Gender Development

Gender shapes the lives of all people in all societies. The term ‘gender’ refers to the social construction of female and male identity. It can be defined as more than biological differences between men and women. It includes the ways which those differences, whether real or perceived, have been valued, used and relied upon to classify women and men and to assign roles and expectations to them (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Gender_and_development). Gender influences our lives, the schooling we receive, the social roles we play, and the power and the authority we command. Population processes – where women and men live, how they bear and rear children, and how they die – are shaped by gender as well (Riley, 1997). Several theories of gender development have generated most of the research during the past ten years: social learning theory, cognitive-development theory, and gender schema theory. Proponents of social learning theory believe that parents, as distributors of reinforcement, reinforce appropriate gender role behaviors. By their choice of toys, by urging boy or girl behavior, parents encourage their children to engage in appropriate gender-related behavior. Thus children are reinforced or punished for different kinds of behavior. They also learn appropriate gender behavior from other male or female models such as those in television shows. A second explanation, quite popular today, is found in cognitive-development theory, which derives from Kohlberg’s speculations about gender development. It is known that from Piaget’s work that children engage in symbolic thinking by about 2 years of age. Using this ability, Kohlberg believes, they begin the process of acquiring gender-appropriate behavior. A newer, and different, cognitive explanation is called gender schema theory. A schema is a mental blueprint for organizing information, and children develop gender identity and formulate an appropriate gender role. Consequently, children develop an integrated schema or picture, of what gender is and should be (Elliott et al. , 1996). Gender and Power Gender refers to the different ways men and women play society, and to the relative power they wield. While gender is expressed differently in different societies, in no society do men and women perform equal roles or hold equal positions of power. Power is basic fabric of society and is possessed in varying degrees by social actors in diverse social categories. Power becomes abusive and exploitive only when independence and individuality of a person or group of people becomes so dominant that freedom for the other is compromised. Women and children have open been on the abusive sides of power. Some causes that are often referred to are: the greater the physical strength that men tend to have creates the imbalance of power between men and women resulting from social structures and historical practices in regard to finances, education, roles of authority and decision making; the abuse of power by men and the failure of cultural pressures to prevent such abuse; and distorted view the sexuality and the objectification of the female. Max Weber in his ‘Essays in Sociology’ defined power as the likelihood a person may achieve personal ends despite possible resistance from others. Since this definition views power as coercive, Weber also considered ways in which power can be achieved through justice. Authority, he contented, is power which people determine to be legitimate rather than coercive. As a group, women are at a distinct advantage when considering both power and authority. Several factors act as determinants of the amount of power a person holds or can use in his/her relations with others: status resources, experience, and self-confidence. Males and females traditionally have had differing amounts of power at their disposal. By virtue of t6he male’s greater ascribed status in society, men have more legitimate power based on rank or position than do women. The serious social issue today is the relative inequities in social power between men and women. The issue of women’s power, relative to men, is not merely academic. Gender differences in power have real consequences for women. For example, although women have made significant gains in the workplace, with more women working than in the past and women possessing approximately a third of all management positions, women continue to experience wage discrimination, be excluded from the most powerful executive positions, advance more slowly in their careers, and experience fewer benefits from obtaining education or work experience, and are included in fewer networks and exert less authority (Colwill; Lyness and Thompson, 1997) than men in similar positions. A number of researchers have linked career advancement and access to benefits and resources within organizations to an effective use of power. An understanding of women’s power, relative to men, is therefore essential to overcoming women’s disadvantage in the workplace and other domains (http://www. find articles. com/p/articles/mi m0341/ is 1 55/ai 54831711). Gender and Education The past decade has witnessed a significant increase in the importance accorded to education, with both instrumental as well as intrinsic arguments made for increasing financial investment and policy attention to education provision. Investing in education is seen as one of the fundamental ways in which nation states and their citizens can move toward long-term development goals and improve both social and economic standards of living. The education of women is seen as providing the key to securing intergenerational transfers of knowledge, and providing the substance of long-term gender equality and social change. Although significant gains have been made in women’s education as a result of global advocacy, more often than not the gains are fragile, vulnerable to changes in economic and social environments, and lagging behind in male rates of enrolment and achievement. Achievements are particularly visible in the primary education sector, whereas gaps are still large in the secondary and tertiary sectors (unrsid. org/inrisd/website/nsf). Schools also reinforce gendered social roles. Researchers have documented the differential treatment accorded males and females in the classrooms that reinforces a sense of inferiority and lack of initiative among female students (Sadker and Sadker, 1988). Boys are far more likely to be given specific information that guides improvement of their performance (Boggiano and Barrett, 1991).

Credit Default Swaps

Credit Default Swaps Credit default swaps are the transfer of third party credit risk from one party to the other party. The purchaser of the swap must make the payments until it reaches the maturity date of the assigned contract. A better understanding of CDS is â€Å"One party in the swap is a lender and faces credit risk from a third party, and the counterparty in the credit default swap agrees to insure this risk in exchange of regular periodic payments (essentially an insurance premium). If the third party defaults, the party providing insurance will have to purchase from the insured party the defaulted asset.In turn, the insurer pays the insured the remaining interest on the debt, as well as the principal†(Investor Words). The worth of credit default swaps results from whether or not a company fails to pay back the amount. The Washington Post Article â€Å"Credit default swaps are insurance products. It’s time we regulated them as such† by Barry Ritholtz on March 10, 2012 explained that it was time to change the laws regarding Credit Default swaps. The article talked about companies like Enron and AIG took advantage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, that promoted unregualated insurance policies.The CFMA lead to companies wrongly swapping their defaults. The CFMA lead to the 2007-2008 Finanical Crisis that was responsible for the collapse of Lehman Brothers, CitiGroup, Bank of America, Fannie and Freddie. The Telegraph article titled â€Å"JPMorgan losses highlight need for credit default swap regulation† goes into detail about the $17. 5 billion loss JPMorgan experienced due to a series of derivate transactions in 2012. It was first believed that they only lost $2 billion during the first quarter of the year, but by the end it was calculated close to $17. billion. experience. The government is left in a position that they have to help them, in order to prevent another economic depression. Credit Default Swaps need to be either strictly regulated by the governments where these banks are performing these actions or banned all together. These banks are gambling with money that they don’t have to cover their losses. The more the banks can deregulate themselves from the government’s power, the more likely another major economic depression is to happen. Works Cited Blackden, Rick. JPMorgan Losses Highlight Need for Credit Default Swap Regulation. † The Telegraph. N. p. , 21 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2013 Gandel, Stephen. â€Å"Why It's Time to Outlaw Credit Default Swaps. † CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 18 June 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. Ritholtz, Barry. â€Å"Credit Default Swaps Are Insurance Products. It’s Time We Regulated Them as Such. † Washington Post, 10 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2013 â€Å"What Is Credit Default Swap? † Http://www. investorwords. com/5876/credit_default_swap. html. WebFinance, n. d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013

Changing Trends In Advertisement Strategies Of Virgin Atlantic Marketing Essay

Changing Trends In Advertisement Strategies Of Virgin Atlantic Marketing Essay The main aim of the research is to explore the changing trends in advertisement strategies and to evaluate the impact on customers in competitive market. Research Objective: To explore the changing trends in advertisement strategies of Virgin Atlantic To identify the key features in Virgin advertisements that attracts customers To explain the impact of changed advertisement strategies on customers preference Definition of Advertisement strategy: An advertising strategy is a campaign developed to communicate ideas about products and services to potential consumers in the hopes of convincing them to buy those products and services. Research Questions What are the current advertisement trends in airline industry? How does the advertisement strategy of Virgin Atlantic influence customer’s preference? Introduction: Background of research In this research, researcher is going to explore the changing trends in advertisement strategies of Virgin Atlantic Airways. Researcher wants to identify those key elements that influence customer’s attraction towards Virgin Atlantic Airways. Researcher will adopt different tools and techniques to gather primary information. Conceptual Framework: Definition:† A theoretical structure of assumptions, principles, and rules that holds together the ideas comprising a broad concept.† In this particular research; researcher explore the changing trends in advertisement of Virgin Atlantic and explain the impact on customer preference. The conceptual framework of this research is based on five different steps. In the first step researcher explains the aim and objective of the research. The first introduction step also contains the brief introduction of company. In second phase researcher critically evaluates the literature review related to his research .in this phase researcher studied different articles, journals to get the understanding of different thoughts and assumptions related to his research problem and the n end up with the conclusion. Third phase of this research paper is most significant because it explains the different methodologies and tools used by researcher to get his objective. In this step researcher describe his research methodology, strategy, philosophy, approach and data collection method for primary information. The forth phase of this research is data analysis. In this section researcher compiled the relevant information gathered from different respondents through questionnaire and then presented in the form of graphs And at the end researcher give conclusion and recommendation to support his research and then further explains the outcome. . Background of Virgin Atlantic: In early 80’s Randolph Fields gave idea to Richard Branson of starting Virgin Atlantic Airways. Virgin Atlantic Airways Original known as British Atlantic Airways, The first flight of Virgin Atlantic’s was from Gatwick to Newark on their only 747 on 22nd June 1984. Two years after their f irst flight to Newark, Virgin present a planned service to Miami in 1986, and later on with Orlando in 1988. By the end of the 1980’s, Virgin introduced new long haul flights to Tokyo, JFK and Los Angeles in May 1989 and August 1989 respectively. Virgin Atlantic’s is recognized by their innovative strategy, and the severe competition with BA on the transatlantic routes has pushed forward services unlike any other carriers in the world. Virgin was the first international passenger carrier to present personal in-flight entertainment systems in lower class, and then they have specify business class approaching it way beyond the expectations. Virgin Atlantic’s is always remain in media due to their innovative and appealing advertisements.

Business law and ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business law and ethics - Essay Example In this regard, this essay is written to evaluate a particular case on business law and ethics, specifically delving into four ethical theories in the process: utilitarianism, the Golden Rule, Kant’s categorical imperative and virtue ethics. The discourse would begin with a summary of the case facts and proceed into a discussion of the ethical issues. The essay would progress into an enumeration of the affected parties before closely evaluating the case facts using the four ethical theories abovementioned. The recommendation would take into consideration relevant ethical contexts and critical thinking and analytical skills applicable in the given scenario and would be presented in the form of consequences and obligations, as required. Case facts reveal that Pat, a plant manager in one of ABC Company’s five plants has been employed with the company for 15 years. She has earned the trust of her boss as manifested by revealing in confidence about the lay-off plans involving 200 workers. In this given situation, an old friend of Pat tried to confirm the veracity of the rumor circulating in the plant. Given the facts of the case, the ethical issues that Pat must take into consideration are itemized below: (1) due to the confidentiality of the information accorded to Pat, she is in a quandary as to reveal the truth about the layoff; (2) as an employee who had earned the trust of management, Pat is indebted to the company for sending her to college; thereby, the personal traits of honesty and integrity, in concurrence with abiding with policies of confidentiality, are hereby critical in the decision making process; (3) an old friend relies on Pat to give her the right information regarding the rumor of laying off 200 personnel; Pat is therefore bewildered as her loyalty and trust is hereby tested. It is critical to identify in an ethical

Are Sweatshops Good or Bad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Are Sweatshops Good or Bad - Essay Example Some of the benefits include generating an added income for the family, discourages children from engaging in drug and substance abuse and enables production of low priced goods. There are positive and negative impacts of sweat shops and the essay concentrates on the disadvantages. The major argument against sweat shops in the US and world over is related to the working policies. It has been observed that the working conditions in these factories are poor. The environment is most sweat shops is damp, cold and dark and it may have negative health implications on the workers such as respiratory and sight problems. Secondly, the employees in sweat shops work for long hours and this can lead to fatigue or even depression (Kristof 114). In some situations the employees work for sixteen hours in a day and throughout the weak. Unfortunately, these employees do not get paid for working overtime. To make matters worse, these individuals work for low wages that is barely enough to buy food or cater for their basic needs. The second most important argument against sweatshops is that they make use of child labor. This is owing to the fact that sweat shops are focused towards maximizing their profits and children offer cheap labor thus minimizing the cost of production (Kristof 115). This is seen as a violation of the children’ rights as they should be given the opportunity to play and study. It is wrong to contract children to work in sweat shops as they are exposed to poor working conditions and for prolonged hours and at little pay. The final argument against sweat shops is that they take away jobs from the US citizens. Owing the current economic conditions in the US it has become increasingly difficult to find work (Kristof 115). It has been observed that most of the employees working in these factories are immigrants. Additionally, factories are

Risk Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Risk Assessment - Essay Example Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Body Table 1.0 III. Conclusion IV. References Introduction: It is without question that the risks facing children on the World Wide Web are expansive. The risks associated with chat rooms and strangers on the internet have been the cause for many law enforcement investigations and new protocols and restrictions towards what minors can and cannot do on the internet. Likewise, even secondary schools have been instituting policies which ban educators from â€Å"friending† their own students on social networking sites due to the perceived risk and liability that this entails. However, although the risks to children online and more specifically in social networking are vast, growing, and varied, few studies have attempted to present what risks are the most prescient and to what extent. This type of analysis is beneficial in determining proper policies and procedures in order to mitigate these risks. As such, this brief analysis will make a curs ory review of the risks associated with social networking as it applies to children and then construct a risk assessment of these threats in order to more succinctly describe the threats that children face in the social networking sphere. ... Accordingly, the levels of restrictions that users can chose to set regarding what information is shared/distributed with others is at the prerogative of the user. However, children are unlikely to entertain the full scope of how privacy can affect their lives. Additionally, the decision of what to share, what not to share, to what extent to share, and who to share it with is also likely not a cognitive ability that children will fully grasp the significance of (White, 2012). Without question, privacy is an issue that affects all users; however, with respect to children, the danger is specifically high. For purposes of this analysis, privacy concerns (as they relate to children on social networking) have been labeled a high overall risk. This is due to the fact that privacy violation and over sharing are so expansive as well as the fact the severity associated with that risk exceeds the category of privacy itself. With respect to privacy, the threat to children online can begin and e nd with this category. If it is taken seriously, the succeeding categories are redundant; however, if not heeded at all, this privacy category is a gateway to each of the others. Regardless of the particular privacy mechanism in question, the increasing rate of identity theft, issues relating to what to share and how to share it, and the fact that privacy encompasses all of the dangers that are extant to children online makes it the most prescient issue associated with the problem. When one stops to think about it, the proper amount of online privacy will stop sexual predators from finding their victims, will hamper cyber bullying, and will serve to protect the child in most other situations. As such, privacy is the paramount concern with relation to social networking. Likewise, a

Emphasis Fiction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Emphasis Fiction - Essay Example Narrative voice used in the selection is a clear demonstration of the qualities passed by the main character who is the narrator (Gilbert 1158). Through the tone and diction contained within this narrative voice, it is obvious in this story that Sammy is in his teens and his having a mature observation of women. It is significant to know that the A&P story is written in the first person and the narrator is an objective; this simply shows that the narrator relies on personal observation and does not know what actually goes on in the mind of the others. Sammy is also seen as a participant narrator since he is also in the story that he is telling. Since Sammy is restrained in this particular manner, he can easily be believed, and the readers can also relate with him without any hindrance (Gilbert 1158). Moreover, since he is present in person, he is a dependable source of information for the readers. The simple manner in which Sammy is portrayed in the story coupled with his plain existence proposes the idea that every man has some complexity that lies in the mind. The story was published in 1953, following the permanent move of Flannery OConnor to Andalusia who the diary firm of her mother. The story makes an illustration of the various themes and techniques that characterized the distinctive OConnor story. There is characterization in this story. The tools of characterization include actions, clothing, family life, speech and dialogue as well as thoughts and opinions (Flannery 4). In the context of actions, it is the way sense is made for the minor characters and they say a lot in the story. The kids in the story say nasty things to the strangers and grandmother and consequently through a fantastic tantrum to ensure that their Bailey takes them to the particular plantation house. Baileys appears to loose his temper and fond of clenching the jaw and also saying shut up. However, the wife of Bailey says and does nothing apart from attending to the baby.

The Construction of New York City's Subway System Essay

The Construction of New York City's Subway System - Essay Example The New York City subway system disperses in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Bronx (Ruhl Web). Most significantly is the fact that the New York City subway system is not all-underground as only a few tracks run underground with the rest manifesting some levels of elevation (Range 19). The Times Square stands out as the busiest station of the New York City Subway. The City of New York owns the New York City Subway system with further leasing to the New York City Transit Authority for management. Many lines in the subway offer both express and local services where fare payment is usually through the Metro card. However, children and the disabled enjoy free rides and reduced fare respectively. As stated herein, the subway system proves to be cost-efficient in US where the Citizens Budget Commission reported in 2011 affirmed its effectiveness where it records the lowest cost per passenger. This paper will address the construction of the New York City subway system in details. It will eq ually consider the significant inventions and renovations that have taken place since its first inception. The construction of the New York City subway system entailed a lot of engineering work, masonry, electrical, human and machine labor. As such, apart from requiring well-trained engineers, the construction equally consumed huge capital investment. Indeed, since it was one of its kinds in New York a lot of lobbying, prior planning, legislation, and objective design was necessary in serving the intended purpose of effective transportation. As such, various subsections under the mandate of variant subcontractors undertook the construction of the New York City subway system. The construction process involved excavations, support of railway tracks, and tunnel work. It also included masonry work, plastering, construction, reconstruction of sub-surface structures, restoration of street surface, erection of steel, and painting of tunnel walls (Deyo Web). Consequently, the construction o f the NYC subway system adopted five types of construction (The Interborough Transit Company 35-40). This included the construction of the typical subway close to the surface with steel bulb-angle columns supporting the tacks and flat roof and "I" beams for supporting the roof. Then there was the construction of the flat roof typical subway where steel bulb-angle columns support the concrete construction. Additionally, there was the construction of the elevated road on steel viaduct and the concrete lined tunnel that involved concrete lined open cutwork and rock tunnel work. Lastly, the construction of the NYC subway system also encompassed the cast-iron tubes. These modes of construction took place in various sub sections (New York City subway Web). For a fact, the construction of the NYC subway system took many years to come to fulfillment. Notably, the talks on building an underground rail system in New York started as early as 1863. However, the main stakeholders shelved this th ought for some time, as it was until later in 1868 that Alfred E. Beach had to rely on the New York City Central Underground Company charter to build a test section of tunnel 350 feet long under Broadway. Subsequently, the Commodore Vanderbilt mandated the New York City Rapid Transit Company to initiate the sub-surface railroad construction in 1872. However, this plan had to wait for the passing of the referendum in 1894 to generate financial

Operation Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

Operation Management - Research Paper Example Introduction Fairmont hotel is a leading traditional five star pit stop for many international tourists visiting Singapore. Due to high market penetration by various leading hotel chains Fairmont is anticipating a major shift in bringing operational efficiency by focusing on increased staff training to rise up the bar in terms of customer satisfaction. Secondly traditional procedures enrooted across the management in each department lacks competitive throughput as compared to other systematically superior newer hotels. Another reason why Fairmont failed to sustain its lustre is due to its lack of emphasis towards replacement of its traditional equipment, fixture and fittings in order to keep abreast with the changing trends. Singapore city had remained economically vibrant over the past few years and thus had attracted both business travellers and tourists alike from across the borders at an increased pace. Demand had remained stable throughout hospitality sector and hotel segment, b ut the hotel’s management had felt an alarming situation whilst its occupancy rate dropped immediately in times when the pressure from either group faded. In instances like business holiday season the occupancy rate dropped more abruptly compared to other industry players or far more than the industry rate. Likewise as soon as the peak season for tourists diminished the rate drop for Fairmont surpassed that of its peers. Management is concerned regarding hotel’s obnoxious performance and fears that if no prompt action is taken to bring in higher efficiency that would match performance of its peers, it might have to face consequences like complete closure. Methodology Business Risk Management is concerned regarding the prevalent obnoxious performance and fears that if no prompt action to bring in higher efficiency that would match that of its peers, it might have to face consequences like complete closure. So in order to implement and transform a strategy shift through change management the solution is to be devised based on the current factors that relate to the business. Fairmont is making handsome profits as far as its financial statements records states. But the gap between its profitability and operating cash flows is widening day by day. The GM who had been with the hotel till his retirement last year, had hands on experience and expertise over business marketing and management, his intervention to uplift and upgrade the hotel’s outlook had remained quite low. Performance measurement standards had been predominantly relied over simpler profitability ratios under his regime. It is truly a managers’ job to bring about the relevant change within each process and critically evaluate management with acute yardstick that would enable an enterprise to foster efficient practices and remove inefficiencies. Traditional models have their certain life after which new advance theories builds upon already defined principals as with time impr ovements are crafted naturally. For such reasons product cycle and stage within this cycle is important to be defined that would translate the

Apollo 13 Video Clip Essay Example for Free

Apollo 13 Video Clip Essay In chapters seven through ten several OB topics were examined. As you review the video, look for incidences that relate to OB concepts that you observe. Identify two concepts, explain where you observed them in the video and to which chapter they apply. Provide either work or personal examples to support each of the observations Post: Tiffany Demko Week 4 Discussion – MGMT 362 Apollo 13 Video clip First off this is a great movie, and I’m not much of a movie buff. I found way more than just 2 ob concepts in this clip. I think that managing a team is a difficult task because it requires a hardy personality to be a calming rational thinker while taking others in consideration, and blocking the negativity or tension that maybe building. Bill Paxton Tom Hank’s characters points out that the smartest people on the planet have been brought together to make sure every setting is correct, and all the resources needed are available. Tom Hanks points out that they have a large amount of variables to consider when overcoming the challenges before them, and they are just starting that â€Å"task† list so to speak. Making decisions fairly to limit the inequity amongst the group is vital to the members working together to achieve their common goal, getting home. Remembering that a team is brought together because of their diverse roles, and knowledge that they bring to the table, each person working in a group or on a team has been given that opportunity because of their expertise. In any crisis situation it is always a good idea to apply forward thinking, and I think that is what Kevin Bacon’s character was trying to point out. Handling a potential challenge before it becomes a real issue is value added indeed, all to often we can fix something at that moment that could help avoid other pitfalls, but if we wait until we get to that item on the â€Å"task list† one may not have the same options available to them. Respect must always be given among a team in my opinion, it’s how you grow, and it’s what you personally should be able to expect, and rely on from those your working with.

Leaderships Social And Ethical Issues Leadership Essay

Leaderships Social And Ethical Issues Leadership Essay Nothing of the above is true since leadership is not about magical abilities. Leadership is basically the relationship between people who belong to the higher-rank and those who belong to the lower one. The relationship which shows that we understand one another and that we co-operate. Being the leader is more about offering your services to others rather than ordering others. Overall, one person cannot have all the abilities necessary to the society to satisfy thoroughly the significant role of a leader. However, obtaining a leading position does not automatically make you a leader. A leader can be found at all levels of society because leadership is both an individual and collective condition which develops throughout ones life and not just at one stage. Proceeding, I will present the definition which Robert Terry has given for the notion of leadership, who was for years the principle of the Reflective Leadership Center and a professor at the Hioubert H. Hamfrey Institute of Public Relations of the University of Minnesota. According to Terry, leadership is a notion which everyone knows well however, it cannot be easily described because for each one of us it has a different meaning. Leadership is not only about abilities a person has neither specific features that describe a case. Leadership is the courage to take action in society with authentic and genuine goals. When he refers to genuine energy and action he means everything a person can do to discover the truth about a situation which unfolds itself as a public case influencing everyone. However, the most important aspect for a real leader is to have a vision, followers, hence, people who follow and support him, share and maintain his vision as the years go by. A leader is someone who constantly has new ideas and innovations to achieve his dreams for the advantage of the group he is working for, without being discouraged whenever he is unable to materialize them. The most important aspect that characterizes a leader is being authentic and constantly trying to learn more things in order to achieve what is good for the company or organization he is working for. In the current essay I have decided to elaborate on the social and ethical issues in leadership. Therefore, it is worth-mentioning that to become a leader someone must have ethics which are necessary for him, such as morality and willingness to offer to the society. It is of high importance for a leader to be moral and act in an ethical way as he sets the example to others, his followers and supporters. The leading position cannot be held by a person that is immoral and whose actions and desires are opposite to the principles of ethics otherwise, many problems will occur in the company he leads. For example, if he speaks in a rude way to the employees, does not respect their desires and selfishly demands his orders to be fulfilled without being able to solve any disagreements that may occur with a dialogue then, tension takes over and failure follows. On the other hand, a moral leader must have the feeling of equality and justice developed and be familiar with the principles of business-ethics in order to bring about win-win situations and win-lose situations. Also, he must solve any disagreements occurring with dialectic-methods. The principles of the dialogue have to do with the Socratic-methods, the maieutic and dialectic method. Consequently, a leader must see things from the point of view of a philosopher and combine many advantages together. Some people might be born to be leaders however, they must constantly cultivate their leading abilities in various ways for his professional progress. Leading abilities come from the inner world of a person combining a philosophic approach with qualifications acquired. One of the qualifications a leader must have is the ability to constantly offer to his society in order to develop and improve it towards the best possible result. The term social leadership or social leader denotes the part of the society or the social class , the class of leaders as Plato calls it, which is responsible to organize effectively the productivity of the society and lead his/her society to a better situation for everyone. Briefly, he/she is responsible to bring prosperity and development to the whole. In the case where a social leader is unable or refuses to fulfill his promises and lead the society to evolution, crisis of social leadership is created. Consequently, a proper leader must be moral and try to offer as much as possible to his society. Continuing, I will describe something that happened to me that managed to convince me for the significance of the two principles a leader must have (social principles and morality). It was the summer of 2009 and I had just finished my studies in Greek Language at the University of Athens and returned to Cyprus. Therefore, I began searching for a job permanent or temporary one. Having in mind that it would be difficult for me to find a job relevant to the studies I had completed, I applied to various companies and some private schools who advertised their need for teachers. Therefore, I did not hesitate to go for a job interview at GC School of Careers, one of the biggest private schools in Cyprus, after being informed by the secretary of the Principle of the school, Mr Aimilios Hadjipetris. Mr. Hadjipetris secretary told me that I would have to speak with him after the procedure of the interview as he would be the one to judge if I was suitable for the position. When the day of the interview arrived I went to Mr. Hadjipetris office and introduced myself. He began asking me some questions in order to see my personality and my abilities for the position available. After the professional procedure of the interview, I noticed a frame with a photo on the wall of Mr. Hadjipetris office and found the courage to ask him who that man was. He proudly replied that it was his father Mr. Stelio Hadjipetri and as a consequence, our discussion went to a more friendly level rather than a serious professional one. Mr. Aimilios spoke to me about his father with all the respect and admiration he had in his heart. That lead me to the conclusion that we could easily include Mr. Stelio in the Cypriot leaders as he had all the characteristics a leader should have (vision, followers, goals, morals). Additionally, he was one of the pioneers of the foundation and development of private education in Cyprus and fought for the improvement and discipline in Cyprus educational system. As he went on talking about the achievements of his father, I was paying attention to Mr. Aimilios words with great interest and admire wanting to learn more about Mr. Stelios Hadjipetris whom without meeting I greatly admired and began to consider him one of the most important leaders of Cyprus in the field of private education. His admirable character and personality, justice, decisiveness and self-discipline were some of the morals that characterized and facilitated him to create and offer to his descendants one of the most well-organised schools in Cyprus, well-known for its success in every educational domain. It is worth to mention that an institution has been founded dedicated to the name of this man who envisioned and materialized quality and discipline as we conceive it nowadays, in the islands private educational system. Stelios Hadjipetris was born in 1936, in Agros, in a very poor family with many children. After elementary school he went to Apeiteio Gymnasium and because of his familys financial difficulties he had to work hard both in Limassol and Nicosia, during his summer holidays. His desire to proceed his education at a University level made him work even harder so, in 1955 when he finished High School he was employed at the Water Supplying Council in Nicosia. Due to his qualifications he was then hired by the Government until the British troops discovered that he was a terrorist and therefore fired him. At the same time, he had passed the Accounting Higher Exams through correspondence he got his degree in Accounting from the Kleismakis Accounting School of Athens. With his degree he worked at a private college in Nicosia and later at Apeiteio Gymnasium. During the difficult years of 1955-59 he was an excellent fighter for E.O.K.A. and his island. After he got married he went to Athens with his wife to study from where he got the degree of Merchant and Financial studies as well as Journalism. During his return to Cyprus he worked for the Apeiteio Gymnasium and later on the College of Nicosia. The most important point of his career in education and for the Cyprus society was the creation of GC School of Careers along with Mr. Pantelis Andreou. He was the first Cypriot who founded a private English school in Cyprus without ending his studies abroad via correspondence. In 1976, he obtained the degree of International Accountants. In 1978, he decided to dedicate himself to fulfill his dream: to create a school that would offer knowledge to its students and good people with morals to the society. He went on working as a teacher and principle at GC School until his sad death in October 2001. To his village which he worshipped, he offered many services either as a president or a member of its committees or organizations. In the memory of the schools first principle an institution called Stelios Hadjipetis has been founded which is responsible of organizing seminars for students, teachers and parents having to do with educational politics, technology and learning problems. Also, its goal is to continue Mr. Stelios work towards progress and cultivation of education and the Greek culture of Cyprus. Moreover, it seeks to maintain the importance of books, education, freedom, democracy and peace amongst young people. Also, it offers prizes and all kinds of scholarships to students. Proceeding, I will present the reasons Stelios Hadjipetris is considered to be a leader: He had a vision: to set the basis for private education in Cyprus as he was the first Cypriot to create a private English school in Cyprus. He had followers: After founding GC School of Careers, a lot of people imitated Stelios Hadjipetris by creating similar private English Schools, for ex: Pascal, English school, Grammar school e.t.c. He never ceased to educate himself throughout his life trying to enhance his spiritual horizons. He constantly tried to develop his school. He always had a progressive point of view. He was a pioneer in what he did. He had strong personality as he was clever, authentic, progressive and confident. It is important to note that Hadjipetris is an example of a moral leader with admirable social offer and a personality characterized by justice and equality. As his son told me, he was a lawful citizen with respect towards the rights of his followers. At his work he was a perfectionist with high expectations and fought for the best results. As a person he had set ethical values which he always respected. A leader must always share his values with his followers, as Ambert Svaitser said: Morals maintain life at the top point of progress. Concerning, Mr. Hadjipetris offer to the society, we have to highlight its importance since the foundation of his school is recognized as a social and educational offer in both private and public domains as one of todays best English schools. Conclusion: Mr. Hadjipetris is a proper leader because of his personality, his moral actions and his social offer in the educational domain. This was the end of our discussion with Mr. Aimilios with which we began a professional interview and ended up talking in a friendly way about his respectful father. Therefore, I was no longer concerned whether I would be offered the position as I had already gained a lot from my discussion with Mr. Aimilios. Through this talk I learned a lot about improving my career and evolving as an individual, I gained useful advises which will be unforgettable for the rest of my life. We should have in mind that you are born a leader however, one can cultivate his leading abilities for his professional evolution as leadership comes from the internal world of a person. Leadership therefore, is a philosophical approach as well as a variety of abilities that can be acquired.

What is Intelligence? Essay -- Biology Essays Research Papers

What is Intelligence? Intelligence can be defined in many different ways since there are a variety of individual differences. Intelligence to me is the ability to reason and respond quickly yet accurately in all aspects of life, such as physically, emotionally, and mentally. Anyone can define intelligence because it is an open-ended word that has much room for interpretation. Thus my paper is an attempt to find the meaning of human intelligence. There are a couple of scientists who have tried to come up with theories of what makes a human being intelligent. Jean Piaget, a Swiss child psychologist, is well known for his four stages of mental growth theory (1). In the sensorimotor stage, from birth to age 2, the child is concerned with gaining motor control and getting familiar with physical objects. Then from age 2 to 7, the child develops verbal skills, which is called the preoperational stage. In the concrete operational stage the child deals with abstract thinking from age 7 to 12. The final stage called the formal operational stage ends at age 15 and this is when the child learns to reason logically and systematically. (1) Piaget's theory provides a basis for human intelligence by categorizing the major stages in child development and how they contribute to intelligence. Each of these invariant stages has major cognitive skills that must be learned. Knowledge is not merely transmitted verbally but must be constructed and reconstructed by the learner (3). Thus this development involves a few basic steps. The first fundamental process of intellectual growth is the ability to assimilate the new events learned into the preexisting cognitive structures. The second fundamental process is the capability to change those ... ...ists approach in defining human intelligence. I believe that intelligence is the ability to utilize our entire brain, which will most definitely include Gardner's theory but more. Since we only use a small percentage of our brain, I imagine our brains have a lot more forms of intelligence than the ones Gardner proposes as well as more stages of child development than the ones Piaget proposes. As I mentioned before, intelligence is an open-ended word that may never have an agreed upon definition, but we all have our own definition. References: 1)Jean Piaget, Swiss Child Psychologist http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eintell/piaget.shtml 2)The Seven Human Intelligences http://www.homeschoolzone.com/hsz/leppert2.htm 3)Jean Piaget: Intellectual Development http://www.sk.com.br/sk-piage.html 4)Seven Intelligences http://www.ibiblio.org/edweb/edref.mi.th4.html

Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper -- Charlotte Perkins Gillman, shor

The Yellow Paper is a short story published in 1892, and written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Charlotte tells of a disheartening tale of a woman who struggles to free herself from postpartum depression. The Yellow Paper gives an account of an emotionally and intellectual deteriorated woman struggles to break free from a mental prison her husband had put her into, in order to find peace. The woman lived in a male dominated society and wanted indictment from it as she had been driven crazy, because of the Victorian â€Å"rest-cure† (Gilman 45). Her husband decided to force her to have a strict bed rest by separating her from her only child. He took her to recuperate in an isolated country estate all alone. The bed rest her husband forced into made her mental state develop from bad to worst. The Yellow Paper is a story that warns the readers about the consequences of fixed gender roles in a male-dominated world. In The Yellow Paper, a woman’s role was to be a dutiful wife and she should not question her husband’s authority and even whereabouts. Whereas, a man’s role was to be a husband, main decision maker, rational thinker and his authority was not to be questioned by the wife. The narrator in The Yellow Paper was a mother and a wife who was trying to free herself from the prison her husband had put her into. She lived in a male-dominate world whereby she was to be a wife who never questioned her husband’s authority. She suffered from a severe postpartum depression case, yet her marriage depressed her too. The narrator was in a marriage whereby her husband dominated and treated her like a child. Her husband was the sole decision maker and since she lived in a society whereby women were never allowed to question their husband’s decisio... ...he stopped being the protector and the only rational thinker in the family. In this short story, the men had power over women and they undermined them. The narrator insisted to her husband that she was sick, but he never took her serious instead, he confined her in an isolated place away from home and her child. Eventually both husband and wife loose because, they are trapped in fixed gender roles and could not go against them. Works Cited Carnley, Peter. The Yellow Wallpaper and other sermons. New York: Harper Collins, 2001. Print. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. New York: Dover Publications, 1997. Print. Hume, Beverly A. "Gilman’s ‘Interminable Grotesque’: The Narrator of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper," Studies in Short Fiction 28 (Fall 1991): 477-484. Hedges, Elaine R. â€Å"Afterward† to â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper.†Old Westbury, NY.Feminist Press 1973. Print. Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper -- Charlotte Perkins Gillman, shor The Yellow Paper is a short story published in 1892, and written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Charlotte tells of a disheartening tale of a woman who struggles to free herself from postpartum depression. The Yellow Paper gives an account of an emotionally and intellectual deteriorated woman struggles to break free from a mental prison her husband had put her into, in order to find peace. The woman lived in a male dominated society and wanted indictment from it as she had been driven crazy, because of the Victorian â€Å"rest-cure† (Gilman 45). Her husband decided to force her to have a strict bed rest by separating her from her only child. He took her to recuperate in an isolated country estate all alone. The bed rest her husband forced into made her mental state develop from bad to worst. The Yellow Paper is a story that warns the readers about the consequences of fixed gender roles in a male-dominated world. In The Yellow Paper, a woman’s role was to be a dutiful wife and she should not question her husband’s authority and even whereabouts. Whereas, a man’s role was to be a husband, main decision maker, rational thinker and his authority was not to be questioned by the wife. The narrator in The Yellow Paper was a mother and a wife who was trying to free herself from the prison her husband had put her into. She lived in a male-dominate world whereby she was to be a wife who never questioned her husband’s authority. She suffered from a severe postpartum depression case, yet her marriage depressed her too. The narrator was in a marriage whereby her husband dominated and treated her like a child. Her husband was the sole decision maker and since she lived in a society whereby women were never allowed to question their husband’s decisio... ...he stopped being the protector and the only rational thinker in the family. In this short story, the men had power over women and they undermined them. The narrator insisted to her husband that she was sick, but he never took her serious instead, he confined her in an isolated place away from home and her child. Eventually both husband and wife loose because, they are trapped in fixed gender roles and could not go against them. Works Cited Carnley, Peter. The Yellow Wallpaper and other sermons. New York: Harper Collins, 2001. Print. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. New York: Dover Publications, 1997. Print. Hume, Beverly A. "Gilman’s ‘Interminable Grotesque’: The Narrator of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper," Studies in Short Fiction 28 (Fall 1991): 477-484. Hedges, Elaine R. â€Å"Afterward† to â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper.†Old Westbury, NY.Feminist Press 1973. Print.

Darmok at Tanagra Cunningham and Kehle at Bloomington Gauss With Chalk

Darmok at Tanagra Cunningham and Kehle at Bloomington Gauss With Chalk in Hand This essay is the first of three short reflexive papers intended to identify the issues and implications that result from viewing mathematics education through a semiotic lens. By mathematics education I mean to include consideration of mathematics itself as a discipline of on-going human activity, the teaching and learning of mathematics, and any research that contributes to our understanding of these preceding enterprises. More specifically my current interests are in disentangling the confusion among the mathematics education community regarding the epistemological foundations of mathematics, the meaning and usefulness of constructivism as a theory of learning, and how these two issues are related to the learning and teaching of formal mathematical proof. Because I have found interdisciplinary approaches to the study of most anything both more fruitful and more enjoyable, I will employ such strategies in these papers. As a result, it may not always be clear that mathematics educat ion is my main concern--please rest assured that it is and that if I gain insight of value in that domain I will do my best to render to Caesar what is his. When Captain Picard and the Enterprise meet the Tamarians they encounter a communication problem that is eventually revealed by Data and Troi to be due to the Tamarians' "unusual", or as a less diplomatic Federation member might say "impaired", ability to use abstraction. Furthermore, as Raphael Carter points out on his WWW site, Data skates on even thinner ice when he concludes that a Tamarian's ego structure doesn't allow for what we think of as self identity. As a result the Tamarians communicate by citing hig... ... between subjective and objective, and deciding whether the Tamarians' language consists of an objectivist model ala Lakoff and Johson (1980). Trying to structure a situation in terms of such a consistent set of metaphors is in part like trying to structure that situation in terms of an objectivist model. What is left out are the experiential bases of the metaphors and what the metaphors hide. (p.220) Works Cited: Kieren, T., Gordon-Calvert, L., Reid, D. & Simmt, E. (1995). An enactivist research approach to mathematical activity: Understanding, reasoning, and beliefs. Paper presented at the meeting of the Ame rican Educational Research Association, San Francisco. Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Varela, F.J. , Thompson, E., and Rosch, E. (1992). The embodied mind. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Supplier Selection for the Contract of GH’S Hazardous Waste Disposal

As indicated in UoL, (2013) Assignment study case General Hospital (GH) forecasts producing an estimated average of a daily waste equal to 5 Kg per day and the GH operates 52 weeks/year, 7 days/week so the estimated waste per year 5*356 = 1780 Kg per Year.Due to poor forecasting process 7 data of GH as per their historical data, the forecasted accuracy is 80% per year, therefor suppliers must consider in his calculations the risk of having 20% increase in the wastes quantities 1780*20%= 365 Kg/Year = 1 Kg/Day as a result of that suppliers must include a prices List for Extra services in their offers. Three suppliers responded to bid to GH tender invitation and gave the best offers they have as per below schedule:Quality.In our study case the mentioned activities are simple and not complicated, so based on the above steps that I will be using to choose the best supplier and offer. And as per the above schedule GH procurement department of (GH) analysis and evaluation of two elements p rice and service, the analysis results for the main three suppliers A have got the best service, supplier B have the best price, and the supplier C is out of the competition because his offer is not clear about the price and limited delivery ability.Analysis of the Price:A and B suppliers gave a detailed price for their operation charge and their waste quantities pick-up capacity the primary evaluation result reflects that the supplier B has the lowest price = 1,157 and the supplier A price =1673. 2 a different of 516. 20 â‚ ¬ between both prices, supplier C could not have a final price for unclear information. Service analysis: As per the forecasted estimate of the waste generated daily by the GH is approximately 5 kg per day, suppliers A and B gave a proposal of container’s capacity 100 kg for A and 50 kg for B.  suppliers A and B also gave an On-Call option for the pick-up, replacement, and disposal operation. (UoL, 2013)Suppliers need to understand the requirement of GH and the amount of risk for keeping the waste inside the container and what is the suitable duration to keep the waste without disposal. A and B suppliers have given a competitive offers, supplier A shows the readiness to negotiate regarding his offer in order to reach to the best settlement. (UoL, 2013) Negotiation Process: GH will conduct a negotiation meeting with the Supplier A.According to Sollish et al. (2011, pp. 136-140) it is important to define the elements that you will negotiate about it before conducting the negotiation and establish suitable and collaborative environment for the client and the supplier. Some of the main elements that the GH procurement department need to discuss as follows The capacity of the container: According to the daily estimation of the waste 100 Kg is too much and GH need to convenes supplier A to reduce the cost of the pick-up operation charge by utilizing less capacity containers.Safety and Environment procedures need to be discussed and h ow and what is the best way to collect such type of waste with optimum quality performance without endangering the health of the people and the environment. Win-win is one of the main features of collaborative negotiation. The main target is to reason with supplier A and reduce the total cost of his offer. All the negotiation activities and results need to be documented in case needed in the future.In the end if the negotiation did not went well with supplier A one of the negotiation tactics that need to be ready even before starting the negotiation what called Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATANA) McGraw-Hill (2006, p. 21 stated that â€Å"Alternatives are also important because they give negotiators the power to walk away from any negotiation when the emerging deal is not very good† and also it is better to have your BATNA ready to compare it with the available proposal to â€Å"see whether it better satisfies your interests† .  (Fisher et al. 1999, p . 51)My best alternative is to give the contract to supplier B which has much better price and less capacity containers which will add value in the logistic operation and gives less time to keep the waste around the hospital for environmental issues, with the estimated 5 KG waste per day the container will be moved every 10 to 11 days.

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 2

2. Test 1. The Countess Abigail Von Normal is: A. Emergency Backup Mistress of the Bay Area Dark. B. A Gothic hottie consumed by the banal hopelessness of existence. C. Not perky, but dark, complex, and trs mysterious. D. All the above, and possibly more. 2. The vampire Flood and his nosferatu maker, the Countess Jody, were imprisoned in a bronze shell in the pose from Rodin's The Kiss because: A. Their love is eternal and their mingled souls will live on in romantic embrace to the end of time. B. Foo and I were pretty sure that the Countess would go FOAKES (Freak Out and Kill Everything in Sight) when she found out our plan to turn the Animals back to human. C. We just like to look at our friends, naked and bronzed, because it gets us all hot. D. I can't believe you picked â€Å"c.† You should get a big â€Å"L† tattooed on your forehead to save people time in figuring out what a ginormous loser you are! You wish that Foo and I needed pervy preludes to stimulate our orgasmic, toe-curling soul-sex. Trust me, the sun weeps that it cannot achieve the blistering hotness of our nookie. 3. Despite myths perpetrated by jealous day dwellers, the nosferatu are only vulnerable to the effects of: A. Garlic. (Right, because pizza and the breath of vegans will quell their ancient power.) B. Crosses and holy water. (Oh right, because creatures of darkest evil are total bitches of the baby Jebus.) C. Silver. (Uh-huh, and aluminum, because that makes sense.) D. Sunlight. 4. My and Foo's greatest challenge as minions is to protect our dark masters, the Countess and Lord Flood, from: A. Cops, specifically Inspector Rivera and his clueless Gay Bear partner Cavuto. B. The most crusty old vampire and his mysterious fashion-vamp posse. C. The Animals, slacker wastee night crew from the Marina Safeway. D. All of the above and whatnot. 5. Our best chance of defeating Chet, the huge shaved vampire cat, is: A. Mouse ninjas. B. A big hug while wearing my most fly UV-LED leather jacket, fashioned for my protection by my aforementioned muffin master, Foo. C. A saucer of tuna blood laced with sedatives and kitty-butt flavor. (I observed in his former mortal form, that Chet loves kitty-butt flavor.) D. Make a vampire Rottweiler to rock Chet's worldview. E. Either â€Å"a† or â€Å"c,† but definitely not â€Å"d† wouldn't â€Å"a† be trs cool? Mouse ninjas! Answers: 1: D, 2: B, 3: D, 4: D, 5: E Give yourself one point for every right answer. Score: 5. You rock my stripy socks. 4. Loser! 3. Trs Loser! 2. Such a Loser that Losers pity you. 0-1. Spare us your contagious loserness. Next bridge you pass? Over you go.

Assignment About Wal-Mart Essay

Wal-Mart claims that it benefits local communities when it enters a new area. Evaluate this claim, referring to textual and audio-visual information that you have encountered. Introduction Nowadays, Wal-Mart is quite common in our daily life and it also impacts us unconsciously, such as the shopping habits. Although this global chain supermarket asserts that they bring positive effect on the area where they located in and commissioned the consulting firm Global Insight to write a report in order to prove their point, some people still distrust it. For example, Jared Bernstein and L. Josh Bivens had composed a brief named â€Å"The Wal-Mart debate a false choice between prices and wages† in 2006 to doubt the Wal-Mart’s claim. Moreover, Irwin, E.G., and Clark, J’s research about the local costs and benefits of Wal-Mart is also supply some evidence. In this essay, I will describe the real Wal-Mart from the Bernstein’s study. Firstly, I will summarise the Wal-Mart effect to customers. Then I’ll move on to compare the advantages and disadvantages of working as a Wal-Mart’s employee. Thirdly, I’ll analyse the Wal-Mart effect to the environment around it. At last, I tend to make a conclusion about whether this Global Company did like what it said. Customers As the biggest beneficiaries of Wal-Mart’s low price, whether we shoppers enjoy the best service? It can be seen clearly that because of the wide ranged goods and low price of stuff, we can buy all the products which we want in â€Å"one-stop shopping† and spent lower money to living better live, and consumers even can save about 25 percent of their food budget alone in this store (Hausman & Liebtag, 2005, p113). Meanwhile, the shop which located in the fringe of towns is not only can change citizen’s shopping habits from shopping in city center to countryside, but also convenient for the people who living in more rural areas (Irwin, E. G., & Clark, 2006, p113). However, the customer service at Wal-Mart is lower than small, more specialized shops, such as put songs with potentially offensive lyrics into sanitized versions of songs area (Bianco & Zellner, 2003 p113). As a result, although Wal-Mart tries to satisfied shoppers from the prices of products, the customer service should be improved. Employees According to Jared’s report, working in Wal-Mart is not an enjoyable job. Obviously, when Wal-Mart enters a new area, it prepares employment opportunity for those who are unemployed. However, the wages for Wal-Mart retail workers ($10.11/hour) are lower than the average for large shops. (Dube & Jacobs, 2004; Hopkins, 2003; Bianco & Zellner, 2003, p114). They also have to face the undesirable working environment, such as overtime work without any pay, gender discrimination (Irwin, E. G., & Clark, 2006, p114) and lack health insurance. As a result, the employees in Wal-Mart employees need more healthcare assistance programs compare with the other large supermarket workers ((Dube & Jacobs, 2004, p114). Environment In fact, when Wal-Mart comes into a new area, it not only impacts the local natural environment, but also affects the community, such as the local business, inhabitants, and local government. At best, Wal-Mart can improve the sales of the local restaurants and bring advantages to complementary shops in this area (Stone, 1997, p115). However, the drainage problems and traffic problem which caused by Wal-Mart cannot be ignored. Irwin described that Wal-Mart paid $5.5 million and $3.1 million in 2001 and 2004 respectively because of illegal use of water. On the other hand, the low price would make local people prefer to go to the Wal-Mart instead of the other local retail shops, which severely harm to these shops’ business, such as florists, drugstores and card and gifts store (Irwin, 2006, p115). At last, because of the low wages and benefits those Wal-Mart employees earned, the local government and the tax-payer have to pay more for public assistance programs like healthcare, housing, food stamps, and subsidized school lunches (Dube & Jacobs, 2003, p116) Conclusion Obviously, there are negative effect and positive effect with the opening of Wal-Mart, and the disadvantages and advantages are distributed in customers, employees and environment. The winner, customers, can enjoy Wal-Mart’s low prices and the losers are local retail business because they can’t compete with this Global Company. Moreover, the communities are also impacted on local employment opportunities, potential increase in poverty and traffic congestion. References Jared. B & L.J.B (2006). THE WAL-MART DEVATE A False Choice Between Prices and Wages. Applied Economic Policy Institute. Irwin, E. G., & Clark, J (2006). The local costs and benefits of Wal-Mart. The Ohio State University, Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics.

Moby Dick: Chapter 58 Essay

It is in human nature to hold in contempt and fear things unknown to them, on the other hand many people hold the pursuit of knowledge as the one true path to fulfillment in life. The dangers of the pursuit of knowledge are an underlying topic in Ishmael’s discussion of brit. Ishmael describes the sea as enigmatic and immensely more dangerous than the land; in doing so reveals how attempting to study the unknown in the pursuit of knowledge is far more dangerous than remaining ignorant. In Ishmael’s discussion about brit he quickly drifts off the subject of the actual brit and begins to make comparisons between the land and the sea. He states that even â€Å"though some old naturalists have maintained that all creatures if the land are of kind in the sea†(Melville 272), he has yet to see any creatures of the sea that have the same charm and kindness as domesticated pets. He reveals the inherent lack of kindness or hospitability in oceanic creatures by making this statement. He goes on to say that,†however baby man may brag if his science and skill, and however much in a fluttering future that science and skill may augment; yet forever and ever to the crack of dawn, the sea will continue to insult and murder him†¦ man has lost that sense of the awfulness of the sea which aboriginally belongs to it.†(Melville 273). This passage illustrates the core of what Ishmael is trying to describe in his argument. It reveals the horror and indomitable terror of the sea, which according to Ishmael people seem to have forgotten about and take for granted. He also belittles human’s in the passage calling them â€Å"baby man† showing how powerless he believes people are compared to the sea and how no matter how much people advance they cannot compare to the sea’s power. He goes on to expand on this idea stating the many ways in which the ocean’s horrors hold supremacy over all others such as the sea’s lack of mercy and control as well as its deceiving beauty and how â€Å"its most dreaded creatures glide under water unapparent for the most part and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest azure†(Melville 274) Underlying this description of the terror of the ocean is a warning; Ishmael attempts to show how trying to study the unknown in pursuit of knowledge is far more dangerous than remaining in a state of ignorance. Ishmael uses detailed description to over emphasize how terrifying the ocean is. This shows the use of storytelling and redefinition in order to get the audience picture the terrors of the ocean and in doing so empathize with Ishmael’s beliefs. This indicates Ishmael’s use of pathos in his argument. Ishmael besides describing the ocean as a perilous place he describes it as â€Å"an everlasting terra incognita† (Melville 273), this declaration of the incapableness of man to unravel the mysteries of the ocean shows the, almost fearful, reverence he holds towards the ocean and its mysteries. A reverence he attempts to impart upon the audience through the aforementioned use of hyperbole and redefinition, showing a use of pathos to make the audience sympathize with these feelings. It seems that Ishmael would rather people not attempt to learn about the unknown rather than expose themselves to its dangers. This is apparent when this extract, â€Å"For as thy appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of a man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!†(Melville 274). This is the conclusion to Ishmael’s discussion and reveals the reasoning for his statements. The â€Å"horrors of the half known life† encompassing the â€Å"insular Tahiti† are the things people attempt to learn about the world and themselves. Ishmael believes that by venturing out into the sea of one’s soul man exposes himself to all the dangers of the world. This shows how he believes that it is better to remain on a peninsula of ignorance and comfort than venture out into the sea of knowledge. Ishmael urges people to remain in their small insular world threatened by what lies beyond. He believes that one will find less comfort in discoveries than in ignorance and as such people should stay clear of the mysteries of the world.

Reflection and Evaluation of Technologies Such As XML and Flash Lab Report

Reflection and Evaluation of Technologies Such As XML and Flash - Lab Report Example The text is always divided into a couple of noninteracting sets: markup, which are all the tags, comments, processing instructions, entity references, character references, CDATA section delimiters, XML declarations, text declarations, document type declarations, and white space outside the root element; and, character data which is consisted by the rest of elements in the XML document. (Harold 2003, p. xxi) Fundamentally, XML offers an excellent framework in structuring data, based on hierarchical representations and is capable to represent the structured, unstructured and semi structured data. (Shen 2006, p. 112) Today, it is the standard used by W3C for document exchange over the Internet. In terms of explaining XML as an application, it is important to underscore that, fundamentally, the language was developed as some standard for information interchange on the Internet that is why it is essentially an application in itself. An interesting fact, however, was that XML is valued mo re as an element in another application or rather its derivatives such as Atom, Rich Site Summary (RSS), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), ebXML and XHTML, among others, can be integrated as an added value to an application. RSS is an excellent example. RSS can enhance a website’s functionality by enabling the owner or site administrator to announce whatever changes made on the site as well as other information that may constitute marketing, promotions, public service announcements, and so forth. All in all, XML-based applications are platforms for easy documents management and data integration. As such, it allows publishers to tailor and structure documents in a simple way. It is also very popular owing to the fact that it is an industry standard as well as to the fact that the tools and resources for it are large, including numerous XML parsers, browsers and editors. The language is being used across the globe, working well with the Internet and most of its applications . However, XML is weak on automated processing libraries as well as its ability in terms of verbosity, wherein documents are mainly in plain text and could include an overwhelming number of markup tags. In addition, the language can be difficult to learn as well. There is also no guarantee that XML can be the universal solution for data integration as well as in unifying formats because the language has its limitations as well. In evaluating XML-based applications, it is important to return to the language’s objectives – it was designed for simple, fast and structured data integration and management. Therefore, these factors should be the main criteria in assessing its efficacy. Whether in measuring XML-based applications or XML-derivatives used as elements in other applications, evaluation must focus on performance: How a particular application retrieves, evaluates, modify data as well as how it conforms to industry standards, particularly in terms of structural aspec ts of XML documents. Flash As the Internet and computing technology become more sophisticated day after day, their users’ experience becomes more enhanced, intuitive, sophisticated and simple. It is like information technology developers are in constant quest to develop rich content that are delivered in fast and simple ways. When in the

Galileo's Siderius Nuncius Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Galileo's Siderius Nuncius - Essay Example k became a sensation that made Galileo famous and well-known in his time, as well as initiating further discoveries of how celestial bodies such as the rocky planets, the Earth’s moon, Jupiter and its satellites, the Sun’s spots as well as discovering larger numbers of stars in constellations such as Orion and the Pleiades that cannot be easily seen by naked eyes through a compound telescope (13). While Galileo’s discoveries stirred controversy with the Catholic Church by disproving the scriptures regarding how planets, the sun, and other celestial bodies orbit the Earth, his method of observing the movement of planets with satellites, mainly Jupiter and its four moons allowed for the support of the Copernican theory of planetary movement, and initialising the disproving of the traditionally-accepted Aristotelian theory of a geocentric view of the cosmos. Galileo reported his initial observations of three bright bodies around the planet Jupiter, which he noticed to change positions in the course of a few months, from January to March of 1610, but remarkably remained in a straight line all throughout the time of observation (64). He begun observing the large planet around early January, wherein he records the appearance of three bright stars orbiting around Jupiter, but do not have similar sizes, and in which Galileo describes as such: â€Å"the more eastern one and the western one appeared a bit larger than the remaining one† (65). After a few days, Galileo observed another star which was hidden behind Jupiter, emerging and trailing in a straight line along the other three stars that were initially discovered a few days prior, in which Galileo describes the alignment to be similar to the alignment of the zodiac constellations (66). After observing Jupiter and its Medicean stars (later found out to be its satellites or moons) f or a period of three months, Galileo was able to compare the stars’ orbit to the Earth’s and Mars’ moons, which change phases at

Population growth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Population growth - Essay Example Geometric growth can be contrasted to arithmetic growth rate, which grows in a sequence, for instance 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, .... One of the principles behind geometric growth is that the bigger a number gets, the faster it grows, this is the case with population since the larger the population becomes, more people will be available for reproduction hence the greater growth (Berlatsky, 133). For instance, a population having 500,000 people will grow five times faster than a population which has just 100, 000. From this equation, if r is greater than zero and b is greater than one, then the population will grow at exponentially, however, if r is less than zero and b is greater than one or if r is greater than one and b is between one and zero, then the population will reduce exponentially. A geometric decay curve for population would look something like this Geometric continuous time model of population growth is more realistic when it comes to determining population growth since they involve all parameters of population such as birth rates and death rate (Turchin, p96) In order to calculate the population growth rate using the continuous growth model, the following formula can be derived. If a population has Nt individuals where t is time in years, the number of children being born in a year is a fraction represented by the symbol ï  ¢ and the number of people that die in a year is a fraction that is represented by the symbol ï  §. These geometric progression equations have been used for a long time to calculate population growth rates of countries or of the world at large, for instance, the following figure show a curve of world growth rate that was calculated from the available data and backward projections of population. Geometric progression has been use in population growth and without it, calculating

How horses were used in world war one Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How horses were used in world war one - Essay Example The perceived value of animals in wars which had always been gigantic prior to WWI went through some changes. However, saying that horses did not play a valuable role in this war would be empty mockery. This paper aims to establish this opinion that WWI hugely influenced human and animal interrelationships by the way horses were used in the war. It will also highlight different ways in which horses were used. This paper purposed to explain the interrelationship between humans and horses and ascertain that indeed this interrelationship still exists and is still important. Horses are strong animals. They are able to travel great distances, carry heavy loads, endure long hours of travel and work, that cannot be managed by human beings. They are fast compared to human beings and thus were majorly used in sending messages. History shows that cavalry units or warriors mounted on horseback formed an essential constituent of a military force. It is claimed that â€Å"the best horses were taken by the cavalry† (Breverton). The greater the number of horses, the stronger a military force was considered. This is before the vulnerability of animals to modern artillery was much of an issue. However, horses continued to be used in WWI because warfare was also going through important changes in this time period. Warfare used in WWI had not been used before, so not much was known by the combatants about the vulnerability of animals before machine guns or tanks. It should be remembered that this war changed the concept of armed conflict. This is because it rep resents a very important transition from the use of horses to modern artillery. WWI was started with cavalry forces, but the favor shifted from horses to machine guns over passing time. This shift also occurred because â€Å"supplying the fodder for horses and mules was a permanent problem† (Breverton). WWI marks a transition period in human and animal interrelationships. This means that humans did not use horses as

Physics assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Physics - Assignment Example There are certain standards set as to assert the safety standard of any nuclear power plant. The organization that regulates the policies around the globe is known as IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). This organization has set a certain benchmark; which are actually, major concerns of a nuclear reactor in any country of the world. Some on the concerns are: 1. Testing of emergency situations, if and when they happen. 2. Equipment and actions to adhere the consequences of such an emergency. 3. Probability calculations of units failing and their back-ups. 4. Examining the worst possible scenario and creating an emergency plan accordingly. 5. Actions taken, in the event of radiation emissions form the plant. 6. Proper training of the men working in these facilities. 7. Anti-earth quake and anti-flood systems, which have to be, installed (Hugh, 2011). Question 2 There are three types of radiation particles namely alpha, beta and gamma particle radiations. Alpha radiations have be en defined as helium nuclei, comprising of two protons and two neutrons. It is considered to be very stable. Beta radiations have been defined as fast moving electrons formed by nuclear decay, whereas gamma radiations are known to be high frequency, short wavelength electromagnetic radiation (Cheng et al, 2000). All three of these radiations have certain benefits and disadvantages. The disadvantage of alpha particle is that when it in inhaled, can cause damage to lungs and the respiratory system. Beta rays cause disorder in the molecular structure of humans, whereas gamma rays can directly damage the human tissue, since they are very high energy rays. Along with these disadvantages, there are some benefits as well. Alpha particles are used to detect smoke for engaging a fire alarm or water sprinkler. Beta particles are used to find thickness of aluminum foil, its variables and capable of treating cancer patients as well. Gamma radiations are used to locate flaws in pipes, other stee l products for leaks and the integrity of welds in them (Cheng et al, 2000). Medical benefits of radiations can be seen in the use of x-rays and treatment of cancer, whereas non-medical use of radiation can be seen in industries, for detection of leaks and welding faults in different metal mediums. Also for non-medical use, the rays are used for inspection on the production line to check emptiness or the thickness of materials like aluminum. (Cheng et al, 2000). Question 3 Apart from nuclear power, there are other ways to produce energy like hydroelectric, fossil fuel burning, solar and wind power. All these methods have a lot of advantages and disadvantages. Some of them will be depicted here. Hydroelectric power is free of cost, as water flow is easily available all around the world but the drawback is the amount of expenditure involved to build dams and huge water turbines. Furthermore, the environmental hazard for hydroelectric power generation is the disturbance of the ecologic al habitat of the aquatic life in the region. Fossil fuel is the best form of energy as it provides predictable and a constant power source but the major drawback falters this form of energy. It is the fossil fuel that is not a reusable or renewable source and is becoming scarce from the world at a very rapid rate. Solar and wind power both have almost the same kind of advantage and disadvantage. The setup for both is very expensive and is unpredictable in nature but the best advantage of these sources of power is

The Relationship Between Lobbying, Businesses And Political Decisions Essay

The Relationship Between Lobbying, Businesses And Political Decisions - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that lobbying is the process of trying to influence the decisions made by an administration, for example, the government especially the members of legislative assemblies of regulatory agencies. Economic lobbyists represent, educate and advocate on the behalf of their business clients’ interests. Politics and economics affect each other in complex sometimes inexplicable ways. The aim is to make the people in the administrative capacity to look favorably on the side of the business. Politics and economics are tied together with some scholars even arguing that politics is merely an extension of economics. Political economists strongly speak out on the proactive position of governments in economic policy and for their ability to regulate the business cycle. Regulation of the business cycle involves putting in place fiscal and monetary measures in order to mitigate or avoid adverse effects of economic depressions and recessions. These mea sures also pertain to economic policies such as taxation, economic barriers, price fixation et cetera. The aim of the economic lobbyists is to make sure that the policies the government makes favor them and provide a conducive business environment for the success of their businesses. The lobbying involves delivery of data or opinions to a government decision maker at local or national level. They do this by presenting the interest of their company or client in the context of public interests.

The way and need to improve upon treasury department in islamic banks Essay

The way and need to improve upon treasury department in islamic banks - Essay Example If we comprehend both definitions into fewer words, a bank may be called a financial institution which deals in money. ISLAMIC BANKS: Islam has laid down certain principles and rules in every aspect of human life. These principles have had a great impact on the living standards and behaviors of Muslims all over the world. This also distinguishes the life style of Muslims from other nations. Islam has also laid down certain rules and regulations for the management and performance of financial activities in the society. They may be, to some extent, repugnant to the financial standards generally observed all over the world. ‘Islamic Banking is defined as a banking business the objectives and functions of which do not involve and include any element repugnant to the teachings of Islam’ (Interpretation). The rules framed for Shariah banking are strictly in accordance with the teachings of Holy Quran and Sunnah of Prophet (Peace Be upon Him). These banking rules sometimes affi rm the rules of modern banking system while on the other times they contradict these rules. One of the main guideline given by Islamic banking system is the prohibition of ‘Interest’ or ‘Ribah’. ... However, Islam does not prohibit trading or other businesses conducted for the purpose of making. Moreover, investment in any such business is also permitted by Islam. So, one of the main aspect of Islamic banking system emerges from these guidelines. Islamic banks do not generate profits by way of charging interest on the loans given to its customers. The main source of income for them is the investment in the business. These businesses use these investments for achieving their goals and making profits. The bank is a stakeholder of such businesses and thus has a share in the profits of these businesses. These profits are then divided by the bank among the depositors. The main feature of the Islamic banking system is the compliance with the rules and regulations of Shariah. However, the interpretation of Shariah may be different in different parts of the world. However, this problem is overcome by constituting a body called Shariah Supervisory Board. The body consists of Ulemah who a re well-versed in Islamic law and may make recommendations to the banks for compliance with Shariah rules. The board also defines the status of products and transactions in the eye of Islamic law. The sources of funds for a bank working in compliance with Shariah are more or less same as that of other banks. The main source of funding is the amount deposited by the depositors and the customers of the bank. The deposits can have any of the following forms; demand deposit, time deposit or saving deposit. Another major source of funding is the paid-up capital of the bank. Such capital is paid by the shareholders or in other words owners of the banks. Bank reserves and retained earnings are also a major category of the bank’s funds. According to S.Mishkin, 70% of the total bank funds

Ethnic group Essay Example for Free

Ethnic group Essay Prejudice is an opinion or judgement without due examination toward one side of a question from other considerations than those belonging to. Or we can say that prejudice is a bias on the part of judge, juror or witness which interferes with fairness of judgement. Prejudice involves negative feelings when they are in the presence of or even think about members of the group. Prejudice often involves stereotypes, suggesting that all members of a group behave in certain ways and have certain characteristics. Therefore, prejudice has both cognitive and affective components. Affective component is the positive or negative attitude/ feeling. Beside the cognitive component contains stereotypes. Prejudice will be dealt as a single set of dynamics that function to dehumanize people who are identifiably different in some way from the people whose perceptions are limited by the dysfunction we called prejudice. This approach is taken for two reasons. First, it is easily defensible through the uderstanding of the dynamics of prejudices and second the continued separation and classification of prejudices according to the superficial categories of those who are prejudiced is a disservice to those who are the targets of discrimination and a distortion of reality. Much of prejudice stems from our pre-judging other people’s habits, customs, ways of speaking and value. We often do this with no basic for the judgement other that the fact that they (the customs, values, ways of speaking, etc) are different form our own. When we are confines to a single culture, it’s incredibly difficult to see that one’s way is not the only way, that one’s truth is not the only possible way in which things are done. To travel around the world and seeing the variousity of culture may become the nicest thing to do for reducing prejudice. There is no better way to be convinced of this than to go to another country where millions people are doing something different from you. Another way to reduce prejudice is to make a friend with many background culture. From that, we can learn that we are all different and we have to accept that differences. By accepting and learning that differences, the number of prejudicing people will be decrease. Prejudice reduction refers to a collectionof techniques designed to break down these destructive stereotypes. Most often prejudice reduction programs take place on a small scale for example in workshops which bring together people from different groups to help them develop a better mutual understanding. At times, efforts are made to reduce prejudice among the general population. This can be done with wide spread media efforts and public education programs often implemented during the grade school years. In both small scale and large scale efforts, a first step which is critical to the success of these programs is an ability to overcome the many communications problems cited elsewhere in this training program. This is because a great deal of prejudice arises from simple misunderstandings and the tendency to make worse case assumptions in the absence of reliable information. At the workshop level, facilitators can help people explore their stereotypes, and learn to communicate with each other in a more open, trusting, and receptive way. At the community or societal level, misunderstandings can be addressed through carefully crafted public media campaigns and/or education programs designed to counter common stereotypes and present all groups in their best possible light. Still, correcting poor communication may is not usually enough to overcome prejudice. Better communication may simply prove that the parties do, in fact, hold each other in mutual contempt, or that they are, indeed, trying to undermine each others interests. Often such hostility is the result of escalation processes which transform relatively minor provocations into intense confrontations. For this reason strategies for limiting escalation are also an essential component of effective prejudice reduction. This also can be attempted in workshop settings or at the larger, community level. On the other hand, we will talk about stereotypes. Stereotypes are generalizations or assumptions that people make about the characteristics of all members of a grup based on image that often wrong about what people in that group are like. Most stereotypes probably tend to convey a negative impression. By stereotyping we infer that a person has a whole range characteristics and abilities that we assume all members of that group have. Researches have found that stereotypes exist of different races, cultures or ethnic groups. Although the terms race, culture and ethnic groups have different meanings, we shall take them to mean roughly the same thing at the moment. Not surprisingly, racial stereotypes always seem to favor the race of the holder and belittle other races. It is probably true saying that every ethnic group has racial stereotypes of other groups which can be seen to benefit each group because it helps in the long run to identify with one’s own ethnic group and so find protection and promote safety and success of the group. A brief description of stereotyping includes: grouping people together based on their race, ethnicity, religion, languange, customs, appearance, gender or culture; denying people rights because of the group belong to; believing that one’s own group is superior beside other groups are inferior. And the ways to reduce stereotyping includes: promoting first hand knowledge through personal experiences; putting one self in another’s shoes and considering multiple perspectives; working toward a meaningful goal with others when all share equal status. It will naturally be difficult to change stereotypes and prejudice, because such change will need to overcome all of the cognitive processes such as biased information search, interpretation and memory behavioral confirmation, as well as social processes, such as pressures to conform to the beliefs of others, all of which work to maintain stereotypes intact. Nevertheless, social psychologists have developed numoerous theories about when and why stereotypes will or won’t change and some interventions have been effective at changing stereotypes. In general, there are three types of change in beliefs that can help reduce negative intergroup encounters. Perhaps the most obvious change involves creating more positve perceptions of the group as a whole. When we reduce an individual’s level of prejudice or change his or her stereotypes to be more positive. But change does not always have to involve becoming more positive about the group. If we change the perceptions of the variability of a group such that the individual no longer believes that all of the group members are the same, we have also reduce stereotyping, even if the beliefs have not become more positve overall. Finally, we will have been succesful if we have been able to reduce the tendency for an individual to use social categories when judging others, with the result that they are more likely individuate others instead.

Banks Mat Review Essay Example for Free

Banks Mat Review Essay Robert Banks and Bernice M. Ledbetter believe the subject of leadership to be one worth exploring, and they do so in their book much to our profit. In this short book, Banks and Ledbetter begin by presenting the overall question they want to answer: Do Christians core convictions shape their views and practices of leadership or are they affected by wider cultural assumptions? [1]The book begins by exploring the many reasons for the increased interest in leadership today. The authors offer a plethora of reasons, not withholding the greatly increased pace of change, and they also set out some other factors for understanding leadership, including the comparison and contrast between a ‘leader’ and the qualities of ‘leadership’. Banks and Ledbetter take great care to ask challenging questions. This practice aids in the development of the book. In the opening chapters they begin by defining leadership as involving a person, group, or organization who shows the way in an area of life. [2] The authors also provide a strong distinction between management and leadership while also showing the importance of these two roles to work together. The foundation of the writing is supported by the claims towards the importance  of the study of leadership. Banks and Ledbetter continue on to explore leadership in a wider range of historical and Biblical contexts. They work from religious and Christian perspectives and work outward towards cultural influences. The authors share insight as it relates to the biblical, historical and contemporary perspectives, covering the accounts of the Apostle Paul, historical models such as the Benedictine tradition, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Pentecostal. They continue by exploring trait, contingency and transformational leadership. Chapters three and four provide the most specific writings on the topic of leadership. In these chapters Banks and Ledbetter draw attention to the raw spiritual, theological, and religious concepts of leadership. Here the authors conduct a case study of a significant author of leadership material, Stephen Covey. It is revealed that many readers are influenced by his Mormon faith without truly understanding or discerning the undertones.[3] This continues with an exploration of other perceived authorities on the topic of leadership. One such study is of Laura Beth Jones, an woman writer with increasing influence as it relates to leadership. Chapter five addresses how to translate practices of leadership into individual context through the use of three basic yet important values: faithfulness, integrity, and a servant-like attitude. Exploration of these three traits is undergirder with discussion of authors such as Robert Greenleaf. He is one of many leaders who brought into popular leadership thinking the idea of ‘servant leadership’.The book closes by offering examples in the form of case-studies. These studies provide deeper insight into the foundational qualities of successful leaders over the span of several years and many different context. This offers the reader a broader view of leadership by showing its success in many different forms and context. CONCRETE RESPONSE While reading through each chapter I was challenged to consider the conflicts I have faced that came as the result of lacking a manager to accompany my leadership. As a pastor, I am a natural leader. I tend to seek out change while searching for ways to constantly make things better and more efficient. About two years ago I was in a conflict with several of the leaders in our church. The conflict revolved around our misunderstanding of  each others approach and roles in leadership. As an proponent of change, I was offended by their seeming lack of faith in pursuing a broader reach in ministry and our effectiveness in the community. As managers, they were more apt to move slowly and could only visualize the problems that would need to be addressed in order to achieve the vision that was laid forth by me. After studying the viewpoints of Banks and Ledbetter I can now see how we could have easily been on the same page and shared the same goal while simply looking from distinct perspectives. I have now began to wonder how many other relationships could have been mended by simply understanding the role that each party played. I have a tendency to assume that others will automatically view things in the same way that I have. This has often led to great disappointment or great feelings of being misunderstood. In this way my passion can easily become focused on the wrong thing and people could easily become the target of that passion. REFLECTION While the book does a great job of exploring the topic of leadership, because of the breadth and depth of the topic many questions remain. Taking into account the authors definitions of managers and leaders, how do the two roles successfully communicate their intentions to one another? It is very possible for the two roles to coexist with proper acknowledgment of one another. How do the two operate together effectively without disrespecting or disregarding the importance of each role. Also, how does one know which leadership style works best in a given context? Does it take an extended period of trial and error to discover the proper styles? How do followers or even managers respond to a constantly changing leadership style? This book could have been greatly improved with a more comprehensive study of the specified leadership topics. The writing feels much like a generic overview of very important topics. While well written and engaging, I am left wanting as it relates to determining how to not only incorporate the leadership styles but also choose the style that is most fitting. This book feels like a movie that ended too soon. Leaving readers wondering what do with the brief information provided. ACTION With a fresh view of the information given by Banks and Ledbetter, I now have the information needed to implement a healthier leadership style that includes a clarity of my role as an agent of change. This plan is broken into two distinct parts. First, to properly identify the contexts that guide the view of leadership within the leadership team of the church that I pastor. What types of leaders have they encountered in the past? Are they open to change or resistant to it? This objective will be accomplished through the scheduling of one on one meetings with each leader. These meeting will allow me the opportunity to engage each leader in a meaningful conversation about the leadership styles they are most comfortable with. With this information I will be equipped to better serve these leaders by communicating with them in a way that they are most likely to receive. This is based upon Banks and Ledbetters observation of the broad idea of leadership many people carry. Secondly, I will create a comprehensive list of the core beliefs that will guide our leadership team. For those considering becoming parts of our church, how do they know the values that determine our decision making as leaders? This list will answer that question. It will become the core values for current and even future leaders. This comprehensive list will incorporate biblical teachings from Jesus as well as the Apostle Pauls qualifications from 1 Peter and the epistles to Timothy. By outlining these core values, we create accountability, an attribute that could also allow for congregants and members alike to feel more comfortable engaging with the vision of our church by being secure in the direction and the values that guide us. BIBLIOGRAPHY Banks, Robert and Ledbetter, Bernice â€Å"Reviewing Leadership: A Chriatian Evaluation of Current Approaches†, Grand Rapids, MI Baker Publishing Group 2004