Tradition and Continuity Essay Example for Free

Tradition and Continuity Essay Why, and to what extent, have conservatives been committed to tradition and continuity? Conservatism was a reaction to all other ideologies. It believed in conserving the best of the past and governing society with reform, not revolution. In the French revolution there was a lot of uncertainty because people did not know what to do afterward and they ended up in a worse position then they were before. Conservatives believe that humans are; psychologically imperfect, which means that we are security seeking creatures who dislike change. They believe we are intellectually imperfect which means we are incapable of acting rationally and are very instinctive. They believe we are morally imperfect which means we are born sinful and conservatists have a profound scepticism about our natural goodness. Conservatives have always been committed to tradition, ever since Toryism was first formed. They only believe in slow change which relates to peoples changing views and opinions like the English Legal System. Because they believe we are psychologically imperfect, they don’t want us to undergo any uncertainty whatsoever and so they dislike revolution because even though people may have a ‘better’ idea of how things should work, it has not yet had the test of time and so there is no need for risk. Conservatives believe society is like a living organism i.e. a tree, so it needs to reach out to both the past and the future and cannot be severed from its roots to survive. Since individuals lack wisdom, tradition is a better test of goodness and virtue, as Edmund Burke said, ‘the accumulated wisdom of the ages as the heritage of society is the best source of virtue and goodness’. Conservatists are pragmatic, which fits into their commitment for continuity, they are not opposed to change, but question it and only accepts slow, specific, evolutionary change. Conservatists preserve the best and change what is essential. Tories changed to Conservatories because they needed to accept limited change to prevent greater change. This is why they accepted the extension of the franchise ‘the right to vote’ and the rise of the welfare state to forestall more radical demands. Conservatism is not trying to go backwards ore forwards, but rather to preserve the status quo. This means it is not trying to create a utopian society like Liberalism, Socialism and Anarchism. Conservatists believe that human nature is not a constant, but ever changing as the nature of society changes and therefore have criticised all other ideologies on the grounds that they have been based on a fixed view of human nature. Classic Liberalism had an ideology with a fixed view of human nature and believed in Laissez-faire economics where the private companies would control the economy and help it to grow, but in the industrial revolution, they saw that capitalists took advantage of the workers and so modern liberalism was born, this shows that Conservatives have a better knowledge of human nature than the liberals do. Conservatists do not like abstract theory and the intellectual approach to politics. It believes in an un-codified constitution which can evolve through time like the UK constitution. It acts on the basis of concrete observation, circumstances and past events, rather than a theory. In conclusion the extent that Conservatism has been committed to tradition and continuity is very high because the whole point of conservatism is to preserve and in the early days of Toryism, they wanted to keep things exactly the way they were, this is why people call them the party for the rich because in the early days, the aristocrats and land owners had the power. Tories had to become Conservatists to cope with the ever-society and to prevent revolution like in France they had to give in to some democratic demands. Conservatists do not believe in the majority having a say, because what the majority want is not always right for the nation, this is where paternalism comes in so that the relationship between the state and its people is like parents and their children, it may not always seem right or fair, but in the long run it is what’s best for the Country. Conservatists want to continue the way things run so that society moves on and is not in a stand still place, where people become uncertain about how the Country will be governed, or if other Countries will see this as a chance to attack. A tree is not taken out of its roots and continued growing.

Challenges facing Human Resource managers

Challenges facing Human Resource managers Q/1 Business environment is changing everyday and bringing new challengers to the HR managers. What are the challenges faces by Hr managers at British Gas in the UK? The ultimate goal of any organisation is to gain success in the market it is operating in. In order to achieve the aim organisations need to generate an agent that operates in a variety of real world environments. It is crucial to include some mechanisms that allow it to operate in a dynamic environment, one that changes over time independent of the actions. Certainly there are environments that do not change with time and are static but these are usually small organisations that are limited in size and scope. Traditionally the environments used to be static but the trends in the market are changed, the static and well predicted market changes have been distorted to dynamic and ever changing market situations. To deal with the changes in the market and achieve their ultimate goal organisations need to consider not only the external but also the equally important internal constituencies. Among all the internal factors employees can be said as one of the most important part. The role of the employees for the endurance of any organisation is well acknowledged in todays modern dynamic and competitive business world. Therefore employees have been the centre of attention and are being invested in by the organisations by providing them training and development, competitive remuneration and other benefits. Thus in todays dynamic market environment when organisations have felt the need of taking care of their employees, they can also sense the necessity of professionals who can deal with the above mentioned problems. This is where HR managers come into the picture who deals with all the issues related to the employees. The role of the Human Resource manager has been developed with time from just administrative roles to modern role of strategic partnership. (Bratton and Gold, 2007). British gas which is renowned energy brand in United Kingdom is a part of Centrica. British gas is operating in an intense rivalry and in order to stay ahead in the race to success they have to consider all the stake holders including employees. British gas recognises that their success has been dependent upon the capabilities and dedication of their employees, and as a result they are committed to meet their people needs.S The different changes within the business environment can be summed up using PEST analysis, which includes the changes in both the internal and external environment. PEST Analysis is a simple, useful and widely-used tool that helps you understand the big picture of your Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological environment. As such, it is used by business leaders worldwide to build their vision of the future. A diagram showing different components of the Pest Analysis can be seen below. This framework helps the HR manager along with other management to deal with different changes in the environment the organisation is operating by which they can provide a good working environment. Now lets analyse the changes within the different aspects of PEST analysis and the challenges it brings to HR managers in British Gas. Political: The political factor of Pest analysis deals with the effects of government policy. Inasmuch as government policy is worked out through legislation, it encompasses all legal elements of this analysis. This includes items such as government stability, taxation policy, and government regulations. Government stability is not a major issue in Western economies but plays a vital role. (Henry, 2008). Although In Europe UK is said to be the least protective legislation but still has many laws that can influence and ensure the smooth running of the businesses. Firstly there are many laws regarding the equal opportunity within the organisation. Any organisation has to consider candidates for recruitment and selection irrespective of race, gender, age and religion (CIPD). Avoiding any of the mentioned factors means discrimination which has its negative aftermaths and can damage the organisation. British gas has taken many steps in order to avoid this discrimination which would be discussed in detail later under Recruitment and Selection. Laws for health and safety at workplace have also been imposed and organisations should comply with it in order to make a safe working environment. British gas as being in energy related industry needs to consider this aspect in depth. It is role of a HR manager in particular to deal with the related issues. British gas considers health and safety for their employees and the environment as being fundamental to their business objectives. Conventionally Health and Safety was not considered in depth but in the modern world there have been many changes with laws ensuring a safer working environment. (British gas webpage). There are many changes made to the laws with time. Other laws for HR revolve around things like pay rates, fair competition, taxation and fair dealings with employees. The laws for these factors do change with the change in government as well and British gas has always been ahead with regards to the laws. Equally important is the discussion about the privatisation of British gas in late 1980s which actually had a vital role over the HR dealings within the company, example being the job losses (from 91,599 in 1986 to 78300 in 1992) which were made because of the privatisation, this had a real impact over the HR and they dealt with it in superior manner to keep their retained employees motivated. (International labour organisation, Sectoral activities programme) Economy: Economical changes such as economic uncertainly, changes from manufacturing to service or knowledge economy, mergers and acquisitions activity and increased energy and fuel costs. In a knowledge-based economy, the most important business investments involve investing in personnel, putting HR managers at the centre of some of economic debates. Issues related to human capital and people management are now among the most important challenges in business, bringing the expertise of HR managers to the core not only of business but also of nation economic competitiveness. Understanding the broader business and societal implications of these trends will be crucial how to address their resulting challenges at the organisational level and will require HR managers to be well informed about macroeconomic developments. Social: Social factors include cultural changes within the environment and are often referred to as socio-cultural. This includes health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. (Henry, 2008). HR managers may increasingly find themselves dealing with the impact societal trends, such as 24/7 work culture, changing family pattern, and a growing emphasis on work/life balance have on time-related issues in the workplace. Benefits linked to flexible working and controls over schedules are likely to continue to be in demand. Possible changes to the bargaining power of employees and women, in particular, could make meeting this demand a higher priority to employers. Finding ways to continue to engage workers with high levels of responsibility and skills but who may not be able to work full time may become more important. This will be exacerbated by the need to find enough skilled workers which could potentially pose a challenge in the coming decades as education cost rise and skills requirements increase. Technology: Any organisation needs to be the pioneer of the new technology and to be ahead in the competitive race in the market in order to lead. This undoubtedly has a major impact on HR as they need to train their staff accordingly and make them flexible enough to adapt to the changes within the technology. For HR managers, the efficient use of technology has emerged as a key skill. Recruitment strategies can also be affected by Changes in the technology while major advancement in e-learning could influence training strategies. Q/2 Comment on how HR activities contribute to the success of British Gas. Use any 2 HRM Models to explain you answer? Employees are the most important factor needed for the survival of any organisation and HR is responsible for catering the need of the employees and establishing a relation between the organisation and its employees. In order to succeed in the modern world it is provident that there need to be effective HR activities which could help the employees feel as a part of team rather than being alienated. Only then it can have the competitive advantage over their rivals and the employees would work hard and whole-heartedly in the favour of the organisation they are working for. In British Gas employees do feel valued and as a part of team only because of the effective HR activities. We now will discuss the HR activities in British Gas in accordance with two HR models which have helped them to be in the lead in their market. David Ulrich Model The first model which we will discuss is the David Ulrich Model. The model we made by David Ulrich in the year 2000, who is said to be the HR guru. In the model he proposed that the centre of attention for all the HR activities must be on the contribution to organizational success. He further explained that the key to excel organizational performance is to ensure that human resources activities are in line with the organization and focusing on productivity, service and quality. Below is the diagram showing David Ulrich model. Productivity can be explained as the output per employee. With the increase in competitive rivalry incessant improvement in productivity has a significant role. British Gas has been considering the significant importance of the afore-mentioned aspect of the model. With the view of increasing the productivity British Gas has been investing  £24 million every year in their Engineering Academy to continue their exceptional training for engineers working there. The Academy eve achieved grade one performance in a 2007 Ofsted inspection. In the academy employee are provided with related training which helps them to be more effective and efficient with regards to productivity. Quality of the products and services delivered extensively affects organizational success in the long run. The quality of products and services can provide competitive advantage to any organization. The quality of products and services is directly interlinked with the growth and performance of the organization as a whole, therefore it requires equal attention. The stress on quality requires continuous changes aimed at improving work processes. HR management considerations should be included in order to indentify the barriers and service blockages and redesigning operational processes. The process should also involve the employees as well rather than just the managers. The above mentioned activities should be done with accordance to the organizations mission. British Gas itself explains that its the service they provide to the customers which gives them competitive advantage over their rivals and sets them apart in the marketplace. The British Gas Academy of Customer Excellence has also been set up which underpins their aim to consider their customers as one of the key stakeholders. The academy provides training to the front-line employees. Warwick Model of HRM Bratton Jeffery (2007) proposed the Warwick model in which Harvard framework has been extended with 5 elements including Inner context, outer context, business strategy content, HRM context and HRM content. The model explains the link between the changes in internal and external and both the content and context in it. The strength of the model is that it underpins the important environmental influences on HRM. Below is the diagram showing the model. Outer context Inner context Business strategy content HRM context HRM context Basically HR Manager of British Gas firstly plans their future strategy and recruits people accordingly mostly through external sources like advertisements in newspapers, magazines and through employee referrals. Firstly they screen all the applications and then select candidates based on their potential, knowledge and experience mostly through face-to-face interview. Successful candidates are put through induction and are provided with continuous training. British Gas does consider the fact that monetary rewards is only one of the many needs of the people and therefore provides them with many non-monetary social needs such as flexible working hours and a better and relaxing working atmosphere. Employees within British Gas are also appraised regularly so that they know how well they are doing. Keeping in mind the broader aspect of the business HR manager maps the link between inner and outer context followed by an approach which leads to the changes in the content as referred in Warwick Model. Along with this HR managers also connects their activities of Planning, Integration, Staffing, Developing, Motivating, Designing, Managing Relationships, Managing change and Evaluating by keeping in mind the everyday changing business environment. But apart from this I think to survive and maintain a good market position in this globalized, competitive, innovative and rapidly changing business environment British Gas must change their Mechanistic Structure to Organic Structure which is very flexible and innovative. The HRM strategies at British Gas satisfy customers to the highest but surely not at the expense of their employees needs which helps them to lead in their industry. Q 3 Describe Recruitment Selection strategies that have been taken by British Gas to enhance organisation performance? Recruitment and selection is said to be one of the main role of a HR practitioner, as they need to ensure that they choose the right staff. While going through the process they need to consider many factors including equal opportunities without the factor of discrimination. In order to ensure this, there are laws to avoid discrimination against race or ethnic origin, religion and belief, disability, sex and age. The ones who avoid this practice will indeed break the law and will have to face the consequences (Tackling Discrimination, 2009). K Aswathappa (2003) defines recruitment as a process of finding and attaching capable application for an application for employment. The process begin when new recruit are sought and end when their application are submitted. The result is the pool of applications from which new employees are selected. Derek Torrington (1987) states that Planning the right people in the right place at the right time is seen to be essential to achieving rapid growth. The emphasis is on balancing the projected demand for and supply of labour, in order to have the right number of the right employees in the right place at the right time. In terms of recruitment and selection it is important to carry out thorough job analysis to determine the level of skills/technical abilities, competencies, flexibility of the employee required etc. Since 2003, British Gas has done a lot of work in order to improve the diversity in their workforce which helps them in their customer base and is a response to changing demographics as well. With the increase in demand and the competitive rivalry British gas had to attract more employees and for that the HR managers dealt with it in a well-mannered way. Carole Willsher, Recruitment and Diversity specialist, explains We tend to use the analogy of a pond gone; if we dont recruit women, thats over half the pond gone ; if we dont recruit people from an ethnic background, thats about another 10% gone, and were left with only a very small part of the pond to fish from. The process of recruitment and selection at British gas is shown in the following diagram. Acknowledgement Initial Review Online Application Assessment Centre Second Stage Job Offer In the process candidates have to complete an application form and online test which is then acknowledged by an email upon successful submission. The submitted application is then reviewed and candidates are updated within 14 days. After the successful initial review the candidates are required to give a telephonic interview for some job roles which is then followed by the assessment centre where the candidates go through a face- to- face interview, practical tests (for some roles) and role plays. After careful consideration of the entire application process candidates are then offered the job within 14 days of the assessment centre. Recruitment and selection is done by both internal and external manners. As mentioned earlier in order to attract a vast group of applicants HR managers at British Gas use both the ways. Internal recruitment includes promoting the current staff or moving them from one department to other. It also includes the referrals made by the current employees. The advantage with internal recruitment is that it allows the organisations to know the strengths and capabilities of their existing employees which help them to allocate them accordingly. As mentioned earlier, the main objective of British gas is to increase the number of applications for the different vacancies in order to attract a wide range of talent as possible. For this they use the different types of external recruitment strategies. Some of these strategies are as follows: Tester days: British gas regularly runs women only and BME tester days, with the specific aim of attracting women and ethnic minorities into engineering and apprenticeships. Partnership working: British gas also use different partnerships with different organisations in order to focus on under-represented groups including Jobcentre Plus, Windsor Fellowship, Women and Manual trades. Targeted Advertising: They also use a range of ways and media to appeal to its target audiences. They use advertising in magazines like Bliss and Sugar. They also redesign their special webpage for recruitment regularly. Attracting a wide range of candidates is not the only purpose of the managers but also to select the right staff. For that a right recruitment process has to be applied. A diagram is shown below which illustrates the different stages of the recruitment process within British Gas. The only way to increase the performance of the organisation is to have an efficient process. Q 4 Explain how HR training and development helps British Gas to develop highly competent staff and teams. Describe use of variety of HRD methods taken at British Gas. According to Mackey (2003), in our lifetime of learning we meet many people who contribute to our knowledge, and in todays world training is seen as an essential aspect in HRM practice. Training is often seen as something that is work related on-job training, off-job training or employment training schemes. Many organizations aspire to be learning ones, but it takes dedication to achieve this. It requires commitments from everyone to allow individuals to manage their own development and to support the process through coaching, feedback and outgoing performance management. Trainers have a key role to play in the creations of a learning environment. The typical role of Training Development functions has been to respond in a reactive manner to the training and development needs to other functions throughout the organization. British gas always ensures that it provides effective training at all levels, which can help its highly competent staff and teams to develop. In order to offer continuous training for their engineers British Gas is investing  £24 million each year in their British Gas Engineering Academy. The Academy also managed to achieve grade one performance in a 2007 Ofsted inspection. They have also aligned their apprentice scheme to the Duke of Edinburghs Gold Award, which actually provides enhanced personal development and life skills to the trainees. As any other company British gas also believes that it is the customer service which helps them to lead in the competitive race. The British Gas Academy underpins their aim to put customers at the heart of everything they do. The Academy therefore also provides training to their front line employees. Building on the success of our engineering academy, the customer service academy encourages best practice and knowledge sharing. By co-ordinating activities nationally, this new structure improves the consistency of our training design and delivery. Effective training to the employees leads to improve quality of the process they are working into. One of the key skills of a trainer is the ability to design training programmes and learning experiences that are innovative, exciting and fun. Trainer should also identify individual learning styles and respond to the needs of the business. The field of training and development (TD) has undergone changes that reflect the dynamic factors in the corporate world overall. TDs objectives continue to shift from a focus on programmed instruction (and behavioural and task analysis), to performance-system analysis. Learning is now defined as a competitive strategy in the global workplace. Therefore, trainers must engage in defining strategic goals, analyzing organizational processes and providing better systematic performance within the business context. Increased need for improved performance requires more efficient ways to identify, recruit, and improve the training and education of the workforce. As traditional, hierarchical organizational structures are increasingly transforming to self-directed, cross functional, process oriented, and knowledge-based models, both organizations and individuals are increasingly faced with the new challenges to maximize the organizations competitive edge, and to meet new standards of excellence in performance. First, in order to understand what is nowadays expected from management trainers and educators, it is essential to understand how current perceptions of the managers job and responsibilities have developed. Then, it will be argued that the adoption of a simple solely task-related model of training often used to train managers from developing countries has proved to be inadequate. Therefore, a realistic management training model ought to include the task related and people-related aspects of the managers job as well as the trainees own development, in its design and content. Based on the above a more realistic approach to management training and development will be offered and some of its implications for trainers and training institutions will be discussed and certain conclusions will be reached. Evaluating Training Development: This has always been a key topic for trainers. TD that is not delivering the expected results is likely to be potentially harmful to the organization, demotivating to learners and damaging to the reputation of trainers. In todays business world evaluation has taken on even greater significance than in the past. Evaluation is undertaken with the purpose of encouraging improvement. When evaluation is planned, it is done with the intention of analysing results and implementing suitable changes in a timely manner followed by further evaluation. Such cyclical approaches agreeing standards, evaluating, improving, checking standards and so on are the basis of really useful evaluation processes for each aspect of the training and development process. The focus is on maximizing the use of resources, maximizing the likelihood of business success and maximizing the impact of staff motivation. One needs to critically evaluate each TD event in which you are involved. This is as true for a week-long course as it is for an individual coaching event. The more one evaluates, the more one learns, the more quickly the business will benefit and the more quickly individuals skills will develop. Each type of TD event will have its own type of evaluation, but each has the common aim of change and improvement. As compared to other Departments like IT and Finance, TD is also one of the important departments in the organisation as its trains people in the organisations who with their full potential calibre help the organization to achieve its set goals with high quality standards. Q5 What role Performance Management plays in achieving higher performance at British Gas? Describe use of variety of performance appraisal strategies taken at British Gas. Staff development doesnt just happen. It takes a conscious and concerted effort on the part of the manager to support and encourage their employees initiative. It requires a continuous attention of both the employees and the supervisors or the managers involved. Performance appraisals are undertaken to let an employee know his/her performance and compare it with the expectation of the organisation as a whole. The process involves clarifying the job role, job description and responsibilities and explains how the role can contribute to the wider goals of the organisation. It is important that the employees understands how their performance contributes to the overall performance of the company. This direct connection helps to encourage team play and shared responsibility within the company, although the performance objectives should be individual and agreed between the employee and the manager. In a performance appraisal employees also get the opportunity to give their feedback about the working conditions and any advices which could be helpful for the organisation to improve their productivity. In order to ensure an effective performance appraisal the manager should keep a record of the process which could be helpful for the future reference. There are many different types of performance appraisals. Following are some of them which are mostly used at British Gas: Top-down Appraisals: According to Harrison (1995) this category of performance appraisal involves the line manager undertaking the formal appraisal of the employee. Managers in this type of appraisal can be biased and may be less open, honest and can lead to the favouritism factor. In such situations another manager or HR specialist can be involved to act as a moderator in the process. This is seen as a very traditional type of performance appraisal and is rarely practiced in the modern world. It was used at British gas as well but is replaced by other new frameworks and other types of performance appraisals. Self Reviews: Harrison (1995) explains that self reviews are based on the idea that employees are most familiar with their work and their involvement is vital. They have proved to be superior to supervisory reviews in identifying individual strengths and shortcomings. The biggest problem with this approach lies in the fact that this violates the traditional mores regarding the proper relationship between the boss and the subordinate. Upward Appraisal: Harrison (1995) describes that in this technique, the views of the employees, who report to the appraise (manager) are considered and can also be an important dimension of management development. It is effective in an organisation which has an open and supportive culture and which encourages participation as a legitimate element,. Upward appraisal may be threatening for a manager and uncomfortable for the subordinate appraisers. 360 Degree Feedback: N. Bahra (1997) states that This method is an assessment technique lies at the heart of many successful organisations. This briefing aims to provide an objective method of assessing an individuals performance in a number of critical and non-critical areas. This method being used in many big organisation in the modern world and is hence used at British Gas as well. Harrison (1995) explains that this is a way of limiting the effect of the top- down appraisal scheme and building on the positive aspects of self, peer and upward appraisals. This method includes peers, subordinates, internal and external customers and the managers. Its aim is to achieve a broader view of employee performance. It can increase customer focus, support team initiatives, decrease the hierarchical approach and provide greater employee evaluation. It is an assessment technique which lies at the heart of many successful organizations. This briefing aims to provide an objective method of assessing an individuals performance in a number of critical and non-critical areas. REFRENCES Book References: Bach, S. (2005) Management Human Resource: Personnel Management in transition. Oxford: published by Blackwell publishing. Henry, A. (2008), Understanding Strategic Management. published by Oxford. Bratton, J. and Gold, J., (2007) Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice. 4th Edition, London: Publisher Palgrave Macmillan. Bernardin and Beatty (1984). Performance Appraisal : Assessing Human Behaviour at Work. Published by Kent Pub. Co. Torrington, D., Hall, L. and Taylor, S. (1987): Human Resource Management. Sixth edition, Spain: Printed by Mateu cromo artes graficas. Aswathappa, K. (2005) Human Resources and Personnel Management. 4th edition, New Delhi: Published by Tata Mcgraw-Hill. Mackey, D. (2003) everything you ever needed to know about training. London: published by Kogan Page Ltd. Taylor, P. (2003) How to Design a Training Course. London: Continuum publication. Harrison, H. S. (1995) Advanced Appraisal Methods: General Certification Supplement. Oxford: Published by H2 Co. Bahra, N. (1997) 360 Degree Appraisal. London: Published by FT Pitman. Online References: British Gas and Diversity (online) Cited on 10/11/2009. Access Via British Gas Health Safety 2009 (online) Cited on 08th Nov. 2009. Access Via British gas and political factors (online) Cited on 04th nov.2009. Access Via British Gas introduction.(online) Cited on 06th nov.2009. Access Via British gas and the importance of employee (Introduction), (online) Cited on 10th Nov. 2009 . Access Via Equal opportunities at British Gas, (online) Cited on 16th Nov. 2009. Access Via Tackling discrimination (2009), (online) Cited on 26th Nov. 2009, Access Via

Visual Information Essay -- Anatomy, The Retina

Visual information is seen because light passes through the cornea and is focused by the lens as an inverted image on the retina (Ellis, 2004). The retina is composed of photoreceptor cells; rods and cones with the greatest density of cones situated within the fovea, thus vision is sharpest for images and information projected to the fovea (Ellis, 2004). Subsequently visual information of lateralized foveal stimuli projects to the cerebral hemisphere within the brain. In the brain, the left visual hemifield projects to the right hemisphere and the right visual hemifield projects to the left hemisphere (Lavidor, Ellis, Shillcock & Bland, 2001). Generally for most individuals (in particular right handed), visual recognition of words and information is more efficient for display within the right visual field. However it is debated whether foveal information lateralized within the left or right visual field is double-projected to both hemispheres or unilaterally projected to the contrala teral hemisphere because the fovea is anatomically split and there is differential contribution of the two hemiretinae. Two theories have been put forward regarding how visual information is projected to the hemispheres. According to the split fovea theory, hemispheric division in processes occurs right up to the point of fixation. When the eyes are fixated within a written word visual information about the letters falling to the left of fixation initially projects to the right cerebral hemisphere, whilst visual information about the letters falling to the right of fixation project to the left cerebral hemisphere. Foveal processing is split so precisely at the vertical midline that all letters at either side of fixation project (unilaterally) to th... ...occurring in foveal vision away from the midline however this is not visible or obvious when recognition of visual information occurs. There is an overlap at the centre of the fovea where information projects simultaneously to both hemispheres, this being consistent with the bilateral theory. On the other hand, split fovea theory is an interesting theory of fixation effects that has been inspired by previous research unconnected with split fovea theory and thus incapable of providing appropriate evidence. More recently, split fovea theory has been based on experiments conducted specifically in its support but in which fixation locations were not monitored and stimuli exceeded foveal vision. It is good to see that research in the area is beginning to improve but it is difficult to be enthusiastic about any theory when there is no compelling evidence to support it.

Differences and Similarities in Hamlet :: Essays Papers

Differences and Similarities in Hamlet (1) Shakespeare’s play Hamlet [Titles] uses character flaws and strong emotions to highlight strengths and weaknesses in his characters. He also uses differences and similarities between characters to force action along the path he intends the story to travel. This technique is called using foils. The likes or dislikes of one character for another can completely alter the direction of the story. For example, love of a son for his father can be twisted and perverted, with the proper use of characters, into an outlet for hatred and revenge. [This is a very nice idea for a thesis, but instead of using Gertrude and Ophelia as foils (See below.), it would have been much better to use Fortinbras, who, like Hamlet, is also a son of a king who has been killed. Gertrude and Ophelia simply do not fit the category of "son."] (2) An example of foils is Hamlet and Laertes. [Which is the foil?] They both love their fathers, but their love has been distorted and all they feel now is a need for revenge for their fathers’ deaths. The need they have for revenge is fueled by their love for the father’s [No '] they lost. However, they pay for this with their lives. They both are honorable men, they both see the errors they made and forgive each other at the end of the play. Hamlet and Laertes are similar in some ways and different in other ways. (3) Laertes blames Hamlet for the death of his father. [Poor topic sentence] This becomes even worse when Claudius doesn’t openly punish Hamlet because of his popularity. Hamlet knows that Laertes is a good soldier and is loyal to Claudius. These men differ in the way they seek revenge. Laertes, upon arrival and hearing of his father’s death immediately goes to Claudius and seeks justice for his father. On the other hand, Hamlet doesn’t show any need for speed at all. He begins to devise an intricate plan of faked mental instability and other ploys to get his way. However, Laertes would not hesitate to take his revenge quickly. [This is, perhaps, Laertes' most important role as a foil for Hamlet. It should be emphasized more, by showing how Laertes' haste brings Hamlet's procrastination into the sunlight.

Missing - Charles Horman is Us :: Movie Film Essays

Missing - Charles Horman is Us [1] How I came to choose Missing as the focus of my project is as a result of the learning experience I have been engaged in during my college career. Having first seen the film for a class, I thought of it as nothing more than a movie about something monumental that happened in Chile more than two decades ago. I watched it, unhappily, thinking about all the other things I could be doing, and even falling asleep during some of it. In the time between my first viewing of Missing and embarking on this most recent project, I have learned a great deal about history, politics, and people. My views on all three of those subjects are constantly changing, with each new piece of information I receive further complicating my thoughts. Missing has gone from a movie, the title of which I had difficulty recalling, to being a thought provoking exposition that has forced me to examine, evaluate, and reevaluate almost everything that had once been certain in my own mind. [2] Missing is a rather confusing film to follow at first. Admittedly, I had to view it a few times to understand what was happening. Perhaps the initial feeling after seeing this film is confusion. However, after having watched it a second, fourth, eighth time, what I really felt was anger. Each time I watched the film, the anger and disgust would grow, so much so that it pained me to watch it again. However, in identifying the cause of my anger, I began to realize many things. [3] The United States government denied having knowledge of Charles Horman’s disappearance. It denied any accusations, especially those of U.S. complicity in the coup. U.S. government officials seemed accommodating and willing to help. But Charles was still nowhere to be found. Perhaps he was hiding from the government because of his political views. Perhaps he was scared that his activities would cause him harm of some sort. Impossible, his family said. Charlie had nothing to hide and no one to hide from. He was captured and no doubt in a great deal of trouble. The onus was then on the United States to find one of their missing, to come through and protect its citizens from mistreatment by foreign nations.

Factors Affecting Academic Performance Essay

Like many Americans caught up in the economic downturn, college students are worried about money. Now research indicates that financial worries may affect their academic performance. This year’s National Survey of Student Engagement, released on Thursday, reveals that more than a third of seniors and more than a quarter of freshmen did not purchase required academic materials because of the cost. Roughly equal shares, around 60 percent, said they worried about having enough money for day-to-day expenses. And 36 percent of freshmen and 32 percent of seniors reported that financial concerns had interfered with their academic performance. Since 2000, Nessie, as the survey is known, has collected wide-ranging data to help colleges develop effective educational practices and promote engagement. Students are asked, for instance, how much time they spend studying, whether they get involved with campus organizations, and how they interact with their professors and peers. This year the researchers, based at Indiana University at Bloomington, also assessed how the economy was affecting students at a subset of the 546 American colleges that participated. The survey examined students’ employment, finding that among freshmen, nearly 20 percent worked on campuses, and about 30 percent worked elsewhere. For seniors, those proportions were about a quarter on campuses and more than half elsewhere. Students working off campuses logged more hours: More than half of seniors working on campuses worked less than 15 hours a week, but 40 percent of full-time seniors in off-campus jobs worked more than 16 hours a week; 20 percent logged 30 or more hours. Other research has found that working up to 20 hours a week can increase students’ engagement and improve their academic performance, but that a greater time commitment can be detrimental. In this year’s survey, more than half of full-time seniors who worked 21 or more hours a week said their work schedule interfered with their studies. Yet 60 percent of those students said they had investigated working even more hours to help cover the cost of college. Related Content Grades and Tests May Miss What Matters Most in Learning Charts: How Financial Worries Are Affecting Students Alexander C. McCormick, director of the survey, says institutions should consider such findings an opportunity to get a better sense of the financial stressors that shape students’ academic experiences. Most colleges, he points out, know which students have on-campus jobs. But administrators could do more to figure out how much time students spend working off-campus, and whether those commitments threaten their academic success. â€Å"You can never do enough to understand who your students are,† Mr. McCormick says. But collecting data is the easy part. â€Å"The really hard work is up to the colleges and universities, to figure out what the data mean and what they want to do in response.†

Rapid, volatile and discontinuous change Essay

Brief Overview To compare with last decade, all industries or organizations have dramatic changed in today’s global market, no matter in social, political, technological and economic areas. Base on that, all industries have to make appropriate respond to these changes. However, the continuous change is no longer appropriate to the newest business model, but that rather, a range of discontinuous changes have become our new experience (Handy,1990) Today’s external environment has rapid, volatile and discontinuous change, which is the newest challenge of strategic management in an industry. 1. Introduction This essay is going to explore the concept of rapid, volatile and discontinuous change with undertaking wide range of academic journal articles, which in order to make sure that has a deeper understanding of its nature, impact or implications for an organization. In addition, according to the real situation of today’s global and industrial market, only those companies who can coordinate their strategic management to follow up the changes in the market can gather long life and profit. Therefore, this essay will discuss an example to see how those companies manage their business to fit in today’s external environment changes and how those change situations are connected to strategic management process making, and they influence the organizations. Also, the essay will engage theories and models to assess and evaluate the impacts of rapid, volatile, and discontinuous change based on the sample case. Finally, CEOs play significant role in strategic management process, and they should have abilities to solve the puzzles when facing the rapid change. Therefore, this essay will finally use particular cases to address how CEOs respond appropriately to discontinuous change, and what if they respond inappropriate respond. 2. Body The concept of rapid, volatile, discontinuous change All industries are getting involved in a business world that has occurred frequent changes nowadays. Those changes can come from anywhere; they can be small or massive. Handy (1990) indicate that the continuous change is no longer exist, we cannot predict the future from the past, and change is  unexpected and it can happen at any time. In other words, we are experiencing the discontinuous change epoch. For example, in 2008, plenty of large financial institutions had shut down in terms of the global financial crisis. The crisis resulted that the ‘Great Recession’ of economic happened and many bankrupts appeared. The housing market also suffered and the numbers of unemployment increased. Viljoen and Dann pointed that â€Å"a degree of turbulence will exist in all organizational environments (2003). Because of the turbulence in that time, all industries had to face the influences following such changes. In terms of that, successful companies have to operate an efficient and appropriate management strategy to respond the changes of external environment. On the other hand, we can see the light of those changes. According Viljoen and Dann reported that, the more change the greater turbulence and then more opportunities appeared in the uncertainty external environment. Under the financial crisis, there were some companies survive and even gather large profits from the crisis. For example, Morgan Stanley is a financial services company who survived in financial crisis because of its long term preparation of strategic management. The 2008 crisis eliminated its two largest competitors – Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns Cos., but had kept it stayed, which means that the survivors who made appropriate management strategies can win the market battle (Malhotra, 2009). All in all, th e opportunities in degree of change will be offered for those organizations with appropriate strategic management. Where this concept fits within the Strategic Management process In an organization, there is no doubt that one of significant part of operating business is strategic management planning. Strategic management planning has supported the organization in a long term running and has offered a direction to manage unexpected change of external environment. One thing can be sure that rapid, volatile and discontinuous change is focusing on strategic management process operation. However, it is difficult to predict accurate future development (Thompson & Martin, 2010). Because every company has their own situation, so that managers have to consider the change occurring in the external political, economic, social and technological environment and do internal and external analysis according to the particular situation. Some models can be applied by managers to assess their  companies’ external environment to improve the current business strategies, and then have more fit in the global market changes. When the companies fail to respond efficient strategic management, they also fail to facing the threats from external environment changes. Moreover, under the rapid, volatile and discontinuous change global environment, strategic management was built and developed in different way comparing with the last decades. For instance, to manage the complexity, dynamism and unpredictability environment is the topic in strategic management (Ambrosini, 2009). Additionally, analysis of SWOT had been combined into the operating strategic management because of the discontinuous change occurring in the world. Models for assessing the impacts and implications of rapid, volatile and discontinuous change In order to better assess and understand the rapid, volatile and discontinuous change, a variety of business models are using by industries operation. Those models can improve the strategy management process as well as evaluate the implications of rapid, volatile and discontinuous change. First of all, the turbulence model is one of the models that indicate degree of change within a specific environment or industry. The criteria of it are complexity, dynamism and unpredictability (Viljoen & Dann, 2003). Base on this model, managers would consider the turbulence in a particular environment is not only bringing the threats to the company, but also bringing the opportunities. During that period, companies have opportunities to beat their competitors by using appropriate strategic planning. The case of Morgan Stanley is an excellent example while it owns remarkable strategy and management charac teristics. Secondly, Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model is another powerful analysis tool to help managers identify the competitiveness of outside environment. This model was made in Michael Porter in early 1980s; it indicates that bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat of new entrants and substitutes, these five forces will impact industries profit potential in the final. They have power to analyze the competitive environment effectively and have been used for the analysis of competitive strategy. This model produces far-reaching impact on global business strategy formulation. To propose a viable strategy should include these five forces to identify and evaluate the  characteristics of different industries and companies. Besides, the Strategic Alignment Model can also be applied to exam the business strategy systems. This model refers to the value of intangible assets in a company, and it helps companies to achieve the coordination of operational strategy and information technology. For example, an excellent IT system is an indispensable part of operating strategy (Lerina, 2012). In addition, Business Rules Group model also can be applied to making efficiency business strategies (David, 2010). Under the business perspective, Business Rules model refers to in a particular activity; there is an obligation to take care conduct, action, practice and procedure. It offers managers to better understand their business strategies’ suitability. The response of the CEOs to this kind of change The response of the CEO to today discontinuous change would affect whether the company can sustain its competitiveness in the changing world market or lose its seat. Research shows that in ‘Great Recession’ time, those companies which can introduce and conduct the most efficient strategy can survive to the last. For example, Morgan Stanley survived in 2008 financial crisis because of its operating and strategy characteristic. It converted from an investment bank to a financial bank during the height of financial crisis. As a depository institution, it can acquire fund through deposits by the general public. To compare its competitors, even though it is not quite unscathed, Morgan Stanley has survived. Therefore, it is clear that CEOs should use different business models which can suit for their own company to analysis about the changing environment, specially the potential threats, new entrants and substitutes. Furthermore, dynamic learning is a useful approach to mainta in the competitive advantage, which is based on four activities: scanning, monitoring, forecasting, and assessing (Trkman, 2010). Morgan Stanley’s CEO used dynamic learning to contribute the capabilities of this company and then to face the business challenges. Also, the CEO has done sufficient research about the potential capabilities when he wanted to invest in new field projects, therefore, Morgan Stanley can extend its line of credit to depository institutions such as credit unions, savings and loan associations. For more cases like Samsung Electrics group, has set up an efficient strategy to face its major competitor – Apple. Since in early  1980s, Apple’s smartphone has started to dominate the cell phone market with its creative features and unique system. Due to the change in global market and development of Apple, Samsung industry created a new line smartphone – Galaxy S with some new features in order to compete Apple iPhone’s line. That is an effective change and creating in management strategy made by Samsung industry, which can keep customers eyes on its new products and its development in the world area. Samsung industry have done an excellent job to respond the discontinuous changing market, which has brought it large scale of profits and also become one of the dominate smartphone industry in the global market. However, some CEOs make an appropriate respond while others do not respond to the volatile change of external environment appropriately. For example, Blackberry smartphone industry has made inappropriate strategies when facing discontinuous change in global market. Blackberry smartphone has maintained its stiff features and cannot get used to today’s technological change and customer’s demands. Therefore, the industry ends up experiencing a dramatic decrease in sales and customer loyalty. 3. Conclusion In conclusion, under the economic development and the rapid, volatile and discontinuous changes in global market, all industries are facing huge challenges to maintain their business. CEOs have responsibilities to upgrade their companies’ management strategies in order to adapt the changing of global business environment. However, there are large scale of uncertainties in today’s market and plenty of risky consequences, CEOs have to introduce and implement the most efficient strategy to keep the company staying in the competitive market. Also, as the dominate roles in organizations, they have to adopt appropriate business models to support the strategic management process. Furthermore, they should have abilities to see the company’s trends, strength, weakness and opportunities as well as analyze their competitors’ strength and weakness, in order to better cope with the external environment dramatic change. Finally, they should gather the lessons from those companies who fail to adopt efficient strategies and could not survive in the changing global market.