Theory of Knowledge Full Essay- Language and Vocabulary

Q: The vocabulary we have does more than communicate our knowledge; it shapes what we can know. Evaluate this claim with reference to different areas of knowledge. According to the Sapir-Whorf Theory, language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is the shaper of ideas. The Sapir-Whorf Thesis states that language controls what we think and determines and limits our thoughts. Many language experts identify with the Sapir-Whorf Theory and among these is Wittgenstein, who once said, â€Å"the limits of my language are the limits of my world†.Thus, many believe that the vocabulary we have does more than communicate our knowledge and rather, it shapes what we can know. However, to what extent can this statement be said to be true? Is vocabulary really the only way to communicate our knowledge? What else can vocabulary do besides communicate knowledge? Do you need to be able to communicate your knowledge to show your knowledge? Is our knowledge only ga ined through language and vocabulary? Lastly, if vocabulary â€Å"shapes† what we can know, can we say that knowing more languages will gain us access to more knowledge?First of all, vocabulary refers to the body of words that are used in a particular language, such as the very words I am using to write this essay. Without vocabulary, there are no words and as a result, language is also non-existent. Imagine a life without words; we cannot describe or speak out the ideas in our mind, we cannot ask questions, or communicate with one another. In fact, even when we think in our mind, it involves the use of words. Does that mean that without words we would not have thoughts? Without vocabulary and language, we would not know most of the current knowledge that we do today.Think about the knowledge that we currently possess; many of us would agree that most of the knowledge that we currently have and understand is learnt through school, books and education— but how could we have possibly grasped all the physics theories, math formulas and others that we’ve learnt without the use of vocabulary or words? How would the teachers teach in a world where language is non-existent? Books would just be a fictitious myth if language does not exist. How could we expand our knowledge capabilities through reading if books do not exist?Thus, in a way vocabulary shapes what we can know because without vocabulary, we cannot communicate with one another and thus, knowledge cannot be passed down or shared. As a result, the knowledge we know will be limited to only what we experience or discover by ourselves. However, we would not have the ability to have knowledge about other people’s experiences or way of life and culture. For example, the Aloe Vera plant originated from Northern India and is now regarded highly for its healing and rejuvenating properties. Its antiquity was first discovered in 1862 in an Egyptian papyrus dated 1550 BC.Thus, the healing pow er of Aloe Vera was first discovered by ancient Egyptians, who decided to note this down on a piece of papyrus. If language had not existed and the ancient Egyptians during that time had decided not to write down the healing properties of Aloe Vera, that sliver of knowledge would not be passed down and shared among us and we would not know what we know today. We would not be able to benefit from the natural therapeutic quality of Aloe Vera. Therefore, in this example, language and vocabulary has shown to be a powerful tool for communicating knowledge.In a way, vocabulary does shape what we can know but to what extent is this true? Can vocabulary be said to be the crux of knowledge? Is vocabulary really the only method to communicate and share knowledge? Although vocabulary can be said to make up a large part of our understanding and our knowledge, it is not the only way that we can learn and gain knowledge. Another way would be through our own life experiences. For example, when we touch a hot cup of coffee and scald our skin, we learn from our own experience to be careful of touching hot surfaces as it can harm us.In this manner, we have learnt or acquired new knowledge without the use of vocabulary or communication but rather through our own experience. Our nervous system has sent a signal to our brain. Vocabulary is also not the only way for us to communicate our knowledge. Another method would be through the use of body language, facial expressions or hand signals. For example, traffic officers mainly rely on hand signals to direct the traffic at a particular junction or intersection. Through the use of body language, the traffic officer is able to communicate their knowledge to the drivers bout whether they should stop or go. In this example, knowledge is being passed on without the use of language. Similarly, by looking at a person’s facial expression or body language, we can know how they are feeling (e. g. sad, happy, angry). Furthermore, thinki ng does not have to always involve words. We can think in other ways such as through images. It is important to understand that to be able to communicate our knowledge through the use of vocabulary and language, we first have to be able to put that certain piece of knowledge into words.At age 6, my mom used to test me on my vocabulary and would ask me the definition of words. Oftentimes, I would reply her saying â€Å"I know what the word means but I just can’t explain it! † My mom would then answer, â€Å"If you can’t explain it then that means you don’t really understand it! † I would protest and tell her that I do understand but that it was just difficult to put into words. Thus, this led me to ask myself a question; do we need to be able to explain something with words to understand the concept of it? 6 year old me would beg to differ.However, I believe that even if we can’t explain things in words, it doesn’t mean that we donâ₠¬â„¢t understand it. Has your friend ever tried telling you a personal problem but he says that he can’t really put how he feels into words and you replied saying â€Å"I know exactly what you mean and how you feel†? Most of the time, this happens when we have gone through the same experience and thus, we can relate to them and recall how they feel. Art is another way to communicate knowledge without the use of vocabulary. For example, using graphics or art. As Napolean Bonaparte once said, â€Å"a picture tells a thousand words†.Similarly, an artwork can communicate knowledge to us. For example, the artist Chris Jordan, turns statistics into art. One of his pieces features a picture of 2 million plastic cups stacked up above each other, which is the number of cups we use every 5 minutes. It is much more impactful to visually see the numbers than to hear the numbers. A simple picture with no words was able to relay knowledge to us and raise our awareness. Thus, even though language does restrict the knowledge that we can know, there are still other ways to interpret knowledge.Another area of knowledge we can look at is mathematics. In mathematics, language is not used to communicate knowledge, but rather, the use of numbers. Numbers are a universal language that the world can understand. 2+2 will always equal to 4, regardless of your nationality or what language you speak. Therefore, we can say that in math, language and vocabulary is not very significant. According to the statement in the question, vocabulary is said to do more than just â€Å"communicate knowledge, it shapes what we can know†.If this is true, does that mean that knowing more languages will gain us more access to knowledge? As Federccopellini once said, â€Å"a different language is a different vision of life†. Federccopellini believed that language is a way of life and the more languages you know and understand, then, the more access to knowledge that you p ossess. To a certain extent, this statement can be said to be true. For example, there is a word in Bahasa Indonesia known as lidah buaya. The direct translation of lidah is tongue while buaya means crocodile in English. Together it means crocodile tongue.However, people who speak Bahasa Indonesia know that lidah buaya doesn’t literally mean crocodile tongue. In fact, it is actually the name given to the Aloe Vera plant in Bahasa Indonesia! Hence, to a certain extent, it can be said to be true that knowing more languages will allow us to possess more knowledge, as we would be exposed to different cultures, which would help us to understand their way of life. However, it is also important to note that the meaning of words otherwise known as semantics, have a propensity to change and evolve over time.For example, in the past, the definition of the word â€Å"gay† meant â€Å"carefree† and â€Å"cheerful†. However, in modern times, the word â€Å"gay† is used to describe someone that is homosexual. In this example, we can see how words can change its meaning over time. Thus, if the meanings of words vary over time, how true can it be said that language is a reliable method to communicate knowledge? Furthermore, oftentimes, words are made up to explain or describe a complex set of behaviours that in truth, nobody has really observed or seen.This is known as occult quantity. For example, in the sciences such as physics, the term â€Å"electronic field† is used to define a region around a charged particle or object within which a force would be exerted on other charged particles or objects. However, we can never really prove whether electronic fields exist because we cannot actually see the field with our own eyes. The existence of electronic fields is only â€Å"proven† when physicians make assumptions based on the observations and results of an experiment.However, how do we know that the experiment results aren†™t just an effect of some other unknown cause that we have yet to discover? Occult quantity leads to doubts about the knowledge surrounding a term or a word. Thus, this shows how words can be misleading or tell us false information that we will believe due to the â€Å"research† thought to have been carried out. Can these made-up terms or words be included in our vocabulary when they are not proven? How can these made-up terms or words communicate true knowledge?In conclusion, I believe that vocabulary is a crucial part of acquiring and communicating knowledge and to a certain extent it does â€Å"shape† what we can know. However, vocabulary is not the only way to acquire or communicate knowledge as shown from the examples above. (1794 words) ——————————————– [ 1 ]. http://www. ted. com/talks/chris_jordan_pictures_some_shocking_stats. html [ 2 ]. http://www. ted. c om/speakers/chris_jordan. html [ 3 ]. (http://east. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/electric%20field)

The Franks

The Franks is about a group of loosely related Germanic ‘barbarian' tribes that from the third to eighth centuries CE would occupy, and eventually conquer and settle most of the Western Roman province of Gaul which would later come to be known as France, or â€Å"Frankland†. The Franks are portrayed in this documentary as a ‘plague' to Rome, but one group the Salians to the north of the Rhine River, were actually quite assimilated to Roman Culture and even ided as a buffer between Rome and other invading Barbarians.The Franks were first recognized as an â€Å"auxiliary' people by the Romans during the reign of Merovech whom is best remembered for being the first leader of the Salian Franks and the original founder of the royal line. His triumph over the Huns to the west and their neighboring barbarians, the Ostrogoths at Chalons, Gaul in 451 CE recognized his great power, and also paved the way for his son Childeric l. Childeric established ajor territorial conque st during his reign, triumphing over the invading Visigoths to the south, and the Saxons to the southwest in aid to the Romans.His role as a Barbarian ally to the Romans played an important role in The Franks further expanse into Gaul. Childeric continued to rein for twenty-four years until his death in 481 CE, at which time his son Clovis I took control. Clovis I was regarded as the most influential ruler of the Salians, and the â€Å"real† founder of the Merovingian Dynasty; the ame of which was derived from his grandfather Merovech.Clovis was a Pagan like many Franks were at his time, but is allegedly known for having converted to Orthodox (Catholic) Christianity to gain the politic support of the Gallo-Romans (Christians), though it may be argued his wife was the reason for his conversion. Clovis was considered ‘ruthless' in his tactics to gain complete control of Gaul by murdering every potential rival Frankish leader, even those in his own family.This omination in bloodshed across Gaul is what gives the Frankish people their true identity reinventing them not as barbarians, but as The Franks. Gaul becomes known as Frankia, and later France, and the legacy of a people and their Dynasty which will last for nearly two-hundred years setting the framework for Western Europe.

Advantages and disadvantages of the different economic types

Advantages and disadvantages of the different economic types What is economics? Economics is the study of the forces of supply and the demands allocate deficient resources. Economics is divided into microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics is something doing with the behavior of firms, consumers, and also about the role played by the government. Macroeconomics is more to inflation, industrial production, unemployment and the role played by the government. Microeconomics is the study about the behavior of small economics unit, for an example, individual consumers or households. Microeconomics is behavior of individual units. Microeconomics main concern is about the factors that affects an individual economics choice. Other than that, economics also can be said as branch of social science that can read the production distribution and the consumption of goods and service. Economics also include scarcity, choice, households, goods and productions as a definition. Economics system are studies of the method and institution where societies determine about the ownership, direction and allocation of economics. There are three types of economics system; Socialist system is a system that can be defined as a centrally planned or can be said as command economics. This system is fully controlled by the government. All the choice about resources are all made by the government. Capitalist system means free market economics. This system is like a freedom economy. This is because of the decisions made by the people. This system is mainly about the people in the country. Mixed economy Mixed economy is an economy based on the free enterprise principle. There is still some form of direct intervention and it is controlled by the government. Mixed economy can be said as a form of organization where both capitalist economy and socialist economy are found. In mixed economy there is the presence of private economic freedom with centralized planning and the common goal of avoiding the problems which comes because of capitalism and social ism. In the mixed economy system the main authorization of the economic activities are mainly by the governmentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s regulation and the licensing policies. For an example, if someone wants to open a business, they must register and take license from the government for that particular business. So in this way, the government becomes a big power in the country. Mixed economy is also known as dual economy. In a mixed economy, the government runs things as post office, libraries, hospital and many more. Even when there is an industry which is not run by the business, still government get taxes and regulation like wage controls. Most of the people all over our country have no problem with the government take control of things like highway construction, birth certificate, national service economy may seem to be very easy as it is but there are some disadvantages in mixed economy also. The biggest disadvantage is between the public and private sector because they easily get b lurred or sometimes shift one way or another from time to time mixed economy usually increase more government control and less individual freedom. This is why mixed economy is always in an evolutionary process.

Pen pal letter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Pen pal letter - Essay Example I would actually tease him every evening to dance a little before he would hug me goodnight. The interest in dancing grew in me though with a lot of resistance from my mother who believed that my concentration in dancing at an early age would adversely affect my education. In fact, I once received a thorough beating from my mother when she learnt that I had sneaked from school and went for kids dancing festival without her knowledge. However, the interest grew in me in last year I decided to talk with my mother of my great interest in dancing and she consented to my interest in joining a music class for part time studies; I therefore enquired from the school and through their guidance; I successfully enrolled for this class last month. I have come to like dancing more, especially after watching the clip you sent me as well as other dancing clips provided for by the school. As it has been my interest, I am enjoying the training on different free styling dancing techniques (Chris and C antrell, 1-2). The class has been instrumental in helping me understand the different other types of street dances which I only used to see in music videos. The moves in the different dancing styles are quite fascinating and some are proving quite challenging to learn fast. I admire some of my friends in class who show high levels of flexibility and are easily copying into dance moves as shown from dance clips. My greatest challenge has been because of the little practice that I have been doing prior to enrolment for this class due to the discouragement from my mother. I actually had very little exposure to dancing despite my keen interest into the same because whenever found dancing by my mother at home, that would attract a punishment. This led to little exposure and I always had the dream of becoming a professional dancer. Nevertheless, I must tell you that the start has been fantastic and I am very eager to learn more in dancing. I have also had great support from my instructor despite my slow pace in learning that I have an outstanding capacity to perfect in dancing. A recent performance in a church forum actually made my mother very happy and she highly apologized for discouraging me from dancing earlier. I am therefore very existed about it and I must thank you for inspiring me into enrolling for this class. The class is in a very conducive environment and the instructors are highly trained in dancing. The class involves two aspects, which are the lecture class as well as the dancing studio class. The lecture class experience is fascinating especially in learning the evolution of various dancing styles. I have found it increasingly interesting to analyze the different dances that have been in the world and more so the backstreet dances. One would likely conclude that then modern day dances are the ultimate thing but I have discovered that more are to be discovered. The lectures have especially been interesting because of the humorous lecturers we have w ho would go miles in explaining and illustrating the dancing stiles being studied. With illustration clips, dancing becomes very real in class and one can never wait for the studio practices. We also hold dance reviews, discussions as well as dance demonstrations with the aid of our lectures in classroom set-ups. The studio practices are on the other hand very interesting as we practice what is learnt in lecture set-ups and this is how I learn

Emanuel Medical Center Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Emanuel Medical Center - Case Study Example While this was a public relations problem in the short term, the issue pointed out the larger systemic problems that exist at EMC. The ED has increasingly become a cost center, and staff morale and quality of care is reflected in this dilemma. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) of 1986 mandated that emergency rooms must treat all patients, without regards to their ability to pay. This legislation took effect at the same time that the numbers of under and uninsured people in California began to escalate. Lacking primary care physicians, the uninsured have made the ED the primary clinic for their health care. This further exacerbated EMC's financial position from two aspects. First; uninsured people were using the most expensive delivery system available, which overloaded the capacity of the ED. Second; people were waiting until their condition was chronic or terminal before seeking treatment, which further drove up costs. The outdated ED was operating well in excess of capacity, which put an additional strain on nurse availability, response time, and specialty services. With half of the patients that were admitted through the ED either uninsured or underinsured through Medi-Cal, Moen's challenge was to find areas that could compensate for the large losses incurred by the ED. With all of health care experiencing declining reimbursements and increasing expenses, it has been a difficult task to find areas of profitability. EMC expenses have outpaced revenue growth in the period of 1997-2002. Wages and salaries, the largest single expense, grew by 28 percent during this period, while revenues increased by only 23 percent. The nursing shortage has contributed to the problem, as it has forced EMC to hire temporary nurses, and reduce the number of beds available, which have both negatively impacted the bottom line. During this same era, reimbursements from Medi-care, Medi-Cal, and HMOs were declining. An experiment with capitation in the late 1990s did not prove successful, and the hope of vertical integration became an insurmountable expense. Area competition has also put pressure on EMC. Specialties and high-tech procedures are largely not available at EMC, and this business goes to the competition. The financial reality of EMC operating at a loss for the past several years has made capital investment in new equipment and technology out of reach of financing. In addition, closures and consolidations have increased the hostility of the external operating environment. All of these factors; increasing expenses, reduced reimbursement, competition, and escalating salaries have all combined to form the perfect storm. The only bright spot on the balance sheet has been the investments that EMC made in the 1990s, which managed to keep them operating into the 21st century. In fact, without these investments the financial solvency of EMC would be in doubt. In addition, EMC enjoys a significant amount of community support, and has aggressively sought community involvement through a matching grant from the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation. Moen's greatest operational challenge will be to reduce operating expenses, and increase patient revenue within the realities of their current financial situation. 2.) There are numerous strategic options available to Robert Moen, though they all have a large degree of uncertainty in regards to their financial

Ethical Decision Making Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethical Decision Making - Research Paper Example Higher education is not like other industries. It includes a number of educational aspects such as; academics, human resources, sports, housing, food services, health care, business, legal compliance, security, research and development, international affairs, economic development, and legislative affairs. The higher education industry deals with all these educational endeavors with contrasting interests, the allocation of resources among these endeavors gives rise to an ethical dilemma for the decision makers. The functions and people involved in each of these endeavors compete for critical resources as each endeavor is considered to be important by the people involved in it. However, the leadership is faced by the problem of deciding which educational endeavor to be given more or less of the overall resources. It is the responsibility of the leaders to determine what and how every function of higher education receives an equitable share of the limited resources within an institution . The following report will consider the factors that should be considered by the leaders before making decisions regarding allocation of resources and the issues inherent in such decisions. Administrative Function Administrative function of an organization consists of the performance management which is responsible for making and implementing major decisions of the organization. In case of higher education, the administrative function is responsible for the management of all the educational endeavors undertaken by the institute. The major operation of the administrative function is to manage and allocate the available resources to the educational endeavors. The resource that are allocated include; the teaching faculty, the space i.e. the classrooms, funds for curricular and extra-curricular activities, and funds for maintenance of each faculty. The ethical dilemma faced by the administrative function is the equitable distribution of resources available. There are a number of educat ional endeavors run by the administrative function at the same time and each endeavor holds significance for the teaching faculty and students in the respective function. It may not be ethical for the administrative function to allocate more resources to one function and less to the other however in certain circumstances it becomes necessary for such allocation as some functions are more demanding as compared to others. Some functions require an extensive intervention of practical aspect along with the theoretical therefore the administrative function needs to allocate extra funds to such function so that the practical activities may be carried out properly. This situation may cause a lack of funds for other functions. Similarly, some educational endeavors may require a highly experienced teaching staff while the others may not rely on the teaching staff significantly. In this case, the administrative function is faced by the ethical dilemma regarding the allocation of teaching staf f. It may be unfair for other functions if one or some of the functions get a highly experienced teaching staff. Ethical Decision Making Ethical decision making is the making of decisions after proper consideration of all the ethical implications of the decisions (Ford et al., 1994). In the case described above, the administrative function needs to exercise ethical decision making in order to deal with the ethical dilemmas regarding the proper allocation of resources among different

Site Planning and Construction Method Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Site Planning and Construction Method - Essay Example For the construction of the art gallery these points were kept in mind while reaching the final design. Considering these points and a few other, the most suitable design suggested is a RCC frame structure. The columns and beams both the storey will be at same positions but the position of the partition walls for both the storey will have different positions. The partition walls for all the rooms except the entrance hall and the lobby will be of brickwork while that of the entrance hall and lobby will be of hollow PCC blocks. The location of the site dictates the orientation of the building. The building will face the Lower Ham Road while the lobby will be open at the south, the opening will face the south bank of Thames. The reduced level i.e. the plinth level of the building will be kept well above the boat house to facilitate the river view for the lobby. The construction plan firstly involves the planning of the program. The gradual execution of projects and activities and the allocation of time and resources to different activities will be done by using planning aiding software i.e. MS Project. In order to avoid conflicts and problems proper constraints and deadlines will be applied to the activities regarding time and resources (procurement as well as human resource. Excavation and Foundation: The excavation will be carried out using excavator while the geology of the site i.e. near the river requires deep foundations which will be done by drilling precast RCC piles Super Structure: As stated in the brief the super structure will be a frame structure with brickwork partition walls for all the rooms except the entrance hall and lobby which will utilize hollow PCC blocks in partition walls As shown in the plan of the ground floor, there’s a large window on the side of the lobby facing the river to facilitate the riverside view. The geometric staircase ensures lesser use of space but looks aesthetically good. The schedule of openings

Strategic Futures Insight and Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Strategic Futures Insight and Design - Essay Example th, and industry relying on its cash cow products for generation of core income rather than working on extracting income from new products (ESROCK, WALKER & HART, 2014). Moreover, to maintain the market share in the maturity phase, companies would need to focus on their marketing their product as competitors would come in the market in an effort to chip off market share, and they could only be driven away if the brand image of the current producers is strong enough in the mind of consumers (ESPEJO, 2014). Cigarette consumption is an addiction, and its users would continue its use despite the negative health patterns associated with it (HIRSCHFELDER, 2010). Having said that, the industry is likely to witness pressure going forward from alternate products which are relatively safe as compared to cigarettes, including electronic or e-cigarette, and hookah or shisha amongst others. Moreover, governments are working worldwide towards reducing the consumption of cigarettes via increase in box prices, which is likely to impact cigarette demand going forwards, though not by significant margin as those addicted to the product will consume it anyway (BRANDT,

Hitch Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hitch - Movie Review Example This discussion stresses that Smith emphases the use of non-verbal cues such as how to make one’s eye look heroic, what to tell women at the first ate and what one should not say to such women. The date doctor’s advice involves many strategies, both long and short term that acts through different ways to achieve the same objective. Other strategies are much subtle and require patience. Will Smith gives an array of recommendation that eventually assist his friends in their romantic life. Such non-verbal cues remains foremost in establishing comic effects and romance within the movie.From this paper it is clear that  Hitch receives his first client, Albert (Kevin James) who has been having many troubles in initiating romantic relationships. Kevin is in love with a very affluent and powerful cute lady, Allegra, whom he is not able to get. Allegra is hesitant in dating a young, boring and shy accountant because it will be demeaning her ego. Kevin consults Hitch on the way to go about the problem.   Kevin uses non-verbal cues by resigning when Allegra gets angry in a board meeting. He is trying to win Allegra by implying that he cares about her emotional turmoil due to wrong advice that she has just received from the investors. Allegra notices how caring Kevin is and gets attracted to him.  Kevin’s non-verbal trick seems to have worked perfectly for him in winning the beautiful lady.

Curriculum Design and Evaluation; Standards -Based Education Essay

Curriculum Design and Evaluation; Standards -Based Education - Essay Example Critics assail standards-based education in two fronts – content and implementation. For instance, Hamilton et al. (2002, p. 27) argued that in standards-based curriculum development, there is a difficulty in deciding how many performance levels should be created, what method should be used to set those levels, how high they should be set, and what they should be called. Also, a number of research educators and students themselves disagree with the policy of passing a rigorous test just to get a high school diploma. There are also those who criticize the implementing agency of being vague as to the academic content and with being lax with schools in terms of following standards. (Cizek 2001, p. 418) Certainly, good arguments are also coming from similar sectors stressing the expectation from all students to perform in the same way since the fact is, there are ordinary students and there are academically talented ones. The former name of standards-based education is outcome-based education. This is not without reason because this system focuses on achieving optimum learning outcome and the performance of students. I believe this is essentially what education is all about. This example shows how standards-based education offers the most impact because it allows the students to explore on their own, creating learning opportunities where theories are applied in the process. Learning is more rigorous and the methodologies employed are more strategic in terms of meeting students’ learning needs. It is in my opinion that students receive and retain more learning content in this process due to the environment and the standard. Another point about standards-based curriculum is the fact that it works within the premise that education requires continuous improvement. So where in the traditionalist setting the grade of A is the same today and tomorrow, students in standards-based education must pass a test that is benchmarked 10 years from

Hospitality industry Essay Example for Free

Hospitality industry Essay I HAD the good fortune of being able to attend the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Events/Exhibitions Conference, or MICECON 2011, sponsored by the Department of Tourism (DOT) and by many hotels and resorts in The Queen City, Cebu just recently. I just found out that the next one will not be until 2013 since the Philippines is hosting PATA next year. Green and technology were the main themes of the conference which brought international speakers like Hitesh Mehta, a sustainable architect; Noor Ahmad Hamid of the ICCA ;Corbin Ball; Max Hitchins, the Hospitality Doctor; John Peacock of Associations Forum, Australia; Susan Cardenas of Inkaterra fame, among many others who talked about green, sustainability and the use of technology to make for more efficient MICE operations. It was a welcome sign of improvement in our local hospitality industry to see the following changes, albeit for the better: †¢ The conference did not use any Styrofoam. Water was served in reusable glasses; coffee was served in paper cups and you could use a permanent marker to write your name on the cup, so you could reuse it throughout the day. Radisson Blu gave out reusable water bottles in their trademark blue color. †¢ The conference served snacks on banana leaves on â€Å"nito† trays and during one Coffee Break, Bluewater resorts even used a nipa box lined with banana leaves that many speakers took home. †¢ The Shangri-La Mactan gave away Citronella candles in cute woven containers, as their theme was GLAMPING or Glam Camping and citronella candles sure come in handy to ward off insects in camp. †¢ The MICECON organizers led by Stanie Soriano gave away flash disks or usb sticks so you could download the presentations, rather than bringing home tons of paper or handouts. This was appropriate because of being both techie and green. †¢ The governor of Cebu gave away little banig bags with a souvenir â€Å"puso† keychain and a mini ukelele that Cebu is famous for. †¢ The Marco Polo gave away little baskets of dried fruit or mango tarts, rather than Swiss chocolates. †¢ I could feel the locavore fever running through everyone’s minds, when this event was planned. Even the speakers’ send off gifts were local Tablea Chocolates wrapped in a reusable buri box courtesy of ECHOstore (shameless plug). So, it can be done. Show the best of the country and the province, rather than buy something cheap from China or pick the usual corporate or conference giveaways. The presents were tastefully done and the meals well-prepared. The conference was very inspiring, to say the least. It gave me hope that we can plan events with a meager budget but come up with something original, environment-friendly and promote locavorism. As soon as our panel discussion on greening the industry was over, a lady approached me to seek help â€Å"to remove all plastic from her hotel.† I told her we would help find suppliers for her needs. Some attendees approached me to say they were now ready to â€Å"buy local and use local.† Our locavorism will differentiate us from other more modern Asian countries. If we use more local ingredients, use more local food and drink, we surely will stand out because we have our own unique flavors. In architecture, we also can now promote our â€Å"bahay kubo† (nipa hut) than compete with the latest glass and steel structure of Thailand or Singapore. Like the old saying goes: â€Å"If you don’t have the height, maybe you have the speed!† So let us not be disappointed or discouraged when we are compared with our Asian neighbors. Nature is in. Eco-friendly is in demand. Eco lodges are the newest craze in the hospitality industry. Even Bill Gates now  stays in a â€Å"natural† resort in China, as mentioned by our speaker Hitesh Mehta. Who knows? Maybe we can claim the unique selling proposition that we have the best eco-friendly lodges and sustainable food and drink. After all, we do have banana leaves in abundance, we have organic rice and other organic foods because we cannot afford fertilizers and growth enhancers. Let us promote our being natural, eco-friendly and sustainable. Just like MICECON 2011 did. Kudos to The Tourism Promotion Board for a job well done. Chit Juan is an owner and co-founder of ECHOstore sustainable lifestyle at the Serendra and Podium malls. She also heads the Women’s Business Council of the Philippines (www.wbcp.ph) and the Philippine Coffee Board Inc. (www.philcoffeeboard.com). She often speaks to the youth and corporate groups on Social Entrepreneurship, Women’s Empowerment through business and Sustainability. You can email her at [emailprotected] or follow her on twitter.com/chitjuan.

The Difference Between School Strategic Management Resource Business Essay

The Difference Between School Strategic Management Resource Business Essay The design school is applied by formulating clear and unique strategies in a deliberate process. The design school is also known as process of conception, in this process, the internal situation of the organization of the environment .The planning school; thorough steps are taken from the moment of the analysis of the situation to the actual execution. The positioning school, this is also known as analytical process, this strategy is used by placing the organization within its industry, and looks at how the organization can improve its position with their respective industry. Even though approaches to the design, planning and positioning are different, the design and planning schools are both prescriptive in character, as is the positioning school of thought. In the three schools of thought discussed above, the environment is seen as relatively constant (Volberda Elfring, 2001). Resource based view, is a method of looking at the firm as a bundle of resources in turn of approaching strategy (Powell, 2005).To achieve sustainable competitive advantages ,resource based view evaluates internal resources of the organization and emphasizes resources and capabilities (Madhani, 2009).To enable firms carry out their activities , resources can be considered as inputs .Strategic choices decided by firm while competing in external business environment is determined by internal resources and capabilities (Madhani, 2009) The most significant difference between the perspective school of management and resource based view is that the strategic school of management emphasizes economies of scale and scope such as giving a guide to organization on acquisition, mergers and diversification, budgeting, and analyzing the organizations position within the industry resource based view emphasizing on brand and value creation. While the perspective schools use tools such as Swot analysis, scenario planning and five forces in order to think, program and analyze, resource based view makes an organization to look at their tangible and intangible assets, processes, skills and the leadership aspect of the company .In order to illustrate the significant differences, I would like to compare the differences between the schools of perspective and resource based view. Positioning school enable an organization to identify their position by identifying cost leadership, focus and differentiation,(à Ã‚ rà Ã‚ µnd, 2006 ), while on the other hand RBV gives importance to the leadership level of the organization and views the firm as bunch of resources which is said in the above. However, organization who effectively able to use both of them effectively it would benefit the organization in order to reach their goal and know where they stand, for example they are able to use the SWOT analysis to identify their strength, weakness, opportunities and threats and at the same time use the resource based view to identify what values or brand name in the organization which can be seen as a large asset to the organization. The biggest advantage of resource-based view is that the resource one company holds are hard to be practiced by a competitor. How do these different approaches allow to gain insights into the way successful organizations execute strategy? In order to succeed, companies have to deal with different parts of strategies independently and practice balanced strategies and apply a balanced approach to business system. Many organizations have successfully used these different approaches and executing strategy. I would be using 3 case studies in order to give a better on how this organization uses these different approaches to execute their strategy. Case study #1 Business Management Case Study: How Cisco Applies Companywide Expertise for Integrating Acquired Companies Cisco is a IT company which uses resource based view and the design school. Cisco uses acquisition of other companies to rapidly offer new products, reach new markets, and grow revenue (Cisco, n.d.). Since 1993, the organization have acquired more than 120 companies which consist of small startups to large established firms such as Linksys, Scientific Atlanta, and WebE (Cisco, n.d.). The phases, which is followed by Cisco, clearly illustrates that the organization is effectively using resource-based view and designing school. By using their internal resources such as cross-function teams, common principles, and standard processes, Cisco has developed a formal, repeatable approach to acquisition integration (Cisco, n.d.). The acquisition integration is done by using 3 phases, firstly discovery and planning, where the organization they assess their scope, model their business and integration planning, the second phase, execution, the organization ensure that they are operational readin ess and activate their employee, resources and integration task in order to execute the deal with the acquired company, and the final phase, monitoring, ongoing measurement an adjustment of the integration activity (Cisco, n.d.).As stated by Graeme Wood, Direct of the acquisition integration, in the case study, Cisco centralizes acquisition integration as it is effect and allow them to capture best practices, use their skills and resources more effectively and apply discipline and over sight to the entire acquisition process (Cisco, n.d.). Another statement from Pat Belotti, senior manager of sales acquisition in the case study, integrated Cisco worldwide sales operation, the most important benefit of Ciscos standard integration process that the process help Cisco avoid a purge in revenues, in fact the organization is able to increase their revenues rapidly by applying the organizations resources to assist the acquitted sales department reach their maximum potential (Cisco, n.d.) Case Study #2 Adding value through asset optimization, an Anglo American Case study In this case study Anglo American, a mining company which has a vision of becoming the investment partner and employer of choice in the mining industry, one of its strategy to achieve that ambition is asset optimization and by executing its strategy has been able to achieve on its stated target of saving $1 billion from core operations by 2011 (Anglo American, n.d.). This strategy was executed using the school of planning and resource based view theoretical approaches, in order to achieve their ambition and decided a target of $ 1 Billion from their operations (planning), they decided to optimize their assets. A important feature of development within the asset optimization program was its design, piloting and introduction into Anglo Americans day-to-day business in order for this strategy to be executed a formalized internal process called Operation reviewers, this team was full consist of Anglo Americans internal resources, initially they reviewed their operations, Anglo American c onsistently review their process to make sure that the process is efficient as possible, the operations reviewers apply a structured evaluation process in three functional areas which are operational improvement , technical assessment , safety and sustainable development assessment they combined their central technical capacity with the operational expertise to create a team and focused on delivering value from operational improvement (Anglo American, n.d.). Anglo Americans optimization process sets out a clear view of how operational improvement can be planned for. There are five phases, starting with recognizing an opportunity (investigate numerous ways to lower the mines carbon footprint) followed by the idea stage (found out that a mobile flare design would solve the problem) followed by the initiative stage (a detailed plan were created by technical expert from Anglo American) and finishing with putting an improvement into practice (Anglo American, n.d.). Anglo American has eff ectively used the school of planning and resource based view by effectively planning the asset optimization using their resources and as a result has gained sustainable benefits worth billion of pounds. (Anglo American, n.d.) Case Study #3 Delivering a business strategy, a TNT case study In this case study, TNT, a business to business express delivery service and how the organization is delivering a business strategy using school of positioning and resource based view .In the case study TNT has identified that their organization has a distinctive position and that their market position is based on differentiating itself from rival through their intangible resources (resource based view) (TNT, n.d.), TNT has developed a strategy map that puts the customer on the top at their highest priority of the business (TNT, n.d.). The organization wants everyone involved with the business informed on how the organization will be able to achieve its goals (TNT, n.d.).The TNT case study of Delivering a business strategy shows that Operational Excellence is achieved through a strong foundation of fast, reliable and quality services (TNT, n.d.). From there, by understanding what different customers expect, the organization is able to improve the customer relationship and experience (TNT, n.d.). By building a stronger customer relationship the organization is able to build a higher level of loyalty and commitment. The organization views the innovation process is about identifying the future needs of the organizations customers and by establishing a stronger relationship the business is able to develop a joint approach and shared vision (TNT, n.d.). This strategy map involves quality employees in order to meet their aims and effectively carry out the strategy. In the case study, TNT have stated their mission to surpass customers expectations and experience in the transfer of their goods and documents all around the world and by delivering value to the organizations customers by providing the most reliable and efficient solutions through their delivery networks and seek to lead the industry by instilling pride in their people and at the same time creating value for our stakeholders and be socially responsible around the world (TNT, n.d.). In order to achieve thei r aim TNTs biggest resource is their employees from various departments such as distribution, sales and marketing, finance, customer service and HR. .To ensure employees standards keep on growing, TNT emphasizes on development of employees (TNT, n.d.). By developing the organizations biggest resource, people, the organization ensures that it will have the capability to meet and implement quickly any necessary changes in the organizations strategy (TNT, n.d.).The organization also nurture new employees fresh from the market by offering a in house a five year apprenticeship program for people under 22 years old (TNT, n.d.) .TNT has successfully have used the positioning school and resource based view and successfully have a crafted an effective strategy. Conclusion A competitive advantage gives organization-enhanced capabilities for developing and delivering strategic value. Companies should have several competitive advantages, difficult to copy or duplicate, and sustainable over the long-term (Williams, 2007). The three companies above from the three case studies above has clearly have illustration combining school of taught to achieve their mission and vision.

History of Volleyball

History of Volleyball Dan Gould Mr. Woodmansee William G. Morgan’s â€Å"Mintonette† and it’s evolution to the popular international sport, has changed in many different ways to become the more modern day sport called, â€Å"Volleyball†. Volleyball was founded in 1895, by a man named, William G. Morgan, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It was originally called â€Å"Mintonette†, and was meant to be a combination of Basketball, Baseball, and Handball. Also, it was designed to be a non-contact sport so that no one got hurt. There was no limit to the number of players on a team, nor was there a limit to the number of contacts on each side. The first official volleyball match was played on July 7th, 1896 at Springfield College, MA. People loved the sport, so right away it was spread across the country, and was played in most YMCA’s. The first dimensions of volleyball were very simple. The initial rules by William G. Morgan required a net which was six feet and six inches high (which was the size of an average person back then). The court, also made up by William G. Morgan, was 25 feet by 50 feet in size. Another rule was that you could have as many players as you wanted on each side. The official weight of the volleyball was no less than nine ounces, but no more than twelve ounces (it was made out of the bladder from a Basketball). Over time, most of these dimensions were changed to make the more appropriate sport called, â€Å"Volleyball†. There were several original playing rules designed for volleyball. One of the first rules was that the game consisted of nine innings. Depending on the number of players on each team,  the team would have one serve per player. After each team members serve was over, the inning would be over. The player serving continued to serve until he missed the serve or his team failed to return the ball to the other side of the net. You could only score when your team had the serve. Another rule was, if the ball hit the net, it was called a net ball, and counted as a point for the opposing team. If the ball was served into the net, it would be called a dead ball, and would count as a trial. The next rule was if a player touched the net, it would be called a net, and would result in a point for the other team. If you caught or held the ball for a couple of seconds, it would be called a carry, and would also result in a point for the other team. In 1896, (a year after the founding of Mintonette) a man by the name of Dr. Alfred T. Halstead approached William G. Morgan at the first exhibition game. He told him that a better, or a more appropriate name for the sport should be â€Å"Volley Ball†. William liked the idea, and the name stuck. In 1952, the name was officially changed, by combining the words â€Å"Volley†, and â€Å"Ball†, and making its new name, â€Å"Volleyball†. To this day the sport still has the same name. Over the years, volleyball has changed tremendously. As you know, nothing stays the same anymore. Well anyways, the court size was changed to 60 feet by 30 feet. The net was also changed too, but this time, there was a size for a women’s net and a men’s net. The women’s net was seven feet and four inches, while the men’s net was seven feet and eleven inches. Also, the rule about having as many players on the court was changed to; six players per side (no more or no less). The ball’s official size stayed with the same criteria, but mainly, it was about ten ounces. These dimensions will stay the same for a while, but some may be tweaked up a bit as the years go by. As I said, â€Å"nothing can be perfect; there is always room for a change†. Just as they did for the dimensions, they also revised some playing rules. They got rid of the nine innings, and instead, they changed it to; three out of five, games to fifteen. Also, you could still only score on your serve, but you had as many serves as you wanted. Another rule was that you could no longer hit the ball as many times as you wanted. Instead, you only could have three contacts per side, and a player could only contact the ball once, or it would result in a violation called the â€Å"two hits violation†. The last rule added was the under the net rule; if a player stepped over the line in the middle, (dividing the two teams) then it would result as a violation, and a point would be awarded to the opposing team. As volleyball began to spread around the world, there was a strong love for the sport, and some people wanted to bring the sport to the beach. Beach volleyball was founded in the 1920’s in Santa Monica, CA. It was at first played as just a recreational sport, where people could play for fun. It was played only with two people on the court, and the rules were slightly different than indoor volleyball. It became a competitive sport in California in 1947. In the sport you had to communicate and move very swiftly in order to do well. It was a great activity to play at the beach, and many people thought it was one of the coolest sports ever to be invented. Still it was practically the same sport as indoor volleyball; the only difference was that it was played on sand, and not on solid ground. Now for the dimensions of Beach Volleyball (which are completely different than indoor volleyball). The court is approximately 26 ¼ feet by 52 ½ feet long. The net on the other hand, is the same criteria as indoor volleyball, except both men and women’s nets are lowered by an inch, due to the uneven sand. Which means a women’s net would be seven feet and three inches, and the men’s would be seven feet and ten inches high. Also, the outdoor volleyball is about an inch wider than an indoor ball, but it is lighter by about two ounces (which makes it easier for the ball to come up by the players). One completely different dimension from indoor volleyball is; (not counting the court), there needs to be at least three and one fourth feet for playing space. In beach volleyball the games were still the same as indoor; Three out of five, and games to fifteen. Also in beach, you could still only score when your team had the serve, which was called â€Å"side out volleyball†. Another rule was that you could not set the ball over the net, unless if you were square to where the ball was going to land. As for the under the net call, in beach, it was only called if you went under the net and interfered with another player (in other words, you got in the players way). Some of these rules, just like indoor, still will be changing to this day. In 1942, volleyball was introduced into the Olympics, but only as an exhibition sport. It immediately was loved by all the fans, and many different countries started to develop their own teams. Finally, in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, volleyball became an official sport in the Olympics. It was sponsored strongly by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Beach volleyball would later on join the Olympics as well. Soon, beach volleyball took on a life of its own. In 1992, it was introduced into the Olympics as an exhibition sport. Also, just like indoor volleyball, the fans loved it, and many other countries developed teams as well too. Right away, in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, beach volleyball became an official Olympic sport. Also, to this day, beach volleyball is thought to be the hottest ticket in the Olympics. Over the years, there have been many volleyball/beach volleyball leagues. Most of them have recently started over this century. Some examples are; AVP, FIVBA, USVBA, Junior Olympics, and AAU. These leagues are mostly for professionals. Like AVP, which is basically the NBA for basketball players, but instead for beach volleyball players. Also, the USVBA stands for United States Volleyball Association, which is basically our U.S. Olympic indoor volleyball team. Over the years so many of the rules have changed, and actually, today, they are still being changed. One major change was the introduction of the libero. It was introduced in 1998. A libero is a player that wears a different color shirt than the rest of the team, and they are basically defensive specialists. At any time during the game, if anyone needed to be taken out of the back row, they could be switched with the libero, but it would not count as a substitution. The only twist was that the libero was not allowed to play in the front row. One other rule that was switched was the side out rule, the rule was changed so that you don’t have to win the point on your serve, but you could also get a point on the opposing teams serve. Lastly, the games were changed to three out of five, games to twenty-five. In beach volleyball, the games were also three out of five, but the games were to twenty-one. In worldwide popularity, volleyball is the second most popular sport in the world, the first being soccer. With about 46 million Americans that play, and over 800 million people that play around the world, it is obvious that volleyball touches lives. Volleyball has definitely grown to be the best team sport there will ever be. The reason for this is because there cannot just be one star player on the team but, there has to be at least three contacts from at least two different players. References Crisfield, Deborah, and John J. Monteleone. Winning Volleyball for Girls. New York: Chelsea House, 2010. Print. Dearing, Joel B. The Untold Story of William G. Morgan Inventor of Volleyball. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. February 9th: William G. Morgan Invents a Game Called Mintonette That Is Better Known Today as Volleyball. Today I Found Out RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. . Ghare, Madhavi. Volleyball: History, Court and Equipment. Buzzle.com. Buzzle.com, 17 Dec. 2007. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. . History Behind Volleyball Discovering Volleyball in 1950-80. History Behind Volleyball. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. . Kenny, Bonnie, and Cindy Gregory. Volleyball: Steps to Success. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2006. Print Volleyball History 101. About.com Volleyball. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013. . Volleyball Rules 1897. Volleyball Rules 1897. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. . VOLLEYBALL COURT DIMENSIONS. VOLLEYBALL COURT DIMENSIONS. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. .

How the Oboe Works :: Expository Process Essays

How the Oboe Works      Ã‚  Ã‚   The oboe belongs to the group of instruments called the woodwinds.   However, it can be further classifies as all instruments can.   Instruments can be further classified by what vibrates to produce a sound.   In the case of the oboe it is air that vibrates and so it is classified as an aero phone, or enclosed or free masses of air.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are three essential parts to every instrument. 1-The essential vibrating substance.   2-The connected reflector, amplifier, or resonator.   3-Other sound altering devices.   In the oboe these parts are the reed, the resonator, and the multiple keys.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The original source of air comes from the oboist blowing air into the reed.   The oboe has a double reed.   When air is blown it goes over and under the reeds and causes them to vibrate.   When both of these reeds are vibrating they pinch together rapidly.   This consequently disturbs the stream of air that is passing between the reeds.   This disturbance causes air molecules to bunch up leaving an empty space behind them.   The bunch of molecules is called a condensation, and the somewhat empty space of thinned out molecules is called a rare fraction.   The condensation and rare fraction of the air molecules are characteristics of a longitudinal or sound wave.   This process happens very rapidly, and is obviously followed briefly by the next puff of air, making the wave continuous.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This wave passes through the resonator.   The resonator is an object that has a specific period of vibration.   The air passes through the resonator.   This creates a specifically ordered vibration, and a constant frequency.   That is why resonators are often used in instruments to reinforce the sound of a pitch.        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This specifically vibrating air enters the length of the oboe.   The bore is the interior diameter of the oboe.   It has a conical shape in the case of the oboe.   The diameter at the top of the bore is smaller than the diameter at the bottom of the bore.   As well as being conical the bore is also very narrow in the oboe.   Therefore, when the air is in the bore it is at a higher pressure at the top than at the bottom, because the air passes from a smaller opening to a larger opening.

Persuasive Speech: Do Not Eat Fast Food -- Persuasive Speech

Specific Purpose Statement: To persuade the audience not to eat fast food. Relevance: You all have probably experienced fast food sometime throughout your life. Credibility: The first thing that comes to mind when mentioning fast food is greasy, oily, unhealthy garb, yet most of us consume junk food on a daily basis anyway. There are over 300,000 different fast food restaurants in the US. People frequent them because of convenience (quick and usually cheap). In such a fast-paced society, people are eating more fast food than ever before (Stefanov, Sebastien). Preview: I am now going to inform you about what fast food is, what a typical meal contains, why fast food is unhealthy. Body I. A. What is fast food? 1. Fast food is any food that is quick, convenient, and usually inexpensive (Fast Food Facts). a. Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. The term "fast food" refers to precooked foods such as fries or pizza that typically must be used within a few hours, or they become dried out and unpalatable (Ali, Sam). b. Fast food places like McDonalds, Burger King, Jack-in-the-box, Wendy’s, Whataburger, etc., are all considered fast food restaurants. II. A. A typical meal and some facts 1. According to the "Nutritional Facts" that are posted on McDonald's web site, one Big Mac contains 540 calories and 29 grams of fat, which is 45 percent of the national recommended daily value based on a 2,000-calorie diet, according to McDonald's. One large order of fries contains 500 calories and 25 grams of fat, which is 38 percent of the recommended daily value. The 32-ounce Coca-Cola Classic adds another 310 calories (Ali, Sam). a. Harvested potatoes contain about 80 pe... ...com/article/7532/>. "Fast Food Facts." Center for Young Women's Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. . "Fast food facts from the Super Size Me Web site ." The VivaVegie Society, Inc. . N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. Manohar, Uttara. "Fast Food Facts: Effects of Fast Food." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. . Stefanov, Sebastien. "fast food calories - AskMen." AskMen - Men's Online Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. . White, Janice. "Why Fast Food is Bad for You." HubPages. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. .

Comparing The Chorus of Sophocles Antigone and Americas News Channels :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Comparing The Chorus of Sophocles' Antigone and America's News Channels The Greek Chorus is very similar to America's news channels because it brings the people the news in a way that they can understand it. The play Antigone by Sophocles is a tragic drama structured around the argument between a king and two sisters about the burial of their brother. Antigone can be compared to the conflict surrounding granting illegal immigrants amnesty. The Chorus is a group of people who provide background information, interpret the information, and relate it to human nature. The Chorus in Antigone tells the pros and cons of both sides of the story and adds important information needed to fully understand the conflict. The Greek Chorus serves the same functions as American news channels in the twenty-first century. Both a news channel and a Chorus provide background information during the telling of a story. After Antigone and Ismene converse about the burial of their brother, the chorus steps in setting the mood and providing background information. "Now the long blade of the sun, lying level east to west, touches with glory Thebes of Seven Gates. Open, Unlidded" (Sophocles 314). This shows that at that point in the play, it is morning and the sun has risen. It sets the tone and describes the setting for the next scene. On a news channel, background information is also provided. "Over eleven million illegal immigrants are already living in America" (Buchanan). This tells the viewer how serious the topic is by using such large numbers and giving facts. This statement will also-strike a nerve with many people because it is saying that 11 million people have committed the same crime their country. As you can see, there is a great similarity between the Greek and American way of providing b ackground information. American news channels and Greek Choruses both interpret information for viewers, so they can better understand different points of view. It is believed by the Greeks that Creon has a divine right to do whatever he wants. "If that is your will, Creon son of Menoikeus, You have the right to enforce it: we are yours" (Sophocles 316). Creon can do what he wants because the people will have to support his ideas because he is the great and powerful king with a divine right to rule.

All Adoption Records Should be Open to Adopted People over Eighteen Years Old

The issues of having adoption documents open for access by the adopted people who are over eighteen years has caused a lot of heated debate in America. There has been a revolution in the adoption scene as some of the states have legalized the opening of previously sealed adoption documents.There are raging debates due to the controversy which is brought by opening and sealing the adoption records. The right of the birth parent to privacy is weighed against the fundamental right of the adopted adult to know and the right to equality. This paper seeks to bring out the reasons as to why these previously sealed documents should be open for adopted adults.There are more than six million adoptees in the United States of America. Currently, only six states in America offer the open inspection of adoption records. These are Tennessee, Hawaii, Delaware, Alabama, Kansas and Alaska (Mabry & Kelly, 357).In most of the other states, the original birth certificate and the adoption documents are no t accessible to anyone without a court order. Alabama allows the opening of these documents only after consent while Oregon and Tennessee also require consent from the court. In Tennessee, the adult adoptee is forbidden for establishing contact.Some states recommend the use of specific search and consent protocols which require the agency to locate either member of the adoption triad enquire whether they would allow their identity to be revealed to the other member (Mabry & Kelly, 359).The adoption triad refers to the adopted adult, the adopted parents and the birth parents.   Opening adoption documents or records refers to making a variety of previously confidential and sealed information available to a member of the adoption triad.These adoption records can be either the original unammended birth certificate, the court records from the adoption and other confidential information including the adoption agencys’ documents which may reveal the identity of any of the members of the triad (Mabry & Kelly, 369).After an adoptive placement is finalized, the original documents and documents proceeding from these cases are closed.Most adopted adults are in favor of the opening of the adoption documents primarily to ease their search for their birth parents or eliminate the need for a search. They argue that keeping these documents sealed from adopted adults, impairs with their emotional status and denies them of their right to know the identity of their parents like every other person.Adoption documents were initially sealed in order to protect any members of the adoption triad from the prevailing attitudes of the time. There was a lot of social stigma arising from illegitimacy and infertility. People were also stigmatized based on their wealth or other features in their families.The courts felt that the exposure of the triad especially the child to these attitudes would hinder their potential. Sealing adoption documents allowed the adopted child to grow up w ithout these additional pressures from the society (Mabry & Kelly, 436).The main reason as to why the adoption documents were sealed was to protect the adoption triad from social stigma associated with illegitimacy and infertility.The changing times have eliminated this stigma as millions of people nowadays choose not to get married, to become single parents or even get married and choose not to have any children. Any stigma associated with either of these has been eroded over time.The opening of adoption records only for adopted adults over the age of eighteen years ensures that they are already emotionally and mentally developed and the chances of their birth parents affecting their development is minimized.Adoption documents allow the adopted adult to find out of any genetic conditions which they may have inherited from their birth parents. The knowledge of any genetic predisposition to life threatening medical conditions allows the adopted adult to seek help early.This also allo ws early detection of any medical conditions and could potentially save lives (Siegel, 17). In cases where the adopted adults also intend on having their own children, it is necessary for them to know of any possibilities of passing on genetic conditions to their children and make informed decisions based on these facts.Adopted adults may also require organ transplants. The most successful organ transplants are from genetically identical individuals since there are less chances of rejection. For the adopted adult, this implies that they have to contact their birth parents and any other siblings they may have for potential donors.The adult who is adopted at childhood has the fundamental right to know the identity of his parents (Mabry & Kelly, 508). These unanswered questions bring a lifetime of confusion and loss of identity.The contract between both sets of parents is entered on behalf of the adopted child. Once the child reaches eighteen years, they are legally capable of making m ost legal decisions and they should be treated as adults who have the right to decide whether they require information regarding the birth parents.In cases where they choose to have access, the information should be availed readily (Siegel, 17). The United States of America is founded on the tenet of equality for all its citizens. Opening adoption documents ensures that adopted people are given equal right to know their parents, similar to their non adopted counterparts (Blanton & Deschner, 534).The adopted individuals should be given the same right as everyone else.   This in turn brings peace of mind and the adopted adults can move on with their lives.There are many people who feel that the opening of these previously closed documents should be prohibited and adult adoptees should not be given information regarding their birth parents. Those who oppose the opening of these documents insist that the birth parents may not want contact from the children (DuPrau, 28).The supporters of opening adoption records insist that the opening of these documents does not necessarily imply intent of contact. In many cases the adult adoptee is simply curious or is intent on identifying any genetic medical conditions of the birth parents (Blanton & Deschner, 530 .The issue of people preferring abortion to adoption due to the ramifications of the children later looking for them has also been debated. The supporters of open documents maintain that the two issues are unrelated and the rates of abortion have not increased in states that have allowed open adoption documents (Cocozzell, 36).There is no need for the birth parent to feel insecure because most states specify no contact unless it is permitted. The birth parents have no biding parental responsibilities on the adopted adult and the only thing they seek is information on their identity and possible their medical condition. In some instances birth parents who gave up their children for adoption are also interested in mak ing contact and are relieved when the adopted adults contact them (Cocozzell, 36).There are also arguments that insist that the identification of birth parents is a threat to the relationship of the adopted individual with their adoptive parents. While it may be true for an adopted child, for an adult adoptee, the identification of the birth parents is not a threat to their relationship with the adoptive parents (DuPrau, 18).In conclusion, all adoption documents should be open to all adopted people over the age of eighteen years. This allows equality to all people and gives the adopted adults peace of mind regarding any questions they may have concerning their identity as well as any potential genetic conditions which, they may have inherited from their birth parents.REFERENCESBlanton L. & Deschner Jeanne, â€Å"Biological Mothers' Grief: The Post adoptive Experience in Open vs. Confidential Adoption,† Child Welfare 59 (1990): 525-535.Cocozzelli Carmello, â€Å"Predicting th e Decision of Biological Mothers to Retain or Relinquish Their Babies for Adoption: Implications for Open Placement,† Child Welfare 68 (1999): 33-44.DuPrau Jeanne. Adoption: the facts, feelings, and issues of a double heritage. Michigan: University of Michigan, 2007. 16-99.

Management and Leadership Models Essay

As Regional Director for Happy Face Frozen Foods (HFFF), I hold a great responsibility to meet sales projection levels at each of my sales districts. Hitting goal is not just a numbers game- it’s a task of managing people within the culture of the organization. My ultimate goal for District IV and district manager Tony’s performance deficiency is to diagnosis issues and problem areas. Multiple management/leadership models and concepts are needed in order to shift this district to become profitable and successful. PERFORMANCE MODEL Skills, Abilities, Traits Tony appears to have a lack of effort, despite being young, aggressive, talkative, appears to be intelligent, and was a top sales representative. I questioned his work ethic capabilities, but the Myer Briggs Type Indicator says we are polar personality opposites as he is an ISTJ and I am an ENFP. In general, his type explains why his apparent lack of effort is actually  his â€Å"introverted† and â€Å"sensing† personality; Tony self-reflects, works alone, thinks before acting, keeps energy inside, is hard to read, and verbalizes well though out ideas, concern for present and practical matters, likes things to be precise and clear, and wants step-by-step approaches. I had promoted him despite of his tendencies towards coercion and party reputation, which seemed to be a lack of cooperation skills and professionalism. Again, his type explains these traits of Tony’s â€Å"thinking† and â€Å"judging† personality; he finds it easy to be firm-minded and give criticism, brief, concise and impersonal, uses pros and cons lists, doesn’t like surprises, resist or does not notice change, and wants advanced warning. As a top manager his thinking process is great for following rules and procedures, but as a leader of his district he needs to improve all traits involving interaction with people. In order to compliment Tony’s personality traits with my own, I must reduce perceptual errors with a self-understanding of how our opposing traits interact. Tony’s sensing type needs intuitive types at work to see possibilities, deal with complex issues, explain other intuitives, and spark innovation. His thinking type needs intuitive types at work to persuade, smooth feathers, teach and coach, and anticipate reactions. Tony has several of the Kirkpatrick and Locke Leadership Traits to facilitate success, which include drive, self-confidence, cognitive ability, and knowledge of the business, but Tony’s sales team is hesitant to discuss his performance as a manager. A person does not become a leader by virtue of the possession of some combination of traits; therefore, with proper action Tony can transform those traits toward becoming a successful leader. Tony has three factor categories of leadership to accomplish, which include managing skills, vision, and implementation. I can provide Tony with specific guidelines for goals, objectives, and situations so he will have the managing skills for decision-making and problem solving. To improve his vision of the company, I can train him in the importance of the Big Five personality traits to become extraverted, conscientious, open, less neurotic, and agreeable. I can teach Tony how to apply the MBTI types among  his subordinates and myself, so he can properly implement his vision to the team through team building, motivation, and training. His efforts will increase their trust in his abilities and be more likely to give proper feedback in the future. Role Perceptions Inappropriate behavior concerns in Tony’s district arise from sexual harassment complaints, unwanted nicknames, mixture of work and personal relationships, and name calling shows that action for ethical conduct is lacking. Because Tony is involved in some of the unethical action, a quick response is needed at the management and subordinate level. Nielson’s guidelines for changing unethical organizational behaviors are not easy, but start with an intervention strategy implemented by corporate guidelines and myself. Caution should be used as I could be misled on details, and do not want to damage relationships and hurt the organization unnecessarily. The advantage of leading an ethical change increases incremental performance, but must include Tony in the process of establishing ethical rules and procedures in order to implement long-term. Rallying others to agree for the good of the organization takes consensus building through patience and relationship building, and can happen with ability and courage. Tony perceives his abilities for his own â€Å"book of business† as a successful sales person to be a major part of his job requirement. As a superior, my perception of his skills and traits lack the ability to manage his people, and his personal success makes me doubt his capabilities even more as he ignores his job requirements to train and coach his sales team, especially the two brand new employees. Tony needs to understand the importance of socialization practices, and appreciate the problem of transitioning a new employee. To prepare Tony in the training of his team, helpful mechanisms to utilize change are found in the elements of Schein’s organization socialization, which include basic goals, preferred means the goals are to be attained, basic responsibilities of the members, behavior patterns required for effective performance, and a set of rules to maintaining identity and integrity. New entrant should have multiple sources, whether official literature,  examples set by Tony and other employees, direct instruction, rewards and punishment system, and experimenting with new values and behavior. Success of socializing techniques depends on the initial entry of the organization and what Tony does to keep them. He must build commitment and loyalty early in the socialization process by investing time and effort into the new members, and since the two new hires have already been introduced to a laissez-faire style of management, Tony’s efforts need to be well prepared. Establishing socialization is included through training opportunities to Tony to train his sales team, giving Tony a formal role definition and the guidelines to defining his subordinates roles (which he will appreciate as an ISTJ), giving Tony a performance appraisal and future personal goals to improve, and to coach Tony the norms of a successful manager. The Determinant of Person Perception describes Tony’s situation as an ineffective leader based on the perception of his subordinates, which is influenced from the mixture of Tony’s and the subordinate’s characteristics. His ineffective leadership mixed with the subordinates lack of direction has created an Organizational Citizenship Behavior that allows discretionary behaviors based on personal choice within the workforce; several of the current norms that are being utilized and promoted under Tony’s supervision include tardiness, teasing, competitiveness, ignorance of complaints and concerns, inclusion of personal life and work, and individuality. These structureless norms and values are dangerous to the well being of Tony’s district as he does not understand his role as a leader to structure right and wrong norms, pivotal norms and values should be made clear in order to survive. The norms and values that should be implemented include trust, honesty, integrity, empathy, respect, teamwork, separation of life from professional work, and the total changes should keep 60-70% of operations stable in order to keep the organization running smoothly. The Simple Change Process has three phases to implement desired norms and values; the Unfreezing Phase includes immediate action between myself and Tony to establish how he wants the team to operate, create rules and procedures to follow, and to reprimand actions that are breaking current rules. The Moving Phase includes actions  for Tony to model new norms, train and educate the rest of the team, and provide incentives for following the new behaviors. The final process in the Refreezing Phase involves more rewards systems, standardization, and implementation of the new structures. Even if the perception of Tony’s lack of effort is a symptom of his set characteristic traits, I also need to understand as his supervisor the Self-Concept Theory of Motivation. The idea that humans are self-expressive, motivated to maintain and enhance self-esteem and self-worth, self-concepts are composed in part of identities, and this behavior isn’t always related to clear expectations or to immediate or specific goals. Tony is no different and also holds inner motivations that are not easily seen, I need to get to know him better before the districts sales meeting next month to understand his motives and actions. His current performance has demonstrated low results for the higher expectations I demand; if Tony does not have some expectation to work for, meeting my expectations is difficult and is a lose-lose situation. To give Tony direction, we can practice the Goal Theory to link Tony to specific and challenging goals with appropriate feedback for Tony to know ho w much effort to contribute in order to achieve increased task performance, and to understand what expectations to meet. Any theory or concept Tony learns can be applied to relationships with his subordinates, but will be difficult to implement with the current presence of Learned Helplessness. Tony has set such high expectations for performance and punished employees both by disregarding and berating employees publicly; his employees have become passive from repeat failures and will most likely remain passive even after changes are made. Organizationally Induced Helplessness is evident as the attribution to failure leads to behavioral influences, and Tony’s subordinate, Britni, is clearly suffering from substance abuse and practices it in the workplace openly. Because the negative environment has forced employees to shut down mentally, the operation of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy is not in effect here as Tony places high expectations, and they are not performing better because of these expectations. The factor missing in order to for the prophecy to work in Tony’s environment is more input from Tony to teach his subordinates to  reach the expectations he sets. To stop influencing negative behavior and start influencing positive attributions, organizational goals need to be easier to obtain and set clearly by Tony, because subordinates who stopped trying have already decided goals are impossible to reach such as the case with Melanie who was forced to structure her sales route by herself. Minimizing OIH can be done through multiple strategies: immunization that sets specific levels of success can begin with the new norms and values that will be set through the Simple Change Process, rewarding those who follow quickly. Attribution Training will direct failure away from internal fault and toward external conditions, and Ego Defense will develop attributes so if Tony continues to berate his employees, they will learn to not let it threaten their self-esteem. Performance Goals Tony punishes Big Ron’s performance for not getting the product out ahead of schedule is an example of Tony’s need for the Goal-Setting Concept, which assigns employees a specific task, quota, performance standard, or deadline. The use of punishment to affect behavior has negative consequences of modifying an employees behavior, such as a short-term effect, resentment of the punisher, negative aftereffects, doesn’t reinforce desired heavier, and creates an atmosphere of fear. Tony may punish too soon because of lack of training on my part, not aware of alternatives, looking for quick solutions, personal gratification, out of frustration, or believe it is the best way to change behavior. The misunderstanding of the product schedule time between Big Ron and Tony is directly attributed to miscommunication and a lack of goals. Big Ron perceives his goals to be only within the processing plant, Tony communicates his goals to be overseeing Big Ron’s operations and delivering the product. A helpful mechanism would for both to work together as a team and manage by objectives from each side. Tony and Big Ron need to use Participative Goal Setting and set specific and difficult goals together to lead to higher performance and relationship building. Merely telling Big Ron to â€Å"do his best† and to be supportive would be sufficient, but the best gain  comes from a set standard. They can also hold Management By Objectives â€Å"assignment† sessions to discuss what each side’s efforts will include. If Big Ron knows why Tony wants the products early, he can then communicate that status knowing Tony really needs that information. If Tony knows why Big Ron can’t get the products out sooner, he can then exert efforts to help Big Ron. When the task is done, a final performance appraisal feedback session will give each side a chance to voice actions that worked, need changing for future projects, and to give constructive feedback for the other person. This will build a climate of trust, and shows an acceptance of goal failure. Based on head quality control engineer Daniella’s visit with the sales force informal leader Bill Gates, is uninvolved with his job at HFFF with multiple side interests. Bill needs to get involved, and since he is in a leadership position can be given roles to support the sales force and himself by taking their performance under his accountability. If workers have a chance to participate in setting goals, they will be more committed to attaining those goals. If larger goals are broken down into short-term goals, workers will receive more frequent feedback about goal accomplishment and, thus, strive harder to meet those goals. A list of good goals similar to what Bill can make could include setting specific short and long term sales goal quotas, to create friendly competitions within the sales team, for individuals to talk to a certain number of clients or make a certain number of presentations, to meet with each sales rep individually to hear progress reports, and many more. The SMARTFIC model is a good checklist to prepare Bill to present Tony a plan of action within the sales force team. To start, Bill rates himself on scale of 1-5 on each goal setting area: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic/rewarded, timely, feedback, integrated/intermediate, and challenging/clear. He can keep or change the specificity or attainability of each goal based on the scale results, and once the goals are presented and approved by Tony, Bill can implement among the team. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Rewards Along with Bill’s goal setting for the sales team, rewarding Bill and team members based on bonuses and commission compensation will motivate the implementation to be successful. Tony could also be motivated to perform better if he was given a bonus for getting positive evaluations, as a demonstrator at a recent training program recently evaluated him negatively. To pinpoint the best reward system for Tony, I can use the Modifying On-The-Job Behavior concept to first identify target behavior, such as his need for procedure. The second step is to perform an Antecedent, Behavior, and Consequence (ABC) functional analysis to identify Tony’s trigger for needing procedure and when he uses this behavior. The third step arranges antecedents by removing obstacles, providing opportunities, appropriately scheduled consequences, such as unexpected events that cannot be controlled or sporadic behavior from others. The fourth and final step evaluates the results to find how to imple ment more procedure-based structure within Tony’s environment and utilize his best behaviors. This analysis also needs to be implemented by Tony onto his employees so they see that he appreciates their well being and can develop trust with him on other issues. Hertzberg’s Motivation Theory says if there is job dissatisfaction, the hygiene factors must be addressed before motivating employees. Tony’s team holds many hygiene factors in their workforce situation, including inappropriate subordinate work and personal relationships initiated by Tony, personal life issues addressed at work with Britni and Bill, poor supervisor relations among everyone, laissez-faire work conditions, and a lack of organization policy. Once they work through the hygiene factors, Tony can then motivate his team by setting goals for achievement, recognizing their achievements and efforts, giving them responsibilities, and chances for growth to contribute to their job satisfaction. The better the team is satisfied, the better job they can all provide. Tony created tension in his district when he hired his college buddies based on their personal relationship, and will have to overcome judgment and the tension by making his sale rep friends work hard to e arn their keep. In order to do so, Tony needs a standardized set of job dimensions and outcomes to give them, as outlined in the Job Characteristics Model. This concept gives core job  dimensions that can include skill variety, task identity, and significance to specify the sales reps various duties ranked by importance, levels of autonomy to make informed and unforced decisions on their own, and proper feedback in the form of evaluations from other subordinates or myself, instead of Tony because of their personal relationship. These dimensions lead to critical psychological states that provide experienced meaningfulness of the sales reps work, responsibility for their own works outcomes, and knowledge of their actual results. The process finally leads to personal and work outcomes that result in high internal work motivation that produces quality work performance and satisfaction, and proves their worth of working with the other subordinates while holding respect for Tony despite his initial favo ritism. Melanie complains that nobody, especially Tony, listens to her concerns, and is frustrated with the competitive and inefficient environment. While she may just be a complainer, Tony can quickly implement One Minute Praising to praise Melanie immediately when she should be appreciated, be specific about her finding an inefficiency in the training programs, share feelings of how her ideas could impact the team, and encourage her to find ways to make training programs more productive. This could help Melanie to not feel so ignored, especially if she is praised for something that is obviously a concern for her. When she begins to be more positive, her negativity will change in front of other employees and they wont ignore her as much. Tony can easily use this on all employees and voice his support for positivity to encourage the concepts use amongst the subordinates. If Melanie continues her complaining and negativity, Tony can use the One Minute Reprimanding to reprimand the complaining immediately, be specific about what she has said, share feelings of how the complaining affects the team, and remind her how good of a person she still is. The concept assists Melanie to realize how her complaining affects her coworkers, and will end the behavior. Tony needs to fix his working relationship with Big Ron quickly in order to address the possible ecoli breakout issue that Big Ron had on the health inspector visit. Not only is the health risk an ethical issue concerning consumers, Big Ron’s action plan to blackmail the inspector is an alarming  example of a lack of internal procedures. To address both of these issues and to prepare for future situations, Tony needs a Contingency Plan to manage risk that could have catastrophic consequences. Contingency Strategies are a result of the contingency plan and are devised for a specific situation where things could go wrong, although they cannot predict future outcomes. Tony’s strategies need to include procedures for situations that can happen within the management office, at the warehouses, and other facilities and need to include the managers at each location for input of specific internal details. These strategies prepare the organization or the person for anything that could happen in future and are back up plans that support the organization when the actual plan fails. For positive reinforcement for the behavior to increase, Tony must apply the strategy AND reward for something desirable or pleasant. The reward need to be individual-based in order to encourage employees to act ethically and receive personal recognition for their actions. Tony’s intricate involvement in Britni’s personal dating life and his friends looking for a good time is an example of negative reinforcement within the workplace. This involvement and his personal relationship with human resource manager, Margaret, are behaviors that need to be eliminated. I need to use the Coaching and Reinforcement Concept to tell Tony what to do to cease his involvement, show him how to change through role-play practice, then let him try to implement within the situations. I’ll observe his performance, and either praise his progress or redirect if it fails. A weakness in Tony’s relationship with his subordinates is a major issue in the balance of work performance. If the subordinates do not respond to Tony and he makes no initiative to manage his people, the district is at risk of failing and ruining sales figures. To create a trusting and open work environment, the PRICE System from Putting the One Minute Manager to Work says to pinpoint the performance area of interest, such as the subordinate/management relationship, then record and measure the current performance level on a graph. We must involve everyone to agree on  performance goals and strategies for coaching and evaluation, with extravert personalities on the team in charge of coaching, observing performance, and reporting to Tony to manage consequences. Tony and the team must then evaluate, track performance progress, and determine future strategies. The results of successful implementation of this system will strengthen the relationships between Tony and his subordin ates and eliminate the â€Å"fear† that is prevalent throughout the organization. Human resource specialist, Mary Ann, is enthusiastic about work-family balance and schedules of reinforcement concepts, but Daniella tuned her out during a recent visit. If employees and reporting superiors dismiss constructive ideas, the company may miss out on great progress opportunities and the employees who value change. The Reinforcement Appropriate Behaviors concept encourages hard working employees; if workers receive immediate reinforcement for their hard work, they will work harder than if their reinforcement is delayed. Frequent reinforcement of positive behavior and infrequent reinforcement of negative behavior results in higher performance. Workers will work harder if their reinforcements for work are somewhat random in either a variable interval or ratio. Mary Ann’s interest in Performance Model theories can be rewarded in the future based on this concept through praise and the responsibility to help host internal training sessions if we specifically provide her the proper way to relate them to her workforce. Her success could lead to creating reward programs and working with Tony to think of reward opportunities. Kerr’s Common Management Reward Follies says we hope for long-term growth, teamwork, challenging objectives, restructuring, and commitment to total quality, but we often reward quarterly earnings, individual effort, making the numbers, adding staff, and less than quality. Relatedly, Tony is reluctant to take charge of the sales team, but from afar demands higher levels of productivity. Tony is seeking simple quantifiable standards to measure but some aspects are highly visible and most aren’t, so a lacking view of performance factors and results doesn’t help break out of old ways of thinking. Since current rewards systems hardly exist, Tony must explore what types of behavior are currently being rewarded to positively reinforce  desired behavior. Equity Model The disturbing story of a possible kickback program involving sales manager, Jeff Daniels, and his stress related behavior is symptoms of the Equity Theory and Justice: The Concept of Fairness says Jeff must believe his is being treated fairly or his motivation will wane. Employees must evaluate their inputs in relation to their outcomes as compared to the inputs and outcomes of others to determine fairness, and inputs of employees on the job include enthusiasm, knowledge, innovation, and skills, while outputs include salary, satisfaction, recognition, and training opportunities. If the outputs of Jeff’s efforts are not equal to his inputs, he will find a way to make that mental equation balanced. If balancing to him means receiving under-the-table funds and lashing out on others as a consequence of a work-stress overload, then his promotion to International Protocol Specialist will only reward his unethical behavior and actions. Although the action of Mary Ann and Nelson arriving late to meeting with Danielle seems minor, this action sends the message that other business etiquettes are not important and will not represent the company at its best. The Reinforcement and Rewards concept says part of Tony’s job is to direct the behaviors of employees by providing appropriate rewards to reinforce the desired behaviors that lead to organizational effectiveness and success. Reinforcement stimuli Tony could incorporate for not only tardiness, but other common courtesies, include attendance awards and office-wide recognition, employee of the month awards with reasons attached to the award, and spontaneous cash awards for sighted acts of kindness. Effort-Reward Probability Although the ultimate Performance goals are nowhere near to be reached, there are good opportunities to reward good effort. The Effort-Reward Probability concept produces effort and follows Vroom in that abilities and traits can also multiply to determine performance. Examples have been provided with other models, but Steve Stricker aka â€Å"Mr. Insensitivity† deserves credit for his enthusiasm and attempt to correct a bad situation in the most efficient way possible. While his handling of the situation was not  the most desired, he still holds my respect enough to want him to supervise Tony’s district. The more good efforts we can multiply with good rewards, the better the performance the organization will gain. Satisfaction and V = Valence The majority of Tony’s workforce chooses to remain silent about most incidents that happen at work because the consequences of speaking up are higher. The Valence outcome of the Expectancy Theory model needs to be changed the most for this team as their value of rewards based on their needs and goals are low. The current valence level that I provide Tony, and Tony provides his subordinates can be rated a â€Å"0† as indifferent to the outcome of rewards, which is very much my fault for not encouraging a reward system to my own subordinate and setting the right example. I can start from my own practices to implement a rewards system specifically for Tony, and various programs for him to relay down to his team. COMMUNICATIONS Tony needs to improve his communication with subordinates in order to convey and receive information, gain acceptance for his ideas, maintain relationships with coworkers, establish trust, keep people involved in a project, to produce action or change. The change should include the climate of the workplace, as it is defensive, in the sense of the amount of control and superiority that is exerted from Tony’s competitive nature. In order to create a supportive climate, while allowing a friendlier competitive environment, Tony needs to encourage equality among the team and to practice empathy. He will also appear more reasonable if he learns to admit when he doesn’t know an answer, admits when he is wrong, and asks for help. When Tony ignores his employee’s requests for help and suggestions, his unrelated and tangential responses levels of listening serve as punishment to his employees for speaking. To display listening in the workplace, Tony must stop talking, show he wants to listen, empathize, go easy with arguments and criticisms, and again stop talking. He will encourage future interactions when he develops their trust. To practice the three elements of trust, Tony needs to show an inclination towards charity through  benevolence, practice integrity through a consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty of one’s actions and the ability to lead his team. To develop trust, he must demonstrate concern for others well-being and needs, be willing to see other peoples point of view, correspond between his words and deeds, and not be afraid to show emotion. When Tony received negative feedback from the recent training program, he most likely felt embarrassed and defensive. Tony needs effective feedback, he will not listen to the training program if we assume he should know what to do, evaluative, late, negative only, and punishing in the face of others at the program. In order for him to learn, it needs to be descriptive, specific, timely, and positive with the negative, and he needs to listen, check, clarify, and ask the feedback of others. There will be situations in the future similar to the miscommunication with Big Ron that will frustrate Tony, but he needs to make himself clear even if he is upset by managing from the HEART to convey his message to others: to be heard and understood, if disagreed with to not be made wrong, to be acknowledged for good, to look for right intentions, and to be told the truth with compassion. If he can correctly convey this message throughout a disagreement, relationships will be saved and solutions can be found. Tony should also remember to listen; two ears, one tongue, DM’s who don’t listen have less information for making sound decisions. Gibbs describes communication as a people process. The more supportive a climate is, the less defensive a person has read into distortion and can respond productively. A supportive climates in Tony’s relation with Big Ron can include descriptions of updates at the facility, problem orientation to seek mutual solutions to get products out early, with no hidden agenda from fear of reprimand, empathy for each other’s position, equality in interaction, and provisionalism of always seeking new information outside of personal knowledge. LEADERSHIP Traits Approach My perceptual distortion of Tony’s capabilities can be further discussed through Leadership Traits, which can describe Tony’s drive, personalized leadership motivation to be in charge, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, cognitive ability, and knowledge of the business. These are great leadership traits to have, but he needs to apply them in order to be an effective manager. The fatal flaws of leaders who derail, which also apply to Tony’s traits, include insensitivity of others, aloof and arrogant, overly ambitious and managing, and inability to adapt to situations. Fortunately Tony’s fatal flaws can be improved with the Emotional Intelligence at Work concept, which highlights Tony finding self-awareness through assessing his current position, self-regulation to determine whether he seems trustworthy, holds integrity, and is openness to change). Tony does hold motivation for a strong drive to achieve, but can improve on optimism organizational commitment in management. Empathy is his biggest weakness and can improve on expertise in building and retaining talent and being sensitive to others, and his efforts to build social skills in his effectiveness in leading change, persuasiveness, and expertise in building and leading teams will ultimately change his workforce to trust his judgment and commit to the organization. Another trait-based approach for improving skills is the Three-Skill Approach, which suggests Tony’s effective administration to depend on three basic personal skills: technical knowledge about work and specialization, human ability to work with people, and conceptual ability to work with ideas and concepts. Tony’s knowledge of the company is very strong as he was a top sales rep and can work with set concepts that use step-by-step approaches. When Tony improves his ability to work with ideas and people, he will increase the effectiveness of his leadership. Power Approach Tony has an element of fear within his relationship with subordinates, and Big Ron was treated so meanly because of a miscommunication. The Power Approach explains good sources of power are legitimate and reward, but bad sources of power that Tony is guilty of include coercive and charismatic. According to Yukl and Taber, Tony identifies as an authority power and  effective leaders are expert and referent. Subordinates will comply with his orders, but do not accept his goals, although he is in position to get possible commitment, and just as easily to get possible resistance. Tony can enhance his authority power by making polite requests, not demands, requests made in clear and simple language, checking to make sure subordinate understand and giving reason for the request if necessary, and following up to verify they have complied. Overall to appear more personable and less powerful, Tony needs compassion. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, top power tools that Tony’s subordinates will respond to are patience, gentleness, teachableness, acceptance, kindness, openness, consistency, and integrity, which all are in line with compassion. Situational Leadership Model Situational Leadership says it’s not so much what you are, as what you do. I find many things to change of Tony’s relations with his subordinates, when my own leading of his development is lacking, and my leadership style should combine directive and supportive behaviors. I can institute directive behavior by clearly telling Tony what, how, where, and when to do something, then closely supervising their performance. I can increase supportive behavior by engaging in two-way communication on a more frequent basis, listening to his concerns, providing support and encouragement, facilitating the interaction, and involving him strongly in decision-making. I need to give Tony more Directing as a manager and leader, even through he only needed Delegating as a salesman. Tony, in turn, needs to apply the same concept of Directing to many of his new salesman and Coaching for the rest of the employees. Understanding the effectiveness of situational leadership and communicating thi s understanding with Tony will enhance our relationships at all levels, and reduce the perception of Tony lacking training duties. Effective leaders are those who can recognize what employees need and then adapt their own style to meet those needs. Path Goal Theory Tony is lacking in leadership behaviors according to the Path Goal Theory in  helping subordinates to shape their tasks. The idea is to define goals, clarify path, remove obstacles, and provide support, and Tony is achievement oriented based on the leadership behaviors as he challenges subordinates to perform work at the highest level possible, a high standard of excellence. To help subordinates meet Tony’s standards, he needs to provide guidance of how to obtain excellence. Leaders Member Exchange Theory Tony should form an individualized working relationship with each of his subordinates, and the exchanges in content and process should be dyadic with unique characteristics. High quality leader-member exchanges produced less employee turnover, and exchanges can be in-group or out-group. Tony has created a tight in-group from hiring his college friends as salesmen, but still doesn’t hold the qualities of a true in-group that has mutual trust, respect, liking, and reciprocal influence. Out-groups are based on job a description, which is the relationship Tony holds with his team, and even I hold with him as a superior. Tony is in Phase 1 Stranger, the phase in leadership making that is directed toward self-interest rather than toward the good of the group; roles with the team are scripted, influences are one way from Tony to subordinates, exchanges are low quality, and interests are for self. Transformational Leadership and The Leadership Challenge Tony’s aggressive leadership style is unwanted by many of his subordinates, the Leadership Challenge can help him implement carry out significant changes, which include to challenge the process, inspire a shared vision and enlisting others, enable others to act to foster collaboration and strengthen others, model the way and set the example and encourage the heart by recognizing individual contribution and celebrate accomplishments. Tony is currently a Laissez-Faire Leadership style, hands-off, let-things-ride approach that gives little effort to help followers satisfy their needs. Out of the four I’s he is most lacking â€Å"individualized consideration† to provide a supportive climate, listen carefully, and act as coaches. If Tony adopts any of the transactional leadership factors to perform a better job, the Contingent Reward to obtain agreements from followers on what must be done and what the payoffs will be. Servant Leadership One of the biggest struggles Tony will have is in following Servant Leadership by putting followers first, supporting personal development, honesty, treating fairly, share power, and enabling others. The antecedent conditions are strong as the culture, leader attributes, and follower receptivity to wanting a leader. The core of the process is weakest in conceptualizing the organization, emotional healing in sensitivity to others, putting followers first, helping followers grow, behaving ethically, empowering, and creating community value. The outcomes cannot happen until the core of the process is successful, but include follower growth and performance, organizational performance, and societal impact. Tony can improve with training in empathy, compassion, and listening. Once his team sees his efforts to be a better person, they will respect his position better. CONFLICT Conflict will always be part of an organization, whether to be avoided as described by the traditional view or necessary for a group to perform effectively as described by the interactionist view. Because Tony and I will be making many changes to the organization and our personalities differ so much, we should practice integrative bargaining through goals by expanding the pie so both parties are satisfied, motivation with win-win solutions, focus by showing interest, interests being congruent, information sharing being high, and the duration of the relationship being long term. Tony has been a Shark in terms of conflict: he is forceful towards his subordinates to achieve his goals at all costs, and overpowers others to win conflicts. He needs to become more of a Fox, and be more concerned with goals and the relationship, willing to give up something for the common good, and resolve conflict by finding middle ground. To use the Problem Solving Approach to Conflict Resolution between Tony and I’s interactions, we must identify the problem, set a goal or objective, generate and evaluate solutions, and create an action plan. Because Tony most likely does not want to deal with the personal relationship issues within the organization, especially since he is directly  involved, the Hill’s Model for Team Leadership is an easy tool to aid leadership problem solving and to clarify its complex nature. My leadership decision is to take action for the task needs of the group and intervene for the internal task force. My next action will managing the conflicts of interest, external alliances of corporate human resources, and to receive the desired outcome of team satisfactory for future development. PERCEPTION In my expectations from hiring I did not take into account the function of Tony’s personality and the management environment he would work in, especially since his MBTI traits are ISTJ and I am ENFP. The Halo Effect is in full swing on my part as I held a cognitive bias in the judgment of Tony’s character, which influenced my overall impression of him. Tony’s perception is also flawed in using projection as a defensive mechanism to place his own actions on other people, such as the late shipment of product onto Big Ron, and the failing sales numbers onto his salesmen. He has used projection to improve his own self-image and have a reason for failures. When Tony teases Chris, he sends a very strong message to his subordinates, as it is in verbal form, a face-to-face channel, toward immediate subordinates, it’s a high channel richness that is allowing multiple cues from Tony’s words, and tone of voice which strengthens the message of his unintended te asing. When Melanie complains about the long training classes, she is dealing with Primacy Effects, as the listener is more likely to start off paying attention then drift off when the subject gets boring or the listener is internally processing data. Our company does not want ineffective training sessions, therefore if we want information to stand out in a person’s mind we must use it at the beginning of a conversation or a written list and not let it get lost in the middle. Repeating messages consecutively several times through messages after the training sessions will embed it in their minds. When Tony ignores Melanie’s complaints, he believes in Theory Y but leaves her be. He lacks empathy for this situation, a perceptual error that can be reduced with conscious empathizing for her feelings. When Tony is given backhanded compliments for helping Britni get dates, she has received an area of self-consciousness of her ability to date. To reduce perceptual errors in this situation, self-acceptance involves self-understanding, a realistic, albeit subjective, awareness of her strengths and weaknesses, she can then feel about herself that she is of â€Å"unique worth†. When Tony misunderstood Big Ron, he became defensive from constructive criticism, and sometimes when actions or motives for the action are questioned, it is best to just explain. Interpersonal attributions happen when the causes of the events involve two or more individuals, and it is likely that one will always want to present oneself in the most positive light in interpersonal attributions, which is what Tony did. Tony creates perceptual defense in being angry instead of remaining neutral. Tony should communicate his needs and practice better listening skills so the miscommunication doesn’t happen again. TEAM PERFORMANCE: Meeting in Orlando Before the team meeting, I want to spend quality time with Tony and let him know what my concerns are and the pros and cons to the issues. I want to hear his side and be able to work together on some misconceptions since we are in direct rank and contact with each other. I need to keep him on my team if he is going to follow any changes I want to make. At the team meeting I plan to merely observe the group in their natural state, then as I am included, congratulate the team on aspects of the meeting that went well and motivate them based on those positives. Topics of improving performance, ethics, and setting goals, and making plans for future collaboration. Nothing can be completely fixed within this one meeting, but is a start for positive change. The golf game is where I will begin to gather more details of the group’s dysfunctions and look for contradictions in what Tony and other members have relayed to me. The biggest aspect of team functioning I want to discuss with the golfing group a and improve are relational of the ethical concerns and team dynamics. Any process I decide will involve teams of people, so I will be able to rally subordinates to work with Tony and I through this  rapport-building game. Already, I see the reasons for team failures to occur from degrading employees, inequities in reward system, an aggressive leadership style, a weak team leadership, and a fear of the leader. I expect particular behaviors from the Role Nomination Form to be lacking which include task-oriented behavior like initiating activity, seeking/giving information and opinions, elaborating, testing workability, and group-oriented behavior such as encouraging, expressing group feelings, harmonizing, gate-keeping, and setting standards, and what may occur from these lacking behaviors which include anti-group behavior such as resistance, recognition seekers, dominators, and avoiders. Janis says groupthink happens when members of decision-making groups become motivated to avoid being too harsh in their judgments of the leaders or their colleagues ideas. Some Groupthink symptoms are present in this situation, including members who have doubts or differing points of view seek to avoid deviating from what appears to be group consensus by keeping silent about misgivings and even minimizing to themselves the importance of their doubts, and there’s an illusion of unanimity- if someone doesn’t speak, it’s assumed they are in full accord. Tony could be leading his subordinates in groupthink by constantly voicing his beliefs and reprimanding anyone who opposes or wants to report higher than him. Victims avoid deviating, and keep silent about their misgivings and even minimize to themselves the importance of their doubts. To fix this issue, the leader should assign he role of critical evaluator to each member to air objections and doubt, adopt impartial stances in the beginning, monitoring group size by splitting up into smaller teams, then coming back together with results, and appointing a devil’s advocate to always look at the other side of things. Effective teams have adequate resources, effective leadership, climate of trust, a performance evaluation, and reward system that reflect team contributions. The team effectiveness model for this group needs leadership structure and a climate of trust, a composition of allocating roles and finding abilities of members, and a process that has specific goals and  common purposes. Overall, every model and concept discussed for this situation has a solution that can be used to address problems when I attend the monthly directors meeting with Tony. The most important aspect of all these concepts is being able to apply them within myself in my relationship with Tony, as he is my partner to making his district profitable. Open communication, trust, and mutual problem solving with his team should help me land the international assignment and leave Tony skilled and ready to continue great performance after I am gone.