Porter's Five Forces Model Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Porter's Five Forces Model - Essay Example It is needed to discuss to what extent that Porter's model of national competitive advantage adequately accounts for variations in national business systems and comparative economic performance. Porter's theoretical postulates on national competitive advantage have been critically examined by many authors. Egan (1995) suggests that Porter's focus on a specific country's success in international trade in one particular industry is of importance due to the fact that there is the untiring accent of the often superior model that the customer comes first. This paper examines Porter's emphasis on the four determinants (the Diamond) of the national competitive advantage (Porter, 1990). Porter's arguments on factor conditions go to the other extreme as well. He proposes that lack of resources would not act as a barrier to development, Eg. Switzerland, Singapore like countries. His demanding conditions are equally loaded with such positivity as a complicated domestic market and its implications in guaranteeing a competitive edge in international markets to the country concerned. Eg. wine industry of France. His related and supporting industries argument parenthetically emphasizes the technology-related benefits (Rao, & Holt, 2005). The spill-over effects of main industries lead to the creation of supporting industries and next the cyclical effect goes on and on to bring about a very positive outcome in competitive advantage, Eg. Italy's leather shoe industry. Finally his firm strategy, structure and rivalry related posture focuses on capital markets, individuals' career choices, management structures and strategic competitive environment in domestic markets. AnalysisOutline of Porter's Diamond of national competitiveness Competitive advantage in international trade is defined as "the nation's capacity to entice firms (both local and foreign) to use the country as a platform from which to conduct business" (Paulson, & Wilber, 2002). The sectoral strength /weakness analysis of a nation's economy to determine competitive advantage in international trade by Porter is a revolutionary idea which gathered some more drive during the post 1998 period. Whereas many economists have doubted the efficacy of Porter's conceptual framework of the "diamond of national competitiveness" basically owing to its many shortcomings in structural consistency, others agree that its theoretical underpinnings have stronger relevance to modern international trade context. Factor conditions, as Porter defined them, not only refer to mere physical resources such as land, labor and capital but also to some key or specialized factors which are being continuously created as against being inherited (Murmann, 2003). For example the firm continuously innovates and produces a specialized set of resources such as capital, skilled labor and infrastructure. After all such specialized resources cannot be copied by rivals - the resource-based view of the firm and leadership.Porter also discusses non-key or non-specialized resources such as unskilled labor. According to him they fail to create a permanent competitive advantage because they are not endowed with those difficult-to-duplicate characteristics that are inherent in specialized

The Reliability of Online Media in the Realm of Politics Essay Example for Free

The Reliability of Online Media in the Realm of Politics Essay The advent of the World Wide Web has shifted the impact of the meaning of media and reliability. From major newspapers abandoning their print outlets to the latest up to the second news on somebody’s blog, the internet has changed the way people consume the news. The political landscape has seen some of the most significant changes and is a key example of how the reliability of the online world has come under questioning following the latest elections and news. Politicians have always relied on the media to disseminate their messages. In our digital age, the traditional forums of print media, radio, and television have become integrated into an online multimedia platform. According to a 2004 Pew survey, over 50 million Americans went online for election news everyday during the Presidential election (Nogourney). It is now common practice for politicians to have their own website and a social networking page on such sites as MySpace and Facebook or to publish Podcasts and YouTube videos in order to gain exposure and to further control their messages by excluding the intermediary forces of journalists. In a New York Times article, journalist Adam Nogourney wrote of the shifting trends of politicians as regards the new utilization of online media, â€Å"The Internet appears to be far more efficient, and less costly, than the traditional tools of politics, notably door knocking and telephone banks (Nogourney). The internet has also provided an forum for constant updates and information sharing that allows candidates and the public to analyze, comment, and react to the latest news from the campaign trail. That being said, there has been an increasing debate about the reliability of candidate news and information in an era of fierce competition and rampant misinformation efforts by political party ideologues and the unverified accounts of millions of bloggers that have free reign to publish their opinions without regard to journalistic ethics. In a 2007 article concerning the role of media in politics, Associated Content wrote an editorial speaking of this impact, â€Å"The media also influences the publics perception on the viability of a candidate. If reports say a certain candidate is ahead in an election, the public will come to accept that evaluation, which can greatly influence how voters cast their ballots (Influence). In this way, political polls and published statistics and trends have a greater access to a viral online community and this can significantly impact the public perception of the campaign. The role of the online media is only going to grow as traditional forums become further integrated into the online dialogue. As has always been the case in the media, questions concerning the reliability of information will continue to be asked. Outside from party ideologues and ulterior motivated bloggers, the information presented online parallels that of traditional media in terms of reliability, it’s just that now individuals have more choice as to how they consume their news and information. Works Cited The Influence of the Media in Politics, Campaigns, and Elections. (2007). Associated Content. Retrieved 27 March 2009, from http://www. associatedcontent. com/article/443975/the_influence_of_the_media_in_politics_pg7. html Nogourney, Adam. (2006). Politics Faces Sweeping Change via the Web. The New York Times. Retrieved 27 March 2009, from http://www. nytimes. com/2006/04/02/washington/02campaign. html

Rome Essay -- History, Architecture

Early Rome was an architecturally diverse place. For the first centuries after its founding all the people of Rome lived in very simple huts devoid of any significant meaning. But during the rule under the Etruscans, they learned how to build more complex structures with specific purposes such as a sacred place where a god can be thought to dwell. Etruscan buildings cannot be seen though without Greek architectures’ indelible mark. Through the Etruscans, Rome learned how to build huge and complex structures where before that knowledge did not exist. This period of Roman architecture can be defined along with Rome’s governmental development. Republican Rome began in 509 B.C. and with it entered the beginning of Rome’s architectural greatness. â€Å"With the expulsion of the Etruscan kings Rome was free to shape her own destinies† (Sear 14). Since Rome was not restrained because of its conquerors it was free to create whatever they wished, however they wanted. While there was still a heavy Greek influence, a style developed that was distinctly Roman, but as Rome conquered nations across the Mediterranean Sea it absorbed their styles of building and it was shown in the buildings of their capital. Imperial Rome saw the highest and lowest point in Rome’s history. But during this time an enormous number of innovative and massive structures were built that defined Rome as the dominant power in the ancient world. During this time Rome reworked its earlier principles to be used in the government and religious buildings. Cement also played an important role in the ability to construct complex domes and ornate arches. Another major change that occurred was the extensive use of marble in construction, unlike earlier brick buildings.... ...ed the small farming village on the banks of the Tiber into a thriving city. Throughout the Republic of Rome, advances were made in complexity and design alongside the introductions to new cultures during Rome’s conquests. These conquests gave Rome the wealth and inspiration needed to create its massive buildings. All through the Empire, magnificent and colossal buildings were built which reflected the height of Roman power and wealth. â€Å"It is said of Augustus that he found Rome a city built of bricks but left it a city built of marble† (Clayton 22). This is very true of how Rome was rebuilt during its time as an empire and the dominant power in the world. From beginning to end, the Roman concept of architecture was based on shaping matter around space, and this only changed in complexity and in meaning, but never changed the foundation upon which it was built.

Philosophy of Art Essay

Introduction This paper attempts to establish what practitioners of philosophy can learn from practitioners of Art. In doing so, the paper first looks into art and philosophy so as to offer a clear understanding of the subjects, before turning into the main theme. What is Art?   Ã‚  Ã‚   Even though the above question appears simple, it is interesting and can, and is answered by reverting to the philosophy of art. In addition, art embraces descriptions of beauty, taste, symbolism as well as representation. Philosophy of art also explores the association existing between the individual artist (ideas), and the bigger congregation (audiences, culture, and universe) (Carroll N, 1998). That being the case, what does philosophy of art tell us about art? Some versions assert that art is a creative activity, expression or process of humans. According to Leo Tolstoy ‘Art is that human activity which consists in one human consciously conveying to others, by certain external signs, the feelings he has experienced and in others being affected by those feelings and also experiencing them.’ (Carroll N, 1998). On the other hand, when something is done perfectly or acquainted by study and practice; it is referred to as an art (Carroll N, 1998). For instance, driving a car, dressing in a nice dress, laying a child to sleep or even the art of conversion. In essence, art includes objects developed by humans that have aesthetic value or present symbolic meaning encompassing drawings, paintings as well as sculpture. Thus from the above observations, art can be said to be a symbolic representation of peoples association with nature (reality/environments). It is able to offer the concealed relations between things. It is beauty, it is truth. However, what does truth and beauty imply? This is where philosophy comes in as philosophy is the art of establishing the truth such that this truth is applied to life. In the same manner, art can be based on established truth that express the wonder and beauty of a relationship to the universe as it is acknowledged in the works of Marcel Proust and Henry Mattisse (Diffey T, 1995). ‘Art is a selective recreation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value judgments. An artist recreates those aspects of reality which represent his fundamental view of man’s natures.’   Ã‚  (Marcell Proust)( Diffey T, 1995), while Henry Mattisse writes ‘when we speak of nature, it is wrong to forget that we are ourselves a part of nature. We ought to view ourselves with the same curiosity and openness with which we study a tree, the sky or a thought because we too are linked to the entire universe (Diffey T, 1995).’ The different forms of art are visual arts which involve aspects such as painting, photography and sculpture among others, and fine arts which embrace music, dance, theatre, literature, poetry, etc. What is philosophy? As William Thomas points out, ‘Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence of man and man’s relationship to existence†¦in the realm of cognition, the special sciences are the trees but philosophy is the soil which makes the forest possible’ (Bender J, 1993). A philosophy is an all inclusive organization of ideas concerning human nature as well as the nature of the truth we live in. it is a guide of living since the subjects it deals with are crucial and enveloping, establishing the course we take in life and how we treat other people. Among the most important field that philosopher’s deal with fall into a number of separate fields. Among them, the most imperatives ones are; metaphysics which deals with the theory of reality, epistemology that connotes the theory of knowledge, ethics which is theory of moral values, politics which is theory of legal rights and government and aesthetics which refers to theory of nature of art (Carroll N, 1998). The vehicle for philosophical guidance is religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism as well as Islam. Religions vary from philosophers not in the issues they deal with but in the ways they employ to address them. Religions are based on mythic stories that existed earlier before discovery of unequivocally cogent methods of inquiry (Bender J, 1993). The present day religion (majority of) appeal to mystical faith as well as revelation sort of belief that claim legitimacy independent of logic, and the scientific method, at least made for the biggest subjects. However, majority of religions are in their commencement pre-rational as opposed to anti-rational, a story teller’s account of philosophic issues as opposed to scientists (Bender J, 1993). Philosophy in Greek connotes ‘love of wisdom’. Philosophy is founded on rational arguments and appeal to facts (Bender J, 1993). Modern science history began with philosophical enquiries and the scientific method of research and proof is an aspect of the general approach that a philosopher attempts to bring to a question; one that is coherent and vigorous. Philosophy is known to offer deep and wide questions presently. Dealing with the issues in each branch of philosophy calls for integration of everything one knows concerning reality (metaphysics) or humanity (epistemology, ethics, politics and aesthetics) recommending reasonable inclination in philosophy therefore is not a simple job. Frankly, philosophers more often than not disagree about principle subject; some slipping their own positions in the mix as well (Diffey T, 1995). Thus, there is no particular philosophy world wide as is the case with physics, chemistry among other disciplines.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Having clearly distinguished the two disciplines, then we can embark on the issue of what a philosopher can learn from an artist. This calls us to explore the subfield of philosophy. It relates to nature of art, in addition to performing of arts as well as painting, sculpture and literature (Diffey T, 1995). Major concerns in aesthetic comprise of how artistic creations should be construed as well as assessed and how the arts are linked to one another, to natural beauty, morality, religious science as well as other crucial aspects of human life. The association between art and epistemology has been everlastingly tenuous and burdened with a lot of arguments (Diffey T, 1995). It is acknowledged that there is something meaningful from experiences as well as interactions with works of arts. However, it is not considered as obvious that whether or not the experiences one has with art can produce propositional understanding that is represented by true vindicated belief (Diffey T, 1995).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Whereas engaging objects aesthetically is both insightness and emotionally burdening practice, it is also essentially cognitive. Therefore, it can be said that aesthetic engagement is based on various epistemological concerns (Carroll N, 1998). For instance, philosophers claim to know about art. People say that they believed the play was good or bad, but the emotions it produced were called for, justified, manipulative or suitable. In most cases, people allege that they learn from art, that art alters their view of the world and that art has influence on the way they view as well as make sense of the world (Carroll N, 1998).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It also widely acknowledged that works of arts particularly good works of art, can cause view points about the world and can in turn offer knowledge concerning the world (Carroll N, 1998). However, what can exactly be known about art? Does art have any sort of propositional content that resembles the context that philosophers claim to require for other sort of knowledge claim?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The subject of whether philosophers have something to learn from artists revolves back to the period of Plato. Plato warned about the perils of making a fuss of mimetic as well as narrative demonstrations of the world and human actions. A practitioner of philosophy by his engagement with art permits certain emotions or activities that are able to facilitate or produce knowledge. It should be acknowledged that some aspects of art work that are able to produce greater understanding of the surrounding world (Carroll N, 1998).   In this case, art becomes a source of insight as well as awareness, even though it cannot be put into propositional language.   It can help people (philosophy practitioners) see the world in a new or different way (Carroll N, 1998).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   They are often those who view art as being incapable of offering knowledge primarily because it does not generate any truth; they argue that since art cannot offer facts or produce arguments then there is nothing to learn from it (Diffey T, 1995).   They further argue that art cannot be acknowledged as a source of knowledge as it is not productive of knowledge, construed in the convectional sense of vindictive true belief. They assert that art is devoid of propositional content capable of being learnt the conventional way, whereas it has influences that promote knowledge and that can promote or weaken the development of understanding. Thus the net effect is to reject art as a source of knowledge as it does not offer true beliefs and furthermore because it does not as well as cannot vindicate the views that it does express (Diffey T, 1995).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, those who are for and those against concur that art is a source of knowledge, the only way that it can probably satisfy such a function be it that knowledge neglected something crucial to art’s nature as well as value (Diffey T, 1995). Plato articulates that it is possible for an artist to make a representation of a thing without having advance knowledge of his presentation.   For instance, painters represent cobblers when the painters have no idea how to make shoes, and poets write about virtue such as beauty and courage without any clear knowledge of these attributes (Carroll N, 1998). To Plato, it is only philosophers and moreover, those who struggle to intuit (feel) the forms and employ abstract reasoning are able to have know-how of these virtues.   To him, the same things exist even for the literary arts in particular.   He asserts that the more one engages in emotions brought about by representations, the more likely one is to suffer the influences of an unstable soul and finally the growth of bad attitude (Carroll N, 1998). Aristotle seems to have agreed with Plato that art influences the development of one’s moral character.   These two philosophers believed that people learn from art, however, Plato argued that the gained knowledge was harmful while Aristotle argued that it was beneficial (Carroll N, 1998). Going back to the period of renaissance and beyond it should be noted that the works of art such as poetry and fiction engages the emotions of a philosopher in a healthy way rather as opposed to detrimental manner (Bender J, 1993).   Some philosophers point out that there are there crucial types of knowledge claims that can be made concerning arts which are distinguished by objects. The first is what philosophers claim to know or believe concerning the art object itself and anything unreal or fictional worlds might be linked to that object. The second aspect of knowledge claim about art relates to what is known or believed to be appropriate emotional reaction to the art work. It is crucial to note at this point that works of art are correct, understood through having a certain kind of emotional response to them (Bender J, 1993). The only problem encountered in this course is that it is not possible to establish the kind of response that is appropriate in relation to a particular work of art (Bender J, 1993). The last kind of knowledge claim that is available as far as art is concerned relates to the nature of information art can offer about the whole world (Bender J, 1993). It is important to note that art affords imperative insight into the way philosophers order and understand the world. Art gives a certain degree of meaning to the lives of philosophers. Art, particularly literature, draws out novel views (beliefs) as well as new knowledge concerning the world (Bender J, 1993). Conclusion From the above, it is noteworthy that philosophy practitioners have a lot to learn from practitioners of art. It is important to acknowledge what constitutes knowledge so as to be able to understand how art impacts the subject. Reference Bender, John (1993).   â€Å"Art as a Source of Knowledge: Linking Analytic Aesthetics and Epistemology.† In Contemporary Philosophy of Art, ed. John Bender and Gene Blocker. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Carroll, Noel (1998). â€Å"Art, Narrative, and Moral Understanding.† In Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection, ed. Jerrold Levinson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Diffey, T .J (1995): â€Å"What Can We Learn From Art?† Australasian Journal of Philosophy 73 202-11.

Evolution Lab

Associate Level Material Appendix O EvolutionLab Report |Ful | | |Date | | Use this document to report your findings from the EvolutionLab Exploration Experiment. The lab report consists of three sections: Data, Exploration, and Lab Summary. Data: copy any data, graphs, charts, or notes that you have saved in your EvolutionLab online notebook into this section. Exploration: Answer the questions.The questions in the Exploration section are the same questions in your EvolutionLab instructions. Lab Summary: Write a 100- to 200-word summary. Data To copy your data from your online notebook into this section, click on Export Graph and then copy and paste your data into this section. You must disable your pop-up blocker before exporting. Identify each set of data with a title. Exploration Answer the following questions in fewer than 100 words: Activity 1: Modes of Natural Selection What type of selection is taking place on Wallace Island? Explain.Directional Selection is taking place. Th e beak size is increasing on Wallace Island from 11. 85 to 19. 13, and the population is increasing as well. This is because there are more seeds available that the birds can eat. What type of selection is taking place on Darwin Island? Explain. Directional selection is taking place. The beak size increases slowly, from 12. 47 to 26. 95. The population decreased because of the lack of seeds available for the birds to eat. Explain the reason for any differences in population numbers between the two islands.The population increased on Wallace island because there were more seeds for the birds to eat, meaning there was more of a chance for them to survive and reproduce. The population decreased on Darwin island because there were no seeds for the birds to eat and without an abundant food supply they can not reproduce. Activity 2: Extinction Develop a hypothesis to predict what conditions would lead to extinction of a finch population. If there was no participation on a small island the Finch would become extinct.Which of the parameters is most important in determining whether a population goes extinct? Variance is most important What are at least two different sets of conditions that may lead to extinction? Small Island, no precipitation Small Island, No variance Summarize the steps you took to complete the experiment you designed. I set the parameters on precipitation to 0, and the island size to . 3km. I then ran the experiment for 300 years. Summarize the result of the experiment you designed. The Finch was extinct by 2033.The beak size stayed the same until extinction. Lab Summary Address the following points in a 100-to 200-word summary: Summarize the general principles and purpose of the lab. This lab is designed to help understand how precipitation, variance, and area have a role in the evolution of a species, in this case, Finches. It also explains the different types of selection. Explain how this lab helped you better understand the topics and concepts addressed this week. This lab really helped explain the concept of evolution.Not only did it cover population grown/ decrease but it also covered the changes that animals go through to adapt to their ever changing environments. Describe what you found challenging about this lab. I did not really find anything challenging about this lab. The information was very easy to understand and the set up was easy to work with after completing previous labs. Describe what you found interesting about this lab. I found it interesting to see how one parameter can have such a large effect on a species, even over a relatively small (300 year) amount of time. Evolution Lab Evolution Lab The finches on Darwin and Wallace Islands feed on seeds produced by plants growing on these islands. There are three categories of seeds: soft seeds, produced by plants that do well under wet conditions; seeds that are intermediate in hardness, produced by plants that do best under moderate precipitation; and hard seeds, produced by plants that dominate in drought conditions.The lab is based on a model for the evolution of quantitative traits-characteristics of an individual that are controlled by large numbers of genes. These traits are studied by looking at the statistical distribution of the trait in populations and investigating how the distribution changes from one generation to the next. For the finches in Evolution Lab, the depth of the beak is the quantitative trait. I investigated how this trait changes under different biological and environmental conditions.I manipulated various biological parameters (initial mean beak size, heritability of beak size, variatio n in beak size, fitness, and clutch size) and one environmental parameter (precipitation) of the system, and observed changes in the distributions of beak size and population numbers over time. Assignment 2: The Influence of Precipitation on Beak Size and Population Number The first experiment is designed to study the influence of beak size on finch population numbers. For finches, deep beaks are strong beaks, ideally suited for cracking hard seeds, and shallow beaks are better suited for cracking soft seeds.I experimented first with the finches’ adaptation and evolution of their population over 300 years, and changed the Wallace birds beak size to 28mm, and Darwin’s birds stayed at the default of 12mm. I hypothesize a since there are more hard seeds (64%) on the islands than soft seeds (4%). The birds with the smaller beak (Darwin) will not be able to get enough food which may cause some of the birds to die, resulting in a decrease in the smaller beak bird’s po pulation and an increase in the larger beak (Wallace) birds population because of the larger beak size better able to eat hard seeds.Darwin: Red Wallace: Blue I observed that the Darwin birds (smaller beak) actually grew up to about 25mm, as well as the Darwin bird’s population grew over time. The Wallace bird’s beak stayed the same as well as the population stayed steady but grew. The data actually refutes my hypothesis because I didn’t expect the smaller beak sized birds to grow to adapt to the seeds, I expected them to die off. This next experiment is designed to explore the effect of precipitation on finch beak size and population numbers.The experiment was to see how a decrease in precipitation on Darwin Island might affect beak size and how a decrease in precipitation might influence population numbers for these finches over time. I hypothesize a decrease in rain will produce more hard seeds because the hard seeds favor drought conditions, while the other seeds will not increase. And the decrease in rain may only slightly cause the finch population to decrease at first, but then will increase and stay steady as the birds have time to adapt to the drought conditions and their beaks will evolve.I observed that the beak sized for Darwin’s birds supported my hypothesis in that the birds beak sized increased with time. And the population did what I thought too, in that it decreased at first and then increased steadily. I then ran another experiment for 200 and 300 years separately. I observed that the 200 years population and beaks did about the same as the 100 year experiment. Which still confirm my hypothesis. But the 300 years, the bird’s populations and beaks sizes on both islands increased, but that the Darwin birds eventually passed Wallace’s birds in population and beak sized.I then performed the same experiment for both Wallace Island and Darwin Island simultaneously. I noticed that the 100 and 200 years beak size and population both increased and, but Darwin’s birds were still behind Wallace island birds. But then at the 300 year both beaks and populations were almost the same increase. My hypothesis on how an increase in precipitation on Darwin will influence beak size is that the beak sizes should become smaller and more shallow because the increase in rain will make softer seeds and smaller, shallow beaks are better for soft seeds. And the bird’s population will increase..I observed just what I hypothesized – the beaks grew smaller and their populations grew huge. When I reran the experiment I observed that Wallace island birds also followed the similar growth for beaks and population as the Darwin birds. When I ran the experiment by increasing precipitation on Wallace Island to 50 cm/year and increasing beak size to 28 mm, for 300 years, I observed the beak sized actually decreased slightly and the population stayed steady and in line with the Darwin birds. Next experiment I decreased beak size on both of the islands to an intermediate value. I decreased rainfall on one island to a value close to zero.On the other island, I increase rainfall close to the maximum value and ran the experiment for 300 years. I observed different effects on each island. On the Darwin island with a medium beak size and almost no rain had increase in beak size and population. The Wallace birds with a medium beak size and lots of rain had a decrease in beak size and a steady increase in population. Assignment 4: Effect of Island Size My hypothesis for what effect an increase in island size will have on beak size and finch populations is that the beak size will have an increase and population will increase.I began my experiment by leaving all other parameters at their default values. Then changed the island size of Darwin to the highest it could go to 1km. The beak sized increased as predicted and so did the population increased. When I decreased island size, the beak size grew and the population dropped off first in the beginning but then increased with time. Based on previous experiments if I decrease the clutch size the birds populations will decrease a great deal. Also if I decrease the heritability parameter, and decrease clutch size the populations decrease – which looked like to the point of extinction.

Chicanos in music essays

Chicanos in music essays Chicanos have come a long way in this industry as well as other ethnic groups. Chicanos do not just come out with the all time favorite music such as corridos, regional mexicano, or banda. Now a days Chicanos are coming out with Chicano Rap, Regional Urbano, Reggeton. Regional Urbano is some what like Regional Urbano, but the only difference is that in Regional Urbano is rapping in Spanish with a Spanish beat background. Reggeton is some what like reggae but its with Chicanos. That kind music is also mixed with rap beats as well as Spanish beats. A lot of the rappers do not just rap about killing someone or about money but some rap about how it has been growing up in the world being a Chicano(a). They also rap about how hard they saw it when going to school and how hard they had it when they would drop out of school. They send out positive messages about staying in school. Chicanos are coming out with different movements besides the ones we already know. The main one you hear about in the mainstream is Latin Pop, but now Chicanos name it Movimiento Chicano. The Movimiento Chicano is not the same as Latin Pop they are two different types of music. Not like Ricky Martin, J Lo, and many others that went from Spanish to English Chicanos are doing the opposite. Chicanos are not just going from English to Spanish but they are also doing music in both the languages which turns out to be Spanglish. Some Chicanos such as Jae-P, Azteka, Lil Rob, Mr. Capone-e and many others that are bring Chicano Rap and Regional Urbano out to the public. They relate themselves to us and how it is to grow up as a Chicano. Most of the Chicanos grew up in the streets and know how it its to live out there in the streets. They want to let everyone know what it is like to live in the streets getting involved in gangs and other things that go on when living in the streets. I know some rappers that come from South Central LA, Watts, San Dieg...

Gender roles in the Wind in the Willows

Gender roles in the Wind in the Willows The ‘Wind in the Willows’ is a novel that was published by Kenneth Grahame in 1908. This novel arouses magic and adventure feelings as well as feelings of reflection. Information in this book widens the people’s understanding of the world they are living in.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Gender roles in the Wind in the Willows specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More They are also able to comprehend the complicated interactions found between people. The book has information on social classes and the reasons why it is necessary to have friendship in the society (Lerer 60). Moreover, the author says that if pride is allowed in any society, then friendship can be completely destroyed. Kenneth Graham did not use human characters in his novel; instead he used animals like a toad, rat and a mole. He did so because he wanted to avoid sex problems. He suggested that his novel did not have any problem since it d id not have any sex clash. In addition to that, he said that his aim was to avoid sex as well as gender issues in his novel. However, to some extent, he did not make it in avoiding sex issues since the text debatably has misogynistic implications. For instance, in the case where both the mole and the rat make comments to the toad that are full of women critics. The toad is criticized by the rat for being ‘flung into the water- by a woman too’ (Grahame 111). A suggestion is also made by the mole to the toad indicating that locking himself in the bedroom is better than spending time in the hospital ‘being ordered about by female nurses’ (Grahame, 112). Besides, in a conversation between the toad and Barge woman some names such as little hussies or idle trollops are used represent women since they are not recognized. This shows that Grahame’s claim on the text having no problems was wrong. Probably, he was ignorant of the women-hatred implications in hi s novel or he wrote from the viewpoint of ‘a male who finds women inconsequential’ (Marshall 58). ‘The putative maleness of all the animal characters nullified by their singularity and by the lack of female characters, and so the four main characters are, in effect, genderless or androgynous’ (Peter, Hunt 104). They argue that females must be included to bring out the character of ‘maleness’. In his book, Graham sidelined females because he fitted their traditional caring functions to the male characters.Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More He also used the characters to show how women are weak and the way they are neglected in some societies. In the novel, women do not have their rights and follow what they are told. This is shown by the mole who follows what he is told by the toad without having a second thought. The rat is also weak and full of frustrations as well as worries. He is never excited like the toad who belongs to a higher class since he is a male. According to Marshal, Graham’s aim was to attach and associate children with animals. Despite trying to stay away from sex clash in his novel, traits of female hatred are clearly seen. From her analysis on feminism, Marshall calls for a better way of discussing gender. She wonders how Grahame’s novel was free from gender clash and thought of how innocent the novel could be (Marshal 65). Walsh on the other hand criticizes Graham’s novel because he claimed that it lacked gender clash. She says that the novel discriminates women through misogynistic implications. He continues to argue that if Graham considered gender balance, then he could have included some females in the novel and make them occupy some of the higher positions. He also used males to represent female characters (Walsh 163). Lerer Seth in her journal of Aesthetic edu cation says that in the ‘wind in the willows’, friendship, temptation, perseverance as well as self understanding shape the qualities of the characters. She argues that the qualities depend on the style and the unique characters that are found in the individual. The whole progression and elements such as drama and emotion are described by the style. For instance from the novel, style rules every creature like the mole which is seen to be very quit while the toad is manic. Style also determines the narrative’s progress in the whole book. In Lerer’s article, domestic aesthetic in the novel is discussed. She continues to insist that all the characteristics in the novel symbolize a clear viewpoint on childhood innocence. In Lerer’s opinion on Graham’s work ‘male dominance can be outlined through individual characters and their unique characters displayed’ (Lerer 61) In the novel, Graham reminds people that there were times when worki ng classes were separated from the elites and everybody knew his or her place in the society depending on the social classes. Toad belongs to the upper class and owns the land.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Gender roles in the Wind in the Willows specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More He is also above the law and feels that no punishment should be given to him. He is also a thief and fights the police after being caught stealing. This is because he is a man thus feeling more superior that the weaker sex, that is, the females. The novel shapes the views of the readers, especially the children, by getting the meaning of what the author has written. It shows that the non human characters were all males thus showing gender imbalance. The author could have included female characters because children especially girls enjoy reading such novels since they are able to get female role models. Many of the common story books for ch ildren, apart from this novel, represent gender imbalances thus making the female child feel degraded. For instance in the ‘Wind in the Willows’ novel all the characters that were used by Grahame were all males. In some novels there are female characters but they do not take any active role. The novel has a lot of exaggeration among the characters so that the reader’s imagination can be stimulated. The reader tries to imagine the various facial expressions, personalities as well as different body languages. Exaggeration enables the reader to know the character’s nature through imagination. The reader can involve effectively with the characters portrayed by the animals since they are traits of human beings and be able to associate them with his or her life. For instance, those people who are rich become self-centered and they are associated with the toad in the novel (Hunt, Peter 110). The novel also portrays some of the attitudes and behaviors that are fou nd in humans. It represents the communities where only men are recognized and women seen as inferior characters. Though written mainly for the children, many adults have liked reading it. Fantasy, as an element has been created since the children read about animals that talk and do tasks meant for human beings. The novel has been one of the best children’s stories because it uses personification to deliver the qualities of humans found in these animals. Toad seems to have a lot of energy and that is why he is full of excitement. He is also a member of the leisure class thus showing how a man can easily belong to the upper class in the society unlike a woman.Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Throughout the novel, female characters are not found anywhere bringing out some beliefs that were found in many societies; that women are not supposed to enjoy the liberty and independence found in men. Gender stereotype brings out a contrast of the behaviors seen the toad. This is because the toad has a lot of freedom and at the same time he is very careless. He has also more social power than the others. The rat represents women in some of the communities because he does not support change or anything promoting it and becomes comfortable in the world that he is living in which is very little. The same case applies where females are seen as a weaker sex because they do not fight for change and feel happy the way they are. The mole always long for the journey but seems comfortable at home due to security. He shows weakness because he cannot be able to stand up firmly and say what he wants. â€Å"Mole is going to stick to me and do as I do, aren’t you, mole?† (Grahame 19). The same case applies to women since they can not be able to fight for their rights fully. A physical journey has been proposed for these three characters and the reader is able to imagine it as he reads the story. Toad sees the journey as a path to enjoyment, exploration and change. Mole is not decided because he has security at home and at the same time would like to enjoy the adventure. Rat is not ready for any change since he is weak and his voice can not be heard by anybody. This clearly shows the differences that existed between men and women especially during the early times. Women did not recognize their rights and suffered a lot in the society because they were considered as weak and uneducated. Although Graham fails to recognize women in his novel, he clearly demonstrates how people respond differently to a journey’s idea since the novel is related a journey’s concept. The novel can also be interpreted well by children who also enjoy reading it. Its idea s are simple, language is colorful and the dialogues are interesting. Work Cited Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in The Willows. New York: Free Press, 1960. Print. Hunt, Peter.The Wind in the Willows A Fractured Arcadia, New York, Toronto: Macmillan, 1994. Print. Lerer, Seth. Style and the Mole: Domestic Aesthetics in the Wind in the Willows.  Aesthetic Education 43.2 (2009): 51-63. Marshall, Cynthia. Bodies and Pleasures in the Wind in the Willows. Annual of The  Modern Language Association Division on Childrens Literature and The Childrens  Literature Association, 22 (1994): 58-69. Walsh, Claire. Gender Trouble in Arcadia Or a World of Multi gendered Possibility? Intersubjectivity and Gender in the Wind in the Willows. Explorations into Childrens  Literature ,16.2 (2006): 162-7.

40 Irregular Verbs That Can End in -t

40 Irregular Verbs That Can End in -t 40 Irregular Verbs That Can End in â€Å"-t† 40 Irregular Verbs That Can End in â€Å"-t† By Mark Nichol The predominant way to represent the past tense of a verb is to add -ed, but some verbs take -t as a variant ending, or even as the only form. Here are forty such verbs, including some ubiquitous words (like left and shot) we may not even think of as having irregular forms because they are the only forms we know for example, leaved and shooted are not options as well as some that survive only in poetry or mock-archaic usage. 1. Bent: the only correct form of the past tense of bend, although the archaic form bended is used jocularly, for example in the phrase â€Å"on bended knee† 2. Blest: a variant form of the past tense of bless 3. Built: the primary form of the past tense of build, though builded is used in some dialects 4. Burnt: a variant form of the past tense of burn; used in favor of the primary spelling in names of pigments such as burnt orange and burnt sienna (familiar to Crayola crayon aficionados) 5. Clapt: a variant form of the past tense of clap 6. Cleft: a variant form of the past tense of cleave; also, a noun or adjective referring to a split 7. Clept: the past tense of the archaic term clepe (â€Å"name,† call†; the present-tense and past-tense words are also spelled yclepe and yclept) 8. Crept: the only correct form of the past tense of creep, except in the slang sense of being creeped out, or unsettled 9. Dealt: the only correct form of the past tense of deal 10. Dreamt: a variant form of the past tense of dream 11. Drest: an obsolete variant form of the past tense of dress 12. Dwelt: a variant form of the past tense of dwell 13. Felt: the only correct form of the past tense of feel; also, a noun referring to a type of material or a similar substance 14. Gilt: a variant form of the past tense of gild; also, a synonym for gold or a noun or adjective referring to gold plating or other surfacing, or a young female pig 15. Girt: a variant form of the past tense of gird 16. Kent: a variant form of the past tense of ken, an archaic synonym for know or recognize 17. Knelt: the primary form of the past tense of kneel 18. Leant: an alternate form of the past tense of lean, used mostly in British English but occasionally appearing in American English usage as well (pronounced â€Å"lent†) 19. Leapt: a variant form of the past tense of leap (see this related post) 20. Learnt: an alternate form of the past tense of learn, used mostly in British English but occasionally appearing in American English usage as well 21. Left: the only correct form of the past tense of leave, meaning â€Å"go,† although the past tense for leave in the sense of forming leaves is leaved 22. Lent: the only correct form of the past tense of lend 23. Lost: the only correct form of the past tense of lose 24. Meant: the only correct form of the past tense of mean (pronounced â€Å"ment†) 25. Pent: an alternate form of the past tense of pen, meaning â€Å"confine,† although the past tense for pen in the sense of writing is penned 26. Reft: an alternate form of the past tense of reave 27. Rent: an alternate form of the past tense of rend 28. Sent: the only correct form of the past tense of send 29. Shot: the only correct form of the past tense of shoot 30. Slept: the only correct form of the past tense of sleep 31. Slipt: a variant form of the past tense of slip 32. Smelt: a variant form of the past tense of smell; also, a noun referring to a type of fish or a verb for melting or reducing metal or another substance 33. Spelt: an alternate form of the past tense of spell, used mostly in British English but occasionally appearing in American English usage as well; also, a noun referring to a type of wheat 34. Spent: the only correct form of the past tense of spend 35. Spilt: a variant form of the past tense of spill 36. Spoilt: a variant form of the past tense of spoil 37. Stript: a variant form of the past tense of strip 38. Vext: a variant form of the past tense of vex 39. Wept: the only correct form of the past tense of weep 40. Went: the only correct form of the past tense of go Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Comparative Forms of Adjectives"Have" vs "Having" in Certain ExpressionsEnglish Grammar 101: Prepositions

Assignment 10 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

10 - Assignment Example (Picturing the Past) These words are brought to life from the picture in the advertisement. We see a ship that appears to have docked and is unloading cargo which is Pears’ soap, and another picture showing a black man crouching in front a white man with a bar of soap by their side. It is implied that the white man has brought in the soap to help the black man achieve cleanliness which is the mark of western civilization. This can also be seen from the picture of the white man who seems to have washed his hands in a very clean bathroom. He is meant to epitomize cleanliness that is the mark of the white man’s civilization. (Picturing the Past) Non Europeans are referred to as ‘dark corners’. The white man is said to use the soap to brighten the dark corners of the earth; which they consider their burden, as civilization advances. This refers to non Europeans who are supposed to be receiving civilization by being made clean. The picture of non Europeans that is presented in the advertisement is one who is inferior to the white man, crouching before him to receive the gift of civilization, Pears’ soap. (Picturing the Past) The phrase ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’ can be related to this advertisement because both the phrase and the image portray the white man as superior and the helper to Non Europeans. This is because these are God-like traits that the white man is assuming in trying to ‘lighten their burden’, i.e. make everyone like them, which is also a God-like trait as he made everyone in his own image. (Picturing the Past) The white man’s burden is to bring cleanliness to the whole world by lightening up the dark corners of the earth, and the use of Pears’ soap will enable everyone who uses it to achieve cleanliness. By accepting to use the soap, Non Europeans will be accepting the white man’s ways and in the process lightening up the dark corners of the earth. (Picturing the Past) On analyzing the map of Africa

How Nurses Can Improve Nutritional Safety Research Paper

How Nurses Can Improve Nutritional Safety - Research Paper Example Monitoring of Patients †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..11 v. Replacement Meals†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..12 Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..13 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...14 Key Terms Standards: Refers to a level of quality against which performance can be measured. Protected Meal times: Described as protected uninterrupted time to focus on providing an environmen t conducive to eating, when there are no clinical interventions and all staff focus on people’s nutritional needs Screening: Refers to the process of identifying patients already malnourished or at the risk of becoming malnourished. Assessment: Refers to a more detailed process than screening where a range of specific methods are employed to identify and quantify impairment of. nutritional status. Nutritional needs or requirements: These are indispensable nutritional individual demands. Crockery: refers to tableware, eating and serving dishes collectively. Utensils: refers to implements for practical use; especially in a household. Introduction Nutrition and food experience are imperial to a patient. Not only is food essential for life and symbolizes a basic human right, but It is also a basis for extensive enjoyment, with vital social, religious and cultural roles all of which require deliberation within a health care unit. The provision of food and nutritional care in healt h care centers is a complex field of service and is the obligation of many members of the hospital team. This is a varied team that consists of the clinical staff: nurses, doctors, midwives, speech and language therapists, dieticians, domestic and catering health care assistants, and therapy assistants. For patients to get high quality service and get optimum benefit from food, all the members of the health care unit must work together and must â€Å"do their bit† in partnership with the caretakers. Nurses offer nursing services 24 hours a day, and for this reason, nurses are the only group in a health care center who have direct contact with the patient during meal times and any other time of the day. Therefore, nurses play an essential role in nutritional care and meal experience of the patients. Nurses have a broad obligation in a hospital. Their responsibilities include assessment planning, screening, serving, monitoring, practical assistance with drinking and eating and on occasion, preparation of food in the ward area. Nurses are answerable for their practice in the hospital in all facets of nutritional care, provision of food and drinks. Nurses should deliver services and care to the highest standard possible. Nurses and midwives in the United States are committed offering the best possible care and treatment to patients. As the health workers who spend most of the time with the patients, nurses have an enormous possibility to improve patient safety in relation to nutrition care, drinking and eating. This potency can only be realized by focusing on improving aspects of food, fluid and nutritional

Positive Thinking and Health Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Positive Thinking and Health - Research Paper Example Describing her experience as a breast cancer patient, Ehrenreich castigates the elaborate positivity that is associated with the pink ribbon culture observing that the â€Å"cheerfulness of breast cancer culture goes beyond mere absence of anger to what looks, all too often, like a positive embrace of the disease†. Even though, testimonies provided in books such as The First Year of the Rest of Your Life may assert otherwise, by highlighting the understandably life altering powers of cancer that can possibly act as a source of redemption or even a bridge between an individual and the divine, Ehrenreich’s claims regarding the futility of positive thinking on physical health are echoed in the research conducted by Petticrew et al. who declare that aspects related to positive thinking such as fighting spirit, willpower and hopefulness do not have a noteworthy or significant impact on the recurrence and survival rates for cancer as reflected by the examinations of 10 cases of patients who coped with cancer by maintaining a fighting spirit and 12 patients who approached the disease with hopefulness, additionally, the findings postulate that the role of positive factors and aspects in combating diseases has been exaggerated by psychologists thereby, discrediting findings that have established a correlation between the strengthening of the immune system through positive thinking techniques. (1066). However, a study conducted at the Ben-Gurion University of Negev in Israel which questioned a sample size of 255 breast cancer patients and 367 physically fit females regarding their life experiences concluded that women who face traumatic, negative and hurtful experiences carry a higher risk of being victimized by breast cancer (Smith). This research aids the assertion that positive thinking can indeed enhance an individual’s ability of maintaining a healthy physical state and combating the occurrence of diseases such as cancer. Wilkinson and Kitzinger note that the foundations of prior literatures regarding the beneficial effects of positive thinking on cancer mortality rates and the psychological state of patients are largely dependent upon self-report data which hampers the validity and objectivity of the available evidence, this view postulates that the subjectivity of perceptions, conversational devices and the contextual meaning of positive thinking diminish the accuracy of patients’ internal cognitive statuses thereby, leading to the generation of biased data on the helpful effects of positive thinking on cancer patients (797-811). Fredrickson’s arguments in favor of the merits of positive thinking however, are not based upon self-report data whose objectivity has been questioned by Wilkinson and Kitzinger with regards to the studies conducted on cancer patients. Empirical data gathered by Fredrickson claims that the broaden-and-build theory of positive psychology is

Mid-air Collision on the Hudson River Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mid-air Collision on the Hudson River - Essay Example In a crystalline sky of New York on August 8, 2009, an unexpected air tragedy had happened, claiming the lives of the pilots of both private plane and helicopter and their passengers. New York City’s mayor stated that the crash is â€Å"not survivable† (McFadden). Private Plane PA32 was on its way to Ocean City, New Jersey via Hudson River on that day when another aircraft Eurocopter AS350 is sightseeing, carrying 5 Italian tourists. A radar data by the NTSB shows that both aircrafts were at a low level, while witnesses said that neither of them attempted to avoid the crash and investigations revealed that neither also sent warning alerts to prevent it. The collision is said to have damaged the private plane’s left wing causing it to nose dive into the Hudson River. Meanwhile, the helicopter’s propeller was also destroyed in the collision and immediately crashed into the river (Schapiro, Cruz, Gendar and McShane).

19th art history, urban Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

19th art history, urban - Term Paper Example After the Second World War, the buildings put up were nothing but cheap, which were certain to go down in thirty to fifty years. The bumbling constructions represent a rejection of the past and the future. They do not communicate to any of their own age, hence; we are unwilling to invest in them. Nor do we worry about conventional solutions to the tribulations of climate and lighting since we boast expertise to solve these tribulations (Howard 43). Chronological connectivity gives value and pride to ones living. It puts us in contact with the eternities and ages, thus with the sacred. The course of indifference from the past and the future and from the cycles of climate and light ends up withdrawing us morally and impoverishing us communally (Howard 44). The principles of modern urbanism are the core element of development is the neighborhood which is diverse, restricted in the physical dimension with a focused hub and clear boundaries. The resultant units are districts and corridors. The buildings are restricted to distinguish public space. The street blueprint is a network to form substitute routes among neighborhoods. Public buildings are symbolic and serve as landmarks. An architectural policy may be devised in nonexistence of an accord (Howard

Mid-air Collision on the Hudson River Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mid-air Collision on the Hudson River - Essay Example In a crystalline sky of New York on August 8, 2009, an unexpected air tragedy had happened, claiming the lives of the pilots of both private plane and helicopter and their passengers. New York City’s mayor stated that the crash is â€Å"not survivable† (McFadden). Private Plane PA32 was on its way to Ocean City, New Jersey via Hudson River on that day when another aircraft Eurocopter AS350 is sightseeing, carrying 5 Italian tourists. A radar data by the NTSB shows that both aircrafts were at a low level, while witnesses said that neither of them attempted to avoid the crash and investigations revealed that neither also sent warning alerts to prevent it. The collision is said to have damaged the private plane’s left wing causing it to nose dive into the Hudson River. Meanwhile, the helicopter’s propeller was also destroyed in the collision and immediately crashed into the river (Schapiro, Cruz, Gendar and McShane).

Retention - Deciding to Act Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Retention - Deciding to Act - Assignment Example In this context, it can be further mentioned that WWW does not have efficient skilled management team, which will be responsible for controlling the operational activities of the company. Furthermore, lack of proper management functioning is another cause for reduced focus upon proposed business projects. However, the company is paying more wages to attendants as compared to others, but still is unable to satisfy the attendants as per their job securities (Heneman, Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2014; Catano, Wiesner & Hackett, 2013). Besides, the company is also facing a large numbers of problems relating to recruitment of employees, due to lack of proper and systematic recruitment process. Moreover, the company is not having a proper management functioning process that is also likely to have negative impact on growth and development in long run. The company does not having any segregation in its operational departments, which resulting to loss in business. Attendants are responsible for conducting advertising campaigns for promoting the company’s special products and services. In this regard, the attendants of the company are experiencing high work burden in comparison to their assign remuneration. Therefore, by evaluating all the problems that has been faced by the company it is indicated that turnover is not a major problem behind the huge loss of WWW. The actual problem is relating with the improper managerial function of the company (Catano, Wiesner & Hackett, 2013; Gusdorf, 2008). 2. Based on the provided case study, it can be identified that the problems faced by WWW Company can be mitigated by applying few effective strategies within the operational process. In order to mitigate the internal problems that have been experienced by the company, initially the managers had conducted an informal interview session for collecting all the complaints with respect to the attendant and other service providers. In the context of case of study, the

Nigeria, a Multi Ethnic Nation Essay Example for Free

Nigeria, a Multi Ethnic Nation Essay Says : Cultures have been able to integrate drinking into a religious and symbolic context. Irish tend to have a serious drinking problem with drinking; Jews and Italians do not. There are two psychological explanations to be found for alcoholism-cultural and psychological. In a culture in which the demands for male supportiveness are high and there is low support for assertiveness in the male role, the author argues that drinking increases in men at least. The author also discuss the influence of drinking socialization on drinking patterns. Does : It provides the background knowledge required to understand the contents of the book. It introduces the proposition through specialized, concrete and qualitative premises. Chapter Three (Page 36-52) Says : Different cultures are evaluated on the he characteristics of power and support. The Irish and Italians are high on power and support, while the Swedes and Jews are low. Italians and Jews are high on support than are Irish and Swedes. On this basis, it can expected that the groups would rank themselves in terms of alcohol consumption in the following order : irish, Swedes, Italians, Jews. Thus, there is a striking difference in the drinking environment of each drinking group. Does : It provides reasons in support of the proposition. It provides concrete and qualitative examples. It also provides several descriptive examples and qualitative evidence. Chapter Six (Page 83-89) Says : The chapter examines whether the different ethnic groups may have different addiction subcultures. The Irish may drink more because they have an oral dependency subculture. While various groups do not differ enormously in their adolescent years in their levels of drug consumption, young people from the different groups seem to find their way into peer-group environments where the propensity to abuse alcohol and drugs is high. Does : It provides several specialized and concrete research findings. It introduces several implications of the proposition. Chapter Eight (Page 95-101) Says : There are different drinking subcultures among ethnic groups studied, which influence the drinking behavior and ones propensity to have drinking problems. These cultures are remarkably durable, persisting across generations. Does : It provides a conclusion for the book, and highlights the most important facts related to drinking and ethnicity.

Importance of Training and Evaluation in Organisations

Importance of Training and Evaluation in Organisations INTRODUCTION: In the past several years human resource management become quite popular. Human Resource management is a very important internal part of an organisation. It has many functions like recruitment and selection, human resource development, reward and performance and management development. Skilled and developed employees are main strength of organisations success. Companies are willing to recruit skilled and talented people. But it is a short sighted approach for long term success. As mentioned above, in recent years of companies and organisations have realised importance of training and development. They are focusing on continuous improvement and learning through training and development in organisation. But for that employees are need to choose wisely. This part is related to recruitment and selection process. So HR manager need to choose people with the potential to learn more. Many organisations encourage employees to participate in training and development programme to learn the sys tematic knowledge in depth. Now it is realized that if there are more opportunities of development for employees, so that they stay committed longer to the organisation. Such motivated, experienced and trained staffs bring better organisation performance. Thats how organisation can produce best product or services that bring more customer satisfaction and more sales which ends in more profit. It also supports employee in participating training and development programme and thus, it increases job engagement of the employee to the organisation. Organisations definitely will gain more productivity from skilled and trained employees rather than non trained employees. Trained and engaged employees are motivated employees. Skilled and motivated employees are high performing employees. That is how employer and employee both can get benefit from training and development programme. (Beardwell Claydon, 2007) 2. STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT: This project focuses on human resource development. Main objective of this project is to explain the importance of training evaluation in an organisation. Training evaluation is the one of the crucial part of training process. But first we need to know, why training evaluation needed? From the beginning it is a key topic for most of the trainers. When, training and development do not give the required results than it can be very much harmful for the organisation. It can de-motivate the learners and can seriously damage their reputation. That is why training evaluation has been introduced. So that by evaluating training, trainers can get expected results. It also helps to make any appropriate changes where it is required. It gives the confidence to the trainer by providing result of that they are doing a good job. (Thorne K. Mackey D. 2007) HRM features create more importance when it is attached to strategic integration. It is more concerned to link the HRM issues into strategic planes. Strategic Human Resource Development (SHRD) is for giving the clear vision about employees abilities and potential to operate within the strategic framework of the business. New learning and development strategies are created under SHRD to achieve business goals. Training evaluation is needed to ensure that, is SHRD attaining the business goals or not? The main objective of SHRD is to enhance resources with the belief that firms employees are a major source of competitive advantage. It is more focused on intellectual capital, ensuring that are there right quality of employees available to meet the present and future needs. By creating a learning environment in which employees are encouraged to learn and develop to match the employability of outside and inside of organisation, should be one of its concerns. Michael Armstrong (2009) has hi ghlighted the philosophy of SHRD. HRD makes a major contribution to successfully achieve firms goals, investment in the benefits to the stakeholders of the organisation. HRM planes and programmes should be interact with and support to achieve the goals of business and HRM. Everybody in the organisation should be encouraged and given opportunity to learn and develop their skills and knowledge. In SHRD there should be a focus on self managed learning and support by coaching, training and monitoring. As we have seen learning, training, development and education are the elements of HRD. Learning should be distinguished from training. Therefore, organisations need to monitor their training programmes. (Armstrong M. 2009) From Baron J. Kreps D. (2005), now firms do not show training as a cost for the employee but as an investment. They said that, it is important to measure the training. By giving some examples, they argued about how it is difficult to measure of performance improvement. Therefore, evaluation is more likely to be considered as a capital investment of training. Trainer and trainee both should undergo from evaluation process. The result of this process will give better understanding about performance improvement. Making changes where necessary in training will provide great help in the integration with business strategies. According to Armstrong (1999) training evaluation is important to evaluate training in order to assess its effectiveness. It is important to know what ever training is provided to the employees; does it really help them in their work? Because, lot of time, effort and money spend to train employees. That is why Hamblin said any attempt to obtain information (feedback) on the effects of a training programme and to assess the value of the training in the light of that information. It is an integral feature of training. It gives the answer to the question of how far the training has achieved its purpose. Training evaluation makes sure that, the given training was investment rather than expense. RESEARCH MATHODOLOGY: All the data is gathered by secondary sources. Most of the data is collected from books. Some of the journals have been referred for adequate knowledge of the research report. Electronic source is the main source of gathering the relevant data. Both qualitative and quantitative data been gathered for the proposed research report. A case study has taken is supporting Kirkpatricks model. It provides the brief detail of how to make evaluation in training. (Bhattacharya, 2006) KIRKPATRICS TRAINING EVALUATION THEORY: To understand training evaluation, Kirkpatrick has introduced four level of training evaluation. Donald Kirkpatrick was president of the American Society of Training and Development in 1975. Reaction: Reaction evaluation is how the trainee felt, and their personal reaction to the training or learning experience. It is a feedback forms on training experience. Verbal reaction can also be noted and analysed. It can be done by post training surveys and questionnaires. Feedback form, which can be filled or verbally given to the manager. It contains personal feeling type questions, like did the trainees like and enjoys training? Did they consider the training relevant? Was it a good use of their time? Did they like the timing and the place of training? It is easy to do. It can be done immediately after completion of training. Easy to obtain reaction feedback. Easy to analyse. Not much expensive to gather all the data and for analyse. It become very helpful to know the primary questions like trainees were not unhappy or disappointed with training. Analyser has to assume that all the feedbacks are genuine. If it is than most of the feedbacks may be similar. Learning: Learning evaluation is the measurement knowledge from before and after learning experience. It can be done by doing assessment tests before and after training. Interview and observation can also be used instead of assessment test. Assessment test need to be closely related to the aims of learning. Measuring the test can be easy in g group rather than individual. Hard-copy, electronic, online or interview style assessment are types of gathering learning evaluation data. From the data, it is easy to figure out, did the trainee learn what every he intended to taught? Did the trainee experience what intended to experience in training? It is more time consuming and costly in compare to reaction evaluation. It only shows that how much knowledge h As trainee has. It doesnt shows that how much learning applied at the workplace. Behaviour: Behaviour evaluation in which trainees applied the learning and change their behaviour. This can take some time to change their behaviour it might take several weeks or months after the training. The main objective of behaviour evaluation is to find did trainees put their learning into effect? Are they using the relevant skill which has been taught? Is there any change in their activities while working? How is their performance? Is the trainee aware of the changing behaviour? Is the trainee trying to transfer their learning in others or not? As behaviour evaluation is an important evaluation process amongst the other processes. Observation need to done at certain level of training. Assessment test is not suitable in this because each trainee will take his own time to put his learning into effect. Assessment can be done only by suitable analysis tools. Judgement, observation or interviews are the best possible way to measure the impact of training. A flexible way, like 360 degree feedback is useful method for measuring the effect. It is less easy to measure the change in compare to learning behaviour. Cooperation and skills of observers are most important in this evaluations process. Analysers need to be very much accurate and experience in judging trainees behaviour. Behaviour evaluation should take place in some time duration during the training. So it depends on evaluators vision to see behaviour pattern, which can be varies amongst different evaluator. The support of line managers and trainers are essential in this evaluation process. Involving them from the beginning of the training would definitely beneficial for further assessments. Results: Result evaluation is the measurement of effect on the business or environment after the training. The main objective in this evaluation process is to find results or performance indicators like; sales, volumes, quality, timescale return on investment, performance, turnover, failure, wastage, achievements, accreditations, growth, retention etc,. Many of these measures can be done by other management systems and reporting. It can be found by how trainees inputs are affecting the performance after training. Commonly trainees are informed about the expected level of performance which needs to be achieved by the end of training. It requires simple links with the training inputs. Failure with this can reduce the chances of getting accurate results at the end. Result evaluation is particularly not difficult. It can be done by using qualitative and quantitative analysis. Targets can be set down with the use of this evaluation process. While doing the result evaluation, analyser needs to consider the external factors of environment which are affecting the performance of organisation. This can be good or bad. So the analysers have to be realistic towards the situation. (Kirkpatrick 2007) I think Kirkpatricks model gives foundation level knowledge to evaluators. There is a need to extend these levels. The four levels are over simplified. They do not consider the dynamic changes in the environment and in the organisation. By not considering the training environment, trainer will give a false training evaluation. Although the trainee is well trained, still he is not efficient as others. To find out such problem training programme need to consider the cultural and ethical factors. It is also missing the determination of usefulness and availability of organisational resources. Yes it is true that this model is very much useful during the training session. Minor problems with the trainees can be rectified and necessary steps can take to improve training programme. Thereafter it is not much useful. For more accurate result of training evaluation Philip has introduced ROI theory of training evaluation. It is also considered as a fifth level of Kirkpatricks model. Kaufmans five levels of evaluation: Roger Kaufman has introduced five level of evaluation by using the Kirkpatricks four levels. His evaluation model level includes addressing the viability of various resources and inputs necessary for successful interventions by adding social and client responsiveness with the consequences of payoffs. According to him, evaluation needs to consider both within and outside of organisation. His view of evaluation is broader than Kirkpatrick. He said that training is the only performance improvement so evaluator needs to see the contribution to performance inside as well as outside of the organisation. He showed the fifth level which is mega level. It is societal contribution, which is missing from Kirkpatricks framework. The mega level aims on societal usefulness like health, continuous profit, pollution level, safety. It concerns more for the future. Like what will be effect of it in the future market. Other levels are shown in the following table: The mentioned table shows the suggested levels of Kaufmans theory. He is making critics on the first level, that Kirkpatrick is not involving resource availability. Level two is considered as an assessment type. It focuses on training implementation. Level three is performance based. Identify the changes due to training. Fourth level is common in both. It includes performance improvement, cost benefits such as timely and quality output. If I put it in a simple way, Kaufmans five levels are interlinked with business strategy. It is a useful model for Strategic Human Resource Development. By considering all the environmental factors evaluator can give more accurate result. The quality of result is richer that simple evaluation result. (Kaufman R, Keller J Watkins R. 1996) CIRO METHOD OF TRAINING EVALUATION: War, Bird and Rackham introduced four level of approach called CIRO. Context: It checks back to the basics of training. It considers the environment within which training took place. Employer need to look the original methods for training and development. Employer need to check and analyse the information to identify specific needs. Input: This evaluation decides the best method of delivery. It takes into account of employees selection process, employee material and the level of involvement at workplace. By determining the accuracy of the input will increase the success of overall evaluation. Reaction: Reaction is not much different from Kirkpatricks behaviour evaluation. It evaluates the nature of employee and measure the reaction from learning. This can be useful to evaluate quality of employees. Outcome: It is the final evaluation to check the changes in employees at the workplace. It is easier to evaluate if results are numeric. Outcome is to check that how far training has transferred employees by measuring their performance. Warr, Bird and Rackham made a critic on Kirkpatricks four levels of evaluation. They said that this process may not always produce genuine, meaningful and long-term results. The parameters which Kirkpatrick looking to evaluate training are limited. It is not considering the firms overall ability to perform. CIRO model is requires more detailed analyses of an organisation. There are many factors that will affect training. So this evaluation model takes more time than Kirkpatricks model. (Thackwray B. 1997) ROI TRAINING EVALUATION THEORY: Jack Phillips has introduced ROI evaluation theory. It is also known as Jack Philips five level ROI model. As mentioned above training is considered as investment in people. ROI is the best match for this sentence. According to Philip, there are six trends which have increased the use of ROI. The increasing amount of training and development are pressuring for more accountability in business. Competitive strategies are linked with training and development, management are always eager to measure the contribution of training programme. Other programmes do not give as accurate result as ROI. Therefore many times programme sponsors have requested to for ROI justification. Including all the other functions, training and development is required for continues development and to hold the position in competition. Therefore many support efforts are taken for it. From the perspective of top executives in large number of organisation required ROI information. Trainers are now taking interest in justifying their contribution in training and development. So they increased their interest in ROI. ROI theory cannot be directly applied. For this there is a need of a classic model like Kirkpatricks model. Then the result should be taken for ROI such as turnover, quality improvement, productivity or cost reduction. To get the accurate ROI all programmes should be compared to cost implementation in order to value the investment. That is why ROI theory is called as a fifth stage of Kirkpatricks evaluation theory. On the other hand, this model requires final results. Only then evaluator can able to use this model. There isnt any more research need to be done if desired result can obtain, but if the results are wrong then evaluator need to go back to the basics. ROI is not a proper method to evaluate training. Because there are lot of qualitative aspects related to it. Use of ROI is just to check the returns on investment. This technique is more favourable to investors rather than evaluators. The ROI formula is the annual net programme benefits divided by programme costs. Where else the net benefits are the mandatory value of the benefit minus the cost of the programme. The ROI formula is as follows: (Philips 1996) CASE STUDY: A case study taken from journal of workplace learning. The aim of training is to give knowledge and leadership skills to the managers. The test was conduct on two groups of manager and supervisors of large municipal organisation. Both the groups are divided in 27 people. One group was undergoing from the training, while the other one is untrained. So the result will reflect the clear difference between both the groups. The data is evaluated by Kirkpatricks four levels of evaluation method. Candidates age, seniority, experience level and educational knowledge were almost identical. Reaction: Reaction was measured by a short questionnaire. 16 questions were given with from five scales from bad to excellent. The reaction training and the trainers were positive in general. The main result fallen under the other three levels. Suggestions were gathered to improve aspect of training facility. However, reaction is necessary, but not enough for a high quality evaluation. It is to measure that training is reaching the intended goals or not. Knowledge: It is to measure the aspects of effective leadership and management skills, measured by multiple choice questions. The results were remarkable. Candidates demonstrate a significant growth in knowledge. This will help managers to reach higher level of knowledge than untrained managers. The training apparently gets successful in this theoretical knowledge. Even somehow, this result was putting pressure to untrained managers to perform better. Behaviour: Managers behaviour is noticed after providing the adequate knowledge. Leadership behaviour had been discussed during the training. The present frequency compared with before training frequencies. The result was again showing positive indication. After training, a significant change been noticed. The behaviour toward leadership skills was higher in compare to untrained group of managers. The proposed result showed the increase in leadership behaviour is doubled that before from the gathered numbers. Result: Final result is showing the long term analyses of improved productivity, quality of product and processes, lower sickness and absence rate. The result is in two parts: self evaluation and evaluation by others. Both parts are showing positive result which is supporting the hypotheses, for long term effectiveness. But obvious it is often difficult to prove a causal link between training and long term effects. There are several factors like age, boredom from same kind of work, changing nature of human and other environmental factors effect it. This method cant be predicting the future, it just to measure the current performance. Further research gives the idea, for long term result a 360-degree evaluation should be more accurate than Kirkpatricks four level evaluation methods. Overall result showed the gap between trained managers and untrained managers. Step by step evaluation is giving the improvement in managers skills and knowledge. Training main objective was achieved. However, Kirkpatricks model is not giving accurate results. Further research need to done in this case. Individual evaluation between trained managers will give more accurate result than groups. For that, Philips ROI method, kaufmans five level and CIRO evaluation methods need to introduce. However, the candidates are almost identical as the case says. So, there wont be much difference in result. (Steensma H. 2010) As mentioned in the training proposal, training means investment in people to enable them to perform better and to empower them to make the best use of their natural abilities. It is very much important to improve employees skill which results better quality product or a high level of customer services. (Armstrong, 1999). RATIONAL: I would like to describe one of my own experiences regarding training and training evaluation. A few months back when I was working with an AGIES BPO as a customer care executive. My job task is very much related to a salesman. At the time of joining the company. Trainers have provided brief training regarding my work. After few month of working there was not much improvement in my work. My sales figures were low and I was staying away from reaching my goals. Considering my efforts companys trainer suggested me to participate in the further training programme which was called as PIP (Performance Improvement Programme). In this programme trainers had provided through training regarding my work. They provide me basics for the working tasks and advance techniques also. As my work was technical work, I have to give assessment test on each end of the day. At end of very first of PIP, a verbal interview has taken place where, trainer took the interview. It does include some simple question s like how are you feeling about training? Did you understand the concept? Do you know your way getting out of the problem? Assessment test were taken after each session, it was regarding the technical issues. The evaluation of training is going as per Kirkpatricks four level of evaluation pattern. Behaviour pattern has been marked as well. The taught soft skill in sales helps me to respond well in communication and the technical training helped me in doing my work easy and quickly. After the end of my training, I have been called for the face to face interview for measuring my learning and how well I can able to put it into practice. After that I was feeling like confidence enough to work with my full productivity as well as I was teaching some of the technical skills to my juniors. This is how training changed my way of working. At the end of the month I have achieved my sales targets without any problem. The results were showing the significant changes of training programme. CONCLUSION: Although the above mentioned discussion showed that how training and training evaluation is helpful for organisations own benefits and employees can also improve their own performance. It builds a moral interest in staff development. Future train programme can be determined by training evaluation. Training evaluation can also rectify the mistakes done in training programme and can build a new programme. Most important for an organisation, training programmes make the business stands in market. Changing culture, technology and ethics influence an organisations work place. To understand its effect and to cope with the competition there is an urgent requirement of training, and to ensure the training is going in right path, it becomes a necessity to do training evaluation. Training evaluation take part in most of the organisation. The above mentioned training evaluation theories are the key to analyse training and its effectiveness. Better working environment with well train ed workers can lead the organisation to high level. This can be helpful to gain more market share and better reputation among competitors and customers. Therefore it is not wrong to say that training evaluation is a vital part for an organisation. But it is not always because of the training. There are some cases when training is not enough to improve productivity regardless the evaluation is showing the uprising performance. As seen above, strategic human resource development is essential in developing business strategies. SHRD enables learning cycle. It creates a chain of continuous improvement. Measuring the evaluation and apply changes with that, can formulate flexible development strategy. Sometimes, employees are not happy with management or not happy with the payment and reward system. If some employees are chosen for the wrong position to work than how will training affect his performance or behaviour of working? There might a mistake from selection and requirement section. If a person is not satisfied with his work than there is no way of getting trained him for the future. According to Druckman ET, al, (1997), it is found that training is not always worth. Training do not give satisfactory output in some cases, there is evident that training is not always successful. Application on learning on practical basis at job, amount of learning depends on conditions at workplace. As mentioned the above cases. One of the factors affecting training success is how much employees are interested in participating in training programs. Training is more effective in participation condition is not compulsory. Training programme should be voluntary. Other factor is co-operation from the managers. Supportive environment always influence result training and makes it more efficient in practise. REFERENCES: Armstrong M. (1999), Human Resource Management Practice, 7th edition, Kogan Page Limited. London. Armstrong M. (2009), Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action. 4th edition. Kogan Page. New Delhi. Baron J. Kreps D. (2005). Strategic Human Resources: Framework for General Managers. John Wiley Sons, Inc. USA. Beardwell J. Claydon T. (2007). Human Resource Management: a contemporary approach. 5th edition. Prentice Hall, England. Bhattacharya D.K. (2006), Research Methodology, 6th edition, Excel Books, New Delhi. Druckman D., Singer J.E. Van Cott H.P. (1997). Enhancing Organisational Performance. National Acedemy.USA. pp: 106-107. Kaufman R, Keller J Watkins R. (1996), What Work What Doesnt: Evaluation Beyond Kirkpatrick. Volume 35. Kirkpatrick D. (2007). The Four Levels of Evaluation. American Society for Training and Development. USA Philips J.J. (1996). Technical and skills training. [Online] available at: http://www.astd.org/NR/rdonlyres/D0BCF259-880D-4EEC-BF89-7F1B9A88F430/0/phillips.pdf. [Accessed: 27 April 2010] Steensma H. (2010), Evaluating the Training using the Four Level Model. Journal for Workplace Learning. Leiden University. [Online] available at: [Accessed 22 Aug 2010]. Thackwray B. (1997), Effective Evaluation of Training and Development in Higher Education. Kogan Page, London. Thorne K Mackey D (2007). Everything you ever needed to know about training. Kogan Page Ltd, USA.

CEO and Head of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors Essay

This memo is in response to your request concerning how to establish the appropriate tone. The purposes of this memo are, first, to explain the meaning and significance of evaluating control environment; second, to discuss the integrity and ethical values; third, to show the organizational structure; fourth, the importance of establishing commitment to competence; finally, to establish and segregate the division of responsibilities of finance and accounting department in order to establish the appropriate tone. Control Environment Control environment is the step engaged by a company to prevent fraud; both misappropriation of assets and fraudulent financial reporting. It has an equal role in assuring control over manufacturing and other processes. As a result of fraudulent financial reporting, the objective of accounting company is to study the causal factors that are associated with fraudulent reporting and to make recommendation to reduce its incidence. COSO emphasizes that internal control is a process to an end, and not an end in and of itself. The process is effected by individuals, not merely policy manuals, documents, and forms. By including the concept of reasonable assurance which recognizes that the cost of a company’s internal control should not exceed the benefits expected to be obtained. The control environment sets the tone of the company by influencing the control awareness of individual. It may be viewed as the foundation for the other components of internal control. The effectiveness of internal control depends on the integrity and ethical values of the personnel who are responsible for creating, administrating, and monitoring controls. Integrity and Ethical Values Integrity and ethical values are very importan... ...cide what skills are required to appropriately perform job responsibilities. Second, it must staff those jobs with individuals who have the needed skills. Trade-offs can be made in fulfilling these step, such as placing a less experience person in a demanding job and providing that person with extra supervision. Develop a matrix management in other to share authority. Delegate authorities in other to accomplish the organization’s goals, and make sure that people who are making decisions understand that they will be responsible. Works Cited Auditing & Assurances Services by Messier 9th edition 2 (COSO Internal control Framework, Executive Summary) 3 http://www.isaca.org/Journal/Past-Issues/2009/Volume-3/Pages/Tone-at-the-Top-Is-Vital1.aspx 4 http://www.coso.org/documents/990025P_Executive_Summary_final_may20_e.pdf 5 www.journalofaccountancy.com †º May 2004‎

Factors Influencing Employee Performance Essay

1. Introduction 1.1 Background of the study There are many challenges which hinder the delivery of public service reforms in Africa (Lienert, 2003). The factors include those relating to human resources like manpower deficiencies and lack of psychological dispositions and shortage of financial and material resources necessary for effective delivery of services. The problems of accountability as well as ethical issues also continue to affect effective delivery of public service. In an effort to mitigate some of these challenges, the Government of Kenya (GOK) has in the past launched several reform programs to improve service delivery. Some of these reform efforts include the Civil Service Reform Program (CSRP) (GOK, 1993) whose aim was to enhance public service efficiency and productivity. The program was designed to contain costs, improve performance in the public sector, and consolidate and sustain the gains made by reform initiatives (Opiyo, 2006). The other reform initiatives included the implementation of Results – Based Management that was guided by Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment creation (GOK, 2003) whose strategies included developing benchmarks and evaluating the performance of public institutions. In order to enhance the performance of public officers, the government introduced a program where rewards and sanctions were to be used to encourage provision of quality services in the public sector. This paved way for the piloting of the process of in state corporations in 2003 which saw the introduction and implementation of performance appraisals in the entire public sector. Most firms in Kenya now employ some performance appraisal system (GOK, 2009). The Performance Appraisal System (PAS) was introduced by the GOK to refocus the mind of the public from a culture of inward looking to a culture of businesslike environment, focused on the customer and results in addition to improving service delivery (Obong’o, 2009). According to the new PAS, the evaluation of staff performance is supposed to run concurrently with the duration of ministerial performance contracts and the Government Financial year. Targets should meet acceptable quality standards and benchmarks as determined in each category of service delivery; the system should be supported by training of staff, particularly those with managerial and supervisory responsibility; and the process should be regarded as interactive, for mutual agreement between supervisors and appraisers (GOK, 2009). Longenecker and Goff (1992), observed that managers and human resource professionals belief that a PAS is a good tool for human resource management and performance improvement. If well designed and implemented it can benefit both the employees and the organizations (Coens and Jenkins, 2000). According to GOK (2009), the PAS has caused a cultural transformation within the public service from a baseline of extremely poor performance before 2003. The GOK has in the past made some efforts in launching and implementing Public Service Reform initiatives aimed at improving the performance of public servants in service delivery (GOK, 1993; GOK, 2003). However, these reforms have not achieved the envisaged results (AAPAM, 2005; Opiyo, 2006). The introduction of the new PAS (GOK, 2006) is yet another attempt by the Government to manage and improve performance of the Civil Service and Local Authorities by enabling a higher level of staff participation and involvement in planning, delivery and evaluation of work performance. Despite the successful roll out of the program, there is evidence of room for improvement in the process (GOK, 2009) and a lack of knowledge on the factors that influence the PAS in the Ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security, (MoSPA) Nyamira district, Kenya. Specifically, this study addresses this gap by: (a) Establishing how the implementation process of the PAS in the public sector influences the system; (b) Determining how rater and ratee interpersonal relationship in a PAS context influences the system in the public sector; (c) Determining how psychometric rater accuracy in a PAS context influences the system in the public sector; (d) Determining how the level of information exchange between the rater and the ratee in a PAS context influences the system in the public sector; and (e) Establishing how the attitudes of employees towards the last PAS rating, towards the rater and towards the PAS influence the system in the public sector.