Informative report on international search and rescue efforts

Introduction In this century, changes due to globalization have resulted in far more interdependence than which existed during the last century when most of the activities in the world were confined within geographical boundaries. Currently, there is free flow of information and resources from one country to another. Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Informative report on international search and rescue efforts specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Similarly, the activities of the fire and rescue services in the United Kingdom have not been limited to the country alone. Occasionally, fire fighters in this country are required to carry out a rescue mission for mitigating emergencies that are rampant in various places around the world, such as the recent Haiti Earthquake. Therefore, it is commendable progress when our Fire authority is considering becoming part of the UK’S International search and rescue tea m. However, before taking part in such a mission, we need to take into consideration the various legal, ethical, and global issues concerning this initiative. Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 The England and Wales Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 would be applicable in how our Fire authority would carry out its operations. The Act is the first major change in the law concerning the operation of the Fire and Rescue Service since the introduction of the first Act way back in 1947 (Great Britain Parliament, 5). The previous Act limited the functions of the Service to fighting fires hence limited the number of operations it could engage in. However, as a result of passing the new Act, the responsibilities of the Service has transformed a great deal. Consequently, the fire and rescue authorities currently have various statutory obligations appertaining to fire safety, fire fighting, road traffic accidents, and emergencies. Under the new Act, a number of new key provisions are applica ble to our fire service in accomplishing its mission abroad (. The act promotes fire safety initiatives among fire and rescue authorities; therefore, underpins the change toward a more prevention-based and risk assessed approach. Advertising Looking for assessment on international relations? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This is able to assist in preventing more deaths by lowering the number of fires incidences taking place in the first place. This new legislative package establishes a new package of powers and responsibilities for effective and efficient service. The new role is beneficial for the operations of a modern Fire and Rescue Service. The Act authorizes the fire and rescue authorities to take part in rescuing road traffic accidents. In addition, it allows for responsibilities in responding to other emergencies. These may include catastrophic flooding and acts of terrorism. Critically, the legislation provides for amendment in line with how the duties of the Fire and Rescue Service may be defined in the future. Moreover, the Fire and Rescue Service is also endowed with the responsibility of performing other obligations in response to the specific requirements of their communities and the threats they encounter. The new legislative framework achieves this through making sure that the various fire and rescue authorities present in the country can undertake duties that are not particularly outlined in the Act but which will assist them accomplish their statutory obligations as well as allowing the authorities to employ staff and equipment, according to their capacity for any appropriate purpose. Furthermore, the act gives fire and rescue authorities the ability to organize appropriately for the occurrence of other threats to life and the environment. For instance, they can establish local training centres to equipping people with skills necessary for responding to threats of life or the envir onment in their area. The Act guarantees an effective and efficient service to the public. In both national and international levels, fire and rescue authorities uphold equality, diversity, and fairness in service provision. In addition, they have the skill and adaptability necessary in addressing the present challenges. These factors make it possible for the authorities to fulfill the varied requirements of all diversified communities both locally and abroad. The adoption of ‘equality’ and ‘diversity’ are the two crucial elements of service provision that Fire and Rescue upholds. These elements affirms that the service, which relies totally on the applied statutes, norms, and procedures of the association, must drive towards the plan it gets treated and it must result in effective service provision to all sections of the community.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Informative report on international search and rescue efforts spe cifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Under what is referred to as mutual assistance, for the first time, the Act allows fire and rescue authorities to enter into reinforcement schemes and to delegate the delivery of functions to other fire services or fire authorities. Concerning information and investigation, the Act takes a new approach by allowing for the entry of an authorized employee of a fire service or fire authority for establishing the cause of the fire. These statutory powers also entail the authority to take samples from the scene of the tragedy. The Act plays key role in assisting fire and rescue authorities in confronting the global challenges of this new millennium. The new framework of powers and responsibilities puts prevention strategies on a similar footing with intervention strategies (Furness and Muckett, 352). It makes it possible for individual fire and rescue authorities to make appropriate decisions after holding di scussions with their communities. They can then choose on how and where to channel their resources. The Act therefore takes note of the wider role of the fire and rescue authorities and enables them to act in response to the various risks outlined in their Integrated Risk Management Plans. British firefighters’ response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 would be applicable in the operations of the search and rescue teams when carrying out their duties abroad. For example, during the Haiti earthquake, the UK fire and rescue authorities demonstrated their role in responding to global catastrophes. The earthquake, which had an epicentre near the town of Leogane, took place on January 12, 2010 and affected the lives of about three million people. The country’s authorities estimated that about two hundred and thirty thousand individuals had died, three hundred thousand had been injured and one million made homeless. The earthquake also caus ed severe damages to the country’s infrastructure. Several nations responded to appeals for humanitarian aid. Besides funds, some of them dispatched their rescue teams to undertake the duty of saving lives. Although the rescue efforts were hampered by the extent of the massive destruction, the efforts started in the immediate aftermath of the quake. The UK search and rescue workers were not left behind in the emergency operation. The International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said, â€Å"It is already clear that we are facing a major humanitarian crisis. The most pressing need is for international search and rescue teams – including firefighters from all over Britain – to get on with their work of saving lives† (PSCA International Ltd, para. 7). Advertising Looking for assessment on international relations? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Consequently, after about forty-eight hours of the quake, UK’s 64 firefighters from Gatwick arrived in the devastated country â€Å"to get on with their work of saving lives.† Other firefighters across Britain soon joined them and they worked in six different teams. They realized remarkable success in this mission, rescuing four survivors in ten days. This was achieved despite the limitations they faced on trying to use their heavy equipment. In the international rescue efforts, it is notable that the British search and rescue teams became the first to reach the epicentre of the earthquake, Leogane. They arrived on 17 January. As if referring to the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, Douglas Alexander said: We need to get search and rescue teams on the ground. Every hour matters. There will be humanitarian requirements for food, shelter and sanitation. It is critical to co-ordinate the international effort. We have to work with others to make sure everyone does not t urn up with the same equipment. This is a terrible tragedy and we are determined to do what we can to help†¦We are talking to the USA and UN about mobilizing (PSCA International Ltd, para. 4). As was exemplified by the humanitarian response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Act provided the British firefighters with new framework of powers and duties for confronting the emerging challenges of this century. The British search and rescue teams were able to assist in saving more lives, deliver effective and efficient service, work with appropriate equipment, provide local training centres for the Haiti people, and work with other rescue teams from around the world. If the role of fire service in the UK were still restricted by the previous Act, which did not give the service the powers to respond to other eventualities, the operation in Haiti to save lives would not have realized such success. Globalization effects on fire and rescue service The changes in our world due to globa lization affect the legislative and substantive work of those in the fire and rescue service. The forces of globalization have led to significant changes to individual nations. Local and international economies have been unified through trade, labor, foreign direct investment, and the spread of innovative ideas. The drive for globalization has broken down the walls of geographical constraints. Principally, globalization has been driven by the urge to realize a global common market for goods and services. As a result, the international community now has an increased access to the wider varieties of services since services are no longer confined to a particular country. This has been aided by the development of the global market coupled with advance in technology that has improved transactions. Consequently, globalization forces have compelled fire and rescue service to change its legislative and substantive work to take care of this increased need. Because of the need of globaliza tion, fire service and rescue authorities have changed their approach concerning fire prevention and community fire safety. Currently, more initiatives have been channeled to improving fire prevention efforts and educating the public. In addition, organizations and people are being motivated to assume responsibility for providing a risk evaluation of organizations. Historically, fire safety was the responsibility of the British local authorities. However, the passing of the Fire Services Act in 1947 changed this. The Fire Brigades started to assume the role. Currently, the transformation of the United Kingdom fire service to global standards has considered its function concerning fire safety issues. The country’s fire service and rescue authorities have prioritized the issue. Most of them have produced Integrated Management Plans. This initiative takes note of their new role in service provision. They now have well laid down plans for fire safety in the place of work as well as in the community. At present, every brigade in UK has established community-based fire safety units as a proactive strategy for devolving their functions. Ethical considerations in fire and rescue services The fire and rescue services, too, have to deal with ethical considerations, which they have to face on a daily basis, even when on a mission abroad. Fire service and rescue services ethics entail a set of principles and philosophy that are consistent with their key mission of saving lives. Ethics in fire and rescue services entails the area of interpersonal, group, as well as community politics in relation to set values. It is not just what can be accomplished, or how it can be accomplished. However, it is more focused on what should be sought, in the realm of social harmony and fairness. In fact, it is the intricacy of the opposite side of individualism. Ethical considerations in fire and rescue services take note of the fire fighters proper relationship amongst themselves , their duties to the public, locally and internationally. In dealing with ethical dilemmas, fire and rescue services embrace professional integrity and responsiveness to the civil society. The twenty-first century appears to have dawned with a burden of conflicting values and divergent responsibilities for the firefighters. Therefore, to maintain professional integrity in the service, which is fundamental in dealing with ethical issues, the following are done. These are recruitment based on merit and verified by special tests, appropriate disciplinary measures undertaken for promoting corporate spirit, and training and education undertaken occasionally for improving professionalism. In this regard, most firefighters acknowledge that ethical dilemmas are normal and expected aspect of their work. Since firefighters have to sort out complicated (or not so complicated) ethical dilemmas in their daily activities, recognizing this lowers the stress that can impede their self-confidence and ability of tackling these issues efficiently. More so, to tackle ethical dilemmas, firefighters learn to treat such issues like any other business issue, tackle rationalizations head-on, and develop a strong sense of right and wrong. Role of fire and rescue services Once, the role of the fire and rescue services was limited only to putting out fires. However, in this present changing world environment, the fire and rescue services have a wider role to play. They are often called to tackle different emergencies, varying from fighting fires and saving individuals from enflamed buildings to dealing with chemical spillages and road accidents. A firefighter’s problem solving ability and initiative is of essence in bringing a solution to issues swiftly and calmly. Today’s firefighter always upholds a sensitive approach when dealing with people during emergencies since at such times they may be miserable and perplexed. The role of the modern firefighter is always chang ing to address the increasing requirements of the community. Fire and rescue services work hand in hand with the community in increasing their level of awareness concerning fire safety (Haslam, para. 1). Therefore, this is able to prevent incidents from taking place in the first place. Today’s firefighter delivers efficient services to the members of the public and handles them with dignity and respect, not considering their background or ethnicity. Since it is often a race against time to save lives and calm fire, firefighters know how dangerous fires are; therefore, they make concerted efforts from preventing them from occurring. They achieve this by educating the public through visiting institutions, community centres and homes on how to prevent fires and escape from buildings in case of unfortunate fire incidences. With the aim of saving life, guarding possessions, and providing humanitarian assistance if there is need, the modern firefighters are always prepared to res pond to various incidents involving fires, road, air and marine transport accidents, terrorist threats, and trapped individuals and even animals if resources permit. Conclusion The consideration that our brigade is making of becoming part of the International search and rescue team with other UK brigades is achievable. The information provided above will be very much of essence for the success of the mission. The introduction of the fire and rescue services Act 2004 gives fire authorities a new framework of powers and responsibilities for confronting the current global challenges. During the 2010 Haiti earthquake, UK firefighters were able to assist in saving lives in a foreign country. This was possible because the Act recognized the wider role that brigades are undertaking in responding to eventualities because of the effects of globalization. In dealing with ethical considerations, fire and rescue services embrace professionalism and integrity in their work. Works Cited Furness , Andrew, and Muckett, Martin. Introduction to fire safety management. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007. Print. Great Britain Parliament. The Fire and Rescue Service : fourth report of Session 2005- www.fireservice.co.uk/recruitment/ PSCA International Ltd. â€Å"Every hour matters’ for survivors of earthquake.† Public Service. 14 Jan. 2010. Web. www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=13495 This assessment on Informative report on international search and rescue efforts was written and submitted by user Myla Sampson to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Torture is not Morally Permissible

Torture is not Morally Permissible Introduction To understand this statement we need to define the term torture. According to United Nations Convention against Torture, torture is an act of severe infliction of pain or suffering; be it mental or physical. There are three reasons that lead to torture namely to gather information, for punishment purpose and crimes of hate.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Torture is not Morally Permissible specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Torture is outlawed in most countries, and is considered anti-Christian by such denominations as The Roman Catholic. Torture does not work. Most people therefore say it is not permissible and only shows lack of moral authority in a society that practices it. It demeans a person’s human rights, shows lack of respect to his ego and results into hatred from the tortured. Arguments against torture Some philosophers argue for torture. For example, Miller states that a thief who steals a car with a child inside. The police get hold of him and have to torture him to release information on whereabouts of the vehicle, failure to which the child may die of heat stroke if not found within twenty minutes. Miller’s other example is that of a terrorist who hides a nuclear time bomb in a city. The police must find this time bomb early enough, failure to which it will kill crowds of people. In both cases, Miller argues that torture is acceptable. Miller states that torturing the thief and the terrorist will make them furnish the police with the required information. Miller further argues that the thief is considered derisive, pugnacious and rebellious. Miller concludes that upon beating, the thief will realize the beatings will go on until he releases the necessary information of the whereabouts of the child. However, beating the thief is more or less likely to make the thief defiant and angry rather than repentant. He feels oppressed and hated. Other approaches to the matter would be more operative. For example, offering a gift if the thief releases the car and the child, asking the mother to plead with the thief to have mercy upon the child or opting to withdraw the charges completely. The thief is just interested in the car and he is not after killing the child. The beatings will go on until the twentieth minute, after which this will be no more important for the sake of the child. It will only be a punishment. In reality, the thief will decline to offer the information after the twenty minutes elapse as he will be accused of murder.Advertising Looking for essay on ethics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In the terrorists’ scenario, torture is unlikely to be effective too. The terrorist is committed to his cause and is willing to die for the act. Often, some terrorists even go to an extent of bombing themselves. Torture will only make terrorist more reluctant to relea se the information1. Terrorists may even send the police into various likely locations which may end up being fruitless searches until the bomb is detonated. This way, a terrorist escapes torture and the plan is executed. The terrorist’s community or family members may forward the information to save their relative’ hence, hindering the mission. In both cases torture is not permissible. In the thief’s scenario, it involves subjecting one person to pain to save another. Both are human beings and need recognition. Hence, the two scenarios just show how torture works but are naà ¯ve to bring out its effects as well as the moral implications. The philosophers who propose torture fail to display how torture works and do not show evidence of its effectiveness. Torture is not permissible as the culprit may be innocent. In some instances, innocent people are charged with holding of important information which poses a risk to the lives of people. These individuals are i n most instances, unaware of what is happening. Items are stolen from a shop, but a shop attendant is accused of the offence. Robbers hijack a bus, a passer-by is accused. Bomb attacks occur; innocent citizens are hostage of the attacks. These are some of the instances, where innocent individuals are tortured innocently. They lose their liberty, identity and their dignity. For example, a report released by wikileaks in December 2010, stated that Khaled EL-Masri who was a Germany citizen was arrested by mistake and taken to Afghanistan. His arrest was simply because his name resembled that of a real terror suspect whose name was Khalid Al-Masri. Worse still he was dumped in Albania when CIA realized he was innocent. Torture may sometimes make people look guilty even when they are not. For example, an innocent individual is held captive of an offence, upon torture he pleads guilty to escape the injustice. In other instances, the expression of pain by the tortured convinces the witness es and the torturer of his guilt. There is also the need to protect life. An individual should not be tortured to death for claims of committing crime2. The tortured also have a right to sanctity of life and Kant states that it is our duty to allow this sanctity to thrive. Some individuals are however to release information they do not have a clue. An example is a terrorist’s wife who will be tortured to tell the whereabouts of her husband. A thief’s son may be exposed to torture to give information about the hidings of his father. Torturing these individuals is not permissible as they are neither involved in the criminal act itself nor the reason behind the crime.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Torture is not Morally Permissible specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Torturing innocent people is usually referred to as using persons as a means to an end. In other words, the torturers are willing to end crim e by spilling innocent blood. One is left to wonder if prevention is really better than cure. Hence torturing innocent people is less tolerable than failing to prevent the danger that occurs to other people by not being vigilant. Torturing an innocent person is far too huge a cost for any intended purpose. There are times when the innocent are tortured to death. This is done as a form of punishment so that others may learn from the scenario. This is wrong as life deserves preservation irrespective of conditions or results. There is a responsibility involved in killing as compared to letting a person die which does not. While killing is terrible, letting a person is merely out of negligence. When torturing one individual to save thousands of people, the importance of torture must be made in no indefinite terms3. We are therefore required to stimulate the circumstances necessary for survival of human beings and provisionally to uphold the ends or contentment of these people. We are mo rally impermissible to kill our morally innocent. We should therefore make a huge sacrifice to preserve the greater innocence of individuals. Where the individual is innocent of an offence, torture is not permissible either. This is because it is morally condemnatory and does not regard the victim. For example when we kill a terrorist, we violate his negative right of not receiving any harm although we have a duty towards the citizens to protect them. Torture ethically tints our society. It leads to corrosion of a state’s character. As stated earlier, it is an evil that receives much condemnation from all over the world. A society that tortures its people is considered as one that lacks morals and does not uphold the rights of human beings. Christians particularly condemn the act of torturing others, quoting Jesus’ words when He forbade His disciples from giving an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Christians further claim that Jesus was tortured on the cross for our sake and fled us from the bondage of sins. Torture harms the victim, the torturer and eventually the entire society. Torture is too much an evil to be considered a means towards an end. It is considered a means through which sadists meet their satisfaction. Torture thus imparts a spirit of revenge. Tortured individuals develop a feeling of revenge and will want to inflict the same pain and suffering upon the torturer4. For example, bombing of terrorists hiding venues makes the terrorists react angrily by bombing the attackers too. It is rarely appealing. Tolerance of torture perverts the societal morals. It shows moral decay in a society. Individuals who are subjected to torture may become rebellious after the exercise.Advertising Looking for essay on ethics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In fact, the rebellion might be practiced in form of a coup d’à ©tat in some countries. They may lose a sense of living and become demoralized. In an organization, employees who are subjected to torture, may become demotivated and perform poorly. This in turn may translate into low profits for the organization. A tortured victim lacks defense. In a scenario where an individual is being tortured to reveal crucial information, his only defense is the information he is withholding. Hence when we torture individuals we deny them the peace and joy whereby individuals are furnished with the means to accomplish needs, live with a purpose and delight in pleasure with lack of pain. We therefore ought to view people as ends not means. Torturing individuals is not a means to end unfairness or to clean the world. In fact torturing a wicked person does not add any peace. Conclusion In conclusion therefore, torturing the innocent does not reduce peace in the world. Neither is it a means t o acquire justice. Torturing people to death is inherently wrong as there is something sacred and special about sentient rational life which deserves preservation. If torture is used as an extraordinary measure for resolving our problems, its use will be normalized. Individuals henceforth be treated with a lot of brutality whenever need arises. There will be loss of integrity and respect for human rights will be no longer upheld. In a nutshell, torture is morally disgraceful. It yields lies and hatred and demeans the torturers along with the tortured. It is a vice which we should all fight against. Footnotes 1 The terrorist is committed to his cause and is willing to die for the act. Often, some terrorists even go to an extent of bombing themselves. Torture will only make terrorist more reluctant to release the information 2 There is also the need to protect life. An individual should not be tortured to death for claims of committing crime. 3 When torturing one individual to save th ousands of people, the importance of torture must be made in no indefinite terms 4 Tortured individuals develop a feeling of revenge and will want to inflict the same pain and suffering upon the torturer

Case Of Organizational Behavior Samples

In a very broad sense, organizational behavior refers to the study of how human individuals interact or behave within a group. These studies are conducted extensively to understand how to better integrate the employees and run a business more efficiently. At the core of this field of study lies the idea that scientific approach can benefit an organization through better managing the workers and, thus, making sure the individuals work more cohesively and as a single unit. Organizational behavior may be loosely described as the process of understanding and predicting of human behavior as a group member or as an individual in order to manage and maximize their output within an organization. Organizational behavior also studies the behavioral traits or patterns individuals show to one another within the organizational sphere. The effects of these interactions are also studied in depth. Organizational behavior is the study of every behavioral aspects of an individual who is a part of a bi gger organization, the interface of two or more individuals, or between the individual and the organization or of the organization itself. Organizational culture is the single most important aspect and parameter that decides how will the performance of the employees be as individuals or a whole group. Moreover, organizational culture is the conglomerating bundle of the assumptions, values, ethical considerations, ideologies and other organizational parameters that decide how would an individual or a group within the organization behave while their interactions and interfaces between themselves and the organization or amongst themselves (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). These parameters all have important and extensive influences upon individuals and modulate their behavioral patterns, dictate how they dress or act as a member or part of the organization. Organizational culture also often sets the bar that decides and measures how will the performance of the individual and the group is (Alvesson 2016). Every single organization has distinct and visible organizational culture that varies from each other and are unique in i ts nature. These organizational culture are developed over days and are maintained tirelessly to uphold the organizational reputation within the industry. This reputation is one of the biggest attributes for ensuring a successful business (Ehrhart and Kuenzi 2017). Organizational culture is primarily a very basic but overall guideline or boundaries as to how should the employees behave while representing the company. Organizational culture is the unification of the values, ethics and behavioral pattern of the employees that make up the unique environment for each organization (Ostroff and Schulte 2014). While these behaviors are often up-front and are very visible, it is also often the case that these are embedded psychologically. The very core beliefs and values are personified by the behavior of the organization and, in some cases, the employees as well. The managing authorities are the ones who decide how would the employees behave within the organization. Organization culture fl ows down from the senior authorities to the employees and not the other way around (Ashkanasy and Dorris 2017).    Also termed â€Å"corporate culture†, organizational culture is reflected through a few basic functions of the company. It is the guidelines and broad paths through which an organization functions and operates its business: how does the organization treats and interacts with its customers and employees as well as how does it serve or helps the wider social communities (Bortolotti, Boscari and Danese 2015). Organizational culture decides upon how much freedom is given to the employees to have inputs about the operations of the company and what contributions do they have in the decision making process, providing new ideas for development and benefit of the organization or how much leniency is tolerated for p3ersonal expression. The hierarchical construction, the flow of power and how free flowing is information within the organization are all decided by the organizational culture and work ethics(Barbera 2014). The organizational goals and purposes demand the employees to believe and be committed to them and organizational culture plays a pivotal and decisive role in this: the organization must be able to make the employees feel welcomed and a valuable part of the organization so that they want to work for the employers and help them to fulfil the objectives that were set out with in the first place of starting the company (Glisson 2015). If the employees are made to feel they are important and they understand that the company is taking their care, they will themselves take care of the customers. The whole functioning of the company will be much smoother and the higher authority need not be directly involved in the interaction with the customers, rather, they can be focused more on other more pressing issues. Customer care and services, post sales services, product quality are all results and/or shaped by organizational culture (Hogan, S.J. and Coote, L.V., 2014). Another very important aspect of running a business in the modern world is the environmental s ide of it. Every business, industry or organization must abide by the rules and requirements to protect the environment and reduce the process of global warming. A strong and ethical organizational culture helps to make sure that organizations keep this in mind and not cause any harm to the planet (Dubey et al. 2017). Virtually every single step of the operations of an organization is impacted by the organizational culture: how will the idea of a new product or service be conceived and shaped, how will the marketing tactics be planned, how to reach the potential customers and how to penetrate the market (Uzkurt et al. 2013). Organizational culture takes a lot of time to achieve and once established, it is so involved in every operation of the organization that it becomes almost impossible to change. That is why organizations must be very careful from the very beginning, having a concise and cohesive idea about what they want to achieve through the business, i.e. the motives of the company (Kangas et al. 2016). Employees and customers have to be able to identify with the organizational business operations or goals if they either want to work there or buy the products or the services of a particular company. Organizational culture is defined as an â€Å"emergence† of a state within an organization that is highly complex and is incalculable. This state results from a few very simple ingredients, though the final outcome is different for every organization. There are three parameters within an organization that can be controlled, moderated and managed: the employees, the work and the customers. These are the three basic pillars of any organization and every single operation is executed and planned with focus on any, or all, three of these. Organizational culture is almost always highly influenced by regional cultures (Modaff, Butler and DeWine 2016). The beliefs and ideals of different social community shape how an organization will behave, treat its customers and employees. These beliefs and values are deep inside the collective social mentality, and it is only natural that these will be some of the primary things to decide what will be the operations of the organization. The creation of any organizational culture is dependent upon the beliefs and values of its leaders. Workplace culture is entirely created by the leaders as they are the ones with a proper idea about what is to be done band the true motives of the organization (Asgary and Li 2016). However, it is not the final deciding factor: while most of the times leaders do shape the organizational culture, there are also times when organizational culture also decides what kind of a leadership is possible, or how will the leaders behave him/herself. An established culture influences and shapes a leader just as much as it being influenced by the leader (Fullan 2014). An effective organizational culture decides and governs the mentality and behavior of the employees and the authority that will ensure the employees reaching their goals while adhering to the collective motivations. When an employee feels that she or he is being assisted and helped by the leader to fulfil their personal goal, job satis faction also gets better and this, in turn, pushes the employees to work even harder. While a strong organizational culture will help the employees in the process of achieving its goals and grow together, a weak one will have disruptions in the work and functions of the organization. However, if individual employees are seen as to be more important than the organization itself, sustaining the operations and striving towards the organizational goals may become difficult as the company will be having a tough time trying to balance the priorities (Goetsch and Davis 2014). The market orientation and culture of an organization must be focused at generating a profit and should revolve around results. Competition within an industry must be kept up with, if the organization wishes to stay in the game and keep generating a profit. Having an adaptive culture can help organizations immensely. This means an inclusive work culture where all the employees are included in the decision making process of the company. An adaptive or inclusive work culture ensures that the company y will survive through time, simply because it will have all the employees looking after its interests. A flexible work culture is dynamic in nature and are focused upon risk-taking and innovation (Glisso n 2015). Power culture within an organization decides how would information flow within the organization among the different departments. It also determines the hierarchy of the organization and the power structure. This kind of work culture is spearheaded by a single leader who takes all the decisions on behalf of the entire organization and controls the marketing and other strategies of the company. A role culture is where the employees all know their specific jobs and roles in the organization and report to their seniors. Efficiency and accuracy are paramount in a work culture like this one. There are some basic characteristics of organizational culture, despite being unique to every organization. Some of them are elaborated below: The organizational culture is a self-sustaining pattern that gives an idea about how things are to be done in the organization. Organizational culture is mostly instinctive and repetitive and cannot be easily categorized or labelled. Corporate culture is always evolving: slowly, but surely (Katzenbach, Oelschlegel and Thomas 2016). While it is almost impossible to change the entire established work culture, it is possible to control certain emotional aspects of it to control the performance and outcome of some of the functions. Cultural inputs and catalysts help companies to make changes that last longer and have more positive impact on the performance of the employees (Modaff, Butler and DeWine 2016). There are some basic principles of the organizational culture that help companies to achieve long term success. These can be defined as follows: Now that a rough but cohesive idea about the basic tenets of organizational culture has been comprehended, further discussion would try to establish the same as an important of business running. To achieve this, three case studies are looked into in greater detail and discussed how did they manage to be so successful despite such fierce competition in the sector and what role did organizational culture had to play in it. It is not unknown that Google has a very strong work culture that is also the biggest reason behind it being recognized as one of the most sought after companies to work at. Even pictures from inside Google’s offices make people chart their education and career plans so that one day they can achieve that. A company does not achieve such a status just like that. The very essence of the core ideals and beliefs of the company is forged within the organizational culture of the organization, that prompts its actions and every other strategy (Wei, Samiee and Lee 2014). The company has teams who are solely focused towards keeping the employees happy and making sure that productivity is consistent and regular. While it may seem intrusive to many, it is also true that great visions are often misjudged and/or frowned upon. It is understandable if some companies are weary of the organizational culture simply based on the fact that the industry of Google are absolutely different. While di fferent sectors do demand different work cultures, it is also true that some basic ideas can be used by every sector or organization within it. It has already been elaborated in the previous section about how can a greater employee integration help an organization to achieve higher degrees of success can happier employee circle ensure higher performance. This section will look into the different ways through which Google tries to achieve this aspect of organizational culture and, in turn, attain success. Google firmly believes in the fact that it is the employees behind the success of the organization. There are innumerable applications to work for the company and every single one of them are reviewed. The employee integration process begins at the very first step of hiring a person as an employee. In the interview process, the applicants are faced with odd situational questions and are asked to provide answers. The answers are not expected to be correct, rather the company tries to see which of the applicants have an aptitude for imagination and can come up with innovative ideas under pressure. This gives the organization an insight about the inner capacity of each individual at the very beginning. Human resource department relies solely on scientific research and data analysis to understand an d measure the performance of each individual employee properly. Extensive application of algorithm based formulae help the company to predict when will an employee leave the organization; optimal size of tables is also assessed using scientific methods. Google discovered that female employees take twice as many leaves as the male counterparts and this led the company to revamp the entire leave plans, giving the female employees paid maternity leaves. All of these steps taken provided the company with employees who were happier. Retention of the employees was achieved through providing them with higher perks and better paid leave plans. Google gives its employees a lot of perks including the advantages of bringing the children to the office and availing day care right there, sleep pods, free food throughout the day and many more which make the employees want to stay at the company. Studies have also shown that the employees perform better as well under these conditions. Google has clearly written guidelines about what are the ideals and organizational values. These ten grounding premises serve at the very core of the company and help the applicants properly understand what the organization expects them to do, which skills to possess and what are expected of them should they be selected to work for the company. Google shares all of its information with all of its employees. This makes the operations of the organization clear and transparent. The company also takes care to resolve any questions an employee may have regarding the organization. This assures the employees with a sense of security and makes them understand the operations of the company properly and enables them to work for the company in a clearer and proper fashion. Keeping the employees informed and enlightened about which direction the company is headed enables them be aligned with the objectives of the company and cohesively work towards the collective goals. Every employee is given recognition for however small an achievement may it be, encouraging them to work harder so that they can achieve even more credit for their work. At the same time, failure on the part of any employee or team is also highlighted. This type of clear and open appreciation of their efforts make the employees want to improve their performance and ensu res an office culture which is fearless. Google encourages its employees to socialize even outside of office so that a sense of a bigger society can be formed where everyone knows each other. This gives the employees a level of comfort to be working among the people they know, and being relaxed they can work with better concentration. This case study reveals that Google uses some basic and very normal ideas to form an organizational culture through employee appeasing, based on the very core idea that happy employees guarantee happy customers. Another very important aspect of Google’s work culture is that; it is never stagnated. The company is always changing and evolving its work culture, making sure any new aspect that would make the employees happier is not ignored. The company policy on employees is one of the most important things that ensure the employees’ higher performance rate and establishes the organizational dominance in the overall industry. Google is evidently highly successful in being able to use organizational culture by means of integrating the employees within itself and making themselves a successful company. All of these steps have helped Adobe to become the successful company that they are today and enjoy a great market share. Companies and organizations invests billions of dollars and uncounted amount of hours only to ensure that innovation and creativity are boosted. To stay ahead of the curve, to ensure organizational leadership in the industry and grabbing maximum market share, there is no substitution for innovation. Creativity helps every organization to come up with new ideas that help to create a new product or develop on an already existing product and innovate something. The aspiration to do something, to create something new is a great driver for motivation to work harder. This improves performance by a huge margin and often boosts the overall company performance as a whole. To ensure that the employees are going to work hard, Adobe looks into the fact that their employees are having fun at work. The organization firmly believes in the fact that innovation and creativity can be ushered through relaxation, where pressure is not an issue. Culture is the conglomeration of ideas, customs, beliefs, values and behavior of a particular person or of group as a whole. Adobe, above all encourages the employees to creative and tries to establish a work culture within the company that will itself evoke creativity. It is an observed fact that the companies that take these steps can see higher growth rate as well as better revenue. Adobe is one of the biggest software companies on the planet and also one of the most lucrative places to work at. Creativity has helped the company to stay ahead of its competition simply by making sure their products offer something extra that the other products do not. Adobe believes that creativity is something that should start at the top and should be reflected through the behavior and the working of the senior authorities. The people at the top are expected to lead the way by displaying innovative thinking themselves. If the leaders fail to behave in the company’s desired way, the employees would also fall short of their tasks. The leaders in the company are bestowed with the responsibility to unleash the creative capabilities of the employees. â€Å"KickBox† is a unique concept of the company that allows every employee to bring their imaginations and ideas through life using the company’s own resources. These are funded by the organization themselves to encourage the employees to develop new ideas. The employees are not expected to submit any proposals for it: they just go ahead with the plans. Adobe has a corporate culture that embraces risk taking rather than shunning it away. Risk aversion is believed to be, by the company, the single biggest threat to innovation. Adobe gives out its employees the signal that they are open to new ideas and new interpretations of existing products so that they are encouraged to take risks. If the risks are worthy, the organization rewards the employees and credit is given elaborately. This is another way through which the company ushers in new ideas for products. The leaders again play a pivotal role here: they have to make the employees understand that risk taking is awarded and not something that would land them in trouble. The training and development program of Apple is very well planned and organized. The employees of Apple are treated as one of the key advantages in the departments of the research and development as well as marketing. In order to attract and retain skilled and competent employees the Apple Inc. provides effective training and development program (Shafie, Siti-Nabiha and Tan 2014). These employees will improve the ability and benefit of the company. To meet its transformational challenges, the company needs to train new and current staffs. The ways in which the employees learn and achieve reflect as well as transform how the company does its business. Thus, they engage the employees to work responsively and improve the products. On the other hand, they raise awareness about the employees’ rights. To Apple it is not enough only to find and correct problems. Apple’s training programs are specially designed to educate employers about laws, rights, health and safety of the workers as well as suppliers (Cornelissen and Cornelissen 2017). Verità © and the Fair Labor Association — two organizations recognized internationally, dedicated to human rights have worked with Apple to figure out the quality of the company’s social responsibility training. It shows that the knowledge and awareness of the rights of the employees has been increased through Apple’s mandated training. They train supervisors and managers on their responsibilities, direct hire processes and even onsite management of foreign workers. Supplier Employee Education and Development (SEED) program has been launched by Apple to enhance professional development opportunities. Here, the classes on finance, computer skills, and the English language are offered. The company also made a partnership with Chinese universities to allow workers to achieve associate degrees. Over 60,000 workers participated in their first pilot program in 2011 and came up with higher morale are promoted more often than other employees (Myers and Fellow 2014). Their final suppliers have onsite e-learning centers. In order to follow up and compute the employee’s performance Apple audits. In 2011 the company conducted training sessions to prevent underage labor. This year, no cases of underage labor could be found in their audits. While the organization is encouraged by these results, Apple claims that they will continue regular audits and go deeper into their supply chain to ensure that there are no underage workers at any Apple supplier (Asgary and Li 2016). The company has decided to continue regular audits to ensure that there are no underage workers at any Apple supplier. Apple has made their training and development program intensively dedicated in order to bring out and sustain the competitive advantage. Apple frequently produces new products like computers, music devices, media sales, and telephones that require skill in completely different industries. Therefore, the expertise of its employees needs to change faster than at almost any other tech firm. Apple feels that the employees must be self-reliant. The reason behind it is that in a fast-changing environment, employee self-reliance gets weaken for providing target competencies and prescribing training. In order to develop the required skills, the employees need to learn continuously which employee ownership of development encourages. Instead of giving training how to sell a product, the employees are empowered which will shape them according to the company’s requirement as well as the customer’s. Apple’s team environment helps to build cohesion within team. The cohesion strengthens when the different development teams work competitively. This healthy competition helps in their development and they learn from each other. Apple’s effective training and development programs motivate and encourage innovation and creativity of the employees. Apple has compensation policies and packages which is structured and prepared by a committee. The compensation committee prepares, review, and modify the incentive programs and policies. The board set the committee members and empower them to take external or internal counseling, advice and ask for any employee. Apple provides very good benefits like health and life insurance, Short- and long-term disability coverage, flexible Spending Accounts, disability coverage and employee stock exchange plans. As found in the official website of Apple, the company has built plenty of flexibility for the employees and their families. Apple’s executive compensation aims to attract and retain the executives with genius, creativity and entrepreneurial skill. To the company, the employees are their assets. It is the executives who are responsible to transform the company and bring success in the international market. The Compensation Committee examines the compensation program and determines the compensation for the executives. The distributes annual performance-based cash bonus program for the employees and follows pay system based on performance. Every executive is awarded with cash bonus equal to 100% of his basic salary. The compensation committee compensates fairly and adequately. In today’s weak economy, Apple has taken advantage of job demand and provided a good ambience to work. It faces no difficulty to replace the employees who have resigned. Apple maintains a healthy work culture that helps the company to flourish and prosper internationally. From the above discussion and a good look into the cases of the three organizations, it can firmly have concluded that organizational culture does help an organization to be successful. Organizational culture has been seen to be one of the most important aspects of business running which can make pivotal differences between a successful organization and one that is not. A strong work culture is something that would enable companies to make its strategies in a way that would help them to achieve the collective organizational goals and would also enable to establish a strong sense of bond within the company as well. A strong organizational culture makes sure that the environment within the company is cordial and a homely atmosphere prevails. This is one of the most important things to make the employees feel relaxed, enabling them to work even better. The companies with a good organizational culture makes the employees feel welcomed and an integral part of the company. This sense boost s them to try and work better. Recognizing the employees’ efforts and rewarding risk taking capabilities also ensure enhanced performance. Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015.  Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge. Alvesson, M. ed., 2016.  Organizational culture. Sage. Asgary, N. and Li, G., 2016. Corporate social responsibility: Its economic impact and link to the bullwhip effect.  Journal of Business Ethics,  135(4), pp.665-681. Ashkanasy, N.M. and Dorris, A.B., 2017. Organizational culture and climate. Barbera, K.M., 2014.  The Oxford handbook of organizational climate and culture. Oxford University Press. Bortolotti, T., Boscari, S. and Danese, P., 2015. Successful lean implementation: Organizational culture and soft lean practices.  International Journal of Production Economics,  160, pp.182-201. Cornelissen, J. and Cornelissen, J.P., 2017.  Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage. Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., Helo, P., Papadopoulos, T., Childe, S.J. and Sahay, B.S., 2017. Explaining the impact of reconfigurable manufacturing systems on environmental performance: The role of top management and organizational culture.  Journal of Cleaner Production,  141, pp.56-66. Ehrhart, M.G. and Kuenzi, M., 2017. The Impact of Organizational Climate and Culture on Employee Turnover.  The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Recruitment, Selection and Employee Retention, pp.494-512. Fullan, M., 2014.  Leading in a culture of change personal action guide and workbook. John Wiley & Sons. Glisson, C., 2015. The role of organizational culture and climate in innovation and effectiveness.  Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance,  39(4), pp.245-250. Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014.  Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson. Hogan, S.J. and Coote, L.V., 2014. Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model.  Journal of Business Research,  67(8), pp.1609-1621. Kangas, M., Kaptein, M., Huhtala, M., Là ¤msà ¤, A.M., Pihlajasaari, P. and Feldt, T., 2016. Why Do Managers Leave Their Organization? Investigating the Role of Ethical Organizational Culture in Managerial Turnover.  Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-17. Katzenbach, J., Oelschlegel, C. and Thomas, J., 2016. 10 principles of organizational culture.  Strategy+ Business,  82(Spring), pp.1-7. Modaff, D.P., Butler, J.A. and DeWine, S.A., 2016.  Organizational communication: Foundations, challenges, and misunderstandings. Pearson. Myers, C. and Fellow, K., 2014. Corporate Social Responsibility in the consumer electronics industry: A case study of Apple Inc.  Resource document. Georgetown University, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. https://? lwp.? georgetown.? edu/? wp-content/? uploads/? Connor-Myers.? pdf. Accessed,  10. O’Reilly III, C.A., Caldwell, D.F., Chatman, J.A. and Doerr, B., 2014. The promise and problems of organizational culture: CEO personality, culture, and firm performance.  Group & Organization Management,  39(6), pp.595-625. Ostroff, C. and Schulte, M., 2014. A configural approach to the study of organizational culture and climate. Shafie, S.B., Siti-Nabiha, A.K. and Tan, C.L., 2014. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND PRODUCT INNOVATION: A CONCEPTUAL REVIEW.  International Journal of Organizational Innovation,  7. Uzkurt, C., Kumar, R., Semih Kimzan, H. and Emino?lu, G., 2013. Role of innovation in the relationship between organizational culture and firm performance: A study of the banking sector in Turkey.  European Journal of innovation management,  16(1), pp.92-117. Wei, Y.S., Samiee, S. and Lee, R.P., 2014. The influence of organic organizational cultures, market responsiveness, and product strategy on firm performance in an emerging market.  Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,  42(1), pp.49-70. Wiewiora, A., Trigunarsyah, B., Murphy, G. and Coffey, V., 2013. Organizational culture and willingness to share knowledge: A competing values perspective in Australian context.  International Journal of Project Management,  31(8), pp.1163-1174.

Competitive Advantage Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Competitive Advantage - Case Study Example In such a scenario the firm will be able to sustain its competitive advantage. This becomes a great advantage to the company since it enjoys a long - term advantage free from imitations. No matter the magnitude of competition a good sustainable competitive advantage prevails. (Collis and Hussey, 2003) 1) The market positions - Under this we have the company's structural assets, financial, reputation assets, and lastly technological assets. All these assets can greatly determine the performance of a given company. followed. These guidelines help in the development of the firm and highly determine the competitive advantage of the firm compared to other firms. If a company takes the right path of the development track then it is likely to have a sustainable competitive advantage over the other companies and vice versa. Rolls Royce has various sources of competitive advantage some of which are similar to those practiced by Tesco while others are different. The company has introduced a reliable business approach that has assured consistency and wealthy business. (Gilbert, 1999) The company is applying merging and acquisition as a strategy for example the acquisitions of Cooper Energy Services, Allison Engine Company Vickers among others have helped the firm in creating new business opportunities for its marine, civil energy and defence industries. This has also widened its range of products thus creating new markets for the products. The company has a management team that takes care of all the customers requirements, attends to them and ensures that all customers are satisfied. All the company's planned goals are well delivered on the line of recruitment, the company has filled the senior management positions with new human force thus injecting fresh ideas in the company, two third of these senior management team are selected from within the company, they therefore know how the company runs while a third are recruited outside the company who bring new notions and suggestions on improving the company's business activities. (Gilbert, 1999) The company has got strategy of increasing the sales volume. New and modern engines have been delivered with boosted ripeness in the bass of installation. Overhaul and repair activities have also received a tremendous growth following the company's increased technological levels attached to the production of quality products. The company has realized increased assortments on its services. This had made its customer base to increase a thing that gives it competitive advantage over the other firms. Investing in new civil engines and the capability of powering a broader range of aircrafts has given it some competitive advan

Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Religion - Essay Example In addition, this culture learns how to arouse spirits using such holy names. Moreover, it inspires them to divines that will make them act like God. Claimed Gods power can summon the spirits and give them commands of their wish. Religion has become dynamic with time. Education facilitates competence in religion where people are coming up with new creative beliefs to convince people on matters related to religion and supernatural issues. Prophet Dr. Owuor of repentance and holiness ministry successfully come up with beliefs of doom prophecies by integrating sciences calculations and his prophecies. He has convinced people strong believing in God can manipulates natural factors such as when he called down rain. He also prophesied on the Italy earthquake that indeed later hit the country. His prophecy religion has attracted a lot of people who have abandoned their cultural region in favor of this which incorporates all diversified beliefs about what, when and how supernatural events will take

Current Trends in Leadership Essay Example for Free

Current Trends in Leadership Essay Now a day leaders are following a trend of As one, which is a short phrase but it is filled with meaning and inspiration. In simple sense As one means to sum up the individual actions into collective power. According to the article individuals can collaborate to achieve extraordinary results together. Every day people meet, collaborate from different countries, organizations and industries so that to make the things happen. In this, some collaborations are unintentional, some are deliberately or sometimes it uses web technologies. But the basic fundamental reason behind these collaborations or working as one phenomenon is to have a winning edge. And this winning edge is usually determined by the organization that best works as one. Leaders have added the phrase as one which has changed its meaning completely. For e.g. working, it is an individual action but when it is connected with â€Å"as one† the entire meaning of both word and the phrase has changed, i.e. working as one, which shows the power of collectivism in an organization. Similarly winning versus winning as one, stronger versus stronger as one. Now they know that sources of inspirations are endless, just think of the possibilities and believe as one, succeed as one. The definition of leadership is evolving, such as: * Some say leadership is all about productivity, making employees work together efficiently. They say that great leader should get people to have a common interpretation around how to work together. * Some say leadership is all about people. They say a leader’s job is to develop people’s sense of belonging to their group. They believe a great leader should get people to have a strong shared identity or sense of who they are. * Some say leadership is all about purpose. They feel a leader’s job is to drive people’s commitment to act on the goals of the organization. A great leader gets people to have a strong sense of directional intensity around what they need to do together. But a real leader should involve all these things. Some leaders call it working as one and it represents the pinnacle of collective leadership, or leadership that results in a cohesive group of people working together effectively toward a common goal or purpose. As one may seem primarily available to leaders and their teams, but it doesn’t just have to be about internal interactions. The concept is a starting point for all leaders to understand how they can apply specific collective leadership techniques to best fit their situations and challenges. * Employee’s Trust in his Leader2: One out of four employees do not trust their leader. What leaders do so that their employees trust them? And how they know that whether their employees trust him or not? A leader should have answers for these questions. As a leader, you can’t afford to avoid trust between you and your employees or teammates. A lack of trust in leader results in negative impact on staff retention, employee well being and performance. Trust requires a person to have reliance and confidence in the actions of another, with no guarantee that he/she will behave as desired in return. When applied to leadership, trust is a person’s willingness to take a risk for a leader with the expectations that, in exchange, the leader will behave in some desired way. To maximize the trust leaders receive from their employees, they demonstrate three qualities. 1. Competence (Can they do the job?); 2. Benevolence (Do they care about me?); and 3. Integrity (Are they honest?). Integrity is the most important part at 41 percent, the benevolence at 34 percent, then competence at 25 percent. When the goal is to maximize the trust, leaders must know how to do their jobs well, but it is even more important for them to be considerate, supportive and honest with their employees. Leaders not only demonstrate these three qualities- honest, benevolent and competent, but they have also try to be seen to be so. Now leaders show trust in people around them. They listen to their employees, empathize with them, show their concern for the employees, are honest with them, true to their word, and treat them fairly. Leaders actively manage how they are perceived by others. They try to connect their employees at a personal level, which could be as simple as shaking hands with them. There are clear links between professional human capital management (HCM) best practices (such as mission statements, regular surveys and performance reviews) and trust in leadership. These practices, typically of progressive organizations, and are also linked to levels of trust in leadership. Employees are twice as likely to trust their senior leaders if the organization has engaged in these practices. And the more of these best practices that the organization engages in, the greater the level of employee trust in leadership. Conclusion: On the basis of the studies, I came to know that different leaders are following different trends in their leadership techniques. So there is no set trend for leadership. Also different people have different opinion about their leaders. But what I realized from my learning on these articles that to have a winning and competitive edge, organizations require leaders who can inspire, motivate, direct, etc. their employees to achieve the company’s goal effectively and efficiently. Leaders should also build their trust on employees, so that they can trust and believe their leaders for better outcomes and staff retention. Also I came to know that leaders are practicing to work in a team and currently they are using a trend of As one, that is whole organization is one and they are having a common goal, objective and vision. Sources: 1. Leadership Excellence, Art. Collective leadership, March 2012 2. Leadership Excellence, Art. How to gain trust?, May 2012

Fate in Eudora Weltys A Worn Path :: Worn Path

Fate in Eudora Welty's A Worn Path    Fate can take control of humans lives and can help humans reach the end of the challenging path. The path is a journey which can not be totally controlled by humans. There will always be obstacles that will rely on fate. The path is a metaphor for life and life is full of obstacle s and risks that Phoenix needed to overcome in this story. Before Phoenix made it down the hill, the bush got caught in her clothes. It shows that you should not judge from the outside and that things are not always what they seem. In life you will come across people and objects that are harsher than you imagine. She also stumbled upon a scarecrow that scared her. This shows that life and the path are both filled with surprises and entertainment. The white man told her that town was far away and that she should head home. But she knew that she must continue for her grandson and it shows that you should not always trust that the advice given is the best.    Phoenix Jackson was determined to travel down the worn path to reach town. Determination was a key factor to her success down the path but I think that fate was on her side and it helped her through. For example, Phoenix crossed a creek by a log. She closed her eyes and it was fate that got her across safely. She came across a scarecrow that momentarily brought happiness to her. When she was walking down the road a black dog suddenly jumped up on her and pushed her to the ground. "A white man finally came along and found her - a hunter, a young man, with his dog on a chain. I think that this shows that fate had brought a person to help lift her up just when she needed it. It also brought an opportunity for her to pocket a nickel she saw. Kindness is very important in the story because it showed that there are many people who are willing to lend a hand to help an old lady. The white man helped her up and a lady helped lace up her shoe. "'Stand still then, Grandma' said the lady. She put her packages down on the sidewalk beside her and laced and tied both shoes tightly." This shows that Phoenix was not too shy to ask politely for help and she received the help that she needed.

Review and Evaluate Strategies in Health and Social Care Environments to Overcome Barriers to Effective Communication and Interpersonal Interactions

There are a lot of useful strategies within a health and social care environment for example a hearing aid would be very useful as a deaf person would be able to hear people talking to them as it picks up and increases the volume of an individual’s voice so the deaf person would hear them clearly but also it has disadvantages as if the hearing aid battery was not working it would be no use to them as they would not hear anything or only hear tiny bits of conversations, also hearing aids amplify background noise and if the background noise was very loud it could put the person in a great deal of pain as everything is 10 times louder to them.Mobile phones have a lot of advantages such as the service user can get in touch with medical professionals if they need to and get advice quickly without them having to travel to the doctors but also it is a disadvantage as not a lot of service users would know how to use mobile phones as they are advanced. Also if a service user was trying to use a mobile phone but failing to it could also make them stressed this could lead to other health problems on top of the ones that they may already have.Hearing loops are a advantage in health and social care as it helps deaf people hear sounds more clearly and also cuts out any background noise so the deaf person could hear what anyone is saying and understand it very clearly, the disadvantages of having a hearing loop is that they can pick up interference from other magnetic fields this may confuse the person who is wearing the hearing loop and also could put them in some discomfort as they are picking up more sounds than they should. In some situations a loop may not be secure, other hearing aid wearers can listen in this could make the deaf person feel as if everyone is listening to what he is saying or listening to and could make the deaf person feel very uncomfortable.Interpreters are a great advantage in health and social care as they can communicate a conversation, whet her it be signed or spoken to someone in a different language that they may understand. A disadvantage of an interpreter may be that they don’t only have to interpret the words and signs but also have to find a way of expressing a meaning if this is not done correctly then the service user may not understand and misunderstand what they are being told and make it into something much worse than they are  actually being told.A translator is really useful in health and social care as they change recorded information such as a written word into another language this would be good for someone who is deaf that cannot hear a interpreter so the translator would write it down for them instead, the disadvantage of a translator is that they also have to convey the meaning as well as the word so if the translator is unsure of the meaning it could then confuse the service user and also because they have to write it down if their hand writing is not clear enough the service user may mista ken it for another word.A signer is a good way of helping the deaf community in health and social care as a signer is a person who uses a signed language to communicate with deaf people this is very useful as the service provide e.g. doctor is not likely to have learned signed language but if a signer came in he could communicate with the deaf individual through the signer it is also a lot easier than lip reading as lip reading may not always be understood. The disadvantages of a signer would be that the signer would have to make every hand movement as clear as possible so that the service user understand 100% what they are being told also the signer would have to use a language appropriate to the service user and not use any words they may not understand such a jargon and slang.

Evidence That Rita’s Open University Course

Using the evidence it could be said that Rita’s Open University course has had a broadly positive effect as the knowledge and experiences she has had are turning her into the type of person she wants to be. *Quotes not in chronological order 1. â€Å"Denny found out I was on the pill again; it was my fault, I left my prescription out. He burnt all me books. † Although this can be argued to have a negative effect I think it can be said to be positive as it has shown Rita what Denys is really like and as a result of this they break up so Rita is free to continue to grow and to learn like she wants too. . â€Å"This tutor came up to me†¦ an' he said, â€Å"Are you fond of Ferlinghetti? † It was right on the tip of me tongue, to say, â€Å"Only when it's served with parmesan cheese†, but, Frank, I didn't! † This demonstrates to the audience that Rita has come a long way from the person she once was. The fact that she says Ferlinghetti ; only his su rname shows how she now has some of the same familiarity as Frank does and that she can call poets by the surname only, as she is at that level of education now.The fact that she didn’t need to make a sarcastic jokey comment about the it being a type of pasta shows that she no longer feels like she has to hide her lack of intelligence as she has now reach a level of education where she feels comfortable discussing poets. 3. â€Å"(She goes and perches on the book shelf)†. This shows that after her time at summer school Rita is now comfortable around books and that sort of environment.She does feel awkward around them and feels at home, at home enough to sit on the bookshelf. This its self is an achievement as when she first came to lessons with Frank she only ever walked over to them but never interacted with the book and bookshelf, as she felt she wasn’t at the right level of education and didn’t feel comfortable doing it. 4. â€Å"(She tosses the book on the desk and perches on the bookshelf)†. When Rita â€Å"tosses the book† we as an audience can clearly see how much Rita has changed. hen Rita first went to Frank for lessons she used to sit and methodically empty out her bag and place her belongings on the desk showing a great care for her educationally belongings and her books as if to her knowledge is a really precious thing to her and that she has to treat it with respect and care as it doesn’t really belong to her. However when she â€Å"tosses the book† it shows that Rita no longer things it doesn’t belong to her as she has embraced education now and has a confidence about it as she just nonchalantly tosses the book on the desk as if it’s not important to her as it used to be.Almost as if she’s ‘been there done that’. 5. â€Å"(She takes off her shawl and gives it to Frank who hangs it on the hook by the door)†. The fact that she is wearing a shawl shows h ow much her life has changed. In the eighties when this was set it was seen to be upper class to wear a shawl and here Rita is wearing one and getting a gentlemen to hang it up instead of slinging it over her chair like she used too with her coat. This is all due to her education so has had a positive impact clearly on the way she now dresses. 6. â€Å"†¦ I asked her why. I said. Why are y’ cryin’, Mother? ’ She said, ‘Because – because we could sing better songs than those. † –Rita has begun to look at her life as an out sider now and she wants to change it she wants more from it. This is partly due to her education, partly due to Frank and partly due to her own desires. She is not happy with her life and is now more motivated than ever to change it and to â€Å"Know everything†. She believes that education is her way out and that it can change her life for the better. 7. â€Å"Come on, let’s go an’ have the tutorial down there. The fact that Rita wants to go â€Å"down there† with all the proper university students shows that she no longer thinks she isn’t good enough and that she can actually fit in there and that it is perfectly plausible for her to have her tutorial down there. 8. â€Å"(Rita burst through the door. She is dressed in new second hand clothes)† & â€Å"(She twirls on the spot to show off her new clothes)†. When Rita returns from summer school in London it’s not the old Rita that returns, it is a whole new Rita with a whole new wardrobe.This shows how much education has had an impact on her life and she is far away from the girl she once was which is exactly what Rita wanted. Education has changed her life. She also has a new air of confidence about her and feels she is now on the same level as Frank as she twirls to show her new clothes because he will be interested. However the fact that they are â€Å"new second hand clothes† shows that no matter how hard she tries she will never fully get rid of her past.

Top 5 Tracking Apps for Your 2017 Goals

Top 5 Tracking Apps for Your 2017 Goals If you’re anything like me, you come up with a ton of great resolutions and goals for the new year in a flurry of year-end cheer and optimism, then lose steam somewhere around†¦ February. That’s because all the good intentions in the world can’t necessarily compete with day-to-day distractions and realities. That’s why a good organizational tool is capital-E Essential. There are many different goal-tracking apps and forms you can use to keep you going throughout the year. These free (or low-cost) resources can mean the difference between hitting those goals and re-making them for next year because things didn’t pan out quite the way you intended.1.  AsanaCategory: Web-based productivity toolPrice: free to download and use, with optional in-app purchasesAsana is a project-tracking app that can organize any goal or project into broad tasks, with more granular subtasks. You can make notes on every piece of the project, as well as due dates, and Asana will email you reminders about upcoming milestones. If you have other people involved (as in a work project or a social plan), you can â€Å"assign† various tasks and subtasks to others. Asana is handy for creating specific, manageable goals throughout the year. Also, when you check off a task as â€Å"complete,† you may see a unicorn flashing across the screen to celebrate. How can you go wrong with unicorns?The website (as well as optional mobile apps) is free to use, but premium subscribers can create unlimited projects and receive additional data analysis.2.  GoalsOnTrackCategory: Goal tracking softwarePrice: $68/year membershipGoalsOnTrack is a full-service goal-setting and action plan tool. Whether you’re planning a project in the workplace or managing logistics for a family vacation, GoalsOnTrack offers a system for setting SMART goals to keep things chunked and realistic, creating an action plan that will carry you through the timeline you set, a nd printing out day planner sheets to keep you in the loop on a daily basis.An account costs $68 per year (approximately $5.67 per month), but there is a 30-day risk free trial available.3.  StridesCategory: Mobile appPrice: free to download and use, with optional in-app purchasesYou like dashboards? Strides has dashboards. Lots of dashboards. Strides gives you charts and real-time data on your smartphone or tablet, with reminders to help you form (and stick to!) good habits. Strides is totally flexible- you can track your progress on the go, and have your goal information at your fingertips no matter where you are. It also offers four different types of trackers: Target (specific one-time goal), Average (ongoing periodic goal), Milestones (specific goal with multiple steps), and Habit (ongoing general goal).4.  Coach.MeCategory: Mobile appPrice: free to download and use, with optional premium subscriptions for personal coachingIf encouragement and public accountability are what you need to stay on top of your goals, then Coach.Me might be the right tool for you. The app itself features tracking and goal-setting tools that you can use on your own. Coach.me also has a robust community where users can share goals and offer support and feedback. Both the trackers and the community are free to use when you set up an account. If you’d like to take it to the next level and get expert help on your goals, you can subscribe for varying price points to have regular interactions with a personalized coach.5.  IrunurunCategory: Mobile appPrice: free to download and useIrunurun keeps you accountable to your goals by offering progress meters and giving you points for each bit of progress you make. Ideally, by the time you hit your goal, you’ve got a score of 100. It may not offer you ice cream when you hit a goal, but you get the satisfaction of hitting that triple-digit milestone. The hard numbers can help you focus on particular tasks or habits that wil l ultimately get you to that endpoint.Even if a productivity app isn’t for you, there are plenty of online forms and templates you can print out and keep on your fridge, at your desk, next to your bathroom sink, wherever you want it to go:Goal Setting for SuccessSmart Goals GuideTechnoriGoal Setting BasicsTidy FormsNow that you have your 2017 goals in hand and the tools to organize them, go forth and succeed!

Biography of Pancho Villa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Biography of Pancho Villa - Essay Example Villa was notorious for his short temper and cruelty, particularly towards women.   His Indian heritage gave him a deep knowledge of the land, making him a excellent guerilla fighter. He was drafted into the 14th  Calvary Regiment in 1903. He deserted and joined the revolutionary forces of Francisco Madero in 1910. (Becker). After Madero’s ouster, Villa escaped to the United States in 1912.   By the end of 1914, he returned to Mexico, formed the Division del Norte and joined the revolution against Victoriano Huerta, along with other revolutionaries such as  Venustiano Carranza  and  Emiliano Zapata. He also served as provisional governor of Chihuahua in 1913-1914. Villa was often in conflict with other military groups and even fought with U.S. troops from 1916 to 1917. In 1920, Villa was given a pardon in return for stopping his independent military activities.   (Biography.com). On July 20, 1923, Villa was driving past the intersection of Benito Juà ¡rez and Gabino Barreda in Maturana, when he was assassinated and killed instantly. Villa is remembered for fighting for the causes of the poor and his opposition to foreign exploitation of his country.

Self Esteem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Self Esteem - Essay Example erefore, it plays an important role in motivation, work-related attitudes and behaviors of employees that due to such experience can consider themselves experts in certain area. There is also an organization-based self-esteem, which is related to the extent of employees to be satisfied with one’s job, commitment to the organization and in-role performance. While at workplace self-esteem is associated with the self-efficacy of a specific task, its main principle is that individuals are more likely to do and succeed in those activities for which they have higher self-efficacy than others  (Lunenberg, 2011). People are more successful in accomplishment of those tasks which align with their initial beliefs, thus, self-esteem aims to work as the self-fulfillment. Besides, in such a fast-paced and technologically oriented society, there is a considerable positive impact of self-esteem that enables careerists to compete (Andersen & Vandehey, 2011). As the employee makes a statement that one is the best Java programmer at certain company, that means that an individual possesses specialized expertise that is unknown to that extent to other employees and to the boss. In that case, the self-esteem of all the members of the work culture would perceive the best Java programmer as another unit that has special set of abilities and experiences. Hi gh levels of self-esteem that is needed to all employees create more beneficial economical predispositions for the company, while the defensive reactions of employees of low self-esteem can damage as own careers as negatively impact company’s performance. Underestimating own abilities create professional and personal envy toward others; employees with low self-esteem criticize others as they feel certain threat that come from the new ideas and more contributions of the confident co-worker. On the contrary, those with high self-esteem employees are able to promote honest feedback for workers regarding areas that need improvement and