Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Managing Diversity Or Work Life Balance Is Important Management Essay Essay Example

Managing Diversity Or Work Life Balance Is Important Management Essay Essay Example Managing Diversity Or Work Life Balance Is Important Management Essay Essay Managing Diversity Or Work Life Balance Is Important Management Essay Essay Recently, WLB ( Work-life Balance ) has been in demand for proper solutions on the employee s side. Consequently, WLB has become a really hot subject debated worldwide in council chambers and authorities halls today. It is being focused as one of the most of import issues that human resource professionals are paying attending pull offing it. The importance of pull offing WLB has been increasing over the past 2 decennaries ( De Bruin A ; Dupuis, 2004 ) . The several alterations have occurred in some countries sing to this issue. First of wholly, occupations are more complex and employees are having more force per unit area to accomplish the expected public presentation within the shorter timeframe and fewer resources ( Hosie, Forster A ; Servatos, 2004 ) . Second, the demographic factors of the labor force have affected the alterations of human resource direction, such as gender, ethnicity, double calling twosomes, faith, and multi-generational workplaces. Finally, the nature of emp loyment contract requires the organisations to pull off their employee s public assistance, occupation satisfaction, and stress more efficaciously ( Greenhaus A ; Powell, 2006 ) . Regardless to the above statement, Purcell ( 2002 ) has mentioned that organisational involvement towards WLB direction has originated from grounds that there is an obvious linkage between steadfast public presentation and the manner the house manages people. This implies the chances of holding good WLB direction might be the future beginning of competitory advantage. However, it is non easy to originate the good WLB direction plan as it needs to incorporate employees work efficaciously and understate occupation dissatisfactions or any other struggles ( De Bruin et Al, 2004 ) . To accomplish this, many western organisations have nevertheless adopted a alone set of policies, for case, on-site babys room, resting one-fourth, and fittingness Centre. This provides employees chances to to the full execute their assigned plants, at the same clip, pull off their personal lives efficaciously. The Current Issues Knowing that WLB direction is a important issue for every organisation, there is a considerable statement on the effectivity of WLB policies in conveying snap and extinguishing occupation dissatisfaction in the modern workplace ( Kirrane A ; Buckley, 2004 ) . WLB literature, that has served its theoretical and practical utility, is so identified. Buzzanell et Al, ( 2005 ) has farther suggested that the WLB by and large represents the struggles in functions for married, professional, and managerial adult females. Meanwhile, other demographics are seldom referred by these struggles. Furthermore, most organisations have inability to clearly explicate the interaction of work and non-work functions that impact employees working-life, emphasis and occupation satisfaction, for case. Elloy and Smith ( 2004 ) has stated that because non-working functions of each employee are inherently ill-defined and complicated, administrations are so non capable to understand the proper manner to respond that impacts each person. Spinks ( 2004 ) besides added that administrations, nevertheless, could be unwilling to understand their employees and have alternatively created a one-size-fits-all policy refering that it merely enabled work force to work longer instead than back up their of import non-work functions. However, the inadequacy of current WLB policy has been emphasized by the survey of Kiger ( 2005 ) which revealed that the engagement rate in available WLB plans is really less than 2 % . This really low figure is explained by Dex and Smith ( 2002 ) that there are two major factors taking this low figure. The first is the equality feeling. As legion employees describing that they wish non to be a particular instance inquiring for particular intervention. In add-on to this, the paper of Water et Al ( 2006 ) besides supported that the workplace civilization reduced the willingness of Australian university staff to entree WLB policy options. The 2nd is because the uneffective WLB as it has been originated from one size tantrum all policy. Therefore, it could non present satisfaction to employees and could non be practical in world. Consequently, administrations, that do non analyze more on WLB attack, are increasing issues in attractive force and keeping of employees. The research has found that coevals X and Y have placed higher importance on WLB than old coevalss. They could be attracted and retained longer in the house that provides flexibleness in conformity with single demands. As similar to the paper of Beck et Al ( 2005 ) , it shows an increase of adult females directors who are willing to go forth house and go adviser as it provides them more control on WLB. As a consequence, the WLB literature, otherwise, revealed the restriction of its ability to supply a utile model for both in theoretical and practical strategy ( Hyman et al, 2004 ) . Despite its name, the WLB literature remains refering on work-family border and fails to correctly discover the scope of work and non-roles which affect an person s satisfaction. To suppress these issues, Elloy et Al ( 2003 ) suggests that an effectual conceptualisation of the WLB requires a holistic attack to HR direction, which involves a better consciousness of the worker s day-to-day activities instead than merely concern on their on the job hr. Its design and execution should follow the following four standards. First of wholly, it must take chiefly on the integrating of all human resource activities with the house s vision, ends and strategic planning. This would convey consistence between work force s life context and organisational civilization. Second, the execution of policies must make a set of internal consistence of employment scheme supplying flexibleness, quality, and committedness as a milepost of the WLB s construct. Third, the importance of human resources must be considered every bit good as the demand to prosecute in patterns. Both would reflect the apprehension of the WLB construct. Therefore, human resource attack is indispensable and is the cardinal to the connexion between WLB aim and the success. Finally, the behaviour of the line directors in employees position should be taken into history as it affects the success of WLB s policies, such as acknowledgment by employees that their higher-ups are committed to the accomplishment of a meaningful. In decision, the point, which organisation is capable to back up the accomplishment and benefits associated with it, depends on two major concerns. The method that the WLB has been identified and formalized within human resource scheme and the manner the managerial people react to workforce s petitions for WLB demand sing to single demand. For the formalisation, houses should be worn of the grade to which WLB is being implemented, whether it has been regarded as a right, a right to bespeak, or as a affair of direction judgement. In footings of managerial responses, the organisation is required to do a determination either to implement a difficult human resource scheme or a commitment attack towards the petition for the needful WLB policies. It is the connexion between company s civilization in rites and patterns are modeled by organisational leaders that set the inclination for employees responses to WLB policies. The achievement of a utile WLB policies construct has basically faile d in Australia with the given issues discussed above. The nexus between organisational public presentation and diverseness or work-life balance How diverseness or work-life balance is linked with other Human Resource Management constructs such as preparation and development, public presentation direction and/or enlisting As the effectivity of WLB direction requires the comprehensive acknowledgment from organisation sing the non-work functions which impact employee s working-lives, irrespective whatever has been implemented in WLB in recent old ages, there is still deficient larning theoretical account that could convey existent practical and effectual WLB policies to the organisation in footings of definition and pattern. With the purpose to research the modern-day WLB s boundaries, the organisational function theory position has been picked up to the acceptance. It is suggested that the effectual direction of this stray impact could be done by holding human resource directors audit WLB impact and see it as portion of occupation rating procedure. Interestingly, to province these WLB issues, there are two strategic options affecting in cardinal human resource policies, particularly, in the occupation analysis, occupation design, and public presentation direction procedure. Chiefly, the execution of a WLB impact audit system must be taken as portion of occupation analysis map. Traditionally, the occupation analysis map serves to depict each place within an administration in footings of its assignments, duties, and concatenation of bid. The demand to finish the WLB construct is a concentration on the size of occupation, occupation s strength, and the grade that the work impacts on each single life via interfering communicating system, nomadic phones and e-mail engineering, for case. Despite the fact that the focal point on proficient features has served as a footing for specifying a place facet, it has been less successful in back uping a realistic occupation analysis sing to the occupation s consequence as commended in bing hum an resource literature ( Buda et al, 2003 ) . Therefore, to do the better occupation analysis, the hearing of WLB impact must try to sketch in what manner each occupation s place influences each employee s life and supply constructive footing for apprehension of the place s demands. Precisely, the audit focuses on both present places and new places yet to be filled. Particularly, it is recommended that human resource directors implement a proactive attitude in pull offing their current and prospective work force s outlooks. Therefore, they could finally near their functions in doing effectual WLB direction. Besides, the 2nd strategic option is to absorb the consequences of the WLB impact s audit into the go oning occupation rating map. This would put primary duty for the effectual execution of WLB ( at the single employee degree ) in the custodies of their line director. Line directors would so be better able to discourse the impact of executing the responsibilities on WLB and visa-versa straight with each employee. For this to be given appropriate prominence, the cardinal public presentation index for directors would be their attack and effectivity in back uping the employee s WLB. A cardinal focal point is for administrations to take a strategic attack to taking the barriers and perceived deterrences for employees to take up WLB options ( Waters A ; Bardoel, 2006 ) . At the operational degree, communicating within workgroups and single director s attitudes are affairs for attending. The possible benefit of the Impact Audit is that by leveraging the positional outlooks in the Position Description the administration is able to increase the likeliness that the role-taking and role-consensus premises are being met, in bend cut downing the likeliness of role-conflict. The deductions of a Work-Life Balance Impact Audit are potentially quadruple. First, it offers the administration an chance to better their enlisting value proposition by holding a plan in topographic point to avoid the dysfunctional effects of role-conflict. Second, it allows the administration to gain clip and cost nest eggs by leting possible campaigners to self-select out of the enlisting procedure should they be unwilling to follow the work-roles required of a vacant place. Third, it provides a structured mechanism through its usage in the public presentation direction procedure for the monitoring of the degree of effectivity of WLB execution for single employees. Fourthly, the execution of such an audit requires look intoing the strategic congruity between WLB and corporate scheme, the impact of enacted civilization on the execution of a scope of HR policy countries and obtaining feedback from employees ( and prospective employees ) on the construction and content of WLB and related constabularies. It raises the possibility of increased flexibleness of HR policies to provide for greater diverseness ( more single ) in employee outlooks of workplace flexibleness that is more decently described as life and work instead than the current prevailing focal point on household friendly . Practical ( existent universe ) illustrations During the sixtiess and 1970s, employers considered work-life chiefly an issue for working female parents who struggled with the demands of their occupations and raising kids. Throughout this period and into the mid-1980s, the U. S. authorities had the major impact in the field, as reflected by the Presidential Conference on Families, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and the Quality of Employment Survey. During the 1980s, acknowledging the value and demands of their adult females subscribers, open uping organisations such as Merck, Deloitte A ; Touche, and IBM began to alter their internal workplace policies, processs, and benefits. The alterations included pregnancy leave, employee aid plans ( EAPs ) , flextime, home-based work, and child-care referral. During the 1980s work forces besides began voicing work-life concerns. By the terminal of the decennary, work-life balance was seen as more than merely a adult females s issue, impacting work forces, households, organisations and civilizations. The 1990s solidified the acknowledgment of work-life balance as a critical issue for everyone adult females, work forces, parents and non-parents, singles, and twosomes. This turning consciousness of the cardinal importance of the issue resulted in major growing in attempted work-life solutions during this decennary. Numerous surveies showed that the coevalss from babe boomers to new college alumnuss were doing occupation picks based on their ain work-life issues and employers civilizations. Unfortunately, although companies were following family-friendly policies, employees and directors were non implementing them. Many of the policies put into topographic point in the eightiess failed to hold a important impact on most directors and employees real-world work-life-balance consequences. Americans still reported experiencing even more overworked and out of touch with their non-work lives much of the clip. During the first old ages of the 21st century, the dissatisfactory consequences made human resource and work-life professionals every bit good as executives at all degrees take stock. Karol Rose, writer of the shortly to be published book Work Life Strategies, remarks on these tendencies in Fortune Magazine s 3rd one-year work-life particular characteristic included in the October 2005 issue. She noted that the Work-Life Leadership Council of the Conference Board, a assemblage of high-ranking corporate HR and work-life professionals, drew these decisions on looking back over the last decennary of attempts. Among their concerns were: aˆ? Work-life concern instances have non achieved their intended consequence.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

My Participation in Relay For Life (RFL) essays

My Participation in Relay For Life (RFL) essays I recently volunteered at the Relay For Life Saturday April 13th, 2013 at the USF track There was a decent amount of people there including some cuties so that was a plus! The main rule was that each organization or team involved in Relay For Life has to have one walker on the track at all times. There were also fun games and contest such as the hairiest chest competition, which I did not make a run for as I have next to no hair on my chest, (I realize this is too much information, but just thought you should know). Then there was moment when they cut off the stadium lights and lit the candles in bags for lighting, which I vaguely remembered from my earlier experiences with Relay For Life. It was pretty cool as they lit the bags on the stadium reading Hope and then a little later they changed it so that it read Cure. A couple of people gave speeches and testimonys of personal experience with cancer, or stories of knowing someone who went through all the adversity that cancer brings with it. These speeches were then followed by the lap of silence around the track, which was emotional for many as it was also a silent remembrance of those who lost their battle with cancer. While most of Relay For Life was just hanging out and having a good time-as we played sports in the middle of the field for a while, I didnt feel guilty about it as another goal of Relay For Life is to have fun while celebrating and enjoying the life we have while we still have the chance. All the while getting healthy which helps prevent type two dia...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Ethical Issues in Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ethical Issues in Management - Research Paper Example Hence, Brown and Trevino (2004) have tried to debunk common misconceptions about this term. It is important to note that ethical issues are never easy and the notion that it is not meant to be managed is very wrong. Therefore, it is very important to be wary of possible ethical issues that must be given attention to as well as an acceptance that the complexities of these issues require a very intricate process. Also, it is likewise important to be able to look into the strong possibility that the bad people in the organization that are usually the ones to blame may just be symptoms from a systemic problem in the organization. Hence, there must be a deeper examination of this probability and that the underlying problem must be solved so that there will be a lasting solution to these ethical issues. Character and Ethics Furthermore, there must be a stronger effort than the codes and programs in order to be able to take in these challenges and that there must be the realization and acce ptance that despite all talks about accountabilities and chains of command, corporate leaders cannot really take all the blame for their staffs or employees that go astray. Many leaders are formed by their strong character and an overarching appreciation of their calling (Gallos, 1997). Hence, the many people in the organization cannot be always influenced by their leaders as these people are However, despite the recent issues about these scandals, this has been going on since the time that humans basically started commerce. Indeed, Bowen (2002) stresses the need for a coordinated and strongly planned approach to these ethical issues and that these must be integrated within the organization and even in the vision mission of the company. Indeed, the role of the organization must be very prominent in addressing these ethical issues as this can be the strong force that will enable the company to be able to really direct their efforts at ensuring the maintenance of integrity within thei r ranks (Smith, 1990; Hanson, 1991). Areas of Concern Becker (2010) highlights the dilemmas whereby there are four major areas that must be considered. Hence, in dealing with ethical issues, the human resources must be considered since there lies the enablers and the possible causes of ethical problems. Moreover, the confidence of customers must be adequately considered since business confidence can be greatly affected when ethics crises sets in. This brings forward the next area of concern which is the possible sources of conflicts of interest that the company must look into in order to maintain a spotless record with their stakeholders. Finally, the company must watch over their company resources and how these are spent. Indeed, ethical issues can be very challenging and finding solutions to these problems has been greatly hampered by the aforementioned myths. Although these ethical issues go way back, it must be noted that the current trends in business and society has been great ly influential in its proliferation as well as in its recognition. Social networks have considerably grown in prominence at the turn of the century boosted by the rapid greater improvements in the communications capability worldwide. As such, Borgatti and Molina (2003) have pressed the need for an ethical framework that will govern researches made in these social networks. There have been many reports of privacy concerns arising from such

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Theory Analysis - Watson's Theory of Human Care Research Paper

Theory Analysis - Watson's Theory of Human Care - Research Paper Example History The Watson’s Theory of Human Care had started taking its form through the evolution of philosophies of Dr. Jean Watson. In 1979 she gave the concept of 10 carative factors of nursing. Since then her theories have undergone several changes, though the salient framework of the theories have remained consistent. The factors mentioned above were based on philosophy, science and the art of caring. Later the concept developed into the idea of clinical caritas meaning the cherishing and appreciating the job and mixed love with the idea of nursing. The concepts were reviewed by the author from time to time in 1985 and again in 1988. She also emphasized on the development of interpersonal help and trust and relationship of care. In 1999 Watson developed the Transpersonal Caring Relation. In this theory she highlighted the potential of the connection that the nurse can establish to care and heal the patient. She also speaks of the subjective concern of the nurse for the patient (Cara, n.d.; Alligood, Marriner-Tomey, 2006, 103-104). Meaning Watson in his Theory of Human Care has emphasized on the connection of the nurse with the patient to build a relationship based on care. For a nurse, she has emphasized on a few qualities like the inclination of the nurse to acknowledge the importance of the patient, the capacity of the nurse to establish a spiritual connection with the patient so that she can feel an union with her patient and to give her patient a comfort to so that his inner healing is promoted. The theory is based on the love and compassion of the nurse. However she has pointed that in the healing process the primary agent is the patient himself and the nurse is a copartner. She has emphasized on a number of factors for the healing of the patient. They are the humane and the altruistic values, the faith and hope of oneself, sensitiveness to others as well as oneself, a relation based on help and trust, free expression of positive and negative emotion s, a creativity to solve the problems in the caring process, transpersonal gains through mutual teaching and learning. The other factors that she has outlines are a social and spiritual environment that supports and protects the patient’s ability to heal the physical and mental state. The factors are based on spiritual as well as existentialist and phenomenological powers (Watson, 1999, p 73 – 75; Butts, Rich, 2010, p 286-287). Use Watson gives an outline of the ethics and morale associated with learning. According to Cara (n.d.) the profession of nursing is slowly losing its goal of caring for the patients and Watson’s theory tries to reinstate that fact. Moreover she emphasizes on the powers of the soul of the patient to help in the healing process and gives a direction to the nurses assist the patient in this process of healing. In this way Watson gives subjectivity to the profession on nursing based on caring that can be applied by all the nurses (Alligood, & Marriner-Tomey, 2006, 103-114; Cara, n.d.). Logical Adequacy In the theory Watson outlines the discipline of nursing based on philosophy. Here the subjective choices of the nurse and the ontological capabilities are of extreme importance. Watson does not denounce the capability of medicines or doctors for the healing of the patient. However she emphasizes the role a nurse can play to help the process. Therefore Watson’s theory of Human Care cannot be refuted based on logical derivations. Generalizabilty Watson’

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Gas Station Spill Essay Example for Free

Gas Station Spill Essay This project investigates oil spill from gas station tanks, as well as its impact on the environment and bioremediation. The gas station market is greatly profitable. However, actions concerning its maintenance should be part of the big picture. Oil is toxic for human beings and its spill can severely damage soil and consequently groundwater. Due to the expiration date of an underground oil tank rated to be 25 years, this project will analyze oil spill from a gas station Ipase neighborhood located in Sao Luis city, Brazil. To accomplish this effort, this project will analyze remediation plans and its benefits. Remediation can be very costly, thus a prevention research of the vulnerable oil spill areas can be cheaper and more desirable. For the prevention research, it is necessary to study the locations of gas stations as well as the environment surrounding them. Some considerations as the gas stations proximity to water sources such as rivers and lakes must be measured as well as the proximity of the gas stations to preservations areas. It is intended to share the results of this project with other researchers, universities and gas station owners for a better understanding of the impact of oil spills and the precautionary measures available to minimize the impact on the environment.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Smoking and Lung Cancer Essay -- Biology Essays Research Papers

Smoking and Lung Cancer Lung Cancer accounts for fifteen percent of all cancer cases, and an estimated 170,000 people in the United States get lung cancer a year. (5)About 155,000 of those people die from the cancer. Recently, the rate of women affected by lung cancer has increased, while the rate of men affected has decreased. However, lung cancer is the leading cancer that kills both women and men. (1) So, what is lung cancer? Lung cancer is the uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells in the lung. (5) There are two main types of lung cancer: non-small cell and small- cell lung cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer (or NSCLC) is more common than small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) and occurs in about 80% of all lung cancer cases. (3) Early lung cancer does not cause symptoms, so when the symptoms finally do show and the cancer is detected, it is already at an advanced stage. (1) Smoking has been shown to be the primary cause of lung cancer. About 87% of all cases occur in people who smoke. (1) However, not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer and not everyone who gets lung cancer smokes. One of the main symptoms of lung cancer is a chronic cough that lasts for more than two weeks. Another is constant chest pain. Other symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing blood, hoarseness, and repeated pneumonia or bronchitis. (1) There are also less noticeable signs such as unexplained fever, weight loss, or appetite loss. (2) As mentioned earlier, there are two types of lung cancer: NSCLC and SCLC. NSCLC can be divided into three sections. First, there is epidermoid carcinoma which is usually starts in the large breathing tubes, and grows slowly. (5) There is also adenocarcinoma, which is found in the mucus glands and ... ...is still a fatal illness that kills most people if it is not detected early. The main way to avoid lung cancer is to stop smoking! Cigarettes and tobacco have about 4,000 chemicals in them which lead directly to cancer. (1) The more a person smokes, the greater the possibility of lung cancer. However, if one stops smoking, the risk of getting lung cancer reduces each year. After ten years, the probability decreases to about one-half or one-third the risk of people who continue to smoke. (1) In addition, secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 people to die from lung cancer a year. (1)Therefore, the best way to prevent yourself or those around you from getting lung cancer is to stop smoking! Internet Sources: 1) http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=22542 2) http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/wyntk/lung#9 3) http://www.meds.com/lung/guide/u_lung.html

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Human Facial Expressions and Emotions Essay

To accept that the implications of human emotions are universal is indeed very extensive. It speaks to an issue that is deeply entrenched in human nature and it is by no means a trivial question. Much research has been conducted in this field of emotions through the analysis of facial expressions, categorizing evidence into two primary categories: those in favor of the universality of emotions, known as the Universality thesis, or those in favor of cultural influence on emotions. While it has been largely accepted that there is a basic universal language in the field, the bulk of the debate centers on where exactly factors controlling expression of facial expressions lie on this spectrum. There is undeniably overwhelming evidence in support of the universality thesis with both qualitative (judgment studies) and quantitative (muscle unit measurements and brain mapping techniques) data; however, one could not overlook the behavioral and anatomical evidence in favor of culture-specific expressions. Therefore, universal emotions may serve as a very fundamental framework among all humans; yet, it is cultural differences that fine-tune this structure into the emotions each individual expresses. Introduction to Universality Thesis: The Darwinian Hypothesis Principles for the Expression of Emotions The Work of Charles Darwin. Many of the ideas that Darwin formulated in his 1872 book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals have led to this field of research. On the book’s most basic level, he defended that emotion expressions are evolved and adaptive (Hess & Thibault, 2009). However, Darwin also posits three crucial principles from which many of the subsequent fundamental questions and debate over emotions and their purpose stem. The Principle of Serviceable Habits. As Hess and Thibault (2009) note, this first principle takes a Lamarckian view of the inheritance of emotions genetically through the force of habits. Darwin explicitly underscores the concept and force of habit. It also speaks very much to the functionality of emotions and their expressions, although most of them are vestigial. However, these traits could still be observed in animals because the civilization of humans would suppress such instinctual tendencies. A common example is that of rage and aggression as a â€Å"playful sneer† or â€Å"ferocious snarl† (Darwin, 1872) reveals animal descent. The Principle of Antithesis. In a reversal of the first principle, the second principle asserts that some expressions are so directly opposite to nature that the only means is that of expressive communication (Darwin 1872). This makes the expression almost analogous to the voice for the purpose of intercommunication. It is worth noting, however, the Darwin extends this principle to not only states, but to traits as well (Hess & Thibault, 2009). For instance, Darwin (1872) postulates that the enigmatic action of a gaping mouth could indicate a feebleness of character. Such actions eventually become ingrained through habit. The Principle of the Direct Action of the Excited Nervous System on the Body.  This final principle that Darwin outlines could be considered the direct product of the nervous system. Therefore, some expressions occur to balance excess emotions. For instance, consider the absurd nature of laughter (Hess & Thibault, 2009). Heckler (1873) proposed that laughter could in fact be a protective reflex that compromises the excess of the circulatory and respiratory systems through the irritation of vasomotor nerves. The work of Darwin and universality thesis will later by revived in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the judgments studies of Paul Ekman. Evidence in Support of Universality Evidence derived from Judgment Studies Introduction. The universality thesis is most contingent upon judgment data, evidence of observers seeing the same emotions in all faces (Russell, 1994). Paul Ekman is largely considered to be the pioneer and preeminent scholar in the field of emotions, and his judgment studies with overwhelming evidence supporting the universality of facial expressions are frequently cited in subsequent studies on this topic. The earlier view before studies conducted by Ekman and Friesen from the late 1960s was that facial expressions completely differed from culture to culture (La Barre, 1947). With Ekman and Friesen’s groundbreaking work on the constancy of facial expressions throughout cultures in 1971, however, the tremendous evidence has persuaded much of the psychology world to accept the universality thesis although skeptics still remain (Ekman & Friesen, 1987). Pan-cultural udgment studies. Among the first of these pan-cultural judgment studies was conducted by Ekman, Sorenson, and Friesen (1969) in New Guinea, Borneo, Brazil, the United States, and Japan where they found evidence in favor of pan-cultural elements in facial displays; observers in these cultures were able to recognize similar emotions in the a standard set of photographs. They first obtained samples of photographed facial expressions that were free of cultural differences. The subjects, too, were carefully selected as data needed to be collected from virtually isolated preliterate societies to eliminate the variable of mass media (Ekman et al. , 1969). Photographs of Caucasians—male and female, adult and children—were used, all of whom were professional and amateur actors. The observers observed primarily the preliterate societies from New Guinea and Borneo, two isolated communities that required translators. 1] The emotion Happy (H) was most universally recognized with tremendous accuracy in responses—United States: 97 H; Brazil: 97 H; Japan: 87 H; New Guinea: 99 H (Pidgin) and 82 H (Fore); and Borneo: 92 H. Fear (F), however, seem to generate a more varied response between different cultures, with Surprise (SU) and Anger (A) as answers as well—United States: 88 F; Japan: 71 F, 26 SU; New Guinea: 46 F, 31 A (Pidgin) and 54 F, 25 A (Fore); Borneo: 40 F, 33 SU. There were also variations within Disgust-Contempt (D) with some mixtures of A and in the Borneo society, even H; A included some D and F; SU included F and A, which these variations occurring primarily in the isolated societies; and finally, Sadness (SA) was sometimes interpreted as A, with A being the only given response in the Fore group of New Guinea. While there is certainly evidence for some basic universality, Ekman, Sorenson, and Friesen attributed the discrepancies to language barriers and task unfamiliarity in the illiterate societies. Flaws and how they were subsequently addressed. Ekman and Friesen (1987) later published a study in which they acknowledge some flaws of previous judgment studies. With respect to the study above, three problems that limited them are: (1) there has only been one such study, (2) not all six emotions were accurately recognized, and (3) the facial expressions were posed as opposed to spontaneous (Ekman & Friesen, 1987). In response to the last criticism, Ekman and Friesen (1972) designed a study of facial expressions shown by Japanese and Americans while watching stress-inducing films of body mutilation and neutral films of natural andscape. When subjects from each of the two cultures viewed the films in the absence of a scientist with a hidden video camera, the facial expressions from both groups were virtually identical; when viewing the same films in the presence of a scientist, however, the Japanese tended to mask negative expressions with smile, lending support to the presence of cultural display rules when different cultures ma nage and mask universal expressions. The primary criticism, however, was (1) again, there has only been one such study, and (2) the films only elicit two emotions (disgust and fear)—other universal expressions were not determined for (Ekman & Friesen, 1987). Later studies, however, involving photographs of facial expressions shown to observers of across 12 literature cultures found very high agreement by multiple researchers including Ekman, Friesen, Sorenson, and Izard (Ekman et at. , 1969; Izard, 1971). The multiple replications of this design lends to its credibility (Ekman & Friesen, 1987). Universality of the recognizing intensity. Ekman and Friesen (1987) sought to further extend their basic judgment studies by testing for four different hypotheses of cross-cultural agreement for (1) single-choice judgment tasks; (2) the strongest emotion; (3) the second strongest emotion; and (4) strength of emotion. The nations that were chosen included 8 different languages from both Western and non-Western countries. In (1), the single-choice judgment task that replicated previous studies, once again, produced accurate results in terms of the percentage of subjects in a country correctly identifying with a predicted emotion. For instance, two examples include Happiness, in which the percentage ranged from 98% (Scotland) to 69% (Sumatra); for Surprise, 94% (Japan) to 78% (Sumatra), while Sadness, ranged from 92% (U. S. ) to 76% (Turkey). Overall, the emotional term chosen by the majority of the subjects in each culture was accurate 178 out of 180 times. Hypothesis (2) was also supported: 177 out of 180 times, the emotion that was judged to be the most prominent by the majority of each culture was also the predicted emotion. Hypothesis (3), which predicted the universality of the secondary emotion, was sustained as well: in every culture, there was complete agreement about the secondary emotion signaled by expressions of disgust and fear. The results for sadness and surprise, however, were too infrequent to be conclusive (5 out of 30 opportunities and 8 out of 30 respectively). Further research needs to be conducted to determine the cause for this discrepancy (Ekman & Friesen, 1987). Hypothesis (4) required subjects to judge the intensity of emotions on an 8-point scale (1-slight, 4-moderate, 8-strong) to predict the universality of judging. This, according to Ekman and Friesen (1987) however, led to inconclusive results. Using a one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), F(54,2743)=3. 95, signifies a moderate association between culture and intensity judgments. However, instead, the six univariate tests ranged from 2. 3 in Sadness to 6. 66 in Surprise, indicating that there are significant differences among cultures in this respect. These differences, according, to Ekman and Friesen, could have 2 possibilities: (1) politeness and a greater uncertainty about a foreigner or (2) the language barrier, as observers had make judgments in language other than English (Ekman & Friesen, 1987). Nevertheless, with three of these hypotheses confirmed, the evidence for universal facial expressions is undeniably overwhelming despite these flaws. Evidence based on Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and Action Units Introduction. Based on the evidence for the presence of six basic emotions across cultures,—happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise—qualitative descriptions of facial muscles associated with each of them have been identified. For instance, happy expressions include tense lower eyelids, raised cheeks and lip corners pulled up, while sad expressions include inner eyebrows raised and drawn together, and lip corners pulled down (Kohler et al. 2004). Based on such observations, Ekman and Friesen (1978) developed the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) by identifying the presence of action units (AU). They serve as the standard set of facial expressions. Target AUs in universal emotions. Kohler et al (2004) sought to identify which AUs characterized the four universal emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. A total of 128 images of emotional expressions were used in a sample of 105 sub jects from Drexel University. Of these subjects, 63 were men and 42 were women. There were also 71 Caucasian, 9 Africa-American, 4 Hispanic/Latino, and 21 Asian-American participants, indicating ethnic diversity. They were then asked whether each facial expression matched the target emotion. FACS ratings revealed that uniquely absent and present AUs were found for each emotion (Kohler et al, 2004). In Happy, the presence of AU 6, 7, and 26 was ositively associated with happy recognition, and determined that the presence of 6 increased recognition four times; in Sad, AU 4, 17, and 25 were positively while 15 was negatively associated; in Anger, AU 4, 5, and 16 were positively while 23 was negatively associated[2]; and in Fear, AU 5, 1, and 26 were positively while 4 was negatively associated. By defining expressions quantitatively with unique muscle patterns over a diverse subject group, the universality thesis is further strengthened. The 2004 Athens Olympics Game. Psychologist David Matsmoto[3] (2006) conducted a field behavioral study of the facial expressions displayed by medal winners of the judo competition during the 2004 Athens Olympics Games using F F ACS. With judo photographer Bob Willingham, they captured the spontaneous reactions of 84 medal winners from 35 different countries—the most diverse ethnic group in a spontaneously intense emotional field study—at 3 different times: (1) when they completed the match, (2) when they received their medals from the dignitary, and (3) when they posed on the podium. Matsumoto (2006) found that independent of cultural backgrounds, there are very specific facial expressions that occur in emotionally-charged contexts. This study was designed in response to some criticisms of judgments studies and previous field studies conducted in other sporting events including bowling and soccer (Kraut & Johnson, 1979; Ruiz-Belda et al. , 2003). A crucial concern about judgments studies held in laboratories is their posed stimuli and artificial nature because they lack the investigation of the expression within a social context (Matsumoto, 2006). While later field studies were conducted in order to address this concern, there were three flaws that Matsumoto (2006) in turn addresses. The first two are the strength of the elicited emotional response—a factor that is not intense enough with bowling spares and strikes—and the time allowed for expressions to unfold. The third and most important aspect of the study was the type of smile elicited in the social context, something that Kraut and Johnson (1979) had failed to distinguish. Matsumoto determines two types of smiles: the Duchenne smile and the non-Duchenne smile; the former is associated with enjoyment and the latter is associated with pleasantry or social convenience even though the person does not feel positive emotions. While Ruiz-Belda et al (2003) uses the FACS, which detects the muscle movements associated with these smiles, they were not differentiated. In order to isolate photos or victory, Willingham took pictures from the gold and bronze matches (Matsumoto, 2006), the most emotionally intense matches as they both occur at the margin; the former wins the first place while the latter made the cut for a medal. Negative emotions of defeat were searched for in silver medal winners and athletes who placed fifth. Again, as aforementioned, it is important to distinguish the timing of emotions, as the first expressions upon completing a match are often the most instinctual and natural ones. Thirteen out of 14 gold medalists and 18 out of 16 bronze medalists smiled for a total of 31 smiles; of those 31 smiles, 29 were Duchenne and 24 were open-mouthed. In the defeat silver medalists, none smiled and 1 of the 26 fifth placers smiled. Instead, 43% of silver medalists and 35% of fifth placers showed sadness, 29% and 23% showed nothing (respectively), and 14% and 15% showed contempt (again, respectively). Upon receiving the medal, which is a much more public event than initial expressions, 54 of the 56 athletes smiled. All 14 gold medalists (12 open-mouthed), 6 silver medalists (out of the 14), and 20 bronze medalists (out of 28) had Duchenne smiles. Cultural differences were tested for, but none were found. In the final situation, the most public of the three, the athletes’ expressions were taken on the podium. Again, all the gold medalists smiled; only 9 silver medalists of the 14 smiled (only 5 of these were uncontrolled, of which 3 were controlled Duchenne); and 26 bronze medalists of the 28 smiled (13 of which were open-mouthed and Duchenne). Interestingly in this last scenario, cultural differences was evident: gold and bronze medalists from North America-Western Europe and East Asia were much more prone to displaying Duchenne smiles (96%) as opposed to gold and bronze medalists from other countries (47%). This study of facial expressions further reinforces the notion of universal emotions. Because no other emotion other than the Duchenne smile was prominent in these expressions of victory, the data suggests that it may be the only facial marker of the joy of victory (Matsumoto, 2006). Matsumoto then proposed an evolutionary reason why this may be the case along the lines of behavioral ecology: facial expressions provide rapid means of communication, and it may not have been absolutely adaptively necessary to communicate various emotions of enjoyment. However, while this last point is highly speculative, the data that Matsumoto provides for universal facial expressions, which were displayed most prominently in more private settings but still detectable in more public ones using FACS, is very thorough and convincing.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Financial Markets Study Questions Essay

14.1 What are financial markets? What function do they perform? How would an economy be worse off without them? Financial markets are institutions and procedures that facilitate transactions in all types of financial claims. Financial markets perform the function of allocating savings in the economy to the ultimate demander(s) of the savings. Without these financial markets, the total wealth of the economy would be lessened. Financial markets aid the rate of capital formation in the economy. The economy would be worse of without financial markets for several reasons. Savers would not be able to earn a return on their savings. People who need capital wouldn’t be able to get the funds from other people and so would have to rely only on their own money. The inability to get capital from others would slow the growth of businesses and reduce the purchases of consumers because they can no longer get loans. These would lead to decreased demand for products and services as well as a decrease in available jobs both of which would harm the economy. 14.3 Distinguish between the money and capital markets Money Markets facilitates transactions using short-term financial instruments; whereas, Capital Markets facilitates transactions using long-term financial instruments. A money market is a market for short term debt securities such as banker’s acceptances, commercial paper, repos, negotiable certificates of deposit, and Treasury Bills with a maturity of one year or less and often 30 days or less. Money market securities are generally very safe investment which returns a relatively low interest rate that is most appropriate for temporary cash storage or short-term time horizons. A capital market is where debt or equity securities are traded. 14.4 What major benefits do corporations and investors enjoy because of the existence of organized security exchanges? Organized stock exchanges provide for: †¢ A continuous market. This means a series of continuous security prices is generated. Price changes between trades are dampened, reducing price volatility, and enhancing the liquidity of securities. †¢ Establishing and publicizing fair security prices. Prices on an organized exchange are determined in the manner of an auction. Moreover, the prices are published in widely available media like newspapers. †¢ An aftermarket to aid businesses in the flotation of new security issues. The continuous pricing mechanism provided by the exchanges facilitates the determination of offering prices in new flotation’s. The initial buyer of the new issue has a ready market in which he can sell the security should he need liquidity rather than a financial asset.

Friday, November 8, 2019

How to Make a Stem and Leaf Plot

How to Make a Stem and Leaf Plot When you finish grading an exam, you might want to determine how your class performed on the test. If you do not have a calculator handy, you can calculate the mean or median of the test scores. Alternately, it is helpful to see how the scores are distributed. Do they resemble a bell curve? Are the scores bimodal? One type of graph that displays these features of the data is called a stem-and-leaf plot or stemplot. Despite the name, there is no flora or foliage involved. Instead, the stem forms one part of a number, and the leaves make up the rest of that number.   Constructing a Stemplot In a stemplot, each score is broken into two pieces: the stem and leaf. In this example, the tens digits are stems, and the one  digits form the leaves. The resulting stemplot produces a distribution of the data similar to a  histogram, but all of the data values are retained in a compact form. You can easily see features of the students’ performance from the shape of the stem-and-leaf plot. Stem and Leaf Plot Example Suppose that your class had the following test scores: 84, 65, 78, 75, 89, 90, 88, 83, 72, 91, and 90 and you wanted to see at a glance what features were present in the data. You would rewrite the list of scores in order and then use a stem-and-leaf plot. The stems are 6, 7, 8, and 9, corresponding to the tens place of the data. This is listed in a vertical column. The ones digit of each score is written in a horizontal row to the right of each stem, as follows: 9| 0 0 1 8| 3 4 8 9 7| 2 5 8 6| 2 You can easily read the data from this stemplot. For example, the top row contains the values of 90, 90, and 91. It shows that only three students earned a score in the 90th percentile with scores of 90, 90, and 91. By contrast, four students earned scores in the 80th percentile, with marks of 83, 84, 88, and 89. Breaking Down the Stem and Leaf With test scores as well as other data that range between zero and 100 points, the above strategy works for choosing stems and leaves. But for data with more than two digits, youll need to use other strategies.   For example, if you want to make a stem-and-leaf plot for the data set of 100, 105, 110, 120, 124, 126, 130, 131, and 132, you can use the highest place value to create the stem. In this case, the hundreds digit would be the stem, which is not very helpful because none of the values is separated from any of the others: 1|00 05 10 20 24 26 30 31 32 Instead, to obtain a better distribution, make the stem the first two digits of the data. The resulting stem-and-leaf plot does a better job of depicting the data: 13| 0 1 2 12| 0 4 6 11| 0 10| 0 5 Expanding and Condensing The two stemplots in the previous section show the versatility of stem-and-leaf plots. They can be expanded or condensed by changing the form of the stem. One strategy for expanding a stemplot is to evenly split a stem into equally sized pieces: 9| 0 0 1 8| 3 4 8 9 7| 2 5 8 6| 2 You would expand this stem-and-leaf plot by splitting each stem into two. This results in two stems for each tens digit. The data with zero to four in the ones place value are separated from those with digits five to nine: 9| 0 0 1 8| 8 9 8| 3 4 7| 5 8 7| 2 6| 6| 2 The six with no numbers to the right shows that there are no data values from 65 to 69.

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Surgery by text message - Emphasis

Surgery by text message Surgery by text message For once, a positive story about text messaging is doing the rounds. A surgeon has instructed another to perform an amputation through the short message service (SMS texting to you and me). The details have the ingredients of a classic news story. Surprise for one (most stories about texting are negative eg blaming it for killing the English language). Then there is Death and destruction (the BBC reported that the surgeon who carried out the operation did it in war-torn Congo); and Heroism (he was working for Medecins sans Frontieres). And theres the fact that the amputation (Drama) was to remove the arm of a 16-year-old boy (children are also usually very newsworthy). Lets be clear. This was undoubtedly a huge achievement, especially as the teenager recovered from the operation. Its also remarkable that cheap technology can now be used to transmit written instructions into warzones. But was it me, or did James Naughtie of the BBCs flagship Today morning radio programme sound just a little disappointed when vascular surgeon Mr David Nott explained what really happened? Mr Nott had needed to perform a four-quarter amputation on the boy, whod already lost most of his arm. This was major surgery, which involved removing the collarbone and shoulder blade as well as what remained of the arm itself. But the reason for needing the instructions was not that hed never performed an amputation before. Rather, it was that there was only one specialist in the whole of the UK who specialised in four-quarter amputation: Professor Meirion Thomas of Londons Royal Marsden Hospital, a former colleague of Mr Nott. Mr Nott did not perform the operation with a scalpel in one hand and his mobile phone in the other, as you might infer from press reports. Instead, hed calmly emailed Professor Thomas the night before the operation, explaining the situation and checking with his former mentor that the procedure was appropriate. When he got confirmation that it was, a couple more texts followed to check the details. He then slept on the decision and confirmed that he would go ahead when he awoke the next morning. Nor was Professor Thomas on holiday in the Azores, as the BBC and several newspapers said; he was in London. (Naughtie muttered something along the lines of, Oh, well we got that from the papers.) There are two lessons to take from this. First, it will help you get news coverage for your organisation if you make sure your press release contains as many core news values as possible. Second, most news you read or hear reported is far from objective. The BBC was still reporting nine hours later that the boy was from war-torn Congo. This was despite the fact that, according to Mr Nott, his injury had nothing to do with the war: the boys arm was bitten off by a hippo. Emphasis runs courses on writing for publication. Contact us for details. For more on getting press releases noticed, click here.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Developing and Sustaining the Brand Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Developing and Sustaining the Brand - Essay Example The micro factors include all internal forces like customer satisfaction, the company's financial stability, and the way a product is positioned in the market by the organization. Beyond these, there are external forces at work including the political environment, general economic conditions, legal or regulatory changes, as well as the impact that increasing consumer environmental awareness is making on fuel sources and eco-friendly corporate practice. The author then moves into a section on the development and survival of brands, noting that the standard product life cycle, i.e., introduction, growth, maturity, and decline, are all applicable to a brand as well. The key to survival is adaptation, rejuvenation, innovation, or re-positioning. Adaptation, the author notes, is a long-term process and the article cites McDonald's as a prime example of a brand engaging in adaptation; recognizing cultural demands or health concerns, and tailoring product offerings by adapting to the new ma rket trends. Rejuvenation is a dual-prong process, whereby innovation and repositioning are combined to give a brand a new start. Innovation, the article notes, need not be radical; it can be incremental with minor improvements accumulating over time to result in major differences in the products or services offered.

Friday, November 1, 2019

A Report to Malaysia Exchange Controls during the Asian Crisis Essay

A Report to Malaysia Exchange Controls during the Asian Crisis - Essay Example Hence it should learn lessons form this experience which would be used in formulation of future financial strategies. The present report discusses all these aspects in detail. In 1997-98 there was a severe financial crisis experienced by the countries of South East Asia famously known as tiger economies (Stephen Haggard, 2000). Malaysia also faced this crisis severely. The reasons for this crisis were many as felt by the researchers (Wing Thye Woo, 2000). The main causes are uncontrolled foreign investment in the country, allowing capital fight from Malaysia to other countries, magnifying the currency situation in international level and inefficient monitory policy. Reacting to the crisis in the initial weeks the Malaysian government has taken initiatives to regulate foreign exchange as the devaluation of Ringgit has been very fast. However its measures could not bring much equilibrium to the financial condition of Malaysia and hence it needs to be analyzed so that the loop holes can be identified and one can be accurate in formulating any exchange control measures in future. Keeping this in view the present report has been prepared with the objectives of finding out the reasons for the financial crisis, what happened and what was the extent of damage, measures to control the crisis, short comings and future strategies which are described as follows. In early 1997, the Malaysian stock market index began a downward spiral together with stock markets of several ASEAN countries like Thailand and Indonesia. On 14 July 1997, Bank Negara of Malaysia gave up the defence of the Malaysian ringgit after jacking up the short rate to 50% and spending US$10 billions on unsuccessful monetary operations. There were huge amounts of foreign capital has entered Malaysia in previous years (prior to 1997-98) which was uncontrolled in nature by the Malaysian government. This capital was mainly of short term in nature and was also highly conditional. The