was remarkable. By 1941 when German fascists attacked the USSR the personality cult of Stalin was successfully formed and played its certain (though questionable) role in the consolidation of the nation. The political biography of Stalin is a remarkable phenomenon. Millions of people were executed and the bloodiest human hating fascist regime was eliminated. He turned the theory of socialism upside down; he replaced the original thesis â€Å"socialism for people† by his own â€Å"people for socialism†.His saying â€Å"there is no problems if there is no a person† reflects his style of leadership. Outstanding scientists were intentionally imprisoned to work in the secret closed scientific institutes developing the mass destruction weapon. Stalin played his certain positive role in the WWII, but the causes and consequences of the war have not been yet still clearly defined. The victory over Nazism is sometimes presented as the Stalin’s personal achievement and historians sometimes don’t care about the 200 million people and brilliant military leaders who directed Soviet soldiers.The historical evaluation is very difficult thing and the responsibility of Stalin for genocide against the Soviet people is unquestionable. At the same time the dictators are not just villains. This would be a very simplified approach. Soviet people under the guidance of Stalin built one of the world’s most powerful economies though it cost millions of innocent victims. The Soviet leader of the 60’s Nikita Khrushev admitted and unmasked the cult of personality of Stalin but system changes took place o nly in late 80’s under the guidance of Gorbachev

Using the Active Voice to Strengthen Your Writing

Using the Active Voice to Strengthen Your Writing Using the Active Voice to Strengthen Your Writing Using the Active Voice to Strengthen Your Writing By Ali Hale Writing in the active voice means constructing sentences where the subject â€Å"acts†: I threw the ball. You are making too much noise. Ben will eat popcorn and watch a movie tomorrow evening. In each of these sentences, the subject (I, You and Ben respectively) performs the action of the verb (threw, making, will watch). The sentences are punchy, direct and make it clear who’s doing what. Writing in the passive voice means constructing sentences where the subject is â€Å"passive† – acted upon, rather than agents of action. For many forms of writing, this can create an undesired effect: sentences often become confusing or simply dull. The ball was thrown by me. Too much noise is being made by you. Tomorrow evening, popcorn will be eaten and a movie will be watched by Ben. In each of these sentences, the subject (â€Å"the ball†, â€Å"too much noise†, â€Å"popcorn† and â€Å"a movie†) is being acted upon by the verb. With sentences written in this way, we can even eliminate the agent who is performing this action: The ball was thrown. Too much noise is being made. Tomorrow evening, popcorn will be eaten and a movie will be watched. These are all perfectly correct sentences, but the reader has the sense that something is missing. Who threw the ball? Who or what is making too much noise? And surely someones going to watch that movie and eat that popcorn? Why is the Active Voice So Important? If you’ve ever had a go at creative writing, you’ll probably have come across the advice to always write in the active voice. This is a good rule of thumb for most pieces of fiction: sentences in the active voice have energy and directness, both of which will keep your reader turning the pages! Sentences written in the active voice are also less wordy than those in the passive voice – and cutting unnecessary words always improves a piece of writing, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction. Students writing academic essays can sometimes tie themselves in knots trying to make sentences sound â€Å"formal† – which often (mistakenly) is taken to mean putting a sentence in the passive voice. Here’s an example (thanks to the UVic Writers’ Guide): â€Å"The theme that was most dealt with by the 16th Century poets was . . .† This could be rewritten in the active voice as: â€Å"The 16th Century poets most often dealt with the theme of . . .† This sentence is shorter, to the point, and the reader is less likely to switch off half-way through. It is just as â€Å"formal† and academically correct as the first one, but makes for a better piece of writing by being snappier. How to Get Starting Using the Active Voice Take a piece of writing that you’ve produced, and go through working out if each sentence is in the active or the passive voice. One clue to look out for when searching for sentences in the passive voice is the use of â€Å"was†: â€Å"The theme that was most dealt with by the 16th Century poets†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"His death was regretted.† (Though note not all sentences using â€Å"was† are passive: â€Å"I was riding my bike† is active, â€Å"My bike was being ridden by me† is passive.) Another clue is the use of â€Å"by† when referring to who did something: â€Å"The report was written by me.† â€Å"All of the mistakes were made by him.† Once you’ve identified the passive sentences in your work, try rewriting each in the active voice. Do you think it makes a difference? If you’ve changed a lot of the sentences, read the whole piece through from start to finish – has the overall feel or tone changed? Take a word count of the original and the new version: how many words have you been able to cut? If you get stuck, pop into the Daily Writing Tips forums and post the paragraph or sentences that you’re struggling with! Tips and Tricks for Using the Active Voice Use the active voice when you want your writing to be simple, direct, clear and easy to read. If you’re not very confident about your writing, using the active voice can be an easy way to improve a dull or lifeless piece of prose. However, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you always need to use the active voice. Sometimes, it’s perfectly appropriate to phrase a sentence in the passive voice: just be aware that you’re doing this, and make sure you know why. For example, using the passive voice can be an excellent way to avoid assigning responsibility for a job or problem. Sometimes this can be a useful and tactful way to phrase things in business writing: â€Å"Mistakes were made.† â€Å"The files will be sent as soon as possible.† â€Å"All our records have been lost.† In Elements of Style bartleby.com/141/strunk5.html, Strunk gives the rule â€Å"Use the active voice† but admits that: This rule does not, of course, mean that the writer should entirely discard the passive voice, which is frequently convenient and sometimes necessary. The dramatists of the Restoration are little esteemed to-day. Modern readers have little esteem for the dramatists of the Restoration. The first would be the right form in a paragraph on the dramatists of the Restoration; the second, in a paragraph on the tastes of modern readers. The need of making a particular word the subject of the sentence will often, as in these examples, determine which voice is to be used. At school and university, many people are taught not to use â€Å"I† in scientific or academic writing. (Modern stylistic advice does not generally prohibit using â€Å"I† in this way, but it’s a good idea to check your institution’s guidelines.) Using the passive voice does allow you to avoid the agent performing the action, for example: â€Å"I performed an experiment to test the rate of the reaction.† (active) can be rewritten as: â€Å"An experiment was performed to test the rate of the reaction.† (passive). In general, though, make sure the majority of your sentences are in the active voice: your writing will be livelier and more engaging, encouraging your readers to keep going. Further Reading on the Active Voice Strunk’s Elements of Style Wikipedia article on the Active Voice Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Exquisite Adjectives41 Words That Are Better Than GoodTypes of Plots

Free Essays on Durango Street

Is Dally’s Death a Suicide? The definition of suicide is self murder. Sometimes suicide can happen if you feel depressed or sad, or if a friend of family member had been killed. This kind of incident may make you feel like you could kill yourself. I had a friend die from suicide; it was a serious deal. There are ways to get help with these kinds of feelings: you can get help from a guidance counselor and you can also get medication from your doctor to help stabilize your emotions. In my friend’s case, he was getting some help but not always following his doctor’s directions. Some people kill themselves because they think being dead is better than the situation they’re in. Dally’s death is a suicide. There are a couple of reasons that give it away. Dally robbed a grocery store and then ran under a streetlight and said, â€Å"I have a heater,† (gun), but actually the gun was not loaded. The gun was used as a decoy. The police fell for it and started shooting at Dally and eventually killed him. Dally lost a friend named, Johnny, due to a serious injury caused from a fire. All the â€Å"Greasers† felt the loss. Dally led a very violent life. He had no parents and no guidance at all. He dropped out of high school. He and his friends caused trouble, smoke cigarettes, drank beer, fought, and went to parties for a good time. This is not what I call a normal life. Dally’s record caught up with him and he didn’t like it. He was always running from the police and looking for shelter. He probably got into more trouble in his 16 or 17 years of life than most people would in three lifetimes! This troubled lifestyle started when Dally was young. He was a very hard-nosed man and didn’t like taking advice from other people. Dally was a smart criminal. He knew when to do things at the just the right time. I feel that Dally finally realized that he was leading the wrong kind of lif... Free Essays on Durango Street Free Essays on Durango Street Is Dally’s Death a Suicide? The definition of suicide is self murder. Sometimes suicide can happen if you feel depressed or sad, or if a friend of family member had been killed. This kind of incident may make you feel like you could kill yourself. I had a friend die from suicide; it was a serious deal. There are ways to get help with these kinds of feelings: you can get help from a guidance counselor and you can also get medication from your doctor to help stabilize your emotions. In my friend’s case, he was getting some help but not always following his doctor’s directions. Some people kill themselves because they think being dead is better than the situation they’re in. Dally’s death is a suicide. There are a couple of reasons that give it away. Dally robbed a grocery store and then ran under a streetlight and said, â€Å"I have a heater,† (gun), but actually the gun was not loaded. The gun was used as a decoy. The police fell for it and started shooting at Dally and eventually killed him. Dally lost a friend named, Johnny, due to a serious injury caused from a fire. All the â€Å"Greasers† felt the loss. Dally led a very violent life. He had no parents and no guidance at all. He dropped out of high school. He and his friends caused trouble, smoke cigarettes, drank beer, fought, and went to parties for a good time. This is not what I call a normal life. Dally’s record caught up with him and he didn’t like it. He was always running from the police and looking for shelter. He probably got into more trouble in his 16 or 17 years of life than most people would in three lifetimes! This troubled lifestyle started when Dally was young. He was a very hard-nosed man and didn’t like taking advice from other people. Dally was a smart criminal. He knew when to do things at the just the right time. I feel that Dally finally realized that he was leading the wrong kind of lif...

Friend and Protected Friend in VB.NET

Friend and Protected Friend in VB.NET Access modifiers (also called scoping rules) determine what code can access an element- that is, what code has permission to read it or write to it. In previous versions of Visual Basic, there were three types of classes. These have been carried forward to .NET. In each of these, .NET allows access only to code: Private - within the same module, class, or structure.Friend - within the same assembly.Public - anywhere in the same project, from other projects that reference the project, and from any assembly built from the project. In other words, any code that can find it. VB.NET has also added one and a half new ones. ProtectedProtected Friend The half is because Protected Friend is a combination of the new Protected class and the old Friend class. The Protected and Protected Friend modifiers are necessary because VB.NET implements the last OOP requirement that VB was missing: Inheritance. Previous to VB.NET, supercilious and disdainful C and Java programmers would belittle VB because it was, according to them, not fully object oriented. Why? Previous versions lacked inheritance. Inheritance allows objects to share their interfaces and/or implementation in a hierarchy. In other words, inheritance makes it possible for one software object that takes on all of the methods and properties of another one. This is often called the is-a relationship. A truck is-a vehicle.A square is-a shape.A dog is-a mammal. The idea is that more general and widely used methods and properties are defined parent classes and these are made more specific in child classes (often called subclasses). Mammal is a more general description than dog. Whales are mammals. The big benefit is that you can organize your code so you only have to write code that does something that lots of objects have to do once in the parent. All employees have to have an employee number assigned to them. More specific code can be part of the child classes. Only employees that work in the general office need to have an employee door card key assigned to them. This new capability of inheritance requires new rules, however. If a new class is based on an old one, Protected is an access modifier that reflects that relationship. Protected code can be accessed only from within the same class, or from a class derived from this class. You dont want employee door card keys being assigned to anyone except employees. As noted, Protected Friend is a combination of the access of both Friend and Protected. Code elements can be accessed either from derived classes or from within the same assembly, or both. Protected Friend can be used to create libraries of classes since code that accesses your code only has to be in the same assembly. But Friend also has that access, so why would you use Protected Friend? The reason is that Friend can be used in a Source file, Namespace, Interface, Module, Class, or Structure. But Protected Friend can only be used in a Class. Protected Friend is what you need for building your own object libraries. Friend is just for difficult code situations where assembly wide access is really required.

It is unfair to deny students financial aid Research Paper

It is unfair to deny students financial aid - Research Paper Example The cost of a higher education is an issue of great concern for most students and even their families as well (Goldberg 81-84).   Regardless of the financial situations of ones family, paying for a higher education requires a considerable commitment of ones resources for several years and the problem is made even worse if more than two children have been admitted into a college or a university.  It may be surprising for some people to learn that a good number of full-time undergraduate students are incapable of paying the cost of their education without assisted financially.  The problem here is even more intricate if the st This paper discusses the aspect of unfairness in the context of student financial aid. Specifically, the paper argues that is unfair to deny students financial aid. To clearly bring out the subject, the paper will detail circumstances leading to award or failure to grant student financial aid. If inflation is held as a constant to assess the real cost of tu ition in relation to the real amount of federal aid, in public colleges and universities, it can easily be established that between 1990s and 2012, financial aid per student increased by about 200 percent (Ehrenberg 3-4). In the same period, tuition rose by more than 260 percent. However, in private colleges and universities, the cost of tuition over the same period only increased by less than 170 percent. In fact, this seems like a rush by colleges to proof William Bennett’s theory right. ... If really this is the case, then everybody who applies should be given some financial assistance to also cushion the ever increasing cost of tuition. Public colleges and universities have constantly maintained that traditionally, in economic difficulties, higher learning institutions record an increased enrollment. Supporting their arguments, the enrollments of the 1980s, 1990s and the mid 2000s are used. According to their argument, at such a time, the rate of unemployment results in diminished tax revenues. This, therefore, means that there is a reduction in subsidies for public schools, and to mitigate the situation, tuition must be increased so that the same quality of education can be maintained. In reality, these are just excuses. This is because; such costs never come down even when there is not economic downturn. Even though they are factors that contribute to ever increasing cost of tuition, available federal subsidies like student financial aid cannot be overlooked. This is because even private schools are affected by such economic conditions yet they have maintained their tuition increases at a much lower percentage than public schools. Therefore, it is easier to argue that the federal subsidies impact or contribute the extra percentage. This is because the only differentiating factor between private and public colleges is the federal subsidies in the form of student financial aid. It is without a doubt that it is next to impracticality to make any system fair at least for every person, unfortunately, in the case of awarding financial aid, things are not fair at all. In most cases, when students are denied financial aid for the first time, some are allowed to file an appeal

Supply Chain Management and Logistics Assignment

Supply Chain Management and Logistics - Assignment Example From this discussion it is clear that Toyota should adopt Omni-channel systems by focusing to change organization, which is the execution of developments relating to heightening delivery. The way to go is Omni-channel configuration, which is propelling impact of having attributes and information open over all channels. Organization incorporates leveraging customer experience chances, process upgrades.This paper stresses that one explanation behind changing supply chains are new circulation methodologies, which are controlled by expanding client administration desires, developed business sector scope, immediate channel structures, long haul channel connections, and developing gainfulness, stabilization, and vindication. Directors should unequivocally characterize the aspects and necessities of any key organization. Exact methods and guidelines must be created with the goal, control, and consistency of yield increment across all the departments. Moreover, supervisors have to play their part by instilling trust and responsibility among employees through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) codes.  Toyota is a multibillion-dollar company that manufactures and supplies motor vehicles. They have a supply chain management categorized under operational and strategic. They use Strategic decisions for choices over a longer period horizon.  Production decisions are made based on the products to be produced and the various production centers, allocation of various suppliers to production plants, and to customer markets.

Gangnam style Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Gangnam style - Essay Example It is famous for its wealthy inhabitants. During the last half century, the town has proliferated to become a hub of the wealthiest upper class in South Korea. The Gangnam style in the song is denoting this elite wealth culture and the lifestyle that has sprung around that area. Gangnam Style, was done by Park Jae-sang, commonly known as PJS, and went viral on YouTube and other media. In his music Gangnam dancing style, PJS talks about people’s behavior in reference to the Gangnam area. â€Å"The people of the Gangnam are so good looking as they can afford to have plastic surgery and have a luxurious lifestyle." Money is not a problem in the Gangnam estate. The video brings out a contrast to the lifestyle that is found in the city. Park Jae-sang refers himself as Gangnam that is a contrast to the lifestyle that the residents live. The meaning rather mocks the culture and attitude of such people who live in Gangnam do not talk about their lives much, only those who dreams to be in such a lifestyle keep talking about it in the streets. The wannabe and posers put take a resemblance of the Gangnam style. The dance had hit billboards in major countries through the social media and has much influence on the culture of the world in the year 2012. The song topped in the song billboard in a couple of countries namely, USA, Italy, Japan, Australia, China to mention but a few. The sensational song has managed to receive the world recognition through You Tube among other social media. In the first day of release got over-whelming 500,000 views that made it You Tube most popular song in the world. â€Å"Gangnam Style, this little video has received close to a billion times view and is now rated as the most viewed and liked YouTube Viral video ever. It might not seem like something important fact to many who are unaware of the bigger and wider trend that

Balance sheet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Balance sheet - Essay Example Balance sheets are generally prepared by a company at the end of its financial year. The balance sheets are presented in either horizontal or in vertical form. All the items present in the balance sheet of a company are discussed in details in this study. The dual aspect of balance sheet and the application of balance sheet have also been mentioned in this study. The users of balance sheets include the company managers to help them in analysing the financial conditions of the company, the investors and shareholders to help them in their decision making process regarding investment in the organisation and all other stakeholders of the company. With the increasing trend of globalisation most of the companies are trying to explore business opportunities in different parts of the world. As a result of this they need to comply with the regulatory requirements of different nations of the world. However with the advent of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Accounting Standards (IAS), the accounting practices followed in different nations are converging to make the financial statements including balance sheets more comparable in nature. A comparison between the balance sheet formats followed by companies in US and UK has been discussed in this study. 2. Balance Sheet Items All the items of a balance sheet fall under two broad headings, namely â€Å"Assets† and â€Å"Liabilities†. The items falling under the categories of assets and liabilities have been discussed below: 2.1 Assets Assets which are possessed by a business concern are categorised into two types, namely, current assets and fixed assets. Fixed assets are considered to be the long term assets of the company and current assets are considered to be the short term assets of the company. All these assets of the company are valued and represented in the balance sheet of the company at its book value or historical costs of those assets that is the costs of the asset s when it was first bought by the company. This is known as the historic cost convention (Horner, 2012, p. 42). However, as an exception to this convention or rule, some of the assets like the buildings possessed by the company are re-valued at its market price and then represented in its balance sheet. Sometimes, assets like goodwill generated internally by the company, including the values o different kinds of brands acquired by the company over a period of time are not included in its balance sheet. It is so because of the difficulty in accurately measuring the value of these kinds of assets. Let us now discuss in details about the assets of a company. 2.1.1 Fixed Assets Long term assets or fixed assets possessed by a company are sometimes referred to as non-current assets of the company. Fixed assets generally comprises of those assets of the company which are utilized by it for conducting its various business activities and are there with the company for a long period of time. They are not meant for resale by the organisation. The fixed assets of the company help it to generate sales or revenues through its business processes over a long period of time. Generally the fixed assets are required to be depreciated along its lifetime (Stittle, & Wearing, 2008, p. 60). Fixed assets of an organisation can further be grouped together into three different categories. They are: a) Tangible

Online presentation business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Online presentation business - Essay Example it to emphasize upon specific points during the speech, which only improved the quality of his speech further and helped convey the meaning to the audiences. In addition to that, the light music in the background gives it a perfect presentation appeal so that it does not feel like a traditional online education session. Every second of the video is important and has so much to offer to the audience that the audience cannot risk missing it. The speaker maintains a nice attitude toward the audience and a high level of professionalism in his speech while addressing the audience throughout the video. This is evident from the way he introduces the subject of the video to the audiences in the start and leads them through it to the end making every effort to convey his meaning to them in the best possible way. There is a lot that is conveyed through the visuals rather than the commentary or script that is what makes it a concise and extremely informative video. It is the example of a perfect video illustration of a topic in its

Balance sheet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Balance sheet - Essay Example Balance sheets are generally prepared by a company at the end of its financial year. The balance sheets are presented in either horizontal or in vertical form. All the items present in the balance sheet of a company are discussed in details in this study. The dual aspect of balance sheet and the application of balance sheet have also been mentioned in this study. The users of balance sheets include the company managers to help them in analysing the financial conditions of the company, the investors and shareholders to help them in their decision making process regarding investment in the organisation and all other stakeholders of the company. With the increasing trend of globalisation most of the companies are trying to explore business opportunities in different parts of the world. As a result of this they need to comply with the regulatory requirements of different nations of the world. However with the advent of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Accounting Standards (IAS), the accounting practices followed in different nations are converging to make the financial statements including balance sheets more comparable in nature. A comparison between the balance sheet formats followed by companies in US and UK has been discussed in this study. 2. Balance Sheet Items All the items of a balance sheet fall under two broad headings, namely â€Å"Assets† and â€Å"Liabilities†. The items falling under the categories of assets and liabilities have been discussed below: 2.1 Assets Assets which are possessed by a business concern are categorised into two types, namely, current assets and fixed assets. Fixed assets are considered to be the long term assets of the company and current assets are considered to be the short term assets of the company. All these assets of the company are valued and represented in the balance sheet of the company at its book value or historical costs of those assets that is the costs of the asset s when it was first bought by the company. This is known as the historic cost convention (Horner, 2012, p. 42). However, as an exception to this convention or rule, some of the assets like the buildings possessed by the company are re-valued at its market price and then represented in its balance sheet. Sometimes, assets like goodwill generated internally by the company, including the values o different kinds of brands acquired by the company over a period of time are not included in its balance sheet. It is so because of the difficulty in accurately measuring the value of these kinds of assets. Let us now discuss in details about the assets of a company. 2.1.1 Fixed Assets Long term assets or fixed assets possessed by a company are sometimes referred to as non-current assets of the company. Fixed assets generally comprises of those assets of the company which are utilized by it for conducting its various business activities and are there with the company for a long period of time. They are not meant for resale by the organisation. The fixed assets of the company help it to generate sales or revenues through its business processes over a long period of time. Generally the fixed assets are required to be depreciated along its lifetime (Stittle, & Wearing, 2008, p. 60). Fixed assets of an organisation can further be grouped together into three different categories. They are: a) Tangible

CIS 206 U1 Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

CIS 206 U1 Discussion - Essay Example Ubuntu is a fork of Debian, that is on of the oldest Linux distributions available and is sponsored by Canonical. The features to look at in comparing the Linux distribution are stability, performance, software availability and installation, user interface and update support and release schedule. Fedora and Ubuntu are both stronger than Arch Linux. Ubuntu users have reported more application crashes that Fedora users. The reason behind this is the high number of third party applications in Ubuntu. Therefore, Fedora is more stable than Ubuntu and Arch Linux. Fedora, Ubuntu and Arch Linux are very fast Linux distributions. Fedora has a high I/O performance than Ubuntu but on the other hand Ubuntu starts up quickly. From some test by OpenBenchmarking.org fedora 20 outperforms Ubuntu 13.10 when working with large number of files as in a business setting. Fedora scored 279.22 files/second as compared to 184.10/second files in Ubuntu. Performance in graphical applications was almost similar in Fedora and Ubuntu of around 31.4 frames/second. Therefore, fedora outscores Ubuntu in performance. Hardware support in Linux is still a bigger problem than other commercial distributions like Windows and OS X. In Linux, Ubuntu has a better hardware compatibility than both arch and fedora, and different drivers will quickly work in it. Ubuntu outperforms both fedora and arch in software availability. Ubuntu has a lot of developers working on their applications, and it also supports personal package archives. Fedora has a large library of applications but not as extensive as Ubuntu. Fedora uses a package manager called yum and rpm; Ubuntu uses apt-get and Deb while Arch Linux uses a package manager called Pacman. Arch Linux outperforms both Fedora and Ubuntu in building customized multimedia production workstation. Arch also has a user repository hundreds of user supported packages. All the distributions have constant updates and full

An Examination of Power and Politics in Organizations Essay Example for Free

An Examination of Power and Politics in Organizations Essay Abstract Many studies have examined the affects power and politics have on organizations. In researching The University of Phoenixs Online Library and current web sites information shows that power and politics dominates the work place and organizations more than any other personal skill. In order to lead one must have power to influence, set and enforce rules. Politics are found in the majority of organizations, therefore it is crucial for employees to recognize the political game in their own organization and decide rather to participate and benefit from the positives of politics or not. An Examination of Power and Politics in Organizations Power and politics are dominating forces with in organizations. Organizations are lead by people with power. Power can be awarded by management to a person by title, legitimate power which is more formal and recognizable. Many leaders assume power through such things as knowledge, information or seniority. Through research located online and knowledge obtained from personal experiences a comparison was conducted on power and politics in organizations. The structure of a team is important in determining how the team will perform. Each team member should contribute skills to enhance the teams overall performance. Individual work habits and leadership styles will determine if the team has the ability to join together and complete their common goals. Teams create environments that bring out the best in each team member. A commitment to effectively communicating information and ideas is a characteristic of an effective team. That is why the usage of coercion and politics to gain advantage over team members can be very destructive to team dynamics. Coercion is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary is to force one to act or think in a certain manner, to dominate, restrain, or control by force. Often at work or in a group environment one might utilize this form of power to control dominance  over the group. This usage of power can often make other team members conform. In a successful team conformity is not a useful tactic. The usage of politics and coercion to gain advantage over team members is a danger to the success of the project. Once team members realize that their input is not wanted more than likely they will withdraw from the process altogether. The USA today states, offices dynamics often change from the usage of intimidation. (2004) For example a team must work together to process information for the desired results. Once a member takes advantage of a situation and use coercion to gain advantage it often leads to disaster. An example of such disaster happened recently within our team. A couple classes ago we had a member that was an extremely dominant person. The person was very smart and well educated but had a problem understanding the syllabus. Everybody in the team would understand the group assignments one way but she would always play devil advocate on the simplest details. She would use coercion to gain advantage over the other team members when we would meet to complete group assignments. The entire team was guilty of just going with the flow, not wanting to cause any problem. She was so convincing we felt she had to be correct! The result was a low grade, because the content was not correct. So the team from that moment on did not allow that dominant personality use politics and power to manipulate the group any more. Organizational Behavior Ch. 15 pg. 3 defines power through information as; Information power is the access to and/or the control of information. It is one of the most important aspects of legitimacy. In the majority organization the person with the information controls the manner in which the company operates. Expert power is the ability to control through the possession of knowledge, experience, or judgment that the other person does not have but needs. This source of power is often used by subordinates. Judson, P. stated in Worldwide Energy although there are several directors and managers to organizations the experts of the business actually controls progress. In the public works and engineering department there are several directors and managers. Hierarchical authority has put several rules, guide lines and manuals together through information they obtain for employees to  follow when completing tasks and goals. Supervisors and employees who actually work in the field have the knowledge and experience; therefore tasks are completed in a different manner than the manuals implement. The knowledge subordinates obtain through actually doing the work gives them more power and control in decision made about the organization. Politics are in all organizations and employees are affected in some way by politics. As stated in by Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn, any study of power and influence inevitably leads to the subject of politics. For many, this word may conjure up thoughts of illicit deals, favors and special personal relationships. Although these actions are considered negative by the observer, the organization and the recipients view politics as positive. Organizations use politics to influence employees through promotions and rewards. The City of Houston Public Works and Engineering Department mainly promotes from with in the organization. This is a positive showing by management, because employees feel effort are rewarded. When you think of power and politics rarely are these images positive or inspiring. Corporate American today has fallen far from the one time logic that rewards are based simply on individual performance. Today more rewards are based on the managements need for power. This ability, power, to have someone else do something in the way you want it done and the precise time you need it done is an overwhelming and influential force. There are several types of ruling powers that are used in todays businesses. Perhaps, the most preferred by employees is known as the Reward Power. The Reward Power enables a manager to express their appreciation to an individual or group for a job well done by offering the employee or team members a bonus. Such pleasantries can be in the form of a pay increase, personal praise, or advancement within the company. Unlike the Coercive Reward, probably the most disliked by associates, is a system in which the person in charge uses punishment to rule. Examples of such authority could be the withholding of merit increases, denying a promotion, or even termination. Powers such as these are key elements to leadership success. Unfortunately, they seem to represent the seamy side of management (Schermerhorn, 2003). There are other powers used in organizational structures, such as legitimate, process,  informational and representative. These power all vary in pattern, however, none are as contrasting as the Reward versus Coercive Power. How do these managers gain this power? Some might believe that office politics and networking are major components. The saying its not what you know, but who, does not stand truer than in todays corporate environments. An example of networking took place a couple of years ago in our department. At the time of this occurrence, Sam was a Financial Administrator for the West Region. He held a reputation for one of the best managed financial divisions. It seems that Sam had built a special friendship with the Sales manager for that region and he would do allow special payments or exceptions for his market without proper documentation to help his numbers increase. These favors were soon shared with other salespeople from other markets, and Sam immediately became best of buddies with everyone. A few months later a position for a supervisor was opened and Sam immediately recruited his comrades to assist him in assuring this new position. His use of political power and networking is a prime example of the self absorbed need for dominance in todays managers. Ethical Persuasion and Legitimate Power can have a strong impact on teams, management and others alike. First, lets look at the definition of ethical persuasion and legitimate power. Ethical persuasion is behavior that is morally accepted as good and right (Schermerhorn, gloss, pg. 6). Legitimate power is the extent to which a manager can use the right of command to control other people (Schermerhorn, gloss, pg.12). Ethical Persuasion is very different from legitimate power because when a manger is demanding that you complete a task, the task may not always be ethical. Each one of these behaviors can affect a team in many ways. For example, a management team is assigned a task that involves investigating an employees work history to locate any negative infractions or practices in order to terminate the employee. In the investigating process you learn that this person is a single-mother barely able to feed her two children. However, the company cannot afford to keep her for financial reasons and needs to lay her off. There are five members in the management team that are working on this case and three of them are females, these ladies do not feel that they are  displaying ethical behavior and refuse to have anything to do with dismissing this single mother. In reality this woman has done nothing wrong, she was just the last one hired. In the meantime the CEO hears about the moral conflict and he gets very upset with the team members disobedience. Consequently, the CEO calls a meeting to let the management team know that he is the head of the company and team will do as he says whether they like it or not. If the team do not do as they are told, then they can give the single mother their positions because they will no longer be needed. In this situation the CEO is clearly using legitimate power, which is definitely not ethical; however, it is a job that still has to be done. Therefore, ethical behavior and legitimate power can and will eventually affect a management team. More often than not legitimate power will overrule ethical behavior. In conclusion research has proven sources of position and personal power, such as expert, information, reward, coercion and legitimate are used by employees to control, persuade and influence people and organizations. Politics are more commonly used by management to control and influence organizational behavior. Both politics and power have positive and negative affects on employees, organizations and communities. References Lindsey, L. B. (2004, July 14) Office Dynamic; Retrieved August 26, 2004 from University of Phoenix, EDSCO Host database, Website http://phoenix.edu//libraryresource Stum, D.L. Strategy and Leadership. Maslow Revisited. Building the Employee Commitment Pyramid Volume 29. University of Phoenix Custom Edition. Retrieved August 25, 2004, from ProQuest database. Judson, P. (2004) Advantages of Experts; Worldwide Energy. Vol. 15 Issue 8 p3. abstract retrieved August 28, 2004, from EBSCOhost data base Schermerhorn, J.R., Hunt, J.G. Osburn, R.N. (2003) Organizational Behavior New York: John Wiley Sons, Inc. Ch. 15 Power and Politics Pg 2-3

Is Rawlss Critique Of Utilitarianism Fair Philosophy Essay

Is Rawlss Critique Of Utilitarianism Fair Philosophy Essay The question we are going to deal with immediately draw my attention; as Rawls work on justice not only turns out to be theoretically relevant, but even particular considering the time it was published, it results being determinant from a historic point of view. Indeed A theory of justice was written in 1971, in these years as we know cold war reached its climax and contrast between the Soviet Union and the United States was severe. These conflicts implied not only a political (and fortunately not military) conflict, but at its deepest layer a difference in ideology, beliefs, thought. As well known the soviet model had its roots in Karl Marxs (1818-1883) communist philosophy while the western countries found their attachment mostly in utilitarianism. These philosophies oppose in its assumptions and appear not to be compatible witch each other. What Rawls proposes us is an innovating solution to conjugate social justice and utilitarianism in an innovating if not revolutionary theory of justice. He is considered to be the father of the third way among a centralized economy and laissez-faire. As previously anticipated the theory of justice also has a fundamental theoretical value as it marks the turning point in some very important and discussed conceptual differences which became part of nowadays political agenda. Rawls famous theory of justice criticized utilitarianism at its roots. After a brief introduction about the topic of discussion, my attention is going to focus on the basic ideas of utilitarianism as it is the philosophical theory which opposes most to Rawls theory of justice. We will then analyze Rawls attack to utilitarian philosophy as explained in his book: A theory of justice. Furthermore we will place our attention on the reasons why Rawlss judges utilitarianism wrong, and on other arguments against it. John Rawlss thought John Rawls is widely considered one of the most innovative and influential thinker of the twentieth century. Put in Amartya Sens words:By far the most influential and I believe the most important theory of justice to be presented in this century has been John Rawls Justice as fairness (Sen, 1992:p. 75) He was born in 1921 in the city of Baltimore, made his studies in Princeton and Oxford, before becoming a professor in one of the most known universities of the United States: Harvard. He is mostly known through his famous book A theory of justice (1971). The philosopher claims that justice is the first requisite of social institutions, just in the same way as the pursuit of truth is the final aim of any philosophy. His basic claim is that as a theory a needs to be discarded or at least changed in its missing parts if it is not true, in the same way institutions or laws have to be abolished or reformed if they are not fair. He goes on saying that even if society as a whole might profit from certain institution, they cannot be accepted and left in place if even only one person gets an unfair treatment as a consequence of their operation. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many.( Rawls, John A Theory of Justice  (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press), 1971, p 3.) As he defined his idea about justice, he wanted to give a rational foundation to it. He wanted to ensure that his justice assumptions were rational and shared by all members of society. Given the fact that individuals are different and have different aims in life it is necessary to find some principle which could be agreed on by all members. The way by which people could find a general agreement is very well known in philosophy and social sciences as public law. What is being referred to is the idea of original position and veil of ignorance. Part of its great success is due to the fascinating representation given by the author. He imagines a so called original position in which the single individuals decide the rules which will govern society. What is crucial is the fact that they do this choice in absolute ignorance concerning some relevant information of their future lives in society. The agreement is so being made in a condition of a veil of ignorance. This avoids the fact that some which might be born in a very rich family would obviously be against high income taxes to transfer some wealth to the worse off. The poor one on the other hand would definitely welcome such taxes as they could profit from them. The people making the choice are thus presented as rational and not interested in others. No one could get an advantage from the choice of certain principles which would advantage a certain category, as they would not know which role they are going to have in society. To sum up we can say that the veil of ignorance has to exclude people from the knowledge of facts which would bring them to have conflicts. Al the parties are equal in this position, indeed everyone would have the same rights in proposing rules and accepting them. The outcome of this decision leads to a fair agreement because it is conducted in fair conditions. This is the reason why this theory is known as justice as fairness. He states that the philosopher which contributed most to the development of his theory has been Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), since Kants ethic is based on the personal choice of free, rational and equal individuals. Therefore he arrives to claim that the principles of justice are to be seen as categorical imperatives in the Kantian way. Indeed by categorical imperative Kant means these moral principles which are to be rationally respected and accepted from a free and rational individual. Opposed to these we find hypothetical imperatives which are the ones which aim at certain specific goals. Concerning the principles which have to be expected from the decision take under the veil of ignorance, we should not consider them as defined principles for actions but as general guide lines for practical political decisions. It is to be noticed that some critics might emerge at this point, authors like Sen criticized the fact that exactly these principles would emerge from the contracting under the veil of ignorance: The outcome might be a different one. The first principle states the following: Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others. (Rawls, 1971) What is exactly meant as basic liberties has to be defined more precisely, indeed they are: a) The active and passive right to vote; the first refers to the possibility to choose a political actor according to our preferences (what is commonly understood as right to vote). The second one (passive right to vote) refers to the fact that we have the possibility to candidate for elections and possibility be elected. b) Liberty of conscience, which is basically the faculty to choose or decide by your own, your future life, your way of being and your own destiny. c) Freedom of speech and assembly, so the possibility to express your own ideas and make them public even if they do not fit and are not coherent with the current political situation and its majoritys ideas. The freedom of assembly indeed refers to the possibility to arrange political assemblies to discuss political and practical issues. d) Freedom to personal propriety, which is to be understood as the possibility to have the personal private propriety on your goods (although he states that the private propriety of means of production is not necessarily to be seen as a primary good). e) Freedom from arbitrary arrest, which means the fact that the public power has not the freedom to arbitrary (so without a reason), arrest individuals because they might oppose or disagree with the public power itself. The second principle: Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that (a) They are to be of the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society, consistent with the just savings principle (the difference principle). (b) Offices and positions must be open to everyone under conditions of  fair equality of opportunity (Rawls, 1971, p.302) The first part of the second principle (a) holds the idea that the first goal in a choice should be to maximize the least well off rather than to maximize in general. (Maximin) This means that arrangements which imply inequalities might only be accepted if they increase the position of the poorest too. It is well explained by this graphical representation: C:Documents and SettingsRoberta SimeoneDesktoprawls function.jpg This graph is to be interpreted as if there were two individuals; giving freedom to our imagination let us call them: 1 and 2. The social utility of both is to be measured on the 45 degree line in the point of interception with the L curve. A few of them are marked in increasing utility order to give a general idea, I Already this argument (Maximin) proves the effectiveness of Rawls critique to utilitarianism because it gives attention to the distribution of wealth rather than considering merely the sum of all the agents utilities. This will be clear in the paragraph about utilitarianism. The justification for this argument is due to the fact that the randomness of the condition in which one is born is not linked to a moral entitlement. For instance the financial conditions of ones family or even the talents one has are merely casual. That is why it is right to increase first the worse off who had been unlucky in the lottery of life. Utilitarianism Utilitarianism was mainly born by Jeremy Benthams (1748-1832) work. His biggest innovation compared to previous thinkers was to found moral philosophy on a rational basis. This reflects the theoretical innovations of his time, which is the scientific method brought by enlightenment. He therefore tried to make ethics an analytical science which can be proven by logical and mathematical principles. This philosophy is founded on the basic idea that actions should only be judged from the value of its outcome. The key point if we assume this way of thinking, becomes to define precisely how we might value the effects of our actions. We could try to value different things which we generally assumed as good, such as happiness, satisfaction, wealth or even simple pleasure. Not giving any value judgment about this methodology to chose the right action, it is already possible to note that this part is particularly problematic as all these things turn out to be extremely difficult (if not impossible) to measure. The general principle is the so called utility, according to utilitarian philosophers it can be measured by calculation and thus it allows us to compare between actions leading to higher and lower utility outcomes. Bentham believes it is possible to possible to calculate pain and pleasure by using equations, this should be the way to define utility according to the duration and the strength of a feeling (positive or negative). Founding this principle of utility is a general assumption believed to be true by utilitarianism, it is the fact that any activity leads to two basic feelings, which are pleasure and its opposite: pain. Judgment about how to act should only be left to these two. In Benthams words: that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happinessorto prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness  (Jeremy Bentham Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation  ,1789). As we saw in this paragraph this basic understanding of utilitarianism does not allow us to go beyond a personal, individualistic judgment. How should indeed societys utility be considered? The definition of utility states that it should be considered compared to the part whose interest is concerned. If we consider society as the interested party which might be societys interest? In this philosophy social utility is simple: the sum of all individuals utilities. (As we saw, Rawls position criticizes exactly this simplicity by which utilitarianism simplifies individuals and the general social utility. Which effectively is a fair argument against it). An individualistic approach by which each person maximizes its own utility does not appear to be compatible with collective utility. The way utilitarian philosophers think that it is possible to enforce public interest is trough legislation as a tool, the law should define the principles society wants to respect and the actions which maximize social utility. A well planned legislation will lead to harmonize individual interest to social one by making obedience to laws more convenient than breaking it. This means that the expected utility of committing an action against the law should be lower than the possible advantage to commit a crime. Indeed Bentham tried to find a way to define particularly the penal code, in this way anyone would know the punishment applied for breaking the law which would be leading to a lower utility than respecting it. To give another graphical representation to be compared to the Rawlsian one we can have a look at the following graph: C:Documents and SettingsRoberta SimeoneDesktopUtilità  ut.jpg Again we have our 1 and 2 (individuals) determining social utility, the parallel lines have again a slope of 45 degrees this time turned through 90 degrees. The social utility is on the interception where the two individual ones cross. We can note the fact that even if one has all and the other any (interception between x axis u1 and W1) we still stay on the same social utility: W1. Critical points in utilitarianism Utilitarianism was all but left without critics, already Benthams successor John Stuart Mills (1806-1873) who was the second innovator in utilitarianism started to criticize different approaches and assumption used by Bentham. Indeed Benthams approach used to be focused on the theory by which the public actor should act. Mills on the other hand was focusing more on the personal morality of actions. Compared to Bentham he assumes an approach which is more internal, he tries to focus on the psychology of the agent. Here we find the first critic to utilitarianism; Mills believes utility maximization assumption to be too narrow to explain agents choices. An interesting critique is the one moved by Bernard Williams (1929-2003) it is well explained by an anecdote by Williams himself known as Jim and the Indians: Jim finds himself in the central square of a small South American town. Tied up against the wall are twenty Indians, in front of several armed men in uniform. A heavy man in a sweat-stained khaki shirt turns out to be the captain in charge and () explains that the Indians are a random group of inhabitants who, after recent acts of protest against the government, are just about to be killed to remind other possible protesters of the advantage of not protesting. However, since Jim is an honoured visitor from another land, the captain is happy to offer him a guests privilege of killing one of the prisoners himself. If Jim accepts, then as a special mark of the occasion the other Indians will be let off. Of course, if Jim refuses, there will be no special occasion, and the captain will do what he was about to and kill them all. () The men are against the wall and the other villagers understand the situation and are obviously begging him to accept. What should he do? (B. Williams, A Critique of Utilitarianism in Smart Williams, Utilitarianism: For and Against, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1973) Since utilitarianism only considers the utility of the outcome of an action there is no choice. It is much better in terms of general utility to kill only one person rather than having 19 others been killed. This would simply be better because utilitarianism considers that each one counts for one and only one. What Williams argues is different: that it is not the same consequence if a person is killed by my direct action or if he is killed because of my indirect behavior, which in this case would be an act of not taking participation. Killing actively one person would not preserve our personal moral integrity because indeed we would have killed a human being. This would harm our own personal moral integrity even though it might be a better outcome in terms of social utility. That is the reason why this objection is known as the integrity objection. Rawls critique Rawls position is deeply against utilitarianism, as this philosophy is accepting to give up individual interests for majoritys ones. The utilitarian assumption that individual interest might be given up for society, is criticized even if the sacrifice of someones interest might lead to greater efficiency. For Rawls it is more important to ensure justice before efficiency. It is claimed to be wrong if the majority would get an advantage but the one who has to take the sacrifice is the worst of, and this is unjust. Accordingly, in a just society we have to assume equal citizen rights, which again according to him are an absolute right under any circumstance. The only admissible injustice would be the one which would prevent a worse injustice. The first critical point of utilitarianism he identifies is the fact that it tends to make the individual disappear. Utilitarianism has a very narrowed view of human beings only considering its utility, to the point that once the individual utility is calculated there is no other relevant information concerning the person. This kind of reduction leads utilitarianism to be a philosophy which is indifferent to identity and individuality of people. Further, another critical point is the one concerning distributive justice, utilitarianism tries to maximize the social outcome as a whole, what it still fails to take into account is the distribution of that utility.(As explained by the second graph). If we abstract and consider wealth as utility it does not make a difference it one individual has a lot and most others only a little: the general sum of all the utilities is still maximized. Between two actions, one leading to a utility of six for the first individual and an utility of one for the second, and another leading to three for each ,utilitarianism would choose the first because seven is greater than six. This is because all what matters is the sum of utility, although this leads to profound injustice. Finally he claims that each desire is to be calculated and compared to other desires although they might differ in their nature, what is to be understood as a qualitative versus quantitative difference. Conclusion What Rawls criticized in utilitarianism appears to be right for general principles of social welfare. Utilitarianism has to be awarded with the innovation to apply rationality to moral philosophy. Although it forgets the distribution of wealth problem. This latter one appears to be the most effective critique to utilitarianism. It is undeniable that the utilitarian view of each individual maximizing its own utility as he best believes also implies a higher grade of freedom of choice. This choices should thou be made in a way which is not interfering with social purposes. An action should not only be valued from the utility it brings to the single individual but society as a whole. Because in the end even the single individual is staying in society and thou being influenced from the status quo he stays in. Social welfare is not only profiting the ones who directly gain from it but the whole systems stability. Injustices are the seed of contrasts, the French aristocrats living the French Revolution might agree with this view. Not only is the critique effective but also fair on a moral basis. Society should not be led by individualistic principles, such an assumption would mean to put social morality on the same layer as individual one. But societies emerged from collaboration between individuals to achieve something more. This is the reason why the state should try to be better than individuals particularly concerning morality. On the other had it has to be stated that utilitarianism has the great advantage of being practical and effective to apply. The use of calculation implies an incredible advantage in terms of efficiency in decision-making. Further it is not clear why the two principles of justice should necessarily emerge from the original position, this is basically the critique moved to Rawls by many, among them Amartya Sen. The idea is that other principles might emerge from the choice made under the veil of ignorance.