External Forces in Peoples Life

The level to which people have controls over their own lives depends on key pillars that define the persons’ locus of control. The ways in which people recognize their self-identity, personality and subsequently construct a substantial formula for structuring and changing their perceived self-identities are essential elements in the determination of the magnitude of control people reserve for themselves.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on External Forces in Peoples Life specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to the movie Color Purple, Embroideries and Adultery: The case of Amina Lawal, the control that people have over their own lives stands out as restricted by their experiences shaped by external forces. In the Color Purple, Celie discovered herself identity through an aid of two women companions. It is upon discovering herself worth that she acquired mechanisms to change how she perceived herself. Celi e was just one of the many women who underwent through strict dictation of what they deserved to do. Her right of self-control was eroded from her at an early age. â€Å"At fourteen she already had two children by her father†, who later disappeared forcefully from her based on the force subjected to her of marrying a widower: Albert Johnson. To Albert Johnson, Celie seemed more of a slave compare to a wife, â€Å"Albert makes her clean up his disorderly household and take care of his unruly children†¦often intimidating Celie into submission and near silence†. It seems evidently clear that people who do not have absolute autonomy to determine what to indulge in, in their lives like Celie, stand out as slaves. With all negative constrains over the years and no love given to Celie, she became quite, shy and afraid. Characters like Sofia have undergone gender-based seclusion and dictatorship until they have established the much-denied personal freedom to control their lives. She does not allow white male dominance to dictate her life anymore. Unfortunately, her battle against the white male dominance unlike Celie ends up in jeopardizing her extent of control. At the first time she is encountered in the movie, she appears like indomitable force that could unfold the white male dominance but unfortunately, â€Å"after she tells the local white mayor to go to hell† (Walker 6) her spirit is shuttered through jailing and beatings. She thus reverts to the original state of deterred self-control to the extent that she no longer has the opportunity to present her grievance. The white man’s decision to jail her is final and solid.Advertising Looking for essay on philosophy? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In attempts to fit within predetermined social requirements, encounters stand clear in Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi, of women attempting to fake virginity, infidelity, escape from forced marriages and plastic surgery. For instance, in Embroideries there stands one particular situation where a grandmother advices her friend who was involved in an affair prior to her marriage to lie about her actual virginity status. To conceal the fact that she had lost her virginity on her wedding night, the grandmother advices her friend to cut her body using a small blade to leave a blood stains. Unfortunately, her friend panics and cuts the testicles of her new husband. Luckily, the marriage survives, though happy but a faked one since it was not in line with the deeply ingrained social norms. It exemplifies how people’s lives control is dependent on factors extrinsic from forces emanating from an individual. The society has substantial say in determining your control. The advent of globalization seems to have great contribution in helping people achieve forces that help them fit well in the society, bearing in mind that their control is open to challenges. Globali zation, besides it significant contribution towards the development and spread in technology, has a take in empowering the Iranian women with the power of conviction to their controllers. Since women have no mechanism bringing back their men who have shifted their focus far from them to other women, an incident of a woman who underwent a cosmetic surgery stands out. The woman laughs when her husband pays unquestionable attention on her breast. Unfortunately, â€Å"he is really attracted to fat that used to be in her behind† (Satrapi 37). Ideally, the men’s control is not intrinsically from their personalities but subject to some other source for instance the physical appearance of their women. The issue of economy further contributes towards impeding one’s self-control as exposited next. The need to feel economically advanced, not to be principally happy, hinder people self-control. In the Satrapi’s work, a tale comes in of a woman who marries a wealthy m an who promises to take her abroad. On the wedding day, she receives lots of expensive jewelry: which explains what controlled the woman in arriving at the decision to marry the man.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on External Forces in Peoples Life specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More On waiting for him for three months, the woman meets the man again only in Germany, to discover that he had many mistresses and that â€Å"the marriage was a plot to smuggle jewels† (Satrapi 67). Economically crippled individuals experience the worst phenomenon of realization of self-identity and hence control of their lives. The oppressive systems triggers social changes that make people especially women shift their locus of control based on that that puts them at an advantage. As a way of example, the women in the world of Satrapi prefer being mistresses based on their alleviation from dealing with â€Å"man’s dirty sock s or bad moods† (Satrapi 91). Wives, rather feel oppressed since they only have an opportunity to celebrate with their men when thing go haywire. Adultery: The case of Amina Lawal too comes in handy in addressing the issue of the control that people have over their own lives with Lawal setting a working illustration of the matter. On the other extreme, Lawal does not even have the capacity to control her life. Acts of immorality on her part attract attention of a court of law. She is convicted for adultery and subsequently bearing a child outside wedlock, in Nigeria by Sharia law, punishable by death which is executed by stoning the culprit. As women lobby for an appeal that would see her acquainted, the men shout â€Å"Allahu Akbar,† meaning that God is mighty. They even fix the time of execution of the judgment to be immediately the gets baby is weaned. Conclusion Based on the expositions tabled in the paper, it suffices to declare people’s capacity to take con trol and hence the responsibility of their actions as greatly controlled by forces extrinsic from them. The fear to go astray the dictated codes of action gain immense backup from the experiences that various groups of people go through especially women. The extrinsic forces can result from a social creation and/or administered by over subscription to moral principles dictated by religious affiliations. These forces are discriminatory based on gender or any other societal identities. Works Cited Ronald, Grover. Is cable one market Oprah Can’t conquer?, 2001. Web.Advertising Looking for essay on philosophy? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Satrapi, Marjane. Embroideries. New York: Pantheon, 2005. Print Walker, Alice. The Color Purple: Complete Summary and Analysis. New York: Pocket, 1985. Print. This essay on External Forces in Peoples Life was written and submitted by user Noe D. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Cognitive And Non-Cognitive Abilities Example

Cognitive And Non Cognitive And Non Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Abilities Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Abilities In order to identify the cognitive abilities as well as non-cognitive abilities those are associated with emotional intelligence, it is necessary to first understand the definition of emotional intelligence. The term emotional intelligence issued to refer to the ability to of understanding and react to one’s own emotional issues as well as the issues experienced by others in order to solve personal and other’s emotional issues. This definition suggests that the cognitive abilities associated with emotional intelligence include ability to study, absorb heaps of information in order to practice the cognitive ability of making decisions in consistency with that particular information (Dahl et al., 2012). The non-cognitive abilities associated with emotional intelligence includes intrapersonal as well as interpersonal skills that are necessary for knowing others and knowing oneself as well as adapta bility skills which includes the ability of problem solving. In daily life emotional intelligence can be used to solve various problems experienced by loved ones such as mothers. My mother is not a kind of person who shares her personal issues with anyone. Therefore, emotional intelligence can help me identifying the emotional issues she is experiencing. For example: she may not be cooking food properly or may be spending time in unproductive activities. These are signs that a person is experiencing emotional issues. By looking at her activities and identifying that she is suffering emotional issues I can find a solution to such issues and help her solve the issues. This in turn will help her in indulging herself to the full potential in her own work. ReferencesDahl, D., & Cilliers, F. (2012). The relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts: A study of career-exploring adults. SA J. Hum. Resour. Manag., 10(2). doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2 .461

European Union- Treaty of Lisbon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

European Union- Treaty of Lisbon - Essay Example The EU is simply a politico-economic union that comprises of 28 countries, primarily found in the continent of Europe. In its functioning, the union operates via systems that comprise of various supranatural and independent institutions as well as intergovernmental decisions that are negotiated by the member countries. Some of the institutions that facilitate the functioning of the European Union include the union’s parliament, EU council, the Union’s court of justice as well as the union’s central bank among others. It is important to note that the origin of the European can be traced back to the EEC (European Economic Community) and the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community). These two unions were composed of six countries that were its founding members, between 1951 and 19581. The years that followed saw the union grow and increase in membership; this was also facilitated by the inclusion of several other treaties and policies. The members of the union as at 1993, created the current name of the EU after agreeing to the Maastricht treaty; this treaty was essential in establishment of the concept of European Citizenship2. The union stayed and functioned under the provisions of the Maastricht Treaty until in 2009, when the members states made some major amendments in the legal framework of the treaty. The treaty of Lisbon was signed in order to make amendments to the EU on basis of its constitution. This treaty is also referred to as the treaty of reform, according to the amendments and reforms in brought to the laws that created the European Union3. The treaty can simply be described as the international agreement that played a key role in the amendment of initial treaties that created the EU, forming the basis of its constitution. It is important to note that the Treaty of Lisbon came into effect after the member states signed into it in 2007, but was officially put into active use in 2009. The Lisbon treaty

Models of spirituality In accounting and business administration Essay

Models of spirituality In accounting and business administration - Essay Example This paper will discuss the need for spirituality in accounting and business administration by analyzing the book 'Landscapes of the Soul, a spirituality of place' and attempting to identify the author's underlying belief system and how this can be applied to business administration. The book 'Landscapes of the Soul, a spirituality of place' was written by Robert Hamma. In the book, Hamma describes spirituality as "an awareness of our relationship to God, ourselves, and others". The author goes on to state that these three dimensions are related integrally, and that "our relationship to God cannot exist apart from our sense of self and our relationship to others". Antonio de Mello once described spirituality as coming awake. Hamma's statements seem to be in harmony with this concept of a spiritual awakening, as he relates that most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They are born asleep, they live asleep, they marry asleep, they breed children in their sleep, and the y die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the beauty and loveliness of this thing called human existence." The writer is of the opinion that when it comes to spirituality, "much of our attention is focused on the 'who' and 'how' of our experience". This quest to experience relational spirituality has resulted to a lot of emphasis being placed on spiritual relationships and practical spirituality. In relational spirituality, "psychology has been helpful in emphasizing the awareness that a healthy spirituality must be grounded in a healthy self image and grows within the context of life-affirming and nurturing relationships." (Hamma, Robert M. p. 19) This further reminds us that spirituality involves the caring that we give to other people around us, and that spirituality is not just only for our personal self-enrichment. Also, practical spirituality has led to a wonderful rediscovery of the rich tradition of prayer that is an integral nature of Christianity, and other spiritually practical religions. According to Hamma, The centering prayer movement, the rise of spiritual direction, and the interest in spiritual traditions like those of the Benedictines, the Carmelites, and the Jesuits are all evidence of this reality. This hunger for guidance in the practice of spirituality has also led many to discover eastern traditions like Zen and Taoism" (Hamma, Robert M. p. 19) This conversion to such eastern religions goes to show that for many, it does not matter what particular religion one follows, as long as there is a practical aspect of spirituality. Due to the amount of emphasis placed on having a spiritual experience, it is possible for the whole point of spirituality to fade away, and so, it is essential that we keep focus on why spirituality exists in our lives. Robert Hamma observes, "We do well to return to the tradition we have received, and rediscover there a rich understanding of the purpose of spiritual life, thereby recognizing that the spiritual life is not a matter of having spiritual experiences, but of cultivating a reverential stance toward God" (Hamma, Robert M. p. 20). Often times, spirituality and business might not seem to go along comfortably but a closer look will reveal that this relationship is actually a function of common sense. In business administration, it is evident that clients and customers tend to take their business elsewhere if they feel cheated or badly treated. If you try to manipulate your customers, they'll find somebody else to do business with. By inference, the writer's observations can lead a reader to the understanding that when we reflect on practical spirituality, we would come to the realization that life is indeed, a

MATLAB Dynamics & Control Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

MATLAB Dynamics & Control - Assignment Example Furthermore, both the time constant and dead time vary with the size of the step-change. The process gain is affected but it is affected only in half of the cases (see Concentration A, see below). †¢ Select a set of dynamic process constants resulting from one of the step-changes that you have tested, and use these to calculate initial values for the constants in each of the three different controller equations (P, PI & PID). Proportional control: It is simple, provides rapid adjustment of the manipulated variable (MV). Does not provide zero offset, although the error is reduced (E>0). It increase speeds in the dynamic response. It can cause instability if improperly tuned. Integral control: It is simple, achieves zero offset (E=0). It provides adjusts the manipulated variable (MV) in a slower manner than the proportional mode –this can lead to poor dynamic performance. It can cause instability if improperly tuned. Derivative control: It is simple. It does not influence the final steady-state value of the error (E). It provides rapid correction based on the rate of change of the controlled variable (CV). It can cause undesirable high-frequency variation in the manipulated variable (MV). †¢ Once you have chosen your optimal control scheme, justify why you have selected it. You can use various methods of assessing controller performance in order to reach your decision: rise time, peak overshoot ratio, decay ratio, settling time, IAE, ISE, ITAE. You are not expected to use all of these, but at least two should be used and compared with each other in relation to optimizing your controller constants. †¢ Test your control loop for its ability to cope with a disturbance (e.g. in the concentration of feed chemical, or the temperature of the cooling water), and also for its ability to move the process to a new operating region by making a step-change to the set-point (i.e.

Product analysis of tiger biscuit

Product analysis of tiger biscuit Tiger Biscuit-Milk that are owned by Kraft Foods is the product that we chose to analyse on. This is because we find that, it interest us on how a big company like Kraft Foods actually plan their marketing strategies to compete with many other of their competitors on one of their major business portfolio, which is the snacks category and position them well in the market. Tiger Biscuit are first launch in 1997 in India by the Britannia Industries. It became the companys largest brand among its portfolios in the first year of its launching until today. Tiger Biscuit is a glucose biscuit that are mainly made from wheat and milk to enrich its nutrition and healthier compare to other glucose biscuits in the market. The main target market of this biscuit is the kids. Therefore, they make improvement in their biscuits by offering various choice and flavour. It is tasty and affordable to suit the modern mothers who want the best for their kids and take the role to enable their kids to compete in todays world. Recently, Tiger Biscuit are enriching Iron Zor in their biscuit which attempt to address the problem of iron deficiency among the society, either young or the elderly. SWOT analysis is an overall view of the businesss strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are the positive and negative trends in the internal environment of the business which are under control while opportunities and threats are external factors that are not under a businesss control. Kraft Tiger can use their strengths to overcome their weaknesses, capturing the opportunities in the external environment to gain advantages and minimizing their threats. They can be benefit from a SWOT analysis by knowing and understanding their current position before make any further decisions and plans. Therefore, SWOT analysis plays an important issue for Kraft Tiger Biscuit. The following are the SWOT analysis of Kraft Tiger Biscuit-Milk. One of the strength of Kraft Tiger is they are well-known. The reason they became so well-known is because they already exist in the market for a very long period of time and also through advertising in the television. Besides, it is used by McDonalds as part of the promotion as gimmick. This will make it even more well-known. On the other hand, Kraft Tiger gives public a healthy concept and image. As we can see on its packaging, it mentions six pieces of Kraft Tiger equal to one glass of milk. It would help in bones growth and also build stronger teeth. It has lesser calories and fats in their bars too compare to others, yet it still tastes nice and suitable for all level of ages. Next, Kraft Tiger is readily and easy access. Customers can get it anywhere such as malls, Seven Eleven franchises and markets which are near to their place. The price is reasonable and affordable too compared to the nutrition value it contains. Last but not least, the packaging for Kraft Tiger is handy. I t is very consumer-friendly as it can be carry along easily. The weaknesses Tiger include its business liquidation. By facing this problem, Kraft Tiger would cut down the cost of production and thus this will affect its business performance at the market. Besides, Kraft Tiger has high sugar level. Nowadays the customers are concern about the food ingredient, they always want for less sugar and less salt. They would go for more organic biscuit rather than too sweet. The opportunity of Kraft Tiger is the changing of consumers lifestyle. Nowadays, part of the society are made up of working parents, which means they would not have enough time to prepare breakfast for their family. Thus, Kraft Tiger can help to replace the parents duty to prepare a nutritional snack for breakfast. Besides, Kraft Tiger positions their milk-flavoured biscuit as healthy snacks. Parents would allow their children to purchase rather than purchasing other unhealthy snacks. It is everybody favourite, for parents and children. Another opportunity of Kraft Tiger includes the growing demand in the snacks and savoury market in these few years. Women always look for better body shape and thus, some of them will skip meals for maintaining or slimming down their body shape. Therefore, they will go for healthy snacks such as Kraft Tiger which will make them full, yet not fattening. There are many competitors in the biscuit industry, such as direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are such as Soda Crackers and Chocolate Love Letter. They will actually compete with Kraft Tiger in the biscuit field. While indirect competitors are the tit-bits, such as London Ring Tomato, Happy Nuts, etc. Although they are in different categories with Kraft Tiger, they still can be classified as wanting a share of the same cake. All of these either direct or indirect competitors will somehow affect Kraft Tiger in the market. Beside, Kraft Tiger facing is  [1]  the rising of the input costs such as sugar. The higher the production cost will lead to the increase of the product price which will decrease the biscuit demand. Product Analysis According to the norm of marketing, every product that is offer in the market has its stages of life cycle. Product life cycle stage is separated in four stages, which are the introduction stage, growing stage, maturity stage and decline stage. Introduction stage is when a product is new in the market where people have limited awareness on the product. The company will take marketing effort to build a market for their new product. The usual marketing efforts taken are carrying out research on the similar products prices among the competitors to set an average and affordable price for the new product. This is done to help the company to build their product share market among the potential buyers to try on their new product which they have minimal knowledge about. Besides that, the company will not produce and distribute the product in a large scale just yet. This is because the company could not estimate the responds of consumers demand in the economy. Therefore, distribution is done selectively. Promotions are also done by aiming on the innovator and early adopter of the product to boost the potential buyers interest in buying the product. After taking necessary marketing efforts, company will analyse the responsiveness of consumer in the market towards the product. If the responses are satisfactory, company will implement marketing mix in their marketing strategies in order to expand their products market share. On the other hand, company will also increase their production to meet the increasing demand in the market. New features are added to the existing product to enhance its quality and broaden up the choices for the customer. At this stage, company will maintain their price to encourage new customers to purchase their product at the same time help the company to remain competitive in the market. By now, the company would then broaden their network of marketing intermediaries such as retailers or wholesalers to make their product available in more areas. Promotions are aimed on the existing customer to create a beneficial long-term relationship and also to influence more potential consumer to buy their products. The third stage of the product life cycle is the maturity stage where the companys sales are more stable and competition will arise among the competitors. At this stage, the companys objectives is simply protecting their market share and make profits from it while it still have the ability. In order to protect their market share, company will keep their products price lower than before to remain competitive in the market. They will also emphasize their promotion on the differences between their products with their competitors. The company will also make improvement in their existing product to create brand preference in the consumers mind so that the consumer will be able to differentiate their products from the competitors.  [2]  Distribution of product will be more intensive, where incentives are given to the distributor to encourage preference from competing products. The final stage of the product life cycle is the decline stage where sales will drop drastically. Usually the company will either continue producing, but in a limited quantity to fulfilled the demand of the loyal customer or stop their production as it is no longer profitable to them. There are also company that will continue the production but add a few new features into the product. Based on the product life cycle stages, it is believe that Tiger Biscuit is in the growing stage. Based on Krafts fact sheet, it is show that confectionary and snacks have become their major business portfolio which is 13.7 billion (29%) and 10.4 billion (22%) respectively. In such circumstance, when the company focused on the product portfolio this will indicate that the portfolio is making profit for the company. Therefore, when the portfolio is making profit, the company will make improvement in their product to broaden the choice to build their market share and brand preference among the consumers. It is clearly stated that snacks segment, which Tiger Biscuit-Milk is categorised, there are many flavours and choices make for the consumer to build their brand preference compare to their competitors such as Nestle. As a consumer, we can see that there is no major price change in the price of Tiger Biscuit-Milk since the launching of the biscuit. Tiger Biscuit-Milk is also easily fou nd in the market in any retailer, this would mean that the range of distribution of the biscuit is widely encourage by the company. Core product Core product is defined as the satisfaction a customer expects from a goods and services purchased. It can also be explained as the non-physical benefits of the product that are delivered to the customer. Based on Tiger Biscuit, the mass market brand, the core product is the nutrition content in the biscuit. Besides that, customers experience the convenience that the product provides for the customer. For example, parents who buy this biscuit for their children can ensure that their children are consuming healthy food which contain less chemical content and at the same time having sufficient nutrition and be rest assure that their children will not be malnutrition. Other than that, for busy people who are always in a rush can have this biscuit while travelling so that they can keep themselves from hunger. Apart from that, people who are on diet can fill their hunger by eating the biscuit and gain from its nutrition. Actual Product Actual product is defined as a tangible product which is consumable such as the brand name, quality, style or idea which customers are buying. Our choice of product which is Kraft Tiger Biscuit-Milk is one of the main biscuit consumer choose because of the guaranteed and assurance of its quality. Kraft created its own brand name which is Tiger biscuit among other competitors such as Parle-G, Danone, etc. For example in Malaysia, when we see a packaging which has this animated tiger on it, without a second thought we would identify it as Tiger biscuit. The design of its packaging created an image for the product itself. Quality wise, Tiger Biscuit-Milk offers a wholesome nutritional ingredient such as glucose, milk, wheat and iron zor. There are various vitamins and minerals in the biscuit that are sufficient for a human daily nutrition requirement. This will help to prevent malnutrition in any human being especially children in the third world country that are most prone to malnutrition due to the overpopulation issue in the country. This biscuit can also be consumed by children that are growing because of the high content of calcium which will help growth and healthy bone. The packaging of Tiger biscuit changes from time to time to enhance a new level of product. For instance, looking at one packaging for a long period of time would bore the consumer. In order to attract new and existing consumers attention, producers would create a whole new look for its product. Augmented Product The third level of a product would be augmented product. Augmented product is defined as the non-physical part of the product or value-added services such as a warranty is given when you purchase a car or maybe electronic appliances. As for Krafts tiger biscuit, its not just a biscuit like any other in the market but a biscuit that puts healthy lifestyle as their main priority. Other than that, Krafts Tiger Biscuit also provide customer service online whereby consumers are able to contact them if theres any enquiry. This service provide customer with further information on the product. Segmentation and Positioning Strategy Nowadays, consumers in any market have different in their wants, resources, location, buying attitudes, and buying practices. Companies recognized that they cannot satisfy to all consumers in the market because they are too many, too widely scattered, and too varied in their needs and buying practiced. For this reason, the companies themselves will make changes widely in their abilities to serve different segment of the market. Through market segmentation strategy, companies recognize the large, heterogeneous markets clearly and then divide them into smaller segments that can be reached more effectively and efficiently with products and services that according with their unique needs. What customers will we serve? There is 3 ways segmentation that used in this product; it is Age and life-cycle segmentation, Occupation segmentation and Flavour segmentation. Flavour segmentation Different people have different habit, need, and personality. By this segmentation, different people have different flavour on their food. Some people like the chocolate flavour, some people like vanilla flavour and etc. Maybe some of them like two or more of the flavour such as someone like chocolate and also strawberry flavour. Our product had chosen the milk flavour biscuit. Clearly, it was only suitable for those people who like the milk flavour. Age and life-cycle segmentation This segmentation separates the consumer according to the consumers age and provide different product to the related consumer. In this product, it can be divided into age below 18, 19 45, and 46 and above. In the category age between 19 and 45, it was formed by adults. Most of them are occupied now, or starting to develop their own career. All of them are busy to do they work and no such time to having a packet of biscuit. Besides that, most of them like to have a proper meal rather than the biscuit because they consider the biscuits cannot make the stomach full. For the category age 46 and above, most of them are senior citizen. The body functional decline also happened at this stage. Biscuit which contain high sugar are not suitable for them because it increase the risk to getting diabetes. In the age below 18, most of people in this category are teenagers. It can be say is the developmental stage of human. Puberty also happened at the age between 12 until 18. They consumed the en ergy more than the other categories. So, the biscuits that high sugar, high nutrition and tasty are just right for them. Obviously, the category that most preferable for this segmentation are the category age below 18. Occupation segmentation This segmentation is dividing the consumer according to the occupation. Occupation can be defined as the activity, career that occupies a persons attention, or principal activity in your life that you do to earn money, continue the life. In this segmentation, it can be segment to many kind of occupation. After analyzed and categorized, it can be divide as professionals, workers and students. Professionals and workers mostly is the technical, strenuous, and time-consuming job, most of them will busy on their job. Same reason as the age segmentation on the above, they will prefer having a proper meal than the biscuit. So, students are the most preferable consumer in this segmentation. It is because almost of them are teenagers, they can have this kind of biscuit as their breakfast or lunch during school time. Moreover, the quantities of biscuit exactly satisfy the students food intake and also convenient to carry to school. Market Targeting After the market segmentation process incurred, the next step is market targeting. Market targeting is a process for a firm to estimates the various types of segments and choose which segments suppose to be serve are the best to the firm and consumers. For the segmentation above, flavour segmentation is the best target market for our product. It is because our product only has exactly one flavour, which is milk flavour. Once this product manufactured, the buyers of this product high probability are the milk flavour buyers. Market Positioning Market positioning is when marketer uses some ways to influence the consumers impression of the products or brand relative to the impression of competitors brand or products. A firm will then show the products advantages that are able to compete with their competitors. Its main objective is to position the good image of the product or brand in the consumers mind. For our product, its main objective is to care for consumers health. Besides that, it put a tiger as its logo to symbolize a powerful, energetic animal. Hereby, this creates consumers confidence to obtain energy resources by consuming this product. Besides that, the ingredient of this products show that contains eight kinds of vitamins and six kinds of minerals. One of a special mineral that our product provided is calcium. Calcium is an important component of a healthy diet and necessary mineral for life. Building stronger, denser bones and keeping bone strong are the main function of the calcium. Calcium can be found in mi lk, cheese, and yogurt. Knowing that our product is milk flavour biscuit that contained calcium, it have adequate requirement to compete with another biscuit manufacturer. Competitors In a market, once a new product appears, it will face competition with another product. For this product, it had faced a competitor that is Jacob biscuit. Its competitor, Jacob biscuit used the slogan Jacobs Walk of Life which mean it product can accompany the consumer as long as the consumers lives. It has strongly competitive with our product because their main objectives are the same with our product that is to take care of the consumers. Consumer behaviour Consumer buying behaviour is defined as the process of decision making and involvement of a consumer in buying a product. Every consumer has different buying behaviour towards purchasing a product. The type of buying behaviour of a customer varies greatly between each consumer based on their level of involvement in purchasing the product and intensity of interest in purchasing the product. The level of involvement in purchasing a product varies based on price, income level, risks faced, and frequency of purchasing. There are four categories of consumer buying behaviour which is complex buying behaviour, dissonance-reducing behaviour, habitual behaviour and variety seeking buying behaviour. Complex buying behaviour is where the buyer has high involvement in purchasing the product, for example, buying a house. This is because the product that the buyer wants to purchase is expensive, risky and purchased infrequent. The buyer would also be able to see significance differences between the compared products and the potential products. Dissonance-reducing buying behaviour is when there is high involvement in purchasing the product but the buyer sees few differences between products, such as buying a carpet for the living hall. This is because the product could be expensive or purchase infrequently and there is a risk of buying one that do not suit the environment of the hall but there are no significant or few differences between the carpets sold in the market. Variety-seeking buying behaviour is where the buyer has low involvement in purchasing the product but sees significant differences between the products. For instance, when consumer wants lunch, he will do research on the food or to look into the food price as much as purchasing a car because food is a necessity. But the consumer is very particular on the taste of the food. Therefore, he will switch to other restaurant to seek for varieties. Habitual buying behaviour is when there is low involvement in purchasing a product and sees no significant differences between products. For example, when purchasing household necessity such as sugar and salt. Consumer does not see the brand differences because it is something that they purchase often. Based on researches of Tiger Biscuit-Milk, it is clear that the consumer buying behaviour on this product is the variety-seeking buying behaviour. Generally, no consumers are highly involved in purchasing a biscuit. All that the customers require is the differences of Tiger Milk Biscuit compare to other glucose biscuits in the market. What differentiate Tiger Milk Biscuit to the other glucose biscuits in the market are the social responsibilities that Tiger Biscuit have upon the customers by providing nutrition in their biscuit to prevent hunger and malnutrition to occur. Almost all of the consumers will go through five decision making process before, during and after they purchase a product. The five decision making process is the problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase decision respectively. At the very beginning, the consumer will have to identify what is the problem that they are facing and think of a solution to solve the problem. An example based on Tiger Biscuit-Milk, when a consumer is hungry but at the same time, he is in a hurry to work. He does not have sufficient time to have a proper table-top breakfast, so, he can choose to stay hungry or to buy something light to fill his hunger. It can be bread, biscuit or etc. The second stage is the information search where the consumer can get information by either doing research, friends and family (reference group) or advertisement. He goes into a store and enquires the store assistant (reference of information) for suggestion of snacks he can have for breakfast. The store assistant suggested Tiger Biscuit-Milk, Oreo, Gardenia -tuna bread and etc. (gain of information). Third stage is when the consumer evaluates the information that he gains from the information search and evaluate which is the best after comparing the information. He will compare all the information provided by the store assistant to identify the best choice. Usually when there are minimal brand differences, consumer will make decision based on their brand preference. After evaluation the suggested ideas, consumer will decide which is the best choice for them and which brand that they prefer if there are few differences in the economic factor such as price and quantity. If there are significant differences between the products, consumer will know which exactly is better. He decided to buy Tiger Biscuit-Milk as it is healthy and nutritional. This is the purchase decision that the consumer made. Lastly, post-purchase decision is the stage where the consumer had already try the product and identify whether are they satisfied or unsatisfied with the product. In this case, he will try the biscuit and identify whether he like the taste of the biscuit or not. If he is unsatisfied with the biscuit, he will not buy that biscuit again. On the other hand, if he is satisfied, he will tell his network (friends family) how good is the product. If this is the case, he is indirectly promoting the product on behalf of Tiger Biscuit. Conclusion In conclusion, Kraft Tiger biscuit became a brand name itself in the market and is recognized worldwide. Based on reports, this product is at a growing stage which experience sharp increase in profit and strengthening of customer relationships. Besides that, the three level of a product like core,actual and augmented product explains the benefit of the biscuit to consumers. This section would partly determine the post-purchase decision on a customer. Segmentation is the next section whereby it occurs 3 ways which is flavour, occupation, and age/life cycle segmentation. Company will then target the segemented market and position it. This process enables the product to fit in a certain segment in the market which will lead to maximum profit. A factor that may influence the Kraft Tiger biscuit sales would be their competitors mainly Jacobs and Parle-G. Competitive market means Kraft need to work on producing a better biscuit compare to its competitors. Hence, consumer would benefit from its improved biscuit from time to time. More over, consumer behaviours would determine Krafts relationship with its customers. There are four categories which is complex buying behaviour, dissonance-reducing behaviour, habitual behaviour and variety seeking buying behaviour. Researches show that variety-seeking behaviour is involved in purchasing Kraft Tiger biscuit due to its low involvement and brand differences. Lastly, consumers will go through five decision making process before, during and after they purchase a product which is problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase decision. Consumers will go through the first four stage before purchasing the biscuit and the last stage after trying the biscuit.

“Macbeth” by William Shakespeare Essay

In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth’s desire for power prompts her interest in controlling Macbeth’s actions; consequently, when she loses control of Macbeth, she loses control of herself. Lady Macbeth relies on Macbeth to be the brawn so she can be the brain; she has somewhat of a  symbiotic relationship with him. After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth slowly starts losing the need for and interest in Lady Macbeth. This loss of interest removes Lady Macbeth’s access to power and eventually begets her demise. However, in the beginning she is a key factor in Macbeth deciding to follow through with the murder. Lady Macbeth’s impetus for Macbeth to kill Duncan shows she is able to control Macbeth. She sees Macbeth as a weak man who is unable to carry out any wrongful act. Lady Macbeth says, â€Å"[†¦] I do fear thy nature; / it is too full o’ the’ milk of human kindness / to catch the nearest way† (1.5.16-18), which implies that she feels Macbeth is too kind to kill Duncan. She decides the only way to get what she wants is to intimidate Macbeth. When Macbeth says, â€Å"Bring forth men-children only; / For thy undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males,† (1.7.72-74) Mabeth’s fear of his wife really come to surface. She has a very masculine and powerful personality. Carolyn Asp, in her essay Tragic Action and Sexual Stereotyping in Macbeth says, â€Å"Masculine and feminine impulses are at war within her; she is unable either to fuse them or to polarize them† (Asp 203) which shows how she would like to be able to act like a man, but is unable to fully change because she still has many feminine influences on her life. Lady Macbeth asks to have her womanliness stripped from her when she says: [†¦] Come you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. (1.5.47-50) Cumberland Clark states in A Study of Macbeth that, â€Å"she prepares herself to resist the whisperings of her better nature and the interference of conscience† (Clark 93) by saying this. She wants to be able to not have a guilty conscience about what is about to happen. When Lady Macbeth says, â€Å"I would while it was smiling in my face, / Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums / And dashed the brains out† (1.7.64-66), she shows she has no regrets and no conscience to get in her way. She is now able to control herself; however, she now has to find a way to control Macbeth. Asp says that Lady Macbeth sees her role is to bring out the â€Å"noble strength† in Macbeth and that she must appeal to his manliness while at the same time appearing very masculine herself (Asp 203). Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeth’s manliness by saying that he is weak and afraid. Asp states, â€Å"When she describes him as a lover/husband who, like his hope of glory, has become ‘pale,’ ‘green,’ and ‘waning,’ she challenges an essential element of his self-image, that of potent male, which is the foundation of all his other roles† (203). Macbeth wants to defend his manliness; therefore, he decides to go through with the murder of Duncan. She also tells Macbeth there is no way for the murder of Duncan to go wrong and that he need not worry. However, after the murder of Duncan, Lady Macbeth becomes less important to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth starts losing her control. After Duncan’s death, Macbeth starts to lose control of himself and reality; the control that Lady Macbeth once possessed is quickly fading. After Macbeth kills Duncan, instead of leaving the daggers with the servants as he was instructed, he brought them back with him. This leaves the murder weapon in Macbeth’s hands and makes it more likely that he is discovered as the killer. This inability to remember instructions is the first sign of Macbeth losing control. Then, in his chamber he starts hearing voices, which is another sign he is losing touch with reality. However, at the banquet, Macbeth starts to really lose his mind. Alan Hobson states in The Even-Handed Justice that, â€Å"When [Banquo’s ghost] appears, Lady Macbeth is at [Macbeth’s] side trying to brace his courage by the sharp rebuke that was once so effective in moving him to a determined purpose; but we soon realize that he is hardly conscious of her presence† (Hobson 177). When Macbeth sees the ghost, he thinks that everyone else can see him. However, when Macbeth  learns that the ghost is all in his head, he is unable to just ignore it. When Lady Macbeth says, â€Å"You have displaced the mirth, broke the good / meeting / With most admired disorder† (3.4.132-134), she is finally realizing that she has lost all power over Macbeth because she was unable to control his actions. After the banquet Lady Macbeth disappears from the story until she returns near the end and has gone insane from her utter loss of control. Even before the murder of Duncan, Lady Macbeth has slowly been losing control over herself and her ability to remain in power. When Lady Macbeth says that she cannot kill Duncan because he looks too much like her father, Lady Macbeth is showing a lack of competence because she has a soft spot in her heart for her father. When planning a murder, this lack can really complicate matters. Also, when Macbeth makes the decision about the murder of Banquo and Macduff’s family, Lady Macbeth starts to feel overwhelmed with all the killing when she says, â€Å"Here’s the smell of blood still. All / the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand† (5.1.53-55). This shows that she is unable to handle all of the blood that is being shed. She wants to be able to cleanse herself of these murders. When Lady Macbeth finally reappears she is sleepwalking and acting like she is washing her hands. While sleepwalking she starts mindlessly blabbering about all the killings and secrets that Lady Macbeth is trying to hold because she loses control subconsciously. This is the last time Lady Macbeth is seen alive. When Lady Macbeth kills herself, Macbeth is not in the least upset because he no longer finds Lady Macbeth important. Lady Macbeth lost power over Macbeth slowly. However, once she lost control of Macbeth, she lost control of herself. Lady Macbeth’s suicide is the final time that she shows weakness because she is unable to handle not having control as well as her feelings of helplessness while around Macbeth. Lady Macbeth may seem powerful because of the choices she makes, but on the inside she is a very weak person and relies on Macbeth to be the force behind her choices. There is obviously a very dear connection between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth because when he loses interest in her, she loses her outlet for her choices and can no longer function on her own. Lady Macbeth  as well as many other people have symbiotic lifestyles; if the person they rely on is no longer there, they lose all their power and without that power they lose control of their lives. Works Cited: Asp, Carolyn. â€Å"Tragic Action and Sexual Stereotyping in Macbeth.† Major Literary Characters: Macbeth. Ed Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1991. 198-210 Clark, Cumberland. A Study of Macbeth. Stratford-upon-Avon: Shakespeare Head Press, 1926. Hobson, Alan. â€Å"This Even-Handed Justice.† Major Literary Characters: Macbeth. Ed Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1991. 170-188. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Eds. Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992.

Asserting Ethnic Identity and Power Through Language Essay

Week-1 The linguistic ideology at work here is founded both on the concept of the ‘mother tongue’ as well as on the ‘one nation, one language’ principle. Communities on the western side of the border are not interested in learning the language of their eastern neighbors. Eastern communities, on the other hand, are strongly motivated to learn western languages. The importance attributed to English as the ‘language of globalization’ is common to both sides. We can actually say that ‘language’ is a very hot and recurrent issue for some communities: namely the German-speaking community in Bernstein (D), the Czech-speaking community in Vejprty (CS), the German-speaking and Slovenian-speaking communities in Eisenkappel/Z? elezna Kapla (A),etc. The term ‘mother tongue’ is often used – forms the ‘way of thinking’ of its speakers, and thus the different ‘mentalities’ and ‘national characters’ are connected with the use of different languages. Many informants are convinced that it is the ‘mother tongue’ which determines thought, social behavior, and exhibition or control of affection and emotions. Thus the confrontation between languages automatically becomes a clash of mentalities. For example, the German-speaking community in Ba? renstein finds there is a relation between the insurmountable difficulty in pronouncing and learning the Czech language and the incomprehensibility of the words Czech-speaking people produce. People in western communities explain this widespread knowledge by saying that ‘the Others’ need to know my language, because my language is the superior One. We can also find indices of implicit prestige in many interview quotes, like ‘my language is useful to find a job’, ‘my language is more international than theirs’, ‘it represents a symbol of upward social mobility’; ‘the importance of my language forces them to learn it, and in this way they show practical sense, intelligence and cleverness, because they well know that the knowledge of the languages spoken on both sides of the border offers more professional and economic opportunities’. People are not generally interested in learning the language of the ‘Other’, and the reason is, as we have already seen, its ‘uselessness’, or its low value on the ‘language market’. They only learn what they need in their commercial transactions. Europe is a multilingual continent in which the tension between linguistic pluralism and assimilation is quite evident at present. Week-2 The topic for this week was â€Å"Creation of a Sense of Belonging through Language†, which we found very much interesting as we have to present our own explanation, views and thoughts. The topic is about Finland, Iceland and Latvia. Firstly we discussed about Finland that Swedish-speaking people along the coastlines, spoke a non-Scandinavian language, namely Finnish. The Finnish language was to become the most effective medium in the nation-building process as well as the most important criterion in creating an awareness of a collective identity. Language became a defining characteristic towards the ‘outside’ and a communicative driving force on the ‘inside’ within the great diversity of local and regional cultures. We could say that for the process of nation-building in Finland during the 19th century two main deficits had to be overcome: sovereign state structures had to be developed and an individual Finnish national consciousness had to be formed. In the process of spreading a Finnish national consciousness – a development often associated with the term ‘awakening’ as in a religious experience – the main focus was directed towards the common people, their language and culture. Finland’s modest cultural life, Finnish had gained the status of a modern cultural and scientific language. The civil servants, scholars, and many artists, continued to use Swedish as their language of communication and publication. But Finnish steadily gained ground. Many people were already, or became, bilingual. The accusation that Finnish was ‘too primitive’ was defeated by generating new terms, which proved that the language was innovative and possessed the potential for development. In the discussion about Iceland by Halfdanarson. The text tells a story of Icelandic nationalism and the struggle for independence of Iceland under Danish rule. Halfdanarson points out the rare case of Icelandic nationalism, and it’s non-violent nature. In fact, according to the article, both Iceland’s struggle for independence and the Danish reactions to it were both surprisingly pacific in nature, partly because of the idea of shared past and cultural heritage between the two countries. There are certain elements in common with the case study of Iceland and Herder’s text, such as the idea of mystic, shared past of a nation, the role of the single language of a social group forming the nation and so on. I think especially in cases like Iceland, language and linguistic identity have essential role in formation of national identity. Iceland is isolated, both in geographical terms as an island in the middle of Atlantic ocean and in terms of language. Although Icelandic is a language related to scandinavian languages, it still differes from them quite a lot. And lastly There was a question that is it possible to have a single language in whole Europe? We think its not possible to have a single langage in the whole Europe as there are many different countries with their own languages from last hundreds of years. In Europe, People communicate with each other using the shared language of their group. The group might be as small as a couple (married or unmarried partners, twins, mother and daughter etc. who share a ‘private’ language where only they know the meaning of some words) or as large as a nation, where everyone understands the allusions in their shared language (often allusions to shared history, to contemporary events, to media people of fact or fiction etc). The ‘secret’ language of the smallest group and the ‘public’ language of the national group are two ‘varieties’ of the same language. Every social group, large or small, has its own language variety, (regional groups have varieties of the national language (as opposed to regional or minority languages) which are usually called ‘dialects’) and there is overlap among all the varieties. However there is a possibility to use English as a second language as use of English gives a considerable advantage to the 13 % of EU citizens who are native English speakers, and to speakers of closely related languages (German, Dutch, Danish and Swedish), over all other Europeans. Week-3 In the week 3, we learned about ‘Language and subjective identity’. The two articles were on Franz Kafka and Simone de Beauvoir. Franz Kafka was German though he never lived among the Germans. He was then living in Prague, Czech. Hence Kafka knew both Czech & German languages. But, he preferred Czech Language as he was of the view that one could express his/her feeling in a better way in a particular language. In this case, he thought that Czech was a better language than German to express his feelings. Franz Kafka was in love with Czech translator Milena Jesenka. He used to demand Milena to write him letters in Czech language than German. He belived in a approach â€Å"belongs to a language†. When Milena replied his letters in Czech, he believed that Czech was much more affectionate, which removes all the uncertainties, he could see his lover more clearly, the movements of her body, her hands quickly which almost resembled as they both are meeting. This shows how Kafka prefered Czech more than German. Kafka encouraged his favourite sister Ottla in her marriage to Josef David, a Czech Catholic, against the opposition of parents and relatives, and wrote affectionately to his new brother-in-law in fluent Czech. For Prague Jews of Kafka’s generation, language and identity could be painfully dissonant. In Kafka’s case, this dissonance reached deep into his own family, conferring an alien quality on the most intimate of human relationships. Franz Kafka died of tuberculosis in 1924. He is buried beside his parents in the family plot in Prague’s New Jewish Cemetery. Simone de Beauvoir is a French Women. She was French writer, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. She gave her whole life for feminine rights and equality with men in Society. Beauvoir was an outstanding student. She did her postgraduate work at the Ecole Normale Superieure, the top postgraduate program in France, where she met Jean Paul Sartre. When World War II broke out in September 1939, Sartre was called for military service. He became a prisoner of war when the French army surrendered, but he was released and both Beauvoir and Sartre participated in the resistance, and after the Vichy Regime dismissed Beauvoir from her teaching position, she began a novel about the resistance. When the war ended, Beauvoir and Sartre became part of a group of leading French intellectuals, who concerned themselves with the perceived failures of modern French society. they founded Les Temps modernes as a means to explain their social and cultural views. At the same time, Sartre suggested to Beauvoir that she undertake a book on the status of women, and she published, La deuxieme sexe (The Second Sex). This was her most famous, and influential book. It became a sourcebook of modern feminism, particularly in the United States for later feminist thinkers such as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. De Beauvoir used very specific and effective and powerful words to underline her matter. She is willing to deploy language and words towards others, because she knows about â€Å"a manner in which her body and her relation to the world are modified through the action of others than herself†.

Why Brainstorming Doesnt Work

Why Brainstorming Doesnt Work Brainstorming doesnt work. It leads to ideas that conform to each other, and not to novel new ways of thinking.  The idea of brainstorming in a group seems to make sense, but the end result, the final product, is less than it could have been if group brainstorming could have been avoided. Sounds sacrilegious to say that, doesnt it? Why Do We Brainstorm? You have a blank screen in front of you. Youre pretty  desperate for an idea. Youre not sure about where to  find something to write about. Your project or product is in need of something and youre not sure where to go. It seems that you cant come up with the idea on your own, so you turn to the group and brainstorm. Brainstorming originates from Alex F. Osborn who, in the 1940s, wrote a book sharing the creative secrets he used at his advertising agency, Batten, Barton, Durstine Osborn. He called his book Your Creative Power and it became a runaway success. His idea of   getting a group together and storming the problem with your brain caught on and pretty soon the idea of brainstorming was the standard way for business, education, government, and the military to solve problems. The concept behind Osborns idea is that brainstorming was a method that would free participants from inhibition, self-criticism, and criticism by others so that a specific problem might receive the maximum ideas possible. For years, no one questioned the validity of the concept.  Brainstorming seems like the best way to apply the idea that we are stronger as a group than we are if we are alone. It seems logical to bring in your whole team, start throwing around ideas, and building on them. The best will rise to the top and youll get ideas that one person alone could not have come up with. We assumed that the group, and not the individual, can achieve more success with each persons creativity springboarding off of anothers. We were wrong. Brainstorming is where the ideas are born before reality sets in.In A Brainstorming Group, We Think Alike Strong personalities rule the show. Leadership unconsciously steers ideas towards preferred conclusions, or asks questions that beg a specific kind of answer. Team members fear negative evaluation from those higher up and their input is limited and the ideas they share are only the ones they deem reasonable. Why does group brainstorming so consistently fail despite the protestations of those who swear by it? How could they miss seeing whats happening? 1. We see what we expect to see. The end of a brainstorming session will leave us with exactly what we intended it to: lots of ideas to choose from.  From all appearances, it looks like a success. Clearly, the group can come up with more ideas in total than an individual person can. (Taylor, Berry, Block; Administrative Science Quarterly 1958, PDF) But mere quantity doesnt answer the question: does group participation help or hurt creative thinking? You dont know about all the ideas that were stifled in the process. In fact, if youve ever heard a team member say, weeks or months down the road of a project when something needs changing, I thought of that but didnt want to say anything you can bet your brainstorming session didnt work. A full whiteboard doesnt mean your brainstorming session gave you the best possible results. It might have only given you lots of output. 2. Personalities that dont mix. Any time you get a group of people together, you quickly see who is dominant, who is vocal, who is quiet, who is meek, who is extroverted, who is introverted, who is passive, and who is aggressive. To expect this group to provide creative ideas unfettered and freely is a foolish assumption. Personalities are always at work (and sometimes at war) in a group. Our ideas are a personal thing. We all naturally have a tendency to both want to get along with others, and to not appear foolish in front of others. Asking certain personality types to be willing to temporarily throw these driving forces to the wind is asking too much. Consider the introvert, whose creative energy is derived by not being around other people. Putting him or her in a group with extroverts and expecting a great performance is asking too much. The introverts best ideas often come when people are not around to distract and wear on them. A passive person might prefer to not have conflict, while an aggressive person requires it as fuel for their engine. Who do you think will speak up and who will quietly acquiesce to the popular idea? 3. The rise of the lowest common denominator. Brainstorming curtails creativity unconsciously. We all want to get along. Few people actually like conflict (though some do). A kind of equilibrium is reached, to the detriment of the group. Brainstorming also makes us lazy. When in a group focused on being creative, the idea is that you will feed off of each other, and springboard even further with the help of ideas that you would not have come up with.  The reality is that brainstorming allows for social loafing, a term used in a 2010 Applied Cognitive Psychology study by Nicholas W. Kohn and Steven M. Smith. According to Kohn and Smith, group brainstorming means that the participants compare themselves to the others, leading to social loafing and social matching. Social loafing occurs when individuals give less effort in a group because responsibility is diffused. Social matching is a tendency to conform to peers. According to Latanà ©s (1981) social impact theory, larger groups lead to greater conformity and greater downward performance matching. The larger the group, the more they conform to each other and actually match their input and performance to the lowest common denominator. In other words, group brainstorming participants are less productive than they would be on their own. 4. Idea plagiarism and fixation is rampant. Kohn and Smith continued their exploration of groups and the creation of ideas, explaining that we are unconsciously influenced by the ideas around us. Using Dunckers candle problem as an example, they showed how the ideas of others infect our own ideas in such a way that we cannot even discern when flaws that were present in the original idea are carried over into our own ideas. We create a solution built on the flaws of another. If we are left to come up with ideas without the input of others, our ideas tend to truly be unique and not merely derivative. The moment we are surrounded by the ideas of others, we absorb them as our own. Sometimes the idea of another unconsciously becomes our idea. This ties into fixation, or how, in a group, we become fixated on a solution and though we might generate many ideas, they are all fixated on a relatively narrow set. In other words: you might end up with lots of quantity after a brainstorming session, but did you ever have that feeling that not a single idea even came close? That they were all off in the same way? You had a group of people who absorbed each others ideas, flaws and all, and the solution became a too-narrow one despite the number of ideas that surrounded it. Brainstorming works best on your own. A group weakens the results.Solving The Group Brainstorming Problem Re-injecting anonymity to the procedure will directly reduce several of the barriers that make group brainstorming fail. It removes the fear of being judged by fellow team members and by leaders for possible silly ideas or suggestions. It allows voices to be heard that would otherwise be drowned out by others in a verbal-dominant meeting. These methods dont, however, address the social loafing aspect and the problem that comes with wanting our ideas to fit together and conform to levels perceived as appropriate or acceptable. Brainstorming, One Person At A Time The idea of brainstorming, a no-holds creative attack at a problem, isnt wrong. We cant rely purely on passive luck and gestalt to solve all of our problems. There are times we have to run hard at a problem from any and all directions to find a chip in its armor. Its when we mix this brainstorming with a group that those group dynamics are put into play and the creative power of individuals is actually lessened. Thats where singular brainstorming comes into play.  You can brainstorm on your own, as one person, without a group. The same rules apply regarding the removal of inhibition and self-criticism.  When brainstorming on my own, I use a few basic techniques as I attack a problem: 1. Get The Obvious Out Of The Way There will always be one or two ideas that immediately pop into your head. Just write them down. Get the obvious solutions out of the way so you can move on from them. I find that I free up thinking space once I write down all of the obvious solutions and ideas. Its one way I get past the self-criticism and inhibition problem that brainstorming is meant to avoid.  I tell myself that, if all else fails, I can always come back and revisit those initial sensible solutions.

Thoreaus Biography What distinct character trait emerges from this mans life and writings essays

Thoreaus Biography What distinct character trait emerges from this man's life and writings essays Perhaps the most attractive aspect about the life of Henry David Thoreau to a modern reader is the fact that the man actually lived the type of life and philosophy that he preached. Thoreau disdained the industrialized, modern urban life of the modern intellectual. His entire life illustrates how he lived, not simply as a great thinker, but as one who embodied the living principles of the Transcendentalist movement. Thoreau did not simply tell others to live. Rather he sought to discover, and then to embody his own principles in the text of lived experience, as First of all, rather than attempting to secure a job as a minister or academic after graduating from college, Thoreau embarked upon a period of study in the real world, to determine what was the best path for himself. On this quest, he worked as, among many other menial' occupations and pursuits, as a handyman for the esteemed essayist and Unitarian minister, Ralph Waldo Emerson. By working with his hands, Thoreau was able to gain a better sense of the importance of lived experience, rather than living in books. However, the literary climate at this most famous Transcendentalist's house enabled the emerging writer in Thoreau to remain immersed in this movement's literary scene and its ideas. The importance of working with one's hands, as a path to true self- reliance, in Thoreau's philosophy was next put into practice in his most famous experiment, that of his time of living in the woods in Walden, Massachusetts. Thoreau recoded in his journals and in the book that bears the location's name, his practical daily difficulties of dealing with ordinary individuals in the community, as well as his many successes and failures in dealing with harsh environmental conditions. Unlike Emerson, Thoreau does not sentimentalize the natural world. Having come to grips with its harshness in a very real and vi ...

Career & Personal Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Career & Personal Development - Essay Example One of the areas that have appeared as likely for pursuit of opportunity is human resource. The considerations for being aware of this opportunity stem from personal research through which I have noted the international dimensions of human resource and how motivating and satisfying it is. Thus, this has influenced my future career decisions as I now plan to undertake post graduate studies in peace and international law through which I will be able to take advantage of this opportunity. Decision Learning and Transition Learning Another area that is of importance to career management is decision learning, which Delgado, Phelps and Robins (2011, pp. 101-103) discuss in terms of intransitive choices and their impacts on context-dependent preferences. This is accompanied by transition learning, with the two concepts influencing my personal career ambitions/dreams, the steps I need to take towards them and the way I handle transitions in my career development. This is a continuous process, discernible in terms of transition from general education to making the decisions to specialise in law and study peace/international law in future. I realise that my decision-making and transition management skills are in need of being polished through making them more specific and strategising on how to achieve them. Analysis and Evaluation of learning undertaken The first consideration here is the knowledge I have gained about my skills, abilities, qualities and motivation about my career potential. According to Hom and Folger (2008, p. 2) analysing information about oneself is the first step of effective career management. I have learnt that I have excellent people skills from the way I have undertaken near flawless interaction with individuals during the course. This is complemented by good communication skills, both of which will play a significant role in my career advancement. I am motivated by both monetary and non-monetary factors including appreciation and recognition of efforts, job enrichment and a sense of participation alongside cordial relationships with workmates and superiors. However, commercial awareness is an area in which I was not adequately informed upon in regards to my career planning before undertaking this module. The knowledge gained from labour market input including employer, lectures and resource inputs include the importance of implementing SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-planned) goals and objectives. I have also gained valuable insights about strategic career planning in which planning missions is based on smart objectives which are then used to generate strategies towards meeting these objectives. Knowledge on synchronising short-term, medium and long-term goals in career planning has been indispensable, as well as use of key performance indicators (KPIs) to guide my career development (Patton and MacMahon 2001, p. 76; Coitzee and Roythorne-Jacobs 2007, p. 23). Independent research has also played a crucial part in career management learning. For instance, I was able to appreciate the importance of mentors and career champions in career development through attending fairs and visits to professional functions alongside professional discussions. I backed this knowledge through independent search in literature; for instance, gaining insight that career champions are

The Cuban Missile Crisis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Cuban Missile Crisis - Research Paper Example Then, the Civil War was fought in order to determine that America was established for the freedom of all regardless of race. The biggest and largest scale engagements that the United States was involved in were World War I and World War II. After the end of these worlds, very few superpowers existed to maintain the world order. Europe had taken the hammer the hardest and suffered the most. The two superpowers that were still standing was the democratic United States and the communist run Soviet Union. Because of the advent of nuclear technology and the development of nuclear warheads, each country was hardening itself trying to take hold of superiority. Many of the small fires which flared up were fought based on the policy of containment that the United States upheld to as well as fighting a war based on proxy. The single most defining event in United States history, in my opinion, was the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was an event in which the whole world was watching waiting for armage ddon to occur. Mutual assured destruction (MAD) seemed inevitable. The historical setting was that Cuba was and still is a communist controlled country. The United States had tried to intervene by supporting a particular communist government in which would be friendly and cooperate with the United States (Batista Dictatorship).