Friday, May 8, 2020
Sample Essay About North Shore Community College
Sample Essay About North Shore Community CollegeIf you are on the lookout for a good sample essay about North Shore Community College then here is what you have been waiting for. A sample essay on North Shore community college is one of the best options for you in getting your essay writer to write for you, but of course, only if you pick a well-written sample essay from a reliable writer.To be very honest, a lot of people think that there is no point in writing an essay for North Shore because their children or friends could do the same subject. However, a lot of students and parents are very enthusiastic about the subject because they know it is one of the best colleges in the world. Hence, even if you are not sure about yourself or your child, it is always a good idea to write a sample essay about North Shore.When you are teaching in high school or college, your essay on the subject can be one of the most important pieces of work you will ever create. Your essays on different subj ects would help you develop your writing skills and improve your analytical skills so that you would be able to face the reader confidently.So, it is very important to get a sample essay from an outstanding college teacher who will write exactly what you would expect. You can make this easier by asking a lot of questions about the topic and the writer about his/her writing style so that you get exactly what you want.However, there are certain things you must always remember when choosing a sample essay on North Shore. Here are some pointers that you can follow in order to get a good sample essay.First of all, make sure that you choose a writer who has done essays on different subjects before. This way, you will not only get the writer's knowledge, but also get an idea of how he/she thinks. The writer will obviously have good writing and analytical skills so make sure that you choose a writer who can write effectively.While doing your homework for a sample essay on North Shore, it is also very important to do some research on the topic in order to find out if the writer is actually qualified to write on that topic. If the writer is not well-known, then the chances of the writer writing anything good are very small. Therefore, you must always check whether the writer has a good reputation.
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Project Management Example
Essays on Project Management Article Summary of Project Management Web Sites and Articles Homework #2 After reviewing the websites in this exercise, I learnt that project management haschanged from a nascent field that it was a few decades ago to a full fledged indispensable need today. What is particularly interesting that in a relatively short span of time, refinement in project management techniques and methodologies has resulted in newer concepts such as Agile project management, PRINCE, and others. This is a far cry from the basic simplistic definition of project management which was a linear execution of activities in phases while keeping scope, time, resource, and cost constraints in mind. Exploring further, it was discovered that project management has become a multi-disciplinary field taking inputs from diverse areas such as risk management, change management, and even human behavior. The wide acceptance of project management as an essential business requirement seems to have created a fairly big career opportu nity with high incomes for practitioners. Almost all industries, or vertical markets, employ the services of project managers1. This has also worked back to enrich the project management methodologies to be applied across a wide spectrum of fields. Certification in project management is a common requirement and PMI, the Project Management Institute, appears to be the global leader in certifying project managers. The content at PMIââ¬â¢s website is a clear and efficient reflection of the goals of the organization itself. These goals are to become a common global platform for aspiring or existing project managers to network, get certified, access research, and seek career opportunities. Most content on the website is available only to members who can get a basic annual membership for $ 129. There are discounts for certain categories, such as students, but nothing of value is really free2. The site is not useful for those who want to get a flavor of project management by reading through free articles and content. There is a strong emphasis on certification which seems the second stream of revenue other than memberships on which PMI thrives. This comes as no surprise as, having been in the industry for 40 years, PMI is the one of the oldest certifying organization and has built an eco-system of project management practitioners around its certification platform. The career guidance section is nicely laid out where job seekers and providers can search based on specified skill sets and certification levels. Additionally, three subscriptions based valuable publications are available. PM Network3 provides project managers with news on trends, practices, case studies and tools. PMI Today4 is to keep global communities of project managers up to date with news on activities, and the Project Management Journal5 is a peer-reviewed research journal published in partnership with Wiley. PMI is not the only membership based training and certifying authority though. There are other websites of organizations with similar programs with slight variations. Websites of Association for Project Management in the UK (APMG-UK) 6, American Society for the Advancement of Project Management (ASAPM) 7, and Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) 8 each fall into this category. APMG-UK, the UK affiliate of APMG-International, has a wider focus than other similar sites as it offers training, learning, certification and accreditation opportunities in multiple project management methodologies including PRINCE and also related fields of risk management and change management9. AIPM offers a section on their website with free content containing conference and seminar proceedings and presentations10. As membership data for these three sites was not readily available, a comparison could not be made. Compared to PMI and similar certification sites mentioned, a lot more information is available on other sites in the list. Forums to share ideas, blogs, articles, newsletters, tools, and tips make the rest of the sites richer in content and appeal. A useful regularly updated website is www.maxwideman.com. It has a meticulously cross referenced glossary11 to understand project management terms which surely is very useful for anyone venturing into this field. The site www.chiefprojectofficer.com has been acquired by Projects@Work so the Projects@Work site was visited directly. Projects@Work is an online free magazine with extensive repository of articles, white papers, resources, case studies, tools, news, and opinion on project management12. PM Boulevard13, another free site, offers similar services. The site www.allpm.com had interesting content but the site seems not to have been updated since 2009. The two articles chosen relate to team management and agile project management. In the first article, ââ¬Å"The Weakness Trapâ⬠14, Garold Markle re-emphasizes the oft ignored principle that managers must focus on developing the strengths of their team members rather than getting trapped in a fruitless exercise of spending unlimited time in trying to fix their weaknesses. The article does not suggest forgetting about weaknesses altogether as sometimes they stand in the way of the employeeââ¬â¢s association with the team or company. However, only a finite amount of time must be given to this aspect and if it bears no results, it is better to move on. In comparison, it is far more beneficial to refine and enhance a team memberââ¬â¢s strengths to increase his or her usefulness to the team. The second article, ââ¬Å"Successful solutions through agile project managementâ⬠15, describes the importance of agile approach in contemporary project management. The author, Nancy Nee, explains the need for agile approach with a reference to the traditional linear ââ¬Å"waterfallâ⬠approach where a basic requirement is to expect the client to list all requirements and objectives upfront which are documented and used as a map to track the projectââ¬â¢s deliverables. However, often the client is unable to articulate the requirements resulting in the need to have a flexible yet stable, ââ¬Å"adaptiveâ⬠and feedback based approach to project management. The project is delivered in small iterations of the project lifecycle rather than in one go. The focus in this approach shifts from discrete unchangeable deliverables to ââ¬Å"customer valueâ⬠where a change in requirements is quickly matched with providing competitive advantages to the customer. The article a lso describes some of the challenges that are faced when shifting from traditional approaches to agile management. These challenges may include cultural barriers such as where the project manager fails to adopt the required role of a facilitator, lack of management support, and fears of failure in a newer approach. Finally, the article points out that agile project management is not the answer for all types of projects and are better suited for those which involve innovation or exploration such as software development. END NOTES 1 AIPM, ââ¬Å"AIPM ââ¬â 2008 Salary Surveyâ⬠(http://www.aipm.com.au/html/2008_salary_survey.cfm) (July 2010) 2 PMI, ââ¬Å"Types of Membershipsâ⬠(http://www.pmi.org/Membership/Pages/Types-of-Memberships.aspx) (July 2010) 3 PMI, ââ¬Å"PM Networkâ⬠(http://www.pmi.org/Resources/Pages/PM-Network.aspx) (July 2010) 4 PMI, ââ¬Å"PMI Todayâ⬠(http://www.pmi.org/Resources/Pages/PMI-Today.aspx) (July 2010) 5 PMI, ââ¬Å"Project Management Journalâ⬠(http://www.pmi.org/Resources/Pages/Project-Management-Journal.aspx) (July 2010) 6 APMG-UK, ââ¬Å"About APMG-UKâ⬠(http://www.apmg-international.com/APMG-UK/AboutAPMG-UK/AboutAPMG-UK.asp) (July 2010) 7 ASAPM, ââ¬Å"Home pageâ⬠(http://www.asapm.org/default.asp) (July 2010) 8 AIPM, ââ¬Å"AIPM - Australian Institute of Project Managementâ⬠(http://www.aipm.com.au/html/default.cfm) (July 2010) 9 APMG-UK, ââ¬Å"APMG-UK - Qualificationsâ⬠(http://www.apmg-international.com/APMG-UK/QualificationsUK.asp) (July 2010) 10 AIPM, ââ¬Å"AIPM ââ¬â Seminar Papersâ⬠(http://www.aipm.com.au/html/seminar-papers.cfm) (July 2010) 11 Max Wideman, ââ¬Å"Wideman comparative glossary of project management terms v3.1â⬠(http://www.maxwideman.com/pmglossary/index.htm) (July 2010) 12 Projects @ Work, ââ¬Å"Project management resources, tools and training for professional project managers.â⬠(http://www.projectsatwork.com/) (July 2010) 13 PM Boulevard, (http://www.pmboulevard.com/Default.aspx?page=92) (July 2010) 14 Garold Markle, ââ¬Å"The Weakness Trapâ⬠, June 28, 2010, Projects @ Work, (http://www.projectsatwork.com/article.cfm?ID=257304) (January 2010) 15 Nancy Y. Nee, ââ¬Å"Successful Solutions Through Agile Project Managementâ⬠, June 28, 2010, PM Boulevard, (http://www.pmboulevard.com/Default.aspx?page=View%20Contentcid=3160parent=5970) (January 2010)
International Project Management Outsourcing Projects
Question: Discuss about theInternational Project Managementfor Outsourcing Projects. Answer: Introduction In the 21st century, business life is becoming global in nature. Big multinational organizations as well as domestic organizations apply various concepts of globalizations. The concepts of globalization include development of application, outsourcing projects, global resource usage from various cultures. Among the three topics, second topic i.e. soft skills of cross-cultural communication as a critical factor of success of project management are chosen. It is because nowadays, international projects are facing challenges in meeting perfection due to lack of cross-cultural communication among the multicultural teams. Choosing this topic, the essay will focus on all aspects faced by project managers. Culture is an important factor in maintaining success in projects by project managers. It can be said that the project managers who are associated with the global projects of different sectors of industries must follow techniques of cross-cultural communication. The essay will discuss abou t difficulties faced by inter-cultural teams as well as project managers to manage them. In the multinational organizations, mostly cross-cultural communications are practiced in order to monitor the performance of the intercultural teams in a particular project (Brookes et al. 2013). Incorporation of cultural aspect in project management itself is an issue that is faced by international project managers in managing the quality and quantity of work done by the team members that are spread across different countries of the world. However, the essay will proceed with the challenges along with the process of implementation of cultural awareness and knowledge among the interventions of project management. Project management in modern business world has gained popularity in the form of distinct management concept that is used while driving goals and objectives of business along with economic development of the company and country as a whole. There are many types of projects that requires project management of intercultural teams such as infrastructure development, product development, event planning, IT projects, real estate projects etc. Globalization has created a cutting edge in the success of the projects (Barmeyer and Haupt 2016). Apart from that, technological innovation along with experienced project managers has reached the zenith of success of different projects in different multinational organizations. The factors of success and failure of a particular project depends on many factors such as improper planning, lack of mission and vision in a project, lack of monitoring, lack of communication, etc. These are the causes of failure of a project. project managers must put emphasi s on these factors to make a successful project within the time frame along with high quality of deliverables. On the other hand, the failure of international projects includes a factor i.e. lack of proper communication between intercultural teams (Walker 2015). Culture and diversity are the factors that are responsible for creating effects on the international projects. International projects can be classified into four categories such as: virtual, global, multinational, and multicultural projects. It can be seen that the project managers who are associated with global projects are found to provide extra transient and unique endeavour in order to provide unique services and products to the clients (Coldwell and Fried 2014). They efficiently use resources from the countries that are involved in the intercultural teams of the project. Without soft skills of cross-cultural communication, project managers can not be able to use efficiently the available resources available for completi on of the projects. Apart from that, the talent of the team members can not be properly utilized so that they can work effectively as well as efficient manner. There are other sets of challenges that are faced by the global project managers while managing intercultural teams such as cultural issues, language problem, different time zones, and different sets of plans of holidays of team members associated with the project (Erez et al. 2013). These issues are related to lack of cross-cultural communication in the different subsidiaries of the parent company. However, project managers have to overcome different issues related to culture in order to make a transition by adjusting with various time zones along with nationalities. It seems to be very challenging to complete a project within time with quality. Experienced managers sometimes feel very stressful to mitigate all the pitfalls along with some additional works while managing the cultural issues (Klitmller and Lauring, 2013). Man aging culture is very critical in the success of project along with the project managers of multinational companies. It is seen that these factors are the reasons of failures of global projects where companies invest huge amount of money in the desire of expected outcomes. The above mentioned factors are the internal factors of companies that are resulting into lower productivity of the projects at global level. Lack of soft skills of cross-cultural communication among the team members is responsible for the number of failures of international projects of many organizations. Outsourcing is the most popular trend that is practiced by many multinational corporations to complete their projects deliberately (Wiewiora et al. 2013). For instance, IT organizations outsource their projects to many other companies in other countries that take responsibility of their projects. IT organizations usually do this outsourcing in order to avoid the cultural problems among the different internationa l project managers of the company. Soft skills of cross-cultural communication are very important in creating an integration among the intercultural teams of multinational organization. A theoretical framework of project management with the implementation of three management techniques can be customer management, stakeholder management and intercultural management. Intercultural management in project management includes various techniques of cross-cultural communication. There are many techniques that are implemented by the project managers of the teams such as communication, training and development, implementation of theoretical concepts such as Hofstedes model, and other cultural models (Rockstuhl et al. 2015). Culture can also be included in the perspective of stakeholder management. Stakeholders of a company can be present in different countries of the world. It is the responsibility of the project managers to keep the stakeholders of the company updated about the project and different steps related to it. Approv al of the stakeholders is necessary if the project managers want to implement any new steps or changes in the project. If the stakeholders and the project manager belong to different culture, then it is a problem faced by the project managers to maintain proper channels of communication between them if cross-cultural management techniques are not applied properly at the organizational level (Brookes et al. 2013). It will lead to the success of the projects handled by these project managers if the implementation of the techniques and approaches of cross-cultural management are done in a proper way. The other important aspect of the model is customer management. Project managers of the organizations interact not only to the other members of the project but also with the clients. Clients are considered as the customers of the project in this model. Client management is the most important perspective for a project manager. It is required because the most of the clients communicate with the project managers regarding the various aspects of project (Luo and Zheng 2016). It includes changes in project, modifications and progress in the project, etc. It is the responsibility of the project managers to satisfy the clients as well as the organizations that requires soft skills of cross-cultural communication. Apart from that, it can be said that the three modules of the project management model are interrelated with each other. A strict communication between the three core aspects for obtaining best results in the success of the project (Klitmller and Lauring, 2013). Apart from this model, there are few steps that are recommended to the project managers in enhancing cross-cultural communication among the intercultural teams. The steps are: Outlining diversity from beginning of the project- Identification of problem is required to solve the cultural issues. It is the responsibility of the project manager to keep record of the cultural diversity and it should be outlined from the starting of the project. It is common that the team members must not be of same background. Hence, the process of doing work would be different. It is the basic characteristics of an intercultural team (Thomas and Peterson 2014). Accounting culture of the associated people into project preparations- A project manager can easily get the information regarding the cultural background of the team members by using internet. As the project managers are experienced in handling international projects, it will be easy for them to gain an understanding of the team members. It will help in enhancing the performance of the team. Planning communications- Communications are the most important part that is required to maintain a particular deliverables of the project. A number of sessions must be conducted within the team about the project. The flow of communications should be controlled by the project manager (Rockstuhl et al. 2015). Promoting trust, relationship and transparency among the team- Promoting culture of trust and transparency among the team members will result in the group cohesiveness. The team members can feel that they are a part of the team. Culture of trust must not be imposed on the team members forcefully. Instead of it project manager must convey it in an understanding way. Introduction of a cultural interactivity and transfer of knowledge- Interactivity is considered as most beneficial tool of a project manager in his arsenal. A need for smooth flow of knowledge and skills is necessary to create a bonding between the team members. Transfer of knowledge is not only restricted to vertical integration but also to the horizontal integration so that the organization as a whole can be integrated into the project (Binder 2016). Accepting the environmental changes in the team- A project manager must have to accept the changes in a team and act accordingly. Encompassing environment is not considered as a permanent issue in the field of project management. Political and environmental changes can affect the project. Hence, project managers must be ready with contingency plans. Culture of a particular area can also affect the performance of team members (Moran et al. 2014). Aspect of cultural awareness and knowledge in different aspects of project management is very critical factor in the success of various international projects of different sectors of industries particularly IT projects. Techniques of cultural management such as implementation of theoretical frameworks along with other methods and approaches are implemented to mitigate the cultural gaps between the various team members. Apart from that, various recommendations are provided in the above that indicates that cross-cultural approaches are not only included in the processes of cultural management (Kerzner 2013). The aspect of cultural management when implemented into project management can be categorized into three groups such as stakeholder management, customer management, and intercultural management. Customer management involves client vendor relationship, client integration and customer management. The factors of intercultural management such as foreign cultures, cultural diversity, cr oss-cultural communication, etc. are depended on various aspects of customer management in the phase of project management. Researchers have identified that in the field of global requirement negotiations cultural differences is the major problem. The multinational organizations found many issues in this aspect in many countries like United States, Europe, etc. References Barmeyer, C. and Haupt, U., 2016. Future+: Intercultural Challenges and Success Factors in an International Virtual Project Team.Intercultural Management: A Case-Based Approach to Achieving Complementarity and Synergy, p.214. Binder, J., 2016.Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across borders. CRC Press. Brookes, N., Dainty, A. and Fellows, R., 2014. ESRC seminar series. Cultural issues for project organizations: developing theory and practice. Engineering Project Organization Journal,4(2-3), pp.59-64. Coldwell, D. and Fried, A., 2014. 8. cross-cultural knowledge management in collaborative academic research.Handbook of Research on Knowledge Management: Adaptation and Context, p.128. Erez, M., Lisak, A., Harush, R., Glikson, E., Nouri, R. and Shokef, E., 2013. Going global: Developing management students' cultural intelligence and global identity in culturally diverse virtual teams.Academy of Management Learning Education,12(3), pp.330-355. Kerzner, H.R., 2013.Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley Sons. Klitmller, A. and Lauring, J., 2013. When global virtual teams share knowledge: Media richness, cultural difference and language commonality. Journal of World Business,48(3), pp.398-406. Luo, Y. and Zheng, Q., 2016. Competing in complex cross-cultural world: Philosophical insights from Yin-Yang.Cross Cultural Strategic Management,23(2), pp.386-392. Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014.Managing cultural differences. Routledge. Richter, A., Stocker, A., Mller, S. and Avram, G., 2013. Knowledge management goals revisited: A cross-sectional analysis of social software adoption in corporate environments.Vine,43(2), pp.132-148. Rockstuhl, T., Ang, S., Ng, K.Y., Lievens, F. and Van Dyne, L., 2015. Putting judging situations into situational judgment tests: Evidence from intercultural multimedia SJTs.Journal of Applied Psychology,100(2), p.464. Thomas, D.C. and Peterson, M.F., 2014.Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. Sage Publications. Walker, A., 2015.Project management in construction. John Wiley Sons. Wiewiora, A., Trigunarsyah, B., Murphy, G. and Coffey, V., 2013. Organizational culture and willingness to share knowledge: A competing values perspective in Australian context.International Journal of Project Management,31(8), pp.1163-1174.
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Jack Bennys Autobiography Essays - Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone
Jack Benny's Autobiography The late Jack Benny wrote an autobiography that was known to almost no one. So few, in fact, that his only daughter Joan was surprised to find the finished manuscript among her mother's files after her death in 1983. Joan Benny has augmented her father's words with her own memories and some interviews accomplished expressly for the book. It is very good. As one might expect from the most popular comedian of the age of radio, Jack Benny's memoirs are fast-paced, lively, and entertaining. His recollections are positive, and he says almost nothing negative about anyone. He traces back to his humble beginnings as Benjamin Kubelsky in Waukegan, Ill., and reveals many intriguing facts about his early life and entry into show business. He was a high school dropout (although, as he notes with irony, Waukegan eventually built a junior high school in his honor) and took to serious study of the violin only after flunking out of the family haberdashery business. ("Do we have to know their names?" he asked his father after an unknown customer left an account payment with him.) Over his mother's objections, he eventually found employment as a violinist with a local touring singer. After a while, he began to talk, which grew into a comedy monologue. Jan Kubelik, a concert violinist, forced Benny Kubelsky to change his name in 1912. He next became Ben Benny, and became fairly well known as a violin-and-comedy performer. After serving in the Navy in World War I, a similar entertainer named Ben Bernie forced him to change his name again, and he chose the name Jack, by which all sailors in the war were informally known to each other. Some of the stories have been told before, but get a much- deserved retelling from the horse's mouth here. Jack met his wife, Sadie Marks (she later changed her name to Mary Livingstone, the name of the character she played on the radio show) when he was 27 and she 14 at her family's Passover celebration in Vancouver. She was related to the Marx brothers, and Zeppo Marx (then Marks) had brought his colleague to the home for the occasion. Mary insisted that Jack listen to her violin playing. He found it horrible and he and Zeppo made a quick exit. Several years later, they met again and married in 1927 after a brief courtship. It was only after they were married that Mary reminded Jack of their first meeting. Jack continued his successful career in vaudeville, and when his partner took ill, he persuaded Mary to fill in. She was a hit. Eventually he found himself on Broadway and then in the movies. He vacillated for a time before deciding that going into radio would be worthwhile. While they were living in New York, they adopted Joan. She learned in writing the book that Mary Benny had planned to take her only to nurse her to health while they awaited an arranged baby. (Jack opposed this idea.) Naturally, they found they couldn't part with Joan. Much of the book consists of Joan's writing. She seems to be in a different book from her father. It would be a major help if she used a writing style that conformed more closely to that set by her father in the early chapters. Her short, simple sentences slow the pace in a sudden manner. She provides extreme levels of detail about her early life, homes, and the trappings of being a celebrity daughter. While this matter is interesting to a Benny buff, one hopes that none of the venerable comedian's material was subjugated to make room for it. It would be far more relevant if Joan Benny were a celebrity in her own right. But this is the fall of 1990 and such things are to be expected of celebrity offspring. George Bush is our president and no doubt he approves. Some of Joan Benny's passages are curious. Obviously, had her father wanted details of his premarital womanizing in his book, he would have put them there himself. Her life is very well detailed up to about 1965, but she says almost nothing of her activities for the past quarter century. Joan Benny pulls no punches in discussing her mother. The two had what would mildly be described as an adversarial relationship. Mary Livingstone Benny (who always introduced herself as Mrs. Jack Benny) is portrayed as a vain, insecure spendthrift. She allegedly was most interested in being with and accepted by the Hollywood elite. Studio
Monday, March 16, 2020
Family Life Essays - Tierra De Villanos, Curse Words, Free Essays
Family Life Essays - Tierra De Villanos, Curse Words, Free Essays Family Life Observation #1:On Family Life It was just like Vancouver, everything is so unstable! For five days straight there were golden mornings and glowing afternoons. Then when Saturday crept up on the celestial planner, the sky's face lifted to gray and drizzling. If this weather change could be viewed with thought maybe it would seem almost shocking. It was not really cold, but it looked like it. Mom occupied herself in the kitchen, doing what really was not necessary. Oddly enough, she was always standing there doing all the "somethings", but the place managed to still look like a mess. No one in this house wanted to cook anymore either, so we just scrounged around, digging whatever there was to fill our stomach. It does not matter anyway, everything, even good things, tastes like cardboard these days. My father blamed my mother for her poor cooking, I just blamed the weather. I sat, dull-eyed, at the "dining" table, staring at some dried carnation that hung so peculiarly from that wall lamp that vainly attempted to impersonate an old fashioned streetlight (too bad streetlights were not that synthetic, bleached white). I shrugged it off as I knew Mom had a strange preference for decoration. I mean, the powder pink that stained nearly every wall of this house was her idea. Sometimes, it came to a point where I just want to scratch relentlessly at those colors, or take a permanent marker and scribble curse words all over it, or draw grotesque bleeding figures on it. Not this morning, I sat there idly...Food brought to my mouth like a robotic twitch. In fact, I hardly knew what it was that I ate. Dad came through the door from his errands, and also took a seat beside me without a word. He started to scoop food into his mouth, eyes glazed over and troubled with wrinkles of worry. I could scarcely feel his presence if not for his physical form sitting next to me, reflecting my own action of shoveling feed into a muzzle. I continued to daze disapprovingly into that hideous, died carnation, and he continued to glaze over into his troubles. At length, Mom came in, settled down a bowl of some sort of leftovers from last night. It struck me that food did not look like food anymore, of course not, it was Mom's cooking! That thought did not linger. Mom stuffed a spoonful in her mouth and glanced at Dad. She asked him about his errands casually, almost callously. Dad did not look at her, but he answered her in monosyllabic words. She seemed annoyed and proceeded to yell at him, something that we were all accustomed to by now. Dad merely blinked, didn't even bother to retaliate this time around, and let the silence respond to her. He finished eating, and pushed his bowl aside nonchalantly. I could see him looking at me, then at my book. "What's that trash you are reading?" "It's just a book Dad." I replied, an imitation of boredom. "What, you can't even tell me that much now? How many times do you actually speak to your family in a week? You've changed you know?" (Gee Dad, you mean people change?). I rolled my eyes like I always do when he went off like that; a mad ejaculation of rhetorical questions. Whatever I say really is just going to be used against me in the near future, or in my mother's case, the distant too. It's like a freaking courthouse, and he blames me for not talking to him. Whoever invented the term "catch twenty-two" must know what I am thinking right now. "There had better be educational value in that." He grunted at last, bulging his blood-shot eyes at an invisible spot across the room. "Okay then..." I remarked ever so snidely, and took note to never read anything of "value" again. So this is what the world's nuclear families are supposed to be like? Or is that just mine that feels like a slow devolution? Every cursed day, the pink gets to me a little more, the carnations a little dryer. I usually lock myself up in my room and hope no one will come in, or try to make conversation outside the shut piece of rotted bark. Like I always said, all I need in here is a toilet and maybe a little hole through which food maybe passed through in a versatile plastic package (and later a knife inside
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Attitude Formation And Stereotypes
Attitude Formation And Stereotypes ââ¬ËStereotypesââ¬â¢, according to Hogg and Vaughan(2002:46), are impressions of people that are strongly influenced by widely shared assumptions of personality, behaviour and attitudes based on group membership for example, sex, race, ethnicity and nationality. These assumptions are a simplified evaluative image of someone or a social group and its members, mental representations influence impressions we form of a person or group and are seen as a social schema. As individuals stereotypes help us to deal with a large amount of social information we receive from a person or group of people. All this information helps us to simplify our social world to make it manageable, controllable and predictable. According to Pennington and McLoughlin (2008:184) Hogg and Vaughan (2002) have done many studies over the last 50 years and they summarise there research, the findings include; Stereotypes are quick to form and hard to change. Many stereotypes form in childhood and early teens. We show a tendency to rapidly stereotype others on the basis of a small number of traits and characteristics. Stereotypes are important as they influence impression formation, example when we first meet a person we assign them to a social group without finding any information out about them; from this we have formed a pre existing stereotype from our first impressions. Attitudes We cannot see or measure attitudes directly; the term attitude is used to represent a quite complex mental process. As individuals we continually seek to discover others attitudes, we tell others our views and try to change others opinions. According to Petty and Cacioppo (1986) say attitudes are a general evaluation we make about ourselves, others and issues, they go on to say ââ¬Ëattitudes have a past, present and future; they were developed from past experience, they guide our current behaviour and can direct our development in the futureââ¬â¢, (Pennington and McLoughlin, 2008:193). Through this defin ition it is thought attitudes strongly influence the way we behave. There are two different approaches to understanding attitudes; the structural approach and the functional approach. The structural approach (Katz 1960)- states that attitudes are an evaluation (positive or negative) of an attitude, i.e. It is expected for you to hold a positive attitude towards a close friend and you might hold a negative attitude towards a political issue, this approach is broken down into three components. (Pennington and McLoughlin 2008:193-194). Cognitive- our thoughts; Affective- our feelings and emotions; Behavioural- our behaviour The functional approach ties to understand and explains what the purpose of the attitude is for the individual; there are five different attitudes in this function. (Pennington and McLoughlin 2008:197). Adaptive function- helps achieve goal and avoids the undesirable. Self- expression- our opinion, attitudes and views. Ego- defensive function ââ¬â protects self- esteem and promotes positive self image, Freudian theory. Knowledge function- helps with structure and organisation. Social adjustment function- helps manage social situation. Central traits ââ¬â are pieces of information we latch onto whilst forming first impressions, these have disproportional influences over our final impressions. Primacy effect ââ¬â information presented first has the strongest influence on impressions formed.
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Performance management and high performance working Essay
Performance management and high performance working - Essay Example Therefore, performance is the process which adds to the effective management of individuals and teams so as to attain levels of organization performance. In addition, performance management initiates a shared understanding about what is to be attained and a vital approach to leading and improving peoplesââ¬â¢ skills that will ensure achievement of companyââ¬â¢ objectives (Foster, 2008). Therefore, performance management is a strategy which is related to every activity of the organization set up in the perspective of its human resources culture, policies, style and communication systems. The character of the strategy majorly relies on the organizational context and is dynamic from one organization to another. Consequently, the way in which employees are managed at work place tends to make a big difference in organizational performance (Jesuthasan, 2011). In todayââ¬â¢s organizations, there is considerable evidence that a coherent style to manage people provides the foundation for significant gains in performance. Recently, a modern approach to manage organizations has cropped up that places employees and their skills at centre stage. This approach is referred to as high performance working. ... In addition, there should be fair treatment for individuals who leave the company as it changes and engages in the demands of the external community thus showing trust and commitment based on relationships within and outside the organization. A high performance working entails embracing greater employee involvement in order to achieve high levels of performance. The correct dimension this takes varies, however it entails activities in human personnel management for example, appraisal, workforce development, pay and incentives (Jesuthasan, 2011). It also involves work organization such as job design and team working, employment relations, management and leadership activities encompassing strategic management and business advancement as well as line management and organizational development. In high performance work places, all of these practices and policies are underpinned by a philosophy of individualsââ¬â¢ management that emphasizes on learning participation and autonomy. Many o rganizations have already initiated a high performance working approach and are harvesting the fruits of doing so, otherwise for those who have not; it can sometimes seem an expensive and discouraging possibility (Foster, 2008). In spite of the proven gains, the perceived difficulty of enhancing such comprehensive transformation can be a real obstacle. Skill utilization involves maximizing the contribution that individuals can make in the work place and the level of which peopleââ¬â¢s abilities have been deployed, developed and harnessed optimizes organization output capacity. Whatever takes place at work place is thus considered crucial to utilization of the available skills and this justifies why various organizations should run to achieve a high performance working (Foster, 2008).
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