Theme Analysis of Marriage: Jude the Obscure

Thomas Hardy, the author of Jude the Obscure, focuses on multiple themes throughout his book including social order and higher learning which is mainly seen in the first part of the book. Jude, a working class boy aiming to educate himself, dreams of a high level education at a university, but is pushed away by the cruel and rigid social order. In the second part of the book, Jude abandons his idea of entering Christminster and the focus shifts to Sue. The themes of love, marriage, freedom replace the earlier theme of education and idealism. Hardy pushes each of these themes to his audience and challenges everyday ideology by his audacious story about Jude Hawley. Hardy begins an argument against the institution of marriage, but he does not necessarily suggest that marriage is automatically bad; he just makes it clear that he believes people should be able to step away from a marriage if things do get dire. He also makes it clear that marriage is not necessarily linked to love in any way, so it's obvious that a decent, understanding society would accept Jude and Sue's relationship because they truly love each other, regardless of whether they are married or not. Hardy tends to view marriage with cynicism, and there are many disapproving comments about the nature of marriage being based on contracts. Hardy was conscious that women were not treated equally in society, and that the laws of nature were often heavily weighed against women. He treats the subject with sympathy and understanding. He also illustrates that marriage could victimize both men and women. There are no happy marriages or content couples seen in the book. Jude, when married to Arabella, feels trapped in a hopeless situation. Marriage is compared to being â€Å"caught in a gin, which would cripple him if not her also for the rest of a lifetime,† (43). However, Jude is partly aware even before the marriage that Arabella is the wrong type of woman for him. He recognizes that there is something in her â€Å"quite antipathetic to that side of him which had been occupied with literary study and the magnificent Christminster dream. It had been no vestal who chose that missile for opening her attack on him,† (27). A few chapters later, the reader is told, â€Å"he knew too well in the secret center of his brain that Arabella was not worth a great deal as a specimen of womankind,† (39). Naive and trusting, he does the honorable thing and marries her. But he has married the wrong woman, and the marriage is bound to be a disaster. Sue's marriage to Phillotson is another example of a disastrous marriage of rashness and thoughtlessness. Jude suspects that Sue has married Phillotson as a reaction to his own marriage, a kind of retaliation, a way of â€Å"asserting her own independence from him,† (129). She does not realize the enormity of the step she has taken, and after the ceremony, there is a â€Å"frightened look in her eyes,† as if she has only just become aware of the rashness of her decision. Barely a month later she admits, â€Å"perhaps I ought not to have married† (142). Sue is the loudest critic of matrimony in the novel. She makes sarcastic comments on the custom of giving away the bride, â€Å"like a she-ass or she-goat or any other domestic animal† (126). When her marriage is in trouble, she criticizes the institution, explaining the difficulty she experiences fitting into the conventional mold which society demands. The nineteenth century tradition of the subjection of women to fathers and husbands is reflected in Gillingham's advice to Phillotson to be firm with Sue until she has knuckled under. Hardy makes it clear, however, that it is the man here who is victimized in this marriage; Phillotson is far from being a cruel, tyrannical husband. Instead, he is an extremely patient and liberal husband. Sue's views on marriage should not necessarily be connected with Hardy's. Hardy himself points out her emotional inconsistency, and there are several signs that she is not really cut out for marriage. In Part V, both Jude's and Sue's divorces come through, but Sue avoids their possible marriage. She calls marriage a â€Å"sordid contract† and a â€Å"hopelessly vulgar† institution, and she fears that an â€Å"iron contract should extinguish† all tenderness between them, reinforcing Hardy’s negative view of the nature of marriage. Most of Sue’s views on marriage are given in parts V and VI. She feels that the contractual nature of it will kill all impulse and romance; â€Å"it is foreign to a man's nature to go on loving a person when he is told that he must and shall be a person's lover,† (193). The visit to the unclean registry office in part V, chapter 4 is horrifying for her, and she shows abhorrence to the ordinary church wedding. She sees it in terms of a sacrifice of the bride: â€Å"the flowers in the bride's hand are sadly like the garland which decked the heifers of sacrifice in olden times,† (215). Sue's views on marriage are rather extreme, and they represent a push away from the norms of marriage. Hardy also raises some valid arguments of the overly rigid attitude of society towards the unmarried and the unconventional. Phillotson's humanity and charity in letting Sue go scandalizes the school authorities, and his career is ruined. A kind, decent man who was only trying to be fair is scorned by society's intolerance. Sue and Jude also became the subject of cruel gossip at Aldbrickham: the neighbors ignore them, Little Father Time is taunted at school, Jude loses his job, and the family is forced into a nomadic existence. Hardy is pushing the fact that society is vindictive and intolerant of those who deviate from its normal codes of living and marriage. Hardy repeatedly emphasizes that marriage involves making a commitment that many people are emotionally unfit to fulfill, and this thought comes from the narrator, but it is also expressed by Sue, Jude, Phillotson, and Widow Edlin through the whole novel. Although the custom of marriage is such a central theme pressed by Hardy, he conflicts against other conventions in his society like education and social class which ultimately show a huge theme of fighting against the norm.

E-business feasibility Essay

Every time you turn on computer, you are using Microsoft products. In the research, nearly 90% computers in the world are using Microsoft software. And the chairman in this company is the richer man in the world. How can this business earn this much money and have this great share of the market? And have gone on internet help this business to meet the success? Microsoft is a click and brick combine structure company. It has the head office in California to store the database computers and the main members of computer programmers are working in there. And they sell software in the computer store. They have objectives show in their website, â€Å"improve safe computing for everyone in the world†, â€Å"work to help people and business throughout the world realize their full potential† and â€Å"to help foster learning at every age†. It is a B2B company, because of nearly each of the computer producers will buy Windows software from Microsoft to fit in the computers before sales. Also they have design special software and programme services for the business show on the website. This let their website can help them to achieve the objective â€Å"work to help people and business throughout the world realize their full potential†. In B2C side, about 7 years before, the products selling of Microsoft are put software in the computer store like PC world to selling to the community customers. Because of that time the internet technology have not developed like nowadays, many customers haven’t got internet at home. But now you can purchase the software on line by download the software on the website of Microsoft, and pay by card. You still find the software sell in computer stores, but not much and the price will be more expensive. Because of software selling in the store need more cost for the sales. So their website helps them to sell the goods in low price and the customers can get software more convenient. Also Microsoft designs some very useful software for the education like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint etc. That software can buy in their site. It also has instruction and user guard show on their website to teach people to use. This can achieve the objective â€Å"to help foster learning at every age†. When you get some bugs or virus in your computer, Window will bring you to their website. And the site will teach you how to do. So their website helps them to achieve â€Å"improve safe computing for everyone in the world† Dell is a worldwide computer company in click-and-mortar structure. They just sell computer on line in lower price than other computer company in store. They have objectives, â€Å"to have annual revenue to $60 billion send of 2007†, â€Å"Global growth†, and â€Å"Product leadership†. Because their computers and laptops just sell on line, so their price are lower than other computer companies because of the sale cost are low. Also they do special offer when buying numbers of computer from them, many companies and education organizations purchase computers from them. So their sales are higher, and this can help them to achieve the objective â€Å"to have annual revenue to $60 billion send of 2007†. Also anyone in the world can browser the website, than everyone in the world can purchase computers from them thought the internet. The website helps to growth in the global easier. Because they create one more website in different language, then they can sell computers to one more country. This easier than other computer company by they need to find store to display and sell the computers. Because of Dell have the website, they can wide the careers sources to help them to develop the computer. Also the cost of sales is lower, they can use that amount of money to develop the product. This help them to achieve the objective â€Å"Product leadership†.

How could a company reduce it's high of absenteeism Research Proposal - 1

How could a company reduce it's high of absenteeism - Research Proposal Example Notwithstanding its size, it has been experiencing absenteeism problems. The company was founded in 1930 as American Airways; however the first flights commenced in 1934. American Airlines operates out of four hubs in the USA- one each at JFK, Miami, O’Hare and Los Angeles Airports, while its headquarters remains at Dallas Forth Worth Airport. American Airlines has a fleet of 621 aircraft as of December 2010. Tom Horton is the President and Gerard Arpey is the current CEO. American Airlines is one of the most reputed airlines in the USA. However due to its sheer size, it has had its share of problems. Among these, absenteeism has been reported a key factor affecting its service delivery. Through this project, I seek not only to find the reasons behind this unfortunate circumstance; I also attempt to find the reasons and to try to solve the problem by applying the theories of management and organizational behavior towards this end. I hope I have impressed upon at least some employees the value of honest and true service and the need to cut down absenteeism to the very minimum. 5. What do you think that American Airlines needs to do in order to motivate you and other employees to work more honestly and as a team to improve service levels, efficiency and effectiveness at American Airlines? (Thank you for your support and assistance. I assure you that this information will be kept strictly confidential, and will not be shared with anyone except my class teacher and fellow students for the purpose of my assignment). In addition to talking to people, making observations can be a good source of primary research on a problem. Since I was looking at the causes of absenteeism and wanted to correct the situation, I chose to relax in front of the American Airlines Customer Service Counter one afternoon and observe service attitudes in action. 3. Morale and work attitude determined through demeanor, conduct with passengers, willing to hear them out

International stratigic marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

International stratigic marketing - Essay Example t impose the values of emigrants onto another culture, on the other hand, the second outlook is universalist by nature which claims that ethics are implemented anywhere and everywhere in the world. Hence, the Universalist approach is based on psychological as well as economic ground. As a result, in order to resolve both the outlooks, it is preferable to attempt the comprehension of the cultural constraints that are capable of acknowledging home as well as overseas’ perceptions to the various forms and facets of bribery, which also contributes to the first measure in the modification. Following that is the second step which is the development of an international or local code of conduct which enables litheness within the hoary precinct. The ultimate consequence could be an evolving code which obliges many parameters of bribery for each nation’s present situation, in a way that is conciliation between the ethical, psychological and economic values of an emigrant’s business institution and of the regional professionals (Perry, 1992). International marketing is intricate for the sole reason that foreign environs are dissimilar to the home environs, for instance, they vary on physical, ethical, legal, economic, distributive and competitive parameters (Ball and McCulloch, 1996). Due to these environs, it is possible for marketers to oblige segments of the marketing mix for each foreign country or part. For instance, an organization may tend to change its packaging, advertisements and distribution channels in each of its international markets which are not very difficult to become accustomed with. As Armstrong et al quoted, such issues of marketing mix are not merely the ones confronting international

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

Research Methods - Essay Example The influence of social network sites in Regents College University students Background and Introduction Considering that man is a social being, the desire to remain in contact with others and share thoughts as well as feelings have led to the invention of various social media platforms. The social network sites have made it possible for individuals to keep in touch, just by the click of a button. Thus, people can share files including their photographs, while also chatting in real-time with other people from different parts of the world. Students can discuss ideas and assignments over the social network sites, either with their colleagues or even their instructors. Thus, social network sites have helped advance communication and connectivity for people, students inclusive. Nevertheless, the social network sites and their activities have become so much addictive, that people spend most of their times there, forgetting to attend to other important issues. Social network sites are a ma jor cause of distractions to students, affecting their performance and grades. ... It has been pivotal in assisting students undertake their research and accomplish their assignments with great ease, compared to when they could be looking for information from the library books (Conley, 2011 n.p.). The advantage of students using the internet for their research is the fact that, it has a wide range of information, dating from the very old archival information, to recently done studies in different fields (Wankel, 2012 p36). In addition, the internet has provided social communication networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, LinkedIn, among many others (Marti?nez & Wartman, 2009 p73). Considering that such social networks are free and open for anyone to join, they have attracted millions of people, mostly the younger generation, who are mostly students. While such communication networks have allowed them to connect and keep in touch with others, they have caused the students a great deal of distraction, making them spend most of their time on those sites, at t he expense of concentrating in class work (Fewkes & McCabe, 2012 p94). Methodology Quantitative method of research was applied in the study, where questionnaires were prepared and distributed to students. The questionnaires sought to find the time that each individual student spends on the social network sites, every day. Additionally, the questionnaires were formulated to collect information regarding which particular times students visited the social sites, either during the day or at night. The questionnaire also collected information regarding the nature of activities that students undertake on the social sites, with a view to understand whether the activities were communication or research oriented. A sample of 20 students was selected from each class undertaking various

Mass Media and the Impact of Violent Imagery on Teens Essay

Mass Media and the Impact of Violent Imagery on Teens - Essay Example Within this context, one must learn to see media as more than just entertainment. It is also a library, a channel of communication and a means of self-betterment. In other words, teenagers must be guided toward a better understanding of mass media specifically because its function in society is subjective and undefined. Teenagers who are guided toward a broad utilitarian view of the media are more apt to use it responsibly and are less likely to exhibit negative behavior than those who are exposed indiscriminately to violent video games, programmes and films. Those who criticise the culture of violence that unquestionably proceeds from films, television, the Internet and video games have quite successfully leveraged the impressionable vulnerability of youth. However, this ideological position, which is now widely accepted, underestimates the capacity of teenagers for independent thought and reason. ‘The systematic derision of children’s resistant capacities can be seen a s part of a broader conservative project to position the more contemporary and challenging aspects of the mass media, rather than other social factors, as the major threat to social stability today’ (Gerbner 1993, p. 139). This tendency to emphasize the negative end of the spectrum, which is apparently enhanced every time a young person perpetrates an act of violence, is the rallying cry of interest groups and politicians seeking to prove a point. These factions have benefited from the published opinions of scholars and theorists who warn against the terrible residual effect of violence in the media on young people. George Gerbner, a communications professor, and social scientist, wrote that while there have been bloodier eras in human history, none have been so filled with violent imagery as the present: ‘We are awash in a tide of violent representations the world has never seen. There is no escape from the massive invasion of colorful mayhem into the homes and cultura l life of ever larger areas of the world’ (Gerbner 1993, p. 139). Gerbner and others associate violence with power, the acquisition of which is of keen interest to people of all ages. For teenagers, exercising power in the ‘virtual’ world of video games is an elaboration of personal power that is otherwise beyond the reach of young people. Gerbner argues that violent behavior among young people should be studied from the standpoint of the ‘cradle-to-grave’ violent imagery with which young people are bombarded. It is not perceived, isolated causes of violent acts that should be considered, Gerbner claims, but other less apparent factors to which pervasive media violence has contributed. He holds that the uniquely modern phenomenon of media-produced violence has engendered unconscious, deeply rooted feelings of vulnerability and personal insecurity and that it is this, more than anything, that produces aggressive and violent behavior in teenagers (Gerb ner 1993, p. 139).

Portfolio Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Portfolio - Coursework Example I went to two wards. The first ward was the Medicin Ward, meant for elderly patients, and the second one was the surgery ward. I got to see a few patients and my particular interest was to know the kind of attention they were given by the clinical pharmacist. For instance, there was a 72-year old patient who was suffering from diabetes mellitus type one, hypercholesteremia and hypertension. In my presence, he narrated to the pharmacist what he felt. He only talked of shortness of breath. The lesson I learnt in most of the cases is that as a clinical pharmacist, one needs to know what a patient feels by asking them. He/she shouldn’t stop at that, but go ahead to carry out examinations to discover other things that the patient may be unknowingly suffering from. On the basis of both what the patient says and the results of the medical examination, a pharmacist establishes if there is any need to change medication or not to. My visit to the hospital pharmacy taught me yet another lesson; that there are certain kinds of patients, like alcoholics, that require counseling more than other forms of medical attention such as drug prescription. This is a way of helping them to get around the drinking habit. In the case of an alcoholic, it may also be necessary for a pharmacist to change drugs because the patient’s problem may have got more complicated than what it was before. Any such change of medicinal prescription must be based on laboratory examination results in all cases. This means that a clinical pharmacist must work very closely with a laboratory technician, because he depends on his results to be able to prescribe drugs for the patients. Constantly checking with results helps to track the patient’s medical history, and on the basis of whether they are doing any better or not, medicine can be changed or retained. It ensures that patients receive the best medical attention and eliminating chances of prescription

Individual Report- To be effective, leadership and management Coursework

Individual Report- To be effective, leadership and management development must be aligned to organisational strategy - Coursework Example dership and Management Development (LMD) must be aligned with organizational strategy, because effective leadership aids in developing an effective culture, so that the employees and leaders are able work in a collaborative manner to accomplish the organization goals. Through effective leadership and management of operations, complexities in an organisation can be mitigated and it is also possible to build a healthy relationship among the management and employees (Burgoyne & et. al., 2004). In this context, the coursework intends to explain about LMD along with the purposes and objectives of LMD. The effectiveness of LMD and its linkage to the performance as well as productivity of an organisation has been discussed. It also intends to explain about the association between talent management and management development cycle along with performance measurement as well as assessment. Explanation has also been made in relation to training and development activities, which are part of LMD. Leadership can be defined as a motivation factor through which leaders are able to motivate the junior employees to perform their tasks effectively to attain the organizational goals. LMD can be defined as one of the major strategies, which is essential for the development of organisational as well as leadership culture along with effective management of operations. Leadership and management are identified to be similar in terms of motivating the junior employees and both required people to work together to accomplish organizational goals (Kotter, 2015). But in certain cases, leadership and management are recognised to be different owing to the fact that leadership have the ability to change the attitude of subordinates and on the other hand, management only can change the behaviour of employees. In this context, LMD is required for the development of an organisation in terms of economic growth and business sustainability in the long run. LMD is a vital concept for enhancing

Case 11-1 Let There Be Light Lampshade Company Assignment

Case 11-1 Let There Be Light Lampshade Company - Assignment Example This is arrived at by dividing the volume of the packaged box by the volume of one intermodal container (Wood, & Murphy, 2011). The amount got is multiplied by the number of Shades that are contained in each package boxes which in this case for the style C is 10. Again it is should be noted that the considerations made here are after the looking into the possible cost benefit analysis in terms of full truck load and the less than truck load issues n the shipments. The total costs of delivering style A shades are $ 13,512. This is disintegrated into package cost which is $ 1632, the cost of manufacturing of the shades which is $ 10,880, the cost of transporting each container which stands at $ 1000. All these are encompassed into one whole shipment cost of $ 13, 512. The delivery costs for the style B shades stands at $ 21,885.60. This is split into package cost of 1305.60; there is also the cost of shades manufacture which stands at $ 19,580 and lastly the container shipment cost which is $ 1000 (Wood, & Murphy, 2011). Thirdly the delivery cost of the style C shades stands at $ 42,126.40. This is divided into three sets of costs which include; the package costs which stands at $ 1958.40, there is also the cost of manufacturing the shades which stands at $ 39168. The cost of shipment of the container follows with the tune of $ 1000. It is imperative to note that as these calculations are presented, there is high inculcation of the fact that there is a high level of opportunity cost that have been forgone in order to come up with such solutions. This entails the restriction on the amount of pound that should not be exceeded when transporting a shipment of container across the ocean. This has created the impediment for the use of the container especially the containers that will have the style C shades (Chopra, and Meindl, 2013). As it stands now, the limit has to be set on the amount of shades that should be transported for the

Blasphemous Movie on Prophet Muhammad Essay Example for Free

Blasphemous Movie on Prophet Muhammad Essay Abstract: Media is held responsible for the distorted and caricature image of Muslims and their most holy figure prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in the West. The movie â€Å"innocence of Muslims† is the most recent stereotype demonstration of them. People’s thinking on a matter, which they don’t have much knowledge about, is largely formed by what media determines, following an agenda setting theory. Islam has always been such issue in the West and Muslims have always been shown as fanatics, extremists and violent killers thus giving negative connotations to Islam. According to semiotic theory of sighs, every image or sign has a coded message, which is always decoded by different people in the same way by a common cognitive system. When the messages in the carton images of Prophet Muhammad published by a Danish magazine Jyllands-Posten in 2006 were decoded, there was an outcry in the Muslim world, which later developed a carton controversy around the global politics. This blasphemous movie of prophet Muhammad, another genre of visual communication, created the same political conflict between East and West and upheaval in the politics of Muslim countries too. The first part of my paper which is a media plan for Pakistani government to deal with the issue, analyses how Muslim world reacted to this movie and how a troublesome situation in all the Muslim countries is affecting the relations of Muslims’ with the U.S. Second part examines how western media, in the name of freedom of speech, has been deconstructing the bodies of Muslims as violent treacherous men and their religion as a danger to West. This message has been continuously shot into the heads of masses since ages analyzing magic bullet theory of media. Media effects theory can easily elucidate the results of such efforts. The article advocates media should consider ethical boundaries while discussing religions and religious entities. Key words: Muslims, stereotypes, prophet Muhammad , cartons, movies, western media, protests, politics. Background of the problem. Just a 14 minute trailer of the blasphemous movie â€Å"innocence of Muslims† caused a great upheaval in the Muslim world .the holiest figure of Islam  prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has been shown in this movie as a child molester, womanizer, drunk and a violent killer. This is not the first movie, there is a list of such movies against Muslims and Islam, e.g. Black Hawk Dawn, the kingdom, the Seige, fitna, which created havoc in Muslim world and we saw riots, violence, boycotts and deaths as a result of them. Later on, such trouble tic situations were always manipulated by politicians.(see links of movies trailers in references) This movie produced by Nakoula Basseley led Muslims protests in Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, India, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia and in many other Muslim countries including the killing of US ambassador to Libya in a violent attack by extremists. Obama and Clinton condemned this movie like many other governments of the countries, even Cindy Lee Garcia told The Hollywood Reporter that she and many actors were duped by filmmaker. â€Å"He has a price to pay, this Mr.Bacile, maybe not here on Earth, but he’ll stand before God one day for what he has done†. These protests were going on and â€Å"meanwhile a French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published the controversial cartoons of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) further inflaming Muslims’ sentiments†.(the Dawn 30 sep) Such protests were started in earlier September in Pakistan where hundreds of thousands from all walks of life recorded their protest against this movie and publication of carton images again. Many marched towards US embassy in Islamabad and many were killed and wounded in clash with police there. There were rallies of protests nationwide having more than 45,000 people earlier in September, 21 were killed and 229 wounded, more than 200 protesters set fire to effigy of Barack Obama in the capital of Pakistani administered Kashmir.(Aljazeerah 21sep). Pakistanis are demanding from the government to stop missions with US If they don’t ban this movie altogether, though it was banned later in many Muslim countries on a request from Washington house to goggle. Problem for Pakistani Government: In Pakistan election campaigns are going on and the political parties are engaging mob in violent attacks to make unrest in the country. By highlighting the weaknesses of the government and the wrong dealings of the issue by the government, the other political parties are trying to take advantage of the situation. Many banners in the rallies led by other  political parties demand from government to shut US and French missions in Pakistan which is definitely not possible. So there is a great need to make a well developed strategy through media to handle the situation as president is loosing the popularity because of many stories of the corruption of government and this issue of blasphemy is very complex to handle as the demand to ban this movie cannot be accomplished at once like Pakistani are wishing. so is the case with their demands to shut the missions with US. Objectives of the media plan: 1) Stop the people from violent protests by giving references from Islamic values teaching peace and tolerance. 2) Gain trust and confidence of the people as a responsible government by focusing what government has done to deal with the issue. 3 minimize the nation’s hatred for US and shift their focus from their demands of not to assist US in the war going on in the region. 4) Present your nation’s viewpoint on international forums regarding the issue. Key messages of the plan: 1) By quoting from the life of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), the people should be stopped from making violent protests and showing hatred to other countries as it is leaving a bad image of the nation and the Islam as well. Media should focus how prophet has taught Muslims to be tolerant and how he hated bloodshed and violence. So key message would be â€Å"Islam is a religion of tolerance not of violence†. 2) Key message to the west should be that we respect freedom of speech but reject freedom of hatred. This movie like other blasphemous movies and carton images of prophet Muhammad fall in the category of later. Such laws should be formulated to avoid these distasteful attempts leading to the unrest in the whole world. 3) Focus on requests of Obama’s government to goggle and you tube to ban the video and also tell your nation through the media the U.S effort to make the laws against such blasphemous acts in the future, so that their hatred towards America could be minimized as their demands to shut missions with America are not easy to be considered. Theoretical framework: Edward said’s famous work on the relations of east and west received much criticism that opens with a quotation by Karl Marx: ‘they cannot represent themselves, they must be represented’. So the west took as its responsibility to represent the east and civilize them by calling them uncivilized. Said unfolds the binary opposition as â€Å"self is familiar (Europe, the west, â€Å"us†) and the other is strange (the orient, the east, â€Å"them†) (said, 1978:43) Said asserts that European knowledge of the East goes arm in arm with expansionism, exploration and settlement. He argues that the Orient is constructed and represented in the binary opposition against the Occident, as the Other. In many respects, the Orient is seen by European values, assumptions, and cultural codes and as the Occidents other. He criticizes the way that the Occident views the Orient by her own culturally-determined and biased and limited historical perspectives.(Moosavinia, Niazi Ghaforian,2011) The universal declaration of Human Rights states â€Å"everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression† (United Nations 1948). Some people could argue that they have boundless rights to mock other people’s religious believes including their holy books and holy figures. In the name of freedom of speech, 12 cartoons of Muslims Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)were published by a Danish magazine. The one most debated showed prophet Muhammad as having a bomb in the cloth over his head. (Bond B, 2007) talks about Danish media landscape as â€Å"It is fair to say that the factual social vulnerability, the stereotyping, and the division between â€Å"them† and â€Å"us† in the news media, has created a very hostile rhetoric against visible foreigners and particularly Muslims.â €  He also talks about Danish media representations of Muslim women. â€Å"Appearing in the 1970s the stereotype of minority women as oppressed and battered was prominent from the late 1990s to early 2000s. The  stereotype of oppressed minority women was emphasized by televised pictures of veiled women illustrating many stories about refugees and other immigrants. Another stereotype since the 1970s was the image of immigrant men as hypersexual threats to women† (Green L, Aly A, 2011) state in their research that â€Å"there was some resentment voiced by Muslim respondents in interviews and focus groups that the media did not fully represent the diversity of Muslims and instead perpetuated stereotypes of Muslims: ‘the ugly Muslim male’ and ‘the oppressed Muslim female’. This mediated construction of Muslims was thought to provide an influential pathway for the broader community’s understanding of Muslims.† Reporting on Islam has been a mandatory part of western media agenda. A research about agenda of German media concludes as following. In summarizing the results, it can be said that in non-fictional formats such as magazines, talk shows, documentaries and reportages over 80% of the content reproduces an image of Islam that portrays this religion as a problem and a danger for politics and society. This image of Islam in the non-fictional formats of ARD and ZDF is an exaggerated image of violence and conflict, conveying the impression that Islam is less a religion than a political and social ideology that collides with the morality and values of the West. (Richter C, Hafez K, 2009) Talking about the publication of caricature images of Muslims’ holiest figure of Muslims prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), one can solemnly say that visuals have strong power of global communication. The analysis of one of the images is as following. The turban bomb could also be interpreted as a symbolic depiction of a globe and the Arabic inscription would thus be located in the Middle East. The ideological threat of Islam is translated into a fanaticized face, meant to depict the prophet of Islam, and also the non-communicative attitude of his followers, who are focused on destruction instead of dialogue. This was one of the most criticized of the 12 cartoons, presumably because of its hostile depiction of the prophet, and because of the implication that all Muslims are potentially dangerous suicide-bombers. (Mà ¼ller M Ãâ€"zcan E, Seizov O, 2009). The examination of over 900 Hollywood movies by Jack Shaheen (2001) may be regarded as a cornerstone in Orientalism canon where he argued how the Hollywood film genre has stereotyped the Arab society by representing them  as greedy precarious men and subjugated women. Such stereotyped presentation paves a way in justification of American foreign policy with the Middle East. The continued production and successes of such movies as Black Hawk Down, The Kingdom and The Siege cannot be overlooked in light of the power struggles resulting from the ‘War on Terror’ and hegemonic representations of Muslim men and women in a variety of Western Media. The visual narrative in The Kingdom—with its deployment of the only American female main character, Janet Mayes, whose body was scripted to represent essential differences between white and brown women—illuminates imperialist discourses, with Muslim bodies becoming the battleground upon which such discourses are both visually and literally being fought. It was argued that a critical engagement with Hollywood cinema is necessary to unveil the complex ways in which Muslim bodies are scripted as dangerous, pre-modern and uncivilized in U.S popular culture. (Michelle Aguayo, 2009) Discussion: The concept of binary opposition given by Edward said (1978) op,cit. as â€Å"us† and the â€Å"Others† is applicable to present scenario easily, western media has always presented the eastern countries specially Muslim countries as â€Å"others† uncivilized, savages, brutal, untamed and western countries as â€Å"us† civilized, educated, tamed and rational. Thinking of Agenda setting approach, I can easily relate how western media has set an agenda against Muslims by presenting them always as violent, precarious, killers and women as oppressed. While talking about Danish media landscape, there were riots, protests, boycotts, deaths in Islamic world including the burning of Danish embassies in Syria and Egypt in response to publication of caricature images of prophet Muhammad. But the western media proved so stubborn that 143 newspapers in 56 countries of West re –published the images again after sometime. To mock Muslims’ holy figure, their holy book and to show Muslims stereotype was included in the common agenda of western media. Semiotic theory helps understanding the process of carrying meanings by those images as semiotics refers to Modality, which is a specific way to encode the information for presentation to people and the meaning, is conceived by people as an effect of it. A list of sign types is considered in such presentations like writing, symbol, color, map, index, graph etc. The different people decode all the signs in the same way by a common cognitive  system according to psychology of perception; this concept elucidates how all people about prophet as a terrorist decoded negative messages in such images of prophet Muhammad. The movie â€Å"Innocence of Muslims† brought another catastrophe in the hearts of Muslims that presented prophet Muhammad as a womanizer, child abuser, homosexual and a violent killer. The purpose of this low quality picture is just to mock and insult Islam and prophet Muhammad and the producer gave as many negative attributes to Prophet Muhammad as he could. Agenda setting approach of media can be helpful in understanding the western agenda of presenting Muslims and Islam as dangerous men and violent religion respectively. Another anti-Islamic movie â€Å"fitna† made by a Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, where Quranic versus are shown alongside the scenes of terrorism. Those versus, in reality, are about the wars going on in that era of fourteen hundred years back but without giving the actual context those versus are misrepresented to show that Quran teaches Muslims to be violent killer. And this proved to be another extreme distortion of Islam. (See link in references). The production of such movies by Hollywood confirms common western agenda to present Muslims stereotypes. All these negative connotations continuously given to Islam and Muslims had a power to shape the thinking of people about Muslims as terrorists, that is also explained by Magic Bullet theory that messages by media are so powerful, and act as a bullet shot into the heads of people by shaping the thoughts of people in a magical way. So the people who don’t know much about Islam and Muslims mostly get Muslims as terrorists. Western media has cast a spell over the people by continuous shots of negativity into their heads. Media effects theory elucidates easily such stereotype representations of Muslims as we can see isolation of Muslims in the world and negative concepts of them in the eyes of common people in the west. People in the West always think of Muslims as extremists, the feelings of hatred and fear against Muslims is prevailing in the western society, which is the most visible effect of media’s stereotype presentations. Conclusion: Whenever media takes such blasphemous steps, they take to riots, protest and upheaval in Muslim countries, which may also lead to global political conflicts sometimes. The biased approach to one religion or to one  particular group of people is surely an attempt to divide the world population into the boundaries of pointless hatred. Media should take great care while talking about religion and religious entities. It should consider some ethical limits while talking negative about Islam as it hurts the feelings of almost 2 billion people in the world. references http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR0Vj-8dqTMfeature=fvsr http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0ET9qez-Kshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HLNawUg_ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUJ6cxWdZwA3s Pakistan hit by anti-Islamic video protests. (2012, September21). Aljazeerah Said,Edward W. (1978). Orientalism. New York. Penguin Moosavinia, S. R., Niazi, N. N., Ghaforian, A. (2011). Edward Saids Orientalism and the Study of the Self and the Other in Orwells Burmese Days. Studies In Literature Language, 2(1), 103-113. Bonde,B. (2007). How 12 Cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed were brought to Trigger an International Conflict. NORDICOM Review, 28(1), 33-48 Green, L., Aly, A. (2011). How Australian Muslims Construct Western Fear of the Muslim Other. At The Interface / Probing The Boundaries, 7765-90 Richter C, Hafez K. The image of Islam in German public service television programmes. Journal Of Arab Muslim Media Research [serial on the Internet]. (2009, Dec), [cited October 23, 2012]; 2(3): 169-181. Available from: Communication Mass Media Complete. Mà ¼ller, M. G., Ãâ€"zcan, E., Seizov, O. (2009). Dangerous Depictions: A Visual Case Study of Contemporary Cartoon Controversies. Popular Communication, 7(1), 28-39. doi:10.1080/15405700802598361 Shaheen, Jack. (2001). Reel bad Arabs. New York: Olive Branch Press Aguayo, M. (2009). Representations of Muslim Bodies in The Kingdom: Deconstructing Discourses in Hollywood. Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition, 2(2), 41-56.

A leadership in healthcare

A leadership in healthcare Introduction Effective leadership is essential in health care organisations as in other organisations. It is necessary for driving innovation, effective patient care, patient safety, improving working within clinical teams, sorting out issues within emergency context and other aspects necessary for effective and efficient running of healthcare organisations. Transformational leadership has often been prescribed as the ‘gold standard of healthcare leadership(Gopee and Galloway 2009).This essay sets out to: briefly discuss the concept of leadership; highlight why leadership is important in healthcare; make a distinction between the closely-related concepts of leadership and management; briefly highlight how power relates to leadership; describe some leadership approaches applicable within the context of healthcare organisations; describe leadership styles visible in healthcare; present a case study set in a teaching hospital practice setting in Africa ; critically assess the leadership approaches operating within the setting and its effect on organisational performance ;and make recommendations on improving leadership practice within the specified setting. What is leadership? Leadership can be defined as â€Å"the ability of an individual to influence a group of people to achieve a goal(Bryman 1992).It is also noted that ‘leadership can have four possible meanings, namely: the activity of leading; the body of people who lead a group; the status of the leader; and the ability to lead'(Gopee and Galloway 2009). Kouzes and Posner (2007) suggest some characteristics of an effective leader namely to: be more effective in meeting job-related demands; be more successful in representing their units in upper management; create higher performing teams; foster renewed loyalty and commitment; increase motivational levels and willingness to work hard; and possess high degree of personal integrity. Why leadership in healthcare? Effective leadership and management has been found to contribute to efficiency of health care services, performance (McColl-Kennedy and Anderson 2002) and satisfaction of staff employed within them.(Bradley and Alimo-Metcalfe 2008) researched the causal relationship between leadership behaviours and the performance and productivity of staff and found that ‘engaging leadership improved employee engagement and performance. (Morrison, Jones et al. 1997) studied the relationship between leadership style, empowerment, and job satisfaction on nursing staff at a regional medical centre. They used Basss Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to measure leadership style, items from Spreitzers Psychological Empowerment instrument to measure empowerment, and the Warr, Cook, and Walls job satisfaction questionnaire to measure job satisfaction. The authors found that both transformational and transactional leadership were positively associated with job satisfaction. Some other researchers reported that good leadership skills impacted on patient safety and quality of care (Corrigan, Lickey et al. 2000; Firth-Cozens and Mowbray 2001; Mohr, Abelson et al. 2002).Furthermore, leadership skills are essential in the world of public health policy and leadership is one of the core competencies required of public health trainees(Faculty of Public Health 2010). Leadership versus management Relevant to this discourse is making a distinction between leadership and management. They are two similar but distinct concepts. Management is seen as seeking order and maintaining stability while leadership is seen as seeking adaptive and constructive change. Leadership in the healthcare context aims to influence practitioners towards the achievement of the common goal of quality patient care. On the other hand, management as a process coordinates and directs the activities of an organisation to ensure it achieves its set objectives. Management ensures healthcare resources (human such as doctors, nurses and clerical staff and non-human resources like medical devices and consumables) are utilised in an efficient way whilst delivering effective healthcare service(Gopee and Galloway 2009). However, leadership is known to be complementary to management (Kotter 1999; Zaleznik 2004). Leadership theories and styles in healthcare A number of theoretical leadership approaches can be applied within healthcare. However, not all aspects fit in perfectly into healthcare, and thus some adaptation may be required. Transformational leadership Transformational leadership is a widely advocated approach for healthcare. Transformational leadership is one of the contemporary leadership approaches that are concerned with how an individual influences others in a group in other to achieve a common goal. Transformational leaders seek to accomplish greater pursuits within an organisation by inspiring other members of the group to share their vision for the organisation. Transformational leaders motivate and raise the morality of their followers and help them reach their fullest potential. Mohandas Gandhi Nelson Mandela have been cited as transformational leaders(Northouse 2007). In an organisational context, a transformational leader is one who attempts to change the organisations values in order to portray a standard of fairness and justice while in the process emerging with a better set of moral values. Transformational leadership is about the collective good of an organisation; it is expected to bring about organisational change. It aims to inspire commitment to the organisations vision and ideals. In healthcare, teams of health care professionals are inspired to achieve the highest quality of patient care irrespective of limiting situations (Gopee and Galloway 2009). The concept of transformational approach of leadership was popularised by the political sociologist, leadership expert, and presidential biographer- James Macgregor Burns in his seminal work Leadership written in 1978. In this book, he described the leadership styles of some political leaders. Bernard Bass widely cited in leadership literature built on the work of Burns and argued that leadership is an influence process which motivates followers to perform above their expected output by ‘raising the followers level of consciousness about the importance and values of the shared goals, operating beyond their self-interests and addressing higher level needs'(Bass 1985). He also suggested that transformational and transactional leadership models where a continuum rather than mutually exclusive entities. Four qualities or behavioural have been widely cited as the leadership factors which are an integral part of transformational leadership- the 4 IS(Bass 1985; Avolio, Waldman et al. 1991) namely: idealised influence-describes the ability of the leader to act as role model s whose followers emulate. This factor is sometimes mentioned as being the same as charisma; inspirational motivation-the ability to inspire the members of the group to become integrated with the vision of the organisation while transcending their own self-interest ; intellectual stimulation-the stimulation of creativity and innovation in the followers so that they are able to discover and develop new ways of sorting out issues within the organisation as they arise; and individualised consideration-portrays the need for leaders to recognise the strength and weakness of each member of the group foster on the development of followers and help each in the achievement of goals through personal development. Transactional leadership, on the other hand, is one based on reward for performance. A transactional leader is described by (Bass 1985)as one who prefers a leader-member exchange relationship, in which the leader meets the needs of the followers in exchange for meeting basic expectations. In essence, a transactional leader has a penchant for avoiding risks and is able to build confidence in subordinates to allow them to achieve goals. The transactional leadership construct has three components: Contingent reward -clarifies what is expected from followers and what they will receive if they meet expectations. Active management by exception- focuses on monitoring tasks and arising problems and correcting these to maintain current performance. Passive -Avoidant Leadership-reacts only after problems become serious and often avoids decision-making(Avolio, Bass et al. 1999). Connective leadership is a theory based on the premise that establishing alliance with other organisations via networking is essential to the success of an organisation. Collaboration between different clinical teams within a hospital and with other health care organisations and service industry exemplifies this.(Klakovich 1994) suggests that ‘empowering staff at all levels facilitates the collaboration and synergism needed in the reformed health care environment of the future. Distributed leadership Clinical leadership Leading change in the University College Hospital Ibadan: a failed effort in transformation? Healthcare in Nigeria is faced with enormous challenges. The University College Hospital Ibadan was established in 1948 is the foremost tertiary hospital in Nigeria. It is basically organised as a public sector organisation whose primary goal is to provide the best available healthcare service in the western region and the country as a whole. Funding is from the Federal Government and its activities are regulated by the Federal Ministry of Health which is also responsible for the implementing healthcare policies. However, a private section of the hospital was established recently modelling the prevalence of internal markets currently prevailing within healthcare. Currently, the University College Hospital produces 1 in every 5 physician in the nation. It was initially commissioned with 500 bed spaces but has now grown to a 850 bed hospital. The current average bed occupancy ranges from 60-70%. The hospital board of management comprises: the Chairman the Chief Medical Director; the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee; the Secretary of the Board; representatives of public interest; representative of the Nigerian Medical Association; representative of the State Government; representative of the University of Ibadan Senate; representative of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan; and the Provost of the College of Medicine. The organisation has three principal officers but the day -to -day running of the hospital falls on the Chief Medical Director who demonstrates some attributes of transformational leadership in order to bring about change. Vision ‘To be the flagship tertiary health care institution in theWest Africasub-region, offering world-class training, research and services, and the first choice for seeking specialist health care in a conducive atmosphere, renowned for a culture of continuing and compassionate care'(University College Hospital Ibadan 2009). Mission Statement ‘Rendering excellent, prompt, affordable, and accessible health care in an environment that promotes hope and dignity, irrespective of status, and developing high quality health personnel in an atmosphere that stimulates excellent and relevant research. (University College Hospital Ibadan 2009). The Chief Medical Director is an assigned leader-one whose leadership is based on formal position and legitimate authority. His appointment by the Federal Government in 2003 was proposed to be vital contribute to the improvement of the hospital. A trained obstetrician, he participates actively in the care of pregnant women. With increasing satisfaction of healthcare staff, patient satisfaction rates began increase. A new magnetic resonance imaging, centre, cancer treatment and research centre.new innovationsthe bank to collect..Satellite pharmacies were established in order to reduce the time and effort spent by staff in getting patient medications.staff development through exchange programmes, establishment of day care centres.shows his entrepreneurial qualities. Despite it all, mortality rates remain high, medical errors are frequent, post operative patients developed infections frequently and physicians were verbally and physically abused by patient relatives. Private patients get more attention from the junior doctors and other specialist consultants. It has now been found wanting in serving the needs of the local population. Repeated nurses strike, junior workers strike.. Despite recognition that transformational leadership has some positive benefits, it is particularly difficult to act out within public services organizations Frederickson 1996 cited in (Currie 2005).Though with its own merits, the view that transformational leadership is the solution for healthcare leadership has been criticised. While there are advantages of using the transformational approach, it is not a universal panacea. Transformational leadership alone cannot account for effective outcomes in this health care organisation. Other aspects like of organisational behaviour such as management practices, knowledge management, and organisational culture are also key determinants. A US study of 370 hospitals explored the relationship between leadership, quality and knowledge management and found that transformational leadership is fully mediated by knowledge responsiveness in its effect on organisational performance (Gowen, Henagan et al. 2009). Effective knowledge management is thus strong confounder in the relationship between leadership and organisational performance. In relation to organisational culture, there is also a link between hospital and ward culture with patient outcomes. Research has shown that hospitals with a strong hand-washing policy and practice recorded fewer infections. Transformational leadership, while focusing on change, may not be in consonance with performance management needed for accountability in healthcare(Firth-Cozens and Mowbray 2001). The context in which a leadership style operates is also a key determinant on outcome irrespective of leadership style. Studies have shown the relationship physician working hours, stress, and burnout on quality of care and patient outcomes (Firth-Cozens and Cording 2004; Landrigan, Rothschild et al. 2004).Tackling job stress is thus a key avenue for improving quality of care. The Chief Medical Director needs to understand the complexity within which healthcare is delivered and translate it to his practice setting rather than trying to adopt a prescribed process. Conclusion This essay has highlighted a number of leadership theories, skills, style leadership in healthcare has been assessed. There is no perfect style or approach to leadership and healthcare organisations pose a complex setting. Several approaches may operate simultaneously. Context, political environment and social factors will affect leadership styles and approach. Clarifying the situation of a practise and flexibility is very important. Numerous challenges face healthcare organisations in Nigeria. The ability to deliver safe, effective, high quality care within organisations with the right cultures, the best systems, and the most highly skilled and motivated work forces will be the key to meeting this challenge. Conflicts still exist as to what constitutes good practice in leadership and there is no perfect set of prescriptions for effective leadership. All the existing theories merely provide a framework for which practise can be based. Healthcare organisations are a complex setting and to achieve efficiency and effectiveness, healthcare leaders need to be very flexible in their leadership. The University College Hospital should adopt an blend of different theories and styles in practice. Recommendations Leadership can be taught (Parks 2005)and improved through organising leadership development programme. It is also noted that leadership development programmes improved efficiency and quality in healthcare(McAlearney 2008). Top management and clinical staff can take these.(Kotter 1990) suggests that organisations can nurture and ‘grow their own leaders while adapting to constant changes(Parks 2005) There appears a need for leadership approaches that are sensitive to a context in which there are significant professional and moral concerns graeme. Avolio, B. J., B. M. Bass, et al. (1999). â€Å"Re-examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire.† Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 72: 441-462. Avolio, B. J., D. A. Waldman, et al. (1991). â€Å"Leading in the 1990s:The Four Is of Transformational Leadership.† Journal of European Industrial Training 15(4): 9-16. Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York, The Free Press. Bradley, M. and B. Alimo-Metcalfe (2008). â€Å"Best actors in a supporting role: managers who are engaged with their staff create well-being and better care..† Health Service Journal. No 6105(8 May): pp28-29. Bryman, A. (1992). Charisma and leadership in organizations. Newbury Park, Sage Publications. Corrigan, P. W., S. E. Lickey, et al. (2000). â€Å"Mental Health Team Leadership and Consumers Satisfaction and Quality of Life.† Psychiatric Services 51(6): 781-785. Currie, G., Boyett, I., Suhomlinova, O. (2005). â€Å"Transformational leadership in the public sector: A panacea for organisational ills?.† Public Administration 83 265-96 Faculty of Public Health. (2010). â€Å"Key Area 4: Strategic leadership and collaborative working for health.† Retrieved 24 Jan, 2010, from http://www.fph.org.uk/training/curriculum/learning_outcomes_framework/KA4.asp. Firth-Cozens, J. and H. Cording (2004). â€Å"What matters more in patient care? Giving doctors shorter hours of work or a good nights sleep?† Quality and Safety in Health Care 13(3): 165-166. Firth-Cozens, J. and D. Mowbray (2001). â€Å"Leadership and the quality of care.† Quality in Health Care 10(suppl 2): ii3-ii7. Gopee, N. and J. Galloway (2009). Leadership and Management in Healthcare. London, Sage Publications Ltd. Gowen, C., S. Henagan, et al. (2009). â€Å"Knowledge management as a mediator for the efficacy of transformational leadership and quality management initiatives in U.S. health care † Health Care Management Review 34(2): 1. Klakovich, M. D. (1994). â€Å"Connective leadership for the 21st century: a historical perspective and future directions.† ANS. Advances in Nursing Science 16(4): 42-54. Kotter, J. P. (1990). ‘What leaders really do. Management and organisational behaviour L. J. Mullins, Financial Times Prentice Hall Kotter, J. P. (1999). John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do Boston, Harvard Business School Press. Landrigan, C. P., J. M. Rothschild, et al. (2004). â€Å"Effect of reducing interns work hours on serious medical errors in intensive care units.† New England Journal of Medicine 351(18): 1838-48. McAlearney, A. S. (2008). â€Å"Using leadership development programs to improve quality and efficiency in healthcare.† Journal of Healthcare Management(Sept-Oct.). McColl-Kennedy, J. R. and R. D. Anderson (2002). â€Å"Impact of leadership style and emotions on subordinate performance.† The Leadership quarterly 13(5): 545-559. Mohr, J. J., H. T. Abelson, et al. (2002). â€Å"Creating Effective Leadership for Improving Patient Safety.† Quality Management in Healthcare 11(1): 69-78. Morrison, R. S., L. Jones, et al. (1997). â€Å"The Relation Between Leadership Style and Empowerment on Job Satisfaction of Nurses.† Journal of Nursing Administration 27(5): 27-34. Northouse, P. G. (2007). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications Inc. Parks, S. D. (2005). Leadership can be taught: a bold approach for a complex world. University College Hospital Ibadan. (2009). â€Å"UCH Homepage.† Retrieved 16 Jan, 2009, from http://www.uch-ibadan.org/. Zaleznik, A. (2004). â€Å"Managers and leaders: are they different?† Clin Leadersh Manag Rev 18(3): 171-7.

The Greek Economy :: essays research papers fc

The Greek Economy Agriculture The Greek economy depends a lot on agriculture. One quarter of the Greek workforce is engaged in farming, and agriculture constitutes about 15% of the domestic production. Not much attention has been drawn on the agricultural sector of the economy. The farms are pretty small, the division of inheriting land has reduced the average size to 3,4 hectares (8 acres) and it is really difficult to use mechanised equipment efficiently. Yields are also low due to the dryness and erosion of the soil. Let's take a look at the yearly output of some major crops: tobacco 142000, wheat 2.6 million, tomatoes 1.9 million, oranges 780000, corn 2.1 million, sugar beet 1.9 million, grapes 1.6 million, olives 1.5 million, potatoes 850000 and cotton 222000. Livestock included some 10.8 million sheep, 3.5 million goats, 800000 head of cattle, 31 million poultry and 1.2 million pigs. Forestry and Fishing The Greek government owns the two-thirds of the forestland and has materialised her plans i.e. to replace the trees that were destroyed during World War II. About 2.9 million cu m of timber were annually cut in the late 80's and approximately the 75% of the harvest was hardwood. Fish exports are limited because of the widespread consumption of fish products within Greece. However in recent years thousands of tons of fish are exported each year, due to the ever increasing development of fish farms in the country. In the late 80's the annual catch totalled 135000 tons, from which 80% was consumed within Greece. Sponges are the main marine product exported. Mining Mining is of little importance to the Greek economy. We should mention though the annual output of minerals in tons: bauxite 2.3 million, iron ore 1.3 million and magnesite 884400. Also, about 279200 cu m of marble were quarried. Petroleum, salt, chromium, silver, zinc were also produced. Manufacturing Approximately one fifth of the Greek workforce is engaged in manufacturing, which contributes 18% of the annual gross production. The manufactured products include: food, beverages, tobacco, textiles, clothing, chemicals, cement and wine. Athens is the manufacturing center of Greece. Currency and Banking The national currency of Greece is drachma. The central banking institution is the Bank of Greece. The biggest banks of Greece are the National Bank of Greece, with 470 domestic branches and the Agricultural Bank of Greece with 420 branches. Foreign Trade Generally Greece spends each year much more on imports than it receives from exports. This "imbalance" is offset to a certain extent by tourist revenues and by remittances from Greeks living abroad. In the 80's the imports totalled 3 trillion drachmas and exports earned 1.5 trillion drachmas.

Type of Genre :: essays research papers

Type of genre and its importance by "Briton Hammon" Briton Hammon's captivity narrative was a well-recognized African American prose text that was published in North America. His life has been limited to the information that is within his narrative. While reading through his prose it is still undetermined as to whether he was a servant or a slave. In his narrative he has tried to explain a life of a man of African decent and how he gets along with the public sphere and made use of the opportunities he was given. Hammon mainly discussed the issue of his suffering while he was in captivity. In the introduction he explains him and other people were brought to the shore and were suddenly attack by sixty Native Americans, "†¦but on advancing yet nearer, we found them, to our Surprize, to be Indians of which there were Sixty; being now so near them we could not possibly make our Escape." (pg 1005) He says as soon as they figured out who these people were it was already too late to escape. He also says that all their arms and necessary items were taken away from them. While reading along his narrative, Hammon describes how these Indian caused an environment of terror among these people, and how he tried to escape from these savages and was once again trapped with them. Soon he escaped from these villains by getting aboard a Spanish schooner, later he was imprisoned again in a dungeon for four years in Spain because he refused to serve their ships. After escaping that imprisonmen t Hammon worked in Cuba, which lead to his opportunity to go back to London. As said before, Hammon's life is limited to the information contained within the narrative. He had spent thirteen years of his life in captivity. Hammon's narrative is one of the best examples of genre. He chose to write a narrative so that his audience thoroughly understand the hardships that he went through while being an African decent and a captive. According to his writing he was liked were ever he went as a prisoner, which forced the Indians to request an appeal for his relief, "†¦[the Captain] came to the Prison, and ask'd the Keeper if he might see me; upon his Request I was brought out of the Dungeon†¦intercede with the Governor for my Relief†¦and the next Day the Governor sent an order to release me.

Conservation of Water Essay

Nothing could be truer and telling than the fact that water is the elixir of life. Conservation of water is as much essential as preserving our flora and fauna and also protecting our heritage. With the highly disturbing reports of our water sources drying up or depleting in nature and nuance, it is time that we sat up and gave a serious thought and consideration to measures that could help save water and conserve it for use, both for the present and future generations. There is no denying that with the fast changing patterns of life, the demand for water is going to increase, both for domestic and non-domestic purposes. Unless some prompt and purposeful measures are taken to save and conserve water, the day would not be far away when we might be asked to face the music for want of adequate and regular supply of water, for domestic, agricultural, industrial and many other usages. The problem of depleting water sources is real and therefore the measures to meet the challenge should be equally robust and realistic. Knowledgeable people visualise the solution in traditional wisdom and modern technology. Just as the subject of environmental studies is being taught at different levels of school and college education, similarly the subject of water (how to avoid its wastage and conserve it) should be included in school curriculum. If students, in particular, and the public, in general, are made aware how to use water prudently and conserve every drop, we can face the dilemma of scarce water resources and increasing demand for this precious liquid. With modern technology at our disposal, waste-water from cities and industry should be recycled. A comprehensive water policy that addresses the issues related to water resources, water-table going down in certain States, crop pattern or diversification ensuring linkages with sectors like energy, forestry and agriculture, should be drawn up. Last but not least is the crying need to work in harmony with nature and give back what we take. After all the havoc that we have done to nature, the latter is still benign and bountiful. To make the best use of nature’s benevolence, all users of water in India are required to know that discretion is the better part of valor and prudence is the panacea for many a man-made mess.

Compare the use of language of the two editorials Essay

Compare the use of language in the two editorials, considering in particular how far the fact that they were written at different times is reflected in the language of the two texts The two texts are extremely contrasting in their use of language and it is apparent from the dates that they were written as to why this is the case. The first editorial was published in The Daily Mirror (broadsheet) in 1912 and is based upon the fatal disaster of the Titanic. The second editorial was printed in The Sun (tabloid) in 1999 and comments about the train wreck that occurred in the channel tunnel. The graphological features of each text are quite differing, even though they both have the discourse structure of an editorial. The Titanic article’s text is split unevenly into five conjoined, long paragraphs and is of a slightly smaller font, yet also features significantly more words, indicating a more sophisticated reader. In comparison the article on the train accident has very little text and features each sentence to be a separate paragraph, replicating the format of a list/bullet points. This makes the text much more accessible to the reader as it can appeal to a wider range of intellects and age groups when considering audience. The article on the Titanic’s only typographical variation of font is the bold, capitalised and center-underlined title â€Å"one touch of nature† and also the dropped capital of â€Å"Draughtsmen† to begin the editorial, showing that the piece is quite old fashioned in style as a dropped capital is a very traditional technique that dates back to monastery writing. The article in The Sun however portrays a lot more typographical variation as the beginning, middle and end sentences/words are in a bolded, underlined font and the â€Å"Why† for each question as well as the title â€Å"The sun says† and the â€Å"The† to begin the article are also all bolded and capitalised to add emphasis and focus importance and attention. There is also an italicised sentence that claims â€Å"this is clearly not true†, this has most likely been italicised to stress the point of persuasion into agreeing with The Sun’s overall opinion, as this is not a fact so it has to be empathised with for it to gain status as a reputable opinion. The use of ‘Chunnel’ at the end of The Sun’s article, is a blend word made up of the two words ‘channel’ and ‘tunnel’, indicating a more modern, up to date audience. The Daily Mirror article is extremely descriptive and is much more formal in tone, imitating he narrative of a story as it proceeds in chronological order, referring to the disaster in a poetic manner whilst using long complex and compound sentences to engage the reader and enhance escapism, leading the reader to feel as if they were actually present at the time as they are taken through this journey. Each sentence is particularly well crafted and precise to also further exemplify that of a story, as there is no spontaneity and the words put in place to capture emotion have been very well structured and created. The ‘story’ is split into four stages of the journey, the first being the planning of the ship, the second the actual building of it, the third the launching of the Titanic and the fourth the sinking. Even though the ‘sinking’ of the Titanic is supposed to be the main topic of the article as it is the end, shocking result, there is no indication of this when reading through the piece and only after having read the entire article does the title ‘one touch of nature’ seem to fit. This may be for overall impact and to embody the ‘story’ like structure as without preconceptions the reader would not know that this was to be the outcome. There is a technique of parallelism in the first article which makes up the second paragraph with the sentence ‘work of the disciplined hand was to follow labour of directing mind’ creating a balanced sentence. There is also the literary use of opposites (antithesis) supporting the notion that the text is well crafted with the sentence ‘A permanent population is appointed to live here, with the changing passengers ready to begin the voyage†¦ ‘ the opposite words being ‘permanent’ and ‘changing’ as they juxtapose each other. The vocabulary used is extremely archaic in nature e. g. ‘At once, with formidable din of ringing blow’ and this is reinforced throughout with the high detail of description, whereas in The Sun (the more recent dated newspaper article) it is shown that the main focus is on the actual matter at hand and that becomes the full body of the text, there is very little description to aid it and the purpose and subject is exploited promptly. The article from The Sun is extremely critical of the fire in the Channel Tunnel and seeks to point blame, acting as if it was someone’s fault whereas in the article on the Titanic, the fault seems to be ‘our stepmother nature’ of whom is a natural occurrence so no blame can physically be put in place. The Sun appears to put the blame on everything but nature – ‘The train’, ‘Eurotunnel’, ‘the driver and train chief’, ‘the staff in general’ and ‘the sophisticated ventilation system’. The Sun’s article is based upon a ‘near disaster’ where no one died or came to any immediate harm and it acknowledges this within the article ‘happily, everyone survived – but it could all have been so different. ‘ Yet the overall air of it personifies an ‘angry/heated’ tone. Whereas, in the article based on the Titanic, even though masses of people died, there was no blame directed and it was merely accepted as ‘nature’s doing’. However, this greatly reflects on the period that the article was written as recently, people have been trying to find blame for this great disaster and making assumptions of poor craftsmanship etc, so maybe at the time that the article was published (1912) people were less ready to point blame and more accepting of what they were told. The Sun seems to demand answers through rhetorical questions (e. g. the constant and bolded use of ‘why’ to highlight six main questions, taking a very direct approach and using a major public campaigning aspect) and proceeds to group the reader into asking these questions themselves through its high use of persuasion and collectives. For example, ‘the one thing everyone feared†¦ But we were assured†¦ ‘, ‘the public deserves†¦ ‘, all of these sentences are persuading and trying to engage the reader through the use of possessive pronouns ‘we’, ‘our’ and collectives ‘everyone’ and even commenting that the public ‘deserves’ an explanation, taking an extremely personal yet quite informal tone to connect with the reader and attach with their apparent views. The opening, second heading ‘Black Hole’ is a pun/metaphor which also ends the article and shows how newspaper headlines are written at this present time (they have to be catchy, short and are usually in some form of a pun) as opposed to when The Daily Mirror article was written as the heading mimics a story like title. Overall, the language and techniques used in each editorial greatly highlight and portray their differing published times and although their subjects are quite similar, the portrayal of each is very different through numerous aspects of language and lexical change.

Philippine Gaming Industry

Despite the surge of Pagcor income that has succeeded immensely in supporting the cash-strapped government, several lawmakers, nongovernment organizations and especially the religious sector are still firmly against government engaging in the business of operating casinos. Edward King, spokesman for Pagcor chairman Efraim Genuino, told The Manila Times that first and foremost, one thing that people should remember is that Pagcor is a creation of law. Pagcor, a government-owned and controlled corporation was established to regulate all games of chance in the Philippines. It was born in 1976, created by then-President Marcos to oversee the operation of gaming casinos, to generate funds for the government’s developmental projects and to help curb illegal gambling. An unaudited Pagcor report shows that Pagcor, â€Å"a vital arm of the government in nation building, â€Å" netted P25. 4 billion in income making it one of the biggest earners for 2006. † So is Pagcor a proof that casinos and legalized gaming can be a valuable source of government funding and an effective engine for national development? â€Å"We are created by law, we are just following what the law orders us to do. It is not a question that is up to us to decide. We must obey the law,† King said. Under the law, he explained, Pagcor is required to run casinos. He said that the most important thing about the government running casinos is that all funds that generated from Pagcor goes back to the government â€Å"100 percent. † â€Å"We are operating the casinos but here is where everything lies: 100 percent of the income that we generate goes back to the government,† King said. The state-run gaming firm surpassed its earlier record-breaking P21. 9-billion total annual income in 2004 and breached its target income of P23. 1 billion for 2005. It surpassed the P24. 5 billion target for 2006 as well. Pagcor’s 2005 total income of P23. 4 billion was 6. 8 percent higher than the P21. 9 billion it posted a year before. The issue of privatizing Pagcor is also very controversial, with several lawmakers pushing for it and even more congressmen against it. King said that while the act can be considered purely from the noble and idealistic viewpoint that government should not be in the business of gambling, one has to think from the point of view of generating funds for the government. He said that if the government would privatize Pagcor, then all income goes to the private sector leaving only a small amount in taxes being paid to the government coffers. â€Å"If you give Pagcor to the private, they will just be paying taxes. There is a huge difference between a fraction of income from taxes to 100 percent,† King said. An official from Pagcor who requested anonymity even claimed that perhaps the lawmakers have their own personal agenda. Maybe they want to be the ones who will buy and operate Pagcor, they said. Its simple, privatize Pagcor they get the income, the lawmakers may perhaps be getting their own kickbacks from certain lobby groups who want Pagcor for their personal purpose,† the official said. King merely laughed at the statement of the official adding that he did not want to comment, not wanting to get into trouble with the congressmen. King, however, added that if Pagcor is run privately, all measures such as that of the antimoney launderi ng might be removed and the private personalities owning it may use the gaming for the bad purposes that the antimoney-laundering council wants to prevent. Pagcor is created by law with the purpose of bringing much needed funds to the government. Certainly if you are run privately mahirap bantayan. How can you impose legislation on it which means how can we protect ourselves now from money laundering, how do we prevent this money going out of the country,† he said. â€Å"We are able to ensure that these things do not happen since the protective mechanism are all in place here. ’Yung mga private casinos for instance maaaring lumalabas iyang pera at magamit for money laundering once they are privately owned,† he said. We do what we can,† King said. King also thanked Congress for granting them a fresh 25-year franchise. King explained that government departments are dependent on Pagcor. The Department of Education is seeking more money from us. Even many church organizations get donations from Pagcor despite the opposition to Pagcor of some bishops. Pagcor, in President Arroyo’s own words, is an important part of Philippine nation building. In its endeavor to generate more funds for the governmen t’s pressing concerns, Pagcor has ventured beyond casino management. To meet the challenges of the new millennium, the gaming corporation is constantly looking for ways to improve its gaming products and maximizing the efficiency of its gaming operations. Philippine Gaming Market Sports betting is, to a vast population of Filipinos, a way of life from cockfighting to horseracing and basketball. Betting on number combination games such as lotteries and basketball â€Å"ending† offered by illegal bookies, has become part of millions of Filipinos’ daily routine. The gaming market in the Philippines is estimated to be over P100 billion a year. Illegal gaming accounts for half of the country’s gaming industry revenues. Internet Gaming Market The Internet gaming global market is estimated to be US$10 billion in 2002 and is predicted to reach US$14. 5 billion in year 2006. Internet Sports Betting and Internet Casino dominates most of the revenues. Although US now accounts for half of industry revenues, the gaming market is changing and the biggest area of growth is in places like Europe and Asia. Pagcor aims to go global and is keen on gaining a share of the Internet gaming revenue. Internet gaming will allow Pagcor to reach out to local and foreign gaming enthusiasts with less investment cost. About Philweb Capitalizing on its Internet technology experience, Philweb in early 2003 made a deliberate decision to focus on Internet Gaming. It established partner relationship with leading software providers in addition to establishing its own gaming software capability. On the basis of this expertise, Philweb was successful in concluding a contract with Pagcor, whereby Philweb became Pagcor’s overall service provider for Internet Gaming technology. To date, Philweb has concluded 2 Internet Gaming agreements with Pagcor, as follows: Acknowledging the Filipino’s yearning for sports and gaming as well as the continuing popularity of local sports betting, Pagcor, in partnership with Philweb Corp. , designed and deployed a new and innovative way to utilize Internet technology in fueling the Filipino’s passion for sports—Internet Sports Betting. Pagcor aims to compete head on with illegal bookies and migrate most, if not all, of the illegal gaming revenues into additional source of income for the government. Recognizing Philweb’s extensive knowledge in Internet technology, software development expertise and its nationwide marketing distribution network, Pagcor signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Philweb on November 28, 2002, engaging the latter as its technology service provider and marketing consultant for Internet Sports Betting. Subsequently, Philweb and Pagcor likewise entered into several supplemental agreements to cover the expansion programs of Pagcor on Internet Sports Betting. Philweb is a PLDT subsidiary. Pagcor license for Internet casino Pagcor has decided to offer casino games outside the land-based casinos via Internet Casino Stations. Compared with the land-based counterpart, Internet Casino Stations require less investment because of their low overhead as well as operating and marketing costs. Also, Internet Casino offers gaming enthusiasts the opportunity to play casino games in the privacy and comfort of their homes at any time of the day and at their own pace. As an additional feature, a prepaid card system will be incorporated in Pagcor’s Internet Casino betting platform to avoid credit card fraud and fast-track its nationwide distribution. Philweb is partnering once more with Pagcor to accelerate the market entry of the latter’s Internet Casino products in the Philippines. With a management team rich with Internet Casino business expertise, Philweb expects to realize with Pagcor the revenue potential of Internet Casino. Currently, Pagcor and Philweb are pursuing for the expansion of their Internet Gaming relationship to now include Internet Casino. Philweb will provide its technology and marketing services to Pagcor. These services shall include the following: Recently, Philweb, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) affiliate that oversees the operation of an Internet casino business on behalf of the government, expects to report a full-year profit for 2006, the first since it was set up in 2000. Philweb reported net profit of P42 million ($861,848) in the first nine months of 2006. The company, which oversees 45 Internet casino stations, most of them in Manila, said gross betting volume in online casinos had surged from P562 million in 2004 to P10. 8 billion in 2005. It is likely to rise by another 30 percent in 2006, according to Dennis Valdes, the company’s president. That forecast looked optimistic on a recent Saturday night in Manila on the basis of competition between a bookmaker’s office, crowded with laborers betting on horses, and an Internet casino station a few feet away where no-one was queuing to play. But the relative quiet outside the online casino belies the vast and rapid flow of money into the newest game of chance to hit Manila. On entry into what looks like an Internet cafe, where about 25 desktop computers are linked to a powerful server running gambling software, customers are asked to buy at least P500 worth of credits, and it is not uncommon for players to spend P1,000 in just 15 minutes. â€Å"We started out as an ISP [Internet service provider] and it was only recently that the company refocused on Internet gambling,† said Valdes. In November 2002, Philweb won a contract to provide consultancy services to the state gambling monopoly, which is trying to curb an illegal market that it estimates to be worth about P50 billion a year. Stock market investors are making a big bet on Philweb, whose share price more than doubled in 2006 and has risen by about a 10th so far this year. Its market capitalization of P3. 9 billion is now almost a quarter more than the combined market value of the two bigger and older companies that run horse races.

Monopoly †economics Essay

A monopoly exists when it has total control over a particular market and controls the supply and demand for that particular good or service. An oligopoly is a structure of a market in which only a few companies own or control the industry There are natural monopolies in the economy as well which are necessary to keep the economy progressing. Oligopolies exist because of the control over the supply of a good or service is in the hands of only a select few. They can influence the prices as well as the competition. The first monopolies began over discrepancies over natural resources. Before there was government regulation the resources that were once widely available to the population were controlled by the likes of elite, rich men. These conflicts over natural resources caused the government to regulate the resources by gathering and distributing them to the public. This regulation was put into place to reduce aggression between the company and the customers while balancing the supply and demand through different companies. Natural monopolies, on the other hand, do exist. These natural monopolies are those that have been in place for a long time and cannot be easily replaced. An example of these monopolies is a public utility such as water or electric service. It is much more costly to use multiple companies for a utility is much more costly as a whole than allowing the monopoly to continue. Waterlines and electrical towers that have been built and maintained for years would be difficult to destroy or remove from the land. In an oligopoly market, the companies set the prices and work together to control the markets to block new competitors from entering the market. The way these companies compete is through advertising and campaigns to get the most loyalty from the public. By using one another they can create supply and demand for their product or service. With government regulation these few powers can also be controlled like a monopoly would be. From a laissez faire view, monopolies and oligopolies will self-correct and be naturally eliminated. For instance, Microsoft Corporation controlled the operating system market since releasing in 1985. Microsoft’s operating systems, which once solely dominated the market, now compete with Apple’s MacOS. These two companies competing have now formed an oligopolistic market. In conclusion, it is in the best interest in the government to prevent monopolies from existing. When monopolies exist they decrease the incentive to for other companies to be successful in the market. Keeping the market competitive will drive companies to create new technology and use their inventiveness to improve the economy. Only under certain circumstances should a monopoly exist and that is of a natural monopoly, and when they do they ought to be regulated by the government. Even though the government can set laws and regulations for oligopolies, it still leaves plenty of room for monopolistic activities and uneven market share.

Did the Republican Party from 1877 to 1896 abandon its earlier principles and succumb to expediency? Essay

The Gilded Age was a big change for both Democrat and Republican parties. Both sides started changing tactics to stay in power, but one was more prominent. The Republican Party in the Gilded Age did drop abandon their earlier principles because of the Compromise of 1877 and getting votes. The Compromise of 1877 was the time that the Republican Party really abandoned their principles. This compromise allowed the Republicans to take the presidential office by withdrawing federal troops from the South. Due to this deal, the Democrats reclaimed power in the South, while the Republicans remained in power in both the Senate and the White House. In doing so, they did sacrifice their goals of complete southern Reconstruction in order to win the election. Former slaves lost all federal protection and conditions in the South were returned to a state only marginally better than slavery. However, before ending reform efforts, the Republicans did manage to improve social and economic conditions for African Americans living in the South. These efforts, although not completely establishing reform, did lay down the foundation to future change. This first step ensured that the Republicans, while stopping major projects, continued their previous intentions in a small way. Another reason Republicans succumbed to was their need to win. In the Gilded Age, politicians stopped talking about major important issues of the day and instead focused on getting the vote by appealing to the masses without making any enemies. Fresh from the Civil War, the Republicans won election into the White House the majority of elections in this time period by dropping to a level of personal attacks against the South and the people within it (waving the â€Å"bloody shirt†). On top of these campaign and party tactics, the Republican Party was split significantly prior to the election of Garfield between â€Å"Halfbreeds† and â€Å"Stalwarts.† The conflicts between these two factions and the greedy desire for government spoil positions not only led to political strife, but also led to the assassination of President Garfield shortly after his election. So all in all, the Republican Party did abandon their policies in order to stay in power. They stopped trying to address the issues and instead just appealed for votes. They also dropped to personal attacks just to win. The Republican Party in the Gilded Age did drop abandon their earlier principles because of the Compromise of 1877 and getting votes.

CULTURAL EVENT PAPER (MID-OHIO COMIC CON) Essay

CULTURAL EVENT PAPER (MID-OHIO COMIC CON) - Essay Example The main purpose of attending the Convention according to personal opinion was to understand the comic book scene in the United States of America. As I am a foreign student, it was imperative for me to take the initiative and go to a Comic Convention in the U.S because reading comic books has been my hobby since I was a young boy. I wanted to comprehend the kind of characters that the Americans speak of proudly and the comic books that they release to the rest of the world on such popular demand. Furthermore, I wanted to take time out and interact with American people interested in comic books and was also able to make a few contacts and friends at the Convention. This has really provided me with the opportunity to meet new people and share my ideas and thoughts regarding comic books. I am also interested in writing and imagining comic stories and thus wanted to share my ideologies with people because someday I might want to write my own graphic novel and meeting people at such a con vention is the best way of broadening one’s horizons. ... The convention played host to some very renowned celebrities, and they came together to talk to people and share their ideas and thoughts with others as well which in my opinion was a very interesting experience. This event was created by Wizard World.com, a publishing group that has given rise to a number of such conventions all around the United States of America. Wizard World was founded by Gareb Shamus in 1991 and it grew from being just a magazine to a publishing company with a number of interests, the main one today being holding conventions. In America, this entertainment group is very widely known for its convention organizations and boasts of very high attendance of people coming to visit the Convention every time it is held in different cities all around. It has also won a number of awards for conducting some of the best conventions of all time. The event was extremely light and exciting with a number of people coming together to view different comic books, talk to each oth er, listen to the celebrities and interact with them as well as find out information regarding the new comic books on the scene. There was a great amount of energy in the air and the atmosphere was extremely lively as people of all different age groups came together to talk about and meet the parallel world of comic books. As a person completely new to the entire experience of attending the setup I should have felt like an outsider. However, I felt like an insider because of the love for comic books that I shared with everyone at the event. Everyone had the same thing in common and that brought people together. I was able to interact very freely

Organizational Promotion Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organizational Promotion - Assignment Example Selection of staff for promotion is about selecting the right person for a higher job and it's a two-way process of companies to invite knowledgeable and talent applicant to enjoy higher designation within the firm. Before the actual interview process, short-listing is used for filtering for the right candidates to be promoted to higher positions. Then the suitable candidates can be selected through these techniques. Some of the more popular selection techniques are the interviews, tests, and assessment centre. By far interviewing is the most commonly used as a promotional selection tool. There are two structured interview techniques are behavioural and situational interview. During interview, the candidate can demonstrate their ability and present their expertise to the interviewers. The interviewers can make assessment by comparing the performance of each interviewee and promote the suitable candidate for particular position. The selection process at different stages of the enterprise is different; therefore, during the interview, the interviews can setup the assessment criteria to meet their need based on the requirements. Internal promotion process may generate a large number of applicants for vacant higher positions, especially when an open rather than a closed recruitment system is used. Initial assessment methods are used to screen out internal applicants who do not meet the minimum qualifications needed to become a candidate for a position. Types of Initial assessment methods are skills inventory, which uses existing data on employee skills that may be found in organizational files. Peer assessments, which are used to evaluate the promotabilitiy of an internal applicant. Self-assessment is when job incumbents can be asked to evaluate their own skills as the basis for determining promo ability. Managerial sponsorship involves senior management identifying and developing the profiles of those individuals at lower levels in the organization. The last type of initial assessment is informal discussion/recommendations, which is when not all promotion decisions are made on the basis of formal HR policy, and procedures, which can be questioned in terms of their relevance to actual job performance. Substantive Assessments Substantive assessments are used to narrow the internal applicant pool down to finalists. Some types of substantive methods include seniority and experience, which are among the most prevalent methods of internal selection. Job knowledge tests which measure one's mastery of the concepts needed to perform certain work which is usually measured with a paper and pencil test that is based on the job content. Performance appraisals, which capture both ability and motivation, which offers a complete, look at a person's job qualifications. Promotional Rating Promotability Ratings may be done at the same time as performance appraisals are useful for both recruiting and selection activities discussing what is needed to be promoted during performance appraisals can encourage employee development of new skills. Assessment Centres, which is a collection of predictors, used to forecast