Monday, September 30, 2019

Competition in the Golf Industry

An Analysis of â€Å"Competition in the Golf Industry† It is unknown when the game of golf originated, but it is believed that people began playing in Europe during the middle ages. In the United States, golf was a sport primarily played by the wealthy individuals until tournaments began being televised. Since then, golf has grown to be a very lucrative industry with over 27 million golfers nationwide by the end of the 1990’s. â€Å"Competition in the Golf Equipment Industry,† a case study written by John E. Gamble of the University of South Alabama, is an overview of the problems currently facing major companies in the golf equipment industry: technological limitations (due to golf’s governing organizations), a decline in the number of golfers, and the economic recession, and the threat of counterfeit products. These limitations are causing leading competitors in the golf industry, namely Calloway Golf, to rethink their strategies in 2010. PLAC Analysis for Calloway Golf Ely Reeves Calloway Jr. , Calloway’s original owner, CEO and President, bought a manufacturing company of hickory shaft wedges and putters in 1983. Calloway, originally restricted to reproducing antique golf clubs, has extended its product breadth across the golf equipment industry. Calloway Golf now encompasses drivers (with the introduction of Big Bertha), putters (with the acquisition of Odyssey), irons (designed to compete against Titleist), golf balls (with the acquisition of Top-Flite), footwear and clothes branding, and GPS units (with the acquisition of UPlay). See Timeline in Appendix 1. Calloway has differentiated itself from its competitors by its innovation, beginning with the success of their driver, Big Bertha, which initiated the technology race among firms. Calloway and its’ competitors introduce more innovative products every 12-18 months to remain competitive. Furthermore, Calloway has acquired several firms since its origination in 1983 in order to expand its product breadth. Although in 2009, Calloway Golf Company was the â€Å"second largest seller of drivers and fairway woods,† revenues have declined by 17% in 2009 compared to the first six months of 2008. Challenges facing this firm will be assessed in the SWOT analysis. SWOT Analysis for the golf industry, Calloway Golf & Recommendations See Appendix 2 for Matrix Strengths: Calloway’s technological innovation in making a driver that pushed the limits of USGA standards shows motivation to become the best. Marketing to recreational golfers in an attempt to help them enjoy the game more by offering an opportunity to drive 6-10 yards further was a benchmark and pushed Calloway’s product to the best golf product of the century by a two-to-one margin. Calloway’s recognizable name also gives them a competitive edge. Weaknesses: Although these technological advances may have boosted sales, there is still little evidence that these advances help golfers lower their scores. Another weakness of the industry is sustainability. With the development of new products every 12-18 months, it is crucial that companies market their products and have strong sales shortly after introduction. Also, a weakness with Calloway’s golf balls was their brand image with the acquisition of Top-Flite golf balls, which quickly coined the game â€Å"Rock-Flight. † Opportunities: Although sales have declined 5. 7% during 2008, continued marketing efforts and remaining a household name could prove beneficial to all firms after the recession has subsided. Due to the recession, discretionary spending has declined and savings has risen, but this could quickly change after a turn in the economy. Furthermore, Calloway has recently cut their endorsements of PGA professionals to only encompass 10 men’s PGA professionals and 5 women. If they expanded these numbers, it would give them more brand exposure and possibly higher revenues since many recreational golfers base their decisions on the type of equipment successful, professional golfers are using. Threats: There are a number of threats affecting the golf industry as a whole: effects of technological limitations by USGA, a decline in the number of golfers due to the economy and lack of leisure time, and the rise of counterfeiting. The state of the current economy paired with the decline in the number of golfers, has caused companies to focus more on price and volume. Counterfeiting is largely attributable to the decisions by executives to outsource for cheaper labor to manufacturers in China; who can produce a golf club for less than $3 per club. Recommendations Companies currently operating within the golf industry, specifically Calloway Golf, must change their current marketing approaches and strategies to withstand the recession and threats facing the industry. Although Calloway has a strong R&D department that tends to remain competitive with products and technology, there have been little results in reference to scores. It is imperative that if companies are going to market a product that will help golfers drive further and straighter that the results depict this so that not to damage the brand name of a product. Secondly, due to the decline in equipment sales and the number of golfers, prices are dropping and companies are outsourcing to maintain the volume needed to remain competitive. Companies must be cautious and aware so that counterfeiting may be reduced. This reduction would also allow companies to reduce their pricing and have more sales without the competition of these cheaply priced knock-offs. In the instance of Calloway, an increase in marketing and endorsements would boost their sales due to brand recognition. Calloway has recently fallen to second place in the amount of sales of drivers. In aiding in cutting down on counterfeiting, lowering prices, and increasing marketing and endorsements, Calloway may have the opportunity to reposition themselves as number one in the marketplace. Appendix 1 Calloway Timeline 1983- Ely Reeves Calloway, Jr. purchased a 50% interest in a Temecula, California manufacturer and marketer of hickory shafted wedges and putters for $400,000. 1985-Ely Reeves Calloway, Jr. , hired aerospace and metallurgical engineers to design the most technologically advanced golf clubs. 1991- Introduction of Big Bertha 1996- Acquisition of Odyssey (leading brand of putters)

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Daily Time Record

This Automated Student Attendance Daily Time Record focuses on the need to design a system that will automatically arrange the record and calculate the average attendance of each student. A well-conceived and implemented automated student record system can reduce the costs of handling the paperwork associated with record keeping. Manual attendance record system is not efficient and requires time to arrange record and to calculate the average attendance of each individual student. Automated Student Attendance Daily Time Record is intended to replace the manual model of attendance record keeping. Our school using ball pen or log book to record a attendance this system need a computer and the student will record his attendance with a password and the system will arrange the record and calculate the average attendance of the student. The system contains attendance record in electronic files containing details of absence or presence of a specific student enrolment during a semester. Attendance records have been collected on paper forms and verified with hand written signatures. However, the increasing demand for automated student attendance daily time record should be implemented as soon as possible in order to reduce the costs of handling the paper works with record keeping. This system described in this document should be implemented also in different school and all automated systems must follow the standard procedures. This project will try to organize the current school attendance record system that will be much quicker and will save time. Statement of the Problem The study was conducted to some school that does not have automated student information daily time record. Specific Problem. Does our some school have this system? †¢What is the importance of having this kind of system? †¢Is there any summary report for the attendance weekly or after the semester? †¢Is the system reliable to keep all the attendance records? Objective Design and create a system that could calculate and get the average attendance of the student more efficient, reliable and less time in a semester. Specific objective †¢Create a system the will calculate the average of attendance of each of individual student †¢Arrange the record accordingly. †¢Reduce the costs of handling the paperwork associated with record keeping.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Environmental Issues Can Be Handled Without Compromising on Profits Research Paper

Environmental Issues Can Be Handled Without Compromising on Profits - Research Paper Example The strategic avoidance or minimal compliance with the regulations pertaining to environmental management has led the corporations to environmental pollution or degradation of the environment. The managers are usually faced with difficult situations when they have to trade-off between economic profitability and concern for the environment. However, firms can address the environmental concerns while remaining sustainable although different firms may follow a different path to achieve the objectives. Managers’ commitment to sustainable development can be a source of competitive advantage but they view strategic environmental issues as threats (Là ³pez-Gamero, Claver-Cortà ©s & Molina-Azorà ­n, 2007). It has also been found that the number of resources available to the organization as well as the size of the firm determines the firm’s orientation towards appropriate environmental initiatives. This is evident from the case of the Body Shop and its take over by L’Oreal. Body Shop is known for its ethical stand on animal testing, human rights, community trade and the environment (Glasgow, 2006). The Body Shop had been positioned as an ethical and green-conscious business, believing in fair-trade practices (Alarcon, 2008). Body Shop had been seeking financial support and when the takeover was decided, it was also agreed that Body Shop would continue to operate as an independent unit. L’Oreal is 25% owned by Nestle and is a brand in itself. While Body Sh op was dead against testing its cosmetics on animals, L’Oreal has always been doing this. L’Oreal’ has refused to sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics – a Code of practice – that requires the removal of potential carcinogens and other toxins from beauty products (Russell, 2007).

Friday, September 27, 2019

Environmental Sustainability - Define the concept of renewability, and Term Paper

Environmental Sustainability - Define the concept of renewability, and apply it to Damen Hall's replacement - Term Paper Example To date, innovative technologies have been adapted in order to harvest this resource. Auspicious developments are in the areas of photovoltaic cells that directly convert the sun’s light energy to electricity (Kamal, 2010 & van Santen, et; al. 2010). To put it in a concept, the sun’s energy is the ultimate energy resource and in the simplest explanation, it is renewable because it is easily refilled as long as the sun continues to shine and along with the consideration that it is not capable of polluting the environment and therefore hastening climate change. Sun’s heat aside from giving light energy, heat and as energy resource for photosynthesis also stirs up phenomenon in the earth’s surface that can also serve as promising energy sources such as wind and water movement (van Santen, et. al. 2010). Renewability and Sustainability: Establishing relationship Closely related to the concept of renewability is the universally accepted principle of sustainabil ity. The term is not difficult to understand for almost all efforts of economic development and planning in many modern countries especially in the United States today centers on sustainable economic development. ... They argued that the current lifestyle we are in is an ideology of death where we are over-consuming and therefore destroying resources not capable of replenishing itself. Moreover at the economic standpoint, sustainability and renewbaility are both important backdrops where in they are essential ingredients to sustainable economic policies. When the principle is integrated into sustainable economic policies such as giving them positive economic values and functions, then there is a reduced risk of overuse. At the standpoint of sustainable development and resources use, the utility of non-renewable resources points to an economic of collapse. There are many misleading yet established notions that the use of nonrenewable resource is cheaper and the renewable ones would entail a plethora of investment (Kamal, 2010 & van Santen, et; al. 2010). This is in the other hand, a largely inaccurate assessment and as a matter of fact, it is the use of nonrenewable raw materials have plunged econ omies in different parts of the world. Recycling and Nutrient Cycling in the Purview of Renewability In the context of renewability, the closet and most relevant point of view where recycling and nutrient cycles comes is in on the direct and indirect effects of global warming. Nutrient cycle is the process of transforming and utilizing nutrients from one organism to another. It is obvious therefore that energy plays a central role in this nutrient transport (Kamal, 2010). To illustrate, remember that the Earth is a huge ecosystem – a natural environ. And that the function, as well as the structure of the ecosystem is highly governed by energy flow and

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Gendered Landscapes Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Gendered Landscapes - Coursework Example In the image above, the woman is left to make sure that the children have completed their homework, dressed and have everything ready for school as well as clean the house and conduct other household chores (Carubia, Dowler, & Szczygiel, 2005). The husbands or the father figures fail to take into consideration that the same women have day jobs that also need their attention thus leaving the women just as exhausted as their male counterparts. The barriers â€Å"stops† experienced by most working women is that the male gender still embraces the cultural way of division of labor where they are expected to fend for their families as the females take care of the families. Due to the hard economic times most families are unable to afford hired help, and so all the chores are left to the woman. The male elements are privileged whereas the female elements are marginalized. The males have time to unwind upon leaving their jobs while the women have more work awaiting them at home just as shown in the image above. Despite the prominent sectors of feminists being institutionalized and professionalized, they should still fight for the womens welfare (Carubia, Dowler, & Szczygiel, 2005). The domestic duties should be equally divided between the male and the female counterparts of the family to promote equality in all parts of life. My husband has heard my plea â€Å"destination† and is currently helping with a few things. Though he doesn’t do much at least he makes an effort. The fight for equality for women should not only end in the workplace, industrial world, and the political world but should also be extended to homes (Baugher, 2010). (AdriHead,

Managing and Motivating Employees in their Twenties Essay

Managing and Motivating Employees in their Twenties - Essay Example In this case, education involves introducing new ideas to them, particularly ideas involving technology. To manage young people effectively, mangers will also need to devolve their decision-making process. Young people will work better if they are consulted during the decision-making. An autocratic management system is likely to attract rebellion and uncooperativeness from young employees. Organizations that have young people in their twenties as the main employees are likely to succeed if they increase employee’s authority in making decision. Unlike past generations, current generation of employees in their twenties prefer short-term goals and objectives (Fertik, 2011). Managers are therefore, encouraged to set projects that can be completed within a short period. This is because the generation is always after instant results due to their short concentration span. Although managers of young people need to do all they can to motivate employee, it is important to maintain standard and orders. This will involves incorporating appropriate and professional disciplinary measure for employee who compromises the organization’s rule. Firing non-performing employees will promote order and discipline among young

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Cultural diversity, multiculturalism and inclusion Essay

Cultural diversity, multiculturalism and inclusion - Essay Example On the other hand, inclusion denotes the embodiment of different groups of people that have special needs. Apparently, the proposition to engage multiculturalism, cultural diversity and inclusiveness in the education sector has not been implemented due to the divergent implications that have been expressed. Thus, this paper will focus on the positive and negative implications that have been mention in concern to the subject. Firstly, it is noted that to nurture human cohesion, all individuals need a glimpse of the historical background of all the groups that reside in an area. For example, America is considered one of the most diverse nations in the world because it has people from diverse origins. Notwithstanding, it would be prudent to engage all the population to afflict a unified society. Secondly, the inclusion of such approaches will guarantee that people will comprehend their diversity, which has not been acceptable in the past. Through such an understanding, different societies will express peaceful coexistence in the possible manner. Thirdly, the available documentations express the impressive performance of particular races. However, with the inclusion of other individuals with successful innovation, all the learners will appreciate the diversity of all the races (Grant 179). For example, the policy makers need to embrace African American who fought against the social ills as well as the white s that struggled for economic sustenance. Fourthly, the approach will enhance comprehension of collaborative methodology that expresses the concerns of all the groups that live in the region. Lastly, the execution of such an approach will lead to multicultural equity in the state. Evidently, some of the minority groups are not given identical treatment as the other majority groups, and this affects the livelihood of the marginal population. Thus, the inception of the

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Identifying purchase perceptions that promote frequent e-commerce Research Paper

Identifying purchase perceptions that promote frequent e-commerce buying with special reference to UAE - Research Paper Example However, the perception of consumers on e-commerce purchasing process used to differ from an individual to an individual to another individual due to several positive and negative aspects of e-commerce. It is clear from both primary and secondary data analysis process that the demand for online marketing activities is increasing significantly, but some individuals are concerned about the account hacking threats during online payment process. Business environment in UAE is becoming highly competitive and saturated. It is true that B2C e-commerce purchasing activities is increasing significantly in UAE as several leading multinational or domestic organizations are trying to market their products through online. In addition to this demand for online buying and selling activities is significantly increasing among the people in UAE. Day-by-day, the number of internet and social media network users is increasing significantly around the globe. UAE is achieving significant economic growth as the business environment of this part in the world is improving constantly. UAE is enriched with natural oil and gas resources. In addition to this, the government has developed and implemented some effective policies in order to attract the leading multinational organizations to enter in this part of the world. Favourable economic environment of UAE is motivating several leading multinational organizations to enter in UAE. In addition to this, high purchasing power and high disposable income of people is motivating several domestic and multinational firms to start business operation activities in UAE. However, implementation e-commerce in the business operation activities has become one of the important upcoming trends for the business organizations in the industry. Adoption and implementation of e-commerce business operation activities can benefit both the organizations and customers. Organizations can reduce business operation cost through the adoption and implementation of

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Power and Privilege Homogenous Choice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Power and Privilege Homogenous Choice - Essay Example I believe that it is possible to respect the differences between individuals and cultures, while retaining the natural comfort level found in individual association. I call this homogenous choice. As an individual, I am aware of the differences between myself and others. Whether those differences are cultural or behavioral, I know that I can face a dilemma as I react to those differences. Although space does not permit me to delineate all of the possibilities, I think that a consolidation of the ideas comes down to one word: Respect. If my responses to the differences in people I meet, and their unique way of perceiving the world, are respectful of their point of view, I can avoid a negative perspective that includes prejudice or racism. Different isn't bad, it is just different. That said, I don't have to embrace all the differences I encounter; or even like them. I can respect my own perspective as a valid point of view, and extend that same significance to the people I meet. The guiding principle for me, as for most other people, is personal comfort. I am naturally more comfortable with certain cultures than others, especially my own. In his article on the subject of diversity, David Brooks points out that people are "finding places where [they] are comfortable and where [they] feel [they] can flourish" (30).

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Hazel vs Oedipus Essay Example for Free

Hazel vs Oedipus Essay Tragedies often feature happiness developing into miseries through errors which ultimately reveal the cold hard truth. The hero suffers from human frailty (hamartia) which directs to his/her downfall. The hero suffers from catastrophic events, experiences peripeteia and is confronted with the magnitude of his/her actions. Two such heroes are Hazel Grace Lancaster from â€Å"The Faults in Our Stars† by John Green, and Oedipus in the play â€Å"Oedipus Rex† written by Sophocles. Both modern and classic articles of literature have a wide-reaching influence on people and inspire many through the centuries. Modern tragic hero Hazel is a teenage thyroid cancer patient who experiences twisting series of bitter losses. As an only child who has been diagnosed since the age of thirteen, she fears and worries what will happen to the loved ones after she dies and wants to minimize the pain her death will cause others. Classic hero Oedipus is destined to fulfill a prophecy that says he will kill his father and marry his mother, and thereby brings disaster on his city and family. He is blinded by the truth and hubris, powerlessly enduring the course of fate despite harsh and fearful confrontations. While both characters fulfill the role of a tragic figure, the modern hero Hazel evidently provides more hope for the audience than the classic hero Oedipus. This is shown when their character traits of determination, courage and ignorance are compared. Determination is a quality a hero cannot be considered one without, and both Hazel and Oedipus show this quality along their ways. Hazel shows determination as she combats cancer despite harsh reality. Augustus asks, With the trope of the stoic and determined cancer victim who heroically fights her cancer with inhuman strength and never complains or stops smiling even at the very end, etcetera? (Green 128). Gus and Hazel refuse to be tropes. Instead they create a new kind of cancer rhetoric, one that looks straight on at the unbearable fact that they are unbelievably unfortunate and stand a good chance of dying young. They are two doomed children who have not really had the chance to experience life, and who are determined to do so one way or another. Hazel demonstrates her strong determination once again as she sets out to Amsterdam with Augustus to find out the ending of her favourite book, â€Å"An Imperial Affliction†. She wants to know those answers and what happens to Anna’s mother after she dies. By using the lens of the novel, she wishes to reassure the fact that her own mother and family will be okay after her death, since directly thinking about it is too terrifying and upsetting. Hazel is told she â€Å"†¦cant go to Amsterdam† because her doctor â€Å"†¦thinks its a bad idea for she might encounter †¦ a probably fatal episode of deoxygenation† (Green 157). Knowing her death is near, Hazel does not pull back from flying out with her oxygen tank. Hazel shouts, â€Å"bullshit  ! That’s bullshit. Just tell me! Make something up! you promised! † (Green 192). Although she does not receive any good information from the author, she tries to pound out what she hopes to hear out of Peter Van Houten’s mouth when he refuses â€Å"†¦to pity [her] in the manner to which†¦Ã¢â‚¬  she is â€Å"†¦well accustomed’’(Green 192). On the other hand, Oedipus displays determination to seek, to know, and to pursue principle as he unwaveringly discovers the truth behind his birth. The evidence first shows when Oedipus is so determined to solve former King Laius’s murder. The citizens of Thebes gather to discuss solution to the plague while Creon returns from the oracle and tells that the murderer of Laius is in Thebes and must be driven out in order for the plague to end. He furiously curses Laius’s murderer who is himself; he states, â€Å"Nor do I exempt myself from imprecation: /Lie all the curses I have laid on others† (Sophocles 32). Oedipus proclaims that should he discover the murderer to be a member of his own family, that person should be struck by the same exile and harsh treatment that he has just wished on the murderer. Oedipus’s sense of justice and powerful determination to uncover the mystery of Laius’s murder ironically leads him to unintentionally curse himself. He acts eagerly and rashly, refusing to shield himself from the truth, as if he brings catastrophe upon himself willingly. Therefore, it is clear that in terms of determination, Hazel’s will to combat tough fate is far more positive than Oedipus’s cursing to resolve matters, delivering more hope to audience. In addition to determination, courage is an important trait for a hero to signify firmness and face difficulty, danger and pain. Both Hazel and Oedipus show their great courage, but Hazel’s courage appears to be more encouraging rather than Oedipus as it is more relatable to the audience. Living with cancer alone takes great bravery. While Hazel has to deal with hospitals, doctors, and imminent death every day, she recognizes how tough she needs to be and how courageous she has been. She says, â€Å"People talk about the courage of cancer patients, and I do not deny that courage. I have been poked and stabbed and poisoned for years, and still I trod on† (Green 74). She is all about not hurting others even if it hurts her and wants to be as passive as possible. Courage is especially evident when she overcomes her pain to prevent others’ suffering. She says, Im a grenade and at some point Im going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, And I cant be a regular teenager, because Im a grenade† (Green 99). Since Hazel feels that she will soon die, she is motivated to be as insignificant as possible and desires to take the risks of others. She is much like a soldier rushing into battle knowing well that death awaits her. She chases her dreams from the hospital bed all the way to the plane to Amsterdam. Not the doctor nor her family’s disapproval and instructions could stop her from going after her dream. She provides faith to teenagers who are commonly trapped under parents’ umbrella to pursuit their own dreams for themselves. She even ignores the glances, whispering, and finger-pointing along her way. In spite of criticism, she acts in accordance to her own beliefs displaying admirable courage and selflessness of her. Young people can be benefit and inspired by her daring courageousness and overcome their obstacles with Hazel’s fearlessness in her battle in mind. Oedipus is also certainly a figure of remarkable courage. Upon arriving in Thebes, Oedipus displays his courage and lack of fear by facing the deadly Sphinx and solving its riddle: He sacrifices himself entirely in an effort to save Thebes which shows great bravery. He is courageous in his refusal to hide from the truth about himself, even when he realizes how horrible it will be. Facing the horror of personal guilt, especially guilt so enormous, takes extreme courage. In the end, Oedipus has to face his own failure to outrun his fate,

Friday, September 20, 2019

Theology Essays Familiaris Consortio

Theology Essays Familiaris Consortio In 1981, as a result of a Synod of Bishops specially devoted to further awareness of the (then) current understanding of marriage and the Christian family in the modern world, Pope John Paul II promulgated an apostolic exhortation entitled FamiliarisConsortio (On the family). The well-known biographer of John Paul II, George Weigel, claims that in private conversations held with the holy father he came to learn that the pope regarded Familiaris Consortio as one of his favorite letters he had ever written as pope to the family of God (Witness to Hope, 385). The document is a wide-ranging and broad one in terms of the sheer breadth of the content covered therein, and it is therefore hardly any wonder that a prominent Catholic encyclopedia should say of the apostolic exhortation that it is one of the most important sources for the theological meaning of the sacrament of Marriage (Stravinskas, Catholic Encyclopedia, 628). Many writers who have taken this exhortation as their springingpoint to launch into various issues, which are ancillary to marriage per se,have nevertheless been able to employ specific portions of FamiliarisConsortio, owing to its vastness of content. What we will focus on in thefollowing pages is a kind of reception of the document by Catholics (whetherclergy or laypeople) and its teachings over the more than two decades since itspromulgation. There are certainly areas of overlap among those who havecommented on the document, and these ought to be paid attention to in coming toan understanding of an authentically Roman Catholic awareness of the variousaspects of married life among Christians. Opening Observations Made in Familiaris Consortio Sectionone of the document expressly opens up the contents and applications of thedocument to a broad audience. It is written for (1) those living in fidelity tothe Churchs extant teachings and practices in the area of matrimony, (2) thosewho have become bewildered by the contemporary challenges encroaching upon thefamily, and even to (3) those who live in unjust unawareness of the freedom andhuman rights guaranteed to them to have all the fullness that marriage mightoffer. In other words, the intended audience of the document is anintrinsically ecumenical one. It is not merely addressing Catholics in goodstanding with the Church, but the holy father reaches his hand out to assisteveryone struggling with the sundry difficulties in contemporary married life.This is significant, since most prior documents, whether Casti Connubiiof Pope Pius XI, Humanae Vitae of Pope Paul VI, or even documents of theSecond Vatican Council, the intended audience has been, if not exclusively,certainly mai nly Catholics. PopeJohn Paul II notes in section six of the exhortation that the situation ofmarriage and the family in contemporary life is an ironic one in the sense thatthere are both commendable advances being made in Western culture and enormoussetbacks. It is not so simple a situation as to claim that Western culture isdoing nothing other than attacking and hindering the family and married life.Some of the good understandings reached by the contemporary Western world arethe following: an appreciation of human freedom for both sexes, a promotion ofeducation and love for children, and a promotion of the dignity of women andresponsible procreation. However, some of the setbacks against the familyshould also be noted. They include the following: the respective freedom of thespouses has been carried to an extreme sense of autonomy, the misconstructionof authority and the handing on of values with respect to the relation ofparents to their children, and the ongoing scourges of abortion, growingdivo rce rates, sterilization, and an overall contraceptive mentality. It is forthese reasons and many others besides that the Synod of Bishops met and wishedPope John Paul II to be the primary spokesperson for their conclusions reached.Everything is not well for the contemporary family, and Pope John Paul IIreasons that the family is not merely a part of an overall society(rather, it is the very foundation of all society, as we shall explore later),any attacks on its welfare must not go unanswered. Social injustices toward thefamily must be dealt with directly, and this is a primary reason for theappearance of Familiaris Consortio. Building on Prior Teaching for Fundamental Precepts Prior to the appearance of this apostolic exhortation, there hadappeared two very important documents on the nature of marriage and the family.They were the encyclical letter Humanae Vitae and an authoritativedocument coming out of the Vatican II Church Council called Lumen Gentium.Pope John Paul II, as all popes throughout history have done, takes the priorteaching on marriage and the family (especially that seen in the twentiethcentury) as his starting points on which to build. He references several timesthroughout his apostolic exhortation the encyclical Humanae Vitae (HV),especially when the content of his teaching has to do with the most explicitportions of HV on the conjugal act and contraception. Freedom Versus Autonomy There appears in this succinct encyclical Humanae Vitae a veryprofound line, which undoubtedly could be expounded upon. In section 21 of theencyclical, Pope Paul VI declares that selfishness is the enemy of true love. This recalls an earlier pointmade in our essay. John Paul II notes the dangerous tendency of contemporaryspouses to exemplify an isolationist and autonomous attitude in marriage (FC,6). In fact, for the problems listed above which are antithetical to marriageand family life, the Pope believes there is one problem most fundamentally thecause of the others. He writes, At the root of these negative phenomena therefrequently lies a corruption of the idea and the experience of freedom,conceived not as a capacity for realizing the truth of Gods plan for marriageand the family, but as an autonomous power of self-affirmation, often againstothers, for ones own selfish well-being. And if selfishness is thought to bethe enemy of true love, then any spouse acting almost exclusively in his ownself-interest is destructive toward the very bond of his marriage to hisspouse, which bond is love itself. There is an interesting irony involved in selfish individualismversus a flourishing and mutually reciprocating action of love toward anotheroutside of oneself. Whereas one would suppose that, as is often franklyadmitted, couples will tend to not want to marry because they simply want tocontinue enjoying the other person in the relationship without giving over to aserious commitment (Cf. Barbara Markey, Cohabitation: Response over Reaction).Or, further than this, some married couples will either put off childrenindefinitely or decide to not have them at all for the expressed purpose ofwishing to sexually enjoy the spouse in an uninhibited manner. The strangeconsequence though, as Pope Paul VI noted in Humanae Vitae, is that thiseventually leads to becoming overly self-centered sexually, which eventuates inman (or woman) coming to see the other as a mere instrument of selfishenjoyment and no longer as the desired companion for life (HV, 17). Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo notes that the having of a family ina natural and ordered way (such as the Church teaches couple to do) does leadto the exact opposite of selfishness and isolationism in a marriagerelationship. And this is a necessary consequence (as in, it is intrinsic innature itself) of having children. Cardinal Trujillo offers some examples thatit is the nature of family to be other-centered in even the simplest ways. Henotes, Everyone has to help everyone else in thefamily, (FC and the Family, 3). It is simply a matter of beingpractically impossible to be rapped up in oneself in the context of a familywith numerous children. The older children will have to help the younger onesat times (e.g., to put on their shoes before they go outside), and the adultswill constantly have to help all of the children to grow into responsibleadults. It is simply intrinsic to the nature of having a family that one growsto be concerned with the well-being and interests of others arou nd. In these comments by Cardinal Trujillo there isan explication of the fundamental doctrines expressed in sections 42-43 of Familiaris.In these sections, Pope John Paul II notes that the daily life of a good familyis characterized by sharing and deep communion. The community of a family isthe very answer needed to thwart selfish isolationism. This type ofother-centered communion is seen in various aspects of which the Cardinal haselaborated. For example, the family is guided by an overriding principle offree giving, and this free giving takes the form ofheartfelt acceptance, encounter and dialogue, disinterested availability,generous service and deep solidarity (FC, 43). Children helping youngerchildren whenever there arises a need for such help is a ready example ofdisinterested availability. The older child helps the younger not because he isgaining something for it, but rather because when a child needs help,especially your own sibling, you simply help that child. This also fosters arecognition of the intrinsic value in each individual human being. Love and Life the Very Foundation of Marriage and Family In his recent speech Cardinal Alfonso Trujillo agreed with Pope JohnPaul II in seeing the family as that which forms societies. According tothe Pope, the family is societys foundation, which continually bolsterssociety by being its continual giver of life (FC, 42). Cardinal Trujillonotes that this thinking is in opposition to current worldly sentiment mostreadily embodied by the United Nations in their recent conferences. The generalattitude expressed in these U.N. conferences has been to think that societiesare simply collections of individuals (Familiaris Consortio and theFamily, 3). But, nature seems to argue against this mistaken idea. Societiesare not the ones producing and nurturing and giving the individuals to thesociety. These duties are fulfilled by families, and the individuals producedusually repeat this fundamental cycle of nature by creating their own familiesand producing and nurturing their own offspring. Underlying the teaching of the family as the ultimate antidote toisolationism, are the two most fundamental realities of marriage: love andlife. The two are hardly mutually exclusive, reasons John Paul II. On thecontrary, conjugal love expressed as it out to be expressed according to thenature of man tends toward the creation of life. Procreation is a naturalfruit of the conjugal act, according to Humanae Vitae. Many thinkerssince have latched on to this fundamental Catholic point, including John PaulII in this exhortation. According to Catholic teaching, man is a hylomorphicunity. That is, he is composed of matter and form, which for man correspond tothe body and soul, which are fundamentally united. That is, what it is to bea human is to be a soul-body unity (FC, 11). But, man is also created inthe image and likeness of God, who is love. It follows that Love is thereforethe fundamental and innate vocation of every human being, (11). In marriage,the love that man longs to express is done so most fundamentally in conjugallove, the mutual and complete self-giving of a man and a woman. So sexualitycould never be seen, on this understanding as something purely physical, norpurely psychological either. It is the whole human who engages in the sexualact, so the act itself is intrinsically physical and spiritual. This is how onecommunicates his or her love for another, by the mutual self-giving in theconjugal act. However, love is not the only principle intrinsic to conjugal acts.This fact is easily demonstrable by noting that birth control contraceptionamounts to little more than artificial means of birth prevention. But since itis ever thought that this or that birth is needing to be prevented, it must bethe case that there is a natural product of conjugal love. So, Donald Ascireasons, this is the other aspect of Pope John Paul IIs theology of theconjugal act. The body by its very nature in sexuality is fecund it is opento fertility (The Conjugal Act as a Personal Act, 138). Totalunion occurs with the giving of ones body and all of its finalities. In maleclimax, a finality is the releasing of semen, in which is contained thepossibility of forming a new human life (if united with the gift of thewoman-the ovum). There is a principle of totality inherent in this reasoning -the giving of ones total self his spiritual, physical and (innatelycontained within the physical) his fecundity. But, if by some various means the conjugal act is not completedaccording to its intrinsic order something like a contradiction takes place,according to Christopher West who cites section 32 of Familiaris Consortio.West argues that one cannot possibly hold that he gives his entire self to theother if at the most important (i.e., climactic) moment of intercourse thevery moment when the unity between the two ought to be felt most of all onewithdraws him or herself from the union. Fecund is what adults are bynature. Therefore, when one does such a thing as what West describes, he isengaging in a type of lie a serious contradictory statement which says, Igive you all of myself except my fertility. I receive all that you are exceptyour fertility, (Good News about Sex and Marriage, 108). Thus, as JohnPaul II reasons in this section of FC cited by West, the innatelanguage of the total and mutual self-giving inherent in the conjugal actbecomes overlaid with a contradictory idea when man ac ting as the ultimatearbiter of his own being and sexuality decides in a moment to nottotally give of his self (since his whole self includes, as Asci has shownabove, his fecundity as well). The Essential Tension of Becoming What You Are The discussion thus far leads naturally to what many later came tosee as a profound and highly important teaching of Familiaris Consortio:Families, you are to become what you are! This passage so often quoted runsthus, The family findsin the plan of God the Creator and Redeemer not only its identity, what it is,but also its mission, what it can and should do. The role that God calls thefamily to perform in history derives from what the family is: its rolerepresents the dynamic and existential development of what it is. Each familyfinds within itself a summons that cannot be ignored and that specifies bothits dignity and responsibility: family, become what you are (FamiliarisConsortio, 17). Of course, such anexhortation is paradoxical at first blush. As David Michael Thomas remarksconcerning this papal principle, This pope is a complex blend of realism andidealism. The tension between the two is not relaxed for a minute (Pope JohnPaul IIs Advice for Families, 7). And Cardinal Trujillo asks, how cansomething become what it is? (7) More specifically, how does a family becomewhat it already is? Donald Asci has some insight to share on this front. It isessentially a cart-and-horse dilemma. It is not always easy, in terms ofaction, to identify which is the horse that is pulling the cart. The family hasa nature, and it is given this by God. However, it also has a mission, which isalso given by God. These are two dimensions of the same reality: namely, the family(Asci, 126). The family has a static nature, but it also has a dynamic mission,which is to be realized. But the mission is never realized without an alreadyextant family, which has the necessary nature to realize the mission. Nofamily; no mission. However, part of the mission is the having, nurturing, andpromulgating of good families. No fulfillment of mission; no families. It is ascenario of interrelation and reciprocation. Each gives rise to the other. Ecclesia Domestica A phrase that first appeared in recent times in the Second VaticanCouncil document Lumen Gentium with reference to the nature of thefamily was that of ecclesia domestica (the domestic church). As DavidMichael Thomas notes, the Council got this phrase from the writings of theChurch fathers, and rightly so since from the very beginnings of the Church ithas always been comprised of those who wished to convert together with all[their] household, as the official Catechism of the Catholic Church states onthis matter (413). The metaphor to describe this in the Catechism is that thefamilies of converts were as little islands of Christianity lived out in apagan world. Leon Suprenant offers the biblical metaphor of the body of Christ(which is the Church, according to St. Paul) being comprised of the littlecells of families. Furthermore, for those Catholics living in fidelity to theteachings of the Church and having children as the natural result of conjugallove, they have as their primary resp onsibility the education and formation ofthese children according to the Gospel of Christ (The Real Presence of theMarriage Bond, 253). Surely, individual parishes in union with the Holy See ofthe Catholic Church contribute to the education and formation of children, butthis is primarily to be done in the home which is one of the qualities thatmake it the domestic church. In continuity with all this, Pope John Paul II in FamiliarisConsortio employs the phrase with some frequency and further elaboration. Itis a result of parents begetting in love and for love that they procreate newoffspring, for which they in turn take the responsibility of educating thesenew beings who stand in potential of great growth and development (FC,36). It is their duty, but more to the point of love, it is their solemnprivilege to be able to take the sacred product (i.e., their own child) oftheir mutual love for each other and see its development through to completion.In this way, the parents fulfill their own duty and honor to be the firstevangelizers of their own children in teaching them of the love of Christ. Concluding Thoughts As wasstated at the outset of this brief essay, the apostolic exhortation FamiliarisConsortio is a document rich in depth and broad in the topics to which itextends its teaching. However, we have only tried here to give what seem to besome of the most important and widely commented on portions of the text. Itcertainly seems to have had a welcome reception by many of the most well-knowncontemporary Catholic writers on marriage and the family. It also appears tohave filled a void that existed to some extent in the wake of Catholic teachingon conjugal love and marriage prior to the pontificate of Pope John Paul II.One can reasonably expect that future pontificates will continue to focus onthe theology of the body so ably developed by Pope John Paul II in FamiliarisConsortio. Bibliography Asci, Donald P. The Conjugal Act as aPersonal Act: A Study of the Catholic Concept of the ConjugalAct in the Light of Christian Anthropology. SanFrancisco: Ignatius Press, 2002. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2d ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. John Paul II, Pope. The Theology of theBody: Human Love in the Divine Plan. Boston, Pauline Booksand Media, 1997. Familiaris Consortio.Vatican Translation. Boston: St. Paul Books, 1982. Markey, Barbara. Cohabitation: Responseover Reaction. The Priest, November, 2000, 19-24. Availableonline from Catholic Culture. Thisencyclical in its entirety is contained within a work listed in ourbibliography. The Theology of the Body, which is a compilation ofvarious teachings of Pope John Paul II on marriage and conjugal love, has HumanaeVitae as its first appendix. The reader may freely find the encyclical hereand many places elsewhere (including the Vaticans official website).

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Legalizing Medical Marijuana Essay -- Legal Issues, Drugs

Medical marijuana has more advantages than it does disadvantages. The reason I have chose to support medical marijuana is for one reason. My reason is because people have fear of abuse if it is legalized but in reality people are abusing it as I write this paper. A lot of states haven't legalized marijuana because it is classified as no medical use. If no medical use is found why would some states legalize it. Marijuana affects the lungs and can cause long term lung damage. Although marijuana can affect your lungs it can benefit someone way more than it can hurt them. People have done a lot of research on this topic because it is very important. Jean Charles Pariseau is a 30 year old man with AIDS. His doctor gave him three months to live, and he was taking thirty pills a day. He only weighed eighty-two pounds. His doctor recommended medical marijuana and he felt and looked like a new man. Imagine where he would be without medical marijuana. That is right dead. Hundreds of court case s and many laws about legalizing medical marijuana have been brought up. The government has had there own medical marijuana law where some patients were allowed to receive marijuana if they met the requirements. This is a very important topic because can help someone out tremendously in the medical field and it can take care or many side effects. Smoking medical marijuana may not be the difference of life or death but it will make someone feel more relaxed and better about themselves when they are going through a rough time with there particular illness. Marijuana is the term for dried leaves, flowers, or stems of the cannabis plant, known as cannabinoids. Of these cannabinoids the â€Å"most pharmacologically active is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, also... ...! The cost of the marijuana would be up to the people who is buying it. It is grown out of the ground so if the government wanted to make profit from it they can go right ahead. I think the government should just legalize it for medical use only. The way they could do this is by having individuals buy it through their doctor or even the government themselves. I think that people should get a recommendation from their doctor first. Then they should have to run it by the health department and they should be fine. There is no way to stop the abuse of the drug, but if the government would legalize it throughout the country, people could actually get the medical uses out of it. Medical marijuana could be the answer to a lot of medical mysteries for people that don't now about it. If doctors could recommend marijuana I think it would be a lot easier on everyone.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Free Essays - Holden Caulfield Needs Logotherapy :: Catcher Rye Essays

Catcher in the Rye - Holden Caulfield Needs Logotherapy Throughout the book Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, a boy who does not know his place in life, illustrates the human need for logotherapy. Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, wrote "Mans search for meaning", in which he describes his experiences and ways of resisting the efforts of dehumanization in the holocaust. In Viktor Frankl's writing he delineates Logotherapy, which are three principles of mankind. The main character in Catcher in the Rye is Holden Caulfield, he is an unstable young man, who wanders around New York for three days, without knowing where to go or what do. Holden Caulfield would benefit if he applied Logotherapy to his everyday life. The first principle of logotherapy states that's man has an inborn will to meaning, "We seek to live not only for ourselves, but to contribute something of worth to other people and to the world we live in."(370) Holden Caulfield rarely shows this trait, but he does reveal it seldomly to people he does not know for example when he says to a cab driver, "You know those ducks in that lagoon right near central park? That little lake? By any chance do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?âˆÂ ¦"(60) This exhibits that Holden cares for some things, which means he has a will to meaning somewhere inside of him, he just needs to find it, like one of his teachers says, "âˆÂ ¦but I can very clearly see you dying nobly, for some highly unworthy cause"(188) In this quote, Mr. Antolini is telling Holden that he believes he will do something worthy with his life, but it will not be something very useful. Man has free will acts as the second aspect of logotherapy. Viktor Frankl states, " Man's freedom is no freedom from conditions but rather freedom to take a stand on whatever conditions might confront him"(371) Holden Caulfield sometimes shows free will, "âˆÂ ¦I couldn't think of a room or a house or anything to describeâˆÂ ¦So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allies baseball mitt."(38) This shows he can think for himself and that he does not just do what people tell him to do. Free Essays - Holden Caulfield Needs Logotherapy :: Catcher Rye Essays Catcher in the Rye - Holden Caulfield Needs Logotherapy Throughout the book Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, a boy who does not know his place in life, illustrates the human need for logotherapy. Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, wrote "Mans search for meaning", in which he describes his experiences and ways of resisting the efforts of dehumanization in the holocaust. In Viktor Frankl's writing he delineates Logotherapy, which are three principles of mankind. The main character in Catcher in the Rye is Holden Caulfield, he is an unstable young man, who wanders around New York for three days, without knowing where to go or what do. Holden Caulfield would benefit if he applied Logotherapy to his everyday life. The first principle of logotherapy states that's man has an inborn will to meaning, "We seek to live not only for ourselves, but to contribute something of worth to other people and to the world we live in."(370) Holden Caulfield rarely shows this trait, but he does reveal it seldomly to people he does not know for example when he says to a cab driver, "You know those ducks in that lagoon right near central park? That little lake? By any chance do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?âˆÂ ¦"(60) This exhibits that Holden cares for some things, which means he has a will to meaning somewhere inside of him, he just needs to find it, like one of his teachers says, "âˆÂ ¦but I can very clearly see you dying nobly, for some highly unworthy cause"(188) In this quote, Mr. Antolini is telling Holden that he believes he will do something worthy with his life, but it will not be something very useful. Man has free will acts as the second aspect of logotherapy. Viktor Frankl states, " Man's freedom is no freedom from conditions but rather freedom to take a stand on whatever conditions might confront him"(371) Holden Caulfield sometimes shows free will, "âˆÂ ¦I couldn't think of a room or a house or anything to describeâˆÂ ¦So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allies baseball mitt."(38) This shows he can think for himself and that he does not just do what people tell him to do.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Traditional methods of professional development :: essays papers

Traditional methods of professional development Traditional methods of professional development include workshops, learning communities, and college classes at a doctoral level. Most traditional professional development opportunities occur locally. Working in local communities allows teachers to address the professional norms of practice for the area in which they practice, and allows them to form more appropriate policies (Schlager& Fusco, 2003, p. 205). Each community is different in many ways. By catering professional development opportunities to the community in which they will be used, this allows the teacher to gain more information that pertains to their student population and school system. Moreover, one opportunity for professional development that may be offered locally is workshops. Workshops are usually offered in the summer and last only a few days (Gibbs, H.J., 2004, p. 47). Workshops are convenient for most teachers because they have the summer off and therefore the workshop does not interfere with their busy school work schedule. Also, local workshops allow teachers to network with other local teachers. Teachers share and build on each others ideas and work together to develop integrated activities (Gibbs, H.J., 2004, p. 47). It is important for teachers to have peers with whom they can seek advice from. Teachers with more seniority may be able to offer newer teachers helpful advice or bring up another aspect of a subject that may not have been considered. Sharing ideas through collaboration can spark up ideas for other teachers. Another example of a traditional method of professional development is the formation of learning communities. Learning communities are groups of teachers who meet to work on their teaching skills or new techniques. Learning communities also provide a support system to the teachers that are involved. Researchers believe teachers are more effective when they collaborate because the teacher has moral support, situated certainty, and a better opportunity to learn (Coronel, Carrasco, Fernandez, & Gonzalez, 2003, p. 130). Teachers become more confident when they are formulating ideas with people who work in the same field as they do. Working with peers allows for constructive criticism and the sharing of personal experiences which help teachers to explore and learn to be more effective. Furthermore, another type of traditional professional development is taking college classes at the doctoral level. Traditional cl asses are preferred by most students because they find face to face discussions to be the most beneficial (Mather, M.A., 2000, p.

Lalala

Summary of the story Weekend is a short feminists story depicting traditional middle-class family, consisting of the mother- Martha and the father of three- Martin, going for the weekend to their cottage near Stonehenge, where they will meet their friends. On Friday, Martha is preparing some things, food and complaining Nearly) about her life. Martin wants her to be perfect, as she says â€Å"he Likes women with small hips and big bosoms, that's Incredible. † She has a suspicion that her husband has an affair with his secretary, who looks exactly that way.Martin has a small sport car, but they take Marsh's car for the trip, since it is bigger, although it is the older one. Martha can ‘t drive, because her driving license was taken away for drunken driving. The whole Journey, Martin Is Joking about the car, but Martha takes It personally, whilst she has got the feeling, he Is ambiguously talking about her. Late at night, their friends- Colic and his girlfriend Katie, arri ve to visit them in their cottage. His previous wife, Janet with whom he has two children, was a nice woman and Martha liked her, however she was not so stunning like the new one.Martha prepares mushroom omelets In her night, sets the table, cleans everything after the late supper and goes to bed at 2 a. M. Katie sits and has a good time, without any intention to help her. The other day Martha sleeps longer than usually and has the consumptions, because everything in the kitchen stays exactly in the same place, where the consumers had left It. She should ‘t sleep so long. Glamorous Katie did not help with anything. Again. The rest of their friends, Harry and Beryl, come for the lunch. They bring fresh artichokes. Ill Martha Is preparing the artichoke soup, the top of the blender flies away and the kitchen is full of artichoke puree. Awkward Martha. Jenny starts her first period and Martha is impressed and cries. She is not her little child anymore, but a little woman. To sum u p the story, a woman must be always perfect. Great wife, mother, babysitter, awesome cook, successful careerist, best friend, psychologist, teacher, doctor, dishwasher, cleaner with bottomless sexual appetite. While exhaustion, influenza, migraine or other illnesses are mission impossible.And naturally, you would do it all in high heels, scented, with exquisite hair, flawless make- up and smile on your face. 2) Characteristics of the mall characters wants to be a perfect woman and tries to manage everything, what in her eyes woman should manage; however, her husband does not see that. She feels undervalued by him as long as he is criticizing her and looks back to the other women, young, childless, with big bosoms and little hips. She is also helping pretty much with house expenses, the thing, she's not very satisfied with, because a good husband of his good wife should manage that.Martin- husband of Martha; iconic example of a man who comes home, extremely exhausted after all day in work and awaiting the house to be clean, children calm and that his wife will be neat, scented, smiling and ready to make him a supper according to his wishes. He is not satisfied with his wife. She should be slimmer, nicer, make healthier meals, and use plenty of perfumes he keeps buying her. Jenny, Jasper, Colony- children of Martha and Martin. We don ‘t know much about them. Jenny dries off her hair with Katie ‘s Yves Saint Laurent towel and gets the erred for the first time at the end of the story. Jasper has hay fever.Katie- a glamorous, childless, scented chick in her middle thirties; kind of a â€Å"modern wife†, who came to the relationship with one bag of clothes, intelligence and free mind. Colic- boyfriend of Katie, he loves her very much and wants to marry her. He has two children from the previous marriage. Katie does not like his ex-wife Janet and their children; he can meet them Just once per month. He is a successful businessman. Harry and Beryl- friends of Martin and Martha; Beryl is a secretary and Harry is an artist. She falls asleep during the visit and Harry gets drunk and is going to drive. He has scar on his temple from the car accident.Mrs†¦ Hooded- came in twice a week to clean and Martha paid her from her wages 3) The story is described from Martha ‘s perspective. Would it be the same, if the narration would be done by Martin? No, definitely. It would not be the same. As far as l' m concerned, Martin perceives the whole situation completely differently than Mart does. He is looking onto problems and situations with a â€Å"man's eye†. He does not feel that Martha does too much around the house, children etc. He feels that she should cook better, have smaller hips and try to be fresher. 4) What are Martha ‘s main worries? Why does she obey Martin in everything?Why does she never object? She wants to be an amazing wife of her great husband that's why she obeys him. She feels that it is her dut y in the role of a woman, mother and wife to behave that way. She is afraid of losing of Martin and fail in all her roles. Martha cannot imagine her life without a husband – she does not realize she could live a different life, because this is what she knows. That is why she is trying to keep Martin at all costs although she is not happy with him. Martha is a prototype of housewife and Katie is her opposite. Martha has a husband, three children and her family is something sacred for her.But she works and keeps her own money that means, she can get by from her wages. Katie has different attitude to these things. She hates to be in the traditional position of a woman, like Martha is. Katie is divorced twice and doses t have children. From my point of view, she is that kind of woman, who needs husband to take care of her in general, mostly from the viewpoint of expenses. Although Katie appears as a confident woman, we also witness her insecurities – she realizes that Coli c is tied to Janet because they have children together and that her position might not be that stable. ) How is the story narrated? Are there long descriptions or dialogues? Why not? The story is narrated as Mart ‘s train of thought. Her mind is important. She is describing the situations from subjective point of view, not like the omniscient narrator. There are no long descriptions, nor dialogues, because they are not necessary (and Martha does not have time for them since she rushes from one task o another – so the narration reflects her state of mind); the reader understands from the situations the whole context. Anyway the direct speech is used for being more authentic.Her descriptions make the story more personal than the universal third person narrator or â€Å"the eye of the camera†. If any woman reads it, she finds herself in many similar situations and that is the aim, to personalize the story and give the percipient the space to make his point of view a bout the piece and given problem. 7) Look at Martin ‘s comments which are inserted in the brackets. What do they suggest? They suggest Martin's dissatisfaction or ironical view on Martha and her acts. They are not formulated as direct criticism, but are rather indirect.Though he might appear as a kind husband, Martha takes his remarks personally as a form of criticism and thus puts even more pressure on herself. 8) What is author's opinion on women like Martha? Who is responsible for their unhappiness- is it men or the women themselves? A woman should love her family and her husband, but should not obey him in the way like Martha did. She gave her win â€Å"Self† and life to her family, but doses ‘t get it back from them. She doses t feel intrinsic fulfillment, which she should feel, living this pattern of life.They are both responsible for their unhappiness – males and females. Because if Martha doses ‘t want to, she din ‘t have to behave this way. As long as, we are concerning on feminist fiction, then men are responsible for the woman's unhappiness 0. Weldon is critical not only to men, but to women as well. She points to the fact that they have power in their hands and they should be active in pursuing happiness. Martha, forever, only relies on her husband, not on herself so it is her own fault that she leads an unhappy life. ) Why does Martha cry at the end of the story? Because her only daughter is becoming a woman. From this important hoar stone in her and they will cause troubles to her woman being and gain control over her whole life, like Martin does to Martha. Martha realizes that her own daughter is now entering the period of womanhood with all its responsibilities. The ending also shows that Martha feels powerless and does not realize that her own daughter does not have to have the same life as she does.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Industrialization, Capitalism and American Dream

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a novel whose veracity actually became a topic of federal investigation, provides another interesting example of the complex relation between fact and fiction and between naturalism and other literary and nonliterary discourses. The Jungle in many ways presents the appearance of a conventional novel: it has character, event, theme. Yet it is also profoundly shaped by the documentary strategy.Although the novel is organized biographically, the course of the protagonist Jurgis Rudkus's life follows a path which ensures that he will observe phenomena that interest Sinclair; he is conducted through a series of experiences that are not only representative but comprehensive, for this account of the meat-packing industry and the conditions of life for immigrant workers attempts to be encyclopedic.When the Rudkuses arrive in Chicago the first thing they do is tour the packinghouses, giving occasion for sentences like this one: â€Å"The chutes into which the hogs went climbed high up — to the very top of the distant buildings; and Jokubas explained that the hogs went up by the power of their own legs, and then their weight carried them back through all the processes necessary to make them into pork. † As Jurgis and other members of his family take jobs in various parts of the plants, the different operations — slaughtering, processing, canning and so on — are described in more detail.Jurgis also works in a harvester factory and a steel mill, passing through periods of prosperity and of unemployment and want; eventually almost every vicissitude of working-class life befalls Jurgis or one of his relatives. Jurgis himself begins as a strong and successful wage earner, but he is injured on a job and has great difficulty supporting himself while recovering, spends time in jail after a conflict with a foreman, tramps in both the country and the city, joins a union but later works as a scab and then as a foreman, rea ps the benefits of corrupt machine politics, and finally becomes a Socialist.His wife is sexually exploited by her boss and dies in childbirth without competent medical care. His son drowns in a muddy street in Packingtown. His father dies of an illness caused by a job. His cousin becomes a prostitute. What Jurgis cannot experience at firsthand he learns about from others; for example, his cousin tells harrowing stories of women forced into prostitution and explains why she cannot save any money working in a brothel: â€Å"‘I am charged for my room and my meals and such prices as you never heard of; and then for extras, and drinks for everything I get, and some I don't.‘ . . . Seeing that Jurgis was interested, she went on: ‘That's the way they keep the girls — they let them run up debts, so they can't get away'† (p. 352). Jurgis even rounds out our map of the social order when he â€Å"chances† to meet the drunken son of a packing-house owner and is taken into a mansion built by a meat fortune to see how the other half lives. The novel is episodic, even disjointed, if one attempts to organize it in terms of plot; its coherence derives from the documentary strategy.Its events are linked not directly to one another but through their common connection with the abstraction of the â€Å"jungle† and their relevance to the topic of the Chicago meat-packing industry and the lives of its â€Å"wage slaves. † The Jungle demonstrates the metonymic, accretive nature of the documentary strategy, for despite its aspiration to provide a totalizing map of Chicago its most characteristic procedure is to pile horror upon horror just as London does in The People of the Abyss.The action of The Jungle is produced less by the characters' choices than by their reactions as one disaster after another bursts upon them. When Jurgis and his family buy a house, they discover that â€Å"it was not new at all, as they had supposed; it was about fifteen years old, and there was nothing new upon it but the paint, which was so bad that it needed to be put on new every year or two. The house was one of a whole row that was built by a company which existed to make money by swindling poor people.The family had paid fifteen hundred dollars for it, and it had not cost the builders five hundred, when it was new† (p. 77). They find that they owe not just the monthly payments they have been told of but interest, so that it will be almost impossible for them to keep up the payments, and â€Å"when they failed — if it were only by a single month — they would lose the house and all that they had paid on it, and then the company would sell it over again† (pp. 77-78).Portraying a political awakening is one way of suggesting the possibility of profound social change without violating the conventions of realism, and it is a strategy that emerges still more strongly in a later genre that has many affiniti es with naturalism, the proletarian novel. Jurgis's transformation strikes the reader as such a dissonant and discontinuous element in this novel because it so obviously requires him to leave his native realm of victimage to become a character who exercises free will.There is no pretense in The Jungle that the group Sinclair is writing about is the same or even has much in common with the group he is writing for. In a gesture we have encountered before, we find the narrator and reader clearly marked off from the characters by the very languages they use: Sinclair prefaces one description with the remark that â€Å"the reader, who perhaps has never held much converse in the language of far-off Lithuania, will be glad of the explanation that . . . † (p. 2).Although the only things that are recognizably Lithuanian about the Rudkuses are their names ( Sinclair even provides a footnote to tell us how to pronounce â€Å"Jurgis†), they are certainly foreigners. One might deba te the exact degree of irony in that â€Å"perhaps† — I think it is considerable — and attempt to measure the exact width of this chasm between classes, but its existence is taken for granted. Throughout the novel the naturalist plays the role of the readers' guide and interpreter in an alien land. But he is not a native of that land either.Sinclair tells us in his autobiography that his own painful experiences of want — that is, his confrontation with proletarianization, to which his autobiography testifies at length — imbue the book with anguish, but that he is a stranger to the â€Å"jungle† of Chicago. The book is based on his research during â€Å"seven weeks lived among the wage slaves of the Beef Trust, as we called it in those days. People used to ask me afterward if I had not spent my life in Chicago, and I answered that if I had done so, I could never have written The Jungle; I would have taken for granted things that now hit me a sudden violent blow.I went about, white-faced and thin, partly from undernourishment, partly from horror. † 25 Despite the novel's affirmation of the possibilities for change, the realms of knowledge and experience, the worlds of the observer and the participant, remain polarized, joined only by the narrator's pity and good intentions. Nevertheless, The Jungle is famous as a novel that changed the world: an important progressive reform, the passage of the Meat Inspection and Pure Food and Drug Acts in 1906, is widely attributed to the public furore over conditions in the meat-packing industry that it created.(It was this that motivated the intense scrutiny of Sinclair's facts. ) But as Sinclair himself recognized, the movement for the inspection of meat had originated with the big packers themselves and ultimately benefited them by providing a guarantee of quality at government expense and removing obstacles to meat exporting. 26 And the reforms demanded by the horrified read ers of The Jungle addressed not the condition of the workers but the menace of the unsanitary practices Sinclair reported — what bothered them was less the claim that men fell into the cooking vatsand died agonizing deaths than the revolting idea that â€Å"all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham's Pure Leaf Lard! † (p. 117). Sinclair wrote, â€Å"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach. † 27 He was neither the first nor the last socialist to set out to write of the iniquities of class society and find himself enmeshed in the mysteries of consumer society.In a characteristic naturalist gesture, Sinclair appeals to his readers to pity the miserable, thwarted lives of the other half; yet he also pays a great deal of attention to unclean meat and does not distinguish the two concerns so clearly as his lament would seem to suggest. The revolting truth about meat revealed an avenue by which the unclean horrors of a world outside the campfire found their way into that well-lighted, respectable circle and exposed a potentially contaminating contact between the disorder of the slaughterhouse district and the haven of the middle-class home.Although it clearly did not capture Sinclair's full intent, the impulse to regulate and rationalize the meat-packing industry was a perfectly consistent response to Sinclair's plea for reform. The connection illustrates the fundamental structural similarity, seen here in miniature and in Chapter 4 at length, between naturalism and progressivism. The social problems of Industrialization As depicted in The Jungle this century has seen dramatic changes in this pattern.With the advent of legal equalitarianism, Industrialization, and a general rise in humanitarianism, social fixity has been succeeded, for thousands of groups, by a high degree of mobility. With the blurring of traditional social class lines and the removal of the more flagrant legal and economic priv ileges of certain classes, there has been marked change in the whole status structure of modern society. With a culture in which the ethic of success is compelling, it is only to be expected that status striving will become obsessive for large numbers of persons.The struggle to succeed, to belong, to influence, lies behind remarkable achievements in all areas of our society. But it also lies behind some of the tragedies: lives broken by the struggle; individuals driven to means that are not tolerated by society, even though the ends which dictate the means are tolerated; children, as well as adults, who seek status security where they can find it, even when it lies in illegal or unmoral contexts. There is wreckage as well as achievement written in the story of social mobility.Wherever the world's population is experiencing Industrialization, family systems are also undergoing some changes, though not all these are being recorded. This means that at least some of the elements of the old family patterns, such as arranged marriages in China, are dissolving. Of course, if a family system is undergoing change, the rates of occurrence of these forms of disorganization, such as divorce, separation, illegitimacy, or desertion, may change. However, the new system may have lower rates of occurrence of certain forms of disorganization.For example, the divorce rates in Arab Algeria and in Japan have been declining for half a century. In several Latin American countries, the rate of illegitimacy has apparently been decreasing. Prolonging life in industrialized countries has meant that fewer children must face orphan hood. Aside from these facts, the main structure of a family system may be altered only slightly by such changes in rates. Finally, though the old set of patterns is in part dissolved, it is usually replaced by a new set of patterns which is as determinate and controlling as the old one was.Despite the importance of these forms of family disorganization for the individuals in the family, and thus for the society, the legal and formal structures of the society reflect little concern with these problems. If a couple in the United States decides to separate, no agency of the society acts, or is even empowered to find out that a separation occurred, unless the wife seeks financial support. There are few customs to guide the illegitimate mother or father, and once again the state moves only in narrowly defined circumstances (e. g.if the mother wants to get on the relief rolls). If a wife becomes schizophrenic, or a child is born an idiot, few customs exist to help guide the family members and the formal agencies of the society do not act unless asked to do so. How Capitalism is hostile to the American Dream? The American Dream has been that every generation could look forward to a better life for its children. Is the dream becoming a nightmare? It is now actively discussed that Capitalism can not avoid a housing crisis that makes the word home a mockery to millions of families.Capitalism can not avoid laying off men in favor of more profitable machines. It can not avoid depressions, when consumers can not buy, nor threats of war to stimulate business. Capitalism can not avoid edging to the brink of war, constantly, to secure raw materials and markets, and to exploit the labor power of other countries. Capitalism makes a travesty of political democracy when a poor man's vote gives him choice only among candidates and polices which may be good for the largest corporations, but not for him. We have a noble traditon of democracy in this land.The changes, as it has moved from an economy of scarcity in an undeveloped country to high production in a mechanized economy, demand that democracy be brought up to date. The rule of a few families controlling the nation's resources is not the same thing as the rule of the people of the United States over themselves. Either we must have economic democracy, or we shall lose the political democracy our fathers fought and died to win. References Acemoglu, Daron. 2003. Cross-country inequality trends. Economic Journal 113 (February): 121–49. Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson.2002. Reversal of fortune: Geography and institutions in the making of the modern world income distribution. Quarterly Journal of Economics 117 (November): 1231–94. Aizcorbe, Ann M. , Arthur B. Kennickell, and Kevin B. Moore. 2003. Recent changes in U. S. family finances. Federal Reserve Bulletin (January): 1–31. Alesina Alberto F. , Rafael Di Tella, and Robert MacCulloch. 2003. Inequality and happiness: Are Europeans and Americans different? Unpublished working paper (March). Bertola, Guiseppe, Francine D. Blau, and Lawrence M. Kahn. 2001.Comparative analysis of labor market outcomes: Lessons for the United States from international long-run evidence. In Krueger and Solow (2001): 159–218. Friedman, Milton. 1982. Capitalism and freedom. Chicago: Univers ity of Chicago Press. Garibaldi, Pietro, and Paolo Mauro. 1999. Deconstructing job creation. IMF Working Paper 99/109 (August). Giersch, Herbert. 1999. Marktokonomik fur die offene Gesellschaft. Walter-AdolfJohr Lecture. Gordon, Robert J. 2001. Discussion of Deunionization, technical change and inequality, by Daron Acemoglu, Philippe Aghion, and Giovanni L. Violante.Paper prepared for the Carngie-Rochester Conference Series of Public Policy (February). Greenspan, Alan. 2003. The Reagan legacy. Remarks at the Ronald Reagan Library, Simi Valley, CA (April 9). Houtenville, Andrew J. 2001. Income mobility in the United States and Germany: A comparison of two classes of mobility measures using the GSOEP, PSID, and CPS. Vierteljahreshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 70, no. 1, pp. 59–65. Krueger, Dirk, and Krishna B. Kumar. 2004. US-Europe differences in technologydriven growth: Quantifying the role of education. Journal of Monetary Economics, no. 51, pp. 161–90.Lewis, Michael. 2002. In defense of the boom. New York Times Magazine (October 27): 44ff. Maddison, Angus. 2001. The world economy: A millennial perspective. OECD Development Centre Studies. Paris. Sachs, Jeffrey D. 2003. Institutions matter, but not for everything. International Monetary Fund Finance & Development 40, no. 2 (June): 38–41. Sanchez, Thomas W. , Robert E. Lang, and Dawn Dhavale. 2003. Security versus status? A first look at the Census' gated community data. Metropolitan Institute, Alexandria, VA (July). Sinclair, Upton. 1906 The Jungle. New York: Doubleday, Page, and Company.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Change Management and HRM Essay

1. (TCO All) For the next set of questions, you will first select ONE of the TCOs of the course. Then, you will be asked to write an essay about the project you worked on this term over your two companies’ change program based on the TCO you selected above. Select the TCO your essay question will cover: TCO A – Given that progressive and successful companies require their employees to embrace change, examine how changing work conditions impact the employees. TCO B – Given the inherent reality that all organizations must experience change in order to improve, demonstrate how â€Å"models† are used in Change Management, for diagnosing an organization’s need for change. TCO C – Given external, internal and/or multi-levels of organization factors that drive change, assess and create a leadership model which supports and promotes each type of change within the organization. TCO D – Given that an organization’s mission and vision will determine its strategy towards change, ensure that an organization’s change initiative is aligned with and capitalizes on its culture and mission in preparation for change. TCO E – Given a selected Change Management implementation â€Å"model†, determine the causes of change and develop a plan of action to implement the change. TCO F – Given that both organizations and their employees commonly resist change, understand how to recognize and overcome barriers to change and develop a strategy to manage resistance to change that will ensure successful implementation of change. TCO G – Given that developing a â€Å"vision for change† and communicating that â€Å"vision† is a critical part of the change process, analyze the key elements of the â€Å"vision for change† and develop a strategy to communicate the change to the stakeholder. TCO H – Given the organization’s goal of creating and implementing a sustainable change while moving toward becoming a â€Å"learning† organization, develop a plan to implement change in a sustainable manner that can be applied to any change. Using the TCO you selected from the list above, which you felt was most relevant to your project this term, write an essay answer explaining how the change management you saw in one of your companies from your project this term followed or failed to follow the theory of success ingrained in the TCO you have selected. State the #1 thing you think that company’s change agent did which most contributed to the success or failure of the change and why that relates to the TCO you selected.  · Include in the answer the name of the company you are discussing.  · Explain/analyze why you think this way. (Points : 35) 2. (TCOs A, E) Your project this term asked you to compare and contrast two companies’ change projects or programs for change. This question will review what you learned about the change projects in a continuation of your project. It will ask you to apply course information to your project companies. For your answer, be sure to reference the names of the companies you studied in your project this term to help your instructor determine the score of your response. Recall that external and internal pressures often impact implementation of change in companies. For this question, please write an essay answering these questions: A. Define specific (at least 2 each) external and internal pressures that will (or did) affect the implementation of the changes in your two companies. (10 points) B. Name two strategies of handling these pressures that you would (have) suggested to the company leaders as being the most effective in managing those pressures during the implementation phase. (10 points) C. Defend your positions with details about why you feel your strategies would assist with handling these pressures. (15 points) (Points: 35) 3. (TCOs E,H) Your project this term asked you to compare and contrast two companies’ change projects or programs for change. This question will review what you learned about the change projects in a continuation of your project. It will ask you to apply course information to your project companies. For your answ er, be sure to reference the names of the companies you studied in your project this term to help your instructor determine the score of your response. You will assess the â€Å"sustainability† of the changes which occurred in the companies you studied. Select ONE of the company change programs for your answer to this question and state it here. Assess the change project. Was it successful or unsuccessful in your opinion? What will it take (what are some steps the company can, should, or DID take) to make it SUSTAINABLE? What theories did you consider in coming to this conclusion? Do you think this change will still be in place in one, five, or ten years? Why or why not?(Points : 35) As for the People, it should be determined whether the organization has the right skills and talents for the change to be supported and for the organization to achieve its strategic goal. For example, if the strategic goal is to increase revenue through increased sales then the company sales people should be given sufficient training about the company’s own and acquired products as this will enable the sales staff to more easily sell the company’s products. I feel that the changes made in SAP will stay in place for years to come. Now that steps have been gathered to analyze large amounts of employees, customers, and sales data being generated by companies it will enable SAP to create new processes and applications that will strength their success. 4. (TCO All) This question does not address your course project. This change scenario is envisioned instead, for this question. First, the scenario, and then the question. Scenario: You have been asked to handle a project where the company is going to close the plant in your company and offer all of the workers an option of taking a buy-out severance package which is quite generous OR relocate to another state, where the business climate is much better (but the cost of living is higher and the style of living is lower). The current location of the company is in an area where people live well, the culture is great, and because it is in a college town, there are many fun things to do on weekends, plays to attend, sporting events, etc. The atmosphere is quite upbeat. The city where the company is moving to has very little in the way of entertainment, the housing costs are higher although not as nice, and property taxes are higher as well. The company is offering moving costs for relocation costs, but not house sale assistance. It is likely most of your employees are going to take the buy-out, but most of them are in their late  30s or early 40s and are not going to be happy about it. The question: This term, we studied organizational development theory versus the more systematic nStep method of conducting a change process. What would be the pros/cons of using OD theory for this change project? What would be the pros/cons of using nStep? Which nStep would you recommend for this if you use one? Of the two methods (nStep or OD), which would you recommend we use for this particular change program? Why? (Points : 35) 5. (TCOs C,D) Your project this term asked you to compare and contrast two companies’ change projects or programs for change. This question will review what you learned about the change projects in a continuation of your project. It will ask you to apply course information to your project companies. For your answer, be sure to reference the names of the companies you studied in your project this term to help your instructor determine the score of your response. Consider ONE of your company’s change projects (not both companies – just one.) State the company and the change process/program/project. Name the leader of the change from that company. Answer the following questions about that change: A. Would you characterize your leader as the change â€Å"sponsor† or the change â€Å"implementer† of this change? Or was this leader in fact both? Describe the difference between a sponsor of change and an implementer of change, why they are both important, and why you feel your leader was one or the other. B. Evaluate the leader’s implementation of the change as it compared to the company’s vision and mission statement. Were they aligned? Did this alignment (or misalignment) contribute to the success or failure of the change? Why or why not? (Points : 35) 1. (TCO A) When JetBlue left their customers sitting on the tarmac for hours on Valentine’s Day, and their CEO was ultimately terminated as a result, the company was responding to (pick the best group) (Points : 7) A). external, reputation, and credibility pressures. B). hypercompetition, market decline, and internal pressures. C). mandated, fashion, and force field pressures. D). growth, identity, and new broom pressures. E). All of the above 2. (TCO A) Which of the following best shows forces for change vs. forces for  stability? (Points : 7) A). Change forces are: adapting, sustaining, and predicting; whereas stability forces are: bureaucracy, trust, and control. B). Change forces include: lay-offs, IPOs, and inventing new products; whereas stability forces are: hiring, stock buy-backs, and regular yearly dividends. C). Change forces include: lay-offs, stock buy-backs, and bi-annual new models of iPhones; whereas stability forces are hiring freezes, bureaucracy, and regular yearly dividends. D). Change forces include: Harry Potter Park at Universal Studios, Walt Disney Cruise Lines, and McDonald’s lattes; and stability forces are Cruise ship sinking at Giglio Island, bridging and buffering strategies, and JetBlue’s public apology after the Valentine’s Day fiasco. E).Both A and C 3. (TCO B) Which of the following best defines the â€Å"congruence† model of diagnosing change? (Points : 7) A). Includes purpose, structure, rewards, and helpful mechanisms B). Is based on the conceptualization of the organization as a transformation process C). Can be a starting point for an organization that has not given attention to the trends that may impact its future operations D). Includes strategy, structure, process, and lateral capability E). Includes structure, style, skills, super-ordinate goals, etc. 4. (TCO B) During the diagnosis for change period, it is important to analyze the stakeholders for their readiness to change. Using the power-interest matrix, you review the level of interest and amount of power of stakeholders and determine the following: (Points : 7) A). Your key players are those with the highest level of interest, but a lower level of power. B). Your key players are those with the lowest level of interest, but the highest level of power. C). Your most unimportant players are those with low levels of power but high interest. D). Your stakeholders who need to be â€Å"kept informed only† are those with high levels of interest but lower levels of power. E). Your stakeholders who need to be â€Å"kept informed only† are those with low levels of interest but higher levels of power. 5. (TCO C) The Burke-Litwin model states that there are four transformational factors of change. Identify the answer below which contains at least three of those factors. (Points : 7) A).Frames, lenses, angles, and hyperbole B). Mission and strategy, leadership, and organizational culture C). Hypotheses, problems, symptoms and inputs D). Vision, identification strategies, litigation, and execution E). None of the above 6. (TCO C) â€Å"This organization is running like clockwork!† This statement by a company leader is likely to result in â€Å"no change† because(Points : 7) A). the leader is blinded by the light. B). the leader believes his vision and mission of the company will align when the change is over. C). the leader has diagnosed by image that the company needs no change. D). the PESTEL framework has been unchallenged for too long. E). brainstorming for change was uneventful. 7. (TCO D) The art of a leader managing the meaning of a vision for followers and aligning it with his or her values is called (Points : 7) A).scripting. B). performing. C). staging. D). norming. E). framing. 8. (TCO F) The Emotional Intelligence domains and associated competencies are used to help us determine when a potential change agent, or person, is ready for leadership. When a person exhibits the competencies of integrity, initiative, and optimism, we know he or she has reached the stage of (Points : 7) A). Self-Awareness. B). Social Awareness. C). Relationship Management. D). Self-Management. E). Personal and Social. 9. (TCO G) One day, while on the company elevator, the head of HR is talking to the CEO and doesn’t realize his speaker phone is on when the CEO asks, â€Å"Do you think that we can afford to keep the downtown branch of the company  open? Or is it time to think about across-the-board layoffs?† The HR head frowns, turns off the speaker and replies, â€Å"I’ll call you later† and hangs up. Four employees from the downtown branch are on the elevator and hear this comment. The HR head tells the four employees (whose names he does not know), â€Å"Say nothing about this. You heard nothing.† They immediately rush to their cubicles and begin spreading the word. The gossip has hit the entire department and local news agencies by the 6:00 news that night. The CEO is featured saying, â€Å"This is nothing but a rumor at this point. We have no current plan to lay off anyone.† This is an example of what type of communication plan on the part of the CEO? (Points : 7) A).Spray and pray B). Tell and sell C). Underscore and explore D). Identify and reply E).Withhold and uphold 10. (TCO G) Toxic handlers, as related to change management communication, do the following: (Points : 7) A).handle all calls with the Environmental Protection Agency. B). talk in stages using assertions, requests, and declarations. C). listen empathetically, and help cool angry people down, act like sponges, and often burn out quickly. D).All of the above  E). None of the above 11. (TCO H) A sign that a change is â€Å"sustained† could be seen as (Points : 7) A). a significant and abrupt drop in the stock price of the company. B). receiving an offer from a competitor to buy the company. C). sending out WARN act notices. D). finding that the change has become baked into the culture. E). a reward system which is outdated. 12. (TCOs G,H) Review this story and pick the best answer based on your understanding of change management practices: Company X,Y,Z establishes a vision for change where â€Å"cutting costs is critical to our survival† and  establishes a reward system to the department which cuts costs the most in one quarter, and states it will be a â€Å"department-based reward† system for the next four quarters. By the â€Å"most† the management establishes, the cuts will be valued by a somewhat complicated algorithm % and $$ of cut in the total expense budget. The sales team goes for the gold and cuts their travel budget by 50%, which is by far the biggest department cut in both $ and %. They win the 1st quarter reward. In quarter 2, the IT team cuts expenses the most by ending the purchase of all new software or PCs. In quarter 3, the production line cuts their expenses the most by laying off 60% of the workers (sales have dropped significantly and technology problems have slowed production, so this was needed anyway.) (Points : 8) A). The company did a good job establishing urgency and aligning metrics with the vision for change, and this change appears to be successful. B). The company aligned metrics with the vision for change, and created its own nStep method of change. C). The company culture is dysfunctional and could have learned from CEO Bethune and the Continental Airline’s own culture of â€Å"cost is everything.† D). The company will probably win the J.D. Power and Associates award for customer satisfaction this year. E). The reward system is a â€Å"spray and pray† system.