Interrelationship between Leadership and Organizational Commitment Literature review - 1

Interrelationship between Leadership and Organizational Commitment - Literature review Example Leadership is an ability to persuade any group towards the attainment of goals. In the year 1964, Tannenbaum and others have considered leadership as an influential factor in human relations. Leadership is an attribute guiding a group of people to achieve preset goals through communication. According to Fiedler, leadership can be assumed to be a type of relationship to make the group members work together and achieve common goal. Rauch and Behling in 1984 and Hsieh in the year 1993 considered leadership as a process to influence any group to approach the goals. Since twentieth century, a number of theories and literature had been introduced to prove different standpoints. Four major perspectives had been shown through these theories. Some of the theories are articulated in the later segment (Wu et. al., 2006, p.438- 440). In 1957, Halpin and Winer had introduced two dimensions, initiating consideration and structure. Following the same, a number of studies conducted by Stogdill, Like rt and Kotter also introduced certain behavioral attributes of leadership. In the year 1967, Fiedler has introduced the contingency model of leadership. In the year 1971, House came up with a path-goal theory by extracting details from the research carried out by Ohio State University as well as the expectancy theory of motivation. In the year 1977, Blackchard and Hersey introduced situational leadership theory considering two leadership sides. On the other hand, transformational leaders possess significant personal.

A Case Study of Southwest Airline Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A of Southwest Airline - Case Study Example Southwest Airline has been one of the companies with highest growth rate for the last more than forty years since it was found (Bundgaard, Bejjani & Helmer, 2006). This has been due to its ability to sustain growth and maintain profitability despite the challenges of the aviation industry and has resulted mainly due to increase in the demand of its low price structures and high quality services. According to Keller (2010), it is always the objective of this company to meet the customer demand. Since the customer demand has been increasing, Southwest airline has been forced to increase its number of flights and to even acquire other Airline companies. One recent acquisition is acquiring of Air Tran Holding, which it used to expand its operation (Keller, 2011). According to Drake (1998), Southwest Airline has been experiencing growth on annual bases since it was found. The airline started with three aircraft operating in three planes only. Since then, the airline has grown to the capacity of operating more than 400 planes throughout the United States. This growth has been because of the increase in demand that has resulted to Southwest airline increasing number of flights in each of the airport hubs. This has led to presence of more aircrafts and more schedule flights in all the airport hubs selected by Southwest Airline. Another cause of this congestion is increase in competition in the aviation industry and emergence of new companies. In the recent years, there has been emergence of other low cost companies in the airport hubs selected by Southwest Airline.

Human Resource Management at China Telecom

Human Resource Management at China Telecom 1. Introduction 1.1 Introduction to High-Performance Work System High performance work system is to achieve organization’s goals by fully using organization’s resources. It supports the right combination of technology, people and organization structure (Noe, 2014). Reasonable arranging human resource management practices is one of the mainly elements of creating the high performance work system. Three major practices include recruiting, selection and training and development. 1.2 Introduction of China telecom China Telecom Corporation Limited was established in 2002. The main business is focus on the service areas. At the end of 2003, it owns six affiliated companies that ware acquired by about RMB 46 million. Then it acquired 10 and 3 telecom companies, respectively, in 2004 and 2007. During this period, it provides voice service, data service and mobile service. In 2009, the company obtains a license about 3G mobile and provides this service in April of the same year. In 2013, the company obtains licenses to operate the 4G digital cellular mobile service. 2. Recruiting Account Executive 2.1 Three Parts of Recruiting In the first pact is called personnel policy provides the standards of implementing human resource management. Government provides now labor laws in 1995 and it impacts personnel policy about recruitment (Dickie). The main personnel policy in China telecom Company is internal and external recruiting. It helps the company to decide vacancy characteristics about account executive. Internal recruiting focuses on employees who work in the company. It chooses the qualify employees by analyzing and assessing the performance of junior employees. When the company never chooses reasonable candidates inside the company, external recruiting is a right policy. Enough potential employees outside the company are chosen. Then the company determines right recruitment sources before analyzing the applicant characteristics. Two main sources are job posting and electronic recruiting. According to job posting, the company put recruitment information about account executive on corporate intranets, such as the time of recruiting. It only focuses on the internal staffs in the company. Furthermore, the company recruits new employment by electronic recruiting, such as online recruitment. The company put the network advertisement on the website commonly used, such as Sohu.com, Sina.com.cn and other website. It focuses on people in the global level. At last, the company chooses three or four recruiters with professional knowledge and skills. They have more than 5-year work experience in relevant areas. When they recruit the candidates, they pay attention to the candidate’s skills and knowledge. At the same time, they give some information about account executive. Then they provide some positive information about account executive to attract the candidate to apply for the job. For example, as an account executive, the salary is about RMB 2000 per month. The company helps employees to pay parts of insurance and the company records the significant information and feedback timely (Noe, 2014). 2.2 The Impact of Recruiting Using internal recruiting increases the employees’ satisfaction and reduces employee turnover (Croteau, 2014). It is cheaper than recruiting outside the company. According to external recruiting, the company solves the problems about staff shortage. The company recruits the professional with plentiful experience. It increase work efficiency. On the other hand, job posting give qualified employees who work in the company opportunities to apply to become account executives. It spends less time and costs than then other sources. Using electronic recruitment attracts many candidates from any regional or countries. It expends the scope of recruitment and offers more choice about account executive (Nell, 2010). Furthermore, the traits and behaviors of recruiter impact the result of recruiting employees. Some recruiters pay attention to the theoretical basis, but other may pay attention to the practical ability, such as enough work experience. Reasonable recruiting increases the quality of employees. It improves work performance indirectly. 3. Selection – Account Executive 3.1 The Five Stages of Selection There are five steps in the process of selecting account executive in the follow (Noe, 2014). The company follows this process to pick up their qualified candidates. At the beginning of selection, the company needs to analyze application forms of candidates. With job application form, the candidates provide their full name, address, telephone. If the candidates work before in other company, they need to provide company’s name, the year of work, name of employer, position held and reason for leaving. Then educational background is necessary for candidates to writes. They only write the information about high school, college and above. Also, they must provide graduation certificates. If they have some award-winning experience in the study period, they can copy the certificates and put them after the application forms, such as IELTS certificates in two years, Interpretation certificates and other certificates. At last, it provides three or four references’ name, such as th eir superiors’ name and their colleague’s name (Noe, 2014). After analyzing job resumes, the company provides written tests and answering phone call. The written tests provide 100 questions about related laws, management and the company. For example, how to respond the customer complaint? How account executives increase the employees’ satisfaction? How to deal with the conflict between employees? The other tests called answering phone call. The company gives a situation and candidates need to give the reasonable measures. For example, if a customer said the company spends a long time to deal with problem and the customer was anger, how the account executive answer the customer by phone call. After the candidates finish the text, they wait for the company’s notice. Then structured interview is used to examine the candidates’ organizing ability and communicative competence. At first, the company provides a total why do you agree team work or not. Then the candidates divide into two groups A and B. A group agrees and B apposed to this view. The company gives them one hour to debate each other. During this period, everyone in two groups must engage in the debate. They must give some reasonable evidences to support their view. After the debate, the company gives the final score by score of team and person. The score of team is focus on the task assignment and achievement. It reflects the organizing ability. Then the company gives the score of everyone based on the condition of debate. For example, the candidate provides enough reasonable evidences or not. The expression is clarity and smoothly or not. These two points are the mainly individual scoring criteria. After determining the qualified candidates, the company must to check background information about candidates. This process spends about two or four weeks to know information about candidates from person references provided. If the person points out the candidates has some negative behavior, such as using violence in the workplace (Noe, 2014). The candidate is never recruited. At the same time, the company makes sure the truth of the information on the applicant forms by checking. If the information on the applicant forms is truth and the candidates have never bad action like criminal behavior, the candidates are qualified. At last, the company determines the final qualified candidates who will work in the company. During the process of selection, it is based on multiple-hurdle model. The company deletes the unqualified candidates in each step. For example, the company chooses the candidates with high scores on the process of interview and test (Noe, 2014). 3.2 The Impact of Reasonable Selection In order to increase competitive advantage and work performance, the company must select the high quality employees. The process of reasonable selection helps the company to select the employees who are best for accounts executives. These employees the company selected have enough skills to complete tasks. It increases the efficiency and quality of completing tasks. It provides contribution to create the high-performance system indirectly. 4. Training and Development – Account Executive 4.1 The Process of Training Learning management system (LMS) helps the company to improve the efficiency of training process. The company use LMS to identify need, make plans and analyze the training outcomes (Noe, 2014). At first, the company needs to conduct needs assessment. The company belongs to the service industries. It wants to provides high quality service and expand its market. The company needs to know which employees with lack of knowledge and poor work experience. Then the company arranges training class for them. The tasks of training help employees to learn how to record the information through computer and know how to deal with the relationship between customers and the company. Before training, the company needs to do some preparation work. At first, the company makes sure employees have basic cognitive ability, such as reading and writing skills, speaking with English clearly, using basic computer technology and the ability to deal with problem in the job. Also, it is necessary for the company to provide a positive work environment. The company prepares enough training material and gives employees one or three months to practice and training. At the some time, the company gives employees praise and encourage in order to high efficiency and quality of training (Noe, 2014). Then the company needs to plan the reasonable program of training. The company arranges the training class from employees who want to training. It shows employees with high performance are chosen at first. Training is to increase employees’ work skills. Complete this objective, the company two training method, such as computer-based training and on-the-job training. During the computer-based training, the company gives trainees one month. It takes less time and money to learn online. It is convenience of trainees who lives far from the company. On-the-job training shows the company gives trainees one month to practice with a mentor. If trainees have some problems, they can ask the mentor for help. Training program implements based on the mainly five principles of learning. The first point is that skills employees learned in training are work-related. These skills can help them finish the work better. It helps trainees to know how to implement o their job and gather experience in the working. Then the company gives trainees some opportunities to understand what they learned clearly by the internship. Also, it is easy for trainees to remember and understand the content by implementing high quality training planning. At last, the materials the company provided must be clear and easy to reading The last step is to evaluate the result of training. The company provides the training relate to their current job, they need to analyze the skills that are used in job or not. If these skills trainees learned increase the quality and efficiency of completing their job, it shows the training has a great success. If not, company need to analyze the shortcoming of training and adjust. 4.2 The Process of Development The company usually uses career management system to plan the development programs for staff. According the analysis of the weaknesses and strengths, the company needs to evaluate whether the employee has an opportunity to become an account manager. Next, the company use performance appraisals to analyze the success factors of high performance. If the company provides the opportunities of promotion, the company plans a long-term program about employee development. Also, the company points out employees are becoming an account manager within the next four years. The employees need to use communicate competence to deal with the conflict between company and customers. They must maintain the company’s image. At last, the employees plan for an account manager. They increase the management capacity, organizational capabilities and the ability to deal with the problem. They determine to reach the goals in two or three years. 4.3 The Impact of Training and Development Training and Development encourage employees to complete the work better and faster by increasing job satisfaction (Dennis). The employee turnover reduces. The company helps employees to arrange and manage their time. Next, employees learn much knowledge and skills about the job clearly. Training and development help them to know detail information about the job. Furthermore it helps employees to add value in the company. 5. Conclusion Recruiting in the company attracts many patient talents. It expends the selection of talents who are suitable for account executive. According to selection, the company knows detail information about employees such as behavior, skills and ability. Then the company arranges the employees by training and development. These three practices maintain the normal operating of the company in the next five years.

Surplus :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Due to outstanding economic times we now face a federal budget surplus. This surplus is the first one since the mid sixties. Before now we have been in a federal deficit. Because our good situation we are face with a tough decision; what do we do with the extra money. Some people think we should put the money in government programs others think we should give it back to the people who gave the government the money. Giving the money back to the taxpayers appears to be the most logical thing to do with the surpluses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The government has a moral obligation to give the money back to the taxpayers. The government does not have anything to spend the money on now. Just because we have the money doesn’t mean we have to spend it. We do not need to search for programs to spend our money on. Therefore we must give back the money while we still have it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tax rates are at an all-time peacetime high. When President Clinton took office, federal Taxes consumed 17.8 cents out of every dollar earned in the United States. Now the federal Government’s take is 20.6 cents out of every dollar. (USA Today) Budget projections indicate that over the next ten years, the federal government will have huge budget surpluses totaling about $3 trillion. If we have a surplus at a high tax rate, why can’t the government take what it needs and lower the tax rate? We need to lower taxes to a rate where the government does not take more than it needs. An example of how these types of practices are unheard of anywhere else is as followed; If I were to go to a bank and ask for a car loan of $10,000 and the car only costs $8,000 the bank would demand that I lower the loan amount to $8,000. Then I might say, â€Å"I can find other things to spend the $2,000 on†. The loan officer would laugh and say, â€Å"I’m sure you could but I can’t give you more that you need.† The people who oppose cutting taxes clearly believe that the money generated by federal taxes actually belongs to the federal government. Many of us who want the government to give the money back to the people believe that the money belongs to the people who paid the taxes and if they are paying more than we need to run the government, we should give it back.

Understand How to Safeguard the Well Being of Children and Young People

Question 1: Why is it important to safeguard children and young people? Without providing the service of safeguarding for children and young people who are not developed enough to do it for themselves, their future could be negatively affected. If they were to be affected by an event such as abuse, and there is no safeguarding in place, this could carry on and seriously affect their physical and emotional development. This could mean they fall behind with developmental milestones. Children need to be provided with a safe and happy environment to grow up in so they are happy to develop at a normal rate and sequence. This will help them achieve their full potential, through into adulthood. Question 2: Explain why a person-centred approach is important in safeguarding the well-being of children or young people. It is important to centre the safeguarding approach around the child or young person, as their wishes and concerns need to be taken into account to achieve the best possible outcome for them. It is important to have a good relationship with the child so the child will feel comfortable disclosing information and conveying their feelings and points of views. Having this will mean the organisation can respond in the most accurate and appropriate way. The child can then be involved in any future decisions. The organisation and carers should be there to support and explain everything to the child to try to comfort them so the situation is not so daunting and the child can explain clearly what they want for their future.

Alka-Seltzer Reaction Rates Lab

Alka-Seltzer Reaction Rates Lab What are the different factors the effect the reaction rate of Alka-Seltzer? Matthew Arkfeld Leah Gilligan Jessie Abbott Period 4 June 2nd, 2008 Background Research: o The objective of the experiment was to determine if different factors affect the reaction rate of Alka-Seltzer. Alka-Seltzer provides fast relief to acid indigestion, upset stomach, heartburn, headaches, body aches and pains. It is an antacid and pain relief medicine used by millions of consumer’s everyday. It is sold at local pharmacies over the counter and supermarkets worldwide. The original Alka-Seltzer was invented in 1931, the active ingredients are: 325 mg of Aspirin, 1000mg of Citric Acid and 1916mg of Sodium Bicarbonate, designed to treat pain and simultaneously neutralize excess stomach acid. It is provided in the form of large effervescent tablets, which are dissolved in a glass of water. As the tablets dissolve, the base (bicarbonate) and the acid (citric acid) react v igorously producing carbon dioxide gas, which also produces enough agitation to allow the active ingredients to dissolve slowly. In our lab, our objective was to test if water at different temperatures, salt, and vinegar, would affect the reaction rate of Alka Seltzer tablets. However we thought, that the size of the tablet would not matter. Therefore, we decided to test Alka Seltzer broken into fragment and completely ground up as well as the normal tablet. Hypothesis and Variables: o Hypothesis: We believe that hot water, and vinegar will affect the rate of the reaction, however, the size of the tablet does not matter. Independent Variables: temperature of water (ice, room, hot), Size of tablet (whole, pieces, powdered), Solution it is in (tap, vinegar, salt water). o Dependent Variable: The rate of reaction of Alka-Seltzer. Materials: o 3-quart size jars, 3 Alka-seltzer tablets, ice water, room temperature water, hot water, stopwatch, thermometer, vinegar, salt, tablespoon. Proce dure: 1. Fill one of the jars a third of the way with ice. Put tap water in it until it is half way full. Let it come to a stable temperature. 2. Fill the second jar half way filled with room temperature water. . Fill the third jar half way with hot tap water (run tap on hot for one minute). 4. Use the thermometer to record temperature for the three waters. Record in table. 5. Put an Alka-Seltzer tablet in each jar and use a stopwatch to record how many seconds it takes to dissolve. Do not stir or mix the tablet! Record all results. 6. Put all the liquids down the drain and rinse out jars throughouly with water. 7. Fill the jars half way with room temperature water. 8. In the first jar, place a whole Alka seltzer tablet. Record the time it takes for it to completely dissolve. 9. Repeat step 9 with the Alka seltzer broken into 8-10 pieces. Record the time it takes to dissolve. 10. Repeat step 9 with the Alka-Seltzer tablet completely crushed into powder. (Crush between two pieces of paper with a hammer) Record the time it takes for it to completely dissolve. 11. Rinse all jars completely and throughout again. 12. Fill one jar half the way with room temperature water. Fill another jar one half full with vinegar. Finally fill the last jar half way with salt water. (2 tablespoons, room temperature). 13. Pour an Alka-Seltzer tablet in each jar and record time it takes to completely dissolve. 4. Observe your results. Observations and Data: | |Water Temperature |Time to Dissolve | |Ice Water |1 degree f |155 seconds | |Room Temperature |74 degrees f |47 seconds | |Hot Water |110 degrees f |24 seconds | |Time to Dissolve | |Whole Alka-Seltzer |45 seconds | |Broken into Pieces |40 seconds | |Powdered |11 seconds | |Time to Dissolve | |Tap Water |46 seconds | |Vine gar |68 seconds | |Salt Water |77 seconds | Data Analysis: o We observed that a whole piece takes more time to dissolve in water than an Alka Seltzer completely ground up. As well as, temperature changes the speed of the reaction in the dissolving process. Finally, vinegar, and salt, slow down the reaction time between the tablet and water. Conclusion: o We discovered that it is best to take Alka seltzer with hot water in order to dissolve the tablet the quickest. As temperature decreases, the amount of time that th reaction takes increases. As well as, adding other components such as salt and vinegar slow down rather than speed up the reaction. Therefore that rection is best in water at a high temperature. o Our hypothesis was wrong in that, seltzer-seltzer in different shapes affcts the reaction rather than not causing any difference in it. Sources of Error: Temperature could have been off, thermometer was broken, and tap water at room temperature was affected by air conditioning. Application: o Through this experiment we have learned that temperature affects the reaction rate of Alka-Seltzer tablets. As well as, size and solution dissolved in, can either speed up or slow down the reaction. For fastest results, Alka-Seltzer should be broken up into powered pieces and be taken with hot water.

Grimm Brothers essays

Grimm Brothers essays The brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm are absolutely a pair that has shaken the world and thus this dynamic partnership rightfully belongs among the one thousand most influential people of these last one thousand years. Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm were simply two close brothers growing up in a small town called Hanau within the country of Germany. Little did they know that they were to change the way society views science and politics, morals and language, and literature and life. Their tireless work would forever leave its mark on the world. Jakob Grimm was born on January 4, 1785. His brother Wilhelm was born a short year later on February 24, 1786. They grew up with 9 brothers and sisters. Three of the nine children died young. This left Jakob as the oldest with Wilhelm the second oldest. Their father, Phillip Grimm, a lawyer and court official, died in 1796. This caused his family to move back to their mothers hometown. At the ages of thirteen and fourteen the brothers lived with their aunt as they attended school in Kassel. By 1803 Jakob and Wilhelm were both studying law at the University of Marsburg and in 1806 they had begun to compile folktales out of a sense of patriotism, personal interest, and as a favor for a friend. Life was fine until 1808, the year their mother Dorothea Grimm died. This forced the responsible brothers to take up jobs at their alma mater, Kassel, so they could support their younger siblings. At Kassel, Jakob and Wilhelm worked as librarians. In 1812 their first edition of Childrens and Household Tales was published. This was the result of years of recording and editing German folklore taken from storytellers. In 1819 the brothers Grimm, now established scholars, received their doctorates from the University of Marsburg. In 1825 Wilhelm married Henriette Wild and by 1830 both Grimm brothers had resigned from their positions at Kassel and had become professors at the University of Gtt...

Coal Seam Gas Case

Coal Seam Gas Case Introduction This paper is aimed at discussing the case of coal seam gas (CSG). This gas is a critical source of energy for many countries, including Australia. Nevertheless, its extraction is associated with several environmental risks such as water and soil pollution.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Coal Seam Gas Case specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Overall, this issue is of great concern to policy-makers who need to reconcile two important values, namely the economic development of the country and the need to protect the natural environment of the country. This is why this case has been selected among others. In particular, it is necessary to discuss the connection between the protection of natural environment and different ethical theories. One of the main tasks is to show how these ethical frameworks can be applied to this particular situation. Overall, this analysis can be a useful tool for policy-makers. One should mention that environment is critical for people living in Australia because this aspect is closely related to the quality of life in this country as well as its economy. Background It should be noted that the pollution of water and soil becomes a critical concern for Australian policy-makers as the country grows economically and demographically (Thompson Maginn, 2012, p. 174). They lay stress on the need to control the actions of organizations who are responsible for pollution. For example, much attention is paid to the work of the extraction industry. In turn, the extraction of coal seam gas in Australia began in 1996 (Manning, 1996, p. 23).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Since that time, there have been numerous campaigns against this activity. In particular, the production of coal seam gas can lead to the pollution of existing aquifers (Prosser, 2011, p . 23). This issue is particularly relevant if one speaks about the threats to famous Pilliga forest. Moreover, the water, which was contaminated in this way, can significantly damage the quality of soil. These are some of the main aspects that should be considered. It is possible to apply different ethical theories in order to analyze this case. For example, one can speak about deontological ethics, according to which the morality of an action is mostly based on its adherence to the principles and rules established in the community (Bredeson, 2011, p. 7)). Provided that a person violates these rules, his behavior is considered immoral, even if leads to good outcomes. In turn, it is important to speak about utilitarian ethics according to which the consequences of an action is the major criterion according to which the morality should be assessed (Bredeson, 2011, p. 7). Utilitarianism and deontological ethics can be viewed as the two most influential approaches to decision-making. Mo reover, they provide different tools for the assessment of the choices that people can take. This is why they have been chosen. Finally, one should consider the stakeholder theory which is useful for analyzing the duties of an organization. According to this model, businesses or public organizations should consider the impacts that it produces on the community in general (Weiss, 2008, p. 118). This framework is helpful for evaluating the activities of organizations. Reference List Bredeson, D. (2011). Applied Business Ethics: A Skills-Based Approach. New York,  NY: Cengage Learning.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Coal Seam Gas Case specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Manning, P. (2013). What the Frack? Everything you need to know about coal seam  gas. Melbourne, Australia: NewSouth. Prosser, I. (2011). Water: Science and Solutions for Australia. Melbourne: CSIRO Thompson, S., Maginn, P. (2012). Planning Australia : An Overview of Urban and  Regional Planning. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Weiss, J. (2008). Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management  Approach. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.

15 Facts about Recycling

15 Facts about Recycling The important facts about recycling are immense. What is the use of filling landfills with trash from valuable materials we have used only once? The best thing to do would be take the material for recycling and utilize all the resources and energy previously used in manufacturing the product. Materials collected for recycling had been processed and refined in the past, hence the process of manufacturing again is much cleaner and energy saving than the initial one. Here are some of the facts about recycling: 1. Recycling aluminum cans saves energy There is enough energy saved from recycling an aluminum drink can that is sufficient for running a television for 2hrs, a computer for 3hrs and a bulb (100watts) for 20hrs. You can save 37 barrels of oils by recycling a ton of aluminum. It is possible to power a home for a whole day with the energy saved from recycling 125 aluminum cans. The energy it takes to manufacture one aluminum can from raw bauxite ore can produce 20 aluminum cans from recycling. Aluminum can be recycled limitlessly. 2. Steel Recycling saves enough energy to power a city Energy amounting to 3.6 barrels of oil is saved when one ton of steel is recycled. Manufacturing new steel requires 1.49 tons of iron ore. The total energy saved from recycling steel annually can power a whole city like Los Angeles for a decade. 3. Do not throw used car batteries Recycling battery acid can produce sodium sulfate which can be utilized in the manufacture of textile, glass and washing detergent. 4. Eco-Friendly Coffins When we burry coffins, we pollute the ground with hard wood laminated with toxic materials, tons of steel and copper. Recently, there has been a push for eco-friendly coffins made completely from recycled paper. 5. The Most recycled material in ancient times was bones Prior to the 20th Century bones were the most recycled material. From bones they made button and gelatin that was important for producing glue, paper and utilized in photography and food processing. 6. Paper recycling reduces pollution Recycling paper uses half the amount of water required to make paper from virgin pulp and minimizes air pollution by over 70%. Almost 250lbs of Carbon dioxide can be absorbed from the air by 17 trees on the other hand 15,000lbs of carbon dioxide is released when you burn a ton of paper. 7. Save energy recycle paper Manufacturing recycled paper uses 40% less the amount of energy needed to make paper from trees. The energy saved from recycling a ton of paper is the same as 165 gallons of gasoline or 4100KW hours of electricity that can run a home in the US for 5 months. 8. Recycling paper saves trees When one ton of paper is recycled 17 trees are saved and the land fill space is increased by 3 cubic yards. If 10% of the newsprint bought by everyone in America would be recycled a total of 25 million trees would be saved. The American paper mills consume over 900milliom trees as raw materials. 9. Too much E-waste Annually, the amount of electronic waste produced in the world is over 50 million tons. To get the real picture, you can line up garbage trucks across half the World full of the e-waste. 10. Much of the e-waste lands in China China takes more than 70% of the e-waste for recycling in local workshops. The recycling techniques they use produces toxic materials that are pose both environmental and health risks. 11. Plastics choke up landfills Each day there are over 60 million plastic bottles that wind up in landfills. It takes between 100 to 400 years for plastic to biodegrade. There is enough plastic produced annually in the US to wrap up the state of Texas. 12. Recycling plastic saves energy Manufacturing plastic from raw materials uses over 40% more energy than you would use for recycling plastic. Plastic packaging packing is cheaper to produce than paper bags and saves enough energy to run over a million city homes for a period of 3 years. About 2000 gallons of gas is saved from recycling one ton of plastic. 13. Recycling Food The amount of food waste generated annually is close to 22 million tons. Through waste food composting, we can reduce the carbon footprint equal to removing 2 million cars from the road. 14. Recycling glass over and over Recycling glass reduces the amount of waste in landfills by over 180,000 tons. Glass is one of the most recycled materials with over 80 % recycled into fresh containers. 15. Plastic recycling protects Marine life Over a million sea creatures die annually from swallowing plastic bags. The above facts about recycling could not emphasize its importance enough. We hope you found them invaluable.

Research report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Research report - Essay Example Prior to the split up, the entire central Asian region fell under administration of Moscow. Moscow’s administration had structured mechanisms meant to ensure equitable distribution of water and energy resources within the region (Murodbek 261). However, independence from Soviet Union ushered in unprecedented challenges to the nations under consideration. Main rivers supplying domestic and agricultural water to the five nations originate from mountain ranges within Tajikistan and the neighboring Kyrgyzstan, and then flows downstream through the other remaining three nations and finally drains into Aral Sea. From a rational perspective, the two nations within the upstream region should ensure undisrupted flow of water to nations lying on the downstream region. On the other hand, downstream nations are rich in oil and gas energy sources. This means that they will return the undisrupted water supply favor by pumping oil and gas to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (Murodbek 261). This pla n worked efficiently under the Soviet Union administration before secession of Central Asian sovereign territories. Despite the fact that this resource sharing strategy sounds simple and logical, current state of affairs between the nations involved does not conform to this strategy. Consequently, lack of conformance to equitable sharing of resources has led to technical hitches within economic, social and political relationships between nations in the entire region. As an illustrative example, generation of hydro-electric power by nations in the upstream region like Tajikistan as met vehement disapproval from downstream counterparts (Murodbek 263). At this juncture, this essay will develop a comprehensive analysis on causes and effects of the water-energy crisis. In addition, an extrapolation of the theme will examine existence of similar problems in other nations around the globe. Nations lying within the upstream section of Central Asia, especially Tajikistan engages in intensive agricultural activities as their main economic activities. In the recent past, necessity to expand the nation’s economic sector led to expansion of agriculture through irrigation. As a result, Tajikistan diverted large volumes of water from the two main rivers serving the region into the irrigated tracks of land. This increased supply of water to farms was not going to be seasonal. The huge tracks of land lie within an arid and semi-desert regions of the nation. This means that irrigation requires sustained amount of water supply to meet agricultural production demands. In this case, extensive irrigation of cotton and wheat farms remained as the central economic activity in the lower part of Tajikistan (Murodbek 263). In addition, other nations including Kazakhstan tapped river water in the middle of flowing channels conveyed them directly to their farms. In this regard, every nation tried to expand its agricultural sector by utilizing the only available water from the two m ain river channels. Consequently, this caused a pronounced shortage of total water flowing down stream. This means that economic and social activities of people living within the affected nations would experience difficulties (Murodbek 265). At this juncture, expansion of irrigation fed agriculture featured as one of the main cause in the water-energy crisis in Central Asian region. Apart from irrigation, energy generation through hydro-electricity played a significant role in causing the water-energy

To what extent can one seperate the personal from the social in Essay

To what extent can one seperate the personal from the social in discussing the 'anger' of Jimmy Porter in the play Look Back in Anger - Essay Example Therefore, the anger of Jimmy in the play is both personal and social and the reader can very well experience the mental struggles and hardships that Jimmy undergoes in his day to day life. In fact, Jimmy raises his voice against all sorts of established and conventional social, gender, class and sexual relations; however, he does not point out any solutions and goes on complaining about each and everything he comes across. As Saugata Mukherjee points out, â€Å"The young, educated English youth, portrayed in Look Back in Anger, is a confused soul and the post-war changeover in the character of international politics raises doubts to which he finds no answers† (Mukherjee, 2006, p. 130) Jimmy feels that he is living in a dreary world where â€Å"there aren’t any good, brave causes left† (Osborne, p. 89). He tries to escape himself in to the animal world and the Bear and Squirrel game in the play is such an attempt of escape from the real world. However, the couples understand the inability of the ‘furry animals’ to bring about any positive changes and Alison rightly confesses that the Bear and Squirrel game is nothing but â€Å"a silly symphony for people who couldn’t bear the pain of human beings any longer† (Osborne, p. 46). However Jimmy does not want to live a life of inaction. He is fed up with the routine life that he leads. Sundays are so depressing for Jimmy as he can no longer cope up with the same ritual of â€Å"reading the paper, drinking tea, ironing† (Osborne, p. 8). Thus, for him life is a replica of the same routine and this adds to his dissatisfaction with the new age. He despises the life of inaction that Cliff and Alison lead and cries out: â€Å"Nobody thinks, nobody cares. No beliefs, no convictions and no enthusiasm† (Osborne, p. 10). He refers to the Edwardian world of Colonel Redfern as a symbol of the bygone era and the colonel’s world provides him inspiration to aspire for changes. Similarly, he retreats to Jazz

Examine some aspect of Plato's theory of the tripartite soul from Essay

Examine some aspect of Plato's theory of the tripartite soul from Plato's Republic - Essay Example The main objective of this study is to exhaustively tackle this paramount issue by proposing three views: first of all, Plato’s account of the soul would not have committed him to the view that within each part of the soul there are sub-divisions; secondly, the harmony and unity of the soul cannot be achieved by conversation and violence, but only through education. Lastly, by exploring Plato’s education program in The Republic, it is clearly evident that education is the fundamental means of bringing the three parts into harmony and thus makes them one rather than many (8). In the Republic, Plato strongly proposes that the human psyche is divided into three parts mainly appetite, spirit and reason. Through the use of the tripartite soul theory, Plato effectively gives an account on how man can be virtuous. A man who is virtuous is one whose three parts of his soul participate in their appropriate and efficient roles and they are in harmony with each other. It is clear that the paramount concept of order is not only fundamental to the just state but also to the just man. In Plato’s view, the just man cannot be acknowledged without referring to his harmonious and orderly soul. Therefore, the human virtue is dependent on how these psychological elements which are three can harmoniously interact with each other (17). The Tripartite Soul In order to elaborate that people perform each of the three functions with different parts of their soul, Socrates puts forward a principle that â€Å"one and the same thing cannot act or be affected in opposite ways at the same time in the same part of it and in relation to the same object†. This principle is referred to by scholars the Principle of Conflict or Principle of Opposites. In accordance to this principle, it is impossible for something to be at rest and in motion at the same time and in the same part of it. Plato deals with two probable objections to this principle to remove any ambiguities in using it. One is that it is wrong to say that a man, who is standing still and moving his hands, is at rest and in motion simultaneously. Rather, the statement should be that part of the man is standing still and another part of him is moving. The other one is that a spinning top whose circumference is in motion, but whose axis is at rest is moving in one respect but not in another. Plato at this juncture thinks that this noble principle is valid and thus goes on to use it in order to exhibit that there are three parts in the soul (22). Plato states that dissent and assent, aversion and impulse to something are opposite states or actions. Thus, thirst, hunger and appetite desires can be classified as impulses to drink and food. Consequently, man is sometimes unwilling to eat or drink yet he is hungry or thirsty. Thus, according to the Principle of Opposites, there is an element which is different from the one that drives people to crave for food or drink, preventing people from c raving it. The element preventing people from giving way to various unhealthy cravings is reason (39). Additionally to the function of prevention, characterization of reason by Plato is through numerous different ways. Reason is said to be the calculative or reflective element. It is also

Content Analysis of the text Conflict using Boundry Crossing Essay

Content Analysis of the text Conflict using Boundry Crossing Techniques - Essay Example Eventually conflict is a product of miscommunication or misunderstanding. During discourses, conflict arises whenever parties or people tend to insist their own ideas that do not fit to the others. The result is for the others to respond negatively to particular claims, hence bringing them into a complex conflict situation. It is a chaotic incidence when during conflict situation all those who are involved in the conflict situation shout to each other insisting their needs, ideas or belief. How language is being conceptualized in during these heated conversations? Most of the conflicts that happened are caused by the gravity of words being thrown by a particular person or group against the other. Words are powerful element that can make someone’s temper rise to the extent of conflicts that can not be resolved. Even in marital conflicts, mostly it is the words from both parties that make relationships wrecked. A woman could be nagging to man. In response, man will shout to the woman blaming her for a lot of things. The woman will also blame the man for all of his short comings. Out of that situation, language is conceptualized. Conflict started because of assigning blame to each other manifested in harsh words (Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen, 1999). It is driven by emotions, and such things make conflict worse. However, conflict could be made lighter, once husband and wife talk about the problems, wherein conflict is managed and resolved (Robinson, J., 1997). Conflict could be measured on varying levels. This is to give us an idea how it can be measured and the corresponding effects. The more people is involved in the conflict, the more people is affected, then the higher the level it is. Forms of conflict may be interpersonal, group, and organizational conflict (Dewine, S., Gibson, Melissa, K., and Smith, Matthew J., 1999). The effect of conflict would be

Contrast the development of the themes of justice and inequality in Research Paper

Contrast the development of the themes of justice and inequality in Langston Hughes poems the freedom train, Merry-Go-Round - Research Paper Example Hughes managed to go through the odds by working as nightclub door attendant and superintendent whereas he travelled to places such as West Africa, Italy, and Paris and it is from most of his work that he experienced heights of inequality and discriminations for being black among whites.   During this time, he developed poems that enabled him to receive a scholarship to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (Hughes and Susan 20).   In this work, the rhythmic, lyrical nature of his poetry is obvious as is his conviction that only by continuing with his African lineage could African Americans finds appreciation (Anthony and Stephanie 25); however, in most cases black or African Americans were subjected to great discrimination. His emergence occurred around the same time which is being referred to Harlem Renaissance lately. The Harlem Renaissance period was characterised by deep questioning of African American racial orientation and identity (Hughes and Susan 18). This was also combine d with the effect of slavery and racism on the generations that followed. Hughes is one of the most successful poets of the period. His success is not determined by the way he struggled to attain success but by the way, he represented the issues of the African Americans that he ever felt was being undermined and regarded as dogs especially when they were formed by their white counterparts to undertake certain chores (Anthony and Stephanie 25). For instance, in his poem Madam and Her Madam, he ironically accepted the claims of love from his madam, â€Å"I said, Madam, That may be true-- But I'll be dogged† (Madam and Her Madam22). It is notable that people liked him for his contributions in the field of equality and social justices. The way he wrote the two people attempted to question the racism and the effect of such writing on African Americans. He also questioned the hypocrisy of the correctly elected persons. He noted that while these democratically elected people enjoyed service delivery, he suggests that their focus was on the whites (Hughes and Susan 21). This was a clear an attack on the leadership so that the African Americans could also benefit from their participation in the electoral process by having the leaders put in place plans that escalate their inclusion (Hughes and Susan 20). It is notable that he served as the voice of hope and impartiality for the African Americans who lived in a highly racially segregated society. In this society, the African Americans routinely suffered from all manner of discrimination, bias, and utter violence. It was indeed very unfortunate that white Americans even considered and took the African Americans as their slaves. His artworks reminded people of the kind of life, which they really deserved yet they could not receive because the white men were in charge. He made the clarion call using the â€Å"free† where all are â€Å"equal† which he argued excluded African Americans (Hughes and Susan 18). The clarion call resonated so well with other emerging African American opinion shapers who conformed and resolved that Black Americans must have their space and enjoy the life provisions with liberty. The people were charged to ask about the rational for perpetuating inequality against fellow Americans because they had a different color. He argued that the

Examine some aspect of Plato's theory of the tripartite soul from Essay

Examine some aspect of Plato's theory of the tripartite soul from Plato's Republic - Essay Example The main objective of this study is to exhaustively tackle this paramount issue by proposing three views: first of all, Plato’s account of the soul would not have committed him to the view that within each part of the soul there are sub-divisions; secondly, the harmony and unity of the soul cannot be achieved by conversation and violence, but only through education. Lastly, by exploring Plato’s education program in The Republic, it is clearly evident that education is the fundamental means of bringing the three parts into harmony and thus makes them one rather than many (8). In the Republic, Plato strongly proposes that the human psyche is divided into three parts mainly appetite, spirit and reason. Through the use of the tripartite soul theory, Plato effectively gives an account on how man can be virtuous. A man who is virtuous is one whose three parts of his soul participate in their appropriate and efficient roles and they are in harmony with each other. It is clear that the paramount concept of order is not only fundamental to the just state but also to the just man. In Plato’s view, the just man cannot be acknowledged without referring to his harmonious and orderly soul. Therefore, the human virtue is dependent on how these psychological elements which are three can harmoniously interact with each other (17). The Tripartite Soul In order to elaborate that people perform each of the three functions with different parts of their soul, Socrates puts forward a principle that â€Å"one and the same thing cannot act or be affected in opposite ways at the same time in the same part of it and in relation to the same object†. This principle is referred to by scholars the Principle of Conflict or Principle of Opposites. In accordance to this principle, it is impossible for something to be at rest and in motion at the same time and in the same part of it. Plato deals with two probable objections to this principle to remove any ambiguities in using it. One is that it is wrong to say that a man, who is standing still and moving his hands, is at rest and in motion simultaneously. Rather, the statement should be that part of the man is standing still and another part of him is moving. The other one is that a spinning top whose circumference is in motion, but whose axis is at rest is moving in one respect but not in another. Plato at this juncture thinks that this noble principle is valid and thus goes on to use it in order to exhibit that there are three parts in the soul (22). Plato states that dissent and assent, aversion and impulse to something are opposite states or actions. Thus, thirst, hunger and appetite desires can be classified as impulses to drink and food. Consequently, man is sometimes unwilling to eat or drink yet he is hungry or thirsty. Thus, according to the Principle of Opposites, there is an element which is different from the one that drives people to crave for food or drink, preventing people from c raving it. The element preventing people from giving way to various unhealthy cravings is reason (39). Additionally to the function of prevention, characterization of reason by Plato is through numerous different ways. Reason is said to be the calculative or reflective element. It is also

Contrast the development of the themes of justice and inequality in Research Paper

Contrast the development of the themes of justice and inequality in Langston Hughes poems the freedom train, Merry-Go-Round - Research Paper Example Hughes managed to go through the odds by working as nightclub door attendant and superintendent whereas he travelled to places such as West Africa, Italy, and Paris and it is from most of his work that he experienced heights of inequality and discriminations for being black among whites.   During this time, he developed poems that enabled him to receive a scholarship to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (Hughes and Susan 20).   In this work, the rhythmic, lyrical nature of his poetry is obvious as is his conviction that only by continuing with his African lineage could African Americans finds appreciation (Anthony and Stephanie 25); however, in most cases black or African Americans were subjected to great discrimination. His emergence occurred around the same time which is being referred to Harlem Renaissance lately. The Harlem Renaissance period was characterised by deep questioning of African American racial orientation and identity (Hughes and Susan 18). This was also combine d with the effect of slavery and racism on the generations that followed. Hughes is one of the most successful poets of the period. His success is not determined by the way he struggled to attain success but by the way, he represented the issues of the African Americans that he ever felt was being undermined and regarded as dogs especially when they were formed by their white counterparts to undertake certain chores (Anthony and Stephanie 25). For instance, in his poem Madam and Her Madam, he ironically accepted the claims of love from his madam, â€Å"I said, Madam, That may be true-- But I'll be dogged† (Madam and Her Madam22). It is notable that people liked him for his contributions in the field of equality and social justices. The way he wrote the two people attempted to question the racism and the effect of such writing on African Americans. He also questioned the hypocrisy of the correctly elected persons. He noted that while these democratically elected people enjoyed service delivery, he suggests that their focus was on the whites (Hughes and Susan 21). This was a clear an attack on the leadership so that the African Americans could also benefit from their participation in the electoral process by having the leaders put in place plans that escalate their inclusion (Hughes and Susan 20). It is notable that he served as the voice of hope and impartiality for the African Americans who lived in a highly racially segregated society. In this society, the African Americans routinely suffered from all manner of discrimination, bias, and utter violence. It was indeed very unfortunate that white Americans even considered and took the African Americans as their slaves. His artworks reminded people of the kind of life, which they really deserved yet they could not receive because the white men were in charge. He made the clarion call using the â€Å"free† where all are â€Å"equal† which he argued excluded African Americans (Hughes and Susan 18). The clarion call resonated so well with other emerging African American opinion shapers who conformed and resolved that Black Americans must have their space and enjoy the life provisions with liberty. The people were charged to ask about the rational for perpetuating inequality against fellow Americans because they had a different color. He argued that the

The affects of football Essay Example for Free

The affects of football Essay From the early ages in history to present day, sports have had a major impact on society. Football is a very popular sport played in America and many other countries. Some may say that football is a violent sport and its not beneficial in any way, but in reality it gives a person all the basic tools needed not only for playing the game, but also how you interact with people in society. Also it is very simple to get involved in most cites and towns. Football is a great game that is both fun and instructive. Football is game played by twenty-two players on a field at once, with eleven players on the defensive and offensive side of the ball. The goal of the game is to get a leather cone shaped ball, called a football, into the opposing teams end zone. On offense you have four tries to gain ten yards and gain a first down, which mean you have another four tries to go another ten yards. The defense in return has four tries to stop the offense or they get the football. A great football team is one that works very well together, and is disciplined enough that they can win without falling apart. Football is such a great sport because it takes eleven players on each side of the ball to do their assignment to become a great team. Each player has a different job, and if every player does their job than they can accomplish their task. There is no other game like football, it is a game where you can tackle and throw your rival as hard as you can without getting in trouble. It is a violent sport but a teams violence has to be controlled. Sports in society today are often a big deal. Teens go to high school and can get very competitive in any sport. Football is one of the best sports to get involved with because it teaches so many things children and teens need to be active in society. It teaches: discipline, teamwork, interaction, self-restraint, and perseverance. It is one of the only team sports that you actually need all the players on the field to work together and knows what theyre doing to become a good team. Practice makes prefect, and to become a better player you need to be disciplined and learn from your mistakes. Football also teaches players to control their anger on and off the field, and to keep working harder. It keeps teens out of trouble and gives them something to do, rather than cause trouble. Living in Amsterdam has a major effect on why I and many other teens play football. Amsterdam is, and has always been, and great football tradition. It all starts out with the children and the great Pee Wee football program we call Little Giants. This program teaches little kids from age seven through twelve the art of the game of football. When players get too old for this program they move on to the junior high school team which has always been another great program that teaches kids the fundamentals of life. Then the players move on to the junior varsity team where they get trained to play on the top school level. Varsity is the top of line for school football. This is where every little giants player wants to play. These players are envied by all, for the decades of great football they have played. There is no other greater feeling than to play a home game on a Friday night under the lights on the Amsterdam turf, while being watches by thousands of screaming fans, the steam that can be seen on the top of every players head, and the joy that runs through your body as you see the time run out and your are a champion again. The greatest accomplishment these players have is winning the state title and raising their helmets in the dome of Syracuse and yelling champions for the last time of their football career. As a player walks off that field there is no better feeling of pride in the fact that you are an Amsterdam football player. Sports have had a major impact on society. Football is a very popular sport played in America and many other countries. Some may say that football is a violent sport and its not beneficial in any way, but in reality it gives a person all the basic tools needed not only for playing the game, but also how you interact with people in society. Also it is very simple to get involved in most cites and towns. It can be the one thing that matters the most in a students high school career. The accomplishments that can be earned from football are like no other. Football takes time and effort to become a better player. To know that your whole team has worked the hardest and plays the best together is an incredible feeling. Football is a great game that is both fun and instructive. After winning a state title and walking off the field I thought to myself, there is not one other thing I would have dedicated myself to for so many years than the hot turf of a football field.

Using Enterprise Gamification For Improving Business Essay

Using Enterprise Gamification For Improving Business Essay Gamification is the concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging. (Gamification Wiki, 2012) Though a relatively new field, gamification has been used in a variety of applications albeit in a simpler manner, from driving customer loyalty through loyalty points to improving employee engagement within the workforce using titles such as Employee of the Month The latter is an example of enterprise gamification wherein enterprises use gamified systems to bring about internal change. However most such systems are currently heavily simplified and extrinsically focused, only looking to reward employees with badges, which leads to the danger of reducing the employees intrinsic motivations. Also, many of the enterprise gamification platforms have only been designed for use in the developed world and hence the need to explore how these might differ for an Indian audience with its different set of motivations and appeal to them. Taking these into account, this paper looks to explore how gamification works and what are the underlying psychological factors and how Indian enterprises can use it in their employee development process. The findings would lead to a proposed enterprise gamified framework for improving workplace motivations and the performance appraisal process currently being practiced in Indian organizations. Lastly we look at the possible limitations of having such a system in place at the enterprise level and explore areas of further development for future research. Introduction A common definition of gamification is the application of game elements in non game contexts (Deterding, 2011) At the heart of gamification is the objective of getting the desired behavioral response by appealing to the players motivations. A repeatedly used approach is to use the scoring elements used in video games and use them in a different context. Though the term is relatively new, this concept has been in application for centuries in the form of frequent flyer loyalty programs for customers, enterprise leader boards in the sales and customer care divisions. However, in recent years the concept has gradually seen an increasing no. of applications within the enterprise. Some of the examples are listed below Intranet The SAP community network is an internally used community network (intranet) where leader boards for domain experts in every domain is maintained Productivity Enhancement Call centers are using gamification techniques to improve representative performance by making use of leaderboards, levels, virtual badges and immediate feedback. The danger could be that it could be used as a tool to constantly monitor and pressurizing them. Efficiency Enhancement Efficiency enhancement is about improving general skill level of employees and not just the work related to their job. Helping employees deal with their emails is an example. Companies use gamification elements such as progress bars, virtual points and feedback on time spent for emails to help them deal with this. Seriosity is another company that has created a virtual currency around the emails. This helps employees decide which mails to deal with first and decide the urgency of the emails they are sending out to other employees. Knowledge Management Application called WhoWhatWhere is an enterprise collaboration system where consultants are encouraged to share information about what they are working on thereby making it easier for consultants working on similar projects to get in touch with them and seek help Innovation The UK Dept of Works Pension created the Ideastreet, essentially seen as a trading platform for ideas. Employees put forward ideas which have a inherent stock listed price associated with them. Other employees have the option of buying or selling these stocks so that a few of the ideas have a much higher market cap than the others. This has proved to be a well performing solution, with the no. of new ideas being implemented increasing by the tune of 54%. Recruiting and Onboarding Gamification is also being used for recruitment for certain managerial positions using online simulation games that depict real life scenarios and test the decision making skills of the players. This competition leads to a pool of best players who are then considered as potential candidates for the company. All the above mentioned examples of enterprise gamification and gamified systems in general, can be broadly classified according to what user motivations they cater to, which could be intrinsic or extrinsic motivations. The concern with gamified systems that are heavily extrinsically focused such as the one currently employed in call centers, is the long term negative impact that most organizations are not aware of. This is something that shall be addressed in detail in subsequent sections in this paper. Organisations that offer gamification platforms for employee engagement are growing in developed countries. Bunchball is currently one of the biggest which offers Nitro as a plugin gamification application to Salesforce. The Indian enterprise market however, is currently largely untapped and presents huge opportunities for the same. Most Indian employees find the current performance appraisal systems in most organizations highly inefficient and unsatisfactory. The current efforts of the HR professionals to improve employee seem to fall short with workplace morale and productivity running lower than desired. Taking these factors into consideration, this paper looks to propose an enterprise gamification model for improving intrinsic workplace motivations and the performance appraisal systems currently in place in Indian organizations. Theoretical Background What are Games? A formal broad definition applicable to all forms of games proposed by Zimmermann Salen, 2003 says that A game is a system in which players engage in artificial conflict, defined by rules, which result in a quantifiable outcome. However, what this definition lacks is the notion of a feedback system. The feedback system can take the form of points, levels, progress bars and serves to quantify the progress made by the user, how close/far the user is from the goal and provides motivation to keep on playing. In addition to this is the concept of voluntary participation. Be it indoor games such as monopoly, social games, alternate reality games to the most popular sports played today, voluntary participation requires that each one plays the game willingly, accepting the rules and goals of the system with the freedom to enter and leave the game whenever desired. This ensures that the artificially created challenging environment is not found threatening and can be experienced as a playful, safe and enjoyable activity. All these characteristics of the definition of a game are important and are modelled by Dignan in the figure below (Dignan, 2011): A definition of a game (Dignan, 2011) What makes Games so Engaging? Before we delve further, it is important to explore what is it about games that is so engaging and why it seems to be the answer to current workplace engagement and productivity issues according to us. An important research conducted by McGonigal to explore how playing games leads to human happiness has answers to this question. According to McGonigal (2011) studies have actually shown that people are at their happiest when doing hard work at the borders of their skill level. Only when people are continuously challenged according to their skill levels and continuously receive feedback on their work will they have a sustained engagement, otherwise they will end up getting bored.C:UsersmicaDesktopFlow.png This is also explained well by a central model for the appeal for video games the concept of flow. According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, people feel best when they are neither underchallenged nor overchallenged but at the right level of skills. And as people learn with time and repetition, challenges have to increase to keep up with growing skills. The research goes on to say that most of the traditionally considered relaxing activities such as watching TV, are actually mildly depressing. She argues that this is because companies often fail to continuously challenge employees at the right level in a structured way without giving them frequent feedback. In short, it goes on to proclaim that The Opposite of Work is not Play, it is Depression. Empirical studies also show how the responses that games elicit are very similar to real life emotions, if not the same. Even if the reward might be growing more crops in Farm Ville, the reward though purely fictitious elicits an emotional state that happens to be no different from a real life scenario. To summarize there are multiple dimensions to games that cater to different needs of the players and have been segregated as follows When it comes to the workplace, at a fundamental level we could conclude that the work in itself not the demotivating factor for workers in an organization. It is more so the lack of one or more of the above needs that results in a decrease in their morale over time. For example a rigid company structure could end up stifling the workers need for independence or autonomy. More so, the absence of a continuous challenge that gives employees an opportunity to master their skills and a more regular, robust feedback system that helps them figure where they stand is currently missing. A gamified system would serve the solution for this through continuous feedback on their current skill set and quantifying their scope of improvement. A choice provided to the user at various stages to set their own goals would mean that their need for autonomy is also served to. Throughout this paper, we would henceforth look at building a framework considering these factors. Using Games as a Form of Behavioural Change Dr. BJ Fogg of Stanford University developed a behavioural model which described three elements Motivation, Ability and Trigger that are necessary for behavioural change to occur. In essence, the greater the user motivation, more the probability of hard to do abilities being performed. Similarly if the motivation for the user is very low, the ability demanded to perform the task must be also very low ie easy to do. C:UsersmicaDesktopFogg.png Even when both motivation and ability are sufficiently high to reach the threshold, a trigger becomes necessary to be able to change the user behaviour. The model is intended to help designers identify what stops people from performing the intended behaviour. Game elements go a long way in incorporating this model to change user behavior in the following manner 1. Game dynamics use positive feedbacks in the form of points, scores, progress, social status etc which help in improving user motivation. 2. Through training and master of skills, they increase the perceived ability of users by making difficult jobs simpler and more manageable. 3. Game dynamics place triggers in the path of motivated users at the optimal level of user ability to trigger a behavioural change. Gamification for Motivational Design At the core of the gamification system is tapping into the right motivational factors that drive users. Since the motivators vary for different people, game systems needs to be customized accordingly. Broadly speaking, motivators can be divided into extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. Extrinsic motivators are driven by external rewards such as the desire for power and status. Intrinsic motivators are driven by the inherent joy of doing the task itself instead of using any external reward mechanisms. Such motivators at the workplace might include autonomy, mastery, curiosity and feeling connected to the overall cause of the company. Traditionally, most enterprises have essentially made use of extrinsic motivators to motivate employees and enhance productivity. But studies show that excessive focus on external rewards results in users losing their intrinsic motivation to perform the task that previously existed, which is not in the best interests of the user itself. If the organization starts using gamification based upon external rewards and then stops the rewards program, it will be worse off than when it started as users will be less likely to return to the behavior without the external reward (Deci, Koestner Ryan, 2001). Good gamification practise however emphasizes on intrinsic motivators to help them succeed in work life. Hence the concept of meaningful gamification takes it a level further through gamified designs, with the user at its centre, appealing to his/her intrinsic motivations and with a focus on providing user benefits without any adverse effects in the long run. Reiss Sixteen Motivators (2001) Despite the many theories in the field, few are based on actual scientific research. One of them was Steven Reiss who in his book Who am I comes up with 16 categories of motivators which are collected in a statistical manner using which he tries to explain human behaviour. Among the 16 we found only 11 categories to be relevant to the workplace as the rest were found to be related to basic physical needs such as consuming eating which is outside our scope. The 11 categories are presented below with a brief description of their desire profile and segregated into intrinsic and extrinsic motivators accordingly: The dominant motivators among this list would be different for the various profile segments, hence research would be necessary to figure out the most important motivators at work for Indian employees which will form the core of the gamification framework to be designed. Research Methodology A quantitative approach was adopted by means of a survey to capture the relative importance of the 11 Reiss motivators found to influence human behavior in a workplace environment. The sample size for the survey was 36 individuals working in different organizations across India. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of the motivators for them on a Likert Scale. After their responses were captured, a regression was run to establish a relationship between the respondents levels of motivation in a workplace and the various motivators. The relative importance of the motivators was then established by comparing their standardized coefficients. The process then led us to the motivators that were considered most important by Indian employees in the context of a workplace environment. C:UsersmicaDesktopTempg.png Research Methodology Process Leading to the Gamified Framework These dominant workplace motivators and barriers to adoption insights would then be used to design the appropriate game mechanics and come up with the final gamified system as shown in the figure above. Findings Analyzing the results of the survey showed us that Indian Employees are motivated by factors such as curiosity, independence,social contact status and not factors such as competition or power. This implies that the gamification structure that is created needs to have game layers that focuses on group tasks and freedom of players involved in the game. The game layers also need to emphasize on increasing ability since curiosityis an important motivator for Indian employees. On the basis of the results obtained we make the approach to design a gamified framework. Since there currently does not exist a fixed method of developing a gamified system we have given our recommendations based on these results and the theoretical construct described above. Choosing the Right Game Mechanics The biggest problem with todays workplace is the absence of any structured goals that provide an optimal challenge, real time feedback of ones own performance and how the contribution has an impact at an organizational level. In this context game mechanics serve the purpose of increasing either ability or motivation to accomplish the desired behaviour for the employees through real time feedback in the form of points, progress bars etc and other components. Since the major motivators in the Indian workplace context have been found to be curiosity, social contact status and independence/autonomy, care must be taken to see that different game mechanics are in place to cater to these motivations. Hence the following proposition consisting of three different features that serve a different purpose, appropriate mechanisms would be used 1. Personal Efficiency Model For Curiosity Autonomy Motivators To-do lists and progress bar map to track the employees personal goals such as time management, emails cleared, level of project completed etc both to increase ability and motivation. This is done by assigning progress to create incentives for players to complete goals they set for themselves. A sample diagram depicting the same is as given below C:UsersmicaDesktopPicture1.png Sample Visual Map of Individually Set Goals and Status of Completion To cater to the employees motivation for curiosity, a set of interactive quizzes and challenges of different levels testing his/her knowledge in the domain would be necessary. The levels would be of adaptable difficulty (such as in GMAT exams), based on the performance of the worker in the previous level. Customisation components to choose personal goals in different competency areas. This provides workers with a feeling of independence and autonomy. 2. Online Stock Market Model For Status and Social Contact Idea Resource A game where individuals come up with innovative ideas in their domain which are listed on the virtual stock exchange. Employees can now buy/sell these ideas using in game currency so that each idea now has a market cap too. Resource Management using in-game currency as extrinsic rewards for good idea suggestions 3. Peer Recognition and Social Features For Social Contact and Status Community features to encourage unexpected positive feedback from peers and improve motivation when individual contribution levels have reached. A similar interface to elicit positive peer feedback on a software called Rypple is shown in the figure. Social Badges to cater to the players need for appreciation from colleagues and flaunt their status C:UsersmicaDesktopwork.jpg Social Recognition Feature Employed on Rypple.com Designing a Gamification Framework There are three major frameworks and models included in this paper for the purpose of coming up with a gamification framework. There are Dignans Game Frame which describes all the necessary components of a behavioural game (Dignan, 2011), Dr. Reiss Sixteen motivators which describes what motivates the player (Reiss, 2001) and lastly Dr. Foggs Behaviour model which examines how a new behaviour is realised (Fogg, 2011). Dignan describes a behavioural game as made up by ten components which together design the framework Game Frame (Dignan, 2011). The Game Frame allows the designer to look at any behavioural game from the top down, understand its essential parts and see how they together make up a game. In this paper, Dignans Game Frame is used as a structure to describe the situation. This structure needs to be filled with information based on our research. However, to design how the game is played and the available tools for the players, one needs to know what kind of behaviour that is intended (outcome). Before designing how it is played, what currently inhibits the intended behaviour (the obstacles) were investigated from the survey results. The characteristics of these obstacles are then categorised in terms of lack of ability or motivation with Dr. Foggs behavioural model to investigate what kinds of mechanics that will be most efficient to promote the new behaviour. We now take each element of the Dignans frame to explain the overall gamification framework for our system. The Objective and Activity The objectives of this recommended gamified framework will be to encourage employee innovation at the workplace, improve the intrinsic motivation of the employee in alignment with the organizational objectives and to put in place a more robust performance feedback system. Reinforce good habits and real-time recognition and rewards. Recognize achievement publicly or give real rewards in the discount coupons. The main activities of the game will involve entering logs, giving feedback to peers and/or submitting ideas apart from setting custom goals. The Player Profile Based on the results that we obtained using our research, an attempt was made to create a profile for players involved in the system i.e. Indian employees. Since curiosity, status, Independence and social contact proved to be the most important indicators, certain inferences were drawn about the behavior of Indian Employees: Peer recognition and appreciation by fellow employees were significant Learning and development of new skills acts as a powerful motivator Employees remain driven if given the freedom to decide their own goals and pace to achieve those goals Team activities or tasks that involved the organization as a whole generates a lot of interest . Outcomes The last frame in Dignans game frame is the outcomes that are generated along the way of the game. The short-term outcomes should primarily be to get individual feedback on everyday activities at work. The long-term outcomes are to get a clearer picture of the career progress, improve employee morale through feedback. The outcomes of the game are to receive immediate individual feedback about the organizational impact of their contributions and to visualize the career progress. Defining the Feedback Cycle A significant feedback would be in the form of the community-like feature where employees can give feedback on each others personal goal statuses. The motivational factor will be increased by community-driven feedback and intangible rewards. These rewards should be in terms of in-game currency, and badges for reaching a certain personal achievement. One important part of the competence model is that the employees estimate their own performance. In terms of the feedback, this means that the employees need to estimate the value of their own performances in this system as well. Hence, when logging an activity, the employee needs to estimate how valuable that particular action is. Defining Resources and Skills Resources are the drivers of game using which a player moves forward within a game. The resources in the stock based platform for ideas is the virtual currency that players are allotted to buy/sell. Since the currency allotted to players is limited, players must ensure that they allocate it judiciously for ideas that they think will work best. In case of the Gamified feedback system, resources are the badges and points that act as motivators and used to display appreciation for ones efforts. Skills are specialized abilities one that puts to use in a behavioral game and can be categorized as physical, mental and social. Our gamified set up requires players to use their mental skills for generation of ideas and continuous learning and social skills that help individuals get their ideas to be popular and well traded. Triggers Certain activities work very well as triggers. For example simple activities like sending notifications to employees that tell him of his weekly performance in a domain vis-Ã  -vis another employee who is working in a similar domain could act a trigger for the employee .Notifications could also tell the employee of his weekly performance over his/her last weeks performance .The direct comparison is such cases could help employees set the pace for the rest of the week. Transparency Should an employees performance be revealed to other employees? It is a question that needs serious consideration. Often employees do not like the comparison that comes with the sharing of another employees progress and such comparisons could prove to be fatal. An example would be a gamification system based on leader boards employed by Disney for its laundry workers. The real time sharing of information about a workers performance and the continuous comparisons hampered employee performance and created a sense of nervousness amongst employees. On the other hand sharing information is an integral part of the feedback mechanism that allows one to comment and receive feedback on ones progress.A possible solution to the problem would be to let the employee decide by giving him the choice to reveal his/her personal information to whomsoever they want. System Limitations The suggested gamification system has its own strengths and weaknesses. One of the most obvious thing that needs to be ensured is long term engagement. Gamified setups are designed to achieve both short term and long term objectives and therefore needs to be continuously developed and maintained to ensure that players dont get bored. Emphasis must lie on increasing ability of the players and changing the motivational elements within the structure which involves bringing in new game elements and tweaking existing game mechanics Another limitation of a stock market like setup for Ideas is that there comes a time when stocks might be traded due to their association with people and not with ideas. There is an inherent danger of the system becoming a personality driven platform rather than a platform being idea driven. The other danger which has already been mentioned is that of a player getting too involved in the game and restricting his concerns to achieving a higher stock price for the ideas selected by him/her and not the ones that can bring a change. Finally there is the question of participation. Games require voluntary participation from all its players. A platform meant merely for ideas that does not fall within the purview of an employees personal responsibility may not encourage players to voluntarily participate. Employees may however be encouraged by their superiors to part of such a set up but this runs the risk of an employee engaging in the system with not much interest. Any social game requires participation and lack of interest to participate can prove detrimental to the setup. Ideas of System Future Potential and Further Development Even if the suggested game layer attempts to promote each activity by adding motivational elements, a big focus on increased ability has permeated the selection and design of the game mechanics. To achieve a greater impact, organizational elements at the workplace need to be included in the system so that in-game rewards have a clear connection to the consultants career. One step in that direction would be to incorporate projects as part of the game layer. That would allow log entries to be linked to specific project entities and the connection between the system and what the consultant actually do will be clearer (instituting a more relevant feedback loop). It would also create a good way for project leaders and management to give feedback. The down side, and the main reason that it is not proposed, is that it would bring an additional dimension, raising the commitment and time needed to use the system. There is also great potential in adding team based mechanics into the system. These could be project based teams or made up teams. There are many examples showing that the social component in team-based activities is a powerful way of affecting behavior. Dedication takes time but enables more ways to create relevant feedback loops, awards more strongly connected to the consultants professional situation, in-game currency that can be spent in various ways, team-based structure and challenges etc. It is all a question how deep the gamification system is allowed to permeate through the organisation. Another important aspect that needs to be considered before the implementation of a gamified system is to identify how it will impact the skill level of employees. Employee skills can be classified into -a) Core skills i.e. those skills that all employees in the organization are expected to have, b)Unique skills i.e. skills that are unique to an individual and c)Future skills i.e. skills that an employee would like to have in the future. A gamified set up works best in situations where employees can put to use their core skills to be part of a team-based activity for the greater organizational good or in situations where individuals can develop future skills as part of their personal responsibility. While it is imperative that organizations look closely towards data, employee behavior and organizational culture to create a gamification structure that can best support its objectives; it must take steps to ensure that an employee remains motivated to fulfill his responsibilities and does not get lost in the game.

Computer Engineering :: essays research papers

Computer Engineering Choosing a career is very important in a person’s life. Over the past two decades, many professions have change significantly with the influx of technological developments. One needs to think about the things that interest them and what kind of lifestyle they want to have. Some things a person should think about are what qualifications are needed, what type of training is necessary, and the future need of the career they choose. Some other things to consider would be how much money they will make, what is the probability of advancement, and does the career satisfy their need for an enjoyable life. One career in the technological industry is a computer engineer. A computer engineer is a person who designs hardware or software for computers. Computer engineers do research to determine what people want and need to make their lives easier. Computer engineers sometimes work on a team to think of new ideas and concepts. Engineers generally should like activities of a technical nature, problem solving, and math. An engineer should probably like working with numbers and thinking logically. A computer-engineering career requires the most education of any career in the computer industry. Some school subjects that are helpful in preparing a person who wants to become a computer engineer are algebra, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, computer science, and English. Computer engineers need to be able to think logically, communicate ideas clearly, and work well in a team environment. To become a computer engineer a degree in computer science, engineering, or physics is required. Computer engineers spend an extended amount of time typing. A computer engineer should also expect to work long hours and enjoy working with new ideas and concepts. Becoming a proficient typist would be something to consider when a person is interested in becoming a computer engineer. In 1947 Howard Aiken, an engineer, predicted six computers would satisfy the computing needs of the U.S. By the year 1955, 244 computer systems were in use and by 1984 U.S. businesses and individuals purchased over two million personal computers. By 1994, shipments of over 47 million personal computers were made worldwide. The use of personal computers has increased rapidly over the past half-century and therefore the need for new hardware and software will keep the need for computer engineers to continue producing new products. The first position for a person becoming a computer Engineer is a Junior Computer Engineer.

School Vouchers: Parents Need a Choice Essay -- school choice, school

The 14th Amendment in the United States Constitution forbids states from denying any person life, liberty and property without due process of the law. It further states that any person, within a state’s jurisdiction, cannot be denied equal protection of its laws. This amendment protects all people. Chief Justice Clarence Thomas, in a 2002 ruling, stated reasons why school choice should be protected under the 14th Amendment. Justice Thomas wrote in defense of school choice, â€Å"Whatever the textual and historical merits of incorporating the Establishment Clause, I can accept that the Fourteenth Amendment protects religious liberty rights. But I cannot accept its use to oppose neutral programs of school choice through the incorporation of the Establishment Clause. There would be a tragic irony in converting the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of individual liberty into a prohibition on the exercise of educational choice.† His ruling goes on to state, Respondents advocate using the Fourteenth Amendment to handcuff the State's ability to experiment with education. But without education one can hardly exercise the civic, political, and personal freedoms conferred by the Fourteenth Amendment. Faced with a severe educational crisis, the State of Ohio enacted wide-ranging educational reform that allows voluntary participation of private and religious schools in educating poor urban children otherwise condemned to failing public schools. The program does not force any individual to submit to religious indoctrination or education. It simply gives parents a greater choice as to where and in what manner to educate their children. This is a choice that whose with greater means have routinely exercised. The State has a constitutional r... ...her, L., Schimmel, D. and Stellman, L. (2007). Teachers and the Law. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson Education. P186-187. Kintisch, B.,Zelno, S.. (2002). Vouchers (SB 1) and the Law. Available: www.elc-pa.org. Last accessed 16th Mar 2011. Smith, G. (2010). Education Vouchers Gain Ground. Available: http://www.thestate.com/2010/11/21/1570848/school-choice-gains-ground.html. Last accessed 16th Mar 2011. Speel, R. (2011). Education vouchers would violate constitution. Available: http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2011/02/education_vouchers_would_viola.html. The Center for Education Reform. (2011). Choice Options State by State. Available: http://www.edreform.com/printer_FVersion.cfm. Last accessed 16th Mar 2011. WestEd. (1999). What we know about vouchers the facts behind the rhetoric. Available: http://www.WestEd.org. Last accessed 16th Mar 2011.

China in the Twentieth Century Essay

The Long March took place from October 1934 – October 1935. It meant that communism was not completely wiped out by the Kuomintang, that the people of China learnt about communism and supported the communists, that the Kuomintang got control of the south of china and most of the communists died from illness, exposure and Kuomintang attacks. At the time it was significant because otherwise all the communists would have been annihilated. Its effects were not seen immediately but in the short term still it allowed the communist army to gather their strength and troops and meant that when they tried to take back the country the ordinary people of China knew about communism and its benefits and would support them over the Kuomintang. This also meant that when the Japanese invaded in 1936 they were strong enough and had enough support to fight and defeat them. In the Long term however, after 1949 when China was declared communist the Long March did not really have many effects. It was used in propaganda, as an example of the strength and determination of the communists but other than that it had no direct effects. The Revolution of the Double Tenth in 1911 was another event in the history of China. As a short-term cause it meant that China was free of imperial rule and became a democracy. It also led to the setting up of the Kuomintang and freedom from the tyranny of the Emperors. However, like the Long March for ordinary people it did not make much difference. Instead of being oppressed by the Emperors they were still living in poverty, oppressed by the Warlords. In the long term the Revolution of the Double Tenth meant that different political parties could be formed, including the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party. It opened the way for change so that different ruling parties could have the chance to make a difference to China and gave more importance to the ordinary people of China, not just the Aristocracy. In 1949 Communist China was formed. In the short term this was very significant. Whereas the Long March and the Revolution of the Double Tenth  did not really improve the lives of the ordinary people in the short term, this event lead quickly to land being divided between the peasants and the old cruel landlords being persecuted and punished. The communists helped the country recover from the damage the civil war had caused enough that extra food grown could be sold and government controlled factories could produce goods to sell in the first of Mao Zedong’s ‘5 Year Plan’s. However the communists wanted everyone to be equal so everyone was paid the same, whether they worked or not. This meant everyone did as little work as possible and were all equally poor instead of equally rich. Also, unlike the Long March and the Revolution of the Double Tenth where different political parties were set up or protected as part of the effects the creation of Communist China meant all other political parties were banned. The remaining Kuomintang members fled to the island of Taiwan. In the long term the creation of Communist China lead to the Cultural Revolution where schools and universities were shut down and teachers and intellectuals were persecuted. This was because Chairman Mao, the leader of Communist China decided that China was not communist enough, and that people were turning back to the old capitalist ways. It also meant that after Chairman Mao’s death in 1976 there was a struggle between different political leaders in the Chinese Communist Party to decide who would be the next leader of China. Deng Xiaoping won and became the next leader of China. Deng’s reforms from 1979-1980 had a lot of short-term effects like the formation of Communist China and were very significant in the short term. Deng restored the capitalist economy system, opened up China to foreign trade and allowed farmers to sell their food for private profit. He set up Special Economic Zones and developed them to improve industry, which lead to the growth of Chinese exports by 500% and introduced wage incentives to encourage workers to work hard. He also brought back universities so that young people could study again and overall modernised the whole of China. Nevertheless Deng kept many of the communist ideas, including the anti-democracy stand that lead to the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and  the massacre of the protesters by the army at Deng’s orders. In the long term China continues to modernise and expand economically in the capitalist way that Deng introduced. However it is still not that long since Deng’s reforms took place so we cannot be sure what other long-term effects they may have. I do believe that the Long March was significant in the history of China in the Twentieth Century because it meant the communists survived to defend the country against the Japanese and win back the country from the Kuomintang as well as gaining the support of the people to be able to do this. However I think that the most significant event in the history of China in the Twentieth Century was the formation of Communist China. This is because it affected everyone in the country, unlike the Long March and the Revolution of the Double Tenth which did not really effect the ordinary people in China or change their lives that much. Also it brought an end to the Civil war that led to a period of peace that meant modernisation and social and economic changes could occur, unlike the Long March and the Revolution of the Double Tenth, which lead to more Civil war and rebellions. It also had many short-term and long-term effects, more so than any of the other events I have covered here and lead to political, social and economic change, whereas Deng’s reforms only really lead to economic change and modernisation.