Monday, September 30, 2019

Edition Chapter

School of Economics Summary The case lists out the dilemma that Western Retail outlets (such as Wall-Mart, Careful and others) face as they enter Asian markets. The case builds on the notion that these retail outlets are not able to build on the premise of cultural differences and hence they cannot adapt themselves to the demographics of the local markets.The paper puts forth the framework which emphasizes of the Importance of adapting to the needs of Aslant consumers on part of these large retailers. The paper Is a culmination of work done on large retailers over a span of six years. The researcher has deviated from the traditional methods of data collection and has traveled wide and far for data collection, this has allowed the paper to develop a wider frame of reference and have a cross-sectional analysis across countries.The approach to the paper is ethnographic and real-life scenarios have been issued to elicit the happenings in daily life. From the researcher's point of view, t he customer's obvious needs are kept in accordance with their unspoken needs and wants. The method used results in a more In depth understanding of culture and the resulting buying processes which are otherwise not comprehensible. The paper elects the hypermarket structure being followed In Asia and sets out by explaining the structures of stores such as ART-Marti Tests and Careful which have.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Family and Partnership Model

EYMP 1 3. 1) We must work together (with parents, agencies) for the wellbeing and the progress of a child. Partnership model works around the theory of collaboration, understanding and communication. It helps to recognise how the best results can happen when the child’s in care and that is why we all must work together. The partnership model looks like: As worker with the children, we must know everything about the child; we have to seek and share information to parents and others who are concern.In my setting, we encourage partnership by: welcome parent to join and participate in the setting, we ask the parents to contribute with ideas, comments and suggestions for the best outcome in the setting, parents can visit the centre at any time they want and can ask what they want to ask and we should be in the measure to help them. 3. 2) There are many barriers to participation for carers who are: Language issue: there are some families that English is not their first language so s ometime parents are really shy to talk with people (they are not confident enough) and this increase the communication with carers and practitioners.Time issue: some times, parents don’t have enough time to be with their children and some time when they do have time they want to hang around with them not talk about them and we need to be really careful in this situation because parents may feel guilty for not having much time with their children so we have to be careful of what we are saying to them.Confident issue: some parent or carer can find it hard to be active in their children care and education because they are not confident and this because of previous experience of education or something else so we have to make sure that our contact with the parent is a positive one and that our communication skills are excellent.Phone calls issue: most parents find it easy to discuss a matter of their child over the phone but I think that it is better if parent can discuss the matt er face to face with the practitioner. Disability issue: some parent or carer has a disability issue and this can be overcome will depend on the parent or carer individual need for example: a person with sight problem may access information about their child using voice message or large print. A person with earing problem may access the information by reading.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Mrketing Mngement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Mrketing Mngement - Essay Example Plnning process is n initil stge of mrketing strtegy for ny orgniztion tht helps to shpe objectives nd gols of firm s well s to produce the principl policies nd plns for chieving those gols. During the plnning process it is normlly defined the nture of the business the orgniztion is to pursue which in turn hs gret bering on the kind of economic nd humn orgniztion it needs to possess. Gols nd objectives re usully set within time frmework. Strtegy entils mtching the compny's ctivities to its resource cpbility. There is little point in trying to tke dvntge of some new opportunity if the resources needed re not vilble or cnnot be mde vilble. n orgniztion must formulte strtegy during the plnning process of mrketing strtegy within the boundries of the resources tht re likely to be mde vilble. This is fundmentl considertion tht must be ddressed when formulting the pln. Strtegy is lso to do with the mtching of the ctivities of compny to the environment in which it opertes. Since the environm ent is continully chnging, strtegic decisions necessrily involve coping with chnge. The extent nd speed of environmentl chnge will vry nd the pce t which strtegy must chnge will necessrily vry too. s it ws lredy mentioned, there re lot of fctors tht need to be considered in the plnning process of n orgniztion tht ffect mrketing strtegy of the compny. These fctors re described in bellow nd re the reflection of stges of the plnning process of n orgniztion. 1. Initite nd gree Upon Strtegic Plnning Process This step is to ssure tht the key stkeholders understnd the plnning process nd re committed to it. Importnt persons nd groups re identified. The plnning process nd objectives re discussed with them nd their support nd commitment is sought. 2. Identify Orgniztionl Mndtes This is the identifiction of the legl nd politicl demnds which define wht the orgniztion must do. The explicit requirements of these mndtes re outlined s precisely s possible, nd clrifiction of gols nd ctions tht re not prohibited (the boundries of wht cn be ttempted) is initited. 3. Clrify Orgniztionl Mission nd Vlues This stge strives to clrify the purpose of the orgniztion. The possibilities which the orgniztion might undertke re filtered through the orgniztionl vlues to begin definition of wht it wnts to do nd wht it should do. comprehensive stkeholder nlysis is performed which expnds the work initited in step one. mission sttement, or the frmework for one, should be developed, nd this my be good plce to begin tht tsk. 4. ssess the Orgniztion's Externl nd Internl Environments The objective of this step is scnning opertion to identify strengths, weknesses, opportunities, nd threts (SWOT). This step (s well s plnning process generlly) grows from Open Systems Theory which sserts tht ll environmentl impcts, s well s ll internl forces, re interrelted nd hve potentil effect on ech other nd on the orgniztion. This step is the hert of the plnning process. It is firmly entwined with ll the other steps, nd is lmost synonymous with the plnning process concept. 5. Identify the Strtegic Issues Fcing the Orgniztion This identifiction emerges logiclly from the SWOT nlysis in concert with the mndtes, vlues, nd mission. "Strtegic issues re fundmentl policy questions or criticl chllenges tht ffect n orgniztion's mndtes, mission, nd

Friday, September 27, 2019

The Classification of Films in Specific Genres Literature review

The Classification of Films in Specific Genres - Literature review Example In his article, Film/Genre, Rick Altman strives to explain the need for the classification of films in specific genres. In doing this, he outlines some of the common film genres thus investigating the unique features of each genre that helps distinguish the numerous genres. He explains that classification is vital in the study and growth of the film industry. He alludes to the numerous other classifications in the contemporary society in underscoring the need to classify films. Among the film, genres are comedy, thriller, epic, and horror among many others. The film critic contends that people may classify films differently thus validating the existence of numerous genres. Despite the relativity of the classification system, the author further outlines numerous markers of a genre thus helping in the identification and classification of films in the industry. Key among the factors he presents is that â€Å"genres have clear stable identities and border†. Such is a fundamental e xplanation that film developers and critics consider in order to understand both the industry and the specific films. Every film genre is unique to the thematic issues represented and the tools used by the developers in representing the themes (Schatz, 2003). Altman, therefore, alludes to the features of film to develop the boundaries and identities of every film. This enhances the classification of films thus the consumption of such vital media products. In classifying films, the critic, therefore, explains that people must investigate the generic blueprint of films this implies that each film genre has a specific attribute, which he explains as the boundaries and clear stable identities. Every film must, therefore, portray the features attributed to every film (Tudor, 2006). This enhances the consumption of films thus the growth of the industry. Finally, the critic refers to the audience as the most influential party in the consumption of film. He, therefore, explains that the aud ience must identify and recognize that the film belongs to a specific genre.              

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Baderman Island Resort Risk Assesment Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Baderman Island Resort Risk Assesment - Article Example It is also time consuming. The implementation of information systems to achieve a competitive advantage is a perfect example of a situation in which firms and governments find themselves investing a lot to enjoy a marginal ROI. If achieving a competitive advantage were easy, then a firm's competitive advantage would be no advantage. There are also risk and uncertainty in the implementation of information systems (Grey, (1995). One approach to strategy selection is the "Z" model of strategy assessment. In table 1 (see appendix), the arrows illustrate an increasing degree of risk as they follow a z-shaped path. That is, starting with existing services and clients, there is increased risk in attempting to cultivate new clients; there is even greater risk in attempting to develop new services; and there is the greatest degree of risk in attempting to develop new services for new clients. In the case of a strategic issue for economic development, the dimensions might be cost versus return on investment (Grey, (1995). If a new software is being installed, it has a high cost and low return on investment. If a small amount of expenditure encourages improvement in performance and productivity leading to improved service and customer satisfaction, , C might be the best alternative. t is important to use objective criteria to assess competing strategies so as to determine their individual cost/benefit and to gain so me information about their potential risks. The purpose of this analysis is to provide alternative approaches to use for making such assessments (Grey, 1995). In addition to this mode, a traditional rank possible strategies to address key strategic issues along certain dimensions. This risk analysis will consist of four steps: The first step is to identify a treat. Traditionally, managers prefer to maintain the status quo rather than subject their firms to the downside risk of failure, even at the expense of losing market share. Gaining market share is the upside potential of investing heavily in IT. New information technology results resolutely from changes in strategy. Reducing resistance to change again requires investing in human, financial, and time resources (Grey, (1995). At this stage, a special attention will be given to such possible weaknesses as time of installation and limitations of the proposed software, its weaknesses and possible breakdowns. Also, the management will calculate budget expenditures required for additional services and additional training of staff. The second step is to identify who might be harmed and how. Fortunately, the global business environment and fierce overseas competitors now focus managers' attention on computer and information resources. Firms and governments that challenge their managers to tap the potential of these resources are gaining a competitive advantage. These successes press status quo champions to change their attitude (Grey, (1995). The third step is to analyze risks and develop contingency plans. Contingency planning provides a course of action for unplanned events. Contingency plans are preparations to take specific action(s) when an event not planned for in the formal planning process takes place. As the definition states, events in the business, political, or even personal worlds of employees and decision makers can have an effect upon

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Module review 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Module review 1 - Essay Example In the event, that the products are perishable, the uncertainties may result in losses caused by product damage. Notably, possibilities create complexities in operating commodity recovery networks especially in reverse flow. For example, an untimely breakdown or an inaccurate customer forecast can cause a shortage in product availability and the meeting of customer demands. Essential elements of supply chain management comprise of communication, advantage, efficiency, innovation, collaboration, and risk management. All the components to promote sustainability of the process (Altekar 2005). The following explains functions of each component. Communication helps in passing of information across departmental stores, suppliers, sellers, and manufacturers. A comprehensive communication channel enables awareness of potentials and uncertainties thus improving supply. Manufacturing and geographic postponement refer to business strategies that help firms maximize benefits while minimizing possibilities of losses. In this context, a company delay investment until the final phase the opportunity appears viable. Hence, the manufacturing and postponement refer to the measured actions by a firm to adjourn production or distribution of a commodity to the market until they receive an order from the potential customer. Geographic postponement helps in minimizing incidences of wrong production (Altekar 2005). In addition, the delays help reduce cases of deploying incorrect inventories by a corporation. In common, the business and logistics frameworks help in the reduction of anticipated risks in the product supply chain. The most notable example of the strategy includes Dell corporations build to order business online market approach. The company assembles or manufactures electronics based on the quantity of products ordered by the customers. Therefore, De ll Company reduces the risk voluminous production and supply

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

The Social Contract Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Social Contract Theory - Essay Example The state was thus given the entire right to protect the rights of the individuals. However, in Hobbes’ case, it was the king that was the sovereign individual that would rule over the land and would have its command habitually obeyed by the people. In Locke’s case, however, people would have their own freedom because they would form a democratic polity by way of coming together. Governance in both cases is about controlling the nature of the state that prevailed at the time in order to bring about a sense of clarity and order in the way by which people lived. However, it must be understood that governing a state does not only involve controlling the bad aspects of the state. The state is formed by people because they require a singular authority to tell them how to behave in different situations. This might not necessarily only include the bad aspects because the state also controls the good nature of the human beings. Governance is thus about both because the state is the sovereign power that has a hold over the safety and security of its citizens. Since it is a sovereign authority or command of the sovereign, it is being obeyed by the people and thus it becomes the function of the state to ensure that whatever it is that people are obeying is for their betterment or societal welfare. Therefore, the state must have controlled power in order to protect the citizens because otherwise since it is a sovereign command, it might get overthrown as was seen in the French Revolution, when Rousseau stated his theory of the social contract.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

Management - Essay Example The management theory acts as the frame work for running the business. It is essential in dealing with employees, and in understanding the business environment(Robbins et al.2008). History of management As indicated by Robbins et al. (2008, p. 29), the ancient management practices were implemented in projects such as the construction of the Great Wall of Chinaas well as the pyramids of Egypt which employed thousands of people. During the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, a single pyramid would employ more the 100000 workers for 20 years; hence, someone had to be assigned the task of organizing and controlling the people and the materials to be used. Such activities led to the study of management practices. Robbins et al. (2008, p. 29) further stated that, in 1776, Adam Smith published a book that argued the economic benefits that organizations get from practicing effective management practices such as division of labour and breaking down jobs to narrow tasks, which played a role in increasing the labor productivity, and in enhancing the skills of the workers. The other concept that has played a role in management is the industrial revolution of the18th century in the Great Britain. Industrial revolution was important because it enhanced the use of machinery for production instead of manpower. This made the production of goods more efficient by reducing the finance and time resources used for production. The tasks that were previously taken by human beings were substituted by machines which enhance both accuracy and quality. In the 19th century, there was a major step taken to enhance proper management through the development of formalized management theories which were implemented in large organizations. These were scientific management, general administrative theory, quantitative organizational behavior and contingency. The scientific management theory explains the use of scientific methods to ensure that various tasks are implemented. The scientific theo ry was further enhanced by Fredrick Taylor, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. Taylor observed that most tasks were executed with neither application of skills nor professional standards; thus, reducing their output to a third of what was expected from a worker. To maximize the application of skills by the workers and increase the production efficiency, workers were assigned tasks according to their abilities and characteristics. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth studied on ways to avoid wastage of the body movements. The study was implemented through the selection of the right tools for the right job so as to optimize work performance. The experiments for this study were done through bricklaying, and by reducing the motions from 18 to 2, a move which proved to be more productive. The four principles of management developed by Taylor were; developing professional techniques for each component of the individual’s work, selecting and training the employees, cooperation with the employees and dividing the responsibilities amongst the management and employees (Robbins et al.2008). The general administrative theorywas developed by Henri Fayol, in an effort to enhance effective management practices by educating managers on ways to execute their tasks and in return achieve positive results. Fayol’s idea was based on creating a suitable working environment and controlling workers to achieve higher productivity. This approach is applicable in any organizational setting. This concept is important in determining

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Mayan Family Structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mayan Family Structure - Essay Example The Mayan dialect comprises 69 languages within five sub-families of Ch'ol-Tzotzil, Huastecan, Yucatecan, Chujean-Kanjobal, and Quichean-Memean sects. At the height of their prosperity they lived in cities that actually used to be religious centers and open country-sides. Their administrative system was effective and resourceful although their social and religious practices were sometimes brutal. (Mayan Family) The Mayan community is spread far and wide in pockets of different countries like Mexico, Yucatan, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Chiapas, Gautemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. However, they are distinct from each other in their unique way they dress and communicate. The Mayan language is spoken as the first language in some communities whereas Spanish is the first language with others. The Mayan family structure today is just about like any other regular family structure in the world. They work, play, study, live together and plan their lives as a family unit and for their descendants. They live in their own countries and proudly hold on to their native tongue although a lot of them also speak Spanish, the language commonly spoke in majority of the people in the region. However, as a community, they are backward and still need help to improve their lot in education and business. They have a rich culture and tradition to speak of. They have wonderful history and heritage to share with people from all over the globe. They have rich natural sources and abilities to compare and compete with the best in the world, and brilliant ideas and hopes to join the rest of the human community in the race for better standards of living for themselves and others. (History of the Mayan Agency) Family Structure of the ancient times Specific information about the family structure as a unit is not forthcoming probably because the Mayan language family itself is divided into five sub-families. These sub-families are dispersed in different countries in South America, viz. Gautemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and South Mexico. The largest populations are found in Mexico in the states of Yucatan, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Chiapas. The culture and social life of the Mayan harks back to ancient times as far back as 1500 BC. It was a prosperous and militant civilization that observed religious rituals on barbaric lines and depended on thriving economy. There was a big gap in the way of living between the ruling class and the common man. The king, his family, courtiers, priests, palace guard and servants enjoyed a better standard of living in comparison to the society at large. The Mayans practiced caste system rigidly. There was no way anyone could move over from a lower caste to upper caste or from one caste to another. The caste system much like other social and economic practices was inherited and passed on to the next generation without question. Nonetheless, the higher castes enjoyed the privilege of moving down the ladder. No one stopped the royal class from mixing with their less privileged citizens if it suited their position or tastes. There is nothing to show that such alliances were consigned to the flames or death squad. Also besides sacrificial

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Train Surfing in Indonesia Essay Example for Free

Train Surfing in Indonesia Essay Train surfing is practised by many over various countries in the world. It involves riding on the outside of a moving train, and is considered illegal in many countries, but not all. The illegality or acceptance of the act is dependent on the demographics of the country, with it being considered a norm in the more destitute societies of the world (Nazam, 2010) , some of which consider it illegal, and an antisocial behaviour, and criminal activity in prosperous countries. The behaviour is innately dangerous and is associated with many risks including electrocution, falling and being crushed by the moving locomotive, all of which ultimately result in critical injury or death (Wisegeek, 2012). Despite these risks, and attempts to discourage individuals from engaging in the pursuit by authorities (Hannah, 2013), many continue to par-take in the activity for a multiplicity of reasons and attractions, which extend from economic reasons, to individual motives, such as thrill seeking. These variances in motivation across countries and amongst individuals may be explained by the criminological theories of Edgework (Lyng, 1990) ; and the Anomie-Strain Theory (Agnew, 1995) in association with Social Learning Theory (Bandura Mcclelland, 1977) . The motivations behind train surfing tends to be subjective to the culture of those who participate. In countries such as India, Africa and Indonesia, where the activity is quite prominent, those who train surf typically do so due to overpopulated trains, and in some cases, in order to avoid purchasing a ticket. In central Jakarta, during rush hour, when the platforms are swarmed with individuals pushing their way through the crowds in order to obtain a place on the next departing train, hundreds of individuals climb down from, and back up onto, the roof of the train (Morgan, 2013). Romie, who is amongst the crowd, claims that he must â€Å"train surf every day to get work. † Despite being aware of the risks associated he reveals â€Å"he has no choice – there are not enough seats inside during peak hour† (Morgan, 2013). Clearly, Romie reasons that he must engage in this activity due to the economic disadvantage of the country and lack of space on trains. This is consistent with the idea of Strain Theory, which posits that individuals engage in criminal activity due to an inability to satisfy conventional goals set by society (Agnew, 1994), and the justification that to attain these ambitions and conform to society, they must partake in criminal activity. Whilst Strain theory typically embodies the areas of crime which result in direct monetary benefit, such as theft, it is difficult to immediately ascertain said benefit from train surfing. However, the value exposes itself when it becomes understood that individuals such as Romie, must train surf as a means of transporting to work to satisfy these goals, which inherently may be associated with the Conformity aspect of Strain Theory (Merton, 1968). The phenomenon may be further understood with the consideration of Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977) in that by transporting on the outside of the vehicle, the negative stimuli of overcrowding during the trip is removed, and the act remains rewarded by the arrival to the destination at the same time as other commuters who have used the train in a legal manner. Typically Strain Theory may refer to a rapid upheaval and change in society and societal norms (Agnew, 2001), however, Merton (1968) elucidates a theory referred to as Social Structural Strain, which refers to the function of deviance in societies and culturally accepted views, versus accepted means. 23-year-old Ahmad Fauzi, an Indonesian man who, like Romie, train surfs in order to get to work, says I know its dangerous but theres no other choice. When the train is crowded its impossible to squeeze inside. (AFP, 2013). In these cases, ultimately, these individuals utilise the socially accepted means of public transport to travel to work, another socially and culturally accepted aspect of life in Jakarta. However, delving further into the public transport system and ideas about accepted goals versus accepted means, it is clear that the accepted goal in this case is use of the public transport system, and the accepted means being travelling within the vehicle.

Friday, September 20, 2019

What Is Polygraph Testing

What Is Polygraph Testing A polygraph machine is used to attempt to detect physiological changes that are thought to occur when a person tells a lie. These measures include the blood pressure, the amount of sweating on the palms and the heart rate. Polygraph testing is currently being used to investigate crime in a number of countries around the world, including the USA, Japan, South Korea and Israel (Raskin, 1990). At present there is a wide-ranging literature evaluating the use of the polygraph machine and associated techniques, largely based on laboratory experimentation. Like any psychometric test, the use of a polygraph machine in the detection of deception has been questioned on the basis of its reliability and its validity. Reliability refers to the ability of a test to be consistent, no matter who is carrying it out. The question of validity asks whether the test is actually measuring what it claims to measure. The answer to both of these questions is vital in answering whether the polygraph should be introduced into British policing. The polygraph machine has been used in a number of different ways to elicit useful information from suspects. Bull, Gudjonsson, Hampson, Baron, Rippon, Vrij (2004) identify four main techniques: the Relevant/Irrelevant Technique, the Directed Lie Test, the Control Question Test, and the Guilty Knowledge Test. Of these, the majority of research has addressed the last two and so the discussion will concentrate on these. The Control Question Test The theory behind the Control Question Test (CQT) is that the physiological responses of a suspect to control questions are compared with those which are directly relevant to the crime. Control questions are specifically chosen to be vague in nature and to relate only indirectly to the crime under investigation (Iacono Patrick, 1997). This means that they should provoke high levels of physiological arousal in innocent suspects as they are designed to elicit guilty memories but those that are not under investigation. By contrast, to an innocent interviewee, the specific questions about the crime should evoke lower physiological arousal as they can be categorically denied. To the guilty interviewee, however, the reverse pattern should be seen with higher physiological response seen to the more specific questions. The basic paradigm for assessing the polygraph test used in laboratory investigations involves a mock crime with participants randomly told to act either innocent or guilty. Raskin (1982), for example, explains that the guilty participants enact the mock crime, while the innocent participants simply have the facts relayed to them. Both groups are given a cash incentive to pass the test, and this goes some way towards giving them the required motivation to pass the test. Many of the earlier studies used the CQT test and found some encouraging results. Carroll (1988) summarises some of these studies, referring first to the Office of Technology Assessment of the United States Congress (1983) which rounded up 14 studies which found an overall accuracy level of 88.6% in the guilty participants, and 82.6 in the innocent participants. However, Carroll (1988) criticises this assessment as some of these studies had flawed methodologies. Instead, using stricter criteria, the figures of 85.4% for guilty and 76.9% for the innocent were found. Carroll (1988) makes two important points about most of these studies. Firstly, there was a fairly high rate of false positives of around 20-25% instances where the participant was innocent but pronounced guilty. Secondly, the polygraph operators also have their own visual information to go on when carrying out the test, they are not simply relying on the physiological data. This means that the results cannot be fully attributable to the polygraph as the human operator could be partly acting as a lie detector. The most obvious criticism of these kind of studies is that of ecological validity. The test itself relies on the emotional reactions of the participants how likely is it that monetary inducements are equivalent in motivational terms to the chance of being convicted of a crime? For this reason, MacLaren (2001) points out that the participants have little reason to be worried about the important questions and are unmotivated to try and beat the test unlike a real guilty suspect. Field studies, then, have attempted to fill this gap, but immediately the problem arises of how it is possible to measure whether a person is really guilty or innocent. In reviewing the data on field studies, Carroll (1988) found that generally the accuracy rates were low at 69.6% comparing to the 50% obtainable by chance this does not seem high. In addition, there was a very high rate of false positives 43%. More recent field studies have been reviewed by Bull et al. (2004), who find better average figures for those guilty suspects at between 80% and 90% accuracy, but still poor results for innocent suspects, with false positives ranging from 12% to 47% accuracy. The theoretical problems with the CQT have been pointed out by Ben-Shakhar (2002), amongst others. The whole design of the test is such that the operator of the polygraph is trying to deceive the suspect something that may be perceived as unethical. It is still possible to imagine good reasons for why an innocent suspect would show arousal to the specific questions these are still anxiety provoking questions. There is little evidence that this test is standardised, in that the control questions that are asked in each interview are different. This means that much variability in the accuracy of test is probably due to the operator this reduces the theoretical reliability of the test. The Guilty Knowledge Test False positives, then, are one of the major problems with the CQT. The Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT) has been shown to meet this challenge. The GKT is designed to try and uncover whether the interviewee is withholding information about a crime under investigation. This involves asking the suspect a number of specific questions about the crime, each question having a number of alternatives, only one of which is correct. The operator then looks for a pattern of physiological responses to the correct option across the whole test. This test is much more difficult to apply, mainly because it requires the test operator to know a number of facts about the crime that she must be reasonably sure that the guilty suspect would also know these would tend to be details, although does not exclude major facts. A range of reviews have been carried out on the GKT in laboratory conditions. Ben-Shakhar and Furedy (1990) found accuracy rates of 84% for guilty participants and 94% for innocent participants. Elaad (1998) found rates of 81% for guilty and 96% for innocent. While these are encouraging, again it is the field studies that are more convincing because of ecological validity. Only two of these have been carried out. Elaad (1990) found rates of only 42% for guilty participants but 98% for the innocent. Similarly Elaad, Ginton Jungman (1992) found 76% for guilty and 94% for innocent. Ben-Shakhar, Bar-Hillel, Kremnitzer, (2002) defend the low results for guilty suspects, claiming that they were carried out under sub-optimal conditions, being just after a CQT had been carried out and only involving an average of 1.8 questions. Overall though, levels of false positives are much lower for the GKT than the CQT. Perhaps the biggest criticism of the GKT relates to how useful it is in a practical sense. The nature of the test requires that the interviewer has been able to amass half a dozen items of knowledge that the guilty person would be aware of that would not be recognised by an innocent person. In addition, it is not always possible to be confident that the suspect will have remembered or even noticed the particular details which the operator refers to. Bull et al. (2004) makes the point that, in high profile cases, details are often released to the public to aid the solving of the crime, which will make the interviewing of the suspect even harder using a GKT, as innocent suspects will know many more details of the crime, making the choice of details for interview more obscure. The advantage of the GKT is that in evaluating its theoretical underpinnings, some researchers have made much stronger claims for it than the CQT (The Committee to Review the Scientific Evidence on the Polygraph, National Research Council, 2003). The reason for this is that the GKT relies on the response being greater to a particular subset of the questions relative to whatever the physiological response is to the other questions (Carmel, Dayan, Naveh, Raveh Ben-Shakhar, 2003). This is unlike the CQT where variations in the physiological response of the suspect will tend to disrupt the test. In addition, the GKT does not rely on duping the suspect. The GKT does also have practical advantages. Ben-Shakhar et al. (2002) point out that a problem for the admissibility of polygraph tests in court is that they can become contaminated. In practice, a polygraph operator has the evidence of his eyes as well as the polygraph machine to go on. This may mean that the operator does not entirely base his decision on the physiological data. The advantage of the GKT is that it is much more easy to carry out blind, or for another polygraph tester to simply look at the physiological evidence. Counter measures and Base Rates Two other criticisms that apply more generally to all the different types of polygraph tests, are the effects of countermeasures and of base rates. Countermeasures refers to attempts to beat the polygraph test, these Gudjonsson (1988) classifies in three ways: reducing reactivity, suppressing physiological reactions and augmenting physiological reactions. According to Ford (1995) a man named Floyd Fay was able to successfully train 23 of 27 fellow inmates to beat the polygraph test in 20 minutes despite their admission of guilt to crimes for which they had been incarcerated. On the problem of base rates, Bull et al. (2004) point out that the kinds of situations in which polygraph tests are used may mean that there are a large number of suspects to test. This will exacerbate the problems of false positives, although, perhaps, is not such a problem in forensic situations as numbers are more likely to be limited.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Helmi Flick :: essays research papers

Helmi Flick lives in Bedford, Texas with her husband, Ken, a freelance writer who also does the lighting and cat wrangling for her, plus her 4 cats. Having spent 30 years of her working life in administrative office positions in computers, medicine and law, Flick came to her new career by the route most people only dream of: by turning something she loved to do into a new profession. After years of photographing her own cats and those of friends as a hobby, Helmi was encouraged by her husband Ken to try her hand as a cat show photographer. Helmi got her first assignment from the Thunderkatz Cat Club as the show photographer for their May 2000 T.I.C.A. show in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.A. On the basis of her work at that show, the Thunderkatz club asked Helmi to be their "Official Show Photographer in Perpetuity." By March of 2001, Helmi had managed to secure the Show Photographer assignment at 12 shows. Helmi shoots with a digital camera. "Shooting digital images has been a lifesaver for me because cats are not the most cooperative subjects and there are always more throwaway shots than good ones. And because I’m not wasting film, I can afford to shoot far more images of a customer’s cat to get more keepers. Additionally, the "instant" nature of digital photography enables my customers to immediately review the shots I’ve taken and select the ones they like best to be printed. This review process is a tremendous tool for someone like me who is still learning this craft, since I’m able to discover the kinds of shots that owners of different breeds prefer. I guarantee that my customers will be satisfied with their photos and the digital approach is a great asset there, too, because if a customer does not see photos he/she likes in our post-shoot review, I can reshoot their cat on the spot." But getting good shots at the show is only the beginning of delivering great images to her customers. Because Helmi shoots digital images, she has the capability to color correct, crop, retouch and otherwise enhance every photo on her computer back home. "I can’t ignore that capability because I want every shot to be the best image it can be, so I end up spending far more time at my PC screen than behind the camera.† The ability to instantly analyze and digitally retouch her photographs does not change the skill needed to capture beautiful images of her feline subjects.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Doctor Faustus as Tragic Hero Essay -- Doctor Faustus Essays

Doctor Faustus as Tragic Hero Doctor Faustus died a death that few could bear to imagine, much less experience.   After knowing for many years when exactly he would die, he reached the stroke of the hour of his destiny in a cowardly, horrid demeanor.   Finally, when the devils appeared at the stroke of midnight, tearing at his flesh as they draw him into his eternal torment, he screams for mercy without a soul, not even God Himself, to help him.   However, what to consider Doctor John Faustus from Christopher Marlow's dramatic masterpiece The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus is a very debatable issue.   For example, one can see that he threw his life away for the sake of knowledge, becoming obsessed with the knowledge that he could possess.   In this case, he is unarguably a medieval tragic hero.   However, when considering the fact that he died for the sake of gaining knowledge, pushing the limits of what is possible in spite of obvious limitations and, eventually, paying the ultimate penalty, he could be considered a Renaissance martyr.   These two points of view have their obvious differences, and depending on from what time period one chooses to place this piece of literature varies the way that the play is viewed.   However, the idea of considering him a martyr has many flaws, several of which are evident when considering who Faustus was before he turned to necromancy and what he did once he obtained the powers of the universe.   Therefore, inevitably, the audience in this play should realize that Faustus was a great man who did many great things, but because of his hubris and his lack of vision, he died the most tragic of heroes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Christopher Marlowe was born on February 6, 1564 (Discoverin... ...is truly merciful because he forgave such a blasphemous heathen as Faustus.   Faustus could have become an example for all of mankind and proven that if he could be forgiven, then all could be forgiven.   However, because he was stubborn, ignorant, and blind, he refused to see that he was never truly damned until he was drug by the devils into the heart of hell itself.   Works Cited: Discovering Christopher Marlowe http://swc2.hccs.cc.tx.us/HTMLS/ROWHTML/faust/index.htm Henderson, Philip. Christopher Marlowe. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1974. Marlowe, Christopher. The Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe. Ed. by Fredson Bowers. Cambridge: CUP, 1973 Snow, Edward A. "Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and the Ends of Desire." Two Renaissance Mythmakers: Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Ed. Alvin Kernan. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Who Owns the U.S. National Debt? Essay -- Obamas National Debt

"Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt." -- Herbert Hoover A recent topic for political debate, and one that is usually included in most political rhetoric, is the national debt, and the debt ceiling crisis. I believe that there are many misconceptions about this issue, and that politicians use and promote these misconceptions for the purpose of making political arguments. The example of this that sticks out for me is a commercial I saw on television that seems to depict a future where the US has presumably been taken over by China. That commercial seemed a little extreme, so for this paper, I seek to correct these sorts of misconceptions, or to at least show that some arguments about the national debt are a little wrong. Probably the most important misconception about the national debt is the misconception that China owns most of the national debt, and that such a situation makes the United States government a puppet to China. The latter misconception doesn't take much research to see as an exaggeration of the truth. Unlike personal debt, national debt isn't enforced by some higher power. Money owed to China is a deal between the borrower and China, and there aren't any higher powers to force the collection of debts. If China wanted to collect on that debt, the worst they could do is to go to war, and that's rather unrealistic. The main problem with this idea that China owns our government, is the fact that China's share of the national debt isn't as big as people seem to think. For this paper, I took a survey from 12 people. I asked them each, "How much of the national debt do you think is owned by China?" Of those people, 3 thought China owned more than 60 percent of the national debt, 4 though... ... to do. To conclude, the national debt is indeed an important issue that needs to be discussed, but it is important also to not take what you hear about it in political arguments as fact. Knowing the truth about issues like this can help you better understand what politicians are really saying, and will help you avoid being manipulated by fear tactics like that commercial about a Chinese-dominated future. Works Cited Historical Data on the Federal Debt. Rep. N.p.: Congressional Budget Office, n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. . Surowiecki, James. "Smash the Ceiling." The New Yorker. N.p., 1 Aug. 2011. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. "Who Really Owns the U.S. National Debt?" Townhall Finance. N.p., 21 Jan. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. Herbert Hoover Quote http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/national_debt.html#SP3YaWVBGy0KE3ET.99

Monday, September 16, 2019

Fool Chapter 3

THREE OUR DARKER PURPOSE[15] â€Å"Well this is a downy lot of goose toss if I've ever read it,† said I. I sat on the bastard's back, cross-legged, reading the letter he'd written to his father. â€Å"‘And my lord must understand how unjust it is that I, the issue of true passion, is shorn of respect and position while deference is given my half brother, who is the product of a bed made of duty and drudgery.'† â€Å"It's true,† said the bastard. â€Å"Am I not as true of shape, as sharp of mind, a – â€Å" â€Å"You're a whiny little wanker,[16] is what you are,† said I, my brashness perhaps spurred by the weight of Drool, who was sitting on the bastard's legs. â€Å"What did you think you would possibly gain by giving this letter to your father?† â€Å"That he might relent and give me half my brother's title and inheritance.† â€Å"Because your mother was a better boff than Edgar's? You're a bastard and an idiot.† â€Å"You could not know, little man.† It was tempting then, to clout the knave across the head with Jones, or better, slit his throat with his own sword, but as much as the king might favor me, he favors the order of his power more. The murder of Gloucester's son, no matter how deserved, would not go unpunished. But I was fast on my way to fool's funeral anyway if I let the bastard up before his anger cooled. I'd sent Shanker Mary away in hope that any wrath that fell might pass her by. I needed a threat to stay Edmund's hand, but I had none. I am the least powerful of all about the court. My only influence is raising others' ire. â€Å"I do know what it is to be deprived by the accident of birth, Edmund.† â€Å"We are not the same. You are as common as field dirt. I am not.† â€Å"I could not know then, Edmund, what it is to have my title cast as an insult? If I call you bastard, and you call me fool, can we answer as men?† â€Å"No riddles, fool. I can't feel my feet.† â€Å"Why would you want to feel your feet? Is that more of the debauchery of the ruling class I hear so much about? So blessed are you with access to the flesh's pleasures that you have to devise ingenious perversions to get your withered, inbred plumbing to come to attention – need to feel your feet and whip the stable boy with a dead rabbit to scratch your scurvy, libidinous itch, is it?† â€Å"What are you on about, fool? I can't feel my feet because there's a great oaf sitting on my legs.† â€Å"Oh. Quite right, sorry. Drool, lift off a bit, but don't let him up.† I climbed from the bastard's back and walked to the laundry doorway where he could see me. â€Å"What you want is property and title. Do you imagine that you will get it by begging?† â€Å"The letter's not begging.† â€Å"You want your brother's fortune. How much better would a letter from him convince your father of your worth?† â€Å"He would never write such a letter, and besides, he does not play for favor, it is his already.† â€Å"Then perhaps the problem is moving favor from Edgar to you. The right letter from him would do it. A letter wherein he confesses his impatience with waiting for his inheritance, and asks for your help in usurping your father.† â€Å"You're mad, fool. Edgar would never write such a letter.† â€Å"I didn't say he would. Do you have anything written in his hand?† â€Å"I do, a letter of credit he was to grant to a wool merchant in Barking Upminster.† â€Å"Do you, sweet bastard, know what a scriptorium is?† â€Å"Aye, it's a place in the monastery where they copy documents – bibles and such.† â€Å"And so my accident of birth is the remedy of yours, for because I hadn't even one parent to lay claim to me, I was brought up in a nunnery that had just such a scriptorium, where, yes, they taught a boy to copy documents, but for our darker purpose, they taught him to copy it in exactly the hand that he found on the page, and the one before that, and the one before that. Letter to letter, stroke for stroke, the same hand as a man long gone to the grave.† â€Å"So you are a skilled forger? If you were raised in a nunnery how is it you are a fool and not a monk or a priest?† â€Å"How is it that you, the son of an earl, must plead mercy from under the arse of an enormous nitwit? We're all Fate's bastards. Shall we compose a letter, Edmund?† I'm sure I would have become a monk, but for the anchoress. The closest to court I would have come would have been praying for the forgiveness of some noble's war crimes. Was I not reared for the monastic life from the moment Mother Basil found me squirming on the steps of the abbey at Dog Snogging[17] on the Ouze? I never knew my parents, but Mother Basil told me once that she thought my mother might have been a madwoman from the local village who had drowned in the river Ouze shortly after I appeared on the doorstep. If that were so, the abbess told me, then my mother had been touched by God (like the Natural) and so I was given to the abbey as God's special child. The nuns, most of whom were of noble birth, second and third daughters who could not find a noble husband, doted on me like a new puppy. So tiny was I that the abbess would carry me with her in her apron pocket, and thus I was given the name of Pocket. Little Pocket of Dog Snogging Abbey. I was much the novelty, the only male in that all-female world, and the nuns competed to see who might carry me in their apron pocket, although I do not remember it. Later, after I learned to walk, they would stand me on the table at mealtime and have me parade up and down waving my winky at them, a unique appendage in those feminine environs. I was seven before I realized that you could eat breakfast with your pants on. Still, I always felt separate from the rest of them, a different creature, isolated. I was allowed to sleep on the floor in the abbess's chambers, as she had a woven rug given her by the bishop. On cold nights I was permitted to sleep under her covers to keep her feet warm, unless one of the other nuns had joined her for that purpose. Mother Basil and I were constant companions, even after I grew out of her marsupial affection. I attended the masses and prayers with her every day from as long as I could remember. How I loved watching her shave every morning after sunup, stropping her razor on a leather strap and carefully scraping the blue-black whiskers from her face. She would show me how to shave the little spot under your nose, and how she pulled aside the skin on her neck, so as not to nick her Adam's apple. But she was a stern mistress, and I had to pray every three hours like all the other nuns, as well as carry water for her bath, chop wood, scrub floors, work in the garden, as well as take lessons in maths, catechism, Latin and Greek, and calligraphy. By the time I was nine I could read and write three languages and recite The Lives of the Saints from memory. I lived to serve God and the nuns of Dog Snogging, hoping that one day I might be ordained as a priest myself. And I might have, but then one day workmen came to the abbey, stonecutters and masons, and in a matter of days they had built a cell off of one of the abandoned passages in the rectory. We were going to have our very own anchorite, or in our case, anchoress. An acolyte so devoted to God that she would be walled up in a cell with only a small opening through which she would be passed food and water, and there she would spend the rest of her life, literally part of the church, praying and dispensing wisdom to the people of the village through her window until she was taken into the bosom of the Lord. Next to being martyred, it was the most holy act of devotion a person could perform. Daily I crept out of Mother Basil's quarters to check on the progress of the cell, hoping to somehow bask in the glory that would be bestowed upon the anchoress. But as the walls rose, I saw there was no window left to the outside, no place for the villagers to receive blessings, as was the custom. â€Å"Our anchoress will be very special,† Mother Basil explained in her steady baritone voice. â€Å"So devout is she that she will only lay eyes on those who bring her food. She will not be distracted from her prayers for the king's salvation.† â€Å"She is the charge of the king?† â€Å"No other,† said Mother Basil. The rest of us were bound by payment to pray for the forgiveness of the Earl of Sussex, who had slaughtered thousands of innocents in the last war with the Belgians and was bound to toast on the coals of Hell unless we could fulfill his penance, which had been pronounced by the Pope himself to be seven million Hail Marys per peasant. (Even with a dispensation and a half-price coupon purchased at Lourdes, the earl was getting no more than a thousand Hail Marys to the penny, so Dog Snogging was becoming a very rich monastery on his sins.) But our anchoress would answer for the sins of the king himself. He was said to have perpetrated some jolly-good wickedness, so her prayers must be very potent indeed. â€Å"Please, Mother, please let me take food to the anchoress.† â€Å"No one is to see or speak to her.† â€Å"But someone has to take her food. Let me do it. I promise not to look.† â€Å"I shall consult the Lord.† I never saw the anchoress arrive. The rumor simply passed that she was in the abbey and the workmen had set the stones around her. Week's went by with me begging the abbess to allow me the holy duty of feeding the anchoress, but it was not until one evening when Mother Basil needed to spend the night alone with young sister Mandy, praying in private for the forgiveness of what the abbess called a â€Å"Smashing Horny Weekender,† that I was allowed to attend to the anchoress. â€Å"In fact,† said the Reverend Mother, â€Å"you stay there, outside her cell until morning, and see if you can learn some piety. Don't come back until morning. Late morning. And bring tea and a couple of scones with you when you come back. And some jam.† I thought I would burst, I was so excited when I first made my way down that long, dark hallway – carrying a plate of cheese and bread, and a flagon of ale. I half expected to see the glory of God shining through the window, but when I got there, it wasn't a window at all, but an arrow loop, like in a castle wall, cut in the shape of a cross, the edges tapered so that the broad stone came to a point at the opening. It was as if the masons only knew one window they could put in a thick wall. (Funny that arrow loops and sword hilts, mechanisms of death, form the sign of the cross – a symbol of mercy – but on second thought, I guess it was a mechanism of death in itself.) The opening was barely wide enough to pass the flagon through; the plate would just fit through at the cross. I waited. No light came from inside the cell. A single candle on the wall across from the opening was the only illumination. I was terrified. I listened, to see if I could hear the anchoress reciting novenas. There wasn't even the sound of breathing. Was she sleeping? What kind of sin was it to interrupt the prayers of someone so holy? I put the plate and ale on the floor and tried to peer into the darkness of the cell, perhaps see her glow. Then I saw it. The dim sparkle of the candle reflecting in an eye. She was sitting there, not two feet from the opening. I jumped back against the far wall, knocking over the ale on the way. â€Å"Did I frighten you?† came a woman's voice. â€Å"No. No, I was just, I am – forgive me. I am awed by your piety.† Then she laughed. It was sad laughter, as if it had been held a long time and then let out in almost a sob, but she was laughing and I was confused. â€Å"I'm sorry, mistress – â€Å" â€Å"No, no, no, don't be sorry. Don't you dare be sorry, boy.† â€Å"I'm not. I won't be.† â€Å"What is your name?† â€Å"Pocket, mum.† â€Å"Pocket,† she repeated, and she laughed some more. â€Å"You've spilled my ale, Pocket.† â€Å"Aye, mum. Shall I fetch you some more?† â€Å"If you don't want the glory of my bloody godliness burning us both down, you better had, hadn't you, friend Pocket? And when you come back, I want you to tell me a story that will make me laugh.† â€Å"Yes, mum,† And that was the day that my world changed. â€Å"Remind me, why is it we're not just murdering my brother?† asked Edmund. From whimpering scribblings to conspiracy to murder in the course of an hour, Edmund was a quick study when it came to villainy. I sat, quill in hand, at the table in my small apartment above the great gatehouse in the outer wall of the castle. I have my own fireplace, a table, two stools, a bed, a cupboard for my things, a hook for my coxcomb and clothes, and in the middle of my room a large cauldron for heating and pouring boiling oil upon a siege force through gutters in the floor. But for the clanking of the massive chains when the drawbridge is raised or lowered, it is a cozy den in which to pursue slumber or other horizontal sport. Best of all, it is private, with a thumping big bolt on the door. Even among the nobles, privacy is rare, as conspiracy thrives there. â€Å"While that is an attractive course, unless Edgar is disgraced, disinherited, and his properties willfully given to you, the lands and title could pass to some legitimate cousin, or worse, your father might set about trying to sire a new legitimate heir.† I shuddered a bit then – along with, I'm sure, a dozen maidens about the kingdom – at the mental vision of Gloucester's withered flanks, bared and about the business of making an heir upon their nubile nobility. They would be clawing at the nunnery door to escape the honor. â€Å"I hadn't thought of that,† said Edmund. â€Å"Really, you, not think? How shocking. Although a simple poisoning does seem cleaner, the letter is the sharper sword.† If I gave the scoundrel proper rope, perhaps he could hang for both our purposes. â€Å"I can craft such a letter, subtle, yet condemning. You'll be the Earl of Gloucester before you can get dirt shoveled on your father's still twitching body. But the letter may not do all.† â€Å"Speak your mind, fool. As much as I'd love to silence your yammering, speak.† â€Å"The king favors your father and your brother, which is why they were called here. If Edgar becomes betrothed to Cordelia, which could happen before the morrow – well, with the princess's dowry in hand, there'll be no cause for him to resort to the treachery we are about to craft around him. You'll be left with your fangs showing, noble Edmund, and the legitimate son will be all the richer.† â€Å"I'll see he is not betrothed to Cordelia.† â€Å"How? Will you tell him horrid things? I have it on good authority that her feet are like ferryboats. They strap them up under her gown to keep them from flapping when she walks.† â€Å"I will see to it that there is no marriage, little man, don't you worry. But you must see to this letter. Tomorrow Edgar goes on to Barking to deliver the letters of credit and I'll return to Gloucester with my father. I'll let the letter slip to him then, so his anger has time to fester in Edgar's absence.† â€Å"Quick, before I waste parchment, promise you'll not let Edgar marry Cordelia.† â€Å"Fine, fool, promise you'll not tell anyone that you ever penned this letter, and I will.† â€Å"I promise,† said I. â€Å"By the balls of Venus.† â€Å"Then, so do I,† said the bastard. â€Å"All right, then,† said I, dipping my quill in ink, â€Å"although murder would be a simpler plan.† I've never cared for the bastard's brother Edgar, either. Earnest and open-faced is he. I don't trust anyone who appears so trustworthy. They must be up to something. Of course, Edmund hanging black-tongued for his brother's murder would make for a festive chandelier as well. A fool does enjoy a party. In a half-hour I had crafted a letter so wily and peppered with treachery that any father might strangle his son at the sight of it and, if childless, bastinade his own bollocks with a war hammer to discourage conspirators yet to be born. It was a masterpiece of both forgery and manipulation. I blotted it well and held it up for Edmund to see. â€Å"I'll need your dagger, sir,† said I. Edmund reached for the letter and I danced away from him. â€Å"First the knife, good bastard.† Edmund laughed. â€Å"Take my dagger, fool. You're no safer, I still have my sword.† â€Å"Aye, which I handed you myself. I need your dagger to razor the seal off that letter of credit so I may affix it to this missive of ours. You'll need to break it only in your father's presence, as if you yourself are only then discovering your brother's black nature.† â€Å"Oh,† said Edmund. He gave me the knife. I performed the deed with sealing wax and candle and handed the blade back with the letter. (Could I have used one of my own knives for the task? Of course, but it was not time for Edmund to know of them.) The letter was barely in his pocket before Edmund had drawn his sword and had it leveled at my throat. â€Å"I think I can assure your silence better than a promise.† I didn't move. â€Å"So, you lament being born out of favor, what favor will you court by killing the king's fool? A dozen guards saw you come in here.† â€Å"I'll take my chances.† Just then the great chains that ran through my room began to shake, rattling as if a hundred suffering prisoners were shackled to them rather than a slab of oak and iron. Edmund looked around and I scampered to the far side of the room. Wind rushed through the arrow loops that served as my windows and extinguished the candle I had used for the sealing wax. The bastard spun to face the arrow loops and the room went dark, as if a cape had been thrown over the day. The golden form of a woman shimmered in the air at the dark wall. The ghost said, â€Å"A thousand years of torture rule, The knave who dares to harm a fool.† I could only see Edmund by the glow of the spirit, but he was moving crablike toward the door that led out onto the west wall, reaching frantically for the latch. Then he threw the bolt and was through the door in an instant. Light filled my little apartment and I could again view the Thames through the slits in the stone. â€Å"Well rhymed, wisp,† said I to the empty air. â€Å"Well rhymed.†

The New Deal was not a complete Success

In the subsequent pages I will explain the failures and successes of the New Deal. I will show how statistics do not show the true accomplishment of the New Deal. I will look at the criticisms Roosevelt faced and how he had come to power when America was on her last leg. When Franklin D. Roosevelt came to power in March 1933 he had America dazzled by his magnetic personality and captivating charisma. He embraced America and held it closely to his heart. He loved it and could see that Herbert Hoover's reign over America had destroyed her. His New Deal was a fresh and exciting way of repairing the once great America. His popularity was undeniable and showed the support he was getting for the New Deal among the Americans. He gave assurance and hope to those who lived in ‘Hoovervilles' to those who queued up for ‘Hoover Stew'. These nicknames were given to the food handouts and shanty towns to demonstrate what Hoover had done to them. Roosevelt's aims were simple and tackled all that was wrong with America; Get the unemployed back to work, protect their savings and property, provide aid for the sick, old and unemployed, get the industry and agriculture back to it's norm and finally restore confidence in the banks. He set up many Alphabet Agencies and passed many Acts to try and conquer the evil that was Hoover's pandemonium. First of all I shall explain the successes. Roosevelt stopped the depression getting any worse. When he came to power in 1933 America had a much greater confidence in her economy. His own poise helped development in Wall Street. The GDP increased by sixty percent between 1933 and 1939, in six years private investment in industry increased by five times and consumer products bought increased by forty percent. People queuing up for food a was just another image of the past. Millions of people got relief, food, clothes and shelter, and it was this emergency relief that prevented them from starving. Many ordinary people were helped with government social security and welfare schemes. This wasn't just for emergency either, it continued in the future. The most affected by the depression were farmers and Roosevelt made sure they were looked after in the New Deal. By the mid 1930s farmer's incomes were rising, especially those with larger farms. Farmers definitely benefited. The New Deal assisted in letting farmers and home owners to stay in their homes. The HOLC was set up and low interest loans were given to home owners. This helped them to cope with mortgage repayments, that were previously out of control, when out of employment. For farmers they were given help through the Farm Credit Administration. For the old, sick and unemployed they had no security, financially or socially. In 1935 the Social Security Act set up a system of national insurance. The elderly were given old age pensions, the unemployed had benefits and the handicapped had financial support. The government, employers and workers paid contributions that funded it. The unemployed were a priority so the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) gave grants to state and local governments to stabilise the jobless. The projects the New Deal provided helped to build the foundations for future affluence. The schools, roads, dams and many more buildings rekindled America. The Public Works Administration (PWA) constructed many public buildings of the USA such as hospitals and city halls. The ‘Dustbowl' regions were seriously affected by the depression and over-farming had led to the ruin of the land and serious lack of interest from business. But the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) restored the valley in seven states. It built several major dams to generate cheap electricity for those ninety eight percent who hadn't got it. It also offered leisure activities on recently built lakes. The Tennessee river developed into being navigable and brought great business interest to the valley. The land was poor so the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) completed useful schemes like strengthening river banks, fighting forest fires and combating malaria by controlling the mosquitoes. Mainly to help the land though they planted approximately two hundred million trees, which significantly reduced soil erosion and supplied the crops with shelter belts. Not only did it help the environment but the members benefited. For the three million men under twenty five, who were members of the CCC, it gave them a first involvement in work. Hoover's laissez-faire attitude had made people get used to the fact that federal government had no concern for singular states. But the TVA changed the relationship that was acknowledged by America. State and federal government now were a lot closer and in some cases federal government cut through the powers of state governments. The weaker sections of American society needed central government to get them out of despair. The homeless, old and poor were most desperate and state government couldn't give all the help that was required. The Tennessee Valley was in such a dire condition that one state could not deal with all the difficulties that the valley was suffering with and the seven states were finding it problematic to liaise with each other. Consequently the TVA was made and did in some instances cut through the powers of the state governments. However it did help the area substantially – electricity and irrigation was provided through the building of the dams in addition to employment. Finally, and most importantly, it gave much appreciated and needed hope to America at her nadir and, in some opinions, saved American democracy. The 1930s were looking bleak at the end of the twenties but Roosevelt came in as a superhero, to save those who were despondent and long suffering. Those, once omitted by the depression and unfair politics, black people and farmers, were now involved. Why certain people supported the New deal is apparent but others are uncertain. Farmers and white unemployed people obviously wanted to support the New Deal because they would prosper from the policies. They gained financial support and the economy boosted meaning that the ‘Roaring Twenties' looked achievable once again. But what really stumps many historians is why so many black people supported Roosevelt and voted democratic (the largest number of black people to vote democratic since the American Civil war of 1861-65). Many of the New Deal agencies and acts discriminated against black people, even resulting in the NRA being commonly renamed the ‘Negro Removal Agency' as they were pushed out when levels of wage were regulated. Roosevelt did not take actions to get black people equal rights for fear of losing his majority of voters, white southerners. However he did sign an anti-lynching bill. Directly the president showed little concern for them but on the contrary did have people who worked for him that did care and even employed some black people. Even his wife Eleanor showed her care for their welfare. Overall the New Deal mainly reduced employment from 1933 to 1937 (1933 – fifteen million unemployed, 1937 – under eight and a half million unemployed) and millions of jobs were created. Despite his critics few turned to extremism in the form of communism or fascism unlike his European counterparts. Nonetheless the New Deal did have some failures and it's own opposition. One of the problems was not with the New Deal but in fact Roosevelt himself, in that he was paradoxicaland kept changing what he wanted to do. The laws he set were changed so quickly that the American people didn't know where they stood. Some felt that he was dictator like and had too much control. Because of this his critics spoke out more confidently and made some reconsider their opinion of him. The Supreme Court was wholly against the New Deal and declared some acts like the PWA and AAA as unlawful. This caused parts of the New Deal to be overruled by Congress. Another problem was that big businesses still continued to be powerful and emasculated Roosevelt's policies. Hoover's laissez-faire attitude was appreciated by employers and because of this many begrudged the New Deal. They didn't want government prying into business and economy and as a result larger companies hired thugs to assault union leaders and terrorize workers on strike for better working conditions and increased pay. In 1937 ten demonstrators were shot dead by police and ninety wounded during a steelworkers strike in Chicago. This discouraged employees to ask for pay and was potentially a threat to the economy. The New Deal helped the poor, sick and unemployed financially. But the very poorest were left out in the cold. The Social Security Act came to power to help monetarily but it excluded twenty percent of the workforce as well as five million farm workers and domestics in anguish. There was no source for state-paid medical care. In 1941 the poorest twenty percent were earning only four percent of the national income while the richest twenty percent were contributing forty nine percent to it. There were many poor people who could barely afford food at the price it was but when the AAA helped rise prices to increase farmer's salaries this caused an even bigger problem for the millions of jobless Americans. Farmers with big farms profited from the New Deal but the small time farmers felt it hindered them along with farm labourers and sharecroppers, who were mainly black. These sufferers tended to live in rural America where poverty was rife, specifically southern America. An enduring drought in 1934-5 hit these already destitute states and turned the soil to dust. There was no rain and desert was spreading like wild fire. Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado were known as ‘Dustbowl'. The ‘Okies' set off to find work in California but instead experienced adversity. Another huge group who suffered at the hands of the New Deal were black people. There was attempts in the New Deal to tackle their civil rights but they did not go far enough. Unfortunately Roosevelt put his ego first and knew that by giving black people rights he would lose his support from the southern democratic who were deadly against giving black people equality. The emergency relief was essential for the thirty percent of black people who depended on it but there was no specific laws to combat their own distress from the depression. The 1920s were the high point of American history and industry. Everyone was confident and had no worries. Spending was high and investment was soaring. But when the crash hit everyone became disheartened. The Americans put up with Hoover's pathetic excuse for a presidency and there seemed to be no future. When Roosevelt came there was hope again that the ‘Roaring Twenties' would be resurrected but America was far from it. Despite Roosevelt's best efforts by 1937 Americans were only spending and investing about seventy five percent of what they had in 1929. The most considerable and, in my opinion, the most reputation ruining encumbrance of the New Deal was that unemployment remained high for a majority of Roosevelt's years as President. Up to 1937 the figures were decreasing from a 1933 figure of fifteen million to eight million, three hundred thousand in 1937. But because of the rising national debt of two hundred and fifty million dollars (big compared to the Hoover debt of nineteen billion dollars) Roosevelt had to cut back on government spending. This was calamitous and accordingly the economy plunged. Unemployment rose to ten and a half million as a direct result of industrial production falling by a third. By 1938 Roosevelt saw his faux pas and increased government spending in the hope to recover from this fiasco but by 1940 the 1937 level was still not met. Agencies like the CCC and PWA were labelled as forced labour because of the low pay and creating work for the sake of it. The government money funded all this so in effect by lowering the money spent by government you stopped all the jobs. Others critics said that yes America gained from the schools, hospitals and courthouses courtesy of the PWA and WPA but it was pointless work created to make Roosevelt look good. The New Deal was viciously attacked by economists who complained that the New Deal policies were short term affairs and the future of America was still dubious. They believed that those who counted on the New Deal were being conned as all the evidence clearly showed that in the near future their jobs would be gone. Also the government could reduce unemployment but could never stop it fully. They endeavoured to contain it but it was not enough. William Leuchtenburg thought that World War two got America out of the depression. Finally the last failure was that the cost was too great and a lot was wasted. For the WPA millions of dollars were spent on wages and money was given out like sweets. There was all the loans to banks, money for farmers, money to soup kitchens for necessities like blankets. All of this was seen as vital but some felt that money was being literally thrown away because Roosevelt couldn't hope to spend the real amount needed on solving unemployment. The rich and Republicans were bitter because of the taxes increasing. They felt that government should maintain a laissez faire attitude and stop controlling their traditional freedoms. They had liked Hoover's way of thinking. They liked his idea that people should be individually strong, help themselves and that the wealthy should be left alone to make money and not reprimanded for it. Their opinion differed greatly from the average American and so Roosevelt could not oblige everyone. These rich republicans tried to say that Roosevelt, the saviour of America, was setting up a dictatorship. Their evidence was when in 1936 he had tried to fill the Supreme Court with his loyal democrats so that his policies and ideas would not be overruled. They also said he had socialist ideas as all his policies were aimed at working class, the unemployed and the poor. My opinion is this. Franklin D. Roosevelt was a great man who defended those who were in inexplicable poverty. At some points he did change his mind but I think that he thought he didn't need a plan b or something to resort to. When he set up the New Deal agencies and acts he thought he could appeal to America as someone who takes action. When some acts were declared unlawful I think he was shocked. After the depression everybody was like zombies, dead to their surroundings because there was no one to help. Yet here is someone who is trying to help and he is criticised and made out to be a dictator. Personally I find this shameful. Repairing the broken situation was the clear way forward. But Herbert Hoover had chosen to leave America to lick her own wounds and only took action when it was too late. Hoover had given big businesses the foot up they needed and they were more powerful that the government itself. Roosevelt cannot be blamed for larger companies' power. Money equalled power and the wealthy were always going to come out on top. He set up all these acts and agencies and successfully saved many farmers from inevitable mountains of debt and stopped starvation for millions. There were some who were left out of this but these were the people that every society has, even today. They are the ones who are destined to fail, never seize an opportunity and lack a killer instinct. There is no desire to get out of their situation and therefore Roosevelt could not help these people. Black people did suffer and those who lived in rural areas and Roosevelt did neglect the rights of black people but he did show his support in subtle mannerisms. For instance his wife cared deeply for their wellbeing, he employed black people to work on major projects like Mary McLeod Bethune who was in charge of the National Youth Administration and he also signed an anti-lynching bill. If he was to declare his undying support for them he would be outcast himself and lose his voters. He did put his own self-importance above them but Hoover did far worse and Roosevelt had done so much good he could be forgiven for being restrained in his approach to black people. To help the rural areas he greatly increased business through the TVA and dams. His ideas were fresh and the valley took advantage of the waterways. Unemployment was the biggest issue but there is an explanation. Using the 1928 figures as a comparison Roosevelt didn't get the figures back but after such a profitable economical peak and then an immense misfortune it would be absurd to expect him to get them back, in fact impossible. But the main issue I have is that the critics were usually the people who were not affected by the crash. The wealthy had a small dent in their bank accounts and nothing that couldn't be fixed with some expensive wine and caviar. The Americans that really suffered valued his unexplainable care for them. He himself was from a wealthy background and could easily have just ignored the poor and get on with helping himself to profits in big companies. But something was so charismatic that it was hard to hate someone who spoke such sense, such vision and concern. Care was like a swear word to Hoover who had no regard for his country's opinion of him. â€Å"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made. † Wise words from Roosevelt, and true. Wealthy economists disliked him because he cared. They wanted a laissez-faire, stone-hearted President who didn't give a damn. But Roosevelt took a stand against the Republicans and thank God he did. Regarding the statement I agree to the extent that nothing can be perfect as things have to go back to the drawing board. But I think that considering the circumstances in which Roosevelt was handed America, he did extremely well. He completed his aims. Unemployment was it's lowest since 1933 by 1940, with fluctuations obviously, property was saved thanks to low interest loans and savings were protected, industry and agriculture bounced back, pensions were provided for the old and benefits given to the unemployed and handicapped. Finally America was confident again. The great country America was back and the world was beckoning her to call out her glory once more. And so she did, with Roosevelt firmly behind her all the way. The New Deal was not a complete success Due to the Wall Street Crash in 1933 the New Deal was introduced. The New Deal helped the unemployment problem but did not solve it. The New Deal stopped things from getting any worse in the short term, however in the long term only World War two solved the unemployment crisis. Some historians believe that the New Deal was partly a success and partly a failure. In the opinion I think that the New Deal was a success. The New Deal had aimed to provide relief through the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA), this aimed to provide direct cash to the needy. $500 million has been given to states to help the starving and homeless people. The money was also used for employment schemes, nursing schools (so parents could go out during the day to find a job), soup kitchens, and blankets. The FERA was up to some point a success, for this aim many things had to be provided, if the government had stopped providing money this aim wouldn't be a success. The New Deal planned to re-build the economy by introducing the Emergency Banking Act, which aimed to solve the financial crisis after the Wall Street Crash. Every bank was closed for a four-day ‘bank holiday' and only honest, well-run banks with enough cash were allowed to re-open. The Securities Act forced companies giving out new shares to provide full information about the company to the public. The New Deal never solved the underlying economic problems and the US economy took longer to recover than most European countries. Confidence remained low. Throughout the 1930s Americans only spent and invested about 75% of what they had before 1929. When Roosevelt cut the New Deal budget in 1937, the country had gone back into recession. The Civil Works Administration (CWA) also helped relief. This aim provided temporary work for four million men, school, airport, roads and even 150000 public toilets. The Public Works Administration (PWA) was given funds of $3300 million. It was used to buy materials and employ millions of skilled workers to build schools, housing, hospitals, bridges, courtrooms and dams. The PWA also built ten ships and 50 airports. But this solution was only short-term. The New Deal laws clearly dealt with the problem of poverty among black people and the poorest sector. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) gave the government power to control the prices. They paid farmers to produce less and destroy some of the food they had already produced. They hoped that food prices would rise because there were short supplies. The idea worked-between 1933 and 1939, farmers' incomes doubled. However, the government was heavily criticized for this idea, the government was destroying food and forcing up prices to help farmers at a time when millions in the city were starving. The New Deal did a lot to help agriculture, however did have some problem it helped large firms the most and the problems of ‘dustbowl' continued. Projects such as the Tennessee valley authority (TVA) brought work and had improved peoples standard of living to deprived parts of the city. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was made to assure that all unemployed 18 to 25 year olds were given food and shelter in the countryside. They got paid 1 dollar a week they did conservation work-planted trees, dug canals, cleared footpaths and strengthened riverbanks against flooding. The Civilian Conservation Corps provided jobs for 2.5 million men. But the New Deal was blamed for giving jobs out for the sake of it, in 1941 6 million people were still left unemployed. Only when the USA entered the war the unemployment problem was solved. The New Deal aimed to create a fairer society by using the National Recovery Administration (NRA), The NRA aimed to improve working conditions in the industry and strengthened the position of labour unions against industrial giants. The Wagner act forced all employers to allow trade unions to operate in their companies. The New Deal saw women achieving prominent positions. Eleanor Roosevelt became an important campaigner. The Supreme Court thought that the New Deal did too much. They had to judge whether the New Deal was in line with the terms of the US Constitution. The judges in the court were conservative and did not like the way the New Deal allowed the government to become so involved in the economy. The judges found the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) unlawful. Roosevelt did not want the judges to dismantle the whole New Deal. A After he was re elected in 1936 he tried to change the judges so the court was pro New Deal. This did not work, but the court realized they could not change the New Deal. In conclusion I think that The New Deal was a success as the Federal Government got involved for the first time. As well as this acts such as the WPA and the CWA provided relief for the economy. The Banking Act and the Securities Act helped solve financial problems and the AAA helped agriculture. The NRA improved working conditions in industry and women became high achievers. However there were some failures the problem of ‘dustbowl' continued, unemployment did not go away, most New Deal laws were designed to help women rather than men and the New Deal had a lot of opposition. It was the war that finally solved the problem of unemployment.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Eva’s death Essay

Also at the beginning of the play, Mr and Mrs. Birling come across as a well-off couple who are very well educated and in the public eye a lot when Mr Birling says to Gerald, â€Å"I could be in line for a knighthood, providing nothing goes wrong.† This means that if a scandal is linked with his family, then the public will turn against him, and therefore he won’t be able to get a knighthood. Because of this, the audience wouldn’t expect them to behave in the way they did, and when we find out what they did, and the affect they had on Eva Smith/ Daisy Renton, it’s quite shocking to see that they were both somehow involved in her death. And when we find out the reasons behind what they did, it changes the impression we get of them, and you see that they are quite selfish and take advantage of the power they have and who they inflict it upon. They are both quite wrapped up in their own lives, and anything that would lose them money or cause them grief, they take no notice of and dismiss the idea. Sheila and Eric are Mr and Mrs. Birling’s children. At the beginning of the play Sheila comes across as a bit childish and immature and maybe still relies on her mum and dad a lot when she say, † yes, go on, mummy. You must drink our health.† We get an impression of Sheila as being naive and shallow, but her comment, â€Å"last summer, when you never came near me,† which refers to Gerald, may suggest to us that she isn’t as stupid as she may seem. Eric seems a bit more mischievous and much more naive than Sheila, in the way he talks and how he acts. He seems embarrassed and nervous, as soon as he is mentioned in the play, as it says, â€Å"Eric suddenly guffaws,† and then doesn’t tell the other characters why he came out with it, which suggests he is nervous about something, which we later find out that it is the money he recently stole from his father, Mr. Birling. hI think Mr and Mrs. Birling are more ashamed of Eric and careful that he doesn’t do anything stupid to embarrass the family, but the family seem to get on with each other quite well, although you get the impression that there is some tension between Eric and Mr. Birling, when Gerald, Mr. Birling and Eric are talking about women’s love of clothes before the Inspector arrives. Sheila also has a link with Eva, who was employed at ‘Milwards,’ because Sheila thought Eva, was laughing at her when she tried on a dress that didn’t suit her. Eva was prettier than Sheila and the dress suited her more, which made Sheila irritated and envious of Eva, so she was guilty of a deadly sin, which was envy. Eric’s link with Eva was that he met her in the palace bar one thing lead to another and he got her pregnant, which made him guilty of lust towards Eva. Although Eric doesn’t seem very responsible he shows some initiative, as he was concerned enough to give Eva some money, which shows his priority was Eva’s future and not necessarily the consequences of stealing from Mr. Birling’s office. I don’t think the audience are too shocked to find out what Eric and Sheila are capable of, because they are young and quite naive, and they don’t seem to have much empathy towards other people, maybe because they haven’t experienced the things Eva has before. Their actions can be linked to their parents as they have a lot of power, so this may be filtered down to them, which they might exploit and take advantage of. By the end of the play Eric and Sheila have changed more than the other characters. Sheila feels extremely guilty for what she has done to Eva and frequently cries and sobs when the Inspector mentions Eva in the infirmary. Eric also feels guilty for what he did to Eva, he says, â€Å"the girl’s dead and we all helped to kill her- and that’s what matters.† I think they have both changed because they are young and impressionable, whereas Mr and Mrs. Birling refuse to take responsibility for Eva’s death to save their reputation, and they have never been forced to examine their consciences before and they find that they can’t do it now, and are relieved when they find out the Inspector wasn’t real and want to forget about it and move on. At the start of the play we find out that Gerald is from a family who are socially better than the Birlings. We know this because after Mr.Birling tells Gerald he has the same port as his father gets, Gerald says, â€Å"The governor prides himself on being a good judge of port†. Gerald is also described as â€Å"an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred man-about-town.† We also know that he is the son of Lord and Lady Croft, and we are given the impression that they are not to keen on the engagement of Gerald and Sheila as they didn’t accept the invitation to the dinner. This makes us wander why Gerald would want to marry a woman of a lower status than him. Gerald was involved with Eva when he met her at the palace bar and let her stay in his friend’s empty flat in Bromley, as she had nowhere to stay, and he felt sorry for her. Eva, or Daisy Renton as Gerald knew her as, was his mistress for a time until she had to move out because Gerald was away on business. His involvement with Eva was different to the rest of the characters, because he actually tried to help her and did something good. In a way his actions are the most shocking because he is better-off than even the Birling’s, so you wouldn’t expect him to help out someone like Eva who hangs around in places like the palace bar, and you would have thought he would look down on people like her, and have no sympathy for them. I don’t think his actions fit in with the Gerald at the beginning of the play because he tells Sheila the reason why he didn’t see her much last summer was because he was busy at work, when he was with Eva at the flat, so we find out he was lying to Sheila, which you wouldn’t have thought he’d do as he says he wants to be part of the family and they seem to have a lot of respect for each other. Although Gerald seems moved by the news of Eva’s death, he isn’t entirely willing to admit his involvement with her, and this could be because of the same reason as Mr. Birling, that he wants to protect his own interests. At the end of the play he tries to come up with as much evidence as possible to prove that the Inspector isn’t real, which could potentially get him off the hook, if he could convince the rest of the characters that they had been hoaxed.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Compensation system by zobaer

These HARM practices include human resource planning, recruitment and selection, induction, raining, performance appraisal, employee development, compensation plan, etc. This discussion has provided the opportunity to analyze the HARM practices of a business organization and to find out the facts which are creating barriers to effective HARM. – 90- Introduction Human Resource Management (HARM) Is a relatively new concept In Bangladesh. It was few years ago that this was considered as a part of the administrative functions of an organization.There was no individual identity for HARM. But as time passed people recognized the importance of HARM in organizations. They realized that HARM is to just to hire people. Apart form hiring, HARM has lots of functions which help an organization to gain competitive advantage (Islam, 2006). Effective HARM practices support business goals and objectives. That is why effective HARM practices are strategic. It can improve the performance of an o rganization by improving customer satisfaction, innovation and productivity.So from HER planning, recruitment and selection to training, performance appraisal, compensation, all practices of HARM are now considered as equally Important as any other aspects of the organization such as marketing, financing, etc. Literature Review Human resource management (HARM) is both an academic theory and a business practice that addresses the theoretical and practical techniques of managing a workforce. Synonyms include personnel administration, personnel management, manpower management, and industrial management (http en. Wisped. Erg). According to Non, Hollowness, Gerhard and Wright (2006), human resource management refers to the policies, practices and systems that influence employees' behavior, attitudes, and performance. They also say that many companies refer to HARM as involving ‘people practices'. HARM is the organizational function that deals tit issues related to people such as co mpensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training (Hatfield, 2006).According to Walked, a web based encyclopedia, HARM serves five key functions: 1) Hilling, 2) Compensation, 3) Evaluation and Management (of Performance), 4) Promotions, and 5) Management, Volvo. 10, No's. 3&4: Volvo. 11, No's. 1 & 2- 91 – of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs the organization has and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these deeds, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring that the personnel and management practices conform to various regulations.Activities also include managing the organization's approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies (Manager, 2006). According to Winning, what necessary in an H ER Department are the functions and responsibilities which none else either wants or is capable of doing. From recruiting to orienting new employees, from writing Job descriptions to tracking attendance, and from instituting ND monitoring policies to monitoring benefits, there has been a need for an HER generalist to assist senior management in both establishing a structure to hold down costs of administration (Winning, 2005).The ultimate aim of HARM is to ensure that at all times the business is correctly staffed by the right number of people with the skills relevant to the business needs (Islam, 2006). Thus HARM is meant to unlock the talent, experience, wisdom and common sense of many within the organization by making work simpler, quicker, rewarding, safer and fun (http://www. Cell-team. Com). Research Methodology This research article is case study-based. Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd (SSP) does have a separate Human Resource Department.The major part of this case study is based o n face-to-face interviews with managers and executives, using a questionnaire. , which consists of view and opinions of those particular people, which might raise the question of bias. In some cases some of them were not able to provide concrete facts or fugues. In this case some assumptions had to be made. Interviewing the managers and executives of SSP has provided the primary sources of information. Furthermore, company brochures, documents, and the company website were the secondary sources of data. No survey method has been used in this regard.Finally, due to time constraints it was not possible to conduct extensive interviews and surveys which could make the research paper more informative. A case study is the fact' of any particular issues, the contents of which require an in-depth focus of the social sciences area to Human Resource Management Practices -92- understand its phenomenon on the basis of it being an individual problem (Leeds, 1997). One of the essential characteri stics of using the case study approach is that it focuses on ‘one instance of the thing that is to be investigated' (Denseness, 1998).The advantage of the case study over other methods is that it attempts to be comprehensive, and involves the researcher in describing and analyzing the full notes, ‘one of the advantages cited for case study research is its uniqueness, its capacity for understanding complexity in particular contexts'. Apart from generalization, other criticisms can be that the case study method is a less rigorous form of inquiry, based on the accumulation of information and there is a lack of discipline in what Smith (1991) described as the logically weakest method of knowing.Mitchell (1999) states that the basic problem in the use of case material is theoretical that case studies prove valuable in situations where existing knowledge is limited, often providing in-depth contextual information, which may result in a superior level of understanding. Furtherm ore, case studies prove advantageous when the focus of the study is not typicality but the unusual, unexpected, covert or illicit (Hartley, 1994).The objective of this study is achieved through one single case study which provides both depth and reliability (see, for example, Harris and Gabon, 1998; Marching and Harrison, 1991; Sturdy, 1992). This case study is selected for a number of reasons, data accessibility, establishment organization, size and contribution in the sector and so on. It is said that a single case study is not enough for research. However, a single case study can give a lot of depth in the research area (see, for example, Dollar and Quaked, 2005.Mullahs et al. , 2002). Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd – Company Overview In Bangladesh, Square today symbolizes a name – a state of mind. But its Journey to growth and prosperity has been no bed of roses. From the inception in 1958, it has today burgeoned into one of the top line conglomerates in Bangladesh. SS P is the largest pharmaceutical company in Bangladesh and it has been continuously in the first position among all national and multinational Sir Lankan Journal of Management, Volvo. 10, 3&4: Volvo. 11, NO'S. 1 & 2-93- companies since 1985.SSP is the manufacturer and marketer of finished pharmaceutical products, basic chemicals and agro vet products. Its products are manufactured in the form of tablets, capsules, suppositories, injections, liquids, drops, ointment, cream and powder, oral dry powder, inhalers and meter dose inhalers. SSP was converted into a public limited company in 1991. Currently the ales turnover of SSP is more than Take 622 core with 16. 23 percent market share having a growth rate of about 14. 91 percent. Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Ousted 11 percent growth in pharmaceutical formulation in 2004 and the company also introduced 43 new products during the period (December 25, The Daily Star- 2004). SSP has extended her range of services towards the highway of the global market. She pioneered exports of medicines from Bangladesh in 1987 and has been exporting antibiotics and other pharmaceutical products. This extension in business and services has manifested the credibility of SSP. SSP strives, above all, for top quality health care products at the least cost reaching the lowest rungs of the economic class of people in the country.They value their social obligations. They owe a responsibility to their shareholders and strive for protection of their capital as well as ensure the highest return and growth of their assets (http:// www. Squarer's. Com. Bad). According to SSP, their vision, mission and objectives are: Vision: [Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd] view business as a means to the material and social well being of the investors, employees and society at large, leading to accretion f wealth through financial and moral gains as a part of the process of human civilization.Mission: [Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd] mission is to produce and provide q uality and innovative healthcare relief for people, maintain stringently ethical standards in business operation and also ensuring benefit to the shareholders, stakeholders and Objectives: [Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd] objectives are to conduct transparent business operations based on the market mechanism within the legal and social framework with aims to attain the mission reflected by [their] vision. (http / www. Squarer's. Com. Bad). Human Resource Management Practices Supply Chain Department of Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd.Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd consists of several individual departments such as accounting & finance, marketing, sales, administration, human resource, supply chain, etc. All these departments are linked with one or more departments within the organization. For this research paper we have concentrated on the supply chain department of SSP. Throughout the research paper we will describe the HER activities related to this department and try to identify the problems a nd provide some recommendations to reduce or eliminate the problems. The supply chain department f SSP mainly works as the procurement department.It purchases all the needed raw materials, machinery and equipment, things needed for official work, food, vehicles needed for staff and management, etc. Thus all the purchasing actually takes place through the supply chain department. It is known as the supply chain department as it also maintains the suppliers outside of the organization on behalf of the organization. All the departments of the organization that need their necessary things send a requisition to the supply chain department with the consent of the department head. Then the supply chain department obtains the consent of theExecutive Director, Administration (DEAD) and contacts with different suppliers. It collects the quotations from the different-suppliers and decides from which supplier it will purchase the goods. The supply chain department not only deals with the local suppliers but also with the foreign suppliers (The structure of the supply chain department of SSP is given in the appendix). Key Themes While finding different human resource activities related to the supply chain department we have found that SSP does not have any specific human recapitulating program for the supply chain department.It does not follow any aroma labor demand forecasting and still did not take any initiative to determine the labor supply properly. So it still cannot measure whether there are more or less employees than what it actually needs. Sir Lankan Journal of Management, Volvo. 10, No's. 3 & 4: Volvo. 11, No's. 1 & 2 – 95 – While going through the recruitment and selection process we found that after the vacancy circulation lots of people submit their C.v.. So it is very difficult to sort these large numbers of C.v. and identify the person who can compete in the further steps of selection to fulfill the Job requirement.In the selection process the candidates only o through the written exam and interviews. The company does not provide any Job related problems for the candidates to solve. Thus it becomes very difficult to understand whether the candidates will be able to handle the Job-oriented problems in reality. While providing the Job description to the new employee the supply chain contact the HER department to make them know about these changes. Thus the HER department cannot know properly what a new employee is actually doing in the company and what his responsibilities are. SSP sometimes provides on the Job training and off the Job training.It has the capability to enhance the knowledge level f the employees to improve the skills and abilities of the employees. In the supply chain department of SSP there are no specific employee development processes. The employees are given promotions on the basis of their performance at the end of the year. But there is no practice of Job enlargement or enrichment or any other career development plan. The employees learn about the Job from the training program and sometimes learn from the mentoring of their boss. Thus the employees do not have any opportunity to develop their career through diversification.The employees of the supply chain department are evaluated only by self and the previous for performance appraisal. But the employees are not evaluated by other parties such as the suppliers, peers, etc. Even the feedback is not always provided to the employees properly. So it seems to us that the appraisal system is not consistent with the industry as now there are more strategic focused performance appraisal systems in practice. There are no specific reward systems for the employees' recognition except the promotions. They do not get any bonus or increment based on their performance.The whole compensation system for the employees of this department is quite sound though there is no Human Resource Management Practices regular practice of a specific non-monet ary compensation system such as recognition, praise, etc. To encourage the employees. The employee information system is not well organized. For some aspects of record maintenance an employee database is used and some other information of the employees is recorded manually by the file system. So sometimes there may be redundancy in data storing which is not cost effective for the company.Human Resource Planning The human resource planning process starts with a forecast of the people needed for the company and consists of goal setting and strategic planning and program implementation and evaluation (Non et al. , 2006). In the following part of the report we will discuss human resource planning in SSP in the context of its supply chain department. Human Resource Plan and Forecasting The human resource plan for the supply chain department is the same as that for all the other departments of SSP. The HER department prepares the plan at the end of the year.It collects the information fro m all the departments of the company about how many people they will need in the next year. The entire department's heads send the requisition with detailed information about what kind of person they need or their departments. Thus forecasting of future employees for the supply chain department is made in this way. Then human resource department takes the initiative for recruitment of those people, which we will discuss in the next segment of recruitment and selection. If the department needs more people at any time of the resource department.Except this forecasting part, SSP does not have any formal strategic planning. They did not faced any labor surplus problem so far. So they did not need to plan for reducing the labor surplus by downsizing, early retirement or any other techniques of laying off people (Personal communication, 2006). Sir Lankan Journal of Management, Volvo. 10, No's. 3 & 4: Volvo. 11, No's. 1 & 2- 97- Recruitment and Selection Human resource recruitment is the p ractice or activity carried out by the organization with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees.Selection is the process by which companies decide who will or will not be allowed into organizations (Non et al. , 2006). Thus recruitment is the process of getting a pool of candidates for the organization who can meet the requirements of a specific Job. After that selecting a person from those candidates is one of the toughest Jobs for an organization. In today's competitive business world it is very difficult to survive without potential manpower. Successful recruitment and selection can be expensive and time-consuming.But unsuccessful recruitment and selection can be a cause of the death of a business. SSP is one of the biggest employers in Bangladesh. Here we will discuss the recruitment policies and process for the supply chain department of SSP. Recruitment Objectives SSP needs such people for the supply chain department who can meet the needs of the organization to maintain the core business activities. Thus it searches for such people who are capable of doing the procurements and also maintaining the relationship with the supplier as a representative of SSP.Thus the objective of SSP is to hire a dynamic and outstanding person in the supply chain management area. Recruitment Policies Recruitment for the supply chain department in SSP is a Job of the human resource department. The human resource department finds a pool of candidates and along with the supply chain department selects the best person for the Job. Human Resource Management Practices -98- Recruitment Process for Supply Chain Department For the recruitment process JPL's supply chain department follows a very formal hiring process.Here the process is described briefly. The Assistant General Manager (GM) of the department fills up a requisition form with the Job position, requirements, criteria, Job description, and number of positions. It also clarifies why the depar tment needs a new person. Then the requisition is verified and approved by the HER Manager. The HER department publishes a circular in the newspaper for both the executives and non- executive level posts. It also publishes a circular in Job searching websites on the Internet (I. E. Boots) for the executive level posts.After receiving the C.v. from the candidates the selection process starts (Personal communication, 2006). Selection Process The HER department does a primary sorting of the C.v. and sends them to the supply candidates for a written examination. The HER department and the supply chain department make the question papers and conduct the exam. Both the HER department and the supply chain department check the exam scripts. The selected candidates from the written exam are called for an interview with the HER department and the supply chain department.Before going for the interview candidates fill a management application form with their personal information and salary expe ctations. Sir Lankan Journal of Management, Volvo. 10, No's. 3 & 4: Volvo. 11, No's. 1 & 2- 99- Sometimes the salary negotiation is done at the interview. The candidates selected from this interview are formally of selected for the Job. After that the selected candidates are sent for a medical check up. If everything is fine in the medical report then the appointment letter is given to the candidates with a set of instructions about the code of conduct of the organization (PersonalInduction and Probation Period for New Employees Induction refers to the process of helping people to make the transition into a new workplace, a new role or area of responsibility. It is considered to be a continuous process which generally starts with contact prior to taking up employment and proceeds through arrival, first days/weeks on the Job and generally up to the third month of employment. Induction is essential for all staff regardless of category or conditions of employment (http:// woman. Monish . Deed. AU).In SSP induction is the process of introducing the new employee to the organization. The HER department sakes the initiative to introduce the new employee to all the departments of SSP. A presentation is conducted by the department to let the new employee know about SSP in detail. Along with this an orientation program continues for 7-10 days to be familiar and linked with all the departments as the supply chain department is related to all other departments of the company. From six months after Joining the employee goes through a probation period.Within this time training is given to the employee. The employee tries to learn about his Job. After six months an evaluation of this employee is conducted by the GM. If the result is not satisfactory then the probation period is extended to another three months. After three months again a performance evaluation takes place. Then if the result is satisfactory the employee becomes permanent. But if the result is not satisfactory the employee's Job is terminated by the department with the consent of DEAD (Personal communication, 2006).Human Resource Management Practices -100- Job Description A Job description is a list of tasks, duties, and responsibilities that a Job entails (Non et al. , 2006). Job descriptions are supposed to describe duties and performance tankards that are directly linked to organizational success factors established by the leadership, and for which it is willing to pay a salary (Moore, 2007). Thus it works as a guideline for an employee to accomplish his Job activities effectively. It also provides a standard for the supervisor of the employee to evaluate the employee's of the department.When an employee Joins this department the GM prepares a new Job description based on the company's Job description and the skills and abilities that the employee actually obtains. Then the Job description is given to the employee. The employee follows the Job description as a guideline for his Job. D uring performance appraisal the supervisors also use the Job description to compare the employee's actual performance with the required one (Personal communication, 2006). Training Training is a planned effort to facilitate the learning of Jobs related knowledge, skills and behavior by employees (Non et al. 2006). In SSP like all other departments the supply chain department also arranges for a training program. Training takes place here in different forms. These are discussed here briefly. Induction Training After Joining this department of SSP the new employees get a specific training for a period of six months. During this time they are taught their Job related activities. This training is conducted in two different ways. These are classroom training and off the job training. Sir Lankan Journal of Management, Volvo. 10, No's. &4: Volvo. 11, No's. 1 & 2- 101 – Classroom Training Classroom training is arranged by SSP. The supply chain department sends the list of the employe es who will need the training and the topics that the training should cover to the HER department. Then the HER department contacts JPL's faculties to conduct the training. Thus classroom training is provided to the employees. At the end of training the employees are evaluated through a presentation. If the training result is satisfactory then the employees' probation period comes to an end.Off-the-Job Training Off-the-Job training takes place away from the normal work situation which means that the employee is not regarded as a productive worker when training is taking place. An advantage of off-the-Job training is that it allows people to get away from work and totally concentrate on the training being given. This is most effective for training concepts and ideas (http://en. Wisped. Org). For this training purpose the supply chain similarly contacts the HER department. The HER department then arranges the training program with some outside organization to provide training.Sometime s even the employees are also sent abroad for training. Here also the employees are needed to make a presentation in front of the top-level management after the completion of the training. On-the-Job Training On-the-Job training is given in a normal working situation, using the actual tools, equipment, documents or materials that they will use when fully trained. On-the-lob training is usually most effective for vocational work (http:// en. Kipped. Org). The Assistant General Manager (GM) of the supply chain department conducts a training program once a year for all the employees of the department.This is arranged for a very short period of time such as two or three days. At that time he tries to find out whether any employee needs any extensive training program or not, based on his performance evaluation. If any training program is required for the employees he contacts the HER department to arrange the training program (Personal -102- Employee Development Development is the acquis ition of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that improve an employee's ability to meet changes in Job requirements and in client and customer demands (Non et al. , 2006).There are several methods for employee development such as, formal education program, Job enlargement, Job enrichment, Job rotation, transfer, promotions, etc. In SSP for the supply chain department there are no such employee development processes. The employees are given promotions on the basis of their performance at the end of the year (personal communication, 2006). There are no opportunities for the employees to have Job enlargement, Job enrichment, rotation, etc. Thus they cannot learn anything more than their own Job activities and developing a career.Performance Appraisal Performance appraisal is the process through which an organization gets information on how well an employee is doing his or her Job (Non et al. , 2006). The central feature of any performance appraisal system is the establishment of objective s against which any assessment of the performance of the individual is based. The supply chain department of SSP conducts the performance appraisal for all the employees of the department. The HER department helps in this process. At first the employees are even the opportunity of self-evaluation.Later on the employees are evaluated by their reporting boss and the person supervising his boss. Thus all the employees including the GM and DEAD are evaluated. The MD evaluates the Idea's performance. For this evaluation purpose there is a specific performance appraisal form. Then the GM, DEAD and MD sit together to take decisions based on the employee evaluation. If any employee's performance is not satisfactory then they decide about how the performance of that employee can be improved. If any employee's performance is outstanding then he gets a promotion (Personal communication. 006). Sir Lankan Journal of Management, Volvo. 10, No's. 3&4: Volvo. 11, No's. 1 & 2- 103- Reward and Compen sation System The reward system of an organization includes anything that an employee may value and desire and that the employer is able or willing to offer in exchange for employee contributions. The reward system consists of a compensation and non-compensation system. Compensation refers to all forms of financial returns and tangible services and benefits employees receive as part of an employment relationship.Pay Structure Pay structure is the relative pay of different Jobs bib structure) and how much they are paid (pay level) (Non et al. 2006). The pay structure for the employees of the supply chain department of SSP is shown below. Basic Salary + Home Rent + Transport + Medical Allowance Other Benefits Besides the promotion an increment in the basic salary is granted for all the employees once a year to adjust with inflation. The employees get five bonuses in a year. They also have the provident fund facility.For the provident fund the company itself cuts 10 percent from the ba sic and the employees need to submit 10 percent from his own income. SSP also has a retirement plan for the employees. They take gratuity from the company after retirement. The company also provides the profit sharing scheme for the employees. The employees get some health care benefits at a discounted rate from selected hospitals and health care centers of Square. From now the employees will get health care benefits at a discounted rate at the Square Hospital.The employees can have their food from the office canteen free of cost. The employees of this department get cell phone facilities from the company. SSP has an official agreement with Grahame phone. The company provides the hand set to the employees with the Simi card. Besides, SSP also pays a fixed amount of the monthly ill of the employees Basic pay: Basic pay usually refers to the pay received without taking into account any additional benefits or bonuses, such as a car, medical cover, commissions, clothing, food etc. T als o refers to the amount of pay before taking any deductions such as tax off. Every employees of the organization has been provided a basic salary which varies according to their ranks. Compensation package are given on the basis of their basic payment Provident Fund: The Company's Provident Fund is a funded scheme. All confirmed and permanent employees are entitled to be members of the Provident Fund. The employee nutrition, equal to 10% of the basic salary, is deducted each month through the payroll. The Company's Provident Fund is a funded scheme.All long-established and enduring employees are at liberty to be members of the Provident Fund. In the Provident Fund Ledger, both the employee's and the Company's contributions are accredited to the individual employee's account. Gratuity Facility: Gratuity is a scheme to motivate people to serve for longer durations with the same employer. Anybody who has served an organization for more than 5 years is eligible for Gratuity. A portion of the employee's last drawn salary would be multiplied with he number of years of service and paid out when the leave an organization after years of service.This facility has been provided by the organization when an employee will leave from the organization. Bonuses: Incentive bonuses are a creative form of compensation that some employers offer their employees. Bonuses and cash incentives are a form of variable pay linked to individual, collective or organizational performance. Non cash incentives are also widely used such as; competency based pay, skill based pay, employee recognition and commission. 0 Festival Bonus: The bonus that is given on the eve of religious festival is called