Legal Issues in Interviewing

I would never try to pronounce the name the way Lance did. I would simply ask how to pronounce the candidate's name. I would then ask the candidate to tell me a little about themselves. This is the part the usually will disclose where they are from, if they have children, married or not, where they went to school, and their interests. 2. Incarceration Insult: If I felt that the candidate may have a criminal record I would then discuss the back ground check that will be performed. Hopefully this Is when the candidate will speak up If they do have a criminal back ground. . Elderly Error: I don't see why this is coming up in the interview anyways. This is an inappropriate question and should never be asked. If the interviewer feels that he or she should know this information then they should have the candidate fill out an application that will have them put their DOBB down and then Just do the math. 4. Medical Muddle: How Lance words this Is again unprofessional and Inappropriate. An e asier way to may ask the candidate If there Is anything that may restrict them in doing any of the work duties that they are applying for. . Offspring Offense: This is important information to know but the key is how to word the question without offending anyone. I would explain that the Job will have some demanding hours and shifts. I would further explain that they may have to cover and work doubles or work evening hours. Then I would ask them if there was anything that would prevent them for being able to work these hours. 6. Interview. 7. Language Louse-Up: This again was very unprofessional and irrelevant. I would check the resume to see if the candidate is bilingual.If so I would then ask him what languages and leave that subject at that. 8. Pregnancy Problem: If the candidate is fit for the position and will do well with the company I would offer the job and then discuss maternity leave with the candidate. 9. Racial Rudeness: Asking anything that is related to the candidate's race is irrelevant and unprofessional. I would never ask anything like this. 10. Religious Ruckus: Again this is an inappropriate question that does not need to be asked or brought up.I loud give her the information regarding paid holidays if it got to that point in the interview and let her know if she needs a different holiday that is not listed then she can feel free to use her vacation time for this holiday. I think that if I was ever in an interview with Lance and he asked me the questions like he did in the video I would definitely cut the interview short and ask to speak to his supervisor. Most questions asked in this video were done very condescending and rude. Most likely Lances superiors have no idea that this is how interviews candidates.

Music Tempo

Since the early Baroque period, tempo markings had been used predominantly with instrumental music. But despite this fact, not all instrumental music had a tempo mark during those times. Composers have been inconsistent in their use of it; however, conductors have often modified a composer’s indications, either because of a different interpretation of the composition or because of the conditions under which it is performed. It was during the era of Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) tempo markings became necessary which provided metronome markings instead of using descriptive words.Dance and choral music were played at a certain tempo, depending on their style and reflections to the mood of the text. In addition, descriptive tempo markings will most likely present the mood for example, allegro, not only tries to project the thought of quickness but it also conveys brightness. Largo does not only imply slowness but also broadness and expansiveness. Still using today the verbal te mpos frequently together with precise metronome markings are due to the expressive qualities being manifested.Vague idea of speed and notation of confusion will be the results of music being written before the development of particular metronomes. Speed is being indicated as symbols give the number of beats per bar in the system of time signatures being developed during the Renaissance period. Terminologies such as allegro meaning fast, presto as quick and lento being slow are Italian words indicating tempo in the 17th century. To the modern musicians, these words only gave an indistinct concept of speed but for the enthusiasts of contemporary music, customs of tempo were taken as read among composers and nearly all players.Tempo is an Italian word meaning speed or movement. At the top left corner of the musical staff, there could be found an expression that indicates how fast or slow the music should be played. This expression could be a word or a metronome marking. Metronome marki ng is the number of beats occurring in 60 seconds that measures the pace of music. As an example, ‘crotchet=60’ meaning there should be a 60 crotchet beats to the minute, that is to say, one .per second. Tempo is being measured by modern electronic metronomes very accurately.To some performers, they play the tempo according to their preferences and what suit their interpretation of the music. Performers who were encouraged to pay more attention to original tempo markings were caused by the knowledge of performance practice achieved by academic investigation into earlier music. At any one time, some other factors are influencing the choice of tempo, and a critical musical analysis most likely relies on changes in the fundamental tempo throughout a piece such as accelerando which means getting faster, ritardando as getting slower or rubato with a beat that is strictly irregular.The rate of speed is determined by its characteristics, performances’ physical condition s, and the composer’s transmitted instructions. Before the 17th century, from the notation, performers knew the correct tempo, for tempo were related to note values. The adaption of time signatures and tempo marks made visible a variety of durations for any note. The time signature  ¾ gave a quarter note one pulse, 3/2 gave half pulse; 4/8 gave it two pulses. The rate at which these occurred could be modified by the use of tempo markings, such as allegro or andante. A high degree of accuracy in tempo indications was made possible by the invention of the metronome, a device that shows the number of beats per minute.For adagio or very slow tempo, Adagio for Strings by Barber or Trio Sonata in G major by Bach are good sample pieces. Brandenburg Concerto No.6, in B-flat major by Bach and Clarinet Concerto in a major by Mozart are good pieces for allegro that is lively, rather quick. For rather slow, at moderate tempo that is andante, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.21 in C ma jor is advisable to be listened.For grave, that is extremely low and solemn, Beethoven’s Sonata No.8 in C minor would be the perfect example. And for largo that is slow and broad, Dvorak’s Symphony No.9 in E minor as its corresponding piece. For moderate tempo we have moderato. For the samples, try Shostakovich’s Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano or Hindemith’s Sonata for Bass, Tuba, and Piano. Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.4 in A major is an excellent musical piece for very quick tempo which is called presto. For quick and lively that is vivace, listen to Clarke’s Sonata for Viola and Piano,II.There are lots of tempo markings. From the fastest to slowest, common markings include prestissimo for extremely fast, vivacissimamente as the adverb of vivacissimo meaning very quickly and lively, vivacissimo for very fast and lively, presto and allegrissimo for very fast, and vivo as lively and fast. Allegro is used for fast and bright or called as a ma rch tempo. Allegro moderato for moderately quick, allegretto used in moderately fast, moderato for moderately, andantino for alternatively faster or slower than andante, andante used at a walking pace, tranquillamante is derived from the adverb of tranquillo meaning tranquilly and tranquillo for tranquil.Adagietto is used for rather slow, adagio for slow and stately, grave for slow and solemn. Larghetto is used for rather broadly, largo for very slow, lento is very slow like largo, largamente largo for broadly and very slow and larghissimo also for very slow. Basically allegro, largo, adagio, vivace, presto, andante and lento are the few root words used in markings.The suffix –issimo when put in the root word makes the tempo amplified. –ino used as suffix makes the tempo reduced and by adding the suffix –etto to the word the tempo becomes endeared. For sudden changes of different tempo in a piece of music, a new tempo will be given also marked the same way. Molt o or un poco are terms used as modifiers. Accelerando is used when tempo is accelerating or getting faster. Ritardando is used when slowing down, ritenuto when slower and rallentado when gradually slower. Poco a poco is used if pertaining to little by little or gradually speed. Rubato is used when speeding up and at the same time relaxes in ways that puts emphasis on the phrasing. Tempo I is used when referring to the original tempo again.ReferencesFarlex, Inc.   (2008). Tempo.   RetrievedApril 22, 2008 from

Budget Allocation For Internal Communication Marketing Essay

Budget Allocation For Internal Communication Marketing Essay 1. Introduction Jack Cohen founded Tesco in 1919 when he began to sell surplus groceries form a stall in the East End of London. The Tesco brand first appeared in 1924. The name came about after Jack Cohen bought a shipment of tea from T.E. Stockwell. He made new labels using the first three letters of the supplier’s names (TES), and the first two letters of his surname (CO), forming the word TESCO. The first Tesco store was opened in 1992 in Burnt Oak, Edgware, Middlesex. Tesco was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1947 as Tesco Stores (Holdings) Limited. The first self service store opened in St Albans in 1951 and the first supermarket in Maldon in 1956. Tesco is Britain’s leading retailer. It is one of the top three retailers in the world, operating over 3,700 stores globally and employing over 440,000 people. Tesco operates in 13 countries outside the UK- Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia etc. It has its headquarter in Chesnutt, It ha s many types of stores and include Tesco Extra (24 hour), Tesco Metro (located in +town centres) and Tesco Express (attached to garages). It sells many things including food and non food items. These item include food, drinks, toiletry, CDs, DVD, books, medicine, clothes, organic food. The type of ownership that my company has is public limited company. This means it is a large company with many employees. It has shares on the stock exchange and anyone over 18 can invest in a share. Currently it is estimated that 88%of all UK food is sold through a small handful of supermarkets with Tesco being the market leaders. This equals to market sales of over  £62bn per annum clearly highlighting the buying power the supermarkets have over the supply chain. The mail players are Tesco, Sainsbury, ASDA and Morrison who compete on price and quality. Tesco has recognized that their customers are motivated primarily on price and have positioned them self’s in the market as a value added s upermarket. 3. Budget: A budget is generally a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving and spending. A budget is an important concept in microelectronics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods. In other word budget is an organizational plan stated in monetary terms. The purpose of budget is to provide a forecast of revenues and expenditures and enable actual financial operation of the business to be measured against the forecast. So for this communication plan we have allocated a budget according to the category and nature of the communication. The budget allocation shows that more amount of money will be spend on advertising in TV/ Radio, Newspaper, Outdoor add. It is clearly sheen form the table that more amount of money will be spend on external communication than in internal communication with the help of which the company will communicate with its costumer more time to lunch its product and gives information a nd different offer to its costumer. 4. Target Market

Ventilator Acquired Pneumonia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ventilator Acquired Pneumonia - Research Paper Example Ventilator is a machine assembled mechanically to transmit breathable air in and out of lungs. The ventilator provides a mechanism of air exchange for patients with breathing difficulties or unable to breath. Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a type of pneumonia that occurs after forty-eight hours when patients have received mechanical ventilation and intubated. Pneumonia is ranked second in most common nosocomial disease in the critically ill patients. More than 86% of nosocomial pneumonias are related to mechanical ventilation hence termed as ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). The infection has major causes believed to be Acinetobacter spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (Datta, 2013). According to the study, that was done from April 1, 2006 to January 31, 2008 at Radius Special Hospital in USA; it showed that for every twenty-three cases of VAP infection, 19 casualties were associated with 157 LTACH. The above translates to an infection rate of 14.6%, which corresponded to 1.67 cases in 1000 ventilator days. Microbial data proves that 91% of the patients who reported to the hospital had VAP infection. Patients with critically conditions which are intubated for more than 24 hours are at 6-21 times risk to develop VAP in USA. Mortality and morbidity associated with the VAP development are high, with the rates of mortality, which ranges from 20-41% (Datta, 2013). VAP increases critical care, ventilator days and hospital length of stay. There are two ways of managing VAP. One is based on semiquantitative or nonquantitative cultures and clinical criteria. The other utilizes quantitative measures of the respiratory specimens. The principal organisms responsible for the VAP infection are Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacteriaceae. Etiologic agents are differing according to the patient’s population in an intensive care unit, prior antimicrobial

Legalization of Coca Production In Bolivia Essay

Legalization of Coca Production In Bolivia - Essay Example Morales has made discrimination and oppression experienced by Bolivia's indigenous groups a top priority in his presidency (Brea). Since the early 1990s, the United States of America has put pressure on the Bolivian government to reduce the amount of coca leaves produced for refinement by the international drug trade. Cocaine is one of the many ingredients in the coca leaves. In 1995 the livelihood of one out of eight Bolivians was dependent on coca, with Bolivia the world's largest grower of coca after Peru and Columbia. Hugo Banzer, who was Bolivia's president at the time, developed a plan to eradicate the coca plant (Evo 9.3.3.1-2). Between 1997 and 2000, the production of coca fell from 45,800 hectares to 14,600 hectares. The eradication program has been funded by the United States with an average of $150 million a year (Evo 9.3.3). The focus on farmers rather than traffickers created worsening external economic conditions for peasants who had depended on coca production for their livelihood. Evo Morales began a campaign to oppose the eradication of the coca leaf crops. He was elected to the Bolivian Congress but was expelled in 2002 because of his association with anti-eradication factions. However, in 2005 he was supported by coca farmers and became president of Bolivia. His position was "zero cocaine and zero drug trafficking, but not zero coca or zero cocaleros (coca growers)" (Evo, 9.9.3.4). The Culture of Coca In determining whether Evo Morales should be encouraged or discouraged in his efforts to end the eradication of coca, the reasons for his efforts need a background in the use of the coca leaf itself. Coca has long played an important role in the culture of the Andeans, mainly as a chewable health supplement. The coca leaf contains many essential nutrients in addition to its well-known mood-altering substance, cocaine. It is rich in proteins and vitamins and grows in regions where other food sources are scarce. The energy boost from the cocaine in the leaf is very functional in areas where oxygen is scarce and extensive walking is necessary. Chewing coca leaves continues to be common in the high-altitude mountains of Bolivia (Coca 2.2; Oomen par. 11). It is further used as a spiritual substance by Andeans. It is the contention of the United States that the eradication of coca throughout the world is an important step in the effort to eradicate the production of cocaine and the illegal trafficking of cocaine. The policy of the international community-most often represented by the UN drug control agency, the United States Ambassador and to a lesser degree, the European Union representatives-has been more harmful in the Andean countries than in Europe, with violence, human rights violations and corruption. In Europe, the effort to close down the coca production is not so strictly advocated as in the United States. One representative of the European NGO Council on Drugs (ENCOD) offered awareness in 2003 of the effect of "fumigating 260,000 hectares of coca and opium to such an extent that farmers will be unable to grow anything in these fields for the next 15 to 20 years" (Oomen, par. 2). In the 1980s, the coca farmers in the Chapare (Bolivia) witnessed how US forces were organizing coca ine transportation instead of fighting coca cultivation. It was Oomen's concern that the

Exporting and Growth for Small Business Research Paper - 1

Exporting and Growth for Small Business - Research Paper Example This comes as a result of increased supplies needed for the target market making the cost of production per unit decrease (Burgel & Murray, 2009). Another benefit for smaller companies venturing into the international market is that they have the potential to gain more knowledge. This is a consequence of the experience acquired in the international market making the small company operators to improve in both their domestic and foreign business. Some of the knowledge that may be gained could be on new technologies, new marketing ideas or product quality improvement (Hill, 2011). Lastly, small companies have the advantage of diversifying risks by venturing into the international business. As such, risks such as market changes that could be taking place in the domestic market become evenly distributed, and the company does become fully affected. Small companies that do not engage in either export or import venture have a lower level of sustainability. They can only survive by ensuring that they dominate their domestic market. Also, they can only survive by producing high-quality goods that outstrip similar international products. Notably, such companies can sustain themselves by specializing in market entry practices. Such practices include; increased promotion, price adjustment, product improvement, and the creation of more distribution channels. Notably, increased promotion is done through advertising the product to make more people aware of the product. Price adjustments are the change of prices to the international standardized rate (Burgel & Murray, 2009). The practice will enable the company to woo domestic market at the expense of foreign products. Product improvement occurs when certain products take more time than the expected to move on the market. As such, the company improves the outcomes by improving the qualit y or labeling the products â€Å"new and improved†. The last step for such companies to be sustainable

See Below Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 7

See Below - Essay Example The distinction between legitimate and effective authority is that an effective one simply supports to change the decisions that apply to others. Legitimate authority has the ability to alter these decisions. The fact that authority calls for performance for a certain action is a basis for decision making which is not to be added to all other sound decisions when assessing what is to be done, but should eliminate and replace some of them. The theory is only acceptable if there are limits on what the legitimate authority can fairly order the individuals to do, a reason why it does not essentially replace all relevant decisions. In conclusion, Hobbes and Locke’s approach to decision making can be justified only based on consent. There should be a voluntary formation of political obligation and justice, where justice depends on what the individuals are willing or choose to agree to. Individuals should decide according to the concept of the â€Å"original

Social Studies Thematic Curriculum Design and Assessment Assignment

Social Studies Thematic Curriculum Design and Assessment - Assignment Example Therefore, it is essentially important to use a blend of resources including field trip to the environmental conservation agencies to help in gaining the real picture of what is actually taking place on the ground. At the same time, is also important to make a good use of resource persons in the teaching of this topic (United Nations Environment Programme and New Energy Finance Ltd., 2007). Last, but by no means the least, it is important to understand that every teaching and learning process ends with evaluation. So, a combination of formative and summative evaluations is carried out. When doing this, a combination of lower level, middle level and the higher level cognitive questions will be used. This will be of a great help in gauging the extent to which the lesson objectives are achieved. United Nations Environment Programme and New Energy Finance Ltd. (2007). Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2007: Analysis of Trends and Issues in the Financing of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in OECD and Developing

Can Orton and Ravenhilll be described as radical queers Essay

Can Orton and Ravenhilll be described as radical queers - Essay Example Still, there was a contention that Orton somehow managed to contribute to the movement for gay rights.4 Mark Ravenhill who was openly gay and forthright about being HIV positive weaved together plays that waged an assault on social structures and arguably advocated for social change for the oppressed including gays.5 This essay argues that both Ravenhill and Orton are properly characterized as radical gays. In order to demonstrate queer radicalism on the part of Orton and Ravenhill, this essay conducts an analysis of some of their plays that substantiate this claim. This essay is therefore divided into two parts. The first part of this essay analyses some of Orton’s plays as a means of demonstrating that he can be properly characterized as a radical queer. The second part of this essay also analysed some of Ravenhill’s plays as a means of demonstrating that Ravenhill was also a radical queer. Nakayama argues that Orton’s plays were self-conscious creations of an alternative to the standard heterosexual society and in particular the â€Å"bourgeois norm of the nuclear family† as opposed to a â€Å"neurotic repetition of it†.6 Regardless there are two perspectives relative to whether or not Orton was indeed a queer radical. One perspective argues that Orton given the times in which Orton wrote, his plays indicate that he was â€Å"an advance guard of† the sexual revolution and a â€Å"sort of fifth columnist among sexual conservatives†.7 That some of Orton’s plays such as What the Butler Saw focused so sharply on clandestine sexuality that it was obvious that Orton was content to â€Å"remain in the closet without directly confronting the sexual powers that were†.8 The criticisms of What the Butler Saw arise out of what Orton failed to do rather than what he actually did in the play. Butler was written in 1967 before theatre censorship had come to an end. However, since

Human factors in technology Essay Example for Free

Human factors in technology Essay Man is the only being who has utilized technology, to the point that it also caused technology to change rapidly through time. Technology has been one of the most influential concepts in the lives of every human being throughout history. It was so influential that it had become one of the major deciding factors in the direction of history. Technological innovations had evolved from the simple to the very complex. From the simple stone cutting tools that prehistoric man had, to the contemporary blades that virtually do not need any resharpening at all. There had also been evolution from the very crude computing technique such as the finger counting, to the very complex supercomputers. In terms of transportation, from the very simple mode of walking and running, man had innovated transportation technology by inventing and innovating cars, planes, ships, etc. Technology had not only affected transportation and computing, but also the social and psychological scene as well. Companies whose general trade is information and technology are the ones whose organizational structure is very much affected by the technological changes. Most of the companies are either computer manufacturers or technological research companies. Apple Inc. , formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc. is an American-based multinational corporation which has its focus on technical manufacturing and designing of electronics and software programs for variations of consumers all around the world. It headquarters can be found in Cupertino, California (Apple, Inc. , 2007; History of Apple, 2007; Mesa, 1998; Apple. com, 2007). This company basically focuses on the development and support of several electronic gadgets for the market. This same company currently has its eyes focused on the innovation of already existing technologies, as well as the formation of a new breed of technology for the market. Some of its world-famous creations are the iPod, iPhone and the AppleTV. Aside from these electronic equipment and gadgets, the Apple, Inc. is also into the creation of new and better software programs. In the past, it had focused on creating and developing operating systems (OS), and specific application programs. Today, Apple, Inc. is now setting the path before it releases its newest operating system, the Mac OS X â€Å"Leopard†. Apple is very much into expanding its frontiers by exploring new ways of marketing and product presentation (Apple, Inc. , 2007; History of Apple, 2007; Mesa, 1998; Apple. com, 2007). It is now into the trend of having an online store where its products, whether hardware or software, can be bought by just a click of the mouse. The company is well-known for their very user-friendly hardware as well as software. Their iPod series, as well as their iPhone, Macintosh series of personal computers and peripherals, iLife software suite, and the Mac OS are just some of their best-known software and hardware products. Also, the company is a major supplier of prosumer software products for specialized purposes such as the audio and film industry (Apple, Inc. , 2007; History of Apple, 2007; Mesa, 1998; Apple. com, 2007). The mentioned things about Apple, Inc. , set up a background for the contemporary company. Technology has an implicit message, and that is to put everything into a very objective perspective, where everything could and should not be subject to an individual’s / group’s personal judgments or beliefs. By virtue of technology, man was able to do things such as measurement and judgment without having biases. With the use of technology, organizations can track their development without having doubts if the people who assessed them were biased about the evaluation process. But this strength is also its weak point. Being very objective would mean that the assessment would be very strict, and it would be guided by certain sets of quantified measurements such as numbers and / or a set of quantified codes. These standards for judgment and assessment can be used to evaluate employees’ activities, company sales and company economic standing. Having these strict standards would mean an easier, more efficient and more economic way of assessing the company. With these, companies such as the Apple could rely on machines about their company’s survival. Machines, which are products of modern technology, could be programmed to assess particular aspects of the company and suggest possible options about how to make the company even more productive. This may sound farfetched, but it could be a good way of looking at the possibility of how machines could help organizations in optimizing their parts. Business oriented companies such as the Apple is currently facing the possibilities of having less human members, and more help from the technology they are developing. These companies, with the help of modern technology, could be able to assess their employees using certain standards that can be input to a computer for further assessment. This way, there would be less processing time, less need for human HRD team members, less specialists in the field of assessing people, more possible members for the pool of computer and technology specialists (which could also mean more capital would be invested on the specialty of the company), and less expenses on the part of the company. Looking at the advantages posed by this method, it would be good to conclude that this could boost company income, thus uplift the lives of its employees in an economic and political sense. On the other hand, this method could also pose a very detrimental effect to the company as a whole, both in the macro and micro perspectives. One disadvantage of this method would be that without the subjective judgments of humans on human resources, it would be possible to miss important and potentially able applicants. Also, it would be possible that the programmed machines would not be able to look the implicit factors such as family background and the personality types of the applicants. Another is the fact that hardcore statistics, which programmed machines use, does not claim that the results are products of the interplay of all possible factors, instead it can only present results with the extraneous factors (which may possibly matter) omitted. References: Apple. com (2007).Retrieved August 9, 2007 from http://www. asia. apple. com/. Apple, Inc. (2007). Wikipedia: The Fee Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 9, 2007 from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Apple_Computer. History of Apple (2007). ). Wikipedia: The Fee Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 9, 2007 from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/History_of_Apple_Inc.. Mesa, A. (2007). Apple History Timeline. The Apple Museum. Retrieved August 9, 2007 from http://applemuseum. bott. org/sections/history. html.

History of Education in Afghanistan

History of Education in Afghanistan Early Modernism to Present Day Policies This chapter presents a chronological narrative about the evolution and changes in Afghan national education goals and outcomes and issues related to teacher education in a cultural/historical context. Traditional views regarding education goals and practice provide the basic foundation for understanding the progress and challenges toward universal education in the nation. The historical information in this chapter is well documented in numerous sources, as well as having been part of the authors own education as a child and adolescent in Kabul schools. Important references from which reliable objective information was drawn include the Ministry of Education (1968) report on the last fifty years of education, as well as other books, reports, and documents (Dupree, L., 1973; Poullada,1973: Rashid, 2008; Rotberg, 2007; Rubin, 2002; Sadat, 2004; Samady, 2001 and 2013; Sarvi, 2003; Tomsen, 2011). These sources were consistent in their reporting of events related to education progress or decline. Their general agreement on facts enabled me as author to weave together this history without always attributing the information to a specific source. Other, less central, historical sources are included as citations where appropriate. Although not an Arabic nation, Afghanistan does share the religion of Islam with Arab Muslim nations, as well as the Arabic script essential to reading the Holy Quran. Dari and Pashto, the two main languages of Afghanistan, are derivatives of Indo-European (Indo-Aryan), not Semitic (Arabic/Hebrew) languages. Afghanistan is part of the historical stream of Islamic culture embracing the centuries of advancement of knowledge in science, mathematics, philosophy, poetry and literature during the historical era when Europe was locked in what historians now refer to as the Dark Ages. The writings of Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek thinkers were preserved and expanded by Islamic scholars who made original contributions in scientific and literary fields. Afghanistan, before modern national boundaries were outlined, was the birthplace or home of numerous scholars of renown such as Avicenna and Al-Biruni, as well as the poet, Rumi, whose works are revered even today. This information is offered as a prelude to provide a better understanding of the pride of Afghanistan in its educational and cultural roots, and the determination to restore or reconstruct the educational legacy and intellectual vitality of its people. The study presented in this dissertation explores the responses to present day crises and chaos in a war-ravaged country as it faces the challenges to create a new national system of education that both respects the past and wants to be respected in the global society. Afghanistan now attempts to overcome the overwhelming gap between what is left after massive destruction and what needs to be done to catch up with the rest of the modern world. Before the Modern Era Traditional education and apprenticeships for Afghan children and youth in previous centuries was centered on the home and the mosque. When and where madrassas (religious schools) became available, they were also accessible to boys. Signs of modern education did not appear in Afghanistan until the early 1900s, around 1903, under the reign of Amir Habibullah who founded the first secondary school, Habibia Lycee. This school was modeled after the Indian high school program which itself was adopted from the British who copied it from the French. Habibullah took steps to increase literacy through increases in print media, newspapers, journals, and the support of libraries. Some students from Habibia were sent abroad for study, especially to British India. Habibia high school gained a reputation over the years for its role in providing a large number of leaders for the nation. However, the pace of educational change and modernization was slow. Steps Toward Modernization A method for teaching literacy was developed in 1906 including new textbooks and a teachers guide. This led to the creation of the Office of Textbooks in 1907 in order to provide uniform school textbooks for the increasing number of schools. It became clear that a standard curriculum, with new textbooks, required trained teachers knowledgeable in the text material; therefore, the first teacher training institute, Dar-al-Malimin, was established in Kabul in 1912. In the following year a Department of Education was established to attend to the issues of promoting primary education. Amir Habibullah appointed his son as department head. Education, free school supplies, and a small stipend were available to the male students selected to attend. In 1912, the first normal school was established in Kabul to train teachers for primary schools (Ministry of Education, 1968, p. 6). In 1919, Shah Amanullah became the ruler by succession, and actively supported the movement toward widespread national education. He elevated the Department of Education to the Ministry of Education and appointed his son, Prince Abdur Rahman, as the countrys first Minister of Education. Mahmud Tarzi, a reformist educated statesman and the father-in-law of Shah Amanullah, held an influential position in the Amani (Amanullah) government pushing especially for education reform and for the empowerment of women. Tarzis daughter, Queen Soraya, in 1921 with her mother, Rasmiya, founded the first high school for girls, Masturat. Rasmiya was appointed as the first principal. Between 1921 1928, more than 800 females were enrolled. In 1928, the first co-education classes were introduced at Amaniyya Lycee for grades one and two. Under Tarzis leadership other primary schools were established in major towns, villages, and cities. In addition to schools in each province there were also schools for the countrys nomads, the Kuchis. Several new high schools (Lycee) were founded between 1922 and 1930, some teaching foreign languages such as German or English as an attempt to provide an education comparable to that of Europe and other advanced nations. Two vocational schools were opened in 1924, one for business and administration and another for fine and applied arts. The goal was to have a national system of schools with a modern curriculum. The beginning of a network of government-run intermediate and secondary schools was achieved in 1928; as many as 40,000 students were enrolled. However, since higher education was missing in Afghanistan the government began to allow top male students (sons from elite families) to study outside of the country, for example, in India, Germany, France, Egypt, and Turkey. Ten girls were allowed to go to Turkey in 1928 for university study, but this practice was soon aborted requiring the girls to return home as a conservative backlash grew strong. Unfortunately, conservative sectors in society believed that government schooling was unreligious and if children attended those schools, they became infidels. Conservative traditional sectors opposed changes in the education system they viewed as western, modern, urban, and against Islam. The opposition included clergy, tribal leaders, some rural ethnic groups, and government opposition groups. The unpopularity of Amanullah became so strong, threatening civil upheaval, that in early 1929 he abdicated and sought refuge in Italy. Taking his place as ruler for only nine months was the militia commander, Habibullah Kalakani, who reversed the educational reforms made under Amanullah. Among the first steps taken by the new Kalakani monarchy were the closure of female schools and the disbanding of the Womens Association of Kabul. The Irshad-e Naswan, the only newspaper published for women, also was banned. The government recalled the female Afghan students from Turkey and required them to put on the veil. The government replaced the language of instruction, Dari, with only Pashtu in an attempt to bolster the states claim to Pashtunistan, Pakistans Northwestern Frontier Province. Education returned to traditional practices. Social and economic measures, including education policy, aimed at sustaining a traditional agricultural society. The majority of rural communities had no schools and continued the education of their children, in the traditional way, at home and in the mosques. All government schools were closed briefly during this period in 1929; however, schools were re-opened in late 1929 when Nadir Shah became king after capturing and executing Kalakani. Although he at one time had been Minister of Education, education under Nadir Shah was not a central priority. However, one progressive step was taken in 1931 when women were allowed to take health classes at the Masturat Hospital in Kabul. Nadir Shah did support the establishment of Kabul University in 1931 despite the persistence of the anti-modern conservative resistance. In addition, in 1932, the faculty of medicine was founded. Nadir Shah was assassinated at a high school graduation ceremony in 1933 (Dupree.L.,1973. p. 174). His nineteen year-old son, Prince Zahir, was immediately crowned king, but for many years a proxy rule by older male relatives characterized his leadership. Zahir Shah was king for four decades, from 1933 to 1973, during a period that was relatively free of civil unrest. Some favorable trends started to emerge in the late 1940s. Advances were made in education, the economy, and civil society especially in urban areas during much of his reign, although the conservative Islamic anti-modern element remained strong even as the Communist influence became a dominant disruptive factor. In 1964, a Constitution was created enabling greater citizen participation under a Constitutional monarchy. Higher education introduced in the 1940s included embryonic universities in major cities, most notably Kabul University supported by the United States, and the Polytechnic University founded by the Soviet Union for vocational/technical advanced training. Faculties were established in law (1938), science (1942), and letters (1944). In 1947, Kabul University was formally established. Three years later, the departments of theology, agriculture, and economics were founded. Some departments were affiliated with foreign universities in Germany, France, America, and the Soviet Union University admission gave priority to sons of the ruling aristocracy or sons of top bureaucrats (Sadat. 2004). In 1946, a Womens Institute was started in Kabul to provide classes for a few privileged girls and women. A year later, two girls high schools were created and in 1947, a womens faculty of education was established. Further steps were taken when, in 1949, the first group of girls having the equivalent of a high school diploma began to teach in girls schools. By 1950 there were 368 primary, secondary and vocational schools, and one teacher training school with a national total of 95,300 students. The enrollment of children in primary education was 6% of the entire age group, 6 through 12 years, in an estimated population of 11 million people. (Samady 2001), In the 1950s efforts to expand education and improve its quality were initiated. In 1949, the Afghan government asked UNESCO to send a Mission to study its educational system. In 1954, USAID and Columbia University Teachers College focused efforts on the qualitative improvement of teacher education in Afghanistan. In 1955, the Institute of Education was created and later integrated into Kabul University. According to Wilbur (1962), in 1960 there were 175,600 pupils in 1,110 primary schools of whom 19,000 were girls. Among the 11,300 students enrolled in grades seven to nine, 2,500 (22%) were girls. Approximately 193,000 Afghan students were enrolled in schools in Afghanistan and abroad, a figure double that of a decade earlier in 1950. Nepotism, favoritism, and corruption were common complaints regarding the awarding of foreign scholarships (Wilbur, 1962, pp. 85-87). Soviet Assistance and Intervention By the early 1970s, about 90% of the Afghan armed forces were being trained by the Soviets. Thousands were trained in the Soviet Union as well as more thousands in Afghanistan. Russia also sent arms and military experts to Afghanistan. Afghan university graduates received fellowships for advanced study in the USSR and Warsaw Pact nations. From this aid and experience a growing elite of Afghans emerged with modern ideas as well as social and political sympathies in harmony with Communism. Slowly but surely the Sovietization of Afghanistan was occurring. Prime Minister Daoud enthusiastically encouraged Soviet engagement in Afghanistan, earning himself the nickname the Red Prince. At the time of Prime Minister Daouds reign in the 1970s, three boarding high schools were introduced in Kabul: Ibn Sina (later becoming Lycee), Khushal Khan Khattak Lycee, and Rahman Baba Lycee. Ibn Sina served as a teachers training institution equipping male rural students to return to their villages to become teachers. Khushal Khan Khattak Lycee and Rahman Baba Lycee enrolled students from the tribal areas as part of the attempt to integrate various tribes into the government. In the late 1970s Afghanistan had a functioning education system comprising over a million students including 20% girls in primary, secondary and higher education. Government expenditures on education came to constitute 40% of the national budget. In 1977, the education infrastructure could not support the educational demands. By 1978, there were more than one million students in primary and secondary schools and other educational institutions in Afghanistan. Of there, there were 152,750 girls (about 14%) and 5,070 female teachers in primary schools. In an attempt to reduce pressure on both the education system and the labor market, the government instituted the, Kankurexam (from the French word concours), the university entry test at the end of the 12th grade. The main purpose of the Kankur was to select potentially successful university students from the rest of the student population. This test became a controversial but established screening mechanism for reducing pressure on the overstrained university system. (Other spellings will be found for this exam including Concord, Konkor.) In 1978, the constitutional monarchy was abolished by a palace coup dà ©tat declaring former Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud as the countrys President of the first republican government. The Soviets immediately recognized the new government. Not only was the new constitution of the government styled after that of the Soviet Union but also changes in academia began to resemble the Soviet approach to education including introducing co-education, especially at the university level, but also in the lower schools. However, in April 1978, President Muhammad Daoud was overthrown in what is referred to as the Saur Revolution. Nur Muhammad Taraki, head of the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) replaced Daoud as President. Taraki instituted even broader Marxist style reforms including a rural literacy campaign expanding educational opportunity to masses of uneducated farmers and women. He was not intimidated by the internal conflict between groups supporting traditional systems against the modernization movement. Taraki continued to offend those determined to maintain traditional customs. He pushed forward drastic social and economic measures, including land reform, womens rights and modern education. These ideological conflicts led within the year (in 1979) to his loss of power. Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin ousted him as president. Amin took firm steps to quell any opposition such as imprisoning and executing individuals and groups who were viewed as unsupportive. He did not hesitate to go after his own party members such as former President Taraki or his sympathizers. Opposition, however, and dissatisfaction were broiling up throughout the nation making the Soviets uneasy about the stability of the rapidly changing government. In December 1979 Soviet tanks rolled into Afghanistan. In 1980, President Amin was removed and Babrak Karmal, former 1960s parliamentarian, became the countrys fourth president. The educational system, over several decades, became increasingly influenced and funded by the USSR. After the Soviet invasion of 1979 this trend increased dramatically. Literacy courses and programs educating about health and technology were expanded throughout the country. Part of the reforms included the creation of a pedagogical research center. In 1981, the Central Institute for the Retraining of Teachers was established. In 1982, the Kabul Pedagogical Institute was founded. Further academic exchanges were established with Eastern Bloc countries. American and Western exchanges stopped. Amins presidency lasted six years. In 1986, Dr. Muhammad Najibullah, former head of the Afghan intelligence agency (the secret police), became the countrys fifth president. President Najibullah, a graduate of the school of medicine at Kabul University realizing the need for more higher education throughout the country, opened three new universities; Balkh (1986), Herat (1988), and Kandahar (1991). However, Najibullah, seen to be brutal and ruthless, alienated many Afghan groups including his own army, but in particular the Islamic conservative groups that became united as the party of the Taliban. Najibullah was forced out of office in 1992, taking refuge for four years in the UN compound. His own brutal execution at the hands of the Taliban in 1996 precipitated the Civil War that eventually led to the empowerment of the Taliban. Impact of Soviet Defeat, the Civil War and the Demise of Modern Education Before the civil war in the 1990s, the Afghan higher education system was largely intact and thriving. UNESCO estimated university enrollment in 1990 at more than 24,000, with women making up one third of the student body. Much of the destruction of Kabul in 1992-1994 was in the area around Kabul University; classes were seriously disrupted as virtually all faculties fled Kabul or were killed. During Taliban rule (1995-2001), the provision of higher education was limitedto men only, mainly at what remained of Kabul University, and concentrated on Islamic studies. In April 1992 the Afghan government transferred power to the Islamic Jihad Council (IJC) which was designated by the Peshawar Accords. Within days the various factions collided and Kabul was engulfed in civil warfare cascading throughout the country. To make matters worse, schools and universities, specifically Kabul University, became the stages for warfare and pillage. This had an immense impact on education. With no uniform curriculum, religious education was given priority over all other subjects. Equal education opportunities of boys and girls were ignored while religious schools for boys were encouraged. Due to fighting and the security situation the universities and schools were frequently closed. There was damage to buildings and insecurity, which affected school attendance as teachers, administrators, and students became displaced. Even laboratories, furniture, and the electric wiring from inside the walls of its classrooms were stolen. The rival factions targeted the libraries and thousands of volumes were either looted or burned; rare titles were smuggled and sold off for high prices in the antiquarian book markets outside the country. In an article entitled Raping the Libraries of Kabul details of how the various factions burnt or sold millions of hand written books on religion, history, poetry, and autobiographies of great scholars. From that million-volume collection only 20,000 books survived. (Hussain, 1998). By 1995, the Taliban defeated other fighting groups in the Civil War, and took over the government with pledges of peace and order. However, they introduced strict social policies based on their interpretation of proper practices in Islam. The Taliban completely closed down most government schools, especially those for girls. Only religious studies in religious schools (madrassas) were allowed for boys. Still, many Afghans educated their children, including their girls, illegally and secretly at home using pieces of the modern, already discarded, curriculum. In 1999 the enrolment in primary education was 811,500 with only 7% girls. The enrolments in secondary and higher education were limited and the universities were often closed and did not function effectively. Thousands of teachers and education administrators became victims of war, underwent intellectual apartheid, or left Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation, the Civil War, and especially after the Taliban came to power. The 9/11 Call to Action: The Chase for bin Laden, Defeat of the Taliban, and Western Occupation Then on 9/11/01 Osama bin Laden and his followers known as Al Qaeda planned and carried out a major attack on the United States. Bin Laden was a member of the Saudi ruling family. He had become radicalized against the West, particularly against the United State. He and his armed men used remote areas in Afghanistan (and Pakistan) for hide-away bases. The destruction of 9/11 resulted from carefully planned attacks using commercial airlines as suicide bombers, destroying both of the Twin Towers in New York City as well as a simultaneous attack on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A third part of the plan involved the use of another airliner for a third target in the Capitol, probably the White House, but the plane crashed as a result of passenger intervention. These attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 5,000 Americans in one brief morning. By October, 2001 the government of the United States retaliated, seeking revenge on bin Laden. Other sympathetic nations joined to make an allied force that stormed Afghanistan, taking the country from Taliban control. After the defeat of the Taliban in 2001 many Afghans who had fled as refugees during the years of conflict, returned to Afghanistan to help rebuild their country. As the school year started in March 2002, the capacity to supply education had been decimated in both quantity and quality. The situation of the country was described in this way by a joint report of international organizations: The Afghan education system has been undermined by 23 years of war, by widespread physical destruction, by restructuring under a communist regime, and by its use as a political and religious pawn by succeeding governments. The concept of secular education has been under constant attack for decades-first as a source of foreign ideas that led to the communist takeover and then by the Taliban who banned education for girls entirely, and promoted and expanded the system of religious schools at the expense of secular schools (AIA, 2002). The results of the US response, with international support especially from western governments, led to the defeat and withdrawal of the Taliban and the institution of a new western supported (and many believe controlled) interim government. A national Shura (representative convention) was held, a new Constitution for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was written, elections were scheduled, and commitments made for a decade of international funding and support in rebuilding the nation as a democratic, modern, technologically equipped participant in the global community. The challenges were overwhelming including rebuilding the entire governmental infrastructure, rebuilding roadways and creating new lines of transportation and communication, restoring and upgrading electrical power as well as water and sanitation systems, rebuilding or removing destroyed structures, establishing a banking system, and modernizing commerce including all types of products imported for human survival and comfort. The biggest challenge was that of re-building the totally destroyed education system from the bottom up and from the top down. The education system reformed by the Soviets to include the masses had never been fully operational. Educational opportunity was left largely to those who had access to urban areas where even girls were allowed to attend schools at the university in Kabul where co-educational classes had been the Soviet policy. However, by the end of the Civil War and certainly by the end of the Taliban rule, the universities had been destroyed and were barely functional when offering classes at all. As described earlier, faculty had fled or were dead, buildings were gutted and marauded. Campuses were denuded either by soldiers trying to eliminate hiding places for opposition forces, or by civilians seeking firewood. Furniture was stolen and broken up to use for home heating; equipment was looted; even the electrical wiring was stripped from buildings still standing and taken for sale in the black market. Libraries and laboratories were ghostly artifacts attesting to the destruction of symbols of learning. As the attempt to re-open universities began in 2002, the flow of citizens from the country began to reverse with many Afghans returning from refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran or from other countries in which they were exiled including the United States, Canada, Iran, Great Britain, Germany and other countries. Some of these returning were able to take positions of leadership in the new government headed by President Karzai in a democratic election, and some were capable of restoring the universities and the schools. Stories from students who began to study again at Kabul University tell of walking across human bones on the tall grasses of the university campus that had earlier been a site of warring groups. The next chapter, relating the efforts to rebuild a nation, provides the heart of the dissertation describing the responses to the enormous challenges to the recruitment, preparation, education, deployment of teachers in post-conflict education in Afghanistan. The specific initiatives, policies, programs and problems in building a national corps of professional teachers for Afghanistan in the face of enormous limitations of human capacity, financial resources, cultural and social value differences, are expanded upon in the following dissertation chapters. References AIA Afghanistan Interim Administration. (2002). Comprehensive Needs Assessment for the Education Sector in Afghanistan. Kabul: Afghanistan Interim Administration. Amin, Sakai. (2012). Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival. London: I.B. Taurus. Baize, Y. (2013). Education in Afghanistanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¯: developments, Influences and Legacies since 1901. Florence, Kentucky: Routledge/Taylor and Francis. Dupree, L. (1973). Afghanistan. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press. Hussain, I. (1998). Raping the Libraries of Kabul. Diplomat Magazine.Vol. 8. #6. Ministry of Education. (1968). Education in Afghanistan during the Last Fifty Years I. Primary, Secondary. Kabul: MoE Planning Dept. Poullada, L. (1973). Reform and Rebellion in Afghanistan, 1919-1929; King Amanullahs Failure to Modernize a Tribal Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Rashid, A. (2008). Descent into chaos. New York: Viking. Rotberg, R. I. (ed.). (2007). Building a new Afghanistan. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Press, The World Peach Foundation. Rubin, RB. (2002). The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System. New Haven: Yale University Press. Sadat, M. H. (2004). History of education in Afghanistan. Retrieved from http://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/history-education-afghanistan Samady, S. R. (2001). Education and Afghan Society in the 20th Century. UNESCO. Samady, S. R. (2013). Changing profile of education in Afghanistan. Sarvi, J. (2003). A New Start. Manila, Philippines: Asia Development Bank. Tomsen, P. (2011). The wars of Afghanistan: Messianic terrorism, tribal conflicts, and the failures of great powers. Public Affairs: Perseus Books Group. Wilbur, D., (1962). Afghanistan. New Haven: Yale University Press

Importance of Faith in Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay

Importance of Faith in Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne In Young Goodman Brown, the main character, Goodman Brown has a bout with his own faith. He ends up losing this battle because of the wickedness in everyone else’s hearts. He begins by wanting to be the evil one, then progresses to be the faithful one as the night in the woods goes on. His name has a lot to do with the character in the story. The â€Å"Young† in his name is to symbolize innocence, and â€Å"GOODMAN† is pretty self-explanatory. He goes off in to the woods and comes with a lost faith in everyone else in the town. Goodman Brown decides he wants to go off into the woods for one last night of evilness before married life really kicked in. He says, †What a wretch am I, to leave her on such an errand!†¦Well; she’s a ...

Skiing Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Papers

Skiing The sport of skiing is dated back nearly 4,500 years. It began as a hunting technique for hunters in the Artic Rim tracking down game. Soon after, the Viking King Harald, in Iceland, used skiing not just for hunting, but for pleasure as well. The sport soon became competitive in racing, and wagers were placed on it. From here the sport spread across forty countries making it one of the fastest growing sports of the time (International Skiing History Association, 2004). It soon caught the attention of the local people of Flagstaff, Arizona. Lying on ancient volcanic ruins, the Flagstaff community began skiing the hills of Snowbowl in 1938 (International Skiing History Association, 2004). The Snowbowl ski area is made of up the extinct volcano, which is more than three million years old. Snowbowl is located in the highest mountains of Arizona, with a summit of 12,633 feet. In 1979, the mountain of Snowbowl was finally approved for additional construction of the ski area, expanding it a nd adding new features (The Sedona Dream Maker, 2003-2005). The Hopi and Navajo Tribes opposed this decision immensely for the sake of their heritage and beliefs lying on this very mountain. But, the Forest Service decided to go forth with it because they agreed to let the mountain have multiple uses, such as the recreation they were approving. Presently, the ski area has up to 30,000 to 180,000 visitors a year depending on the snowfall, according to Christopher McLeod for High Country News, September 11, 2000. With the technology of snowmaking now, the area is prone to expansion with the vicinity growing with each year. Last year Snowbowl ski area was open for a total of four days in the season of 2003-2004. This hurt the area immensely... ...r. â€Å"Sacred Land Film Project.† High Country News 11 Sept. 2000 McLeod, Christopher. â€Å"About the Project.† Sacred Land Film Project. 1999-2004 http://www.sacredland.org/historical_sites_pages/sfpeaks.html. Rayner, Lisa. â€Å"Save The Peaks.† Flagstaff Tea Party. 2002 http://www.flagteaparty.org/Publications/Headlines/Pages/2002/July_2002/July02 hub.html. USDA Forest Service. Arizona Snowbowl Upgrade Proposed Action. United States Department of Agriculture and Coconino National Forest Proposed Conf., Sept. 2002, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2002. USDA Forest Service Coconino National Forest. â€Å"Arizona Snowbowl Improvement Draft Environmental Impact.† Coconino National Forest. Tuesday, 26 Oct. 2004 http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/nepa/index.shtml. Winkelsten, Phil. â€Å"Local Attractions.† Sedona Dream Maker. 2003-2005 http://www.sedonadreammaker.com/sedona_attract.html.

Impact Of Workplace Environment On Employee Retention Essay -- Busines

As employee satisfaction plays a vital role in the success of an organization. If the employees are satisfied and happy with their job and working condition then they will give their best for the improvement of an organization. Happy and satisfied employees always put more efforts for the organizational achievements and stay loyal to the company. Job satisfaction is directly related to the productivity... (http://www.expresshospitality.com/20080430/management08.shtml) The term employee satisfaction is basically used to describe either employees are happy and contented or working conditions are meeting their needs and expectations. (Heath, 2006). Many factors are contributing towards the employee satisfaction with in the workplace like salary, rewards, promotions, incentives etc. These are the things which create the sense of belongingness in the employees towards their organization and they realized that they are bringing success in the organization. (Sundar, 2006). The success of any organization depends upon its members so; if the members are happy with their jobs and they are rewarded for their work then they will ultimately give their best to the organization. Satisfaction also leads towards concentrating on the work. Foster (Harris et al, 2007) studied the impact of social support on employee satisfaction and job tenure. Social support has been defined as the "actions of others that are either helpful or indented to be helpful" They analyzed the impact of career mentoring and task support on job satisfaction and leadership style and task support on employee tenure and accounted Seventeen percent of the variance in job satisfaction and Nine percent of the variance in job tenure. (Harris et al, 2007). Similarly ... ...have demonstrated the importance of pay, work organization and work condition in shaping job satisfaction (Cohen and Bailey, 1997) Workplace environment is a concept, which has been operationalized by several researchers using different variables to measure it ( Williamson, 2007 ) also analyzed the extent to which the individual perceive the workplace environment as fulfilling their intrinsic, extrinsic and social needs and their reason of staying with the organization. He conducted his research and information technology organization in united state. He analyzes the impact of over all rewards on employee commitment and turnover in the organization. He concluded that if the employees are provided high level of organizational support they are highly satisfied and show the high level of commitment towards their organization and low turnover rate. (Williamson, 2007)

Roles of Women in the American Civil War

The American Civil War was, as all wars are, affected not only by the men fighting on the battlefield, but by the women who served on the home front, in military hospitals, and occasionally next to men on the battlefield. Just as women influenced the war, the war changed the world in which the women lived. The women’s rights movement began shortly before the Civil War, and continued through the war, growing stronger as women were touched by the war, and longed for rights equal to men. Women supported men by donating supplies to the effort in both the North and the South.Women served as soldiers, worked in military hospitals, and spied to discover valuable information to aid their homeland. Women were a very valuable resource during the war, and the war was very influential on the way women lived their lives in America. Before the Civil War, women’s roles in America were changing. Economic modernization caused the production of items previously made by women to occur out side of the home. In some cases, families needed women to work for wages in or out of the home. [i] In most cases, however, the men left for work while the women stayed at home to tend to the house and raise the children.This caused the existence of â€Å"separate spheres. †[ii] With this shift in production, the purpose of the home changed. Mothers were the source of love and nurturing for the children. When families became more centered on love and affection, midle class families started having fewer children. [iii] This, in turn, caused women to be able to be more active in society, since they were not constantly expecting or nursing a newborn. [iv] In the early and middle 1800s, women moved out of the home and into the public sphere.Many unmarried women had little chance of being planters, and they were not hired in the city. [v] Most commonly, women worked from the home. Occupations that took place outside of their home were traditional feminie roles of seamstress, laund ress, or nanny. Few women were able to acquire jobs in retail, and women with larger homes could open a boardinghouse. [vi] Women (and children) worked in factories for wages and served humanity, and were generally overlooked by others. [vii] In the North, the manufacturing of cloth items such as clothing moved from the home to factories.Northern women increasingly could purchase thred, cloth, and clothing, while the South had fewer factories, so clothing was made in the home. [viii] Southern women did not question their place in society and admired the traditional way of life on their plantations. [ix] With fewer children and much less work at home, families sent their children to school more, and the public education system changed. The school became responsible for education and social skills. Women became more involved in the schooling system, and most teachers were women. Because of this, women needed to be educated, too. x] Women found work as schoolteachers because the enviro nment was safer and more comfortable than a factory. [xi] Other women worked as private music, dance, or art tutors. They did, however, make low salaries. Though women found employment as teachers and in factories and shops, they longed for a traditional family life. [xii] Education was viewed different in the North and in the South. In the North, women were expected by intelligent and independent free thinkers, while Southern women were expected to use their intellect to make polie conversation and support their ladylike character. xiii] Increasingly during the Antebellum period, women learned how to read. More families owned books and taught their children how to read. [xiv] Wealthy families may have had private libraries, from which daughters could read a variety of literature to maintain intellectual abilities. [xv] Though more women learned to read, many Southern women remained illiterate – some white women could not even write their own name. [xvi] Young women often pre ffered romantic novels that described a fantasy life out of her reach, which caused parents to encourage solid, factual literature.Surprisingly, women were interested in learning the things men learned, and yearned for an education equal to that of their husbands and brothers. [xvii] Unfortunately, the advancement of education for Southern women was far behind that for Northern women, and was only available to the rich, leaving poorer girls from farming families feeling more ignorant and belittled. [xviii] Women in the North were becoming increasingly active in the public arena, and hungered for a say in government. Previously, women persuaded their husbands on moral ground and raised moral citizens; now they began taking a tand for themselves, speaking to legislators about their concerns. [xix] The most common way that women participated in society was by serving with churches and joining temperance and antislavery societies. [xx] Some women â€Å"delivered political tirades, deno unced officials, gave advice on military strategy from the lecture platform, or participated in violent public demonstrations;† these were the ones that troubled the public. [xxi] One of the most well-known femal lecturers during the civil war, Anna Dickinson, delivered speeches on the conflict between the Union and Confederacy. xxii] Her skills brought overwhelming popularity, fame, and wealth for some time, but her eccentricity and womanly unawareness of business caused her time in the spotlight to be limited. [xxiii] Since many women spoke against slavery, many men assumed that the emancipation of slaves would pull them from the public eye, and keep them back in the home. [xxiv] Many women, however, quietly expressed their opinions through personal writings and private conversations. The war was a very personal event, so women were individually affected by the choices made by their political leaders.In both the North and the South, women criticized leaders and blamed them f or the heartbreak of the time. [xxv] As women became increasingly aware of and opinionated about national politics, they yearned more and more for a say in the election of governing officials. [xxvi] The first broad attempt to achieve women’s suffrage was at the Seneca Falls convention in 1848. Nearly two hundred Americans gathered here, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to discuss women’s rights. [xxvii] They drafted and approved the Declaration of Sentiments, which outlined faults in the male-dominated American government, and called for a change.Unfortunately, men continued to claim that a woman’s place was in the home, not politics, and no state would make a law allowing women to vote until several decades later. [xxviii] While the women’s rights movement gained speed in the North, the South prided itself on avoiding issues of feminism. Some Southern women visited the North and attended meeting of women’s right activists, and noted that they disli ked the mixing of races and equality of sexes promoted. [xxix] Louisa McCord attacked Northern movement for femal suffrage, claiming that it took away feminity from women.She said women should display their opinion in society only through their male counterparts, not by giving public speeches and voting in elections. McCord stated that â€Å"The true woman . . . preferred caring for her family to tinkering with constitutions. †[xxx] Some women may have agreed with female superiority, but were too scared of change to bring their thoughts forward. [xxxi] Women worked to supply materials to their armies. The United States Sanitary Commission was created only weeks after the beginning of the war by Henry Bellows.He cooperated with Dorothea Dix, who was also working on forming a â€Å"nursing corps,† but Bellows did not want to work with her. Through the course of the war, Northern women worked to provide valuable materials to aid soldiers in war. [xxxii] Some soldiers were accompanied by their wives, who aided soldiers. They worked doing laundry, cooking for soldiers, nursing soldiers in emergency situations, or counseling soldiers during this traumatic time. [xxxiii] These women often cared for the men and boys as if they were her own sons.Many groups of soldiers claimed a woman as its mother figure, and continued to include and honor her long after the war. [xxxiv] While it was easier for a woman to enter the army with a husband and not be questioned too intensely, women who chose to help soldiers independently were often critisized by the public. [xxxv] Many women demonstrated their patriotism by dressing as men and fighting in the army. Even more women thought and wrote, wishing that they could be allowed to fight alongside their male counterparts. xxxvi] Regulations prevented some from attempting to join, others wrote to generals asking permission to volunteer to fight, and there were women who joined battle as a confrontation was occuring, bypa ssing official enlistment altogether. [xxxvii] The physical examination was a barrier for females – while some were not able to join because of this, other doctors lied on women’s behalf to allow them to join. Still others joined without a physical examination or even official enlistment (women may have joined soldiers and began fighting during a skirmish or battle). xxxviii] Women joined for many different reasons: to be with husbands, brothers, or fathers (though some enlisted secretly, against the wishes of relatives); to leave home; for the money or adventure; patriotism; and some, â€Å"to escape the oppresive social restrictions placed on women in that day and age. †[xxxix] While some joined with family members, others risked the end of family communications by joining. When Ellen Goodridge informed her father that she would fight alongside her fiance, her father disowned her. [xl] Young women dreamed of changing the world, of doing something important, an d joining the army could be their chance.They looked up to figures such as Joan of Arc, and wanted to achieve that kind of glory. [xli] The view of people’s enlistment choices varied by gender. While men were looked down upon if they did not fight alongside their brothers, women recieved the same social treatment if they did join the army. [xlii] Women obviously faced difficulties – menstruation, concealing their figure, and the fact of voice and lack of facial hair. To deal with thease complications, women found privacy as many modest men did and posed as adolescent boys, who often made their way into the regiments. xliii] To enhance their masculine reputation, women learned to act like men by playing cards, smoking cigars and chewing tobacco , drinking, and swearing. [xliv] One thing that helped women maintain their disguise was the fact that no soldier expected to find a woman in the ranks; men were not looking for them, so it was easier to remain unnoticed. [xlv] W ounds and hospital treatment was the most common way for a woman’s gender to be discovered. [xlvi] Unfortunately, a woman’s sex was sometimes uncovered before she even set foot on the battlefield – Sarah Collins and Mary Burns, for example. xlvii] Collins, who was of very good health and â€Å"could have easily borne the hardships incident to a soldier’s life,† was an orphaned teenager living in Wisconsin who enlisted with her brother. [xlviii] She was â€Å"detected by the was she put on her shoes and stockings† before being able to support the Union next to her brother. [xlix] Mary Burns, also a Northerner, joined to be with her significant other from Michigan. [l] She was arrested in Detroit, also before fighting next to the man with whome she enlisted. [li]These women fearlessly performed any task asked of them, and fought bravely in a situation where society assumed women would not be able to function, much less fight like the man stand ing next to her. [lii] Women soldiers readily performed any task given to them, just as if they were a male soldier. It was not uncommon that soldiers were pulled off of the field and asked to work in hospitals. [liii] Some women joined for medical service directly. [liv] Volunteers retrieved wounded from the battlefields and nursed patients as they waited for a surgeon. Women were usually untrained, and had to follw strict regulations.Many soldiers died simply from disease caused by new exposure to the ranks, and thousands died on the battlefield after being left unaided. [lv] Across the Confederacy, societies were formed to gether supplies and volunteers that were sent to Virginia to help wounded soldiers. Women learned to dress wounds efficiently, where they may have fainted at the sight before the war. [lvi] Soldiers and generals were hungry for information about the opposing side. Women sometimes gained insight from Federals through casual conversation, but others were sent nor th to spy and bring information to Jefferson Davis or General Robert E.Lee. Women carried notes filled with information hidden in hams or in the folds of their skirts. [lvii] Some hid in conspicuous places and acted as faithful members of the opposing side, others rode out after midnight to deliver information to officials. This was sometimes dangerous work – soldiers shot these women from afar to stop them from delivering secret plans or other information. [lviii] As citizens of America, the war undoubtedly impacted women. With the absence of men not experienced previously in America, women’s roles shifted ramatically, in and out of war. When men left, women took their place, and that change could not be reverted when the war was over. The result of the American Civil War – emancipation – also altered women's home life. ———————– [i] James M. McPherson, Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstructio n (New York: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. , 2001), 19. [ii] McPherson, 19. [iii] McPherson, 20. [iv] McPherson, 20. [v] George C. Rable, Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989), 26. [vi] Rable, 27. vii] Mary Elizabeth Massey, Women in the Civil War (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 153. [viii] Rable, 27. [ix] Rable, 30. [x] McPherson, 20. [xi] Rable, 28. [xii] Rable, 29. [xiii] Rable, 18-19. [xiv] Rable, 17. [xv] Rable, 17. [xvi] Rable, 18. [xvii] Rable, 17-19. [xviii] Rable, 20-22. [xix] Jeanie Attie, Patriotic Toil: Northern Women and the American Civil War (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998), 46. [xx] James L. Roark, et al. , The American Promise: A History of United States, 2nd ed. (Boston and New York: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2002), 380. [xxi] Massey, 153. xxii] Massey, 154. [xxiii] Massey, 154-55 [xxiv] Massey, 161. [xxv] Massey, 161. [xxvi] Michael P. Johnson, ed. , Reading the Amer ican Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume I: To 1877, 3rd ed. (Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005), 225-26. [xxvii] Johnson, 225-26. [xxviii] Roark, 380. [xxix] Rable, 15-16. [xxx] Rable, 16. [xxxi] Rable, 16-17. [xxxii] Attie, 78. [xxxiii] Massey, 78. [xxxiv] Massey, 78. [xxxv] Massey, 78. [xxxvi] DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook, They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War (New York:Vintage Books, 2002), 25 [xxxvii] Blanton, 25-28. xxxviii] Blanton, 25-28. [xxxix] Blanton, 30-32. [xl] Massey, 80. [xli] Massey, 78. [xlii] Blanton, 30. [xliii] Blanton, 46-50. [xliv] Blanton, 52-53. [xlv] Blanton, 57. [xlvi] Massey, 80. [xlvii] Massey, 80. [xlviii] Blanton, 33, 56. [xlix] Massey, 80. [l] Blanton, 31. [li] Blanton, 124. [lii] Francis Butler Simkins and James Welch Patton, The Women of the Confederacy (Richmond and New York: Garrett and Massie, Incorporated, 1936), 80. [liii] Blanton, 65-66. [liv] Blanton, 65-66. [lv] Simkins, 82-83. [lvi] Simki ns, 82-83. [lvii] Simkins, 82-82. [lviii] Simkins, 82-82.

Days of Destruction Days of Revolt Essay

They offer very detailed and disturbing descriptions of life on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the slums of Camden, New Jersey, and the â€Å"surface mining† zones surrounding Welch, West Virginia, as well as some places in Immokalee, Florida, that are literally like slave camps. One chapter of the book caught my eye, â€Å"Days of Slavery. † It mainly takes place in Immokalee Florida, a center of immigrant agricultural laborers, mostly Latino. The immigrants are housed in terrible conditions, which makes it very hard for them to work. Additionally to the terrible conditions that they are forced to work in, they are also paid unreasonably low wages for the amount of time they are working. Another thing that is affecting the people who work in the factories are serious problems with breathing. They have this problem because of pesticide poisoning and other chemicals that they are being exposed to while working. One chemical that is mentioned is Methyl Bromide. It is also not uncommon for these workers to be held in literal slavery, have their paychecks stolen, and be subjected to physical abuse if they get out of line. The legal system in Florida appears willing to prosecute cases of slavery, but the immigrants are very afraid to come forward for obvious reasons. They are afraid they will be fired and more than likely the cases will not be judged in their favor. This is because these companies are huge, and are able to pay people off to continue making the workers work under unreasonable conditions. O’Neill 2 Hedges interviews activists from the Coalition of Imoakalee Workers, a very strong and militant organization. He describes their struggle to secure a minimum level of decent conditions for the workers. The chapter includes the case of Miguel Flores and Sebastian Gomez, who where sentenced in 1997 to fifteen years in prison on charges of slavery, extortion, and firearm possession. The duo oversaw a modern slavery operation of four hundred men and women who harvested fields in Florida and South Carolina. The book highlights the harsh conditions for the laborers in this operation. The author wrote: The workers, mostly indigenous Mexicans and Guatemalans, were forced to work ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week, for as little as $20 dollars a week, all under the supervision of armed guards. Those who attempted to escape were beaten, pistol-whipped, and at times shot. The crew leaders charged the workers exorbitant prices for food. Female workers, according to one victim, were routinely raped. The coalition workers were told by Flores that if their experiences of working in the factory were talked about, he would cut their tongues out. (Hedges 158) The main questions of the people in the community of Immokalee were probably, â€Å"Who is going to take a stand for us immigrants? Who is going to be our leader that we will follow so we can be treated like normal human-beings? Their questions were not being answered until a man by the name of Lucas Benitez came along. Benitez was thirty-six and had two children . A group was started by Bentiez as well as people who â€Å"found the courage to stand up to abuse, breaking the cycle of fear that keeps the system in place. † Benitez started by becoming an organizer. He and his group would meet at the local Catholic church at night to help those who were being treated unfairly. Things were turning around for the immigrants. They were protesting and trying to do whatever they could to defeat the huge companies who were making them work many hours for such little pay. As they began to protest and strike, the employers gave them what they wanted. The workers of Imoakalee, Florida, got O’Neill 3 a pay raise, and were no longer held in literal slavery. Other then the few changes that were mentioned above, Imoakalee Florida, has not significantly changed since the mid 1950’s. Today, Imoakalee, Florida, is still an area where a majority of America’s crops and produce are grown. Many immigrants still live in Imoakalee, Florida. To this day, unfortunately corruption is still going on in Imoakalee. Huge factories and companies are forcing workers to work very hard, and they are also causing damage to the environment. They are causing damage to the environment because of the smoke stacks that are required by the different factories. (Coalition of Immokalee Workers) O’Neill 4 Works Cited Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). N. p. , n. d. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. . Hedges, Chris, and Joe Sacco. Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. New York: Nation Books, 2012. Print.

Do you think the strategic Essay

Do you think the strategic use and display of emotions serve to protect employees, or does covering your true emotions at work lead to more problems than it solves? By farhanzscania As this chapter has shown, emotions are an inevitable part of people’s behavior at work. At the same time, it’s not entirely clear that we’ve reached a point where people feel comfortable expressing all emotions at work. The reason might be that business culture and etiquette remain poorly suited to handling overt emotional displays. The uestion is, can organizations become more intelligent about emotional management? Is it ever appropriate to yell, laugh, or cry at work? Some people are skeptical about the virtues of more emotional displays at the workplace. As the chapter notes, emotions are automatic physiological responses to the environment, and as such, they can be difficult to control appropriately. One 22- year-old customer service representative named Laura who was the subject of a case study noted that fear and anger were routinely used as methods to control employees, and employees eeply resented this use of emotions to manipulate them. In another case, the chairman of a major television network made a practice of screaming at employees whenever anything went wrong, leading to badly hurt feelings and a lack of loyalty to the organization. Like Laura, workers at this organization were hesitant to show their true reactions to these emotional outbursts for fear of being branded as â€Å"weak† or â€Å"ineffectual. † It might seem like these individuals worked in heavily emotional workplaces, but in fact, only a narrow range of emotions was deemed acceptable. Anger appears to be more acceptable than sadness in many organizations, and anger can have serious maladaptive consequences. Others believe organizations that recognize and work with emotions effectively are more creative, satisfying, and productive. For example, Laura noted that if she could express her hurt feelings without fear, she would be much more satisfied with her work. In other words, the problem with Laura’s organization is not that emotions are displayed, but that emotional displays are handled poorly. Others note that use of emotional knowledge, ike being able to read and understand the reactions of others, is crucial for workers ranging from salespeople and customer service agents all the way to managers and executives. One survey even found that 88% of workers feel being sensitive to the emotions of others is an asset. Management consultant Erika Anderson notes, â€Å"Crying at work is transformative and can open the door to change. † The question then is, â€Å"Can organizations take specific steps to become better at allowing emotional displays without opening a Pandora’s box of outbursts? â€Å"

The Hammon and the Beans: Critical Analysis

Analyzing â€Å"The Hammon and the Beans† In â€Å"The Hammon and the Beans† author Americo Paredes writes about the problems of Mexican-American children growing up in poverty. The story takes place around 1926 in a fictional south of Texas setting of Jonesville-on-the-Grande, under the shadows of Fort Jones. This setting is reminiscent with Paredes home of Brownsville and historic Fort Brown, established in 1846 to house troops during the Mexican-American War and later used to defend the border. The story features child characters that observe, but do not fully understand the uneasiness of the adult world of south Texas.Our young, unnamed narrator sets the tone by describing his home which is his grandfather’s dirty, yellow, big-framed house. He also notes why his mother hated it. â€Å"They had fleas, she said. † He goes on to render how the people of Jonesville-on-the-Grande became in sync with the routine on the post at Fort Jones. â€Å"At eight, th e whistle from the post laundry sent us children off to school. The whole town stopped for lunch with the noon whistle, and after lunch everybody went back to work when the post laundry said it was one o’ clock. As the young boy recounts â€Å"border troubles† and why the soldiers came back to old Fort Jones, he casually introduces Chonita. Chonita is one of his playmates as well as a family friend. Her mother did his family’s laundry for use of a one-room shack on a vacant plot of land belonging to his grandfather. Chonita plays a rather large role in this young boy’s memory. He describes how after the post’s flag went down every night, Chonita would walk to the soldier’s mess halls and watch through the screen as they stuffed themselves. She would stand there until they were finished so that the cooks would grant her the leftovers.He had just moved into the neighborhood when a boy invited him to hear Chonita make a speech. He saw she was a scrawny girl with dirty feet. All of the children were looking on as she stood atop an alley fence. Everyone was shouting, â€Å"Speech! Speech! Let Chonita make a speech! Talk in English Chonita! † She yelled out, â€Å"Give me the hammon and the beans! Give me the hammon and the beans! † Every evening Chonita would make her speech as the young boy waited until they could go play. One day the young boy fell ill and when he was cured Chonita was not around. As he grew through the 1930s he thought of her and the hammon and the beans often.Eventually, he learned that Chonita had passed away from an illness. The night of Chonita’s death, everyone was really sad, but the young boy just felt strange. The doctor told the boy’s father that Chonita’s father was in a rather joyous mood. The boy’s father told the doctor that the man was not Chonita’s biological father and that her real father had been shot and hanged. The two men proceeded wit h a conversation about radicalism, and came to no significant conclusion. The young boy headed off to bed at his mother’s request. As he lay there not fully asleep, he thought about Mexican hero Emiliano Zapata.He heard the bugle blare at the post and thought of Chonita in heaven shouting, â€Å"Give me the hammon and the beans! † He began to cry, and not knowing why he was crying he felt better. Using â€Å"The Hammon and the Beans† Americo Paredes described the Brownsville of his youth. Paredes wrote with a darkly tragic irony of a young boy’s first encounter with death. I believe Chonita was a symbol. A symbol of how Mexican-Americans struggled against poverty, prejudice, and loss of cultural identity. Work Cited Paredes, Ame? rico. The Hammon and the Beans. Houston, TX: Arte Publico, University of Houston, 1994. Print.

NELP REPORT CHAPTER SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

NELP REPORT CHAPTER SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS - Essay Example The research points out receptive and expressive skills. Receptive skills range from simple decoding to reading comprehension while expressive skills include spelling and composition. Further the analysis is divided into primary and secondary analyses. Primary analyses try to identify preschool and kindergarten predictors of conventional literacy skills. While secondary analyses are about the questions concerning the age of assessment for the predictor variable and the age of assessment for the measurement of the conventional literacy outcome variable. Since accuracy of statistics is not perfect therefore Confidence Interval is used to measure the estimate of accuracy. Data about different skills related to decoding reveal strong relationship for Alphabet Knowledge (AK) while moderate relation for Phonological Awareness (PA), oral language, ability to write and concept about print. The data about skills related to reading reveal moderate relationship for AK, print knowledge, PA and r apid naming while a low correlations for phonological STM, oral language, and writing. The data about skills related to spelling show an average correlation for concepts about print and PA skills, while moderate relationship was found for oral language skills, writing, phonological STM and rapid naming of objects or colors.

Consumer affected by marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Consumer affected by marketing - Assignment Example Moreover, several studies have shown that technology plays a vital role in making a company cost effective as well as meeting the growing demand of consumers. Nowadays, technology is vastly used in marketing campaigns of companies and deeply impacts the consumers as well. With the emergence and development of internet, marketers started to use it as a platform of promoting their products and services. Regarding, this context social media has been a key tool for the business houses. In the last few decades, there has been a surge in the implementation of e-commerce applications and few researchers deem that the cause of increased usage of e-commerce is the ongoing trends. This study aims to analyze the impact of social media marketing on the purchase behavior of the consumers. The study will mainly rely on the secondary sources of information and will also consider the previous research papers about the subject of concern. Lastly, on the basis of the findings from the analysis, the st udy will recommend few techniques to the companies regarding how they can improve their social media marketing campaign. Discussion and Analysis Consumer Buying Process The consumer buying process is described through 5 different stages namely problem recognition, information search, evaluation, purchase decision and lastly post purchase behavior. (Source: Kotler and Keller 15-25) Among the aforementioned stages, the role of marketers is crucial during the information search and evaluation phase. In these two stages, consumers generally go through a series of assessments so as to ultimately reach a decision. Kotler and Keller (15-25) in this regards have accentuated that during the evaluation phase, a consumer forms preferences among the brands. The preference of a brand is as a result of the evaluation of the information. A consumer generally starts with exploration of different products and therefore a product with high visibility gets more inclination. According to Kotler and Kel ler (17-26) a consumer is undoubtedly influenced by the â€Å"infomediaries† often regarded as the intermediaries, who publishes the evaluation of products through tabular comparison. For example, studies have shown that reviews on the websites such as blogs, tweets, bulletin boards etc., highly influence the consumer purchase decision. Once the assessments of the alternative choices are made, consumers try to formulate a belief about the alternatives that guides their intention, attitude and finally their selection among the alternatives. (Source: Weber 2- 18) There are certain other factors as well affecting the consumer buying decision, yet attitude about the products and services are dubbed as the powerful predictors of the patterns and processes of the exposure to information. In addition, attitude which is learned through trails and past experience comprises of three elements namely conative, cognitive and affective. Therefore, from an overall point of view it can be sa ted that consumer buying process consists of several steps and a number of factors affects their decision making process. The next section of the study will try to analyze the extent to which social media, a recent buzz for the marketers influences the decision making process of consumers. Social Media Marketing The usage of social media has been increasing at a robust rate. For the marketing professionals, social media generally acts as a tool that is potentially used to create and increase awareness of

Wall Street Journal #1 Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Wall Street Journal #1 - Article Example tributed to the lack of a master plan as well as disjointed plans and the different forms of mixed-use developments in Mexico City are new to the area and have brought a lot of demand from the upper-middle class particularly the ones with young families due to their collection of retail, cultural attractions and offices (Whelan). Developers have taken the vacant land in the area and closed industrial sites so that they can be abele to develop sites, and this has increased the population of the city without considering the breadth of the streets to accommodate the increased flow of traffic, the electrical systems as well as the capacity of the water in the area. It is easier to get a permit for development in Mexico City than it is in New York City, and this is the main cause of the exponential growth that has brought problems as far as water and power are concerned. The city has had to put a hold on the permitting process and consequently start an overhaul of the entire process so that it can be able to check and plan for the development that is taking place. This has lead to many developers that had already procured land for the construction having to wait a little longer until the process is reviewed making them delay on huge

Perception Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Perception Management - Essay Example Each person selects various cues that influence his perceptions of people, objects, and symbols. Because of these factors and their potential imbalance, people often misperceive another person, group, or object. To a considerable extent, people interpret the behavior of others in the context of the setting in which they find themselves. Research has shown that managers and direct reports often have different perceptions of the same events as illustrated in Table 1 (Allen, Plotnick, 2001). Managers and direct reports both act based on their perceptions, regardless of their accuracy. And that can create problems. Most people want to make favorable perceptions on others. This is particularly true in organizations, where individuals compete for jobs, favorable performance evaluations, and salary increases. The process by which individuals try to control the perceptions others have of them is called perception management. Individuals use several techniques to control others' perceptions of them (Schein, 1990). Some employees may engage in perception management to intentionally look bad at work. Methods for creating a poor perception include decreasing performance, not working to one's potential, skipping work, displaying a bad attitude, or broadcasting one's limitations. Why would someone try to look bad to others Sometimes employees want to avoid additional work or a particular task. They may try to look bad in hopes of being laid off, or they may create poor perceptions in order to get attention. Perception management seems to have an impact on others' perceptions. As long as the perceptions conveyed are accurate, this process can be a beneficial one in organizations. If the perceptions are found to be false, however, a strongly negative overall perception may result. Further, excessive perception management can lead to the perception that the user is manipulative or