THE DILEMMA OF ADJUNCTS PROFESSORS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

THE DILEMMA OF ADJUNCTS PROFESSORS - Essay Example Hiram Henriquez, one of the several adjunct professors of the University of Miami, has mentioned in an interview that â€Å"The most important thing is the pay. Adjunct professors are providing a service that’s a high-end service, and they are getting paid like they are starting teachers, like me. This statement is supported by the data released by the American Association of University Professors, which says that adjunct professors only earn an average of $20,000 to $25,000 yearly compared to the $84,303 that is being paid to full-time professors. This range is considered to belong to the poverty wages and because of this most of the adjunct professors have the lifestyle of that belonging to the people below the poverty line in the United States. Many adjunct professors are suffering from the huge gap between them and full-time professors. Henriquez, despite finishing Master of Fine Arts, has said that his salary in the university is 50 percent less than what he could have earned if he was a full time professor minus the health benefits as well. Victoria Baldassano, and adjunct professor of the Montgomery College quipped, â€Å"I don’t make much more than I would work at Starbucks.† (Steiger, par. 2). Most of the adjunct teachers opt to find a second job in order to have to live through and to support their families. The management of the colleges and universities who hire adjunct professors clearly acknowledges the fact that these professors are getting less than what they are working for as their salaries as a professor, although the job seems like a high-end one, is not enough to pay for their basic expenses (Aronowitz, par. 7). â€Å"Two classes here, two at FIU... It’s very rough because none of them are given benefits even though they are teaching 6, 7, 8 classes each semester,† said Paul Driscoll, the vice dean of UM School of Communication. Sam Terilli, the department chair of UM, has assessed the effects of

Purpose of the Education System Essay Example for Free

Purpose of the Education System Essay The question posed is What should the education system be? This question cannot be answered specifically because the education system means something different to everyone. The education system is, to an extent, what it should be, which is an institution devoted to the development of the intellect. American education should however, be more than rote instruction of mandated materials. Our children should be taught more life skills along with science and math. Children sit in rows, facing straight, not talking. They select and use educational materials in unison, and watch the teacher write on the board. The droning sound of the teachers voice attempts to fill their minds with knowledge. It sounds militaristic because it is. Students remember more of what they are taught if the material is presented in a less formal, more enjoyable atmosphere. School administrators and state agencies set forth guidelines from which teachers must not deviate. The problem is, these administrators are removed from the classroom and tend to forget that children have changing needs. Todays teachers learn more progressive teaching methods such as portfolio assessment vs. testing, and sitting in groups instead of rows. There are few administrators willing to incorporate these changes into their schools. Education management needs to allow teachers the flexibility to teach their students using whatever methods actually work. There is no reason why children should not look forward to school. For the most part, our education system is devoted to teaching students. There is great concern that students should be prepared to move on to higher stages of education. Tests are given periodically to gauge students progress. There is much discussion how improving education and better preparing students for the world. Students do learn, and many excel, but school is still viewed as drudgery by most students. If our education system is to prepare children for the world educators need to look more closely at curriculum. Art, philosophy, history, math, English  and science are all important subjects. They teach us about the world around us and how things work. The social setting of the educational facilities also compels students to learn about society and what is acceptable behavior. However, are we properly preparing our students for the world? Are we teaching life skills like personal finance and relationship dynamics? Can we lower the rate of divorce or the number of poverty-stricken retirees by educating students in these areas? Our education system needs to incorporate fundamental life skills into the curriculum. The focus on education should not stop at the goal to create an intelligent adult. The education system must also attempt to create a responsible citizen, an asset to the community. The American education system is not entirely broken. There are many positive things happening. Progressive teaching methods are being employed and the student is being recognized as more of an individual. America cannot stop here. We need to ask ourselves if the moral fabric of our country can be improved through education. The education system plays a larger role in our lives than any other one thing. The system needs to use this influence to improve society as a whole and people as individuals.

International Capital Mobility Essay -- Economics Economy Financial Is

International Capital Mobility â€Å"Globalization is today's reality. Like it or not, the move to a world economy is a fact of life. At some point in the 1990s the process achieved critical mass and people started to sit up and take notice. Many were apprehensive. Today, almost all of us are aware that our lives are being shaped by an interconnected world economy of cross-border flows of trade, finance and technology. In our hearts, we know that there is no going back.† -Maria Livanos Cattaui, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce. As evidenced by the above quotation, any analysis of the central economic issues of our time is incomplete without a clear understanding of the increasing interconnectedness among nations. Globalization and integration are two very potent and monumental forces that are rapidly transforming not only the way individuals and governments conduct business, but the nature of the modern world itself. Nations’ economies interact on a level unforeseen a century ago, consequently rendering isolationism no longer possible. The ties that bind are growing tighter and economic phenomena are transcending the local to have worldwide implications. It is therefore imperative for today’s observer of economic events to be knowledgeable about the greater picture surpassing the regional. In this regard, there is no greater subject to begin studying than global finance. The international financial system is a phenomenon of vast importance that has demonstrated its power in fueling large amounts of economic growth. Many extol its virtues, citing the massive gains in productivity it channels. Others, however, harbor misgivings and claim... ...ld Economic Crisis,† New Republic April 17, 2000. 7 Paul Krugman, â€Å"Capital Control Freaks,† Slate/The Dismal Science September 28, 1999. 8 Paul Krugman, â€Å"Capital Control Freaks.† 9 J. Bradford DeLong 10 Robert Krol, â€Å"The Case for Open Global Capital Markets,† Cato Trade Briefing Paper: March 15, 2001. 11 Robert Krol 12 Robert Krol 13 Robert Krol 14 Robert Krol 15 Robert Krol 16 Robert Krol 17 Lawrence H. White, â€Å"Asia Needs Capital Controls? It Just Ain’t So!† Freeman March, 1999. 18 Lawrence H. White 19 Anna J. Schwartz, â€Å"International Financial Crises: Myths and Realities† Cato Journal , Winter 1998: 251-256 20 Lawrence H. White 21 David F. DeRosa, In Defense of Free Capital Markets: The Case Against a New International Financial Architecture, (Princeton: Bloomberg Press, 2001) xiv. 22 DeRosa xiv.

Effects Terrorism has on our Nation Essay example -- essays research p

Effects Terrorism has on our Nation Purpose: To inform readers of the effects the recent terrorist attacks have on society today. Audience: General Thesis: The terrorist attack on America has affected the economy, tourism and the foreign society tremendously. The Effects Terrorism has on Society From the lips of the FBI, â€Å"Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objective.† On September 11, 2001 the United States of America experienced such actions, it was the largest terror attack experienced by any country. The affect this had on America was tremendous, thousands are dead and tens of thousand of Americans in our country know someone who was killed or injured. The terrorist attack on America has affected the economy, tourism and foreign society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The economy has caused the U.S. unemployment to increase. The unemployment rate from two thousand one, to two thousand four has increased by 2 percent. The number of people without jobs has grown from six million, eight hundred and one thousand in The year two thousand and one,to eight million six hundred forty six thousand and two hundred fifty currently. This massive downsize is due to the lack of finances to fund workers in the workforce. Also the United States paid over one point, thirty six million dollars to families who lost loved ones in th...

Empire On The Development Of British Essay

In 1715, Great Britain ended the War of the Spanish Succession as an emergent imperial power, with a new base at Gibraltar and her naval victory at Malaga. Over the next century, she became as a true world power. Her emergence as an intellectual and scientific power helped stimulate the growth of her empire, and in the empire in turn fostered the blossoming of the scientific and intellectual life in Britain. , England’s quest for colonies came late. In 1600, she had no permanent settlements outside of Europe. 1 In the seventeenth century, however, this had changed dramatically, with the settlement of the colonies in North America, of sugar plantations in the Caribbean, and the beginnings of a large scale slave trade between West Africa and the New World. 2 In these colonial enterprises, the English proved themselves more efficient in supplying the necessities than did their rivals, and were thus largely able to exclude other countries from trade with these colonies. 3 Further, almost from the outset, the English were interested in preserving the territories they seized. Very early on they showed a remarkably sophisticated and highly practical understanding of potential environmental problems involved with settlement and cultivation. Well before other settlers, the British learned to protect forests to prevent drastic erosion. Learning this, they fostered ways to work with the tropical environment rather than against it. 4 The colonies in the Caribbean, with their sugar and tropical produce, and Newfoundland, with its vast quantities of fish, were especially profitable. 5 On the other hand, by the mid-sixteenth century, exploration of the Pacific had all but stopped. The sheer size of the ocean and the difficulties of navigating it intimidated mariners. The few voyages that were made into the Pacific were often largely buccaneering ventures, which brought back wild accounts of these tales for the reading public in England. 6 While English diplomats trying to keep peace sometimes paid lip service to Spain’s claim of the entire Pacific Ocean,7 the course of advancement would not be stayed. An important reason for the influence that the expansion of the empire had on the intellectual climate in England was the influence that the intellectual climate in England had on the expansion of the British empire. In terms of timing, the English came late to the business of exploration. When they turned their energies to exploration, they were already absorbed in the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution. The English translated the Bible into English and quickly followed this with the production of other major works such as Homer into English. They also began producing their own works, including William Turner’s Herball of 1651. In a remarkable flowering of her intellectual prowess, the English produced many of the finest minds of the age, Isaac Newton, William Herschel, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith, Joseph Priestley, and Robert Boyle to name only a few of these luminaries. A great deal of the English learning was driven by pragmatic considerations. Navigation required expertise in astronomy and cartography. As the colonists settled property, they needed competent surveyors, a need that Raleigh recognized, dispatching a mathematician to help map the new world. Knowledge of new rocks, plants, and animals was essential to determine what could be exploited. 8 Coming out of this intellectual ferment, British attitudes about colonies and exploration were very different from those of earlier explorers, notably the Spanish. The English did less to proselytize to the natives they found,9 but early on made science a part of their efforts. They did not find the gold that drove Pizarro; Spain produced no match for James Cook or Joseph Banks. 10 The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge was a key to intellectual ferment and exploration. Chartered 1662, Royal Society won praise as the finest intellectual body in Europe. British exploration and settlement often involved scientific efforts. Discoveries, ranging from observations of native peoples to a growing interest in exotic plants and animals fed the intellectual climate, which in turn injected new energy into exploratory efforts. 11 By contrast, Spain had the Inquisition, proud that fewer works were published in Spain in the eighteenth century than had been published in the sixteenth. An oppressive censorship meant that in every field of intellect except orthodox theology, Spain lagged behind the rest of Europe.

Understanding Object Pronoun Verb Order in French

Understanding Object Pronoun Verb Order in French Mistakes will always be made in French, and now you can learn from them. There are two kinds of object pronouns, direct and indirect. Beginning students of French tend to misplace them and the result can be nonsense to the French ear. The rule of thumb: Place object pronouns before  the verb, with the indirect going before the direct object pronoun. When the verb is in the passà © composà © or another compound verb that includes an auxiliary verb, the pronoun precedes the entire verb; in other words, before the auxiliary verb, which is  the conjugated avoir  or  Ãƒ ªtre. The Correct Format Its never correct to say  Jai lui dit. The pronoun lui goes before ai, which begins the compound verb, like this: Je lui ai dit (Im telling him). The major exception is the imperative mood (limperatif), when object pronouns follow the verb: Donne-le-lui (Give it to him/her). Here are some examples of the correct format: Tu las vu? Have you seen it?Je lui ai dit la và ©rità ©. I told him/her the truth.Il  leur  achà ¨te des livres.   He buys books  for them.  Elle  ma à ©crit.   She wrote  to me.  *Je te lavais bien dit! I told you so! *In this example, there is both an indirect (te) and direct (le) object. Remember, the indirect object always comes first. The verb is still compound, but now the tense is plus-que-parfait (pluperfect) with the auxiliary verb in the imparfait (imperfect). So the object pronouns precede avais, which is the auxiliary verb here. Indirect Object Pronouns For indirect objects, the verbs action occurs to or for a person or other animate noun. Im talking to  Pierre. Je parle   Pierre.To whom  am I talking?  To Pierre. Indirect object pronouns  are the words that  replace  the name of the indirect object. They include:   Ã‚  Ã‚  me  /  m  Ã‚  Ã‚  me  Ã‚  Ã‚  te  /  t  Ã‚  Ã‚  you  Ã‚  Ã‚  lui  Ã‚  Ã‚  him, her  Ã‚  Ã‚  nous  Ã‚  Ã‚  us  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous  Ã‚  Ã‚  you  Ã‚  Ã‚  leur  Ã‚  Ã‚  them Me  and  te  change to  m  and  t, respectively, in front of a vowel or  mute H. Direct Object Pronouns Direct objects are the people or things in a sentence that receive the action of the verb. To find the direct object in a sentence, ask who or what. I see  Pierre. Je vois  Pierre.Who  do I see?  Pierre. Direct object pronouns  are the words that  replace  the direct object, so that we can avoid endlessly repeating the name of the object. They include:   Ã‚  Ã‚  me  /  m  Ã‚  Ã‚  me  Ã‚  Ã‚  te  /  t  Ã‚  Ã‚  you  Ã‚  Ã‚  le  /  l  Ã‚  Ã‚  him, it  Ã‚  Ã‚  la  /  l  Ã‚  Ã‚  her, it  Ã‚  Ã‚  nous  Ã‚  Ã‚  us  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous  Ã‚  Ã‚  you  Ã‚  Ã‚  les  Ã‚  Ã‚  them Me  and  te  change to  m  and  t, respectively, in front of a vowel or  mute H.  Le  and  la  both change to  l. Remember that both indirect object  pronouns and  direct object  pronouns precede the verb, with the indirect object pronoun going first. When deciding between direct and indirect objects, the general rule is that if the object is preceded by the  preposition  Ã‚  or  pour, that object is an indirect object. If its not preceded by a preposition, its a direct object. If its preceded by any other preposition, it cant be replaced  by an object pronoun.   If you have an indirect object thats not a person or animal, it can only be replaced with the  adverbial pronouns  y and en.  Y stands in for    a  noun  and usually means there or to it.  En  replaces  de a noun and usually means some, any, one, or of it/them.

Free Essays on Social Penetration Theory And Onions

Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor align people to onions, for people contain a â€Å"multilayered nature of personality† that be broken down and picked apart. When unpeeling an onion, there are many layers to take off. There is also no guarantee for a perfect onion on any part. Mother Nature does not have this in writing; nor do Shaw’s Supermarkets. An onion is certainly not all positive aspects either. Onions, to note, are infamous for making people cry. These tears are a result of the peeling and processing (chopping and cooking) of our onions. This peeling and processing extends to contributing of peeling and processing of others’ onions is the main plotting of Altman and Taylor’s Social Penetration Theory. The theory is applied to the [potential] development of two people getting to know each other. Social Penetration Theory itself is an unfolding theory that predicts the unfolding of individuals. With linking itself to reward/cost, the theory idealizes that two people can develop a relationship in a â€Å"gradual and orderly fashion from superficial to intimate levels of exchange as a function of both immediate and forecast outcomes† (Griffin, 133). The outcomes are the reward/cost predictions, both initially and consistently, which will guide the two people into a level of closeness. The levels of closeness discussed are the steps to ‘ultimate’ intimacy. It must be remembered that this is not referring to sexual intercourse, but more on a friendship level. To repeat, the nature of the onion stays relatively pure. As the onion has both inner and outer layers, people feel each other out to express and learn about their layers reciprocally (in the ideal) from each other. However, one may not reciprocate by choice consciously or subconsciously or by a matter of incidental overlook. The onion is not always peeled identically, or for that matter used for cooking either. One guarantee can be proclaimed ... Free Essays on Social Penetration Theory And Onions Free Essays on Social Penetration Theory And Onions Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor align people to onions, for people contain a â€Å"multilayered nature of personality† that be broken down and picked apart. When unpeeling an onion, there are many layers to take off. There is also no guarantee for a perfect onion on any part. Mother Nature does not have this in writing; nor do Shaw’s Supermarkets. An onion is certainly not all positive aspects either. Onions, to note, are infamous for making people cry. These tears are a result of the peeling and processing (chopping and cooking) of our onions. This peeling and processing extends to contributing of peeling and processing of others’ onions is the main plotting of Altman and Taylor’s Social Penetration Theory. The theory is applied to the [potential] development of two people getting to know each other. Social Penetration Theory itself is an unfolding theory that predicts the unfolding of individuals. With linking itself to reward/cost, the theory idealizes that two people can develop a relationship in a â€Å"gradual and orderly fashion from superficial to intimate levels of exchange as a function of both immediate and forecast outcomes† (Griffin, 133). The outcomes are the reward/cost predictions, both initially and consistently, which will guide the two people into a level of closeness. The levels of closeness discussed are the steps to ‘ultimate’ intimacy. It must be remembered that this is not referring to sexual intercourse, but more on a friendship level. To repeat, the nature of the onion stays relatively pure. As the onion has both inner and outer layers, people feel each other out to express and learn about their layers reciprocally (in the ideal) from each other. However, one may not reciprocate by choice consciously or subconsciously or by a matter of incidental overlook. The onion is not always peeled identically, or for that matter used for cooking either. One guarantee can be proclaimed ...

7 things nurses should never do in front of patients

7 things nurses should never do in front of patients Nursing is a job that does not just require a good deal of medical training- it also calls for a bedside manner that will put patients’ minds at ease in the most harrowing circumstances. Good nurses know what to do and say no matter what the situation. The very best nurses also know  what they should never, ever do under any circumstances. Read on to find out what types of behavior nursing veterans know to avoid. Never lose it.Okay, you’re having a lousy day. We all have them. But you must put your own personal problems aside when dealing with people who have concerns about their health. So you must always maintain self-control and never, ever lose it when interacting with even the most obnoxious patients. Be understanding when your patients get a bit short-tempered. Be patient with them, even when you feel like your patience is at its end. Never forget that it is your job to make people feel better.Never bad mouth staff members to patients.Patients always want to fee l like they are in expert hands. Once you start bad mouthing fellow staff members to patients, those patients will start doubting the expertise of the doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals responsible for taking care of them. It is both worrying to the patient and unprofessional.Never get too personal.Revealing too much about yourself can also undermine your professionalism. That’s why it is best to save personal conversations with your coworkers for break periods. Patients have their own concerns and do not want to hear your life story. You also do not want to get into your personal political or religious beliefs, because if they clash with a patient’s, that patient may become uncomfortable or even resist your care.Never miss a break.Nursing is a stressful job. You need to take a break from it every so often to refresh yourself. Therefore, you should never miss any of the breaks you are allotted during the day. If you work through your breaks, you will tire out faster and not perform your job to the best of your abilities.Never get too specific about when you’ll return.Nurses know that a new task is always waiting for them around every corner- there’s always a patient or colleague who requires their time. However, each patient only cares about the attention you will give to her or him. So, never get too specific about when you will return to provide that care. If you say, â€Å"I’ll be back in five minutes,† your patient will really expect you to be back in five minutes on the dot and not be too understanding if you get pulled away to help someone else.Never give false hope.Saying something like â€Å"You’re going to be just fine† may seem like the right thing to do when a patient is excessively concerned, but it might not be medically accurate. Never give easy answers or false hopes when it comes to someone’s health. Leave the diagnoses to the doctors. The same thing goes for how m uch a procedure will hurt. Everyone has different pain thresholds, and telling a patient that a shot â€Å"won’t hurt a bit† might give a sensitive one false hopes.Never act surprised.No patient wants to hear a nurse say, â€Å"I’ve never seen that before!† Surprised comments like that will make patients feel as though they’re suffering from some sort of rare, incurable condition. Act like you’ve seen it all before. It will help keep a patient’s mind at ease.

Come up with a plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Come up with a plan - Essay Example Establishing a high completion/proficiency percentage shows me that the students are progressing in knowledge because they are accomplishing the tasks assigned through differentiation. To accomplish this goal, I will first determine what students know about the unit of instruction before I begin to teach it. These diagnostic tests will show me where students should begin their studies. The class is stratified roughly into three categories (Above, At and Below Grade Level). I will anticipate the diagnostic test showing the strengths and weaknesses of students across these categories. Based on the results of the diagnostic, students will be allowed to self-select multiple learning activities that have been developed for their current level of understanding. Allowing students to self-select provides a level of intrinsic motivation that dictated assignments do not, especially for students that struggle to learn or who possess negative attitudes towards authority. Students working above g rade level will be provided with opportunities to conduct semi-guided research, interview individuals in the community that have strong links to a particular topic in the unit of study or attend to a project that deepens their understanding of the unit.

Individual Project 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Individual Project 3 - Essay Example Therefore imprisonment is based upon reprimanding violators of what society deems acceptable; it likewise protects society from being injured by those who would act against it, be that individual violence or widespread harm (such as embezzlement, terrorism, and so forth). Yet few people think beyond these simple tenets to realize the overall benefits of prisons to the community. There are mixed opinions in the public about the benefits of prison placement. Proponents argue that prisons provide a boon to the economy, namely through construction, or security, food or medical employment within the prison itself. Opponents argue that these benefits fail to meet the original estimates: they claim the jobs never materialize and that the prison location can drop real estate value. The validity of both sides is difficult to prove and varies from case to case. What is proven is that the location of a prison invariably does improve local economy, even if the effects are slow to build and seemingly indirect. For the location of the prison community has become a concentrated surplus population that is now included in the federal census. Federal funds are allocated based directly on the results of this census, which means the more people in a given community, the more money available to the local government. While the prisoners may or may not be aware of there influence on the community, the community is receiving federal funds to improve roads, libraries, local constabulary, and public housing. In 2003, the U.S. General Accounting Office distributed some $140 billion dollars in grants†¦ largely based on the census. Aside from swelling local and state coffers, these funds also go to such services as social services, foster and adoption programs, and Medicaid Lawrence and Travis, 2004). Furthermore, population distribution directly affects political districts. With greater

Reference library on memory management Research Paper

Reference library on memory management - Research Paper Example Apart from many advantages, virtual memory and paging have various disadvantages as well. One of the challenges is the extra resource consumption, i.e. overhead for saving page tables in the memory (Null & Lobur, 2010). In environments where numerous applications are operating, the page table occupies a significant part of the physical memory. However, this challenge can be addressed by paging the page tables; this is a complex and confusing task (Null & Lobur, 2010). These challenges are not significant as compared to benefits of virtual memory and paging offers. Advantages of virtual memory and paging are easy to understand. For instance, programs are not limited to the physical memory present on the system, as virtual memory allows executing individual programs possessing larger virtual address space when compared to available physical memory (Null & Lobur, 2010). This process helps the programmers to avoid worrying about physical address space boundaries. Moreover, virtual memory also facilitates multi-tasking by executing more than one program simultaneously, and, as a result, system throughput and CPU utilization enhance. The limited size of pages and frames eases the tasks for placement and allocation for the operating system. Moreover, the paging process facilitates the operating system to protect and share the page on specific permissions (Null & Lobur, 2010). ... Moreover, the physical memory remains intact and is not divided into any sort of fixed or equal size partition. Whenever there is a requirement of copying a segment in the physical memory, free memory is analyzed by the operating system, and after finding a chunk it is adequate enough to store an entire segment (Null & Lobur, 2010). Likewise, every segment possesses a base address that provides an indication of its location in the memory along with bound limits reflecting its size. Now every program incorporating various segments is now linked to a segment table instead of a page table. Likewise, the segment table incorporates the assembly of base for every segment (Jipping, 2007). The role of virtual memory in smart phone operating systems is also vital. For programming and designing virtual memory for a smart phone operating system, logical-segment addresses and physical-segment- addresses is the prime focus. Likewise, the segments are tagged with numbers, and these tags are incorp orated within a logical address. For instance, a typical address format will be a , in which the segment number is the starting part of the address and the offset is identified as the last part of the address. Memory Management Technique for Paging on Distributed Shared Memory Framework The two analogous computer classes, i.e. shared memory and distributed memory, are symbolized by the DSM Systems (Hine, Mitrani, Tsur, & Gaines, 1979). This system works by providing shared memory generalizing in the system that further physically distributes the memory and thus combines the rewards of both the approaches. In fact, the DSM system is described as a memory system that physically distributes but is

Economic Distribution in the U.S. ,Why The Rich get richer Term Paper

Economic Distribution in the U.S. ,Why The Rich get richer - Term Paper Example This brings us to the basic question, and incidentally the title of this essay, why the rich get Richer? This paper strives to offer a basic understanding of the economic distribution of income and wealth in America and the reasons for such discrepancies, which further widen the gap between the rich and the poor, making the rich – richer in the process and at the same time, pushing the poor towards stark poverty. During the early 1980s era, several economists as well as researchers initiated reports concerning the average wages of American workers, and pointed out the fact that their wages were stagnant ever since the early 1970s and that the allocation of their earnings was, in fact, becoming more and more unequal, thereby widening the gap between the rich and the poor. Several explanations and suggestions were offered for such an occurrence. However one of the most significant of them was that the reason behind such a turn of events was the unemployment reallocation in the industrial composition of the country or the deindustrialization of the United States away from manufacturing industries to service oriented ones. It was believed that the average earnings of the workers in the service industry were relatively lower than that in the manufacturing industry. The repercussion of such a transformation with respect to the breadwinners belonging to the ‘middle – class’ hous eholds was evident, and the news of the steadily deteriorating American middle class, made headlines across the nation creating a great furore. Further apprehensions over mounting income disparity surfaced in the mid - 1980s with the publication of several books, reports and researches on the topic, which fuelled the anxiety that Americans were now facing an escalating disproportion of outlooks in accomplishing a stable middle class existence. The Economist stated that the gap between the rich and the poor is larger in the United States as

OSHA Case Summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

OSHA Case Summary - Assignment Example Setting standards refers to an act of establishing one or more clear-cut score(s) on a test. The standards constitute informed ideas that are distinct and significant in their applications. An act of setting would include approving, rejecting, adjusting or implementing an action plan. Enforcing standards would mean executing the strategies as laid by the body concerned. Despite the fact that standard setting a purely procedural course, it ideally comprises strategy fabricators, test developers, and capacity experts early ensuring that the test outcomes is convenient and defensible. A proper guideline would suppress any form of unethical or rather unsafe behavior in an organization (Bejar, 2008). A well-structured institution has no room for tolerance of any weird characters within its premises. Training involves a practical application of procedures and theories. In any organization, a leader has a mandate of providing his/her employees with skills that suit their areas of duties. Workers need applied knowledge concerning their fields of actions to avoid committing faults because of insufficient drilling. Training may take a form of seminars and conferences. Trained worker understands all details relating to their working environments. Practical should emphasize safety techniques within and outside the working communities. Whenever an employee undertakes a proper course in his field of services, the chances of falling to injuries become slim. Every human being would need help in one way or the other from another. Employees should learn to appreciate and work as a team with a specific objective of achieving organization’s goals. Once a person inculcates a habit of consultation in areas of difficulties, then ignorance related injuries and unethical actions would reduce drastically. A culture of security comprises of a shared behaviors,

Economic Distribution in the U.S. ,Why The Rich get richer Term Paper

Economic Distribution in the U.S. ,Why The Rich get richer - Term Paper Example This brings us to the basic question, and incidentally the title of this essay, why the rich get Richer? This paper strives to offer a basic understanding of the economic distribution of income and wealth in America and the reasons for such discrepancies, which further widen the gap between the rich and the poor, making the rich – richer in the process and at the same time, pushing the poor towards stark poverty. During the early 1980s era, several economists as well as researchers initiated reports concerning the average wages of American workers, and pointed out the fact that their wages were stagnant ever since the early 1970s and that the allocation of their earnings was, in fact, becoming more and more unequal, thereby widening the gap between the rich and the poor. Several explanations and suggestions were offered for such an occurrence. However one of the most significant of them was that the reason behind such a turn of events was the unemployment reallocation in the industrial composition of the country or the deindustrialization of the United States away from manufacturing industries to service oriented ones. It was believed that the average earnings of the workers in the service industry were relatively lower than that in the manufacturing industry. The repercussion of such a transformation with respect to the breadwinners belonging to the ‘middle – class’ hous eholds was evident, and the news of the steadily deteriorating American middle class, made headlines across the nation creating a great furore. Further apprehensions over mounting income disparity surfaced in the mid - 1980s with the publication of several books, reports and researches on the topic, which fuelled the anxiety that Americans were now facing an escalating disproportion of outlooks in accomplishing a stable middle class existence. The Economist stated that the gap between the rich and the poor is larger in the United States as

Globalization As a Source and an Antidote for Conflict Research Paper

Globalization As a Source and an Antidote for Conflict - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that no other phenomenon in the contemporary world has influenced the life of modern man as comprehensively as globalization, which has already left its imprint on the economic, cultural, and political spheres of human life. Significantly, the most distinguishing feature of globalization has been that it helped integrate the regional economies, societies, and cultures of the world into a global network of political ideas. In order to comprehend the real meaning of globalization, it is fundamental to realize the intricacies of international trade relations, economic institutions, the socio-cultural realms of international relations, the political ideologies and strategies affecting the economic relationship between the different nations, etc. The political activists and scholars dealing with the term ‘globalization’ explain it as an amalgam of the economic, political, cultural, ideological, and environmental practices in the dif ferent parts of the world. Manfred Steger describes globalization as a multifaceted system encompassing global, regional, and local aspects of social life. â€Å"The term globalization applies to a set of social processes that appear to transform our present social condition of weakening nationality into one of globality. At its core, then, globalization is about shifting forms of human contact†¦ Indeed †¦ the term globalization suggests a sort of dynamism bet captured by the notion of ‘development’†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . ...In other words, globalization is one of the most contested topics in the current social sciences, and there have been different types of theories of globalization, explaining the outcomes and advantages of this global phenomenon differently. In one of the noteworthy articles related to the topic, Mauro F Guillen examines the five key debates concerning globalization. According to him, â€Å"Observers and theorists of globalization have variously argued that the rapid increase in cross-border economic, social, technological and cultural exchange is civilizing, destructive, and feeble†¦ As in the civilizing view, the destructive interpretation regards globalization as leading to convergence, albeit predicting harmful rather than beneficial consequences.† (Guillen, 2010, p. 4). Therefore, it becomes obvious that the basic debate concerning globalization is whether it is civilizing, destructive, or feeble. There are also disagreements over the definition of globalization, when and where it started, etc. However, the key five debates concerning globalization, as Guillen points out, are whether: a) globalization is really happening, b) globalization produces convergence, c) globalization undermines the authority of the nation-state, d) globality is different from modernity, and e) global culture is in the making. (Guillen, 2010, p. 4). Whereas everyone agrees upon these types of debates happening across the globe on the topic of globalization, it should be remembered that these debates do not promise any easy answers to the heated topic. One of the most relevant studies on the debates concerning globalization has been the article â€Å"How to Judge Globalism† by Nobel prize-winner Amartya Sen, in which he argues that viewing

The Views of Adam Smith Essay Example for Free

The Views of Adam Smith Essay The views of Adam Smith, the Declaration of the Rights of Women, Declaration of Independence, and the Declaration of the Rights of Men have a few similarities and some differences. The similarities were difficult to find based on most of what Smith thinking was centered on economics. However, the works of Adam Smith and these three declarations all share a common theme on rights of human beings. For instance, Adam Smith was against slavery and his views were that he wanted it to be abolished. The thinking was on the same level thinking as was the three declaration views toward how men and women should be treated. The thoughts of all the authors were geared to place the individual before all; including profit. Adam Smith and the three declarations were quite different in many ways. One major difference among them were that the declaration were mainly concerning how individual should be treated. The declaration sought the government to be fair and just towards the treatment of both men and women. Whereas Adam Smith was in the infant stage of early economics and how capitalism could and would be fueled by human self-interest. Smith placed a lot of emphasis on what he termed as laws of the market; specifically addressing issues pertaining to goods that are produced for society. The declarations are pleading to the government for equal treatment in all phases of society, however the importance of the market is not the main concern in the declarations. Adam Smith is simply interested in how society managed to sustain itself through mechanism that are somewhat â€Å"invisible hand.† As Heilbroner 1999 questions, â€Å"How is it possible for a community in which everyone is busily following his self-interest not fly apart from sheer centrifugal force?† From these questions Smith was able to construct the laws of the market. Smith interest was in relation to how the individual interest and passion of men are in line with what society is in agreement with. The laws of the market is what Smith believes is the most influential part of society and its success or failure is based and dependent upon it. Smith see how an individual that is driven by self-interest in society coupled with similar motivated individuals will consequently end in competition. This competition directly leads to goods and quantities that society wants and desires. His intellect along years of studies and debating with some of the most gifted scholars of his time has granted to the conclusion that the self-interest and motivation of man solely for profit has to have a regulator to control the greed of profiteers. The regulator to which he defers to is called competition. Smith is able to see that for each man that wants to do the best for himself and reap maximum profits, will always be met the a similar individual with the same motives in mind. Smith views confirms with the views and demands of the authors of the three declarations. Smith was not in agreement with all the practices in his day as he displayed his understanding of the market and pre-capitalism. Even his day there those who would cheat the markets by rigging prices. He understood the exploitation of children for labor in the cotton mills were wrong. These practices was not his ideal way that the market and the future of should proceed but he knew that this the approach and the path in which it was following. It also confirm that even with the negatives that accompanied the market, these activities continued because society including felt that they were necessary evils attached to the overall progression of society. The Declaration of Man best describes the world as we know it today. This is based on the articles that are attached to this document. Although this declaration was drafted and written in 1789, some if not most of the pleas and demands are still being sought in today’s society. One of articles states, â€Å"That men are born and remain free and equal in rights.† However, this particle article was evident in society as late as the 1960s. During this time the Civil Rights struggle was need to simply grant Black (Negros) the right to vote, attend integrated schools, sit at the same lunch tables, or simply sit in the front of a public bus. The seventeenth article of the Declaration of Man states, â€Å"Since property is inviolable and sacred right, no one should be deprived thereof except where public necessity†¦..† This article also was not enforced until almost a one hundred years later and even then people of color ran into many obstacles when approaching property ownership. Even Smith time there was the rich who sole goal was to accumulate more wealth. Smith himself did not approve of giving to the needy or donation to charities. However Smith was not vain to believe in the accumulation of wealth simply to have more; Smith felt that capital was better suited to be invested into machinery to further the progress of the society.

IT Corporate Strategy for Competitive Advantage

IT Corporate Strategy for Competitive Advantage IT Strategy – The Corporate Strategy for Competitive Advantage? The last few decades have seen a tremendous advance in the field of information technology. The rise of internet and the developments in the field of information technology have had a great impact on business. New methods of communications and managing business operations have changed the face of business. This increased use of technology resulted in an awareness of the need for technology strategies, and many companies soon realised that a coherent IT strategy was required in order to put technology to good use. There is now widespread awareness of the strategic importance of information technology. Bakos and Treacy (1986) pointed out that the opportunities arising from information technology are threefold: improved efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation, out-manoeuvring other participants in the industry, and the advantage an outsider can give themselves when trying to enter the industry. They further point out that these opportunities represent three major strategic views of corporate strategy: internal strategy, competitive strategy and business portfolio strategy. Evan and Wurster (2000) state that the new economics of information blows traditional business structures to bits and the pieces of will then recombine into new business structures. What this translates to is that, the varied possibilities offered by information technology breaks up traditional reach and supply chain structures – an ever widening target market can be reached using the new technologies, and the economics of supply and delivery is broken with the new technological methods of delivery . Once example of this is the newspaper business. The delivery of online news reaches a much wider audience, while the economics of traditional newspaper delivery is lost. Another side effect of the increased reach offered by information technology is that the need for intermediaries is greatly reduced. The newspaper business will probably need fewer outlets to physically sell their newspapers. The economics of using intermediaries also changes substantially. Another industry that has experienced a revolution caused by information technology is the travel industry. Package holiday travel agents on the high street have faced severe competition from competitors who have used technology to gain great competitive advantage – there are many business selling airline tickets, hotel bookings, etc. online; the companies that do business online have great advantages in various areas such as reach, cost of conducting business, the advantages provided by instant updates for both the busi ness and customers, etc. Johnson et al (2005) in fact regard technological changes as one of the change elements of the (business) environment. Environmental analysis is usually done using PESTLE analysis, scenario analysis, SWOT analysis, etc. Analysis of technological change is one of the pillars of PESTLE analysis. Johnson et al (2005) further point out that the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis for LINK, the network of UK ATMs, revealed that the threat it would face was from a competitor with the capability to develop more advanced technologies to capture the future market. This is in fact an example of the strategic gap the gap between the capabilities of an organisation and the major environmental factors of change. The extent to which an organisation keeps up with the state of the art developments in its field often creates a strategic gap. The strategic gap is important because it measures the gap between the now, the organisations current position, and the desired, the o rganisations desired position. Globalisation, that phenomenon of increased integration of markets around the world, is often attributed to free trade and economic treaties between most countries of the world; however, information technology has also been a major enabling factor in globalisation. New technologies have allowed instant communication, the transfer and dissemination of information to wider audiences and to audiences that have been otherwise out of reach, and correspondingly, have resulted in wider markets with reduced costs and greater reach. Thus technology has facilitated the creation of global networks, which has lead to the term weightless economy and virtual enterprise being applied to modern business (Dransfield, 2001, Lefebvre and Lefebvre, 1998). The dot-com boom and bust has now subsided, and businesses do understand that technology is not the magic wand to success, but is a powerful tool that can bring great advantages. The advantages offered by the Internet simply cannot be ignored. It is also widely accepted that the implementation and use of technology requires a coherent IT strategy. Many large organisations today have the specific top executive post of Chief Information Officer, who is responsible for developing the IT strategy. Hagel and Brown (2001) point out that old IT management assumptions will be overturned by the stream of new Internet based services that offer great cost savings and new opportunities for collaboration. Old ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems have solved some problems, but have created new ones, especially because they are very restrictive. The Internet on the other hand, has a very defining characteristic of being open and flexible – it is based on open standards, has email and w eb servers distributed all around the globe, and anyone can easily set up servers that offer web services. Hagel and Brown further say that businesses should effect a transition to a new IT strategy based on Web-based services. They recommend a strategy that builds on the companys existing systems, starting with the peripheral operations, and the use of common platforms for collaborations. They predict that the early use of Web services focused on reducing costs will be followed by its use for efficiency. The development of a new IT strategy however, has to be in alignment with the business strategy. Louis et al (1998) bring a strategic alignment perspective to the study of successful management of information technology and stress the need for internal consistency between IT strategy and business strategy. They define four types of alignment between IT strategy and business strategy Business- strategy-led, Conservative, Organization-led and Technology-led. Plant (2000) identifies one key issue of strategy execution that is often overlooked by an organisation – content ownership. He states that content may be king, but the best content often comes from an acknowledgement that it is the total environment within the organisation that contributes and supports to the development of that content. This in fact can be said to be the cornerstone of the strategy for management of information. Plant also rightly points out that e-commerce organisations require a much more adaptive struc ture than traditional command and control structures. He suggests that the formulation of Internet strategies must vary according to whether the organisation was born on the Internet, has been established and is now moving to the Internet, or forming new collaborations on the Internet, and describes in detail the process each type of organisation can adopt to formulate their Internet strategies. Dell Computers is a company that has leveraged on the Internet and created a business model that has given itself a very powerful competitive advantage over its competitors. It is a very good example of a company that has formulated a very good business strategy that uses the Internet to specifically gain advantage over its competitors. Michael Dell, who set up Dell Computers famously said that Think of the Internet as a weapon there on the table. Either you pick it up or your competitor doesbut somebody is going to get killed. (Burrows, 1999). Arora et al explain that the presence of markets for technology conditions the IT strategy as well as the corporate strategy of companies. The markets for technology increase the strategy space, as companies have a choice about the use of technology. This in turn has implications for the management to formulate a strategy for more proactive management of technology. They further point out that at the industry level, markets for technology may lower barriers to entry and increase competition, which has important implications for the companys broader strategy as well. As society evolves and becomes more technology dependant, businesses have to evolve correspondingly too. It is no longer sufficient to simply be the best – change happens, and companies have to adapt to this change in order to maintain their position. Technology is one of the biggest factors of this change and this makes it very important that corporate business strategy and IT strategy of a company are in alignment for a company to succeed. References Arora, A., Fosfuri, A. and Gambardella, A. (2001) Markets for Technology and their Implications for Corporate Strategy Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol 10, Number 2, pp. 419-451 Oxford University Press Bakos, J.Y., Treacy, M.E. (1986) Information Technology and Corporate Strategy: A Research Perspective MIS Quaterly Vol. 10, No.2, p.107 Burrows, P. (1999) Michael S. Dell BusinessWeek Online, September 27, 1999 Issue (Available online at http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_39/b3648052.htm last accessed May 2007) Dransfield, R. (2001) Corporate Strategy Harcourt Heineman Evan P Wurster T (2000) Blown to Bits, How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School / London McGraw-Hill. Hagel, J. and Brown, J.S. (2001) Your Next IT Strategy Harvard Business Review Oct 2001, pp. 105 – 113. Hee-Dong Y., Mason, R.M. (1998) The Internet, value chain visibility and learning Proceedings of the Thirty-First Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1998. Vol. 6 pp. 23-32 Johnson, G. and Scholes, K., Whittington, R. (2005) Exploring Corporate Strategies Harlow: Prentice-Hall, 7th Edition Ma, L.C.K., Burn, J.M., Galliers, R.D., Powell, P. (1998) Successful management of information technology: a strategic alignment perspective Proceedings of the Thirty-First Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1998. Vol. 6 pp. 13-14 Boddy, D, Boonstra, A. and Kennedy G. (2005) Managing Information systems: An Organisational Perspective Harlow: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. 2nd Edition Laudon C. and Laudon, J.P. (2006) Management Information Systems Upper Saddle River, NJ : Pearson/Prentice Hall, 9th Edition

Industry Analysis: Banking Essay example -- Essays Papers

Industry Analysis: Banking The banking industry has come under increasing pessimism of late because of rising short and long-term interest rates. The banking industry's market capitalization made a substantial decline. Most investors are concerned with whether the industry can sustain continued profitability as a result of these factors. Banks have responded in recent years to these problems by diversifying away from interest sensitive products and services. But interest rates are the fundamental aspect of any financial services. Therefore, I believe the financial services industry will be deeply affected by rising interest rates. Banks have experienced good business factors over the past two years. Interest rates were low, credit quality was good, and inflation was low. These factors are usually predictive of the types of earnings banks should report. But good times can't continue because interest rate hikes cause reduced lending activity, damaged credit quality, and reduced values of bond portfolios. Porter's Five Forces Analysis: 1. Rivalry among competing sellers: The banking industry is continuing to restructure and position itself for our changing economy as a result, many mega-mergers have occurred in recent years. Citicorp and Travelers Insurance agreed to merge in April 1998 at a value of $70 billion. Bank of America and Nation's Bank also agreed to merge shortly afterwards which became the largest bank in the United States. Bank merg...

The Comparative Advantage of Sexual Divisions of Labor Essay -- Econom

Historical Perspectives on the Comparative Advantage of Sexual Divisions of Labor In modern microeconomic models of the household, one commonly sees a division of labor between the husband and wife predicated on a comparative advantage in the market or the household respectively. The idea is that women are somehow less fit for work in the marketplace while they are innately superior at the domestic tasks of cooking, cleaning, and childrearing. There are two prevailing perspectives on the mechanics of this comparative advantage. The first argues that women are somehow biologically fitted to domestic tasks. This was true for Adam Smith who saw the social structures of society arising out of a biological necessity. Malthus, on the other hand, saw the same biological necessity as operating in opposition to the social structures that arose to keep the pressures of population in check. The second perspective argues that a comparative advantage is a socially constructed idea and not rooted in the biological history of the race. Martineau in her story â€Å"Cousi n Marshall† delineated the life of what she saw as a virtuous and noble woman. Virginia Woolf, however, decried what she saw as the deplorable poverty of women in A Room of One’s Own. Her solution, however, only served to further separate the spheres of men and women. Finally, Charlotte Perkins Gilman similarly objected to the state of women in Women and Economics and ultimately proposed a society that abolished any division of labor along sexual lines. None of these authors seem to contest the presence of a comparative advantage in the division of labor as their societies stand. However this does not imply that all the authors agreed on the exact features of this... ...here there were no gendered distinctions in defense of women. One could argue that our modern society is a point along the way to attaining Gilman’s utopian solution. More likely, however, we have made little progress and Gilman’s solutions still feel innovative and strange. References Gilman, C (1998). Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press. Malthus, Thomas R (1798). Essay on the Principle of Population [Electronic Version]. Retrieved September 19, 2003, from http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/ public/MalPopu.html Martineau, H (1832). Illustrations of Political Economy No. VIII. London: Charles Fox. Smith, A (1766). Lectures on Jurisprudence. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Woolf, V (1929). A Room of One’s Own. London: Harcourt.

How Immigrants Create Jobs

How Immigrants Create Jobs `For many years Americans have addressed the issue of immigrants as a threat to the economy as they take away jobs from natives of the United States. People state that immigrants will work for lower wages and in worse conditions than a native, which makes them more desirable to employ. But, is this assumption accurate? Or do immigrants actually create jobs and help the economy of the United States? Research is now stating that immigration and unemployment are unrelated. Immigrants actually create jobs and boost the economy by purchasing goods from native businesses and by creating their own businesses (Value Added).These are just two examples of how immigrants help to create jobs in the United States. They also tend to compliment native workers as they are skilled in different areas and a small wage increase happens for the native workers because of this. Immigrants are more likely than a native to get an education in science and math programs. According to Tamar Jacoby in her article â€Å"Most Immigrants Create Jobs† she states, â€Å"60 to 70 percent of the students in American computer science and electrical engineering graduate programs are foreign-born† (Jacoby).America cannot afford to allow these immigrants with such great skill to work in competing countries. Immigrants help create jobs with their purchasing power, ability and likeness to create businesses, and with their specialized skills that compliment that of a native worker. Immigrants boost the demand for local goods and services, allowing for more jobs to be created. It is quite simple. The more immigrants, the more money spent on American made goods. This calls for a higher demand of goods, which creates more jobs for those goods to be produced.Immigrants put money back into the United States economy by using their wages earned to purchase items such as food, clothing, cars, etc. Businesses see this relationship between new workers and more money being spent, so they invest in new restaurants, stores, and production facilities (Value Added). These new businesses create more jobs for more workers. In Jason Furman’s article, â€Å"Ten Ways Immigrants Help Build and Strengthen Our Economy†, he states, â€Å"The Immigration Policy Center estimates that the purchasing power of Latinos and Asians, many of whom are immigrants, alone will reach $1. trillion and $775 billion, respectively, by 2015† (Furman). Due to immigrants generally relocating to the United States in search for work, they are much more driven than a native and more likely to begin a new business. In a study conducted by the Small Business Administration, it shows that immigrants are thirty percent more likely to start a business in the United States than a native, and also that eighteen percent of small business owners in American are immigrants (Furman). These immigrant owned businesses create new positions to be filled for more workers.Being self- employed is also not taking away from the native people’s ability to obtain a job, but is helping them. Immigrants make up one percent more of self-employed individuals than natives of the United States (Furman). Not only do these immigrants created business create jobs, but also generate income which will eventually lead to more demand therefore even more jobs for workers. â€Å"According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, small businesses owned by immigrants employed an estimated 4. 7 million people in 2007, and according to the latest estimates, these small businesses generated more than $776 billion annually† (Furman).Not only do immigrants boost the demand for goods and create businesses, they also have specialized skills that complement the jobs of a native worker. These immigrants with specialized skills are often put into two categories, both of which create jobs for native workers. The first is that with only a high school education. Due to many immigrants not ha ving more than an education of a high school diploma when they first arrive in the United States, the wages increase for natives with a college education.Therefore, the more immigration, the more the wages are increased for individuals with an education higher than that of a high school diploma. The different levels of education between these immigrants and natives also produce a wage increase because the jobs they perform are frequently interdependent and complementary, which increases the productivity of natives (Value Added). The second group of immigrants with specialized skills is that of those with a college education. These immigrants often obtain degrees in engineering, computer science, and mathematics.Obtaining these degrees does not interfere with the career opportunities of natives because Americans are not likely to get an education in these areas. The American Enterprise Institute and the Partnership for a New American Economy conducted a study in December of 2011. Dat a in this study was used from the years 2000 to 2007. The results state that, â€Å"every 100 foreign-born workers who worked in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and who had advanced degrees from U. S. universities, were associated with an additional 262 jobs for native-born workers† (Value Added).The study also found â€Å"that states with greater numbers of temporary workers in the H-1B program for skilled workers and H-2B program for less-skilled nonagricultural workers had higher employment among US natives† (Value Added). The United States is a nation that was founded on immigrants. Throughout the years Americans are learning that immigrants make the nation stronger as a whole. President Barack Obama states that â€Å"No other nation in the world welcomes so many new arrivals† (Furman). Due to the fact that American does welcome so many new arrivals, this causes American to stay one of the leading countries in the world.Bringing in differe nt levels of skill to complement the skill already here keeps America on top and leading the way in new technologies and careers. Immigrants not only contribute to the technologies to create more jobs, but also help create more jobs by simply spending their wages earned on American made goods and services. With all of this information available, it would be hard to disagree that immigrants help create more jobs and lower unemployment rather than taking away jobs from native individuals.

Cultural Geography of the Beatles: Representing Landscapes As Musical Texts Essay

Beatles song analysis Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Penny Lane is track number fifteen in Beatles’ album. It was released in 1967. It is a song of the rock genres. It was primarily written by Paul McCartney. He credited the song to Lennon-McCartney. The song was recorded during the sessions of Sergeant Pepper. The song was released because the company wanted a new something from Beatles after a long stay without a new release. The song was ranked number 456 in Rolling Stone list out of 500 in 2004 ( Lennon et al, 1993, p.7).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The title of the song is said to have been derived from the name of a street where Lennon lived in his early childhood life in Liverpool, England. It is significant in that McCartney and Lennon would meet in the street’s bus stop to board a bus to the city center. The street was a famous place that had been chosen by Beatles fans that came to tour Liverpool. This street was apparently named after a famous slave trader in England. It was significant because of the famous stealing of the signs put in place bearing the name of the street (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 12).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The song â€Å"penny lane† has a beautiful coordination of vocals and instrumental sounds. This coordination is even made more attractive by a solo piccolo trumpet that has a clear and clean sound which penetrates amicably throughout a heavy mid-range texture. The song is dominated by well coordinated piano notes, percussion effects and a Vox guitar amplifier sound which has added re-verbs. The resultant effect is awesome. The song beats the time it was produced. Well played and performed by all the personnel involved during its production, the song was completed with a lot of precision. It was the best selling song in the album at the time of its release (Lennon et al, 1993, p.11).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The song possesses a double-tonic structure and a chorus each with a similar starting statement but different lyrics after the introducing statement. This is a unique feature of the song which brings about an element of repetition. Could it be that the street was so important to the writer of the song? This might be the case or may be it is because the street was one of the significant streets of Liverpool (Lennon et al, 1993, p.13).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the opening of the song, after the mention of â€Å"in Penny Lane†, the writer uses a three cord interval melody note. It then changes to BM key which involves flat third notes. This is a unique innovation putting the time of its production into consideration. To navigate from the verse â€Å"In the pouring rain† to â€Å"very strange†, McCartney used an E chord as a pivot and takes the listeners back to the chorus (Robert et al, 2005, p. 15).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   At the middle length of the song, the lyrics stops and there is a bridge where a solo piccolo trumpet is played. The period the trumpet is played perfectly matches the song. It is done with precision to get the listeners fascinated. This period carries the listeners’ emotions to another totally different world. It is keenly done almost to lender the player breathless and having the whole attention of the emotional being of the listener (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 25).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Though the song is nice, there seems to be some features in it that are contradicting. The song was written and recorded during summer time yet, there is rain. One would wonder about the significance of the contrasting chorus against the verses. May be the purpose of the contrast was to show the difference is different professionals and jobs such as fireworks, banking and hair trimming and nursing. There also seems to be another contradiction that the barber does not wear a mack yet he is waiting to be trimmed. It is very unlikely that a person can be shaved with wet hair. This is also a contradiction present in the song. Its significance is not known. Probably the significance is to show how possible the impossible things are (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 27).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is still another unclear verse in the song. The verse points out that the nurse feels to be in play and yet she is playing. How can one feel to be in play and yet he/she is in play? He or she must feel to be in play because they already are in play. The poppies sold by the nurse are a sign of beauty. They are beautiful and very fragile and thus needs to be handled with a lot of care. The significance of the verse is to bring about the element of beauty that dominates Penny Lane Street yet it is very fragile and needs to be taken care of more so from the prevailing condition of theft (Robert et al, 2005, p. 17).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The verse â€Å"four of fish and finger pies† is a British slang. â€Å"Finger pie† is a sexual slang of the time whereas â€Å"four of fish† denotes fish and chips worth four penny. Putting into consideration that the song was written during a time when Penny Lane was a significant destination of tourists, the slang â€Å"finger pie† may denote the highest probability of prostitution in the area. Similarly, the significance of the slang â€Å"four of fish† may denote the most popular food enjoyed by the people in Penny Lane during the time (Robert et al, 2005, p. 23).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The repetition of â€Å"Penny Lane is in my ears† is a significant feature in the song. It is meant to emphasis on how important the place is to the writer. It seems that the place is the best ever the writer had lived in during his life time. The place meant a lot to the writer. It is like he holds a nostalgic feeling of his childhood with the area. In deed the area was nice due to its attractive nature and a known destination of many tourists. This would have been another reason for writing a song dominated with the name Penny Lane. Similarly, the singers of the song â€Å"The Beatles† were very famous in Penny Lane. They had great performances in the area which had a lot of fans. This could also be another reason why the name is mentioned a number of times. Although the mention is significant, the writer tends to overdo it by making more unnecessary mentions even in the verses (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 16).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The lyrics are lucid for the listener to understand but to know the real motivation of the song or the meaning and the intention of the writer is very hard. The writer creates a significant imagery using the appearance of a one day activities on the street. But the actual meaning of the song is only known to the writer of the song. Not unless the writer is interviewed and he frankly opens up and air his motivation, it would be totally different from what it seems to be (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 19).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   McCartney seems to appreciate all the people in the street who contributes to the economy of the country. He also seems to appreciate what they will give him in return after attending the show and buying albums. At the same time, the listeners are entertained. A mention of different kind of people who are all over the area is also significant. Nurses selling poppies, a banker, a fireman, and a barber are all significant (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 26).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When they are mentioned, they all will feel appreciated and will in turn buy the album and attend more shows facilitated by The Beatles. This is of advantage to the writer, the singers and the producer because the album will sell more. It also seems that Penny Lane was a place for all people. Different persons from different professions meet in the barber shop for a shave (Lennon et al, 1993, p.26).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The song is accompanied by a nice slide show of the lyrics. This makes it easier for the recipient to internalize the lyrics. If the recipient can understand the lyrics, they definitely will love the song. It is expected that if the lyrics are lucid for the recipient consumption, then the goal of the song is achieved. Apart from selling more, any given song should have an emotional response from the recipients. If it doesn’t, then the goal is not achieved (Campbell et al, 1980, p. 29).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   At the end of the song, the pitch note changes and the chorus is repeated two times. This is may be intended to get the attention of the listeners and to emphasis on the importance of the information in the chorus. The raising of the song note makes it excellent to the listeners. It elevates the emotional level of the listeners. This keeps them at their top most affinity of the song. At this time, their souls are more into the song than ever in the lyrics. This part could be the most attractive point of the song (Lennon et al, 1993, p. 25).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Although the song is generally written and performed to precision, with instruments perfectly fitting the lyrics, there are several instances that if changed, the song would be more attractive. First, the voice of the singer is not so clear from the instrumentals. This is to mean, the instrumentals are overwhelming the voice of the singer. It could have been better if the instrumental sound intensity had been reduced during the singing of the lyrics (Lennon et al, 1993, p.31).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   By so doing, the lyrics would have been clearer and it would have not been overwhelmed by the instrumental sound. The overall musical combination would intertwine perfectly with the singer’s voice. This would have a deeper emotional feeling to the listener than it did. It should have also facilitated the understanding of the overall message of the song (Lennon et al, 1993, p.34).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In conclusion, the song was a hit during the time. It was allegedly the first song of the pop type to have a piccolo trumpet played in the song. With different remedies to be done, the song can be a legend of the time and of today. The remedies are needed on the areas pointed above. References Campbell, Colin, Allan Murphy, John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, and Paul McCartney.  Things We Said Today: The Complete Lyrics and a Concordance to the Beatles’ Songs, 1962-1970. Ann Arbor, MI: Pierian Press, 1980. Print. Kruse, Robert J.  A Cultural Geography of the Beatles: Representing Landscapes As Musical Texts (strawberry Fields, Abbey Road, and Penny Lane). Lewiston, N.Y: E. Mellen Press, 2005. Print. Lennon, John, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, George Martin, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon.  The Beatles, 1967-1970. New York: Apple, 1993. Sound recording. Source document

Public and Private Partnership Paddington Health Campus Scheme Essay

Public and Private Partnership Paddington Health Campus Scheme - Essay Example Governments have numerous strategies for supplying public goods and services. Numerous of these strategies are partnerships with the non-profit or private agencies. The most recent decades have seen a dramatic increase in the formation of public-private partnerships (PPPs). The United Kingdom engaged in a new form of PPP in the 1990s to boost the participation of the private sector in public service provision (Robinson et al., 2010). According to Yescombe (2007), called the private finance initiative (PFI), the British Treasury Department has generated roughly twenty billion pounds to spend in public service management and private financing in the UK. PFI in the region has already been privatised. PPPs are public acquisition mechanisms which require private agencies to deliver services that are usually the obligation of the government. Fiscal and infrastructure demands keep on making these strategies appealing to governments, hence it is important to evaluate their outcomes (Hodge & Greve, 2005). This essay examines the Paddington Health Campus Scheme. It evaluates the actual driving forces and problems of the Scheme in terms of two issues: (1) strategic planning, and (2) working in partnership. It indicates that PPPs had dual sources: (1) a core theoretical assumption that productivity or competency would be improved by controlling competition in the market via private sector bidding, and (2) a macroeconomic strategy plan, motivated by an interest in regulating public debt (Hodge & Greve, 2005). Nevertheless, in actual fact, these productivity benefits are a long way from being mechanical—as stated by Geddes (2005), the successful progress of any PPP scheme hinges on a coordination of the objectives of operational, tactical, and strategic ranks of authority. Overview of the Paddington Health Campus It is practically useless to plan a complete business scheme and other actual reports for a PPP scheme of the private sector, or the market, does not view th e scheme as commercially appealing or fiscally workable. In the initial period of the PFI numerous schemes were marked down by the public sector as PPP-feasible, though, afterward it turned out that a significant percentage of these projects were actually not appropriate, because of a mixture of problems such as heavy contract requirements, brief contract durations, inadequate flow of income, and overflow of risk transfer (Cartlidge, 2006). Of late, the failure of the PFI Paddington Health Campus Scheme generated massive abortive costs and consultant fees. The Paddington Health Campus scheme was a complicated and aggressive project to construct a top-notch medical and research facility which in the end revealed weaknesses in the ability of the partners to work towards success. The project planned to set up high-tech and sophisticated medical services and to replace the dilapidated hospitals of Harefield, Brompton, and St. Marys (Great Britain: National Audit Office, 2006a, 4). The s cheme partners were Partnerships UK, Imperial College, St. Marys NHS Trust, Harefield NHS Trust, and Royal Brompton. The Outline Business Case (OBC) was endorsed in October 2000 by the NHS’s London Regional Office. It projected the overall cost of construction to be roughly 300 million. In May 2005, estimated costs had increased to 894 million and the date of completion was extended from 2006 to 2013 (Great Britain: National Audit Office, 2006a, 4). Initially introduced in 1998, the project was abolished after a major partner declined to back up the business case for the scheme (Robinson et al., 2010). The scheme was then restored. Circumstances such as this are apparently unfavourable for the reputation of PPPs as it disputes the entire method of this form of acquisition, in addition to the substantial waste of resources, effort, and time. Hence, if there are some uncertainties about the interest of private agencies in taking part in a planned PPP scheme, market scanning mus t be carried out at the soonest

Buddhism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Buddhism - Research Paper Example Darwin’s theory of evolution erupted a great deal of debate as it challenged traditional religious explanations of the world and nature (Boeree). His work encouraged further research into the concept of evolution and other unsolved mysteries of life at the time. Therefore, it is important to explore the evolutionary theory from various religious perspectives in order to understand how the theory fits in, and this paper focuses on the Christian and Buddhist view of the evolution theory. It is a popular belief in the world that man and all of nature was created by a sacred deity for whom all mankind ought to be grateful. This is evidenced in Christianity with enormous reference to the story of creation in the Bible. However, the evolution theory serves to upset this belief at the expense of most believers who find it imperative to defend and preserve it. Among Christian scholars and believers, the evolution theory denies the role by God as the sole creator of the world while mos t scientific research ignore divine activity. This is achieved by the proposition of antitheist theories by renowned naturalists who suggest the existence of the world is due to a less explored scientific phenomenon. As such, Christians have always voiced their concerns on scientific theories that contradict the creation theory. The clergy and the Christian community have always united to call for the rejection of the naturalism theories based on philosophical, theological, and historical grounds. As a result, Christianity and the scientific community have always being at loggerheads with each other. Universally, Christians fail to understand how God’s involvement in creation is recognized in events that lack scientific explanations while His overall role is ignored. This illustrates how meaningful divine action is shelved only do be adopted where gaps in human knowledge prevail and a scientific description is lacking (Miller 8). As such, naturalistic proposals such as the ev olution theory serves to belittle divine action thus fuel conflict between science and the Christian faith. For instance, Christians and scientists differ on the role of pain, suffering, and death in the world. Among Christians, it is widely accepted that God exercises His sovereignty, transcendence, and providence with regard to natural evil that creates pain and suffering. On the hand, the scientific community readily accepts the theory of natural selection in which Darwin believed that all species had a common ancestor, but evolved to survive due to the process of natural selection. Organisms that fail to adapt to their habitat do not prevail under the new environmental conditions and hence, cannot survive, which explains natural selection where only the strong and mighty thrive effectively. While the scriptures present the evidence of God’s work, scientific theories, in their capacity cast doubts among believers who find themselves convinced by scientific evidence. It is evident that those who profess Christianity have no problem in adopting various concepts and exploits in science, as seen in the adoration given to the laws of science and physics. For this reason, most Christians tend to believe in some aspects of the evolution theory, leaving a majority of them confused since they fail to integrate scientific concepts to their religious beliefs. The

China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

China - Essay Example As assumed by Westerners, the docile population of china follows the dictates of central authority failing that of traditions. Generic Chinese lack individualism with group identification being paramount. It has been found that the population of the middle kingdom has been gripped by fervor for modernization and that they take advantage of contemporary economic opportunities in identical ways. Indeed, most Chinese share the goal of harmony and uniformity and foster the image received in the west. However, intersecting this purported centeredness and homogeneity is an immense diversity of people and everyday’s practices that are not represented outside china. (Susan Debra Blum and Lionel M Jensen, 2002) China’s Population growth Issues In 1960s, there was a threat of mass starvation in China as a result of rapid population growth. This triggered government officials to establish the word’s most extensive and intrusive birth control and family planning methods with an aim of reducing fertility and creating one child families. These methods included provision of contraceptives, abortions and sterilization to married couples as well as incentives for couples pledging not to have more than one child. This program has lowered the population growth in China and encouraged economic growth.

Reward and Development Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Reward and Development - Assignment Example This experience is also an outcome of learning from one’s peers, therefore we can safely state that experience passes on through generations. Building a Learning Organization One of the models identified for building a learning organization encompasses the organization, people, knowledge and technology as the four key pillars on which organizational learning is based (Serrat, 2009). This model states that people are required for the learning within an organization through the transfer of knowledge amongst them and through the implementation of innovative technology. Charles Darwin once said that the species most responsive to change is the one that is bound to thrive in a competitive world, and how right he was. Over the years the ever increasing progress in technology has pressed for the need to have skilled and knowledge workers, this has also been a key point of interest of training and development programs within and beyond organizations. There are several different theori es of organizational development that have been proposed by theorists, let us take a look at a few of them: The Humanistic Approach In response to the limitations that accompanied the psychodynamic theories, the concerns raised by some renowned philosophers such as Abraham Maslow led to the development of the humanistic perspective. This perspective aimed to incorporate the aspects of human needs within the theoretical framework. A comparison of the humanistic perspective to the Economic-Based Model of the firm revealed few differences regarding the approach of the two models towards the people aspect of a firm. The most important difference lies in the fact that the Economic-Based Model assumed that human beings are motivated only by self-interest which leads to a very profit oriented organizational focus, as opposed to the Humanistic perspective which emphasizes on an organization that comprised of empowered employees who when working in the organization feel that they are adequat ely applying themselves in the work and are not treated as money minting machines. This difference in the two models makes the Humanistic Model more pro Organizational Learning and Development as opposed to the Economic-Based Model (Rosanas, 2009). This perspective is strongly knitted to the Human Relations Approach to organizational development, which emphasizes on the need of good working relationships amongst employees and good leadership which is pivotal for the progress of the organization (Approaches to Organization And Management, 2009). Performance Management Moreover, we have the classical perspective which is similar to performance management. In this approach the emphasis lays towards achieving the goals that have been set out by the organization, formal management hierarchy is maintained and employee empowerment is reduced compared to the humanistic perspective. The â€Å"Psychological Contract† is a subjective expectation and belief of the employees regarding how they see their relationship with their organization. This psychological contract determines the employees’ level of satisfaction within the organization and his/ her level of motivation (Coyle-Shapiro, 2002). This is not a written contract however; this tacit agreement has many powerful behavioural and attitudinal outcomes. Employees feel attached to their

The level of competition in pricing and output decisions under an Essay

The level of competition in pricing and output decisions under an oligopolistic market structure - Essay Example There was much experimentation with forms of business structures until the pattern of oligopoly finally evolved. In the United States, during the last quarter of the 19th century, businesses avoided competition by forming trusts. Under this structure, the leading firm in one industry would hold voting stock in its former competitors. Output could be limited and prices kept high. In many parts of Europe, cartels were legal. Firms in the same line of business would enter into a formal and enforceable agreement to limit production, and maintain high prices. But both agreements; trusts and cartels brought business stability and profits at the cost of high consumer prices, limited new investment (in order to limit production of products) and a diminution of the type of competition that drives firms to develop new products and new production processes. However, many modern markets are oligopolistic. The growth of oligopoly poses problems both for economic theory and policy because only a handful of large firms produce most of the output in these industries. An oligopoly market exhibits many sellers but is concentrated on only a few sellers. Market shares matter because these few firms control majority of the entire market with some assistance from new technologies. Institutionalists claim that the structure of oligopoly leads to a form of administered pricing.

(just doin harvard referencing and contents page) Essay

(just doin harvard referencing and contents page) - Essay Example Viewed on February 26, 2014. Buttler, s 2014, â€Å"Shopping by smartphone and tablet in UK increases by 18%,†Viewed on February 26, 2014. Centre for Retail Research n.d, â€Å"Retail in 2018 - Shop numbers, Online and the High Street: A GUIDE TO RETAILING IN 2018 BY THE CENTRE FOR RETAIL RESEARCH,† Gauri, DK, Bhatnagar, A & Rao, R 2008, â€Å"Role of Word of Mouth in Online Store Loyalty: Comparing online store ratings with other e-store loyalty factors,† COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM, vol. 51, no. 3, pp.89-91. Hall, J 2012, â€Å"Britons are biggest online shoppers in developed world,† Viewed on February 26, 2014. Li, N. & Zhang, P. 2002, â€Å"CONSUMER ONLINE SHOPPING ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR: AN ASSESSMENT OF RESEARCH.† Viewed on February 26, 2014. Lim, HC, Chung, JJ & Pedersen, PM 2012, â€Å"Effects of electronic word-of-mouth messages,† SMIJ, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 56-75. Viewed on February 26, 2014. Lomas, 2013, â€Å"IDC: Tablet Sales Grew 78.4% YoY In 2012 — Expected To Pass Desktop Sales In 2013, Portable PCs In 2014,† Viewed on February 26, 2014. Machado, AT 2015, â€Å"DRIVERS OF SHOPPING ONLINE: A LITERATUREREVIEW,† IADIS International

Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity Essay Example for Free

Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity Essay This book tells about the integrating Christianity and psychology. The author discusses integration a combining the two books of God. According to Entwistle (2004), â€Å"the book of god’s Word referred to the Bible, and the book of God’s works reflects His deeds written throughout His creation. (p. 166). † He includes five models of integration in the book which are: enemies, spies, colonialists, neutral parties, and allies as subjects of One Sovereign. The enemies model sees Christianity and psychology as enemies that need to be kept totally separate. The spies model has one discipline going into the other to take only what works for them. Psychology would enter the Christian world just to take the religious concepts that will work well with psychology. The colonialist model has one discipline colonizing or taking control and prominence over the other. Religion works with psychology as long as religion is superior to psychology. The neutral parties model has both disciplines coexisting and recognizing each other as long as they respect each others’ boundaries. Psychology recognizes that religion has good concepts to offer but it will not encroach on the religion’s domain. The allies as subjects of One Sovereign model have both disciplines working together to help people. It uses psychological and theological concepts together to gain a better understanding of the truth. According to Entwistle (2004), â€Å"God gave birth to the subject of psychology (human behavior) when he created human beings. God granted us the foundations of theology when He gave us His Word (p. 175). † The book tells us that there are two books of God: His word and His works (Entwistle, 2004). Psychology deals with God’s works and theology deals with His word. Our job as Christian counselors is to interpret both books and integrate them together so that we can use both books to help our clients. If we find something that does not make sense between both books, there is a conflict that needs to be resolved before we can use it. At this point, we need to go back and reread and study both books to see if we can find the discrepancy. Entwistle (2004) says that god gave us both books, but we have to interpret them ourselves. The problem is not with God’s books, but it is the way we interpret them. Human understanding of God’s books is based on our worldview (Entwistle, 2004). To properly integrate the two disciplines, we need to have a good understanding of both. We cannot just know theology or psychology and expect to integrate them well. We need to have a working knowledge of psychological theories and concepts as well as a working knowledge of God’s word. We need to remember, though, that our knowledge is only as good as our interpretation. God’s works have been affected by the fall into sin, and as a work of God our interpretations will be colored by the fall as well. I think this book has a lot of good ideas and concepts to it. I found it interesting to discuss the two books of God, because I had heard the term and knew what it meant, but had not really thought about what it included. I also liked the models of integration and their explanations. They were explained well enough that anyone could follow them easily. Some of the things that bothered me the most about the book and its ideas are: the idea of interpretation, the definition of integration, and where do we go from here. If we are the interpreters of God’s two books and we know that the fall and sin have colored our interpretations, how do we know if our interpretations of the books are correct? Can we interpret either book accurately? If our interpretations are wrong, can we do more harm than good to our clients? Is the definition of integration complete enough to help us know what we need to help others? When we use the current definitions of integration, do we get a complete picture of what integration means to both disciplines? With all of the models of integration, where do we go next? How do we make progress in the integration process? Can we ever integrate to a point where we can agree on most aspects of a model, or will there always be disagreement between the disciplines? These are all questions that I think are important to consider about integration. I think that integrating Christianity and psychology can benefit a Christian client by allowing us to address spiritual matters and use spiritual techniques for healing. It is important to remember that religion and psychology are both parts of God’s truth to us and can be used to help ourselves and others. When the two disciplines are integrated, we have many more options than when we use one or the other discipline separately. Finally use of both disciplines can help us reach people of faith as well as people who are not Christians, if we can use them both carefully and competently.

Theory Of Reasoned Action

Theory Of Reasoned Action CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction This chapter will deals with survey of literature review in the area of online purchase intention and perceived risk and its determinants. This section will discuss the dependent, independent and mediating variables and the relationship among the variables that might influence consumer perceptions of perceived risk towards online purchase intention. Researcher was replicates the framework from the study Factors influencing consumer perceptions of brand trust online by Hong-Youl Ha, 2004 and The influence of prior experience and age on mature consumers perceptions and intentions of internet apparel shopping by Wi-Suk Kwon and Mijeong Noh, 2009. The reason to choose this framework are because, this framework seem like fit with Malaysian culture and tradition. Although researcher was replicate the framework but some changes were made, which is researcher will combine both of the frameworks into one new framework and will test the framework into different setting of place. 2.1 Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) To make some improvement for the past studies, researcher will apply the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) by (Fishbein, 1980) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) by Ajzen in 1991. Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) by Fishbein, 1980 was developed to explain how a consumer leads to a certain buying behavior, this theory asserts that attitude toward buying and subjective norm are the antecedents of performed behavior. Two antecedents which are (attitude and subjective norm) influence the purchase behavior additively (Ha, 1998). Two important propositions underlying the theory of reasoned action offered by Lutz (1991) are the first one is to predict a purchase behavior, it is necessary to measure a persons attitude toward performing that specific behavior, not only the general attitude toward the object around which the purchasing behavior is. The second one is, in addition to the attitude toward the behavior, TRA includes a second determinant of overt behavior namely the subjective norm (SN). SN is intended to measure the social influences on a persons behavior such as family members or friends and colleagues expectations. Sometimes in some situations expectation o f relevant from others may be a major factor in ultimate behavioral performances and simply not under the attitudinal control of individuals. Another study Lada et al., 2009, claim that according to the TRA, a persons intention is a function of two basic determinants, which are one personal in nature and the other one is reflecting social influence. The personal factor is the individuals positive or negative evaluation when performing the behavior and this factor is termed attitude toward the behavior. The second determinant of intention is the persons perception of the social pressure put on him or her whether to perform or not to perform the behavior in question and this factor is termed subjective norm since it deals with perceived prescriptions, (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). According to Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980), attitudes are a function of beliefs when someone believes that performing a given behavior will lead to mostly positive outcomes they may hold a favorable attitude toward performing the behavior, contrary a person who believes that performing the behavior will lead to mostly negative outcomes then they will hold an unfavorable attitude. The beliefs that underlie a persons attitude toward the behavior are termed behavioral beliefs while subjective norm is a function of beliefs that specify individuals or groups to think whether they should or should not perform the behavior and these beliefs which is underlying a persons subjective norm termed as a normative belief. A person who believes that most referents with whom they are motivated more to comply think, that they should perform the behavior will receive social pressure to do so (Lada et al., 2009). 2.2 Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) The second theory is Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which is proposed by Ajzen in 1991 as an extension of the first theory discussed above which is theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Fishbein, 1980). (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980), the TPB has been used by many researchers over the past 20 years and its shown to be able to predict a variety of intentions and behaviors perform by persons. According to Ajzen (1991), a persons action is determined by their behavioral intentions, which in turn are influenced by an attitude toward the behavior and subjective norms as discussed above. (Azjen, 1991), behavioral intentions are factors that capture how people are willing to try to perform a behavior, behavioral intention also the most influential predictor of behavior and its shown that in TPB constructs, intention was a better predictor of behavior. In the TPB, attitude toward the behavior is defined as ones positive or negative feelings about performing a specific behavior and determined through an assessment of ones beliefs regarding the consequences which is arising from ones behavior and an evaluation of the desirability of these consequences. 2.3 Conceptual Definition of Dependent Variable (Online Purchase Intention) It is best to start this study by explaining what an online purchase intention is it in order to give some idea and to dispel some common misconceptions that might occur. Purchase intention can be defined as a plan to purchase a particular goods or services in the future. Purchase intentions is the likelihood that a consumer will buy a particular product in which resulting from the interaction of his or her need for it, attitude towards it and perceptions of it and of course from the company itself which produces the products or services (J. Baker, 1998). This study using definition from (Azjen, 1991), behavioral intentions are factors that capture how people are willing to try to perform a behavior, behavioral intention also the most influential predictor of behavior, intention also was a better predictor of behavior. 2.4 Conceptual definition of Mediating Variable (Perceived Risk) Risks is a part of everyday life and always come as a routine in between us and exist when there is a less than 100 percent probability that things will turn out as someone expected will happen (Baeur, 1967). Risks are different for different persons, according to Martin and Camarero (2008), some people view risk as a their inability to value the quality of the product directly, lack of personal contact with the salesperson, the cost involve of learning on how to use the internet, cost switching different channels, security of payment and personal information. Whilst others, view risk as a (Stone and Gronhaug, 1993) degree of uncertainty about the outcome of an action which might carries the possibility of physical harm or damages. Manzano et al., 2008 offered six dimensions of perceived risk which are security risk, privacy risk, performance risk, time loss risk and social risk. Whilst Beardon and Mason, 1978 proposed different dimensions of perceived risk namely, financial risk, social risk, performance risk, psychological risk and physical risk. Although there are different kind of names or term used but the meaning is quiet same in a context of online shopping. Financial risk or security risk share a same meaning, it can be incurred when customers financial circumstances are damaged because of loss of money in cash or via credit card (March, 2006; Manzano et al., 2008). Social risks come through purchasing process that is perceived to be down-market (March, 2006). Littler and Melanthiou, 2006 found that social risk is concerned with the possibility of attracting unfavorable attention and response from purchasing a particular product. Consumer attitudes to the different methods of purchasing highly depend on their characteristics. Performance risk according to (Littler and Melanthiou, 2006) is concerned with how well the product perform relative to expectations for example, the lack of personal contact with a salesperson prevent the consumer from correctly evaluating the characteristics of the product which in turn decreasing confidence (Ba, 2001) among consumer. It is good if consumer can try out the product they will buy before they make a payment, (Gerrard and Cunningham, 2003) in their study reveal that the opportunity to conduct a trial before make payment provides the necessary confidence to consumers with high perceived performance risk. Whilst March 2006, implies that performance risk is occur when a product does not fulfill its functio n as expected especially services which may take risk time wasted in waiting. Time loss risk happen when consumer incur time costs from using online purchasing, the time of learning how to buy on a certain products, the time to wait for respond or the time for searching process( Littler and Melanthiou, 2006). Physical risk leading with purchases that might include products which are unsafe or will cause physical harm to the user or in services, allow customers to take risks whilst undertaking risky activity such as cycling (March, 2006). The last dimensions of perceived risk are psychological risk, which may be caused by consumers wearing unfashionable clothes, leading to the social risk of not fitting in and in turn will decrease confidence level among consumer. We do not always accurately perceive the threats of risks, accurately understanding and effectively eliminating or limiting risks are part of the survival and safety especially in online industry. Risk management must be an active part of facility marketing manager duties, risk should be well manage to control the financial and personal injury loss from sudden, unforeseen, unusual accident, and intentional torts (Ammon et al., 2004). In summary, for the purpose of this study, perceived risk can be summarize as a degree of uncertainty about the outcome from an action which carries the possibility of physical harm especially in financial and information fraud. Hence, this study assumes customer perceived risks are all the six dimensions discuss above which are, security risk, privacy risk, performance risk, time loss risk and social risk. 2.5 Conceptual definition of Independent Variables 2.5.1 Security Theres a various definition of security, Yoo and Donthu, 2001; Wolfinbarger and Gilly define security as to protecting the user from the risk of fraud and financial loss. According to (Milne et al., 2004), security often breaches of internet transmissions and databases enable the unauthorized use of consumers confidential information from third parties such as, name, address, password, social security and credit card numbers and, often result in identity theft. In reality, the prospect of privacy losses and information misuse in e-commerce settings may offset any convenience, time, and financial savings afforded to consumers thus by providing security for consumers will lead to customer satisfaction and in turn will decrease risk perception among consumers. Unfortunately, security breaches are occurring at a growing rate from time to time. Indeed, Miyazaki and Fernandez (2001) found that internet users highly concerns with regard to online shopping were privacy, system security breaches from third parties in which due to faulty technological security and security breaches in the form of fraudulent online retailer behavior. Security plays a vital role on customer trust and customer satisfaction, thus by providing security to consumers will lead to brand trust and would expect (Mayer et al., 1995) security decrease risk perceptions among consumers. On the other hand, Krisnahmurthy (2001) also found that consumers who experience positive security leads to improvements in the levels of familiarity on the web, accordingly security should affect brand trust as well as decrease risk perceptions. 2.3.2 Privacy Consumers patronizing an online service which requires the regular transmission and remote storage of confidential information may perceive elevated concerns regarding threats to the privacy of their personal and confidential information is very important during online transactions (Mauricio et al., 2007). Privacy refers to protection of personal details implicit or explicit agreement and not to sell or exchange the personal information gathered from consumers during transactions (Yoo and Donthu, 2001; Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2003). Another definition of privacy from (Parasuraman et al., 2005) is the claim of individualsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦to determine on when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others. (Caudill and Murphy, 2000; Sheehan and Hoy, 2000) proposed in their studies that consumer concern for information privacy is considered one of the most important issues nowadays. Fried (1998) was one of the earliest modern scholars to evaluate the notion of privacy; he argued that privacy is especially valuable since it allows people to conduct online transactions that result in trust, which would not be possible in the absence of privacy. Caudill and Murphy (2000) argued that both public and private information should be included in the debate regarding privacy since technologies today are making it increasingly easier to move private information into the public domain, which will cause consumers serious concerns regarding their private information. If the private information going into public meaning that, there is no privacy at all and this will cause distrust among customers and will lead to unsatisfied customers. 2.3.3 Brand Name Theres are various definition of brand, one of the definition is proposed by Bennett, 1988 claim that a brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or any combination of these concepts, used to identify the goods and services of a seller. Keller (1998) states that brand name are one of the main factors facilitating the development of brand awareness or familiarity. The more specialized and reputable a brand name is in selling or recognizing the product or service, the more highly will its brand trust be perceived by consumers. Choosing a brand name for a consumer product or service is so critical that some writers argue it is one of the most important marketing management decisions that marketing manager should take highly considerations about choosing a brand name (Landler et al., 1991). A well chosen brand name can provide a customer with a symbolic meaning which assists in both the recognition of the product and the decision-making process (Herbig and Milewicz, 1993), it is also can produce a number of specific advantages including suggesting product benefits (McCarthy and Perault, 1990), contributing to brand identity, simplifying shopping, implying quality (McNeal and Zerren, 1981), evoking feelings of trust, confidence, security, strength, durability, speed, status and exclusivity and at the end of the day can decrease risk perceptions (Shimp, 1993). The more positively the persons perceived the brand, the higher the consumers brand awareness and loyalty, allowing the firm to command larger margins, higher market share, more inelastic consumer response to price increases, less vulnerability to competitive activity, increased marketing communications effectiveness, additional brand extension opportunities and other competitive advantages such as distribution leverage, customer satisfaction and as well as decrease risk perceptions (Keller, 1998). 2.3.4 Word of Mouth Word of mouth (WOM) plays a vital role in consumer behavior because Word of mouth (WOM) would affect purchase and intention to purchase and also experience of other consumers by conveying their consumption experience of others, namely the satisfaction or dissatisfaction after the purchasing process occur. WOM is commonly defined as informal communication about the characteristics of a business, services or a product which occurs between consumers (Westbrook, 1987). Most importantly, WOM also allows consumers to exert both informational and normative influences on the product or service evaluations and purchase intentions to fellow consumers (Bone, 1995; Ward and Reingen, 1990). According to Ha, 2004, WOM has been shown to influence awareness, expectations, perceptions, attitudes, behavioral intentions and behavior towards a product or services. Online shopping consumers will perceive higher purchase risk than that of the traditional shopping since the purchase occurs in virtual space rather than face to face transactions. They will accordingly rely more on WOM information to reduce uncertainty and purchase risk to make decisions (Kim and Song, 2010). According to Assael (1995), since online shopping has higher purchase risk than face to face interactions, (Richins and Shaffer, 1987) consumers carry out WOM action to obtain market information while making buying decision especially consumers who rely more on WOM as they perceive higher risks. Nowadays, there a growing body of evidence that the internet based opinion mechanism influence consumers when making a purchase such as blogs, social network (facebook, myspace, twitter) (Hong, 2006) and this is a new form of word of mouth communication and is known as electronic Word of Mouth (e-WOM). e-WOM is any positive or negative communication among the potential, current or former customers about a product, services or company that is available to public on the internet. Indeed, (Sen, 2008; Sen and Lerman, 2007) claimed that the impact of e-WOM is not as effective as the traditional face to- face word of mouth (WOM). In contrast, Steffes and Burgee (2009) found that the information gained from the e-WOM forum is more influential and beneficial in decision making process rather than speaking with friends in person (WOM). 2.3.5 Good Online Experience Often consumers tend to remember best the last experience they encounter (the recency effect): thus, one positive experience may be sufficient to alter perceptions of more than preceding negative experience, and vice versa (Ha, 2004). Experiences are sometimes confused with services, but experiences are as distinct from services as services also distinct from goods because experiences exist only in the mind of the individual. They are rich with emotional, physical, intellectual, or spiritual sensations created within the consumer during transactions (Kotler et al., 2005). According to Pine and Gilmore (1999), An experience occurs when a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and then goods as props to engage individual customers in a way to create a memorable event that consumer will remember best. The more satisfied the customer with the experience that the web sites offer, the more durable is the relationship among consumer and that particular brand (Buchanan and Gillies, 1990), and the relationship is highly depends on the customers experience, whether positive or negative experience. Experience plays a vital role in trust by making it possible to compare the realities of the firm with customer preconceived expectations. Ganesan (1994) goes further, and views experience as an antecedent to build brand trust among customers which in turn will lead to making purchasing. Usually customers expect Web sites to offer them not just a message, but a positive experience such as, security and privacy, ease of use, web site design and aesthetic elements and interactivity. The ease of use of the web sites is important factor which refers to the layout and design of the web site and the ease of making ones way around it, how the users perceives and interacts with the site, and how easy t o use it (Nielsen, 1999). While (Steur, 1992) covers the web sites design and aesthetic elements as a representation of the web site environments, associated with its formal characteristic such as graphics, colors, images, icons, animated sequences, videos and pop -ups which will influence customer to trust the web site as well as to proceed at the end action which is making purchasing. (Yoo and Donthu, 2001) claim that these elements has contribute to the atmosphere of the web site and are important in evaluating the web site experience. Thus, if the web sites offer all of this experience to customer will lead to customer satisfaction and build brand trust among customer thus will decrease customer risk perception. General speak in detailed, the fact that it easy to access and use the site, including the access speed and the overall guide design and layout, as well as the information provided; requirement fulfillment refers to whether the sites handling and goods delivery in a systematic way; system accessibility refers to whether the site has been technology based or still using a traditional based, or is vulnerable to attacks; and privacy, also known as security, refers to whether the site can keep the customers information secret and payments safe (Sheng and Liu, 2010) are experience that customer want in which we can called it positive experience will lead to customer satisfaction and purchase as well as to build brand trust. 2.3.6 Quality of Information There is various definition of information. Some writers make no distinction between data and information (Wang et al., 1998) while some writers see the differences as most crucial (Tozer, 1999). Information is logically derived from theories or principles, it is an artifact. The producer of information has an intention to produce a symbolic meaning of certain entities or events, put it into a context, assign it into a pre defined meaning and then transmit the information into receiver. The producer of information expected that the receiver will capture the meaning as intended (Lillrank, 2002). Consumers search for information in their pre-purchase search process for a product or service they intend to buy thus, by providing effective information does lead to improved awareness and brand perception among consumers (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000; Ha, 2002; Keller, 1998), particularly for individuals with high brand trust and high perceived risk (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998). Many online buyers indicate that their buying decisions mostly depend on the information offered online (Long Ching, 2009). Bickart and Schindler (2001) found that consumers who gathered information from online discussions namely electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) reported greater interest and intention to buy in the product than did those consumers who gathered information from the marketer-generated sources. The main reason for this is highly likely to be the trust issue as raised in a study by Sen (2008). Customized information has become more important in internet nowadays based applications due to the multitude of choices that are available on the internet (Simonson, 2005; Ha, 2002). (Ha (2002), has shown that internet users are very interested in customized information offer by the web sites be this is because mostly firms today have added value by providing appropriate information to simplify the customers decision making process (Murthi and Sarkar, 2003). In addition, the source of the information is very crucial for a message to be effective and reliable and it often depends on the receivers perception of the senders trustworthiness and expertise (Kiecker and Cowles, 2001) they also suggest that the information also must be perceived believable, competent, valuable and trustworthy for information recipients. (Robinson and Kaye, 2000), found that consumers, who relied on online sources for more information, rated the online sources as more credible than other sources, so it is important tasks for managers to provide quality information online to gain trust from customers. Meyvis and Janiszewski (2002) reveal that irrelevant and lack in quality information will weakens consumers belief in the products or services ability to deliver the benefit. Hence, whether perceived quality of information is provided and, if it is provided, the quality of customized information for customers, also highly influence the level of brand trust and custom er satisfaction on the web (Ha, 2004). 2.4 Relationship among the Variables Individuals who perceive a low risk in online buying likely make decisions more quickly and less likely to take into account aspects outside of the web site. In contrast, individuals who are more fearful will behave in a more cautious way, searching for external information that warrantees a successful buying decision to decrease uncertainty in internet purchase (Martin and Camarero, 2008). Bhatnagar et al., 2000, reported that consumers were less likely to shop online in which perceived product performance risk was high than those with low product performance risk, consumers perceived risk negatively influences their intention to purchase products online. Customer who satisfied with the security, privacy and online good experience offered by the web sites will experience lower perceived risk and will have effect on the purchase intention. (Chen and Hsin, 2008) results show that consumers perceived risk towards specific online retailer with regards to purchase intention was influence by trust. As consumer trust increases because of decreasing perceived risk will influence consumer to make purchase (Chen and Hsin, 2008). 2.5 Summary This chapter reviewed literatures on consumer perception of perceived risk towards online purchase intention in detailed. Based on the findings from literature reviews, definition conception of online purchase intention, perceived risk, security, privacy, word of mouth, brand name, good online experience and quality of information are developed. In the last part of this chapter, the relationship between independent variables, mediating variable and dependent variable are constructed. Conceptualizing definitions of variables is important in order to construct a research framework in which would be discussed in chapter 3.