Monday, September 30, 2019
History Answers Essay
1. Liberalism is an ideological view that makes the individual, rather than the family, the nation, the crown, the state or the faith, the center of society. Human beings, on various grounds, are held to have rights that protect the individual from the state and other people. It arose concomitant with industrialism and capitalism, that is, the destruction of the high development of the feudal order from the aftermath of the black death onwards. It has its roots in the mercantile city states of Italy, especially Florence. As a matter of course, one can hold that liberalism had two branches, one based on natural rights, and traces its roots back to John Locke, and one based on utility, tracing its roots back to Hobbes and Adam Smith. The former option holds that rights need to be anchored in metaphysical principles such as natural law, or theological principles, such as God and His providence. This has the advantage of holding rights apart from social life and the state, in that they do not derive from the state or from society, but must be protected by them. In this view, the state has its origin in the protection of natural rights according to the will of God for mankind. Hence, there is always room for rebellion, in that the state has a very specific reason for being. If this is violated, then the state loses its legitimacy and can be overthrown (Hobhouse, 1964). On the other hand, the utilitarian wing rejects metaphysics as such. At least, it holds that there is no need for metaphysics, since all talk about rights and natural law actually concern utility: it is better for society if the state protects various rights, it produces happier citizens and greater production and loyalty. With this approach, one need not have recourse to metaphysics or theology, in that all of this, in actuality, is simply a more complex way of speaking about pleasure in general: a society that protects rights will be better, in the sense of producing more happiness, than one that does not (Hobhouse, 1964). But by the beginnings of the industrial revolution in England, the Scottish school of political economy came into its own. Coming from David Hume, Adam Smith rejected the metaphysical basis of rights, and in fact, rejected rights talk in all forms. Instead, he created a sophisticated model of utilitarian liberalism in the ââ¬Å"invisible handâ⬠of market forces. The system likely reflected what was already going on in the mercantile societies of the Netherlands or England, but it holds that human passion is the driving force of society. This passion largely centers around greed: the desire for gain and a good reputation. But this not be an evil if channeled into a proper direction. The free market is this channel. The market idea says that if competition were freely allowed to flourish, greedy people would be forced to produce good products that people actually want, at a price they are willing to pay. If they refuse to do this, the market will shift its money to those equally greedy people who do. Hence, greed is channeled into healthy outlets, and the society is served: demand is satisfied and people pay what the demand requires, rather than the price dictated by the producer. Here, a fully free economy, based on the preferences of the market in a given society, can be based, not on rights, not on God or natural law, but on human passion, but a passion that is scientifically channeled to a place where it can be put to good use. 2. European powers built a large colonial empire throughout the world in the late 19th century. By this time, the Spanish had lost most of their colonies in Latin America, but the British, the French and the Dutch colonized much of Africa and Asia, largely as a way of gaining access to raw materials, new markets and as a means of settling excess populations (Cain, 2001). In general, after the defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian war and the ravages earlier of Napoleon, England remained at the sole major source of industrial wealth. While this motivated England to continue to expand its power into Africa and Asia, the continental powers were forced to continue the search for colonies in order to keep up. Germany was the poorest in this regard, having few colonies until the beginning of World War I, forcing the Germans to use internal resources to industrialize under the monarchy that was, at this time, involved in unifying Germany as a sort of ââ¬Å"internal colonizationâ⬠while the Austrians were busy exploiting their many subject peoples, playing one ethnic group off against another. So for the German speaking peoples, colonization was internal. For the Netherlands, Belgium and England, this was not an option, and therefore, the expansion of European mercantile interests expanded outward. The British, for their part, were concerned about the expansion of Russia to the south. Russia, only partially a European power, was also a late comer, along with Germany and Austria, to the industrial age. But Russiaââ¬â¢s concern was porous borders to the south, which were fortified against the attacks on her territory by the Islamic powers of Central Asia and even in the Caucuses, partially armed by the British so as to stop any further Russian expansion into Central Asia. The Chinese had the advantage early on with the British, since they would only accept hard cash from the British imperialists. Unlike much of the third world, China was relatively well developed, and for a time was able to resist British expansionism. The British tactic adopted to deal with these issues, to break down the will of the Chinese to resist, was Opium, harvested from India and imported into China. The drug was legal in England, where it was popular, but many nationalist Chinese saw the spreading opium addition both as British ploy as well as a means of weakening Chinese society. Both were true. Chinese resistance to British policies in respect of Opium and the exploitation of the Chinese market and resources, led to two wars over these questions with the Quing monarchy (Chesneaux, 1977). In general, the purpose of the new imperialism was to maintain protected markets and cheap raw materials in the conquered countries. This was a way of having an edge over their European competitors. Russia and Germany were not involved in this race (they had far different concerns), but was largely a mercantile and financial policy of the more ââ¬Å"advancedâ⬠European powers of the Netherlands, England and France. 3. Japan was more successful in modernization than China. The Meiji reforms were motivated by the desire to stand up to both American and British trading missions and military forces that defeated the Chinese in the British inspired Opium Wars. The state was centralized in Japan, and very quickly, a rapidly developing Japanese state, without any home resources, expanded as a colonial force in imitation of western models (Korniki, 1998) Japanââ¬â¢s development, rapid as it was, was a response to the gradual erosion of the power of the Chinese monarchy under British pressure in this same period. The fact is that Japan was not going to let Opium destroy her people, and hence, as is often the case, increasing social discipline and a centralized government were the Japanese response to the problem. This approach was one of the causes of the Civil War of 1877, but the victory of the modernist forces ensured that japan was now going to become one of the eastââ¬â¢s great powers (Korniki, 1998). The powers that took over Japan were of two kinds: the first, the military leadership taken from the clans that favored modernization and second, the emperor himself, partially under the thumb of the military but also a power in his own right. This coalition stabilized Japanese society in this era, providing it with the peace necessary to develop into a major industrial power. To some extent, the British were involved in investing in this new state, in that the Japanese were seen in London as a necessary counterweight both to Russia and the possibility of a revival of Chinese fortunes. Hence, while the Japanese developments after 1877 were impressive, British investment must also be considered. It must be mentioned that Japan was treated as more or less an equal partner with the British rather than as a subject, partially because of the undeniable strength of the Japanese state, but also due to their value in dealing with eastern Russian expansion. This policy will bear fruit in the Russo-Japanese war of 1905-1906. But the real issue was the connection between British politics, the oligarchy in Japan and the emperor, to some extent the puppet of both. The military leaders who emerged from the 1877 war victorious realized that China was the anti-type of proper Asian development. As China lost its central authority, saw its economy fall into the hands of both the Rothschild and Sassoon bankers, the Japanese realized two things: first, that a coalition, rather than a battle, with England was necessary, and second, this coalition must be used to modernize and centralize the Japanese state, hence preserving it from colonization. But from these two realizations, it also was obvious that Japan was to become a colonizing power of its own, and in fact, took part of eastern China in this process. It is obvious because Japan, without local resources, was forced to find them in Korea and China (Korniki, 1998) 4. The end of World War I saw the fall of the German, Austrian, Turkish and Russian royal houses. It saw the creation of the USSR and Yugoslavia as attempts to reorganize society. Germany was blamed for the war by the British and French and had most of its industry liquidated and sent to the victorious powers. The Germans also had to pay huge reparations for ââ¬Å"startingâ⬠the war (a doubtful hypothesis). Germany was humiliated, and the weak republican government was ripe for both communist and fascist takeovers. Hitler won fair elections as head of state over a prostrate and violated country. Most of Hitlerââ¬â¢s inner circle were former World War I combat troops. Reindustrialization and rearmament to defend Germany from Stalinââ¬â¢s USSR was a major motive for Hitlerââ¬â¢s plans. The rise of Hitler is understandable given the level of humiliation the Germans felt at this time. They were economically, militarily and emotionally scarred and destroyed. A strong leader with both socialist and nationalist political leanings was going to do well, especially after the communists had taken over in the USSR, Bavaria, and Hungary (these latter two for a short time, see below). Hitler was the only force in Germany politics preaching the popular doctrine of simply rejecting Versailles. This is largely what got him elected (Kershaw, 2000). But economically, France, Britain, Russia and Germany were prostrate. Yugoslavia was an attempt to pool the resources of the souther Slavs in order to compensate for this. Turkey was no longer a major power. France and England entered into a relationship in order to control Germany for the long term. America became the dominant force in European politics, and her late entry into World War I and the amount of money she forwarded to England against Germany made certain that the US was now a dominant partner on both sides of the Atlantic. At the same time, the state terror of the USSR under both Lenin and Stalin forced the European powers to also fear the huge Russian giant, and enough emigres from the USSR were in western Europe (especially Paris) to explain to European powers what exactly the Soviet revolution had in store for them. Hitler rearmed not so much in respect of England (to which the Fuhrer had a grudging respect), but against the ââ¬Å"savage Asiansâ⬠from Russia. Therefore, a rearmed and powerful Germany was able to bring country after country into her economic orbit long before Hitlerââ¬â¢s policy of military expansion took place. Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia and even Greece were under Hitlerââ¬â¢s control long before the mid 1930s, since either the USSR or Germany was offered to them as a trading partner. Most, quite rationally, looked to Germany for protection against Stalin. They were proven right when the latter, after World War II, built his own police states in eastern Europe. One might conclude that World War I sapped the strength of democratic government in Europe, and to add to the carnage, the Depression starting in Europe in 1930 also proved democracies not up to the task: both Stalin and Hitler took control of their respective economies and grew them tremendously, far and beyond the struggling British and American states, hence showing democracy, at least at that time, as an inferior option to the ideological politics of Berlin and Moscow, they at least had growing economies and full employment. The west could not say that (Wrigley, 1993). 5. Hitler viewed the Jews as a fifth column for Soviet expansionism. The short-lived and unpopular Peopleââ¬â¢s Republic of Bavaria was run by several Jews: Kurt Eisner, Franz Lipp, Eugene Levine and Ernst Toller. The brief life of Soviet Hungary was run by four Jews: Bela Kun (Kohn), Antal Dovcsak Jeno Landler, and Matyas Rakosi. Hence, Hitler feared the Jews as being loyal to the USSR and Marxism and hence, treated them as criminals (Kershaw, 1993). Therefore, Hitlerââ¬â¢s loathing of the Jews did not derive from his believing they were ââ¬Å"inferior,â⬠or a natural slave race, but solely from their being disproportionately involved in Marxist governments and states from the USSR to central Europe. Hitlerââ¬â¢s policies make no sense unless seen in this light. While this might be uncomfortable to some, historical truth does not concern itself with comfort. For various reasons, the urban Jews of eastern Europe were heavily involved with Marxism as a means, most likely, of controlling nationalism. As a result, nationalist movements throughout central and eastern Europe were harshly opposed to Jewish political power as such, though the nationalist movement in Spain did not share this view. But Hitlerââ¬â¢s final solution had another source, a source rarely dealt with in the literature, a little known deal called the Transfer Agreement. When Edwin Black wrote the first major work on this topic in 2001, it received mixed reviews. But a little later, few were able to argue with its conclusions. This book relates, using almost solely primary documentation, how Hitler made an agreement with the small but influential Zionist movement of Germany to move the Jews to Palestine. In return, the Zionists openly supported Hitler and his early rise to power. Black holds that the street violence between Nazis and Communists were particular harsh on the Jews (who normally backed the Communists), and, slowly, the Jews were purged from most professional positions. But Black says that the Zionists of Germany saw an opportunity. Attacks on Jews, to the Zionist mind, were not unexpected, since Jews were indeed aliens in Europe. Jews were Asians, not white, and hence, were strangers in Europe. Anti-Semitism was a natural reaction to this, and hence, morally neutral. The only solution was to unite with Hitler to promote the move of Jews out of Germany to Palestine (Black, 2001, esp ch 7). Hitler organized banks, currency transfers and generally greased the skids to facilitate Jewish emigration to Palestine. Of course, since the fall of the Ottomans, the British controlled Palestine. Hence, the agreement, while it would have saved many Jews from a gruesome fate, was stymied by British imperial power int eh Middle East. Hence the final solution was not the only solution, just the final one. Previous solutions had been mass Jewish emigration. But the Zionist movement got what they want. From a paltry 2% of the Jewish population in Germany to a mass movement, Hitler scared the Jews to such an extent that a formerly assimilated Jewish population suddenly became nationalist and themselves created a colonial state in the Middle East. In other words, Zionism could never have existed without Hitler. Therefore, Hitler is the founder of the Israeli state in more than one way. Bibliography Black, Edwin. The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine. Carol and Graf Publishers. Cain, Peter (2001). Imperialism: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies. Taylor and Francis. Chesneaux, J. et al (1977). China from the Opium Wars to the 1911 Revolution. Harvester Press. Hobhouse, Leonard (1967). Liberalism. Oxford University Press. Kershaw, Ian (1993). Hitler, 1889-1936, Hubris. WW Norton. Korniki, Peter (1998). Meiji Japan: Political, Economic and Social History. 1868-1912. Routledge. Wrigley, Chris. (1993). The Challenge of Labor: Central and Western Europe 1917-1920. Routledge.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
The Truth behind Lady Macbeth
English 4A 16 October, 2011 The Truth behind Lady Macbeth In the play, ââ¬Å"Macbethâ⬠, the character that stands out the most is Lady Macbeth. Her role in this story is significant, she is an evil, ruthless, and ambitious person. She is responsible for the murders that her husband commits because she was bloodthirsty for the crown. In fact, she then becomes more eager to get the crown than Macbeth himself and soon realizes that once you commit one violent act, there is almost no way of ever turning back. An analysis of Lady Macbeth reveals that she is a powerful character who adds complexity and depth to a play about murder, madness, and revenge. Due to her ambition to become queen, Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to murder king Duncan. She accuses Macbeth of being a coward believing that he is not worthy enough to match his acts with hi desires telling him ââ¬Å"Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire? â⬠(1. 7. 39-40). Lady Macbeth is trying to bring out the evil within her husband, she wants to provoke him into doing this terrible deed so that Macbeth will no longer be afraid and shall be devoted to murdering Duncan. She is aware that she has control over her husband which she is using against him. Macbeth does not tolerate being called names by his own wife or by anyone else, he states ââ¬Å"I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is noneâ⬠. To him his wifeââ¬â¢s opinion is very important and he is determined to prove his manhood. This shows Lady Macbethââ¬â¢s manipulative power against Macbeth and how she can use his emotions to gain her personal desires which was the crown. Once her husband has decided to go through with it she then begins to plan out the murder. Careful planning is something Lady Macbeth seems to do very well, she shows this when she is planning Duncanââ¬â¢s death. They both decide that the best time to kill Duncan is when he has fallen asleep, ââ¬Å"What cannot you and I perform upon Thââ¬â¢unguarded Duncan? â⬠(1. 7. 69-70). This shows Lady Macbethââ¬â¢s intelligence and how she is able to be prepared for such a devious crime. She acknowledges the fact that Macbeth could get caught so she concocts another plan to blame Duncanââ¬â¢s officers for their murder. ââ¬Å"What not put upon his spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt of our great quell? â⬠(1. 7. 70-71). She is confident that her husband will get away with everything as long as he shows no fear and sticks to plan. Without a doubt she shows her fearlessness and loyalty to his terrible act. Not feeling any remorse, she is able to skillfully let go of guilt and skillfully get rid of evidence. As Macbeth comes back to her after the deed is complete he is very shaken up and extremely paranoid that someone saw him with the bloody daggers. Lady Macbeth tells him, ââ¬Å"These deeds must not be thought after these ways; so it will make us madâ⬠(2. 2. 34). By saying this she believes that you shouldnââ¬â¢t feel guilty about doing evil, you should just get it done and move on because thinking about it will only drive you crazy. Also she thinks when commiting violent acts such as murder make sure to get rid of any evidence that will lead people to believe you are a suspect. Frustrated and upset that her husband came home bathed in blood and the daggers in his hand she states, ââ¬Å"Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. â⬠(2. 2. 52-53). She is extremely disappointed in Macbeth for being so careless and cannot believe that he did not go through the well thought out plan smoothly. In her eyes he is still a coward and does not know how to behave calmy when feeling guilty. Throughout the play her character develops drastically, for example in the beginning of the play she is cruel, evil, and fearless, then soon starts change and become a new person. At first she would have done anything in her power to get something complete especially if she was sworn to it,in fact she says that she would have killed her own child, ââ¬Å"I would, while it was smiling in my faceâ⬠¦dashed the brains out. â⬠(1. 7. 56-58). This signifies the depth her character adds to the story, her remorseless attitude and her evil ways make it interesting and encourages the reader to keep reading so that they can find out exactly what she will do next. Actually, without Lady Macbeth, none of the murders in the play probably would have happened since she is the one responsible for all of them. Even though Macbeth physically did the crimes, she believes she is more noble and just as strong as any man, ââ¬Å"That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold. â⬠(2. 2. 1). What this means is that the wine that the men drink makes them drunk, however it gives her strength to do evil things. Towards the end of the story she realizes that crime does not pay off and regrets what she has done, however at this point it is too late. After all of the murders and blood that has been shed she begins to feel guilty. Realizing what sheââ¬â¢s done, ââ¬Å"Noughtââ¬â¢s had, alls spent,â⬠¦tis safer to be that which we destroy. â⬠(3. 2. 5-7). Crime brings no happiness so why bother doing it when you gain nothing but pain. The worst part of crime is once it has been done there is no way of taking it back, which is exactly what Lady Macbeth thinks when she says, ââ¬Å"Whatââ¬â¢s done cannot be undone. â⬠(5. 1. 59-60). It is ironic that she feels regretful because of the fact that she was the one who felt that fear and regret was only for the weak and despised cowards. This goes to show how much her character has developed and leads to her turning point in the play where she has a breakdown. Her conscience finally gets the best of her and in the last act of the play she has become insane. This scene is the most important because it describes all of the things Lady Macbeth has gone through. She feels responsible for everything and wishes to take it back. At this point she has completely lost her mind, she is speaking in rhymes, ââ¬Å"The Thane of Fife had a wife, where is she now? â⬠(5. 1. 37). Macduff was the Thane of Fife and she is wondering what has happened to his wife, which shows that she was unaware of how Macbeth slaughtered his family. So much blood has been shed that it makes her sick, ââ¬Å"Hereââ¬â¢s the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. â⬠(5. 1. 44). After all of the pain and agony she has caused and what she has become, Lady Macbeth has had enough. The doctor later tells her husband that she has committed suicide which marks the end of the sad and tragic story of her character. In conclusion, throughout the most powerful tragedy story of Macbeth we see the development of Lady Macbethââ¬â¢s character. Seeing her go from evil and fearless to a regretful coward is really eye opening on how significant her role is. It truly shows her complexities and the depth of such a powerful character. That is why this play is one of the greatest and most famous of Shakespeareââ¬â¢s work. Works Cited Shakespeare, William, and Alan Durband. Macbeth Modern Version Side-by-side with Full Original Text. Hove, S. Aust. : Townsend School for the Visually Impaired, 1986. Print.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
McDonaldââ¬â¢s Organizational Structure
In 1940, Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the first McDonalds Bar-B-Q restaurant in San Bernardino, California. McDonalds offered hamburger, cheeseburgers, soft drinks, coffee, potato chips, and pie, which their big seller at that time was their 15-cent hamburger. McDonaldââ¬â¢s achievement is constructed on the groundwork of personal and professional integrity. In 1955, a businessperson named Ray Kroc purchased the company from Richard and Maurice and began to take the company to new heights.Over the years McDonalds grew bigger and bigger and became what it is today which is the worldââ¬â¢s largest food service retailer with over 30,000 locations in 119 countries. Below will outline McDonalds as a corporation and the organizational structure they have within the company. Functions of McDonalds McDonaldââ¬â¢s has over 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries which most of the restaurants are normally franchises; which they all obtain their food and packaging from the same offi cial vendors worldwide.With that said, every McDonaldââ¬â¢s organizational structure is the same so a McDonalds in the United States is the same as a McDonalds in China which all of the important decisions comes from the corporate level in the United States. McDonalds believe their success is based on their business model, which is represented by a stool with three legs, which are owner/operators, suppliers, and company employees. McDonalds has not been always the giant in the industry in an annual customer satisfaction study, McDonaldââ¬â¢s was scored dead last among fast-food restaurants since 1992.In the fourth quarter of 2002, McDonalds has disclosed its first-ever quarterly loss, one reason why McDonaldââ¬â¢s is struggling is that the consumers began to switch to its competitors, such as Burger King, Wendyââ¬â¢s, and Subway (Han, 2008). These other companies emphasized on giving customers fresher, hotter, better quality foods at lower price along with faster service than McDonalds. With that being said McDonalds made the decision to close over 700 restaurants because they were performing inadequately.When this happened, the corporate team was thinking that they might not be competitive anymore within the fast food industry. The major competitors of McDonalds are Burger King and Wendyââ¬â¢s, who their structures are not much different from McDonalds because they are ran the same from a corporate standpoint. Burger king along with Wendyââ¬â¢s has multiple locations around the world but where McDonalds has, the upper hand is they having more franchises around the world than both Wendyââ¬â¢s and Burger King put together.With along the companies having the same structure they all have different views on how they run their businesses. One thing is for sure that each companyââ¬â¢s decisions starts at the top and works the way down the change to each individual store or restaurant. McDonalds believes the best people lead to the best busine ss results (McDonalds Corporate). McDonalds wants to guarantee that they have the best leaders that can move McDonaldââ¬â¢s into the future.Over the decade, McDonalds has strategically improved their efforts and investments in talent management, from applying a reliable and precise talent planning process at their own learning academy, which is Hamburger University. These investments are part of a complete worldwide talent management strategy to ensure they have high-performing, dedicated leaders, a diverse pool of candidates for the future and a culture that both requires and supports learning and development (McDonalds Corporate).In the Marketing, function of McDonalds they are dedicated to communicating responsibly, along with they would like to use their brand to make a difference in everyoneââ¬â¢s lives. For years, McDonaldââ¬â¢s global marketing strategy has helped ensure that their advertising and marketing is clear, appropriate and that it addresses all ages from ch ildren to adults. To McDonaldââ¬â¢s, the most vital tactical method for sustaining their leading position is to preserve their major markets while at the same time increase their business into the other developing markets.However, different consumer groups in different countries may have very different tastes and/or requirements (Han, 2008). Therefore, each full operating geographic unit of McDonaldââ¬â¢s was required to solely responsible for producing and marketing its products in that region. Through this regional structure, McDonaldââ¬â¢s could not only satisfy the local consumersââ¬â¢ needs in different geographical areas but also pursuing ââ¬Ëmaximum local developmentââ¬â¢ (Han, 2008). In fact, each McDonalds produces and markets somewhat different kinds of products in different areas, along with they even have different prices.McDonalds Competitors McDonaldââ¬â¢s organizational structure is a little different from most companies because McDonalds has so m any different franchises around the world but the best structure that suits McDonalds I think is the centralized structure because McDonalds needs to make sure that control is supported through all of their franchises. McDonalds needs to guarantee that customer experience and quality is consistent at every McDonalds is maintained. At each location McDonalds has managers, assistant managers, and crewmembers.For the bigger decisions such as marketing and advertising, these decisions, come from the corporate headquarters and then are passed down to each store. For example, if the marketing department is promoting a new product, they will test it out at a couple locations and if the new product is a hit with customers, they will have that product at every location. This is why customers see new products on the menu only for a limited time because corporate headquarters is testing the product in different geographic areas.At McDonalds, each department has a particular job function and th is allows McDonalds to be so successful around the world. In conclusion, for 72 years McDonalds has been growing bigger and bigger to become one of the largest fast food restaurants in the world. McDonaldââ¬â¢s achievement is constructed on the groundwork of personal and professional integrity. Although each franchise may have different menu items to suit, different customer needs.All the stores are run from one place in the United States, which is the corporate headquarters and here is where the men and women plan their next move to bring McDonalds to new heights around the world. Hundreds of millions of individuals around the world trust McDonaldââ¬â¢s restaurants. McDonalds win that trust everyday by serving safe food, respecting our customers and employees and delivering outstanding Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value (McDonalds Corporate). I believe that Richard and Maurice would be proud of what has become of their vision, which was to give individuals in San Bernard ino, California a nice quick meal.
Friday, September 27, 2019
Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 19
Essay Example Scuba diving often assists in enabling shallow investigations. Earlier people used to restrain their breath while diving. In this way they used to hunt underwater creatures like fish. This was called free diving. Many competitions were also held around this theme. Accompanied with the technique of scuba diving the use of eco sounds helped in exploring the seabed. (Reed, 2009) Though men have interacted with the ocean since time immemorial, visual exploration of the seas were possible with the advent of scuba diving which made use of breathing apparatus to be carried for diving underwater. Helmet diving and diving bells in addition helped a diver to stay below the waters for long and explore the depths. These helped the scuba divers to adapt to the changes in the pressure and the physiology in order to hold back death. Thus scuba diving has a profound application in the world of marine science. The main idea is to carry self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) instead of depending upon air pumped from the water surface (Bhootra, n.d., p.96). Using breath-holding processes these divers manage to remain underwater for a long time. Thus apart from recreation, scuba divingââ¬â¢s application in different fields of science related to the marine world makes it an indispensable part of science and technology in the topical time with an ever-expanding knowledge base. Studying this area would be interesting especially with the aim of understanding its application in the world of science and discoveries. Dr. Lamberstein who was the pioneer of scuba diving apparatus initially built the LARU (Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit) and undertook the first close circuit scuba dive in New York. 12 dives were undertaken and Dr. Lamberstein during one of the dives underwent an attack of oxygen toxicity. The instruments
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Improving Construction Safety in Saudi Arabia Dissertation - 1
Improving Construction Safety in Saudi Arabia - Dissertation Example However, based on a premise of sustained and continuous improvement, it is desirable to find ways and means for improving construction health and safety in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a nation that presents certain constraints. A laxity in implementation of commercial and contractual laws and a traditional approach to solving problems related to labour shortage by recruitment of fixed-term contract labour as cheaply as possible from underdeveloped nations rather than efforts aimed at creating a permanent pool of labour through permanent immigration characterise most GCC countries. This study concludes that it is possible to improve construction health and safety in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by effective enforcement of existing health and safety laws, enacting legislation for off-site health and safety for migrant workers, maintaining a fund for social security and improving regulation of commercial and contractual transactions. ... 3.1 Research Approach for the Dissertation Project 46 3.3 Design and Administration of the Survey 49 3.4 Sample Selection and Sample Size 52 3.5 Analysis of the Survey Data 53 4 Results 58 5 Analysis and Interpretation 78 6 Conclusions and Recommendations 86 Appendix A ââ¬â Survey Questionnaire 88 Appendix B ââ¬â Consent Form 105 Bibliography / References 107 List of Figures Figure 1: Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research 42 Figure 2: Suggested Research Process for Construction Management Research 43 Figure 3: The Research Process for Construction Research 45 (This page intentionally left blank) 1 Introduction It is rather unfortunate, but true, that the construction industry around the world had developed a reputation for being the industrial sector that presents higher statistics for industrial accidents, fatalities and deaths than any other (Coble, 2000, Pp. vii - viii). United States Department of Labour for the year 2006 indicated that construction fatalities represented about 21% of the total work force fatalities (Lambeck, 2009, Pp. 72 ââ¬â 74). However, efforts directed towards continuous improvement in construction safety in many countries, including Japan, South Korea, China, etc. demonstrate that it is possible to reduce the incidence of occupational injury, serious accidents or deaths (Poon, 2008, Chapter 1). Statistics for construction industry accident frequency rates per million of men hour worked for Singapore suggest that with an accident frequency rate per million man hours of 3.5 for the construction sector in comparison to 1.9 for all other industries help to illustrate the notoriety of the construction sector (Poon, 2008, Chapter 1). However, results for Japan, Korea and Hong Kong demonstrate improvement with effort. Reports about the construction
Evaluation of Agency's Public Personnel Administration, Part 2 Essay
Evaluation of Agency's Public Personnel Administration, Part 2 - Essay Example Coaching sessions are always targeted on their senior employees and managers of various units. The organization has enough and sufficient resources for purposes of developing and training its employees. The organization is funded by userââ¬â¢s fees. The organization charges fees on various services it offers. Such fees include the visa processing fees, fees paid to access the various forms that the organization offers. For example, in 2008, the congress allocated 1% of the federal budget to fund the activities of USCIS. The remaining 99% emanated from the various fees charged to users. These financial resources help the organization to train its employees for purposes of imparting the necessary skills that the organization needs. The organization manages to clearly identify its mission statement, and core values to its employees. In communicating these messages, the organization uses their official websites, at the about us page. The organization values integrity, vigilance, respe ct and ingenuity. Employees of the organization have to work hard to satisfy these values (About Us, 2013). Weaknesses of US Citizenship and Immigration Services: One major weakness of the organization is that its employees are not trained on the capability to enforce the various immigration laws. The responsibility to enforce these laws lies on the federal and state security organs. For instance, immigration officials cannot arrest nor detain a suspected drug trafficker using falsified immigration documents at the border. All they have to do is to notify the police so an arrest can be made (Kretsedemas, 2012). Employees of the organization are also faced with too much work. This is because the employees have to verify and check on the profiles of numerous applications. The number of people applying for citizenship and visa always range to millions. There is a need for relevant technology to help in these areas (Kretsedemas, 2012). Linkages and Personnel Management: The organization has a presence on almost all the countries of the world. This is because of an interest by citizens of other countries to visit the States. This organization seconds its employees to the various embassies of the country, who in turn offer their services there. Due to their international presence, the organization normally trains its international employees on the various aspects of international relations. This knowledge is necessary because it will help them interact with the communities in which they are sent to work in (Eastman, 2012). On this basis, the organization will post its employees to work in positions that they have skills in. The best human resource management theory that explains this approach is the motivational theory. According to this theory, the management has to motivate its human resource personnel for purposes of achieving the best results. Providing education on international relations is an important way of motivating these staff. Personnel Recruitment and Hiring Practices: One of the major components of the organizations systems goals and practices is to identify and develop the necessary talent amongst its employees. Talent identification is a major goal of the various human resources policies of the company. This involves conducting performance appraisals for purposes of identifying top performers. The organization will either promote these people, or train them further for purposes of
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Alternative Methods of Involving Employees in Decision Making Essay
Alternative Methods of Involving Employees in Decision Making - Essay Example Moreover, I have realised the method of transition from one paragraph to another in order to keep the flow of a paper from feedbacks. Introduction ââ¬Å"Employee involvement is not the goal nor is it a tool. Rather, employee involvement is a management and leadership philosophy about how people are most enabled to contribute to continuous improvement and the ongoing success of their work organizationâ⬠(Employee Involvement: How to Involve Employees in Decision Making, 2012). Advancements in science and technologies and subsequent development of new organizational principles stress the importance of employee involvement in decision making process in an organization. Earlier, top management and middle management were responsible for taking critical decisions with respect to the functioning of the organization. However, the necessities of employee involvement in decision making process are well documented by modern researches. ââ¬Å"For a company to remain healthy over the long term, a new strategic direction that would help it to grow and offer its people challenging work, is neededâ⬠(Xarcos, 2009). Ensuring employee participation in the decision making is one way of giving a strategic direction to an organization. ââ¬Å"The concept of employee involvement originates from a leader kind of philosophy where people contribute to the effectiveness of the company and improvement is continuous. Companies that employ this strategy are most successful in areas of their businessâ⬠(Alexander, 2011). Employees are the most important resource as far as an organization is concerned. In fact employees are the only active resource of an organization and the supervision from this active resource is necessary mobilize all the other passive resources of an organization. Being the only active resource in an organization, employees should be given participation in the decision making process so that they may feel more attachments towards the organization. Differe nt methods are used by different for ensuring employee participation in the decision making process. This paper analyses the alternative methods of involving employees in decision making and the benefits and challenges that these might present for an organisation. Alternative methods of involving employees in decision making The following figure illustrates the ladder of decision making in an organization. Ladder of Decision Making Level 1. Executive Decision Level 2. Executive Decision with Report Level 3. Consultative Decision Level 4. Employee Recommendation Level 5. Delegated Decision (with Veto) Level 6. Delegated decision (w/o Veto) Level 7. Employee Decision Responsibility for the Decision (Gallagher, 2002) At level 1, the chief executive is taking decisions independently and he may or may not inform his decision to the employees during latter stages. At level 2, the executive takes decisions and inform it to the employees in the near future itself. At level 3, the executive welcomes ideas from employees before the decision making process. At level 4, the executive assigns the duty of decision making to the employees whereas at level 5, the executive can accept or reject the decisions taken by the employees. At level 6 employee decisions will be accepted by the executive whereas at level 7, employees may not even inform the executive about their decisions. ââ¬Å"Strategies to encourage employee involvement through participatory, consultative and cooperative workplaces have been widely promoted since the 1970sââ¬
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Power and social movements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words
Power and social movements - Essay Example Furthermore, crowd mechanisms cannot be used to achieve communication and coordination of activity over a wide area, such as a nation or continent (Social Movement, 2006). In this regard, Sidney Tarrow defines a social movement as collective challenges by people with common purposes and solidarity in sustained interactions with elites, opponents and authorities. He specifically distinguishes social movements from political parties and interest groups (Tarrow, 1994). From whatever perspective one views social movement, it is apparent that all definitions of social movement reflect the notion that they are intrinsically related to social change; an attempt by the perceived powerless and voiceless in the society to exert their voice and power with an eye towards achieving such change. They do not, however, encompass the activities of people as members of stable social groups with established, unquestioned structures, norms, and values (Social Movement, 2006). Over the past few decades, several factors such as education, which have encouraged wider dissemination of literature, the increased mobility of labour due to the industrialisation and urbanisation of 19th century societies, the freedom of expression, and relative economic independence prevalent in the modern western society have precipitated an explosion of social movements in countries across the globe (Schock, 2005; Giddens et al, 2003). The New Social Movement (NSM); a new term that has come to describe the several social movements that sprung up over time, ranges from the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s to the antinuclear and ecological movements of the 1980s and the gay rights campaign of the 1990s. Increasingly, traditional political institutions are becoming unable to cope with these challenges facing them. Taking a look at the origin of social movements, Tilly (2004) argues that social movement was not in existence before the late eighteenth century. Although he concedes that several elements like campaigns, social movement repertoire and WUNC displays have a long history, he opined that they were only recently combined together into what could be seen properly as a social movement. Social movement first came into existence in England and North America during the first decades of the nineteenth century and has since then spread across the globe (Tilly, 2004) From several indications it is apparent that the early growth of social movements was connected to broad economic and political changes including parliamentarisation, capitalisation, etc. Political movements that evolved in late 18th century, like those connected to the French Revolution and Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791 are among the first documented social movements, although Tilly notes that the British abolitionist movement has "some claims" to being the first social movement (becoming one between the sugar boycott of 1791 and the second great petition drive of 1806). The labour movement and socialist movement of the late 19th century are seen as the prototypical social movements, leading to the formation of communist and social democratic parties and organisations. From 1815, Britain after victory in the Napoleonic Wars
Monday, September 23, 2019
Why are Nigerians easily affect by HIV Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words
Why are Nigerians easily affect by HIV - Essay Example In 2005, the number escalated to 2,20,000 deaths. In Nigeria prevalence levels of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDs) caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), are highest among young people, especially women between the ages of 20 and 29 years. However, there are differences on a regional as well as state level basis, attributed to the marked social and ethnocultural differences at these levels. According to Deji et al (2007: 10), the prevalence ââ¬Å"ranged from a low of 2.3% in the south west to a high of 7% in the north central regionsâ⬠. At State level, the variations are wider; as in Osun and Ogun the prevalence of the disease among pregnant women was 1.2% and 1.5% respectively, as compared to 9.3% in Benue and 12% in Cross River. Projections show that by 2009, some five million Nigerians would have developed AIDs, since the disease takes up to ten years to develop fully into AIDs after the onset of infection. Surveys indicate that both urban and rural areas are affected (Sofo et al, 2003: 14). Nigeriaââ¬â¢s government predicts that from 2007 to 2011, the adult prevalence of HIV/ AIDs will reach as high as 26% and up to 15 million people will be infected. By 2011, around 10 million Nigerians would have died from AIDs, and Nigeria would overtake South Africa as the African continentââ¬â¢s most AIDs-affected nation (Rotberb, 2007: 25). Before 2011, it would not be possible to stop the escalation of the disease, but an improved availability of treatment with antiretroviral drugs and better healh infrastructure, would help to increase the life span of sufferers. However, slowing the spread of HIV/ AIDs is considered to be crucial in controlling the disease. Professor Rasheed A. Bakare, an accomplished microbiologist and venereologist has stated in an interview (Annals, 2005: 48) that in Ibadan which is the capital city of Oyo State in Nigeria, Africa, the most common agents responsible for sexually
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Carlisle fieldwork write up Essay Example for Free
Carlisle fieldwork write up Essay How our data was collected: We all split up and positioned ourselves in different places of Carlisleââ¬â¢s CBD. We then approached different members of the public and to make it fair we chose different age groups, gender, and closed style questions. This is known as using stratified sampling. We used a questionnaire which consisted of 3 questions, so it was nice and quick so that we wouldnââ¬â¢t hold people up during their day out. For the distance Q we had pre-selected margins so it made it easy to record the results for each person without putting down the exact distance and instead using a rough estimate which was sufficient for this exercise. How our methods of data collection could have been improved: We could have chosen to do the questionnaire at various times during the day so we would gain a fair representation of the different groups of people visiting Carlisle during the whole day, and therefore making our results much more reliable. Also we could have covered a much larger area and retained a lot more results and variety of results. Methods to represent data: We used a table to record the questionnaire results with the no. Of person down the side with the 3 questions as the columns with the answers jotted down. It was a good way to record the results as it is easy to read from and make assumptions. In conclusion I believe the questionnaire we used to obtain our results was a good way of collecting the information as it made it easy to read from and to notice patterns in the results. Although there are some ways in which the investigation could have been improved such as spending more time interviewing people or covering a much larger area, or just asking them more questions such as what method of transport they used to travel to Carlisle on that day. 2nd Human Study: Aim: To see if pedestrian numbers peak at lunchtime. Annotated Sketch Map of the study area: image01. png How our data was collected: We positioned ourselves at the desired point just outside the main shopping area of the centre of Carlisle. It was a reasonably busy area of the town. We recorded each person who passed around us as designated by the survey area in the sketch map above. How our methods of data collection could have been improved: We could have taken more surveys around different places around the city centre to obtain more reliable results. We could have noted down what age groups the passer bys were. Also we could have taken the survey over more time periods to obtain more reliable results. E. g. 9:00, 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00. Methods to represent data: We noted down the results in a table so it is easy to read from and comment by understanding it correctly. We used a tally system also so that recording the numbers was simpler as it took less time as we could count up the final result at the end of each survey. In conclusion I believe the method we used to collect the data was the most efficient way of doing so as it was quick and it meant that we wouldnââ¬â¢t let anyone pass by unnoticed. To improve this study we could have recorded how many children and elderly passed by marking them with a different colour or symbol to see which kind of people walked these areas at that time of the day.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Bullwhip Effect In Healthcare Sector
Bullwhip Effect In Healthcare Sector In Supply Chain management, Bullwhip effect has attracted some considerable importance in the FMCG sector in the last 20 years. The phenomenon Bullwhip Effect shows how small changes at the customers end have tremendous impact on the operations back there in the chain. The cause behind this effect is mainly attributed to the increasing demand variability in the supply chain. We consider the number of companies taking part in a single supply chain. Each of the company gets the order from its immediate downstream company to be fulfilled. In Bullwhip effect the orders to the suppliers tend to have a larger variance than sales to the buyer. This demand distortion then gets amplified while propagating upstream. The paper mainly focuses on how the Bullwhip effect the matching of the demand and supply and the main causes leading to this. It also focuses on the PG case study to understand the Bullwhip effect and the steps taken to dampen the bullwhip effect. Further it aims at quantifying the bullwhip effect and reducing its impact on the supply chain. Acknowledgement I am thankful to Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering (MPSTME) for giving me this opportunity to understand the Bullwhip Effect and the major causes and the PG case. Furthermore helping us understand the various techniques and procedures for writing a research project. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my college mentor Prof. Jinu Kurian for her continuous guidance and support and being available at all times whenever the need may arise. I would also like to thank Prof. Prasad Chakrabarty for his help and support in the project. Table of Contents Introduction The bullwhip effect occurs when the demand order variability in the supply chain is amplified as they moved upstream in a supply chain. Distorted information from single end of a supply chain to the other may lead to tremendous inefficiencies. Companies can effectively deal with the bullwhip effect by thoroughly understanding its underlying causes. Organizational leaders are implementing various innovative strategies that pose new challenges: integrating new information systems defining new organizational inter relationships implementing new incentive and measurement systems. At macroscopic level, Bullwhip Effect generates inefficiencies in production scheduling, sourcing, capacity utilization, distribution and the profit generation. While if we take a look at the operating level it induces additional inventory which is placed inappropriately to maintain the service levels. It also reduces the performance level by decreasing the incoming cash and the potential revenue. It can even dilute any companys competitive strategies. 2 factors have changed the landscape of supply chain management in the last few years significantly. Availability and use of the technology and software applications to allow capture and sharing of information across a supply chain mostly through extranets Increasing indulgence of members of the supply chain in order to move towards to put aside the traditional arms-length relationships amongst each other and in its place move towards closer, partnership-type arrangements. Again, the networks over which these collaborations take place must include the necessary levels of performance, scalability, security and reliability to realise these benefits to their maximum potential. Problem Statement To analyse the Bullwhip Effect in healthcare sector and to find out its causes, consequences and cures. Significance Global competition in the world market today contains many challenges to achieve a degree of predictability in the supply chain and remove the impact of Bullwhip Effect. Researchers have examined the bullwhip effect and some models to reduce it, however a very few research has been done on analysing the Bullwhip Effect in healthcare sector and to find out its causes, consequences and cures quantifying the effect of bullwhip and its Measurement still remains an exigent research path. Research Methods A case-study based approach was employed to conduct the research. Data were gathered primarily through interviews, observations and archival sources. At the hospitals, Interviews were conducted, in person, with doctors, nurses, administrators, and other hospital staff. At the diagnostic laboratory, personal interviews were conducted with the CEO, pathologists and other lab technicians. As far as data gathering is concerned, we decided to employ an informal, minimally structured, non-directive interview approach, enabling to minimize the influence of the assumptions. . Literature Review Fluctuations in demand have a varying graph when we compare from industry to industry. Driven by seasonal demand and business cycles, apparel industry faces major demand adjustments, while the diaper market is subjected to constant demand in the market arena. Due to misjudgement of demands, the big players in the retail market can be subjected to inventory shortages or surpluses. But given the consistency of demand in the diaper market the diaper supply chain should be more efficient and accurate. But it isnt the case. The diaper market even with the reliable demand patterns isnt able to match the demand-production matching. The major cause to this supply chain inefficiency can be subjected to Bullwhip Effect. The term was coined by Procter Gamble who noticed amplification in the information distortion as the information of the order travelled upstream in the supply chain. Bullwhip effect or Whiplash effect can be majorly seen in the forecast driven distribution channels. It indicates a lack of synchronization among the members across the supply chain. Even if there is a small fluctuation in the customer sales, it reflected upstream in an amplified form. Because of this supply patterns does not match the demand patterns resulting in inventory surplus at various stages of the supply chain.C:UsersIndiaDesktopblwhp.jpg As the customer demand would be rarely perfectly stable, businesses should forecast demand in order to match the demands with the production and managing their inventory levels. Some of the major reasons behind bullwhip effect are:- Forecast Errors Overreaction to backlogs Lead time variability No communication and no coordination along the supply chain members Delay in information and material flow Price fluctuations Product promotions Order batching raw material orders from ProcterGamble to its suppliers fluctuated over time. On further noticing it was found that farther down the chain, when sales at retail stores were studied, it was found that the fluctuation which was present, were small. It is reasonable to assume that the consumers of the diapers at the last stage of the supply chain used them at a steady rate. Although consumption at the end product was stable, orders for raw material were highly variable, increasing costs and making it difficult for supply to match demands. Lack of coordination between supply chain members also results if information distortion occurs within the supply chain. Considering the Bullwhip effect PG observed in the diaper supply chain. As a result of the bullwhip effect, orders PG receives from its distributors are much more variable than the demand for the diapers at retailers. The lack of the supply chain coordination between members has an adverse effect on manufacturing cost. It increases the manufacturing cost in the supply chain. PG and its suppliers must satisfy a stream of orders that is even more variable than customer demand. ProcterGamble responded to the increased change by either building excess capacity or by holding excess inventory, both of which increase the manufacturing cost per unit produced. It even increases the replenishment lead time in the supply chain. The increased variability due to bullwhip effect makes scheduling at PG and supplier plants much more difficult as compared to a situation with level demand. There are times when the capacity which is available and inventory cannot supply the orders coming in. This results in higher replenishment lead times in the supply chain from both PG and its suppliers. It even hurts the level of product availability and results in more stock outs in the supply chain. Very high fluctuations in orders make it difficult for PG to supply all distributor and retailer orders on time. This increases the likelihood that retailers will run out of stock, resulting in lost sales for the supply chain. It also leads to an increase in the inventory costs. To handle the increased variability in demand PG has to carry a higher level of inventory than would be required if the supply chain was coordinated. As a result, inventory costs in the supply chain increase. The high levels of inventory also increase the warehousing space required and thus the warehousing cost incurred. It impacts the transportation cost in the supply chain. The transportation requirements over time at PG and its suppliers fluctuate with the orders being filled. As a result of bullwhip effect, transportation requirements fluctuate significantly over time. This raises transportation cost because surplus transportation capacity needs to be maintained to cover high demand periods. It also leads to the increase in labour costs associated with shipping and receiving in the supply chain. Labour requirements for shipping at PG and its suppliers fluctuate with orders. A similar fluctuation occurs for the labour requirements for receiving at distributors and retailers. The various stages have the option of carrying excess labour capacity in response to the fluctuation in orders. Either option increases total labour cost. PG estimated that due to the manual interventions required in their process of ordering, billing and shipment systems, each deal to its customers cost between $35 to $75 to process. Sharing point-of-sale (POS) data across the supply chain can help reduce the bullwhip effect. A primary cause for information distortion is the fact that each level of the supply chain uses orders to forecast the future demand. Given that orders received by different levels vary, forecasts at different levels also vary. If retailers share POS data with other supply chain stages, all supply chain stages can forecast future demand based on customer demand. Sharing of POS data helps reduce information distortion because all stages now respond to the same change in the customer demand. Sharing aggregate Point Of Sale data is sufficient to reduceinformation distortion. PG has convinced many retailers to share demand data. PG in turn shares the data with its suppliers, improving coordination in the supply chain. In a continuous replenishment programs (CRS), the wholesaler or the manufacturer replenishes the inventorey regularly based on Point of sale data. In its simplest form, CRS seeks to allow more accurate production planning of inventories and also matching of supply and demand. Success with continuous replenishment programs is achieved when production planning has become demand-driven on an end-to-end basis throughout the supply chain. . Vendor-managed inventory (VMI) is a family of business models in which the buyer of a product provides certain information to a supplier of that product and the supplier takes full responsibility for maintaining an agreed inventory of the material, usually at the buyers consumption location (usually a store). A third-party logistics provider can also be involved to make sure that the buyer has the required level of inventory by adjusting the demand and supply gaps. PG now employs vendor-managed inventory (VMI) in its supply chain, starting with its supplier, 3M, and its customer, Wal-Mart In VMI, packaged-goods behemoth Procter Gamble (PG) initiated a value pricing scheme for sales to retailers. Value pricing was PG label for everyday low pricing (EDLP), a pricing strategy under which retailers are charged a consistent price rather than a high baseline price punctuated by sporadic, deep discounts. PG had many reasons for converting to EDLP. Its sales force had grown to rely on discounting to drive sales and the use of deep discounts had spiralled out of control, cutting into earnings. Background SMS Hospital, operating in Jaipur, is one of the largest government healthcare providers in Rajasthan. It consists of more than 500 beds and offers healthcare services ranging from a 24 hour accident and emergency service, to acute medical and surgical care, operating theatre suites, intensive care, ocus on cardiac and orthopedics areas and head injury and orthopaedic related trauma and community care. The hospital services more than 40,000 patient admissions and an average length of stay of 3.62 days for all patients. There are10 operating rooms (OR) with state of the art equipment, in-patients have hospital wards, acute cases beyond normal post-operative hospital care have rehabilitation unit for recovery and related ancillary services in the hospital facilities. These rooms are being used for major inpatient procedures. On an average of about 27,000 operations are performed in these rooms in a year. Specialty and staffed with suitably qualified nurses and technicians organizes 500+ beds in the hospital. The Operating Room Management Department (ORMD) is the central division, which faces daily challenges of managing and allocating the staff and equipment so that surgeries can be performed in an efficient, cost effective, and safe manner. The equipment that is owned by the hospital may either be dedicated to a theatre or be shared across theatres. The Operating Room staff is comprised of registered nurses, nursing assistants, scrub technicians and unit secretaries and an Operating Room nurse super vises all these. Equipment to be used for Operating Rooms may either be owned by the hospital or be procured from outside on a loan/hire basis. The Operating Room Management Department is responsible for assignment of theatre suitable for the scheduled surgery and ensuring the availability of staff and equipment when needed. Quality and cost of patient care implications are on overstaffed, undermanned, and unbalanced nursing teams. The hospital has adopted a hybrid strategy to meet its nurse requirements in both wards and Operating Rooms. The hospital has employed a group of permanent, full time nurse staff, which is also, complemented by a bank of casual, part time nurses which are available at short notice. Also, the hospital also has made some arrangements with several private agencies, which are known for providing qualified nurses for short periods to hospitals, on a temporary basis. Fifty % of the hospitals requirements) in the terms of nurse requirements are usually been met by permanent staff, thirty% by part time nurses and twenty% from agency staff. The hospital havent employ any specialist/surgeon, but only has a small group of physicians for overall supervision of the wards. Instead, it has arrangement with a large group of consultant surgeons who hold privileges to avail of the hospital facilities for treatment of their patients. The hospital derives its revenues from the fees charged for the use of its facilities ORs, hospital beds and other services from the patients. In most cases hospital charges are borne by patients medical insurance providers and the hospitals revenue is based on negotiated rates with these firms. Value Chain Figure 1 illustrates a schematic description of SMSs service value chain. As shown in the figure, the multi-stage process begins with the patients consultation with his or her primary care physician. Upon receiving a referral from the general practitioner to visit a medical specialist, the patient will then be assessed by a specialist. This stage does not involve the hospital and may consist of several visits to the doctors office and diagnostic laboratories, deals with the assessment of patients condition and treatment options. A determination of the need for surgery results in the addition of the patient to the doctors list of patients requiring surgery/hospitalization. Typically, specialist doctors have privileges at several hospitals in the area, and the choice of hospital for surgery is determined by a number of factors that include cost, patient preference, case complexity, wait involved, facilities and other services provided by the hospital. Following the choice of hospital, the patient is scheduled for surgery by assigning a slot in one of the doctors theatre sessions at the hospital. It is not uncommon for elective surgeries to be scheduled several weeks to a few months in advance. The schedule for each session along with patient and surgery details is expected to be communicated by the doctors office to the hospital well in advance to enable the hospital to make adequate arrangements. The surgeons operating list is not frozen and is dynamic with additions possible at a later stage (in some cases a few hours in advance) and the hospital is expected to be responsive and be able to provide the requisite support of staff, equipment and supplies. Surgery represents the third stage of the value chain and Saint Marys hospital is responsible for providing required support services. These include staffing the theatres with qualified nurses and technicians, and making available all equipment and supplies needed. The hospital is also responsible for pre-operative care of the patient and getting the patient ready for surgery and for post-operative care. Insufficient capacity and delays in these phases can result in blockage and starving of theatre resulting in underutilization of ORs with consequent adverse impact on hospital costs and efficiency. Post-operative care in hospital wards and in subsequent rehabilitation areas, if necessary represent the fourth and fifth stages before the patient is discharged and exits the hospital system. Constraints on bed capacity in wards can lead to fewer surgeries being scheduled resulting in lower theatre utilization. This is in contrast to the rehabilitation services, where capacity shortage may only lead to patients being off-loaded to other facilities owned by competitors, thereby resulting in loss of potential revenue. Planning and Scheduling at SMS Hospital Planning and scheduling at Saint Marys hospital is similar to other hospitals in Australia with annual theatre plans forming the basis for hospitals activities. The theatre plan involves assignment of theatre sessions to consultant surgeons and essentially defines the demand for hospitals services. A half-day slot is considered the basic unit for this purpose and thus each theatre has a capacity of 10 sessions per week, based on a five day week. As described earlier, surgeons expect hospitals to provide complete flexibility in organizing the activities within their sessions and hence assignment of a theatre session to a surgeon commits the hospital for providing the necessary staff and equipment for operation and post-operative care, and hence the hospital workload is a direct consequence of the theatre plan. In practice, theatre planning at Saint Marys begins three to four months in advance, in September/October for the following year. The plan is developed in consultation with the surgeons and varies little from year to year, except for changes to accommodate vacation periods of surgeons and other planned absences. The plan can be characterized as cyclic with effort to evenly spread out sessions assigned to individual surgeons. Further, to the extent feasible, weekly schedules are adopted. For example, a surgeon with 50 sessions would be assigned one session per week, usually in the same time slot every week (say, Monday morning). One feature of session plan at Saint Marys Hospital that merits special mention relates to the practice of concentration of sessions assigned to particular specialty. As a result, we find, sessions corresponding to different specialties peaking on different days of the week. Such practices are not unique to Saint Marys and are quite common at other hospitals i n Australia. The annual session plan forms the basis for nurse and technician staffing in the hospital. The labor cost of nurses and technicians is perhaps the most significant controllable operating cost at Saint Marys and directly impacts the hospitals financial viability. Staffing plan for nurses in the OR theatres is prepared for each calendar month on a monthly basis, two weeks in advance to conform to regulatory requirements. The initial plan is developed on the basis of the session plan. The nurse schedule is revised and frozen only a day in advance, at which time the requirements are assessed based on surgery lists available in the hospital. Besides adjustments for providing the required number of qualified nurses, the final schedule takes into account deviations from the initial plan (for example, absence due to sickness, or inability to schedule the nurse due to excess overtime on the previous day etc.) At this stage there is only very limited flexibility in respect of permanent, full t ime staff and the nurse scheduler relies on part time staff, supplemented by supply from external agency to meet the requirements. As mentioned earlier, current practices at Saint Marys hospital result in 20-25% of nursing needs being met with agency sources. In monetary terms, the proportion is higher due to higher rates paid for the temporary staff. Nurse staffing in wards is similar and schedules are frozen only a day in advance. Observations Our interviews with doctors/surgeons indicated that in a majority of specialties there is no discernable pattern in the demand for elective surgeries. This is in contrast to illnesses such as flu, hay fever that exhibit pronounced seasonality. Thus, daily demand for elective surgery end customer demand can be reasonably be described as fairly uniform with no seasonality (day of the week, month etc.) and low to moderate variability. Figure 2 describes the pattern of admissions (which corresponds to demand) for orthopaedic surgeries at Saint Marys hospital by day of the week. The figure is based on data for one year and excludes the holiday period (mid-December to mid-January) in Australia during which most doctors avoid scheduling elective surgeries. The data in Figure 2 shows mild seasonality by month (admissions range from a low of 332 to a peak of 512 with mean of 470) and high variability by day of the week. Excluding the weekends, the average daily admissions range from a low of 58 on Fridays to a peak of 123 on Wednesdays. The pattern is similar for other specialties, except for the location of the peak. While in Figure 2 the peak occurs on Wednesdays and Thursdays, for other specialties it might occur on other days of the week. Taken in conjunction with our premise that end customer demand is fairly constant, Figure 2 suggests strongly presence of phenomena similar to the bullwhip effect. In the remainder of this section we discuss briefly the impact of this pattern on hospital performance operational and financial. First, increased variability in the number of surgeries performed directly impacts the demand for post-operative services in the wards. Consequently, on peak days, shortage of beds makes the wards the bottleneck, thereby restricting the number of surgeries and reducing the theatre utilization and hospital throughput, which in turn leads to lower revenues and lower operating profits. While the hospital is a not-for-profit organization, operating profits represent one of the key funding sources for financing investments in equipment and facilities, and lower levels or absence of operating profit can severely restrict the hospitals ability to provide state-of-the-art high quality service. Second, the demand for nursing services both in theatres and wards is directly affected by higher variability and results in higher labor costs. With Saint Marys strategy of meeting the nursing demand with a mix of full time, part time and agency staff, higher variability of demand translates to the need for higher levels of flexibility and larger proportion of casual and agency staff. Higher wage rates for these categories increases operating costs and leads to lower profits. Third, SMSs reliance on flexible (part time and agency) staff affects the hospitals operating performance in more subtle, but significant manner. Higher levels of temporary staff leads to frequent changes in the composition of support staff assigned to each theatre, thereby inhibiting development of cohesive support teams. Consultant surgeons in our interviews mentioned this factor repeatedly as the primary cause of inefficiencies in theatre, requiring more operating time and reduction in efficient use of theatre capacity. The role of cohesive support teams in improving OR efficiencies is well known and has been noted in many other hospital environments. In the absence of such a support team, the surgery list scheduled for each session tends to be shorter (thus reducing hospital revenues). Alternately, with normal list the theatre time will be higher than planned, resulting in overtime and increasing operating costs. In either case, this practice adversely affects hospitals profits. Furthermore, this factor influences the doctors choice of hospital, prompting use of Saint Marys for more complex cases requiring its facilities. For simpler cases, the doctors tend to choose other hospitals with more efficiently organized OR theatres, perhaps with more limited range of services. As the more complex cases typically involve higher costs, this behavior has an adverse impact on Saint Marys finances. Under the Australian system the fees payable (to the hospital and doctor) are based on predetermined rates for each class and do not depend on the case complexity within each class. To summarize, increased variability in the demand for elective surgeries at Saint Marys hospital results in lower efficiencies, higher operating costs and lower revenues leading to lower profits. Thus, the presence of bullwhip effect leads to degradation of performance as in the case of manufactured goods reported in the literature. While this is intuitive and not surprising, it is interesting to note the dynamics are different from those observed in manufacturing higher levels of inventories and shortages. Macintosh HD:Users:vasvigakkhar:Desktop:Screen Shot 2012-12-29 at 2.09.56 AM.png Macintosh HD:Users:vasvigakkhar:Desktop:Screen Shot 2012-12-29 at 2.13.36 AM.png Methods for coping with the Bullwhip Effect The preceding section highlighted the different causes of the bullwhip effect in the healthcare sector and identified strategies to mitigate the detrimental impact of the effect. We briefly summarize the strategies (see Table for a summary): (i) Reducing uncertainty In order to minimize or eliminate bullwhip effect, it is important to reduce uncertainty throughout the service value chain. If information about customer can be centrally managed and if each stage of the service value chain can be provided with latest information in a timely manner, it will help eliminate duplication of effort at different stages and also ensure data consistency across all groups that require that data. It is also critical that dynamic updating of information is performed which will greatly help reduce uncertainty. (ii) Reducing variability There is inherent variability in the customer demand process and any effort that can be taken to minimize this variability will help reduce the overall bullwhip effect. Also, localized practices that lead to increased variability in demand at any of the stages should be eliminated with better coordination. Use of good forecasting methods will also assist the reduction of variability. (iii) Developing strategic partnerships The bullwhip effect can be minimized by developing key strategic partnerships with different links in the service value chain. For example, in case of hospitals, the hospital administration has to forge strategic alliances with medical specialists. These partnerships will change the way in which the information is shared and will help foster better coordination between the two parties. Although this may not fully eliminate bullwhip effect, it will go a long way in reducing the effect. (iv) Realignment of incentives One prime reason for the lack of coordination and meaningful information sharing is that the different entities are evaluated on the basis of different criteria and receive rewards for different activities. The evaluation and reward system should be modified to stress cooperation across stages and so that the planning is performed on system-level objectives and not on division/local level objectives. (v) Improving coordination across stages of service value chain To reduce the bullwhip effect, it is also important to ensure coordination across stages that are facilitated and improved. Summary and Future Research In this paper we have identified and described a phenomenon in healthcare industry that is similar to the bullwhip effect observed in the manufacturing sector which results in amplification of demand variability upstream in the service chain. Not surprisingly, this distortion likewise leads to performance degradation. However, the similarity with the manufacturing sector does not extend much further since the causes and the impact are somewhat different. For example, while bullwhip effect in manufactured goods results in higher levels of inventory and shortages, in hospitals it leads to lower levels of throughput, higher operating costs and longer patient waits. Hence, initiatives and strategies for minimizing the bullwhip effect and its impact require a different approach that addresses directly the root causes. Our study also indicates that the potential for performance improvements is quite significant. While our study focused on hospitals and other allied institutions in the health sector, we conjecture that a similar phenomenon may be present in other service industries. For example, billing practices in consumer utilities (electricity, gas etc) and credit card services with monthly cycles leads to variable unbalanced loads in certain segments. Similarly, scheduling practices in auto repair industry result in some variability amplification. Together this suggests that a more detailed study of the bullwhip phenomenon in services is warranted and may lead to order-of-magnitude performance improvements similar to those realized during the past two decades in the manufactured goods industries.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Locke Arguments In Support Of Private Property Philosophy Essay
Locke Arguments In Support Of Private Property Philosophy Essay What are Natural Rights? A Natural Right is a universal right that everyone has all around the world. In particular, Natural Rights is a political theory that maintains that an individual enters into society with certain basic rights and that no government can deny these rights. Us as humans were born with these natural rights. Natural rights grew out of the ancient and medieval doctrines of natural law, which is the belief that people, as creatures of nature and God, should live their lives and organize their society on the basis of rules and precepts laid down by nature or God. The concept of a natural right can be contrasted with the concept of a legal right. A legal right is specifically created by the government, while a natural right is claimed even when it Is Private Property a Natural Right? Yes! I consider Private Property a Natural Right. Private Property plays a big role within Natural Rights. Many philosophers including Locke, Marx, and Rawls each had their position on private property. This leads to the question: What is Private Property? You can not just give one definition because as I said before, many philosophers had different positions about private property on natural rights. If I had to define Private Property, I would say it is any property that is not public property, and may be under the control of a group or a single individual. It is like a claim to something that excludes others from having that same privilege. The one philosopher that I will talk about is John Locke. John Locke (29 August 1632 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher. Locke is considered the first of the British empiricist, but is equally important to social contract theory. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential enlightenment thinkers, classical republicans, and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American Revolutionaries. Lockes theory of mind is often cited as the origin for modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the later works of philosophers such as David Hume, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. Locke was the first philosopher to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He also postulated that the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa; that is, contrary to Cartesian or Christian Philosophy, Locke maintained that people are born without innate ideas. John Lockes position on private property being a natural right is really different from that of other philosophers. Locke was a major social contract thinker who argued that all people know what to do and why they do it therefore making sense. He said that mans natural rights are life, liberty, and property. In the Second Treatise of Government by John Locke, he writes about the right to private property. In the chapter which is titled Of Property he tells how the right to private property originated, the role it plays in the state of nature, the limitations that are set on the rights of private property, the role the invention of money played in property rights and the role property rights play after the establishment of government.. In this chapter Locke makes significant points about private property. In this paper I will summarize his analysis of the right to private property, and I will give my opinion on some of the points Locke makes in his book. According to Locke, the right to private property originated when God gave the world to men. Locke makes the argument that when God created the world for man, he gave man reason to make use of the world to the best advantage of life, and convenience. What he means by that is, that God made this world for man, and when he made it he gave m an the right to use what is in this world to his benefit. Locke explains that every man has property in his own person, and that nobody has any right to that property but that person. The author states that whatsoever then he removes out of the state of nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property (Locke pg. 19). What Locke means by that statement is that once a person removes something out of its original state of nature that something becomes that persons property. After someone gains this property are there any limitations on that property? Locke believes that there are limitations on that property. Locke believes that God has given us all things richly, and that man may use those things as long as he takes what he needs. Locke believes that the purpose of government is to protect property and that society was set up to avoid civil or foreign wars that may occur over the dispute of property. Locke attempts to rationalize the right of men having unequal possessions of the earth, but fails because he does not recognize that unequal ownership of property does not allow for the basis of his argument that ownership of property is only justified if there is good and enough for others. The right to private property is the cornerstone of Lockes political theory, encapsulating how each man relates to God and to other men. Locke explains that man originally exists in a state of nature in which he needs answer only to the laws of nature. In this state of nature, men are free to do as they please, so long as they preserve peace and preserve mankind in general. Because they have a right to self-preservation, it follows that they have the right to those things that will help them to survive and be happy. God has provided us with all the materials we need to pursue those ends, but these natural resources are useless until men apply their efforts to them. For example, a field is useless until it produces food, and no field will produce food until someone farms it. Ã Locke proposes that because all men own their bodies completely, any product of their physical labour also belongs to them. Thus, when a man works on some goods or material, he becomes the owner of that goods or material. The man who farms the land and has produced food owns the land and the food that his labour created. However the restriction to private property is that, because God wants all his children to be happy, no man can take possession of something if he harms another in doing so. He cannot take possession of more than he can use, for example, because he would then be wasting materials that might otherwise be used by another person. Unfortunately, the world is afflicted by immoral men who violate these natural laws. By coming together in the social-political compact of a community that can create and enforce laws, men are guaranteed better protection of their property and other freedoms. Lockes treatment of property is generally thought to be among his most important contributions in political thought, but it is also one of the aspects of his thought that has been most heavily criticized. There are important debates over what exactly Locke was trying to accomplish with his theory. One interpretation, advanced by C.B. Macpherson, sees Locke as a defender of unrestricted capitalist accumulation. Locke used the idea of a state of nature to present his political views, Locke argued that men have rights, including those to life and property, and the Two Treatises justifies revolution in some circumstances. C.B. Macpherson marshalled various facts so as to argue that Locke defended the rationality of unlimited desire, and so capital accumulation, in a way that provided a moral basis for capitalism. What is more, he did so in the context of a broadly Marxist historiography, according to which British theorists of the seventeenth and eighteenth century adopted ideas which reflected the emergence of a capitalist economy. When historians criticise and compare theories in terms of accepted facts, they can use criteria of accuracy, comprehensiveness, consistency, fruitfulness, openness, and progressiveness. Alan Ryan has criticised Macpherson for inaccuracy. He argued that Macpherson was wrong to say Locke thought rationality was restricted to one class who went in for the acquisition of capital goods. Rather, Locke explicitly said that all adults apart from lunatics were rational enough to understand what the law of nature required of them. Ryan also has criticised Macpherson, at least implicitly, for failing to be comprehensive: Macphersons theory could not account for the many passages in the Two Treatises that Ryan used to show that Locke said things clearly contrary to Macphersons interpretation. More generally, Ryan has suggested that Macphersons errors stem from an unfruitful method. John Dunn too has criticised Macpherson for not being comprehensive: Macphersons theory took no account of Lockes religious faith, a faith which provided the unifying theme of Lockes thought. In particular, Dunn has argued that Locke could not have intended to demonstrate the overriding rationality of capital accumulation precisely because his view of rationality depended on his religious beliefs, and so for him the rationality of any action in this world necessarily would de pend on the effect of the action on ones after-life. More recently, James Tully has developed Dunns broad critique of Macpherson by interpreting the Two Treatises, within the context of Lockes religious beliefs, as an attempt to defend a self-governing community of small proprietors enjoying the security to harvest the fruits of their labours, an ideal which Tully sees as contrary to capitalism. More generally, Dunn too related Macphersons erroneous view of Locke to a faulty method. Instead, Dunn advocated, against Ryan as well as Macpherson, a method which would focus on the intentions that it makes sense to ascribe to authors in the light of what we know of the characteristic beliefs of their time. Because people can respond to criticism in a way that strengthens their theory, comparison must be a more or less continuous activity. However, our criteria of comparison suggest we should scrutinise the way in which people deflect criticisms to see if they do so in a progressive manner maintaining the openness of their theory. Thus, if Macpherson responded to the criticisms of Ryan or Dunn, or if Ryan responded to the criticisms of Dunn, we would want to know whether their revised views represented either a progressive development of their theories or a purely defensive hypothesis. For example, Neal Wood has defended an interpretation of Locke that we might regard as a revised version of Macphersons view in so far as it apparently rests on a fairly similar, broadly Marxist historiography. Wood criticises Tullys interpretation of Locke for being incomplete, and possibly inconsistent. Robert Nozick also questions the idea of mixing and in doing so, offers an alternative explanation to Levines objection. In Anarchy, State and Utopia he asks, Why isnt mixing what I own with what I dont own a way of losing what I own rather than a way of gaining what I dont? If I own a can of tomato juice and spill it in the sea so that its molecules mingle evenly throughout the sea, do I thereby come to own the sea, or have I foolishly dissipated my tomato juice? Nozick reformulates Lockes idea by saying that one does not appropriate something by mixing labour with it, but rather by labouring on it and improving it to make it more valuable. By extensions, anyone is entitled to own a thing whose value he has created. Nozick himself asks why ones entitlement should extend to the whole object rather than just to the added value ones labour has produced. However, he gives no real argument against this and instead notes that no value-added property scheme has ever been devised. Nozick suggests Someone may be made worse off by anothers appropriation in two ways: first, by losing the opportunity to improve his situation by a particular appropriation or any one; and second, by no longer being able to use freely (without appropriation) what he previously could. However, Nozicks revision does make the intuition that underlies the Lockean proviso, that the harmless appropriation of unowned things is morally defensible, more plausible than Lockes own formulation does. It does so, though, at the cost of introducing a consideration foreign to Lockes way of thinking into the very heart of his theory. Nozick, being a libertarian at heart, agrees with the essence of Lockes theory but prefers to reformulate certain areas that he thinks do not work. It is difficult to conclude whether Lockes natural right of property should be accepted since we know from history that initial acquisition of property was not done on a Lockean basis.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Solzhenitsyn and Truth Essays -- essays research papers
ââ¬Å"In the struggle with falsehood art always did win and it always does win!â⬠Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident, espoused this philosophy to the Swedish Academy. He spoke of the power of art in combating the tyranny and lies of a corrupt government, and as a medium for evaluating society. He was at various times, a soldier in the Soviet army, a political prisoner of the Soviet state, a celebrity for his literary works, and an exile from all of Russia. His fiery philippic against Stalin landed him in prison for eight years; his account of prison life made him immensely popular during the de-Stalinization years of the early 1960ââ¬â¢s, and he was deported for his most famous work, The Gulag Archipelago. He has become a symbol of the higher power of artists and writers who have the courage to fight the status quo. à à à à à Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born to Cossack intellectuals in 1918, but was raised entirely by his mother, his father having died before he was born. He went on to major in mathematics at the University of Rostov-na-Donuand and he learned literature from correspondence courses at the Moscow State University. He fought in WWII, and became a captain of artillery, but was arrested in 1945 for writing a letter criticizing Josef Stalinââ¬â¢s totalitarian government. He spent eight years in a variety of labour and prison camps and three more years in enforced exile. After his release, he settled in central Russia where he wrote and taught mathemat...
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
A Summary of Barbara W. Tuchmans The Guns of August :: Barbara W. Tuchman The Guns of August
A Summary of Barbara W. Tuchman's The Guns of August ââ¬Å"The Guns of Augustâ⬠was written by Barbara W. Tuchman in 1962. The book details the causes of the first World war and describes the first month of the war. The book clearly illustrates how a local war became an entire European struggle by a call to war against Russia. Soon after the war became a world issue. Summary of the Book Plans The Beginning (Chapters 1-5) The book begins at the funeral procession of King Edward VII of England in 1910. This procession contained a glorious array of Kings and Nobles from around the world, this was to be the last. Throughout the procession there are mournful faces, but one ââ¬Å"mournful faceâ⬠hides happiness. The happiness is of Emperor William II of Germany. Throughout his life and reign, Edward candidly exhibited his love for France over his neighboring country, Germany. Now that Edward was out of the way, William was sure that he had earned the position as the ruler of Europe the entire and would soon take action to prove to the rest of the world that Germany was more powerful than all. In Germany, the Chief of the German General Staff, Count Alfred von Schlieffen, created a plan of attack in case of the possibility of a two-front war. But, this plan required invading Belgium, which(at the time) was neutral territory and proteced by England, Despite the promise of England to Belgium, Schlieffen continued with his attack plans. He believed that Germanyââ¬â¢s army was far more powerful and advanced than England, and that there was no reason he should feel threatened. After years of perfecting his plans, they were finally finished in 1906. Nevertheless after all of those years of planning, he failed to properly reinforce the eastern front. Even though he was highly criticized for this, he stood by his decision stating that he knew the Russians would force the army into the cold harsh, Russian winter, such as the case of Napoleon. Even though Schlieffen came up with this wonderful and well thought out plan, his successor, General von Moltke, changed the plans entirely. Like Germany, France also concocted an offensive plan.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Coach Carter and Communication Essay
The film ââ¬Å"Coach Carterâ⬠demonstrates many great examples of good communication between coach and athlete. I will point out a few examples of good communication from the film and I will explain why the examples I discuss demonstrate characteristics of effective communication. I will use a few excerpts out of the communication chapter of our text book, Chapter 11. I will use these excerpts from Chapter 11 of our text book to explain why the examples/quotes from the film, that I have pointed out, demonstrate good communication skills. The film ââ¬Å"Coach Carterâ⬠is a great film about a high school basketball team that is located in a bad area of town. The kids that play for this basketball team unfortunately do not have some of the opportunities as other players of different team may have. This is just a fact of life; some people are fortunate to have a community and parents that are in a position to provide their children with good opportunities to succeed in school and in life, while other children do not have the same luxury. Some communities, parents, and schools unfortunately are not in the position to provide the same opportunities to their children and student athletes, whether due to financial reasons or other reasons. It is just a fact of life that sometimes people have to fight and work very hard to rise above the challenges life presents to them and through the road of hard work to accomplish their goal they will grow as a human being and become a better person in the end. In the film, Coach Ken Carter demonstrates excellent communication skills that are very effective. One quote from the film that stuck out to me is when Coach Carter is addressing his team after they lost the game against Saint Francis at the end of the film. Carter states; ââ¬Å"l came to coach basketball players, and you became students. l came to teach boys, and you became men. â⬠This quote is a great example of the correct use of praise. In Chapter 11 ââ¬Å"Effective Communication: The Foundation of Effective Leadershipâ⬠, Anshell describes the sandwich approach model to praise and critism presented by Smith & Smoll (1977). The sandwich approach tells us the correct use of praise and gives us a formula to use to make sure we give praise to our athletes in an appropriate manner. The sandwich approach states that you should say something positive, correct the skill that needs attention, and end with another positive comment. In the qoate from the film I used above, Coach Carter does not use the sandwhich approach excatly as it is modeled, but he does praise his team in an appropriate manner. A coach will be more efffective in correcting the skills and habits of any of their athletes by using the sandwich approach. The athlete will feel good about himself/herself hearing the first positive statement and this will also grab that athletes attention to the constructive critism or skill critique from the coach. The coach will leave the athlete with a positive concluding statement such as, ââ¬Å"I see you excelling in the future with thisâ⬠. The athlete will still have a good feeling at the end of the conversation and will pay attention to what the coach told him to do differently to improve his/her skill. In the movie, Coach Carter is consistent in his statements about what his intentions are as the new basketball coach and what his goals/expectations are of the young athletes. Chapter 11 of our text book, Anshell discribes the Ten Commandments of Communication. The Ten Commandments of Communication are as follows: ââ¬Å"Thou shalt: (1) be honest, (2) not be defensive, (3) be consistent, (4) be empathetic, (5) not be sarcastic, (6) praise and criticize behavior, not personality, (7) respect the integrity of others, (8) use positive nonverbal cues, (9) teach skills, and (10) interact consistently with all team members. (Anshell 2012)â⬠. Coach Carter demonstrates most of these commandments of communication, he especially demonstrates honesty, consistency, and respect the integrity of others throughout the film. The Players respect Coach Carter and his decisions on and off the court, they put their faith in their coach and the end result is rewarding. Coach Carter demonstrates consistency more than ever when he is talking to the board in the hearing about the lockout he has put into place. Coach Carter says; ââ¬Å"You really need to consider the message youââ¬â¢re sending this boys by ending the lockout. Itââ¬â¢s the same message that we as a culture send to our professional athletes; and that is that they are above the law. If these boys cannot honor the simple rules of a basketball contract, how long do you think it will be before theyââ¬â¢re out there breaking the law? I played ball here at Richmond High 30 years ago. It was the same thing then; some of my teammates went to prison, some of them even ended up dead. If you vote to end the lockout, you wonââ¬â¢t have to terminate me; Iââ¬â¢ll quit. â⬠This statement is very powerful and certainly gets Coach Carterââ¬â¢s message across to the administration and the parents of his players. The consistency of Carter even in a high stress environment and a very tense situation, he stands behind his beliefs and never once lets up or lets something go like ending the lockout so the basketball team will play the big game and stay undefeated. The players respect Coach Carter and his decision to keep the lockout in effect until the whole team has the GPA requirements to play games, as stated in the contract they signed. The team demonstrates their faith in their coach with the statements they make when Carter walks into the gym after the board made the decision to end the lock out to let his athletes know what the board decided. Coach Carter enters the gym to find his basketball team sitting at desks and studying instead of practicing. The team says the following when Carter walks into the gym; Jason Lyle: ââ¬Å"[to Coach Carter as he walks into the gym] Sir, they can cut the chains off the door, but they canââ¬â¢t make us play. â⬠Damien Carter: ââ¬Å"Weââ¬â¢ve decided weââ¬â¢re going to finish what youââ¬â¢ve started, sir. â⬠Worm: ââ¬Å"Yeah, so leave us be, coach. Weââ¬â¢ve got shit to do, sir. â⬠After Worm finally answers Coach Carterââ¬â¢s question; What is your biggest fear? Jason Lyle says; ââ¬Å"You said weââ¬â¢re a team. One person struggles, we all struggle. One person triumphs, we all triumph. â⬠This scene shows how Coach Carterââ¬â¢s communication skills inspire and motivate the players to improve on and off the court. I believe that coaches should focus on teaching their athletes more than just the game that is being played, but a good coach will demonstrate and teach young athletes about ââ¬Å"lifeâ⬠. A good coach focuses on the entire picture of developing good strong contributing members of society. Coaches should give the athletes skills that will carry each athlete through life and teach the athletes the skills/lessons that will help them succeed.
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