MGMT 436 U5 DB Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MGMT 436 U5 DB - Research Paper Example Which of the 4 change projects should the consulting group suggest helping the company design and develop? Which function can the company OD do better (as primary lead consultant) than an external group? The consulting group should suggest a change project which would assist the company in generating the most profits within the minimum cost. As such, the company OD, who has access to pertinent information, which is privy to an external group, would enable them to function better. Generate ideas about how you can move toward making the leadership team more independent. What would you have to see happen or what evidence would you look for to see that you can terminate your relationship with the team without any damage being done? To make the leadership team become more independent, the following suggestions are proposed: (1) assign a team leader who would be tasked to solicit ideas, comments, suggestions to undertake a particular project or task; (2) delegate roles and responsibilities of members; (3) monitor progress of the project regularly; and (4) only elevate crucial issues that cannot be resolved by the team to authorized superiors. As such, when the team is able to operate and perform independently and has been able to consistently deliver the expected outcome or defined goals, then, one could terminate the relationship with the team without any damage being done. Provide your thoughts about with which projects the consulting group should be involved. You know you could help with them all, but what is ethical? How much money and time can you, as consultants, lose or make based on this decision? What should drive the decision process? The projects that the consulting group should be involved are those that have never been undertaken by any teams within the organization. This means that the project should be new, complex or not within the traditional area of specialization of the organization. It is therefore ethical to

Comparison of The Speckled Band and Lamb to the Slaughter Essay Example for Free

Comparison of The Speckled Band and Lamb to the Slaughter Essay In this essay I will be comparing the two stories The Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl. The Speckled Band was written in 1892.This was in The Victorian Period when people had very little faith in the Police and Conan Doyle needed to create a Detective who always got everything right so that the public started to believe the Police could actually get it right. It was first published in a magazine called The Strand in weekly episodes so to a certain extent he needed to keep his readers interested as well which is why the plot is so complicated. The plot is about a woman called Helen Stoner who is going to get married, but someone or something murders her sister who also was supposed to get married. Helen Stoner goes to see Sherlock Holmes to see if he can help solve the crime. The plot is full of twists and red herrings that is up to the reader to try and solve as they go along but as always Sherlock Holmes works out the significance of everything and solves the crime. Lamb to the Slaughter was written in 1954by Roald Dahl. This story was also published in a magazine called Harpers but was written to be read in one go so it does not have the complicated layout of Conan Doyles story. Instead the reader knows exactly what is going on form the start of the story and the ending is shocking and designed to entertain and horrify. It was written by Dahl to show how women at the time were a lot more powerful than the men gave them credit for and should be respected more than being at home , pregnant. The plot is about a modern couple that seem to be falling out. Mary Maloney is the perfect 1950s housewife who makes dinner and cleans, but one day when her husband (Patrick Maloney) comes home from work they have an argument. Mary loses her temper with Patrick and hits him over the head with a leg of lamb and accidentally kills him. In a panic she phones the police and puts the leg of lamb in the oven to cook for dinner. When the police arrive she persuades them to eat the lamb because it would be a waste of food. In the end the police eat the evidence and Mary didnt get caught. Dahl uses comic irony at the end to engage the reader as Mary sits there laughing about what she has done; you dont imagine her to do this as a middle class housewife. The times that these stories are set in are both very different. Like travel, in The Speckled Band. They travel by horse and cart but in Lamb to the Slaughter trey use car or foot just like in the modern day. For communication the people in 1892 would have to write or go and see the person they wanted to talk to but in 1954 they would have used the telephone. Also in 1892 they did not have much electricity so they used candles instead of light, whereas in 1954 they had lots of electricity. In 1892 the women would have worn veils and long skirts but in 1954 they would have they would have worn jeans, t-shirt etc. in 1892 rich families would lived in large houses with servants but in the modern day most families are middle classed and do not have the money for servants etc. When there was an enquiry in 1892 the detectives would have had to use their own knowledge to solve crimes but in 1954 they would use fingerprints, evidence etc to solve the crimes. The language used in The Speckled Band was old fashioned and very formal like when Sherlock Holmes says Very sorry to knock you up Watson, said he, but its the common lot this morning. He also says things like Mrs Hudson has been knocked up, she reported upon me, and I on you. This isnt the kind of language we would use in the modern day and proves that it is set in 1892. However in Lamb to the Slaughter there was a lot of slang and it was not as formal. Like when Mary says Hullo darling. And Hullo Sam to the grocer. However the way she speaks to Sam the grocer proves it was set in the 1950s and not in any other time because we would not know the person in the corner shops first name today but it was common in the 1950s to be friendly with them. In The Speckled Band Sherlock Holmes is the main character. He is a famous detective and solves difficult cases. Conan Doyle invented him because people in the Victorian times were fed with the fact that the police could not solve any crimes and he wanted a character that always got everything right. However in Lamb to the Slaughter there were police who are good at solving cases but wouldnt be able to solve them without any evidence and they are very arrogant and treat Mary as a silly woman when in fact she is the person who has tricked them and been the murderer. Dahl does this to shock his readers and make it even more dramatic which Conan Doyle would not want to do because they needed to trust their detective! In The Speckled Band the killer was a snake that had been hypnotised by Helen Stoners stepfather, but all the way through the story he is a suspect and he acts suspiciously like when Helen goes to visit Sherlock Holmes to tell him what has been going on, shortly after she leaves her stepfather came in asking if she has been here. It seemed like he had something to hide, but in the end it had nothing to do with him. In Lamb to the Slaughter Mary seems like a nice, gentle woman who feels that she has to help out. Like when she says, Darling, shall I get your slippers? but after the police eat the evidence she laughs so I think he whole issue hade made her go a bit insane. At the beginning of the story you didnt expect it from her because she just seems like a normal, average wife like when it said about She took his coat and hung it in the closet. and when it said She was sat back again in her chair with the sewing. The scene seems too realistic for something bad to happen. In The Speckled Band the victim was Helen Stoners sister because there was nothing anyone could do to save her; this made the readers feel very sorry for her. The next victim was Helen Stoner and because nobody knew what killed her sister it seemed that she needed protection. I would expect someone like her to be the next victim because she is a woman who has done nothing wrong and is innocent. I dont think her or her sister deserved to be the victims because they are both just happy and normal people. In Lamb to the Slaughter you dont feel sorry for Patrick because he is being horrible to Mary and you feel automatically on her side from the beginning. I think he deserved to be upset but not killed because they are just having a falling out. The Speckled Band is set in Stoke Moran, which is Helens stepfather house. Sherlock Holmes is investigating the house. I think it is a good setting for a murder to take place and because its a very big house which makes it creepier for the reader because you dont know what is doing the killings. Lamb to the Slaughter is set in Mary Maloneys house. I think the way the author has described it makes it sound very realistic, like when he says, The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight. This makes the room sound cosy and like it really exists. You can really picture the scenery. I also think its a good setting for a murder because you can imagine it happening there. I think I would expect it because so many crimes in real life have been taken place in houses. Out of the two stories I preferred Lamb to the Slaughter because it is easier to understand and keeps you interested all the way though with the description it uses. I disliked the other story because the speaking parts dragged on to long and I did really just want to get on and find out what happens.

Freuds psychodynamic approach and rogers humanistic approach

Freuds psychodynamic approach and rogers humanistic approach For this essay I will be comparing and contrasting the psychodynamic approach concentrating on Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and humanistic approach looking at Carl Rogers theory (1902-1987) focussing on mainly the middle adult stage of human development. The Psychodynamic approach emphasises unconscious dynamics within the individual such as inner forces, conflict or the movement of instinctual energy The founding father of the psychodynamic approach was Sigmund Freud, he believed that everybody has inner conflicts and was interested in how these can be resolved. Freud focused on the unconscious mind, believing that adult personality develops due to the passing through of five stages which he called psychosexual from birth to adolescence; the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency stage, and lastly the genital stage. Any trauma suffered at one of these important stages Freud believed would result in fixation, if that adult has greater underlying problems, stemming from childhood then this Freud felt showed as regression meaning the behaviour they then show is closer to that of when they were a child. (Gross 1996) An example of fixation of a male in the phallic stage means that individual can become vain and self-assured however a female fixated in the same stage may fight hard for superiority over men. If an adult is lucky enough to avoid any problems during Freuds early stages develop a genital character meaning they grow to be mature, and are able to love and be loved. (Eysenck 2000:318) (Bee Boyd 2003) Freud divided the mind in three parts; the id which is the unconscious, which he described as a cauldron full of seething excitationsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.it is filled with energyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦butà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦has no organisationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦only striving to bring about the satisfaction of instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ it is an individuals basic sexual aggressive impulses, and where the libido lies. The id has two major instincts Eros; the life instinct that motivates people to focus on pleasure seeking tendencies and Thanatos; the death instinct that motivates people to use aggressive urges to destroy. The ego works on the reality principle and is the thinking part of the personality it has the job of keeping, the id satisfied and happy. Freud described the ego as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external worldà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.the ego represents what may be called reason and c ommon sense, in contrast to the id which contains the passionsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horseà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. The third part of the personality is the superego which is the parent and moral judge. The ego must try and satisfy the id without disrespecting the superegos rules. (Bee Boyd 2003) (Beckett Taylor 2010:22-23) (Changingminds.org) The egos job is extremely hard, as it has to keep the id and the superego in balance if not then an adult can experience conflict, this can result in the ego breaching the superegos rules, resulting in the ego producing defence mechanisms. Examples are repression; the forcing of conscious memory into the unconscious, displacement; a substitute object takes the place for the expression of anger and denial; the refusal to acknowledge problems that occur, these are three from many forms of defence mechanisms the ego triggers in order to reduce anxiety. Freud understood that without defence mechanism an individual would not be able to cope with the tensions within the personality. (Wade Tavris 2006) (Gross 1997) Carl Rogers was the founding father of humanistic psychology and client centred therapy, his theory was a reaction psychodynamic psychology. Rogers saw potential in every living organism and truly felt that everything organic had the potential to self-actualise. He gained this insight after seeing potatoes in a dark cellar that had begun to sprout stretching to the light from the window in his childhood. It is the urge which is evident in all organic and human life to expand, become autonomous, develop, mature (Gross 1997:764) Rogers felt differently to Freud, he felt individuals were born innately good, we have mental and social problems that are caused from external influences. It is an approach that emphasises free will, personal growth, resilience and the achievement of human development (Wade Tavris 2006) Rogers believed that the concept of self was of importance and mainly conscious, it consists of our thoughts and feelings, everyone has an organismic self; what we actually are, a self-concept; what the outside world has made us and an ideal self; the person we would most likely to be. Rogers believed that our driving forces are largely devoted to the lack of self-actualising our needs and potential. Everybody requires positive regard from others, as well as positive self-regard from inside our own self, anomalies a rise when there is incongruence between the adults self-concept and the organismic self. In order for an adult to be truly happy and there actualising tendency to be fully functioning the organismic self and the ideal self must be as close together as it is possible. When an adults life is happy and fulfilled Rogers saw this as reaching a state of absolute congruence. As an example of incongruence we could look at two scenarios; an adult male who has a mind-set that every woman he meets should fall in love with him however this is not the case whenever he meets a woman, they may feel that he has not got the qualities they are looking for, this would be incongruence. He may deal with this situation by criticising there decisions for not falling in love with him and justify this with thoughts such as she was not good enough anyway or her loss. In opposition to this if he did not have such high self-esteem and the woman did find him attractive, this is also incongruence. His thought patterns to deal with women liking him could be she does not really like me or even find fault with the women, to find a reason for the action. (Eysenck 2000) (Gross 1997) If we now compare and contrast the two theories we can initially see they are poles apart however some aspects can be viewed as very similar. Freuds view that when an adult has developed a genital character and are mature and are able to love and be loved can, be compared with Rogers state of absolute congruence, both theories see that this is, where an adult is happy and well adjusted. (Eysenck 2000:318) Freuds id, ego and super ego can be viewed as similar to Rogers organismic self, self- concept and the ideal self. In each of the theories, there is one aspect of the personality that is required to keep a balance between the other two id and superego are balanced by the ego in Freud theory and organismic self and the ideal self by the self-concept in Rogers theory each having to maintain balance so that there is a sense of order within the personality. (Gross 1997) We can also look at Freuds defence mechanisms which are there to help in situations that cause anxiety. In my example with the adult male showing incongruence above, the reaction can be compared to Freuds projection in which the male has placed his own unwanted feelings onto someone else or rationalizing by finding an acceptable excuse for his behaviour, due to his reaction to the situation. (Gross 1997) Both theories are similar in that they are both from an era when society was not so diverse in culture, sexuality and ethnicity, and was very male dominated at the time, each theorist could not have for seen these dramatic changes in society. Freuds psychosexual stages can be seen as not very flexible to other cultures as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦it does not always make much sense if you attempt to apply this model to adults that are not from western cultures (Walker Crawford 2010:117) Rogers saw the present and the conscious was the most significant part of an adult and focused on the here and now instead of, trying to find relevance to the past and therefore did not incorporate childhood in his theories for problems that an individual may face in life. He felt that the negative actions of an adult do not remove there worth as an individual believing the ultimate goal was personal growth, development and understanding through constant self-improvement and self-understanding and every person is capable of reaching this, adults were born innately good and had a positive outlook on everything organic, choosing to take a more holistic approach. In comparison to Freud who was more interested in negative aspects and concentrated on childhood development, the conflicts as an adult we face if we have not moved successfully through his psychosexual stages of development that can cause conflict in out unconscious mind. (www.humanism.com) Rogers did not incorporate childhood into his theory, believing that a person can resolve any incongruence in their lives as adults and can therefore self-actualise no matter what the conflicts through childhood they had as we all have freewill, whereas Freuds theory only concentrated on childhood and what happens in childhood shapes the adult we become and are in the future (Gross 1997) In conclusion there may be a few similarities within each approach however each approach could not be further apart in terms of the theories one believes in the unconscious and the other conscious drives in terms of a persons growth and development. Freuds theory appears to be more dated and not as flexible to change as Rogers humanistic approach it also feels more negative towards human development then Rogers who appears to see everything in a positive light, not all problems in childhood can be associated with the adult grows, development how they adapt to society and others around them. There are many outside influences that can shape a person for the future, not just the way in which an adult has been nurtured as a child and the experiences they encounter. (Beckett Taylor 2010) (Walker Crawford 2010) Psychoanalysis is founded upon acceptance determinism, or acceptance of aspects of our lives outside of our control, whilst humanism thought bases itself on the concept of freewill (www.humanism.com) (1412 without quotes)

A Visit to Italy :: Descriptive Essay Examples, Rome, Italy

A Visit to Italy    The capital city of Italy is a very extraordinary place to visit. The population of Rome is well over two-million. The people there are very friendly and are extremely proud of their country. Rome is a beautiful bustling city that has a moderate cli mate. The temperature usually stays around eighty degrees. The main way of transportation is by bus.    The side walk cafes are very popular in Rome. The cafes were always populated with happy Italians and a few curious tourists. The most preferred cafe was the Cafe S. Petro. this cafe was in perfect walking distance from the Vatican city. The Vatica n city is were the pope lives. The main meals served at the cafes varied from pizza to tortillini. The pizzas were not exactly like Pizza Hut's pizza. They were crispy thin with very few toppings available. Most pizzas came with cheese, pepperoni and a watery tomato sauce. The tortillini had soft, medium-length, hollow noodles with more watery tomato sauce. Another favorite at the cafe was the lasagna which was unbelievably delicious. After having tasted the pizzas and the tortillini, I was not exp ecting the lasagna to be so tasty. The lasagna was packed full of hot meat, zesty cheese, and a tangy tomato sauce. It was not out of the ordinary to see Italians, instead of eating at the cafe, talking with their friends and sipping on hot cappucino.    The streets in Rome were always swamped with motor scooters, three-wheeled cars, and buses. Although, the main way of transportation are buses, Italians also scooted around on their motor scooters. The scooters were more convenient because the scoote rs could easily slip through traffic jams. The parking was very hazardous for people because some cars would be blocked in by a small car that was parked vertical between two horizontally parked cars. Car accidents were very common in Rome. When two pe ople had a car accident, they would just wave or yell at each other and drive hurriedly away. The police were not notified and there was no question of who would pay for the damages.    The worst part about Rome were the buses. These buses were jammed tight with people who were sweaty and excessively vulgar.

Virtual Management for Accenture

Q. 1 What are the advantages of working in a enviornment like the one created by accenture? Ans1: What are the disadvantage? Ans. Advantages of working in avirtual environment is useful to business organisations as it helps them in following ways:1) virtual environment helps develop and improve the performance of the organisations. 2) operating virtually helps them to gather and share information easily even when they are far from each other. 3) virtual environment helps make decisions quickly and reliable. 4) easy access to global conferences. 5) helps in reducing overhead expenses. Disadvantages:1) face to face interaction is not possible.2) may require heavy cost of, to maintain information system. 3) if system fails then working of the organisation also fails which leads to many inconveniences. Q:2 would you like to work in a company like Accenture? Why or Why not? explain your answer. Ans 2 :Yes, I would like to work in a company like Accenture. Because Accenture people are some of the most creative, forward-thinking people in the business world. They come from a wide range of cultural, educational and geographic backgrounds and are able to work in a dynamic and professional environment that values each person’s perspective.The different points of view they bring lead to superior business solutions for Accenture and our clients. We proactively capitalize on business and technology opportunities that enable higher levels of performance. Q. 3 What kinds of companies could benefit from being run virtually like Accenture? Could all companies be run virtually like Accenture? Ans 3: Companies whose major part of their working depends uponoutsourcing, who has workforce diversity and companies who provide their customers value based quality services with shared knowledge through internet would be benefited.No, all companies can't be run virtually like Accenture as this is not an easy thing to do. It requires a good co-odination between the employees heavy i nstallation cost of information system etc. which might be difficult for many organization to implement with. Q. 4 According to Accenture, how does information technology help create high-performance organization? Ans: Accenture research indicates that high-performance businesses view IT as a strategic asset—a source of both operational excellence and competitive advantage.Our Strategic IT Effectiveness (SITE) experts help top management adopt that mindset and achieve greater business value from IT. We have a clear perspective: IT is not merely a cost but a critical contributor to the business, focused on improving business value and performance. Our professionals are experienced with bold, value-creating approaches to IT, bringing boardroom-relevant criteria to IT investments and helping high-performance businesses to â€Å"think bigger† about IT's ability to improve operating results Virtual Management for Accenture Q. 1 What are the advantages of working in a enviornment like the one created by accenture? Ans1: What are the disadvantage? Ans. Advantages of working in avirtual environment is useful to business organisations as it helps them in following ways:1) virtual environment helps develop and improve the performance of the organisations. 2) operating virtually helps them to gather and share information easily even when they are far from each other. 3) virtual environment helps make decisions quickly and reliable. 4) easy access to global conferences. 5) helps in reducing overhead expenses. Disadvantages:1) face to face interaction is not possible.2) may require heavy cost of, to maintain information system. 3) if system fails then working of the organisation also fails which leads to many inconveniences. Q:2 would you like to work in a company like Accenture? Why or Why not? explain your answer. Ans 2 :Yes, I would like to work in a company like Accenture. Because Accenture people are some of the most creative, forward-thinking people in the business world. They come from a wide range of cultural, educational and geographic backgrounds and are able to work in a dynamic and professional environment that values each person’s perspective.The different points of view they bring lead to superior business solutions for Accenture and our clients. We proactively capitalize on business and technology opportunities that enable higher levels of performance. Q. 3 What kinds of companies could benefit from being run virtually like Accenture? Could all companies be run virtually like Accenture? Ans 3: Companies whose major part of their working depends uponoutsourcing, who has workforce diversity and companies who provide their customers value based quality services with shared knowledge through internet would be benefited.No, all companies can't be run virtually like Accenture as this is not an easy thing to do. It requires a good co-odination between the employees heavy i nstallation cost of information system etc. which might be difficult for many organization to implement with. Q. 4 According to Accenture, how does information technology help create high-performance organization? Ans: Accenture research indicates that high-performance businesses view IT as a strategic asset—a source of both operational excellence and competitive advantage.Our Strategic IT Effectiveness (SITE) experts help top management adopt that mindset and achieve greater business value from IT. We have a clear perspective: IT is not merely a cost but a critical contributor to the business, focused on improving business value and performance. Our professionals are experienced with bold, value-creating approaches to IT, bringing boardroom-relevant criteria to IT investments and helping high-performance businesses to â€Å"think bigger† about IT's ability to improve operating results

Comparison of Pride and Prejudice with Sense and Sensibility

The poem â€Å"Pied Beauty† was written by Hopkins in 1877 and the â€Å"Ode to Autumn† was penned down by Keats in 1820. These poems appreciate all the aspects and diversity of Nature positively leading to the praise of God. In Pied Beauty, this praise of the Creator is vivid and apparent as the poet magnanimously asserts: â€Å"He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him.† However, in Ode to Autumn the praise is subtly highlighted through the description of exuberant bounties of Autumn. The overarching theme of â€Å"beauty beyond appearance† is witnessed in both the poetic works mentioned above. In â€Å"Pied Beauty† this theme encapsulates the idea that perfection of things lies behind their appearance. The poet accentuates the fact that the spirit and energy beyond the appearance is to be appreciated. Thereby, a metaphysical streak echoes throughout, emphasizing the true essence of the word, â€Å"beauty†. Similarly, this theme is observed in â€Å"Ode to Autumn† connoting that the season Autumn has its own beauty like other seasons. Generally, Autumn is associated with old age or the end of life but Keats has creatively portrayed it as a season of â€Å"mellow fruitfulness†, thus, denoting the beauty of Autumn afar from its appearance. He has artistically projected an implied meaning to the poem by illustrating that autumn is the time of life where everything eventually leads to its completion or to have acquired the ultimate m otive of life. The crux of Ode to Autumn is to symbolize the uncertainties of life the Universe is so prone. However, in Pied Beauty, a synonymous thought is presented in the subtle descriptions of Nature that juxtapose the opposites to underline the notion that life is unpredictable , non-static and full of ambiguities. Hopkins asserts: â€Å"And all the trades,their gear &tackle &trim. Whatever is ficke, freckled,(who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour;adazzle,dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change† Here, the poet stresses on the diverse nature of the life on Universe that everything is in a flux. The only thing constant is change and therefore, in Ode to Autumn we notice that autumn has arrived and we should appreciate the various shades of Nature it offers because they are momentary. Consequently, the beauty and speciality of everything present should be appreciated. It is because every atom and molecule on earth gifts us with some meaning and purpose in life. Another eminent theme is of â€Å"Nature†. In â€Å"Pied Beauty† numerous aspects of Nature are delineated using compound words. Hopkins appreciates that â€Å"Glory be to God for dappled things†, â€Å"skies of couple-colours† the â€Å"rose-moles† on the trout, the â€Å"Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings† and also the â€Å"Landscape plotted and pieced -fold,fallow &plough†. The poet is praisng God for everything that he has created and also for the sublime energies that Nature encapsulates beyond its physical appearance. Furthermore, this theme of Nature is also evident in â€Å"Ode to Autumn†. This ode is pregnant with admiration for different activities that take place in autumn. Keats enumerates that it is a â€Å"season of mists and mellow fruitfulness†, â€Å"load and bless with fruits the vines that round the thatch-eves run†, â€Å"fill all fruits with ripeness to the core†, â€Å"swel l the gourd and plump the hazel shells with sweet kernel†,†barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day†, â€Å"lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn† and the â€Å"Hedge-cricket sing†. All these descriptions stimulate our senses and lend a beautiful cinematographic element to the poem. Analogous to Hopkins, Keats also implies the stylistic device of compound words. However, the contrast lies in the fact that Keats uses compound words to make his poetry sensual whereas, Hopkins employs compound words to give different things a set shape and pattern. This is called instress and inscape technique that Hopkins uses. For example, he says â€Å"For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow†. Here he is characterizing the sky's colour and accentuating the inter relation and harmony of Nature. Like the brinded cow the sky is also spotted and patchy as the blue sky and white clouds are â€Å"coupled† together. The creative amalgamation of sky with creations on earth reflects the poet's love of nature to a commendable degree. On the contrary, Keats utilizes compound words to give a corporeal effect. For instance, he calls autum the â€Å"bosom-friend of the maturing Sun† and also he asserts â€Å"half-reap'd furrow†, â€Å"bloom the soft-dying dayà ¢â‚¬  and â€Å"full-grown lambs†. All these examples stir the senses. Animal and bird imagery have also been incorporated in these poems. Hopkins uses the image of the â€Å"brinded cow† to make the colour and pattern of the sky tangible, and also uses the image of a trout with rose-moles and the finches' wings to signify the variety and diversity of Nature. Nonetheless, Keats uses the images of the â€Å"swallow† singing, â€Å"lambs† bleating , â€Å"hedge-cricket† singing and the red-breast,†garden-crofet† whistling to indicate that autumn has a life and activity of its own which must be appreciated instead waiting for other seasons to come. Alliteration in the â€Å"Pied Beauty† is used to heighten the auditory effect of the poem. It is said about Hopkins that â€Å"his poetry should not be read with eyes but ears† (Bridges). The alliteartion used in the compound word â€Å"couple-clouds† empahsizes on making the sky tangible whereas â€Å"Fresh-firecoal† denotes a paradox to enhance the colour of the chestnut that is falling off the tree and â€Å"fold, fallow† these descriptions of the landscape suggest the multiplicity of lands created by God. On the other hand, in â€Å"Ode to Autumn† the alliterations â€Å"winnowing wind†, â€Å"dying day† and â€Å"lambs loud† all of these are stressing upon the activities that take place in autumn. Thus, signifying that autumn is also lively and is not about the end of life rather it announces a new happy beginning that follows. Nonetheless, apart from a few stylistic contrasts, both poets share a common natural ground of ideas, that is , the love and intense adulation of nature. The imagery that these poets employ is far-fetched and typical of the Romantic school of thought.

The Power of Positive Affirmation Essay

The Power of Positive Affirmation Essay The Power of Positive Affirmation Essay The Importance of Positive Affirmations Repeatedly verbalizing positive affirmation helps influence thinking and therefore affects your state of mind and thus your attitude and behaviors because positive thoughts exert a powerful influence on one’s emotional and physical health. You can use Positive Affirmations, which are usually short positive statements targeted at a specific subconscious set of beliefs, to challenge and undermine negative beliefs and to replace them with positive self-nurturing beliefs. By choosing to think and say positive affirmations as true, the subconscious is forced into one of two reactions - avoidance or reappraisal. The bigger the issue the bigger the gap between the positive affirmation and the perceived inner truth and the more likely that one is going to experience resistance. This is where the subconscious finds it easier to stay with its perceived inner truth and avoid the challenge using any means at its disposal to avoid examining the issue. You will recognize this reaction by a strong negative feeling inside as you state the positive affirmations. Equally if your experience a sense of joy and well being, your mind is instinctively responding to something it believes to be true. When you get this emotion, you know your affirmations are working! Continually repeating affirmations with conviction and passion will chip away at even the strongest resistance. However there are a number of additional techniques you can use that will super-charge your affirmations and magnify their effectiveness many fold. I will outline these techniques for you later. Once the resistance is broken, your subconscious is able to re-examine the core belief and patterns you have been working on. The effect can be startling and things can change very quickly as the dysfunctional beliefs get identified and replaced by your own new inner truth. Depending on how deep into your consciousness these beliefs lay, every other

Portable Art From Upper Paleolithic Period

Portable Art From Upper Paleolithic Period Portable art (known as mobiliary art or art mobilier in French) typically refers to objects carved during the European Upper Paleolithic period (40,000-20,000 years ago) that can be moved or carried as personal objects. The oldest example of portable art, however, is from Africa nearly 100,000 years older than anything in Europe. Further, ancient art is found around the globe far from Europe: the category has had to expand to serve the data that have been collected. Categories of Paleolithic Art Traditionally, Upper Paleolithic art is divided into two broad categoriesparietal (or cave) art, including the paintings at Lascaux, Chauvet, and Nawarla Gabarnmang; and mobiliary (or portable art), meaning art that can be carried, such as the famous Venus figurines. Portable art consists of objects carved from stone, bone, or antler, and they take a wide variety of forms. Small, three-dimensional sculpted objects such as the widely known Venus figurines, carved animal bone tools, and two-dimensional relief carvings or plaques are all forms of portable art. Figurative and Non-Figurative Two classes of portable art are recognized today: figurative and non-figurative. Figurative portable art includes three-dimensional animal and human sculptures, but also figures carved, engraved, or painted on stones, ivory, bones, reindeer antlers, and other media. Non-figurative art includes abstract drawings carved, incised, pecked or painted in patterns of grids, parallel lines, dots, zigzag lines, curves, and filigrees. Portable art objects are made by a wide variety of methods, including grooving, hammering, incising, pecking, scraping, polishing, painting, and staining. Evidence of these ancient art forms can be quite subtle, and one reason for the broadening of the category well beyond Europe is that with the advent of optical and scanning electron microscopy, many more examples of art have been discovered. Oldest Portable Art The oldest portable art discovered to date is from South Africa and made 134,000 years ago, consisting of a piece of scored ochre at Pinnacle Point Cave. Other pieces of ochre with engraved designs include one from Klasies River cave 1 at 100,000 years ago, and Blombos cave, where engraved designs on 17 pieces of ochre were retrieved, the oldest dated to 100,000-72,000 years ago. Ostrich eggshell was first known to have been used as a medium for engraved portable art in southern Africa at Diepkloof Rockshelter and Klipdrift Shelter in South Africa and Apollo 11 cave in Namibia between 85-52,000. The earliest figurative portable art in South Africa is from the Apollo 11 cave, where seven portable stone (schist) plaques were recovered, made approximately 30,000 years ago. These plaques include drawings of rhinoceros, zebras, and humans, and possibly human-animal beings (called therianthropes). These images are painted with brown, white, black and red pigments made of a wide variety of substances, including red ochre, carbon, white clay, black manganese, white ostrich eggshell, hematite, and gypsum. Oldest in Eurasia The oldest figurines in Eurasia are ivory figurines dated to the Aurignacian period between 35,000-30,000 years ago in the Lone and Ach valleys in Swabian alps. Excavations at the Vogelherd Cave recovered several small ivory figurines of several animals; Geissenklà ¶sterle cave contained more than 40 pieces of ivory. Ivory figurines are widespread in the Upper Paleolithic, extending well into central Eurasia and Siberia. The earliest portable art object recognized by archaeologists was the Neschers antler, a 12,500-year-old reindeer antler with a stylized partial figure of a horse carved in the surface in left profile. This object was found at Neschers, an open-air Magdalenian settlement in Auvergne region of France and recently discovered within the British Museum collections. It was likely part of the archaeological materials excavated from the site between 1830 and 1848. Why Portable Art? Why our ancient ancestors made portable art so very long ago is unknown and realistically unknowable. However, there are plenty of possibilities that are interesting to contemplate. During the mid-twentieth century, archaeologists and art historians explicitly connected portable art to shamanism. Scholars compared the use of portable art by modern and historical groups and recognized that portable art, specifically figural sculpture, was often related to folklore and religious practices. In ethnographic terms, portable art objects could be considered amulets or totems: for a while, even terms like rock art were dropped from the literature, because it was considered dismissive of the spiritual component that was attributed to the objects. In a fascinating set of studies beginning in the late 1990s, David Lewis-Williams made the explicit connection between ancient art and shamanism when he suggested that abstract elements on rock art are similar to those images seen by people in visions during altered states of consciousness. Other Interpretations A spiritual element may well have been involved with some portable art objects, but wider possibilities have since been put forward by archaeologists and art historians, such as portable art as personal ornamentation, toys for children, teaching tools, or objects expressing personal, ethnic, social, and cultural identity. For example, in an attempt to look for cultural patterns and regional similarities, Rivero and Sauvet looked at a large set of representations of horses on portable art made from bone, antler, and stone during the Magdalenian period in northern Spain and southern France. Their research revealed a handful of traits that seem to be particular to regional groups, including the use of double manes and prominent crests, traits that persist through time and space. Recent Studies Other recent studies include that of Danae Fiore, who studied the rate of decoration used on bone harpoon heads and other artifacts from Tierra del Fuego, during three periods dated between 6400-100 BP. She found that the decoration of harpoon heads increased when sea mammals (pinnipeds) were a key prey for the people; and decreased when there was an increase in consumption of other resources (fish, birds, guanacos). Harpoon design during this time was widely variable, which Fiore suggests were created through a free cultural context or fostered through a social requirement of individual expression. Lemke and colleagues reported more than 100 incised stones at the Clovis-Early Archaic layers of the Gault site in Texas, dated 13,000-9,000 cal BP. They are among the earliest art objects from a secure context in North America. The nonfigurative decorations include geometric parallel and perpendicular lines inscribed on limestone tablets, chert flakes, and cobbles. Sources Abadà ­a, Oscar Moro. Paleolithic Art: A Cultural History. Journal of Archaeological Research, Manuel R. Gonzlez Morales, Volume 21, Issue 3, SpringerLink, January 24, 2013. Bello SM, Delbarre G, Parfitt SA, Currant AP, Kruszynski R, and Stringer CB. Lost and found: the remarkable curatorial history of one of the earliest discoveries of Palaeolithic portable art. Antiquity 87(335):237-244. Farbstein R. The Significance of Social Gestures and Technologies of Embellishment in Paleolithic Portable Art. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 18(2):125-146. Fiore D. Art in time. Diachronic rates of change in the decoration of bone artifacts from the Beagle Channel region (Tierra del Fuego, Southern South America). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30(4):484-501. Lemke AK, Wernecke DC, and Collins MB. Early Art in North America: Clovis and Later Paleoindian Incised Artifacts from the Gault Site, Texas (41bl323). American Antiquity 80(1):113-133. Lewis-Williams JD. Agency, art, and altered consciousness: A motif in French (Quercy) Upper Paleolithic parietal art. Antiquity 71:810-830. Moro Abadà ­a O, and Gonzlez Morales MR. Towards a genealogy of the concept of paleolithic mobiliary art. Journal of Anthropological Research 60(3):321-339. Rifkin RF, Prinsloo LC, Dayet L, Haaland MM, Henshilwood CS, Diz EL, Moyo S, Vogelsang R, and Kambombo F. Characterising pigments on 30 000-year-old portable art from Apollo 11 Cave, Karas Region, southern Namibia. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 5:336-347. Rivero O, and Sauvet G. Defining Magdalenian cultural groups in Franco-Cantabria by the formal analysis of portable artworks. Antiquity 88(339):64-80. Roldn Garcà ­a C, Villaverde Bonilla V, Rà ³denas Marà ­n I, and Murcia Mascarà ³s S. A Unique Collection of Palaeolithic Painted Portable Art: Characterization of Red and Yellow Pigments from the Parpallà ³ Cave (Spain). PLOS ONE 11(10):e0163565. Volkova YS. Upper Paleolithic Portable Art in Light of Ethnographic Studies. Archaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology of Eurasia 40(3):31-37.

Consolidation of Financial Statements Research Paper

Consolidation of Financial Statements - Research Paper Example This paper seeks to analyze how the acquisition method compares with the earlier two methods in consolidation of financial statements, its impact on financial statement reporting quality, potential Impact on decision making and International implications of consolidation of financial statements. The paper also discussed the differences between the standards of IFRS and GAAP in respect of consolidation of financial statements with a view to resolve the differences for enhancing uniformity, comparability and transparency in consolidation of financial statements. Acquisition Method Primarily there are two types of treatment under this method. In the first one, the investor acquires assets (and often liabilities) and investee goes out of business and the investor continues to do the business with the controlling interest. The investee company becomes a subsidiary and the stock of investee is shown as investment in the investor’s books of accounts. This process involves accounting for the fair value of the company acquired by ascertaining fair value of the assets and liabilities including contingencies based on risks associated as well as the consideration in line with the international standards. If the consideration is not equal to fair value either it is treated as good will where consideration exceeds fair value or as gain on acquisition where the consideration is less than the fair value. Direct costs associated with the acquisition are expensed. It may include fees payable to legal advisors, appraisers, auditing firms and investment bankers. Indirect costs of acquisition such as secretarial and managerial efforts are expensed. However, fair value is reduced by the costs associated with registration and issue of securities. In the second case, the acquired company continues to function as a separate entity without dissolution. In this case, the financial statements of such entity are considered in the accounts / financial statements of the acquired compa ny. The balances are consolidated separately without formal entries in the books of accounts. Assets with indefinite life are reviewed periodically for impairment in line with the accounting / reporting standards. How Purchase Method differs from Acquisition Method Application of fair-value principle is common to both the purchase method and the acquisition method. However, under Purchase Method transactions costs are included in the purchase price in the books of accounts of the subsidiary. The transaction costs and restructuring costs included in fair value under purchase method are considered as business expenses under acquisition method. Also, fair value is measured as on acquisition date under acquisition method. The acquisition method is based on recognition and measurement of the assets. The acquisition method takes into account non-controlling interests and contingencies, whereas purchase method ignores this aspect. Pooling of interest method The investor records investment in sub account and consolidation is outside the books of accounts by eliminating investment account and equity account in subsidiary’s accounts. Book values of the companies are simply combined together in consolidation of financial statements. Goodwill is not recorded in the books of accounts. Revenues and expenses are added together with retrospective effect. Rezaee, Z. (2001, p. 291) stated â€Å"Under the pooling of interest method: (1) carrying amounts on the books of combining entities should be carried forward; (2) no goodwill should be recognized; and (3) prior financial statements should be restated as if the combining entity had always been combined.† Acquisition method has significant improvements over this method to suit the needs of the businesses. Impact on financial stateme

Technology In Education Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Technology In Education - Term Paper Example Basic Definition and Application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) A geographic information system is a package consisting of four basic parts: an adequately powered computer, software (built-in procedures and instructions), geographic data (in a variety of formats), and the accessing and using the data (Schuurman, 2004). In the broadest sense, GIS can be defined as a powerful set of computer-based tools for collecting, storing, retrieving and displaying spatial information (Schuurman, 2004). Another way of saying this is that GIS is a tool for mapping and analyzing what is and what happens on earth. However, GIS is more than "computer maps" - it provides the power to link databases and maps and to show dynamic displays. More significant is that it gives the user the tools to imagine, explore or investigate, and overlay databases in ways that are not possible with traditional spreadsheets. Education, government, and business use GIS to improve on making their decisions and on m anaging the information.Why Use GIS In the Classroom The robust hardware, powerful software, spatial data can be powerful tools for an active explorer. Schools can take advantage of this "new geography" in many ways (McMaster and Usery, 2005). With relatively little financial investment by a school, GIS can be incorporated into current curricula, at each grade level and subject. GIS can give support and increase the value of existing activities and does not need a separate and 'isolated place in the curricula. With GIS the teacher and students have a new means to look at and analyze information. Also, the student's higher order thinking skills (e.g., observing, questioning, exploring, evaluating) can become a focus (McMaster and Usery, 2005). However, even more, significant than the powerful technology and tools with GIS, there is a wholly new emphasis and opportunity in the educational philosophy or paradigm for increasing individual exploration (NCSU.edu, 2002). In everyday life, answers are defined by people's questions and the parameters that are given. At present GIS software and data do not provide "the" answer. Instead, GIS offers ways to look at alternative responses to situations and problems that are specific (ESRI, 1998; ESRI, 2008). Interdisciplinary projects can be one important and effective use of GIS: mathematics, social studies, language arts, science are some examples of how this system can be helpful for the exploration of students. However, to relate GIS to the curriculum of these and other fields, there must be the "dimension" of a "location" that can be explored. An example of how GIS can be used in an interdisciplinary way is the use of a middle school teacher in North Carolina, Barbara Duke. This teacher used this technology to create a project for the students in a literature unit on Mark Twain. This unit could be related to Mark Twain's travels. The students of her class tracked the distance of Twain's travels by using tools of the ESRI Arc Voyager Project and. probed the database to find places located throughout the world where the author had traveled (NCSU.edu, 2002). Schools can employ GIS across the curriculum to engage students and teachers in the

Sociological interest in the paranormal experiences Essay

Sociological interest in the paranormal experiences - Essay Example I find very little co relation between paranormal /anomalous experiences and the sociology of knowledge because it believes in rationalization of what is being experienced. It is very difficult to point out the theory behind all things related to the paranormal / anomalous. If we try to understand what is really meant by paranormal experiences, one thing that immediately comes to our mind is that it instills a feeling of global oneness. We just cannot say that only those who are educated have had paranormal or anomalous experiences. Neither can we conclude that people following a particular religion have experienced it. Such experiences are common across different cultural communities too. Paranormal or anomalous experiences are those that leave a lasting impression on people who have gone through it but there are not enough evidence or logical explanation to prove their authenticity. Some of the phenomenon that can be categorized paranormal or anomalous are experiences of ghosts, UFO, other supernatural powers, spirituality, folie a deux condition, dj vu condition, parapsychology, occult, pseudoscience, protoscience, abduction phenomenon, extra sensory perception, spontaneous human combustion, out of body feelings, near to death experiences etc. Apart from all these there are other phenomenon like astrology, numerology, phrenology, psychometry, psychic surgery, physiognomy, chiropractic, homeopathy, precognition, remote viewing, faith healing, channeling etc. Very few of the above-mentioned phenomena can be explained in a scientific way. Yet they are more interesting and draw much more sociological interest than those phenomena, which can be proved scientifically. The reason for this is that humans tend to get bored with the tried and tested instances. Dolon rightly states in Coutts that " I want people to know that there is more to life than what we call reality, more than what we can see - and it is not as far beyond our reach as we imagine. It is ordinary, everyday, here and now, in this minute. And it is magical, a gift." (2003 p. 291) There is a constant urge in all of us to discover the thrill of coming across the unusual. This common interest binds people together and make them a part of the group. People from different dimensions become a part of the sociological structure. Their common interest is termed as sociological interest. . Chapter 1 Paranormal and the Sociology of ReligionThe sociology of religion has been an integral part of sociology since the very beginning. Davie in Taylor has very beautifully tried to bring out the link between religion and society. In his words "there are two ways of defining religion in terms of its relationship to society. The first is substantive: it is concerned with what religion is. Religion involves beliefs and practices, which assume the existence of supernatural beings. The second approach is functional: it is concerned with what religion does and how it affects the society of which it is part For example, religion offers answers to otherwise unanswerable questions (what happens when we die), or

Martin Luther King and Alice Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Martin Luther King and Alice Walker - Essay Example Martin Luther King's epiphanies however, were such that they changed the face of a nation. When the Other Dancer is the Self by Alice Walker takes a beautiful and pertinent look at what drives women and particularly little girls. Beauty is something we all strive for, especially in today's media conscious world. It is really a connection between self confidence and self esteem that Alice Walker talks about. In the beginning of her memoir she speaks about being beautiful or 'cute' and having attention poured upon her. She remembers everything she is wearing and even what the day was like until the change occurs. In some instances where a tragic event changes a person's life they forget the good times, when everything seemed to be alright and focus rather on the event that changed their lives. Alice Walker has a vivid memory of the times when her confidence was high. There are essentially two paragraphs that describe these times and then one line that explains the change. That one line has its purpose in that effectively closes a chapter. Walker writes: "It was great fun be ing cute. But then, one day, it ended."(Walker 55). Alice Walker remembers then the tiniest detail of what changed her life and that scar that seemed to rip a gaping hole through her existence. There are actually two turning points within this story that both deal with the 'self' and the coming of age into a world where ones physical appearance no longer matters as much. When Alice Walker was shot, she had been known as a certain person and she feels thereafter that she was no longer that person. She remembers being changed and asking those around her whether or not she had changed. "Years later, in the throes of a mid-life crisis, I ask my mother and sister whether I changed after the 'accident.' 'No,' they say, puzzled. 'What do you mean'" (Walker 56). In this journey Walker begins to ask herself whether the change was part of her imagination. She wonders if that change was something so small yet significant that others could not see it. There are two ways of looking at this chang e or turning point. The first transition is when she was shot and when she imagined this change as being all-encompassing. The second change is when she realizes that it really made no difference and the way she sees herself is not necessarily the way the world sees you. Take for instance an acne sufferer: their condition has cleared up but they are so fixated on the one blemish that does not clear up that they believe this all other people see. They are often shocked when those around them honestly never noticed it. Alice Walker's perception of herself changed when her child likened her blind-eye to the way the world looks from a distance. This is a remarkable definition of the 'self', and once a new way of defining the 'self' is recognized, it puts everything else into perspective. Women are eternally concerned about their appearance perhaps still due to the old way of thinking in biological terms. Hundreds of years ago, a woman's future relied on finding a man and being able to k eep him. He was her security, which meant that keeping him from straying was important and therefore preservation of appearance was also imperative. This mind-set has not yet been abolished. The way others view our appearance is very much dependent on how we view ourselves and what we are aware of within that self. Alice Walker was more confident after the

Curcumin Rich Diet Lowers The Incidence Of Breast Cancer Essay

Curcumin Rich Diet Lowers The Incidence Of Breast Cancer - Essay Example Curcumin, (diferuloylmethane), the yellow pigment extracted from the rhizoma of Curcuma longa, has been expected to posses therapeutic or preventive value for several cancers because of its antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anticancerous effects (Maheshwari et al., 2006) Cancer incidence rate comparing the breast and prostate cancer incidence in US and India is presented in the Table 1. Date from GLOBOCAN 2000 is a unique software program which provides access to information on the incidence and prevalence of, and mortality from 26 major cancers for all the countries in the world in 2000. Thus, the cancer incidence, in people from US, is for people who don’t consume curcumin, whereas the cancer incidence, in people from India, is for people who consume curcumin.... 2. P (eat curcumin and don't get breast cancer) = P (eat curcumin) P (don't get breast cancer) = 1000000/2000000 999921/2000000 = 0.5 0.4999605 = 0.24998025. The number of people who eat curcumin and don't get breast cancer is P (don't eat curcumin and don't get breast cancer) total number of people = 0.24998025 2000000 = 499960.5 3. P (don't eat curcumin and get breast cancer) = P (don't eat curcumin) P (get breast cancer) = 1000000/2000000 660/2000000 = 0.5 0.00033 = 0.000165. The number of people who don't eat curcumin and get breast cancer is P (don't eat curcumin and get breast cancer) total number of people = 0.000165 2000000 = 330 4. P (don't eat curcumin and don't get breast cancer) = P (don't eat curcumin) P (don't get breast cancer) = 1000000/2000000 999340/2000000 = 0.5 0.49967 = 0.249835. The number of people who eat curcumin and don't get breast cancer is P(don't eat curcumin and don't get breast cancer) total number of people = 0.249835 2000000 = 499670 We place the values obtained in this table: (this is our null distribution) Breast cancer No Breast cancer Total Curcumin Yes (India) 39.5 499960.5 500000 No (USA) 330 499670 500000 Total 369.5 999630.5 1000000 Using the formula, where Oi is observed numbers or frequency and Ei is what we expect if there is no dependence between the 2 variables. we get, 2 = (79-39.5)2/39.5 + (999921-499960.5)2 / 499960.5 + (660-330)2 / 330 + (999340-499670)2 / 499670 = 1000000 The larger the value of 2 , the worse the fit To see whether this number is significant we calculate the p-value. p-value = P(2 > a specific value | model is correct) In this case, the specific value

Gay marriages in colorado Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gay marriages in colorado - Research Paper Example How many people would it effect? Why or why should it not be legalized? Evaluate equality standards and the right to marry for everyone. Consider other states that have legalized gay marriage and the effects it has had on their state. Discuss the Minnesota Supreme Courts decision in 1970 about a same sex couple wishing to marry: Jack Baker and Michael McConnell. This was the very first time that government had to ever deal with same sex marriage as an issue. What were the results? How did this start to shape how people think about marriage? Discuss â€Å"All Men are Created Equal,† motto that has been adopted by the United States and how that motto plays a role in gay marriage possibilities not only in Colorado, but throughout the entire country. Discuss how different religions define marriage. As much of the United States history was based on Christianity, discuss how Christians view gay marriage. Discuss any Christian organizations in Colorado that might otherwise recognize gay marriage. Discuss other stigmas of marriage; describe the â€Å"whimsical fairytale† of a husband and wife, two kids and a dog and how that has changed since then. There are other formats that determine what a family is. Traditional roles of a marriage and a family have changed. Discuss why gay marriage is not widely accepted as something that is okay to do in the United States. Look at it from the other direction and discuss why it should be okay. Why are people so opposed to something that does not necessarily affect

Martin Luther King and Alice Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Martin Luther King and Alice Walker - Essay Example Martin Luther King's epiphanies however, were such that they changed the face of a nation. When the Other Dancer is the Self by Alice Walker takes a beautiful and pertinent look at what drives women and particularly little girls. Beauty is something we all strive for, especially in today's media conscious world. It is really a connection between self confidence and self esteem that Alice Walker talks about. In the beginning of her memoir she speaks about being beautiful or 'cute' and having attention poured upon her. She remembers everything she is wearing and even what the day was like until the change occurs. In some instances where a tragic event changes a person's life they forget the good times, when everything seemed to be alright and focus rather on the event that changed their lives. Alice Walker has a vivid memory of the times when her confidence was high. There are essentially two paragraphs that describe these times and then one line that explains the change. That one line has its purpose in that effectively closes a chapter. Walker writes: "It was great fun be ing cute. But then, one day, it ended."(Walker 55). Alice Walker remembers then the tiniest detail of what changed her life and that scar that seemed to rip a gaping hole through her existence. There are actually two turning points within this story that both deal with the 'self' and the coming of age into a world where ones physical appearance no longer matters as much. When Alice Walker was shot, she had been known as a certain person and she feels thereafter that she was no longer that person. She remembers being changed and asking those around her whether or not she had changed. "Years later, in the throes of a mid-life crisis, I ask my mother and sister whether I changed after the 'accident.' 'No,' they say, puzzled. 'What do you mean'" (Walker 56). In this journey Walker begins to ask herself whether the change was part of her imagination. She wonders if that change was something so small yet significant that others could not see it. There are two ways of looking at this chang e or turning point. The first transition is when she was shot and when she imagined this change as being all-encompassing. The second change is when she realizes that it really made no difference and the way she sees herself is not necessarily the way the world sees you. Take for instance an acne sufferer: their condition has cleared up but they are so fixated on the one blemish that does not clear up that they believe this all other people see. They are often shocked when those around them honestly never noticed it. Alice Walker's perception of herself changed when her child likened her blind-eye to the way the world looks from a distance. This is a remarkable definition of the 'self', and once a new way of defining the 'self' is recognized, it puts everything else into perspective. Women are eternally concerned about their appearance perhaps still due to the old way of thinking in biological terms. Hundreds of years ago, a woman's future relied on finding a man and being able to k eep him. He was her security, which meant that keeping him from straying was important and therefore preservation of appearance was also imperative. This mind-set has not yet been abolished. The way others view our appearance is very much dependent on how we view ourselves and what we are aware of within that self. Alice Walker was more confident after the

Gay marriages in colorado Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gay marriages in colorado - Research Paper Example How many people would it effect? Why or why should it not be legalized? Evaluate equality standards and the right to marry for everyone. Consider other states that have legalized gay marriage and the effects it has had on their state. Discuss the Minnesota Supreme Courts decision in 1970 about a same sex couple wishing to marry: Jack Baker and Michael McConnell. This was the very first time that government had to ever deal with same sex marriage as an issue. What were the results? How did this start to shape how people think about marriage? Discuss â€Å"All Men are Created Equal,† motto that has been adopted by the United States and how that motto plays a role in gay marriage possibilities not only in Colorado, but throughout the entire country. Discuss how different religions define marriage. As much of the United States history was based on Christianity, discuss how Christians view gay marriage. Discuss any Christian organizations in Colorado that might otherwise recognize gay marriage. Discuss other stigmas of marriage; describe the â€Å"whimsical fairytale† of a husband and wife, two kids and a dog and how that has changed since then. There are other formats that determine what a family is. Traditional roles of a marriage and a family have changed. Discuss why gay marriage is not widely accepted as something that is okay to do in the United States. Look at it from the other direction and discuss why it should be okay. Why are people so opposed to something that does not necessarily affect

Asos, a Company History Essay Example for Free

Asos, a Company History Essay ASOS was created in June of 2000 by UK natives Nick Robertson and Quentin Griffiths. ASOS, an acronym for As Seen On Screen, was a small online business based out of the UK that duplicated celebrity inspired products. Today they have over 1000 employees and over 50,000 items of fashion. From emulating celebrity fashions, they now are setting the trends. In 2001, the company was admitted to the London Stock Exchange, and the company quickly grew from there. In 2004, ASOS developed their own label for Women and in 2005, launched a beauty line. In 2007 they launched their own mens line as well as the extremely popular publication ASOS magazine. In the ten years after the business was first created, the company became extremely successful becoming the number one independent retailer in the United Kingdom. In 2010, started to branch out of the UK . ASOS launched websites in France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Germany and the USA, which made them an international well-known brand. Just in this past year they also launched their site in Russia. Today their website brings over 17. 5 million visitors month and as of 2012, they have 4. 4 million active customers from 160 countries. ASOS offers products under its own label as well as third party brands. These brands offer products in womenswear, menswear, footwear, accessories, jewelry as well as beauty. ASOS appears to be in a perpetual state of growth as their company seems to expand by the minute offering over thousands of new products a month.

Corporate Restructuring As A Strategic Decision Management Essay

Corporate Restructuring As A Strategic Decision Management Essay The interrelationships between organisation, strategic management and business environmental conditions have been enduring themes of organisation and management theory over the last 4 decades, and restructuring has emerged as a significant mechanism in the successful adaptation of organisations to environmental influences (Clark, 2004). The 1980s were characterised by a wave of important restructuring activities, this wave has become increasingly common during the 1990s (Lin, Lee Peterson, 2006; Park Kim, 2008). The concept of restructuring is still a matter of debate and controversy because of the modernity of the subject. Bowman and Singh (1993) described restructuring as change aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of management teams performance through considerable changes in organisational structure. Staniforth (1994) defined restructuring as opportunities for change, improvements in the organisation, and to achieve the benefits of cost, the benefits of strategic d ecision-making, the benefits of communication, and other benefits to the organisation. Restructuring is a fundamental change that significantly affects the organisation, and takes place either at the organisational level or radically reorganising activities and relationships at the business unit level (Alkhafaji, 2001). Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson (2001) argued that restructuring is a strategy through which the organisation can change its financial or commercial position. Stevenson, Bartunek and Borgatti (2003) described restructuring as attempts to get people within the organisation to work more closely together. Restructuring is a purposeful strategic option for organisation renewal (Brauer, 2006), typically includes a set of activities such as downsizing, sale of a business line, closures or consolidation of facilities, business relocation, or changes in management structure, which often occur as part of organisational strategies intended to improve efficiency, control costs, and adapt to an ever changing business environment (Lin, Lee Peterson, 2006). Thus, modifications of the organisations assets, capital structure, and organisational structure fall into the general concept of corporate restructuring (Singh, 1993; Bowman et al., 1999). Restructuring refers to the transformation of corporate structure (Bowman Singh, 1990), organisational re-configuration (Bowman Singh, 1993), refocusing (Markides, 1995), down scoping (Hitt et al., 1994; Johnson, 1996), and patching (Eisenhardt Brown, 1999; Siggelkow, 2002). The term restructuring is mainly used to denote considerable changes in the assets and structural components of organisations through conscious managerial actions. Bowman and Singh (1990) claimed that restructuring is aimed at achieving individual, financial, strategic, and/or operational goals and objectives. Bowman et al. (1999), differentiate three key forms of restructuring: portfolio restructuring, related to the changes in the portfolios of businesses held by diversified organisations, including acquisitions, mergers, divestitures etc. ; financial restructuring, which includes considerable changes in the capital structure of an organisation, and organisational restructuring, which includes significant changes in the organisational structure of the organisation, including divisional redesign and downsizing. Advocates of corporate restructuring argue that the result of restructuring activities is a leaner and more efficient corporate (Singh, 1993). Critics, however, contend that restructuring damages the organisation and its internal and external stakeholders (Seth Easterwood, 1993). 2.2.4.2 Key Drivers of Restructuring: In the 1960s and 1970s, several organisations diversified their business predominantly via the acquisition of businesses unrelated to their core activities, thus frequently realising conglomerate status (Shleifer Vishny, 1991; Hoskisson Hitt, 1994; Davis, Diekmann, Tinsley, 1994; Servaes, 1996; Johnson, 1996; Bergh, 2001). During the 1980s and 1990s, many diversified organisations were reorganised as a result of organisational refocusing initiatives intended to cut down both the breath of organisation portfolios (i.e., lower levels of diversification) and overall organisation size, thus eventually translating into organisations holding more related diversified activities (Williams, Paez Sanders, 1988; Markides, 1992; Davis, Diekmann, Tinsley, 1994; Kose Ofek, 1995; Comment Jarrell, 1995; Berger Ofek, 1995; Johnson, 1996, Cascio, 2002, Park Kim, 2008). A related diversified business is one in which the company controls businesses that share similarities in markets, products, and/or technologies with the intent of allowing organisation management to take advantage of the interrelationships between the related businesses (Rumelt, 1974; Palepu, 1985; Hoskisson Hitt, 1990; Hoskisson Hitt, 1994). As already mentioned, a multitude of theoretical and empirical investigations into the antecedents of restructuring have shown that different factors precipitate corporate restructuring. Restructuring literature reveals that there are four key drivers of restructuring. 2.2.4.2.1 The Agency justification: The premier justification as to why companies engage in restructuring is in response to less than acceptable performance (Montgomery, Thomas Kamath, 1984; Duhaime Grant, 1984; Hoskisson, Johnson Moesel, 1994; Hoskisson Hitt, 1994; Markides, 1995; Johnson, 1996; Markides Singh, 1997, Filatotchev, Buck, Zhukov, 2000, Love Nohria, 2005; Perry Shivdasani, 2005; DSouza, Megginson, Nash, 2007; Hsieh, 2010). In other words, a company divests organisational assets with the intent of improving organisational performance, whether it is their organisational performance in respect to competitors, the overall industry, or a predetermined objective (Greve, 1998). Research has undoubtedly demonstrated that organisations engaged in restructuring often are performing unsatisfactorily prior to the initiation of corporate restructuring (Duhaime Grant, 1984; Montgomery, Thomas Kamath, 1984; Sicherman Pettway, 1987; Duhaime Baird, 1987; Ravenscraft Scherer, 1987; Montgomery Thomas, 1988; H oskisson Johnson, 1992; Markides, 1992; Hoskisson Hitt, 1994; Hoskisson, Johnson Moesel, 1994; Lang, Poulson Stulz, 1995; Markides, 1995; Johnson, 1996; Markides Singh, 1997; Bowman et al., 1999; Bergh, 2001; Love Nohria, 2005; Perry Shivdasani, 2005; DSouza, Megginson, Nash, 2007; Hsieh, 2010). The majority of large organisations exhibit periodic corporate restructuring involving simultaneous changes in strategy, organisational structure, management systems, and corporate top management members. Such corporate restructuring usually follows declining organisational performance (Grant, 2008). Jain (1985), for example, found that organisation performance began to suffer nearly a year prior to restructuring and caused negative excess stock return of 10.8% within the period of one year prior to the restructuring. Such evaluations of ones own organisational performance are considerable since sound organisational performance is required to ensure the sustenance and survival of the corporate (Child, 1972), as well as offering feedback to the organisations as to the viability of their plans (Cyert March, 1963). Thompson (1967) notes that publicly traded organisations closely monitor changes in the value of their stock since the market exhibits a visible social judgment about the organisations fitness for the organisational future. The agency justification of restructuring, poor organisational performance as an antecedent of restructuring (Ravenscraft Scherer, 1987; Hoskisson Turk, 1990; Hoskisson Hitt, 1994; Markides Singh, 1997; Filatotchev, Buck, Zhukov, 2000) has become the leading justification in the literature to account for the corporate restructuring wave of the 1980s. Mainly, this rationale claims that organisation performance needs to be improved as a direct outcome of past managerial incompetence, which includes excessive levels of diversification, inappropriate diversification, unprofitable investments, and substandard investments in RD. For example, it is argued that decision makers frequently increased organisation size and levels of diversification without comparable increases in organisation value (Jensen, 1986; Hoskisson Turk, 1990; Jensen, 1993; Johnson, 1996). Moreover, it is argued that strategic decision makers have the opportunity to diversify their firms even when doing so does not enhance the market value of the organisation because their personal wealth is associated more with organisation size than to organisation performance (Jensen Meckling, 1976; Amihud Lev, 1981; Bethel Liebeskind, 1993). Grant, Jammine and Thomas (1988) found that increased degrees of diversification gave rise to decreased organisations returns, thus implying that, over time, strategic decision makers sacrificed performance for diversification and growth. Empirical studies (e.g., Rumelt, 1974; Wernerfelt Montgomery, 1988; Lubatkin Chatterjee, 1991; Palich, Cardinal, Miller, 2000; Bergh, 2001; Mayer Whittington, 2003) have substantiated such a conclusion by arguing that organisations pursuing a organisational strategy of unrelated diversification possess lower market returns than organisations pursuing related diversification and growth strategies. Supporter of the agency justification suggest that such managerial inefficiencies occur considerably as a consequence of agency costs (i.e., enlarged managerial consumption of organisational resources resulting from poor, or ineffective governance systems). Essentially, this perspective argues that the board of directors, ownership concentration, and decision makers incentives were inefficient and led to the failure of organisational governance as a mechanism (Hoskisson Turk, 1990; Jensen, 1993; Bethel Liebeskind, 1993; Gibbs, 1993; Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994; Johnson, Daily, Ellstrand, 1996; Johnson, 1996; Chatterjee Harrison, 2001). Although never clearly clarified in the literature, poor governance is believed to be identified by diffusion of shareholdings among foreign owners, certain characteristics of strategic decision makers (e.g., insignificant equity ownership by strategic decision makers and board members or an insignificant number of outsiders sitting on the bo ard), and decision makers and board members passivity (Johnson, Hoskisson, Hitt, 1993; Bethel Liebeskind, 1993; Gibbs, 1993; Johnson, 1996; Westphal Fredrickson, 2001; Dalton et al, 2003). Thus, the agency perspective has made restructuring synonymous with poor corporate governance (Hoskisson Turk, 1990; Bethel Liebeskind, 1993; Markides Singh, 1997). 2.2.4.2.2 The Mimicry Justification: It is argued that organisations restructure as a consequence of mimicking the behaviour of other firms that are engaged in the divestiture activities (Markides Singh, 1997). In line with mimetic isomorphism (DiMaggio Powell, 1983; Oliver, 1991), this perspective claims that organisations, either intentionally or unintentionally, engage in mimicry of organisational patterns of other actors in their networks who are realised as more successful or legitimate. Strategic decision makers engaged in such imitation consider that their actions will be perceived as rational (Meyer Rowan, 1977; DiMaggio Powell, 1983). Such claims were adopt by Davis, Diekmann, and Tinsley (1994) in their justification of the decline of the conglomerate organisation in the United States of America during the period of 1980s. 2.2.4.2.3 The Environmental Justification: Scholars (e.g., Meyer, Brooks, Goes, 1990; Grinyer McKiernan, 1990; Hoskisson Hitt, 1990; Shleifer Vishny, 1991; Kose, Lang Netter, 1992; Chatterjee, 1992; Johnson, 1996; Bergh Lawless, 1998; Robinson Shimizu, 2006; Park, 2007; Park Kim, 2008; Nag Pathak, 2009) have suggested that environmental circumstances serve as antecedents to increased corporate restructuring. It is argued that antitrust policy shifts, tax rationales, junk bond financing, intense competition, deregulation, technology developments and changes, and takeover activities through the market for organisational control are reasons for the significant increase in corporate restructuring activity in the 1980s (Johnson, 1996). A synthesis of studies exploring such associations suggests that changes in the environmental conditions, which increase environmental uncertainty or turbulence, result in a greater likelihood of corporate restructuring. Grinyer McKiernan (1990), for example, suggested that corporate restructuring may result from changes in the industrial sector that create an aspiration-induced crisis built on the current organisational performance or market share and where strategic decision makers believe the firm ought to be. Further support of the environmental conditions argument was conducted by Meyer, Brooks and Goes (1990) who explored organisational strategic responses to discontinuous change at the industrial sector level. They explored the hospital industry in San Francisco state, which was facing considerable environmental turbulence, which led to excess capacity, regulatory changes, and resource scarcity. To deal with these environmental changes the hospital industry engaged in spin-of fs of unnecessary areas, underwent divestitures of peripheral activities, and created networks among the hospitals to respond to the need for managed health care in the San Francisco state. Moreover, a third study to justify the environmental conditions perspective was offered by Bergh and Lawless (1998), who explored external uncertainty and its influence on the strategic decisions the organisation makes. Their study suggested that organisations experienced with highly uncertain circumstances engage in divestitures to cut down the expenses of managing a diverse portfolio. Scholars (e.g., Garvin, 1983; Ito, 1995, Campa Kedia, 2002; Rose Ito, 2005) have contended that restructuring can be a reaction to shocks in the external environment. Dodonova and Khoroshilov (2006) found that divestiture activities tend to occur during economic booms, whereas Campa and Kedia (2002) suggested the opposite. Divestiture activities seem more likely to occur in ever-changing business environments and highly competitive markets (Ito, 1995; Eisenhardt Brown, 1999). Because large organisations form significant parts of the task environments of other firms, one organisations restructuring may tend to create environmental instability for other firms, particularly those in the same industrial sector. Such claim is explicit in Brown and Eisenhardts (1998) perspective of strategy as structured chaos. They argue that the best-performing organisations consistently lead change in their industrial sectors. According to Brown and Eisenhardts (1998) theory, such organisations dominate their markets. In fact, these organisations become the environment for others. Not only do they lead environmental change, but these organisations also set the rhythm and pace of that environmental change within their industrial sectors (Brown Eisenhardt , 1998). The role of restructuring in creating environmental turbulence and change is also implicit in the stream of research based on the hyper-competition concept (e.g., DAveni, 1994; Young, Smith, Grimm, 1998; Thomas, 19 98). The primary idea of hyper-competition is that competing firms engage in a continuous series of strategic actions that undercut the key advantages acquired by their competitors (DAveni, 1994; Smith Zeithaml, 1998). Such process is interchangeable, as objectives of competitive initiatives respond to those initiatives with actions of their own, their goals counter-respond, and so on. Therefore, changes in competition are among the most significant environmental factors for strategic decision makers to consider in corporate restructuring (Johnson, 1996). Competition may intensify because of the diversity of strategies by organisations in an industrial sector, a change in the power balance of organisations, and shifts in market demand (Porter, 1980). To cope with the challenges of increasing competition, strategic decision makers of organisations are usually encouraged to take further risk and often respond by corporate restructuring (Cool, Dierickx, Jemison, 1989). According to G rinyer and McKiernan (1990), competitive changes tend to an aspiration-induced crisis. When the competitive environment changes, corporate restructuring helps organisations to realise synergies, allocate resources, and improve organisational performance (Chatterjee, 1986; Hoskisson Hitt, 1988; Bergh, 1995; Bergh 1998). Another significant environmental antecedent of restructuring, the degree of government regulation, is a tool to control high risk-taking at the organisation level: when an economy is greatly regulated, firms are faced with bounded discretion in their strategic decisions (Wiseman Catanach, 1997). The reduction of governmental involvement increases the strategic decision-making discretion of organisations, improves the effectiveness of governance systems, and decreases the barriers to investments (Ramamurti, 2000). On the other hand, reduced governmental intervention increases the degree of uncertainty for organisations due to the increase in the variety of stakeholders, the rise of newly privatised organisation, and a concomitant increase in the probability of bankruptcy (Megginson Netter, 2001). Moreover, regulatory changes are positively associated with changes in organisation risk-taking strategies and behaviour, such as acquisitions (Ginsberg Buchholtz, 1990; Datta, Narayanan, Pinches, 1992). Under deregulation, according to Rajagopalan and Spreitzer (1997), less-focused, defender-like organisations tend to shift to greater focused, prospector-like strategies. 2.2.4.2.4 The Strategic Justification: Scholars suggest that organisation strategy is a driver of restructuring (Montgomery, Thomas, Kamath, 1984; Duhaime Grant, 1984; Baysinger Hoskisson, 1989; Markides, 1992; Markides, 1995; Johnson, 1996). In other words, restructuring may be associated with an organisations corporate or business level strategy. The strategic perspective claims that organisations decide to restructure for either corrective or proactive goals. Corrective divestiture activities are intended to make up for former strategic mistakes (Porter, 1987; Hitt et al, 1996), to reduce exaggerated diversification (Markides, 1992; Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994), to refocus on core activities and businesses (Markides, 1992; Seth Easterwood, 1993), to react to an increase in industrial sector competition (Aron, 1991), to realign organisation strategy with the organisations identity (Mitchell, 1994; Zuckerman, 2000), to eliminate negative alliances (Miles Rosenfeld, 1983; Rosenfeld, 1984), or to deal with organ isational problems such as bad organisational governance (Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994). On the other hand, the target of proactive divestitures is to restructure the organisational portfolio (Hitt et al., 1996; Bowman et al., 1999) by routinely redesigning, splitting, changing or exiting activities and businesses to cope with changing environment opportunities (Eisenhardt Brown, 1999; Siggelkow, 2002). This restructuring is aimed at creating a more efficient organisational governance system ( Seward Walsh, 1996), improving organisational profitability and performance (Woo, Willard, Daellenbach, 1992; Mitchell, 1994; Fluck Lynch, 1999; Haynes, Thompson, Wright, 2002), obtaining more cash flow (Jensen, 1989; Hitt et al., 1996), decreasing high level of debit (Montgomery, Thomas, Kamath, 1984; Hitt et al, 1996; Allen McConnell, 1998) or tax payments (Schipper Smith, 1986; John, 1993; Vijh, 2002), acquiring better business contracts from regulators (Schipper Smith, 1986; Woo, Willard, Daellenbach, 1992), or enhancing organisational entrepreneurship and innovativeness (Garvin, 1983; Cassiman Ueda, 2006). From a strategic view, most divesting organisations seem to be more diversified than their industrial sector counterparts (Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994; Haynes, Thompson, Wright, 2003). Over-diversification pushes an organisation toward de-conglomeration and de-diversification as a correction of its strategic decisions and choices. Nevertheless, in very specific contexts, divestiture processes are also used to improve diversification (such as spin-offs processes in Japan) (Ito, 1995). Over-diversification decreases innovation and entrepreneurial spirit within organisations. Extremely diversified organisations tend to give priority to financial controls, to ignore strategic controls and therefore create less organisational innovation (Hitt et al., 1996), and to enlarge managerial risk aversion (Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994). Thus, according to Garvin (1983), an organisation may engage in unbundling processes to enhance its entrepreneurial spirit and its organisational innov ation, or to enter technology-based and immature activities. Spin-offs processes, for example, can be used to encourage entrepreneurial spirit and organisational innovation in the divested business unit, while the parent gains some advantages from the new product, service, or technology developed in the independent organisation (Garvin, 1983). 2.2.5 Linkage Between Environmental Conditions, Decision Makers, and Restructuring as a Strategic Decision: The antecedents of restructuring show that restructuring is a strategic phenomenon. There are several postulates underlie such a perspective. The first postulate is that strategic restructuring decision is typically an organisational response to changing internal and/or external conditions. The second postulate is that internal and external pressures and influences are largely, but not totally, clear and identifiable in initiating such strategic restructuring. The third postulate is that numerous organisations currently experience these clear pressures and influences for a strategic adaptive response, and that large numbers of these firms seek to respond by strategic restructuring. A fourth and final postulate is that corporate restructuring generally improves organisation performance. Taken together, these postulates form the basis for a strategic view on corporate restructuring; in other words, that there are forces, pressures, and influences that provide a stimulus for strategic r estructuring, that these pressures affect several organisations, large numbers of whom respond by corporate restructuring, which improves organisational performance. However, two important questions should be raised: how do you decide which restructuring strategy to apply to which organisation? And what are the key factors affecting the strategic decision-making process and consequently restructuring decision as strategic choice? Although external environment has been identified as a significant variable in explaining numerous organisational phenomena (Jones, Jacobs, Spijker, 1992), scholars (Hitt Tyler, 1991; Eisenhardt Zbaracki, 1992; Dean Sharfman, 1993; Rajagopalan, Rasheed Datta, 1993, Papadakis Barwise, 1997; Brouthers, Brouthers, Werner, 2000; Hough White, 2003) realise that an organisations economic environment and competitive circumstances alone cannot clearly explain the nature of strategic decisions and its performance outcomes. So, to enhance the performance of their patterns, strategists have begun to focus on the behavioural factors of organisational strategic decision-making. This growing recognition to the significance of the behavioural element has naturally a focus on the individuals characteristics responsible for making these organisational strategic decisions. In public sector organisations the top managers are considered to be responsible for achieving the alignment of the organi sation with its environmental conditions (Andrews, 1971; Child, 1972). These decision makers must gather the significant information by which to make strategic decisions, analyse this input, deduce alternative approaches of action for the organisation, and finally choose and implement a particular strategic action for the organisation. The relationships between strategic decision makers, strategic decision-making processes, and organisational outcomes have been the key focus of top management research. Strategic decision makers, according to this research, do make a difference in the matter of organisation outcomes such as innovation strategies (Bantel Jackson, 1989; Camelo-Ordaz, Hernandez-Lara, Valle-Cabrera, 2005); organisational strategic change (Wiersema Bantel, 1992); and organisational performance (Hambrick Mason, 1984; Murray, 1989; Michel Hambrick, 1992; Peterson et al., 2003; Dwyer, Richard, Chadwick, 2003; Carpenter, Geletkanycz, Sanders, 2004). Such research suggested that certain demographic characteristics of the strategic decision makers (e.g., age, educational level, and tenure) were associated with organisational outcomes. Other scholars (Hitt, Ireland, Palia, 1982; Gupta Govindarajan, 1984; Walsh Seward, 1990; Davis Thompson, 1994; Westphal Fredrickson, 2001) have found that decision m akers characteristics such as experience are linked to the organisational strategic orientations. The empirical relations found between demographic characteristics of decision makers and organisational outcomes suggest that functional backgrounds might have significant ramifications for organisational strategic decision-making. Scholars have found that functional experience tends to restrict the areas to which strategic decision makers pay attention and may lead them to neglect certain stimuli (Beyer et al., 1997). Moreover, managerial experience affects the types of changes that decision makers perceive in the effectiveness of their firm, but not its environment (Waller, Huber, Glick, 1995) Managerial experiences shape the cognitive perspective of strategic decision makers (Hambrick Mason, 1984). The upper echelons theory claims that the strategic decision makers observable experiences affect their orientation and that strategic choice (Hambrick Mason, 1984; Finkelstein Hambrick, 1996; Pansiri, 2007). Therefore, according to Gupta (1984), decision makers differ in the sets of abilities, skills, and views that they bring to a company. Managerial skills, abilities, and perspectives are largely a function of previous functional backgrounds, personal backgrounds, and educational level. In other words, cognitive perspectives brought to bear on strategic decisions are a result of the various experiences that strategic decision makers acquire during their organisational careers (Schwenk, 1988). Research on organisational strategic issue diagnosis has drew attention to how decision makers cognitions can affect several aspects of the organisational strategic decision-making process from environmental scanning (Daft, Sormunen, Parks, 1988; Milliken, 1990; Abiodun, 2009), processing and analysis (Gioia, 1986; Dutton Duncan, 1987; Herrmann Datta, 2005), the evaluation of alternative approaches, and implementation of selected strategic decision (Dutton Jackson, 1987; Ganster, 2005; Kauer, Waldeck, Scha ¨ffer, 2007). Strategic decision makers cognitive perspectives or mental maps represent experientially acquired reference frames which involve sets of different criteria, standards of evaluation, and strategic decision rules that can restrict as well as facilitate the organisational ability to change. While strategic decision makers cognitive perspectives or mental frameworks provide a significant reference point for strategic decision-making, they can also extremely constrain the ability of the organisation to adapt to changing environmental demands. Weick (1979) argued that decision makers act on impoverished perspectives of the world. According to Schwenk (1988) cognitive limitations can thus provide biases into managerial schemata which can negatively influence the nature of strategic decision-making. The experientially acquired nature of strategic decision makers cognitive views makes them probably to be more reflective of previous organisational scenarios and strategic decisions than of present ones. By depending on past images of historical environmental conditions and competitive circumstances, strategic decision makers may not be able to realise or adequately define the need for organisational change. Thus strategic decision makers cognitive perspectives can determine the ability of the firm to cope with changing requirements and times and therefore decision makers can act as a stabilizing power on the organisation. Scholars (e.g. Schwenk, 1984; Wiersema Bantel, 1992; Eisenhardt Zbaracki, 1992; Waller, Huber Glick, 1995; Tyler Steensma, 1998) have argued that strategic decision makers characteristics might limit information search, processing, and/or retrieval in spite of decision makers desire to make strategic decisions according to the environmental requirements and conditions. As stated in social motivation perspective, managers may remain committed to specific courses of action based on their need to sustain consistency (Staw, 1981; Brockner, et al., 1986; Taylor Brown, 1988; Brockner, 1992; Keil, Mann, Rai, 2000; Biyalogorsky, Boulding, Staelin, 2006; Keil, Depledge, Rai, 2007). The incentives and needs that drive managers have significant ramification for strategic decisions: First, strategic decision makers who encounter information consistent with their cognitive perspectives or sets of beliefs will support that information. Second, strategic decision makers who are heavily inve sted in or committed to a specific approach of action are more likely to ignore information that does not consistent with their previous strategic decisions. Finally, only strategic decision makers who are committed to performing under scenarios of change will be willing and receptive to incorporate inconsistent information. Accordingly, research on social motivation argues that strategic decision makers are best at being receptive and willing to information that only marginally deviates from their sets of beliefs, while key changes are more unlikely to be easily incorporated. Moreover, strategic decision makers will probably ignore information that considerably deviates from their cognitive perspectives or sets of beliefs. Finally, Strategic decision makers can become embedded within the corporate routines and organisational processes that contribute to sustaining the status quo (Pfeffer Salancik, 1978; Staw Ross, 1980; Daft Weick, 1984; Tushman Romanelli, 1985). With growing organisational tenure and function experience and considerable familiarity with organisational processes and routines, strategic decision makers become susceptible to the organisational inertias factors. Miller (1991) argued that increasing managerial tenure results in corporate insularity. Over time, corporate exposure tends to lead to consistency to organisational norms and values (Kanter, 1977). Strategic decision makers may act as a stable governance system that determines the organisations ability to change. Decision makers experiences and perspectives reinforce prior courses of organisational strategic decision-making (Staw Ross, 1980). Therefore, managerial turnover provides an important mechanism by which firms can re align themselves with external environmental circumstances (Thompson, 1967; Katz Kahn, 1978; Perrow, 1986). By changing the power distribution within the firm, thus influencing the dynamics of strategic decision-making processes (Pfeffer Salancik, 1978), managerial turnover serves as a key force to overcome organisational resistance and inertia (Tushman Romanelli, 1985). Moreover, managerial turnover, according to Wiersema and Bantel (1993), may help the organisation to cope with radical changes in its external environment by introducing new values, beliefs, and knowledge ba